The state government has enacted a Victoria-wide machete ban, with the knives now classified as a “prohibited weapon” under new legislation.
The ban came into effect following a series of violent incidents involving the now-illegal weapons.
Owning, carrying, using, buying or selling a machete without an exemption or approval could land you in prison for up to two years or a $47,000 fine.
Exemptions include people who have a genuine reason to use a machete for their job, including agricultural workers, or for machetes that have a genuine traditional, historical, or cultural significance.
Under the fresh ban, a machete is defined as a “large broad-bladed cutting knife”.
Machetes can vary in shape and size.
An “amnesty period” is also in place for machete owners for the next three months.
From now until November 30, the public can safely surrender machetes at disposal bins outside 40 police stations across Victoria.
“From tomorrow, machetes are banned in Victoria and anyone carrying a machete will face tough consequences,” Victoria’s Police Minister Anthony Carbines said yesterday.
“If you’ve got one lying around the back shed, somewhere at home, it can be other edged weapons too, but machetes is what can be handed in.
“This is just one of the many new laws that we’re implementing to back the work of Victoria Police, including Australia’s toughest bail test.
The state government choked the sale of machetes by ordering them off shelves during a temporary sales ban in May.
In-store and online inspections helped dry up the supply.
Woolworths worker Aarkin Shah was stabbed while riding an e-scooter home in Carnegie and has been left with physical and emotional scars.
“Whenever I look myself in the mirror with the scar, I fear so much from the person who stabbed me,” the 25-year-old told 9News.
“It’s like, really scary to live in Melbourne now. In Australia.”
Australia’s knife laws vary in every state and territory.
Machetes are classified as controlled in most states and territories and are legal with a lawful purpose, however Victoria is the first state to officially ban them.
