Politicians and academics, police and left-wing activists can pontificate all they like that there is no crime crisis in Victoria – we’ll believe our lyin’ eyes, thank you very much. As a retired UK police officer has said, crime statistics are too often wilfully manipulated: during a wave of burglaries in the 1980s, UK police were instructed that, if they saw signs of forced entry, they were to record ‘criminal damage’, not ‘burglary’.
Even worse is when authorities openly lie about their own statistics. When Victoria’s police commissioner said that there was no evidence that Africans were over-represented in crime, his own data said the exact opposite. According to even Victoria police’s own statistics, Africans were 30 times more likely to be charged with assault than any other Victorians and a staggering 86 times more likely to commit aggravated burglary.
If Victoria isn’t in the grip of a wave of crime, that’s got to be news to major retailers, who are openly considering fleeing the state.
The head of a major independent supermarket chain is considering closing down stores in Victoria, warning retail workers are facing unprecedented levels of violence and aggressive behaviour on an almost daily basis.
Ritchies IGA chief executive Fred Harrison said retail crime in Victoria had reached “crisis point”, and managing a small business while trying to keep staff and customers safe was almost impossible.
“It’s getting to a point now where [at] a number of our stores, you’ve got to question when leases come up, do we want to remain in this area? Do we want to remain in this store?” Mr Harrison told 7.30.
“Is it all-round more profitable, safer if we just close and walk away?”
Ask any retail worker, especially in the big chains, and they’ll tell you the same story. On a daily basis, they deal with people who openly walk out with trolley loads of groceries. Staff face unhinged aggression if they even try to stop them.
For Bunnings store manager Olivia, a seemingly normal workday involved her being spat at, verbally abused or threatened by an aggressive customer.
And Victoria is the epicentre.
There are 85 Ritchies IGA stores across Australia, with 52 in Victoria. Mr Harrison said Victoria was by far the worst state.
“I’d say 95 per cent of the issues that we are having today as a business are all in Victoria,” he said.
It’s got so bad that staff at stores like Bunnings have to be issued with body cameras, as if they were front-line police.
For Olivia, the breakthrough came when Bunnings introduced body-worn cameras for staff and tactical guards.
She said the measures acted as a disincentive to would-be thieves, resulting in fewer violent and aggressive incidents and a safer store.
Other retailers, like Woolworths, are issuing staff with personal safety alarms – keychain devices that emit a deafening alarm when activated. As X account No Context Brits once asked, “Do other countries need security guards in McDonald’s, or are we just savages?”
Retailers are having to form dedicated departments specifically to tackle violent criminals.
Cases of aggression, violence and intimidation have become so common it has prompted Woolworths to set up a new department dedicated to investigating such incidents.
The new Woolworths head of Acts of Violence and Aggression, Sarah Faorlin, said her role was introduced in February last year in response to a significant increase in violence, post-Covid.
“Our Woolworths team members have reported over 6,000 incidents last year and that’s a 26 per cent increase on the year prior,” Ms Faorlin said […]
In Victoria, there were 169,673 victims of personal and retail theft in 2024 – a rise of 29 per cent from the previous year. Tasmania followed with an uptick of 11 per cent.
But, hey, at least Victorians can rest assured that they have machete bins now.
