Machete ban as Victoria ramps up knife crime fight

Thugs caught carrying machetes will face prison time and large fines as one state ramps up its fight against knife crime.

Laws are set to be rushed through Victorian parliament to ban the sale and purchase of machetes from September 1.

It follows a high-profile home invasion at Black Rock in Melbourne’s Bayside on March 4 when masked burglars armed with machetes stole two cars as the occupants slept.

Under the legislation, those caught carrying a machete would face up to two years in prison or fines of more than $47,000.

The government has not yet settled on what will constitute a machete, which have agricultural uses but have increasingly become a weapon of choice for criminals.

A three-month amnesty will run from the day the laws take effect to allow people to dispose the wide-bladed weapons in secure bins at sites such as police stations without facing penalties.

Exemptions after the ban will only be provided in limited circumstances, including for hunting and agriculture.

“Machetes are destroying lives so we will destroy machetes. The places we meet can’t become the places we fear,” Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said.

“This is Australia’s first machete ban, and we agree with police that it must be done once and done right.”

Machetes were made a controlled weapon in March 2024, meaning they could not be possessed, carried, or used without a lawful excuse or sold to anyone under 18.

But the Allan government resisted opposition moves for more than a year to introduce an outright machete ban.

Police are also set to be granted expanded powers, allowing officers to conduct random and targeted weapons searches in designated areas for up to six months.

Currently, they can only conduct searches in designated areas for up to 12 hours and planned searches must advertised.

Police must suspect weapons and violence and cannot return to repeat the process within 10 days.