The CLP is moving ahead with its controversial plan to allow Territorians to purchase pepper spray by setting up its community oversight body to oversee the trial that includes victims of crime, a public servant who worked for a former CLP chief minister, and local business people, but nobody with a legal background, which follows the Queensland LNP Government recently rejecting the OC spray idea as dangerous to the public due to “potential misuse and unintended harm”.
The ‘community reference group’, which was established to monitor “emerging concerns or unintended impacts” and to provide advice to the government during the 12-month trial, will be chaired by former NT Chamber of Commerce CEO Greg Ireland, with public servant Jane Mack – who previously worked for Shane Stone at the National Emergency Management Agency – also sitting on the taskforce as a member from Katherine.
$5 bET! Their will be a thriving Capsicum Spray Market in the communities within the first month!
This is reactionary and ill-thought out. Simple ‘red meat to the base’ antics.
It is wilfully blind to ignore vast amounts of evidence from around the world which explain the better and more effective ways to reduce crime, violent or otherwise.
They don’t want legal people on there because they’ll either tell them in front of people that they foresee a suite of problems and issues heading their way and once they do this, anything that materialises that looks like the warnings makes them liable because they were told and ignored it.
But of course the CLP knows all this.
Coming to the NT soon (thank you TransparentNT blog)
Just yesterday in Canberra:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-17/canberra-nightclub-evacuation-capsicum-spray/105664002
…
More weapons on the streets does not make a community or society safer in our view.
In the USA gun deaths and mass shootings happen with frightening regularity because guns are legal.
If you check the data you’ll also see that the highest gun deaths per capita are in the historically much more racist southern states like Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana.
Just like guns, criminals and other delinquents will easily get their hands on some and use it as an offensive weapon against others. What’s the solution after that? Bigger pepper spray cans?
This is an arms race you cannot win and again does nothing to address any of the causes of crime.
Check the evidence online, it only takes a few seconds to search and find some.
Education, prevention strategies, interventions, opportunities, rehabilitation, mental health support, adolescent sport initiatives, lived experience counsellors, peer mentoring through justice reinvestment funding utilising genuine support and care from trained staff, community residents and family will get you better results than giving scared people more reason to be more scared.
Agreed, this is a CLP disaster.
We agree with queensland, far to dangerous, difficult to deploy by victims and will be used against victims.
How much harm of victims will be acceptable to the so called oversight community and the NT Administrator?
the only thing wrong is the spray is far too mild.
*sprays you with pepper spray to shut you up* then claims you were threatening me/looking at me aggressively/smelled bad/were definitely going to attack me, I’m sure of it/walking towards me.