Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson says locals were fearing for their lives when a stolen car went through someone’s fence at 100 km/h on the weekend

Transcript

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson says locals were fearing for their lives when a stolen car went through someone’s fence at 100 km/h on the weekend · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right around the Northern Territory. It's been a busy weekend
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: for a lot of different reasons, and unfortunately out of
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs. You may have seen the terrible scenes on
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the streets of Alice Springs over the weekend. That vision
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: has gone viral. I know that it was shared on
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: various different platforms over the weekend. We'd seen an article
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in the Australian newspaper yesterday there reporter Liam Mendez happened
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to be in Alice Springs by the look of things,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and had captured some incredible vision of what had unfolded.
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  Speaker 1: Incredible for all the wrong reasons. Now joining me on
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  Speaker 1: the line is the mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Patterson.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Matt.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Matt. Another terrible weekend. I mean, is this just the normal?
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  Speaker 1: Was it worse than what you've seen in the past.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's normal. It's what we would say here is
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  Speaker 2: inverted commas of being normal. It's people have become so
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: decent ties to what's going on. It's just the reality now.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: And I mean we've seen he's speaking about the issues
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  Speaker 2: we had out the front of counsel on Saturday night
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  Speaker 2: in pizza shop. But I mean there was cold stolen
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: vehicles that went through people's fences. You know, I've spoke
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: to residents in that area that legitimately were fearing for
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: their life when that car was crashing into the fence.
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  Speaker 2: So it's absolutely carnage at the moment.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Mate, what happened with this car going through the fence?
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Tell us about that.
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  Speaker 2: I was just in a residential areas reports it was
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  Speaker 2: a stolen vehicle. They were going, you know, one hundred
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  Speaker 2: through the residential area in you know, fifty kilometer an
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  Speaker 2: hour speed zone and just lost control and went through
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  Speaker 2: a residence fence. And you know, that car. I'm surprised
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: that the people walked away from it. But yeah, look,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: it's unbelievable.
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  Speaker 1: It's utterly unbelievable. Like I said, all the wrong reasons.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: You know, even that vision along the main street in
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springs over the weekend, Like, honestly, I watched that
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  Speaker 1: and I actually felt really emotional because you think, to yourself,
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  Speaker 1: I cannot believe that this is continuing to happen. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I used to work up that straight many many years ago,
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  Speaker 1: and I used to be able to walk home safely
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  Speaker 1: on my own mat. It doesn't seem like you can
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  Speaker 1: do that anymore.
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  Speaker 2: Oh no way. I mean, I know, you know, I
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: know grown men who will not go out because they're
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: fearful of what's going on. You know, like it's just
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  Speaker 2: there's a flow on effect to everyone else in all
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: of springs about what's happening at the moment. And I've
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: said it to you a thousand times, Katie, that this
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  Speaker 2: is happening in Australia in twenty twenty three. It's unbelievable.
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  Speaker 2: If this was happening in Melbourne or Sydney, it would
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: have been resolved by now. Continue to get put in
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  Speaker 2: the two hard basket. And you know, if they don't
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: start addressing this quickly, it's going to be way too
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: hard to turn around.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Mate. I know that the Prime Minister was obviously in
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Darwin yesterday. Look it was a fleeting visit. Half of
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: us didn't even know that he was here. It was
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: on his way to the coronation of King Charles and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: making a good announcement out there at the Allen Walker
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Cancer Center. I think so many of us in the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: territory have had loved ones go through that Cancer Center.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: We understand the incredibly important work that they do. There
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: also an announcement around these critical care clinics. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: he was asked a question about Alice Springs. In my opinion,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: there should have been a lot more questions about the
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: issues that we've got right around the place when it
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: comes to crime. But he said that that two hundred
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: and fifty million dollars promise for Alice Springs is going
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: towards services for women and children escaping domestic violence. Are
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: you seeing any of that on the ground.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I'm not as not as yet, but I mean that
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: does seem with the control. I haven't seen any of
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: that yet, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. But look,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I welcome a two hundred and fifty million dollars. It's
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: going to be spending communities around our Springs to increase
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  Speaker 2: livability out there because we're getting what's what we're calling
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: urban drift, lots of people coming in. But we're still
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: talking about that's a longer term measure and medium term measures,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: they're all okay, But it's the short term and the
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: immediate term response that we need here, and that's unfortunately
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  Speaker 2: what we've been asking for since, you know, especially since January,
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  Speaker 2: but for the last couple of years, we need that
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  Speaker 2: immediate response. And look, it's probably Dane, you know, four
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: or five years and it's just getting worse and worse
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  Speaker 2: and worse. And I see dar when you're slowly catching
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  Speaker 2: up to what we're going through. And if we don't,
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  Speaker 2: you know, if we don't address this, as I said,
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  Speaker 2: it's going to be very, very difficult to come back.
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  Speaker 2: And we still have an amazing amount of community people
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  Speaker 2: here that choose to live in our springs and it's great,
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  Speaker 2: but it is getting very difficult because we are losing liability.
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  Speaker 2: People are scared to go down the street and it's
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  Speaker 2: just taking away your right to this human being. And
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: you know, we've still got the amazing people that live here.
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  Speaker 2: We had a couple of thousand people down here yesterday
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  Speaker 2: for the Bank to our muster, which is fantastic. Community
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  Speaker 2: spirit is there, but we're just begging for help from somebody.
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  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. Like, honestly, I don't know how both tiers
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of government are not treating this like it is, like
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  Speaker 1: we're at crisis point. You know, those scenes on the
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  Speaker 1: weekend are utterly mortifying Katie.
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  Speaker 2: We've called it a crisis. Like we've said, this is
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: an emergency, and I said it to you last time
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  Speaker 2: I was on the program, and they need to handle
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  Speaker 2: this the same as they did with COVID. There needs
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: to be a press conference every day saying this is
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: what we're doing. This is the numbers that happened last
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: you know, these are the crimes happened last night. This
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: is what we're doing to address it.
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  Speaker 1: This is.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Urgency in Alice Springs and we just need immediate assistance
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: to address the problem. Because it is an amazing place.
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  Speaker 2: It has endless possibilities of what Alice Springs can be.
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  Speaker 2: But we can't continue to be on the front page
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  Speaker 2: of distrain and not address the root cording the problems
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  Speaker 2: that we're facing.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Mate. I did. I get got sent by a listener
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  Speaker 1: this morning, and I don't know, you know whether it
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: is accurate or not, but basically a Facebook post from
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: one of the are and traditional owners saying that they
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: are kicking off patrols in Alice Springs. That this person
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: is a team leader and founder and they've got about
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: twenty three people working at the moment, and that the
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  Speaker 1: reason they'll id the streets. Kids then go to the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: parents of these kids return to country. They're saying, enough
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  Speaker 1: is enough? Are you aware of what's going.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: On with this? Yeah? So Lua tipperu running that program,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: and I take my hats off to the CEO, Graham
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Smith and his team that have got this up and going.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: I think it's fantastic. So we are seeing the traditional
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: owners are patrolling the street. I think that's an infancy
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: stage and that will grow. So, you know, I think
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  Speaker 2: the community will certainly get behind Lula Tipper with the
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: tos ore patrolling and hopefully as a very small part
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: of change is that will assist with it.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I really hope so. But there needs to be more.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: You know, we cannot have a situation where those two
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: tiers of government, the Northern Territory government and the federal government,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: continue to tiptoe around this issue. Like you very rightly said,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: if this was happening anywhere else in Australia, people would
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: be screaming out for some change. The people of Alice
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  Speaker 1: Springs deserve better, people of the whole of the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory deserve better. We all deserve to feel safe. Matt.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Before I let you go, this morning. What is the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: update on the AFL on the footy in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 1: You and I have spoken on numerous occasions about the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Central Australian Football League not happening at Trager Park. What's
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the situation with the big AFL match at this point?
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  Speaker 1: Any update?
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  Speaker 2: I know, update as of yet? I mean we That's
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  Speaker 2: I've said to you last time that the community foot
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: is an issue between Dallas Springstown Council and AFL and
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: T and the AFL game in July is between the
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: AFL and the Northern Territory Government. So that's really got
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: nothing to do with us. That's a contract between those
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: two organizations. We will continue to work with AFL and
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  Speaker 2: T to talk about the town competition that started last week.
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  Speaker 2: But look, the AFL game has got nothing to do
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  Speaker 2: with us.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so how come there was a situation last week
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: where some of those town games couldn't happen at Tiger
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  Speaker 1: Park or weren't able to happen at those usual spots.
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  Speaker 2: So the Tiger Park, AFL and T bridge their contracts.
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  Speaker 2: That will negotiate. We'll continue to negotiate with AFL and T.
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  Speaker 2: There are two separate issues around the community football and
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: the breach of Tiger Park. But obviously we have amazing
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: to see what we want people to be able to
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: use them. But we certainly need AFL in two to
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  Speaker 2: come to the table and negotiate there as well.
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  Speaker 1: And so what they didn't provide the draft or the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: draw quick enough or something that's right, yes, does that really?
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  Speaker 1: Does that constitute them then not being able to have
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: those games? I guess playing Devil's advocate here. I know
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  Speaker 1: if I was a parent rocking up with my kids
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  Speaker 1: to you, wanting to play their usual games of AFL,
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  Speaker 1: I'd be pretty annoyed. If they weren't able to access
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  Speaker 1: the fields, then.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Well, we went above and beyond to make sure that
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: people could use the other grounds that we have available
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: all Brecked Oval and Jimmy conwell, so they were utilized.
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  Speaker 2: We will continue to negotiate with AFL and TE to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that some hopefully and we can negotiate in
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: good face the trade. Who is available for the town competition?
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Well hopefully there's now it comes soon. Matt Patterson, the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Mayor of Alice Springs, I always appreciate your time. Thank
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you very much for having a chat with me this morning.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Anytime. Thanks Katie, thank you