Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Independent Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley says the government has misled Territorians claiming it has implemented all 135 recommendations of the Fracking Inquiry when it hasn’t

Transcript

Independent Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley says the government has misled Territorians claiming it has implemented all 135 recommendations of the Fracking Inquiry when it hasn’t · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line is the Independent Member for Ralun,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Robin Lambley.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Robin.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Robin.
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  Speaker 1: What is the process this week for you as an independent?
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  Speaker 3: I was just thinking that as you mentioned what Bill said,
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  Speaker 3: my approach is go hard or go home, Katie, the
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  Speaker 3: same as I already been given a warning. I've already
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: been told by the chair of the Committee, Brent Potter,
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  Speaker 3: the Member for Fanny Bay, that apparently I was disorderly
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  Speaker 3: for asking se fairly blunt questions of the Deputy Chief
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  Speaker 3: Minister Nicole Manison. But what did you.
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  Speaker 1: Ask, Robin, What was it that he thought you were
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  Speaker 1: a bit too blunt about.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the fact is, Katie, that they haven't implemented all
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: of the one hundred and thirty five recommendations of the
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Pepper Inquiry into hydraulic fracturing. And I was questioning the
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  Speaker 3: men stir about two of those recommendations that they just
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: clearly have not implemented, despite the fact that they've told
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  Speaker 3: Territorians otherwise. So my closing question on this theme was
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  Speaker 3: you've misled territorians, Minister, and of course Brent Potter had
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  Speaker 3: to come to her rescue and shut me down and
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  Speaker 3: warn me. So that's set the tone for the next
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  Speaker 3: two weeks for me, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Joel Robin, I've never known you to go easy on
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  Speaker 1: questioning the government.
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  Speaker 3: Why would I. What it's all about, budget estimates is
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  Speaker 3: all about holding ministers to account, and obviously Bred Potter,
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  Speaker 3: a new bee to Parliament, is trying to protect his
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  Speaker 3: ministers and his government and they'd be surprised if I
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  Speaker 3: get thrown out. And you know, I never really worry
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  Speaker 3: too much about that. I usually time it my questions
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  Speaker 3: and behavior around when I don't particularly need to be there.
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  Speaker 3: But look, this is this is our time, that the
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  Speaker 3: non government members time, the opposition's time, the independent members
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  Speaker 3: time to ask the government questions, and obviously they don't
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  Speaker 3: like it.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 3: I like to be held to account and they don't
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  Speaker 3: like to be asked delicate, sensitive questions pretty much around
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  Speaker 3: them lying, misleading Territorian.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and the fact of the matter is there are
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  Speaker 1: a lot of questions that Territorians really want answers to.
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  Speaker 2: Robin.
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  Speaker 1: What is going to be a focus for you over
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  Speaker 1: the coming days. I've no doubt that you're going to
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of questions when the Minister for Police
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  Speaker 1: and Territory Families. See is in the chair on Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: I believe.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, she is. Obviously we had to reshuffle things with
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  Speaker 3: the Chief Minister being away. But look, Katie, my job's
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  Speaker 3: a bit different. I ask questions on all portfolios of
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  Speaker 3: all ministers, so you know, generally speaking, I tried share
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  Speaker 3: the love. Yes, the Minister for Police and Tertary Families
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  Speaker 3: is a minister that has a lot of influence over
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  Speaker 3: the lives of Central Australian people and of course people
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  Speaker 3: across the Northern Territory, crime, law and order, child protection, housing,
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  Speaker 3: They're all critical issues to all of us. So that
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  Speaker 3: will be a very big day. But then we've got
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  Speaker 3: the Chief Minister hopefully back on Monday. She's got an
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  Speaker 3: enormous portfolio load, pardon me. And then Chancey paked the
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  Speaker 3: Attorney General on Tuesday in next week and of course
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  Speaker 3: the Treasurer tomorrow. She should have been up first, really,
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  Speaker 3: in loeve of the Chief Minister being away. She should
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  Speaker 3: have been before us this morning, and I have no
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  Speaker 3: idea why they the government decided not to put her up,
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  Speaker 3: you know, talking about mining in the first couple of
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  Speaker 3: hours of two weeks of budget estimates yes, it's incredibly important.
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  Speaker 3: It's about budget estimates and we should be hearing from
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  Speaker 3: the treasurer our first start, but she was unavailable apparently.
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  Speaker 1: Now Robin it is always and we spoke to Bill
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  Speaker 1: Yan about this just a couple of minutes ago. You know,
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  Speaker 1: it is an opportunity for the Independence and the Opposition
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  Speaker 1: to put a whole raft of questions to the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory government ministers, but also to the departments the territories
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  Speaker 1: are screaming out for answers to. I mean, I touched
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  Speaker 1: on the fact that even the damage out at Howard
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  Speaker 1: Springs is something I know people will be anticipating or
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  Speaker 1: hoping that we can get an estimate on.
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  Speaker 2: How much that's cost.
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  Speaker 1: You know, on top of things like the payout to
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  Speaker 1: the former police commissioner, there are a lot of things
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  Speaker 1: that a lot of people are wanting answers too. Do
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  Speaker 1: you anticipate that that information is going to be forthcoming.
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  Speaker 3: Well, given that they've dodged and we've done all those
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  Speaker 3: things over the last couple of months, I doubt it,
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  Speaker 3: But you know, I guess it's an opportunity for for
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  Speaker 3: us to see and you can see it too. People
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  Speaker 3: can strain this if they go to the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: Legislative Assembly website. You can watch this all day, every
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  Speaker 3: day if you like, and you can see the look
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  Speaker 3: on their faces when they have to answer what are
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  Speaker 3: difficult questions. But I think the bottom line is, Katie,
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  Speaker 3: this is not their money. This is not their money
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  Speaker 3: to throw around and spend as they want. They are
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  Speaker 3: our servants. They are there only by the votes that
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  Speaker 3: get them over the line, and they have an obligation
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  Speaker 3: a responsibility to be completely transparent around all government expenditure,
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  Speaker 3: all public money expenditure. And so yeah, we'll wait and see.
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  Speaker 3: But by their silence and their dodging and weaving, it
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  Speaker 3: speaks volumes in itself.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Robin, you did say go hard or go home?
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  Speaker 1: Is there if there was one thing that you can
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  Speaker 1: actually get an answer to, one question that you think
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  Speaker 1: is absolutely pertinent at the moment, is you know, tell
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  Speaker 1: us what that is or what you're really hoping to
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  Speaker 1: get to the bottom off.
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  Speaker 3: Oh God, big question, Katie. I don't think I really
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  Speaker 3: thought about it like that. I tend to take each
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  Speaker 3: day that comes, and you know, just looking at today.
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  Speaker 3: Nicole Manison was the former police Minister from twenty sixteen
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  Speaker 3: to twenty twenty and she's now the Tourism Minister, and
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  Speaker 3: tourism as we know in the Northern Territory is slumping.
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  Speaker 3: Where it's in a slump in Alice Springs and in Darwin,
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  Speaker 3: Occupancy very low in our hotels. It's a really really
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  Speaker 3: slow start to what should be amomp her tourist seas
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  Speaker 3: and I hold her to blame for a lot of that.
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  Speaker 3: She did nothing as Minister for Police. She allowed crime
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  Speaker 3: to escalate, particularly in Central Australia, to what we now
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  Speaker 3: call a crime crisis, and we're still experiencing that crime crisis.
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  Speaker 3: One of the questions I'll be interested to putting to
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  Speaker 3: Nicole Manison today is does she take any responsibility for
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  Speaker 3: the slump insurersm given that people aren't coming to the
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  Speaker 3: Northern Territory because of crime and ultimately because of her
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  Speaker 3: failure as the Police minister. So they're the types of
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  Speaker 3: questions I'm wanting to put two ministers over the next
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  Speaker 3: two weeks, you know, holding them to account. They've been
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  Speaker 3: in government for seven years now, Katie Yell, it's a
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  Speaker 3: long time. They can't flick the blame to anyone else
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  Speaker 3: that apart from themselves, and my god, you know, when
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  Speaker 3: you look, when you scratch scratch the surface of what's
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  Speaker 3: happening in government, it's not good. The level of debt
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  Speaker 3: we've got skyrocketing to ten billion dollars over the next
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  Speaker 3: year or two. You know, when they came to government,
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  Speaker 3: the debt was less than two billion dollars. So they've
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  Speaker 3: spent a lot of money and they've got very little
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  Speaker 3: to show for it, and the social problems just continue
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  Speaker 3: to get worse and worse and worse and ability. It
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  Speaker 3: will be the theme of my questioning and holding them
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  Speaker 3: to account, you know, for the fact that they have
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  Speaker 3: been in office a very long time and they've made
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  Speaker 3: terrible mistakes. They've failed as leaders. I think Nicole Manison
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  Speaker 3: is the definition of a failure in terms of a minister.
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  Speaker 3: She always presents well that when you look at what
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  Speaker 3: she has done and the miserable failures that she's made
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  Speaker 3: along the way, I'm surprised she's even in cabinet so well.
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  Speaker 3: I will, you know, I don't make any excuses for
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  Speaker 3: these people. They are in very privileged positions, they're very
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  Speaker 3: well paid, and they've been in office a very long time. So,
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  Speaker 3: as I said, I'm going to go harder or just
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  Speaker 3: go home.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and Robin, the thing is territorians deserve to know
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  Speaker 1: the answers to those questions.
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  Speaker 2: So I reckon will for little.
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  Speaker 1: We'll probably catch up again before the week's end, given
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  Speaker 1: the fact that there is no doubt going to be
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  Speaker 1: a lot of difficult questions put to those government ministers
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  Speaker 1: for I let you go this morning, though, it is
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  Speaker 1: being reported today by the Northern Territory News that you've
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  Speaker 1: slammed that framework meant to empower bush communities across the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory as a political circus, while accusing the government
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  Speaker 1: of censoring a two year inquiry. So it comes after
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  Speaker 1: Parliament's Public Accounts Committee released a report into local decision
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  Speaker 1: making frameworks, a ten year plan to transfer government service
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  Speaker 1: delivery to Aboriginal communities.
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  Speaker 2: Robin, what are your concerns.
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  Speaker 3: Here, Well, it's nothing new. Local decision making has been
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  Speaker 3: around for a long time. And yes, the government three
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  Speaker 3: badge that remarket it. They've used it to politicize themselves
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  Speaker 3: and there's been a lot of handshaking and backslapping around
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  Speaker 3: local decision making agreements. There's eleven that they've signed around
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  Speaker 3: the Northern territory, but they haven't really delivered much at all.
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  Speaker 3: A bit of a hoax. I was a part of
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  Speaker 3: a two year inquiry. I've never been a part of
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  Speaker 3: an inquiry that went on that long. It was sloppy,
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  Speaker 3: it was unimpressive. Is really about promoting the government. Don't forget.
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  Speaker 3: These parliamentary committees are now stacked with government members, including
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  Speaker 3: the Estimates Committee that I'm on at the moment. They've
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  Speaker 3: got government chairs. Parliamentary committees are supposed to be about
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  Speaker 3: a group of members of Parliament, a well balanced committee
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  Speaker 3: of government and non government members that are there to
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  Speaker 3: scrutinize government. There was no scrutiny of government whatsoever in
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  Speaker 3: that local Decision Making inquiry. It was just a two
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  Speaker 3: year exercise in promoting something that they see is valuable
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  Speaker 3: to their re election prospects. I dare say so.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I was scathing and very critical of the whole process,
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  Speaker 3: and I wrote an extensive seven page dissenting report which
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  Speaker 3: is tacked on to the end of the Parliamentary Committee report,
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  Speaker 3: saying exactly what I thought.
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  Speaker 2: And Robin, what will happen now with that?
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  Speaker 1: Is there going to be sort of you know, as
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  Speaker 1: a result of your dissenting report, will anything further come
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  Speaker 1: of it?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, of course not, Katie. You know, in the managed
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  Speaker 3: by the government. You know, you've got Joel Bawden who
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  Speaker 3: says that there is the chair of the Public Accounts
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  Speaker 3: Committee that undertook the inquiry three out of the five
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  Speaker 3: members of government members. The bulk of the report really
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  Speaker 3: says what the government wants it to say. That it's
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  Speaker 3: effective and that it's achieving results, and that look, you know,
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  Speaker 3: no one can say that local decision making is bad.
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  Speaker 3: It's about empowering Aboriginal people. But the way this government
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  Speaker 3: has used it very effectively, I might say, is to
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  Speaker 3: promote itself. I mean, going around all these Aboriginal communities
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  Speaker 3: and promising them the world and pretty much delivering nothing.
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  Speaker 3: It looks good on paper, but in reality it just
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  Speaker 3: doesn't measure up. But you know the fact that I've
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  Speaker 3: just sented, I've come out publicly and said my piece.
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  Speaker 3: It really I just remain a thorn in their side.
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  Speaker 3: But I see that as an important role.
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  Speaker 2: I think it is too.
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  Speaker 3: Katie is just providing that other perspective of what the
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  Speaker 3: government's doing and what I think is the truth or
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: indeed my truth and the truth of many other people.
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  Speaker 3: It's frightening they think that the government has control of
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  Speaker 3: every lever in this place in parliament House. It shouldn't.
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  Speaker 3: Any parliamentary committee across the world, across the Commonwealth parliamentary
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  Speaker 3: system that we're a part of does not function in
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  Speaker 3: this way. The Northern Territory government has really dismantled what
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: should be a really effective means of scrutinizing government. But
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: you can't have government scrutinizing government.
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  Speaker 2: No, we know. That's exactly right. Yeah, that's exactly right.
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  Speaker 1: And look, I think it's incredibly important as well that
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  Speaker 1: you know, people might not like everything that you've got
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  Speaker 1: to say, Robin, but at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 1: you've got to you know, you've got to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that you are holding them two account.
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  Speaker 2: I just want to ask you very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: There's also some well the NTA News again report that
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: this band Drink of registered figures show that grog sales
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: in Alice have rebounded just two months after those tough
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: new takeaway alcohol sales restrictions were introduced in January. So,
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  Speaker 1: according to the paper, despite the takeaway sales regime that
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: include one sale per day per person and the alcohol
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: free days that you know all too well in Central Australia,
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  Speaker 1: the grog sale numbers in the town have begun to
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  Speaker 1: edge up, Robin.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's like, this is a tough situation.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you've in the past said that those
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: restrictions do need to be extended.
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  Speaker 2: Do you still feel that that's the case.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: I do, because it just gives two days of relative peace, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, it was really great to see that
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: story in the NT News because to see those raw
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: figures and for territories to read that it's evidence. You know,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: it's evidence based journalism reporting. But I have heard anecdotally
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  Speaker 3: that on the days that the bottle shops are open
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  Speaker 3: in Alice Springs, which is five out of the even days,
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  Speaker 3: they're selling more grog than ever. So that's the that's
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: the flip side of it. Alcoholics will always access grog.
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  Speaker 3: These things are just plugging up a leaky bugget bucket,
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  Speaker 3: which is the analogy I've always used with alcohol strategies.
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  Speaker 3: As soon as you put one strategy in place, you
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: almost have to preempt where the water is going to
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: leak out of the bucket next, and of course this
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: is what they're doing. So we've got two days of
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: relative piece. But given the fact that alcohol sales are
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: even beyond what they were before these restrictions in some
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: bottle shops and across the board, probably says that the
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: government has to do more. You can never ever think
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: that you're at the end of the road when it
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: comes to alcohol strategies. It's ongoing, it is forever, and
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: a place like Alice Springs we can attest to that
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  Speaker 3: these restrictions is extreme restrictions have come and gone and
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: have been in place, some of them for many many years,
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: almost twenty years some of them so including bottle shops
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: opening at two pm, I think they came in around
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: two thousand and seven or eight. So you know we're
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: no stranger to extreme alcohol restrictions. But we also know
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: that there's no end to it. Yeah, just forever.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Well, Robin Lamley, I always appreciate your time. I've no
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: doubt that it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: so please keep in contact, let us know what happens.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I'll try my best to be to be watching estimates
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: when I'm not on air, although I'll still try and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: keep an eye on it during the ad breaks, but
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: if there's anything interesting that happens, let me know.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I'll let you know for sure.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Thanks Robin, appreciate your time.