Spike in retail crime

Parliament of Victoria | Legislative Council | Motion by Mr Davis
15 October 2025

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan Region):

I rise to speak on motion 1094 in Mr Davis’s name, condemning the Allan Labor government for its failure to adequately respond to the surge in crime against workers in the retail settings across Victoria.

Before I get into this, I would just like to focus on the plight of workers rather than turning this debate into a proxy for ‘Who is the toughest on crime?’ The statistics when we look at this sector are clearly gobsmacking.

As Mr Davis alluded to, the data from the Crime Statistics Agency suggests that there were 41,000 incidents of theft from retail stores in 2024–25, an increase of 27.6 per cent, and that is in the past year alone. Food theft has risen by over 80 per cent – there is obviously a whole story there about social conditions and poverty – and cigarette and alcohol theft by has risen by 58.6 per cent.

Shoplifting is one thing, but the rise in abuse and violence towards retail staff is beyond the pale. According to the state secretary of the Victorian Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association – I will also put my hand up to say that my first job was in Coles New World in Southport, and I was a member for four years and even offered a trainee managership, where I was told that I would also get the shop steward’s position at the same time – Michael Donovan, their workers, their members, are being:

… screamed at … spat on or shoved … dragged across the counters … slashed or stabbed …

Every worker has the right to feel safe at work. It should be a given. But an increasing number of retail workers are regularly confronting harassment and abuse. It is a tough gig. Many of our members in Legalise Cannabis work in the retail sector.

In fact during the recent Werribee by-election I got chatting to a couple of our wonderful volunteers who were on the early voting centres, lovely people who worked at Target, and they told me of the verbal abuse that they had to cop from aggressive shoppers. This sort of ugly behaviour seems to be becoming more and more common. As workers routinely face abuse, intimidation and violence, retailers are finding it more and more difficult to attract and retain staff – hardly surprising.

It is a particularly dangerous time to work in retail if you are a woman. Women represent most of the retail workforce, with more than a third of them being young women between the ages of 15 and 24, often in their first job. That is certainly consistent with the young women I was speaking to on the early voting centres. It seems to me that it is only a matter of time before a fatality occurs.

This is another instance of the Victorian government failing to protect our young people, yet they are concurrently happy to criminalise them. Yesterday the government ruled out decriminalising cannabis, a decision that disproportionately impacts and has a lifelong consequence for young people.

We have all heard the evidence about the irreversible harm caused by contact with the criminal justice system and being left with a criminal record. Young people from Aboriginal and other marginalised communities in particular bear the brunt of the government’s regressive policies on cannabis regulation.

The Premier announced back in May of last year – that is a year and a half ago – that there were plans to change the laws to better protect customer-facing workers from abuse and assault. But we are yet to see anything, and that is disgraceful.

Maybe the Premier or the Minister for Police should go and work a few shifts in Woolies or Coles and learn what it is actually like to be in those frontline positions, because it is bloody tough.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan):

Jacinta was a shoppie. She used to work at Coles.

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan Region):

She did used to work at Coles? Okay, that is interesting. It seems only a matter of time before a fatality occurs. While this government fail to act on the epidemic of retail crime across the state, putting young, often inexperienced people on the frontline, they continue to waste valuable police resources on an offence, namely personal use of cannabis, which 80 per cent of Victorians agree should not even exist.

As I said, every worker has the right to feel safe at work. If this government are so concerned about crime, so threatened by the prospect of a ‘tough on crime’ election, maybe they should direct our police resources to preventing crimes which affect and traumatise Victorians, and particularly Victorian retail workers, instead of policing a victimless crime like cannabis possession and use.

Retail workers deserve better, as we saw during the COVID outbreak. But how quickly the community, and in particular the government, seems to have forgotten this fact. They were the saints. They were the saviours. They were out there doing their jobs day and night.

[Michael Galea interjected]

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan Region):

And they are – thank you, Mr Galea. They continue to do that, and yet now obviously they are not in the headlines. They are not so worthy, apparently, of this government pulling its finger out and putting in place some regulation and some programs to address the threats that they face.

While I utterly repudiate Mr Davis’s position on bail, the government’s response is simply shameful. Legalise Cannabis Victoria will be supporting this motion.

[Council divided on motion]

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government for failing to adequately respond to the surge in crime in retail settings in Victoria.

[Motion defeated 20 votes to 19]