Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley says law and order has disintegrated in Alice Springs and a Territory-wide repair approach is needed

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Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley says law and order has disintegrated in Alice Springs and a Territory-wide repair approach is needed · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, we know that the Northern Territory Police said they'd
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: last night surge forty additional officers into Alice Springs to
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  Speaker 1: support local police to address the crime and antisocial behavior
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: issue in the town. The move followed the latest incident
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  Speaker 1: on Tuesday night, which saw two stolen cars driving dangerously
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  Speaker 1: around the CBD. The Police Commissioner, Jamie Chalker came out
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  Speaker 1: to make this announcement yesterday and confirm that one of
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  Speaker 1: those stolen cars attempted to ram a police vehicle which
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  Speaker 1: was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
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  Speaker 1: As we all know, this is the third incident of
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  Speaker 1: this type involving stolen vehicles in Alice Springs in the
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  Speaker 1: past fortnight. Now joining me on the line is the
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  Speaker 1: Independent Member Farra Lun Robin Lamley.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Robin.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie Robin.
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  Speaker 1: The move to bring forty additional police to Alice it
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  Speaker 1: does follow calls yesterday for the AFP to step in
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  Speaker 1: to assist from some people. Are these forty officers going
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  Speaker 1: to be enough to quell the issues being experienced at
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  Speaker 1: the moment, Well.
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  Speaker 3: Katie, I think what we're seeing on the streets of
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  Speaker 3: Alice Springs is a profound, if not complete, disintegration of
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  Speaker 3: law and order. So to put forty eight to forty
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  Speaker 3: five police extra police on the streets of Alice Springs
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  Speaker 3: for a few weeks is not going to make a
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  Speaker 3: massive difference. Might make a little bit of a difference.
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  Speaker 3: I was pleased to hear that the government has finally
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  Speaker 3: come to the conclusion that they have to do something more.
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  Speaker 3: That was a good signal. But you're talking about years
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  Speaker 3: of neglect by the government in terms of responding to
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  Speaker 3: the disintegration of law and order in Alice Springs. So
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  Speaker 3: this a reaction is not going to be enough to
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  Speaker 3: turn it around. And that's what people need. We need
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  Speaker 3: a long term plan.
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  Speaker 1: Katie Robin, do you think that what the government's announced
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  Speaker 1: so far in terms of the Social Order Response Team
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  Speaker 1: and you know, trying to find locations to get young
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  Speaker 1: peer people off the street and somewhere safe at night,
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  Speaker 1: amongst some other parental responsibility plans and that type of thing,
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  Speaker 1: do you think that that goes far enough?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it could, but don't forget, Katie, They've been talking
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  Speaker 3: about identifying children on the streets of Alice Springs at
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  Speaker 3: night as child protection cases for probably two months now,
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  Speaker 3: and we're still hearing that they're planning at that they're
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  Speaker 3: trying to work it out. If anyone else was in government,
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  Speaker 3: with a little bit more motivation and energy, you could
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  Speaker 3: introduce those sort of initiatives tonight. The legislation is there,
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  Speaker 3: it's a child protection initiative. Everything's in place to make
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  Speaker 3: that happen immediately. If they're looking for somewhere to put
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  Speaker 3: the kids, there are places now today that they could
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  Speaker 3: use temporarily. Still getting the run around, Katie. If it
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  Speaker 3: was happening in Darwin, you would get a totally different response.
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  Speaker 3: But down in Alice Springs, wah wah, wah. I'm sure
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  Speaker 3: people listening here she goes again, but it is different
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  Speaker 3: how we are treated down there. We get a lot
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  Speaker 3: of talk and very little action. And now it's apparently
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  Speaker 3: up to the police to come in and try and
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  Speaker 3: fix this problem that has been festering and deteriorating for
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  Speaker 3: a very very long time. And it's probably very unfair
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  Speaker 3: on the police to have to do that. I know
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  Speaker 3: it's their job, but what are they meant to do Differently?
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  Speaker 3: There are no extra tools that the government's given them.
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  Speaker 3: There's no change in policy or direction. Just putting more
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  Speaker 3: police on the streets will help temporarily, because they're only
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  Speaker 3: going to be temporarily there. The extra police. It's not
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  Speaker 3: turning the ship around. And don't forget we're not even
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  Speaker 3: in summer yet. Summer's next week. Things tend to to
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  Speaker 3: tear even more as summer goes on. So you're talking
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  Speaker 3: about those very long hot months of January, February and
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  Speaker 3: even into March in Alice Springs in which it's been
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  Speaker 3: indicated that these extra police won't be around for So
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  Speaker 3: it's good to hear that the government's been forced into
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  Speaker 3: doing something, but we need a bigger and better plan.
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  Speaker 1: Robin, yesterday in Parliament you put a question to the
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister which you'd received from a young mum in
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 2: Can you tell me about that?
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  Speaker 3: So this young woman texted me. I don't know who
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  Speaker 3: she is. I'll find out when I go home, but
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  Speaker 3: she texted me saying that she has a five day
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  Speaker 3: old baby and she's anxious and worried that people will
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  Speaker 3: get killed in Alice Springs with the dangers driving and
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  Speaker 3: anti social behavior. So I read that the text message
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  Speaker 3: she sent to me directly to the Chief Minister ask
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  Speaker 3: her to respond, and she immediately went on to tell
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  Speaker 3: us how she's putting an extra forty police on the
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  Speaker 3: streets of Alice Springs from last night. You know, from
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  Speaker 3: different reaction.
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  Speaker 2: Do you reckon that question? You know, from a young
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  Speaker 2: mum to you, do.
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  Speaker 1: You think that reflects how the community is feeling at
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  Speaker 1: the moment. You know that you've got somebody who's obviously
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  Speaker 1: at home with their baby and they are worried about
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  Speaker 1: their safety.
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  Speaker 3: Definitely, Katie, and this young woman's not alone, but I
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  Speaker 3: thought she captured it really well. She's just probably you know,
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  Speaker 3: after having a baby, you're feeling extremely vulnerable anyway, life
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  Speaker 3: has changed and you've gone through a real raal manager experience.
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  Speaker 3: She is worried about her safety and the safety of
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  Speaker 3: the community and the safety of her baby. And I
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  Speaker 3: just thought I would have got a slightly different response
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  Speaker 3: from the Chief Minister to that question, but she rolled
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  Speaker 3: out the usual any crime is too much and we're
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  Speaker 3: putting more police on the ground. But what I really
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  Speaker 3: wanted to hear from the Chief Minister was what those
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  Speaker 3: police will be doing that's different to what we're seeing
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  Speaker 3: now and a bit more of a commitment to taking
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  Speaker 3: a crisis response to what has been a seriously escalating
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  Speaker 3: crisis in Central Australia for years.
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  Speaker 1: It's look, I can't believe the way that you know,
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  Speaker 1: the way that some of these young people or people
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  Speaker 1: in Alice Springs are behaving at the moment. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: we saw it in Catherine as well. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: why it's so surprising to me, because I guess we've
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  Speaker 1: seen some of this behavior escalating over time.
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  Speaker 2: But to see a situation where you've.
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  Speaker 1: Got cars being driven through the streets, stolen vehicles at
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  Speaker 1: police cars, it is really shocking stuff. And I just
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  Speaker 1: hope that we don't get to the point where we
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  Speaker 1: are desensitized to just how shocking it is.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think we've got to that point yet in
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  Speaker 3: Alice Springs, because it seems to get worse every day
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  Speaker 3: and every week. But can I just go back to
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  Speaker 3: the fact that a few months ago the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: Labor government turned on the grog to four hundred communities,
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  Speaker 3: outstations and tan camps across the Northern Territory. Now the
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  Speaker 3: police are saying that that has had a profound impact
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  Speaker 3: on the community. They are saying that they anecdotally are
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  Speaker 3: seeing an increase in alcohol consumption, a staggering increase in
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  Speaker 3: domestic violence, and in increasing kids on the street that
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  Speaker 3: are being abused and neglected. Now, this is what the
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  Speaker 3: Northern Territory government need to take ownership of. They have
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  Speaker 3: created an almighty social problem that is completely out of control.
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  Speaker 3: They are not taking responsibility for it. They have done
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  Speaker 3: things over the sixth years there've been in government that
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  Speaker 3: are almost irreversible. So for them to throw forty extra
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  Speaker 3: police on the streets of Vala Springs for two three
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  Speaker 3: four weeks at the most and think that that's the solution,
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  Speaker 3: they are completely deluded. Katie. We need we need help.
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  Speaker 3: We need outside help, whether it's from the army or
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  Speaker 3: the armed forces, or whether it's like how the government
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  Speaker 3: sought a budget repair paper from someone externally. We need
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  Speaker 3: a law and order repair strategy for the whole of
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory because I can assure you things are
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  Speaker 3: going to get worse. You increase the age of criminal
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  Speaker 3: responsibility and you can guarantee things are going to get worse.
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  Speaker 2: So Robin, you are calling on the Northern Territory government.
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  Speaker 1: You're calling for a law and Order Repair strategy for
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. Look, I actually think that you're going
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  Speaker 1: to get quite a bit of support from the community
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  Speaker 1: on this, not only in Alice Springs, but I reckon
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  Speaker 1: right across the board.
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  Speaker 2: People have had enough.
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  Speaker 3: Well if they can do it for the budget. They're
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  Speaker 3: in government for less than two years and they sought
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  Speaker 3: the assistance of Lango Land, a Western Australia former treasury
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  Speaker 3: executive who came in and did a paper giving them
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  Speaker 3: a roadmap of how to get out of the budgetary
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  Speaker 3: problems that they created for themselves within the first two
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  Speaker 3: years of being in government. They need to do the
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  Speaker 3: same for Laura and Order. We need a road map
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  Speaker 3: of how are we going to get out of this
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  Speaker 3: terrible position that they've put every single Territorian in. And
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  Speaker 3: for people in Darwin who are listening this morning, you
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  Speaker 3: can be assured that it's coming your way. It's bad
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  Speaker 3: in Alice Springs, it's terrible in Alice Springs. It's getting
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  Speaker 3: worse up here, and I can guarantee you will get
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  Speaker 3: worse right across the Northern Territory because this government has
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  Speaker 3: no idea how to pull it into line. We need help,
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  Speaker 3: They need help Robin.
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  Speaker 1: What kind of personal who do you think could conduct
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  Speaker 1: such a repair strategy.
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  Speaker 3: Look, there's places all around the world that have gone
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  Speaker 3: through dire times when it comes to law and order.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not saying we need to go as
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  Speaker 3: far as New York, but remember New York used to
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  Speaker 3: be a place where you couldn't even step out onto
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  Speaker 3: the street without having a gun pointed at you. They
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  Speaker 3: turned it around. There are people right across the globe
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  Speaker 3: that have the expertise and the experience to help us.
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  Speaker 3: I know it's peculiar to Australia that we have, you know,
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  Speaker 3: a sadly disadvantaged population, mainly Aboriginal people that seem to,
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  Speaker 3: despite all the best intentions, seem to get less and
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  Speaker 3: less in terms of a voice and recognition. And the
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  Speaker 3: fact that you know, the policies like turning on the
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  Speaker 3: grove throughout extensive parts of the territory that were dry
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  Speaker 3: for fifteen years, I mean, what the hell was that about.
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  Speaker 3: You know that things like that just lead to more
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  Speaker 3: and more misery and heartache, devastation and more generational disadvantage.
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  Speaker 3: Yet this government seems to think it's everyone else's fault.
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  Speaker 3: Barbears They've been in government for more than six years.
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  Speaker 3: They've been in government, Labor's been in government for about
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  Speaker 3: seventeen out of the last twenty years, and yet they
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  Speaker 3: still point the finger at the Coorp and everyone else
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  Speaker 3: who's around the place. They need to step up and
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  Speaker 3: take ownership and work out a plan for how we're
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  Speaker 3: going to get out of this, because, as I said,
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  Speaker 3: I am very pessimistic about the future. I think things
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  Speaker 3: are going to get a whole lot worse before they
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  Speaker 3: get better. And under this government, I hear nothing that
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  Speaker 3: makes me feel any ounce of optimism or hope that
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  Speaker 3: they even understand just how severe the problem is in
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  Speaker 3: places like Alice Fren's.
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  Speaker 1: Robin Landley, we always appreciate your times. Thank you very
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  Speaker 1: much for joining us on the show this morning.
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  Speaker 3: My pleasure, kating.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you