Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Police Association President Nathan Finn says members deserve to know how much has come out of their operational budget to fund the former Commissioner’s pay-out

Transcript

NT Police Association President Nathan Finn says members deserve to know how much has come out of their operational budget to fund the former Commissioner’s pay-out · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, if you were listening to the show last week,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: estimates certainly set tongues wagging, with plenty of information coming
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: through about areas of concern, like Dammy jard at Howard Springs,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: but it was a lack of information in one area
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: which has upset quite a few people. Take a listen
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to this exchange that unfolded last week during budget estimates.
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  Speaker 2: Police, Minister, do you know how much Jamie Chilker was
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: paid out? No, and so if you don't know how
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: much he was paid out, you have no idea how
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  Speaker 2: it's impacted your budget's bottom line. Is that correct?
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  Speaker 3: That's incorrect on this particular matter. There were several elements
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: of the negotiation and the payout that I'm that was
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  Speaker 3: a confidential payout, So I'm not going to discuss that
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  Speaker 3: any further.
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  Speaker 2: But we were told yesterday by the Treasurer that the
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: entire payout came from the police bottom line. That means,
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  Speaker 2: as Minister, you must know what hit your department has
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: taken to pay for that payout.
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  Speaker 3: So the Commissioner's numeration does fall under our budget, as
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: does any CES renumeration within their department budgets, and it
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  Speaker 3: would be totally inappropriate to no line by line around
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  Speaker 3: any separations from any agency. So no, I don't know
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  Speaker 3: the exact figure.
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  Speaker 2: So you just have a global separation's budget with no oversight.
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  Speaker 3: I think I've answered the question.
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  Speaker 1: So that was during budget estimates last week and that
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  Speaker 1: was Lea Finocchio, the opposition leader. They're questioning the Minister
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  Speaker 1: for Police Kate Warden. Now joining me in the studio
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  Speaker 1: to talk more about the need for transparency in this
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  Speaker 1: space is the president of the Police Association, Nathan Finn.
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  Speaker 4: Good morning, Nathan, Good morning, Katy, Good morning for you listen.
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  Speaker 1: Good to have you in the studio. Now, tell me
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  Speaker 1: why do police in the general public deserve to know
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  Speaker 1: more about this payout?
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  Speaker 4: Well, Katie, obviously, as mentioned obviously it's coming out of
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  Speaker 4: the budget of the police.
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  Speaker 5: Okay.
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  Speaker 4: In relation to that, we don't specifically need the those
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  Speaker 4: of specifics of obviously what was agreed to, but if
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  Speaker 4: it's coming out of the budget and coming out of
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  Speaker 4: the police operational budget, we need to know how much
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: of impact that's actually going to have on us.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this is the thing that seems to make a
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  Speaker 1: lot of sense to most everyday people. They're going, well,
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  Speaker 1: hang on a second. You know, if it's coming out
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  Speaker 1: of the operational budget, surely the Minister must know exactly
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: how much that is and how it's going to impact
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  Speaker 1: the bottom line and the operations of day to day business.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's exactly right. How do they know it's going
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  Speaker 4: to limit the impact to us if they don't actually
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  Speaker 4: know the amount. I'm sorry, but it's reported to be
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  Speaker 4: over six figures. In relation to that, it's a huge
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  Speaker 4: part of our budget. It could be operational police officer
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  Speaker 4: that's referred to remote housing, which we're struggling with as
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: well at the moment. If that's a settlement, it's in
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  Speaker 4: relation to a court matter, it's an out of court settlement.
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  Speaker 4: It shouldn't be coming from us. It see clearly coming
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  Speaker 4: from the Slizz of the Northern Territory or the Northern
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  Speaker 4: Territory government.
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  Speaker 5: Cory.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, do you think it's a bit bizarre
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  Speaker 1: that you know that the minister has claimed that she's
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: got no idea of how much it is.
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  Speaker 5: Exactly exactly, Katie.
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  Speaker 4: They have to have an idea of how much it
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  Speaker 4: is and how much is going to infect our budget.
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  Speaker 1: Now when you talk about the day to day what
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  Speaker 1: impact do you think that it is going to have
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  Speaker 1: on the operations of the Northern Territory Police.
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  Speaker 4: It's just limiting our ability to obviously resource our police
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  Speaker 4: force in other areas such as your remote housing. I've
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  Speaker 4: just spoke about before. We need urgent repairs to remote housing,
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: to staffing levels. This could be put back into those
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: things that are more important at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: What were the rank and files saying to you last
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  Speaker 1: week about that situation, because presumably quite a few of
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  Speaker 1: them did actually hear that interaction that had unfolded, and
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  Speaker 1: you know a lot of them are probably wondering exactly
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  Speaker 1: what that payout was, and you know, knowing that there
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  Speaker 1: is going to be confidentiality clauses there, but understanding then
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  Speaker 1: that it had come from the police budget.
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  Speaker 4: If there is confidentially clauses in there, why I paid
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  Speaker 4: it from the police budget. At the end of the day,
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  Speaker 4: it's going to come out obviously during our budget situation,
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  Speaker 4: through the police's budget. It's actually going to come to
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  Speaker 4: light at the end of the day. If they wanted
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  Speaker 4: to be confidential, they should have paid it confidentially through
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  Speaker 4: the other means.
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  Speaker 1: And so, you know, were the rank and file saying
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  Speaker 1: to you last week that they thought that this was
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  Speaker 1: a pretty ordinary situation, or what would they say.
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  Speaker 5: They're quite frustrated.
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  Speaker 4: Obviously they've got limitations about They asked for money on
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  Speaker 4: a daily basis to assist us in doing our operational capacities.
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  Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, if that they
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  Speaker 4: can't get money for something else, and there's other money
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  Speaker 4: being taken out without their knowledge or without their guidance,
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  Speaker 4: and how are we going to manage a budget if
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  Speaker 4: we don't know how much we got to manage, well,
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  Speaker 4: not physically responsible.
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  Speaker 1: It did seem like a really bizarre situation I think
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  Speaker 1: last week, and a lot of people are going to
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  Speaker 1: be wondering this morning whether the Chief Minister is going
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  Speaker 1: to be more open and transparent with some of those numbers.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, do you hope that.
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  Speaker 5: She is definitely?
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  Speaker 4: Definitely, Obviously she's going to have some hard questions this
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  Speaker 4: morning and obviously her estimates this morning. Hopefully he comes
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  Speaker 4: to the table and obviously amount wise, obviously it's confidential.
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  Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, I think they
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  Speaker 4: should have done it a little bit differently in the
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  Speaker 4: way it's been carried out.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, let's talk about the information which was revealed
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  Speaker 1: as well though around over time. Now, this is something
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  Speaker 1: that really struck me. Members have worked one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty nine thousand hours of overtime in the financial year
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  Speaker 1: to March thirty one. When you actually look at that
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty nine thousand hours, it's hard to
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  Speaker 1: comprehend exactly what impact that is having then on officers
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  Speaker 1: doing their jobs.
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  Speaker 4: That's just to do regular business, Katie. So that equates
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  Speaker 4: obviously five hundred eighty hours. As we've discussed in our
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  Speaker 4: media releases, it's seventy two additional police officers per day,
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  Speaker 4: per day. That is hard to fathom. At the moment,
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  Speaker 4: our resourcing issues are huge across the Northern Territory. This
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  Speaker 4: obviously shows us that we need this seventy two members
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  Speaker 4: per day. That's not including recreation and leave, long service
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  Speaker 4: leave or anything else. That's just to meet the current demand,
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  Speaker 4: not the future.
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  Speaker 1: How can that sort of cease as well in terms
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  Speaker 1: of trying to do those day to day jobs When
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  Speaker 1: you're having to pull in that many officers to do
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  Speaker 1: overtime each and every day, like surely it says that
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  Speaker 1: we do not have enough police.
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  Speaker 4: An example of that Cadie is obviously on the weekend.
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  Speaker 4: Obviously at the Supercars, a number of the police officers there,
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  Speaker 4: we're all on overtime even though it's a planned event.
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  Speaker 4: So wow, it was just, yeah, it was confronting to
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  Speaker 4: know that we need to this is core business for us.
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  Speaker 4: Obviously the v eights obviously need policing as well in
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  Speaker 4: every other event, but it's a planned event. It's a
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  Speaker 4: planned annual event that we know about well and truly
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  Speaker 4: in advance, but we're still rostering people on overtime to
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  Speaker 4: meet this ability.
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  Speaker 1: It's like it is quite huge to think that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: even on the weekend that you're in a situation where
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  Speaker 1: everybody rostered on for the Supercars is they're doing overtime.
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  Speaker 1: But then we keep getting told that we've never had
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  Speaker 1: a bigger police budget and we've never had more Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory police. But is the situation really here that the
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  Speaker 1: demands that we expect our police to sort of deal
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  Speaker 1: with are increasing?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, Katie, Definitely, the people that are ringing police
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  Speaker 4: nowadays is extraordinary amount compared to obviously ten years ago.
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  Speaker 4: The crime, as you know and you hear daily from
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  Speaker 4: your viewers, it's through the roof, it's being reported on
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  Speaker 4: that and we haven't got enough police officer.
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  Speaker 5: To deal with it.
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  Speaker 1: So what do you reckon, Like, do we just need
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  Speaker 1: more police?
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  Speaker 4: Just need more police? But an urgent policing review needs
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  Speaker 4: to be conducted straight away by the government. I know
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  Speaker 4: they've committed to it. I know they're waiting for the
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  Speaker 4: electronic rostering program to roll out. I can tell you
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  Speaker 4: and your listeners now I actually worked on electronic rostering
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  Speaker 4: project be prior to coming into this role. Now that's
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  Speaker 4: not going to provide the information thereafter. So definitely it's
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  Speaker 4: something they need to do now and be serious about
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  Speaker 4: this because we are in a crossis situation here with
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  Speaker 4: the resourcing and the Northern Territory Police.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I know that the figure around the
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  Speaker 1: Police Commissioner is the thing that's really caught everybody's attention
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  Speaker 1: and it's the real headline grabber.
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  Speaker 5: But for me, when I look at.
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  Speaker 1: Those numbers of hours of overtime that police are doing,
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  Speaker 1: and then when you take into account the Police Association
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  Speaker 1: survey happened last year and the fact that you've got
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  Speaker 1: police saying we really don't feel like there's enough of
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  Speaker 1: us to do our job. I think what you're saying
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  Speaker 1: there is an incredibly important point that that resource review
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  Speaker 1: needs to happen. It seems sooner rather than later. You know,
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  Speaker 1: the minister committing she committed to it, you know as
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  Speaker 1: well on this show when we'd had her on during
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  Speaker 1: the week that was, she had said that, yes, it
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  Speaker 1: is going to happen. I'm pretty sure without paraphrasing her,
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  Speaker 1: that she'd said that she wants it to happen before
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  Speaker 1: the next Northern Territory election. But Nathan, from your perspective,
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  Speaker 1: how quickly could they kick this off?
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  Speaker 5: How members can't wait any longer? Katie?
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  Speaker 4: We want a commitment from the Police Minister to review
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  Speaker 4: commenced before.
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  Speaker 5: The end of this year.
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  Speaker 1: So before the end of this year you reckon, yep.
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  Speaker 5: But as soon as possible now. Tell me as well.
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  Speaker 1: You'd mentioned there that in your previous role you're working
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  Speaker 1: on those electronic you know, working with the electronic rosterring.
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  Speaker 1: Why why do they keep saying that that's required to
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  Speaker 1: be able to do this review?
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  Speaker 4: Is it? No, it's not, definitely not, Katie. It's it's
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  Speaker 4: not required at all. The electronic rostering system is just
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  Speaker 4: electronic rostering based system where police can obviously have a
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  Speaker 4: specific criteria of how they're logging on logging off. Okay,
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  Speaker 4: we're actually very archaic in relation to the way they
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  Speaker 4: do the rostering. Are currently Excel spreadsheets, so it's just
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  Speaker 4: an electronic means to bring all the rostering together and
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: have easier access to.
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: The rostering system.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And so really they could be committing to this, like
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: how soon.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Straight away? Straight away, Katie, they should have commenced it already.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: The information they've got currently on hand that the information
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: from the government is they have all the information they're
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: required to obviously go in and do this resource review
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  Speaker 4: yp but they still haven't to start it.
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  Speaker 5: They have to haven't committed to it, Nathan.
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  Speaker 1: From your perspective, like, why is it so important that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the resource review actually happens, because I suppose to some
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: people listening they'll be thinking, oh, another review, is it
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: really going to make a difference. It just sounds like
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: we do need more police. If you look at those
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: numbers of overtime they're doing.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: We continually asks for resources. We'd like it fact cold
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  Speaker 4: written down to show the members of the public that
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: we're not just going.
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  Speaker 5: We need more.
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  Speaker 4: We need more, We need more to do what we
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: need to do. It's to show the government were actually are.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: We're screaming for resources, We're screaming for staff, and our
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: staff are at breaking point every single day they go
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: to work.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, mate, what's it been like stepping into the role?
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: You how long you been in there? Now?
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: A couple of weeks hit.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: The ground running, only a few weeks you hit the
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: ground running or sprinting, Not that I sprint very much anymore,
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: but definitely hit the ground running. A lot of issues
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: to get your head around, obviously to get the background
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: knowledge of. But I'm glad I'm in the role obviously
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: currently supporting our members, and I've been out in the
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: field supporting our members for the last twenty years over operationally,
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: but now get the privileged to obviously serve our members
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: and obviously provide the best level of service we can
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: for our members and obviously out of community as well well.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: No doubt we'll be catching up with you more often.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Really appreciate your time this morning, Thanks so much. Thank
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: you to your listeners, And yeah, I know we've got
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: plenty of police officers that do listen to the show,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure that you know, they are are keen
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: to get this resource review underway as well to determine exactly,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: you know, I like to work out exactly what our
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: police do need and what areas they sort of they
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: need it.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: Definitely, Katie, Definitely, and we'll keep pushing the issues on
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: behalf of our members to obviously maintain that they're wealth
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: supported out in the field and got the ability and
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: the resources to do the best job they possibly can
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: for the community as well.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: Absolutely well.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police Association President Nathan Finn, thanks so much
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: for your time today.
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: Thanks Katie, Thank thank you.