Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Acting NTPA President Lisa Bayliss Said the Process Being Sought By Mr Chalker is in Contrast with the Options Afforded to the Rank.

Transcript

Acting NTPA President Lisa Bayliss Said the Process Being Sought By Mr Chalker is in Contrast with the Options Afforded to the Rank. · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: One four nine's Katie Wolf. Everyone's listening banks to Darwin Masda.
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  Speaker 1: You are listening to Mix one O four nine's three sixteen. Now.
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  Speaker 1: Plenty of messages coming through on the text line this morning,
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  Speaker 1: keep those coming. There is one here that says, welcome back, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: A lot goes down hill whenever you're on holiday. The
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister is clearly delusional. Maybe it's time for her
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  Speaker 1: to get some better glasses and see what we all see.
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  Speaker 1: I'm so sick of it, spin, spin, spin, and the
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  Speaker 1: crime is unacceptable, says that text. There are a lot
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  Speaker 1: of them coming through, and somebody is saying, please get
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Albanezi back to Alice Springs so we can see
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  Speaker 1: what's going on. But look, joining me in the studio
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  Speaker 1: right now because we know the Northern Territory Police Association
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  Speaker 1: so that they're concerned and frustrated with the double standards
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  Speaker 1: being demonstrated by the Northern Territory Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker
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  Speaker 1: and the Northern Territory Government in resolving an ongoing contract dispute.
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  Speaker 1: And joining me in the studio right now is the
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  Speaker 1: acting Northern terror Tree Police Association President Lisa Bayless. Good morning,
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  Speaker 1: to you, Lisa. Good morning, Katie, Thanks so much for
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  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Now, Lisa, you've issued this statement
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  Speaker 1: over the last day. I'm saying that are the associations
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  Speaker 1: obviously concerned and frustrated with these double standards. What exactly
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  Speaker 1: do you mean?
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  Speaker 2: Well, basically, when it comes around our employment and conditions,
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  Speaker 2: it's run by a police Administration Act. We have policy
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  Speaker 2: and procedures around that. We don't come under the Fair
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  Speaker 2: Work Act. So in relation to the commissioner requesting for
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  Speaker 2: an interstate retired judge to oversee this dispute that he's
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  Speaker 2: having with his employer, the government and bringing in a
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  Speaker 2: high powered judge with sorry judge, lawyer Arthur moses, our
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  Speaker 2: members do not are not afforded the same right. So well,
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  Speaker 2: the process of a dismissal, if a member believes have
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  Speaker 2: been unfairly dismissed, they need to apply make application to
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  Speaker 2: have an appeal heard. So the process of that appeal
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  Speaker 2: it goes before the Tribune. It can take up to
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  Speaker 2: two years for hearing date to be said. And obviously
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  Speaker 2: during that time our members are left waiting. They have
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  Speaker 2: to seek employment elsewhere you know, one can survive and
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  Speaker 2: pay the bills and look after their family, waiting around
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  Speaker 2: for a process which may take two years. And then
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  Speaker 2: you've also got the issue is at the end of
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  Speaker 2: that process, how it's actually going to It's going to
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  Speaker 2: be in their favor or not. There's no independence, there's
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  Speaker 2: no transparency, and often members are left to the whole
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  Speaker 2: process is soul destroying. It's actually not worth the process
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  Speaker 2: of going through that. And we were contacted by our
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  Speaker 2: members who said this is completely unfair. We see this
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  Speaker 2: as an absolute double standard where the commissioner is able
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  Speaker 2: to go through a fast and efficient and transparent process
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  Speaker 2: and our members are not afforded the same right.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess you know, to put it really simply,
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  Speaker 1: the commissioner is calling on a process that's not available
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  Speaker 1: to everyday frontline members.
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  Speaker 2: Now that is correct. We know that the system that
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  Speaker 2: we said under the Police Administration Act is it's sort
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  Speaker 2: of it's written in the seventies and we now we're
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three and the process that the whole
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  Speaker 2: employment law it's changed significantly over that period of time.
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  Speaker 2: But we've been left stuck in the nineteen seventies and
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  Speaker 2: having to deal with that process. Our members deserve better.
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  Speaker 2: Our members expect better, and we know that this is
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  Speaker 2: affecting my role. When they see one rule for one
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  Speaker 2: and a different rule for the other, it's completely unfair.
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  Speaker 1: Now, so does there need to be a review of
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  Speaker 1: those processes and how quickly do you reckon that needs
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  Speaker 1: to get underway.
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  Speaker 2: There's been a number of reviews done over the years.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously.
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  Speaker 2: One of the big issues that our members have is
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  Speaker 2: around time frames. If there's if anything in relation to
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  Speaker 2: our discipline situation, usually it's the process which does more
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  Speaker 2: harm than the actual and you know, the complaint or
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  Speaker 2: the outcomes, it's the length of time that it takes.
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  Speaker 2: It's the emotional toll that takes on the member. And
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  Speaker 2: we've always said it's around those time frames. And I
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  Speaker 2: know there was a review done fairly recently and the
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  Speaker 2: recommendations was to remove any timeframes, which is the complete
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  Speaker 2: opposite of what our members expect. And again, in a
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  Speaker 2: modern workplace, we should be having, you know, expectations of
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  Speaker 2: relevant timeframes when meetings are held, mediation is done, and
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  Speaker 2: even outcomes and tribunals that are that are set to meet.
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  Speaker 1: Lisa stepping away from that and stepping back to the
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  Speaker 1: commissioner's situation, What needs to happen here and what kind
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  Speaker 1: of you know, what what are members saying to you
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  Speaker 1: in relation to what's happening with the police commissioner and
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  Speaker 1: that uncertainty.
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  Speaker 2: At this point, it's incredibly frustrating that the police officers
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  Speaker 2: go to work every single day to do a job,
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  Speaker 2: to serve the community, to protect the community, and to
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  Speaker 2: you know, to fight crime and keep us safe, and
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  Speaker 2: it's very frustrating when this is constantly in the media.
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  Speaker 2: It's talking about, you know, the position of the police commissioner,
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  Speaker 2: what's going to happen to him. We don't need to
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  Speaker 2: be hearing about that. A decision needs to be made
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  Speaker 2: by government. We have expectations that we have certainty around
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  Speaker 2: who is our actual commissioner of police. We would like
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  Speaker 2: to see that a decision has made soon. We just
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  Speaker 2: see the situation is untenable the way it's currently ongoing.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that members obviously made it very clear
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  Speaker 1: how they felt towards the end of last year last August,
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  Speaker 1: so seventy nine point six almost eighty percent of those
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  Speaker 1: officers that were surveyed said that they didn't have confidence
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  Speaker 1: in Jamie Chalker. I mean, do offices want him gone?
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  Speaker 2: Well, from that survey, that was the request. They wanted
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  Speaker 2: to have a vote of no confidence. Because that's what
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  Speaker 2: the way our association has run. It's the members. They
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  Speaker 2: request certain things through their meetings. One was they wanted
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  Speaker 2: to have a vote of no confidence. It's come through
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  Speaker 2: to the Police Association Executive. We made a decision that
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  Speaker 2: we'd had a number of stations requesting that, so we
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  Speaker 2: put it to vote and obviously the outcome of that
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  Speaker 2: vote was quite overwhelming that the members didn't have confidence
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  Speaker 2: in the Police Commissioner. All those results were provided to
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  Speaker 2: the government and you know here we are currently now
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  Speaker 2: where we've got reports in the media saying that clearly
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  Speaker 2: the government is meant to have no confidence in the commissioner.
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  Speaker 2: And if that's true, I think it's important for them
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  Speaker 2: to say either way and let's see an outcome on
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  Speaker 2: what's actually happening.
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  Speaker 1: Lisa, Why does this need to get sorted quickly? You know,
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  Speaker 1: from from the rank and file perspective, Why does it
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  Speaker 1: just need to get sorted out nice and fast.
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  Speaker 2: I think certainty around leadership is really important. It does
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  Speaker 2: affect the members of how they approach their job. About
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  Speaker 2: who they go to for final decisions. And I think
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  Speaker 2: having you know, Acting Commissioner Murphy in the chair is
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  Speaker 2: it does bring some confidence to our members. We know
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  Speaker 2: that he's done this job before, and we know that
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  Speaker 2: there has been a bit of a turnaround recently with
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  Speaker 2: I suppose an attitude in the workplace. So it'll be
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  Speaker 2: interesting to see what the final decision is. But there
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  Speaker 2: is that problem where you know, members are contacting us
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  Speaker 2: saying what is going on, and it is it's embarrassing.
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  Speaker 2: I think for the government to let it get to
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  Speaker 2: this situation, it should not be where we've got the
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  Speaker 2: commissioner of the Norman Territory Police Force where there's uncertainty
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  Speaker 2: about his future, is uncertainly about the police force. Who's
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  Speaker 2: leading the police force make a decision now.
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  Speaker 1: I know that previously on the show, the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 1: had said that there'd been hundreds of police officers on
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  Speaker 1: leave at any one time. I know that other points
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  Speaker 1: said sort of been this number of four hundred bandied around.
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  Speaker 1: I'd spoken to Paul mcewe about it last week. He
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  Speaker 1: had said that, you know, it wasn't that high, but
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  Speaker 1: do we still have a large number of police officers
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  Speaker 1: who are on leave for various reasons at the moment,
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  Speaker 1: and do you think that the situation with leadership would
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  Speaker 1: be having an impact in any.
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  Speaker 2: Way here, Look, I'm probably not. We've got people who
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  Speaker 2: if they're on long term sick leave, there's usually a
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  Speaker 2: variety of reasons for that. They have health problems, they
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  Speaker 2: may they may have been injured in the workplace. We've
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  Speaker 2: also got people who take their normal recreation leave, long
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  Speaker 2: service leave, cares leave. There's a variety of reasons. And
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  Speaker 2: of a police force of around sixteen hundred of members,
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  Speaker 2: you're always going to have somebody who's on leave at
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  Speaker 2: any given time. People also of other requirements with study
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  Speaker 2: and those sorts of commitments that you know that they
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  Speaker 2: need to be released for. We often hear that there's
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  Speaker 2: a huge amount of sick leave within the police force.
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  Speaker 2: You've got to remember that we're a twenty four to
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  Speaker 2: seven agency and we work in a fairly physical and
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  Speaker 2: emotional workplace. We're confronted with quite traumatic events and it
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  Speaker 2: does have an impact on a member's overall health. So
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  Speaker 2: there is an expectation that we probably will have higher
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  Speaker 2: levels of sick leave. Now. Knowing that and knowing that
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  Speaker 2: that's going to be an ongoing issue. Then when we
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  Speaker 2: have our attrition rate that needs to include you know,
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  Speaker 2: needs to be built in that factor to be able
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  Speaker 2: to still service the community when we have people on leave.
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  Speaker 2: There's an next dictation from people when they ring the
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  Speaker 2: police that the police will answer the phone, the police
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  Speaker 2: will turn up at their doorstep, and the police will
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  Speaker 2: help them.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, spot on. And I do want to ask as well.
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  Speaker 1: We've got a message from a listener a little bit
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  Speaker 1: earlier this morning questioning are there any police stations that
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  Speaker 1: are opened after four pm that the public can sort
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  Speaker 1: of go into to see police, you know, to be
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  Speaker 1: able to go in and report things to the police. Lisa,
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  Speaker 1: do you know do you have any insight at this
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  Speaker 1: point whether you know whether the police stations are opened
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  Speaker 1: after that time.
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  Speaker 2: The opening hours. I'm actually unsure. I know that we
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  Speaker 2: have Palmerston's Police station which they do firearms registration as well,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not sure they're opening ours. I know that
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  Speaker 2: we often do have an evening service where but it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't stay open twenty four to seven. There's usually no
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  Speaker 2: requirement for a police station to be open twenty four
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  Speaker 2: to seven because we do have police are available to
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  Speaker 2: attend other locations, and I think that's come out of
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  Speaker 2: a needs basis. When we've had police stations open, having
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  Speaker 2: somebody sit there all when there's nobody turns up for assistance,
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  Speaker 2: it's kind of not really necessary. So it's open for
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  Speaker 2: a reason, but it is disappointing. I don't know which
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  Speaker 2: police station they're referring to. Some stations are only are
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  Speaker 2: open for a day shift, but some I open longer
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  Speaker 2: for the evening shift hours. Some positive messages this morning
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  Speaker 2: as well about what's been seen as whether it is
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  Speaker 2: or not increase police out and about over the course
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  Speaker 2: of the weekend for Easter, plenty of police outsort of
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  Speaker 2: doing patrols and also booze buses back out again, is
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  Speaker 2: what we've been told by some listeners. So some positive
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  Speaker 2: feedback there from listeners that there does seem to be
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  Speaker 2: more out on the ground and I think, you know,
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  Speaker 2: people are really positive about the work that Northern Territory
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  Speaker 2: Police do. They know that they do a really tough job,
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  Speaker 2: but they want that visibility as well. Yeah, Look, it
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  Speaker 2: is interesting Katie, because police that we join the job
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  Speaker 2: because we want to serve the community. We want to
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  Speaker 2: be out and about. We want to you know, be
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  Speaker 2: tackling and fighting crime. And it is it's what we're good,
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  Speaker 2: it's what we when we put into motion, that's exactly
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  Speaker 2: what we will get around to doing. And it is
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  Speaker 2: it's good to hear that the community sees the good
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  Speaker 2: work that you know, men and women of the norm
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  Speaker 2: the Churchy Police Force are doing. It is good good
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  Speaker 2: feedback to hear that.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, well, Lisa Baylis, good to catch up with
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  Speaker 1: you this morning, Thanks so much for your time, Acting
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  Speaker 1: Police Association President.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you Katie.
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  Speaker 1: It is just twenty minutes away from eleven eight nine
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  Speaker 1: four one one O four nine if you'd like to
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  Speaker 1: call through.