Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Palmerston Mayor Athina Pascoe-Bell is calling for crime to be addressed in remote communities to reduce the impacts elsewhere

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Palmerston Mayor Athina Pascoe-Bell is calling for crime to be addressed in remote communities to reduce the impacts elsewhere · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is the Mayor
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of Palmerston, Athena Pasco Bell.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Athena.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Great to have you on the show now, Athena.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Before I get to the my Palmeston vouchers, we did
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: just catch up with the Lord Mayor of Darwin convat
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Scalis a little bit earlier this morning. He said that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of the mayors of the territory are going to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: be catching up with the Chief Minister Natasha Files today
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: at about twelve thirty to talk about Well, I'm assuming
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: plenty of issues, but one of them as well, crime
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and anti social behavior. Athena, is that something that's been
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a concern for you out in Palmerston as well, Katie.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: I can tell you the year on year the biggest
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: concern raised by Palmerston residents is crime and antisocial behavior
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: and the City of Palmeston works very closely with police
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: and other agencies, territory families housing to try and address
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: the issues that we experience in Palmerston. And yeah, COM's correct,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: we are having that meeting today with the Chief Minister.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Hopefully all the mayors from across the Northern Territory will
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: turn up because these issues are things that we all
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: need to work together on. Yeah, it's not just the
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: responsibility of one agency or one level of government. We
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: all need to play a part and do what we
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: can within our own spheres of responsibility to address these issues.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on, And I feel like it's reached
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  Speaker 1: the point at the moment where you know, people are.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Really quite fed up.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: But you know that's exactly what we're expecting of our leaders,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: of our community leaders at the moment, is that everybody
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: can try to work as productively as possible together so
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: that we can see some change in this space.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I have to thank the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 3: for allowing this meeting because obviously, you know, it's been
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  Speaker 3: called by a lot of the mayors across the NT
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: and for her to make her time available is you know,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: we really appreciate having that opportunity to discuss these issues
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: with her and other members of the Northern Territory government.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: From your perspective, you know, what is the main thing
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: that you're really hoping for or hoping to come out
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of this meeting with the Chief Finister.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Look, I'm hoping that they're the way forward and in particular.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: The way I view the issues is that we really
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: need to focus a lot more on the remote communities
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: and making sure that they are serviced appropriately so that
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  Speaker 3: community members have got all the resources that they need
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: in place in their remote locations so that they are
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: comfortable living there without having to come into towns and
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: our metropolitan areas. We often see the impact of things
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: that have gone wrong in remote communities. So I'm really
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: willing to support the regional or remote councils with what
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: information and services and assistance they need, particularly from their
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: municipal councils. Putting our weight behind the regional councils to
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: make sure that they've got what they need.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because look, it is something we've spoken about on
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: numerous occasions on the show.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: We've spoken to the.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Police a lot earlier in the year about the high
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: volume of people that we're seeing come in from the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: right communities, and at one point, I think we had
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: about three thousand.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: The Northern Territory Police had told us.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I believe that that number has gone down back in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the hundreds, but it was like it was causing a
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: lot of strain in a lot of different areas, particularly
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: you know when you're talking about people sleeping rough but
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: sleeping around buildings, leaving rubbish around and very unfortunately public drinking.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the city's Parmisan does do a lot of
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: activity in that space. So we do have the Orange
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Sky buff come and allow people to shower and wash
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: their clothes. We have the Recreation Center and the library
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: opened for visitors as well, so they can get some
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: assistance through those avenues as well. But it really comes
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: back to making sure that people who live in the
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: remote areas have got what they need in their own
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: communities because you know, a lot of the time they
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: don't want to be coming into Darwin and Palmerston to
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: seek services and support. I'm sure they'd much rather be
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: living in their community amongst their family and friends. But
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: you know, just dealing with you know, some of the
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: issues that happen when they get here, if they get
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: trapped here, and that was what happened as a result
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: of COVID with the biosecurity zones, people weren't able to
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: return back to their communities readily. And you know, once
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  Speaker 3: they're here and Palmerston has no visit or accommodation, it's
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  Speaker 3: very difficult for people who are stuck in Palmerston to
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: find services and support.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't even think of that.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, is that something that we need to look at,
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  Speaker 1: like that visitor accommodation as well.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Look, it probably is one of those ongoing discussions that
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  Speaker 3: we need to have with the Northern Territory government, possibly
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: the Commonwealth government. But Parmeston has absolutely no visitor accommodation.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: So you know, when we see people coming to Parmeston,
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  Speaker 3: they might stay with family and friends, it might cause
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: overcrowding issues sometimes and they will sleep rough, but there
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: is no real suitable visitor accommodation for people visiting from
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  Speaker 3: remote communities. So you know, this is something that it's
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: on my radar with government, and I have raised it
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  Speaker 3: a few times. I guess it's more a matter of
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  Speaker 3: picking when's the right time for that sort of infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: to be put in place as well.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'll be really interested to hear how the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: meeting today does go. With the Chief ministeron attached to files.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: It sounds as though it'll hopefully be a constructive one.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: One of the other things so that I'm very keen
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to talk to you about this morning is my Palmeston vouchers.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: How have they gone?
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  Speaker 3: Well, after five months, we've expended the whole six hundred
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars program that finished up on the fourteenth of August,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: and that put an impressive three and a half million
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: dollars back into our local economy. As a result, we
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: had ninety five businesses participating and over five thousand customers
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: were registered, so it was a really big effort. I
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: know a lot of people enjoyed the opportunity to use
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: those vouchers. Their top three businesses were Golden Nails. I
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: think we spoke about that last time, so lots of
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: parmeerstan ladies running around with fabulous looking nails. Covid Cafe
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: was second place, and the Driver's Supermarket came in third. So,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: you know, really good and very happy to be able
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: to support the businesses. A big thank you to the
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: Northern Territory government for their generous support in the program
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  Speaker 3: and supporting local businesses as well. So yeah, very pleased
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: with the effort.
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  Speaker 1: Now, what's been the response from from those local businesses
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  Speaker 1: as well? Have they found that it's been a positive
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  Speaker 1: thing for them?
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, they love it, clutely love it. It gives
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: incentive for people to go and spend at those businesses
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: that are participating. And you know, everyone loves a discount,
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  Speaker 3: so whether you're buying a cake, getting a quick bite
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  Speaker 3: to eat, buying something else, it gives you that little
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: bit of extra incentive and the businesses really do appreciate it.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Now, is there are there any plans I guess to
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: offer another round? And if so could have happened quite soon.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: When would it happen.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: We haven't actually thought about whether we're going to offer
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: another round or how that will be done, remembering that
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  Speaker 3: this initiative was brought about by the City of Darwin
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: to support businesses through COVID. So you know, I think
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: the emergency is just about over or it's been declared
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: finished now, so I don't know whether we'll run it again.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean it'll be an interesting one. I guess.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: It has been such a positive thing, but yeah, it
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  Speaker 1: does that money needs to come from somewhere as well
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to be able to make it happen. So if business
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: is quite busy at the moment, then it may not
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: be required.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, And hopefully things are getting back to
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: normal now, and you know, we do see a lot
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: of activity business activity in Palmerston, so we're not hearing
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: negative business stories, so I think everything's on the up
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  Speaker 3: and up now.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Asena Pasco Bell, the Mayor of Palmerston, we always
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having a chat with me today.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much, thank you,