{"id":6482,"date":"2026-05-07T06:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6482\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:06:17","slug":"rita-panahi-melbournes-bar-wars-are-a-fing-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6482\/","title":{"rendered":"Rita Panahi: Melbourne\u2019s bar wars are a f***ing disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day we wake up anticipating news of more attacks;<\/a> shootings, fire bombings, kidnappings and ram raids. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a miracle no one has been killed thus far but there is real fear in the sector that a tragedy is around the corner. <\/p>\n

The targets have included some of Melbourne\u2019s most popular venues.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, after weeks of attacks, authorities appear no closer to determining who is behind them<\/a> or how to stop them.<\/p>\n

Police are said to be irate with the revolving door \u201ccatch and release\u201d program that sees those arrested bailed and back on the streets, sometimes within hours.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Jacinta Allan assured Victorians we would have the \u201ctoughest bail laws in the country\u201d but the crimes labelled \u201chospitality terrorism\u201d have shown, again, that those words are a big fat lie.<\/p>\n

A leading figure in the hospitality sector told me that the industry was on its knees. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a f—ing disaster, we run the risk of losing the entire industry,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cVictoria relies on the hospitality industry; if that goes, what does Melbourne have left?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the loss of business and loss of jobs, it\u2019s the knock-on effect on suppliers, we\u2019re talking about billions of dollars. We are at a crisis point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The veteran operator wants the issue raised in federal parliament and has called on the Allan government to take the matter seriously. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been no relief, no assistance \u2026 and we keep being hit with more taxes, more obstacles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bar 20 owner Michael Trimble also spoke out: \u201cIt\u2019s relentless every day. It\u2019s hard to feel like you\u2019re living in a prosperous first-world city when you\u2019re turning on the news every day and seeing these kinds of incidents just happening all the time. I don\u2019t know how much worse it has to get before we start taking drastic measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melbourne likes to see itself as a cultured, cosmopolitan city, but right now it feels lawless, with the bad guys acting with impunity. <\/p>\n

We risk causing enduring damage to the city if we do not support the hospitality sector that gives this city its soul.<\/p>\n

\"Rita<\/a>Rita Panahi<\/a>Columnist and Sky News host<\/p>\n

Rita is a senior columnist at Herald Sun, and Sky News Australia anchor of The Rita Panahi Show and co-anchor of top-rating Sunday morning discussion program Outsiders.<\/p>\n

Born in America, Rita spent much of her childhood in Iran before her family moved to Australia as refugees. She holds a Master of Business, with a career spanning more than two decades, first within the banking sector and the past ten years as a journalist and columnist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every day we wake up anticipating news of more attacks; shootings, fire bombings, kidnappings and ram raids. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23,133,7897,4093,7891,7888,7889,7895,4307,7626,7896,7893,5971,4309,7894,1646,4129,5973,7887,260,7886,120,7892,381,7890,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-6482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-melbourne","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","10":"tag-cosmopolitan-city","11":"tag-crime-capital","12":"tag-crisis-point","13":"tag-encryption-roadblock","14":"tag-enduring-damage","15":"tag-fat-lie","16":"tag-george-hotel","17":"tag-hospitality-industry","18":"tag-hospitality-sector","19":"tag-hospitality-terrorism","20":"tag-hospitality-venue-owners","21":"tag-hospitality-venues","22":"tag-ing-disaster","23":"tag-jacinta-allan","24":"tag-king-street","25":"tag-la-di-da","26":"tag-leading-hospitality-figure","27":"tag-melbourne","28":"tag-michael-trimble","29":"tag-oceania","30":"tag-prosperous-first-world-city","31":"tag-south-melbourne","32":"tag-toughest-bail-laws","33":"tag-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}