Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Police Minister Kate Worden has revealed that a restructure of the NT police force is underway

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Police Minister Kate Worden has revealed that a restructure of the NT police force is underway · 360 with Katie Woolf

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Speaker 1: We know that Parliament is sitting this week, so the
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Speaker 1: Police Minister, Kate Warden joined me on the show a
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Speaker 1: little bit earlier this morning.
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Speaker 2: Minister, good morning to you.
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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
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Speaker 1: Now, firstly, we are keen to speak about further issues
0:12
Speaker 1: well with the government's plan following the recent Police Association
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Speaker 1: conference and also the survey which revealed serious issues with
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Speaker 1: morale concerns there are not enough police to do the
0:22
Speaker 1: job and a lack of confidence in the Police Commissioner. Now, Minister,
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Speaker 1: the government are on the record saying that they have
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Speaker 1: confidence in the commissioner. Why do you still have confidence
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Speaker 1: in the commissioner despite these issues.
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Speaker 3: Look, there's an awful lot of work going on behind
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Speaker 3: the scenes Katie that other people, you know, on the
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Speaker 3: outside can't see. And I think the oppositions sit and
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Speaker 3: keep barking on about things, but they've never actually sort
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Speaker 3: of briefing around what's going on in police. But there's
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Speaker 3: lots of things. So at the moment, there's a review
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Speaker 3: into the financial structure, the actual structural review about how
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Speaker 3: police is set up, because I think that you know,
0:55
Speaker 3: we can move people around and get people more people
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Speaker 3: out in the front line, which is what you know,
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Speaker 3: what you were going too earlier about needing more police.
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Speaker 3: I think if we pack down and that we actually
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Speaker 3: need more police out and about numbers are really good.
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Speaker 3: They're higher than they've ever been. There's some issues around
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Speaker 3: the discipline processes, and we're looking to look to change that.
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Speaker 3: Some of that will require legittiates, live change, and I've
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Speaker 3: asked for that to be hurried along. The well being
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Speaker 3: piece in police needs a lot of attention and it
1:25
Speaker 3: has got a lot of attention. So HR has come
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Speaker 3: back into police and you know so, and we're also
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Speaker 3: looking at some very localized, targeted solutions around anti social behavior.
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Speaker 3: So I think those are the things that are making
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Speaker 3: things people unhappy. Anti social behavior doesn't need to necessarily
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Speaker 3: always have a police response, and if you can take those,
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Speaker 3: you know, those responses away, you actually free up police
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Speaker 3: to do a policing job, a job that they do
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Speaker 3: actually very very well.
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Speaker 1: Kate, you just said then there is also you're going
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Speaker 1: to be looking closely into how the police force is
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Speaker 1: set up or how things are set up.
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Speaker 2: What does that mean? Could we be looking at a
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Speaker 2: re structure here?
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Speaker 3: Well, absolutely, I don't think anything is off the table.
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Speaker 3: I think we need to look at how it has
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Speaker 3: been structured and that works happening. We will have to
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Speaker 3: it's actually happening already. A treasury of driving that work.
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Speaker 3: There's been a number of reviews over the last few years, Katie,
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Speaker 3: going back to about twenty seventeen, and I think a
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Speaker 3: lot of the recommendations from those reviews haven't necessarily been
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Speaker 3: put in place. So we're looking at those and making
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Speaker 3: sure that all that work gets done along with a
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Speaker 3: financial restructure.
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Speaker 2: That's a pretty big clanger.
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Speaker 1: I mean, is it a financial restructure or are we
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Speaker 1: looking at a whole restructure of the police force and
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Speaker 1: the fire and emergency services.
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Speaker 3: So we're looking at both of those things together, So
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Speaker 3: the financial restructure and the structural side of it. Obviously,
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Speaker 3: whatever your structure is actually influences your financial comes. It
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Speaker 3: also influences how many police you can have out and about,
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Speaker 3: you know, each evening, which is I think what people's
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Speaker 3: concern is around safety. They want our police to be
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Speaker 3: more visible, they want that more community policing model, and
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Speaker 3: I asolutely accept that and that is my task to
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Speaker 3: get done.
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Speaker 1: So, Minister, could we wind up in a situation here
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Speaker 1: where fire and emergency services are separated from the police portfolio.
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Speaker 3: It's not that we're considering that specifically at the moment.
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Speaker 3: Let's wait and see what these these reviews come back with, Katie.
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Speaker 1: All right, Right now, we know that we've got a
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Speaker 1: situation where seventy nine point nine percent of respondents of
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Speaker 1: that recent survey said that they do not have confidence
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Speaker 1: in the Police Commissioner, mister Jamie Chalker. Ninety two point
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Speaker 1: six percent of respondents said that they do not think
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Speaker 1: there are enough police in the Northern Territory to do
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Speaker 1: what's being asked of them. Seventy nine point four percent
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Speaker 1: rated current morale in the Northern Territory Police force as
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Speaker 1: low or very low. You've just outlined some of what
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Speaker 1: is being done right now to try to fix these concerns.
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Speaker 1: I know that we're hearing, you know, from rank and
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Speaker 1: file offices saying, Katie, we just don't feel like the
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Speaker 1: government's listening to us at the moment. Are you listening
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Speaker 1: and what is your message for those police officers?
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Speaker 3: So, Katie, I've only been in the job a short while,
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Speaker 3: but that's you know, I don't want to fall back
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Speaker 3: on that as an excuse, because from day one been
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Speaker 3: out there. You know, the well being peace was started
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Speaker 3: off by the previous minister, Minister Maniston, and she really
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Speaker 3: kicked that, you know, she kicked that ball hard, so
4:16
Speaker 3: that work was done. So I'm now you know, having
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Speaker 3: to not having to, but you know, I am implementing
4:21
Speaker 3: and making sure it's a priority to implement that well
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Speaker 3: being peace across police. I'm out listening to police every
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Speaker 3: day and I hear their views every day. They you know,
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Speaker 3: they're not backwards and coming forward and I've really appreciated
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Speaker 3: listening to their concerns. Their concerns are about feeling supported
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Speaker 3: in the workplace, about feeling listened to, and that's the
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Speaker 3: things that I'm working very hard on with the Commissioner
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Speaker 3: and that whole of the executive to change that within
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Speaker 3: our police force.
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Speaker 1: Does this financial and the financial restructure or financial structure
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Speaker 1: that you're having a look into, and this restructure, does
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Speaker 1: it include the police police commissioners staying in that role.
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Speaker 3: I don't think that that's a consideration. This is a
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Speaker 3: I think he uses the words deep dive. You know,
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Speaker 3: I'm not necessarily a fan of that, but this is
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Speaker 3: about looking at all of those moving parts within the organization.
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Speaker 3: To see where it can best, you know, go forward.
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Speaker 3: There isn't you know. Since we came in in twenty sixteen,
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Speaker 3: there's one hundred million dollars extra going into our police force.
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Speaker 3: Since this time last year, there's an extra thirty people
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Speaker 3: on the ground. You know, it's been quite reformed. We're
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Speaker 3: looking at Aboriginal liaison officers and increasing the number of
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Speaker 3: Aboriginal police that we have. That's you know, those things,
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Speaker 3: getting back to those things. More police out and remote
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Speaker 3: areas and not just the fly in, flight out structure,
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Speaker 3: which you know, I think people can get quite down
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Speaker 3: around being moved around too much, Katie. I think they
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Speaker 3: really like, you know, to go out. And I've been
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Speaker 3: speaking to the numbers of new recruits and we've got
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Speaker 3: quite a number of them, and we need to you know,
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Speaker 3: they really came to get out and do that remote policing,
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Speaker 3: which is really exciting because they come out of now
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Speaker 3: they come out. That's a big change in the police
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Speaker 3: is that they come out of that to graduate and
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Speaker 3: head out immediately to remote most of them.
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Speaker 1: And do you think that's what should be happening or
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Speaker 1: do you think that we should actually you know, if
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Speaker 1: people have got families. If they've got kids that are,
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Speaker 1: you know, in school, should we be sending them out
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Speaker 1: to other communities or should we be trying to work
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Speaker 1: with them on what works for them as well.
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Speaker 3: I think that it can still come down to the
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Speaker 3: personal circumstances. But I think all of us would know
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Speaker 3: that our police are so much better when they have
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Speaker 3: that remote experience. I've met some amazing people out and remote.
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Speaker 3: That has been probably the biggest part of the journey
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Speaker 3: so far from me is meeting those remote police officers.
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Speaker 3: But actually, Katie, you be surprised. Every single recruit that
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Speaker 3: I've spoken to out on the parade grounds when they
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Speaker 3: are graduating, has said they're very excited about going remote
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Speaker 3: and that's part of the reason they joined for the job.
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Speaker 1: Now, Minister, I'm mind full of time, and I know
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Speaker 1: that your press for time this morning. But the Chief
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Speaker 1: Minister on the show earlier in the week that Jeanette
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Speaker 1: Kerr is going to be taking a deep dive into
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Speaker 1: issues in Alice Springs, and we know that Alice Springs
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Speaker 1: has been grappling with crime and other concerns for quite
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Speaker 1: some time. What's the plan for Darwin and the top
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Speaker 1: end as well?
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Speaker 3: So Jeanette has been on the ground for four years
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Speaker 3: four weeks, so four weeks now it probably feels like
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Speaker 3: four years for her. She's been doing a superb job
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Speaker 3: of bringing everybody together. So for an example, the patrollers
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Speaker 3: meeting that were being held behind closed doors are now
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Speaker 3: as of this week, actually being held out in the
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Speaker 3: town Council's meets lawns. There's twenty one patrols that go
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Speaker 3: out to night. We're getting them more coordinated and doing
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Speaker 3: that more joined up work. It was really pleasing to
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Speaker 3: see last week the Tangier Women's Patrol it was predominantly women.
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Speaker 3: Their night patrol joined them as well for the first time,
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Speaker 3: so really joining up the services, doing pop up in
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Speaker 3: shopping centers, those sorts of things. So here in Darwin
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Speaker 3: we've already started in train. We're going to do the
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Speaker 3: same process that Jeanette is doing and consolidating down in
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Speaker 3: our springs, which will result in a plan for Alice.
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Speaker 3: I want to thank publicly the Chamber of Commerce in
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Speaker 3: Alice Springs. They have been superb in supporting us through
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Speaker 3: this process and are really working with us. But here
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Speaker 3: we'll do the same thing and we're starting out in Casarina,
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Speaker 3: because we've seen those recent issues at Casarina. We're starting
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Speaker 3: out there and that will include bringing the traders together,
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Speaker 3: bringing council together, bringing all of the stakeholders together, not
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Speaker 3: just government, and making sure everybody knows what their role
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Speaker 3: is in this and giving them the tools to sort
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Speaker 3: some of this staff out.
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Speaker 1: So, Minister, is it also going to be a situation
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Speaker 1: where Jeanette Kerk conducts that review.
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Speaker 3: No, so I wouldn't call it a review, Katie. What
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Speaker 3: we've actually done is she's just pulling people together and
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Speaker 3: making a plan and actually executing the plan. It's the
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Speaker 3: difference he's actually doing things on the ground. We saw
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Speaker 3: yesterday the first of the pop ups, which included police,
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Speaker 3: but it also included education in at Your Purna in
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Speaker 3: our Springs. From all accounts, it went very well. They've
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Speaker 3: got a problem there with young people during the daytime.
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Speaker 3: We've really pushed hard on no school, no service down
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Speaker 3: there and it's cleaning it up. We're working with the
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Speaker 3: shopping center and we'll do the same here.
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Speaker 1: And so who's going to be conducting that coordination here
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Speaker 1: in Darwin hasn't been announced yet.
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Speaker 3: We are looking well, we hopefully have found someone, but
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Speaker 3: I can't tell you that is today, Katie, because they
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Speaker 3: have to agree.
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Speaker 2: Yep, okay, fair enough. We're happy to wait on that now.
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Speaker 1: I know that the Opposition leader last week revealed on
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Speaker 1: the show that she's going to once again move a
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Speaker 1: motion in Parliament for there to be a Parliamentary Select
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Speaker 1: Committee to look into the police force the issues that
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Speaker 1: we have with attrition and morale. This is the third
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Speaker 1: attempt by the opposition. Now the Opposition's got the support
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Speaker 1: of the Independent member Kisierpuric. Is the government going to
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Speaker 1: allow this to happen today in parliament?
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Speaker 3: So this will be debated and you obviously can't preem debate, Katie.
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Speaker 3: But I've just outlined to you the enormous amount of
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Speaker 3: work that we are doing in the police force. So no,
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Speaker 3: this won't be supported by government. I don't think today
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Speaker 3: because Katie, there is so much work going on. We
10:00
Speaker 3: can't have people coming offline. You know, the Opposition leader
10:05
Speaker 3: could make a number of appointments with our officers and
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Speaker 3: get some briefings. She pops into police stations out in
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Speaker 3: other areas and things like that. She talks like I
10:13
Speaker 3: do to frontline services. She you know she can seek
10:17
Speaker 3: briefings on this. She's not. This is lazy politics. And
10:21
Speaker 3: to be honest with you, these guys are sounding like
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Speaker 3: an absolute broken record. They say we're soft on crime,
10:26
Speaker 3: but hey, our jails are full. So I don't know
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Speaker 3: quite what it is that they think the police are
10:30
Speaker 3: doing a fantastic job.
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Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's disputing the fact that police are
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Speaker 1: doing their job.
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Speaker 2: I think they're you know, and.
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Speaker 1: To start doing a great job, Catie, to step away
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Speaker 1: from the opposition, just for a moment and make it
10:42
Speaker 1: so it's you know, it's not about politics here. But
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Speaker 1: the problem is at the moment is that a lot
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Speaker 1: of people within the community are feeling like, you know,
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Speaker 1: when it comes to crime, we're broken. And you know,
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Speaker 1: last week I spoke to the grandmar of a thirteen
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Speaker 1: year old autistic boy who'd been assaulted at the Casuarina
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Speaker 1: Bus Exchange. I've spoken to people who've had their cars stolen.
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Speaker 1: I've spoken to business owners who are grappling with crime
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Speaker 1: within those shopping centers.
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Speaker 3: You know, I get it, Katie, And it's not good enough.
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Speaker 3: Police are doing a magnificent job of catching those offenders,
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Speaker 3: and they do it and I see it every single day,
11:17
Speaker 3: the work they're doing, pulling them offline so they can
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Speaker 3: sit in front of a Select committee. At this point
11:21
Speaker 3: in time where there is so much work going on internally,
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Speaker 3: I've got a job to do. I'm very aware of that,
11:27
Speaker 3: and we're on it, and we've been on it for
11:29
Speaker 3: a while now, not an extended period of time, but
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Speaker 3: I've put in place all of these things. We're looking
11:34
Speaker 3: at all of the things that have driven that survey
11:37
Speaker 3: and underpin the results of that survey. We're doing that
11:40
Speaker 3: work already, and it's just cheap politics, Katie, to be honest,
11:44
Speaker 3: and we need to just keep getting on with the job,
11:47
Speaker 3: and that's what we're doing.
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Speaker 1: I just don't understand, though, you know, we've had select
11:51
Speaker 1: committees looking to things like fas D before. Is what
11:54
Speaker 1: Keysier period had said to us earlier in the week.
11:56
Speaker 1: So I just don't understand why if we're not going
11:58
Speaker 1: to be sort of you know, why we're not prepared
12:01
Speaker 1: to have another look into it, because.
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Speaker 3: We are looking into it, Katie, and that's what my
12:05
Speaker 3: job is to do, and that's what you know, that
12:08
Speaker 3: is what we're doing. So to have a Select committee
12:11
Speaker 3: to come over the top. I've only been in the
12:14
Speaker 3: job a very short amount of time. We've just got
12:16
Speaker 3: the results from the survey. Give us some time to
12:19
Speaker 3: do the things that we are here to do. That
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Speaker 3: is my job, so I take it very very seriously.
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Speaker 3: We've got so many things in training. The police are
12:28
Speaker 3: doing a good job, and to drag them off in
12:30
Speaker 3: front of a Select committee, I think is just an
12:32
Speaker 3: absolute waste of time We had getting to the bottom
12:36
Speaker 3: of this. We don't need a Select committee to do that.
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Speaker 1: So Minister, at the moment, there will be people listening
12:41
Speaker 1: this morning who were thinking to themselves or who were saying,
12:44
Speaker 1: you know, I guess what you're asking from the public
12:47
Speaker 1: is for them to trust you, to trust that you
12:49
Speaker 1: know that you are looking into the police force and
12:52
Speaker 1: that you have got you know, those reviews taking place,
12:55
Speaker 1: and that it's going to make a change. But also,
12:57
Speaker 1: you know, fundamentally people are really hurting over this crime issue.
13:02
Speaker 1: And I think that we all agree the police are
13:03
Speaker 1: doing a magnificent job. But then when you've got the
13:05
Speaker 1: police saying that they do not feel as though there's
13:08
Speaker 1: enough of them to be able to do that job.
13:11
Speaker 1: You know, even stepping away from that select committee, how
13:15
Speaker 1: do we support them better, or how do we make
13:17
Speaker 1: sure that we don't have ten and eleven year olds
13:20
Speaker 1: out on the street rolling people.
13:21
Speaker 3: We get more, we actually get more people back to work, Katie.
13:26
Speaker 3: There's a number of people that are not working at
13:28
Speaker 3: the moment within the police. So you need actually more
13:30
Speaker 3: feed on the ground. You need as I said to
13:32
Speaker 3: you earlier, well, we have a lot of police, Katie.
13:37
Speaker 3: We've got more police than we've ever had before. So
13:39
Speaker 3: we need to make sure that they are out doing
13:42
Speaker 3: those frontline jobs. And I think you know you and
13:45
Speaker 3: I know that if you see police more around, you
13:48
Speaker 3: actually feel safer. And that is my task and that's
13:51
Speaker 3: something I take very very seriously. The other issue is
13:54
Speaker 3: you have to think about the broader factors here about
13:57
Speaker 3: why those particularly those young people are committing those crimes
14:01
Speaker 3: that you noted, Katie. And we are doing that work
14:04
Speaker 3: with those families, with those young people, and you know,
14:07
Speaker 3: we're looking at which are other ways in which we
14:10
Speaker 3: can deal with these young people, because ultimately young people
14:14
Speaker 3: of the ages that you've been talking about are very
14:18
Speaker 3: very young. They rarely go into the youth justice system,
14:21
Speaker 3: but when they do, it's probably not a suitable place
14:23
Speaker 3: for them. The Royal Commission told us that, so we
14:26
Speaker 3: are working intensively and I do see in the youth
14:29
Speaker 3: diversion space we sing attract some kids through they you know,
14:32
Speaker 3: there's a real turnaround with quite a number of those
14:35
Speaker 3: young people, but with some which are hard recidive as kids,
14:38
Speaker 3: you know, we do end up with them in the
14:40
Speaker 3: youth justice system. Sadly, we do have more young people
14:43
Speaker 3: in detention than we've you know, numbers are around fifty
14:47
Speaker 3: on any given day, fifty fifty yeomen and probably about
14:52
Speaker 3: two years ago there was an average of around eighteen.
14:55
Speaker 3: It's not a number I'm proud of, but each and
14:58
Speaker 3: every one of those young people is getting a very good,
15:01
Speaker 3: intensive support to turn their lives around, whether they're inside
15:05
Speaker 3: or they're outside. And so any young person that comes
15:08
Speaker 3: into or brushes with our system, you know, we want
15:12
Speaker 3: to get in and do that early prevention work because
15:14
Speaker 3: that's what makes the difference. And you talk to anybody
15:16
Speaker 3: that went through diversion and came out the other side,
15:20
Speaker 3: they will say to you it changed their lives.
15:22
Speaker 2: Minister.
15:22
Speaker 1: We are far strunning out of time, but there is
15:24
Speaker 1: still talk about raising the age of criminal responsibility.
15:27
Speaker 2: Are we in a position to do.
15:29
Speaker 1: That right now when we have got ten and eleven
15:31
Speaker 1: year olds who are engaging in serious crime.
15:34
Speaker 3: Yes, so it's a you know, it is a matter
15:37
Speaker 3: that the Royal Commission has said you should raise the
15:41
Speaker 3: age to twelve. There's a national discussion about fourteen. Our
15:43
Speaker 3: government doesn't support fourteen age, do you support? Well, we have,
15:49
Speaker 3: we made an election commitment Katie around twelve. The most
15:52
Speaker 3: important thing is, though, is what happens to those young
15:55
Speaker 3: people that are below that age and making sure you've
15:58
Speaker 3: got the systems in place for that. And that's the
16:01
Speaker 3: work that we're doing, making sure that there are the
16:03
Speaker 3: programs that they can go into, the safe spaces they
16:06
Speaker 3: can go into, and ultimately, you know, keep them off
16:09
Speaker 3: the street so that the community is safe.
16:12
Speaker 1: I mean again, I'll go back to that situation where
16:16
Speaker 1: allegedly kids aged as young as ten and eleven year
16:19
Speaker 1: old were engaged in really serious crimes about two weekends ago.
16:24
Speaker 1: There's vision, I'm not sure whether you've seen it, of
16:26
Speaker 1: a really young child stomping on the head of an
16:29
Speaker 1: older Aboriginal man.
16:31
Speaker 2: It makes your blood curdle. Honestly, it's disgusting behavior.
16:35
Speaker 3: And that's disgusting behavior, whether it's an adult or a
16:37
Speaker 3: young person. And so I don't know the age of
16:40
Speaker 3: that child. I don't know the outcome of that particular one,
16:43
Speaker 3: but I saw the video. In fact, I did send
16:45
Speaker 3: that video on to police myself and said, I don't
16:48
Speaker 3: know if you've seen this, because sometimes, you know, I
16:50
Speaker 3: think it's a responsibility of us all to report that,
16:52
Speaker 3: particularly when we see such abhorrent things online. But what
16:56
Speaker 3: we need to make sure is that you know, those
16:59
Speaker 3: young people. I don't know what time of the night
17:01
Speaker 3: that young person should not have been out, they should
17:03
Speaker 3: have been home, and they are the things that we
17:05
Speaker 3: continue to look at. We've got lots of programs. We
17:08
Speaker 3: spend more money on diversion than we do on detention, Cady.
17:12
Speaker 3: So it's you know, we're making a huge you know,
17:17
Speaker 3: inroads in that area. But to be honest, there's just
17:20
Speaker 3: more kids and there are dysfunctional families that we are
17:23
Speaker 3: working with every single day. And if you talk to police,
17:26
Speaker 3: you know, police are now very closely aligned with Territory
17:29
Speaker 3: Family since I've become the Minister for both, and they
17:32
Speaker 3: are working very very closely together. Those families are known
17:36
Speaker 3: to us in Alice Springs, we reckon there's probably about
17:39
Speaker 3: thirty young people that are on the radar. There are
17:42
Speaker 3: those recidibus offenders that we are really targeting.
17:46
Speaker 1: It just seems astonishing to me, you know, when you
17:47
Speaker 1: look at like what you've said, they're thirty young kids
17:50
Speaker 1: on the radar, then you've got twenty one patrols. I
17:52
Speaker 1: think with the number that it's, you know, it sounds
17:54
Speaker 1: like we've almost got enough patrols per.
17:57
Speaker 3: Child YEP, which is dealing with the same young I
18:00
Speaker 3: mean at night in Ala Springs, you'll see a number
18:02
Speaker 3: of young people out. But being out is actually not
18:05
Speaker 3: a crime, Katie. So you know a lot of those
18:07
Speaker 3: young people are not actually up to no good, but
18:10
Speaker 3: there is a group of them and when they get together,
18:13
Speaker 3: we know who they are. But police do target them.
18:15
Speaker 3: They do a superb job and they do bring them
18:17
Speaker 3: before the authorities. People say, you know, we're soft on
18:20
Speaker 3: that there's no consequences, But the consequences I see for
18:23
Speaker 3: a lot of young people are quite harsh, and I
18:26
Speaker 3: will give the community that. But when they come out,
18:28
Speaker 3: we're also doing some different things with if they come
18:31
Speaker 3: out of youth detention instead of allowing them to come
18:33
Speaker 3: back into town, into town actually taking them back to
18:36
Speaker 3: the communities where they've got, you know, a more supportive
18:39
Speaker 3: family structure. So there's some innovative things. I went out
18:43
Speaker 3: recently to Ramon Ginning and saw a young man out there.
18:45
Speaker 3: He's been in and out of youth detention and he's
18:48
Speaker 3: thriving out there and the elders have really taken him on.
18:50
Speaker 3: I want to thank them and that he's absolutely found,
18:53
Speaker 3: you know, a little bit more about himself and who
18:55
Speaker 3: he is. And I went out there and I sat
18:58
Speaker 3: with him for a while, and you know, there are
19:00
Speaker 3: great programs that are working really hard with young people
19:02
Speaker 3: that have come from pretty traumatic background.
19:05
Speaker 2: Minister, we are just about out of time.
19:08
Speaker 1: One of the things that you've said a couple of
19:10
Speaker 1: times this morning is that you do think that there
19:12
Speaker 1: needs to be more police or you want that more
19:14
Speaker 1: visible police presidence, police out there. It sounds like a
19:17
Speaker 1: pretty clear message that you actually want more boots on
19:21
Speaker 1: the ground, you want those police officers out there doing
19:25
Speaker 1: more community engagement.
19:26
Speaker 2: Have you outlined that to the police commissioner.
19:29
Speaker 3: Absolutely, that's the hub of most of the conversations that
19:32
Speaker 3: we have. You know, He's very very aware of how
19:37
Speaker 3: I would like to see things. I want, you know,
19:39
Speaker 3: police that are in remote I want them being seen
19:41
Speaker 3: as part of the com community and embedded, not as
19:44
Speaker 3: a separate arm there, you know, to marshal over law
19:48
Speaker 3: and order. You know, being part of the community. Is
19:51
Speaker 3: that real old fashioned policing is the way to go.
19:55
Speaker 1: Just very quickly, we know that the police seem like
19:58
Speaker 1: they're seriously under the pump. We had a call on
20:00
Speaker 1: the show on Monday Dale his motorbike was stolen. He
20:03
Speaker 1: called one three one triple four, was on hold for
20:05
Speaker 1: more than half an hour. Call back the next day
20:08
Speaker 1: and the call went unanswered. Have we got enough stuff
20:11
Speaker 1: on that one three one triple four number?
20:12
Speaker 3: So I'll acknowledge that there have been some issues with
20:16
Speaker 3: the it's called the Jesk that take those calls, But
20:18
Speaker 3: we have recently graduated quite a number of new Jesk operators.
20:23
Speaker 3: Often those operators go on to be serving police officers,
20:26
Speaker 3: you know, they move on. It's seen as sort of
20:28
Speaker 3: a track through. But we have had some new graduates there.
20:32
Speaker 3: One of the real big issues for us, Katie is
20:34
Speaker 3: actually the quantity of calls has gone up in its thousands.
20:37
Speaker 2: Why is that?
20:38
Speaker 1: I mean most would say that's because we've got to you.
20:41
Speaker 3: So everybody now has got mobile phones. We're all well connected,
20:45
Speaker 3: and you may get twelve calls for the one matter,
20:49
Speaker 3: whereas before you might have got one. And when you've
20:52
Speaker 3: got those twelve calls, you need to speak to each
20:54
Speaker 3: and every one of them because if you need witnesses later,
20:57
Speaker 3: you need those details. So it's not as simple as
20:59
Speaker 3: saying I let it go through it and you know,
21:01
Speaker 3: we've looked at that, maybe going through to a message
21:03
Speaker 3: bank and leaving people's details, but you can't. It's not
21:06
Speaker 3: as simple as that.
21:07
Speaker 2: So you actually because there's been an increase in crime.
21:09
Speaker 3: No, it's actually you'll get an increase in calls that
21:12
Speaker 3: relate to the same matter. And people are very diligent
21:14
Speaker 3: and I'm very grateful that people are diligent and actually
21:17
Speaker 3: calling that in.
21:18
Speaker 2: Minister. One last question this morning.
21:20
Speaker 1: Do you believe there are enough police to do the
21:22
Speaker 1: job that's being asked of.
21:23
Speaker 3: Them if you look at our police numbers, their record numbers. Absolutely,
21:27
Speaker 3: we need to make sure that each and every one
21:28
Speaker 3: of them feel supported enough to be at work every
21:31
Speaker 3: day and boots on the ground.
21:33
Speaker 1: Well, Minister for Police. We really appreciate your time this morning,
21:36
Speaker 1: Kate Walden, thanks very much for speaking with always great
21:38
Speaker 1: to be with you, Katie, thank you