Machetes, firebombings: This shouldn’t be life in Melbourne

Melbourne is a peaceful city. Fear does not sit on our shoulders when we go out. Law and order prevail. There is no breakdown in society, but there is a worrying crack in the light. In the increasing lawlessness and disorder, there is a breaking down of certainty in that safety.

Firebombings are an act of extreme violence and, in Melbourne, they are no longer a one-off occurrence. In the early hours of Tuesday, a construction company’s headquarters was firebombed. El Dorado Contractors, based in the city’s west, has been hit twice in a fortnight.

Since September 2023, there have been at least 11 arson attacks on construction firms. The real number is likely higher. The attacks have intensified since the CFMEU was placed into administration last August.

Fire Rescue Victoria crews respond to calls of a factory on fire in Derrimut on Tuesday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

The rotten state of the building industry in Victoria, exposed by The Age’s Building Bad series, produced in conjunction with 60 Minutes and The Australian Financial Review, is hostage to a war of arson and intimidation by criminal players seeking power and money. The Operation Hawk taskforce, was set up in March, according to the Premier Jacinta Allan, or nine months earlier, according to police sources. There is, however, one consistency in each report of an attack. They are, says the premier, “unacceptable”. We couldn’t agree more.

Also unacceptable is the firebombing of tobacco shops. There have been 133 attacks since March 2023 in Melbourne. The war for control of the billion-dollar illicit tobacco trade has turned quiet suburban streets into battle zones. They are not random attacks, yet the consequences not only affect neighbouring businesses. The drive-by shootings and attacks on homes can be devastating and deadly, as in the case of the death of Katie Tangey, an innocent bystander.

When the prevalence of machete attacks is bundled in with the tobacco and construction violence, then the sense of lawlessness in this state reaches a troubling level. On Sunday afternoon at Northland shopping centre, hundreds of people ran for their lives as two gangs, armed with machetes, were intent on causing harm to each other. There were injuries to some gang members, but none to the public.

From noon today, the sale of machetes in this state is banned. Prohibition on possession of the knives will not come into effect until September 1. From that date, there will be a three-month amnesty for people to take machetes to a police station and not be charged. The crackdown on weapons was decided in March.

The premier brought forward the ban on the sale of machetes after the Northland brawl. “We must never let the places where we gather – where families come together, to meet, to shop, to enjoy the peace of their weekend – become the places we fear,” she said. However, two months ago, the government could have put in place under the Competition and Consumer Act a 90-day ban on retailers from stocking machetes. A longer delay needs federal intervention. It was decided against because, government insiders say, it might have meant relying on a Peter Dutton-led government when the ban lapsed.

The lesson here is the potential cost of inaction.

While the state government felt the need to act quickly and decisively on youth crime and machetes, its comparatively tepid response to rampant firebombings of tobacco stores and construction firms has been nothing short of pathetic.

Operation Hawk hasn’t put a dint in dangerous activity and Victoria still does not have a tobacco licensing scheme. An initiative that experts support as a commonsense tool in the fight against the gangs operating with impunity across the state. Government websites predict the scheme to become active in “early 2026”.

On Tuesday, Allan was asked whether the police needed more resources to deal with workplace firebombings. This masthead has asked the premier about this issue repeatedly at press conferences, but answers have not been forthcoming. She instead directed the question to the police, who of course rely on the government to provide them with resources.

Perhaps the government should concentrate its mind more on better use of its finances, so that servicing its mammoth debt does not overwhelm its duty to service public necessities, such as law and order, in effect, spending more on debt than police. Then, we could all breathe more easily, and feel safer.

When inaction becomes a course of action, problems can only fester.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.