Butter knives, kitchen scissors among items surrendered to machete bins

Machete bins manufactured by South Australian prisoners were trucked off to Victoria in three batches over two weeks last year, before butter knives were counted among the weapons dumped inside them.

The bins were rolled out to dozens of police stations when machetes were banned in September 2025, so that Victorians could safely surrender the blades while the government attempted to crack down on violent knife crime.

But the government was widely criticised for being opaque with the details of its $13 million program, with the opposition making wild claims about its cost and usefulness despite having called for the ban.

The ABC has confirmed the amnesty actually came in at half the projected total cost, at $6.55 million.

Documents released to the ABC under Freedom of Information laws colour in further details, revealing inmates at the privately run Mount Gambier Prison, operated by G4S, constructed the 75 blue bins at the facility's metal fabrication workshop.

The government paid G4S $925,000 to manufacture the bins and install them outside police stations. The contract also covered collecting, transporting, cataloguing and destroying the surrendered weapons.

A sample catalogue of items disposed in the bins shows that butter knives were among the dumped items, along with "anomalous content" like kitchen scissors.

Guns and axes were also surrendered, images and records released to the ABC show.

The Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) said 12,357 machetes and "other knives" — including butter knives — were surrendered to the bins.

Retailers handed in another 5,674 machetes after being prohibited from selling them, taking the haul to 18,031 weapons.

Documents detail machete bin costs

The 75 bins were made in three batches over 30 days, departmental documents show, and trucked over to Melbourne in lots.

G4S had expected to place the bins at 58 stations, but this was reduced to 45. Surplus bins were swapped in and out once they were damaged or full.

Under pressure for not being forthcoming with the details, the government has previously put the cost of each bin at $2,400.

An early breakdown of estimated costs — buried among the documents — said manufacturing the bins would cost a total of $139,000, including a one-off charge for other "non-technical equipment".

This would have amounted to $1,854 per bin, but the ABC has been told design changes and GST pushed the cost up.

G4S further expected it would need to spend $600,000 in labour, $260,000 for an operations manager, and $240,000 for vehicle costs including hiring two vehicles.

The contractor's proposal estimated the total cost of its work would be between $865,500 and $1.2 million, depending on whether work could be stepped up or down.

The bins ultimately cost taxpayers $925,000.

Another $884,000 contract went towards "creative services" for "editorial and design and graphic and fine art services".

Market research to support public messaging cost another $123,000, according to public tenders.

The government has not previously explained how the remaining budget was spent, however it included a multilingual public awareness campaign to ensure machetes were handed in.

A DJCS spokesperson said the amnesty was delivered on time and under budget, "with the remaining unspent funds redirected to additional police and Protective Services Officers (PSO) in shopping centres to keep Victorians safe".

Victoria Police had advised the government that if its machete ban included an amnesty, infrastructure such as surrender bins had to be installed.

"Surrender bins prevent individuals walking into police station reception areas with machetes and other edged weapons, which creates significant safety risk and public alarm," a Victoria Police spokesperson said.

"The machete surrender bins allow for proactive disposal of these blades by members of the community in a safe and controlled way."

Victoria Police said its officers had since seized more than 11,200 knives, machetes and other illegal blades so far in 2026.

Despite criticising the government's machete ban, the opposition itself had previously called for it.

Premier Ben Carroll has since introduced further anti-knife crime measures, including by borrowing another Coalition commitment to give police greater search powers.

It is a sign that knife crime continues to haunt the government heading into the state election, and that it was not resolved by the machete bins.