Oliver Peterson: Australian correspondent on Victorian police seizing record number of knives

Over in Australia, Victorian police say they've seized a record number of knives and machetes this year, amid growing concerns about knife crime.

Police say at least 15,000 knives, machetes and zombie knives had been taken off the streets and destroyed so far in 2025.

Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says there's been a targeted push to get rid of bladed weapons, especially following the recent machete ban.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International Correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance, Peace of mind
for New Zealand business Oli Perlis from afternoon six PR
Live perth Oi. Good afternoon, Yet a Ryan. Fifteen thousand
knives seized by Victoria police across the year. That's a
hell of a lot. What are we talking?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, if you put it in this context, that's almost
fifty knives and machetes taken off Victorian streets every single day. Ryan,
So fourteen thousand, eight hundred and eight weapons were taken
off streets in Victoria last year. Now it's fifteen thousand
this year. There's obviously been a big targeted push in
Victoria with these machette bins that have been put around

(00:42):
the state to collect machetes which have been banned from
sale in Victoria. But they've got a huge crime problem.
It's very well documented, particularly in some of the Melbourne suburbs,
and lots of people having their cars stolen, their homes
broken into. It's just not a good advertisement to the
rest of the world that Victoria's got such issue with crime.
But how's that almost fifty taken off the streets every day?

Speaker 1 (01:04):
So hell of a lot. Now, the coalition we've just
been talking about. They've been arguing about, you know, net zero.
It now they're doing immigration.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, that's what they want to do. So obviously they've
got the decide they're not going to have a net
zero policy. They want to talk about instead kitchen table economics. Ryan,
I like that term. But basically the opposition is now
going to try and prosecute the governments and say that
the reason that energy prices are going up because we're
going for net zero. The reason that businesses are going
broken this country is because of net zero, and the

(01:34):
reason that we don't have manufacturing here in Australia is
because of net zero. That's the new argument that the
opposition is going to try and prosecute. Difficulty is that
they don't have too much credibility at the moment because,
as you mentioned there in the World Wise, those opinion
polls for Susan Lee a diabolical. There are some reports
around today that Angus Taylor and or Andrew Hasty affirming
to replace Susan Lee. I don't think that's going to

(01:55):
happen anytime soon. To be perfectly frank, she's only been
in the job since June of this year, and yes
it is killing season in the last week of Federal Parliament.
But why do it now? We're were we could two
and a half years away from an election. I know
that the coalition looks like it's steering into the abyss.
Maybe forever and ever are men, but it's just not
the time. You just wouldn't be making a change at

(02:17):
the moment. So I don't think that will eventuate. Having
said that, they say by Christmas they'll come out with
a new policy about immigration, saying that this is obviously
hurting Australian families and it's a major issue in Australiana's
labor will let anybody into this country. So whether they
can start trying to once again get a hold of
the narrative and get a hold of the political debate,

(02:37):
that is to be seen because they are floundering.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Finally, what's going on with your pedestrian crossings Onlie? Well?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
This is interesting. Haven't you got AI in New Zealand?
Or that hasn't come? Sorry?

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Ryan, I thought we've got the internet. We've got the
internet dial up. Yeah, we get Coronation Street about ten
years after it's eared in the UK. I'm probably the
same with Home and Away actually, but yes, we do
have AI.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
All right, good because there's nothing more. And I'm sure
plenty of Kiwis would love catching the ferry from Circular
keyt to Manly Wharf and when you get off the
wharf and you're trying to cross the road to get
over to the Corso this is probably the jaywalk capital
of Australia because you just go right, you just I
can't need to cross the road. I need to get
to the beach. I need to get to Manly Beach
is one of the best places in the world. But

(03:25):
what they've done now with these set of traffic lights
is they put in thermal cameras and artificial intelligence and
they've reduced jaywalking by thirty four percent. I mean surprise, surprise,
Like you have little senses in the roads when it goes,
oh there's a car here, we need to go from
red to green to let you go. All of a sudden,
they're seeing how many pedestrians there are, so they're giving
pedestrians a greater opportunity to cross the road. Now there's
a big push at the moment on this country to

(03:47):
reduce what is the suburban speed limit or a speed
limit around here, for example, which is fifty k's now
down to thirty. They're saying this could be it. We
could roll out thermal cameras and AI to every intersection
in Australia and would help obviously also push down our
growing death toll at the moment, which is relating to
pedestrian death seron.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
So there you go, all right, Ollie, thank you for that,
Olli from Olli Pederson six pr pers Live for more
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