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The Northern Territory government’s trial to permit retail sales of pepper spray has been criticised by police, who say it will endanger both the public and frontline officers. By Russell Marks.

The NT’s dangerous pepper spray trial

Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Lia Finocchiaro.

Credit: Amanda Parkinson / AAP

This month, the Northern Territory became the second Australian jurisdiction to allow members of the public to carry capsicum spray as a defensive weapon – despite objections from many groups, including the Territory’s police union.

In a 12-month trial that started on September 1, adults can lawfully buy canisters that contain up to 45 millilitres of oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray from one of 11 approved retailers across the Territory. OC spray nevertheless remains listed as a “prohibited weapon” in the Territory, along with crossbows, Tasers and knuckledusters.

To buy a can for about $50, customers only need present to retailers a valid form of identification and sign a written declaration that they are not a “prohibited person” under the new laws, which were not debated in parliament. A prohibited person includes anyone found guilty of certain types of offences, or with a domestic violence order (DVO) against them in recent years.

There are no limits to the number of sprays a single person can purchase. Buyers are not required to obtain a licence, as they would for a firearm. Nor do they need any training in the safe use of the spray. Unlike the purchase of takeaway alcohol, which in the NT is subject to a real-time screening, there is no way for retailers to confirm that a customer does not have a criminal record or a DVO. According to figures released by Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, 2 per cent of those who bought sprays during the first four days of the trial were prohibited persons.

The Northern Territory Police Association – which represents police officers – last month told the NT Independent the government was “not ready” for the trial, and this week warned that the sprays will endanger both the public and frontline officers. Acting Assistant Police Commissioner John Atkin said in its first week the trial was “working”. It is certainly popular. Retailers reported having sold out of the sprays during the first week.

It is unclear where the demand for OC spray originated in the Territory. It had not been a specific election promise, though the Country Liberal Party was returned to government in a landslide last August after campaigning on a strident law-and-order platform. “Community safety is the NT government’s No. 1 priority,” Finocchiaro said when she announced the trial on June 10. “Our aim is to reduce crime, restore public confidence and provide law-abiding Territorians with a safe, non-lethal personal safety option.”

It is the latest in a series of populist policies that experts in crime reduction have criticised. These include the CLP government’s lowering of the age of criminal responsibility to 10, replacing youth diversion programs with “boot camps” and tightening bail laws to such an extent that half of all prisoners in the NT are now on remand. Experts have said populist measures such as these are more about generating headlines than actually reducing criminal behaviour – which requires a sustained focus on criminogenic risk factors such as traumatic childhoods, cognitive impairment and disengagement from schooling.

There was no consultation before the trial started. Once it had, 21 organisations – including Victims of Crime NT (VOCNT), Aboriginal health services peak body AMSANT and Anglicare NT – signed an open letter to Finocchiaro decrying the trial, though VOCNT’s board later rebuked its chief executive, Gerard McGeough, for signing the letter without the board’s approval. “This policy will only lead to more violence,” said Dr John Paterson, chief executive of AMSANT.

The Murdoch-owned NT News has enthusiastically supported the trial, anticipating what it called the “usual bout of ill-informed hysteria” from critics when it was barely more than a thought bubble. The outlet has described the legalisation of OC spray as “a no-brainer” and has accepted the government’s assurances that its sale will be heavily regulated, despite the absence of point-of-sale checks.

It has also said that OC spray is “non-lethal” – a claim that has accompanied recent expansions in the spray’s use since the NT Police Force began training its officers to deploy it in 2000. In April last year, the then Labor government equipped security guards at bottle shops with OC sprays. That had not been recommended by a wide-ranging review of the Territory’s Liquor Act in 2023, but Labor’s police minister, Brent Potter, called it a “commonsense measure to improve community safety”. Facing a wipe-out, Labor then entered the election promising to equip even public housing officers with OC spray.

Deaths from the spray, while “extremely rare”, according to medical literature, have been reported, especially in custodial settings or among people with pre-existing conditions such as asthma. For this reason, the term “less lethal” (than firearms) is preferred in medical literature. Other reported long-term effects include decreased or lost vision.

Academic reviews consistently conclude that, when deployed by trained police officers, OC spray is associated with a reduced risk of injury to both deployer and subject compared with other weapons. However, in April 2024, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s (IBAC) review of Victoria Police’s use of the spray found that, in many cases, decisions to deploy it “escalated incidents or increased the safety risk of those involved”.

The defensive use of OC spray by untrained civilians – many of whom will use it for the first time in moments of confrontation – has received almost no attention from researchers. Whether it is more or less effective for self-defence for inexperienced civilians than, say, consumer aerosol sprays, is unknown. The absence of any requirement that users be trained in the safe use of OC spray in the Territory has sparked concerns that users will either unnecessarily escalate the risk of harm to themselves or others during a confrontation or accidentally expose themselves to the spray.

The government says the 45-millilitre cans contain less OC spray than those typically issued to police officers. Responding to questions from The Saturday Paper, a spokesperson said the NT Police Force does not publicly release information about how much OC spray officers are equipped with.

Western Australian law has allowed people to carry OC spray for self-defence purposes – if they have reasonable grounds for believing they may need it – since 1999. There, OC spray can be sold in significantly larger (75-millilitre) cans than in the NT. The experience in WA suggests that sales follow public fears, even where such fears are remote. Retailers across WA reportedly saw a noticeable increase in demand for the spray during the week after six people were fatally stabbed in a shopping centre in Bondi Junction, Sydney, in April 2024.

OC sprays remain prohibited in other Australian states and the ACT, as well as in Britain, where non-toxic sprays containing dyes not intended to cause harm have become somewhat popular as defensive weapons. OC sprays are lawful in all 50 American states, where they have been used as weapons by offenders during home invasions and other crimes.

There has been something of a groundswell in support for OC sprays as defensive weapons across Australia, especially among advocates for women’s safety. At Mamamia, Demeter Stamell told her readers in 2018 that she carried OC spray in her handbag despite its illegality and recommended “all women do the same, regardless of the law, because it’s becoming more and more evident that as women, we are still not safe in this country”.

Stamell cited the fact that 31 women had been murdered by men during the first half of 2018. Most of those women, however, had been killed by domestic partners, and domestic violence survivors are among those who have expressed concern about the OC spray trial. “I can unequivocally say that [OC spray] would have been used against me if I was still in my relationship,” “Rose” told the ABC last month. “It’s just another weapon, another way to control someone.”

It’s this risk – that OC sprays will be used by people for offensive rather than defensive purposes – that is driving much of the opposition to the NT’s trial. In Queensland, where Katter’s Australian Party has been campaigning to legalise the spray for defensive use, the Liberal National Party’s police minister, Dan Purdie, in July ruled out this proposal, citing “significant risks, including potential misuse and unintended harm”.

Warren de With of Rod & Rifle Tackle World in Katherine, an approved retailer, tells The Saturday Paper that by midafternoon on September 1 he had sold an estimated 50 of the largest (45-millilitre) cans and about 20 of the smaller, lipstick-sized (10-millilitre) cans.

“We’ve had a different demographic through the shop today,” de With says. “Elderly people living at home by themselves who have had problems in the past with people breaking in.”

De With has no concerns that OC spray cans will fall into the wrong hands. “My concern is more with the negative press,” he says. “Machetes are already falling into the wrong hands, and obviously society hasn’t been able to sort that out, so this is what we’ve had to resort to.”

“We spray for flies and cockroaches,” wrote one supporter of the OC spray trial to the NT News. “Now, potential victims of crime will be able to spray burglars, would-be car thieves, those physically assaulting us, those assailing us with deadly weapons…”

At time of writing, the NT government had given no assurance that OC sprays would not be used as offensive weapons. The chief minister’s office did not respond to questions from The Saturday Paper about what evidence the government had relied on in support of its trial.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on September 13, 2025 as "Weapons in wrong hands".

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