WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam announces policy for businesses to ban abusive thugs

Abusive and thuggish customers and patrons could be banned from workplaces or even jailed under changes proposed by WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam to be taken to next year’s State Election. The Liberals want Workplace Protection Orders, which would ban troublemakers from premises for up to a year, introduced into WA. Currently, troublemakers can be banned from premises through a banning notice issued by police. But WPOs would be issued by a Magistrates Court, acting as an extra and stronger weapon in efforts to protect workers from in particular repeat, abusive offenders. “Banning notices involve a civil process, which is convoluted for businesses and police,” Ms Mettam said. “In contrast, a Workplace Protection Order is streamlined, and clearly defined and breaches will result in a criminal offence, with penalties including imprisonment. “If you breach a WPO, you could be fined and you could do jail time”. Ms Mettam said a survey by the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association showed reports of physical violence against retail workers increased by nearly 60 per cent between 2021 and 2023. She accused the Cook Government of being soft on crime — a clear sign this will be a pre-election issue heading to the March 8 poll. “I am consistently hearing from business owners there are no longer consequences for action when it comes to Roger Cook’s soft touch approach to tackling crime,” Ms Mettam said. “We are committed to bringing consequences back for people who are doing the wrong thing. “People who work hard and want to get ahead need to be heard, are sick to death of being let down by Roger Cook and his soft touch on crime. “There is no silver bullet, but this is an important step in fixing Roger Cook’s crime crisis, which will also include better supporting our hardworking police officers.” Workplace Protection Orders are currently in place in the ACT, where they have been welcomed by Woolworths. Its head of violence and aggression prevention, Sarah Faorlin, on Saturday, said it “was supportive of a Workplace Protection Orders policy being introduced in WA”. “We’ve been actively using WPOs in the ACT as a preventative control measure to reduce instances of violence and aggression across our stores in the territory,” Ms Faorlin said. “The majority of our customers do the right thing, however, this policy would increase the avenues available to us to deal with recidivist high-harm offenders, and better protect our team members. “We’ll continue to work closely with stakeholders on both sides of government, alongside WA Police and community groups to help find additional solutions to help combat violence and aggression in retail environments.”