The Australian Retail Council is calling on the Victorian government to increase funding and allocate additional resources to combat the rising rates of retail crime across the state.
Stores across Victoria are bearing the brunt of rising retail crime, with recent data revealing the state has recorded the largest increase in threats, violent incidents and weapon-related offences nationwide.
Chief Industry Engagement Officer Fleur Brown told Sky News host Caleb Bond that threatening incidents in retail settings have risen by 35 per cent since 2022, arguing that the Allan Labor government’s response has been “too slow”.
“I think a lot of people misunderstand the horrific nature of the problem for retail,” she said on Friday.
“It’s only when they have the experience themselves or, as you’ve seen in recent times, retailers have released some of the footage just so people can understand what their teams are dealing with. It’s very shocking.
“There has been a 35 per cent increase in threatening incidents within retail settings since 2022, and that was off a fairly high base.
“So the government has put some measures in place. Considering Melbourne and Victoria are the retail crime capital of Australia, we feel they’ve been far too slow to act compared to other jurisdictions, and the police have been doing as much as they can within the limited resources that they have.”
Ms Brown said some businesses were struggling to attract and retain staff due to concerns that retail work has become an “unpleasant or unsafe environment”.
“Some stores we’ve heard being hit up to 35 times within a year, just shocking,” she added.
“Of course, sometimes they can’t retain their teams or recruit teams because it’s just seen as an unpleasant or unsafe environment. So there’s those costs as well.
“And then you’ve got the customer considerations, perhaps lost business; you may have to close your store for a period of time.
“Management may have to be brought in, you’ve got security costs, and on it goes in what is already a tough economy.
“Post-pandemic, there’s lower foot traffic, less people coming in. So if you combine all of those issues, you can see that for many businesses, it’s an unpalatable combination.”
Appearing on Sky News with host Steve Price on Friday, Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) National Secretary Gerard Dwyer said behaviour in retail stores was “going from bad to worse”.
“Our workers are like any other workers. They go to work to do the work professionally and with real effort, and they don’t deserve to be abused while at work,” he said.
“It’s actually not part of the job, and we are and have been for some time now calling on Australian consumers to actually be better.
“The behaviour in our stores is going from bad to worse and quite frankly, it’s got to stop.”