South Australia's Parliament has passed the nation's toughest knife laws, with new national statistics confirming South Australia has the lowest youth crime rate of any state in the nation.
State Parliament this week passed new knife reforms to greatly expand police search powers, ban the sale of knives to minors and put in place strict requirements regarding the storage of certain knives offered for sale.
The reforms, developed following extensive consultation with South Australia Police and the general public, provide for:
- Police to carry out wand searches at declared shopping centres, declared public transport hubs and on public transport;
- Police to have the power to conduct wand searches at any time at all licenced premises;
- Police to carry out wand searches for up to 6 hours at any public place where there are reasonable grounds to believe an incident of violence or disorder may take place in the area and that the exercise of powers is reasonably necessary to prevent the incident;
- Police to carry out wand searches in public places of any person who was a member of a criminal organisation within the previous 5 years or who has been found guilty of certain offences in the previous 5 years;
- The sale of knives to all minors to be banned;
- Police to prosecute those who supply knives to minors, where the supplier either knew or ought to have known the knife would be used in an offence;
- Sellers of certain types of knives to be required to ensure they are securely locked up or tethered and all sellers of all knives to be required to display notices prohibiting the sale of knives to minors;
- Offences involving carrying and using knives at schools and public places to be expanded to include childcare centres, kindergartens, preschools, universities and TAFE campuses, and places of worship.
Meanwhile the Recorded Crime – Offenders statistics have shown a drop in both the young offenders rate and number of overall offenders in South Australia.
The statistics confirm there were 1,812 youth offenders aged between 10 and 17 years in South Australia proceeded against by police in 2023-24, a 17 per cent decrease on the previous year.
South Australia has 1,028 youth offenders per 100,000 people aged between 10 and 17 years, less than half the rate of youth offending in New South Wales, and significantly lower than the national average of 1,764 youth offenders per 100,000 people aged between 10 and 17 years.
The young offender rate is now half of what it was under the Marshall Liberal Government when it was 2,072 in 2018-19.
The ABS figures confirm a 4 per cent drop in the overall number of offenders in South Australia, with the overall offender rate falling from 1,575 to 1,487 offenders per 100,000 people.
The knife legislation that passed Parliament this week builds on other bills from the Government introduced to, or passed by, Parliament including:
- Outlawing 'posting and boasting' for those who seek to promote or glorify criminal conduct on social media;
- Legislating a new offence for adults who recruit children to commit crimes;
- Making it easier to prosecute stalking and harassment, and capture a broader range of harmful stalking activities and ensure new and emerging forms of technology like using devices to track a person's movements or to monitor their communications are also covered.
As put by Kyam Maher
These are comprehensive law reforms that will help authorities better tackle knife crime and maintain community safety for all South Australians.
We promised swift, considered action and that is what these reforms will deliver.
The safety of the community is a top priority for this government, and we are committed to ensuring our state has strong and effective laws.
That is demonstrated with a falling offender rate, and a 17 per cent drop in youth offending, with our rate lower than any other state in the nation.
We are pleased to see the young offender rate is now half of what it was under the Liberal Government in 2018-19.
As put by Stephen Mullighan
We have continued to toughen our laws and increase funding to better protect South Australians.
It is pleasing to see both our adult and youth offender rates falling.
We have boosted police funding by more than $300 million, increased recruitment, have more sworn officers on the beat and we are investing in the equipment and facilities police need.
