Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was - June 24th 2022

Transcript

The Week That Was - June 24th 2022 · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: And it is Friday morning. It is time for the
0:02
Speaker 1: week that was.
0:03
Speaker 2: Now we might start with Jared mainly, of course, joining
0:06
Speaker 2: us from the CELP this morning.
0:08
Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
0:09
Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners. We've got a full
0:11
Speaker 3: house here today and a big dog.
0:13
Speaker 4: Wait.
0:15
Speaker 1: We've got Tom Morgan from the Anti News. Good morning
0:18
Speaker 1: to you, Tom.
0:20
Speaker 2: We've got Selena Rubo, who is indeed the Minister for
0:23
Speaker 2: Housing and various other things. Good morning to you, Selena, Katie,
0:25
Speaker 2: Good morning listeners. And it is bring your dog to
0:27
Speaker 2: workday today. And Kezia Puric. Keezia, have you bought your dog.
0:32
Speaker 1: Or is that a horse?
0:35
Speaker 5: One of my horses?
0:36
Speaker 6: I bought the delicate fifty four kilogram Italian Master for Georgio.
0:41
Speaker 1: Dad said, she waits the same mad as me.
0:51
Speaker 7: Georgia is a gentle giant.
0:53
Speaker 1: She's beautiful.
0:54
Speaker 2: Oh she's caught in my headphone, so hopefully I don't
0:56
Speaker 2: choke her. But anyway, we better get into it because
0:59
Speaker 2: I tell you what we might well, we may need
1:01
Speaker 2: a therapy dog today.
1:02
Speaker 1: I don't know.
1:03
Speaker 2: We hopefully will be all right, but you never know
1:04
Speaker 2: what's going to happen in this studio. Honor on a Friday,
1:08
Speaker 2: and after two weeks of estimates. It has been an
1:11
Speaker 2: incredibly interesting couple of weeks. Now, last week we spoke
1:14
Speaker 2: about the fact that there'd been the IKAC Commissioner, you know,
1:18
Speaker 2: speaking about having that budget cut.
1:20
Speaker 1: This week there has been quite a bit go on.
1:23
Speaker 2: We know that obviously, yesterday that budget did pass into
1:27
Speaker 2: law at his months after its architect, Michael Gonna step
1:30
Speaker 2: down as the Chief Minister in quite dramatic fashion. Now
1:34
Speaker 2: we also know that that the new speaker was sworn in.
1:38
Speaker 2: Now where should we go first? We know that it
1:40
Speaker 2: was a bit of a surprise I think yesterday afternoon
1:42
Speaker 2: Keizier when we all knew that Mark Monahan was going
1:46
Speaker 2: to be put forward as the new Speaker for the
1:50
Speaker 2: Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. And then well, Jared Maylee, you
1:54
Speaker 2: popped up and you nominated someone as well.
1:57
Speaker 3: Yes, I nominated Keasy because we just thought the CLP
1:59
Speaker 3: that winning someone who is a long serving politician who's
2:02
Speaker 3: got a lot of knowledge and knows what's going on,
2:05
Speaker 3: because the speaker's role is really important.
2:07
Speaker 5: The Speaker is basically the boss of the House.
2:09
Speaker 3: And Kisi has got the experience and she's got the
2:12
Speaker 3: knowledge just important to have someone up there who knows
2:15
Speaker 3: what's going on.
2:15
Speaker 2: I know some people would say that an independent speaker
2:18
Speaker 2: is a you know, he's a good thing. It had
2:20
Speaker 2: happened obviously in the past, Keys here, you would have
2:23
Speaker 2: been happy to step back in there, would you know.
2:26
Speaker 6: I was quite prepared to take on the role again
2:28
Speaker 6: if that was the way the cards were going to fall.
2:29
Speaker 6: But clearly, you know, odds were high against it because
2:32
Speaker 6: some government had nominated a member for Fong Limit had
2:35
Speaker 6: been acting in the role for some weeks now. But
2:38
Speaker 6: as Jared said, I mean sometimes you have to just
2:41
Speaker 6: step up and you know, it's a democratic process and
2:43
Speaker 6: why should it be a lay down bazaire that you know,
2:45
Speaker 6: this person gets sort of that person gets it. The
2:47
Speaker 6: other thing, too, Katie is is in the past, there's
2:49
Speaker 6: always been a convention leading into the election of a
2:52
Speaker 6: speaker where the government of the day lets the opposition
2:55
Speaker 6: know who they're going to nominate. And my understanding is
2:59
Speaker 6: that this didn't happen that time. So yes, clearly that
3:02
Speaker 6: was mister Mornihan was going to be the speaker. But
3:04
Speaker 6: there's usually a courtesy offered to the opposition and that's
3:08
Speaker 6: what's happening. I find as time passes is people lose
3:12
Speaker 6: corporate memory and they lose corporate intelligence. And it's those
3:15
Speaker 6: little things that make the Parliament what it is, apart
3:19
Speaker 6: from the big things, which is making law and passing budgets.
3:22
Speaker 6: And so that's why you know, the COLP pros and said, look,
3:25
Speaker 6: you know, this is what we're thinking.
3:26
Speaker 7: I said, look, yeah, sure, fun you had to give
3:28
Speaker 7: it a go.
3:29
Speaker 2: Well, I tell you what, there was certainly some interesting
3:32
Speaker 2: things happened throughout the estimates process. Tom Morgan, you've been there,
3:35
Speaker 2: you know for a large part of that that estimates
3:38
Speaker 2: process suffering soul.
3:40
Speaker 8: Yeah.
3:40
Speaker 2: I was going to say, how are you feeling if
3:41
Speaker 2: it needed about thirty coffees through it.
3:45
Speaker 4: My third coffee in the morning. No, it was right.
3:48
Speaker 2: Well, it's been interesting. I know that some interesting information
3:51
Speaker 2: did come to life. Well yesterday around and I the
3:54
Speaker 2: company's supplying gas to the Northern Territories power plants. It's
3:57
Speaker 2: not been meeting its contractual obligations. Now Power and Water
4:01
Speaker 2: Corporations officials obviously confirmed that.
4:04
Speaker 1: Yesterday.
4:05
Speaker 2: We know that the Henderson government struck that twenty five
4:07
Speaker 2: year deal with E and I more than ten years
4:10
Speaker 2: ago to supply gas from the black Tip gas field.
4:14
Speaker 1: So what exactly was seed yesterday?
4:16
Speaker 4: It was very interesting.
4:17
Speaker 9: It was basically just said that that and I wasn't
4:22
Speaker 9: meeting its contractual obligations. As you said, there was one
4:26
Speaker 9: I'm not sure if it was a slip of the tongue,
4:27
Speaker 9: but it was said sort of without any fanfare that
4:31
Speaker 9: it was a legal proceeding, so someone couldn't necessarily comment
4:34
Speaker 9: further it was a legal matter.
4:36
Speaker 4: Now.
4:36
Speaker 9: I don't think anything has been vile in the courts yet,
4:39
Speaker 9: but considering how much you know, gas is selling for
4:41
Speaker 9: on the East Coast, if there was excess gas that
4:44
Speaker 9: Power and Water could have sold off that it hasn't
4:46
Speaker 9: had the ability to sell off because and I hasn't.
4:49
Speaker 7: Been locked into a contract.
4:51
Speaker 4: Yes, then you know Pound Water.
4:53
Speaker 9: You know, they've obviously predicted that they're not going to
4:55
Speaker 9: make as much money this year as they're expecting, so
4:58
Speaker 9: that's that's a big, big issue. I did hear that
5:01
Speaker 9: there was also quite a lot of there was a
5:03
Speaker 9: rush on a hand side yesterday as well, after after
5:09
Speaker 9: Power and Water appeared. Yeah, there was obviously a bit
5:11
Speaker 9: of a rush to find out what was said in
5:13
Speaker 9: estimates during that sitting.
5:15
Speaker 2: Selena, is it you who's wound up with the with
5:17
Speaker 2: the power, water or essential services portfolio?
5:20
Speaker 7: That's right sitting.
5:21
Speaker 1: What is the situation?
5:22
Speaker 2: What is the situation now with this gas because is
5:25
Speaker 2: he and I used as a backup or is it
5:27
Speaker 2: our main source of where we're getting our gas to
5:30
Speaker 2: power the territory.
5:31
Speaker 8: It's the main supply, and particularly the black Tip site Katie,
5:35
Speaker 8: which is obviously located on the west of the Northern Territory.
5:39
Speaker 8: Those contractual obligations and engagements do cover us here in
5:43
Speaker 8: the territory until twenty thirty four, so we do have
5:46
Speaker 8: that guaranteed supply which has basically buffet us from what
5:50
Speaker 8: the rest of the country has been experienced on the
5:53
Speaker 8: East coast.
5:54
Speaker 10: The Northern Territory and Western.
5:55
Speaker 8: Australia are both on there.
5:58
Speaker 10: We're both on.
5:58
Speaker 8: Our individual power supplies, so we don't connect to the
6:01
Speaker 8: national electricity market. So we've been largely uninterrupted in terms
6:06
Speaker 8: of what's being experienced on the East.
6:08
Speaker 10: Coast with the energy crisis that is there.
6:11
Speaker 8: Through the process with E and I's work that the
6:14
Speaker 8: government and Power and Water have been working very closely
6:17
Speaker 8: with the and I Power and Water have secured the
6:22
Speaker 8: backup sources of supply for gas in that process. But
6:26
Speaker 8: again anything that has a commercial arrangement and contracts do
6:31
Speaker 8: have those legal oversights. So that work has been very
6:34
Speaker 8: carefully managed. But what I can reassure territorians as lights
6:38
Speaker 8: will stay on and that our power supply is not
6:41
Speaker 8: a danger of being turned off.
6:42
Speaker 1: It that is incredibly important.
6:44
Speaker 10: It is the opposite.
6:45
Speaker 2: It's incredibly important though, is that those obligations are being meshed.
6:48
Speaker 1: And if they're not being messed you know.
6:50
Speaker 2: What steps is in all the territory government going to
6:52
Speaker 2: take monetary wise or otherwise. You know, if these obligations
6:59
Speaker 2: are being mexed.
7:00
Speaker 3: One more thing that's important, Katie, is how did we
7:01
Speaker 3: get to this point? How did we let it get
7:03
Speaker 3: this far where we're talking about going to court because
7:05
Speaker 3: there's a shortage of gas. So obviously the government has
7:07
Speaker 3: dropped the ball here because it hasn't just happened overnight,
7:09
Speaker 3: it's been going for a while.
7:11
Speaker 5: And how did we I.
7:12
Speaker 8: Just want to correct about Katie. There's absolutely been no
7:14
Speaker 8: dropping of the ball. This has been a lot of
7:17
Speaker 8: careful work and obviously the cop opposition Jerry doesn't actually
7:21
Speaker 8: understand the processes when you're talking about commercial contracts, lawyer.
7:26
Speaker 10: Commercial contract It was really not helpful.
7:29
Speaker 8: But the work that being is being done by our
7:31
Speaker 8: government and particularly through power and Water. I think Thomas
7:35
Speaker 8: did mention it earlier. What it does mean for power
7:38
Speaker 8: and water is that it does affect some of the
7:40
Speaker 8: on sale to those larger customers, which is again the
7:44
Speaker 8: profiting for power and water. So that's where some of
7:46
Speaker 8: those areas and concerns are, particularly around supply and the
7:51
Speaker 8: downstream supply. But the important thing is Katie, Territorians, homes,
7:54
Speaker 8: business residences will not be affected through this.
7:57
Speaker 9: There would be a lot of buyers on the East
7:59
Speaker 9: Coast right now who would be paying an absolute manza
8:02
Speaker 9: for the gas if we had it. I do think,
8:05
Speaker 9: you know, maybe we should have been told about this
8:07
Speaker 9: because there was a lot of talk. I think even
8:09
Speaker 9: a week ago there was an article that I saw
8:11
Speaker 9: in one news organization, you know, saying how great the
8:14
Speaker 9: Territories you know set up was because it had ensured
8:17
Speaker 9: that we were isolated and insulated from the issues that
8:20
Speaker 9: were going on on the East Coast. Now it turns
8:22
Speaker 9: out that necessarily wasn't the case. Now was it, And
8:26
Speaker 9: you also have the situation where we've had to go
8:28
Speaker 9: to other buyers alternative make alternative arrangements for gas. It
8:34
Speaker 9: was interesting yesterday and estimates it was mentioned that we'd
8:36
Speaker 9: managed to buy that gas for a similar rate what
8:39
Speaker 9: we'd been buying it off Black Tip, which I'm very
8:42
Speaker 9: interested to see how that happened, considering how expensive natural
8:46
Speaker 9: gas is becoming so well, I.
8:47
Speaker 6: Mean, there's if there's an issue. It sounds like there's
8:51
Speaker 6: an issue with the supply, which means the black Tip
8:54
Speaker 6: has it's been rated about one trillion cubic feet of
8:58
Speaker 6: gas and that was meant to last us for twenty
9:00
Speaker 6: plus years to.
9:01
Speaker 4: Sue all of the contract was twenty five years.
9:03
Speaker 7: Twenty five years.
9:04
Speaker 6: So if there's starting to become an issue with the supply,
9:07
Speaker 6: then that means they're starting to become an issue with
9:09
Speaker 6: the gas that's being extracted from Black Tip. Just because
9:12
Speaker 6: it says it's one trilling cubit feet doesn't mean that's
9:14
Speaker 6: what you're going to actually extract.
9:15
Speaker 1: What do you reckon? They're running out.
9:16
Speaker 3: Well understanding that they're selling their gas off to the
9:19
Speaker 3: East coast. Maybe they're taking advantage of the high prices and.
9:23
Speaker 5: We suffering.
9:24
Speaker 9: You know, how do we get a big good grounds
9:26
Speaker 9: for legal action, I would imagine, But.
9:28
Speaker 1: Then how are they going to get the gas to
9:29
Speaker 1: the East coast.
9:30
Speaker 5: Well, there's a pipeline over there now, well, who.
9:33
Speaker 6: Knows illegal legal stuff? And maybe when we find out
9:36
Speaker 6: if it gets to court, what exactly all about it.
9:39
Speaker 9: I do think there was a need for probably transparency
9:41
Speaker 9: earlier in the year that this was happening, and I'm
9:44
Speaker 9: just so territories.
9:45
Speaker 2: I also think that it's you know, it pays the
9:47
Speaker 2: way for us making sure that we get it right
9:49
Speaker 2: in any potential future deals that have done as well,
9:52
Speaker 2: and we know that this morning it has been announced
9:54
Speaker 2: that Infrastructure Australia has today announced at the Australian Asia
9:58
Speaker 2: Power Length the AAP or the AA Powerlink, I should say,
10:02
Speaker 2: has met all requirements of the Infrastructure Priority least, advancing
10:06
Speaker 2: the project to Stage three. So this is the sun
10:09
Speaker 2: Cable project. So essentially what it means is that it
10:12
Speaker 2: is obviously going to be you know, it is going
10:15
Speaker 2: to be powered through I guess for one of a
10:17
Speaker 2: better word, as quickly as it can as well as
10:19
Speaker 2: it can be. The territory government has been supporting this
10:22
Speaker 2: thirty plus billion dollar project from the beginning, awarding it
10:25
Speaker 2: Major Project status in twenty nineteen. So this is news
10:30
Speaker 2: just this morning from the Chief Minister, Natasha Files. I
10:33
Speaker 2: guess you know, the big question that a lot of
10:35
Speaker 2: people will be wondering is as this project gets underway,
10:39
Speaker 2: and when it gets underway, are we going to make
10:41
Speaker 2: sure that there is some of that power, say for
10:44
Speaker 2: the Northern Territory.
10:46
Speaker 1: Rather than just exporting it.
10:47
Speaker 8: Yes, Kadis is obviously a very exciting project for the
10:50
Speaker 8: Northern Territory and the commitment from sun Cable to use
10:53
Speaker 8: their base here in the territory has been phenomenal. So
10:57
Speaker 8: one of the conversations that we've had, I know many territories,
11:01
Speaker 8: businesses and residents alike have been talking about what's the
11:05
Speaker 8: capacity to have domestic use for that energy, for that
11:08
Speaker 8: export that is anticipated through that project for the energy supply,
11:13
Speaker 8: and then also what is the opportunity again for national
11:17
Speaker 8: and international supply chain.
11:19
Speaker 10: So it is a lot of work.
11:21
Speaker 8: It's something that I'm very excited to learn about in
11:24
Speaker 8: just over a month of having the energy portfolio. But
11:27
Speaker 8: the Northern Territory is absolutely well placed to be able
11:30
Speaker 8: to drive this project, support this project and to see
11:33
Speaker 8: some of the.
11:33
Speaker 2: Benefits of gen buyer. Is it still Singapore, Yes, so
11:38
Speaker 2: we do still have them locked in as a client
11:42
Speaker 2: or they are still definitely locked in.
11:44
Speaker 10: So Singapore is.
11:47
Speaker 8: The main contact for where that energy will get streamed to.
11:51
Speaker 8: What we're working as for the Northern Territory government is
11:55
Speaker 8: what type of percentage could be kept here for the
11:58
Speaker 8: domestic Northern Territory market and again as I mentioned, for
12:01
Speaker 8: the national market, particularly around the East Coast supply.
12:04
Speaker 9: It says here that the Powerlink cable will deliver significant
12:08
Speaker 9: benefits to Australia, including eight hundred megawatts of zero carbon
12:11
Speaker 9: electricity for Northern Australia. Now my understanding is that's about
12:16
Speaker 9: half the demand of Brisbane, so that's a lot of
12:19
Speaker 9: a lot of electricity. Now, I don't know how the
12:21
Speaker 9: Northern Territory could use eight hundred megawatts of electricity and
12:23
Speaker 9: a single.
12:24
Speaker 7: Downstream processing of minerals.
12:26
Speaker 4: Perhaps there's a lot of.
12:28
Speaker 5: That needs if that needs to be locked in so.
12:33
Speaker 3: You don't wane power going past out to Singapore and
12:36
Speaker 3: missing out and we have to do burn gas and
12:38
Speaker 3: we have to buy new generators we've got all this
12:41
Speaker 3: un cable. If it's going through once, we don't want
12:43
Speaker 3: it's done cable to turn out like the water bottles
12:45
Speaker 3: and prawn farm. They need to make sure the due
12:47
Speaker 3: Dilixies has done that this actually goes in because we
12:49
Speaker 3: fully support it and it's going to be great for
12:50
Speaker 3: the territory, but we don't want to it's undertaking.
12:53
Speaker 9: Some company someone said in estimates, either from Territory Generation
12:58
Speaker 9: or from Power and Water, that even when we have
13:01
Speaker 9: the capacity to run the entire grid off solar, say
13:05
Speaker 9: during the middle of the day, that still need to
13:06
Speaker 9: have a gas plant.
13:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're still going to have it there as backup,
13:09
Speaker 2: is my understanding of it. I know I worked for
13:11
Speaker 2: Power and Water quite some time ago, and that was
13:13
Speaker 2: the situation. I think we saw that not so long
13:15
Speaker 2: ago in our springs as well, when there was that
13:19
Speaker 2: cloud coverage that then well, it was a little while
13:21
Speaker 2: back now, I guess it's probably a year or two
13:22
Speaker 2: ago where there was that cloud coverage then prevented because
13:27
Speaker 2: they didn't have the backup system ready to sort of
13:29
Speaker 2: switch on.
13:29
Speaker 1: There was quite a substantial outage.
13:32
Speaker 8: So the exciting part obviously about renewable energies is the
13:35
Speaker 8: whole country and the whole world is looking to shift
13:38
Speaker 8: to a greener and less impact on the environment by
13:42
Speaker 8: using renewables.
13:44
Speaker 10: What I've learnt with.
13:45
Speaker 8: The portfolio so far is about the certainty of stability
13:50
Speaker 8: of energy supply when we're talking about feeding into our
13:53
Speaker 8: electricity grids, and how the impact is of usage versus storage,
13:59
Speaker 8: and also the work that's being done in the solar space.
14:02
Speaker 8: It's new technology. The rest of the country is also
14:04
Speaker 8: experiencing the challenges with new technology. So our responsibility as
14:10
Speaker 8: a government is making sure that there is security instability
14:13
Speaker 8: of supply, but also that we're not overloading our grids
14:16
Speaker 8: and that there is an instability course that. Obviously renewables
14:19
Speaker 8: are talking about the sun when the sun's shining with
14:21
Speaker 8: solar and when the clouds go over you have our
14:24
Speaker 8: big monsoonal storms here in the top end. When it's
14:27
Speaker 8: raining in Central Australia, when it's nighttime, there's changes to
14:31
Speaker 8: the level fed in and also being used, so that
14:34
Speaker 8: all the backups do make a big difference.
14:36
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
14:36
Speaker 2: Now there has been so much covered off obviously during
14:39
Speaker 2: the estimates process. One of the topics or one of
14:42
Speaker 2: the situations that I thought was quite interesting.
14:44
Speaker 1: Earlier in the week.
14:45
Speaker 2: We did speak to Robin Lanley on the show earlier
14:47
Speaker 2: in the week about those staff shortages within our correctional facilities.
14:52
Speaker 2: Now I know that just a bit earlier this morning,
14:54
Speaker 2: the ABC was actually speaking to a staff member from
14:58
Speaker 2: the Alice Springs correction facility. As I understand it, and
15:02
Speaker 2: I'm fairly sure that he revealed forty eight staff short
15:05
Speaker 2: in Alice.
15:06
Speaker 4: Yes, that was what he said.
15:07
Speaker 9: Now, obviously that was what I heard on the radio
15:09
Speaker 9: this morning, and he was he was at pains to
15:13
Speaker 9: stress that he was a union delegate who had the
15:15
Speaker 9: ability to talk even though he was a staff member
15:18
Speaker 9: at the prison. But he said, on an average day
15:20
Speaker 9: there was sixteen Roston staff short of what they should have.
15:25
Speaker 9: And he basically said, you know, if Chancey Paike wanted
15:28
Speaker 9: to get an idea of the number of short staff
15:32
Speaker 9: that they had across the territory, he should have just
15:34
Speaker 9: called the union. Now, obviously, in estimates, he didn't have
15:37
Speaker 9: those figures before him. For whatever reason. He said, I
15:42
Speaker 9: think this union delegate said forty eight staff short in
15:45
Speaker 9: Alice Springs and twelve staff short in Darwin.
15:49
Speaker 2: It's a wash like it would be having a massive impact,
15:51
Speaker 2: but I would imagine having a massive impact on some
15:53
Speaker 2: of the programs and things that had delivered within those prisons.
15:56
Speaker 6: That's right, not only programs within the prison. We all
15:59
Speaker 6: know these programs out side of the prison and low
16:01
Speaker 6: risk prisoners go and help set up things like Friends
16:03
Speaker 6: Pass Show or whatever one of those big events, plus
16:07
Speaker 6: other programs that they've they undertaken as.
16:10
Speaker 4: Part of the rehabilitation mentioned the bakeries.
16:12
Speaker 6: Yes he's operating it, but for forty eight is a
16:16
Speaker 6: huge number of our of springs, and we know our
16:17
Speaker 6: jails are pretty.
16:18
Speaker 3: Fall must make it for the people who are actually
16:20
Speaker 3: on shift from a very difficult because they've got to fill.
16:22
Speaker 5: In those people.
16:22
Speaker 7: Double ships.
16:25
Speaker 3: Prison as well would suffer because they're not getting those
16:27
Speaker 3: rehab programs. They're not getting ready to be released, and
16:29
Speaker 3: maybe they're getting to be more time locked in the
16:31
Speaker 3: sales because they can't get out.
16:32
Speaker 7: The supervisor com well, it comes back, we.
16:34
Speaker 5: Don't know that. It's all about the open and transparency.
16:37
Speaker 6: It comes back in the first point, how did they
16:39
Speaker 6: get to this situation? How did the department get to
16:42
Speaker 6: this situation of having this many vacancies? I mean, we
16:45
Speaker 6: know we've got shortages across the board, both in the
16:47
Speaker 6: public sector and the private sector, but we're talking about
16:50
Speaker 6: our correctional facilities where you need supervision and you need
16:54
Speaker 6: it twenty four to seven. And we know we've got
16:57
Speaker 6: burnout and problems within our police force and the fire service,
17:00
Speaker 6: and the last attritions have burned.
17:03
Speaker 7: Out with our correctional services people.
17:05
Speaker 2: And I think it's hard pressed to find any industry
17:07
Speaker 2: at the moment it's not struggling staffing wise, but this
17:10
Speaker 2: is like, it is quite a concern.
17:12
Speaker 9: I would think a thirteen million dollar overtime bill for
17:14
Speaker 9: corrections attrition rate of ten percent, which is I believe
17:18
Speaker 9: higher than what police suffering through.
17:20
Speaker 4: So that's it is pretty bad.
17:22
Speaker 3: Yep.
17:23
Speaker 9: And just to go back to estimates, Chancy Pate couldn't
17:25
Speaker 9: say the figure he said that you know, varied from
17:28
Speaker 9: day to day, and he couldn't give a figure for
17:29
Speaker 9: how many staff short there would be in the surprising
17:37
Speaker 9: I knew about it.
17:38
Speaker 3: It wasn't hard to get by the sounds of it
17:40
Speaker 3: because someone gave it to the ABC this morning.
17:42
Speaker 2: Well, and that's the thing it begs the question, I guess,
17:45
Speaker 2: and this was what Robin had raised during the week
17:47
Speaker 2: was whether he was purposely not revealing that information and
17:50
Speaker 2: whether the government was, you know, not revealing that info
17:53
Speaker 2: on purpose or whether it genuinely whether he and the
17:56
Speaker 2: Corrections Commissioner couldn't answer it.
17:58
Speaker 8: Obviously, a huge amount of work goes into the preparation
18:01
Speaker 8: of estimates, and we all try our best, ministers and
18:05
Speaker 8: senior public servants alike and all of those who support
18:08
Speaker 8: us in the background to answer things on the spot
18:11
Speaker 8: and of course to do due diligence to find those
18:14
Speaker 8: answers if we can't do that, So.
18:16
Speaker 1: How many staff you've got in the prison?
18:18
Speaker 2: Like, how do you know then whether you're actually like,
18:21
Speaker 2: surely there's staff to prisoner ratios that have to be
18:24
Speaker 2: met in terms of safety obligations and.
18:26
Speaker 1: All that kind of thing.
18:27
Speaker 2: So how would you not know how many staff you've
18:30
Speaker 2: got on your rosters?
18:31
Speaker 3: What about the safety for the people who are working
18:33
Speaker 3: there and the prisoners in themselves, the whole work health
18:35
Speaker 3: and safety thing is really important. If you don't know
18:37
Speaker 3: that basic information, how do you make it safe? And
18:41
Speaker 3: how do you progress forward? Because you know we're not
18:43
Speaker 3: only how do we get there? What are we going
18:44
Speaker 3: to do in the few to try and fix this.
18:46
Speaker 3: There's two questions here.
18:47
Speaker 5: Can need to be answered.
18:47
Speaker 9: There was unrassed earlier this year at the Alice Springs present.
18:50
Speaker 9: I believe it was around the time that the rough
18:52
Speaker 9: case handed down the jury handed down its findings or
18:56
Speaker 9: acquitted Zachary Roff. So you know, it's not a facility
19:00
Speaker 9: that's immune to you know, that's riots or to instability,
19:06
Speaker 9: and it should be fully started.
19:07
Speaker 2: Well, look, we are going to have to take a
19:09
Speaker 2: very short break. You are listening to Mix one O
19:11
Speaker 2: four nine's three sixty. There is an awful lot to
19:14
Speaker 2: cover off on this morning of now, the Northern Territory
19:16
Speaker 2: Police Association set to survey their members in coming weeks
19:20
Speaker 2: to gauge whether the rank and file of lost confidence
19:23
Speaker 2: in the commissioner Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker and why. We
19:27
Speaker 2: caught up with the Police Association president earlier in the
19:30
Speaker 2: week and he'd revealed this information to us on the show.
19:34
Speaker 2: We know that there was also a member alert then
19:37
Speaker 2: sent out to members, and the Northern Territory Police Association
19:40
Speaker 2: President Paul McHugh had said in that alert that it
19:43
Speaker 2: was clear the membership is indeed seeking to undertake a survey.
19:48
Speaker 1: On the issue.
19:50
Speaker 2: It is going to be interesting to see exactly what
19:52
Speaker 2: happens or what comes out of this survey. But nonetheless,
19:55
Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Police Executive have also issued a statement
19:59
Speaker 2: late yesterday the Commissioner and the Police Executive saying that
20:02
Speaker 2: they engage regularly with members of the Northern Territory Police
20:06
Speaker 2: Force to understand issues that are concerning them and acknowledge
20:09
Speaker 2: the exceptional work that they've all been doing. The proposed
20:14
Speaker 2: survey is a matter for the Northern Territory Police Association,
20:17
Speaker 2: but the sentiment around confidence first started in the months
20:21
Speaker 2: following the event at Eun Demu in twenty nineteen. We
20:24
Speaker 2: equally would like to understand the primary drivers of the sentiment,
20:29
Speaker 2: as the Northern Territory Police Association Executive has also expressed.
20:34
Speaker 2: It goes on to say it is clear that the
20:38
Speaker 2: past two and a half years for the agency have
20:41
Speaker 2: been extraordinary and matters relating to COVID nineteen mandates and
20:45
Speaker 2: the number of criminal and disciplinary matters involving our members
20:48
Speaker 2: have added to these challenges. It says we will continue
20:52
Speaker 2: to work with the NTPA on any specific issues that
20:55
Speaker 2: is raised through that survey, and we continue to do
20:58
Speaker 2: so for all matters that have brought to our attention. Now,
21:01
Speaker 2: I've got to say it's fairly extraordinary for the whole
21:04
Speaker 2: Northern Territory Police Force executive to issue a statement like that.
21:09
Speaker 2: They've all put their name on it, and and you know,
21:12
Speaker 2: I think that it is a good step to take.
21:15
Speaker 2: You've got a situation here. You know, we're even earlier
21:18
Speaker 2: in the week Paul mcew I'd asked him what is
21:19
Speaker 2: the process going to be? Is it going to happen
21:22
Speaker 2: at the annual conference? He said, potentially sooner. You know
21:25
Speaker 2: that it could happen, like he's pointed out then in
21:27
Speaker 2: that alert that went out anytime in the next next
21:30
Speaker 2: few weeks.
21:31
Speaker 9: None of the regions of already indicator no confidence in
21:35
Speaker 9: the commissioner. So, I mean, it was a pretty incredible
21:39
Speaker 9: statement when I when I saw it drop into my
21:40
Speaker 9: inbox last night, I was wow. You know, I think
21:45
Speaker 9: it just speaks to the level of pressure that they're under.
21:48
Speaker 9: They obviously, you know, Jamie was a message. He was
21:52
Speaker 9: grilled on it in estimates on Monday, and you know,
21:57
Speaker 9: I guess he said on Monday that you know he
22:02
Speaker 9: would wanted to correct the record, but that there were
22:04
Speaker 9: processes in place to prevent him from doing so, or
22:06
Speaker 9: he'd gotten legal advice to prevent him.
22:09
Speaker 6: A very strange statement he made Tom Like I was
22:12
Speaker 6: there and it was like, I want to tell the
22:15
Speaker 6: truth because everything that's out there is untrue. I can't
22:18
Speaker 6: fix but I know, but I can't tell the truth.
22:20
Speaker 6: I'm hamstrung for a reason. And clearly you can't comment
22:23
Speaker 6: on any legal activity underway, but surely he could comment
22:27
Speaker 6: if there's something factually that's gone out it's not correct.
22:30
Speaker 6: I can't think what off the top of my head,
22:32
Speaker 6: but perhaps the number of people who are leaving or coming,
22:35
Speaker 6: or the number of squads that have been planned.
22:37
Speaker 7: I mean, if there's factual stuff like that that's not correct,
22:39
Speaker 7: well that could be corrected. So it was just a stress.
22:42
Speaker 3: I think it's clear that some serious issues in the
22:44
Speaker 3: police force, and I suppose the question of how did
22:47
Speaker 3: we get here? Again, the Minister keeps saying, oh, it
22:50
Speaker 3: was the commissioner. Well, I don't want to talk a
22:51
Speaker 3: negative about the commissioner. I want to talk about the
22:53
Speaker 3: bigger problems. This is really a syntemic problem that the
22:55
Speaker 3: minister needs to come out and say how they're going
22:57
Speaker 3: to fix it, because the police are very important. If
23:00
Speaker 3: there someone gets into trouble, you always call the police
23:02
Speaker 3: and they do a great job, you know. Twenty four
23:04
Speaker 3: to seven come around, and I'm sure they deal with
23:06
Speaker 3: some really terrible situations, but they already need that leadership
23:09
Speaker 3: and they need to make sure this whole problem gets
23:11
Speaker 3: resolved because it's very difficult, in my guess, to go
23:13
Speaker 3: to work when you're feeling unhappy or unsafe, or there's
23:16
Speaker 3: low morale or people are leaving, so it just makes
23:19
Speaker 3: it the whole situation bad. So it really needs to
23:22
Speaker 3: The government needs to come in and we're going to
23:24
Speaker 3: do to fix it.
23:25
Speaker 1: It's got to get sordered, there's no doubt about it,
23:27
Speaker 1: you know.
23:27
Speaker 9: Putting aside the events in you under Moon in twenty nineteen,
23:31
Speaker 9: a part of this sort of talks about, you know,
23:33
Speaker 9: the COVID nineteen mandates and sort of the pressure that
23:35
Speaker 9: police came under dealing with COVID. Every police force in
23:40
Speaker 9: the country had to.
23:41
Speaker 4: Deal with that.
23:42
Speaker 9: Yeah, and there were some places like Melbourne and Sydney
23:45
Speaker 9: that had lockdowns for months and months and months.
23:47
Speaker 4: We didn't have those.
23:48
Speaker 2: I wonder though whether what the issue was was not
23:51
Speaker 2: only dealing with that COVID situation, but not having the
23:53
Speaker 2: staffing levels that we may be required for then staff
23:56
Speaker 2: to be able to have a break, be able to
23:58
Speaker 2: have their leave. I know that you couldn't necessarily travel anywhere,
24:01
Speaker 2: but we know that there were obviously officers who were
24:05
Speaker 2: out on those checkpoints along the Stuart Highway and other
24:08
Speaker 2: locations at different times for periods of time, taken away
24:12
Speaker 2: from their normal jobs. And tom the point you make
24:14
Speaker 2: is very correct that they were doing that in other
24:16
Speaker 2: states and territories too, But I do wonder whether those
24:19
Speaker 2: staffing levels have had some impact as well, because if
24:23
Speaker 2: you then don't have enough staff to be able to
24:25
Speaker 2: back you up in terms of being able to have
24:27
Speaker 2: a couple of days off or not, you would think
24:29
Speaker 2: that that would have its like it would have its toll.
24:32
Speaker 5: You want to have those experience stuff.
24:33
Speaker 3: Think everyone knows that my dad was a policeman, and
24:35
Speaker 3: he was to say that, you know, when you come
24:36
Speaker 3: out of training and you've done all your training, which
24:38
Speaker 3: is great, but you're not really an experienced police officer.
24:40
Speaker 3: You need to go and do on the job. You
24:42
Speaker 3: need to deal with these people and here telling me stories.
24:44
Speaker 3: When he was doing a job for twenty years, the
24:47
Speaker 3: new people would come out of college and all gone home.
24:49
Speaker 3: But sometimes these need to take a step back and relax.
24:51
Speaker 3: And that's the experience. And as these older people are leaving,
24:54
Speaker 3: I know, we're recruiting new people and the numbers are
24:56
Speaker 3: staying roughly the aret, but losing.
24:57
Speaker 5: That experience of how to deal with these people.
25:00
Speaker 3: And some of these people are get in trouble all
25:02
Speaker 3: the time, and the police build a relationships with them
25:04
Speaker 3: and they go around and they know where they are.
25:05
Speaker 3: Come on Doney, get in the back or whatever, and
25:07
Speaker 3: it's no big deal. But if you lose that experience
25:09
Speaker 3: with all these people are leaving and you're putting new
25:11
Speaker 3: people in, which is great, but that losing that experience
25:14
Speaker 3: is how do you think that that's the problem.
25:16
Speaker 6: A lot of it's a bit like our job, a
25:18
Speaker 6: slender jered of myself. Sometimes it's not so much you're
25:21
Speaker 6: a politician. Sometimes you're a counselor, and sometimes you've just
25:23
Speaker 6: got to have the best ears in town to listen
25:25
Speaker 6: and you know all that sort of stuff.
25:27
Speaker 7: And I think what.
25:27
Speaker 6: Jared's alluding to is the police do their police stuff
25:31
Speaker 6: from a regulatory and at least point of view, but
25:33
Speaker 6: a lot of the time there's this other aspect that
25:35
Speaker 6: the human nature, the counseling that yes, I know that
25:39
Speaker 6: family's going through a rough time and so I'll do
25:41
Speaker 6: this or I'll call this mate in or something, and
25:43
Speaker 6: that kind of stuff is really hard to document, and
25:46
Speaker 6: I think that's what's happening.
25:47
Speaker 7: A lot of these more senior police officers.
25:50
Speaker 6: I mean, we've got tabled in Parliament the number that
25:53
Speaker 6: we're leaving from what rank and from the exit interviews,
25:55
Speaker 6: that's right, and those officers are going and that kind
25:59
Speaker 6: of intelligence is not being passed through or down to
26:02
Speaker 6: the new recruits, so they're probably just coming out. And
26:06
Speaker 6: I'm being general here, I know without that sort of
26:09
Speaker 6: feel and understanding of the other aspects of the job
26:13
Speaker 6: that are intangible.
26:14
Speaker 2: Well, and some of the other things that have been
26:15
Speaker 2: raised with me by the Association and indeed police officers themselves,
26:19
Speaker 2: is you know that we don't necessarily have policies to
26:23
Speaker 2: support to support them in some ways.
26:25
Speaker 1: I well, we know that's where we stobslutely.
26:29
Speaker 6: There was no output and there was a lot of questions,
26:31
Speaker 6: and I got a copy of the report, that mental
26:33
Speaker 6: well Being report or whatever it was called, that the
26:35
Speaker 6: police undertook. But you know, there's obviously a lot of
26:38
Speaker 6: focus as there isn't a lot of workplaces for a
26:41
Speaker 6: variety of reasons. But they don't seem to categorize it
26:44
Speaker 6: into a budget area. They've stuck it into workers comp
26:46
Speaker 6: Now it's not workers compensation. Workers compensation is when the
26:49
Speaker 6: person's being wounded or injured and getting them back to work.
26:53
Speaker 6: But there should be something, an output group or a
26:55
Speaker 6: category in the budget that deals with addressing the things
27:00
Speaker 6: about humans that happened in the workplace.
27:02
Speaker 5: I think this report was released in March and nothing's happened.
27:04
Speaker 4: Released it was it was finalized in my life.
27:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, it has been released to the public.
27:09
Speaker 9: And then there were you know, obviously a fair number
27:12
Speaker 9: of high profile incidents involving police mental health, which you know,
27:15
Speaker 9: I won't go too much into, but those sorts of
27:17
Speaker 9: you know, there was a lot of commentary around where
27:19
Speaker 9: is this report at that time, and it just feels
27:22
Speaker 9: like it hasn't gone anywhere.
27:24
Speaker 4: And now we're hearing, oh, there's.
27:25
Speaker 9: A cabinet submission coming up and we're going to you know,
27:27
Speaker 9: put all these recommendations to cabinet and hope that you know,
27:30
Speaker 9: they're all accepted by.
27:32
Speaker 4: The Police Minister and cabinet.
27:35
Speaker 9: I just think that there needs to be a bit
27:36
Speaker 9: more of a we need to start getting moving with
27:39
Speaker 9: this now.
27:39
Speaker 2: Do we have any ideas Selena if it's far away,
27:42
Speaker 2: if there's an announcement far off, Katie.
27:45
Speaker 8: Obviously, being a police officer in the territory is one
27:47
Speaker 8: of the toughest jobs that you can come about, so
27:49
Speaker 8: just recognizing the pressures and obviously it's been echoed already
27:53
Speaker 8: by the speakers this morning in regards to the challenges
27:56
Speaker 8: that have been faced particularly of the last two years.
28:00
Speaker 8: And just to you know, add to Thomas's comment in
28:03
Speaker 8: regards to the you know, the extended lockdown peers that
28:06
Speaker 8: were experienced in other parts of the country. We had
28:08
Speaker 8: police literally sitting on the border with other entities of
28:11
Speaker 8: course as well, and that was extreme fatigue being out
28:15
Speaker 8: and and many police did push their leave on to
28:19
Speaker 8: take it at later dates because they were there working
28:21
Speaker 8: to keep territory and safe, which is what then also
28:24
Speaker 8: buffet us out from having those extended periods and those
28:27
Speaker 8: months and months of lockdowns which were seen in other jurisdictions.
28:29
Speaker 8: So I just wanted to add that because forgetting a
28:32
Speaker 8: bit of that and the work that they did, they
28:34
Speaker 8: were out of sight, out of minds, they were they
28:36
Speaker 8: were people number of police officers. In terms of the
28:41
Speaker 8: support obviously the conversation around mental health and well being
28:44
Speaker 8: for police. You know, our territory labor government has looked
28:47
Speaker 8: at the presumptive legislation which includes post traumatic stress disorder
28:52
Speaker 8: and recognizing that as an impact on the workforce for
28:56
Speaker 8: our emergency service and frontline providers.
28:59
Speaker 10: I think that is huge, going to all.
29:00
Speaker 8: The points that have been said already when we're talking
29:03
Speaker 8: about the stress and the trauma that our frontline workers
29:06
Speaker 8: and in particular police, they see some horrible things on
29:09
Speaker 8: a daily basis, but really addressing the challenges that they
29:12
Speaker 8: need to be able to do their job well but
29:15
Speaker 8: also to be well and to.
29:18
Speaker 3: Know you're talking about in the past, but what are
29:20
Speaker 3: you doing into the future to fix this because mental
29:22
Speaker 3: health and it's been the report, it's been sitting on
29:24
Speaker 3: someone's desk, you know, moving forward, what's going to happen
29:27
Speaker 3: because it's a very serious matter and the police needs support.
29:32
Speaker 8: And it's about recognizing that more people are now talking
29:35
Speaker 8: about mental health and well being. It doesn't become something
29:38
Speaker 8: that's hidden in the shadows. It becomes part of the workforce,
29:41
Speaker 8: that there are check ins, that there are regular processes
29:44
Speaker 8: to support mental health and well being, and more of
29:46
Speaker 8: that work is absolutely needed.
29:48
Speaker 4: That's true.
29:49
Speaker 9: But when you look at the attrition figures that we're
29:50
Speaker 9: starting to see now, there's obviously something that's that's gone
29:53
Speaker 9: terribly wrong with absolutely.
29:55
Speaker 5: And the commission. There is something terribly wrong and the
30:00
Speaker 5: up to the government to fix it well.
30:01
Speaker 2: And I do think that obviously a huge part of that,
30:03
Speaker 2: you know, is that police in a lot of ways
30:06
Speaker 2: aren't feeling maybe as supported as they as they should be.
30:10
Speaker 1: I know that those.
30:10
Speaker 2: Police assaults as well, obviously would have a massive impact
30:13
Speaker 2: going to work, being spat on, threatened, all sorts of things.
30:17
Speaker 2: There are certain things that you expect a part and
30:19
Speaker 2: parcel of your job, but others that you go it's
30:22
Speaker 2: just not you know, it should not be tolerated. But look,
30:25
Speaker 2: we are going to have to take a bit of
30:26
Speaker 2: a break and when we come back, I am keen
30:28
Speaker 2: to discuss the situation in what air Right now, it
30:30
Speaker 2: is just twenty three minutes away from ten o'clock. You
30:33
Speaker 2: are listening to Mix one oh four nine's three sixty.
30:36
Speaker 2: You are listening to the week that was. We've got
30:38
Speaker 2: Jered Maylee, Tom Morgan, Kezier Puric and Selena Ubo in
30:41
Speaker 2: the studio with us this morning, and Kesy is talking and.
30:45
Speaker 1: Georgio, well, Georgia is paying attention.
30:48
Speaker 2: Georgia is having a little nap in the corner, which
30:51
Speaker 2: is what I wouldn't mind doing. I'm a bit tired today,
30:54
Speaker 2: but can't nap with you mob. She's doing very well
30:57
Speaker 2: to have a nap there in the corner. But look,
30:59
Speaker 2: there has the very serious issue throughout this week of
31:03
Speaker 2: the violence in what Air spilling into the Darwin community
31:06
Speaker 2: as well. We know that three men were arrested in
31:08
Speaker 2: relation to a terrible incident which occurred in Jingly in
31:11
Speaker 2: the early hours of Saturday morning. That vision really went
31:15
Speaker 2: viral on social media after a person was allegedly struck
31:18
Speaker 2: by a car. Now, we did catch up earlier in
31:21
Speaker 2: the week with Commander Danny Bacon and spoke about that
31:24
Speaker 2: he had said that they were expecting arrests to be made.
31:27
Speaker 2: They were indeed made. But what we also know we
31:30
Speaker 2: caught up with Michael, one of the managers from Mitchell
31:33
Speaker 2: See in Berrima, and he told us about the crossbows
31:37
Speaker 2: and the are they called arrows I think, and the
31:40
Speaker 2: compound bows which had been stolen. Now he really didn't
31:43
Speaker 2: know whether they'd been taken out into the community. He
31:45
Speaker 2: had said that they also you know that they sell
31:48
Speaker 2: them obviously as well. But when we spoke to the
31:51
Speaker 2: assistant commissioner yesterday he said that yes, you know, they
31:54
Speaker 2: were indeed investigating that link and what we know. Then
31:58
Speaker 2: photos of also emerged on social media of people with
32:03
Speaker 2: trust that yeah, cross bowl injuries and well.
32:06
Speaker 6: Not only well, crossbows on a road somewhere, you know,
32:10
Speaker 6: in a sort of combative kind of posession. And then
32:13
Speaker 6: a fellow who had a bloody arrow sticking out of
32:15
Speaker 6: his bloody top of delta a muscle and it would
32:18
Speaker 6: have gone in quite a way.
32:19
Speaker 3: So if they hit you in the chest, you know,
32:21
Speaker 3: but I reckon, you'd be pretty hard to recover.
32:24
Speaker 7: The compound bows and those listening know about them, and
32:26
Speaker 7: you know.
32:27
Speaker 2: They were messaging during the week the listeners to tell
32:29
Speaker 2: me that they can take down a bloody buffalo.
32:31
Speaker 6: Yes, they can speed and also impact so the fact
32:35
Speaker 6: and I read the story somewhere about Mitchell' I think
32:37
Speaker 6: they lost about thirty crossbows and associated arrows or whatever.
32:40
Speaker 6: And it's not the first time this business has been
32:43
Speaker 6: ransacked and rob I mean last time they took.
32:45
Speaker 3: A whole lot of knives, and I think they've been
32:47
Speaker 3: robbed the last two weeks.
32:49
Speaker 1: We've spoken to them, so we've spoken to him a
32:51
Speaker 1: couple of times.
32:51
Speaker 2: So Monday they got broken into, and they have previously
32:54
Speaker 2: been broken into as well, and you know, they called
32:56
Speaker 2: me because what was the real worry for them is
32:58
Speaker 2: that they've had their gates smashed and they've had their
33:00
Speaker 2: door smashed in. It's meant that they couldn't operate on
33:03
Speaker 2: Monday morning. You know, you feel for businesses obviously the impact.
33:08
Speaker 6: Yes, it's not a random O let's go see what
33:10
Speaker 6: we can find in here, like a bit of money,
33:12
Speaker 6: few knives, whatever, it's it's a I think it's a
33:14
Speaker 6: deliberate targeting to get the weapons to take them back out.
33:18
Speaker 1: Which is frightening.
33:19
Speaker 2: I mean, it's frightening for so many reasons, but it's
33:22
Speaker 2: frightening when you think of women and children in those
33:25
Speaker 2: communities as well.
33:26
Speaker 6: If you miss if you're aiming at a target the
33:28
Speaker 6: other guy, guy having a fight with and you miss
33:31
Speaker 6: the area is going to.
33:32
Speaker 7: Go quite away. Yeah, that's the very scary thought.
33:35
Speaker 1: And of course the flow on from this.
33:36
Speaker 2: We know that there has been a huge amount of
33:39
Speaker 2: unrest in the community of what Air. It's it is
33:42
Speaker 2: quite you know, it's quite historically known that there are
33:45
Speaker 2: there is unrest, you know, quite often, I guess you'd say,
33:48
Speaker 2: or often enough that we're all aware of that that
33:50
Speaker 2: historic you know, fighting that does occur, But at the
33:54
Speaker 2: moment there seems to be some real worries out there.
33:56
Speaker 2: It did also see a substantial amount of dammage to
34:00
Speaker 2: homes out there now, Selena, I know that there is
34:04
Speaker 2: I think there's about five hundred odd people that are
34:06
Speaker 2: displaced right now as a result of those times being
34:09
Speaker 2: really quite badly damaged.
34:11
Speaker 8: So there is an immediate response and a task force
34:14
Speaker 8: that's been stood up in regards to I guess the
34:18
Speaker 8: immediate welfare checks and responses. So five hundred and forty
34:22
Speaker 8: five people to our count have been displaced in whatever
34:26
Speaker 8: and the surrounding homelands in the West Daily region. When
34:29
Speaker 8: we're looking at the immediate response and the welfare response Katie.
34:33
Speaker 8: Some of the areas that we've had to address very
34:36
Speaker 8: swiftly and immediately shelter for people, drinking water, access to
34:44
Speaker 8: ebolutions and amenity in terms of hygiene, toilets and showers,
34:49
Speaker 8: and also access to food. So there have been our
34:51
Speaker 8: immediate responses that we've stood up through multi agency collaboration.
34:55
Speaker 8: So the work that is being done Obviously police we
34:58
Speaker 8: spoke about them before doing a phenomenal job out there.
35:02
Speaker 10: There is still the.
35:04
Speaker 8: Waves of unrest and those very heightened and intense periods.
35:08
Speaker 8: They are all under investigation if there have been events
35:11
Speaker 8: that have occurred. Obviously, I've spoken about the impact and
35:14
Speaker 8: some of the responses here in Darwen as well, and
35:17
Speaker 8: the impact and the connections there. The utmost priority for
35:22
Speaker 8: us as the territory of government is to ensure that
35:24
Speaker 8: people are safe. There are the challenges in regards to
35:28
Speaker 8: the unrest and the violence that has been coming in
35:31
Speaker 8: those intermediate periods, but overall, securing shelter, water, food and
35:36
Speaker 8: safety for people has been an immediate responseble well.
35:39
Speaker 2: And then obviously the secondary thing is going to be
35:41
Speaker 2: trying to repair those homes and trying to get people
35:44
Speaker 2: back into homes. It's looking like an absolutely phenomenal amount
35:47
Speaker 2: of money to fix them.
35:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they said one hundred and forty correct
35:51
Speaker 4: me if I'm wrong.
35:51
Speaker 10: It's about one hundred and twenty.
35:55
Speaker 4: And twenty five.
35:55
Speaker 9: And they've so far looked at eighty and the judge
35:57
Speaker 9: for damage for matt to be around five hundred certainly
36:00
Speaker 9: not five hundred five million dollars to repair.
36:04
Speaker 8: And that's just yeah, levels of damage that have been
36:08
Speaker 8: assessed so far, Katie, through my department, what's the work
36:12
Speaker 8: that's being needed to undertake homes that need immediate works
36:17
Speaker 8: for people who are returning to their home who may
36:19
Speaker 8: have fled because of safety issues, Identifying people who may
36:24
Speaker 8: not want to return to their homes because of the
36:26
Speaker 8: unrest and the violence until after some particular cultural events occur.
36:32
Speaker 8: And then also people who have said that they do
36:34
Speaker 8: not intend to return.
36:36
Speaker 2: The former Housing minister had said that those who damage
36:38
Speaker 2: the homes would be held accountable.
36:40
Speaker 1: Is that going to be the.
36:41
Speaker 8: Case again, Katie, I did speak about this in estimates.
36:44
Speaker 8: If there's police investigations to that damage occurring, if there's
36:47
Speaker 8: criminal proceedings that are laid, then of course that's up
36:51
Speaker 8: to the courts to decide what the consequences for that
36:53
Speaker 8: will be looking at that. But our priority is making
36:56
Speaker 8: sure that people are safer, that they do have shelter
36:59
Speaker 8: that's available. It's just like that.
37:00
Speaker 5: But the government's got to ask for restitution.
37:03
Speaker 8: You know.
37:03
Speaker 3: The police do a great job and then the prosecutors
37:05
Speaker 3: will prosecute, but it's up to the person who suffered
37:08
Speaker 3: them damage. The government and need to say to the
37:10
Speaker 3: police we want restitution for this. Otherwise the procecutors are
37:13
Speaker 3: not going to ask for it. And I've been in
37:15
Speaker 3: court a lot and not many people ask for restitution.
37:18
Speaker 3: But it's time for the government now to step up
37:19
Speaker 3: and make sure that they put their instructions to their lawyers,
37:22
Speaker 3: to the prosecutors to say we want restitution because crime.
37:26
Speaker 5: Is an issue not just in what I but right
37:27
Speaker 5: across the territory.
37:28
Speaker 3: I think yesterday twenty two cars were damaged in all
37:31
Speaker 3: of Springs Tenant Creek. You know, this is the middle
37:33
Speaker 3: of our touristism and we want to grow our economy
37:35
Speaker 3: up here and people are coming up and they need
37:37
Speaker 3: to have a great experience. We've got a great lifestyle,
37:39
Speaker 3: we've got great landscapes. But if they come up here
37:41
Speaker 3: and become a victim of crime, or see any social
37:44
Speaker 3: behavior in the street, or someone comes up and says,
37:46
Speaker 3: you've got a smug you got money.
37:47
Speaker 5: They're going to go back and do people don't go
37:49
Speaker 5: to the territory, which is.
37:50
Speaker 4: All we do.
37:51
Speaker 6: It's already sorry to interrupt, Tom, it's already on some
37:53
Speaker 6: of the grown nomad Facebook sites they're saying, skip Darwin.
37:57
Speaker 2: Imagine being at the hotel where someone was collected on
38:00
Speaker 2: Saturday lot.
38:01
Speaker 1: It's pretty unbelievable.
38:03
Speaker 9: I just want to ask Selena, of the five hundred
38:06
Speaker 9: or so people who have been displaced, how many of
38:08
Speaker 9: them have indicated they don't want to return to What
38:10
Speaker 9: Air and where they are going to be accommodated.
38:14
Speaker 10: So that works on going, Thomas.
38:16
Speaker 8: In regards to individuals and their families, of course, where
38:20
Speaker 8: they feel safe, making sure that they have those basic
38:22
Speaker 8: human needs in terms of shelter, water and food, and
38:25
Speaker 8: access to clean hygiene and toilets and showers. That work
38:31
Speaker 8: is part of the overall welfare response in regards to
38:34
Speaker 8: where will people stay in the medium and long term.
38:38
Speaker 8: Obviously there's been historical issues in What Air, the mix
38:42
Speaker 8: of the different family groups being brought into that sort
38:45
Speaker 8: of central point of a larger community. And then work
38:49
Speaker 8: that's going on with mind portfolio and regards to homelands
38:52
Speaker 8: and what is the ways that we can support people
38:54
Speaker 8: who want to stay on country and what are the
38:56
Speaker 8: support sorry what is the access to support and service
38:59
Speaker 8: proof vision in regards to food and food security water
39:03
Speaker 8: because at the moment a lot of our homelands are
39:06
Speaker 8: used as dry season places, so at the moment now
39:09
Speaker 8: there are a lot of extra people on particular homeland,
39:12
Speaker 8: So it's making sure our response is adequate and swift
39:16
Speaker 8: in regards to providing those services to people who don't
39:19
Speaker 8: otherwise have access to food security.
39:21
Speaker 1: At this point, we are going to have to continue
39:23
Speaker 1: to move along.
39:24
Speaker 2: We're fast running out of time. It is just ten
39:26
Speaker 2: minutes away from ten o'clock. I was keen to talk
39:28
Speaker 2: further about housing and indeed those housing weight lists, so
39:31
Speaker 2: I might just very quickly point out that we did
39:34
Speaker 2: speak about that yesterday. I know that it was certainly
39:36
Speaker 2: well and truly discussed throughout the estimates process. We also
39:40
Speaker 2: caught up with Peter McMillan from Mt Shelter yesterday who
39:43
Speaker 2: had said that you know the reality of this is
39:46
Speaker 2: that our housing stock has diminished, I believe by twenty
39:50
Speaker 2: nine percent since two thousand. So we are definitely despite
39:54
Speaker 2: the fact that the need for that public housing is
39:57
Speaker 2: going up, the stock levels are going down. We know
40:00
Speaker 2: that it's not the only you know, it's not the
40:02
Speaker 2: only concern. There is big concerns with those weight lists
40:05
Speaker 2: as well. The amount of time it takes to repair
40:08
Speaker 2: a public housing home is phenomenal.
40:10
Speaker 4: It takes also, I think it was revealed in estimates.
40:13
Speaker 9: You know, say one tenant moves out, the average wait
40:16
Speaker 9: time before someone else moves in to that property is
40:19
Speaker 9: one hundred and thirty days.
40:21
Speaker 8: Yeah.
40:21
Speaker 1: Can you imagine in a private rental if it took
40:23
Speaker 1: that long? Bloody hell? Did never you get.
40:26
Speaker 3: The government not clicking the rent? I think it was
40:27
Speaker 3: sixty million outstanding.
40:29
Speaker 4: That was the right houses.
40:30
Speaker 8: Yeah, So when we're talking about urban public housing KDI
40:33
Speaker 8: and it's an area that I'm undertaking now with my
40:36
Speaker 8: new portfolio. Yes, the repairs of maintenance to occur when
40:39
Speaker 8: a tenant moves out before a new tenant is then
40:43
Speaker 8: placed and allocated that house.
40:45
Speaker 10: The other work that the department.
40:46
Speaker 8: Is doing is to ensure that we have a suitable
40:49
Speaker 8: match in terms of who's allocated day house, where it is,
40:53
Speaker 8: what the family makeup is, or the individual makeup and
40:55
Speaker 8: needs where it's physically located. Are there any other special
40:59
Speaker 8: needs to access and ability access? And that work has
41:04
Speaker 8: been undertaken to ensure that we have people who are
41:06
Speaker 8: put in an area that is suitable for them and
41:08
Speaker 8: their family sand circumstances and of course the location.
41:11
Speaker 2: One thing that I will say that Peter McMillan had
41:13
Speaker 2: pointed out very strongly yesterday is that it's there's a
41:18
Speaker 2: lack of like there's a lack of strategy or a
41:20
Speaker 2: lack of a plan, not just from the Northern Territory
41:23
Speaker 2: government but federally. And you know, when we talk about
41:25
Speaker 2: housing across the board, so not just public housing, not
41:28
Speaker 2: just your remote housing, but when you talk about you know,
41:31
Speaker 2: housing for people moving to the territory, when you talk
41:34
Speaker 2: about building the economy, and you know, trying to get
41:37
Speaker 2: our economy, what is it how many billion by twenty thirty,
41:40
Speaker 2: forty billion by twenty thirty. We've got to find somewhere
41:42
Speaker 2: for people to live or we've got to have, you know,
41:45
Speaker 2: those plans in place for people to live somewhere, but
41:48
Speaker 2: we are going to have to have a very short break.
41:50
Speaker 2: You are listening to Mix one oh four point nine's
41:52
Speaker 2: three sixty is the week that was? Well, we have
41:54
Speaker 2: almost run out of time. Jared Maylee, Tom Morgan, Keesyer
41:58
Speaker 2: Puric and Selena Rubo in the studio with me for
42:00
Speaker 2: the week that was. And one thing that I do
42:02
Speaker 2: just want to touch on is there's been a lot
42:05
Speaker 2: of discussion throughout the week about the taxi shortage which
42:09
Speaker 2: is being experienced in the Northern Territory right now. We
42:12
Speaker 2: spoke about this yesterday with the Tourism top End general
42:15
Speaker 2: manager Glenn Hinley, and he said that it's a big
42:17
Speaker 2: issue for people arriving obviously from other states, families coming
42:20
Speaker 2: home to the Northern Territory in some cases waiting out
42:23
Speaker 2: at the airport there for an extended period of time. Others,
42:27
Speaker 2: you know, trying to get an uber and those the
42:29
Speaker 2: surge times or whatever it's referred to, you know, in
42:33
Speaker 2: some cases he'd been told by one person who'd said
42:36
Speaker 2: that it had gone up to like one hundred dollars
42:39
Speaker 2: to get an uber from the airport into the city
42:42
Speaker 2: and then the wait times for taxis. We know that
42:44
Speaker 2: there again there's a shortage of drivers.
42:47
Speaker 9: Well, the one thing about taxis is it doesn't have
42:49
Speaker 9: that incentive to bring drivers on board, say when there's
42:53
Speaker 9: one hundred people that need a taxi at midnight at
42:56
Speaker 9: the airport, because the fares are regulated ye such things
43:00
Speaker 9: as a surge price, there's a lot more demand for
43:02
Speaker 9: ever at those hours. It is an issue that's sort
43:06
Speaker 9: of I guess, mirroring what we're seeing in hospitality and
43:09
Speaker 9: tourism and right across industries and the territory, which is
43:13
Speaker 9: just not enough workers.
43:14
Speaker 3: And also I think crime puts a head who would
43:15
Speaker 3: want to be a taxi drive When you hear a
43:17
Speaker 3: story every week they're getting attacked and robbed they're in
43:19
Speaker 3: the taxi and damage done. So you know, it goes
43:22
Speaker 3: back to that crime in the community. Community safety is
43:24
Speaker 3: paramount it.
43:25
Speaker 6: But also is it apart from labor shortage? Isn't that
43:29
Speaker 6: the taxis the plates are there.
43:32
Speaker 2: And they can't get drivers. It's one of the things
43:33
Speaker 2: that I got told yesterday by Karen and Catherine. She'd
43:36
Speaker 2: said that that is definitely an issue that you know,
43:39
Speaker 2: she's not been able to actually get drivers to help with.
43:41
Speaker 6: Her partially what Jared says is people just aren't prepared
43:44
Speaker 6: to put up with it. Yeah, it doesn't matter with
43:46
Speaker 6: their male or female drivers, but it affects across the
43:51
Speaker 6: community because it's not only tourists and travelers who use taxis.
43:53
Speaker 7: Yeah, people just ordinary people use them. You know a
43:56
Speaker 7: lot of elderly people don't have an own car.
43:58
Speaker 1: And then if you've got a disability.
44:00
Speaker 2: We spoke to Robin Burridge on the show a couple
44:02
Speaker 2: of weeks ago and she had said that, you know,
44:04
Speaker 2: she ended up having to walk quite a long distance
44:06
Speaker 2: to get to something, yes, because she could not guess
44:08
Speaker 2: a couldn't get a taxi. So it's a tough It
44:11
Speaker 2: is a tough one.
44:11
Speaker 6: Well, maybe the sooner, you know, we can get more
44:14
Speaker 6: people to come and you know, work in the territory,
44:16
Speaker 6: reside in the territory, or you know, might be short.
44:19
Speaker 2: All we're all going to have to start obering overnight
44:21
Speaker 2: or taxi driving.
44:22
Speaker 9: Could also be more frequent public transport services.
44:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, that's I mean.
44:27
Speaker 2: The airport said that they have they've made some changes
44:30
Speaker 2: to their parking so that people are able to park
44:33
Speaker 2: there for a little bit cheaper over the holiday period
44:36
Speaker 2: and also they've got those what do you call it,
44:38
Speaker 2: the shuttle buses, But remember when hotels used to have
44:40
Speaker 2: the shuttle buses as well.
44:42
Speaker 1: I mean it's I don't know whether it's just all change.
44:44
Speaker 5: So what's that.
44:45
Speaker 9: There are some airports, I know in Melbourne they have
44:47
Speaker 9: a bus that runs I think it's just twenty dollars
44:49
Speaker 9: one way. Every fifteen minutes. A bus comes by and
44:51
Speaker 9: picks up people. I mean, it doesn't have to be
44:53
Speaker 9: that frequent here, but you can time it with arrivals. Yeah,
44:56
Speaker 9: and sort of get people, you know, transport them to
44:58
Speaker 9: the city where there at least a bit closer to everything.
45:01
Speaker 4: Well, it need to have some solution.
45:03
Speaker 8: Yeah, the shorter the worker shortage is definitely a big impact,
45:08
Speaker 8: and obviously our commercial transport operators have been impacted just
45:13
Speaker 8: like all other industries during COVID and that period. There
45:17
Speaker 8: is work that we're doing as territory labor government around
45:19
Speaker 8: incentivizing more of those frontlight or critical workers to try
45:24
Speaker 8: and fill those shortages and incentives in terms of that industry,
45:27
Speaker 8: and in particular the work that we're doing to try
45:31
Speaker 8: and incentivize our taxi and industry, commercial passenger industry to
45:36
Speaker 8: provide upgrades for disability and wheelchair access to their vehicles.
45:39
Speaker 8: That's a really big piece of work, incentivizing up to
45:42
Speaker 8: fifteen thousand dollars to create those opportunities for more abilities access.
45:47
Speaker 2: Well, we are going to have to leave it there.
45:48
Speaker 2: It is just about ten o'clock. Jared Maley from the COLP,
45:51
Speaker 2: thanks so much for your time. Tom Morgan from the
45:54
Speaker 2: NT News, thank you for your time today. Kezierpuic, the
45:58
Speaker 2: Independent member for Good I thank you for your time.
46:00
Speaker 6: Thanks Katie and George Georgio for being well bluffed being here.
46:04
Speaker 2: Yeap and cuddles all round. And Selena Ruber, thank you
46:08
Speaker 2: so much for your time. I was quite distracted when
46:10
Speaker 2: you were talking before because Georgio was looking like she
46:12
Speaker 2: was going to jump up for a cuddle.
46:13
Speaker 10: Yes, it was just about it.
46:14
Speaker 1: Thanks Kay.
46:15
Speaker 10: Thanks you listen.
46:16
Speaker 2: Thank you you are listening to Mix one O four
46:18
Speaker 2: nine's three sixty