Wanted: cure for Melbourne's knife epidemic

July 8, 2007

ANOTHER disaster: a group of young people with knives and machetes fighting a pitched battle in our suburbs. Why is this happening? How big is the problem? And what can be done about it? ... the brutal fact is that carrying knives in public places is more common than ever...

Youth worker Les Twentyman and I first started publicly highlighting the rise of the knife culture in 1992. In 1995, the Kennett government ran a short but effective media campaign , but when the campaign stopped the problem kept growing...

Once again our weapons working-group raised the issue of an ongoing media campaign to convince young people that carrying weapons, particularly knives, is the wrong way to live. We are now waiting for fresh consultants and more focus groups to tell us what youth workers and street police have been saying for years. The only thing that has changed in the past six years is that things have got worse.

Surely we do not have to wait for more knife casualties — or deaths — before this gets the priority it deserves.