[Point of Order]

I was just reflecting on the member for Caulfield’s state of mind and feeling that his life is in a state of crisis at the moment, but I will come back to the bill. I am really keen to stand here and speak once again on the Terrorism (Community Protection) and Control of Weapons Amendment Bill 2024. These amendments that we are passing here today deliver stronger protections for community safety, and they give effect to our government’s planned machete ban. Just last sitting week I was in this place debating legislation, and I am proud to do it again and again and again, because I know and my community knows – including Laverton, member for Caulfield – that these kinds of changes are so important for local communities like mine that are sadly experiencing this kind of violent crime. Just yesterday we debated here in this place our government’s Bail Amendment (Tough Bail) Bill 2025, which sets Victoria up as having one of the toughest bail laws in the country and clamps down on some of the most serious violent offences that we have seen over the past couple of months. It should be very clear to Victorians watching this that when it comes to community safety we are committed and we are locked into it. There are big steps to take and not ones I imagine are taken lightly.

In 2024 alone police seized 14,797 knives, swords, daggers and machetes, and this is more than any time over the past 10 years. This amounts to about 40 blades each and every single day. It is pretty shocking. Having said this, I want to acknowledge the incredible work of Victoria Police, particularly in my local community, in getting these bladed weapons out of the community, which is the flip side of this statistic. There is, however, clearly much more to do, which is why the Premier has announced that we will be taking this bill further by introducing and facilitating a ban on machetes here in Victoria. This is the first ban of this kind here in Australia, and we have made this decision upon consultation with Victoria Police.

[Interjection]

Yes, we consult with Victoria Police on this side of the house, and we have also been learning from the United Kingdom in fact, which recently implemented a similar ban. Over in the UK they did theirs in about 18 months. We are doing it in a third of that time. I know many in my community welcome this ban with open arms, and I have also heard many ask why this cannot be achieved tomorrow. I am going to answer this one, particularly for the member for Caulfield so that his life is a little bit less in a crisis and he is a little less hysterical than he has been in the chamber this morning. The answer is there is a lot more to do before the ban comes into effect on 1 September. There is an amnesty program that has to be set up to allow for people to do the right thing and surrender their machetes. The ban will make machetes a prohibited weapon, which means possessing one will be a serious offence punishable by up to two years imprisonment or a fine of over $47,000. These are serious punishments, so we want people to do the right thing. We are giving them the chance to do the right thing and give up the machetes, including those that are currently held lawfully. I do not have one at home, but there are people that do have machetes lawfully, we know that, and they need to have an opportunity to be able to give them up.

To the people who have said to me that we should have done this a year ago, including those opposite ‍– and the member for Caulfield, I might add – I do want to remind them all that back in 2023 we clarified that the machete was a controlled weapon, which means that even now, under our current laws, you cannot carry a machete without a lawful excuse. This clarification prevented and punished the sale of machetes to minors, to the 14-year-olds that the member for Caulfield thinks are over there shopping at Laverton Market. The unfortunate inconvenience for those opposite is that some people do own one for legitimate uses, and that includes things like gardening, farming or outdoor recreation pursuits. This ban is going to mean that those people who have done nothing wrong and have committed no crime will be required to surrender their machetes. Not only that, but we have to ensure that this is done safely. We have listened to the advice of Victoria Police in how to do this right, and they have told us it would not be safe for machetes to be returned directly to the police stations.

This is the same position they took over 25 years ago when we had the national firearms amnesty, and Australians gave up their guns in droves. I think the community can understand that when it comes to police stations, a place that needs to be secure, having a stockpile of dangerous weapons around them is probably not the best or the smartest idea. We want Victoria Police to keep doing the important work of keeping our community safe and keeping them out on the beat, which is why the amnesty scheme will be developed over the coming months to identify sites for disposal, and work with retailers who legally sell machetes to understand their new obligations under the law and potentially cancel any orders of new machetes. We are also going to use the existing Governor in Council exemption process to apply to machetes with this ban, and the work is currently ongoing, with consultation with relevant industries and collector groups to ensure that, where necessary, exemptions can be applied.

I think these changes get the balance right. Whilst there are indeed many legitimate uses for machetes ‍– we have all of our Landcare Victoria crew here visiting Parliament this week. I am sure that those groups would in fact – depending on where they are located – have machetes for the different work that they are doing in Landcare. It is these kinds of people that we need to help educate. They want to do the right thing, they need to do the right thing, and we need to help them work out what they are going to be doing. These changes are getting the balance right. While there are many legitimate uses for machetes, the fact is that the flow of them into Victoria means that many of them have unfortunately still ended up in the hands of people – and yes, young people – who have used them to commit horrendous crimes. I spoke yesterday about some of the criminal incidents in my electorate involving machete crime, and I do not talk about them lightly. I hope that this ban will see them taken out of circulation on the streets and that will lead to a drop in this kind of horrendous, appalling activity.

The other part of the amendments that will be brought with this bill deals with the new search and seizure powers that police will have for designated areas. I know that was very much welcome in my community. I think it is excellent that it has been expanded. The bill initially gave Victoria Police the power to declare areas where they can conduct weapons searches and seizures without a warrant for a period of up to 12 hours. The amendments we have introduced will extend this to a period of up to six months. It is all about keeping folks in our local streets and neighbourhoods and at big community events safe and indeed safer, including hotspots like train stations and shopping centres. I think it is going to be a really great opportunity for police to carry out this work for longer periods of time.

This is really important stuff that we are talking about today. I hate to see to see it misused for political pointscoring by those opposite. I wish they would just get behind these bills and vote for them. The community want these bills to pass and for us to get on and make their community safer. Instead – complete political pointscoring again and again. For us, it is nothing new. For the community, it is a constant disappointment –

[Point of Order]

I do say again: the opposition should get behind these tough bail laws and this new bill before the house and let us get on and do our job to keep our communities safe.