The retail union is calling on the Victorian government to go further by mandating shops lock up all bladed items, including kitchen knives, behind the counter to keep staff and customers safe.
New laws, to be introduced in parliament, will ban the sale and possession of machetes from September 1.
Machetes are dangerous but so are other bladed items in shops, including knives and carton cutters, if they fall into the wrong hands, SDA Victorian secretary Michael Donovan said.
"Retailers already lock up cigarettes and expensive alcohol and ban their sale to children under the age of 18 years," he said.
"They should be required to lock up knives and bladed items which are currently easily accessible."
It comes after Premier Jacinta Allan insisted prisons can cope with a predicted rise in inmates sparked by another change to the state's bail laws.
Legal, human rights and Aboriginal groups have slammed the proposed bail reforms, declaring they are repeating past mistakes.
The controversial changes revive the offences of committing an indictable offence while on bail and breaching bail conditions.
Both were scrapped in March 2024 in direct response to disproportionately hurting women, children and Aboriginal people.
The most notable example was the death of Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson in 2020.
Ms Allan suggested lower-level offenders would still be protected under the reforms but failed to explain how, when pressed for details on Thursday.
"The important changes that were made following the recommendations of the coroner (in 2023) ... those safeguards will remain in place," she told reporters.
The 2017 Bourke Street tragedy, when James Gargasoulas killed six people and injured dozens after driving into Melbourne's busy mall while on bail, was the catalyst for Victoria tightening bail laws in 2018.
The coronial inquest into Ms Nelson's death found the changes were a "complete and unmitigated disaster" after she was refused bail on charges of breaching bail and suspicion of shoplifting.
Ms Allan admitted the latest reforms, which will also remove remand as a last resort for accused youth offenders, will push remand numbers higher but insists there is capacity in the system.
Victoria's prison population was 6136 at the end of January after hitting a 25-year high of 8216 in January 2019.
The maximum-security Port Phillip Prison is scheduled to close by the end of 2025, with inmates to be shifted to Western Plains Correctional Centre from the middle of the year.
A youth justice facility opened at Cherry Creek near Werribee in 2023, replacing the troubled Malmsbury youth prison.
Natalia Antolak-Saper, a senior lecturer in law at Monash University, said making it harder for young people to get bail might create a perception of control, but evidence shows early and repeated remand increased long-term reoffending.
"We're seeing billions for new prisons, but not the same urgency for the programs proven to reduce reoffending," she told AAP.
23°C