Kids banned from buying knives in Queensland under new laws

Coles, Woolworths and other major retailers will be banned from selling knives to under-18s within months as part of Queensland’s latest knife-crime prevention strategy.

Queensland led the country with the introduction of Jack’s Law, which has given police powers to scan or “wand” people for knives in public places without a warrant, but the state’s retail laws have lagged behind others.

Jack Beasley, whose stabbing death prompted the introduction of Jack’s Law.Credit: The Beasley Family

New laws restricting the sale of knives to minors from September 1 will bring Queensland in line with NSW, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT.

Police Minister Mark Ryan was outside a Woolworths store on the Gold Coast on Wednesday morning to spruik the new laws, alongside the father of Jack Beasley, who was fatally stabbed on a night out in Surfers Paradise in 2019.

“As I’ve always said, you can’t go to Bunnings and buy a can of spray paint, so why should you be allowed to walk into an establishment like this and just buy a carving knife off the shelf?” said Brett Beasley, who led the campaign for Jack’s Law with his wife, Belinda.

The NSW government this month introduced legislation based on Jack’s Law and increased the age limit for buying knives from 16 to 18, following the deadly Bondi Junction shopping centre attack and the Wakeley church assault.

Queensland police officers search a man with a metal-detection wand.

Six people, including five women, were stabbed to death in the horror attack in Bondi Junction Westfield on April 13. Two days later, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed while speaking at the altar of Wakeley’s Christ The Good Shepherd Church.

Queensland retailers already have their own policies restricting the sale of knives, but the Miles government fast-tracked the legislation this year to make it an offence to sell knives to minors.

The laws also restrict the sale of other weapons, including replica firearms, gel blasters, machetes, axes, and tomahawks.

Under the new laws, retail staff will be required to perform age checks (it will be an offence for juveniles to use fake IDs), securely store particular items, and display signage regarding the restrictions.

In addition to knives, the laws will restrict the sale of other weapons, including gel blasters (above).Credit: Nine News

Any advertising such as “suitable for combat” will also be banned.

Some of the policies already in place by retailers include tougher packaging, or opting not to sell kitchen knives in certain stores. Woolworths currently does not sell knives in more than 60 of its Queensland stores.

“We have packaging protocols in place to ensure the range of kitchen knives we sell are housed in high-grade, clamshell packaging,” a Woolworths spokesman said.

“We also have a selection of stores across the country where the decision was made to not range knives at all.”

Almost 600 weapons have been taken off Queensland’s streets since March 2023 through wanding.Credit: Cloe Read

Coles’ current policy applies to all age-restricted products and requires staff to ask customers for identification if they believe they are under the age of 25.

“To date, where governments have regulated the sale of knives – in the ACT, NSW, South Australia and Victoria – Coles has point-of-sale restrictions ... and this will be implemented in Queensland too,” a spokeswoman said.

Police have said almost 600 weapons have been taken off Queensland’s streets since the introduction of Jack’s Law in March 2023.

“Jack’s Law is working here, and we are taking it Australia-wide, and fingers crossed it’ll work everywhere else,” Brett Beasley said.

“We’re going to take it national. We’ve already been in WA and the Northern Territory, and we’re off to Sydney next week for the passing of Jack’s Law in NSW. And in two to three weeks, we’re off to Melbourne in Victoria to talk to the minister down there.

“It looks like they’re going to adopt it. They might be a bit of a hard target for me, but I’ll certainly give it a good go.”

However, concerns have previously been raised regarding warrantless searches, and the perception that “wanding” could be based on police profiling.

A review of a trial of Jack’s Law conducted by Griffith University’s Criminology Institute in 2022 found some officers were targeting people based on racial or cultural stereotypes.

The Civil Liberties Council has previously called for another review of Jack’s Law to monitor how the police powers have been used.