News Service from House Harris

Vic: Youth worker fears New Year's Eve knife "war"

MELBOURNE, Dec 28 AAP - A prominent Melbourne youth worker fears the streets could become war zones on New Year's Eve following a spate of stabbings across the country.

Les Twentyman said Australia was facing a national weapon crime crisis and has called on the federal government to set up a national "name and shame" register.

His comments follow the death of 19-year-old Afram Kodi who was stabbed at a house party in Melbourne's north on Boxing Day.

He died in hospital on Saturday.

Twenty-year-old Stephen Tito, of Reservoir, has been charged with one count of attempted murder, but a police spokeswoman said that charge could be upgraded.

The incident was one of several stabbings around the country over the Christmas holiday period.

A 30-year-old man was found stabbed to death in his apartment at Gosford, on the NSW central coast, on Thursday.

In Adelaide, a man was stabbed nine times during a Christmas Day fight, while in Brisbane two men were stabbed in the Fortitude Valley nightclub district on Sunday morning.

Mr Twentyman said the average age of people arming themselves with knives was getting lower.

"It is a national crisis and I think it is only going to get worse," Mr Twentyman said.

"I think New Year's Eve could be an abattoir the way things are at the moment.

"All it has to be (is) a hot night on New Year's Eve and it will be like a war."

Mr Twentyman said there needed to be a culture change among youth that it was not acceptable to carry a knife.

He said a name and shame register could be one way to achieve this.

"A public shaming file, in the media saying this person carries a weapon, he is a coward," Mr Twentyman said.

"Maybe there needs to be a number of things shaming, a buyback, an amnesty and it is all going to be targeted at our young."

He described people who use knives in fights as "cowards" and said a national summit may also be an answer to the problem.

"It is not the traditional Australian way of life carrying weapons," Mr Twentyman said.

"One of the things that has to be looked at is the new arrivals of this country (to tell them) Australians don't carry weapons."