SA Opposition Leader offers to be tasered

By Angela Dorizas

South Australian Opposition leader Isobel Redmond said she is prepared to be tasered to demonstrate the worth of providing stun guns to the state's police force.

The Opposition has promised to provide 500 tasers to SA police if elected next year.

“There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that tasers represent a much safer option from both sides of the equation and they are therefore the way to go for the future,” Ms Redmond told ABC Radio.

She said she was prepared to be stunned with a taser to demonstrate their usefulness.

“If it will prove the point yes I will, but you know, if you ask me the same question about would I be prepared to be shot, then no.”

Ms Redmond is not the first Liberal party member to put herself in the firing line.

Late last year, reporter Chris Kenny offered to be stunned for the Nine Network's A Current Affair program. Mr Kenny, now chief of staff to Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, described the experience as “quite excruciating”.

Ms Redmond acknowledged that the pain would be intense, but  “relatively short term”.

“We've got police who are out there confronting people who are in the midst of a psychotic outbreak, [with] the choice between gun shooting or a taser,” she said.

“I think [a taser's] a better option from both sides of the equation.”

SA Police are currently conducting a review of the devices.

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