Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Darwin’s Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis says he plans to speak to the Acting Police Commissioner after officers failed to respond when a library was abused and punched in the hand

Transcript

Darwin’s Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis says he plans to speak to the Acting Police Commissioner after officers failed to respond when a library was abused and punched in the hand · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As I mentioned throughout the opener, we know that doctor
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Ella Stack. She was the mayor who steered Dowin through
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy and passed away in Canberra
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: aged ninety four. The Lord Mayor Convat Scarlets joins me
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: on the show right now, good morning to your call.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Morn Icita, and I want to pay tribute to veil
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Ella Stack. She was the first Lord Mayor of Darwin.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: She was the first female Lord Mayor of Australia. But
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: most importantly she was a real Darwin person. I met
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Ella when we opened the railway when their way came
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: to Darwin. Sat next to me and we're talking. I
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: told you where I leave it at me. I remember
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: your house during Cyclone Tracy. I walked out of my house,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: or what was left of it, and I saw yours
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: and the only thing was left on yours was the floorboard.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: And on top of this was a doctor who used
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: to live there, stitching himself up from the catch he
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: suffered during the cyclone.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: It blew me away.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: She knew exactly who I was and where I was,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: and I want to say that she was really blessed.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: She passed away ninety four years old, peacefully with the
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: families around here. We owe her eternal gratitude for what
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: she did during cyclone Tracy treating eleven thousand people in
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: an emergency clinic. She put in down high and then
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: having a great input in the reconstruction of Darwin at
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the time when a lot of people were saying, close down, down,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: take it somewhere else. She stalked to her guns and
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: she said, no, it's going to be here, and she
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: did it. You'll remember forever, Ella. And then Mike, condolences
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to your family.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what an incredible woman and an incredible part of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territories history and something that you know, a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: lot of us probably just have no comprehension because.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: We didn't leave this kind of situations.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: And she I mean waking up in the morning or
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: getting out of your house in the morning, that's no
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: house anymore, and looking around your place was like Hiroshima.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: And as she said in her book, is anybody alive
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: out there? And that was your first thought? And then
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: she refused to leave a lot of people left Darwin.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: She stayed back and she treated people people that needed
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: to help.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: It sort of goes to remind you as well, just
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: what Darwin is built on, and just how tough and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: resilient Territorians are.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: We are very, very resilient, and we've got a great
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: community spirit for the same reason because we live constantly
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: under the threat of severe cyclonic events everything and we
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: stick together. And I say many times one of these
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Darwins so good is because we don't have ghettos. We
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: don't have ethnic neighborhoods. We don't have a Greek neighborhood, Italian, Chinese.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: We've got a neighborhood and Greeks, Chinese, Indonesian. It did
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: live in the same neighborhood. We're serving a lot of
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: this traditions and a lot of the customs and talking
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: about it. We just had the Thai first of all. Yep,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: we're heading towards the Greek festival. We had the Italian,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: following by the Indian. And this is our community, which
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: is a great place to live and bring up your family.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, now, Coln, we did just have Brent Porter, the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: member for Fanny Bay in the studio about the concerns
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: that he and some others around the r V park proposal.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Where are those consultations at at the moment.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: It was not a proposal.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: It was actually a call people to give us the
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: opinion to see if we can run a trial for
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: our vs. Now there are problems down there with a
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: lot of itinerance and a lot of drunks, so severe
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: that Brett acted to help the people around there by
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: finding the money to get a patrol.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: So there is a problem. Now.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: The RV was to activate the place. We're not going
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: to take over the whole park. We're going to have
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: The idea was to have a very small number of
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: RVs fully recreational vehicles, fully self contained, to see what
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: we can do. Now we're going through the responses we got.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: We're going to review them. It would come to the
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: next council we.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Make a decision.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: How many responses did you get?
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: We got about six hundred.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Any idea of the sort of positive pro.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Because represent the counsel. But if people don't want it,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to say well we'll do there. Well
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: we find something else and people can live with the
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: tinerans and drunks.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: So it's not a done deal at.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: This point us we were asking people's opinion. There's not
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: much point of asking off interview actually made up your mind,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: and I'm the first person to say no. If the
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: commune does want it, we're not going to.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Put it there.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: So from your perspective, Corn, you're going through that consultation process.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: It's not a done deal, but you want to see
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: that area activated so that you can minimize some of
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the anti social behavior.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: If we don't put anything there, the current situation will continue.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: The problem we've got at the moment is and I'm
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: glad Brett is doing a lot of work, but massaggestion, Brett,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: talk to your cabinet colleagues. Do something about the police,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: do something about alcohol measures, do something about returning this
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: pep to country, do something about stopping this people come
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to country before we start talking about ourvis ourvis is
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the smallest of the problem. And the same thing with
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: the playgrounds. This is not what's burning the community at
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: the moment. What community is arguing about and angry about.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Then don't demonstrating in front of Parliament the RVs or playgrounds.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: They're demonstrating about crime because they're really scared. When I
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: hear people like Charlie King, who is Indigenous, to tell
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: in public on the radio that he's scared to go
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: out mate, we've.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Got a problem.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Look, I don't think anybody could disagree with that. At
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the moment, there has been so many issues when it
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: comes to crime and anti social behavior.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Happy to buck, break't capital bread to have back any
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: member of parliament either side. We're going to stand up
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: and say we have to do something. We have a problem.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: We have to recognize got a problem. Even indigenous people now,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah on the show and said it's our problem.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: We He's come on the show and had told us
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: just that, as has Helen's secretary who'd come on quite
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: some time ago and said enough's enough. Con I want
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to ask you from a council perspective, have you seen,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you know, an increased volume or an increased severity of
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: some of the concerns that you've got around anti social behavior?
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Look, yes, we do.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I have to admit the numbers now a bit smaller
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: than they used to be before, but still the same
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: offenders offense. We had a situations where when you call
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: the policy police don't turn up. Recently, I had in
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: one of my libraries a person became abusive punts the
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: hand of the person of my officer on the desk.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: He was apprehended by some clients in the library. He
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: was hold the police was called and the police never
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: turned up.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: So where did this happen.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Happened very recently in one of my libraries. I'm not
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: going to give details because I'm going to talk to
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: the commissioner myself and give you to him and tell
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: him that this is what's happening at the moment.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: But so you had somebody in one of those libraries working.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: I have the hand puns.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: On the desk.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: The guy was violent, aggressive, abusive who was hold down
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: by the other people there.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Police was called police tntenna.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: Was this luck within the last couple of weeks, the.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Last five days?
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Look, it is bad and the situation is so bad
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: when the liquor industry talks to me and they want
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: restrictions and other things are really bad.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: And I am the same. I mean, I want restrictions too.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I've got a lot of friends out there that feeling
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: barrassed because some of their friends and colleagues and relatives misbehave.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: I will.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: It's the stage now that people from the Land Council
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: calling me to work with them together to see how
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: can address a dissociation.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Well, look, I think that everybody within the community does
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: want to work together.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: We want to see some change.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: It has to add it and we need to change.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: One hundred pc con before I let you go this morning,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Paul Arnold's resignation, what's the process now?
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Well, Paul resigned for personal reasons. And look, it's very,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: very difficult to balance private life, public life, businesses. You
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: saw what happened to Natasa files this weekend was despicable,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: very spoiled, self entitled young men. See no problem of
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: using the Chief Minister on your private time. I wonder
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: what will happen if somebody published name, he's telephone number
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: and his address. Because he's a politician, as he advocating
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: for particularism, I'm pretty sure he'll be very upset. But
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: he was very entitled and here was going on.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: And you know, I think I reckon it was a
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: bridge too far. I think it's definitely a bridge too far.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Every elected member we've got now it's subject to public
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: scrutiny all the time, seven days a week. They have
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: to run their life, public life, private life and business
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: sometimes just too much. And I think Paul found it
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: very difficult, and he did the right thing instead. Of
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: actually sitting there doing nothing.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: He resigned.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Now we are going to accept your resignation and then
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: we'll find out what the most suitable time to call
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: for a by election.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Now, before I let you go, there has been questions
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: about the lawns and about the grass growing high.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: I know you'd mentioned to us before about the contract.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Now most of the uncut loans have been done very
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: very well. We start getting our message from people, thank
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: you very much. Then you contract and I'll do the
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: same and we're going back to normal.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: But before we.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Go there, on the weekend of the fourth and fifth
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: of June, we've got the down in the National Truck
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Boat Festival, and of course a big expot in which
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: most of our cities, sister cities and friendly sit participating
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: cities like Dilli Chinhau Shan Jan Anchorage, Carlinos. That will
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: be here and we're going to have fun and I'll
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: let you know more about next time.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Sounds like a plan. Good on your colan, Lovely to
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: catch up with you as always.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you.