Arabic version: حزب العمال الفيكتوري يؤيد توسيع صلاحيات تفتيش السكاكين
According to ABC News, Victorian Labor has promised to introduce expanded police stop-and-search powers under legislation known as Jack’s Law if it wins the November state election. The commitment means Victoria Police would receive 1,200 additional handheld metal-detecting wands, available from early next year for use on any person in a public place.
Premier Ben Carroll said the policy would give police powers to remove knives from the streets. Police Minister Paul Edbrooke described the proposal as “Stop-and-search powers for deadly blades, anywhere, any time, to get these knives off our streets.” The Coalition had promised the reform in September last year, while Labor had previously resisted expanding search powers under former leader Jacinta Allan.
Jack’s Law is named after Jack Beasley, a teenager fatally stabbed while out with friends on the Gold Coast in 2019. His parents, Brett and Belinda Beasley, advocated for legal change, and several states have modelled legislation on Queensland’s response. Labor’s pledge follows its earlier adoption of the Coalition’s policy to ban machetes.
Swinburne University criminologist Joel McGregor said there was little evidence that wanding laws reduce violent offending. A 2022 Griffith University review of Queensland’s initial 12-month trial found “no evidence” that wanding deterred knife carrying or reduced violent crime, although Queensland’s laws passed in June 2025. Dr McGregor also warned that enhanced powers could target particular groups. Data from July 2025 to June this year showed more than one in 10 people searched for weapons in Queensland identified as First Nations.
Victoria currently allows random searches only in police-declared designated areas, which can include shopping centres, sports precincts or entire suburbs for up to six months. A Federal Court ruling this year found the designation of Melbourne’s CBD and surrounds for six consecutive months was invalid and breached the human rights charter. Victoria Police has maintained it has zero tolerance for racial profiling.
