Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley says the cost of crime in Alice Springs is not just financial, it's psychological, and something must be done

Transcript

Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley says the cost of crime in Alice Springs is not just financial, it's psychological, and something must be done · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, if you're listening to the show yesterday, you would
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: have heard me read the crime stats for Alice Springs,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: which saw an increase in house break ins forty point
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: sixty five percent and commercial break ins up eighty two
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: point one point one percent. They're astronomical numbers and very
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: frustrating for locals dealing with the issue of crime on
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a daily basis. Now we know that those crime stats,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: well they ended till December last year, but then over
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that Christmas break, things certainly didn't seem to calm down.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you listen to locals, they say that
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it's it escalated.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The Member for Our Lun, Robin Lamley, raised this issue
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: in Parliament last week, asking the Chief Minister about the
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: cost of crime in Central Australia. He responded by saying
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: that they're growing the Ala Springs economy, growing the economy.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is the Independent Member
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: for Our Lun, Robin Lambley.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Robin, Good morning Kap.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Now, Robin, I'm sure that you have seen those crime statistics.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Were you surprised by them?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: I was? I mean and eighty two percent increase in
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: commercial breakings, that is just staggering. Not even I thought
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: we'd see figures like that. You can't make this stuff up.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: It's just unbelievable. But it is consistent with what everyone's saying,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: what everyone's experiencing in Alice Springs. We're not exaggerating. It's
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: not just perception. It is a reality. And these crime
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: statistics speak volumes really, and.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Robin, I mean, all you've got to do, like I
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: this morning, in preparing for having a chat with you,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: how to look on the Action for Alice page and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: can see you know, vision that people are sharing of
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: kids in their backyard, trying to get into their home,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: trying to get into their cars. I've been told the stories,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I've spoken to the businesses. There's no doubt that this
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: is having an impact on the people of Alice Springs
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: in so many different ways. Now, it's something that you
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: actually asked the Chief Minister about. Will you ask him
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: about the cost of crime to Alice Springs? Last week
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: in Parliament He responded by saying that his government's working
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: on growing the economy. What's been the reaction from the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: community to that?
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Will people feel misunderstood by the Chief Minister. They feel
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: that he's out of touch, and a lot of people
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: are very very angry. This went around town very quickly.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Unlike most things that happen in Parliament, this got out
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: very very quickly in Alice Springs through Facebook and people
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: have reacted with a great deal of anger and this
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: belief that the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory could
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: stand in Parliament and not acknowledge the cost. And it
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily have to be financial costs. I mean, that's
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: the obvious part of the equation when you're talking about business.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: You know, the psychological cost of this massive escalation in
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: crime and Alice Springs is enormous and cannot be underestimated either, Katie.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: People really are at the end of their tenvor. They're
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: feeling quite traumatized by it. I know, you know, people
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: I've spoken to. I've spoken to a lot of women,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: which isn't probably unusual being a female politician, and a
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: lot of women have told me just how emotionally upset
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: they are, how they're suffering from anxiety and they've never
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: suffered from anything like it before because of crime.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I'm not surprised, you know.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I'm reading in the NT News today that an Alla
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: springsman is going to spend more than a year behind
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: bars over a violent attack on an unknown woman walking
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: home from her swimming lesson. So this twenty five year
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: old bloke was sentenced in the Supreme Court earlier this
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: month after pleading guilty to wrestling with, kicking and biting
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: a fifty two year old woman in an attempt to
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: steal her backpack when she's walking home from swimming lessons.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, if that's not a big enough, you know,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: incident to make people realize that there's a problem in
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs, I don't know what is.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: And Katie, that is not an unusual type of story.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: In fact, last week I heard that a nurse was
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: physically assaulted. These sorry, these things are happening all the time.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: You also saw some footage of a little girl that
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: was assaulted on a bus. The whole thing was filmed.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: You know, it was premeditated. It's like things that deteriorating
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: before our eyes. I just feel I feel almost a
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: sense of powerlessness. And I shouldn't be saying that as
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: a member of Parliament, but when you stand in Parliament
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: and asked the top of the pile, the Chief Minister,
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: what his response is to crime and as treasurer, what
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: the cost of crime is to a community, to the
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: economy of Alice Springs. And there's no acknowledgment. You really
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: have to scratch your head and start wondering what more
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: can you do. Look, I've put some written questions through
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: to the Chief Minister based on these latest horrific crime
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: stats this morning and we'll see what happens. But all
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: we can do is just keep talking about it and
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: hopefully sooner or later the government will respond.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: And Robin, I know the Prime Minister was in Alice
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Springs on Friday last week and did end up meeting
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: with the mayor, Matt Patterson. He acknowledged on the show
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: in an interview that I've done with him that there
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: is a problem in Alice Springs and changes need to happen.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: But was that acknowledgment enough.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Well, the federal government isn't really responsible for laura and
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: order in any part of Australia unless it gets to
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: a magnitude in which it's almost out of control, and
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: then you bring in the army and you bring in
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: the intervention like we saw in two thousand and seven.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: You know, to ask the Prime Minister to intervene is
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: an extreme measure and perhaps we are at that at
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: the moment. I mean the Royal Commission into Juvenile Justice
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: and Child Protection that kicked off after the Four Corners
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: program in twenty sixteen. That was an extreme reaction to
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: what was shown on TV nationally. Perhaps we're at that
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: point again asking the Prime Minister to intervene and look
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: at just what is going on with law and order
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: in our springs. But right across the top end of
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Northern Australia we are not alone when it comes to
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: places like Towns For people I talk to say, Townsfall
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: is actually worse than our springs if you can believe it.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: And Broom and parts of the Kimberley they're having major
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: problems too. So there is a bit of a theme.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: It's about the top end of Australia more than anywhere else.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: It's about Aboriginal disadvantage and disengagement. It's about you know,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: a Northern Australian context, I think, and if the Prime
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Minister can help us out on that level, at that scale,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: then that might be very very useful and maybe we
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: are We do need to press that emergency button, which
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: is probably what where we're culminator, it's culminating to that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: You know, we're reaching a climax.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: So rob do you.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Reckon You're at the point, at the moment in aalys
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: where potentially the Prime Minister needs to hit that emergency
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: button and bring in the army.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: I think we're getting very close to that. I think
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: people are holding off because they're waiting to exhaust all options.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: I know that's how I feel. I mean the Northern
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Territory Intervention, which is you know, the real name was
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: called the Northern Territory Emergency Response, which you know everyone
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: can think of problems that came with that, But that
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: was triggered by a report that Claire Martin commission into
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: the sexual abuse of Aboriginal children in remote parts of
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory. That was back in two thousand and six,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I think it was two thousand and six, and that
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: triggered the intervention, the Northern Territory Emergency Response. I think
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: we're very close to needing something of that scale in
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: response to what we're seeing in Central Australia.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: I really do, well, Robin.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I know there'll be some people listening who will be
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: thinking to themselves, oh, that's too far.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: You know, we don't need to call the army in.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: But what I can hear from you, and what I've
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: certainly heard from people who live in Alice Springs is
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: that you are at breaking point.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: It may not be the army, but it's something. It's
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: a response of that scale, a response that will make
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: a difference, draw a line in the set and say, Okay,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: that's enough, We're not putting up with this behavior anymore, Robin.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Are you concerned about how the community is going to
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: react as well when we learn the outcome of the
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: zach Rolf trial.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, I think the whole of Alice Springs and Central
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Australia is just sitting back, very nervous, nervously waiting to
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: see what the outcome of this will be, because either way,
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: there will be problems, and there will be consequences and
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: there'll be reactions. I think we're all dreading it because
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: there's no winners here. There'll be no winners, Robi.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Either way, what do you think could potentially happen? As in?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: You know, when that's we don't know what it's going to,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: which way it's going to go, or how it's going
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to go. But within the community of Alice Springs. What
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: do you think may happen?
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I guess the obvious thing is if zach Rowle
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: is found not to be guilty, then I think it's
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: reasonable to expect that Aboriginal people, some Aboriginal people, obviously
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: people from Yundamu, the family of Coumen j Walker, will
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: react very strongly, and that we don't know what that
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: looks like. But I am comforted to know I have
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: heard unofficially that the police have been preparing for this
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: moment in time for a very long time, for probably
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: at least two years since it all came about, So
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: that is good news. I did ask that question of
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: the Chief the Police Commissioner in estimates in June last year,
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: and the Chief Minister and the Police Minister sorry, and
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: they refused to answer me. They refused to respond to
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: my question what preparations are in place because you know,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: back then we thought that the trial was probably going
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: to come about it twelve months ago rather than now
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: it is just delayed and delayed. So I'm very I'm
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: reassured to know that the police are ready to respond
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: to whatever the reaction of the community will be. But
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: it's going to be an awkward, unpleasant time either way,
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: because people are so vested in invested in this well.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Robin Lamley, I always appreciate your time.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I know it's been a tough it's been tough going
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: for everybody in Ellie Springs.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate you having a chat with me this morning.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Katie. That's always a pleasure to talk to you.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you.