Gun-shy Australia, reeling from knife crime, weighs public security settings

SYDNEY — Two stabbing attacks in Sydney which killed six people and injured shoppers and an Assyrian bishop during his service have shocked Australians and sparked calls for greater public security despite some of the world’s toughest gun laws.

The deadly attack at a busy Westfield shopping mall in affluent Bondi Junction last Saturday has shone a spotlight on longstanding complaints from the country’s 155,000 security guards who say they are so poorly equipped, they are disincentivized to act.

One of the dead was a security guard, on his first shift at the mall, who intervened.

“At least the cleaner’s got a broom, but a security guard won’t be carrying anything except a radio,” said Ben Reis, a casual security guard from Newcastle, in a phone interview.

“I’ve been in a shopping center and I’ve caught people stealing and I can’t do anything, I can just watch them walk,” he added.

The attacks have also lifted the lid on growing public unease about non-gun violence that drove the state government of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, to double prison terms for public knife crimes months earlier.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has said it would be “irresponsible not to look at” toughening knife laws further, although he didn’t specify how. He said the state would review whether security guards could carry handcuffs, pepper spray or batons although he ruled out guns or tasers.

Roland Springis, a security guard who has worked in malls, has collected more than 3,000 signatures in three days for a Change.org petition calling for more protective equipment.

“We don’t have anything,” said Mr. Springis.

Queensland state Premier Steven Miles said the Bondi attack added weight to the argument to extend warrantless stop-and-searches by police, local media reported.

A new law in that state lets police use hand-held metal detectors, or wands, to search people on public transport for suspected weapons and “we’ve been actively considering whether to expand the public spaces that police can wand in to include shopping centers,” Mr. Miles said.

As part of the Bondi Junction mall reopening on Friday, all 37 Westfield shopping centers nationally will have an increased security presence, local media reported, citing the operator of the chain’s Australian malls, Scentre.

“Everyone is saying it could have been them, it could have been any of us,” said Mala Webber, who runs a digital marketing business down the road from the Bondi mall and was on her way to pay respects at a rememberance ceremony at the mall on Thursday, although she was not ready to go inside.

“People are definitely a bit more uneasy,” added Ms. Webber, who cancelled a family trip to the mall on the day of the attack because of a sick child. —