Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Blain Mark Turner is calling for a Royal Commission into the NT Police Force

Transcript

Member for Blain Mark Turner is calling for a Royal Commission into the NT Police Force · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We do know that there has been a lot of
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: discussion about the situation with the survey results coming out
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: from the Northern Territory Police Association on Friday, the interim results,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: so there is still a heck of a lot of
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: information to come out. But joining me right now on
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the line is Mark Turner. Here's the member for Blaine.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Mark, Good morning Kat And of course for.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Those out there listening a former Northern Territory Police officer, Mark,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: what was your response when you saw the survey results
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: from the Northern Territory Police Association on Friday?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Sadly, not surprised. It's just confirmed the datas as we
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: already had from the OCP people matters with data, the
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: report that was tabled in Parliament from the KA Commissioner
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: some weeks ago, and what we had anecdotally anyway. So
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: it's a shame that we really really need to do
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: more for our members now. And I think ass frustrating
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: me that I seem to be the only member of
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: the Legislative Assembly saying we need action now. Well, I
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: don't understand what that is.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not real sure either, Mark, because obviously I
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: did just interview the Chief Minister, Natasha Files. I heard
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Kate Warden speaking on the ABC this morning, and neither
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: of them seem to have any urgency when it comes to,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you know, taking some action in this space. It seems
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: as though we have got a situation right now where
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: our Northern Territory police are saying we don't have enough
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: people to do the jobs that are being asked of them,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: our morale is incredibly low, and we don't have confidence
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: in our leader. How can they continue on down this path?
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that's the key thing. It's the jobs
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: that are being asked of the police because they're being
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: asked to do everything and they can't. It's they're the
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: only twenty four hour agency that are responding to everything
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: all of the time. When somebody's happening at three o'clock
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: in the morning, it's always peace that you're reading. So
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: until we get everybody working together, they're just going to
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: keep on taking the hints. But this is what frustrates me.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: We've had this conversation for years, and we were having
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: this conversation that Police Association conferences six years ago, so
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: it's not like it's a new information. It's just given
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: us what what was already known.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I guess the thing that is new information, though, Mark,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: is the fact that our officers are saying, well, almost
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: eighty percent of them are saying that they don't have
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: confidence in their leader. And you know, while we have
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: anecdotally been speaking about that and certainly been hearing it
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: from offices, I know you would have been. I certainly
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: have been. But it's right there in black and white.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Now do you feel as though he can continue on
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: in the top are?
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I can't see how his position is still tenable. You
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: can delegate responsibility that you can't delegate accountability, and that
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: appears to be the situation we've got. You look at
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: what a statistically representative sample size is when government are
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: making decisions, and it's ten to twenty percent, and if
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: you're looking at really small sample sizes, it's thirty percent.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: And we're sitting here with a sixty percent simple side.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know how that repair work that the Chief
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Minister is talking about can start to happen when you've
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: got a police force that feels the way it does.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I know that the during estimates, the Commissioner alluded to
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the information that he wasn't able to talk about due
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: to legal advice, and I gave him the option to
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: speak under cover of privilege or turn the cameras off,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: that he didn't avail himself of that. So there may
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: be things that the Chief Minister or the Police Minister
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: are where the rest of us aren't. That people's as
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: mister Riches, the KAC Commissioner noted in his report in Parliament,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: people's perceptions are their realities. And we've got members who
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: are going out daily dealing with the worst things that
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: life can throw us. Whilst they're feeling like this, and
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: there's any surprise that they're falling over at a rate
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: of knots mark.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: What do you think needs to happen immediately?
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I think the opposition's calls for the Police Minister said
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the fast fools. We've been a job for the seven
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: eight weeks, and again the calls under the Inquiries Act.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: It's nineteen forty five legislation. It's just politics. Politics, say,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I can't see anything less than a Royal Commission looking
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: at the legislation that has the powers to get to
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: the bottom of this. You could beef up the ikack's
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: powers and increase their and they may be able to
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: do it. But at the moment as it stands, I
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: cannot see anything less than a Royal Commission into policing
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: that's going to be able to get to the bottom with.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: So, Mark, you are calling for a Royal commission into
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: policing here in the Northern Territory. And if that's not
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: going to happen, you think at the very least there
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: needs to be an inquiry.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Well, you've got an agency with as the Commissioner, sorry,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: as the Chief Minister said to you of the regular earlier,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister and the Police Minister aren't lying to you.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: There is record funding, there's never been more police on
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the books. They're telling them the truth and I understand
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: why they're so frustrating. But where are they They're certainly
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: not at the Palmerston Police station. There's two vans on
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: the road if you're lucky, and it's been that way
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: since I worked there. So where are the members and
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: where is the funding? And why have we got members
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: falling over? And if we can't answer those questions, we
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: certainly need to find their why.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Well, Mark Turner, I know that there will be a
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: lot of people listening very intently this morning and wondering
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: if that is the right path to go down. I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: don't know, but I certainly think that it's worth a discussion.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, as Paul Mcha pointed out on the show
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: on Friday, we've had several surveys, we've had several looks into,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: you know, the morale, but the results on Friday cannot
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: be ignored. And I think that if the government continues
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to ignore them or make the force feel as though
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: they're not listening to what's being pointed out very loudly
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and clearly, how can we expect our officers to do
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: their jobs.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Well, that's it, and it's what else, Katie, What else
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: is available to us? And that's what I've sat down
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: and looked at. Remember the legislate of Assembly. What are
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the tools are there in front of us that we
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: can use to put our feet on the break and
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: say stop, let's speak to this. And I can't see
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: any you know, having a retired judge do a review.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: We've got so many who were into state it's just
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: not going to work. And trying to do all that
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: in thirty days. Again, politics as usually isn't going to
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: fix this, and now it has done it's been a
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: problem for a number of years. If we want to
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: get to the bottom of it, and I genuinely believe
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: we do, you wouldn't have had the response rate. You
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: certainly wouldn't be getting the feedback from the community. You
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: know everybody wants this fixed. Let's just fix it for
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the sake of our rank and police officers for putting
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: themselves out there in harm's way every day to look
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: after us.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Well, Mark Turner, the member for Blaine, we really appreciate
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thank you very much for having.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: A chat with us, no pleasure. Thank you, Katie, thank you.