A Woolworths worker who was stabbed while riding his e-scooter home says he no longer feels safe living in Melbourne.
The state government has tried to assure the community it has a handle on knife crime, introducing new machete amnesty bins.
It’s been nearly three months since Aarkin Shah was stabbed while riding his e-scooter home in Carnegie.
“Whenever I look myself in the mirror with the scar, I fear so much from the person who stabbed me,” he said.
“It’s like, really scary to live in Melbourne now. In Australia.”
The 25-year-old says he couldn’t see what the weapon was but the police minister is confident the amnesty bins will make Victoria safer.
They’ll be in place across more than 40 police stations from tomorrow until the end of November.
“If you’ve got one lying around the backs hed, somewhere at home, it can be other edged weapons too, but machetes is what can be handed in,” Police Minister Anthony Carbines said.
There’s no estimate yet for how many machetes will be dropped off in these bins.
The government’s hoping a threat of jail time or a $47,000 fine will be enough to make people hand theirs in.
“We all know there are people who won’t comply. There’ll be people who want to hang on to these dangerous weapons. Well, there are consequences,” Carbines said.
But Shah said he doesn’t think it will work.
“I don’t think criminals will do that, like, they don’t get their machete and put it in the bin, especially if they are in front of the camera,” he said.
“If they ban machete, they could have done with any sort of knife, kitchen knife, anything.”
