The Wand of Political Expediency

When state leaders find themselves on the back foot over public safety, the standard political playbook dictates a swift turn toward visible authority. In Victoria, Premier Ben Carroll has demonstrated how effortlessly a government can adopt its opposition’s platform when electoral pressures mount. By committing to introduce Jack’s Law if re-elected, the Labor administration has abandoned its former resistance and embraced warrantless, random stop-and-search powers across the state.

The proposed policy will equip Victoria Police and protective services officers with 1,200 handheld metal-detecting wands early next year. Officers will be granted the authority to sweep any individual in a public space, expanding powers that were previously restricted to specific designated zones—zones that have already faced legal hurdles, including a recent federal court decision invalidating a six-month designation in Melbourne’s central business district.

Named in memory of Jack Beasley, who was fatally stabbed in Queensland in 2019, the legislative framework is already operating in several Australian states and territories. Yet the rapid political consensus in Victoria stands in stark contrast to the empirical record. Data from existing deployments paints a dubious picture regarding deterrent value. In Queensland, where police scanned more than 160,000 individuals over a twelve-month period ending in mid-2026, research from Griffith University detected no corresponding decline in violent crime.

Similarly, historical data in Victoria compiled by Liberty Victoria shows that barely one percent of searches conducted in designated areas yielded illicit items or weapons. Critics from legal advocacy groups and academic institutions argue that such expansive powers do little to address the root causes of weapon possession, while disproportionately burdening minority populations. In Queensland's scanning statistics, Indigenous people accounted for nearly twenty-three percent of those scanned with known ethnic origins, despite representing under five percent of the state's population.

When pressed on why Labor had reversed its previous stance—having insisted as late as late 2025 under former leader Jacinta Allan that existing powers were sufficient—Carroll offered a succinct justification: I'm the new premier. It is an honest admission of political calculus. Whether weaponising handheld detectors across public space actually delivers safer streets, or merely provides the illusion of action, remains secondary to the immediate political necessity of appearing tough on crime.

Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com