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John, I stand by what I have said. See below a copy from each states Criminal Act/Code relating to self defence.

Different wording but all meaning the same basic thing.

What self defence means in your region

NSW

(1) A person is not criminally responsible for an offence if the person carries out the conduct constituting the offence in self-defence.

(2) A person carries out conduct in self-defence if and only if the person believes the conduct is necessary:

(a) to defend himself or herself or another person, or

(b) to prevent or terminate the unlawful deprivation of his or her liberty or the liberty of another person, or

(c) to protect property from unlawful taking, destruction, damage or interference, or

(d) to prevent criminal trespass to any land or premises or to remove a person committing any such criminal trespass,

and the conduct is a reasonable response in the circumstances as he or she perceives them.

Queensland

When a person is unlawfully assaulted, and has not provoked the assault, it is lawful for the person to use such force to the assailant as is reasonably necessary to make effectual defence against the assault, if the force used is not intended, and is not such as is likely, to cause death or grievous bodily harm.

If the nature of the assault is such as to cause reasonable apprehension of death or grievous bodily harm, and the person using force by way of defence believes, on reasonable grounds, that the person can not otherwise preserve the person defended from death or grievous bodily harm, it is lawful for the person to use any such force to the assailant as is necessary for defence, even though such force may cause death or grievous bodily harm.

Victoria

A person is not guilty of an offence if the person carries out the conduct constituting the offence in self-defence.

A person carries out conduct in self-defence if:

(a) the person believes that the conduct is necessary in self-defence; and

(b) the conduct is a reasonable response in the circumstances as the person perceives them.

(3) This section only applies in the case of murder if the person believes that the conduct is necessary to defend the person or another person from the infliction of death or really serious injury.

Western Australia

A harmful act done by a person is lawful if the act is done in self-defence if:

(a) a person unlawfully kills another person in circumstances which, but for this section, would constitute murder; and

(b) the person’s act that causes the other person’s death would be an act done in self-defence under subsection (4) but for the fact that the act is not a reasonable response by the person in the circumstances as the person believes them to be, the person is guilty of manslaughter and not murder.

A person’s harmful act is done in self-defence if:

(a) the person believes the act is necessary to defend the person or another person from a harmful act, including a harmful act that is not imminent; and

(b) the person’s harmful act is a reasonable response by the person in the circumstances as the person believes them to be; and

(c) there are reasonable grounds for those beliefs.

(5) A person’s harmful act is not done in self-defence if it is done to defend the person or another person from a harmful act that is lawful.

(6) For the purposes of subsection (5), a harmful act is not lawful merely because the person doing it is not criminally responsible for it.

Northern Territory

A person is not criminally responsible for an offence if the person carries out the conduct constituting the offence in self-defence.

A person carries out conduct in self-defence only if:

(a) the person believes the conduct is necessary:

(i) to defend himself or herself or another person; or

(ii) to prevent or terminate the unlawful imprisonment of himself or herself or another person; or

(iii) to protect property from unlawful appropriation, destruction, damage or interference; or

(iv) to prevent criminal trespass to any land or premises; or

(v) to remove from any land or premises a person who is committing criminal trespass; and

(b) the conduct is a reasonable response in the circumstances as he or she perceives them.

(3) However, the person does not carry out conduct in self-defence if:

(a) the person uses force that involves the intentional infliction of death or serious harm:

(i) to protect property; or

(ii) to prevent criminal trespass; or

(iii) to remove a person who is committing criminal trespass; or

(b) the person is responding to lawful conduct that the person knew was lawful.

Tasmania

A person is justified in using, in the defence of himself or another person, such force as, in the circumstances as he believes them to be, it is reasonable to use.

South Australia

It is a defence to a charge of an offence if:

(a) the defendant genuinely believed the conduct to which the charge relates to be necessary and reasonable for a defensive purpose; and

(b) the conduct was, in the circumstances as the defendant genuinely believed them to be, reasonably proportionate to the threat that the defendant genuinely believed to exist 1 .

It is a partial defence to a charge of murder (reducing the offence to manslaughter) if:

(a) the defendant genuinely believed the conduct to which the charge relates to be necessary and reasonable for a defensive purpose; but

(b) the conduct was not, in the circumstances as the defendant genuinely believed them to be, reasonably proportionate to the threat that the defendant genuinely believed to exist. 2

For the purposes of this section, a person acts for a "defensive purpose if the person acts:

a) in self defence or in defence of another; or

(b) to prevent or terminate the unlawful imprisonment of himself, herself or another.

However, if a person:

(a) resists another who is purporting to exercise a power of arrest or some other power of law enforcement; or

(b) resists another who is acting in response to an unlawful act against person or property committed by the person or to which the person is a party,

the person will not be taken to be acting for a defensive purpose unless the person genuinely believes, on reasonable grounds, that the other person is acting unlawfully.

If a defendant raises a defence under this section, the defence is taken to have been established unless the prosecution disproves the defence beyond reasonable doubt.

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