Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro says the party will not support the government’s plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility

Transcript

Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro says the party will not support the government’s plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've spoken at lengths about the government's announcement last week
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: around raising the age of criminal responsibility and proposed changes
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to mandatory sentencing. Now joining me on the line is
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the Opposition leader Leah fanocchi Aro. Good morning to you, Leah.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Until your listeners now, Leah.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: These changes have raised concerns from some within the community.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Others have lauded the decision around raising the age is
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: brave and a step in the right direction. Leah, Will
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: you and the Opposition support the raising of the age
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of criminal responsibility when it is debated at the next
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: sittings in November.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: We absolutely will not, Katie. I can guarantee territory and
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: that this is a terrible move. It would just mean
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: less consequences, less accountability for offenders. It will not mean
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: less crime. And it's a very cynical way for this
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: government to drive down its crime stats essentially because anyone
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: committing a crime under the age of twelve it is
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: no longer committing a crime. They've given this age bracket
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: total immunity from the law. And what we know is
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: that there is serious violent offending, motor vehicle thefts, arm robberies,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: all sorts of crimes taking place by ten and eleven
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: year old and now all of a sudden they're going
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: to be above the law. Leah.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: There are obviously different groups, different health groups we know
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: as well the Children's Commissioner and others that have said
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that this is a step in the right direction. The
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Attorney General Chancey Peig has said that what we're doing
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: right now isn't working. What do you say to those
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that actually think that this is a good thing.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: I think they need to go and sit down with
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: victims of these people's crimes. They need to go and
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: sit down with the business owners who are barricading themselves
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: and sleeping in their businesses, the moms and dads who
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: are having to explain to their children why someone's broken
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: into their house and stolen their things or destroyed something
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: or stolen their car. I mean, this government is completely
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: offender focus and victims and the territory AND's right to
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: be safe is just completely left behind. I think the
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Northern Territory Police Association said it very well when they
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: because they're absolutely opposed to this as well, when they said,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: why wouldn't you put the programs in place first and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: then see if that's making any difference, and then look
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: at change in the age, not changing the age first
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: before we even have any programs in place, and the
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: reality is used in this age bracket will no longer
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: be able to be diverted by police because they won't
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: be able to be engaged with police at all. And
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  Speaker 2: the NTPA i'd gone as far as saying, you know, basically,
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  Speaker 2: if there's a child in that age bracket community a crime,
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  Speaker 2: you know, don't call us. What exactly do you expect
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: police to do? So it just further disempowers our police,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: further disempowers victims, and just continues to give more rights
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: to criminals than ever before.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Leah, what about those programs? I mean, what programs do
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you think do need to be implemented here? And what
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: support mechanisms do you think need to be implemented here?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Because the reality is going to be that's you know,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: presumably when this is debated in November, even if the
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Opposition and the Independence don't support it, it is still
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: going to get across the line. So what do you
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: think needs to be in place to ensure that the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: community is as safe as possible.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Labor will ram this through on their numbers, but
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  Speaker 2: I can assure Territorians it is something that the CLP
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: would reverse if we win government in twenty twenty four.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: In the meantime, we can only hope that this government
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: is all of a sudden going to magically create programs
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: which in sixty years it hasn't been able to create.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: We just had some responses back to written questions Katie
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: around how many youths had engaged in the two fun
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: camps that this government runs and calls diversion, and there's
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a handful of kids. I mean, what we need is
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: serious intervention in these kids' lives. We need to make
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: sure that they're not in an unsafe home environment in
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the first place, and be doing all of that prevention
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: work in the lead up. Because the child doesn't magically
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: become a criminal at eight years old, you know, something
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: terrible is going on at home. Something is definitely wrong
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  Speaker 2: in that child's life, and that needs to be addressed.
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  Speaker 2: But for these offenders, we need to be ensuring that
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  Speaker 2: they're not out reoffending, that they're not out doing whatever
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  Speaker 2: they want and destrain people's lives. That they're you know,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: in a detention facility that's providing them then an opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to turn their life around, not just back out on
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: the street committing crime night after night after night.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Nelia, have you had much of an opportunity to go
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: through those proposed changes when it comes to mandatory sentencing,
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  Speaker 1: because you know, we have all been talking a lot
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: about raising the age of criminal responsibility and that change,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: but there's also been some pretty significant changes announced again
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: that are set to be debated, as I understand it,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: in those November sittings. Have you had much of the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: opportunity to go through those changes and what do you
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: make of those?
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, we're pouring through it now. What the government
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: did last week was pretty pathetic. They dumped a bunch
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: of massive amounts of legislation and serious legislation in an
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: attempt to just pass it under the cover of darkness.
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  Speaker 1: They did that on purpose. Do you reckon? They did
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: it on purpose?
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  Speaker 2: Completely, Absolutely, there's no question we've got massive changes to
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: the Anti Discrimination Act. They're removing mandatory sentencing for domestic
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: violence and drug offenses. They're bringing in the age of
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: criminal responsibility. This is all designed to be under the
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: cover of Christmas coming up at the end of the year,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: and you know, then they're just going to move on
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: next year. It's an absolute disgrace that territories have one
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: month to consume as much change as what they're trying
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  Speaker 2: to propose. So we're really concerned, obviously for the victims
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: of domestic violence that now their perpetrator won't even serve
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: mandatory prison time when they're breaching DeVos and in circumstances
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  Speaker 2: like that, I mean, we put the victim first and
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: to have and they're often women, and they're more often
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: than not Aboriginal women, and yet this government saying it's
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: okay for them to continue to be in the presence
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: of their abuse, and we just think it's disgraceful, especially
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: if they're also removing mandatory sentencing around drug offenses and
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: things like that. We know they're looking at tresp us,
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  Speaker 2: but we don't think it goes far enough that we'll
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  Speaker 2: be engaging with business around the type of power they
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: really need to make sure that people who are causing
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: so much destruction in their businesses are able to be banned.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: But ultimately, this is a this is a major major
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  Speaker 2: step in the wrong direction where we're again putting the
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: right to offenders above the rights of victims. And what's
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  Speaker 2: worse is, you know, our prisons are full, KDE, There's
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: no question about that. But instead of the government driving
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: down crime in the first place, they're just going to
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: send less people to jail. You know, that's not the
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: answer people. You know, no one wants to send someone
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  Speaker 2: to jail, but if you're a really, really bad person,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: where else can you go? And the fact that they're full,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: The answer is not, well, let's just send less people
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: because we can't cope. The answer is we need to
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: stop crime happening in the first place. We need to
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: stop this trail of destruction and victimization that's happening in
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  Speaker 2: the territory. Do you be communicating do.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: You think that you know with these proposed changes to
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the mandatory sentencing, I mean, they've said that it's not
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: going to include charges like murder, But do you think
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  Speaker 1: that we are going to see a situation here where
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  Speaker 1: there are people who've committed serious, serious offenses who ordinarily
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: would be doing time in jail that they're no longer
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: going to have to. I mean, the government's obviously saying
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that they want them to undertake rehabilitive programs. Is that
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  Speaker 1: not not good? Enough.
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  Speaker 2: It's absolutely not good enough. It is a total load
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  Speaker 2: of rubbish. The community has an expectation that people who
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: do the wrong thing go to prison and are not
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  Speaker 2: allowed to continue to perpetrate on other people. Now, to
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: have serious, serious offenders to be able to stay out
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  Speaker 2: on the street instead of going to prison under the
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  Speaker 2: guise of completing some program which the government hasn't even
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: created yet, they don't even exist, they don't know what
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  Speaker 2: they're going to be. I mean it looks something like this, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: Perpetrator A should have gone to jail, doesn't under Labour's
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: new laws, and instead has to go, you know, one
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  Speaker 2: night a week to some sort of therapeutic program, tick
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  Speaker 2: and flick on the piece of paper. Yet by came
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  Speaker 2: I went Meanwhile, what is the right of the victim
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  Speaker 2: who's thinking I need some respite from this person, I
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  Speaker 2: need an opportunity to get away from this individual who's
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  Speaker 2: destroying my life. I mean, it's just absurdity. In the
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  Speaker 2: next level, why isn't the government giving people this therapeutic
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  Speaker 2: support they need in prison while they have them as
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  Speaker 2: a captive audience. If you're a perpetrator and you're in prison,
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  Speaker 2: there's no reason why five days a week, all day
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  Speaker 2: you can't be getting the support you need instead of
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  Speaker 2: getting it on the outside where you can continue to
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  Speaker 2: be a threat to your victim.
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  Speaker 1: Lea, I do want to ask you. I am just saying.
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  Speaker 1: Right now on the Northern Territory News they are reporting
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: that essentially the Territories Hospitality sector is calling for a
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: youth curfew in Alice Springs to try and curb crime
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  Speaker 1: and anti social behavior in the town. Hospitality Into Chief
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Executive Alex Bruce has said that a curfew, with the
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: support of Alice of the Alice Springs community should be
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: trialed and rigorously, I should say, assess to determine its effectiveness.
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  Speaker 1: What do you make of this? Do you think that
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  Speaker 1: they should be trialing a curfew in Alice.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Look, it's something that's been talked about in Alice String
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  Speaker 2: Springs through an extremely long time. I know the police
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: don't like the idea of it because they can't enforce it.
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  Speaker 2: Again that it's not going to really impact on those
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: youths who are under that criminal age of responsibility, and
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  Speaker 2: there are a lot of the kids who are actually
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: on the street. Police can't just arrest them. If the
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: age isn't there. And in Alice Springs they already have
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: the tanganjib bus services which effectively pick up kids all
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: night long and take them home. But look, you know,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: if the government's going to try something, we will absolutely
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: support it, you know, whether it's curfew or not. I
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: think people are just absolutely chronically desperate for action. I mean,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: at lunchtime today, Katie, I'm meeting with very angry business
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: owners in Yarrawonga who've been ram rated.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, go back. I will go to that in a second.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: But so you don't you don't support a curfew in
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: No, No, If government's going to do a curfew, then
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: so be it. People absolutely want something to happen. It's
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: it's diabolical the situation down there. Whether or not it
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: can be resourced by police as a whole other question,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: and I've got serious doubts about that and whether or
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: not it makes an impact, Well, I guess you only
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: know if you try. So you know absolutely if government
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: are going to do it, great, But you know Alice
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Springs has got some well it.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Doesn't it doesn't sound aside the Chief Miness is going
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to try it, she said. The Chief minister has defended
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the government's approach to reducing crime and said there was
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: no intention of implementing a curfew. The proposal, though, does
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: have the backing of high profile Alice Springs independent MLA
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Robin Lamley, who has indeed championed that youth curfew and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs for at least fifteen years. But from your perspective,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: unless it's something that the government's going to drive, it's
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: not something that the Opposition's going to be pushing for.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, our understanding on the ground in Alice Springs
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: is it's sort of fifty to fifty. Some people think
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: it will work, some people think it won't. The police
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: don't think it will work, and there's nowhere to take
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: these views. So there's a couple of just practical problems
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: with curfew. But I'm not saying it shouldn't be tried.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: You know, we support anything different happening in Alice Springs.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: They are absolutely at crisis point. I need support. There's
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: disappointing that government won't even entertain it. But yeah, they
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: would just have to be All I'm saying is for
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: a curfew to work, you would have to put some
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: additional scaffolding around that system to make it able to
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: be implemented currently as it stands, it couldn't just be
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: done overnight.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah all right, So Leah, you are heading out to
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yarrawonga to meet with some of those businesses. We did
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: speak to Donna yesterday on the show from Mt Handrails,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I believe is the business after they'd been ram rated.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: We'd also obviously spoken to Tui and Sloan out there
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: at Berry Springs on Friday. That was terrible. You know,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: that was terrible situation. But you're heading out to Yarrawonga today.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I certainly am a Donna contact in US and I
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: said absolutely will come out. And you know that's in
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: my electric Katie, and it's a major issue. So businesses
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: are coming together and encouraged to come down and I
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: want to hear directly from them about how this is
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: impacting their business and the extreme extreme lengths they're having
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: to go to to barricade themselves in. I mean, if
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: you go to Yarrawonga, you know what after hours the
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: scene is, you know, rubbish being concrete blocks, any type
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: of bollard that they can find position on their fence
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: line just in case there's a stolen vehicle. Ram. I mean,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: it's just extraordinary. People can't keep living like this. We've
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: got business people sleeping in their businesses, spending it, going
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: to extraordinary lengths to protect their property, their staff, their products.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just too much for anyone to bear.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: This is an absolute crisis. It's a tipping point, breaking point,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: and I don't know what it's going to take for
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: the government to do something different, but clearly with this
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: suite of reform they've just introduced last week, it's only
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: going to get worse, not better. They're just not listening. Well.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Leah, we are going to be speaking to a business
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: person who is allegedly assaulted in coals in the Coals
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: complex in Alice Springs yesterday. We're going to be catching
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: up with that person just after ten o'clock this morning.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Please keep us up to date with how things go
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: out there at Yarrawonga. We will talk to you again
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: very soon.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, we'll do take care everyone.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you,