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Katie Woolf spoke with Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio is the opposition leader,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Lea Finocchiaro.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Leah, Good morning Katie and to your listeners.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Now, Leah, we know that's the meeting to determine who's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: going to be on that board. It's going to be announced. Well,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: it won't be announced until next week, but the Chief Minister,
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  Speaker 1: Michael Gunner has previously urged the entire board of the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: dh and Turf Club to resign after that i CAAQ report.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Now we've got that copy of the nomination form and
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  Speaker 1: I can confirm at least three people who are on
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  Speaker 1: the board during that debacle putting their hands up. The chairman,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Brett Dixon, will put his hand up again. What do
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  Speaker 1: you make of some of those former board members still
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: wanting to stay on the board.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think this just goes to the heart of
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: the Chief Minister's inability to lead and the fact that
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: no one respects him and he carries no authority. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: we had a Chief Minister just come out in the
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  Speaker 3: wake of the Irocack report and instead of taking responsibility
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: for the fact that it was him and his cabinet
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  Speaker 3: who gave away twelve million dollars demanded that a volunteer
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: board resign and then boycott the entire Darwen Cup carnival,
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  Speaker 3: which brings millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: into the territory. Now you know, if board members continue
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  Speaker 3: to want to put their hand up, it really is
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  Speaker 3: a member a matter for the membership of the Darwin
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  Speaker 3: Turf Club to decide. But I think the bigger issue
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  Speaker 3: coming out of this is the precedent that Michael Gunner
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  Speaker 3: wants to set. I mean, he has made threats that
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  Speaker 3: if the board don't resign then he will bring legislation
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  Speaker 3: into Parliament which gives the government the power to sack
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  Speaker 3: a board, a volunteer board. So that impacts everyone, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: That's your pony club, your Scouts group, your seniors organizations,
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  Speaker 3: every single person out there listening who's a member of
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  Speaker 3: an organization that is under the Association's Act, which is
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people, probably every second person, Katie. You
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  Speaker 3: would then be under the control and power of the
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  Speaker 3: whims of the Chief Minister. And if he wakes up
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  Speaker 3: one day and decides that your volunteer committee should go,
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  Speaker 3: then he would have the power to do that. Ludicrous,
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  Speaker 3: I do just want to go back to the fact though,
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  Speaker 3: that the IKAK did make improper conduct findings against Star
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  Speaker 3: and Turf Club board member Damian Moriarty and also Brett Dixon.
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  Speaker 3: Taking this into account, should either of them realistically be
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  Speaker 3: standing on that board again, Well, look, it's a matter
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  Speaker 3: for the individuals and it's a matter for the members.
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  Speaker 3: That's just how organizations work. You can't have a government
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  Speaker 3: coming in over the top with some sort of control,
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  Speaker 3: like a dictatorship, where they can decide who does what
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  Speaker 3: in our community. I think that's a really dangerous slippery
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  Speaker 3: slope to dictatorship. I mean, honestly, how can you have
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  Speaker 3: a chief minister decide himself who sits on what community
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  Speaker 3: organizations and who doesn't. That's a really bad thing for
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  Speaker 3: democracy and for people's freedoms. It's ultimately going to be
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  Speaker 3: up to the.
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  Speaker 2: Turf Club members.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, if they think that the conduct as detailed
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  Speaker 3: in the IKAK report is not what they want on
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  Speaker 3: their board, then they will vote accordingly. But it's not
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  Speaker 3: for a chief minister to come in because he's a
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  Speaker 3: coward and can't fail up to his own mistakes, to
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: then try and shift this blame to someone else.
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  Speaker 1: Now, when these findings were made, obviously the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 1: also announced, like you've just touched on, that the government
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: would move that legislation on urgency to sack the board
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  Speaker 1: members if the resignations aren't forthcoming. Now, I guess you
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  Speaker 1: know the big question here is if any of those
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: former members are re elected, what do you think that
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  Speaker 1: that means for the Chief Minister and for his leadership.
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  Speaker 3: No, I think it just shows once again how untenable
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  Speaker 3: his leadership is.
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  Speaker 2: We have repeatedly called for his.
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  Speaker 3: Resignation over this issue, and in fact the resignation of
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  Speaker 3: the entire cabinet that the fact alone remains true that
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  Speaker 3: it is Michael Gunner and his team who approved the
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  Speaker 3: twelve million dollars. They did not follow proper process and
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: they have been lying to territories about it ever since. Now,
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  Speaker 3: if members of the Turf Club, and I'm sure there's
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  Speaker 3: one hundreds, if not thousands of members of the Turf Club,
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  Speaker 3: if they decide that existing members should remain on the board,
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  Speaker 3: then I think that is a big show of force.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Here's the Chief Minister about exactly what people think about
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: the way he governs the territory.
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  Speaker 2: What are you going to do.
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  Speaker 1: I mean next week, if there is legislation that is introduced,
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  Speaker 1: obviously you know that will see changes to the Act
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  Speaker 1: and to the associations and the way in which some
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  Speaker 1: of these boards are run. You know what will this
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  Speaker 1: colp's tact be here? Are you going to vote against
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  Speaker 1: those changes? What are you going to do?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: If the gun and government we're in parliament next week
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  Speaker 3: for two weeks, If the Gunner government bring in legislation
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  Speaker 3: so that they can sack committees and boards of associations,
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  Speaker 3: we will strongly oppose that for all the reasons I
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  Speaker 3: just said before, Katie. It's not okay for the Gunner
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  Speaker 3: government to be able to pick and choose who it
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  Speaker 3: likes and who it doesn't likes to sit on the
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  Speaker 3: hundreds of boards across the territory. I mean, this will
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  Speaker 3: be far reaching and terrible overreach by government if they've
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  Speaker 3: been given the power to do this. It means for
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  Speaker 3: those committee members who are sitting on the BMX committee,
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  Speaker 3: if they're sitting on a senior's advisory committee for seniors month.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter what it might be in our community,
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  Speaker 3: the karate club, you know, the local sports club at
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  Speaker 3: Nightcliff you know, all of you will then be subject
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  Speaker 3: to the whim of the Chief Minister, and if something
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  Speaker 3: isn't going his way, make no mistake, you'll be next
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  Speaker 3: to be thrown under the bus.
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  Speaker 2: And the Chiefiness has got form on bus Rode. I
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  Speaker 2: totally get that.
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  Speaker 1: No, I feel the same, Like I don't think that
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  Speaker 1: the government should be overseeing who sits on different volunteer boards.
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  Speaker 1: I think that that's quite absurd. But what we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about here, obviously with the turf Club there were you know,
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  Speaker 1: there were improper conduct findings against the Darwin Turf Club
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  Speaker 1: board members, two of them, and also the actual turf
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  Speaker 1: club themselves.
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  Speaker 2: Like, surely there does need to be some change. I
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  Speaker 2: do think that, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, there's sort of two separate things that we need
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  Speaker 1: to look at here. Obviously the government's conduct, but then
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: also are the conduct of the turf club.
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  Speaker 3: You're absolutely right, But the fix to that is not
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  Speaker 3: for government to be all powerful, you know, And this
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  Speaker 3: is the problem. Gunner had to come out and say
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  Speaker 3: something the next day because he knew he was up
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  Speaker 3: to his eyeballs in this. He'd masterminded this entire thing,
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  Speaker 3: and so for him to come out he had to
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  Speaker 3: look tough. And we've heard him do this before. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: remember a couple of years ago we had him talking
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: tough about sacking CEOs for budget overruns.
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  Speaker 2: And he's constantly talking tough.
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  Speaker 3: Even the Labor Party ignored him when he said that
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  Speaker 3: they should get rid of the member for Blaine.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, this is a man who doesn't hold
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: much water.
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  Speaker 3: And sure, the Ikak report made some significant findings and
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: that's all their detailed in the public. But that is
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  Speaker 3: then for the members of the Turf Club to decide
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  Speaker 3: if they want a new way forward.
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  Speaker 2: They will vote on the ninth of August for a
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  Speaker 2: new way forward.
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  Speaker 3: But Michael Gunner cannot reach into every association of the
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  Speaker 3: Northern Territory and decide which win is he's going to
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  Speaker 3: be picking.
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, It's going to be very interesting
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  Speaker 1: to see what happens at that meeting on the ninth
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  Speaker 1: of August. We'll all be keeping a very close eye
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  Speaker 1: on that. And when Parliament sits next week. Just to
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  Speaker 1: reaffirm so there or re ask two hundred more than
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  Speaker 1: two hundred questions, you guys have worked to the opper
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: to the government.
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  Speaker 2: Yes we did.
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  Speaker 3: We asked over two hundred questions to the government over
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  Speaker 3: this ICAC Turf Club grandstand twelve million dollars giveaway, and
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  Speaker 3: so we're expecting those to come back next not next week,
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  Speaker 3: the week after, and that's all of publicly available, and
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  Speaker 3: of course we'll be combing through that and letting territorians
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  Speaker 3: know what results come back.
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  Speaker 2: We're not holding our breath.
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  Speaker 3: We think there's going to be a lot of responses
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  Speaker 3: along the lines of you know, cabinet confidentiality or you know,
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  Speaker 3: just obfiscation like we've seen for this entire period. But
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  Speaker 3: the hypocrisy is just unbelievable on this issue, Katie. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: we've got the Racing Minister boycotting the races, the Chief
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  Speaker 3: Minister boycotting the races, demanding the board members resign, but
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  Speaker 3: then one of the board members who did resign the
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  Speaker 3: government then appointed as the chair of a government board.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, how is.
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  Speaker 3: It that the government think that they can demand resignations
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  Speaker 3: but then take one of those people and give them
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  Speaker 3: a new job, and then also bring legislation into Parliament
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  Speaker 3: which then encroaches on every association.
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  Speaker 2: In the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it is just unconscionable, the level of deception
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  Speaker 3: of this government and the way in which they just
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  Speaker 3: want to control everything to save their own skin.
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  Speaker 1: All right, lea separately, I do want to ask the
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  Speaker 1: KAC Commissioner yesterday took the unprecedented step to release a
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  Speaker 1: statement vowing to restore public confidence in his organization. Mister Riches,
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  Speaker 1: the new KC Commissioner, said the public must have confidence
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  Speaker 1: in the IQAC office and he felt drawn to make
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  Speaker 1: a public statement after weeks of revelation since the body
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  Speaker 1: released the darw And Turf Club report. Now, mister Richards,
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  Speaker 1: who has been in the job for four weeks after
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  Speaker 1: taking over from the previous k Commissioner Ken Fleming, said
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  Speaker 1: he was impressed by the staff and they were motivated
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and committed to their duties. But he said if that
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  Speaker 1: confidence is eroded, so too is my ability to be effective.
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  Speaker 2: He went on to.
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  Speaker 1: Say, those who work in my office must act with
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the utmost integrity. I demand nothing less of myself and
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  Speaker 1: my staff. It comes after revelations that the QC inspectors
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  Speaker 1: investigating whether a contractor who worked on the Turf Club
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: investigation had declared a conflict of interest. Are you concerned
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  Speaker 1: that Territorians could be losing confidence in the IKAK.
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  Speaker 3: I think this is a significant issue and clearly if
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  Speaker 3: the new k Commissioner is coming out on it, then
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: there is an issue there now. We well ahead of this, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: As an opposition, we tried last parliament to move a
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  Speaker 3: motion to establish a committee of the Parliament to review
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  Speaker 3: the IKAK. You know, it's been in operation now a
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: couple of years. It's timely with the change of Kate
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  Speaker 3: Commissioner to undertake a review to look at the legislation
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: and whether it's working, what's not working. And of course
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: that was the day before I mean we didn't know,
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: but it was the day before the IYCAC reported to
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: the Turf Club got dropped. So of course the government
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  Speaker 3: were extremely quick to shut us down.
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  Speaker 2: But the fact remains the government.
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  Speaker 3: Are doing some sort of closed, behind the scenes, backdoor
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: review with a former public servant and not something that
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: the Territorians or the members of Parliament can be involved.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: They're doing it that way, and that they're not doing
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: it with politicians involved because they believe that you know
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that politicians obviously need to be quite separate from that
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: process and that the KAK needs to be very much independent.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, what do you say to that?
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  Speaker 3: That is just garbage to try and obfiscate an issue.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: So absolutely politicians should be separate from the IKIC. But
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: that's not what we're saying. That's what government are saying
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: to try and make this issue once again go away.
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  Speaker 3: The fact remains members of Parliament make the law. So
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: at some point in time, members of Parliament have to
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: be across what legislation is going to change, because otherwise
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: nothing's going to happen.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: It has to get through the parliament.
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  Speaker 3: What should happen is that that process be open to
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  Speaker 3: the Parliament, to the public. So the parliamentarians, the politicians,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: we're the ones facilitating the ability for stakeholders to make
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: public submissions, territorians to make public submissions, appear and give
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: witness testimony, you know, appear at public hearings, and collate
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: all of that information from a broad mix of the community,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: not from politicians, and then determine what steps need to
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: be taken, where the weaknesses are, where the positives are,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: and what we can do to strengthen an institutions.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, were you surprised yesterday when you saw
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: that statement come out from the new k Commissioner.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was surprised, but also encouraged. I think it's
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: a very strong statement. I've not met the new Commissioner
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: and I don't have anything to do with them, which
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: is a great thing, but you know, it's clear that
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: he felt compelled to do that for a very good reason.
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  Speaker 3: And I think a line in the commissioner statement was,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: you know, the ik needs to be beyond approach and
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: that's something we've been saying for a long time.
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  Speaker 2: It absolutely does.
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  Speaker 3: And for the government to have a closed door legislative
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: review of the IKAG just erodes confidence in the community.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: This needs to be in the light for everyone to
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: see and everyone to be able to participate in.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: All right, Leah, I want to just get through a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: couple of other issues very quickly, an issue which we've
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: been made aware of this morning the Northern Territory News
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: sharing a video of a group of young people taunting
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a man as he walks on the street, threatening him
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and attempting to salt him as he walks along the street,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: obviously at night in the Darwin CBD. The video was
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: posted online that shows this group of youths kicking out
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: at the man, throwing objects at him and shaping up
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: to hit him. Have you seen that video and what
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: was your reaction.
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  Speaker 2: I have seen that video and it's horrific.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: But do you know what one of my biggest takeaways
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: from watching it was, Katie is I thought to myself,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: who's taking the video? And it occurred to me it
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: couldn't have been the mate of the guy who was
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: getting attacked, because if it was a mate of the
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: guy getting attacked, he would have come into rescue him.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: So it must have been one of the perpetrators or
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: someone with them. I mean, does that not send some
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: sort of message like they're proud of this type of behavior.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: We saw another man being attacked I think was last
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: week or the week before of Queen of course, Fresh
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: Point Cafe and Palmesten they've been broken into by several offenders,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: I think up to ten people at one time twice
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: in the last two weeks. You know this is you
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: talk about suffering tourism industry because of covid AD, tourism
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: industry is also suffering because of law and order issues.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Leah, I also want to ask about our tourism industry
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and the fact that, well, we do know that COVID
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: has had a big impact on tourism. Minister files yesterday
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: revealing that they are going to reintroduce these tourism vouchers
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: in October. Do you think though, that that's going to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: make a big difference here? Do you think that goes
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: far enough?
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Well, look, we certainly hope.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: So we know October means it's going into our worst
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: season and you know, into state tourists are less likely
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: to come to the territory because you know what, it
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: gets really bloody hot and you can't blame them, right,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: So you know, anything we can do to encourage people,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: particularly in those tough seasons is important. And of course
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: our dry season, which is meant to be our best time,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: has been affected by several different lockdowns, including our own.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: So it's important that government are there to do whatever
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: it can to bring people into the territory of course
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: from those COVID free locations.
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  Speaker 2: But it just brings me back to the budget bottom line.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: You know, it's just so unfortunate that we went into
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: COVID so far in debt, because if we weren't in
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: that precarious position pre COVID then and the level of
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: support government could have been rolling out over the last
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: eighteen months really could have meant that the government itself
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: shouldered a lot of the burden, which it just hasn't
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: been able to.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: All Right, we've got a few text messages coming through
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: on the text line zero four three nine two three
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: eight eight one eight, and I've got one here and
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: it says, good morning. It's not okay to allow members
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: found to be well corrupt to be re elected, as
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: this will allow lawlessness within the Darwin community. Leah, your
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: thoughts on that.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I'm not saying it is okay. What I'm
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: saying is that that's up to the turf club membership.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: So if members of the turf club think they need
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: a new direction, they will vote accordingly. That way, what
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: I'm concerned about is the Gunner government. You can't make
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: a law for one group. So people thinking that, oh well,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: gun is just going to go in and make a
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: law for the turf club, that can't happen, which means
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: it will apply broadly to everyone in that category, which
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: is hundreds of organizations. You know, like I said, from
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: your Seniors club, tier Scouts group, t your pony club,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: TIERAFL teams. Everyone's going to be impacted, and that's that's
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: a really big problem. You can't impact hundreds and thousands
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: of people because the government can't deal with one discrete issue.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Opposition leader Leaf and Occhiaro, we really appreciate your time
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: this morning. Thanks so much for coming.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Take care everyone,