Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was - December 3 2021

Transcript

The Week That Was - December 3 2021 · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: And it is Friday morning.
0:01
Speaker 2: It is time for the week that was, and joining
0:04
Speaker 2: me in the studio right now. We have got the
0:06
Speaker 2: opposition spokesperson for Health, Bill Yan, Good morning to you.
0:09
Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
0:10
Speaker 1: How are you, Yeah, very well. We've got the independent
0:12
Speaker 1: member for aralou and Robin Lamley, good.
0:14
Speaker 4: Morning, Good morning Katie.
0:16
Speaker 1: And we've got the Minister for Education Lauren Mosk Good morning,
0:18
Speaker 1: Good morning, Katie.
0:19
Speaker 2: Great to have you all in the studio this morning,
0:21
Speaker 2: and we might go firstly to a bit of an
0:24
Speaker 2: update around COVID. We are expecting there to be a
0:26
Speaker 2: further update a little later this morning, but we do
0:29
Speaker 2: know that there was one extra case of COVID yesterday,
0:32
Speaker 2: a man from lar Jamanu, which really means that we
0:34
Speaker 2: have got COVID in another remote community and still trying
0:38
Speaker 2: to piece together exactly how it's ended up in lar Jermanu.
0:42
Speaker 2: At this point, I think that by looking at it
0:46
Speaker 2: from the outside in, we have managed things quite well
0:49
Speaker 2: in terms of keeping it all under control up until
0:52
Speaker 2: this point, and today we'll get a further idea of
0:54
Speaker 2: how things are looking in larger Manu. Lauren, is there
0:57
Speaker 2: much of a further update from the government at this point.
1:00
Speaker 5: Oh, look, I know that the Health Minister in the
1:03
Speaker 5: Chief Minister will be out later today to provide an
1:05
Speaker 5: update on this. They'll be likely to be in SEMC
1:09
Speaker 5: at the moment, which they've been doing every day from
1:12
Speaker 5: when we've been in sittings. They've obviously had those emergency
1:14
Speaker 5: management meetings and yeah, we'll get that update later this morning.
1:19
Speaker 5: But it's obviously concerning and everybody's working really really hard
1:23
Speaker 5: to get as much information as possible.
1:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought it was a great disappointment to hear
1:28
Speaker 4: that there was an actual case in larger Manu. I
1:30
Speaker 4: think everyone was holding out hope that they'd got it wrong,
1:33
Speaker 4: that the wastewater traces were some sort of anomaly, but
1:37
Speaker 4: they weren't, and having one case probably means that there
1:40
Speaker 4: are other cases in larger Manu today. I think the
1:45
Speaker 4: government's done a great job in containing it. You know,
1:49
Speaker 4: the last couple of weeks Binjara and Robinson River, you
1:53
Speaker 4: know that's been handled. So well, let's hope we can
1:56
Speaker 4: get on top of this situation in larger Manu very quickly.
2:01
Speaker 6: I spoke to Natashi yesterday during sittings about Larger Manu,
2:05
Speaker 6: and I'm pretty concerned actually for the region because this
2:08
Speaker 6: time of the year, the people out in communities.
2:10
Speaker 3: They're really mobile, the.
2:12
Speaker 6: Moving between communities, moving between towns, so there's a lot
2:16
Speaker 6: of mobility. So we still don't know how, of course
2:20
Speaker 6: we end up with COVID in Larger Manu, and of
2:23
Speaker 6: course the wastewater is dropping away. We've got positive tests now,
2:26
Speaker 6: so where of the people from larger man who's been
2:29
Speaker 6: or where are they going now? So I know we're
2:31
Speaker 6: doing wastewater teaching at Yunimu and some of those other
2:34
Speaker 6: communities out there and in our springs.
2:37
Speaker 3: I'm really holding my breath at the moment just to
2:39
Speaker 3: see what Renzo.
2:40
Speaker 2: Well, this is the real concern, I suppose, isn't it
2:42
Speaker 2: is that we do have such a transient population. Everybody
2:45
Speaker 2: moves around a lot. And what this has shown is
2:48
Speaker 2: that you know that quite unwittingly, it's gone from from
2:52
Speaker 2: near Catherine to ending up then in Larger Manu, which
2:54
Speaker 2: I believe is about five hundred kilometers away, so it
2:57
Speaker 2: is quite a distance, but it does demonstrate that we've
3:00
Speaker 2: got a very transient population and that once theys things
3:03
Speaker 2: on the move, we've really got to do our best
3:05
Speaker 2: to contain it and tried to keep things just in
3:08
Speaker 2: those communities, like in the community that it's currently in.
3:12
Speaker 6: The lady from Kirby's who owns Kirbys and Catherine, said
3:15
Speaker 6: that some of the patrons that were in on that
3:17
Speaker 6: day were from Lajamanu and some of those remote communities
3:21
Speaker 6: and then they gone from Kirby's back out those communities.
3:24
Speaker 6: So there's one link, and there's also that link then.
3:28
Speaker 3: Through Binjari and Rock Hole and further afield.
3:31
Speaker 1: Well, we'll keep a very close eye on that.
3:33
Speaker 2: And the one thing that people were keeping an incredibly
3:36
Speaker 2: close eye on earlier in the week was those COVID escapees.
3:40
Speaker 2: The Northern Territory opposition I know was demanding more detail
3:44
Speaker 2: about security measures at Darwin's main quarantine center following on
3:48
Speaker 2: from those, well the escape of the three young fellows
3:51
Speaker 2: earlier in the week, but then there was also an
3:53
Speaker 2: escape over the course of the weekend and that person
3:57
Speaker 2: allegedly escaped and then went into Mitchell's. Now, by the
4:02
Speaker 2: sounds of things, everybody, all of those licensed premises were
4:04
Speaker 2: doing the right thing in terms of making sure people
4:06
Speaker 2: were checking in and not letting people in unless they
4:09
Speaker 2: had but it does really make you worry that. You know,
4:13
Speaker 2: we understand that it's not a jail out there at
4:15
Speaker 2: Howard Springs, and nobody is suggesting that it should be.
4:18
Speaker 2: But you want to keep people in there, particularly when
4:21
Speaker 2: there is that real fear of spread.
4:23
Speaker 4: You can't have people absconding. You can't. Years ago I
4:27
Speaker 4: set up alcohol mandatory treatment in Alice Springs and we
4:31
Speaker 4: had people absconding all the time. And they're opposition, the
4:35
Speaker 4: labor opposition used to beat me up at every opportunity
4:38
Speaker 4: about these people flying over the fans from alcohol mandatory treatment,
4:42
Speaker 4: and here we have the same thing happening at Howard Springs.
4:45
Speaker 4: I think they've lost their gold star status, people jumping
4:49
Speaker 4: over the fens and potentially infecting you know, the whole
4:52
Speaker 4: of Darwin. I don't know about you, but I was
4:54
Speaker 4: thinking about running down to coals and buying some food,
4:57
Speaker 4: thinking we'll not to go into lockdown.
5:00
Speaker 1: Well, that was the worry that people had.
5:01
Speaker 2: We had a lot of people getting in contact with
5:03
Speaker 2: us here at the station that were really concerned, and
5:05
Speaker 2: especially as they were driving into work, there was cars
5:08
Speaker 2: being stopped. The police are obviously having to search through
5:11
Speaker 2: those cars to make sure that there was nobody or
5:13
Speaker 2: hiding in a boosh or doing the wrong thing.
5:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know a little bit about security.
5:17
Speaker 6: K I suppose in a previous life I hadn't using
5:19
Speaker 6: corrections absconding. Ye, a little bit about people absconding. Been
5:24
Speaker 6: drawn over the coals for that. But look, you've got
5:26
Speaker 6: to think about the checks and balances that are happening
5:29
Speaker 6: out there at Howard Springs that allows people to just
5:32
Speaker 6: go over the fence. I need to really tighten up
5:35
Speaker 6: security because this is where the league will come from
5:38
Speaker 6: if somebody you look, worst case scenario this somebody with
5:42
Speaker 6: COVID goes over the fence and goes into Mitchell Street
5:46
Speaker 6: and then infects everybody in Darwin.
5:49
Speaker 2: That was the worry I reckon like, obviously they were
5:52
Speaker 2: all the concern, but that was the worry that I
5:54
Speaker 2: understand was the twenty seven year old band who'd escaped
5:58
Speaker 2: over the fence.
5:59
Speaker 1: Last week Friday.
6:01
Speaker 2: Now we'd reported on this earlier in the week on
6:03
Speaker 2: Monday that then one of the licensed venues ended up
6:06
Speaker 2: sort of having to lock everybody in for a short
6:09
Speaker 2: period of time while they well, the police made sure
6:11
Speaker 2: that they that they got that person, and obviously took
6:15
Speaker 2: them back.
6:15
Speaker 1: I'm assuming out to Howard Springs.
6:17
Speaker 2: But what I wonder as well is is there a
6:20
Speaker 2: penalty or what you know, what happens if somebody does
6:24
Speaker 2: abscond and is that something that that the government's now
6:27
Speaker 2: looking into.
6:28
Speaker 5: Well, there's obviously finds Katie for people who are doing
6:30
Speaker 5: the wrong thing, and there is CCTV cameras out there,
6:34
Speaker 5: and I want to thank police. I think they you know,
6:36
Speaker 5: they did a tremendous job, I know, you know, and
6:39
Speaker 5: used to get out pretty quickly. There was those rope
6:41
Speaker 5: blocks there, there was cards being searched, and they found
6:44
Speaker 5: those absconders pretty quickly. I've obviously done a couple of
6:48
Speaker 5: days myself in so you can't I didn't well toddline
6:57
Speaker 5: there so had It's might be bit difficult moments, but
7:01
Speaker 5: look at me. Police do the rounds in there, as
7:04
Speaker 5: do other team members, so you know they are doing
7:06
Speaker 5: a phenomenal job. They did get on it really quickly,
7:10
Speaker 5: you know, and there are all sorts of considerations like
7:13
Speaker 5: whether people have to start their time again, and those
7:16
Speaker 5: sorts of things that you know, Sempsey and others will
7:19
Speaker 5: be and those people that evolved in the operations will
7:22
Speaker 5: have to be considering, so you know, people have to
7:24
Speaker 5: do the right thing. I mean, you will be likely
7:28
Speaker 5: be penalized for it, but also you know you may
7:31
Speaker 5: end up serving, yeah, having to spend more time in
7:35
Speaker 5: there because you've had to reset you.
7:36
Speaker 6: But I suppose what are they actually doing though at
7:39
Speaker 6: Howard Springs to get that message out to people not
7:43
Speaker 6: to do this?
7:44
Speaker 3: That's number one.
7:46
Speaker 6: You've got one of what's running through somebody's mind with
7:49
Speaker 6: one day to go on quarantine, they've had all the
7:51
Speaker 6: tests that all some want to go over the fence.
7:54
Speaker 6: Where is there a communication between the staff and the
7:57
Speaker 6: management they're at Howard Springs to support those people who
8:01
Speaker 6: are in quarantine who may be giving these stupid ideas
8:05
Speaker 6: some thought and actually knocking it on the head. That's again,
8:09
Speaker 6: that's the person that comes to my mind because that's
8:12
Speaker 6: what we used to do in corrections.
8:13
Speaker 4: It's important they're not prisoners, are they. I mean I
8:16
Speaker 4: was talking to someone after that occurred the other day
8:19
Speaker 4: that comes from a remote community and they said, you
8:22
Speaker 4: know a lot of these people will be used to
8:24
Speaker 4: drinking every day, smoking dope every day, smoking cigarettes every day.
8:30
Speaker 4: You know, going into how it springs into confinement. They're
8:36
Speaker 4: potentially some of these people and it'd.
8:38
Speaker 1: Be hard for a lot of people.
8:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, would suggest you know, going into that environment for
8:42
Speaker 2: a two week period, regardless of where you're from or
8:45
Speaker 2: you know, regardless of your background, it will be tough going.
8:47
Speaker 2: But I think at the end of the day, it's
8:49
Speaker 2: to try to protect the whole community, particularly when you
8:52
Speaker 2: look at the fact that we have just seen in Binjari,
8:56
Speaker 2: you know rock Hole now larje Amounus a concern and
8:59
Speaker 2: in Catherine when we talking about the ramifications being enormous,
9:03
Speaker 2: particularly if you have to see a whole you know,
9:06
Speaker 2: a whole town lockdown then so it's tough.
9:09
Speaker 5: It is tough, and I think, you know, we've the
9:12
Speaker 5: people in Binjari, Robinson, River, Lajemunu, like I'm just thinking
9:18
Speaker 5: of them. It's it's incredibly hard. I mean, we know
9:20
Speaker 5: we've had very short periods here in Darwin around you
9:24
Speaker 5: know lockdown and in the early.
9:26
Speaker 1: Days and on lockout.
9:28
Speaker 5: That's an incredibly hard thing for people to be confined
9:32
Speaker 5: to their houses when they are used to being able
9:35
Speaker 5: to spend most of their day with other community members,
9:39
Speaker 5: family members, and then yeah, I just think they're doing
9:42
Speaker 5: a tremendous job on the whole out there those communities,
9:45
Speaker 5: and it would be really tough, particularly when you know
9:47
Speaker 5: you've got cases in the community and it's a scary thing.
9:49
Speaker 6: Territories today right now probably want to know what government
9:53
Speaker 6: are doing to stop this from happening again, because I
9:55
Speaker 6: said it puts all territories at richk.
9:58
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, what's happening.
10:00
Speaker 6: What's happening security wise right now today at Howard Springs
10:04
Speaker 6: to stop repeat of this because if we're going to
10:06
Speaker 6: get more people from communities having to come in and
10:09
Speaker 6: quarantine as we see COVID moving around air remote areas,
10:12
Speaker 6: we have that risk of more people getting I suppose
10:16
Speaker 6: a little bit towey and wanting something and not being
10:19
Speaker 6: able to get it, and the first reaction is well,
10:21
Speaker 6: I'm just going to go and do it.
10:23
Speaker 3: So that's what we need to address well.
10:24
Speaker 2: And I do know that the police Commissioner had announced
10:27
Speaker 2: throughout that press conference straight after the incident that there
10:29
Speaker 2: would be additional CCTV cameras, so hopefully that makes a difference.
10:34
Speaker 2: It does also sort of go to show you it's
10:36
Speaker 2: such a massive area out there and there is so
10:38
Speaker 2: much bushland around it, which has its pros in the
10:41
Speaker 2: sense that you know, we're not doing hotel quarantine like
10:43
Speaker 2: we've seen in other states. But the negative is then
10:46
Speaker 2: if somebody gets out that they're quite difficult to locate quickly,
10:50
Speaker 2: I would suspect we will take a very short break.
10:53
Speaker 2: You are listening to Mix one O four point nine's
10:55
Speaker 2: three sixty. It is the week that was also broadcasting
10:58
Speaker 2: on AHA in Alice. Well, it is just on twenty
11:01
Speaker 2: minutes after nine o'clock and in the studio with me
11:03
Speaker 2: this morning, we've got Lauren Moss, Robin Lamley and Bill
11:06
Speaker 2: Yan And it's been a very busy week, the last
11:10
Speaker 2: parliamentary sittings for the year.
11:13
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what.
11:15
Speaker 2: There was some interesting moments throughout the week, but one
11:19
Speaker 2: which got quite hot under the caller yesterday was when
11:23
Speaker 2: the government used its numbers to shut down that parliamentary
11:26
Speaker 2: debate on the Privileges Committee report into disgraced MLA Mark Turner.
11:31
Speaker 2: It happened yesterday and saw the Deputy Opposition leader Jared
11:35
Speaker 2: Maylee thrown out.
11:36
Speaker 1: Now you guys were all in there. I wasn't what
11:39
Speaker 1: exactly happened.
11:40
Speaker 6: Well, Jared bought the motion forward in the morning YEP
11:47
Speaker 6: for that report now standing order to say that the
11:50
Speaker 6: report has to be delivered as soon as possible to Parliament.
11:53
Speaker 6: So it was released publicly a week or so ago.
11:57
Speaker 6: The government hadn't brought the report to Parliament. Jared bought
12:00
Speaker 6: the report to Parliament yesterday morning as a member of
12:02
Speaker 6: that committee and.
12:04
Speaker 3: Got shut down not to be heard. So it was
12:08
Speaker 3: it was really really obvious.
12:10
Speaker 6: That the government didn't actually want to talk about that
12:12
Speaker 6: and certainly didn't want to hear any bad news about
12:15
Speaker 6: that report, and debate was effectively gagged.
12:20
Speaker 3: Jared was pretty upset.
12:21
Speaker 6: He went out and I think he just got more
12:23
Speaker 6: and more upset when he went out and he came
12:25
Speaker 6: back in and he said he gave the Chief Minister
12:27
Speaker 6: a spray because he was pretty angry that he couldn't
12:31
Speaker 6: debate and Parliament couldn't talk about the contents of that report.
12:36
Speaker 5: Why was that, Lauren, look, I think that yesterday was
12:40
Speaker 5: a stunt from the COLP. I think Jared very clearly
12:44
Speaker 5: wanted to be ejected from the chamber. He was getting
12:47
Speaker 5: more and more escalated. The Deputy chievements to pull him
12:50
Speaker 5: out on it, looking very much like he wanted to
12:54
Speaker 5: get purposely ejected from the chamber. I think it was
12:57
Speaker 5: a stunt.
12:58
Speaker 4: The report was.
13:00
Speaker 1: How come he wanted to get would he want to
13:02
Speaker 1: get thrown out?
13:03
Speaker 5: I just think that the CLP wanted to create a
13:06
Speaker 5: bit of drumm yesterday around this particular matter. It's it's public,
13:09
Speaker 5: it's been widely reported on. We had government business to
13:13
Speaker 5: get onto. We've had an enormous amount of legislation this week,
13:16
Speaker 5: and really important legislation. Look quite frankly, I don't particularly
13:21
Speaker 5: nobody in my electorate wants to talk any further about Mark, so.
13:29
Speaker 2: That there are still a lot of questions which remain unanswered.
13:32
Speaker 2: And at this point, the thing that Jered Melee had
13:34
Speaker 2: said to me yesterday on air when I'd asked him
13:36
Speaker 2: about it is is that you know, it's gone through
13:39
Speaker 2: the privileges process and there was no evidence allowed to
13:43
Speaker 2: sort of you know, allowed to be tabled, is my
13:46
Speaker 2: understanding or not? Not as much as they had hoped,
13:48
Speaker 2: And there was no further sort of questioning that was
13:51
Speaker 2: able to happen as part of that parliamentary privileges process.
13:55
Speaker 2: So then for Mark Turner to be entirely cleared and
13:58
Speaker 2: there to then be no further discussion about it inside
14:02
Speaker 2: the Parliament.
14:02
Speaker 1: I actually disagree.
14:03
Speaker 2: I do think that Territorians reserve the right to know
14:07
Speaker 2: that every member within our Parliament that is holding a
14:11
Speaker 2: position of great power and privilege does need to actually
14:15
Speaker 2: be held to a certain standard.
14:17
Speaker 6: There's some pretty basic rules of investigation and evidence, Katie.
14:21
Speaker 6: When you're doing an investigation, you have to look at
14:23
Speaker 6: all the evidence. You don't just cherry pick which evidence
14:26
Speaker 6: you want to look at. You've got to look at
14:27
Speaker 6: everything as a whole. And government didn't. They didn't bother
14:32
Speaker 6: to interview the Chief Minister asked for evidence there, or
14:35
Speaker 6: the Member for Bloind they didn't ask for evidence or
14:37
Speaker 6: interview him either. They just went on what they had
14:41
Speaker 6: at the time. And that's not enough. That just doesn't
14:45
Speaker 6: stand up. It's not good enough.
14:46
Speaker 1: Well, it wouldn't stand up in the court of law.
14:48
Speaker 2: I wouldn't suggest if somebody was, you know, if somebody
14:50
Speaker 2: was having to be proven either innocent or guilty, it
14:53
Speaker 2: wouldn't stand up in there. I wouldn't suspect And I'm
14:56
Speaker 2: not saying that you know the privileges that it is,
15:00
Speaker 2: you know, like I'm not suggesting that it needs to
15:02
Speaker 2: do everything that would happen in the courts. But what
15:05
Speaker 2: I'm saying is I would think that there would be
15:07
Speaker 2: further evidence and further questioning before you determine whether somebody
15:11
Speaker 2: is guilty or innocent in terms of whether they've done
15:14
Speaker 2: the wrong thing.
15:15
Speaker 4: Katie, this whole debarcle really needs to be examined a
15:22
Speaker 4: little bit further. What normally happens is committees do an investigation,
15:27
Speaker 4: whether it's the Privileges Committee or the Public Accounts Committee,
15:30
Speaker 4: and those reports are tabled in Parliament and there is
15:34
Speaker 4: always an opportunity to debate the content of those reports.
15:39
Speaker 4: What Jared Mayley did yesterday was not extraordinary. He simply
15:43
Speaker 4: thought that the government could see that the government had
15:45
Speaker 4: no intention to table the reports or or debate it.
15:49
Speaker 4: So he used a standing order I'd never heard of
15:52
Speaker 4: two hundred and he did. So he tabled it and
15:56
Speaker 4: started to talk about it. The Chief Minister was unhappy
16:01
Speaker 4: with that. He got some advice from the clerk. Interestingly,
16:04
Speaker 4: normally you go to the clerk, he summons the clerk
16:07
Speaker 4: to him sitting down, which I've never seen that before.
16:12
Speaker 4: But anyway, he think he's obviously the Chief Minister and
16:15
Speaker 4: he got some advice and he shut the whole debate down. Now,
16:19
Speaker 4: this report came about because the government referred Mark Turner
16:24
Speaker 4: to the Privileges Committee because they were unhappy with an
16:28
Speaker 4: aspect of and at the.
16:29
Speaker 2: Time it was quite the master stroke because they referred
16:33
Speaker 2: Mark Turner to Privileges so then it was my understanding
16:35
Speaker 2: is that they couldn't be too much more discussed on
16:38
Speaker 2: that topic. Then at the time inside the Parliament they
16:41
Speaker 2: then also referred the matter to the IKAK. So then
16:44
Speaker 2: publicly there was not a lot that could be divulged,
16:48
Speaker 2: you know, when they were being questioned by journalists and
16:51
Speaker 2: by the media. So I think that it was a
16:52
Speaker 2: political master stroke in that sense, and a lot of
16:55
Speaker 2: us had thought, okay, well it's going to go through
16:57
Speaker 2: this process, so we'll at least know whether anything toward.
17:00
Speaker 1: Has happened down the track.
17:02
Speaker 2: But then I've got to tell you, I think for
17:04
Speaker 2: myself and for a lot of territory insisting this morning.
17:07
Speaker 2: You know, while while you guys as pollies might think,
17:09
Speaker 2: oh it's a bit of naval gazing.
17:11
Speaker 1: It's actually not.
17:12
Speaker 2: We expect politicians to be held to a certain standard.
17:15
Speaker 2: We expect them to behave in a certain standard and
17:18
Speaker 2: if there is ever a question as to whether they
17:20
Speaker 2: have or they haven't, we expect there to be proper
17:24
Speaker 2: processes which happen through Parliament, through government to ensure.
17:29
Speaker 1: That they are.
17:30
Speaker 5: And there is a time in parliament where papers are tabled,
17:36
Speaker 5: and that was the Chief Minister talked about that in
17:39
Speaker 5: that debate yesterday. The time that Jered chose to do
17:44
Speaker 5: it was when the Chief Minister has to get to
17:47
Speaker 5: tell legislation about the future of Jabbaru. It has been
17:52
Speaker 5: to Ikak. I think you know there has been a table.
17:56
Speaker 2: Did it take the opposition trying to table it for
17:58
Speaker 2: it to actually, you know, for there to be any life.
18:00
Speaker 5: As the Chief Minister said, papers and reports get tabled
18:05
Speaker 5: when we call for papers and reports, and that was
18:07
Speaker 5: not No, it hadn't happened because this was right at
18:14
Speaker 5: the beginning of the day.
18:15
Speaker 4: So the last day of parliament for the year. The
18:18
Speaker 4: COLP opposition obviously read the room and decided that the
18:24
Speaker 4: government wasn't intending to table this report and I agree
18:27
Speaker 4: with them, so they did it themselves. Look, there's there's
18:31
Speaker 4: a lot of this story that hasn't been publicly acknowledged.
18:34
Speaker 4: By the Labor government, and that is that the alleged
18:38
Speaker 4: partner of the person involved in the alleged cocaine sex
18:42
Speaker 4: scandal is the former president of the NT Labor Party
18:45
Speaker 4: Kent Row, who's now facing charges of historical child sexual abuse.
18:51
Speaker 4: So you know, there's a big story there that you
18:55
Speaker 4: don't hear them talking about. It's been put on the
18:57
Speaker 4: public records, so I'm not in breach of any thing.
19:00
Speaker 4: But they want to just put this whole matter to bed.
19:04
Speaker 4: They don't want to talk about Mark Turner, and they
19:06
Speaker 4: certainly don't want to talk about kent Row, the former staffer,
19:11
Speaker 4: former Confident of the Chief Minister, former president of the
19:14
Speaker 4: NT Labor Party who's facing historical sex charge.
19:18
Speaker 1: Was that supposed to be tabled on Tuesday?
19:20
Speaker 4: That report?
19:21
Speaker 6: The Standing Order to state quite clearly that the report
19:24
Speaker 6: needs to be tabled as soon as possible in Parliament,
19:27
Speaker 6: and it wasn't table on Tuesday. It wasn't table on Wednesday.
19:30
Speaker 6: We're waiting for the government to table and they didn't.
19:33
Speaker 3: You've got to go.
19:33
Speaker 6: Right back to the start of this, Katie, from the
19:36
Speaker 6: moment this issue came up in parliament earlier this year.
19:39
Speaker 3: This government has been trying.
19:41
Speaker 6: To cover up everything that's gone on with Mark Turner
19:45
Speaker 6: and the issues with Kent Row. They try to shut
19:49
Speaker 6: stuff down in Parliament back at the start of it,
19:51
Speaker 6: and it's been that throughout the year and even right
19:55
Speaker 6: up until yesterday. Said we tried a table report, we
19:57
Speaker 6: tried to speak the report as a standing all stated,
20:00
Speaker 6: and the Chief mins to just shut it down.
20:02
Speaker 2: Well, I tell you what, I do think that there
20:05
Speaker 2: is going to be more to come from this situation.
20:07
Speaker 2: But I do want to move along to the other
20:09
Speaker 2: thing that was quite historic throughout the week in Parliament,
20:13
Speaker 2: and that.
20:14
Speaker 1: Was the abortion laws.
20:15
Speaker 2: We know that the Northern Territory Parliament past changes to
20:18
Speaker 2: legislation making it easier for women to access later term abortions.
20:23
Speaker 2: Now the legislation does expand abortion services for women seeking
20:27
Speaker 2: a termination in their second trimester. It also allows abortions
20:31
Speaker 2: after twenty four weeks for medical reasons with support from
20:33
Speaker 2: two doctors. Those changes were past and I know that
20:38
Speaker 2: it was it was quite an emotional discussion, Bill, I
20:42
Speaker 2: know that you were certainly very emotional speaking and it
20:46
Speaker 2: was like I thought it was really important for people
20:49
Speaker 2: to hear that and see that emotion and understand that
20:54
Speaker 2: this is a choice that a family has to make.
20:57
Speaker 1: And it's a very very difficult one.
21:00
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was really tough to talk about, and it
21:03
Speaker 6: was really tough legislator and really really important legislation because
21:06
Speaker 6: it affects so many women and so many families.
21:09
Speaker 3: And yeah, I struggled, I really did.
21:10
Speaker 6: I thought I would have done better, but once I
21:13
Speaker 6: started talking about I'd never spoken publicly about my issues before,
21:16
Speaker 6: and yeah, I found it really tough.
21:19
Speaker 4: Mate.
21:19
Speaker 2: There's no shame in showing some emotion. In fact, I
21:21
Speaker 2: think it shows you're you know, that you've got real
21:24
Speaker 2: passion about it. And it's an important thing to do
21:26
Speaker 2: because a lot of people do go through these really
21:30
Speaker 2: really tough situations. And it was important legislation as well.
21:35
Speaker 5: Oh, incredibly important legislation. And you know, I appreciated that
21:39
Speaker 5: Bill showed the courage to share his story as well.
21:43
Speaker 5: I thought it was very courageous. And I know it's
21:47
Speaker 5: a difficult debate for people, you know, in terms of
21:50
Speaker 5: how many women and families might have to access this
21:55
Speaker 5: relatively small numbers, but I think just incredibly important that
22:00
Speaker 5: so that's a decision that they will make with the
22:04
Speaker 5: with the best medical advice that's available to them, and
22:06
Speaker 5: I just this is a health issue, and we just
22:09
Speaker 5: need to be telling those families out there that you know,
22:14
Speaker 5: we acknowledge that that's incredibly difficult time in your life
22:17
Speaker 5: and you should just get the best support that you can,
22:19
Speaker 5: and that we don't want to keep throwing up more
22:23
Speaker 5: and more barriers to make it even harder for you.
22:26
Speaker 4: I agree with what you've said, but I also acknowledge
22:31
Speaker 4: that this is an ethical issue. It's a moral issue,
22:36
Speaker 4: it's a spiritual issue for a lot of people in
22:38
Speaker 4: the community. I'm absolutely pro choice, and I would never
22:41
Speaker 4: judge or deny anyone for having a termination for you know,
22:46
Speaker 4: extreme and extraordinary situations that arise during pregnancy. But I
22:51
Speaker 4: was very critical of the way the government went about
22:56
Speaker 4: consulting with this. I don't think that they consulted widely
23:00
Speaker 4: at all. I'm sure that they didn't consult any disability groups.
23:03
Speaker 4: I mean, this is a radical change to our termination
23:07
Speaker 4: of pregnancy laws. Now now that this bill has been passed,
23:11
Speaker 4: a woman can have a termination at any point during
23:15
Speaker 4: her pregnancy. Now we've gone from a criminal loss.
23:19
Speaker 2: So if there is a serious medical issue, or if
23:21
Speaker 2: you know, like once you're talking after twenty four weeks.
23:25
Speaker 2: It is if there is a serious medical course.
23:28
Speaker 4: It's not prescribed in the legislation, Katie. There's no detail
23:32
Speaker 4: at all, and we're told that they will come out
23:34
Speaker 4: in the regulations in the directions in the future. But
23:37
Speaker 4: the way the legislation reads is that all you really
23:40
Speaker 4: have to do is find two medical practitioners to support
23:44
Speaker 4: you having a termination. No woman's going to have a
23:46
Speaker 4: termination at thirty eight weeks for no reason. I know that.
23:50
Speaker 4: But as a legislator, we are legislators here, nothing more,
23:55
Speaker 4: nothing less. We're not here to do anything else apart
23:59
Speaker 4: from pass legislation that passes the expectations and the needs
24:06
Speaker 4: of Territorians. And I don't think this government consulted broadly
24:11
Speaker 4: on this. I think they pushed it through. They did
24:14
Speaker 4: not even release a press release that night or the
24:18
Speaker 4: next day or since telling territorians that this bill has passed.
24:22
Speaker 4: And that's not good enough.
24:23
Speaker 2: I know that the Health Minister has obviously said she
24:26
Speaker 2: introduced the legislation to Parliament and said that the changes
24:29
Speaker 2: would improve access to abortion in the Northern Territory for
24:32
Speaker 2: a few women in rare and complex cases, and she'd
24:36
Speaker 2: said that there's very little difference how doctor clinically handles
24:39
Speaker 2: discovering a fetal abnormality at twenty weeks to one found
24:43
Speaker 2: at thirty weeks, And she said, what is different is
24:46
Speaker 2: that we do not currently have the framework to allow
24:49
Speaker 2: these clinical professionals to do their jobs.
24:53
Speaker 5: One point. It's one point two percent of terminations that
24:57
Speaker 5: will happen after twenty weeks. It's a tiny number. And
25:01
Speaker 5: as Robin has acknowledged, anybody who would be contemplating making
25:06
Speaker 5: that choice after twenty weeks, you're talking about some pretty
25:10
Speaker 5: harrowing sets of circumstances. I think it's important to notes well.
25:14
Speaker 4: That this is as a result of a review of.
25:18
Speaker 5: Earlier legislation, and Robin and I were both eighty seven
25:21
Speaker 5: to yeah. We were both in the chamber when that
25:24
Speaker 5: first made recorded that yep, and Robin supported that. So
25:27
Speaker 5: you know, this isn't the first time this conversation has
25:30
Speaker 5: come about. There have been ongoing conversations with a whole
25:33
Speaker 5: range of different groups. There were huge numbers of submissions.
25:37
Speaker 5: We've all I know, had members of our community talking
25:41
Speaker 5: to us about this issue. It is divisive in many
25:44
Speaker 5: ways for many people. There are people out there who
25:46
Speaker 5: just don't agree with termination of pregnancy full stop, and
25:49
Speaker 5: you do have to navigate through that as a representative.
25:53
Speaker 5: For me, this is a health issue for women, and
25:55
Speaker 5: I think it's a matter that should be between a
25:57
Speaker 5: woman and toy AND's only really.
25:59
Speaker 4: Had third days from the time you gave notice of that.
26:04
Speaker 2: It is something that we've been talking about for a
26:06
Speaker 2: long time.
26:07
Speaker 4: But you know, I was talking to people in my
26:09
Speaker 4: community and they had no idea. They'd not heard of it.
26:13
Speaker 1: I've spoken about it on the show previously.
26:15
Speaker 6: It was introduced at last sittings that it was going
26:19
Speaker 6: to come up for this sitting. So we had a
26:21
Speaker 6: month to do our consultation and it was quite evident,
26:24
Speaker 6: and I mentioned it in my speech that we went
26:27
Speaker 6: out and consulted widely with a number of groups, and
26:30
Speaker 6: a lot of these groups it was the first I'd
26:31
Speaker 6: heard about it.
26:32
Speaker 4: So people don't switch on to this and yeah, particular interests.
26:37
Speaker 6: Well, people don't sit there and watch Parliament either on
26:39
Speaker 6: their TV. They've probably got better things to do.
26:41
Speaker 2: I watch it, so they don't have to bia here.
26:44
Speaker 6: Yeah, So some of the groups that we consulted with,
26:47
Speaker 6: it was the first I'd heard about it, and we
26:49
Speaker 6: consulted quite widely with the churches. I spoke to some
26:52
Speaker 6: of the disability groups that I worked with in ol
26:54
Speaker 6: Springs that we went into. We asked a lot of
26:57
Speaker 6: questions in the consideration detail because we needed to know
27:00
Speaker 6: what some of those points were and what some of
27:02
Speaker 6: those points meant. I think if government had done the
27:06
Speaker 6: guidelines first and been able to provide the updated guidelines
27:10
Speaker 6: to go with the legislation, I think that would have
27:13
Speaker 6: alleviated a lot of concerns out there in the community.
27:16
Speaker 6: But the guidelines are now not going to be done
27:18
Speaker 6: until after the legislation has passed. And look, I get
27:20
Speaker 6: that in some ways. Oh I don't get that, But
27:23
Speaker 6: it could have been done in such way to be
27:25
Speaker 6: able to provide that assurance so that people actually knew
27:30
Speaker 6: what was going on. Okay, here's the legislative change. Here's
27:33
Speaker 6: the guidelines that support that legislative change, so that people
27:36
Speaker 6: can see what they actually really.
27:37
Speaker 3: Mean, how they will.
27:39
Speaker 4: Legislation includes a very detailed prescription of what the mandatory
27:44
Speaker 4: requirements are for a medical practitioner to recommend or support
27:48
Speaker 4: a termination of pregnancy beyond twenty four weeks. That's what
27:52
Speaker 4: we should have had in the legislation. But look it's
27:54
Speaker 4: done and dusted its history now and we move on.
27:57
Speaker 2: And look, I think it is it is worth making
27:59
Speaker 2: pretty clear. My understanding of it is that you cannot
28:02
Speaker 2: go and have have a medical termination late in your
28:06
Speaker 2: pregnancy unless there is a very valid reason, i e.
28:12
Speaker 1: That you know that that there are real that there
28:15
Speaker 1: are real.
28:16
Speaker 4: Health and in the legislation cal sits in the guidelines
28:21
Speaker 4: that you know, there's expectations and requirements of doctors to
28:25
Speaker 4: adhere to certain you know, procedures, and.
28:28
Speaker 6: We've got the insurance so that in the guidelines are
28:31
Speaker 6: going to adhere to the rands COLD, which is the
28:33
Speaker 6: Royal austral New Zealand College of Obstricians, and going to colleges,
28:37
Speaker 6: they're going to adhere to some of the recommendations from
28:40
Speaker 6: from there.
28:41
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I think they a little.
28:43
Speaker 2: Bit because look, I do you know, I am very
28:47
Speaker 2: much pro choice, but I do not think that it's
28:49
Speaker 2: okay if people are choosing to terminate based on a child,
28:52
Speaker 2: sex or or you know, any of those, any of
28:56
Speaker 2: those kind of reasons. I think it's very important that
28:59
Speaker 2: those guidelines I would assume that they are very much
29:01
Speaker 2: going to be in line with what he's done in
29:04
Speaker 2: other states and territories.
29:05
Speaker 5: And you're on twenty four weeks, Katie, is you maintain
29:09
Speaker 5: that assessment from two medical practitioners, which means it's not
29:12
Speaker 5: just a decision between the family and maybe the medical
29:15
Speaker 5: practition that's been going through that journey with them. There
29:18
Speaker 5: is you know, there's another medical practitioner who will come
29:22
Speaker 5: in and review that and assess that woman as well.
29:24
Speaker 5: So again we will be talking about a very small
29:27
Speaker 5: number of women and families and really harrowing sets of circumstances.
29:32
Speaker 5: It's and as Robin said, you know it passed through
29:35
Speaker 5: the house, it was unopposed, and.
29:38
Speaker 4: Well, we don't know that because it wasn't divided, and.
29:41
Speaker 5: It wasn't divided, so nobody divided.
29:44
Speaker 4: There were people that opposed it in the room, I
29:47
Speaker 4: am told, but it wasn't divided, so we don't know
29:50
Speaker 4: who opposed it. It was a bit of a mess.
29:53
Speaker 2: Whose job is it to the inn oppose it? Whose
29:55
Speaker 2: job or to divide it? If it is anyway, So
29:58
Speaker 2: if presumably some one in the room would have done so.
30:01
Speaker 6: If they well, an attached files said when she opened
30:05
Speaker 6: the debate last hittings, that would be a conscience vote.
30:08
Speaker 6: So one would have assumed that Labor would have called
30:11
Speaker 6: a division to do that conscience vote, but that didn't happen.
30:14
Speaker 3: They were noticeably quiet on that you need.
30:16
Speaker 4: The support of one other. So anyone can stand up
30:18
Speaker 4: and say call a division, but someone else has to
30:21
Speaker 4: stand up and support you. I actually asked a number
30:24
Speaker 4: of people to support a division that I was prepared
30:27
Speaker 4: to raise, but I couldn't get the support right. So
30:31
Speaker 4: it was really quite peculiar. And so when it came
30:35
Speaker 4: to the time to divide, I had resolved that no
30:39
Speaker 4: one was an appetite too divide, okay, and without one
30:43
Speaker 4: extra person, I couldn't.
30:44
Speaker 1: You couldn't do it.
30:45
Speaker 4: I couldn't do it.
30:45
Speaker 2: Yeah right, Okay, I didn't understand. I didn't realize that
30:48
Speaker 2: that was the case. So that makes it it was.
30:50
Speaker 4: Richest to have a conscience vote, but no one choosing
30:52
Speaker 4: to make that conscience vote.
30:54
Speaker 5: Really, just to Bill's point, like, I mean, it's not
30:56
Speaker 5: it wasn't an attached to Files's job to call a
30:59
Speaker 5: division on the leg she was bringing responsibility. Didn't if
31:04
Speaker 5: you want it, but if you wanted your if you
31:06
Speaker 5: wanted your lack of support for the bill to be recorded.
31:09
Speaker 5: There is a process for that, as Robin's outlined. And
31:12
Speaker 5: I wasn't aware that Robin had us pre division that
31:15
Speaker 5: you go to a.
31:15
Speaker 4: Name who I asked, but I did ask quite a
31:17
Speaker 4: number of people.
31:19
Speaker 2: Well, we will take a very short break. You are
31:21
Speaker 2: listening to Mix one O four point nine. It is
31:23
Speaker 2: just nineteen minutes away from ten o'clock and it is
31:27
Speaker 2: the week that was also broadcasting on AH. Well, you
31:30
Speaker 2: are listening to the week that was also broadcasting on
31:32
Speaker 2: ADJ and if you've just tuned in, we are joined
31:35
Speaker 2: in the studio by the Education Minister Lauren Moss, the
31:37
Speaker 2: Independent Member for Ara Lewin, Robin Lamley, and the.
31:40
Speaker 1: Opposition spokesperson for Health Bill Yan.
31:43
Speaker 2: And Throughout the week, it was reported by the ABC
31:46
Speaker 2: that tougher bail laws have triggered a surge in young
31:49
Speaker 2: people held in detention in the Northern Territory, including the
31:53
Speaker 2: first ten year old to be held in don Dale
31:55
Speaker 2: since twenty seventeen when the Royal Commission into Youth Detention happened.
32:00
Speaker 2: Now we know it does come as the Northern Territory
32:03
Speaker 2: government confirmed that a watchhouse has been placed on standby
32:07
Speaker 2: to cope with extra demand that I understand.
32:09
Speaker 1: Is in Alice Springs.
32:11
Speaker 2: We also know that the ABC did say that the
32:14
Speaker 2: development of the fifty five million dollar replacement of don Dale,
32:18
Speaker 2: well it has been redesigned to increase capacity by thirty percent.
32:23
Speaker 2: Almost sixty young people per day, almost well most of them,
32:28
Speaker 2: sixty of them per day. So I'm just reading these
32:30
Speaker 2: notes and they've been detained in Darwin and Alyis during November,
32:34
Speaker 2: which is almost double the daily figure from six years ago.
32:37
Speaker 2: I caught up with the Minister for Territory Families, Kate Warden,
32:41
Speaker 2: on the show yesterday and she said that yes, that
32:43
Speaker 2: figure is correct, around sixty per day. And she did
32:46
Speaker 2: say that yes there has been a ten year old
32:49
Speaker 2: detained in don Dale, no.
32:51
Speaker 1: Longer in there at the moment.
32:52
Speaker 2: But she also pointed out, and I am really very
32:56
Speaker 2: much paraphrasing here, but did say that you know that
33:00
Speaker 2: you're not going into detention for no reason. Basically you
33:05
Speaker 2: know that there are kids who have obviously broken the law. Now,
33:09
Speaker 2: there was also questioning about to the Minister about whether
33:13
Speaker 2: there is a shortage of staff at don Dale after
33:16
Speaker 2: the Children's Commissioner also released her report yesterday or the
33:19
Speaker 2: day before it was tabled in Parliament, and there were
33:23
Speaker 2: concerns raised about there being a shortage of staff at
33:26
Speaker 2: don Dale, to which Kate Wooden outright refuted and said
33:29
Speaker 2: that no, that is not the case.
33:31
Speaker 1: There's not a shortage of staff.
33:32
Speaker 2: And she spoke further as well about the lockdown or
33:36
Speaker 2: lockdowns that they have in the H block.
33:38
Speaker 1: I think it's called and that it.
33:39
Speaker 2: Does very often come down to the safety of staff
33:43
Speaker 2: when something like that happens. And Bill, you've probably got
33:46
Speaker 2: more experience obviously in adult corrections I think, and.
33:51
Speaker 6: I had a six month stint looking after youth detention
33:53
Speaker 6: back in twenty sixteen. This points to some pretty systemic
33:59
Speaker 6: phase here, k and I know what it takes.
34:01
Speaker 3: For a ten year old to end up in don Dale.
34:04
Speaker 6: It's not just you've committed a defense and ended up
34:06
Speaker 6: in don Dale. There's been a lot of things happen
34:08
Speaker 6: in that child's life before someone has made that decision
34:12
Speaker 6: to put that child into don Dale.
34:14
Speaker 3: And the courts do not do that lightly. I can
34:16
Speaker 3: guarantee that.
34:17
Speaker 6: So where the failures are is back further down the
34:21
Speaker 6: line of territory families, what have territory famili has been
34:24
Speaker 6: doing to support that child and that family, to keep
34:27
Speaker 6: that child out of don Dale. That's where the failure sits.
34:31
Speaker 6: But particularly when you look at youth detention and the staffing.
34:35
Speaker 6: And I said this yesterday about police. It's one thing
34:38
Speaker 6: to say, yeah, I've got record numbers of staff. I've
34:41
Speaker 6: got heaps of staff, but it comes down to are
34:44
Speaker 6: those staff available to roster. So you can have one
34:46
Speaker 6: hundred staff, but only fifty of them are revisable to
34:49
Speaker 6: roster because you've got some off on sickly workers, long
34:53
Speaker 6: term leave and things like that, So all a sudden
34:55
Speaker 6: you don't have those people available to roster. And what
34:57
Speaker 6: we see happening to don Dale is they can't fill
35:00
Speaker 6: a roster every day. You've got to have some minimum
35:02
Speaker 6: staffing numbers to operate safely, and if you don't have
35:05
Speaker 6: those staff, you've got a lockdown areas.
35:07
Speaker 3: It's as simple as that.
35:08
Speaker 1: Well, the Minister reckons that's not the case.
35:10
Speaker 2: She said that there is definitely not a staff shortage.
35:13
Speaker 2: But I definitely take on board what you're saying there,
35:16
Speaker 2: and I don't have that background, so I think it's
35:18
Speaker 2: important to note I mean it doesn't really at the
35:21
Speaker 2: end of the day, we are still seeing real issues
35:24
Speaker 2: around the Northern Territory when it comes to crime and
35:27
Speaker 2: young people engaged in crime.
35:30
Speaker 1: I will just take you to a pressure release.
35:31
Speaker 2: That came out late yesterday afternoon. Northern Territory Police appealing
35:36
Speaker 2: for witnesses to an incident in which a youth was
35:38
Speaker 2: assaulted and robbed in Alice Springs. And it was some
35:42
Speaker 2: time between three and three point fifty A female youth
35:45
Speaker 2: was walking along when it was alleged that she was
35:47
Speaker 2: approached by a group of youths who pushed her to
35:49
Speaker 2: the ground and assaulted her. They stole a number of
35:51
Speaker 2: items from her backpack before she was about to fight
35:55
Speaker 2: back and flee to a nearby residence.
35:58
Speaker 1: Look, you know, this is a terrible.
36:00
Speaker 2: Thing that's happened to a young person in Alice Springs,
36:03
Speaker 2: and I think that we can all certainly agree on that.
36:06
Speaker 2: The really sad thing is that these types of incidents
36:10
Speaker 2: are not isolated. And I think that that's the really worrying,
36:13
Speaker 2: you know, the really worrying thing for so many of us.
36:17
Speaker 2: And you know, you've got sixty youth per day locked up,
36:21
Speaker 2: yet we're still seeing you know, we're still seeing these
36:24
Speaker 2: types of things happen, and that's it is a concern, Katie.
36:28
Speaker 4: Things are getting worse in our town of Alice Springs.
36:31
Speaker 4: There's absolutely no doubt about it. The crime stats speak
36:34
Speaker 4: for themselves. The fact that the government has flip flopped
36:40
Speaker 4: over the last five six years on their position of
36:44
Speaker 4: how to address crime in Alice Springs and right across
36:49
Speaker 4: the community, I think is the main reason why where
36:52
Speaker 4: we are where we're at at the moment. Look, I
36:55
Speaker 4: listened to Kate Warden on your program yesterday and the
37:00
Speaker 4: message that went through my head was what does this
37:03
Speaker 4: government actually stand for? You've got on one hand the
37:06
Speaker 4: Attorney General sprowning off how she's going about Aboriginal justice
37:13
Speaker 4: agreements and her commitment to reducing incarceration rates when the
37:19
Speaker 4: territory has got the highest level of incarceration rates for
37:24
Speaker 4: adults and children ever in the history of since self
37:28
Speaker 4: government and before and five times the national average. Now,
37:33
Speaker 4: where are we going? What is this government actually doing
37:37
Speaker 4: to address the incarceration rates, keep the community safe and
37:43
Speaker 4: just take a really practical approach to law and order.
37:46
Speaker 4: Things are just disintegrating before our eyes. I spent a
37:50
Speaker 4: week in Parliament this week, waiting to hear some sort
37:53
Speaker 4: of hope and explanation from the government about how they're
37:57
Speaker 4: going to keep Alice Spring safe over the long hot
38:00
Speaker 4: summer ahead of us. What did I get? Absolutely nothing? So,
38:05
Speaker 4: you know, I don't understand where this government's coming from,
38:09
Speaker 4: and it concerns me.
38:11
Speaker 6: If you look at those offending rates and you just
38:13
Speaker 6: touched on it, then Robin and I haven't looked at
38:15
Speaker 6: the stats for a long time now, but the national average,
38:18
Speaker 6: I think is around about one hundred and sixty to
38:22
Speaker 6: one hundred and eighty people in custody per hundred thousand
38:27
Speaker 6: per hundred thousand population, and my last check of the
38:30
Speaker 6: stats was the Northern Territory was up around about nine
38:32
Speaker 6: hundred and fifty per hundred thousand population.
38:36
Speaker 3: And those figures are absolutely appalling. So what are we doing?
38:40
Speaker 6: What is government doing to reduce these numbers, because to
38:44
Speaker 6: keep somebody in custody costs upwards of one hundred thousand
38:48
Speaker 6: dollars a year.
38:50
Speaker 3: That's not sustainable longer term.
38:52
Speaker 5: This goverment's failing all around the point earlier about intervening
38:56
Speaker 5: early and wrapping around these kids, you know, and we
38:58
Speaker 5: are seeing in some case younger and younger kids, you know,
39:03
Speaker 5: exhibiting behaviors that you wouldn't expect, I think on the whole,
39:08
Speaker 5: from eight to ten year olds. But this week in
39:11
Speaker 5: Parliament we did do the Territory Families some legislation that
39:15
Speaker 5: will set up the information sharing environment, for example, between
39:20
Speaker 5: agencies and help strengthen that, but also sets the foundations
39:24
Speaker 5: for a really big new system that's coming in around
39:27
Speaker 5: child protection, which will help those who are working out
39:31
Speaker 5: there in the field, child protection workers and others, to
39:35
Speaker 5: make sure that they know that when the red flags
39:37
Speaker 5: are going up early, they're able to provide the supports earlier.
39:41
Speaker 5: There's also some support in there around women when they're pregnant,
39:47
Speaker 5: around making sure that they can opt in for additional
39:50
Speaker 5: support where they may have come to the attention to
39:53
Speaker 5: Territory Families previously, to make sure that we are keeping
39:57
Speaker 5: as many kids out of these systems as possible.
40:00
Speaker 2: So I do hope that there is some change in
40:03
Speaker 2: this space, because we know that, you know, it's something
40:06
Speaker 2: that we've been talking about for such a long period
40:08
Speaker 2: of time. It's something which continues to be a major
40:10
Speaker 2: issue within the community right from you know, from Darwin
40:14
Speaker 2: to Catherine, to the Red Center. It's it's happening all
40:17
Speaker 2: around the place. I know that our police are working
40:19
Speaker 2: as hard as they can. I know that there's plenty
40:22
Speaker 2: of other NGOs and others working as well. But we
40:26
Speaker 2: need to start thinking a bit innovatively and doing something
40:28
Speaker 2: to try to really stop this from happening, because it
40:31
Speaker 2: is not okay, you know, for a ten year old
40:33
Speaker 2: to be out on the street, and it is simply
40:36
Speaker 2: totally not okay for them to then be involved in
40:39
Speaker 2: any kind of crime. But we're going to have to
40:41
Speaker 2: take a very short break. You are listening to Mix
40:43
Speaker 2: one oh four point nine three sixty. It is the
40:45
Speaker 2: week that was well, it is just about the week
40:48
Speaker 2: that was done and dusted. But before we wrap up
40:50
Speaker 2: for this morning, of course, Lauren Mosh, Robin Lamley, and
40:52
Speaker 2: Bill Yann in the studio with me this morning. And
40:55
Speaker 2: earlier this week, we did catch up with Sam Weston.
40:58
Speaker 2: He's the owner of Darwin Cafe, The Mad Snake. He
41:01
Speaker 2: served time in well, he served i should say, in
41:04
Speaker 2: East Temor. He was really disappointed that the anti mandate
41:09
Speaker 2: protesters last weekend had been using the last post at
41:13
Speaker 2: rallies and he'd spoken to us about his views throughout
41:17
Speaker 2: the week. Now, I think that he is absolutely entitled
41:20
Speaker 2: to his views, and I think without a doubt he
41:24
Speaker 2: was very you know, I was very brave of him
41:27
Speaker 2: to speak out and have those views, despite the fact
41:30
Speaker 2: that he was being absolutely trolled on social media for
41:34
Speaker 2: having those views. Now, I think we're talking about a
41:37
Speaker 2: blow here who's served his great country. He is well
41:41
Speaker 2: and truly entitled to have a view as to whether
41:44
Speaker 2: he thinks the last Post should be being played at
41:47
Speaker 2: an anti mandate rally.
41:49
Speaker 5: I don't think it was just his view though I'm
41:51
Speaker 5: in from I've read a bit of their stuff as well,
41:54
Speaker 5: and I know that, you know, there's a lot of
41:57
Speaker 5: veterans who go to the Mad Snake and there's a
41:59
Speaker 5: lot of support there, and it sounds like he's spoken
42:02
Speaker 5: to many people he's connected with who all thought it
42:05
Speaker 5: was a really awful thing to do. And I mean,
42:11
Speaker 5: good on him. I just feel terrible that he's copped
42:15
Speaker 5: all that.
42:16
Speaker 3: Look is a very very reverent place for.
42:19
Speaker 6: Soldiers and of course our service people, and so it
42:22
Speaker 6: was the last post. Last post goes with those who
42:25
Speaker 6: were fallen, and so for those protesters to use the
42:28
Speaker 6: cenotaph and the last post for their own means is
42:31
Speaker 6: very very disrespectful and good on him for calling them
42:34
Speaker 6: out and I support him one hundred percent. Obviously I'll
42:37
Speaker 6: be go on the Man's not now to get my
42:38
Speaker 6: coffee morning so.
42:39
Speaker 2: From here, and we had so many people getting in
42:42
Speaker 2: contact with us to say exactly that as well.
42:46
Speaker 4: All Territorians have a right to have a view. You
42:49
Speaker 4: just have to respect each other. Yes, sport on t
42:51
Speaker 4: it gets to that level, it's not, that's not Territorian.
42:54
Speaker 2: No, well look that is it for us this morning.
42:57
Speaker 2: Thank you all so very much for your company. Lauren Moss,
42:59
Speaker 2: the Minister for Education, thank you, Thank.
43:01
Speaker 4: You very much.
43:01
Speaker 5: Hopefully see everyone at Carol's by Countlelight.
43:03
Speaker 1: Absolutely Andrew and Sarah from breakfast there to mc it,
43:06
Speaker 1: thank you very much.
43:07
Speaker 4: Robin Ladling, thank you Katie, and have a happy Christmas.
43:10
Speaker 4: I don't think you'll have me again on the show.
43:11
Speaker 4: And Robin, thank you fabulous on you two and Bill yet.
43:17
Speaker 3: Kay and you look. Merry Christmas to you two.
43:19
Speaker 6: I won't be back up before the end of the year,
43:21
Speaker 6: so Merry Christian to everybody here in Darwen, and I'll
43:24
Speaker 6: see everyone in the new year well and.
43:25
Speaker 2: We've loved having the Alice Springs Polly's on the show
43:28
Speaker 2: and broadcasting in Alice Springs as well.
43:30
Speaker 3: Thank you all, so Pach the country good.
43:32
Speaker 2: On you, Thanks so much for your company. This morning
43:34
Speaker 2: you are listening to Mix one O four point nine.
43:36
Speaker 2: Still plenty more coming your way after ten