THE McKell Institute 2 T H E M C K E L L I N S T I T U T E Part 1 — Violence and Abuse in Retail Se=ngs is An Enduring Problem in Tasmania In recent years there has been a sustained increase in violence, aggression, and an@-social behaviour towards retail employees in Australia. [...] It is likely that the cost-of-living crisis, and the pressure it is pu-ng on household budgets, is a significant contributor to the stubbornly high level of retail violence in the post-pandemic era.9 THEMcKell Institute 3 T H E M C K E L L I N S T I T U T E Part 2 — The Data on Retail Violence in Tasmania Rela@vely, Tasmania is one of the worst jurisdic@ons in Australia for retail violence. [...] Figure 2: Retail Robberies (LHS) and Proportion of Total Robberies in Retail Setting (RHS) in Tasmania11 THE McKell Institute 5 T H E M C K E L L I N S T I T U T E Part 3 — What Other Australian States are Doing to Solve the Problem It is clear that an interven@on is required to halt the unacceptable trends in retail violence in Tasmania. [...] The addi@on of s 68A to the Sentencing Act 2020 (UK) in May 2022 forced courts to impose addi@onal penal@es on perpetrators of assault, threats to kill and other violent crime if the vic@m was a retail worker.12 In September 2022 South Australia followed suit by amending their defini@on of ‘prescribed emergency worker’ to include employees ‘whose du@es primarily involve working in an area of a sho. [...] It is important to remain cognisant of Tasmania’s overexposure to the cost-of-living crisis,22 and the increase in repeat youth offending,23 in dra\ing the offence.
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