Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Alice Springs business owner Garth Thompson says residents are proposing to sue the NT Government alleging it has been negligent over the crime crisis

Transcript

Alice Springs business owner Garth Thompson says residents are proposing to sue the NT Government alleging it has been negligent over the crime crisis · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The concerns that people are feeling right now were clearly
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: identified overnight, when thousands of Alice Springs residents gathered to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: voice their concerns over the rising crime rates, many supporting
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: calls for a class action against the Northern Territory Government
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: for what organizers have described as negligence. Now, Garth Thompson,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the organizer, said that the Northern Territory government had neglected
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs on a range of levels and he wants
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to get the wheels in motion to soothe the government
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for one point five billion dollars in compensation. And Garth,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the organizer of that meeting, joins me on the line
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Garth, Good morning, How are you
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: not too bad?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Garth? Two and a half thousand odd people turned up
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: last night, maybe even more, yeah.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Two and a half to three thousand that's been estimated.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Close to the three thousand. Locals came together last night
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: to stand as one and to show that we're not
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: going to sit back in longer and accept what is
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: soon as adequate for us to live in the conditions
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: that we have to deal with and the way that
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: people in town are treated and stuff.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Like that dos what made you organize the meeting, you know,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to try and bring the town together in the way
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: that you did last night.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: To be honest with you, it's just out of pure frustration,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: the length of time that people have had issues and
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: continual problems, the way that those problems have escalated over
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: the last twelve months, the concern of people in town
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: that are too scared to go into town shopping by themselves,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: the concern to lead their homes unattended, that they'll be broken.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Into the fact that you walk through our mall that
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: should be vibrant and there's more closed buildings there than
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: there are open. And you go into the shopping center
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: at the end of the mall that should also be
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: vibrant and busy, and there's more closed shops in there
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: than there are open shops. Our town is just spiraling
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: backwards and out of control. The number of kids on
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: the street that don't have the welfare that they need
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: and that they deserve, and the direction in their life
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: that is just missing. And there are so many different
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: aspects to the way that our town is affected at
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: the moment. And the scary part is, and I'm grateful
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: that no one has done it yet, But no one
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: has taken actions into their own hands and destroyed their
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: own life in either chasing down a perpetrator that's been
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: in their house or defending themselves in a house again
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: someone trying to break in holding an axe or a machete.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: The fact that it hasn't got to that point yet
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: is absolutely amazing. Because of what we've been dealing with.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: There's not one single avenue to try and pinpoint and
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: speak about. The whole idea about our meeting last night
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: was to put our hand up and say we're standing
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: together and enough is enough. This government has neglected us
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: for far too long. Processes in place are evident that
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: the end product of all of those are on our
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: streets every month. Our livelihood is in danger of what
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: the town is just spiraling backwards.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Darth, you're a local boy, aren't you.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: How long have you lived in Alice Springs.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: I've been here for forty four years, and you.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Know from what you are saying, and it is certainly
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: not the first time that I've heard it. In fact,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: we've been hearing this a lot over the last year
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: or so. Things have well and truly spiraled over the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: last year, particularly you know sort of the last six
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: months or so, you know, is that your take as
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: a business owner?
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: How many times have you been broken into?
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: We've been in business here for ten years. I couldn't
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: tell you the number. We've had five attempt to break in,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: four windows smashed, a door destroyed, and another door handle
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: destroyed between Christmas Day and the end of the first
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: week of January.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: So in that short period of time.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Yes, we had nine break ins last year and a
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: ram raid that destroyed the front half of our shop.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: That was just last year, the first four and a
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: half years we were in business. That cost us eighty
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: four thousand dollars in outgoing costs for repairs, damage and
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: lost product. And I gave up counting after that that
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: We've done nearly six years of not even counting number.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I can accept what goes on here at the shop
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: because I have to turn off from that and I
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: have to let it go. It is far more. It
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: is far more. It's just it's far more damaging. The
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: people that are dealing with this in their own homes,
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: their own cars. They're being assaulted in town and verbally
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: abused because they haven't offered a smoke or they haven't
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: offered cash or there are so many things that go
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: on that are so so much more one on one
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: and directed at people personally, that people are scared and
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: it's not what our town is. That our town is
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: an amazing place and our government has neglected it to
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: the point that people are scared to be here. It's
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: being advertised nationally that do not come to our springs,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: do not come to Central Australia, do not come to
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory. It is out of control. We've just
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: lost the Australian Junior Motocross Championship from being healthier this
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: year and that normally runs anywhere from five to seven
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: hundred competitors and they're all kids, so that means that
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: that's the family's coming here.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: We actually the town have just lost out on them.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're just talking to Silla.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: We're just actually talking Tocilla not so long ago about that,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: about ten minutes ago, fifteen minutes ago. And it is
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: really devastating. Like you said, it's a kid then that miss.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Out, the town misses out, and the processes that are
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: put in place and a run they cooled the town out,
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: and everyone thinks that it's exaggeration. The town was absolutely
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: cleared out of any of the three to four hundred
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: people that hang around in their twenty four hours a day.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: They were cleared out instantly the day the Prime Minister
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: was going to be here. And that was the biggest
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: insult ever that our government could portray on any local
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: Ala Springs person. It was disgusting the whole idea of
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: last night's meeting and what we were set out to achieve.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: And when I say, well, it wasn't a big group
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: of us it's been portrayed this morning as business owners
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: and authors, it wasn't. It was myself and my mother.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: We worked out the background to it, We set up
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: the approach, we approached the convention center. I set the
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: profile of the meeting and what we were going to
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: speak about and everything else. It was opened to every
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: avenue person in town.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Talk me through, Talk me through.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously you have now seen that the Northern
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Territory governments neglected Ela Springs on a range of levels.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: You want to get the wheels in motion to sue
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the government for one point five billion dollars in compensation.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: How do you like, how do you propose? Well, how
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: do you reckon you're going to get those wheels in motion.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Well, we've already started that last night in showing the
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: support the concern for our town and a number of
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: people that showed up. There's been reports already out that
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: it's only for business and stuff. It was publicized and
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: it was listed last night and it was spoken about YEP.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: On the last census we had just under twelve thousand
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: rate paying addresses in Central or in other springs. We
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: have over two thousand registered businesses in Central Australia. We
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: have our sporting groups, community groups and organizations and stuff
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: like that. As a number, we picked fifth. We put
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: it at fifteen thousand points of compensation at one hundred
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars per point. That covers every address in town,
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: not the owners, that covers the occupants. So every household
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: and every business and every sporting organization is on our
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: list at the same value. The government set a precedent
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: when they paid out thirty thousand dollars per head to
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: the criminals the compensation on how they're treated when they
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: are in the detention center up there. They settled on
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: that out of court. They agreed that thirty thousand dollars
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: per head for a criminal was worthy compensation for us
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: as victims. One hundred thousand dollars per point of compensation
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: is where the one point five billion dollars has come from.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: It might be a scary number, it might be an
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: unrealistic number. I don't know. But at the end of
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: the day, we started this as a very small family group.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: We attracted the attention of three thousand local people last night,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: wanting to stand together and wanting to see change, and
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: wanting to see our government held accountable for the neglect
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: of our town.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Well, and you know, came to and I think the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: fact is at this point, you know, whether that number
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: is correct, just how far you get in terms of
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: getting that compensation remains to be seen. You know, we'll
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: see how things progress. But the fact is you got
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: three thousand, You got three thousand residents there who are
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: incredibly concerned about the situation in Alice Springs right now.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I mean that says an enormous amount to me that
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: that many people have turned out, you know, to try
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and show the government that action needs to be taken. Guth,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: you know, the only criticism that I've sort of heard
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: on the ABC earlier this morning is that there was
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: some criticism that there were no that nobody indigenous had spoken,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: or that there was an Indigenous involvement there.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: What is your response to that.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: The ABC report this morning was disgustingly wrong and the
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: people that were actually interviewed there were the hecklers that
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: were trying to stop the meeting and to create drama
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: there and everything else. We had eight oar Under elder
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: women traditional owners that hung around at the end of
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: the night, and all those told me that they had
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: personally told that group of people to leave the meeting
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: because they weren't there representing the r Under people of
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: our springs. So that was just flat out a group
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: of people. I offered for them to come up and
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: speak on the stage. I opened it up. I urged
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: them to come forward. When they were swearing, when they
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: were yelling, when they were trying to disrupt everything that
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: was being said, they were the only ones with a
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: negative attitude, and I don't think they even realized what
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: they were trying to fight, because all we were trying
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: to achieve last night, and what we did achieve was
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: to get a group of locals to come together from
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: every different avenue in town, different backgrounds, different thoughts, different abilities,
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: different trades, different everything. The number of people that we've
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: got to work with as a group to go forward
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: now is amazing, and that is inclusive of Aboriginal ar
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: under women that are traditional owners of the land that
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: these people were disrespecting them on GUS.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Do you think we've reached the point where the FEDS
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: need to step in?
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, they need to step in and take control of
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: the situation so that we have a starting point. We
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: need to stop where we're at. We need to take
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: control of the situation and we need to save Alice Springs.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Alice Springs isn't big enough to have an influence on
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: the next election or anything like that. There's simply not
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: enough people here to do it. But there's enough people
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: here that love this town that we're going to stand
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: together and we're going to fight.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Garth.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning. You've been the
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: hardest man in the Northern Territory to get a hold
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: of today, but I know you must be very busy.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: So we appreciate you having a chat with us.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: No, thank you very much. I did take a break
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: after seeing what the ABC did to the to portray
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: the meeting, I was disgusted and I really needed to
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: evaluate who I was going to speak with today. Yeah,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: I do appreciate the opportunity.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: And just on that.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I mean to anybody that you know that is listening
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: this morning, that is thinking that you know that it
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: like that this is a divisional sort of conversation, or
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: that the meeting that you had last night was you know,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I was meant to divide the community in any way.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: What would you say to them?
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: They're welcome to find me on my Facebook page. The
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: first ten minutes of my speech was on there. It's
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: open for anyone to see. It's not a problem at
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: all if they want to find me. Garth Thompson T
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: H O. M. P Son. The photograph is my wife
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: in a race car and my son's sitting next to it,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: and they're welcome to jump on there and have a
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: look at it and make their own opinion of our
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: approach and the way that we're trying to conduct it.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Well, Garth, I appreciate your time this morning.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having a chat with us, and please
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: keep us up to date let us know how things progress.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Not a problem, Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you