Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro is calling for a Select Committee to be established to help shape the NT's euthanasia laws

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Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro is calling for a Select Committee to be established to help shape the NT's euthanasia laws · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio as she does most Tuesday mornings.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: It is the opposition leader. Leah Fanocchiaro.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Good morning too, Good morning Katie and all your wonderful
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: listeners out there now.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Leah, I know that you're in Catherine yesterday. What we
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: were doing in Catherine.
• 0:12
  Speaker 4: It was great.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: I was there over the weekend and yesterday and I
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: just wanted to give you know, the residents of Catherine
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to have a chat to me. I outlined
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: my vision for under a CLP government for the territory
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: if we're lucky in twenty twenty four, and then also
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: just out and about. You know, we were in the
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: shopping center there at Woolli's just chatting to locals and
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: meeting with stakeholders.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: I met with counsel and it was great.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, people down there are raeling after the car
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: car's being stolen and rammed into the police car, so
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: it was important for me to get down there and
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: hear people's concerns.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, speaking of those issues obviously that we
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: have seen in recent weeks around youth crime. We'd seen
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the situation unfolding Catherine, but we also saw that situation
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: in Ala Springs well, a number of situations in Alla Springs.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Now yesterday the Northern Territory Government announced salt Bush Social
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Enterprises is going to partner with the Northern Territory Government,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: they say to increase safe spaces for children through the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Safe Place Accommodation and Support program in Alice. So the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: program's basically going to provide expanded temporary accommodation for young
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: people who are at night out unsupervised, considered to be
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: at risk and who have nowhere safe to go.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Do you feel as though this is a step in
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: the right direction.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Look, you know it might help in a small number
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: of circumstances, but ultimately this accommodation is voluntary, and you
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: know the young people can just walk straight back out
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: the door, and so you know, time will tell whether
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: or not it has an impact. I think there are
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: concerns being raised by the Alice Springs community about its location.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: It doesn't appear clear, but people it's people's understanding that
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: it's in town somewhere, and some including Josh Bergoin, the
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Member for Braitling, think it should be further out of
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: town so that there's more of an incentive for the
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: young people to stay at the facilit So time will tell,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: but we've got summer coming up and some aer in
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Alice Springs is traditionally a time of extraordinary high levels
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: of crime and so the government's going to want to
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: hope that this is going to hit the mark.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Well, this is something that is a real point of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: concern at this point. A lot of people wondering if
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the police presence is going to remain in Alice Springs
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and asked the Chief Minister about this on the show yesterday.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: She said that that's an operational matter and that will
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: come down to what the Police Commissioner decides to do.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: But the reality here is having that increased police presence
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: does seem to have had an enormous impact in a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: positive way for the people of Alice Springs. Do you
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: think it should stay, Well.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: There's no question additional police have a good impact. And
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: that's why it's so disappointing that this government won't address
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: the police crisis. We know that there are thirty five
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: less officers this year than they were last year. If
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: this government just dealt with the crisis and the extraordinarily
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: high attrition rates of police, we would have forty police
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: and they would be able to be in Alice Springs.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: But what this government is doing is taking police out
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: of Daho and out of Catherine, out of our regions
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: and sending them to others to provide that emergency response,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: which I think everyone understands and is supportive of. But
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: clearly that can't be long term unless this government's going
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: to start to address the high rates of police leaving
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: our force.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I know that the Opposition is called on a number
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of occasions for there to be a review into the police,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: particularly when it comes to police attrition rates. Is that
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the answer here is that how we we determine exactly
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: what's going on and why to some people it seems
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: as though there's not enough police in the community.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: There needs to be two reviews.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: So we've tried five times in Parliament, Katie to have
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: an inquiry into the crisis. So that's around morale, attrition rates, resourcing.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Of course, that very disturbing police survey that came out
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: from the Association which showed that ninety three percent of
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: police don't think they're enough police and showed systemic issues
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: in the force.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: That's one thing.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: The second review, which is a much bigger piece of
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: work that needs to be done is into that resource allocation.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Now that hasn't been done for a good ten years,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: and it's something that needs to be urgently addressed. But
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: we say in the short term we really need to
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: be shining a light into that police force because.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: The morale is very low.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Health and well being remains a very critical issue, and
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: until we're sorting out our police force, we can't expect
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: them to be doing and continuing to do more with less.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Why do you reckon this is not getting any traction
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: because both you and the Association have seen as well
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: that there needs to be some kind of looking to this.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: I know, Robin Lamley I was on the show with
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: this last week.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And had said similar that there does need to be
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a look into these types of issues.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Why is it not getting any traction at this point?
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: I think this government is just completely out of touch,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: out of ideas, and is not listening to territorians. They
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: just continue to refuse to listen to the people. I mean,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: they're just happy to blindly bumble along on their own way.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Their arrogance is just at all time highs. They think
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: they've got all the answers and they don't Katie, we
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: have a police force disintegrating before our eyes, crime out
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: of control, and this government are happy to allow that
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: to happen. And I can't stand at Katie. It drives
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: me absolutely just it's so frustrating that they can't see
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: that a strong police force is the core of a
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: strong society, a strong community, and that community safety has
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: to be the number one issue for any government for
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: everything else to flow from that.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: How do you change their mind Leah, because it does
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: seem as though throughout this whole year, you know, you
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and I have spoken about this on numerous occasions. I've
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: spoken to the community about this on numerous occasions. I've
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: spoken to the Northern Territory government about this on numerous occasions.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: They say that they're listening. So how do you change
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: their minds?
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, ultimately we might have to wait twenty
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: months and Territorians can change their minds for them and
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: get rid of this terrible government.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: But ultimately we will keep fighting.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: I will not let a day go by where I'm
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: not fighting for community safety and fighting for our police,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: fighting for our frontline workers, and in this government want
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: to drive the two territory into the ground. Well, you know,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: there won't be many of us left by the end
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: of it, but we've got to hang on. We've got
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: a fight for the territory we know and love, and
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: we've got to make sure that this government drag kicking
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: and screaming to listen to the concerns of the community
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: and the concerns of our police.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: All Right. The Restoring Territory Rights Bill, we know that
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: at passed Parliament last week, overturning legislation put forward in
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven that precluded the territories from being able
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to debate and pass voluntary assisted dying laws. The government
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: yesterday confirmed the Chief Minister was on the show that
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: there wouldn't be a rush for change here in the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory despite the bill's passage.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Do you think this is the right moves?
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: I think that's really important that there isn't a rush.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: We've been very very clear that if the Labor Government
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: are going to legislate for voluntary assisted dying, there needs
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: to be an extensive community consultation process and that's not
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: something this government are very good at. We've called for
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: a select Committee of the Parliament, a legislative Scrutiny Committee
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: to be established if that's the way they go, so
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: that they can go across territory, meet with people, take submissions,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: whole public hearings and do it properly, if that's what
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: they want to do.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: So it doesn't sound as though the colp would consider
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: introducing a private member's bill so that this can be
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: voted on more quickly here in the territory. My understanding
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: is that that is what had happened all the way
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: back when it passed when Marshall Parent was Chief Minister.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, twenty five years ago Marshall Parent
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: did do that, and for twenty five years we've all
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: been fighting to have our rights back. You know, we're
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: elected by the people, We represent the people and we
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: shouldn't have people in Cambridge telling us what we can
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: and can't do. And so it's a huge victory that
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: twenty five year milestone last week, but ultimately from opposition.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: We don't think legislation like that can be brought from opposition.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Marshall was part of a government at that time, so
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: it's got to be brought by the government. It's got
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: to be done properly, it's got to be done carefully,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: and it's got to be done with the will of
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: the people.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Look, I'm not overly passionate either way about whether this
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: goes forward really quickly or it takes a couple of years.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: But I know that there are people in the community
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: who are incredibly passionate that this move forward more quickly
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: than what the government is proposing. But it sort of
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: sounds to me like neither side of Parliament want to
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: make any rush here, and you know both of you
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: are quite happy to take this quite slowly, particularly ahead
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: of a Northern territory election.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, I don't think the election.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Like for us, the election doesn't have anything to do
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: with it. You know, we bring legislation into the Parliament
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: all the time around law and order changes and small
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: things like that. But to talk about taking away someone's life,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I mean that is major and it requires extensive consultation,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: It requires the resources of a government. It's just something
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: as an opposition we can't do in this position. And ultimately,
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: whether Labor do it or not, it needs to be
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: done carefully and cautiously. We've seen massive legislation ram through
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: by Labor too many times and I would not like
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: to see that done on this top.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: So it's not something that you're going to be pushing
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: to have happen sooner rather than later.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: No, if it happens and labor push it, we asked
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: it to go to a scrutiny Committee of the Parliament
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: so it can be done properly, all right, Lea.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: We know that there has now been a teacher's payoffer
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: put back on the table. It adds up to nine percent.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: It's three plus three plus three. There then is indeed
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: a few other measures that the government have put forward.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: There has been a bit of.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Conjecture about how exactly it's going to be funded. It's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: been confirmed that it is going to be at a
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: cost of seven million dollars in that first year. We've
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: spoken to Beverly Rata he of course from to Mid
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: min College, the chairperson out there. We'd also spoken to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Tabby Fudge yesterday from int cogso they want it to
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: be really very clear where this funding is coming from.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: The Chief Minister sat on the show yesterday that it
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: is going to be out of the budget, but they're
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: still concerned that you know, in that first year that
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: there is going to be an impact on their school budget.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: What do you make of it?
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: I think government of being very tricky about this.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Of course, about a year or so ago, Michael Ganner
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: came out with his public service pay freeze and he
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: said that, you know, for teachers, that money the bonuses
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: at that time would not be taken out of the
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: school budgets. Now, of course time has passed, the pay
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: freeze has finally been dropped. But now we've got legitimate
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: payoffers on the table, and I think the government is
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: trying to be really careful and tricky about this. If
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: it's coming out of the education budget, is that then
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: impacting global school budgets? You know, every school gets a
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: portion of money, a pot of money, and they then
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: have to pay their staff and all of their services
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: from it.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: So is this going to mean that every.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Single school is given the exact amount of the pay
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: rise and they can just then literally have no impact,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: or is it going to mean an impact on the
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: bottom line for schools where they're making decisions about whether
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: or not to have extra support, staff in classrooms, extra resources,
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: you know, And so they're real legitimate questions for schools,
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: particularly as we hit the end of the year and
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: planning is underway for next year.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Now the Department of Education.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: It's also been announced yesterday they've engaged external consultant Deloyd
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Access Economics in partnership with the Northern Territory Institute, Charles
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Dale and UNI as well to undertake a review of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: secondary education in the Northern Territory. That review is going
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: to consider current secondary education delivery for all students across
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory and identify options to improve student engagement
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and outcomes. Leah, do you see this as being a
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: good move and is there anything specific that you think
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: needs to be looked into as part of this review.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: I think this is well over jew and I think
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: what this is code for is whether or not the
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: middle school and senior school model is working. Of course,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Labor brought that in many many years ago, I think
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: under Claire Martin, and you know, you just have to
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: talk to parents to know that for a lot of
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: kids that model doesn't work. And I certainly know out
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: in Palmerston there's been that reuniting of Palmerston College where
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: traditionally it was one school from year seven right through
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: to year twelve and then it got split and now
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: it's being reintegrated across two campuses, and I think many
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: parents out there will be wanting to know whether or
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: not this is an extensive review to see over the
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: last ten or fifteen years or longer, whether or not
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: splitting up middle school from senior school has been successful,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: or whether or not it's actually led to worse schooling
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: outcomes for our kids.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: What do you think?
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Look, I really think it's concerning. I hear a lot
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: of feedback from parents that because of the way middle
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: school is designed, they don't have that leadership or that
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: you know, those senior students to be able to role model.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Of course, some people might even be concerned around in
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: the fact that year seven is middle school. I know
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: when we were kids catering year seven was still primary school.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: So you know, I really hope these things are being
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: looked at and in a really thorough way. I wouldn't
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: like this to be a report that pays lip service.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, our kids' education, particularly those fragile
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: years when they're becoming teenagers and growing into young adults,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: we need to be having the strongest possible frameworks around them.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: And so if you were the Chief Minister, would you
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: consider re emerging them middle school and high school together again.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Well, we would you know, I think everything's got to
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: be on the table for the best outcome of our kids.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: What we've got to look at is the outcome of
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: this report. I'm not sure of the time frame of
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: the report, Katie, but it would still be relatively well,
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: it would be still be relevant by the time of
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: the next election.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: So we'll be carefully pouring over the report.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: It may be that we have to go back out
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: and consult further, but I think every territory and is
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: invested in our kids' future. Whether you have kids or not,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: they ultimately they're our employees, they're our future leaders, and
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: we need to make sure we've got the very best system.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Our teachers are out there doing a great job. We
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: just need to make sure the framework is right.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Opposition leader Lea Fanocchiaro, good to speak with you this morning.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Thanks for your time.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: Take care everyone,