Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro says she’s referred a crime petition, which was started after Declan Laverty’s death to a parliamentary scrutiny committee

Transcript

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro says she’s referred a crime petition, which was started after Declan Laverty’s death to a parliamentary scrutiny committee · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As I said yesterday on the show, we spoke to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Samara Lavity about the Justice for Decklan Lavity Well petition
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and her calls for further action when it comes to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: crime in the Northern Territory. Now as it stands, while
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at this right now, that petition, those numbers
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: have now reached twenty two thousand, five hundred and sixty one.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Now the Opposition leader Lea Finocchio tabled that petition in
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Parliament yesterday. She joins me on the line, good morning
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to you, Leah.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katy and to your listeners.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Now, Leah, that petition table yesterday, more than twenty two
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: thousand people have now signed it. What's going to happen
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: with that petition now?
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  Speaker 2: It's really incredible, Katie, And I think the strength and
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: the numbers of people signing that petition started by Samara
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Lavity shows the rapid increase in concern right across our
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: community for high levels of crime. So I tabled that
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: petition on behalf of the people who signed it, and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I hope it serves as a very dark warning to
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Natasha files around people's desperate want for this government to
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: do something to drive down our very excessive rates of crime.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: So time will tell if they do anything with it.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I've asked for it to be sent to a scrutiny committee,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: who are then able to authorize it to come back
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: to Parliament for debate, and I want listeners to be
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: really clear that if that petition disappears and never comes
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: back to Parliament, it is solely at the feet of
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Labor that you can blame because they have the majority
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: on that committee. The chair is Joe Bowden and ultimately,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: if they block this petition coming back to Parliament for debate,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: it shows just how little respects.
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  Speaker 1: Solelya sorry, just talk us through that again with the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: ins and outs of it. What needs to happen now
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: for it to be debated in parliament.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So what happens is when you table a petition,
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  Speaker 2: the petition is read out and then I referred it
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: to a scrutiny committee, which is the proper process. They
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: are the ones who determine whether it just goes to
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister written response to Samara Lavity or whether
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: it comes back to Parliament for a debate. Now, if
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: that the petition does not come back to Parliament for
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: a debate, next sittings. It will be because Labor have
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: lost it at that parliamentary Scrutiny Committee level. And so
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: if we don't see that petition next month, we know
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: that Labor again are trying to shut down the voices
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: of a community and are turning their back on twenty
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: two thousand people who demand more from this government.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Well, I actually think those numbers are going to grow.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I think that we're going to see over the coming
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: days that there's going to be more people sign that petition.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: And I don't think that you can ignore that number
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: of people. This does need to be debated, there does
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: need to be for the discussion, but you cannot ignore
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the voices of twenty two thousand people. Now, whether all
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of them are from the Northern Territory or not, I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: don't know, but some of the comments that are on there,
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  Speaker 1: they do seem to be people that are based here
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: There's names that I recognize.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no doubt that the vast majority would be Territorians.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: I haven't gone through all of them, but that was
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  Speaker 2: twenty Sorry, that was two point two kilos of paper, Katie.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: It was enormous. The biggest petition i've ever seen hit
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  Speaker 2: Parliament in eleven years. And we know, I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I know we talk to people every day who are
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: sick and tired of the ones who have to change
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: their life, change their lifestyle, barricade themselves in their homes
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: and their business while criminals walk free.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: When this week, when will we know whether it can
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: whether it is going to be debated?
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Like when will we know when's it going to go
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: that step further?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: It should be next parliament. So we should find out
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: next Parliament whether that Scrutiny Committee has approved it to
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: come back for debate. Any longer than that is ridiculous,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: this labor playing game. So I'll make sure people are
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: kept abreast of what the status is. But it's our
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: expectation that would be back for debate next parliament.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Well, we will all be keeping a very close eye
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: on it, I think.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: And the fact is here.
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  Speaker 1: That those numbers, I can't remember the last time that
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: a petition garnered numbers like that here in the Northern Territory.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Keesy Epiric was texting me a little while ago and
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: she said that she understands the last time that there
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: was a petition with over twenty thousand signatures.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Was when Paul Henderson.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Was looking at selling too, but it didn't sell. They
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: backed down. I'd have to go back and do my research.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, it's a huge number of people
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  Speaker 1: to sign a petition.
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  Speaker 3: It's a number that you can't ignore.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: It is a number you can't ignore. But unfortunately we
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: have a government that continues to ignore the calls of people.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we have had thousands of people in Alice
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Springs come together on crime, thousands of people on the
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: steps of Parliament House. We've got now tens of thousands
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: of people signing a petition and yet this week in
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Parliament the government made territories wait five months for a
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: bow review after Dethlan Lavity was killed, only to come
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  Speaker 2: up with no change to b our laws in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: It's just an astonishing you know, they're just not doing
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: their job. This is a government that is just not
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  Speaker 2: putting our right to be safe as a community above
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  Speaker 2: the right of people who continue to be criminals and
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: continue to destroy other people's life. Leah.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: One of the things that did pass through parliament yesterday
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: was the knife legislation. It passed through Parliament to enabling wanding.
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  Speaker 1: We now have some further details about those locations. From
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: what I can gather, it passed with minimal fuss. There
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: were some concerns raised by Yinya mark Gyula, but with
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: minimal fuss. Have you had the opportunity to have a
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: look at those locations and obviously to get a bit
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: further detail on how this is going to work.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it was really disappointing. Government only gave the
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: opposition a copy of the bill at eight am and
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: we were expected to speak on it at ten am.
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  Speaker 2: And this is a government again promised to be open
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: and transparent and yet isn't giving anyone adequate time to
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: look at it. I believe the Independence didn't even receive
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  Speaker 2: the bill until nine thirty that morning when we were
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: meant to debate it at ten. So just it really
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  Speaker 2: shows that this has been rushed and that it's all
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: about managing the optics, not managing the territory and doing
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: good things for the territory. One thing I want to
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  Speaker 2: really misbust for your listeners is government are really making
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  Speaker 2: this legislation sound like there will be all these zones
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: across the territory now where police can freely wand people
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  Speaker 2: for knives. It's just not true. There are zones across
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: the territory which are deemed high risk areas, but police
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: will always need authorization to do the wanding, and that
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  Speaker 2: authorization requires a very stringent checklist by a commander or
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  Speaker 2: the Police Commissioner, which requires within that preceding six months
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  Speaker 2: for there to be some very high level offenses committed
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: in that area.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: What did ask this?
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  Speaker 1: I did ask the Chief Minister about this yesterday and
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: she said that they would be able to wand in
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  Speaker 1: those areas. We are going to speak to the Assistant Commissioner,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Travis Worz just after ten o'clock this morning, so I'll
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: get a better understanding from that operational perspective. But so
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  Speaker 1: what you're saying is that they can't just wand in
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  Speaker 1: those areas now. They still need to get approval from
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  Speaker 1: a commander or from the commissioner.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely so, if police have a reasonable suspicion someone has
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: a knife, then they can search them like they normally would,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: and they can use the one to search them. But
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  Speaker 2: if police want to just search people in one of
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  Speaker 2: these high risk areas, they require the authorization from a
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  Speaker 2: commander or a commissioner, who then have to go away
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  Speaker 2: and dig up the crime data from the six months
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  Speaker 2: before the authorization's requested to make sure that it hits
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  Speaker 2: some very high thresholds.
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  Speaker 1: So for example, well, some of those areas though would
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: be hitting high threshold you would see that that's why
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: they've actually been.
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  Speaker 2: Declared, you would think. But one of the tests, for example,
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  Speaker 2: is that the commander or the commissioner have to be
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  Speaker 2: satisfied that within the last six months there's been a
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  Speaker 2: violent offense, which is an offense that attracts a maximum
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  Speaker 2: imprisonment of more than seven years. So, for example, an
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  Speaker 2: aggravated assault with a weapon is not a serious enough
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  Speaker 2: offense for the commander of commissioner to authorize an area
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  Speaker 2: to be used for wanding. So it's a very very
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  Speaker 2: high barsk.
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  Speaker 3: So what did I mean.
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  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that questions were asked about this or this
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  Speaker 1: was raised yesterday in parliament.
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  Speaker 3: What did the government say?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I asked loads of questions on this, Katie and
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: raised this issue. And you know, it's just tricky. We
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: the words as usual. They don't answer questions in question times.
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  Speaker 2: They don't answer questions when we're asking on the bill,
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  Speaker 2: because what I was also really concerned about, and what
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: your listeners need to know, is even if the area
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: is authorized, it is only ever going to be authorized
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  Speaker 2: for a maximum of twelve hours. So this idea labors
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  Speaker 2: pushing that there are all these zones that are going
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  Speaker 2: to be zones where you can be wanded. It's just
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  Speaker 2: not true. It first requires authorization, and then that authorization
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  Speaker 2: is only valid for twelve hours. And my concern was
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  Speaker 2: for our police, how on earth are they going to
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  Speaker 2: keep abreast of it. If you're on one shift and
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  Speaker 2: a zone has been stood up for twelve hours, and
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  Speaker 2: then you're the next shift coming in, how are you
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: going to know how much time is left where the
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: boundaries are. So I asked all these questions because the
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  Speaker 2: last thing I want is for police to get in
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  Speaker 2: trouble for wanding someone because they might have been one
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: minute past the twelve hour mark, or they might have
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: been just on the other side of the boundary of
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: wherever the zone would be.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, well we're going to catch up, Like I
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  Speaker 1: said with the Assistant Commissioner, Travis Willis just after ten o'clock,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: can try to get some further detail on that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: But I do just want to.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Make the point that these changes have obviously been made
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: based on what is happening in Queensland. My understanding, based
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: on discussions that I've had with the Acting Commissioner, is
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: that you know, the way in which they are implementing
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: this has been based on what's been they've described as
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: quite successful in Queensland.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, and it has been successful in Queensland, but I
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: think it's important to remember when you're pay legislation there
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: are really different contexts. So queen has because if not
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: thousands more police they use it in operations around train
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: stations for example, you know things like that we don't have, but.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: We do have bus We do have bus stops, like
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I would think that it's a similar situation at a
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: bus stop.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do, we do. But again, if you're a
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: copper at a bus stop and you've got a written
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: police commission for it and then go away and get authorizations,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: the people have probably hopped on the bus before you've
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: even gotten your approval to go ahead. So look, we'll see.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I hope it works, don't get me wrong. I hope
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: it works that when it comes to the legislation. One
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: issue I did raise was that if this governments.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: We're just having some problems with your phone line there
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Ly for some reason, it's just cutting out. I'm not
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: sure if you can step. I'm in another direction for us.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: It's sorry to do it had moved at all?
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Is that better?
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: That's better? Thank you?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Oh sorry? Okay. So one issue I raised was that
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: if you're going to copy Queensland, copy it properly because
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: in Queensland, for example, around bail, they include all weapons.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: And so what we know is this government have really
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: limited things to controlled weapons, but in Queensland they've got
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: much broader definitions to capture all sorts of weapons, which
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: is something we need here in the territory. So I
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: did quiz the minister on why she's picking and choosing
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: bits of Queensland legislation, but of course I didn't get
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: any answers on behalf of our community, because this government
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: is certainly not open or transparent when it comes to
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: what they're up to. But we'll see. I hope this works,
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: but it certainly is complicated. And my major concern is
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: around supporting our police to implement it, because I don't
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: want to see our police getting in trouble for inadvertently accidentally,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: you know, being on the wrong side of whatever the
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: boundary is on, being a few minutes outside of the
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: time frame. You know, all of these details need to
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: be nutted out, and clearly they haven't been well.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: Leaf Andochiaro.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Before we wrap up this morning, what is on the
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: agenda today and what's the opposition going to be focusing on.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: So today we're really focused on our economy going backwards.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: We in the last week had ABS data showing there
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: are six thousand less jobs this month than last month.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: We've got data that shows from context that we've got
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: for the nineteenth consecutive quarter, our economy is the worst
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: performing in the nation. And Deloitte Access Economics, who are
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: the people that the Northern Territory government follow, their economic
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: data are showing that we have the worst dwelling start,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: very poor performance. We've got the second lowest population growth
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: in our nation. So we're going to really be focusing
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: on the government who's dragging the territory backwards because we
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: need opportunities here. It's very important for all of our
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: futures and for our kids, and we will always fight
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: for a strong economy so that everyone benefits and Leah.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: The interesting one there is, I mean com sick the
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: nineteenth quarter going backwards. Unfortunately we saw it under the
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: previous Chief Minister, Michael Gunner. He said that he basically
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: chucks it in the bin when he sees those Comsect reports,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and I don't think that our current Chief Minister, Natasha
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Files takes them overly seriously either.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Deloitte though.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Those reports are the ones that the Northern Territory government
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: also uses, don't they to actually get a gauge of
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: where we're at exactly?
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: So Treasury use the Deloitte data, and the Deloitte data
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: has most of the indicators pointing down and backwards. So
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: it's a really serious issue. This government will have you
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: think that everything is rosy, but every major project on
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: the list was there when we left government in twenty sixteen.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Nothing has progressed in that space, and we still don't
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: see the plan for our future going forward, which puts
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: people's jobs at risk, it puts the future of our
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: kids at risk, it it increases our cost of living,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: and it creates uncertainty. And so this government doesn't have
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: a plan for a strong economy or our future. And
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: that's what we're going to be prosecuting today.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Leah Finocchiaro, we better leave it there. Good to speak
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: with you this morning. Thanks so much for your.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Time, Take care everyone.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: Thank you,