Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / President of the NT Police Association Paul McCue says we need to protect our police so they don't walk away from the job, after another horrific police assault

Transcript

President of the NT Police Association Paul McCue says we need to protect our police so they don't walk away from the job, after another horrific police assault · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that yesterday, unfortunately, we learned that Northern
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Territory police officers have charged an eighteen year old man
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  Speaker 1: after he allegedly assaulted five officers during an arrest on Saturday.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to talk us through
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  Speaker 1: this situation is the Police Association President Paul McHugh.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Paul, morning Katie. Here, are you going?
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  Speaker 2: Not too bad? Paul?
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  Speaker 1: What happened with these officers over the course of the weekend.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look sadly another day another assault on several of
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  Speaker 3: our officers down there in our Springs. And this was
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  Speaker 3: also on the back of another assault on an officer
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  Speaker 3: in Catherine where they were spat at as well there
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  Speaker 3: on Saturday. So it seems to be quite a regular occurrence,
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  Speaker 3: and we talk about a lot. But on Saturday down
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  Speaker 3: there in our Springs, an officer just going about their
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  Speaker 3: duties at one of the bottle shops there obviously identified
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  Speaker 3: this eighteen year old who had an outstanding warrant, had
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  Speaker 3: breached Supreme Court bail after being released on a suspended
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  Speaker 3: sentence for ironically assaulting police, amongst other matters, and as
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  Speaker 3: that officer attempted to apprehend that particular individual. They turned
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  Speaker 3: extremely violent, repeatedly punching that officer to the head, striking
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  Speaker 3: him with a closed fist, and then I believe it
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  Speaker 3: or not, attending to bite one of the officer's ears
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  Speaker 3: and spit directly at the members. I mean, it took
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  Speaker 3: multiple officers, some off duty to go and try and
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  Speaker 3: control this individual, and sadly it didn't even stop there.
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  Speaker 3: Once they got this person back to the watchhouse, the
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  Speaker 3: attack continued and officers there were spat at with spit
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  Speaker 3: hitting them all over their face in one of the
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  Speaker 3: eyes of the officers. So horrendous situation and something that's
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  Speaker 3: far too common for our people on the front line.
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  Speaker 1: It is absolutely outrageous behavior and disgusting stuff.
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  Speaker 2: How are those officers?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, we've our representatives down there in Alice Springs
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  Speaker 3: a touch base with all of those officers involved. Going okay,
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  Speaker 3: several as they do. They carried on and got on
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  Speaker 3: with their shift that particular day, believe it or not,
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  Speaker 3: but obviously some needed to get treatment and some now
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  Speaker 3: have an agonizing weight to determine if they've indeed contracted
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  Speaker 3: a communicable disease after that vile, disgusting act from an
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  Speaker 3: eighteen year old who clearly has absolutely no respect for
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  Speaker 3: police and the work they do.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you must be getting frustrated by this.
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  Speaker 1: How common and how often are we seeing assaults against
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  Speaker 1: police officers.
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  Speaker 3: It's pretty much every day, Katie. I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we've been monitoring the court court listen, and there would
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  Speaker 3: barely be a day that goes by without somebody in
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory fronting up to a court for an
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  Speaker 3: assault police matter, yet alone assaults on any other frontline workers.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, this is far too common occurrence. There's
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  Speaker 3: clearly not as strong enough to terrent out there in
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  Speaker 3: the community. And you know, you only got to post
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  Speaker 3: something up around this on social media. You can see
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  Speaker 3: them in the expectation. They are outraged, as are those
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  Speaker 3: officers subject to these assaults. That there's simply isn't strong
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  Speaker 3: enough to terrance out Therefore, for those who want to
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  Speaker 3: attack police and other frontline workers, it's not good enough.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we heard yesterday from the paramedics from Saint John's
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  Speaker 1: that a paramedic had been spat on over the weekend
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  Speaker 1: as well, so we know that it is something that's
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  Speaker 1: impacting many of our frontline workers. Last week the Opposition attempted,
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  Speaker 1: I believe, to introduce legislation or introduce legislation in this space.
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  Speaker 2: Paul, what do you think needs to happen here?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've obviously lobbied for a long time around the
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  Speaker 3: sentencing provisions for people found guilty of assaulting our police
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  Speaker 3: and obviously that would flow through to other frontline workers
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  Speaker 3: such as our ambulance officers and so forth. So right
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  Speaker 3: now there's not a strong enough to terran around sentencing
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  Speaker 3: for people who are found guilty of these vicious assaults.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's quite clear from our member feedback and
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  Speaker 3: we've surveyed them time and time again on this issue
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  Speaker 3: and they tell us it's not strong enough. There's not
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  Speaker 3: strong enough to terrence for people who want to assault people.
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  Speaker 3: They I mean, we are losing so many frontline workers
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  Speaker 3: here in the Nt Katie Police as well as others.
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  Speaker 3: We need to be doing everything we can to keep them.
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  Speaker 3: If we're not going to stand up and protect them
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  Speaker 3: with stronger legislation, the Sealpe did try and introduce some
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  Speaker 3: in Parliament to be debated. The Chief Ministers come out,
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  Speaker 3: which is pleasingly to hear that he wants to obviously
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  Speaker 3: progress discussions in that space. We met with the Minister
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  Speaker 3: last Friday and expressed our concerns that a working group
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  Speaker 3: established under the current government has simply stalled. We've had
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  Speaker 3: one meeting in six months and our members feel it's
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  Speaker 3: very tokenistic. There needs to be some real action here
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  Speaker 3: and some real reform otherwise we'll lose more even more members.
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  Speaker 2: Well, just taught me through this.
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  Speaker 1: So the Chief Minister has said that he's open to
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  Speaker 1: some changes to this legislation. You then said that you
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  Speaker 1: met with the Police Minister on Friday. Essentially you have
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  Speaker 1: told the Police Minister that this working group stalled.
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  Speaker 2: What needs to happen?
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  Speaker 1: Does this working group need to get back underway as well,
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  Speaker 1: or what do you reckon needs to happen here?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the Minister advises that, you know, she certainly is
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  Speaker 3: expecting that working group to progress rather quickly, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: I'm sadly I don't have confidence that that's going to happen.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we've been hearing that for six months. Nothing's
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  Speaker 3: taken place other than one meeting which achieved pretty much nothing.
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  Speaker 3: So I mean, let's be fair income here. We need
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  Speaker 3: some real action and we need this to be taken
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  Speaker 3: seriously because each and every day our members are solded
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  Speaker 3: is yet another assault that's getting through the gaps of
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  Speaker 3: what community expect around sentencing for these people, and so
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  Speaker 3: they're just not feeling supported in this space whatsoever.
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  Speaker 1: Paul, do you think that the government is just sort
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  Speaker 1: of trying to appease everybody here?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, on one side of the fence.
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  Speaker 1: You've got you know, you've got these you've got these
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  Speaker 1: reports about the spi hoods, and you know, some sectors
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  Speaker 1: saying that spi hood should no longer be able to
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  Speaker 1: be used, and restraint chairs as well are no longer
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  Speaker 1: able to be used.
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  Speaker 2: So that's on one side.
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  Speaker 1: Then obviously, are the likes of yourself saying that we
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  Speaker 1: need to make sure that there are tougher penalties for
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  Speaker 1: those who assault police officers, i e. Spit on police officers,
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  Speaker 1: which is I'm assuming when a spi hood may be
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  Speaker 1: required if they are in the watch house and doing
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  Speaker 1: something of that nature. Do you think that the government
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  Speaker 1: is trying to appease everybody here and not actually you know,
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  Speaker 1: making decisions that are going to you know, going to
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  Speaker 1: be the right thing for those on the ground.
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  Speaker 3: Look, there's no doubt there's pressures from all sides. There's
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  Speaker 3: no doubt there are people completely opposed to some of
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  Speaker 3: the processes in place for dealing with people who become violent.
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  Speaker 3: But from our perspective, our members have a work health
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  Speaker 3: safety requirement, are not to go to work and be assaulted. Remember,
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  Speaker 3: they want to go home every shift. They don't want
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  Speaker 3: to be spat at. They are the ones generally that
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  Speaker 3: will have to deal with people when they first come
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  Speaker 3: into the attention of police, who are generally you know
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  Speaker 3: that these people are often as we've seen in this
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  Speaker 3: instance down in Our Springs, they're violent, they are irrational,
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  Speaker 3: they are not following directions of police, and they want
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  Speaker 3: to attack them. Now, you know, it is the obligation
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  Speaker 3: of the employer, that is the government, to make sure
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  Speaker 3: our members are safe and right now, in the absence
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  Speaker 3: of any other procedure or process, that is what's being used,
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  Speaker 3: and that is what we support until there's a suitable alternative.
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  Speaker 1: Paul, if this legislation doesn't change, and if the government
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  Speaker 1: doesn't take a strong stance here against these assaults that
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  Speaker 1: we're seeing against police officers, what do you think the
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  Speaker 1: rammification is going to be well?
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  Speaker 3: Police will not put up with being assaulted time and
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  Speaker 3: time again. I mean, we are One of the major
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  Speaker 3: concerns for us is many of our as we know,
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  Speaker 3: many of our new young police who we've had a
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  Speaker 3: lot joined in the last two years because we've lost
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  Speaker 3: so many. They are the future of the police force
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  Speaker 3: here in the territory. They are the future leaders that
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  Speaker 3: you want to keep and you want to retain here
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  Speaker 3: in the NT and work for many, many years to come.
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  Speaker 3: But if they are going to go to work and
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  Speaker 3: be assaulted at the rate they are at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: which is extremely alarming, they won't hang around. They will
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  Speaker 3: move on to other careers and we will lose good people.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the last thing we can really afford to
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  Speaker 3: do right now.
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  Speaker 1: Pull on those rates of police officers leaving. How are
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  Speaker 1: we sitting for this year?
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  Speaker 3: Look, it's still on target for the previous year, Katie,
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  Speaker 3: which was an all time record. We are still tracking
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  Speaker 3: to lose well over one hundred plus people this year.
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  Speaker 3: We've got huge concerns of course around that attrition rate.
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  Speaker 3: We have for a long time. We do know that
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  Speaker 3: the government and Commissioner have committed to maintaining recruitment but
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  Speaker 3: it is becoming very thin on the ground out there,
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  Speaker 3: and we have very competitive conditions of service for police
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  Speaker 3: and other jurisdictions which are looking very attractive, and we
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  Speaker 3: need to do all we can to make sure we're
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  Speaker 3: keeping the ones here.
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  Speaker 1: In the end, to Paul, before I let you go,
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  Speaker 1: you and I have spoken on numerous occasions over the
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  Speaker 1: last couple of weeks following on from the trial of
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  Speaker 1: Zach Rolf. We know that there has been further reports
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  Speaker 1: throughout last week in the Australian newspaper for the details
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  Speaker 1: emerging about what the Police Commissioner knew and when where
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  Speaker 1: are things at. Has there been a vote of confidence
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  Speaker 1: in the Police Commissioner?
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  Speaker 2: Is there going to be?
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  Speaker 3: No? Not at this stage. Of course, We've had quite
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  Speaker 3: a few members contact us and raise their concerns with us,
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  Speaker 3: But right now we know there is an investigation underway.
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  Speaker 3: We know there is an Ikach review happening until such
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  Speaker 3: time as we provided evidence out of such a review
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  Speaker 3: that there has been some wrongdoing. No, there is no
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  Speaker 3: vote of no confidence in the Commissioner at this point
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  Speaker 3: in time, and we've just got to remember that. And
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  Speaker 3: I'm not trying to defend the commissioner here by any stretch.
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  Speaker 3: But we've got to make sure that we have some facts,
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  Speaker 3: we have some evidence, and if there is, of course,
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  Speaker 3: ultimately at the end of all this, of course he
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  Speaker 3: will be responsible and he's accountable for that. But right now,
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  Speaker 3: of course we have a lot of upset members. But
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  Speaker 3: right now we need to focus on making sure you know,
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  Speaker 3: we've got enough people to do the job. I can
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  Speaker 3: tell you right now morale has affected far more right
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  Speaker 3: now with having not enough people to do the job
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  Speaker 3: on a day to day basis than it is with
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  Speaker 3: anything else. So that should be our focus for the.
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  Speaker 2: Time, bab Paul, Before I let you go, how is
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  Speaker 2: that morale? Again?
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  Speaker 1: I know I've asked you this on numerous occasions over
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  Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks, but how are our police
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  Speaker 1: force tracking?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it's tough times. Obviously, we're trying to get
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  Speaker 3: around to as many stations as we can at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: and as I've said on many occasions, you know, the
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  Speaker 3: biggest concern we have is is obviously making sure we've
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  Speaker 3: got enough numbers to do the job, and that's really
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  Speaker 3: what's affecting morale more than anything right now. But we've
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  Speaker 3: got some incredibly good people out there doing some great
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  Speaker 3: work for this community, and you know, we're certainly behind
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  Speaker 3: and one hundred percent and we will continue to do
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  Speaker 3: so well.
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  Speaker 1: Police Association President Paul Mchew, we always appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for speaking with us this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Cotie, thank you,