{"id":720657,"date":"2026-06-07T08:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/720657\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T08:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:25:09","slug":"multiple-teens-arrested-over-alleged-machete-brawl-in-melbourne-as-government-says-crime-laws-working-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/720657\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple teens arrested over alleged machete brawl in Melbourne as government says crime laws working | Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Victorian government has defended the effectiveness of its machete ban after multiple teens were arrested over an alleged machete brawl in the heart of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/melbourne\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Melbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Shocked commuters ran for cover after a group of youths \u2013 some armed with machetes \u2013 brawled at Melbourne\u2019s Flinders Street station concourse on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-name=\"standard link button Primary\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=copyembed&amp;CMP=emailbutton\" class=\"dcr-svb9qg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Protective Services Officers converged on the station, boarding a train where four boys were arrested, and machetes were seized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Another pair was arrested near the precinct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A 17-year-old boy who was injured during the brawl was taken to hospital with a laceration to his arm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Police charged a 22-year-old man with affray, reckless cause injury, assault with a weapon and possessing a prohibited weapon, who was bailed to appear Melbourne magistrates court on 27 November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The remaining five, aged 13, 14, 15 and two 16-year-olds, were released.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The government minister Harriet Shing said changes to bail laws, a machete ban, new post-and-boast laws and the introduction of a violence reduction unit were starting to show in a drop in crime statistics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhat we are doing is working,\u201d she told reporters on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThere\u2019s always more work to do, but we do know that the work that police are doing is having an impact, that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2025\/oct\/26\/allan-says-victoria-machete-ban-is-working-despite-brawl-that-left-teenager-with-serious-injuries\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">machete ban<\/a> is having an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The government said about 18,000 weapons had been surrendered or seized and 17,000 machetes taken off shelves since the 2025 amnesty, but the opposition said knife attacks continued to escalate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYou\u2019ve got teenagers that are literally putting the finger at the government because they know there\u2019s no consequences,\u201d the opposition spokesperson, David Southwick, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cVictorians want [a] response, they want consequences, and it\u2019s clear that the machete policies of the government simply have not worked.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian government has defended the effectiveness of its machete ban after multiple teens were arrested over an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-720657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720657","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=720657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}