Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / A Wadeye housing group says more than 30 homes have been damaged during community unrest

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A Wadeye housing group says more than 30 homes have been damaged during community unrest · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is Scott McIntyre, the
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  Speaker 1: chief executive of the SUMMERMA. I think I've pronounced that wrong,
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  Speaker 1: but we'll double check Development Corporation out in What Air.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Scott.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: How are you not too bad? Mate? How are you
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  Speaker 1: guys going? What's the situation in What Air at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? So, look, it's safe to say it's not a
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  Speaker 2: happy place at the moment out there in What Air overnight,
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  Speaker 2: I think things are relatively can't compared to the last
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  Speaker 2: few weeks, but yeah, a lot of people displaced and
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people feeling the look pact of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of disturbance, and some nasty nights, sleepless nights, and yeah,
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  Speaker 2: not a great time mate.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me so with the Development Corporation that you are
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  Speaker 1: the chief executive of, tell us what services you deliver
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  Speaker 1: out there or the involvement within the community.
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  Speaker 2: I look, so where do you want me to start? Really,
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  Speaker 2: we do a whole range of things from where a
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  Speaker 2: charity to start, charity established to try and breach the
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  Speaker 2: gap for the people out there and improve health and
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  Speaker 2: welfare and all things from education through the health and
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  Speaker 2: everything else. We build and maintain most of the houses
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  Speaker 2: out there. We run the range of program We run
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  Speaker 2: the ah chair and NDIS programs, We run accommodation and
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  Speaker 2: post office workshop, fuel and basically reinvest back into the
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  Speaker 2: attempt to reinvest back into activities to improve the community.
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  Speaker 1: So what's going on with the houses? Are these reports
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  Speaker 1: that thirty seven homes have been destroyed?
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  Speaker 2: Correct? Yeah, that's my understanding. That's correct. That there's been
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  Speaker 2: over many weeks now, it has been ongoing disruptions and
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  Speaker 2: violence and unfortunately that sometimes turns to property crime and
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  Speaker 2: things like just destructive activity around house. To see how
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  Speaker 2: my understanding is the thirty seven houses that are uninhabitable,
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  Speaker 2: some of those are affected by art, some affected just
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  Speaker 2: by other damage imaging activities and between anything from your
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  Speaker 2: sort of guessing, but you could imagine that between four
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  Speaker 2: to five hundred people displaced from those residents, and so
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  Speaker 2: they're dispersed throughout the community other houses, and some out
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  Speaker 2: of the bush and some out on homelands and things
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  Speaker 2: like that, some even in here in town in Darwen.
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  Speaker 1: What a terrible situation. And I know that historically over
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  Speaker 1: the years there has been issues out in the community
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  Speaker 1: at different times. My parents used to live out there
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  Speaker 1: quite some time ago. I know that we have obviously
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  Speaker 1: seen that it's been reported that one man died, others
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  Speaker 1: have been injured over the last few weeks. You said
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  Speaker 1: that it was a little bit quieter last night, But
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  Speaker 1: what is the feeling in the community at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: People are tired, people are exhausted at there. We tends. Really,
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  Speaker 2: you know, nobody, nobody, including the people that are perpetrating
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  Speaker 2: the damage and the violence, wants to be in a
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  Speaker 2: situation like that, and it's draining, it's debilitating for many people.
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  Speaker 2: It's a shameful thing. So people feel ashamed that that
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  Speaker 2: sort of thing occurs in the community and they feel helpless.
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  Speaker 2: They don't want to see it happening, but they really
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  Speaker 2: don't know what they can do themselves to make any difference.
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  Speaker 1: Have you guys had to pull your staff out of
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  Speaker 1: the area.
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  Speaker 2: No, we have, And that's one thing. One thing I
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  Speaker 2: was just listening to you just before you're called, and
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  Speaker 2: just earlier this week, we did a bit of a
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  Speaker 2: survey of our staff just from a safety perspective. Now
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  Speaker 2: we employ over one hundred local Cardo employees and so
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  Speaker 2: for those guys and ladies. It's very problematic. Often it's
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  Speaker 2: family involved in the violence. Sometimes they themselves get dragged
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  Speaker 2: into it, and they can be directly impacted by the
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  Speaker 2: violence by what goes on. So in terms of their
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  Speaker 2: safety and their ability to keep coming to work and
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  Speaker 2: do their job, that's very much compromised for us as
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  Speaker 2: outside as to the community that the disturbances are never
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  Speaker 2: about us. It's not about us, it's not it's not
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  Speaker 2: our business. It's not stuff that we ever need to
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  Speaker 2: be involved in or put ourselves in the way of.
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  Speaker 2: And so to that end, for the most part, we
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  Speaker 2: had the reports we had back from our staff was
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  Speaker 2: that there was no concern for their safety. Now that
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  Speaker 2: that I need to be very clear. That's just that's
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  Speaker 2: just for our services and our employees, and it's reasonable
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  Speaker 2: to expect that that perception or that reality might be
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  Speaker 2: different for other service providers and particularly in other roles.
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  Speaker 2: You know, one of our main areas of concern, for example,
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  Speaker 2: is around our age care service. So we have nurses
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  Speaker 2: on shift. We do shift change at eleven o'clock the night.
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  Speaker 2: We've been very fortunate we have a process in place
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  Speaker 2: to support staff and shift change and make sure they
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  Speaker 2: feel safe and the companied and things like that. But
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  Speaker 2: you can imagine that our scenarios where risk is greater.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, what a terrible situation. I know that we are
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  Speaker 1: fast running out of time. Unfortunately, I've got a head
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  Speaker 1: to the national news, but I do still want to
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  Speaker 1: ask you, do you have any idea at this point
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  Speaker 1: if there's been much progress from those talks that involved well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I'm assuming and hoping the local elders, the council,
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  Speaker 1: the police.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of people, Katie around this that are
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  Speaker 2: putting a lot of effort in and the police are
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  Speaker 2: doing everything they can on the ground. We've met with
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  Speaker 2: with ministers and things over the last couple of days.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of effort going in. The key is
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  Speaker 2: going to be long term, negotiated, mediated, strategic approach to this.
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  Speaker 2: The short term stuff is terrible. The short term stuff
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  Speaker 2: is what we deal with today and tomorrow. But the
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  Speaker 2: answer to this is the long term strategy around listening
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  Speaker 2: to people, supporting the growth of the region, investing in
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  Speaker 2: the economy of the region, and helping organizations like ours,
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  Speaker 2: the Council of the Store to let reach the local strength.
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  Speaker 2: We have to make change and have the people themselves
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  Speaker 2: need change, they can't do it without support.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we might try and catch up with you
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  Speaker 1: again in the coming days, Scott, to just get a
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  Speaker 1: better idea of how things are going. Can I just ask,
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  Speaker 1: do you have any idea how many extra police have
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  Speaker 1: been deployed to the area and has that helped to
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  Speaker 1: calm things down a bit?
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  Speaker 2: So my understanding was that some extra police were in
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  Speaker 2: over the last few days. The police on the ground
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  Speaker 2: do a great job. They my personal view is that
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  Speaker 2: they're under resource. That's just my view, So having extra
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  Speaker 2: people there to support them going to be a good thing.
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  Speaker 2: And reports I had from overnight was that there had
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  Speaker 2: been a calmer knight. Now that's not to say there's
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  Speaker 2: still not issues there, and remember that that response is
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  Speaker 2: always going to be just the immediate create the sort
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  Speaker 2: of stability and piece that's needed in the community to
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  Speaker 2: then start repairing and start taking some strategic action. Would
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  Speaker 2: be fully supportive of the presidence of the police and
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  Speaker 2: other agencies on the ground to be there to engage
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  Speaker 2: and listen to people and have people feel about, feel
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  Speaker 2: heard and cared about, because that's a big part of this.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned some of the callers mentioning area
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  Speaker 2: this is a cover up. Well, there's no cover up.
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  Speaker 2: It's not unusual for stories from places I want to
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  Speaker 2: not get any attention because I've done a lot of
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  Speaker 2: interest in it. Now, unfortunately this is occurring. One of
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  Speaker 2: the byproducts of that occurring is that attention gets focused,
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  Speaker 2: and we'd like to be able to hope that the
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  Speaker 2: visit improves people's understanding. Were laudy about the issues that
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  Speaker 2: people out their face and help us all support a
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  Speaker 2: better outcome.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Scott, I really appreciate you taking the time to
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  Speaker 1: have a chat with us this morning. I'm sorry we've
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  Speaker 1: got to leave it there. Thank you so much for speaking.
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  Speaker 2: No way is it all.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you