Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Independent Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley says curfews for kids and grog restrictions on town camps would have an immediate impact in Alice Springs

Transcript

Independent Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley says curfews for kids and grog restrictions on town camps would have an immediate impact in Alice Springs · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: There really is a lot happening around the place, so
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  Speaker 1: let's get into it. And joining me on the line
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  Speaker 1: right now is the independent member for our lun Robin Lambley.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Robin.
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  Speaker 2: Hi there, Katie, Robin.
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  Speaker 1: Happy new Year to you as well. It's great to
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  Speaker 1: have you on the show for the first time this year. Now, Robin,
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  Speaker 1: did you attend that meeting last night?
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  Speaker 2: I did, and it was fantastic. It was an amazing turnout.
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  Speaker 2: It was a great display of unity and force from
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  Speaker 2: the Alice Springs community. It was really great. It was
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  Speaker 2: short and sharp and yeah, it was powerful. I was
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  Speaker 2: so proud to be a part of it. Robin.
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  Speaker 1: We are going to be catching up with Garth the
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  Speaker 1: organizer in a couple of minutes, but tell me how
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  Speaker 1: many people do you Reckon attended these reports between sort
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  Speaker 1: of one and a half thousand right up potentially to
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  Speaker 1: three thousand people.
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  Speaker 2: Well, as I left, I happened to overhear one of
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  Speaker 2: the people that were helping organize it say that they
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  Speaker 2: got up to two thousand. Two hundred people checked in inside,
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  Speaker 2: but there were hundreds outside, So at least two and
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  Speaker 2: a half thousand. Some people are saying two thousand, eight hundred.
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  Speaker 2: But it was a huge crowd. I've never been to
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  Speaker 2: a meeting with that many people in Alice Springs. It
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  Speaker 2: really really exceeded expectations. Was fantastic, Robin.
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  Speaker 1: What were people saying? I mean, it seems to me
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  Speaker 1: like people have absolutely had enough. They have for really
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  Speaker 1: some time now. But what were they saying?
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  Speaker 2: Well, not a lot of people spoke. It was mainly
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  Speaker 2: Garths and a few other people spoke briefly, but mainly
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  Speaker 2: Garth ran the show. But for me, it was just
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  Speaker 2: about people being there together. Everyone was so respectful. Most
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  Speaker 2: people just shut up and listen. There were a few
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  Speaker 2: people yelling across from where I was sitting. I'm not
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  Speaker 2: sure what they are on about. Everyone was clearly on
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  Speaker 2: the same page. We've had enough. We stand here in
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  Speaker 2: solidarity in support of Gath and what he is trying
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  Speaker 2: to do.
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  Speaker 1: Robin, what are your thoughts on the class action that's
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  Speaker 1: been proposed against the Northern Territory government.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm no great advocate of litigation and these sort
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  Speaker 2: of class actions really because I think that they can
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  Speaker 2: take up a lot of time and money and big
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  Speaker 2: chunks of your life. But I think the way Garth
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  Speaker 2: described it yesterday was that it's not so much about
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  Speaker 2: the money, it's about giving the Northern Territory government a
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  Speaker 2: very clear message that they have failed us, that they
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  Speaker 2: have neglected us, and that we as a group are
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  Speaker 2: going to stand up and let them know about that.
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  Speaker 2: So there was some anger around that. Of course, people
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  Speaker 2: are very very angry and disappointed in Alice Springs. But
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  Speaker 2: you know the thing is we're all we've all been
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  Speaker 2: dammaed this over a long period of time. We're all
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  Speaker 2: sol destroyed by this ongoing and deteriorating crisis. And I
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  Speaker 2: think that's what the Chief Minister and other ministers don't
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  Speaker 2: fully appreciate. They've got the words, but they don't back
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  Speaker 2: it up with actions and good policies. I just heard
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  Speaker 2: of your introduction there and you know calling on the
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  Speaker 2: police to step up. Well, from our perspective in our springs,
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  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister needs to step up, not the police.
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  Speaker 2: They've been stepping up for years, months or month, month
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  Speaker 2: or month year on year for forever. They don't let
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  Speaker 2: us down. It's the bad policies and legislation of this
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  Speaker 2: government and the lack of real interest and care. I
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  Speaker 2: mean the Chief Minister is so quick, she's very clever,
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  Speaker 2: she's a great operator politically, but she has, without a
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  Speaker 2: shadow of a doubt, failed to protect the peace full
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  Speaker 2: of Alice Springs. She's failed in her duty of care.
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  Speaker 2: And this business of a plever site that she wants
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  Speaker 2: to conduct on the town camp to somehow back up
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  Speaker 2: her terrible decision to open up grog to those those
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  Speaker 2: camps is just a prank. It's a political prank which
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  Speaker 2: I reject one hundred percent.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and Robin, the really interesting thing that I think
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  Speaker 1: we've got happening at the moment, Well, not interesting, that's
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  Speaker 1: not the right word, because it's much more serious than that.
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  Speaker 1: But we're in a situation at the moment, you know
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  Speaker 1: where you've got two and a half thousand business operators
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  Speaker 1: and locals and you know, concerned Alice Springs residents at
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  Speaker 1: a public meeting last night who are utterly fed up,
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  Speaker 1: to put it mildly meeting last night. You've then got
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  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister on the show with me yesterday, you know,
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  Speaker 1: saying that they want this ballot to happen to determine
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  Speaker 1: whether town camp should be able to have alcohol or not.
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  Speaker 1: You know, yet the town continues to suffer and the
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  Speaker 1: town continues to go through these very serious issues. But
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  Speaker 1: I put to the Chief Minister yesterday as well, what
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  Speaker 1: happens if the vote is yes, like, let's go through it.
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  Speaker 1: And what happens that you know that the town camps,
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  Speaker 1: that the residents they're do indeed go through this vote
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  Speaker 1: and the answer is yes, they want to keep having alcohol.
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  Speaker 1: What then do the people of Alice Springs like, do
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  Speaker 1: you just continue down the path that you're currently on?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we do and almost certainly. I mean, the Chief
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  Speaker 2: Minister is a smart woman. She wouldn't have put this
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  Speaker 2: up if she didn't have every confidence that that vote
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  Speaker 2: would get up in her favor. This is about her
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  Speaker 2: being vindicated, her being told by everyone that she's done
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  Speaker 2: the wrong thing. Apart from Tongue Indira Council that manage
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  Speaker 2: and service and represent the town campus, they're the only
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  Speaker 2: Aboriginal organization that I know of that support what she's done.
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  Speaker 2: So there and they're very closely and heavily connected to
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Labor Party. So what you've got here
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  Speaker 2: is politics that it's there. She's got a chief Labor
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  Speaker 2: Chief Minister knowing full well that she's got the support
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  Speaker 2: of the Labor Tongue in Dura Council, Labor Aligne Tongue
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  Speaker 2: in Dura Council, and they will pull it off. They
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  Speaker 2: will make sure that all the town campers rock up
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  Speaker 2: and vote exactly how they're told to. I mean, I've
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  Speaker 2: been involved in many, many elections in Alice Springs. You
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  Speaker 2: see Labor align people driving buses, picking up people from
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  Speaker 2: town camps, dropping them at the polling booth, walking them
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  Speaker 2: in and pretty much telling them how to vote. That's
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  Speaker 2: how things operate on the town camps of Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 2: So the Chief Minister knows this. And these are allegations,
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  Speaker 2: they've never been proven. That You talk to anyone who's
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  Speaker 2: been around elections in Alice Springs for any length of time,
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  Speaker 2: and yet they'll tell you that they see it, they
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  Speaker 2: watch it. We all know it happens. So the Chief
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  Speaker 2: Minister knows that if she puts up this clever site,
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  Speaker 2: it will get up. I note that Ansen had come
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  Speaker 2: out and said, look, in principle, they support a clever side,
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  Speaker 2: but they also talked about making sure that it's fair
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  Speaker 2: and that there's no intimidation. They know that these people
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  Speaker 2: are intimidated. They know that you're talking about the most powerless,
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  Speaker 2: disempowered people in Alice Springs. These people live in substandard
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  Speaker 2: conditions and they're struggling to just get up and function
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  Speaker 2: every day. Violence, even before the grog bands were lifted,
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  Speaker 2: was out of controlled, domestic violences, out of control, child
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  Speaker 2: abuse and neglect, out of control on the town camp.
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  Speaker 2: They open the rivers of grog in July and it's
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  Speaker 2: even worse. So you know, you've got a chief Minister
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  Speaker 2: who is choosing politics over the welfare and the best
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  Speaker 2: interests of the people that live on those town camps.
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  Speaker 2: And it's all about a few people that live on
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  Speaker 2: those town camps who want to sit on the veranda
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  Speaker 2: and have a beer every afternoon. Well, I'm sorry, I
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  Speaker 2: just don't buy that You've made a bad decision, Chief Minister.
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  Speaker 2: Own it and just turn it around. Well, take the
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  Speaker 2: advice of every Aboriginal leader across the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: Robin, we are fast running out of time. But I
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  Speaker 1: want to ask you, if you know, if you could
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  Speaker 1: do just a few things for Alice Springs right now
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  Speaker 1: to try and turn things around. If you could, you know,
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  Speaker 1: say to the Chief minister right now. These things would
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  Speaker 1: you know would make a difference. What would they be.
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  Speaker 2: I would implement a curfew for children tonight. I would
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  Speaker 2: identify all the children on the street if they can't
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  Speaker 2: go home because of the threat or the danger of
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  Speaker 2: child abuse or neglect, we would look after them, Number one.
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  Speaker 2: I would do that tonight, and there's the legislation, everything's
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  Speaker 2: in place. I would I would stop alcohol being consumed
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  Speaker 2: on the town camps because we know that that's the
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  Speaker 2: epicenter of all the most of the violence and crime
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  Speaker 2: and dysfunction. Most of the kids that are on the
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  Speaker 2: street come from the town camps and that was proven
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one when they did a review of
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  Speaker 2: the now defunct youth hub. So I put in a
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  Speaker 2: curfew tonight, and I'd put in alcohol restrictions on the
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  Speaker 2: town camps and.
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  Speaker 1: You reckon that that would have a big impact quickly.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, immediate. You know, during COVID we had three weeks
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  Speaker 2: of shut down. The place was shut down, we had
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  Speaker 2: a curfew put in place. It took about a week
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  Speaker 2: for Aboriginal people, particularly from the communities, to work out
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  Speaker 2: what was going on. And then the streets of Alice
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  Speaker 2: Springs were peaceful. Crime plummeted. It was just the greatest
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  Speaker 2: example of how a curfew could work. But in the
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  Speaker 2: first place, get these kids off the street. They are
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  Speaker 2: being abused, they are being neglected, There's no doubt about it.
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  Speaker 2: Let's make the children a priority, and then let's work
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  Speaker 2: on addressing the alcohol related assaults and abuse that seemed
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  Speaker 2: to center on the town camps of Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 1: Robin, do you reckon that we'd need any additional police assistance,
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  Speaker 1: you know, from the AFP or anybody else at this
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  Speaker 1: point if you did those two things.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes I do. And that's what I was hoping
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  Speaker 2: would come out of the visits by the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 2: to Alice Springs last Wednesday. I was hanging on the
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  Speaker 2: edge of my seat. I actually believed that he would
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  Speaker 2: have done something like I've just described. I actually had
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  Speaker 2: fooled myself, convinced myself that the Prime Minister would be
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  Speaker 2: able to see through the political nonsense that the Northern
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  Speaker 2: Territory Labor government would have served him up. But no,
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  Speaker 2: that didn't happen. Marion Scrimjaw, however, the Member for Lingiari,
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  Speaker 2: the Labor Member for Lingiari, She's not fooled for a minute.
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  Speaker 2: She knows what's going on in those Tan camps. She
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  Speaker 2: knows that women and children are living in fear, and
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  Speaker 2: that's fear has escalated over the last six months since
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  Speaker 2: they've opened up Grok. So I hold a bit of
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  Speaker 2: hope that with Marion in the picture. But look, you
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  Speaker 2: know I missed opportunity last Wednesday and to see the
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  Speaker 2: Prime Minister enjoying himself at the tennis. You know, it's galling.
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  Speaker 2: It's really a hard pill to swallow. You know, what
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  Speaker 2: they've been implemented will have some impact, that it will
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  Speaker 2: be very limited.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Robin Lamley, we are going to leave it there.
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  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning. But Robin, I've
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  Speaker 1: got to say before I let you go. You know,
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  Speaker 1: last year in Parliament, every single time you got the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to stand up and ask a question, it was
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  Speaker 1: about crime in Alice Springs. You have done your level
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  Speaker 1: best to stand up for your community, despite the fact
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  Speaker 1: that at different times you'd been told you were talking
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  Speaker 1: the territory down and other garbage. You've really done your
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  Speaker 1: best to try and hold them to account. And for that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I admire and I think good on you.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, I'll continue to do my best.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Robin Lamley, thanks for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again soon