Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro says the CLP are prepared to sit down with the government and take a bipartisan approach to urgently address crime
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio is the opposition leader
- 0:03Speaker 1: Leah Fanochi Aro.
- 0:04Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Leah.
- 0:05Speaker 3: Good morning Kadi and to your listeners.
- 0:06Speaker 1: Now, Leah, this situation in Alice Springs, it's one which
- 0:09Speaker 1: you and I have spoken about before. The Government has
- 0:12Speaker 1: outlined some of the measures that they're taking to sort
- 0:14Speaker 1: this issue out, but for many there seems to be
- 0:17Speaker 1: no improvement. What do you think could be happening in
- 0:21Speaker 1: Ala Springs right now to quell these concerns.
- 0:24Speaker 4: I think it requires the legislative change. The government's certainly
- 0:27Speaker 4: taking an approach of bringing people together to try and
- 0:29Speaker 4: have this holistic sort of approach, and that's one thing,
- 0:32Speaker 4: but at the end of the day, you have a
- 0:34Speaker 4: revolving door of bail happening and that.
- 0:36Speaker 3: Needs to be addressed.
- 0:37Speaker 4: There needs to be a legisative change like what we propose,
- 0:41Speaker 4: which would then see repeat offenders not being able to
- 0:43Speaker 4: get bail. We need to immediately ensure we've got immediate
- 0:47Speaker 4: consequences for offending, which you know government promise they'd be
- 0:50Speaker 4: doing mandatory community service. That's a policy of ours that
- 0:54Speaker 4: needs to happen. And we also think something like our
- 0:56Speaker 4: sentence to a skill training facility needs to be brought
- 0:59Speaker 4: in a meetiate that's essentially a detention facility for fourteen fifteen,
- 1:03Speaker 4: sixteen year old youths who have got serious levels of offending,
- 1:07Speaker 4: who need to be sentenced to learning a skill and
- 1:11Speaker 4: getting a job essentially.
- 1:12Speaker 1: I reckon that you could get any of that kind
- 1:14Speaker 1: of thing up and running though immediately. I mean legislative change,
- 1:18Speaker 1: for example, is something that will take some time and consultation.
- 1:21Speaker 4: I would think, no, we could do it really quickly.
- 1:23Speaker 4: I mean our legislation is already drafted, ready to go.
- 1:26Speaker 4: The government could just literally reverse some of the garbage
- 1:29Speaker 4: it's brought in over the last two years which has
- 1:31Speaker 4: watered down consequences for youth offenders. We sit in Parliament
- 1:34Speaker 4: in two weeks, Katie, in two weeks, the government could
- 1:37Speaker 4: bring in legislation, move it on urgency. We would support
- 1:40Speaker 4: urgency and it would be done.
- 1:42Speaker 2: What exactly would this legislation be.
- 1:44Speaker 4: We think it needs to target repeat offenders, so if
- 1:47Speaker 4: you have got multiple offenses, you don't get bailed. Because
- 1:51Speaker 4: what we know is that kids are being caught, they're
- 1:53Speaker 4: being released, they're going and committing more crimes. The police
- 1:56Speaker 4: are catching them again, they're being released on BAI. We
- 1:58Speaker 4: need to stop that. Side, will stop that continual victimization
- 2:03Speaker 4: of the community and make sure that people who are
- 2:06Speaker 4: living their life doing the right thing feel safe.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Leah. Then on the other hand, we've obviously got a
- 2:11Speaker 1: situation though. I mean last week on this show we
- 2:13Speaker 1: caught up with John Lawrence sc who had said that,
- 2:17Speaker 1: you know, we have got too many kids in don Dale.
- 2:20Speaker 1: It's not fit for purpose. We should be shutting it
- 2:22Speaker 1: down immediately, and that we should not have children going
- 2:25Speaker 1: into a facility like that. I mean, where do we
- 2:28Speaker 1: sort of find the ground where we're going to have
- 2:32Speaker 1: young people stop offending but you know, treated in a
- 2:36Speaker 1: way that everybody thinks it's humane. Yeah.
- 2:38Speaker 4: Sure, and look, in a perfect world, no child will
- 2:41Speaker 4: go to jail. But what we have here is severe,
- 2:44Speaker 4: violent repeat offenders who are continuing to perpetrate crimes on everyday,
- 2:50Speaker 4: people who are just living their lives, destroying their businesses,
- 2:53Speaker 4: destroying their homes, forcing people to leave, attacking tourists. I mean,
- 2:56Speaker 4: this is not okay. And yes, the government should have
- 2:59Speaker 4: built the new detention facility for youth years and years
- 3:02Speaker 4: and years ago. I mean that was an election commitment,
- 3:04Speaker 4: you know, when they were in opposition, Katie.
- 3:06Speaker 3: So it's a long time coming.
- 3:08Speaker 4: But ultimately, we have to put the rights of everyday
- 3:10Speaker 4: people above the rights of criminals. That's something we've been
- 3:13Speaker 4: abundantly clear about. And instead this government keys putting the
- 3:17Speaker 4: rights of criminals above the rights of the community to
- 3:19Speaker 4: be safe.
- 3:20Speaker 3: And this is where all of the problems are starting.
- 3:23Speaker 1: What about raising the age of criminal responsibility, because this
- 3:26Speaker 1: is something that was the recommendation of the Royal Commission.
- 3:29Speaker 1: It's something that does continuously get raised and it does
- 3:33Speaker 1: seem to be something that the government's committed to, but
- 3:37Speaker 1: I don't know that the public agrees.
- 3:39Speaker 3: Well they shouldn't agree. It's a disaster waiting to happen.
- 3:41Speaker 4: We vehemently oppose raising the age of criminal responsibility. But
- 3:46Speaker 4: right now, the current law is that if you're between
- 3:48Speaker 4: ten and fourteen, the judge has to decide whether you
- 3:51Speaker 4: can be held criminally culpable.
- 3:53Speaker 3: And as it is, we're seeing plenty of kids being turned.
- 3:56Speaker 4: Around while it's in straight back out that courtroom door,
- 4:00Speaker 4: you know, without any repercussions for their criminal activity. Now,
- 4:03Speaker 4: if we were to have raise the age of criminal responsibility,
- 4:06Speaker 4: it literally means we're further tying up the hands of
- 4:09Speaker 4: our police to be able to do anything. We will
- 4:11Speaker 4: all of a sudden have twelve year olds absolved of
- 4:14Speaker 4: their criminal behavior simply because the government has decided that
- 4:18Speaker 4: we should have less twelve year olds in prison. Well,
- 4:20Speaker 4: like I said, no one wants to see a twelve
- 4:21Speaker 4: year old in prison. But if they're violently offending, if
- 4:24Speaker 4: they're continuing to ram raid steel cars, break into shops,
- 4:28Speaker 4: you know there needs to be a way to ensure
- 4:31Speaker 4: that that person is no longer a threat to the community.
- 4:33Speaker 2: Leah, let's not you know, let's not beat around the
- 4:35Speaker 2: bullsh here.
- 4:36Speaker 1: It's a massive call for a tourism body to come
- 4:38Speaker 1: out and say that things have reached crisis levels. I mean,
- 4:42Speaker 1: we're talking about the very body which is trying to
- 4:44Speaker 1: promote the Northern Territory to tourists right around the nation.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Do you think that this is going to hinder tourism?
- 4:50Speaker 4: It absolutely does. We already know it does. I was
- 4:53Speaker 4: in Alan Springs just a couple of weekends ago. Whenever
- 4:55Speaker 4: I meet with Tourism Central Australia, it's the number one
- 4:58Speaker 4: issue we rate that gets you walk through the streets
- 5:01Speaker 4: of Alice Springs and all you can see is roller
- 5:03Speaker 4: doors and boarded up windows. It's impacting people's ability to
- 5:07Speaker 4: run their business and their tourism entity, let alone how
- 5:10Speaker 4: people move about. You hear the terrible stories of gray
- 5:13Speaker 4: nomads saying, oh, don't stop in Tenant Creek, don't stop
- 5:17Speaker 4: in Alice Springs Park here. Even when I was in
- 5:19Speaker 4: Alice actually a couple of weekends ago, someone was saying
- 5:22Speaker 4: to me that a lot of people who are on
- 5:23Speaker 4: the road traveling actually stay forty minutes out of Alice
- 5:27Speaker 4: Springs and just come in and out during day trips
- 5:29Speaker 4: because they're too scared to stay there overnight. I mean,
- 5:31Speaker 4: this is debilitating for this town.
- 5:33Speaker 2: It is shocking.
- 5:34Speaker 1: And you know, look, I think that people have probably
- 5:37Speaker 1: reached the point as well. I mean they're probably listening
- 5:39Speaker 1: in Alice this morning and right around the territory and thinking,
- 5:42Speaker 1: we don't actually care what the government does, We don't
- 5:44Speaker 1: really care what the opposition sees.
- 5:46Speaker 2: We just want to see some change, Just do something.
- 5:49Speaker 1: Should we just drop the party lines here and both
- 5:51Speaker 1: sides of Parliament get together and try their best to
- 5:54Speaker 1: sort this issue out.
- 5:55Speaker 3: We would be so happy to Katie.
- 5:57Speaker 4: We've brought several pieces of legislation into the Parliament to
- 6:00Speaker 4: try and address these crime issues which are just through
- 6:04Speaker 4: the roof. We've tried to create committees. We will participate
- 6:09Speaker 4: in anything that the government is willing to have us
- 6:11Speaker 4: participate in. From our position. There's only seven, Katie, I've
- 6:14Speaker 4: got seven out of twenty five. There is an absolute
- 6:16Speaker 4: limit to what I can do. I need government to say, hey, Leah,
- 6:20Speaker 4: can you and your team put their heads together with
- 6:21Speaker 4: my team and come up with something.
- 6:23Speaker 1: You'd be prepared to see even like go back to
- 6:25Speaker 1: the drawing board when it comes to the legislation. You're
- 6:28Speaker 1: prepared to sit down with the government and try your
- 6:30Speaker 1: beast to take a real you know, bipartisan approp.
- 6:34Speaker 3: Absolutely, and this is a thing.
- 6:35Speaker 4: Even with the legislation we've brought previously, Government have just
- 6:38Speaker 4: voted that down. Now they don't have to do that.
- 6:40Speaker 4: They could amend it, they could change it however they like.
- 6:43Speaker 4: Instead they just gun us down and replace our action
- 6:46Speaker 4: with nothing. We are at the table. We want to
- 6:49Speaker 4: see change. I've got two members of parliament in Alice Springs,
- 6:52Speaker 4: one in ten in Kreeg. They are on the frontline
- 6:54Speaker 4: and the cold face of dealing with what's going on
- 6:57Speaker 4: in those communities and it's not okay. You know, Catherine
- 6:59Speaker 4: and and Darwin are experiencing similar things we saw during
- 7:03Speaker 4: the Fanny Bay by election. Even Robin Lamley came to
- 7:05Speaker 4: town and said, I'm here on behalf of people in
- 7:07Speaker 4: Alice Springs to say enough is enough. And I genuinely
- 7:11Speaker 4: don't know what is going to be enough for this
- 7:13Speaker 4: government to take action, but we will keep fighting.
- 7:15Speaker 3: We will keep raising the concerns of the community.
- 7:17Speaker 4: We will always put the right of territories to be
- 7:19Speaker 4: safe above the right of the criminal.
- 7:21Speaker 1: All right, I do want to move along and talk
- 7:23Speaker 1: about this wage freeze. We know that teachers have overwhelmingly
- 7:27Speaker 1: voted the latest off of down. It's becoming pretty clear
- 7:30Speaker 1: that the government is going to have to take a
- 7:32Speaker 1: bit of a hit here, despite the fact that the
- 7:34Speaker 1: government can't afford it, and you know they're going to
- 7:37Speaker 1: have to realistically offer a pay increase. How do you
- 7:40Speaker 1: think that this additional cost should be mitigated?
- 7:44Speaker 4: Well, I think we've got to stop the waste for
- 7:46Speaker 4: spending and the pet projects ultimately, but.
- 7:48Speaker 1: That's sort of after the fact. How do you think
- 7:50Speaker 1: that we go to com mitigate it. It but then
- 7:53Speaker 1: we are going to need substantial change to the budget,
- 7:56Speaker 1: I would suspect.
- 7:57Speaker 2: So how would you mitigate it?
- 7:59Speaker 4: Yeah, well I would be in this situation in the
- 8:01Speaker 4: first place. But going forward it requires a change to
- 8:05Speaker 4: how you do your business. It means you've got to
- 8:08Speaker 4: look at the areas where it could be more efficient
- 8:11Speaker 4: spending could take place. You've also got to grow the economy.
- 8:13Speaker 4: We don't think now is a time for austerity. We've
- 8:16Speaker 4: got eleven percent inflation, fuel is through the roof. Things
- 8:20Speaker 4: are not in a great space. But that's why this
- 8:23Speaker 4: government came in. Blew the debt, killed our economy, and
- 8:27Speaker 4: now they're wondering, oh, geez, we don't have any money
- 8:29Speaker 4: to pay the public service. Well, you've had six years
- 8:31Speaker 4: to bugger everything up and now look where we're sitting.
- 8:35Speaker 3: Ultimately, you've got to turn this ship around.
- 8:37Speaker 1: I think though, that there needs to be a review
- 8:39Speaker 1: into executive level jobs and also consultants.
- 8:44Speaker 4: Look, I know consultants is certainly something people talk to
- 8:47Speaker 4: us a lot about that the public service is really
- 8:49Speaker 4: contracting a lot of work that could be done internally
- 8:52Speaker 4: outside and of course they're all things that you've got
- 8:55Speaker 4: to look at. But ultimately we've been very clear about
- 8:58Speaker 4: being at the table for real way is growth. You know,
- 9:00Speaker 4: public servants are humans too, and they can sometimes be
- 9:03Speaker 4: an easy target, but not to us. You know, they're
- 9:06Speaker 4: people paying mortgages, they're people spending money at shops, their
- 9:08Speaker 4: kids are at schools, and they're an important part of
- 9:11Speaker 4: our community.
- 9:12Speaker 1: This is the fact, though, that the public service continues
- 9:14Speaker 1: to grow despite the fact that the populations not sure.
- 9:17Speaker 4: And that's a separate issue. You know, should the public
- 9:20Speaker 4: service just be allowed to exponentially grow? You know, that's
- 9:23Speaker 4: that's not okay either. But punishing the people who go
- 9:27Speaker 4: to work every day doing the right thing for the
- 9:29Speaker 4: government's own fiscal and economic mismanagement is not okay.
- 9:32Speaker 1: We don't I'm getting to though, is you know, and
- 9:35Speaker 1: this is some of the feedback that we get on
- 9:36Speaker 1: the tech line and also through callers, is that you know,
- 9:39Speaker 1: they understand what you're saying, that you can't waste money
- 9:41Speaker 1: and on things like grandstands and that kind of stuff.
- 9:44Speaker 2: But we're in the situation.
- 9:45Speaker 1: That we're in now, and it's all well and good
- 9:48Speaker 1: for the opposition to say, well, we would allow the
- 9:50Speaker 1: government or allow the public service, you know, to have
- 9:53Speaker 1: a wage increase, But where is the money going to
- 9:55Speaker 1: come from? And it's going to be an ongoing spend,
- 9:57Speaker 1: So how would.
- 9:58Speaker 2: You deal with that?
- 9:59Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got a ton of policies to immediately lift
- 10:02Speaker 4: the handbrake on our economy and that really is our
- 10:06Speaker 4: flagship piece around how you deal with debt. We know
- 10:09Speaker 4: we need to tighten our belts, but you can't have austerity.
- 10:12Speaker 4: So what are the levers government can pull? You know,
- 10:14Speaker 4: we've got an approvals fast tracked system which would see
- 10:17Speaker 4: approval time frames cut across government for everything by fifty percent.
- 10:22Speaker 4: That's going to allow private sector investment to flow in
- 10:25Speaker 4: half as much time as this government. We've got different
- 10:28Speaker 4: ways in which we'd run the major project system. Of course,
- 10:32Speaker 4: gas needs to be a huge amount of energy needs
- 10:35Speaker 4: to be put into delivering the remainder of the Pepper
- 10:38Speaker 4: inquiring recommendations and having the right environment that gives people
- 10:41Speaker 4: confidence to be a business and invest in the territory.
- 10:44Speaker 1: You think that a decision like the one around Santos
- 10:48Speaker 1: obviously that we saw last week not going ahead or
- 10:51Speaker 1: being knocked back, how do you think that a decision
- 10:54Speaker 1: like that then impacts the Northern Territory's ability to grow
- 10:57Speaker 1: the economy.
- 10:58Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, no doubt.
- 11:00Speaker 4: There'll be a lot of the bigger players looking at that,
- 11:03Speaker 4: but also learning from what may have gone wrong.
- 11:07Speaker 3: What might not have gone wrong.
- 11:07Speaker 4: I mean, obviously Santos they're appealing that decision, so who
- 11:11Speaker 4: knows really, But ultimately things have to be done properly
- 11:14Speaker 4: and our approvals fast track is not about cutting things out.
- 11:17Speaker 4: It's about putting the right resourcing into it so we
- 11:20Speaker 4: can get things moving quicker.
- 11:22Speaker 3: We have a wealth of.
- 11:23Speaker 4: Opportunity in the territory and yet we just seem to
- 11:26Speaker 4: be stagnant and have been for a very long time.
- 11:29Speaker 4: You know, COMSEC we've had fifteen consecutive quarters of being
- 11:32Speaker 4: the worst performing economy in the nation, and yet the
- 11:34Speaker 4: government throw that report in the bin. I mean, this
- 11:37Speaker 4: is a government who's not focused on crime and not
- 11:39Speaker 4: focused on growing our economy, and all of a sudden
- 11:42Speaker 4: they're pretending to be focused on debt by punishing public service.
- 11:45Speaker 4: I mean they're asleep at the wheel. They've got no
- 11:47Speaker 4: direction and people see through them.
- 11:49Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 11:49Speaker 2: Look, I think it's a really tough one.
- 11:51Speaker 1: Now it's going to be with this public service wage
- 11:53Speaker 1: truth because as we've discussed obviously the cost of living
- 11:56Speaker 1: as well, and truly there's no doubt about that, but
- 12:00Speaker 1: any pay increase that is offered is going to be
- 12:02Speaker 1: something that continues on down the track.
- 12:05Speaker 2: It's an ongoing expense.
- 12:07Speaker 3: Right, So that's rough.
- 12:08Speaker 4: But the reality is, and we heard the unions basically
- 12:11Speaker 4: say yesterday, if this pay freeze continues, teachers will leave.
- 12:15Speaker 4: We're in term we're about to hit term four. People
- 12:18Speaker 4: are making decisions about what am I doing next year?
- 12:20Speaker 4: What school am I going to be at? And if
- 12:22Speaker 4: they decide, you know what, I'm done with this, I'm moving.
- 12:24Speaker 3: I'm leaving.
- 12:25Speaker 4: I'm sick of crime, I'm sick of the cost of living,
- 12:27Speaker 4: and I'm sick of the pay freeze. We might see
- 12:29Speaker 4: a mass exodus of teachers come Christmas and then be
- 12:32Speaker 4: finding it very, very difficult to start our schools in
- 12:35Speaker 4: twenty twenty three. That is a genuine risk that the
- 12:38Speaker 4: government is putting us in because it blew its money
- 12:42Speaker 4: in the first four years and is scrambling desperately now
- 12:44Speaker 4: to try and work out how to chloroback lea.
- 12:46Speaker 1: I do want to ask you. We know that petrol prices. Well,
- 12:49Speaker 1: that fuel excise is set to end tomorrow. Do you
- 12:52Speaker 1: think we're going to see big increases? I do.
- 12:54Speaker 4: And the reality is most territories never saw any drop
- 12:58Speaker 4: when the fuel excise was cut.
- 12:59Speaker 3: I mean, it was a ridiculous situation for us.
- 13:01Speaker 4: We're seeing these huge blowout in prices between the terminal
- 13:05Speaker 4: gate and the Bowser. We actually have legislation on the
- 13:07Speaker 4: table right now, Katie, which is very exciting. Where putting
- 13:11Speaker 4: in the diary to brief government and be brief independent
- 13:13Speaker 4: members and we hope to debate and pass it in
- 13:16Speaker 4: two weeks time. But that would really force downward pressure
- 13:19Speaker 4: on fuel prices. It would force retailers to have to
- 13:22Speaker 4: disclose their profit. It was a recommendation of the a
- 13:24Speaker 4: Triple C back in twenty seventeen and we're really hopeful
- 13:28Speaker 4: government support it, improve it, do something to send these
- 13:31Speaker 4: guys a message you can't keep ripping us off at
- 13:34Speaker 4: the Bowser.
- 13:34Speaker 2: All right, just finally a bit of good news.
- 13:37Speaker 1: We know that this Saturday there's got to be actually
- 13:40Speaker 1: a fantastic fundraiser.
- 13:42Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit more about us.
- 13:43Speaker 4: Yes, So eight trielve regiment out at Robertson Barracks. They're
- 13:46Speaker 4: doing Gonna Bear, which is basically a wonderful fundraiser for
- 13:50Speaker 4: Royal dah And Hospital. They've already raised twenty eight thousand
- 13:53Speaker 4: dollars and on Saturday is the big day, So if
- 13:55Speaker 4: you want to donate money and have a bit of
- 13:57Speaker 4: fitness and fun, go to the Esplanade at seven they're
- 14:00Speaker 4: going to run a pt session for a gold coin donation.
- 14:03Speaker 4: Then we're going to have upwards of one hundred military
- 14:06Speaker 4: personnel pushing an artillery gun all the way from the
- 14:09Speaker 4: Esplanad to Royal Darwin Hospital, which is insane and amazing
- 14:14Speaker 4: and wonderful. If you want to see it and donate,
- 14:17Speaker 4: you can go to Gunner Bear twenty twenty two on Facebook,
- 14:19Speaker 4: but also stop past Tire Plus at Stuart Park, go
- 14:22Speaker 4: to Casorina Square or Land Miller McDonald's and you will
- 14:25Speaker 4: literally see these guys pushing artillery gun all the way.
- 14:29Speaker 3: To the hospital.
- 14:29Speaker 2: Always a sight to behold.
- 14:31Speaker 1: It is wonderful when it happens, and a big congratulations
- 14:34Speaker 1: and well done to them. Twenty eight thousand dollars already,
- 14:37Speaker 1: and you know there's still quite some time to go,
- 14:39Speaker 1: so we'll keep a close on that we might even
- 14:41Speaker 1: see if we can get somebody on.
- 14:42Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 14:43Speaker 1: Lea Finocchiaro, the opposition leader, good to speak with you
- 14:46Speaker 1: this morning.
- 14:46Speaker 2: Thank you for your time.
- 14:47Speaker 3: Thank you, Take care,