Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Independent Member for Goyder Kezia Purick says 'there is something rotten within the police force' and an inquiry is needed

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Independent Member for Goyder Kezia Purick says 'there is something rotten within the police force' and an inquiry is needed · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is the Independent
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  Speaker 1: Member for goid Keesy Eppuric.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Hey, good morning Katie. I was
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  Speaker 2: a bit shock when she said that because being in
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  Speaker 2: length of Parliament that she has been in and I
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  Speaker 2: can't recall if the achievements has been on a Select committee,
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  Speaker 2: but I've been on two of them. One was to
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  Speaker 2: do with you suicide in the Northern Territory I know
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  Speaker 2: three actually, One was to do with fetal alcohol spective
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  Speaker 2: disorder to try and get a full understanding of the
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  Speaker 2: extent of it in the Northern Territory and the impacts
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  Speaker 2: and the consequences. And the other one was in regards
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  Speaker 2: to the death of the cattle on the University managed
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  Speaker 2: and owned station cattle station at Mataranga. So they were
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  Speaker 2: all very important inquiries. I wouldn't call it a review, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: It's an inquiry inquiry that com be an select committee
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  Speaker 2: inquired into a matter or a subject matter.
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  Speaker 1: And in this case, you go, how important do you
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  Speaker 1: think it is that this inquiry happens.
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  Speaker 2: Everything It just seems to be tumbling around when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to the Northern Territory Police Force. Yes, we know
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  Speaker 2: the officers you know, the rank and file are out
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  Speaker 2: there doing what police officers do, and managements doing what
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  Speaker 2: they have to do. But we've just had another case,
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  Speaker 2: as you said, last week, of three officers being charged
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  Speaker 2: and arrested for various offenses you know internally or elite
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  Speaker 2: defenses internally of the police force. Another one allegedly assault
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  Speaker 2: to things of that nature. We've had, We've had retirements,
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  Speaker 2: We've had people sadly taking their own lives while in
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  Speaker 2: the force. We've still got issues before eye tacking regards
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  Speaker 2: to the Yindumu shooting. We've still got a coronial to
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  Speaker 2: go through that will involve more police. The whole Zach
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  Speaker 2: Ryce saga, I think was a very sad saga, and
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  Speaker 2: it just seems to keep tumbling and tumbling and tumbling.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: A Select Committee, as I think I've mentioned before, the
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  Speaker 2: enterprises different members of the Parliament, different ends of the chamber,
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  Speaker 2: so government being government would have the majority of members,
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  Speaker 2: one opposition, one independent. Government gets to visit there can
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  Speaker 2: determine the terms of reference. They could be as tight
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  Speaker 2: as tight a short time frame, which means the committee's
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  Speaker 2: got to get on and get cracking with the work.
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  Speaker 2: The Secretariat is already there within the parliament, like the
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  Speaker 2: people are there. You know, the cost to the government,
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  Speaker 2: the cost is nothing. The cost of the partment would
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  Speaker 2: be negligible. And yet it gives the opportunity to speak
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  Speaker 2: to people either publicly or behind camera, if it's like
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  Speaker 2: a whistleblower kind of person. Because clearly there is something
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  Speaker 2: rotten within the police force. Now I don't know where
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  Speaker 2: or what the contributing factors are, but clearly there's a
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  Speaker 2: great malaise and we need to get on top of
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  Speaker 2: and we need to get on top quickly. Yes, police
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  Speaker 2: can do what police do. Government cars, the minister can
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  Speaker 2: direct the police to do certain things, speak to them
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  Speaker 2: in the normal course of the Minister to police commissioner
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  Speaker 2: and executive. But this could be running parallel and it
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  Speaker 2: could do some enormous good work. It could uncover things
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  Speaker 2: that no one's thought about. You can speak to experts
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  Speaker 2: from interstate. The research can be done into you know,
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  Speaker 2: similar kinds of select committees into state like yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: don't know, for example, if there's been other parliaments we've
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  Speaker 2: had a select committee looking to police operations or particular
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  Speaker 2: part of a police force.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: So it's nothing it's dead set, not a talk fest.
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  Speaker 2: You get eminently qualified people for whatever you're looking at.
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  Speaker 2: Like with the FASBI, we had exceptionally qualified medical people
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  Speaker 2: give us advice and give us information which you know
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  Speaker 2: you just wouldn't know yourself. And then when you get
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  Speaker 2: all that together, you pull it together and report. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you can come up with recommendations, Look, you really need
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  Speaker 2: to do this. That report then goes back to the
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  Speaker 2: Parliament and can be debated in the Parliament.
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  Speaker 1: I just don't understand why the government is so resistant
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  Speaker 1: on this. You know, when you've got a situation where
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  Speaker 1: the rank and file are saying that you know that
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  Speaker 1: the morale is incredibly low, you know, take out the
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  Speaker 1: fact that they don't have confidence, well that a large
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  Speaker 1: number don't have confidence in the in the police commissioner.
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  Speaker 1: Put that aside for a second. Even the fact that
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  Speaker 1: the morale is that low and that the police are
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  Speaker 1: saying that they do not have enough of them to
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  Speaker 1: do their job. And then in addition to that, we've
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  Speaker 1: got the crime situation that we're grappling with. I don't
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  Speaker 1: understand why they're so resistant on this.
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  Speaker 2: I don't either. I mean, select committees are generally, but
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  Speaker 2: from my experience and understanding, it's not a political tool.
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  Speaker 2: It is a It is a tool of the parliament.
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  Speaker 2: The parliament is doing the work, not a minister, not
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  Speaker 2: the opposition. They're part of the process, but it's the
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  Speaker 2: committee is driven by the terms of reference and if
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  Speaker 2: you wanted to modify them, or it could be that
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  Speaker 2: the committee chairman comes back to the capalant and said, look,
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  Speaker 2: we really do need more time and this is why
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  Speaker 2: this is all the submissions we've got. See, people can
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  Speaker 2: write in, people can appear before the committee. So it
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  Speaker 2: really Yeah, it baffles me why there's a reluctance, But
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  Speaker 2: I did see a glimmer of hope, or I did
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  Speaker 2: hear a glimmer of hope and the Chief Minister's words
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  Speaker 2: when she said it depends what the opposition brings to
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  Speaker 2: the table. They might have something already that they think
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  Speaker 2: would be good terms of reference. Well Tom will tell
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  Speaker 2: when they when they bring the motion before the Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: So I don't know, but I just want people to
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  Speaker 2: understand that a select Committee is not a political football
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  Speaker 2: and it's not a gab fest. It's serious work from
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  Speaker 2: parliaments in Australia to do it, you know, whatever.
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  Speaker 1: The thing to you know kids. Yeah, it is a situation,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it around the around Australia where there are indeed,
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  Speaker 1: these select committees into various different things, aren't they.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it is. I just can't even think any of
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  Speaker 2: the top of my mind. But we've looked in animal
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  Speaker 2: welfare issues. Elsewhere in the country, they've looked into Oh,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, I even look at the Federal inquiries
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  Speaker 2: Federal Parliament. You know they have they have committees at
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  Speaker 2: the Senate level, committee at the houses, you know, and
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  Speaker 2: it's a select committee. It's selected to do a job.
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  Speaker 2: Once the job's done, the reports delivered, the committee disbands
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  Speaker 2: to hang around forever.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think they're resistant here because they're worried that
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  Speaker 1: the select committee is going to find something that's not
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  Speaker 1: favorable towards them.
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  Speaker 2: The the police or the government. But it's well, it's not
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  Speaker 2: really the government you'd be looking into. You'd be looking
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  Speaker 2: into the police force. And you know, it could include everything.
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  Speaker 2: It could resource, it could include funding, it could include
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  Speaker 2: the structure, you know, how the recruitment process is done,
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  Speaker 2: how the retention is done, you know, how the welfare
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  Speaker 2: the welfare of police officers is handled particularly you know,
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  Speaker 2: if they've come across a lot of terrible scenes, which
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  Speaker 2: they do on a regular basis, So it can show
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  Speaker 2: up deficiencies, but it could also show up positive things.
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  Speaker 2: It could draw on examples from in the state, or
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  Speaker 2: if not often we look at New Zealand because they're
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  Speaker 2: closest to us and similar jurisdiction, so there might be
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  Speaker 2: something that those places are doing, something that for whatever reason,
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  Speaker 2: our government, not necessarily a labor government, hasn't thought of
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  Speaker 2: or whatever. You know, the police commissioner can appear, any
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  Speaker 2: police person can appear. As I said, you can have
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  Speaker 2: it in camera to protect the person. And the other
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  Speaker 2: thing Katie is it has the full full weight and
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  Speaker 2: power of the Parliament. They're protected by parliamentary privilege, etc. Etc.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a serious thing, but most times it's a
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  Speaker 2: very positive and a good thing, even though sometimes the
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  Speaker 2: subject material is unpleasant, like the cows getting all dying
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  Speaker 2: and people being affected by alcohol and having face do
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  Speaker 2: you meant? You know, the subject can be quite sad
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  Speaker 2: and difficult, but you try to make it. You're trying
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  Speaker 2: to get a better outcome. You're trying to find out
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  Speaker 2: what's going on? Why did this happen? How have we
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  Speaker 2: got to this situation of a low morale within the
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  Speaker 2: police force, How we got to the situation that our
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  Speaker 2: police force is not the most desirable destination for a career.
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  Speaker 2: How we got to this stage. So they're the kind
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  Speaker 2: of questions that you ask and hopefully you try and
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  Speaker 2: get some answers to it. So I just encourage thement
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  Speaker 2: to think about it and to think about what's gone
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  Speaker 2: before with select committees. Because when the fact the committee
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  Speaker 2: delivered its report with all sorts of different recommendations that
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  Speaker 2: was all accepted by the government of the day, it
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  Speaker 2: was like, yes, thank you for your hard work. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: we like what you've found out. We like what the
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  Speaker 2: committee found out and what the experts have given to us.
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  Speaker 1: I just don't understand their resistance on this, And I
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  Speaker 1: think the thing that that that you know, has to
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  Speaker 1: be understood is that they're asking the community to trust
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  Speaker 1: them when it comes to crime and when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to them being able to get crime under control and
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  Speaker 1: you know, stopping that recidivism and things like that. But
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  Speaker 1: you know the fact is that they've been in power
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  Speaker 1: now for a number of years and the community aren't
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  Speaker 1: feeling very trustworthy towards them in this space.
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  Speaker 2: Well, well probably not, but I don't think crime is
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  Speaker 2: under control. You know, the police are doing what police do,
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  Speaker 2: but you know they're picking up the pieces. They're trying
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  Speaker 2: to be a deterrent as well, but there needs to
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  Speaker 2: be more police visible to be that deterrent. Now. The
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  Speaker 2: government says are we're putting both number of dollars into
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  Speaker 2: the police force and more than ever before. And that's fine.
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  Speaker 2: But my statement is you might be putting a lot
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  Speaker 2: of money, is it been put in the right areas? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Well that's the other thing that can come out. People
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  Speaker 2: can say, oh, I just need more funding, but you
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  Speaker 2: could have an extraordinary level of funding right now, but
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  Speaker 2: it's just not being directed and used properly in an
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  Speaker 2: area that's going to give a result.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Kesier, they are, that's right, and they are all
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  Speaker 1: the kind of questions that people are wanting answered at
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  Speaker 1: this point. But the government does seem resistant. Let's see
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  Speaker 1: how things go this week in parliament. We will no
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  Speaker 1: doubt talk to you again throughout the week. Thank you, Kesier,
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  Speaker 1: appreciate it. That is independent member for going to their
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  Speaker 1: Kesia Puric