Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro is calling for the NT Police Commissioner to 'show cause' with a 30-day inquiry to facilitate it

Transcript

Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro is calling for the NT Police Commissioner to 'show cause' with a 30-day inquiry to facilitate it · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You heard on the show yesterday and also on Friday
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: that the Northern Territory Police Association they released the interim
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: results from their survey into confidence in the Police Commissioner
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and concerns within the force. Eighty percent, well almost eighty
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: percent of respondents said that they do not have confidence
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in the Police Commissioner, while ninety two percent said that
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: they don't think there are enough police in the Northern
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Territory and seventy nine point four percent rated morale as
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: low or very low. The results are incredibly concerning now.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: The Member for Blaine, Mark Turner, said on the show
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  Speaker 1: yesterday he thinks there should be a Royal commission or
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  Speaker 1: an inquiry into the force. The Chief Minister said yesterday
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that she still has confidence in the Commissioner and that
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: she doesn't feel a review is necessary. Now the opposition
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  Speaker 1: leader Lea Fanocchiaro joins me in the studio right now.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Leah, Good morning Katie and to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Leah.
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  Speaker 2: Firstly, what was your reaction to those results.
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  Speaker 3: My first reaction was this now tells us, It now
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: proves what those Territorians already know. We know our police
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: forces in crisis and it has been for some time.
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  Speaker 3: We've got attrition rates at eleven percent, which is eleven
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  Speaker 3: percent of our forces leaving this year. I mean, it's
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  Speaker 3: an incredible number. We've got serious mental health concerns, health
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  Speaker 3: and wellbeing issues. We've got the lowest morale we've ever seen.
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  Speaker 3: We've got the lowest confidence of our police in the
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  Speaker 3: government and in their leadership. And so this really is
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  Speaker 3: policing at a crisis point because crime is out of control.
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  Speaker 3: Our police are being asked to do more with less.
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  Speaker 3: We know response times, all the stories from people saying
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  Speaker 3: it took police six hours to get here and one
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  Speaker 3: hour to get there, not through any fault of their own,
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  Speaker 3: but through demand and their ability.
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  Speaker 2: So there's no question there's a crisis.
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  Speaker 3: And I really hoped that this survey would have been
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  Speaker 3: a trigger for the government to do something because we've
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  Speaker 3: been fighting this fight on behalf of our police for
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  Speaker 3: two years now.
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  Speaker 1: Leah, taking all of that into account that you've just
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: mentioned there, do you still have confidence in the Police Commission?
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Well, what I know is we now need a show
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  Speaker 3: cause this is about performance management now, which is why
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  Speaker 3: we've got a very clear plan. If I was Chief
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  Speaker 3: Minister Katie. The first thing that needs to be done
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: is Kate Warden needs to be sacked. She is not
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: fit for the job.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: People will be wondering though, why should she be sacked
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: when she's just taken on that role.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, and that's a good Police.
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  Speaker 1: Commissioner has been in his role for a number of
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  Speaker 1: years now. Yes.
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  Speaker 3: So the cabinet is the board you've got. The Police
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  Speaker 3: Commissioner is the CEO. Kate Warden has been the minister
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  Speaker 3: for a couple of months now.
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  Speaker 2: Her very first move should.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Have been to realize the police was in crisis and
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: to undertake this performance management straight away, and she didn't.
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  Speaker 3: And I actually pressed her on this, in estimates was
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  Speaker 3: about three weeks into the job, and I said, what
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  Speaker 3: direction are you going to take the police? What are
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  Speaker 3: you going to do to bridge the divide between the
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  Speaker 3: rank and file members and the executive?
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  Speaker 2: I asked all of.
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  Speaker 3: Those questions and she had not turned her mind to
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  Speaker 3: it whatsoever. Two months down the track. To not have
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  Speaker 3: a plan is grossing competence. And the Chief Minister should
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: be the person holding the police portfolio.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: What would a show.
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  Speaker 1: Cause look like for the Police Commissioner from your perspective.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so we believe there should be an immediate inquiry.
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  Speaker 3: The Chief Minister should appoint a retired judge. I asked
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: her to do it on Monday. It should be immediate,
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  Speaker 3: a thirty day inquiry. It does not need to drag on.
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  Speaker 3: This would then require the Police Commissioner and the executive
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  Speaker 3: to front up and explain what's going on with the force,
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  Speaker 3: structural reform, all of these types of issues, competing resources, pressures,
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  Speaker 3: and then that retired judge would report to the Chief
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  Speaker 3: Minister with immediate recommendations. Now what comes out of that
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  Speaker 3: I don't know, but ultimately the executive need an opportunity
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  Speaker 3: to explain why we're in this situation and what they're
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  Speaker 3: going to do about it.
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  Speaker 2: But it's the government who, you know.
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  Speaker 3: The Police commissioner role is appointed by the Chief Minister.
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  Speaker 3: It is the ministers and the Chief Minister who have
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  Speaker 3: to take responsibility here and create an action plan because
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  Speaker 3: we cannot have a police force in crisis and we
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: cannot have a de as big as it is between
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: rank and file and the executive.
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  Speaker 1: What do you make of the Chief Minister's comments yesterday
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  Speaker 1: on the show saying that they need to attend that
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  Speaker 1: conference on Friday. They need to get a better understanding
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  Speaker 1: of the commentary from our police officers, from the rank
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  Speaker 1: and file officers through that survey.
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  Speaker 3: That is all smoke and mirrors. The Police Association conference
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  Speaker 3: is Friday. It's a fantastic and important conference. But I'll
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  Speaker 3: tell listeners exactly what will happen. Kate Warden in the
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  Speaker 3: morning is going to give a speech. She's going to speak,
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  Speaker 3: and then she's going to walk off the state and
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  Speaker 3: she's going to leave. I will then be giving a
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  Speaker 3: speech later in the afternoon. It is not a Q
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  Speaker 3: and a situation where Kate Warden gets to sit down
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  Speaker 3: with delegates from across the territory and hear their thoughts
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  Speaker 3: about the survey.
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  Speaker 2: That's just not what happens now.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, the Police Association might be providing a greater
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  Speaker 3: breakdown on the survey results, but I hazard a guess
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  Speaker 3: that that will be being brief to government in any event.
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  Speaker 3: So this idea that the conference is going to yield
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  Speaker 3: some sort of turning point for government is a total
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  Speaker 3: utter furfey. What we have is a continue of head
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: in the sand behavior. This government willfully ignored the situation
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  Speaker 3: with police for two years, Katie, I have tried twice
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  Speaker 3: in Parliament to create inquiries into this very issue. You've
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  Speaker 3: now got the memberphi Blaine saying that he's been inquiry. Well,
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  Speaker 3: I've been voted down twice by Labor in Parliament on
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  Speaker 3: this very y I.
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  Speaker 1: Recall, and it's something that I actually thought should have
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  Speaker 1: happened at the time. You've been on the show and
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  Speaker 1: you said that it should happen. I agree with you.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we've got a situation right now where there's
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  Speaker 1: not only the concerns around mental health. There is not
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  Speaker 1: only the concerns that we've seen come through on this survey,
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  Speaker 1: but there is also, you know, the concerns from the
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  Speaker 1: community that crime is not under control and that the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: community doesn't feel as though there's enough police on the
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  Speaker 1: beat lea just to go back though, you know, we
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  Speaker 1: have got that situation. Like I said, eighty percent of
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  Speaker 1: our police say they do not have confidence in their leader.
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  Speaker 1: More than ninety two percent of police are saying that
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  Speaker 1: they do not think that there are enough police in
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory to do.
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  Speaker 2: What's being asked of them.
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  Speaker 1: Seventy nine point four rating morale as low or very low. Now.
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  Speaker 1: The Police Association President Paul McHugh told me on the
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  Speaker 1: show on Friday that the results speak for themselves and
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  Speaker 1: there's no secrets. He said that there needs to be
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  Speaker 1: a plan in place to address this, and it's an
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  Speaker 1: enormous concern. You've said that the Police commissioner needs to
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: show cause.
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  Speaker 2: Is that going to cut ash?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, do you think that he's going to be
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  Speaker 1: the right person to lead the force given the morale
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  Speaker 1: and given what we've seen in this survey.
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  Speaker 3: Well, this is a question of leadership, and so it's
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  Speaker 3: leadership on two parts. It's leadership by the executive and
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  Speaker 3: the commissioner, but leadership by the government. The government is
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  Speaker 3: the ones who ultimately have the final say. They lead
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  Speaker 3: the values, they lead the ethics, they lead, the direction,
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  Speaker 3: the strategy. All of those things comes from the top.
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  Speaker 3: And so what is the government going to do? Are
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  Speaker 3: they going to allow our police force to wither on
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  Speaker 3: the vine or are they going to take action? Pull
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  Speaker 3: the executive in, pull the people in that they employ,
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  Speaker 3: and say, hang on a second, what is the plan?
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  Speaker 2: And that's what we think needs to happen.
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  Speaker 3: There needs to be that serious direction from the top,
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  Speaker 3: get rid of Kate Warden. It's a waste of time
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  Speaker 3: and space. Just have the chief Minister running law and
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  Speaker 3: order and also community safety and get to the bottom
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  Speaker 3: of what the problem is and whether it can be fixed.
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  Speaker 3: It might not be fixable, Katie, but it might be
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  Speaker 3: fixable and we have to go through that process.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I think there'll be a lot of people listening
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  Speaker 1: who agree with your calls for a review or agree
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  Speaker 1: with that immediate inquiry and a retired judge looking at
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  Speaker 1: doing that over a thirty day period. But again I
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  Speaker 1: do think there'll be people going, we'll hang on a
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  Speaker 1: sick Why will we be sacking the minister, you know
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  Speaker 1: when they've just taken over.
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  Speaker 3: Because she's done absolutely nothing. When she took over from
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Nicole Madison. All of these problems were there. We knew
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  Speaker 3: about it. I first tried to do an inquiry. I
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  Speaker 3: think it was May last year. This is not a
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  Speaker 3: new problem. Attrition has been going up and the reason
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  Speaker 3: Nicole Manison got the sack is because she wasn't up
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  Speaker 3: to the job and Kate Warden's come in and to
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  Speaker 3: not recognize that as a leader. At the end of
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  Speaker 3: the day, the cabinet minister is where the buck stops.
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  Speaker 2: And for a minister to.
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  Speaker 3: Come into the police portfolio after the few years of
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  Speaker 3: crime and COVID and everything else we've had and do nothing.
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  Speaker 3: She should have been doing the show cause and the
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  Speaker 3: inquiry right when she first came into the ministry and
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  Speaker 3: she hasn't.
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  Speaker 2: And what you've got is even worse.
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  Speaker 3: A chief minister just blindly continuing on, hoping that her
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  Speaker 3: police minister is going to get it under control. If
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  Speaker 3: everyone thinks it's everyone else's fault and everyone else's problem,
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  Speaker 3: nothing's going to change. But these are men and women
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  Speaker 3: in blue who put in our uniform, leave their homes
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  Speaker 3: and their family every day to go and protect ours.
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  Speaker 2: This is no joke, Lea. We are going to have
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  Speaker 2: to move along.
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about the fact that teachers are
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: set to go on strike on Friday. Are the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister's questioned if the move is political with the by
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  Speaker 1: election on the weekend.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think it's a political move?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's hilarious that the Chief Minister thinks it's
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  Speaker 3: not okay for the unions and for teachers to go
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  Speaker 3: and strike when you know the Labor Party is meant
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  Speaker 3: to be the father of the union movement. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: of course Natasha Files doesn't like that eight thousand teachers
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  Speaker 3: are going to strike because I'm a surprised.
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  Speaker 1: That they didn't take like other industrial action before, just
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: going straight to the strip.
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  Speaker 3: No, I'm surprised there hasn't been strikes on the street.
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  Speaker 2: Moh gosh. I remember when the CELP Firs came to power.
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  Speaker 3: There's a rally at the front of Parliament House nearly
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: every day, and yet your unions are pretty quiet on
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: the pay freeze generally speaking. So I'm pleased that at
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: least the teachers have the guts to come out and
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: say this is a load of garbage. The CLP has
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: stood strong with the public service on a one percent
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: pay freeze in line with the plan for budget repair.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: The government have come out.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, how can a government come out freeze people's
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: pay for four years when we're in a cost of
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: living crisis. They've increased power prices by two point seven percent,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: cut the feet in tariff and the fuel is.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Through the roof. They won't do anything about that.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So just on that government wage freeze. You know, it's
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: something that I've asked you before. It's certainly something that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I asked the Chief Minister Giesst today and whether that
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: needs to be lifted. She said, it is going to
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: be something that is you know, that they are looking at,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: or it is something that they're looking at. What do
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: you think needs to happen you my understanding is you
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: think it.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Does need to be lifted.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we would end the pay frees The pay freeze ridiculous.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Excuse me?
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Happens with that bonus money though that they've already received.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: So they haven't received all the bonus money. So I
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: think they've received their first four thousand dollars and then
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: every year it's two thousand and after that something like that.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: So where it ends is where the bonuses would stop effectively.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: So it's a very simple process. But you know, for
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: the government to trick public servants with the allure of
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: cash before Christmas is disgusting. I mean, we are literally
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: in a cost of living crisis and then the government
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: wants to freeze people's wages for four years. I think
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: good on the teachers. It is important to have a
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: voice and this government doesn't seem to care how low
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: things get. I mean, when is it enough crime, When
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: is it enough suffering? For this government to do something.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: The answer is, it seems to never be enough. So
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: if they go out and strike on Friday, my heart
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: is with them because they've got an important cause and
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: the CLP stands side by side with them and the payperes.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Well, it's funny, isn't it.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: It's not something I know a lot of people listening
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: will be thinking, is that something that they'd expect to
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: hear from the CLP. So I do think that's funny,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: and I know that there are still people that obviously,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you know, have concerns at the COLP going to sort of,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you know, to make cuts to the public servants. So
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: it is, you know, it is funny to hear that.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: You think it's a good idea.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: We you know, we know we've got some old baggage
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: and you know, labor light to roll that out whenever
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: they can. But at the end of the day, right now,
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: we've got every single public service facing a four year
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: pay freez.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: We've got you know, the police.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: That survey we're just talking about, Katie, ninety percent of
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: respondents said they don't support the pay frees. We've got
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: eight thousand teachers going to strike. I mean, the whole
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: place is falling apart and burning to the ground. Katie,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: we stand with the Public Service on this pay freeze issue.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: It needs to go well.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Lea fan Occiaro, we are going to have to leave
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: it there, the opposition leader. Good to speak with you
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: this morning. I appreciate your time.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Take care everyone.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Thank you.