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Jacinta Price spoke with Katie Woolf on 360 · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's joining us on the line is Just center Price,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: well known territorian and also running at the next federal election.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, just.
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  Speaker 2: Interer, Good morning, Katie, thank you so.
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  Speaker 1: Much for your time. Now, I noticed over the weekend
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  Speaker 1: you'd put a post about, well, unfortunately a situation where
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: your son's car was smashed into a brand new vehicle.
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  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, Justinta, it's something that we're just hearing more
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  Speaker 1: and more often, particularly in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it came as no surprise. You know, we've
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  Speaker 2: lived on the same street for the last twelve years
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  Speaker 2: and we've done relatively well in terms of crime and
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  Speaker 2: property damage. We've only really experienced a bit of people
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  Speaker 2: around our yard and trying to get in in the
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  Speaker 2: last month or so. And then this smashed window of
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  Speaker 2: my son's car. And it's really I mean, it came
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  Speaker 2: as no surprise because we thought, well, it's inevitable. It's
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  Speaker 2: happening all over town and the situation clearly is getting
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: worse and worse, and I guess we're just you know,
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  Speaker 2: anywhere south of the northern suburbs of Darwin are reeling
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  Speaker 2: in the fact that there is a hell of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of crime going on youth on our street and
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  Speaker 2: it just seems like the situation is not improving at all,
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  Speaker 2: and we're just done with it, absolutely done with it.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, it's something that I've had raised to
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  Speaker 1: this quite a bit here on the show out of
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springs and you know, we don't even look aside
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  Speaker 1: from on a Friday, we don't even broadcast to Alice
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  Speaker 1: unless it's online. So the fact that it even that
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  Speaker 1: message is even getting all the way up to me
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  Speaker 1: here in Darwin shows you that the residents of Alice
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  Speaker 1: are pretty bloody concerned about what is happening. I know
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  Speaker 1: the police will be working their bums off, but it
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  Speaker 1: just seems like there is you know that there's incidents
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  Speaker 1: through the day and through the night.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. And you know, given us I've
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  Speaker 2: just finished my term as Deputy mayor with Alice Bringstown Council,
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  Speaker 2: but the entire duration of my term, we called for
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  Speaker 2: Chief Minister Gunner to meet with us as the leaders
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  Speaker 2: of our community, and not once did he ever have
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  Speaker 2: the respect to sit and meet with us to talk
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  Speaker 2: about the issues that we're currently faced so that we
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  Speaker 2: could work together with the government to start try and
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  Speaker 2: solve some of these issues. You know. The other thing
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  Speaker 2: is this stems from domestic violence, from child neglect and
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  Speaker 2: abuse in homes, in families. I get foster parents ring
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  Speaker 2: me on a regular basis. I had one contact me
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  Speaker 2: on the weekend saying that their two little children were
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  Speaker 2: sent to have visitation with their mother. One of them
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  Speaker 2: came back with soiled pants, which they thought he's probably
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  Speaker 2: been in those pants for the last two days. And
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  Speaker 2: the other other child seven or eight so that they'd
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  Speaker 2: smoked a cigarette with their cousin and choked and thought
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  Speaker 2: it was horrible experience. And yet so these children are
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  Speaker 2: being put back into dysfunctional situations over and over and
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  Speaker 2: over again. And all we're doing is all the government
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  Speaker 2: is doing, all the agency is doing is streamlining them
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  Speaker 2: straight into this criminal behavior and the activity that we're
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  Speaker 2: seeing on our streets, and their human rights are not
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  Speaker 2: being upheld because of this ideology that their culture is
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  Speaker 2: more important to them. And yet the culture that the
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  Speaker 2: leaders the people talk about is not a culture that
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  Speaker 2: any of them are in fact living by. It's thriddled
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  Speaker 2: with dysfunction. And to say that this is what's going
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  Speaker 2: to save the lives is utterly disgraceful because it is
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  Speaker 2: damaging these lives and this is why we're experiencing the
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  Speaker 2: crime that we're seeing on our streets to this day.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm just you know, will watch the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 2: stand up and beat his chest and say that he's
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  Speaker 2: saving us from coronavirus, and yet he is not doing
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  Speaker 2: a thing to save us from the levels of crime,
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  Speaker 2: to save these children from the circumstances that they're in.
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  Speaker 2: And as I said, we've just absolutely had a gutsful
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  Speaker 2: And if the man can't even acknowledge you when you
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  Speaker 2: walk past them in the street, as it recognize you
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  Speaker 2: as another community leader, how are we supposed to see
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  Speaker 2: any change on the ground when he cannot work across
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  Speaker 2: party lines, across whatever, for the benefit of the entire
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I do, like, I honestly believe when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to this issue that we've got with crime, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: we're even up here in Darwin, we're obviously battling with
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  Speaker 1: issues with youth crime. We'd had the police commander on
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  Speaker 1: just a little while ago for the Darwin region and
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  Speaker 1: he'd actually pointed to exactly the same thing as what
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  Speaker 1: you've said with domestic violence and with those those situations
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  Speaker 1: where we've got a lot of kids that are out
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  Speaker 1: on the street at the moment, there are victims of
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  Speaker 1: domestic violence. And you know, just then you go through
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  Speaker 1: the crime statistics, obviously for Alice Springs, those most recent
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  Speaker 1: ones and the domestic violence related assaults are up twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven percent. You know, that's just one of the figures.
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  Speaker 1: Then you go into those house breakings, they're up forty
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  Speaker 1: seven percent, your commercial break ins up for forty two percent.
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  Speaker 1: There's no doubt that Alice Springs has been going through
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  Speaker 1: a really tough situation around crime.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and you know, we hear absolutely nothing from our
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  Speaker 2: Minister for Central Australia, Chancey Pate, and he has a
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  Speaker 2: lot of those The jurisdiction that he holds has the
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  Speaker 2: highest rate of domestic and family violence. And I'm sorry, Chancey,
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  Speaker 2: but kangaroo tail and blankets in winter might get your votes,
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  Speaker 2: but it certainly doesn't do anything about the incredible rates
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  Speaker 2: of domestic and family violence going on in communities. I
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  Speaker 2: get reports back all the time of the violence that
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  Speaker 2: women and children are suffering and the fact that they
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  Speaker 2: feel like their cris are landing on deaf years and
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  Speaker 2: nothing is changing in their circumstances. It's ha right to
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  Speaker 2: be voted in as a leader, but once you are
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  Speaker 2: voted in, you should be doing something to change the
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  Speaker 2: situation on the ground, and nothing is, nothing is happening
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  Speaker 2: in terms of that change. And yet, you know, for
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  Speaker 2: those of us on the ground, you know, it was
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  Speaker 2: just too years ago that I had to intervene when
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  Speaker 2: a woman in sixties was being bashed at the IDA
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  Speaker 2: around around the corner from my house, yep, And I
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  Speaker 2: held a drunk down until police came, and during that
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  Speaker 2: time I got my head kicked in as well as
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  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of hair ripped out. Eighteen months after that,
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  Speaker 2: I get a sorry on a piece of paper, in
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  Speaker 2: a sentence saying sorry for those actions and no consequences
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  Speaker 2: for those actions. And you know, it's just like, what
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  Speaker 2: do we have to do as territoriums to see a
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  Speaker 2: change jacent?
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  Speaker 1: What do you reckon needs to happen here? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: obviously you are running at the upcoming federal election, whenever
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  Speaker 1: that may be, for that senator position, for the COLP
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  Speaker 1: that's pretty well known. I know some people listening to
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  Speaker 1: you this morning. Might think that this is you know,
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a political rake, you know, political sort
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  Speaker 1: of scare mongering or whatever you want to say. But
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  Speaker 1: the reality here is we do have an issue with crime,
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  Speaker 1: particularly in Alice, and like I said, right from the
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  Speaker 1: get go, it's something that I get contacted about. We
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  Speaker 1: don't even broadcast down there every day. It's clearly an issue.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think needs to happen here.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I've been talking about this for years. I've been
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  Speaker 2: talking about the fact that our children need to be
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  Speaker 2: protected properly. And I know child protection is a state
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  Speaker 2: and a territory issue. From a federal perspective, I will
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  Speaker 2: be looking at what can be done with regard to
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to their human rights. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: the human rights are being upheld, so if it's such
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  Speaker 2: that the Feds have to intervene at some stage, I'll
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  Speaker 2: be looking at how that might happen. You know, when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to when it comes to domestic and family violence, again,
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  Speaker 2: the rights of the victims have to have to be
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  Speaker 2: upheld over the perpetrators. There's so much emphasis based on
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  Speaker 2: the lives of the perpetrators. Why they've got to where
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  Speaker 2: they've got but still there needs to be consequences for
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  Speaker 2: their actions. Otherwise people do not change. They cannot change
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  Speaker 2: unless they face the consequences in order to push them
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  Speaker 2: into that change, you know, I would I would certainly
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  Speaker 2: like to see within when when people are incarcerated, more
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  Speaker 2: opportunities for them to be to understand, to get training,
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  Speaker 2: to get possible employment outcomes when they leave when they
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  Speaker 2: leave prison for those and I'm just I'm really like
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  Speaker 2: heightened emotionally because of what's happened, which is fair enough,
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  Speaker 2: I like to see. Yeah, I'd like to see more
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  Speaker 2: emphasis placed on support in terms of substance abuse. You
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  Speaker 2: know that we need to look at people being put
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  Speaker 2: on country to go through rehabilitation so that they are
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  Speaker 2: away from the environment that caused this issue to happen.
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  Speaker 2: But there needs to be understanding, there needs to be
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  Speaker 2: buying from families. Those families need to understand that they
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  Speaker 2: need to support members who are going through substance abuse
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  Speaker 2: issues and trying to come off drugs and alcohol and
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  Speaker 2: those sorts of things as well. But certainly we've got
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  Speaker 2: to confront the fact that violence occurs because it has
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  Speaker 2: been part of our culture. It's not while it has
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  Speaker 2: been made worse because of the issues of our country's
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  Speaker 2: history and colonization. It is still the responsibility of the individual,
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  Speaker 2: and that's where we need to start. We need to
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  Speaker 2: start understanding the factors that cause violence and attack it
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  Speaker 2: from there, because as long as we continue to ignore it,
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  Speaker 2: we will continue to have the problem.
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  Speaker 1: Jacinta, Look, look, I agree with much of what you're saying.
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  Speaker 1: I think that we really need to start looking at
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  Speaker 1: things a bit differently, and we need to kind of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, try our best to work through this and
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  Speaker 1: take it really quite seriously, because the people of Alice
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  Speaker 1: are hurting. Can I just ask, how's your son?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's all right. I mean, he's a strong boy
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  Speaker 2: and he's pretty. He's pretty upset that he's the one
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  Speaker 2: that has to reach into his pocket to to fix
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  Speaker 2: the situation that's out of his hand. He's extremely disappointed
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  Speaker 2: at the fact that he often sees, you know, kids
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  Speaker 2: on the streets not being looked after the way in
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  Speaker 2: which certainly he has been looked after throughout his life.
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  Speaker 2: He's sick of seeing those situations. We buried his cousin
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  Speaker 2: not so long ago. He's sick of attending funerals. He's
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  Speaker 2: just Yeah, he's reeling in what he's had to go
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  Speaker 2: through the experience he's had to go through. And I'll
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  Speaker 2: tell you what, it's not as bad as one of
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  Speaker 2: his best mates was bashed really badly, so badly he
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  Speaker 2: ended up in hospital a month or two ago, and
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  Speaker 2: still in that situation. His friend is learning to come
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  Speaker 2: back from that experience and you know, to be back
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  Speaker 2: out in public again and all those sorts of things.
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  Speaker 2: So he hasn't experienced that. But what he has experienced
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  Speaker 2: is you know, enough to every night now if we
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  Speaker 2: hear a bump or anything, he jumps out a bit
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  Speaker 2: to go and check to see what it is. And
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: you know, that's what most people are feeling at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: They're feeling like they just simply can't get a good
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  Speaker 2: night's sleep because any sound could be a young person
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  Speaker 2: breaking in.
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  Speaker 1: It is just a situation that you should not be
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  Speaker 1: going through. And look, I actually think it's really important
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  Speaker 1: that we hear about this type of stuff that's happening
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  Speaker 1: in Alice as well. It's important for us all to
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  Speaker 1: know that, you know, we're not just Darwin centric. We've
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  Speaker 1: got to make sure that we head beyond the bear
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  Speaker 1: of the line and find out exactly what's going on
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  Speaker 1: around the place. So I appreciate you talking to us
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  Speaker 1: this morning and letting us know how things are going
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  Speaker 1: in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 2: No problem, thank for having me.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you justin Dry always appreciate your time. We'll talk
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: again soon