Rachel Payne MP presented her contribution to a motion which proposed the legal use of capsicum spray for personal protection. Stating that violence is preventable rather than inevitable, Rachel explains that what’s needed is a societal shift and not an onus on women to defend themselves.
Wednesday the 27th of November 2024,
Victorian Legislative Council
RACHEL PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan)
I rise to make a brief contribution to motion 746 in David Limbrick’s name. To begin with, I want to speak to all the women out there who signed the petition to allow women to carry capsicum spray for protection. I want you to know that I hear you. I know that it is a terrifying time to be a woman. Now, more than ever, of course we want to be able to defend ourselves. But for the reasons I will set out below, we do not believe that capsicum spray is the solution.
When we look at other jurisdictions like Western Australia, where people have access to capsicum spray, we do not see that it is being used to stop violent attacks against women. In fact, it is more often misused to attack others. It would be terrible to see wider access to capsicum spray not improve women’s safety and instead add another weapon to the toolkit of perpetrators of violence. We also worry that being in the possession of capsicum spray could create a false sense of security, which could do more harm than good.
When I lived in Paris, most of the women I worked with did carry capsicum spray, so I do have a little bit of insight into this discussion. We all worked in the same bar in the nightlife district, which was next to Moulin Rouge. It was a place where women often did not feel safe late at night. Incidents were often talked about at work, but I never heard one of my work friends report that capsicum spray saved them from these incidents occurring.
One of my friends actually said to me that in a moment of panic she could not find it in her handbag and ended up throwing the handbag and running for her life. My final point is that women’s safety should not be a women’s issue; it is an everybody issue. The focus needs to be on stopping violence before it starts, not on placing the expectation on women that it is up to them to defend themselves against violent attacks. This violence is not inevitable, it is preventable.
During the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence I will continue to work to advocate for this cause and to push for advocacy to translate into real solutions, not quick fixes. Although tools like capsicum spray can make you feel safer, the reality is they do nothing to meaningfully address rates of violence against women, and they put the responsibility onto victims, not perpetrators. We need change as a society. We do not need more weapons on the streets. For these reasons, we will not be supporting this motion.
Motion negatived.
