Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Crime spike in Darwin due to influx of people in town says Police Minister Nicole Manison

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Crime spike in Darwin due to influx of people in town says Police Minister Nicole Manison · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we've spoken at lengths on this show about the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: issues with crime and public drunkenness and anti social behavior.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Just yesterday we spoke to a business owner who'd been
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  Speaker 1: the victim of senseless crime in the city, an eighty
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  Speaker 1: year old Territorian Bill who no longer feels safe in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: his home after being broken into twice in four weeks.
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  Speaker 1: We also told you about the school in Malac being
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  Speaker 1: closed due to vandalism. On Tuesday we obviously reported, actually
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  Speaker 1: it was yesterday we reported on the latest NT crime statistics,
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  Speaker 1: which will through the roof territory wide commercial break ins
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  Speaker 1: forty seven percent up here in Darwin up sixty eight
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  Speaker 1: sixty six percent, in Alice Springs sixty percent, Palmerston down
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  Speaker 1: by six point eight percent. Catherine up are whopping one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and twelve percent.
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  Speaker 2: Every morning.
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  Speaker 1: We're receiving calls and messages from you guys everyday, Territorians
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  Speaker 1: who are appalled and quite honestly, I think pretty distressed
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  Speaker 1: about the situation. Now joining me on the line right
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  Speaker 1: now is the Minister for Police, Nicole Manison.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Mano, Good morning Katie Minister. Are
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  Speaker 2: we in the midst of a crime crisis.
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  Speaker 3: We have got a lot of extra people that are
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  Speaker 3: in town at the moment, Katie, and the advice we're
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  Speaker 3: getting back is that the people that are in town
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  Speaker 3: are in town because of some of the COVID factors
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  Speaker 3: and that has been changing their behavior. When we do
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  Speaker 3: have more people that are sleeping rough, you will see
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  Speaker 3: some of that drunkenness that comes with that. You will
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  Speaker 3: see some of those people get into fights and assaults,
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  Speaker 3: and you will see some of that infuriating property crime
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  Speaker 3: and senseless vandalism. But I want to assure people that
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  Speaker 3: we are working very hard on this. Our police are
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  Speaker 3: working incredibly hard and we will be doing more to
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  Speaker 3: get people home.
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  Speaker 1: When we spoke to the Chief Minister just a couple
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  Speaker 1: of weeks ago, we'd had it confirmed by the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory Police that there were more than two thousand people
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  Speaker 1: in town sleeping living rough around the top end. The
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister said at the end of March that around
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  Speaker 1: four hundred people had gone home.
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  Speaker 2: What's the latest on those numbers.
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  Speaker 3: No, those numbers are about still at that two thousand.
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  Speaker 3: We have seen some people go back home to community
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  Speaker 3: and then for reasons within community that've come back into town.
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  Speaker 3: But what again, I want to assure your listeners is
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  Speaker 3: that we will be making even more efforts to get
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  Speaker 3: those people home. And it has been just it has
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  Speaker 3: been a bit more complex this wet season and we
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  Speaker 3: have not seen the usual seasonal patterns because of that
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  Speaker 3: COVID overlay.
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  Speaker 1: Minister, what measures are going to be taken to get
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  Speaker 1: people home? Because some listening this morning, we'll think, well,
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  Speaker 1: hang on a sec. If there was two thousand a
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  Speaker 1: month ago and it's still two thousand now, you know
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  Speaker 1: nothing's changing.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we have just had the school holidays, we've had
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  Speaker 3: the Easter break as well, and naturally that's a time
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  Speaker 3: when more people come into town as well. Katie, the
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  Speaker 3: early advice is that we have seen some of those
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  Speaker 3: get back to community. However, there are still higher numbers.
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  Speaker 3: That is an absolute fact and that's the reality of
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  Speaker 3: what we are dealing with. So we're going to be
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  Speaker 3: doing more work to get more of those people back
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  Speaker 3: to country, to work with those return to country programs,
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  Speaker 3: and again focusing strongly on patrolling those hot spots where
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  Speaker 3: we know people that sleep rough gather.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So what work is going to happen, What
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  Speaker 1: urgent work is going to happen to try to get
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  Speaker 1: people home.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're doing more of a press on the return
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  Speaker 3: to country work. And again we do have our meetings
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  Speaker 3: regularly where we sit down and look at where are
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  Speaker 3: those hot spots, where have we got people, Where have
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  Speaker 3: we've got more of that criminal activity, and making sure
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  Speaker 3: that we have patrols targeted at those areas. And it's
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  Speaker 3: not just police patrols, it's working with De Larakia day
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  Speaker 3: and night patrols as well.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, you and I have spoken on many occasions
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  Speaker 1: about crime and issues with anti social behavior over the years,
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  Speaker 1: but I've got to tell you at the moment, I've
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  Speaker 1: never felt such a sense of helplessness from the community
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  Speaker 1: as I do right now. We've got people calling through.
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  Speaker 1: Yesterday I had an eighty year old man, an eighty
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  Speaker 1: year old Territorian on the show in tears. He's been
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  Speaker 1: broken into twice in four weeks and he no longer
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  Speaker 1: feels safe in his home. Minister, Does the Gunner government
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  Speaker 1: acknowledge and truly understand how Territorians are feeling right now?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I'll say it absolutely breaks your heart when you
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  Speaker 3: hear a story like that about somebody not feeling safe
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  Speaker 3: in their home and the reason why they don't feel
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  Speaker 3: safe is because they've been a victim of crime, and
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  Speaker 3: they shouldn't have been a victim of crime. But I
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  Speaker 3: just again want to stress to people that you know,
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  Speaker 3: this is a tough issue. We've always had challenges in
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory when it comes to crime and anti
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  Speaker 3: social behavior, and we all know why. We've got those reasons,
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  Speaker 3: but we never stop working hard on it. We've had
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  Speaker 3: more police resources coming back into their traditional roles because
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  Speaker 3: we don't have so much pressure with Operation Crown and
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  Speaker 3: the resources that were required to be deployed to support
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  Speaker 3: the COVID response. But please be assured that we are
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  Speaker 3: working very hard, and it's not just within police, it's
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  Speaker 3: the other agencies that support it.
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  Speaker 2: To now.
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  Speaker 1: I know that the government keeps saying, and we've certainly
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  Speaker 1: heard it on a number of occasions, that you've invested
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  Speaker 1: more into this space than any other government. But what
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  Speaker 1: exactly has that money gone into and what KPIs are
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  Speaker 1: being used to measure whether these programs and whether this
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  Speaker 1: investment is actually working.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so there are a range of different streams that
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  Speaker 3: we fund that look at the issues of anti social
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  Speaker 3: behavior homelessness, domestic violence, as well as of course the
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  Speaker 3: Northern Territory government services such as police, Territory Families Health.
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  Speaker 3: So they are different funding streams. Each agency is responsible
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  Speaker 3: for making sure that those non government organizations are those
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  Speaker 3: external service agencies that they contract, that they are delivering
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  Speaker 3: and honoring the services that they've said that they will.
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  Speaker 3: But again, what I will say is that we have
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  Speaker 3: seen not the usual patterns of behavior, particularly through the
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  Speaker 3: COVID peaks that we saw through December January, and we
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  Speaker 3: have found that people are simply not moving around the
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  Speaker 3: territory like we've been used to seeing in the last
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  Speaker 3: two years. We've we've seen very unusual movement again, which
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  Speaker 3: has all been driven by COVID.
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  Speaker 1: Minister, I know that people listening this morning are going
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  Speaker 1: to be feeling really frustrated because they're going to be
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  Speaker 1: thinking to themselves, you know, COVID. We all know that
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  Speaker 1: COVID has been an issue for us all over the
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  Speaker 1: last two years. We know that things have changed in
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  Speaker 1: you know, for whatever reason, and we've got a lot
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  Speaker 1: more people in town at the moment. But then a
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  Speaker 1: side effect of that is that we're seeing domestic violence
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  Speaker 1: on the streets. You know, we are seeing kids that
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  Speaker 1: aren't going to school. We are seeing businesses broken into,
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  Speaker 1: We're seeing cars stolen. You know, we're seeing incidents of
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  Speaker 1: people being held up with edged weapons. They want to
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  Speaker 1: hear from you, and they want to hear from the
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  Speaker 1: government that there is going to be something new happen,
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  Speaker 1: that there is some kind of urgency in this space
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  Speaker 1: because they don't feel safe.
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  Speaker 3: There is a huge amount of urgency in this space.
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  Speaker 3: We respond to the jobs as they come in every day.
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  Speaker 3: We try to do as much proactive patrolling as we
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  Speaker 3: can to stop some of these incidents happening. We try
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  Speaker 3: to stop the wrong people getting their hands on grog
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  Speaker 3: because we know what that delivers. That delivers assault, domestic
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  Speaker 3: violence and those types of things. So there is a
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  Speaker 3: huge amount of work happening each and every day in
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  Speaker 3: that space, Katie, and we're going to be doing more.
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  Speaker 2: So you are going to be doing more.
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  Speaker 1: I know you've mentioned then trying to amp things up
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to return to country with Larakia Nation.
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  Speaker 2: But what more is going to be done?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and again we've got more details that will be released, Katie,
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  Speaker 3: But I just want to assure you that there will
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  Speaker 3: be a very hard press there or tackling those issues
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  Speaker 3: of antisocial behavior.
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  Speaker 2: Minister.
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  Speaker 1: I get what you're saying that obviously there's going to
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  Speaker 1: be a further announcement in this space. But honestly, people
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  Speaker 1: are screaming out right now, they are saying, please help.
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  Speaker 3: Us, and that's what we're doing, Katie. But again, I
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  Speaker 3: just want to assure people that every day we have
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  Speaker 3: our police working very hard and those support agencies that
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  Speaker 3: work with us tackling these issues. But we will be
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  Speaker 3: doing more.
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  Speaker 1: The police told me a couple of weeks ago that
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  Speaker 1: they are receiving twenty percent more calls to one three, one,
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  Speaker 1: triple four than what they have in the past.
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  Speaker 2: Twenty percent more.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a phenomenal amount of work for our
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory police. Why is it that if we've got
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  Speaker 1: more investment into this space, and if we've got more
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  Speaker 1: boots on the ground than ever before, that we still
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  Speaker 1: don't seem to have enough police.
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  Speaker 3: Because I think the issues of the Northern Territory are
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  Speaker 3: very complex, and again the fact is is we've got
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  Speaker 3: more poor people, people from the disadvantaged background, Katie, and
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  Speaker 3: higher levels of alcohol abuse than anywhere else in the nation.
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  Speaker 3: The sad reality of it is is that leads to
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  Speaker 3: crime and antisocial behavior, domestic violence, neglect, a whole rafter
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  Speaker 3: issues associated with that. So we do respond to the
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  Speaker 3: very pointing end, which is when things go wrong, we
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  Speaker 3: do work to try to prevent these things from happening,
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  Speaker 3: and we do try to do the long term policy
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  Speaker 3: change to drive that important systemic change as well.
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  Speaker 1: So do Territorians just need to accept that we're going
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  Speaker 1: to see this type of behavior and we've got to
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  Speaker 1: learn to live with it.
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  Speaker 3: Katie. I've grown up in the Northern Territory my entire life,
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  Speaker 3: and this has always been a complex environment because of
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  Speaker 3: those issues to do with systemic poverty. But I don't
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  Speaker 3: think anybody should ever accept being a victim of crime,
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely not. And what I want to assure them is
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  Speaker 3: that will always work hard to try to help avoid
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  Speaker 3: people becoming a victim of crime. But if someone's court
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  Speaker 3: doing the wrong thing, if they are court committing crime,
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  Speaker 3: that we will make sure that we go, we get
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  Speaker 3: hold of them and that they are brought to justice.
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  Speaker 1: Minister, I've got a message here from Kerrie because I
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  Speaker 1: think it's in important that you get a sense of
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  Speaker 1: how people are feeling at the moment, and they say,
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  Speaker 1: so I got somebody else had messaged and said, would
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  Speaker 1: the minister be prepared to go and sit in the
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  Speaker 1: car at the Karama shopping center for half an hour
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  Speaker 1: even just locked in the car during the evening to
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  Speaker 1: see some of the issues that go on in.
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  Speaker 2: The Karama community.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody else had messaged through and said, can you please
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  Speaker 1: ask the minister to go and do that, especially when
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  Speaker 1: the sun goes down it's like a war zone. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: the Karama pub need to you know, maybe there needs
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  Speaker 1: to be some changes there as well. There's others coming
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  Speaker 1: through saying Katie, let's be frank, whilst we all like
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a soapbox talking about the same issues over and over, is.
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  Speaker 2: Just that talk.
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  Speaker 1: We're here in the territory want action right now. We're
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  Speaker 1: sick of hearing the same thing and the crime is
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  Speaker 1: not changing well.
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  Speaker 3: I share frustrations with people because, like I said, I
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  Speaker 3: do not take it very well when I hear of
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  Speaker 3: people becoming a vic of crime. And I'm a Northern
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  Speaker 3: Suburbs person. I live in the Suburbs. I go out
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  Speaker 3: and about and go through a range of Northern suburbs
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  Speaker 3: suburbs all the time, so you know, I see what's
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  Speaker 3: happening on the ground, and I can tell you now
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  Speaker 3: from my perspective, what I do see is that there
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  Speaker 3: are a lot more people in town. As I said,
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  Speaker 3: it's very real. We can all see it and we
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: can see the issues that are stemming from it, and
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  Speaker 3: that's why we're taking more action on it.
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  Speaker 2: Is it the worst you've seen it?
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  Speaker 3: There's definitely a lot more people around the way I
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  Speaker 3: would describe it would be I think we all know
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  Speaker 3: some of the spots where you tend to see people
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  Speaker 3: who are visitors to town that could be sitting in,
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  Speaker 3: camping out and staying in, and I'm finding few of
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  Speaker 3: those spots vacant at the moment. There are a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people in town, Minister.
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  Speaker 1: Even about two weeks ago, I had two women in
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  Speaker 1: their sixties get in contact with me here at the station.
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  Speaker 1: One of them had been witnessed to a person lady
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  Speaker 1: in her sixties, being knocked to the ground inside Casuarina
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  Speaker 1: Shopping Center and having money stolen from her that she'd
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  Speaker 1: just taken out at the ATM inside the shopping center.
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  Speaker 1: I had another lady called through a couple of minutes
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  Speaker 1: later and say the same thing had happened to her
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  Speaker 1: about a week earlier. She was depositing money inside the
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  Speaker 1: shopping center and had been knocked over and money stolen
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  Speaker 1: from her. I've got to tell you, I haven't heard
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  Speaker 1: that kind of thing happening in the Northern Territory, you
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  Speaker 1: know before inside a shopping center, women who are mature,
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  Speaker 1: who are going there hoping that they can do their
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  Speaker 1: shopping safely and having money snatched from them. What's going
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: on at the moment, it's not just frustrating, it's actually
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: really upsetting to so many people. And I think what
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: they want to hear from the government right now is
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: not only that you're taking it seriously and not that
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: there's going to be a couple of announcements in a
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  Speaker 1: couple of weeks, but they want to hear what's happening
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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And unfortunately I have heard stories like you referred
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  Speaker 3: to before, Katie, and there's absolutely no use for it.
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  Speaker 3: People should be able to go about this shopping and
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  Speaker 3: peace and quiet and do their business and targeting a
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  Speaker 3: more mature woman again is just the lowest of low
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  Speaker 3: type of behavior, and it's completely unacceptable. But again, what
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: else stress to you and to your listeners is that
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  Speaker 3: we've made sure that we've put more resources around that
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  Speaker 3: anti social behavior effort. We've got the day patrols, the
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: night patrols, the twenty four hours sobering up shelter that
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: used to never exist.
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  Speaker 1: So have they been amped up in the last couple
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  Speaker 1: of weeks, have they been apped up in the last
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks.
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  Speaker 3: Or we have got them working at their normal capacity
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: of what we've had there. But we are looking at
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: those very issues around so bring up centers, and just
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  Speaker 3: like I said, we've got more work that we're doing
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: in the anti social behavior space, and I want your
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: listeners to feel reassured that we take this very seriously
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: and we will be doing more, all right.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know that it's going to reassure them, to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: be honest with you, because they have been raising this issue,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: you know, for quite some time, but certainly for the
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: last few weeks. It's been top of mind for so
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: many people. And I think that they know that the
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: time for talk is over.
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  Speaker 2: I think that what they want to see is action.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I can assure them that we are taking
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: action every day We work very hard on this every
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: day and we will be doing more, Katie, Minister.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I know that you do
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: need to get you do obviously need to get into
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: another meeting COVID close contacts in other states, New South
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Wales and Victoria. They have dropped the need for isolation
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: for those close contacts in other states.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Are we going to do the same in the.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Territory We have finished simply, we are looking at that
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: very issue, Katie. So we are going to be taking
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: on advice from our chief health officers about the close
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: contact situation and those isolation periods. Will have more to
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: say about that in the near future.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: All right, Nicole Madison, the Police Minister, and are you
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: acting Chief Minister at the moment?
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: The Chief Minister is on op paternity leave at the moment,
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: waiting for them the impending birth of his second child.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: And as we know in the COVID world, you're actually
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: using some of the health services you have to isolate
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: before it to make sure that you don't get COVID,
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: so that they've had to isolate as well. So we're
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: looking forward to good news of a new baby very soon.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Well, Nicole Madison, we appreciate your time. Thank you for
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: coming on the.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Show this morning.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: I appreciate yours.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you