A 17-year-old boy has been charged following a machete brawl at Flinders Street station in Melbourne on Saturday night, which sent commuters fleeing for cover. The teenager was taken to hospital with a laceration to his arm after the altercation involving a group of youths, some armed with machetes.
Police arrested four boys at the scene after Protective Services Officers boarded a train and seized machetes. A 22-year-old man was also charged with affray, reckless cause injury, assault with a weapon, and possessing a prohibited weapon. He was bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on 27 November. The remaining five suspects, aged 13 to 16, were released.
The Victorian government defended its machete ban, with minister Harriet Shing stating that changes to bail laws, the ban, and a violence reduction unit were showing results in falling crime statistics. “What we are doing is working,” she said, noting that 18,000 weapons had been surrendered or seized and 17,000 machetes removed from shelves since the 2025 amnesty.
However, opposition spokesperson David Southwick criticised the government's approach, claiming knife attacks were escalating. “You’ve got teenagers that are literally putting the finger at the government because they know there’s no consequences,” he said, arguing that the machete policies had not worked.
