Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Community safety

Steve McGHIE (Melton) (10:17): At the start of the last school holidays a young man tragically lost his life at Woodgrove shopping centre, a place where many Melton kids gather to socialise. Knife crime is now threatening to take this safe space away from them. He did not deserve this, and now his family along with the entire Melton community are grieving his loss. Knives are taking the lives of our youth. In the past few years three young people from Melton have lost their lives to knife crime, tearing apart our families and communities.

This culture of knives and carrying them around like some kind of armour is cowardice. We must do better to shift this culture. That responsibility extends beyond these four walls of Parliament; it extends out into our streets, our schools, our homes and across the community. We all have a role to play in addressing knife culture. This government has recognised the responsibility we have to give police more powers to address knife culture out in the community, and this includes stronger search powers. There is no excuse for carrying these deadly weapons.

I commend the work of Victoria Police. This year they have seized more than 10,000 knives, daggers and swords, and they continue to crack down on these businesses that choose to sell weapons to youth for profit. Enough is enough; we must change this knife culture. If you choose to carry a knife, the police will find you, and you will face the consequences. But this is not just about punishment, it is about protecting our future and our young people. I urge the youth in Melton to come forward and speak with me about why they feel the need to carry knives so that we can work together to find ways to end knife culture amongst the young people together.