Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she still plans to introduce a bill to parliament that will see the Federal and NT Government work together on Territory-wide alcohol restrictions

Transcript

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she still plans to introduce a bill to parliament that will see the Federal and NT Government work together on Territory-wide alcohol restrictions · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is the
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  Speaker 1: Senator for the Northern Territory, the COLP Senator Jacenter Namajinpa Price.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you. Good morning, Katie, Senator, thank you
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  Speaker 2: so much for your time.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you are incredibly busy with Parliament sitting
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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 2: Now. What was your reaction to yesterday's announcement?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, look, I think it's very typical of any Labor
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  Speaker 3: government to attempt to throw a whole bunch of money
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  Speaker 3: at a situation to quieten the dissenting voices down and
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  Speaker 3: to appear as they're doing something that's going to be effective,
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  Speaker 3: when in fact it's not really that effective. And I
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  Speaker 3: think the most concerning part is that they've just only
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  Speaker 3: focused on Central Australia. This is a territory wide issue
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  Speaker 3: and the restrictions should be applied territory wide, which is
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  Speaker 3: what I've proposed in my bill. And the difference between
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  Speaker 3: what they're doing and what I may to do, and
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  Speaker 3: also the fact that with the two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 3: million dollars, I guess i'd like to know where that's
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  Speaker 3: coming from. Is it have already committed money that they're
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  Speaker 3: re announcing. Who is it going to and how are
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  Speaker 3: those organizations going to be held to account for producing
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  Speaker 3: outcomes to be funded?
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  Speaker 2: I think that they're very good questions.
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  Speaker 1: I do want to go to the fact that obviously
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  Speaker 1: these alcohol restrictions they're coming back into place.
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  Speaker 2: From what I can gather, they are.
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  Speaker 1: Going to be Northern Territory wide when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: remote like our indigenous communities and also those town camps.
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  Speaker 1: So what's the difference between what they're preparing for next
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  Speaker 1: week's Parliament's sittings here in the Northern Territory and the
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  Speaker 1: bill that you're introducing this week?
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  Speaker 3: So basically, my bill is more I guess, of a
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  Speaker 3: partnership between federal government and the Northern Territory government as
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  Speaker 3: opposed to handing full responsibility over to the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: government who has over and again failed Territorians. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: I mean the Chief Minister attached to files is only
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  Speaker 3: demonstrated the fact that she should probably quit and give
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  Speaker 3: somebody else a leadership role. But look aside from that,
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  Speaker 3: what my bill proposes to do is to absolutely provide
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  Speaker 3: communities who want to have alcohol the opportunity to apply
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  Speaker 3: for alcohol management plans. And this is to be driven
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  Speaker 3: by the territory government and a committee established with equitable
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  Speaker 3: representation including men and women from the community, experts in
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  Speaker 3: the field, a liquor commission and relevant stakeholders to create
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  Speaker 3: that plan, but that the appropriate Federal Minister would then
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  Speaker 3: provide approval for that plan to go ahead and should
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  Speaker 3: to be monitored. So within twelve months of this legislation
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  Speaker 3: taking place, then a Senate inquiry would take place to
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  Speaker 3: see to determine what the app comes have been as
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  Speaker 3: a result of this. But it also provides for the
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  Speaker 3: minister to revoke plans should measure such as school attendance
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  Speaker 3: drop should there be increased rates of alcohol related assaults
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  Speaker 3: in those communities. So it's it's I guess I've been
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  Speaker 3: working on this since August. It's not a knee jerk reaction,
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  Speaker 3: and it's well thought out and it is a partnership
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  Speaker 3: between federal and the Northern Territory, as I said, as
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  Speaker 3: opposed to just providing giving all that responsibility to a
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  Speaker 3: government that has failed consistently.
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  Speaker 1: Jacinta, when are you due to introduce that bill to
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  Speaker 1: the Federal Parliament?
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  Speaker 2: Is it today?
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  Speaker 3: I'll be introducing the bill tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I'll be really keen to hear sort of how
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  Speaker 1: things go with that, and I know that it'll probably
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  Speaker 1: take a bit of you know, it will take a
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  Speaker 1: bit of listening from the Northern Territory community to work
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  Speaker 1: out exactly what the you know, the difference even I
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  Speaker 1: know you've just pointed out to us, but how you know,
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  Speaker 1: how it would differentiate from what the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 1: is proposing Purely to be honest, we haven't been able
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  Speaker 1: to get the Chief Minister on the show this morning
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  Speaker 1: to talk us through what she's proposing doing. But look,
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  Speaker 1: the other thing I want to ask you about is
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the Northern Territory Government said at that
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  Speaker 1: press conference yesterday that the federal government's agreed to two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars in funding in an effort
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  Speaker 1: to make Central Australia a safer place. Now, we just
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  Speaker 1: caught up with Michael little, counselor in Alla Springs, so
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  Speaker 1: I know you obviously know Michael, he said that you
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  Speaker 1: know that realistically that service providers are being put on
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  Speaker 1: noses that they need to be showing where that money
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  Speaker 1: is being spent if they are receiving funding. You know,
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  Speaker 1: that we need to be able to see that they're
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  Speaker 1: delivering the outcomes that they've been funded to do with
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  Speaker 1: that money, the two hundred and fifty million, and taking
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  Speaker 1: into account what Michael Little has said, you know, do
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  Speaker 1: you feel confident that it's going to be spent in
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  Speaker 1: the right places? Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Look, no, I don't.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: I think that the Territor Trey government is focusing primarily
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  Speaker 3: on you know, as Prime Minister said, First Nations people,
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  Speaker 3: this is a whole community issue. There are organizations I
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  Speaker 3: know that miss out on funding because of the fact
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  Speaker 3: that they're not Aboriginal identified organizations that don't tick that box.
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  Speaker 3: For example, a lot of the women's legal services that predominantly,
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  Speaker 3: you know, like up to eighty percent of their clientele
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  Speaker 3: are Indigenous women and predominantly they are victims of abuse
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  Speaker 3: and violence, as opposed to the Aboriginal legal services who
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  Speaker 3: predominantly service the perpetrators in these circumstances. You know, we
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  Speaker 3: keep hearing the word complex being thrown around. That's fair
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  Speaker 3: enough to say that you probably don't have a clue,
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  Speaker 3: but you have to get a clue and understand where
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  Speaker 3: to be able to invest such dollars to where it's
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  Speaker 3: going to be to provide the most outcomes. It's also
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  Speaker 3: organizations like Drug and Alcohol This is Australia and Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 3: They predominantly have their client hell are Indigenous Territorians, but
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  Speaker 3: they are underfunded. You know, it's not just about looking
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  Speaker 3: at all the average and organizations and pumping money into them.
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  Speaker 3: I mean I find it confusing that again, Tongue and
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  Speaker 3: Jira is getting will get a huge investment, as they
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  Speaker 3: always do. But if you drive around town camps, you've
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  Speaker 3: got to look around and say where is that investment going?
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  Speaker 3: And you've also got a question why you would fund
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  Speaker 3: an organization where the CEO has been fighting to keep
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  Speaker 3: alcohol in the town camp. That's a contradiction in itself.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, I think that's a point where worth making
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  Speaker 1: to the Northern Territory government and for us to try
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  Speaker 1: and follow up. Ja Sintra, I do want to ask
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  Speaker 1: you before we wrap up this morning, what do you
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  Speaker 1: think that this whole situation says about the voice to
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  Speaker 1: Parliament at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think it's demonstrated that there's been a hell
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  Speaker 3: of a lot of voices, including my own, who have
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  Speaker 3: been calling out, who have fallen on deaf ears. The
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  Speaker 3: nine organizations that wrote into Minister Linda Bernie back in June,
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  Speaker 3: she did not listen to them. Then they were only
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  Speaker 3: listened to once. This government was shamed into having to
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  Speaker 3: listen to because of listeners in our southern cities where
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  Speaker 3: their electorates were going to be affected in terms of
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  Speaker 3: voting for them at the next election. And that demonstrates
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  Speaker 3: that it doesn't matter what sort of voices exist. It's
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  Speaker 3: about having ears in Canberra, and you can have a
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  Speaker 3: voice as much as you want, but as long as
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  Speaker 3: those years aren't listening, you're not going to get the
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  Speaker 3: outcomes that you need, so you reckon.
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  Speaker 2: That's more.
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  Speaker 1: The issue here is that the reality is that you've
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  Speaker 1: got to make sure that our Polley's in Canberra are listening.
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  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. I mean the government says that the
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  Speaker 3: Prime Minister's Services is just going to be an advisory body. Well,
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  Speaker 3: I can tell you now that when my mother first
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  Speaker 3: ran for the seat of Stuart, her decision to do
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  Speaker 3: that was as a result of being appointed by the
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  Speaker 3: then Deputy Chief Minister, Marion Scrimjaw to chair the Indigenous
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  Speaker 3: Advisory Body to have ven Henderson government and feeling like
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  Speaker 3: it was just a token Aboriginal committee that was there
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  Speaker 3: to make the government look good but be ineffective and
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  Speaker 3: not actually listen to what the needs were on the ground.
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  Speaker 2: Well, just Enterprice.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you also said last night on the
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  Speaker 1: seven thirty report that you don't think the COLP is
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  Speaker 1: going to support here in the Northern Territory, that they're
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  Speaker 1: going to support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: What makes you think that?
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  Speaker 1: So?
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  Speaker 3: I guess the many conversations I've had a lot with
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  Speaker 3: a lot of my party members, the general feeling around
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  Speaker 3: my party is that there is no support for it
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  Speaker 3: because they have seen the failings in the past. That
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  Speaker 3: we don't want to be divided along the lines of race,
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  Speaker 3: and so we shouldn't and we should be we should
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  Speaker 3: be actually empowering practically our native titlehold as traditional owners
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  Speaker 3: to utilize their land appropriately so they can become job
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  Speaker 3: creators and moving away from the welfare model, and the
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  Speaker 3: Voice in itself is a welfare model. To suggest that
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  Speaker 3: we're going to perpetually need this body within our constitution
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  Speaker 3: forever suggests that we're never actually going to close the gap.
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  Speaker 3: Because if we did close the gap, we wouldn't need it, well.
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  Speaker 1: Just enterprise. I always appreciate your time. Please let us
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  Speaker 1: know we'll keep in contact how you go tomorrow. In
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  Speaker 1: terms of that bill being presented to Parliament, we'll make
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  Speaker 1: sure that we keep in contact as well and try
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  Speaker 1: to catch up with you through the morning.
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  Speaker 3: Fantastic, Thank you
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for your time.