3 days ago
‘Comedy dictatorship': Melbourne mayor's ‘absurd' idea raked over the coals
Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece's new call for a 'keep-left' pedestrian law to pin distracted walkers and footpath zigzaggers has opened up a floodgate of criticism over the city's slide towards 'authoritarianism'.
In an article published in The Age on Friday titled Pedestrian etiquette in Melbourne has reached new lows. It's time for a 'keep-left' crackdown, Mr Reece argues that the city has lost its civility on the footpath.
'Foot-traffic numbers are soaring in the city again, and the new metro stations are about to deliver half a million more people every week – it's time we took action,' he wrote.
'Given the chaos on our footpaths, perhaps it is time for less carrot and more stick. Less suggestion and more compulsion, in the form of a new keep-left law.'
Mr Reece writes that the city is now flooded with a 'generation of zombies who are always looking at their screen' and that Melburnians need to 'brush up on our pedestrianising skills' or be slugged with a fine.
At face value, most would agree that unaware and painfully slow walkers and those who walk three-abreast are a giant pain in the backside.
The growing issue of food delivery riders choking up the footpaths has also become a thorn in the side of city-dwellers.
But Melbourne lawyer Jeremy King says if you scratch the surface of Mr Reece's article, it paints a grim picture for the city moving forward.
Mr King says the fact that Mr Reece was photographed being flanked by two private security guards for The Age story — now employed by the Melbourne Council to assist police in 'complex on-street behaviours' — is something regular Aussies should be concerned about.
'Pretty concerned at the way Melbourne City Council seems to be increasingly authoritarian in its approach to public order and how it runs the city,' Mr King told
'That's everything from this crazy proposed footpath law to the fact they're using private security to try and privately police Melburnians.'
The City of Melbourne's own website revealed it had begun deploying private security guards alongside its Local Laws officers in March 2025.
'The establishment of this team follows a pilot program that has been in place since March 2025, where security guards accompanied our Local Laws officers when dealing with complex on-street behaviours.' the statement reads.
But the so-called 'hybrid enforcement' model has left civil liberties advocates uneasy.
'It's hugely problematic because these are private security people,' Mr King continued.
'They don't have the same training as police, they don't even have the same training as PSIs and yet they're purporting to affect arrests and use force on people.
'It's hugely concerning, and this is a streak that seems to be coming out of the Melbourne Council at the moment … 'let's muscle up and take a pretty authoritarian line'.'
He compared the situation to the highly controversial manner in which Victoria policed citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic, which some believe to be the darkest chapter in the state's history.
'The fact that someone wants to bring back laws on how you operate in a public area is just absurd. It's an affront to everything that it is to be a Melburnian.
'So many people copped fines during Covid — people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, people who didn't speak English well,' said King. 'If you bring in some sort of stupid footpath law, the same people are going to be penalised again.'
'Fining people for crossing the road — it's like something out of a dictatorship. A comedy dictatorship. It's got to stop, it's not what Melbourne's about.'
