Matt Walsh Slams Victoria Over Machete Violence, Links Crime to Immigration Policy

Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh has slammed the government of Victoria, Australia, over its handling of a surge in machete-related violence, accusing political leaders of importing what he called “third world chaos” through lax immigration policies. Walsh highlighted what he sees as a clear link between the recent rise in violent crime and demographic changes in the country, stating, “Australians have had legal access to machetes for centuries… It was only when Australia began importing the third world en masse that machetes became weapons of mass terror.”

During the recent segment on The Matt Walsh Show, Walsh questioned the media’s refusal to address what he views as the root causes behind the violence. “Seeing all these reports, a reasonable person might ask, ‘What exactly is the root cause of the people here? Who are these teens and males who are wielding machetes? What are their ethnicities? Where are their fathers?’ No one else in Australia’s mainstream media… is allowed to ask any of these questions. Instead, they’re compelled to report endlessly, day after day, about yet another brutal machete attack that’s been committed by nondescript, wayward youths and rowdy teens.”

Walsh mocked the Victorian government’s response to the crime wave, which included setting up “machete collection bins” in an attempt to remove the weapons from the streets. “They’re just going to ask the criminals to surrender their machetes in a giant machete box,” Walsh said. “As if the only thing causing them to kill people with machetes is the fact that getting rid of the machetes hasn’t been convenient enough. The machete attackers have all said to themselves, ‘Gee, you know, I’d really like to stop butchering people with machetes, but unfortunately, there’s no convenient disposal location for my murder weapon.’”

Drawing a comparison to gun buyback programs, Walsh cited a 2008 University of Melbourne study which concluded that Australia’s 1996 gun buyback did not result in “tangible reductions in terms of firearm deaths.” He added, “It turns out that only law-abiding gun owners were handing in their guns. Who could have possibly predicted that?”

Walsh pointed to U.S. statistics to argue the ineffectiveness of such initiatives, quoting RAND’s findings that most participants in American gun buybacks are “older white men,” while the weapons turned in tend to be small-calibre or inoperable. “Nearly one quarter of survey respondents in Sacramento, California reported that the firearm they turned in during a gun buyback event was not in working order, with an additional 24% reporting that they were unsure whether the firearm was operational,” he said.

He further criticised the lack of any incentive in Victoria’s machete collection program, saying, “They’re not even offering a coupon to McDonald’s or anything. They’re just asking the criminals to hand over their weapons. And that’s raising concern that if anyone does actually drop off a machete for some reason, well, criminals will just take the machete from the giant machete bin that they’re now leaving in the middle of the cities.”

Walsh also claimed that firearm-related violence in Australia was already in decline before the ban, arguing that disarming the public has only left law-abiding citizens defenceless. “Criminals have not stopped committing violent crimes in Australia because of the firearm ban. They’re happy to use machetes instead of guns. And now, thanks to the firearm ban, the victims are completely helpless. No one in those malls can shoot the attacker… They have to wait for the police, who take roughly 30 minutes to arrive.”

He added that banning objects won’t stop violence, stating, “Even if you somehow manage to ban machetes, which is practically impossible, just like a gun ban, then they’ll move on to some other instruments of violence. I mean, you can’t stop violence by reactively banning the objects people use to commit it.”

Walsh argued that Australians had “legal access to machetes for centuries without any issues whatsoever,” and attributed the shift to immigration patterns. “It was only when Australia began importing the third world en masse that machetes became weapons of mass terror.”

@MattWalshBlog discussing Australia’s unstable immigration system on his show today.@jhk_______ X thread has been quoted pic.twitter.com/uCcEEhFA63

— anaussievoice (@anaussievoice) August 4, 2025

He said, “Australia should not look like Pakistan. It was once a functioning Western nation. And in a very short period of time, Australia’s leaders have effectively erased its national sovereignty.”

Walsh concluded, “The next time someone tries to make the case that we don’t really need to enforce immigration laws as rigorously as possible here or that the Second Amendment isn’t vital for our country’s survival, you don’t really need to say anything in response. You just tell them to turn into Australia’s nightly newscast for a couple of weeks, see if they can count the number of machete attacks, and that should settle the debate. And if that doesn’t, then you know you’re talking to someone who, like the leaders of Australia, desperately wants the West to fail.”

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