Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Spoke with Member for Braitling Josh Burgoyne about a shocking surge in youth crime in Alice Springs

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Katie Spoke with Member for Braitling Josh Burgoyne about a shocking surge in youth crime in Alice Springs · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know we talk a lot about crime on
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  Speaker 1: this show, so often senseless crime which has a massive
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: impact on the businesses and the individuals on the receiving end,
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  Speaker 1: and well over the weekend, Alice Springs had an absolute shocker.
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  Speaker 1: By the sounds of things, the newspaper is reporting that
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  Speaker 1: three hundred and forty incidents over seventy two hours, involving
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  Speaker 1: one during which rocks were allegedly thrown at a police dog.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is the member for Braitlan,
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  Speaker 1: Joshua Burgoin. Good morning to you, Josh.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katy, Good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Josh, it sounds like it was a terrible weekend for
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  Speaker 1: Central Australia when it comes to crime. Can you tell
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  Speaker 1: us what you know about some of these incidents.
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  Speaker 2: That occurred, Yeah, certainly, Katy. Look, I've had people contact
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  Speaker 2: me after what curt over the weekend, basically very frustrated
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  Speaker 2: what they witnessed. They witnessed cars driving around erratically. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: basically we're just absolutely no sense of anyone else's safety.
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  Speaker 2: This particularly treating our Springs like as the game of
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  Speaker 2: grand theft Audo and it's just purely unacceptable. And I've
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  Speaker 2: spoken with police. The police are doing all that they can.
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  Speaker 2: They have arrested six people in relation to the offenses.
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  Speaker 2: I have heard that one of those people has been
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  Speaker 2: bailed and this really brings it back to Labour's failed
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  Speaker 2: bail policy. You know, we police cannot keep mopping up
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  Speaker 2: able over Labour's failed policies. It's just frustrating for everyone
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  Speaker 2: in our community. The police are out there doing the
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  Speaker 2: best job that they can. They're catching these people. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: more often than not, these people are getting out again.
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  Speaker 1: Josh, what are locals saying to you right now in
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springs? Because we know that crime has been on
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  Speaker 1: the agenda for a long time. We know that the
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  Speaker 1: police work incredibly hard in the Red Center, but for
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  Speaker 1: some reason, this just continues to happen. What are locals
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  Speaker 1: saying right now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, people are frustrated. You know, when you run a business.
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  Speaker 2: We've just got through COVID and now you know we're
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  Speaker 2: looking forward to basically what is quite a time over
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  Speaker 2: Christmas when it comes to business. But unfortunately, what we
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  Speaker 2: all know in our springs is that the level of
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  Speaker 2: crime and once that weather starts to warm up, we've
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  Speaker 2: already had extremely high crime occur in our town. I
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  Speaker 2: think it is important to realize that the total property
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  Speaker 2: offenses for this year to August already sit at six thousand,
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  Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty seven when compared to four thousand,
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and ninety nine for the previous year. Now,
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  Speaker 2: this is staggering figures. Six thousand total property offenses. It's
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  Speaker 2: something like sixteen property offenses a day that's occurring in
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  Speaker 2: our community, and that's just unacceptable. And we've been talking
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  Speaker 2: about this for.
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  Speaker 3: A long time.
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  Speaker 2: Kape, Yeah, we do really need to see this is
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  Speaker 2: a twenty four to seven problem, and the police are
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  Speaker 2: the only ones that are there working twenty four to
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  Speaker 2: seven mopping up. We need to see more agencies. There's
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  Speaker 2: something like twenty thousand public service in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: I imagine there's quite a few and other springs. I
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  Speaker 2: want to see this gun of government actually commit to
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  Speaker 2: some real changes in their current policies that mean there
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  Speaker 2: are more people out there on the street at night
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  Speaker 2: supporting our police, other agencies out there working in with
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  Speaker 2: these young people before they commit the crimes, because unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: the reality is the police do a great job.
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  Speaker 3: But they're there after the fact that is the reality
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  Speaker 3: of what we're facing.
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  Speaker 2: It.
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  Speaker 1: Our springs make did you say, six thousand, one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and twenty seven property offenses already this year.
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  Speaker 3: That's yeah, for the year to August.
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  Speaker 2: So basically, you know, we get these rolling figures, you know,
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  Speaker 2: come out every month about you know, the latest property offenses,
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  Speaker 2: and that is it. I think it's really important to note, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I always get frustrated when we say, oh,
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  Speaker 2: year on year, yes, last year was down slightly because
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  Speaker 2: of the COVID lockdowns. But if we go back to
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  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen and when we fully open, we still and
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  Speaker 2: I say, only only had four thousand, six hundred and
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  Speaker 2: twenty property offenses.
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  Speaker 3: So to see that huge.
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  Speaker 2: Uptake, you know, well over fourteen hundred property offenses from
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  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one, it's just incredible. And
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  Speaker 2: this is a trend that is evolving in our town.
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  Speaker 2: We are slowly seeing it just get to us a
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  Speaker 2: state where you know, when you do talk to these
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  Speaker 2: business owners, they are struggling to get insurance, they are
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  Speaker 2: struggling to deal with this on a daily basis, and
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  Speaker 2: that's what's going to hurt happen. We don't want to
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  Speaker 2: see good people leaving our town and we want to
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  Speaker 2: see this problem get turned around.
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  Speaker 1: I would imagine that people are potentially worried as well
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  Speaker 1: that that crime is going to get worse over the
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  Speaker 1: summer and Christmas holiday period.
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  Speaker 2: It's something that we often talk about and when I'm
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  Speaker 2: speaking with people on the streets that's exactly what people
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  Speaker 2: are saying is it's just bad. Now, how bad is
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  Speaker 2: it going to get? And that's the real fear that
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  Speaker 2: people have in ourtown. It's not about overstating what's happening.
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  Speaker 3: I read out those figures before. This is real.
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  Speaker 2: We are going through this and that's why we're up
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  Speaker 2: here in Parliament this week putting pressure on the government
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  Speaker 2: to change these policies, because you cannot just set and
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  Speaker 2: forget Katie.
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  Speaker 3: We need to see you know, this is the same.
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  Speaker 2: Government that for months told us that bail wasn't an
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  Speaker 2: issue before changing their bail laws. Well, they can still
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  Speaker 2: go a lot further and they.
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  Speaker 1: Need to well, Josh, as you've just pointed out, obviously,
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  Speaker 1: Parliament is sitting in the territory today and no doubt
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  Speaker 1: this is going to be a focus for the COLP.
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  Speaker 1: This issue of crime and youth offending. What needs to
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  Speaker 1: happen here?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, look, we've spoken about bringing back breach of bail
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  Speaker 2: as an offense. We simply cannot have young people who
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  Speaker 2: continually reoffend getting off and being bailed, you know, and
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  Speaker 2: we do need to see more programs.
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  Speaker 3: We spoke about that before.
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  Speaker 2: There are not many options for young people in our
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  Speaker 2: springs when they have been you know, when an offense
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  Speaker 2: has occurred, the actual youth justice system, there's not a
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  Speaker 2: lot of options open to them. We always hear about
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  Speaker 2: seven EMUs up in Daha. Well what have we got
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  Speaker 2: in our springs? I don't become and talking about these
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  Speaker 2: programs down in our springs. We used to have Love's
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  Speaker 2: Creek that's been gone, been gone for a long time.
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  Speaker 3: We need to make sure that there are real programs on.
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  Speaker 2: The ground in our springs so that a young person
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  Speaker 2: does do the wrong thing, we can get to them,
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  Speaker 2: we can change that behavior. So we are not constantly
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  Speaker 2: seeing this revolving door of young people unfortunately going through
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  Speaker 2: our court system and being bailed and going on to reoffend.
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  Speaker 2: We simply do not want that to happen.
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  Speaker 1: Josh, what would you say to anybody who's listening this morning,
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  Speaker 1: who thinks that this is just a bit of political
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  Speaker 1: muck raking, or thinks that the colp is is really
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  Speaker 1: just sort of, you know, trying to make this a
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  Speaker 1: bigger issue than what it is.
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  Speaker 3: Look look at the statistic.
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  Speaker 2: The statistics speak for themselves, and when you speak to
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  Speaker 2: anyone in our community of Alice Springs, the problem is real.
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  Speaker 2: We are doing what we can in opposition to try
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  Speaker 2: to get this government to move to change their current
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  Speaker 2: policies to make Alice Springs a safer community, because that
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  Speaker 2: is at the end of the day, what we all
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  Speaker 2: want to achieve. Police are out there doing there. Government
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  Speaker 2: can do a lot more help us fix these issues
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  Speaker 2: that we face in our springs.
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  Speaker 1: Josh, Before we wrap up, we obviously heard yesterday the
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  Speaker 1: government made this major announcement when it comes to the
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  Speaker 1: changes for home quarantine around COVID. We did just speak
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  Speaker 1: to the health Midistine Natasha Files. She reckons that our
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  Speaker 1: health system is going to be able to keep up
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  Speaker 1: with what is an incredibly strict testing regime. By the
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  Speaker 1: look of things. Do you think that this plan goes
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  Speaker 1: far enough or is good enough, or do you think
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  Speaker 1: that realistically we need to know exactly what date we
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  Speaker 1: are going to open two other states and territories to
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  Speaker 1: anybody who's double vaxed.
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  Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing that industry, the people on
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  Speaker 2: the street are wanting is more information regards to how
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  Speaker 2: this is going to work, what happens if these trials
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  Speaker 2: don't work out exactly the way they're going to government
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  Speaker 2: hoping them. At the end of the day, Katie, I
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  Speaker 2: know that everyone wants to go and see their loved
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  Speaker 2: one at Christmas time, but we must make sure that
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  Speaker 2: obviously we're taking the best health advice and making sure
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  Speaker 2: that everyone in the Northern Territory is safe and at
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  Speaker 2: the moment, I just really feel like when I talk
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  Speaker 2: to people in the electorate of Freightling, they're still a
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  Speaker 2: bit unsure about exactly what the plan is and exactly how.
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  Speaker 3: It's going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Josh Burgoyne, the Member full Brakling, we really appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time this morning. No doubt we'll talk again soon.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you.