Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition Leader Lia Finochiarro backs inquiries into Central Australia crime and the Rolfe murder charge...no matter the cost

Transcript

Opposition Leader Lia Finochiarro backs inquiries into Central Australia crime and the Rolfe murder charge...no matter the cost · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, as I said just a couple of moments ago.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: It was pretty fiery yesterday in Parliament, with the Opposition
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: choosing question time to focus on the days from when
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the fatal shooting of Kumen Joe Walker took place and
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the charging of Constable Rolf. Several questions were asked of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister about those comments around consequences flowing and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the perception of political interference. The Chief Minister, Michael Gunner,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: has described a so called political campaign by the Northern
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Territory Police Association as malicious during question time, following on
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: from those questions from the Opposition leader Lea Fanocchiaro, who
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: joins me on the line right now. Good morning to you, Leah.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie and your listener.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Now, Lea, is this a desperate attempt by the opposition
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to make or to take the Chief Minister's words Consequences
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: will flow out of context?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: This is a ridiculous allegation by the Chief Minister and
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I'm actually horrified at how hard he is going after
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the Police Association, in Michael Gunner's own words, saying that
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the Police Association have weaponized and deliberately taken his work.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Chief Minister's words out of context to use against him.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's an extraordinary diversion tactic and I'm not
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: surprised the government are trying to do this. They're they're
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: creating a situation where this instead of talking about the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: substance of the role, investigation and trial, they're now turning
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: it into a fight between the Northern Territory government and
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: the territory's police associations. It's absolutely appalling. It's just distraction tactics.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, Michael Gunner got on
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: a plane with the Police Commissioner and the Police Minister,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: flew five hours to you and to move together, stood
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: in front of a crowd of angry, upset, grieving people
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: and promised them an outcome that he cannot promise. He
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: impugned that there was police wrongdoing, and the very next day,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Constable Rolf is then charged with murder after previously being
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: told by police that he was cleared. We've got three
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: investigators saying that the haste in which they were moving
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: to charge was raising serious alarm bells for them. And
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: of course we've even got a decision by Justice Mildrin
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: which attributes the Chief Minister's comments and the former EYKA
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Commissioner's comments as a reason why Constable Rolph could not
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: have a fair trial in Alice Springs. This is extraordinary, Katie.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: It requires an independent inquiry and we will not stop
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: or be distracted by the Gunner government's smoke and mirror tactics.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Leah. I mean, I think you've outlined some of it there,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: but I know that some people listening this morning will
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: be thinking do we need to keep talking about this?
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Do we need to keep sort of you know, going
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: back over the Chief Minister's comments that consequences would flow,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: he reckons he's been taken out of context. Why is
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: it so important that these questions get answered.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: It's important for a number of reasons, And firstly, I
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: really want to try and debunk what the government are
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: trying to make people believe that it's okay that the
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Chief this is comments are about the coronial. There is
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: nothing okay about that. If you take the Chief Minister
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: at his word that he said consequences will flow from
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: a coronial if you believe that, which many people don't,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: but even if you do, it is not okay for
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister two days after a police shooting to
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: prejudice the outcome of a coronial investigation, which might i
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: add Katie has not even happened yet, so by his
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: very words of continuing to perpetuate that his comments around
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: consequences will flow as relation to the coronial, it is
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: an absolute disaster in and of itself. He has impugned
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: wrongdoing by police ahead of that coronial and of course
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: promised to community that something negative would come out of it.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: So that's the first issue. The second issue is this
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: has been a two and a half year indictment and
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: blant on our history. Our police force has suffered terribly
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: for this, and so has our community, and people have
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: more questions than their our answers. That four day period
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: will not be investigated thoroughly by anything other than an
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: independent inquiry. And the reason it's so important is because
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: we need to know as a jurisdiction that we are
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: never going to chart this course again. We have a
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: violent offender killed, we have a young police officer charged
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: with murder. In a very short period of time, we
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: have him then found not guilty of any charges whatsoever,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: despite suffering a two and a half year ordeal. We
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: have serious questions by a judge that there is a
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: no ability for a man to have a fair trial
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: in Alice Springs, attributing part of that to actions of
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: our own Chief Minister and k Commissioner. I mean we
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: have the police force saying that you lead investigators were
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: concerned about what was going on. We need to clear
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: the air on this so that everyone can move on,
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  Speaker 2: and the only way to do that is through an
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: independent inquiry.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Well, it doesn't sound as though it's something that you're
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: going to be letting go. By the sounds of it,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: that discussion is going to be continuing, I'm assuming today
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: throughout Parliament a well.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Without question, Katie, this is I mean, there have been
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: royal commissions and inquiries in our country for less than this,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: and the Chief Minister can try and sheep blame to me,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: sheep blame to the Anti Police Association, but this is
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: just furthering his poor perception and his misunderstanding of how
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: his words could have impacted something. Now, for our police
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: and for our community to move on, we need to
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: shine a light on this issue. We need to make
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: sure we learn the lessons of what took place in
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: those four days and never ever chart this course again.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I think It's extraordinary also that on your show just
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: last week, Katie, you know, for the first time we're
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: hearing the Chief Minister use the excuse that the reason
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: he was in nuendumu was to deal with health reasons.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Yet he chose to get on a plane with the
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Police Commissioner and Police Minister instead of the Health Minister
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: to address the crowd that day. You know, it just
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: doesn't stack up or past the pub test. And the
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: longer he keeps going, the more questions people have, the
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: more concern, the darker the loud and this would just
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: keep festering until it explodes.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Well, Lea, let's move along because we have got such
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a busy hour lined up. We're going to be catching
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: up with the Police Association in just a couple of moments.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: But we know that this is certainly not the only
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: issue which was debated on well in Parliament. On Day one,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: crime was on the agenda after the Independent member Farra
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: lu and Robin Lamley moved a motion to implement a
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: wide ranging Parliamentary committee into crime in Central Australia amid
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: these growing concerns around a crime crisis in Alice Springs.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: The Opposition supported the motion but it was still voted down. Lea,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Why did you think that it was important that this
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: went to heat.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: It's really important that some think anything is done about crime.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: We've talked about it for six long years. We've crunched
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: the numbers and it's shown that from twenty fifteen when
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: the CLP was in government, to twenty twenty one, the
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: six years of labor, that crime in Alice Springs house
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: breakings are up ninety nine percent, commercial breakins are up
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: one hundred and five five percent. Under later that town
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: is suffering chronically, as are many territories, but in Alan
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Springs the debilitation of that community is profound and cannot
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: be overestimated. And so we really believe that having a
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: committee of the Parliament do an investigation into what urgently
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: needs to be done in Alice Springs could only lead
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: to good things. The Gunner government, of course, so can't
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: bring themselves to deal with this issue. They can't even
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: admit that there's a problem. It is the.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Government, right though, I mean, is the time for looking
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: at the issue and talking over and do they just
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: need to get on with that.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: I think the problem is though they're not getting on
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  Speaker 2: with it. What they've been standing up and saying repeatedly
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: in the media and in Parliament yesterday was that yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: we're doing a great job and these are all the
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: things we're doing well. Well, clearly that's not working. And
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: the fact that they can't even admit there is a
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: crime crisis, in my mind and in the minds of
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: many people, is the starting point. If you can't admit
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: you have a problem, what confidence is there that anyone
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  Speaker 2: would go and try and fix it. If you think
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  Speaker 2: it's not broken, you're not going to fix it. And
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that's the problem with the government at the moment.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Now, Leah, before I let you go, we know that
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: today COVID legislation is on both the government and the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: opposition's agenda, but you've got quite different legislation to present
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: than the government. I think it would be safe to
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: say that you're looking for more scrutiny of the Chief
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Health Officer and the government is looking to give the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Chief Health Officer more powers. Am I correct that with
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: that view?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely perfect, Katie. We're trying to breathe more scrutiny into
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: the COVID process and the Gunner government are trying to
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: remove as much scrutiny as possible. Of course, we've got
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: this extraordinary decision by government to remove all of the
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: power which is only reserved and saved and to be
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: used when there is a state of emergency. They're going
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: to rip that out, give it to the Chow for
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: two years unfettered, unprecedented levels of power that impact people's rights,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: liberties and their body and yet the government will not
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: be able to be held responsible for that. We just
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: think it is an absolute abuse of power. It is
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  Speaker 2: a terrible, terrible indictment on scrutiny and transparency. We want
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: to see the Chow reporting to the Parliament regulate with
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  Speaker 2: the evidence and the health advice that he's given governments
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: that people can have confidence in the decision he is making.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, he is a high
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: level official, a public servant who is responsible to no one,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: whereas a government minister is responsible to the people. And
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: we need to know that that people of the Northern
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  Speaker 2: Territory can hold this government to account for the decisions
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  Speaker 2: it makes in controlling our lives.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: LEA just lastly, before I let you go on this
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  Speaker 1: situation that you continue to ask the Chief Minister about
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: around the charging of Constable Zach Rolf. Are we expecting
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: any questions to the likes of the Health Minister who
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you pointed out earlier that didn't travel to you and
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: to move with the Chief Minister at the time, all
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: questions for the Police minister. Nobody has heard a great
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: deal from the Police Minister at this point.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: No, we haven't heard really anything from the Police Minister
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: and I think the continues had to drag her out
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: of her silence and with a very simple three line statement.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: I mean the police force is crying for leadership. You've
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: got a Chief Minister throwing them under the bus and
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: a police minister in hiding. It's absolutely appalling. I can
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: guarantee your listeners, Katie, that there will be multiple questions
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: over the next two weeks to multiple ministers on this
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: roof issue and we will not let this go. And
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: the whole community has a responsibility to hold the Gunner
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: government to account. They try and duck and weave and
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: hide from scandal all the time and this is just
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: the last straw. We have got to ensure that an
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: inquiry is called and held so that we can have
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: confidence in the system going forward with LEA.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Do we have any idea. Do we have any idea
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: how much an inquiry would cost?
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: No, I don't, Katie, And you know I'm not going
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: to hide from the fact that it would have a cost.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: But I asked terr transis what's the cost of letting
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: this go? What's the cost to the damage to our
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: police force and the lack of confidence? What is the
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: cost to our community if we don't resolve this issue
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: once and for all. I think it can actually be
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: a very efficient inquiry. I'd like to see it done
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: before the coronial, Katie. I'd like it to be a
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: commissioner from interstate. The entire team who undertake that inquiry
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: has to be at total armed blenks from government and
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: from interstate, so that people can have confidence in the outcome.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: And I think it can be done efficiently. But I
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: think the price of not doing this will be far
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: greater than the price of doing it.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Well, Opposition Leader Leah Finocchiaro, we appreciate your time this morning.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Take care everyone,