Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Braitling Joshua Burgoyne says immediate intervention is needed on crime in Alice Springs

Transcript

Member for Braitling Joshua Burgoyne says immediate intervention is needed on crime in Alice Springs · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yesterday on the show, we spoke with the Chief Minister
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: about the crime in Alice Springs and we also spoke
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to the principle if you bring your school and the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: team from the Public Order Response in it about some
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of the possible measures which could help in Central Australia.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Now we know that the situation around crime is certainly
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: not isolated to Alice and it certainly is an issue
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: which has been raised on this show on well so
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: many occasions, too many, i'd say to count. Now joining
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: me on the line is the local member for Brakley,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Josh Burgoyne.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Josh.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Kay, good morning to you.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Listen now, Josh, you've been speaking to us about these
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: issues of crime in Central Australia for quite some time.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: But for our listeners, why has this issue really reached
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: crisis point? As Tourism Central Australia told us on the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: show earlier.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: In the week.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, thank you Katie for having us on and
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: labor are failing the people of Alla Springs. I listened
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: to you speak with Danie Rushford from Tourism Central Australia
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: and what they call this is exactly what it is,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: a crime crisis, and the fact that the Chief Minister
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: and Labor the only people not acknowledging that it's a
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: crime crisis just shows that they yet to actually acknowledge
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: the issues that we face. To put it in perspective
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: for your listeners, in Ala Springs, the total property offenses
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: we are seeing over a year is seven thousand, six
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: hundred and ninety six. That's more than you're experiencing in Darwin,
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: a population size of more than three times the size
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: of Alice Springs. So you know, we only have about
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: twenty eight thousand people here, yet we're experiencing more total
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: property offenses over a year than you are up in Dahlen.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: That's the sort of level of crime we're experiencing down
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: here three times that then you're experiencing up in Darwen.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: And when I listen to the ABC radio yesterday up
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: in Darwin, and you know the government talk about this
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: new dog patrol that they've got for Karama and Malak
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: that I think you spoke about yesterday as well, I
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: just shake my head because I go, well, what are
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: they doing down here in our springs. They're obviously doing
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: things up up in Duham where their labor ministers are
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: or when it comes to our springs, they've just got
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: their heads in the sand and that's what's so frustrating
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: about this issue.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Well, and this is one of the things that Daniel
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Rochford did touch on is that you know a lot
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of the measures are reactionary. Could we be doing more
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: in Central Australia that's proactive?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, do you think that's something like.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: That that patrol unit that is indeed, you know it's
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a public order response unit, so it's a private enterprise
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: with the canines that provide that security. But do you
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: think something like that would actually help in Central Australia.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: When we talk about all these initiatives, they are short
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: term things that can ease the pain straight away. When
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: I went to that Tourism Central Australia meeting, the passion
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: in the room from a lot of people and Daniel
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: touched on it. They are literally going home not knowing
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: what they're going to come into the next day. When
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: it comes to their businesses, they don't know if they're
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: going to come in to smash windows. Their business is
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: absolutely you know, smashed beyond reposition, because that's what's happened
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: in the past so we need something to deal with
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: the issue we face right now, and then we can
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: work on those long term solutions that the government always
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: talk about. Because when I actually take the time Katie
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: and I do to sit in is youth court and
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: see what happens, Unfortunately we don't have enough options for
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: our young people. We just simply don't. It's either bail
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: or they end up in youth detention. And there are
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: some programs bail supported, accommodation and other things, but there's
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: not enough out there. We need serious options for other
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: young people when something in between basically just giving a
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: young person bail or them ending up in attention because
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: what's currently happening isn't working. Police are doing a great
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: job picking these young offenders up, but unfortunately, more often
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: than off more often than not, they're just getting a
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: slap on the wrist and being let straight back out.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Well, this is the thing, you know, I think that
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: it's so obvious to everybody to see that something needs
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to happen urgently. You know, there needs to be that
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: stop gap put in place immediately, and then you know
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: some of those longer term changes, well obviously they're going
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to continue on, but we do need to look at
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: other options and I just sort of, you know, I
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: think to myself, I don't think any of us can
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: kind of you know, can sit idle on this issue
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form. But the government they
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: need to listen to what people are saying right now.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: And if you've got you know, the head of Tourism
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: in Central Australia, the person tasked to promote Central Australia
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: saying please help us. Basically we've reached crisis point. If
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: that's not the lightning rod that's needed.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know what is.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Exactly right, Katie. I mean you've hit the nail on
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: the head when we talk about the Social Order Response
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Team that the government keep holding up as this thing
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: that they're doing all it is, and I've got it
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: in front of me. You know, it's a flashy brochure.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: It's saying that they're going to be doing what they
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: should have been doing all along, which is working with
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: all the organizations. What I seriously want to know is
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: what's happening with the service mapping that we keep hearing about.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Are there any KPIs attached to the funding that the
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Labor government just keeps throwing out to all these organizations
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: because currently I don't know what organizations are being funded
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: to do what, but it's not working. So we need
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: to really look at what the MTG is funding, what's working,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: what's not working, and seriously look at reallocating that funding
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: in the programs that can keep the community of Alice
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Springs safe.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Josh tell us how things been going this week in
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs. I mean, my understanding is that there's been
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: more ram raids and other incidents that have happened.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: This week alone.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: There's been a huge amount of ram raids on businesses
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: right around town. I'm still dealing with a gentleman who
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: had his nephew held up by a machete. And this
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: is sort of the severity of the incidents that we're
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: seeing now. When a young person who's walking home from
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: a night out is accosted by a group of views
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: and a knife a machete is held to his throat. Now,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: these are the things that are occurring in our springs,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: and we don't often hear about these things that happen.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Where did that happen, Josh.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: This happened I believe a couple of weeks ago, and
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: that person spoke at council Alice Springstown Council yesterday and
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: spoke to Radio here and other Springs incident, and I'm
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: continuing to follow up with police in regard to that
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: because quite often what happens is that young person is
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: so that they're not in a right state of mind,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: so when police do come up to him. I actually
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: was able to find out that unfortunately, that young person
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: didn't give a statement at the time, and I was
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: able to get in touch with his uncle and say,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: please make sure that young person goes in and gives
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: a statement so the police can follow up. And these
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: are so many things that are occurring. I mean, I've
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: to go back, you know, a few months ago when
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: a young lady was out running and was assaulted. You know,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: it's just there's shocking incidents that are occurring right across
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: our community. And unfortunately police are run off their feet
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: dealing with these things day in day out, and we
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: don't often find out what's happened with the perpetrators of
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: these defenses. And you hit the nail on the head yesterday,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Katie when you spoke to the Chief Minister. Why are
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: they wanting to raise the age of criminal responsibility between
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: ten to fourteen. The police have to prove that the
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: young person knew what they were doing was wrong, and
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: more often than not, a lot of those a lot
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: of those cases are just withdrawn because the prosecutors cannot
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: prove that. It's such a difficult thing for them to prove.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: And I just don't understand, when we've got so much
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: crime occurring in our community, why they would want to
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: make it more difficult for police to do their role
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: and make sure that when young people are doing the
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: wrong thing that they intervene in their young person's life
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: and try to stop them from doing the wrong thing.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: It's just it's beyond reasoning, Josh.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: One of the other insightful discussions I had yesterday was
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: actually with the school principal from you pering your school,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: and there was a funding commitment made by the former
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: coalition for the ypper in your school when it comes
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: to accommodation.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: He spoke to us about the fact that there are
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a number of students of students from the school that
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: are obviously roaming the streets at night and not necessarily
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: engaging in good behavior, and spoke about what he thought
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: would be the benefit scene of that accommodation being provided
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: not only to students but also to staff. Josh, do
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: you think that something like this would help?
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely, Katie. We've been speaking about this for quite
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: a while. And for your listeners up there, Nippering, your
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: school was a school that was really falling into a
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: state where there were more teachers than students actually attending.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: What the new principal, I believe it's govern has done
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: since he's gone in there, is turned that school around
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: and it's a wonderful place now that young people are attending.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: And when we talk about all the issues we face,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: schooling is quite often the number one thing that we
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: point to as a solution for all this. If a
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: young person is attending school during daylight hours, then they're
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: not going to be up all night doing the wrong thing.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: So absolutely, I would implore every government, no matter who
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: they are, to invest in these sorts of schools that
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: are working with young people. And if they want to
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: have a boarding role, I think that's fantastic because unfortunately
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: we have to acknowledge the reality that for a lot
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: of these young people, the reason they are out late
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: at night is because our home environments aren't safe. So
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: you know, if the boarding environment is the way to go,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: let's fund it, let's work towards it. It's these sorts
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: of things that we should be investing in rather than
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: saying it's all too hard because currently we're spending millions
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: of dollars and we're going nowhere far.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Josh, I know you are pressed for time, obviously, police
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: it is National Police Remembrance Day and there are a
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: number of different commemorative events taking place. But I do
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: want to just ask you very quickly before I let
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you go. We know that we're all keeping an incredibly
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: close eye on these petrol prices.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: The termin gate price has jumped astronomically overnight in Darwin.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: You know you're unleatered.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Yesterday at the terminal gate was sitting at a dollar
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: fifty four point four. It's gone up to a dollar
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: sixty six point five at the terminal gate. Then for
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: your diesel, it's gone from a dollar eighty six point
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: four yesterday to a dollar ninety eight point nine. I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: mean that's just at the terminal gate. Obviously we've not
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: seen any huge jumps yet at the bowser. But it's
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: a worry and I think everybody is sort of sitting
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: on their the edge of the seat, wondering exactly when
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: it's going to happen.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, kay, you look down here in Alice Springs, we're
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: still paying above two dollars a liter for diesel. It's
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: a huge impact on businesses, on individuals. As we know,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: there's inflation. Currently, we're dealing with the cost of living pressures.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: As it's been widely spoken about the COLP. We've got
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: this fuel bill before Parliament where we're wanting to drive
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: that home. So that basically will just force fuel stations
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: to have to show their profit margins. And what that's
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: about is that we can actually see whether they are
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: gouge and whether the profit margins that businesses up here
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: are charging is more than that down south, because we
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: all know when we travel down south, you know, as
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: soon as you hit South Australia the fuel price drops
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: by up to thirty to forty cents. Now, why we're
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: paying so much more up here, I do not know.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: That's what we need to be looking into. And if
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: the whatever reason we are being gouged, we need to
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: know about it and give consumers that knowledge, that that
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: data that then they can make decisions for themselves. And
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: back in people that aren't gouging well.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Member four Braklen, Joshua Burgoyne. We appreciate your time this morning.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Thanks very much for having a chat with us.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Katie Kachi, thank you,