There is a push happening nationwide towards restoring castle law, the right to self-defense and the presumption of innocence in self-defense when you are defending yourself within the confines of your own home.

It’s happening around Australia, particularly around the eastern seaboard. There’s a petition going in Queensland right now. There’s another one going in Victoria right now. We’re going to talk about both of those situations. But joining me today on the Topher Project is John Roddick, MP from New South Wales, who is advancing the cause of castle law in New South Wales. We’ll get to him in a moment. But first, my name is Topher Field. This is the Topher Project, and I help busy people like you to keep up with the world as it changes around us. I’m very, very pleased that this push for castle law is on. This is something that I take a personal interest in due to my own past experiences and I’m very pleased to be joined by John Roddick, MP. John, thank you so much for joining me on the Topher Project.

[From video] Thanks for having me, Topher. Good to see you, mate. [End video]

Now, assuming that people aren’t aware of what’s going on, can you bring us up to speed with what you’re doing in New South Wales and what it is that you’re trying to achieve and to change?

[From video]

So, castle law is the principle that if you own your residence or if you’re living in your home, whether you’re an owner or a tenant, okay, that it is your castle, okay, you are the king of the castle. This is an old principle that comes from ancient Rome. Ancient Chinese civilizations had it. It’s you’re the boss. So, what we’re saying is that if somebody wants to break into your house and is threatening violence, then you know, at the moment the law is really vague across the Australian states about what level you can what measures you can take to protect your family and your property. [End video]

I’m sorry to interrupt my interview with John Roddick, MP, who is pushing for castle law in New South Wales, something that regular viewers will know I am 100% on board. But regular viewers will also know that I am 100% viewer supported. I don’t get any kind of government funding the way the ABC do. And I don’t get any advertisers because I’m a little too edgy for most of them. But what I do have is a “buy me a coffee” button at topherfield.net where you can buy me a coffee, help me to stay caffeinated and angry because that’s how I do my best work. Or you can head across to Good People Break Bad Laws where you’re going to find my books on civil disobedience. You’re also going to find the DVD of my documentary, Battleground Melbourne. You can watch that for free at battlegroundmelbourne.com, completely for free. You don’t have to sign up. You don’t even have to give me your email address. But if you want to support my channel or if you just like to have it to put on the shelf, you can get the DVD at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com as well, as well as all of my merch. There’s a range of different designs, I think there’s about six or seven different designs now, and you’ll find all of those in hoodies and t-shirts at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. And everything you buy is going to help me to keep doing what I do here at the Topher Project. So, without further ado, let’s get back to John Roddick, MP.

[From video]

So, we want to clear that up and say, look, if an intruder comes on, those intruders better have it in their head that they could get into serious strife because that homeowner is going to have the law on his side or her side to defend themselves. [End video]

What we have in Victoria, especially in my former home state, is a really terrible situation where it’s literally a nightly occurrence. Every single morning we wake up to yet more stories of whether it’s home invasions, carjackings, people with machetes running around in shopping centers. There is a terrible crime wave going on. And it seems that criminals believe that they are immune. They’re never going to receive any consequences. Well, there is of course the judicial aspect of that and whether or not that’s upholding its end of the bargain and holding these people accountable. But there is also the issue of the victims and the victims not being allowed in many cases to defend themselves. You spoke of how unclear it is in a lot of Australian states. What’s the language in New South Wales? Why is it so unclear and what’s happening to homeowners who defend themselves at the moment?

[From video]

Okay. So, there was this case of a guy called David Dunston, who’s a farmer, not too far away from your part of New South Wales, and I understand it was like someone who was on ice, had tried to break into another house and he had weapons on him, tried to break into a little girl’s room, got chased away with a baseball bat. Then he turns up at 3:00 a.m. at David Dunston’s house and he’s in the house and he’s got a knife and he’s trying to steal stuff. The father comes out and he had a gun with him. The gun was unloaded, but I mean the intruder’s not going to know that. So a gun is a very powerful weapon, as you know. Now then what happened was he’s got the gun. He says you better put down your knife and behave. So he calls the cop and this guy gets arrested. Now then what happened after that was I would have thought he deserves some type of hero award, you know, for saving his didn’t blow his head off or anything. Okay, this guy just got arrested. I’m sure he was got sent to jail. This farmer has had his guns taken away from him. Okay, because he threatened to use a gun. Okay, well I thought that threat was pretty good. Okay, so look, there is a crime wave in Melbourne. It’s very distressing. And it’s also not good in Queensland and parts of rural New South Wales. Okay. Now, whose fault is it? Well, number one fault is the intruder, the baddie, the criminal. But number two, number two is the politicians that have provided an incentive for crimes to do this because they think, well, not much can go wrong. Okay. So, the politicians have created this crime wave in many respects. We can have the crime wave overnight and probably have it reduce over, you know, not too much long time ’cause the word will get around the crime neighborhood. Oh, guess what? They can whack you over the head with a baseball bat now and they’re not the criminals. So that’s what urgently needs to change. And we’ve got a petition running in New South Wales which I urge your listeners to sign if they live in New South Wales. They can only sign if they’re in New South Wales. [End video]

We’ll come back to that petition in just a moment. I think it’s an absolute travesty that people who defend their own homes and then call the police are going to find themselves wondering which side the police are going to be on when they get there. I think this is something that needs to be urgently cleared up around Australia. And absolutely defending your own family, defending yourself within the confines of your home should never lead to you being treated as the criminal. But some people who are watching my channel regularly will be aware that there has been a petition in Queensland. It’s done quite well. I believe it’s about 60,000 or more signatures up there. There is also a petition happening in Victoria, but unfortunately neither of those has led to any change or legislative outcome at this moment in time. For people who don’t live and breathe this stuff the way that you and I do and perhaps don’t understand the timelines involved, the processes involved and that this really is more of a campaign rather than just a single battle. Can you help to set people’s expectations and what it is that you or why it is, I should say that New South Welshman should back your petition even though perhaps at a superficial level they might look at Queensland and Victoria and wonder if it’s going to work?

[From video]

Well, imagine if you had a ship sailing one of those big massive cargo ships sailing from, say, Sydney to Los Angeles and it’s halfway there and then it gets the order to turn around. A big massive ship takes a little while doesn’t just turn around like that. Okay. Takes a bit of time to turn around. Now what’s happening now is we’re getting the public debate underway which was not underway. So David Limbrick has been very helpful in Victoria. We’re doing our bit in New South Wales. There’s a Katter Australia Party MP in Queensland doing a very similar thing. We’re all working cooperatively together. So first step in these things is to start the public debate because many members of the public don’t know it’s a debate. Then we have the debate and David Limbrick fell short by one vote, I think, to send it off to an inquiry. Okay, one vote. One vote. Okay, that sounds like we’re pretty close. The Liberal Party, who you and I have been critics of, rightly so for many years, they did the right thing. They followed David Limbrick’s lead. So these things look, our policy here in the upper house is we have a rough rule of every second bill we introduce we hope that it might actually get through. Okay, we might be able to get government opposition support. But every other bill is one that we know has no chance whatsoever of getting approved. Okay, but why do we do it? Like we moved one about the right to bear arms recently. We said, well, we need to kick the debate off somewhere. Okay. Now with this castle law one, I think this falls into the category where it’s something that we can get done. If not immediately, we’ll keep applying the pressure. So this is how it works. I know there’s people out there who will be frustrated that we can’t get it straight away. Well, all we can do is keep talking about it, keep circulating interviews like this, and then people can talk to their politicians, say, I support castle law. [End video]

And people often despair when they speak to me about how long and how slow how long turning this ship around. I think it’s a great analogy for it. And I think back to my days as a salsa dancing teacher. Yes. I used to be cool once a long time ago. I used to teach salsa dancing. And I would have students come up to me and they’d say to me, “How long have you been dancing?” Because they’d look at me doing a demo or something and I’d say, “Well, about four years now.” And their face would fall and they would say, “Ah.” as if that was sort of crushing that it was going to take them that long to become as good as what they saw. And I would say to them, “Do you plan to be dead in 4 years?” And they would look at me a little bit shocked. And then I’d explain and say, well, you can either be alive in 4 years and still not know how to dance, or you can be alive in 4 years and know how to dance like what I’m dancing right now. Those are really your choices unless you’re planning on being dead between now and then. And it shocks people. But I think it’s a good piece of perspective in a fight like this to say, well, there’s going to be another election and then after that there’s another election. Maybe we can’t turn these parliaments that we have right now around, but with public pressure, we could perhaps put this on the table. Maybe the opposition the main opposition is going to have to start incorporating things like castle law into their policy platform going into elections in one or two elections’ time. Or maybe we can get the Libertarian Party to be able to get something up in a few parliaments’ time in each of these states. This is a campaign, not just a single war.

Well, I thank you very much for actually putting forward this petition. I’m just putting on the screen now. John, where can people find this?

[From video]

Uh, well, if they just type in New South Wales Legislative Council Castle Law petition [End video]

Right.

And who is this available to? Who can join you in this?

[From video]

Any citizen in New South Wales. Okay. So, I think they have to be over the age of 18. So, anyone that sign it. Now, if we get over 20,000 signatures, it automatically triggers a debate in the parliament. That will be a good thing because then we can have people get up and make the case for why we should have castle law and we can hear the arguments of why we should continue to protect intruders. [End video]

Well, I think that’s a fantastic thing. I know that that’s what David Limbrick is aiming for. I believe in Victoria the threshold is only 10,000. So, if you’re in Victoria and you’re watching this, please find the Victorian Legislative Council petition run by David Limbrick. If you’re in New South Wales, please find John Roddick’s petition, excuse me, trying to get 20,000 signatures. And if you’re in Queensland, do look up the Katter Party petition that they’ve got there. I’m not sure if it’s still open. Actually, I’m not clear on the timelines. I know it did very well, but keep an eye on what’s happening in Queensland as well. John Roddick, thank you so much for joining me on the Topher Project, and I wish you all the best as you try and bring about castle law in New South Wales.

[From video] Thanks so much for interest, really appreciate it. [End video]

Thank you so much for watching my interview with John Roddick, MP. I’m going to put the link to that petition and in fact I’m going to put the Victorian one as well and I’ll check the Queensland one if that hasn’t expired yet. I will put the link to that as well in the description of this video. So no matter where you are on the eastern seaboard, make sure you have a look and find the relevant petition for your state. Castle law is something that is just too important to let a petition like this pass us by. Let’s support the politicians that are trying to make a difference.

And speaking of trying to make a difference, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do here at the Topher Project, where I help busy people like you to keep up with the nonsense or to make sense of the nonsense rather, I should say as the world changes around us. Now, you can support me one of two ways. You can buy me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. Every single donation is much appreciated, and every little bit helps. But also, if you enjoy my videos and my interviews, then you’re going to love my books. They’re all about civil disobedience in the modern age. There’s Good People Break Bad Laws. There’s Good Christians Break Bad Laws, which is the theology of civil disobedience. There’s my DVD a DVD of my documentary Battleground Melbourne, also available for you to watch for free at battlegroundmelbourne.com. Then there’s a range of short sleeve tees, long sleeve tees, and hoodies in about six or seven different designs. Some funny, some serious, all of them designed to be thought-provoking and conversation starters. And everything you buy is going to help me to keep doing what I do right here at the Topher Project.

Thank you for watching to the end. Please like, comment, subscribe, share,

And as always, think free.