With most homicides in Australia (www.aic.gov.au) being the result of stabbing, some people are turning to the martial arts to train in knife self defence. Currently, there is no realistic non-lethal knife defence training tool available to martial arts schools in Australia. Training with wooden, rubber or blunt training knives fails to illicit the hormone stress response that happens in a real self defence situation. Training therefore often fails to replicate the reality of knife self defence – without the threat of the blade, students often do things they wouldn't if the blade were real. The Shocknife (www.shocknife.com) electric training knife stimulates the hormone stress response through the fear of electric shock. This enables realistic knife self defence training while still being safe to use. The video is of the Shocknife being used in training in an episode of NCIS: LA.

Currently the Shocknife is classified by Customs as a “hand-held electric device(s) that are designed to administer an electric shock on contact”, and a such their importation is prohibited unless you are a Law Enforcement Agency or the Military. Customs objection to the shocknife is that it can be used as an electric weapon to harm or incapacitate. The following is from the shocknife website:

- Will the Shocknife cause permanent injury or incapacitation?
- The Shocknife has been specifically designed with safety in mind. With a maximum 7,500 volts and less than 1 milliamp (.00075). If used properly it does not have the power to cause permanent injury or incapacitation. The shock is a LOCALIZED SHOCK ONLY with a gap space of only 1/8th of an inch.

We are not advocating that these devices should be available to just anyone for importation, but a martial arts school should be able to obtain Police permission (in WA a B709B Permission to Import Prohibited Goods form) to import and use these non-lethal training devices. As such, we are seeking the Minister to allow, with Police permission, martial arts schools to import and use these training devices.