Brett Beasley meets Premier Jacinta Allan to push for Jack's Law knife reforms
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has met with knife crime reform advocate Brett Beasley, months after he first tried reaching out about implementing ‘Jack’s Law’ across the state.
Jacinta Allan has finally met with the father of a teenager who was fatally stabbed in Queensland, months after he first tried reaching out to her.
Brett Beasley lost his son Jack in a tragic killing in Surfers Paradise in 2019, and has since poured his energy into advocating for knife reforms nationwide.
In Queensland, NSW, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory Jack’s Law — named after Mr Beasley’s son — was introduced, giving cops the power to scan people with knife-detecting “wands” at any time in all public places, without needing a warrant or reasonable suspicion.
Throughout this week, Ms Allan had expressed her openness to meeting with Mr Beasley, after he flew down to Melbourne to advocate for the state to introduce Jack’s Law’s “stop and scan” powers.
The pair finally met on Wednesday afternoon in parliament after Question Time and had a productive discussion.
The meeting also included Police Minister Anthony Carbines and went for approximately 10 minutes.
Mr Beasley spoke to the Herald Sun after the meeting, which he said was “very good”, but the “ball is in her court now”.
He said she had been receptive to his advocacy to introduce Jack’s Law and “would look at making those changes”.
Police in Victoria currently have the power to stop-and-search for weapons but only in designated zones.
More than 15,000 dangerous knives have been seized in Victoria as part of stop and search powers expanded under the Allan government.
Mr Beasley said that the main differences between Victoria’s current laws and Jack’s Law are the level of authorisation needed, a time limit to introduce designated areas in Victoria, and “most importantly” that Victoria has a search power, not a scan power.
Ms Allan left the door open to introducing Jack’s Law in September and said there was “some work” going on behind the scenes, but at the time Mr Beasley said Ms Allan had not returned his calls.
Mr Beasley described the Jack’s Law search powers as more effective and less invasive than Victoria’s current powers.
He said that he would give Ms Allan some time to introduce Jack’s Law — and asked Ms Allan to keep the name — but if, after several months, there was no movement, he would resume campaigning in Victoria.
“It’s a non-invasive search. It literally takes 60 seconds. The police just run the wand over you like you are going through airport security.
“So if you’re not carrying a weapon, you’ve absolutely got nothing at all to worry about.
“It’s the same as drink-driving. If you haven’t been drinking, you blow on a bag and you are on your way, literally within 30 seconds.
New Opposition Leader Jess Wilson has committed to introducing Jack’s Law, calling it “important legislation” that would “allow police to find knives” and get them of Melbourne’s streets.
“The fact that there are knives on our streets, and simple legislation that is being introduced in Queensland and Western Australia and New South Wales that has been proven to work has been rejected by this government, an arrogant government.”
The Allan government announced on Saturday that they spent $940,000 giving police 800 handheld metal detectors to find weapons in public.
But Mr Beasley is concerned that the handheld metal detectors brought in by Victoria Police are too large, and would scare off people before they could be searched.
Shadow Police Minister David Southwick said the metal detectors introduced by the Allan government were less effective and more expensive than the Queensland government’s metal detectors.
“We have these stop and scan devices which Queensland use at $300. Compare the pair: $1,200 in Victoria, $300 in Queensland and everywhere else.”
Originally published as Brett Beasley meets Premier Jacinta Allan to push for Jack's Law knife reforms
Man burnt on face in Caroline Springs house fire
