An incident in which a Milton man threatened police with a tomahawk and log-splitting axe highlights the urgent need for police to carry Tasers, a police spokeswoman says.
Pepper spray failed to subdue the 55-year-old Milton man.
Had he not discarded his weapons, police may have been left with no choice but to resort to the use of firearms to defend themselves, according to Police Association southern region director Tracey Maclennan.
Such incidents not only highlighted how police faced serious risks every day but how offenders who threatened them or the public faced serious risk of being shot, she said.
"Tasers give a reliable means of incapacitating the offender with minimum risk to all involved."
Police Commissioner Howard Broad recently announced police would adopt the use of Tasers but Ms Maclennan said it was likely to be another year before police in the South were equipped with them.
The 32 Tasers used in last year's police trial had been reissued to the four districts involved, but funding for Tasers elsewhere would have to wait until the 2009 budget.
Ms Maclennan said that meant it could be late next year before all police carry them.
"Incidents like the one [in Milton on Monday] show they can't come soon enough."
