Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with ALP Member for Karama Ngaree Ah Kit
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: We have been talking excuse me, quite a bit about
- 0:03Speaker 1: the situation in Karama and some of the issues that
- 0:07Speaker 1: listeners have been reporting to us when it comes to crime.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is the
- 0:12Speaker 1: member for Karama, Nairi r Kid. Good morning, Ari, Good
- 0:17Speaker 1: morning Katie. Thanks so much for your time this morning.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Nairi.
- 0:20Speaker 1: I know that last night you did facilitate a discussion
- 0:24Speaker 1: with some Malac and Korama residents to try and establish
- 0:27Speaker 1: a way forward. Talk us through exactly what you did yesterday.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Yeah, so thanks Katie. I was able to meet with
- 0:36Speaker 2: eight wonderful community members who will have their own skill
- 0:39Speaker 2: sets and experiences. They've all been touched by crime, some
- 0:43Speaker 2: long term residents, all focused on a way forward. So
- 0:47Speaker 2: the work that I've been doing, the work that a
- 0:48Speaker 2: lot of other people have been doing in our community
- 0:51Speaker 2: and to support our community, has revealed that the biggest
- 0:54Speaker 2: gap is harnessing a strong community voice and making sure
- 0:57Speaker 2: that the people in the community are actually we heard
- 1:00Speaker 2: and listened to. So the idea was to get a
- 1:04Speaker 2: small group of people together to have a really detailed
- 1:07Speaker 2: chat about a way forward, a forward that the community
- 1:11Speaker 2: can have that voice that I as a local member
- 1:14Speaker 2: do not interfere with if they should not be a
- 1:16Speaker 2: political there should be no political interferences about supporting the
- 1:21Speaker 2: community to have their voice and to make sure that
- 1:23Speaker 2: can stand alone going forward. So as you can appreciate, Katie,
- 1:27Speaker 2: there were a lot of stories and a lot of
- 1:28Speaker 2: experiences shared that there was a strong a commitment to
- 1:33Speaker 2: making sure that every other resident and business operator in
- 1:37Speaker 2: all of Malac, in all of Karma have the opportunity
- 1:40Speaker 2: to engage with their local voice. So, by no means
- 1:43Speaker 2: of the eight people who I met with last night
- 1:45Speaker 2: the be all and end or that is not what
- 1:47Speaker 2: they're doing. But we actually need a small group of
- 1:49Speaker 2: community members to drive this process forward, which is what
- 1:52Speaker 2: they've agreed to do.
- 1:53Speaker 1: Well, Look, I want to say from the art sets,
- 1:55Speaker 1: I think that it was a good decision by you
- 1:57Speaker 1: to have those residents there in your and hear their concerns. Unfortunately,
- 2:03Speaker 1: from what we're being told in the studio this morning,
- 2:05Speaker 1: lots of disappointed people wondering why there was only eight allowed.
- 2:11Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're right, Katie, I did have it in
- 2:13Speaker 2: my electorate office. I wanted to have a small group
- 2:15Speaker 2: of people who could represent a subsection of the community
- 2:19Speaker 2: in order to I if I organize a big community
- 2:22Speaker 2: get together, and I'd like to do that. At this stage,
- 2:24Speaker 2: I'm haming for next year. I think there's two different
- 2:26Speaker 2: opportunities that I want to provide for the electorate, and
- 2:29Speaker 2: I was able to discuss with a lot of people
- 2:31Speaker 2: in the lead up to this meeting. One is an
- 2:33Speaker 2: opportunity to get people together like they did in bees
- 2:36Speaker 2: Creek the other week. That's an opportunity to vent, to
- 2:39Speaker 2: share the stories, to actually clearly highlight to myself and
- 2:44Speaker 2: others about what the impact is, what's happening, but more
- 2:47Speaker 2: importantly solutions focused. And so that's a really important opportunity.
- 2:51Speaker 2: And then the second one is supporting this local group.
- 2:54Speaker 2: And so in order to have I guess the traction
- 2:58Speaker 2: that we wanted before Christmas, to get a group on
- 3:00Speaker 2: the path to be up and running early in the
- 3:02Speaker 2: new year. A small group of people, the eight is
- 3:05Speaker 2: the number that we've gone with so far to actually
- 3:07Speaker 2: drive this forward is far more manageable than three hundred NRI.
- 3:12Speaker 1: I mean is sort of looking at December. I know
- 3:15Speaker 1: we're not far away from December, so I think that
- 3:17Speaker 1: that's obviously a good thing to have the forum then
- 3:20Speaker 1: where people can be heard. But really, when you're talking
- 3:23Speaker 1: about having a working group, when you're talking about making changes,
- 3:26Speaker 1: I would think that waiting until sort of next year
- 3:29Speaker 1: is going to be a long time to wait, particularly
- 3:32Speaker 1: when you talk about the school holidays coming into play,
- 3:35Speaker 1: and we all know that over the school holidays, very
- 3:38Speaker 1: often we see an increase in this bad behavior.
- 3:41Speaker 2: Katie, You're absolutely right. That is my biggest fear at
- 3:43Speaker 2: the moment, as we are going into the school holidays
- 3:46Speaker 2: in the next four or five weeks, and I'm assuming
- 3:48Speaker 2: and I hope that a lot of residents take the
- 3:50Speaker 2: opportunity to travel and have a bit of a break
- 3:52Speaker 2: after a tough year. The group last night decided that
- 3:55Speaker 2: they would hold an open community forum on the fourteenth
- 3:58Speaker 2: of December. So, by no means are they or I
- 4:00Speaker 2: wait un till next year. We wanted to set a
- 4:03Speaker 2: realistic time frame. We want to make sure that the
- 4:05Speaker 2: community is engaged and that they are completely independent from
- 4:09Speaker 2: what I want and what I need. I am a
- 4:11Speaker 2: community member, but I'm the local member first and foremost,
- 4:14Speaker 2: so Katie, on the fourteenth of December, we are trying
- 4:17Speaker 2: to organize a venue. The committee will the community group
- 4:21Speaker 2: will let everybody know and their idea is they said
- 4:23Speaker 2: to me very clearly, and they were all an agree
- 4:25Speaker 2: with Katie. The number one priority is to engage every
- 4:29Speaker 2: community member in regards to the establishment of this group.
- 4:33Speaker 2: So the directions and everything will have to come from
- 4:36Speaker 2: the community, not just the eight that we're in the
- 4:38Speaker 2: room that night. They're going to be, if you like,
- 4:40Speaker 2: a working party to make sure there is an appropriate
- 4:43Speaker 2: way forward because they are community residents as well, and
- 4:46Speaker 2: they don't want anybody in the community feeling like they
- 4:49Speaker 2: don't actually get to say in the voice that is
- 4:51Speaker 2: there to represent them.
- 4:52Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 4:52Speaker 2: I think that's December is that day.
- 4:54Speaker 1: It's incredibly important. Today is incredibly important. We're getting a
- 4:57Speaker 1: lot of messages through this morning. Iri one here who
- 5:00Speaker 1: picked the eight people in the group.
- 5:02Speaker 2: That was me, Katie. So I've been working closely with
- 5:06Speaker 2: about four or five people in regards to proactive community responses.
- 5:10Speaker 2: That's through a variety of work I've been undertaking people
- 5:13Speaker 2: and I have been having conversations about we actually need
- 5:16Speaker 2: a community post, right, we need it to be independent, right,
- 5:19Speaker 2: how about we look at setting one up and how
- 5:20Speaker 2: about we do that now? Rather than next year. So
- 5:23Speaker 2: that's how it came about. I had four people on
- 5:25Speaker 2: my list, and then I wanted to open it up
- 5:27Speaker 2: and go, well, let's go for another four who I
- 5:29Speaker 2: haven't been working with. Let's give that opportunity to some
- 5:32Speaker 2: of the others. So the other half of the room
- 5:34Speaker 2: was actually filled with people who are a s VP
- 5:36Speaker 2: to my Facebook post.
- 5:37Speaker 3: Okay, NRI mixture of people.
- 5:40Speaker 1: Again, there's so many messages flowing through on our techline.
- 5:44Speaker 1: There's one here. We don't need another talk fast, we
- 5:47Speaker 1: just need action.
- 5:48Speaker 2: Absolutely, I couldn't agree more and I think every other
- 5:51Speaker 2: community member and stakeholder can agree with that. And that's
- 5:54Speaker 2: why this needs to be run by the actual community.
- 5:56Speaker 2: I will continue to advocate as the biggest champion for
- 5:59Speaker 2: this elector. I am the electorate representative. I will continue
- 6:02Speaker 2: to push for any changes that we need. I will
- 6:05Speaker 2: continue to work closely with police, are doing an amazing
- 6:07Speaker 2: job through their targeted operation. I will continue working with
- 6:11Speaker 2: the center owners and with local residents all about solutions.
- 6:15Speaker 2: Bar that community boys needs to be driven by community people.
- 6:18Speaker 2: Absolutely supported by me, but I'm not there to interfere.
- 6:22Speaker 2: I'm to actually harness that so that when I'm not
- 6:25Speaker 2: in this job. When the next person is in this job,
- 6:27Speaker 2: we can just see rama going from strength to strength
- 6:29Speaker 2: because the community's voice has not only heard, it's actually respected,
- 6:33Speaker 2: it's picked up, and it's actually delibered.
- 6:35Speaker 3: I guess, Nri, I look again.
- 6:38Speaker 1: I want to say, I think that it's a good thing,
- 6:41Speaker 1: you know, that you're involving the community, and that obviously
- 6:43Speaker 1: this is going to be community driven. But some of
- 6:46Speaker 1: the issues that we're talking about, I mean, you know,
- 6:49Speaker 1: things like housing and some of the public housing residents
- 6:52Speaker 1: as we've been had one listener contact us about earlier
- 6:56Speaker 1: this morning, and some of these issues with crime, they're
- 6:59Speaker 1: really difficult things for the community to.
- 7:02Speaker 3: Drive any change in.
- 7:04Speaker 1: You know, they're talking we're talking here about some policy
- 7:07Speaker 1: change from government and getting time on some of these
- 7:11Speaker 1: issues that we've got. Particularly if you've got people that
- 7:14Speaker 1: are running amok in their public housing. I mean, how's
- 7:16Speaker 1: a community group going to be able to deal with that.
- 7:19Speaker 2: I'm really glad you asked that question, Katie, because we
- 7:21Speaker 2: actually discussed that in quired a lot of detail last night.
- 7:24Speaker 2: At least two of the people on there have had
- 7:26Speaker 2: direct experiences with problematic public housing Tendencies and so that's
- 7:32Speaker 2: when we've been working very hard on to make some
- 7:34Speaker 2: changes in the Residential Tendencies Act because what we find
- 7:37Speaker 2: at the moment is the policies in place by the
- 7:38Speaker 2: Department can't be upheld or adhere to through the legislation.
- 7:42Speaker 2: So that's something that we are looking at fixing. But
- 7:44Speaker 2: what the community. What One of the great suggestions last
- 7:47Speaker 2: night came from the group, Katie, was let's be change agents.
- 7:50Speaker 2: Let's be the community's voice and the change agents. Let's
- 7:53Speaker 2: have a review of all of these policies and legislation
- 7:56Speaker 2: and let's go in and actually tell people what doesn't
- 7:58Speaker 2: work in our community. And I thought that. I thought
- 8:00Speaker 2: that's exactly what we can do. So the people in
- 8:03Speaker 2: the room, like I said, they have a diverse skill set,
- 8:05Speaker 2: they have experience, you know, in the community, they have
- 8:08Speaker 2: that lived experience. A lot of them know how government operates,
- 8:12Speaker 2: and they're really willing to try and set this up
- 8:15Speaker 2: the best way that suits the community. And that's their
- 8:17Speaker 2: key message, Katie. They should not be set up to
- 8:21Speaker 2: have a politician or have government or any of the
- 8:23Speaker 2: service providers telling the group what needs to happen. This
- 8:26Speaker 2: has got to be the other way around, NRI.
- 8:28Speaker 1: Were are the people who were selected to be part
- 8:31Speaker 1: of that group?
- 8:32Speaker 3: Are they people who've been victims of crime?
- 8:35Speaker 2: I believe, so I didn't ask them last night. This
- 8:38Speaker 2: is all about solutions focused. Some people have been here
- 8:40Speaker 2: for twenty years, so I would really be surprised if
- 8:43Speaker 2: not everybody was directly impacted.
- 8:45Speaker 1: Okay, I want to read a couple of messages out
- 8:47Speaker 1: that we've received there. Like I said, we've just had
- 8:50Speaker 1: an influx of messages, so I'm just trying to get
- 8:52Speaker 1: through through. Look, I've got one here which i'll read
- 8:56Speaker 1: out to you now, and it says I don't understand
- 8:59Speaker 1: why Wilagi's being mentioned in this as it's got nothing
- 9:03Speaker 1: to do with Karama and Malac.
- 9:05Speaker 2: And it was completely agreed. Yes, I've never mentioned Wilagi.
- 9:08Speaker 2: I'm not the member for Wallagi. I told the Channel
- 9:11Speaker 2: nine news reporter. I'm not Wilagi. It is Malac in Karama,
- 9:14Speaker 2: So I don't know why that was N's all right, Well,
- 9:17Speaker 2: I've provided clarify, we'll take.
- 9:20Speaker 3: That bit out. We'll we'll stay though on the message.
- 9:22Speaker 1: And it says Nyri's been silent on the issues in
- 9:25Speaker 1: Karama for months. She never applies to messages on the
- 9:28Speaker 1: community Facebook groups. She never responds to complaints made at
- 9:32Speaker 1: her office. We're living in absolute fear. Our homes are
- 9:35Speaker 1: completely worthless. We'd sell if we could, But who were.
- 9:38Speaker 3: Going to live in a war zone?
- 9:40Speaker 1: For too many, far too many housing commission houses in
- 9:43Speaker 1: one area and massive amounts of family in town from
- 9:46Speaker 1: remote areas, all staying in these houses with family. There's overcrowding,
- 9:50Speaker 1: fighting in the streets, kids not at school, drinking in parks,
- 9:53Speaker 1: broken glass everywhere, there's gang tags on fences, and shop
- 9:57Speaker 1: assistants are being terrorized. The is soft on crime. Niri
- 10:02Speaker 1: can have all the meetings she likes, but until the
- 10:04Speaker 1: laws change on youths and Territory Housing gets serious about
- 10:07Speaker 1: their policies and evicting bad tenants, nothing's going to change.
- 10:12Speaker 1: Where is the government's duty of care for the hard working,
- 10:15Speaker 1: law abiding, tax paying citizens that are living in fear.
- 10:21Speaker 2: There is nothing in that statement that I have not
- 10:23Speaker 2: been discussing myself, and I really appreciate the person for
- 10:26Speaker 2: taking the opportunity to send that through. I take that
- 10:29Speaker 2: all on board. Some of the short answers, well, I've
- 10:31Speaker 2: got the time is that one of the suggestions by
- 10:34Speaker 2: the group last night, and I absolutely applaud their sentiments,
- 10:36Speaker 2: is to actually push to have explanations or push to
- 10:41Speaker 2: make agencies deliver on the protocols and the procedures that
- 10:45Speaker 2: are actually in place. Territory housing problematic territory housing tendencies
- 10:50Speaker 2: have been rife in my electorate. Every fifth home public housing, Katie.
- 10:54Speaker 2: There is a lot of vulnerability. There is a lot
- 10:56Speaker 2: of poverty. That's why we're always experiencing more than our
- 10:59Speaker 2: fair and that's not okay. I've got a long term plan.
- 11:02Speaker 2: I've been trying to push to have public housing sold
- 11:05Speaker 2: off and identified. There are amazing public housing tenants who
- 11:08Speaker 2: deserve the opportunity. Instead of being kicked out when they
- 11:11Speaker 2: earn too much, which is wonderful, they should have the
- 11:13Speaker 2: opportunity to buy because most of those times those people
- 11:16Speaker 2: have been wonderful community contributed and they deserve a reward
- 11:19Speaker 2: for all of their good behavior. All I can say
- 11:22Speaker 2: is that I am still working with everybody to be
- 11:24Speaker 2: able to do their jobs properly. Every single day I
- 11:27Speaker 2: get texts like that, I get messages like that my
- 11:29Speaker 2: office has been completely and undated, and I really appreciate
- 11:32Speaker 2: everybody taking the time to contact. I am working my
- 11:35Speaker 2: way through the list of all the people who have
- 11:37Speaker 2: asked me for help, which is absolutely amazing. That is
- 11:40Speaker 2: my role as local member. I am doing what I
- 11:43Speaker 2: can at the pace that I can at the moment,
- 11:45Speaker 2: and I'm still working right up till Christmas to make
- 11:47Speaker 2: sure I can help as many people and get twenty
- 11:49Speaker 2: twenty one off. You're a really good start, Niri.
- 11:53Speaker 1: This is another question that's just come through, and I
- 11:55Speaker 1: reckon it's a fitting way for us to wrap things up.
- 11:57Speaker 3: What happens next?
- 12:00Speaker 2: That's a good question. So when I put it to
- 12:01Speaker 2: the group last night, I said, what do you want
- 12:05Speaker 2: to see happen next? What would you like me to
- 12:06Speaker 2: help you with? How do you maintain your independence? And
- 12:09Speaker 2: they took it upon themselves to say, let's get back
- 12:11Speaker 2: to the community, let's give everybody a summary of tonight's
- 12:15Speaker 2: get together, and let's plan the way forward through the
- 12:17Speaker 2: fourteenth of December. So I believe that the community group,
- 12:20Speaker 2: when they hold they're open forward, they're actually going to
- 12:23Speaker 2: be sharing a lot of information beforehead so that people
- 12:26Speaker 2: could do a bit of homework before they come along
- 12:28Speaker 2: and actually partake, and this will be between community members
- 12:31Speaker 2: and community members. If the community group would like any
- 12:34Speaker 2: special guests to come along, if they'd like any resources,
- 12:37Speaker 2: I'm there one hundred percent to back them up with
- 12:39Speaker 2: whatever they need. However, this will be run by the community,
- 12:42Speaker 2: so they want to talk to their peers and their
- 12:44Speaker 2: fellow residents and neighbors in the area to say, we
- 12:47Speaker 2: all know what the issues are, what are the ways forward,
- 12:49Speaker 2: Let's hear your stories, and how do we actually elect
- 12:53Speaker 2: the group that actually goes forward. We're happy to be
- 12:55Speaker 2: the temporary organizers of getting our voice up and running,
- 12:59Speaker 2: but as they can't decide that, well, my community has to.
- 13:02Speaker 3: And I guess you know.
- 13:03Speaker 1: The difficulty here is an IRI as well, is that
- 13:06Speaker 1: you're listening and I can you know, I want to
- 13:09Speaker 1: give credit where it's due. You've fronted up today and
- 13:12Speaker 1: you're prepared to talk about this. You also obviously are
- 13:15Speaker 1: fronting up to talk about it even though it's tough,
- 13:17Speaker 1: and I think that I'll.
- 13:18Speaker 3: Give that credit where it's due.
- 13:20Speaker 1: I always think it's really important to front up and
- 13:23Speaker 1: hear what people have got to say. But I guess
- 13:25Speaker 1: the difficulty that I'm hearing at the moment through you know,
- 13:28Speaker 1: through those texts that are coming through is people seem
- 13:31Speaker 1: really worried that it's going to be a talk fest
- 13:34Speaker 1: and that then they're going to put out all these
- 13:36Speaker 1: concerns that they've gotten the changes that you want to
- 13:39Speaker 1: have implemented, and the government's not going to listen. So
- 13:42Speaker 1: what guarantees can you give as the local member that
- 13:45Speaker 1: you're going to really, you know, push as hard as
- 13:48Speaker 1: you can to make sure that some changes are implemented.
- 13:52Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, Kate. And if anybody knows me my characteristics
- 13:55Speaker 2: before and during this job, they will know that when
- 13:58Speaker 2: I pick something up that I'm really passionate. I am
- 14:00Speaker 2: like a dog with a bone, and I won't let
- 14:02Speaker 2: it go. I was raised in the community. I've bought
- 14:04Speaker 2: my home in the community in two thousand and six.
- 14:06Speaker 2: I love my community. I've got a lot of fond
- 14:08Speaker 2: memories and I've met some amazing people. And I fight
- 14:10Speaker 2: every single day to make sure that we get the
- 14:13Speaker 2: standards of life that we deserve. And I will not
- 14:15Speaker 2: give up until that's reached in this job, after this job,
- 14:18Speaker 2: whatever it takes, but I'm there. I'm there to listen
- 14:20Speaker 2: to everybody. I don't pretend I have all the answers,
- 14:22Speaker 2: but I'm fortunate to be in government. I'm fortunate to
- 14:25Speaker 2: have my colleagues who are the ministers. I'm able to
- 14:28Speaker 2: sit there one on one and actually let them know
- 14:30Speaker 2: what we're experiencing. But I often think it's much better
- 14:33Speaker 2: and much clearer when it comes from eight or ten
- 14:36Speaker 2: thousand local residents who can actually tell the story, rather
- 14:39Speaker 2: than it being filtered through me as local member. I
- 14:41Speaker 2: have my own experiences as a local resident that this
- 14:44Speaker 2: is about working with the community, and I get the
- 14:48Speaker 2: you know, I understand that people might be a bit
- 14:50Speaker 2: skeptical about it. I completely understand that, and that's unfortunately,
- 14:54Speaker 2: you know, the reality of what we're working in here,
- 14:56Speaker 2: but I'm not going to let that. I don't want
- 14:58Speaker 2: to let the skepticism stop us from what we all
- 15:00Speaker 2: believer is right, and that's making sure that community voice
- 15:02Speaker 2: gets up and running and that it's listened to. Because
- 15:04Speaker 2: in the long term, Katie, if this community voice has
- 15:07Speaker 2: listened to, we're going to see an absolute change in Chroma,
- 15:09Speaker 2: one that we so gladly need. And I'm really sorry
- 15:12Speaker 2: it's twenty twenty and we're starting on this now, but
- 15:14Speaker 2: I'm really excited to get it up and running.
- 15:16Speaker 3: Niri are kit.
- 15:17Speaker 1: I appreciate your time this morning, and like I said,
- 15:20Speaker 1: you know, I know that there's lots of people listening
- 15:22Speaker 1: this morning, and I'm getting plenty of messages coming through.
- 15:25Speaker 1: Some people are really skeptical, some people are really glad
- 15:28Speaker 1: with what you've done. Some people are saying nothing's going
- 15:30Speaker 1: to change. But as I said, you know, I appreciate
- 15:33Speaker 1: the fact that you've fronted up, You're listening to people's concerns,
- 15:36Speaker 1: and I really hope that this is going to be
- 15:39Speaker 1: the change that is required in Karama, because I know
- 15:41Speaker 1: that the residents that way are really desperately calling for it.
- 15:45Speaker 3: Me too, Katie, Thanks, Thanks Nyrie, I appreciate it.