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Katie Woolf spoke with Greg Neck from Alice Springs · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: We have been talking in recent weeks and months about
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  Speaker 1: some of the issues with crime in Alice Springs, and
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  Speaker 1: I think you'd have to say that the issue really
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  Speaker 1: reached fever pitch on Friday last week when we learned
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  Speaker 1: that a man was seriously injured after being hit by
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  Speaker 1: a vehicle which was allegedly stolen by a number of
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  Speaker 1: young people.
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  Speaker 2: Now we know that.
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  Speaker 1: There's plenty of residents in Alice Springs who are really
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  Speaker 1: very concerned about the situation. We've spoken on numerous occasions
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  Speaker 1: to Robin Lamley. We've also spoken to Bill Yan, one
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  Speaker 1: of the other members down there in Alice, and to
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  Speaker 1: Josh Burgoyne on a few occasions about some of the
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  Speaker 1: concerns from locals. Now joining me on the line right
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  Speaker 1: now is one of those locals, Greg Neck.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Greg, Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Greg,
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  Speaker 1: I do want to say first that I know that
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  Speaker 1: that last week the community of Alice Springs well joined
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  Speaker 1: together to farewell your father, Murray Neck, who was really
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  Speaker 1: a pie here in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, unfortunately that time was up and we're very sad
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  Speaker 3: to see that we're lead him to rest last last Monday.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, no, it's that there was certainly a respected
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  Speaker 3: member of the community, and he is well liked, and
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  Speaker 3: he was a gentleman and we loved him heaps, but
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  Speaker 3: unfortunately his time was up.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm very sorry to hear that, and I know
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  Speaker 1: that you know, so many residents of Alice Springs and
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  Speaker 1: even further Afield were there to pay their respects and
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  Speaker 1: certainly remember your your father fondly as a well respected
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  Speaker 1: member of the community and businessman.
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, Greg, he's passing.
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  Speaker 1: Well. There's been a lot of issues with crime in
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  Speaker 1: Alice and and your family certainly have have have felt
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  Speaker 1: the impacts of some of those issues with crime. Can
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  Speaker 1: you talk us through some of the events that have
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  Speaker 1: unfolded in the last couple of weeks.
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  Speaker 3: Sure, Katy. Look, you know, I guess everyone's heard about
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  Speaker 3: the problems we've had down here, and we laid Dad
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  Speaker 3: to rest last Monday, and unfortunately his house got broken
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  Speaker 3: into three days later. So while it was you know,
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  Speaker 3: it was concerning and disappointing, but look, it's only one
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  Speaker 3: of hundreds of houses that have been broken into. And
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  Speaker 3: now I think we we sort of copted it on
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  Speaker 3: the chin. A little bit, but it's something that I
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  Speaker 3: think a lot of locals have come to. It's just
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  Speaker 3: part of normal every day living here in other Springs.
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  Speaker 3: It's just it's just absolutely crazy. And now I've lived
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  Speaker 3: here for sixty six years and you know, I absolutely
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  Speaker 3: love the place. I still love love Alice, but this
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  Speaker 3: is the worst I've seen it. And it's been building
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  Speaker 3: up over a number of years. Number of factors contributing
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  Speaker 3: to it, but I think just just to break and
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  Speaker 3: entry into residencial and commercial. The property damage, both the residential,
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  Speaker 3: residential and commercial, the number of vehicles stolen is just
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  Speaker 3: crazy at the moment. And of course last Friday we
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  Speaker 3: saw a terrible accident at one of the main intersections
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  Speaker 3: here in Alice where the victim is down in Adelaide
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  Speaker 3: in the Royal Adelaide Hospital and in a critical condition.
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  Speaker 3: The antisocial behavior here and Alice Springs is just terrible
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  Speaker 3: and over turn looks terrible. It's just it looks messy.
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  Speaker 3: It's the topic of conversation wherever you meet someone, whether
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  Speaker 3: you're doing shopping or you're down the street or ourt
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  Speaker 3: playing golf, everyone talks about this problem and Alice Springs
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  Speaker 3: and it just keeps going on from day to day,
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  Speaker 3: it gets worse and worse, and yeah, nothing happening.
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  Speaker 2: Great, it sounds like it's been terrible.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, just to go back to the fact that
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  Speaker 1: your dad's house was broken into three days after his farewell,
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  Speaker 1: the people who broke in realize that he'd passed away.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I'm not I'm not sure, Katie. I think these,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the troublemakers or the groups that are involved,
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  Speaker 3: they're pretty well organized, you know. I reckon they're into
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  Speaker 3: different groups. They suss out the places, you know, in
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  Speaker 3: different streets and different areas, and then they target these
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  Speaker 3: these houses. They must know that either someone's left the
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  Speaker 3: house or someone's out of town. But certainly I feel
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  Speaker 3: they knew that Dad's house had been vacated, and fortunately
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  Speaker 3: they didn't get into the house, and they had his
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  Speaker 3: main window to his door broken. And we've got a
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  Speaker 3: lovely policewoman that lived next door. She heard the noise
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  Speaker 3: and across the road there's a group of young, young
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  Speaker 3: adults staying and they came out of the house and
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  Speaker 3: saw the perpetrators running down the street. So we were
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  Speaker 3: probably fortunately they didn't get into the house and do
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  Speaker 3: a lot of damage. But you know, they're certainly well organized,
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  Speaker 3: they know what they're doing, and they just target one
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  Speaker 3: house after the other.
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  Speaker 2: Bloody hell. I mean, it sounds terrible, but it sounds terrible.
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  Speaker 1: You said, you've lived there for sixty six years and
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  Speaker 1: you've never seen it so bad. I mean, I think
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of people listening who if they haven't
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  Speaker 1: lived in Alice Springs, they've certainly been there.
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  Speaker 2: And really, you know, I think of Alice Springs in
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  Speaker 2: such a fond way. I love Alice. I did live there.
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  Speaker 2: I met my husband there.
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  Speaker 1: It's a place that holds lots of happy memories for me,
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  Speaker 1: and I feel really disappointed that it has reached the
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  Speaker 1: point that it sounds as though it's reached.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I think a lot of the locals that
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  Speaker 3: have lived here, and they're predominantly the ones I talk
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  Speaker 3: to there, they've just had enough of it. They don't
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  Speaker 3: want to vacate Ola Springs. They loved Alas Springs. A
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  Speaker 3: lot of them, their kids are still here that some
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  Speaker 3: of the have got grandkids here. They love the community.
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  Speaker 3: And but there's certainly talk of some people, some of
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  Speaker 3: our friends, that have enough they're just going to pack
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  Speaker 3: up and leave and heads south, and we need these
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  Speaker 3: people in the community. No there, they're the lifeblood of
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  Speaker 3: our community. They you know, the kids are here that
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  Speaker 3: brought their kids up, The kids are involved in work
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  Speaker 3: and you know they want to stay with their kids.
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  Speaker 3: But I think the kids are getting sick of it
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  Speaker 3: as well. You know, these these young guys that are
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  Speaker 3: involved in their own businesses. That windows are getting broken,
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  Speaker 3: the cars are getting stolen, their cars are getting damaged,
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  Speaker 3: the tools are getting stolen out of their vehicles. Look,
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  Speaker 3: it's just it's just crazy. Now. I think to Darwin
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  Speaker 3: and I hate to say this, but I think to
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  Speaker 3: a lot of Darwinites it's out of sight, out of mind. Yea.
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  Speaker 3: You know the government. I know that people have been
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  Speaker 3: talking to the government, but just nothing's happening. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're really buggered here with police. We don't have enough
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  Speaker 3: police here. And I don't care what any of the
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  Speaker 3: ministers say, we do not have enough police. Now they
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  Speaker 3: say they're put in ten twenty leaves because they're sick
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  Speaker 3: of the situation as well. They you know, they're picking
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  Speaker 3: up the same people and you know, they go to
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  Speaker 3: a court and they're out the next day. Into the
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  Speaker 3: same Yeah, the same thing. You know, there's not one
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  Speaker 3: traffic car. You never see a traffic police car on
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  Speaker 3: the road. You know, they're at the they're at the
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  Speaker 3: liquor outlets. You part the in lick outlets. We haven't
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  Speaker 3: had any random breath tests here for god knows how long.
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  Speaker 3: So there's clearly not enough police on the ground to you.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, and you feel for them, you know, I've seen
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  Speaker 1: some of the graffiti that said that said if the
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  Speaker 1: police and you think, goodness, may you know what hope
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  Speaker 1: of the poor police have you know, struggled for them?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is looking at it was it was on
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  Speaker 3: one of our properties. You know. I painted some damage
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  Speaker 3: that was done to one of one of our properties
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  Speaker 3: on Sunday, Sunday morning and afternoon, and then Monday morning
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  Speaker 3: I'll get a call to say, look, there's graffiti on
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  Speaker 3: your on one of your main waves. Is on one
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  Speaker 3: of the main streets as well, right near the intersection
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  Speaker 3: where the accident and happen. And here I do, I'll
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  Speaker 3: have to go out and paint this. But look that
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  Speaker 3: happens all the time.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm yeah, well, which is bloody, you know, absolute
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  Speaker 1: garbage to be getting used to the fact that your
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  Speaker 1: walls are being graffiti to be getting used to the
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  Speaker 1: fact that cars are being stolen and people are being
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  Speaker 1: broken into. Look, Greg, we you know, we try our
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  Speaker 1: best to make sure that we cover the issues that
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  Speaker 1: impact all territories, you know, whether it's Alice Springs, whether
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  Speaker 1: it's Man and Greta, no matter where it is, we
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  Speaker 1: try our best to do that.
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  Speaker 2: So we will continue on with this.
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  Speaker 1: We'll have the week that was on Friday where we've
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  Speaker 1: got all the politicians in here and we'll make sure
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  Speaker 1: that this gets raised. I really appreciate you having a
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  Speaker 1: chat with us this morning and really making it clear
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  Speaker 1: to everybody in Darwin how things are going for Alice
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  Speaker 1: Springs residents.
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  Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Katie. Look, we need we need all
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  Speaker 3: the help we can get. Yeah, it's a tough time
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  Speaker 3: for us as a family and we just you know,
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  Speaker 3: I know how much dad loved the town and it's
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  Speaker 3: just really really sad to see what's happening.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet, Greg, thank you so much for talking
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  Speaker 1: with us today.
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  Speaker 2: We really appreciate it. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks that is Greg Neck there and just hearing a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more about the situation in Alice. It is
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  Speaker 1: absolutely disappointing. You feel for the residents of Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 1: I think that we've got to be really cautious up
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  Speaker 1: here in the territory, particularly here in the top end.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we know what it's like to be impacted
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  Speaker 1: by these kinds of issues, and I feel for everybody
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  Speaker 1: that lives in Alice at the moment. We'll try our
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  Speaker 1: best to keep on to this issue.