Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Matt Hepworth spoke with CLP Member for Barkly Steve Edgington

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Matt Hepworth spoke with CLP Member for Barkly Steve Edgington · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, there's a great yarn from the ABC about a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: group of grandma's and volunteers who've been camping out the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: front of a Tenant Creek service station in an effort
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to fight youth crime and anti social behavior. Steve Edgington
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: is the colp's member for Barkley, encompassing the town of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Tenant Creek. He joins me on the line. Now gette Steve, oh.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Gray, and thank you for having me on the show.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Nice David to pleasure. This is a really great initiative
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: coming out of your electorate. Can you tell us a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: little bit more about it?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Well, the initiative, as the story's been presented, a group
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: of granny so to speak, have been I suppose working
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: and volunteering outside the BP now for roughly about five
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: to six weeks. Look, leading up to that Intenant Creek,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: what we were seeing was quite a number of young
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: people and there was a lot of crime happening around
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the BP and where the temporary IgA is. There was
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: rock throwing, car windows being smashed, property at other property
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: being damaged, large rocks being thrown even at buses, and
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: property being stolen inside of the BP. So, look, these
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: ladies have taken upon themselves to help bring down crime
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and support the police, support night patrol, and importantly support
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: the staff that are working long hours there at night.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Steve, what is it that they're actually doing there, because
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess as a citizen, you know, they
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: can only do so much. So what type of role
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: are they playing there at night.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Well, it's a real physical presence, and as we alluded to,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the grannies have quite a lot of cultural authority over
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: young people in Tenant Creek. So what we're seeing is
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: a lot of the women and of course some of
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: the night patrol men who are spending quite a bit
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: of time there. Tenant Creek's a small place. They're very
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: familiar with who these young people are, which families they're
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: part of. But they do have that authority to stop
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: talk and try to encourage young people to do the
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: right thing. And what we're seeing is that that's actually
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: had some real impact in that particular area of town.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: So crime has significantly reduced in that area, and we've
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: seen a significant reduction in the amount of young people
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: hanging around there at night.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: See. But I don't know if you've had a chance
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to speak to them or chat with them or not.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But are they scared or worried about their safety at all?
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: No, No, they're not concerned about their safety. Look, there's
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: been a few rowdy young people hanging around, but the
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: family connections are very wide intenne Creek, so the fact
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: that the women are there in big numbers, there hasn't
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: been any concern for their safety. But I think that
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: engagement with the young people, talking to the young people,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: encouraging them to go home rather than being out on
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the streets and causing trouble is definitely working.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Steve. It's obviously a good calm legal initiative. But are
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: there concerns that this could lead to more aggressive forms
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: of vigilante behavior.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: No, not at the moment and certainly not in that area.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: The group of grannies that are out there volunteering their
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: time it is having an impact. But look, I think
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: what we're seeing and what people are observing in the
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: area is that it's a very friendly, calm approach to
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: dealing with the issues and there's certainly no suggestion that
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: it could lead to any vigilanteism going on. So look,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: I'm really happy and I think all credit to these
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: women that are doing this off their own back. You know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: they're spending long hours anywhere between about nine thirty and
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: five point thirty in the morning on some night. It's
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: a real credit to the women that they've stepped up
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: to make sure that crime is reduced and engaging with
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: young people.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Steve. Last week we saw Alice Springs thrown into the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: national spotlight with that horrific report on a current affair.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Tenant Creek's been in a similar situation about three years
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: ago now with the alleged rape of a child in
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the town. Obviously, you were a mayor at the time.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: You're no stranger to you know, when your town does
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: get thrown into the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: What would you say to the residents of Alice Springs?
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And I guess also, how are you you know this
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: is an issue that does affect those in the Barkley
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and Tenant Creek as well. What's been your reaction since
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: that report on a current affair?
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, just looking at that footage of what
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: was going on in Alla Springs, that was really horrifying stuff.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: And you know, for the people were involved in that,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: the residence of Tenant Creek. Look, I really feel for
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: all of the residents in Tennant Creek business people houses
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: are being broken into and cars are being stolen. I've
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: also seen footage of large fights, vehicles on fire. It
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: seems to be certainly out of control there and it's
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: time in my view, for the government to step up
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: and show some leadership when it comes to dealing with crime.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Look that the issue around repeat offending is a big
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: issue right across the Northern Territory and that's why today
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: we'll be introducing some new legislation into Parliament to try
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: and stop that revolving door of a repeat offenders getting
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: out on bail. But there's a lot more to it.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: What needs to happen is, in my view, it's the
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: first approach. Needs to be a whole of government, whole
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: of community approach. What they need. In my view, the
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: thing that I often say is missing when it comes
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: to crime is that we hear of economic plans, we
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: hear of tourism plans, we hear of liquor plans, we
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: hear of domestic violence action plans. What we don't have
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: is a crime reduction plan and it's high time this
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: government to step back and start putting something together. To
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: have a documented plan that's going to help to reduce
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: crime and pull the people together, the stakeholders. It's government,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: it's non government, it's business people, it's young people. It
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: needs that whole of government, whole of community approach, set
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: some real targets, deal with the underlying issues, but hold
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: every agency accountable for the funding that they get and
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: make sure they're delivering on what the intended part of
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: their contract is. So everybody has a role and it's
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: high time the government did a more coordinator than collaborative
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: approach to tackling crime.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Well, we know you are a busy man with this
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: in Parliament today, we will let you go. Colp's Member
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: for Barclay, Steve Edgington, thank you so much for your
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: time this morning.