{"id":282452,"date":"2025-11-13T20:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/282452\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T20:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:17:10","slug":"allan-government-crime-crackdown-continues-with-focus-on-retail-and-hospitality-assaults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/282452\/","title":{"rendered":"Allan government crime crackdown continues with focus on retail and hospitality assaults"},"content":{"rendered":"

New protections for retail and hospitality workers will be introduced to Victoria’s parliament today as part of the government’s latest efforts to crack down on crime.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed laws, assaulting or threatening to assault a worker in hospitality, retail, fast food or transport will carry a penalty of up to five years in jail.<\/p>\n

Verbal threats and intimidation will also carry a penalty of up to six months behind bars.<\/p>\n

The new laws will apply to both front of house and back of house staff, as well as delivery and rideshare drivers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sign at Woolworths telling customers “police may be notified” if “your behaviour makes anyone feel unsafe”. (ABC News: Shaun Kingma)<\/p>\n

It comes as part of rollout of measures this week announced by the government designed to tackle a growing crime rate in the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Each of the announced legislative reforms have aimed at reducing violent crime in particular.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, new laws aimed at addressing violence at protests were announced<\/a>, while Wednesday and Thursday’s announcements targeted violent youth crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Statistics show that criminal incidents of assault have steadily increased over the past decade when accounting for population.<\/p>\n

The number of assaults at supermarkets has more than doubled from 262 incidents in 2016 to 664 incidents last year.<\/p>\n

The laws will also amend the classification of ram raids to be included in the aggravated burglary category, carrying a 25 year maximum sentence.<\/p>\n

Retailers, union welcome protective laws<\/p>\n

The rise in crime and aggressive behaviour has shaken some businesses in Victoria, with some supermarket chains considering closing stores<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Woolworths has opened a new department dedicated to investigating violence in its stores, while Bunnings Warehouse introduced body-worn cameras for staff and tactical guards.<\/p>\n

In October, the Australian Retail Council led a joint press conference along with major retailers and supermarkets calling for better protections for workers.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) Victorian Branch secretary Michael Donovan said the protections for workers were long overdue.<\/p>\n

“Our members have been subject to torrents of abuse, harassment and intimidation,” Mr Donovan said.<\/p>\n

“The government’s legislation has taken longer than we would have liked, but we’re pleased that we’re getting an outcome.”<\/p>\n

He said the SDA hoped the changes would take effect before the Christmas shopping period.<\/p>\n

The government said the bill will be introduced to parliament on Friday, with aims of having the new laws in effect by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Premier Jacinta Allan referred to her own experiences working in retail when announcing the changes.<\/p>\n

“There is a difference between the customer from hell and the customer who harms \u2014 retail workers know it and these laws nail it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I worked at a supermarket and I know what it was like.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Today, we stand with workers to say it should never be a part of your job, and you’ll be protected.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New protections for retail and hospitality workers will be introduced to Victoria’s parliament today as part of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7814,64,63,99,48,49090,16287,44380,5216],"class_list":["post-282452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-abuse","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-crime","tag-hospitality","tag-jacinta-allan","tag-offence","tag-retail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}