Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Chief Minister Michael Gunner

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Katie Woolf spoke with Chief Minister Michael Gunner · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: We know.
0:00
Speaker 2: The Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with the National Cabinet
0:02
Speaker 2: on Friday afternoon, where the issue of hotel quarantine and
0:06
Speaker 2: obviously repatriating Australians was on the agenda. The PM revealed
0:10
Speaker 2: the Commonwealth is in negotiations with the Northern Territory government
0:13
Speaker 2: to expand the capacity of Howard Springs beyond eight hundred
0:17
Speaker 2: and fifty people per fortnite. Joining me in the studio
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Speaker 2: is the Chief Minister, Michael Gunner. Good morning, day Caddy Chief.
0:24
Speaker 2: We've all heard that there has been some issues I
0:27
Speaker 2: guess you'd say with hotel quarantine in other states. The
0:30
Speaker 2: Howard Springs facility is looking like really a preferred site
0:33
Speaker 2: for those repatriated Aussies. So what capacity are we looking
0:37
Speaker 2: at expanding to.
0:39
Speaker 3: Well, we established a reputation for excellence about this time
0:41
Speaker 3: last year when we took those Australians out of Whan.
0:44
Speaker 3: We obviously have the agreement with the Australian Gunmer for
0:46
Speaker 3: eight fifty. Now we'll get there in about March. I
0:49
Speaker 3: will thought about the eight fifty. We have a current
0:52
Speaker 3: restriction on what we can take at Howard Springs based
0:54
Speaker 3: around cyclones, so obviously we go at cyclone shelters out there.
0:57
Speaker 1: We've got about manage those cyclones.
1:00
Speaker 3: We've got a couple of cautionary steps were taken in
1:03
Speaker 3: a house, springs all the way through. We've got a
1:05
Speaker 3: certain degree of beds that have put to one side
1:07
Speaker 3: just in case there's ever anything that happens in the
1:09
Speaker 3: territory and we need those beds for territorians to manage.
1:12
Speaker 1: An internal situation.
1:13
Speaker 3: Never needed it, but I think it's really important we
1:15
Speaker 3: always have that capacity there. We have some capacity set
1:18
Speaker 3: aside for domestic hot spots, which lately we're not been
1:21
Speaker 3: using the same extent because we haven't had the same
1:23
Speaker 3: numbers coming through.
1:24
Speaker 1: The hot spots have lasted for a.
1:26
Speaker 3: Shorter period of time, and I think people have now
1:28
Speaker 3: getting more clever about and careful by how they travel.
1:32
Speaker 3: And obviously we've got the eight fifty on the international side.
1:35
Speaker 1: I would have thought we.
1:36
Speaker 3: Said this is the PM that we probably can't expand
1:38
Speaker 3: the international side tool towards the end of cyclone season.
1:41
Speaker 3: Post cyclone season, and that's when you get into that
1:44
Speaker 3: doubling territory. We just have to be cautious. I think
1:47
Speaker 3: about how we handle people out there. We've got a
1:49
Speaker 3: reptach for excellence. That's because of these kinds of decisions.
1:52
Speaker 3: We've got to have smart about the kind of numbers
1:54
Speaker 3: you have out there.
1:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, but so post cyclone season, realistically we
1:57
Speaker 2: could be looking at about seventeen hundred people out there.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's about about the major market plus staff.
2:03
Speaker 3: Obviously will need help from the common So you mentioned
2:06
Speaker 3: some money before, west On touch on that we're not
2:08
Speaker 3: making a profit off of this Commonalth are just paying
2:10
Speaker 3: for costs, have negotiated out costs to double it. We'll
2:14
Speaker 3: probably need common Wealth assistance around personnel. So there comes
2:17
Speaker 3: a point in time where you're just running up against
2:20
Speaker 3: qualified people can work work in the facility, and we
2:23
Speaker 3: discussed that out national cabinet in the past, so we
2:25
Speaker 3: obviously discussed this national cabinet on Friday. Hotel slash quarantine
2:30
Speaker 3: full stop. We can't take take the load for the nation.
2:33
Speaker 3: We've had this chat before. Katie Sydney's taking three thousand
2:36
Speaker 3: a week, which is just a huge number. You know,
2:40
Speaker 3: we won't be able to take three thousand a fortnight
2:42
Speaker 3: out at House Springs.
2:43
Speaker 1: We're not talking those kinds of numbers.
2:45
Speaker 3: We just can't do that, so there needs to be
2:47
Speaker 3: quarantine running in other places.
2:48
Speaker 1: We can't do it all.
2:49
Speaker 3: Through the Northern territory, but we can do our bit,
2:52
Speaker 3: and I think we're showing we run a very good
2:54
Speaker 3: quarantine facility and.
2:55
Speaker 2: Much of that. I guess you know, many people will
2:57
Speaker 2: look at our quarantine facility and say, the National Critical
3:00
Speaker 2: Care and Trauma Response Centers OZMAT team have done a
3:03
Speaker 2: phenomenal job. Would they be managing that capacity if it
3:06
Speaker 2: does indeed get up to seventeen hundred.
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Speaker 3: Or they'll be all part of the conversations if you're
3:10
Speaker 3: looking at expanding, is it them expanding across and taking
3:15
Speaker 3: out more of the campus or do we push out
3:17
Speaker 3: and take up the whole campus that Either way, we're both.
3:19
Speaker 1: Very good that this makes sense.
3:20
Speaker 3: So we've both been running quarantine out there now for
3:23
Speaker 3: essentially a year.
3:24
Speaker 1: We've got ect working relationship.
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Speaker 3: Some of our stuff actually work in the National Critical
3:28
Speaker 3: Care and Response to Trauma Team.
3:29
Speaker 1: So we work that up between us.
3:31
Speaker 3: But I can rest territory territories can rest assured whether
3:36
Speaker 3: it's there or us running, it will be an exceptional show.
3:39
Speaker 3: It all comes under the remit the Church of Controller.
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Speaker 3: By the way, so we've got a really good chain
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Speaker 3: of command, so Jamie Chalk or Police Commissioners, Territory Controller,
3:45
Speaker 3: so we have a very clear chain of command at
3:48
Speaker 3: IT CenTra National Resilience.
3:50
Speaker 2: Now, one of the other big changes that came into
3:52
Speaker 2: play over the weekend was those border checkpoints. Police are
3:55
Speaker 2: being taken off those borders. Has that happened immediately.
3:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that was the US too.
4:00
Speaker 3: So we've been slowly taking police off various border points
4:03
Speaker 3: and so initially we did the very the very low
4:05
Speaker 3: traffic ones and that gave us an opportunity to essentially
4:08
Speaker 3: trial or the automate number plate recognition type systems the
4:12
Speaker 3: border control forms and what we have founds. People are
4:14
Speaker 3: filling out the form, so you still have to fill
4:15
Speaker 3: out the form when you when you cross across the border,
4:18
Speaker 3: giving us all the detail. We've been able to check
4:20
Speaker 3: all that and it's all been working. So we obviously
4:22
Speaker 3: we've had staffed borders for for a long time now,
4:26
Speaker 3: since March, so nearly a year, and we're now been
4:29
Speaker 3: running some of these border controls without police for that
4:33
Speaker 3: early December so nearly two months. So we've had plenty
4:36
Speaker 3: of experience in seeing how these border controls work. These
4:39
Speaker 3: are the last last two they've come down, Colgra and
4:42
Speaker 3: coming will think with the two that we took down,
4:44
Speaker 3: they were the last two, so the Queensland and Essay borders.
4:47
Speaker 3: So we've obviously had confidence in talking this through the
4:49
Speaker 3: Police Commission about how we're handing those border control spots.
4:52
Speaker 3: Obviously the police are still in the airports, that's where
4:55
Speaker 3: the main volume comes into all at once in a rush.
4:57
Speaker 3: But we're very comfortable with how though border controls are working.
5:01
Speaker 3: We can stand them up within four hours. So obviously
5:03
Speaker 3: for me, one of my question of the Police Commission
5:05
Speaker 3: was if we need to go back to having them.
5:06
Speaker 1: In place, how long it will take?
5:08
Speaker 3: He said, staff within four hours, we can turn that
5:09
Speaker 3: around very quickly, if you remember we.
5:11
Speaker 1: Did that first time. Round two.
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Speaker 3: We've got the map to our borders very very quickly.
5:15
Speaker 3: AFP and eighty F responsors now peel back as well.
5:18
Speaker 3: Be fair, say, national cabinets in the same train frame
5:21
Speaker 3: that we've gotten better at managing hot spots and knowing what's.
5:23
Speaker 2: Going on, and you're confident that we're not going to
5:25
Speaker 2: have people getting across those borders, you know, coming in
5:28
Speaker 2: from states that are declared hot spots without those borders
5:31
Speaker 2: being police so.
5:32
Speaker 3: You obviously still have to follow a direction when you
5:34
Speaker 3: come across the border. So if you land at the airport,
5:36
Speaker 3: you know, isolate and test sort of instructions. People have
5:39
Speaker 3: been doing that across our road borders all the way
5:40
Speaker 3: through and we've got good experience now and running these
5:43
Speaker 3: borders and confidence that everyone is following the directions and
5:46
Speaker 3: police to hear when you cross the border then they
5:48
Speaker 3: had to follow up and it's all been working.
5:50
Speaker 2: Gee. It's certainly those borders have come down a lot
5:53
Speaker 2: faster than what we've talked about during the election campaign,
5:56
Speaker 2: haven't they.
5:56
Speaker 3: And know we've still got border controls and I think
5:58
Speaker 3: this is important. So the staffing of the border has changed,
6:00
Speaker 3: but we've still got border controls. They still need to
6:02
Speaker 3: full a format when you come across. We're still doing
6:05
Speaker 3: compliance checking ever, and it comes through that border that's
6:07
Speaker 3: the road borders. Obviously we've still got the airport's staff.
6:10
Speaker 3: So from our experience now over nearly a year of
6:13
Speaker 3: doing this, it's the airport, the high volume traffic in
6:16
Speaker 3: where you really need to have the staffing element and
6:19
Speaker 3: you've got to keep a careful eye on that the
6:22
Speaker 3: road borders. We've now got a lot of experience with
6:24
Speaker 3: how we're running those road borders, and the compliance check
6:26
Speaker 3: or make non plate recognition systems are working. I'd suspect
6:30
Speaker 3: that we'll have border arrangements for at least this year.
6:33
Speaker 3: I know Mart mcgowinasay's thinking very similar. A couple of
6:35
Speaker 3: days back. I all thought, even with the vaccine through
6:38
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one is people slowly get the vaccination rates are,
6:41
Speaker 3: We'll still have to manage our borders and have the
6:42
Speaker 3: hotspots policy in place for at least all of this year.
6:45
Speaker 2: All right, Chief Minister, Let's move along and talk about
6:48
Speaker 2: the issue that seems to be on the minds of
6:50
Speaker 2: a lot of Territorians. Crime. Since we last spoke, almost
6:54
Speaker 2: ten thousand people have signed a petition calling for a
6:56
Speaker 2: class action against your government for a lack of action
7:00
Speaker 2: into youth crime. Over the weekend, a much loved eighty
7:03
Speaker 2: six year old man's home was broken into, stole his
7:06
Speaker 2: car and some of his belongings. It follows the assault
7:09
Speaker 2: of a ninety two year old man, Harvey Wade. Last weekend.
7:13
Speaker 2: A woman was allegedly assaulted in Alice Springs over the
7:16
Speaker 2: weekend as well and had her bag stolen. Chief Minister,
7:19
Speaker 2: do you can see that some changes need to happen
7:22
Speaker 2: in this space.
7:23
Speaker 3: I don't think you can ever stop working here. So
7:26
Speaker 3: we've done a lot, and I get it. If you're
7:28
Speaker 3: out there right now and you are a victim of crime,
7:31
Speaker 3: then what we've done hasn't worked for you, and you
7:33
Speaker 3: have a right to be angry. If you're a victim
7:35
Speaker 3: of crime, You've an absolute right to be angry. And
7:37
Speaker 3: I'm the Chief Minister and the responsibility starts and stops
7:40
Speaker 3: with me, and so you've a right to be angry
7:42
Speaker 3: at me too, And we've got to keep working. So
7:44
Speaker 3: there are a couple of things that we are working
7:46
Speaker 3: on this year that goes to legislation and consequences. I
7:49
Speaker 3: think there are two main priorities when it comes to crime.
7:52
Speaker 3: You've got to do what you can to stop a
7:54
Speaker 3: crime occurring in the first place, and if that fails
7:56
Speaker 3: and the crime occurs, then you have to have genuine
7:59
Speaker 3: and serious consequences in place that break the cycle of crime.
8:03
Speaker 3: And I think you can't ever stop looking at what
8:04
Speaker 3: the consequences are and have you got that right.
8:06
Speaker 2: And are they right? At the moment because it doesn't
8:08
Speaker 2: seem like it to a lot of our listeners.
8:10
Speaker 3: Well, I've flag three areas where I think we can
8:12
Speaker 3: do more at least at least more like these are
8:13
Speaker 3: the three areas we've got working on at the moment.
8:15
Speaker 3: So property crymes are vehicle theft. I think vehicle theft
8:18
Speaker 3: seems to have really popped up in recent times. So
8:21
Speaker 3: where we have consequences on property crime and vehicle theft
8:24
Speaker 3: and what the consequences are ring leader So this is
8:27
Speaker 3: something that we want to work on. The recent example
8:30
Speaker 3: in our springs in my opinion that fits this category
8:32
Speaker 3: to where the people who they're essentially older people involved
8:37
Speaker 3: days if it's convary, but older people involved who are
8:39
Speaker 3: encouraging younger people to commit crimes and making sure that
8:41
Speaker 3: we are catching the whole net and not letting those
8:43
Speaker 3: ring leaders get away of it. And then this is
8:46
Speaker 3: one I think is really important, giving police greater options
8:52
Speaker 3: for them to be able to divert when police have
8:54
Speaker 3: that ability. So a big example, I'm sure your degree
8:58
Speaker 3: of this Kadian interest. See what your listeners think they
9:02
Speaker 3: visible community restitution, so return to community giving back. So
9:06
Speaker 3: if you've committed a crime, visibly showing that you're giving
9:09
Speaker 3: back to a community.
9:10
Speaker 2: So if you break a window, go out and help.
9:12
Speaker 3: Repair it, painting over graffiti, picking up like publicly returning
9:17
Speaker 3: work to the community. That's not saying please, can divert
9:19
Speaker 3: you to it at the moment they polease don't have
9:21
Speaker 3: that ability. We'd have to change law to give police
9:23
Speaker 3: that ability to divert to those kind of programs. And
9:25
Speaker 3: that might be a partnship with the chain who knows
9:27
Speaker 3: you did it, who were the provider, but it could
9:29
Speaker 3: be the Chamber of Commerce runs a program like that and.
9:31
Speaker 1: You divert to them.
9:32
Speaker 2: So you're going to change that law.
9:33
Speaker 1: That's what Yes, that's what we want to do. That's
9:36
Speaker 1: the priority.
9:36
Speaker 3: So those three things I think are really important things
9:38
Speaker 3: for us to do this year that go that consequences
9:40
Speaker 3: space and the preventing crime bit that's just hard, unfortunately
9:44
Speaker 3: slow work.
9:45
Speaker 1: And I'll give an example.
9:46
Speaker 3: We've gone from about sixteen hundred families who are being
9:50
Speaker 3: notified you know, invulnerable, down to thirteen hundred now tragically
9:55
Speaker 3: that we know that if you are essentially flagged and
9:57
Speaker 3: the system then as needing help being a vulnerable family,
10:00
Speaker 3: there's almost a pipeline. You can see that the trend there,
10:03
Speaker 3: the percentages grow that more and more likely are to
10:05
Speaker 3: be evolved in committing a crime. So if we can
10:07
Speaker 3: get those numbers down there, we know that the people
10:10
Speaker 3: coming through the pipe that may commit crimes being reduced
10:12
Speaker 3: to and that's just hard, slow working, right.
10:15
Speaker 2: So some of these sentencing options then, so you're talking
10:17
Speaker 2: about changing so effectively you've said that you are going
10:20
Speaker 2: to look at changing the law so that our police
10:23
Speaker 2: have more options when it comes to those kids that
10:26
Speaker 2: need to be diverted, so ie restitution, going out there,
10:30
Speaker 2: going and actually fixing the windows that you've ruined, going
10:32
Speaker 2: and cleaning the graffiti. When we talk about the sentencing
10:35
Speaker 2: options right now, we know obviously there's don Dale, there's
10:38
Speaker 2: also that victim conferencing. There's supported bail accommodation boot camps
10:44
Speaker 2: as well as that. Now, if we can just run
10:47
Speaker 2: through a few of those so I can get a
10:48
Speaker 2: bit of a better idea how they're working for our
10:51
Speaker 2: listeners as well. So basically, let's talk about youth detention
10:55
Speaker 2: right now. How many kids are in youth detention Ie
10:59
Speaker 2: Donde and the other detention centers.
11:01
Speaker 1: Right now, there's around forty kids in detention right now.
11:04
Speaker 2: Okay, why wouldn't your Minister for Territory Families answer that
11:07
Speaker 2: last week?
11:08
Speaker 3: I don't know, I can double check with it, but
11:09
Speaker 3: I've given out that figure in the p I've given
11:11
Speaker 3: that figure in your show a lot. I think about
11:13
Speaker 3: forty kids in detention the moment.
11:14
Speaker 2: Okay, so forty kids in detention at the moment. Now,
11:18
Speaker 2: let's move along when it talk when we talk about
11:20
Speaker 2: these boot camps, they've been flagged as one of the
11:22
Speaker 2: options that you've created. How many kids have gone through
11:26
Speaker 2: those boot camps?
11:27
Speaker 3: My info goes to a financial year which is a
11:30
Speaker 3: bit old now, Eau to February. So I have eleven
11:35
Speaker 3: camps with six seven kids going through it. Now that's
11:37
Speaker 3: for nineteen twenty. Since then, we've got seven INMU stations
11:40
Speaker 3: stood up. So that's that cattle station out near Bori Lula.
11:42
Speaker 3: I think that's gonna be an excellent option for diversion
11:45
Speaker 3: for kids. I'm not sure if cattle station quis as
11:48
Speaker 3: boot camp, but I think it does.
11:49
Speaker 2: I know how fuch we get you it'd be how
11:51
Speaker 2: it works, So I be that's a hard think.
11:53
Speaker 3: So I mind saying six seven went through those eleven camps.
11:55
Speaker 3: I ask for more detail about what they're canning. It
11:57
Speaker 3: as those camps by six seven through in an eighty
12:00
Speaker 3: five percent success and essentially not reoffending does mean fifteen
12:06
Speaker 3: percent did reoffend. And that's where you've got to keep
12:08
Speaker 3: working in those numbers. So you've got to look at
12:09
Speaker 3: both sides of the stat I think they're eight five percent.
12:11
Speaker 1: That's great. How do you get the fifteen percent improved?
12:14
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about Salt Bush. How many kids
12:16
Speaker 2: have gone through Salt Bush?
12:18
Speaker 1: That's about eighty I think.
12:19
Speaker 2: About eighty kids. Now, would you consider that those that
12:22
Speaker 2: are going through those boot camps that it's working? Do
12:25
Speaker 2: we need more going through those boot camps?
12:27
Speaker 1: Yeah?
12:27
Speaker 3: So I'd say a five per cent sex success rate
12:30
Speaker 3: is pretty good. And I want as many kids as
12:33
Speaker 3: possible to have the right consequence.
12:35
Speaker 1: So I want police are the courts?
12:37
Speaker 3: I look there and go right, I men, you I
12:39
Speaker 3: can send this kid to one of these eight options
12:41
Speaker 3: to pick the options that they think is going to
12:43
Speaker 3: have the most genuine, serious return and the best best result. No,
12:48
Speaker 3: not every kid will get the result out of seven
12:49
Speaker 3: EMU station. It might be the First Steps program that's
12:52
Speaker 3: that centers to training one that you're in a doing
12:56
Speaker 3: with Ruscuer Brothers. Okay, yeah, yeah, so your choice, all right.
13:02
Speaker 2: So when we talk about then young people that are
13:05
Speaker 2: on bail, now, this is something that's been flagged obviously
13:07
Speaker 2: in Queensland. The Police Union have called from for a
13:10
Speaker 2: number of changes in Queensland. So when you've got young
13:12
Speaker 2: people who are on bail, how many have those electronic
13:16
Speaker 2: monitoring bracelets to ensure that they're not breaching their bail.
13:19
Speaker 3: So we've obviously given the power for that to be done.
13:22
Speaker 3: How many would be wearing them would change. So bails
13:26
Speaker 3: a highly fluctuating number because it's a short period of
13:28
Speaker 3: time before they go before the for the courts for consequences.
13:31
Speaker 3: So I have to do some work about that number.
13:33
Speaker 3: But that number, I imagine would bounce a bit because it's
13:36
Speaker 3: that amount of kids on bail who maybe on bail
13:38
Speaker 3: can change.
13:39
Speaker 2: Is it correct that there's only been one that's actually
13:41
Speaker 2: had to wear one of those electronic monitoring bracelets?
13:44
Speaker 1: I have to do. I have double check on that one, Katie.
13:46
Speaker 2: Do you I mean is this a space where we
13:48
Speaker 2: can do better?
13:49
Speaker 3: Well, we'll definitely given the power if they're not being used,
13:51
Speaker 3: then it might be a technical thing we have to
13:53
Speaker 3: find out for the police.
13:53
Speaker 2: If they're not the decision is it because my understanding
13:56
Speaker 2: as well is that even if the police then are
13:58
Speaker 2: able to have the young people wearing those bracelets, that
14:02
Speaker 2: then that data has to go through territory families if
14:05
Speaker 2: someone breaches their bail or takes that monitoring bracelet off.
14:09
Speaker 2: I mean, does that to you indicate that we need
14:11
Speaker 2: to actually sort that out and if the police are
14:14
Speaker 2: the ones that have to monitor it, that they should
14:16
Speaker 2: be the ones who can see that data live.
14:17
Speaker 3: Oh so on that not necessarily to that issue, but
14:19
Speaker 3: on that we are working on a tender that would
14:21
Speaker 3: involve corrections, territory families and police, so essentially one provider
14:25
Speaker 3: in stead of three, which I think just makes sense
14:27
Speaker 3: from a fiscal point of view. I know when I
14:30
Speaker 3: was the policemaniser. This is a bit rusty Katie, So
14:32
Speaker 3: Madame n Cole Madison might be able to talk to
14:33
Speaker 3: this some more detail, or I can go ask the question.
14:36
Speaker 3: There were some technical issues at times with the bracelet,
14:39
Speaker 3: so you have to have ballioled to a place where
14:41
Speaker 3: you can charge it. Every twenty four hours and all
14:42
Speaker 3: that sort of stuff. There was some technical barriers to
14:45
Speaker 3: the operation of the bracelet, as you can probably manage
14:47
Speaker 3: a bit of tech that was restricting police. Then I
14:51
Speaker 3: don't know if those restrictions are still impacting some police decisions.
14:53
Speaker 2: Now, Okay, now when we talk about then the youth
14:57
Speaker 2: bail laws, who requested the chain than to youth bail laws,
15:01
Speaker 2: So there wasn't a presumption against baiol.
15:04
Speaker 3: So this is I hope you don't mind. Okay, this
15:06
Speaker 3: one could be a bit complicated. I think the most
15:07
Speaker 3: import things say is there is no guarantee of bail.
15:10
Speaker 3: I think that's really important. And if it's a serious offense,
15:14
Speaker 3: as the term of bo police or the courts, you
15:16
Speaker 3: can go on to Remand there are thirty kids on
15:18
Speaker 3: remand right now, so bail's not a guarantee.
15:20
Speaker 1: Bail's not an automate thing. That's granted.
15:22
Speaker 3: There are thirty kids physically remanded right now in a
15:25
Speaker 3: youth justice system waiting to go before the court. So
15:27
Speaker 3: you're not guaranteed bail. My understanding what the Royal Commission found,
15:30
Speaker 3: so this is this is outcoming out of the Yal Commission,
15:32
Speaker 3: was that some kids weren't given the bail option because.
15:39
Speaker 1: There was nowhere to bail them too. So so not
15:42
Speaker 1: everyone comes from.
15:43
Speaker 3: A safe home, and sometimes kids were having to be
15:47
Speaker 3: reminded because the place of bail. And I think you
15:50
Speaker 3: can appreciate I'm trying to talk carefully here because some
15:52
Speaker 3: of these kids are in very Yeah, the.
15:53
Speaker 1: Rest advice is a classic example.
15:54
Speaker 3: If sathing's going on in that household and violin, you
15:58
Speaker 3: get out and that town is a breach of bail.
16:00
Speaker 3: So one of the requirements out of the Royal Commissioners
16:02
Speaker 3: we set up these supportive bail places so that a
16:06
Speaker 3: court caer look at a kid and go right, this
16:07
Speaker 3: kid actually qualifies to bail. His home's not up to scratch,
16:09
Speaker 3: but I can't send him back to his home. Here's
16:11
Speaker 3: a supported bail accommodation. They can go there, but it's
16:14
Speaker 3: not a guarantee. There are thirty on remand right now,
16:16
Speaker 3: so the thirty kids who didn't qualify for bail and
16:18
Speaker 3: are physically in Dondale.
16:20
Speaker 2: All right, Look what I'm getting at is, you know,
16:22
Speaker 2: we certainly hear time and time again from our listeners
16:26
Speaker 2: that they're really concerned that young people who are out
16:29
Speaker 2: on bail are recommitting offenses. Do we need to relook
16:35
Speaker 2: at this legislation.
16:38
Speaker 3: I'll break it down this way. What can I do
16:40
Speaker 3: to stop crime occurring? If a crime's occurred and not
16:43
Speaker 3: every kid gets bailed. If crime occurs and a kid
16:46
Speaker 3: gets bailed, that's after a crime's occurred, But it's a
16:48
Speaker 3: brief period of time before the consequences come into place.
16:51
Speaker 3: And then so for me, those two aspects are more important.
16:54
Speaker 3: Preventing crime and make sure there's a consequence. If a
16:56
Speaker 3: kid's committing crime on bail, and that's a problem. The
16:58
Speaker 3: courts pro made mistake around the bail decision, but it's
17:00
Speaker 3: also a very brief period of time. I'll always take advice,
17:03
Speaker 3: I'll look at what Queensland's doing. But for me, what
17:06
Speaker 3: can I do to stop a crime occurring? And what
17:07
Speaker 3: can I do to make sure a crime does occur
17:08
Speaker 3: again in the first play next time? You know, there're
17:10
Speaker 3: two big things I need to work on. Bail's a
17:12
Speaker 3: very brief period of time, and to my understanding, it's
17:16
Speaker 3: stopping the crime and making sure there's a consequence more
17:19
Speaker 3: important to me.
17:19
Speaker 2: I mean, do you acknowledge though that the community is
17:22
Speaker 2: screaming out for something to change here. Like I cannot
17:25
Speaker 2: tell you how often we hear about this. I feel
17:28
Speaker 2: like I'm banging my head against a wool, So I
17:30
Speaker 2: don't know how you guys are feeling. But something needs
17:33
Speaker 2: to change in this space.
17:35
Speaker 3: And you'll see I'll get it, and you'll see from
17:37
Speaker 3: ours significant work in around that consequence of space. This year,
17:40
Speaker 3: we've done a lot of work in the round bail
17:44
Speaker 3: if it's given, as I said, thirty kids in remand,
17:46
Speaker 3: so it's not guarantee, you know, and the court should
17:49
Speaker 3: if they've got some doubts, make sure that kid goes
17:51
Speaker 3: into remand and doesn't committed.
17:52
Speaker 2: So can I just with those numbers you said, there's
17:54
Speaker 2: forty kids in detention right now and a thirty of
17:57
Speaker 2: those on remand.
17:58
Speaker 3: So I'll double check that, mindstanding, it's four kids in detention,
18:00
Speaker 3: thirty kids on remarks, which is seventy yep it comment,
18:04
Speaker 3: it's not ten kids in detention, so I think it's
18:06
Speaker 3: the seventies the correct number.
18:08
Speaker 2: Okay, Chief finister. Can we we've got so many messages
18:11
Speaker 2: coming through. I will read a couple of those out
18:13
Speaker 2: to you in a minute. But one of your minister's
18:15
Speaker 2: Chancey Paike said that he is going to meet with
18:17
Speaker 2: the opposition members in Alice Springs to try and sort
18:20
Speaker 2: the issues that they're having in Central Australia. Well, do
18:23
Speaker 2: you can see that Alice Springs is at crisis point?
18:26
Speaker 3: I think that Alice Springs keeps spiking and it's a
18:30
Speaker 3: real problem. So we had a very bad weekend in
18:32
Speaker 3: our Springs on the twenty third and twenty fourth of January,
18:35
Speaker 3: those twenty five property crime offenses. We responded immediately, police
18:38
Speaker 3: s fan them all extra police patrols through the CBD
18:41
Speaker 3: and we haven't had a repeat of that weekend. So
18:45
Speaker 3: I think there are number of things we did in
18:46
Speaker 3: ol Springs that worked over the school holiday period. The
18:49
Speaker 3: youth hub I believe worked. We had you know a
18:51
Speaker 3: lot of kids go through that youth hub, but then
18:53
Speaker 3: you had that extremely bad weekend. So you just can
18:55
Speaker 3: never be complacent.
18:56
Speaker 2: Well, I'm just reading here Steve who who runs thrifty
19:01
Speaker 2: car Rentals. He said he doesn't usually comment on social media,
19:05
Speaker 2: but thrifty car Rentals has been since Christmas fourteen broken
19:09
Speaker 2: windows in cars and buildings, unlawful entries into our yard,
19:14
Speaker 2: several attempt to break in and massive amounts of damage.
19:17
Speaker 2: I mean, this is just sort of this sounds as
19:19
Speaker 2: though it's become something that's just common in Alice.
19:22
Speaker 3: And we don't want it to be common. I don't
19:24
Speaker 3: want anyone else Springs to not feel safe. And so
19:28
Speaker 3: we've obviously got a lot of victims of crime in
19:30
Speaker 3: our springs. We've got a lot of people working their
19:33
Speaker 3: guts out in ours, and we've increased number of people
19:35
Speaker 3: working in our springs on these issues, not just with police,
19:37
Speaker 3: but with territory, families and other things. We keep trying
19:40
Speaker 3: new things, so that you table was a brand new
19:41
Speaker 3: thing we tried over December January. We've got a lot
19:43
Speaker 3: of kids off the streets into a safe place and engage,
19:47
Speaker 3: which I.
19:47
Speaker 1: Think is really important.
19:48
Speaker 3: So that goes to that crime prevention space doesn't mean
19:50
Speaker 3: crime didn't ocur, and so we've still got a lot
19:52
Speaker 3: of work we've got to do there. There's a mobility
19:55
Speaker 3: factor to well, there's mobility fact on the terretory full stop.
19:57
Speaker 3: I think there's a bigger mobility factor in ours, and
20:01
Speaker 3: you have kids moving in and out, families moving in
20:03
Speaker 3: and out. It's not always visitors that come to town
20:05
Speaker 3: that commit these crimes unfortunately, like it is Al Springs
20:07
Speaker 3: kids too. So there's just a lot of work. There's
20:10
Speaker 3: just going to be a lot of work in Our Springs.
20:12
Speaker 3: And I'm not going to lie to you and so
20:13
Speaker 3: there's a quick fix or a civil bullet. It's just
20:15
Speaker 3: a lot of work.
20:15
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone thinks there is. But Chief, why
20:18
Speaker 2: didn't you meet with community members when you were there
20:20
Speaker 2: last week?
20:21
Speaker 3: So I offer meet with commupp when I'm in ol Springs.
20:24
Speaker 3: The last trip was very very quick, short trip down there,
20:27
Speaker 3: so Brent Warren, who's currently running Office Department of Chief
20:31
Speaker 3: Minister in Our Springs, a short stint. He's actually out
20:33
Speaker 3: of territory families, very senior in territory families, so we're
20:36
Speaker 3: going to have to recruit to replace his role. So
20:39
Speaker 3: the priority of my trip was meeting with him and
20:41
Speaker 3: talking about what had been happening in Ol Springs, wast Sows,
20:43
Speaker 3: the challenges ahead, and going through that with him. So
20:46
Speaker 3: it was a bit as a working trip, basically working
20:48
Speaker 3: and tasking.
20:49
Speaker 2: I mean for the people of Alice Springs, though they
20:51
Speaker 2: feel as though they're in crisis. I mean, when you
20:54
Speaker 2: talk about a crisis, obviously COVID has been a crisis
20:57
Speaker 2: all around Australia and it's been high on the priority
20:59
Speaker 2: list for everybody. When you then look at Alice Springs,
21:02
Speaker 2: they feel like they're in crisis. Don't you think that
21:05
Speaker 2: you should sit down with those community members and actually
21:08
Speaker 2: hear what they've got to say.
21:10
Speaker 3: And I do that all the time, and I'll have
21:11
Speaker 3: you to do that next time analyics as well. So
21:13
Speaker 3: that's a regular thing I do in Alice usually go
21:15
Speaker 3: out patrol with the police or territory family workers at
21:18
Speaker 3: different times of night and see what's going on as well.
21:20
Speaker 3: So I do a lot of that work when I
21:21
Speaker 3: go down to Alice. Absolutely accept that responsibility as chief,
21:25
Speaker 3: So I get to Alice a lot and obviously do
21:27
Speaker 3: that in Alice went regularly.
21:29
Speaker 2: Okay, Chief, I'm just going to read a couple of
21:31
Speaker 2: messages that we've received this morning. One here says Katie,
21:34
Speaker 2: can you please ask the Chief Minister, how can you
21:36
Speaker 2: say there are no issues with crime when there were
21:38
Speaker 2: five break ins overnight in one street of Humpty Doo,
21:42
Speaker 2: including a lady who lives by herself in her seventies.
21:45
Speaker 3: I don't think you've ever heard me say there's no
21:47
Speaker 3: issues with crime, Katie, is a constant thing we've got
21:49
Speaker 3: to work on. I would never say there're no is
21:51
Speaker 3: shoes of crime.
21:52
Speaker 2: Another one here from the Karama community page. It's a
21:55
Speaker 2: kid's walking a kid walking around with bolt cutters in there,
21:59
Speaker 2: you know, carrying around bolt cart.
22:00
Speaker 1: I think of an innocent reason for that.
22:02
Speaker 2: Exactly, and I think it kind of demonstrates I suppose
22:05
Speaker 2: the concerns that some people have got in those community,
22:09
Speaker 2: in those different areas. One here, Katie, can you please
22:12
Speaker 2: ask the Chief minister, how do you see restitution helping
22:16
Speaker 2: with My seventy four year old neighbor who was broken
22:18
Speaker 2: into last night, was so scared it took her an
22:21
Speaker 2: hour to pick up the phone to call the police.
22:24
Speaker 2: I mean, what would you say to that person so
22:26
Speaker 2: that that has to.
22:27
Speaker 1: Be a consequence.
22:28
Speaker 3: I understand that that won't if we make that person
22:31
Speaker 3: feel safe, but what happens to someone who commits a crime,
22:35
Speaker 3: there has to be a consequence as genuine and serious
22:37
Speaker 3: and leads to a change of behavior. And I think
22:39
Speaker 3: the community also wants to see that there are people
22:43
Speaker 3: who are returning back to community. So I get that
22:45
Speaker 3: for that person, that may not make them feel safe,
22:47
Speaker 3: but I can't let the person get off scott free either,
22:49
Speaker 3: so I don't think is what they're asking for.
22:51
Speaker 2: I've got a message here from one of our listeners
22:54
Speaker 2: in Alice Springs and it's from being It says, although
22:56
Speaker 2: bail is after crime has occurred, the fact that there
23:00
Speaker 2: are kids still committing crime after being on bail is
23:03
Speaker 2: a sign that the deterrent is not there.
23:07
Speaker 3: Well, there has to be a consequence, and that's what
23:10
Speaker 3: I'm working on. Bail's that brief period time before the
23:12
Speaker 3: consequences is given. There are thirty kids on remand bail's
23:16
Speaker 3: not guaranteed. And if you obviously do the wrong thing
23:18
Speaker 3: and bail and you go before the courts, you're going
23:21
Speaker 3: to face a much deeper consequence.
23:23
Speaker 2: Chief. In the paper today, it's being reported that the
23:25
Speaker 2: Law Council President slammed mandatory sentencing regimes here in the
23:29
Speaker 2: Northern Territory. I mean, is this a situation right now
23:33
Speaker 2: where you, as the Chief Minister and the Government are
23:36
Speaker 2: trying your best to juggle the expectations obviously of the
23:39
Speaker 2: law community and the handing down of the Royal Commission
23:43
Speaker 2: and the expectation of the community. That's crying out for help.
23:48
Speaker 1: There.
23:49
Speaker 3: I think there are many sides to the law and
23:51
Speaker 3: order conversation. For me as chief, I'm going to take
23:54
Speaker 3: it all on. Then I just have to do what's
23:56
Speaker 3: best for what I see is best for territories that's
23:58
Speaker 3: got to do the work. Law Reform Committee says, you know,
24:02
Speaker 3: they will take their position. I think territorians want to
24:05
Speaker 3: see a genuine, meaningful consequence that breaks a cycle of crime,
24:10
Speaker 3: and that's the intention that that's why I'm going to
24:12
Speaker 3: take out of the prole Commission, and so that's why
24:15
Speaker 3: I've got to deliver. I think the comments today we're
24:18
Speaker 3: a little out of step what public expectation is.
24:21
Speaker 1: But I guess it post shows that.
24:23
Speaker 3: As to you, if you'll get criticized from many fronts,
24:26
Speaker 3: you've got to always just do your best. And my
24:28
Speaker 3: best has to be that territorians feel safe and are safe.
24:31
Speaker 1: There has to be the outcome.
24:32
Speaker 3: There has to be the outcome, and there are territories
24:34
Speaker 3: out there that don't meet either of those criteria, and
24:36
Speaker 3: so you've got to keep doing the work until they do.
24:39
Speaker 2: Is this the number one priority for you right now?
24:42
Speaker 1: Yeah? And jobs?
24:43
Speaker 3: I think safety and jobs like Yeah, there's many aspects
24:46
Speaker 3: of safety. You can throw coronavirus under safety, and then
24:48
Speaker 3: we've got to get get people employed. Right, The one
24:51
Speaker 3: long term way out of this if you've got crime
24:55
Speaker 3: problems is a pump and economy, and we're coming back
24:57
Speaker 3: at the moment some good stats going our way. But
24:59
Speaker 3: you've got to you've got to grow the economy. You've
25:01
Speaker 3: got to give hope, you gotta give jobs, and that's
25:03
Speaker 3: one thing that tackles crime.
25:04
Speaker 2: Chief Minister Michael Gunner, I appreciate your time this morning.
25:07
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for coming in and we'll catch
25:10
Speaker 2: you in a couple of weeks. Thank you, thank you,