Well, fresh off the back of the news out of the Northern Territory that Chief Minister Leah Fukiaro will not be allowing trans into trans women into women’s prisons, biological men into women’s prisons.
She’s having not a bar of it. We’ve seen an interesting exchange on the floor of Parliament here in Victoria where it seems as though the corrections minister might be willing to consider some kind of a shift in position. The details on that are not clear, but I decided to bring on David Limbrick, MP, the person who had this exchange on the floor of Parliament with the corrections minister. Uh David, thank you so much for joining me here on the Topher project.
[From video] Thanks for having me. [End video]
Now, this has been an area that you’ve been concerned about for quite some time. Obviously, it’s it’s a well-known fact that many women who end up in prison uh have a history before they end up in prison of being victims of violence, victims of of sexual violence. And of course, prisons are a notoriously violent place. There has been concern for quite some time around Australia and we have seen recently an assault in a South Australian prison uh where a biological male, someone born as a man has been imprisoned into a women’s prison, imprisoned uh in many cases for violent or even sexual offenses against women. Uh and we saw recently in South Australia there was an assault there. That’s what Finocchiaro, the Northern Territory Chief Minister, responded to with her statements. Uh you’ve raised this issue on the floor of the Victorian Parliament and had a response from the corrections minister. What were your concerns or what are your concerns and what are your thoughts on the response that you received?
[From video]
Yeah, well there’s been lots of uh women concerned about uh you know males being imprisoned in women’s prisons. Uh we know from recent reporting that there was a person uh imprisoned in Dame Phyllis Frost prison uh for very serious like um uh child sexual offenses which is horrific and uh people are concerned about having males in women’s prisons and understandably so. [End video]
I’m sorry to interrupt my interview with David Limbrick, MP. My name’s 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. And it does seem like there might be some changes of foot with regard to the Allen government’s transgender ideology and particularly around the policies in prisons, but we will have to wait and see. If you appreciate what I’m doing with the Topher project, bringing you stories that you often won’t find elsewhere, then please consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And also, if you like my videos and my interviews and the stories that I bring, then you’re going to love my books. They’re about civil disobedience in the modern age. That’s Good People Break Bad Laws. And also The Theology of Civil Disobedience and Obeying God in a Fallen World. That’s Good Christians Break Bad Laws. There’s also my DVD documentary, multi-award-winning, internationally acclaimed documentary about the madness of what happened during the COVID lockdowns in Melbourne. You’ll find all of that, plus also my t-shirts and my hoodies in a range of different designs. And all of that is available at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. Everything you buy is going to help me to keep bringing you stories like this one. So without further ado, let’s get back to David Limbrick, MP.
[From video]
And so, you know, I think that what Northern Territory’s done seems pretty sensible to me. And so, I asked the corrections minister what they’re doing at the moment. And rather surprisingly, he signaled that there he’s asked for a review of their policy. And it sounds like there might be some sort of shift happening there. [End video]
Well, it’s the first time we’ve heard from anyone in the Victorian government, and correct me if I’m wrong about this, but it’s the first time I’m aware of where there has been any acknowledgement that there is actually an issue with balancing women’s safety and women’s spaces uh against transgender rights and trans women in those spaces. Previously, the mantra has been that trans women are women. Uh it’s not a mantra that I hold to, and it’s not a mantra that, for example, Leah Finocchiaro in the Northern Territory holds to, but that has been the mantra. Does this softening of position, apparent softening of position, it is it is still pretty early. Does that signal to you that perhaps that mantra is in question or is there perhaps some other angle that they may be coming at it from?
[From video]
Well, I’ve always thought that the the mantra never made sense at all. Like, you know, gender ideology is just an ideology based on lies. Everything about it is lies. And sooner or later, the truth is going to come out and the government has to deal with the truth. And the truth is that um males are in women’s prisons at the moment and it’s pretty much unacceptable as far as you know I think the general public uh doesn’t accept this. Uh one of the reasons the government’s been able to get away with this uh sort of insanity for so long is because the general public doesn’t really understand what’s going on. I think more and more people are getting to understand what the issues are. And there are real conflicts of rights here. It’s not just some sort of bigotry or something like that. That there are real conflicts between uh you know uh uh gender ideology and women’s rights. [End video]
Yeah, we’ve certainly seen that blow up in the courts in in lots of different forms with various protests and rallies and of course famously in Victoria uh with the whole situation with the the Liberal Party and Moy Redeeming. We won’t go into that, but this is a fraught issue that has manifested in a lot of different ways. But there is another event that happened just the last just a few days ago in Victoria that is also going to touch a a hot button there and it relates to women’s safety and that is that we saw the use of pepper spray by a brothel worker to protect herself and her colleagues uh from a male customer who’d become very aggressive there. To my knowledge, no charges have yet been laid. Do you think this adds fuel to the fire around the whole conversation in Victoria around women’s safety, self-defense and community safety generally?
[From video]
Well, the government and the supporters of the current laws need to face up to the reality that the prohibition of pepper spray means that women who want to fight back uh such as what happened this week uh should be sent to jail because that’s what the current law says. You get charged with a prohibited weapons offense and it’s a very very serious crime. You can go to jail for up to two years I believe. And my understanding is there’s thousands of women that have been purchasing pepper spray. It’s quite easy to purchase online. Uh just because it’s prohibited doesn’t mean it exists, you know, like like everything else. Uh and lots of women are valuing their personal safety uh over the law. And you know, sooner or later it was going to happen that someone would defend themself. And people need to ask themselves, would they rather uh this violent man, I don’t know what his intentions were. He already broke one of the lady’s ribs is my understanding. Um, would they prefer that he like severely seriously hurt these women even further or maybe even killed one of them? Is that what people are asking? Because the use of pepper spray in this case was very very effective. [End video]
It’s quite incredible. I’ve I’ve shown the video on on other videos. It’s quite incredible. The moment when that pepper spray hits him in the eyes, he is neutralized. It does exactly what it says on the packet. It’s quite a a clear demonstration of that. But this of course has happened in the context of a situation in Victoria where we’ve seen just to name a few of the incidents over the last week or so. A father and son being stabbed in front of Crown Casino. Uh we’ve seen various violent machete attacks. We just saw a random stabbing where a mentally disturbed woman uh appeared to just completely select another woman at random and just stab her in the chest, puncturing her lung. We’re seeing this incredible array of violent crimes. And yet, despite the bail reforms that we’ve been promised in Victoria, uh we’re seeing a lot of these people being re-bailed, including four out of the five youths that were involved in that stabbing of the father and son or the slashing rather of the father and son in front of Crown Casino. How much more public tolerance do you think there is for a continuation of the current status quo? And is something like what happened in that brothel and just such a clear demonstration of the effectiveness of pepper spray, is this going to be something of a turning point in this debate?
[From video]
I think people have reached the end of their tether on this. Uh people uh are concerned about the bail system, the judicial system, and what’s happening there. Now, there’s more changes coming through that are being enacted next year. But lots of people are asking questions cuz every time you see one of these violent crimes, sure enough, you check it out and it’s someone on bail, which like seems unbelievable to me. Um but also people want to be able to defend themselves. We saw that with the debate on castle law. We’ve also seen that with the debate around pepper spray. I think that um pepper spray is actually hugely popular and the government’s arguments against it are rubbish and we’ve seen uh with this thing that happened this week in the in that uh brothel was uh it was highly effective and did what it was meant to do. I mean like it was incredibly effective. When you watch the video, he just gets a little squirt in the face and that was it. The the conflict was over and no more violence. It was done. [End video]
No, honestly, I think if you wanted to, if you were a marketing executive trying to advertise pepper spray, you would just simply put that video on repeat. It is such a clearcut example of how that is an effective self-defense tool for someone who’s perhaps physically uh diminutive compared to the person who’s assaulting them. And yet, a single spray neutralizes that attack. Well, David Limbrick, MP, I want to say thank you to you for raising issues like the the safety of women in prisons and keeping women’s prisons for women, as well as issues around self-defense and the rights of all Victorians. In your case, you’re a Victorian MP, but really it it applies to all Australians to be able to defend ourselves from those who who do attack us or wish us harm. Thank you for the work that you do and thank you for coming on the Topher project.
[From video] Thanks for having me. [End video]
Well, thank you for watching that interview with David Limbrick, MP. He does very very important work as the handful of good MPs that we do have in this country do at both a state and at a federal level in the lower and the upper houses respectively. We have a handful of really amazing people doing really amazing work and David is certainly one of them. My name is Topher Field. This is the Topher project and if you enjoy my videos, I’d really appreciate you helping me to keep the Topher project going by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And also check out my books, Good People Break Bad Laws, Good Christians Break Bad Laws, my DVD documentary Battleground Melbourne, and all of my t-shirts and hoodies in different designs. All available at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. And everything you buy is going to help me to keep bringing you stories and interviews just like this one.
Thank you so much for watching to the end. The algorithm loves you and so do I. Please like, comment, subscribe,
