Independent retailers are calling on governments to take immediate action to combat the growing youth crime wave sweeping Australia.
Following yet another weekend of violent attacks across Melbourne, MGA Independent Businesses Australia said store owners, their staff and families are living in fear each day as stores open to serve their local communities.
A14-year-old boy was charged today after four employees of a Melbourne store were injured during the alleged armed robbery spree.
Victoria Police allege three people entered the store in Brighton and attempted to rob the store about 4pm. The group allegedly demanded access to cash and cigarettes before they assaulted three employees.
Inspector Scott Dwyer said:“(The incident) would have been a horrific scene for anyone who witnessed it, for the staff members involved. If you were to witness a gang of youths, running through a store with knives … it’s horrendous.”
“This simply cannot continue. Enough is enough,” said MGA Independent Businesses Australia CEO David Inall.
“We are seeing the escalation in crime not just in the number of family stores being hit, but the perpetrators are increasingly become more violent.
“Communities are living in fear. Violence against innocent staff is not something we ever expect to see in Australia and, quite frankly, this should have been addressed by now.
“Many of these cowardly attacks are targeting tobacco, with stolen goods then being pushed into the illegal tobacco market. Our members, through this organisation, have been ringing the alarm bell around illegal tobacco for the last eight years since 2016.
“We know that police are doing what they can with the resources available. They have our full support.
“But we need to see significantly more resources allocated to tackle youth crime, with a substantial tightening of bail conditions and tougher penalties.”
“Speaking with staff and store owners who were brutalised this past weekend, the message is clear: they are tired and quite frankly expect more from government,” Inall said.
“Earlier this year, the Federal Government allocated $188.5 million to support cross-jurisdictional task forces throughout the states of Australia to fight illegal tobacco. Nothing is happening and businesses and their staff are fed up.
“These robberies do not just impact the staff who are on duty at the time. Their families are fearful while their children and siblings are at work. Everyone is affected. “This lawlessness is the number one priority for our members, and we will do everything to highlight these perpetual political failings and hold governments to account.”
Gangs are stealing spirits when there are no cigarettes in stores. A group of alleged thieves armed with knives and an axe were caught on CCTV taking hundreds of dollars of high-end spirits from a suburban IGA in April when they discovered that there were no cigarettes stocked in the store at the time, police said.
Bec Judd says Melbourne is ‘woke, broke and violent’
Businesswoman and TV personality Rebecca Judd, who lives in Brighton, has been a vocal advocate in recent months for cracking down on violent crime in Melbourne.
“Melbourne this is sad. Woke, broke and violent. I can’t believe we are living like this,” she recently shared in a message to her 757,000 Instagram followers.
Judd also spoke out earlier this year after the Herald Sun revealed an “extreme” group of 80 repeat youth offenders had all been arrested more than 10 times in the past 12 months.
“Victoria Police are doing their job. The justice system and State Government are not,” Judd wrote alongside a screenshot of the article.
“@jacintaallanmp stays quiet while we wonder if a gang of machete wielding youths are going to invade our homes while our children sleep.
“Lock bail offenders up. Ban machetes and other weapons. There’s a start.”
Northern Territory crime wave
The Northern Territory government imposed a two-week youth curfew in Alice Springs in March, following widespread unrest and violent crime in the top-end community,
It followed group of more than 50 people storming a local pub on a Tuesday afternoon, threatening the safety of staff, who were forced to barricade themselves inside the building.
Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson told ABC News crime in the community was not new, but has escalated over recent years.
“I’ve never seen anything like it since I’ve lived in Alice Springs,” he said.
“There was just carnage. It was scary. We can measure the cost of broken windows and those sorts of things; however, we can’t measure the mental health of those workers barricaded in the buildings go through.”