Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Goyder Kezia Purick says a review into the NT police force is a 'knee-jerk' reaction by the government, lacking transparency

Transcript

Member for Goyder Kezia Purick says a review into the NT police force is a 'knee-jerk' reaction by the government, lacking transparency · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know the opposition and the Independent member Kesier Puric
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: yesterday pushed for the Select Committee to go ahead looking
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: into the police force. Now, as you heard from the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Police Minister Kate Warden on the show yesterday, she reckons
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the is a review into the financials and also the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: structure of the police force currently underway, amongst other things.
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  Speaker 1: Now she's not ruled out a full restructure of the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police Force. But yesterday inside Parliament, Leaf and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Occhierio and Kesier Puric argued why the Select Committee should
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: indeed go ahead. Now joining me on the line right
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  Speaker 1: now is Kesier Puric, the Independent member for Goider.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to Eukezier.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, good morning Katie. Yes, it was an interesting day
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: yesterday for sure.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, how did it all go Kesier?
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  Speaker 1: Why in the end or what did the government say?
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  Speaker 1: Did they allow you to at least discuss the reasons
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  Speaker 1: why you thought this Selection Committee should happen?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it was interesting because Leafnocchiero got to speak and
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: then Kate focus. Then I jump because I wanted to
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: say I was started out to happen because as you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's got a track record of shutting down debate. Then
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  Speaker 3: Mark Turner to them for Blaine spoke and I think
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  Speaker 3: Steve Anything, I think was on his feet. But again
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: the government just put asked that the motion be put
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: or moved the motion put, which basically shuts down the debate.
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  Speaker 3: So they didn't want to hear from any other members,
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  Speaker 3: that's for sure, and they didn't want to prolong it
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  Speaker 3: because once again, if they do that, they might actually
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  Speaker 3: find out something that they don't want to know about.
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  Speaker 3: And it's interesting the minister says they're doing a review.
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  Speaker 3: Who's doing the review? Who's doing this review of police?
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  Speaker 3: Is it the police reviewing the police, you know, the
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  Speaker 3: executive police or if they contracted an out outside consultants
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  Speaker 3: or Public Service Commissioner's office. I mean, it's fine to
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  Speaker 3: say we're doing all these things or looking to do
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  Speaker 3: these things, which I accept I think is good. But
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  Speaker 3: who's doing it?
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  Speaker 2: It's a good question. It is a good question. I've
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  Speaker 2: got to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: Yesterday, when the Policeman is to reveal that on the show,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I was actually surprised to hear it. I know that
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  Speaker 1: the financial reviewing of the police force or that look
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  Speaker 1: into the finances is being done by Treasury so I
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  Speaker 1: don't know whether that's going to be looking into, you know,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: sort of how many police officers we've got. We know
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  Speaker 1: that the government continues to say that we've got, you know,
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  Speaker 1: greater investment into the Northern Territory Police Force than ever before,
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  Speaker 1: greater numbers than ever before.
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  Speaker 2: But so many people asking well where are they?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's compared to when that's the thing scient to say,
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  Speaker 3: we've got all these things now, but what's their benchmark?
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  Speaker 3: What are they comparing it to? Which year, which decade?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, as time passed, the circumstances do change and
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  Speaker 3: new things come along. That's went out and the ruler
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  Speaker 3: getting an auxiliary because as you know, the police took
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  Speaker 3: away the police based constables. We don't even have the
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  Speaker 3: XIII sometimes at tomodmen in college, So if the person's
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  Speaker 3: not there, where is the person? And I can't speak
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  Speaker 3: for other places that are meant to have the school
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  Speaker 3: based obsidiary, but it's a good question. We don't see
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: them on the street. It's been pointed out to me
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  Speaker 3: that this person I was speaking to said they hadn't
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: seen an RBT for a long time. You know, they
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: travel a lot around the city. So where are the
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  Speaker 3: police good question? I don't know. I can't answer that.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Katie kis here obviously, Like I said, the Police Minister
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  Speaker 1: said on the show yesterday, there'll be a review into
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  Speaker 1: the financials, also the structure currently underway, and also you
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: know the mental health of our police officers. Now she's
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: not ruled out a full restructure of the police force.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Do you think that goes far enough?
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  Speaker 3: I think a select committee would have been able to
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  Speaker 3: look at that matter, plus a whole lot of other matters. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: if you look at the structure, are you assuming the
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  Speaker 3: structure is not right? You know? So why had the
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  Speaker 3: minister come out and ask and talked about those specific things?
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  Speaker 3: So that is that what the governor believes is the
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  Speaker 3: problem currently? An empty police force? I don't know, But
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  Speaker 3: a select committee could have had the two reference. They
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: could have been expanded or shrunk. And as I've said before,
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  Speaker 3: bringing external experts. I know there's some reservations with perhaps
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  Speaker 3: officers out there who might want to speak but don't
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  Speaker 3: have confidence not only in the police force and their management,
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  Speaker 3: but wouldn't have confidence in a selectmty. I get that,
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  Speaker 3: but it's a sad state of affairs when You've got
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  Speaker 3: people who have a distrust of our parliament and the
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  Speaker 3: parliamentary processes, and that's a concern to me. Yeah, you
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  Speaker 3: want people to come forward and talk frankly and honestly
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  Speaker 3: about the problems they may be experiencing without any repercussions.
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  Speaker 1: Kesia, what do you make of the Police minister's comments
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  Speaker 1: that she doesn't think that there should be another that
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  Speaker 1: there should be a select committee because she doesn't want
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  Speaker 1: officers then being drawn away from the work that needs
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  Speaker 1: to be done.
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  Speaker 2: But then also that review is already happening.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we didn't know the review was happening because the
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  Speaker 3: other and said it. Yeah, there's been no public announcement.
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  Speaker 3: If the government was going to try and inspire some
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: confidence back in the community and the police force, why
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  Speaker 3: didn't they go out publicly and say right, this is
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  Speaker 3: what we're doing, this is the review that's underway, this
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  Speaker 3: is what we're looking at, this is how it's going
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  Speaker 3: to be doing what, like you said, treasury is looking
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: at the finances. Well, I mean they're eminently qualified. I
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  Speaker 3: get that. So again they're only coming out when they're pushed.
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  Speaker 3: They were pushed by the colp and their motion they've
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  Speaker 3: been pushed by me saying the things that I'm saying.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: So if the doublement was so open and transparent, y,
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  Speaker 3: why don't nobody come out yesterday or the day before
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  Speaker 3: and say, look, this is what we're looking to do.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we don't agree with this select committee, but
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  Speaker 3: this is what we're going to come up with, and
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  Speaker 3: this is what we hope to get out of it.
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  Speaker 3: So to me, it's a little bit knee a reaction.
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  Speaker 3: I think Katie and.
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  Speaker 1: Kisi, what are the options now? Like from your perspective,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you know, what are the options now?
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  Speaker 2: Well?
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  Speaker 3: I guess the police and others have to participate in
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  Speaker 3: this review. I can write to the Police Ministry and say, yes,
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  Speaker 3: you've got this review underway. Is it open for other
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  Speaker 3: people to put in comments and submissions? Is it just
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  Speaker 3: going to be about police looking at police or public
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  Speaker 3: servants looking at public servants, or they're going to try
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  Speaker 3: and get some commentary from people outside who are affected
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  Speaker 3: by the current malays in the police force, which is
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  Speaker 3: my to mean in college, can't get it, don't have
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  Speaker 3: school based constables anymore, which is still a gripe of mind.
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  Speaker 3: Can't always have our auxiliaries. We don't have our second
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  Speaker 3: counselor you know, so is she going to accept you know,
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  Speaker 3: perhaps you know, I like to meme in college might
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  Speaker 3: want to write in because of their association with school
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  Speaker 3: based policing Sanderson, because I know Sanderson has issues also
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  Speaker 3: the school base. So is it just going to be
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  Speaker 3: police looking at police or is she going to open
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  Speaker 3: it up to others to have commentary. That's what I
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  Speaker 3: want to know.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, Kezia.
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  Speaker 1: One of the other things happening today is, of course
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: outside of Parliament. We know that there's going to be
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  Speaker 1: there's expected to be hundreds of teachers, nurses, correctional officers,
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  Speaker 1: aboriginal practitioners, everybody sort of you know, all these public
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  Speaker 1: servants there on the lawns of Parliament House. Have you
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  Speaker 1: seen many of them gathering around the city at this point?
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  Speaker 3: No, not yet. I did drop someone off out at
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  Speaker 3: the Raintree Park. They're going to start there and understand,
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  Speaker 3: walk down the mall to Bennett Park and perhaps outside
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  Speaker 3: Parliament and have speeches and all that sort of thing.
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  Speaker 3: I'll pop across at some stage after Parliament started to
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  Speaker 3: see what's going on, because I know, I know there's
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  Speaker 3: quite a lot of the rule teachers who are participating
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  Speaker 3: in this action and that's their right and good on them.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, this should have started, this negotiation about
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: pay Katy, this should have started six months ago.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: The governments really really dragged their feet on this, you know.
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  Speaker 3: And it's and a lot has changed in t Langland
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  Speaker 3: report and you know, and inflation high and it's ever
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: been before, et cetera. It's issues in the territory with
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: retention and recruitment of teachers, and also some of the
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: other states that are getting way ahead of us with
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  Speaker 3: their with their innovation and how they're trying to retain
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  Speaker 3: their teachers and their mercy works. For example, I'm not
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  Speaker 3: sure if it's in South Wales or Victoria, but the
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  Speaker 3: government is going to play pay the hex's debt for nurses.
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  Speaker 2: They are.
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  Speaker 1: It's so it's in Victoria that they're doing that. It's
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  Speaker 1: pretty amazing, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: So why can't we look at something like that for teachers.
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  Speaker 3: We're in the middle of term three now, so we
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  Speaker 3: have one more term of the year and when teachers
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: start to plan for you know, the break and holidays,
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  Speaker 3: some of them will go into state, go wherever for
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  Speaker 3: breaks and may not come back because it's just as
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  Speaker 3: I've said with police, we're not the desirable destination anymore
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  Speaker 3: for this kind of career, which is teaching, and we
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  Speaker 3: need them.
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  Speaker 2: Well and cas.
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  Speaker 1: The difficulty is that, you know, we have a government
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  Speaker 1: like we don't have the money to be able to
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  Speaker 1: offer these incentives, do we.
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  Speaker 3: Well, they find money for other things, Katie. You know,
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  Speaker 3: they found money for Buddy a pre school at Prap
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  Speaker 3: Primary and True and all that sort of stuff. So
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  Speaker 3: but the other thing, Katie, is that it's not just
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: about the pay. The pay is very important, of course
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  Speaker 3: for all of us. It's also about the workload and
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  Speaker 3: the expectations that teachers do a whole lot of activities
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  Speaker 3: which is unpaid. For example, school excursions, you know that
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  Speaker 3: kind of thing when they go into state for school
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  Speaker 3: trips or you know they bring them and take them places.
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  Speaker 3: That's you in unpaid time. You know, there's the classroom time,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: and then there's these other activities that involve students that
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: is unpaid. So it's about the support of not just
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: the pay, but other things in the class. And I'm
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  Speaker 3: going to go back to the school based constables. That
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  Speaker 3: support has not been there as I know, And if
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: that's one thing that Kate, Minister Kate's going to be
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: looking at, then perhaps something I should write to about
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: is put those school based constables back in the school
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: and let the exilaris go and do what auxiliaries do.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: So you know, they say we're into our fourth round
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: recruitment for counselors like what happened to the first, second
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: and third round to school based counselors. So pay is
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: very important, but there's these other support activities and actions
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: that the government's just not supporting the teaching world.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Well, Keseyopuric, we are going to have to leave it there.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see you tomorrow for the.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Week that was.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: Oh yes, Katie will do.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Thanks Kezy