Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade says about three carloads of NT residents are arriving in the town each day searching for grog

Transcript

Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade says about three carloads of NT residents are arriving in the town each day searching for grog · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we have heard reports of territorials flocking across the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Queensland border to access grog in Mount iSER following the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: reintroduction of alcohol bands. Joining me on the line right
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  Speaker 1: now to tell us a little bit more about what
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: is happening down the road is the mayor of Mount iSER,
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  Speaker 1: Danny L.
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  Speaker 2: Slade. Good morning to you, Good morning Katie, thank you. Yeah, look,
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  Speaker 2: I'm happy to chat about this. We've seen probably keiter
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  Speaker 2: three cars a day turn up from the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 2: and pretty much going straight into our Lockhart River. We
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  Speaker 2: do have an agency down there that does meals for
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  Speaker 2: homeless yea. And what was happening is we always had
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  Speaker 2: around forty people down there and a lot of times
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  Speaker 2: they were coming from Queensland drive communities and getting stuck here. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: But what we've seen in the last eighteen months is
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  Speaker 2: a rise in people coming from Northern Territory due to
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  Speaker 2: a bushbus coming on a red basis. So those numbers
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  Speaker 2: rose to about one hundred and fifty in the Lighthart River.
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  Speaker 2: In the river there the light Heart that's where our
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  Speaker 2: water source. And now I talked to the agency this
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  Speaker 2: morning and since about thirty for January, we're up to
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  Speaker 2: five hundred and sixty nine people down there. What so
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  Speaker 2: that's it's very difficult from our niser because we just
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  Speaker 2: were under resourced for the amount of people coming in.
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  Speaker 2: It's a burden on the police, the ambulance, the health
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  Speaker 2: and the antisocial behavior that's coming in with that. So
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  Speaker 2: it's evident because two of our bottle shops are in
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  Speaker 2: the CBD, so about around ten o'clock every morning, we're
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  Speaker 2: seeing just large amounts of people coming in and waiting
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  Speaker 2: for the bottle shops open.
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  Speaker 1: Goodness, may I mean that is that's a huge increase.
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  Speaker 1: As you've said, there would ordinarily be around forty after
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  Speaker 1: the last day saying months gone up to maybe a
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  Speaker 1: hud and fifty and then since January this year it's
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  Speaker 1: gone right up to more than five hundred people.
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  Speaker 2: I'm still coming and they're coming along in unregistered old vehicles, overcrowded,
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  Speaker 2: and they're reporting. The lay I spoke to this morning
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  Speaker 2: said it's at least one car a day, if not
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  Speaker 2: two or three.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. And how do you know that they are coming
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  Speaker 1: from the Northern Territory at this point, Danielle, Well.
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  Speaker 2: The agency on the ground, they provide breakfast, lunch and dinner,
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  Speaker 2: and so they do have a good chat to who
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  Speaker 2: you're coming to the agency to get the services. So
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  Speaker 2: the the bus that is coming back with them forwards
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  Speaker 2: from Alice Springs, they're actually stopping off in places like
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  Speaker 2: Heart Range, Bonyad Eagle, Great Eagle, Beak is it, Alice Springs,
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  Speaker 2: Tenant Creek and then pretty much just dropping them straight
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  Speaker 2: into Burke Street, which is the Leichhart River, and they're
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  Speaker 2: almost stranded here. Goodness, Yeah, it's quite concerning.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Danielle, can I just ask you have you had
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  Speaker 1: any influx? Like over the last couple of weeks, We've
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  Speaker 1: obviously had some fairly strict alcohol restrictions put into place
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  Speaker 1: in Alice Springs. Have you seen much of a difference
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  Speaker 1: just in the last couple of weeks or the last
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  Speaker 1: week or so?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I was actually coming back from dropping my
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  Speaker 2: kids at school yesterday morning and there would have been
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  Speaker 2: fifty people walking into CBD around nine o'clock and they
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  Speaker 2: were walking up to access alcohol for when the bottle
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  Speaker 2: shops open. So this is I normally see, and we've
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  Speaker 2: had some rain, so we were people were noticing large
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  Speaker 2: number of people gathering under shop warnings and around the
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  Speaker 2: council buildings and yeah, and definitely down in the riverbed.
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  Speaker 1: Dannielle, can you tell me what kind of impact is
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  Speaker 1: this having on mounta Eser at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: It's a huge impact because we're seeing the police are
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  Speaker 2: al going out for DV calls and the ambulance as well,
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  Speaker 2: so that I'm told that there are just that it's NonStop.
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  Speaker 2: The health system it's being very overburned at the moment
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  Speaker 2: as well. I think the antisocial behavior and the rubbish
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  Speaker 2: is one thing that's really hard to describe. But the
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  Speaker 2: rubbish that's now accumulating in the Leikehart River, which is
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  Speaker 2: water supply, is incredible. It's it's yeah, it's really incredible
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  Speaker 2: the amount of rubbish that's accumulating human waste. Yeah, so
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  Speaker 2: we're really noticing it in especially in the last couple
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  Speaker 2: of weeks.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And what kind of work is the council having
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  Speaker 1: to do to, you know, to try and grapple with that.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the cleanups themselves are horrendous and they cost us
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  Speaker 2: about thirty five thousand for every cleanup. A lot of
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  Speaker 2: times we have to trick the employees into we don't
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  Speaker 2: tell them we've got to clean up until the day.
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  Speaker 2: They'll try and blow the day because it's such an
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  Speaker 2: awful job. So it is a big burden on the
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  Speaker 2: rappayers of man iSER because that's thirty five thousand dollars
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  Speaker 2: I could be giving to a sporting group or a
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  Speaker 2: charity and instead we're cleaning up the rubbish of people
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  Speaker 2: who don't live here now.
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  Speaker 1: There obviously, does it appear to you as the coming
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  Speaker 1: to Mount Aser to access alcohol?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah, absolutely, I think they. Prior to what's happening now,
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  Speaker 2: I would have said that people were coming into man
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  Speaker 2: iSER for health court and other reasons and then maybe
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  Speaker 2: getting stranded here or not leaving. But this at the
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  Speaker 2: moment is definitely people coming here just to access alcohol.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, by lunchtime there are so many people
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  Speaker 2: very drunk and towards la like ut River. So one
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  Speaker 2: of the things I've done, especially when I heard about
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  Speaker 2: the announcement, is I've put out an announcement to my
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  Speaker 2: community saying I have a zero tolerance to any social behavior.
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  Speaker 2: So if you see people drinking in public, ring.
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  Speaker 1: The police and Danielle, can you talk us through from
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  Speaker 1: Ount Eyes's perspective, because obviously, you know, things are I'm
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  Speaker 1: assuming probably fairly similar in own eyes, and some of
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  Speaker 1: the issues you guys have got are probably fairly similar
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  Speaker 1: to what we've got up here in Darwin and also
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  Speaker 1: in our springs. Are you finding, like, is that public
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  Speaker 1: drunkenness and that anti social behavior, is it being tolerated?
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  Speaker 1: What's the response from the community, what's the response from
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  Speaker 1: the police.
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  Speaker 2: That's a good question. And I think, you know, because
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  Speaker 2: before it was low numbers, it was tolerated. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I think we all tolerated it because we felt for
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  Speaker 2: the people who are you know, it's a wretched life.
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  Speaker 2: But now with the numbers swelling to you know, up
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  Speaker 2: to five hundred now five hundred and sixty nine, which
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  Speaker 2: is incredible, I don't believe we can tolerate it. And
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  Speaker 2: the other burden that's happening is the people who are
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  Speaker 2: flocking here for alcohol are also going over to friends
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  Speaker 2: and family and social housing and overcrowding there. And we're
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  Speaker 2: noticing that there's an influx of partying happening, which is
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  Speaker 2: actually driving the youth onto the streets because that these
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  Speaker 2: parties are going all night and there's big crowds and
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  Speaker 2: a lot of uncle people. So it's something I've been
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  Speaker 2: reaching out to the Queensland State government about and we're
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  Speaker 2: putting a plan together as a council at this moment
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  Speaker 2: to try and put together what the issues are, what
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  Speaker 2: the impacts are, and we want to go with some
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  Speaker 2: solutions to the state government and indeed the federal government.
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  Speaker 2: And I really believe that what's happening in Alice Springs
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  Speaker 2: and man Is needs a whole of government approach, local,
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  Speaker 2: state and federal. I take my hat off to the
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  Speaker 2: mayor of Alice Springs. I think he was very brave
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  Speaker 2: to do what he did and he's got my admiration
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  Speaker 2: for standing up for his city. And the other thing
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  Speaker 2: I note is that social housing. Alice Springs and Mount
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  Speaker 2: Isa probably have double the social housing than any other
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  Speaker 2: city well in Queensland anyway. So when you think about
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  Speaker 2: the resources you need and housing tend to give pride
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  Speaker 2: to people in domestic violent situations. And a lot of
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  Speaker 2: times if you're in the domestic violent situation, you're in trauma,
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  Speaker 2: and you try getting a child psychologist or a psychologist
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  Speaker 2: or any those wrap around supports you need. In communities
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  Speaker 2: like Mount is I can't speak other Springs. So my
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  Speaker 2: son's already on a two year waiting list for speech
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  Speaker 2: therapist and he's been on our way left for twelve
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  Speaker 2: months for an OT. So you imagine if you child's
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  Speaker 2: got FAZ or any the disabilities, we're just not equipped
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  Speaker 2: to deal with that. So I think the social housing
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  Speaker 2: numbers may be out of portion with the rest of
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  Speaker 2: the cities in the state and maybe in Australia. So
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  Speaker 2: that's a big burden on places like Mount Issa. And
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  Speaker 2: we are a mining city. You know, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: the reason we're here is because of the mine and
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  Speaker 2: we you know, we need to keep the place liverable.
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  Speaker 1: You do well, you know I grew up in Mount Isa.
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  Speaker 1: You do need to play keep the place livable. And
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  Speaker 1: I know that the people who live there are wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: Same as the situation in Alice Springs. You've got so
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  Speaker 1: many great people, but it's really hard when you're grappling
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  Speaker 1: with what's going on. Danielle, can I just ask you
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  Speaker 1: before I let you go, have you got any plans
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  Speaker 1: to sort of liaise with the Northern Territory government at
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  Speaker 1: this point in time as well in relation to what's
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  Speaker 1: going on, particularly with the number of people that have
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  Speaker 1: crossed the border.
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  Speaker 2: I actually have been liaising with the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 2: prior to this, prior to the announcement. But the difference
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  Speaker 2: is in Queensland we have different alcohol laws to what
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  Speaker 2: the Territory has with their restrictions, and you can actually
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  Speaker 2: buy alcohol in Manuser without showing IDs. You don't have
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  Speaker 2: to show an address and so there's no accountability there.
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  Speaker 2: So that's one of the impacts. And we don't have
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  Speaker 2: the restrictions that the Northern Territory have. So if we
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  Speaker 2: were to bring in the same restrictions in Manuser, you
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  Speaker 2: find that then everyone would start driving past Manoneuser and
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  Speaker 2: heading to Chunsel and so on. So I don't know
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  Speaker 2: if alcohol restrictions are the answer.
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  Speaker 1: It's really tough, it's really tough going. I'm not actually
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  Speaker 1: overly surprised to hear what you've said this morning. I
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  Speaker 1: am surprised to hear just how many people are now
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  Speaker 1: you know, living rough in the Leichhart River. Danielle. I
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  Speaker 1: really appreciate your having a chat with us this morning
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  Speaker 1: and just giving us a bit of context and letting
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  Speaker 1: us know what's going on in Mount iSER as well,
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  Speaker 1: and the onflow of those alcohol restrictions to other locations.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, and I'm glad you've given me the
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  Speaker 2: opportunity just to speak out. And you know, I think
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  Speaker 2: people need to consider when you make decisions what the
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: possible flow on effects can be. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Danielle, thanks so much. Please keep in contact. We'll
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: keep in contact with you as well. It's been great
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  Speaker 1: to speak to you today.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you have a good one.