Wednesday, 3 December 2025

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:13): I move:

That this house:

(1)   notes the contract for market research to support the development of public messaging around the machete ban that comes into effect on 1 September 2025 that was published on the Buying for Victoria website titled ‘Market research services for machete prohibition campaign’, contract number PAB024/25-26; and

(2)   in accordance with standing order 10.01, requires the Leader of the Government to table in the Council by 26 January 2026 the report provided to the Department of Justice and Community Safety related to this contract.

I know that there is a lot of public interest in where the money has actually gone on the machete bins. We have accounted for about $2 million of that clearly now. Recently we looked at the tenders website Buying for Victoria, and there were two new contracts listed there. One was for about $825,000, which was related to creative services, and the other contract was for about $125,000, which was related to market research. What I am asking for today is the report that was done for the market research. I think that there are lots of people in this state who would be very interested in what type of market research was done. I have been involved in market research in the past myself, and I think that for the price of $120,000-odd we are probably looking at focus groups and things like that. I think that the people of Victoria would be very interested to read this report. That is what I am asking for. It is a very simple motion, and I urge all members of the house to support getting this document.

 Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:15): I rise to make a contribution on this motion in Mr Limbrick’s name. It is a machete short-form documents motion, and it is convention that the government does not oppose documents motions. I thank Mr Limbrick for bringing it and acknowledge his continued interest in the magical machete bin mystery tour that he likes to keep going. I know his followers take a very keen interest in it – it is kind of funny to watch. But Mr Limbrick does raise some legitimate questions that he has a genuine interest in understanding, particularly in regard to the funding.

I think what is important to note in this matter is that of course, again, the government only has 5 minutes to be able to respond to these things in a speaking slot. We do not get the amount of time that we would like to usually take to respond to these matters, to give them a fulsome reply, but it is the want of this chamber at the moment to not allow the government to give fulsome replies. Nevertheless what I do want to do is start my contribution with some of the misinformation that has been spread by opposition members in this place, which of course might add the spice to the flavour that Mr Limbrick seeks in regard to this matter. It has added some intrigue, but it is always disappointing and concerning when misinformation is spread, because people look to governments and authorities to get answers and information. But when those in opposition deliberately spread misinformation and disinformation, that is always incredibly disappointing. Brad Battin, on 27 August 2025, said:

The government are trying to answer these massive crisis issues, particularly around knife crime, with the machete ban that they have put on Victorian streets, and their answer to that was to put machete bins outside police stations at a cost of $325,000 for each and every bin that is put across the state.

We know that is false. That is absolutely false, inaccurate and untrue. I know Mr Limbrick has been on this theme for a couple of weeks now, and there has been information and documents that have been produced for him that actually disprove that. So I just want to put that on the record.

Another example: Nicole Werner, the member for Warrandyte in the other place, said on 13 August:

If you do the maths on $13 million for 40 bins, that is $325,000 spent per bin. These bins look like charity bins at an op shop. These bins are reminiscent of these bins that you would put outside of an op shop to dispose of clothes. That is the Allan Labor government’s priority – to cut $15 million from the budget for policing, to cut the money, but instead spend $13 million of taxpayers money on 40 bins at what – I do not know – $325,000 a pop. You could buy a Ferrari with that, member for Malvern. That is absurd.

Again, that has been disproven – completely incorrect. I think Mrs Werner’s statement, if you do the math – clearly Mrs Werner cannot math, because that is not what each and every bin costs.

Then finally, Ms Crozier from this place said on 27 August:

While I am on machetes, we have got the machete bins that are out there. They are covered with barbecue covers – you know, $13 million for a few machete bins at $370,000-odd each. These figures are extraordinary, and that is just so symbolic of this government. They have got no clue how to manage taxpayers money. They are just appalling in their disregard for how taxpayers money should be spent. It should be spent wisely.

Again, the misinformation and the inaccuracies – they have not even been able to stick to the actual figures – and then there is the moving feast of what it was for, what it was about. As the magical mystery machete bin tour has gone on, as we can see, Mr Limbrick has been provided with information and documents that give some clarity to exactly what the government has been doing in regard to that.

What I can say as well is that community safety is the Allan Labor government’s top priority, and all Victorians have the right to be safe and feel safe in their communities. What we do not need is mischievous opposition members deliberately spreading falsehoods and disinformation that just frighten people. What people want to see is leadership and real action on these sorts of things, so we are also backing Victoria Police with our record investment of over $4.5 billion to ensure our police are equipped with the resources and tougher powers they need to keep our community safe.

We know that these machete bins are working. We know that there have been a range of knives and things returned through these bins, but not only through the bins, also through police, who have been undertaking searches at various places as well. We want to make sure that community safety remains our top priority. We know these reforms are working and we are getting knives off streets. As I said, we are introducing another range of measures as well that will help police with the powers that they need to be able to reduce knife crime.

It is always disappointing when we have to deal with disinformation in this place, but eventually the truth does come out. What we are seeing today is that as the magical mystery machete bin tour goes on and on and on, we are seeing more and more information that is actually the truth of the matter. I thank Mr Limbrick for bringing this motion.

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (10:20): I rise to speak in support of this documents motion. It is important to get to the bottom of the government’s machete bin disaster of a policy, which has failed to actually deal with the issue. I was giving examples yesterday of where a machete bin location is literally metres away from a place where machete melees seem to have happen every two days, which is Broadmeadows Central. Literally across the road there is a machete bin. Not much seems to be happening in terms of people dropping things off there, but there are certainly plenty of machete incidents around there. We know the government’s $13 million program of machete bins has been shrouded in secrecy, and of course there is the market research. It would be classic for this government to find out what the focus groups are saying about their machete bins rather than actually implement things that work, like Jack’s law, which would give police the powers to take machetes off our streets in the first place.

We have seen – and I have quite enjoyed – Mr Limbrick’s Instagram campaign on this issue and getting to the bottom of this issue. We know that much of the money that has been allocated has been spent on things like Facebook ads. If you are a violent young teenage offender, who I think are now banned from social media, are you really going to be persuaded by a Facebook feed ad saying that machetes are now banned?

David Limbrick interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: They do not use Facebook, that is right. We continuously see this government is all about the spin and all about the image. We have seen several bills that are basically media releases come through this chamber rather than actually dealing with the issue at hand. I on a number of occasions have moved both amendments and bills to ban machetes. I was told by people on that side, like Ms Terpstra, Mr Galea and Mr McIntosh, I think, that we were just playing up to 3AW and the Herald Sun and that machetes were not an issue. They of course voted against having a machete ban on numerous occasions; now they are in favour of it. This goes to show the hypocrisy of this government, who only move when the polls do and who only move when it is a crisis, not because they are actually listening to the community. But they will move when they listen to focus groups, which is why this particular market research would be quite interesting to get information from by way of a documents motion. So I want to thank Mr Limbrick for moving it.

There were several disparaging remarks by Ms Terpstra, I thought. Not only has Mr Limbrick been putting interesting information on Instagram regarding this issue, but so has my colleague the member for Warrandyte, who has been putting out some great information – in fact she has more followers and far more reach than the Premier, who of course plunges hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money into her social media. It is important to get this out there. There are a lot of people who think it is an extraordinary waste of money to spend $13 million on 45 machete bins, so it is important to get that information out there into the community. The member for Warrandyte of course has done numerous videos on it that have got wide reach – in fact more reach than the Premier can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for to try to buy, which is what of course our Premier does. I thank Mr Limbrick for this motion.

 Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (10:24): I rise to speak on David Limbrick’s machete short-form documents motion. As my colleague Ms Terpstra said, as is convention, the government will not oppose the docs motion. It was very interesting to hear Mr Mulholland go on and on and on about his colleague’s comments around machete bins but not raise the amount of incorrect information that has been put out publicly through their comms machine. He could not bring himself to acknowledge where his colleagues had made numerous errors on the public record.

Anyway, he must have run out of time; 5 minutes is a short amount of time to make a contribution, as we know, on short-form docs motions. Just to be very clear, the machete disposal bins each cost approximately $2400, not the $325,000 that that the Liberals have flagged. That investment supports the rollout of the entire machete amnesty project.

I think it is fair to say that when you have an undertaking such as this you want the community to be aware of it and you want the community to be able to use it. Those opposite and Mr Mulholland, as per usual, sit on the sidelines and snipe. They take cheap shots. But the government has got on with this and ensured that the public are aware of the program and that the public have had the opportunity to dispose of machetes, which has been taken up already. The most recent reports are that over 9000 machetes and blades have been put into the bins so far, before the final numbers are put together.

It is very interesting that Mr Mulholland was talking about decision-making and how it has been led. It is very interesting that the government’s action around dealing with crime led to the Liberals instantaneously and unexplainably knifing their own leader. They have not been able to explain why that happened. The Liberals’ misinformation and disinformation have continued. The cartoon in the Herald Sun was quite something. Here we are talking on this motion, and poor Mr Battin, their third leader in 11 months, was politically disposed of.

But we are used to the Liberals taking an important issue like this and absolutely politicising it. As I said, at least three of their members have publicly been on the record whipping up for weeks incredibly inflated costs about these machete bins. When we had gun amnesties back in John Howard’s time, time was allowed for the public and the community to be aware of it and to dispose of their guns in the proper way. That is what the government has allowed to happen. It has done so in a way that has been thought through, that has been adequately provided for and that has enabled this program to be run out.

I just reflect on Mr Mulholland’s comments and why he would not want to see a program put in place with appropriate time and with appropriate communication to community, which has been taking it up, as I said, with nearly 10,000 knives and machetes disposed of into these bins, and why the opposition want to play politics with this rather than getting these knives off the streets, because that is the important outcome. We do not want knife crimes in our community, and by delivering this program we have taken a huge amount of knives off our streets. We have had an amnesty period where people have had a fair amount of time, communication and opportunity to do so. I will leave my comments there.

Motion agreed to.