Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was - 14th April 2023

Transcript

The Week That Was - 14th April 2023 · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: And it is Friday morning. It's time for the week
0:02
Speaker 1: that was.
0:03
Speaker 2: And joining me in the studio is the Colps Maurray
0:06
Speaker 2: Claire booth Be good morning to you.
0:07
Speaker 3: Good morning.
0:08
Speaker 2: We've got nine News Darwin's Kathleen Gazola.
0:11
Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Kathleen.
0:12
Speaker 4: Morning.
0:12
Speaker 1: We've got Pasier Puic, the Independent member.
0:15
Speaker 2: For god Morning bush people and bearing a gift.
0:19
Speaker 5: Bearing gifts from Russell. Hello Russell, I put them in
0:22
Speaker 5: luck you instructed me with you now.
0:27
Speaker 2: You know the key to my heart truly is food.
0:31
Speaker 2: Eva All, the Minister for All, the Treasurer and also
0:35
Speaker 2: the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Education.
0:38
Speaker 1: Thank you for all the time.
0:39
Speaker 2: And yeah we'll get stuck into those cupcakes a bit
0:42
Speaker 2: later this morning. They look delicious, and a big thank
0:45
Speaker 2: you to Russell for making sure that we got our hands.
0:47
Speaker 1: On those and for Keisier for bringing them in. Thank you.
0:50
Speaker 2: Now, look, there is so much to cover off on
0:53
Speaker 2: this morning. It's been a really interesting sort of week.
0:56
Speaker 2: And and we know that yesterday there was a law
1:00
Speaker 2: making headlines Peter Dutton, the federal opposition leader in Alice
1:04
Speaker 2: Springs and talking about the very serious issues that Alice
1:08
Speaker 2: Springs is facing he'd said that well, he'd said that
1:14
Speaker 2: the Federal police did need to be deployed to address
1:17
Speaker 2: what he's described as the Northern Territory's law and order crisis.
1:22
Speaker 2: He went on to say if there was a young
1:23
Speaker 2: boy or girl who'd been sexually assaulted in Sydney or Melbourne,
1:27
Speaker 2: or Brisbane or Canberra, and the police were putting that
1:29
Speaker 2: little white boy or girl back into the hands of
1:32
Speaker 2: the abuser, it would be the front page of every
1:35
Speaker 2: newspaper until the commissioner of that state or territory said
1:38
Speaker 2: it was not going to happen again. He also spoke
1:42
Speaker 2: yesterday about children being abused now. The Minister for Territory
1:47
Speaker 2: Families and also Police, Kate Warden, has fiercely defended the
1:51
Speaker 2: Northern Territory government's group over Alice Springs, describing the Federal
1:54
Speaker 2: Opposition leader's actions as a dog act.
1:58
Speaker 1: Kathleen, you were at that pre what conference? Just did
2:00
Speaker 1: I were you?
2:01
Speaker 5: Yes?
2:02
Speaker 6: That's right, So pretty strong words coming from Kate Warden,
2:05
Speaker 6: and of course, you know, defending her public servants who
2:11
Speaker 6: police the front line and workers in Territory families who
2:14
Speaker 6: obviously look after a lot of those kids who are
2:16
Speaker 6: at risk or in care and that kind of stuff.
2:20
Speaker 6: It seemed that labor, both territory and federally had gotten
2:24
Speaker 6: together and had a bit of a chat to figure
2:26
Speaker 6: out what the line that they were going to go with,
2:28
Speaker 6: because Malandiar and McCarthy and Linda Berney had just done
2:31
Speaker 6: a press conference just prior and both had called on
2:34
Speaker 6: Peter Dutton to obviously follow through with the mandatory reporting
2:38
Speaker 6: that we have in the Northern Territory if you do
2:40
Speaker 6: hear reports of child abuse or abuse in general, whatever
2:45
Speaker 6: the provisions are under that. So yeah, it's been an
2:49
Speaker 6: interesting couple of days for Peter Dutton being in Alice Springs.
2:52
Speaker 6: Of course this is his second visit. He had been
2:54
Speaker 6: to Alice in October and then a few months later
2:57
Speaker 6: Anthony Albanize had gone for his hours long visit there,
3:00
Speaker 6: but he said he hadn't seen any difference on the
3:03
Speaker 6: ground according to him.
3:05
Speaker 2: Well, and that was what we'd heard from the mayor
3:06
Speaker 2: of Alice Springs as well, Matt Patterson yesterday. He had said,
3:10
Speaker 2: you know what I'd said to him, what is your
3:11
Speaker 2: message for the Prime Minister of Australia, And he said,
3:14
Speaker 2: please just help us.
3:15
Speaker 1: We want to feel safe in our homes again.
3:18
Speaker 7: And that's why Peter Dutton has gone back to Alice Springs,
3:21
Speaker 7: you know, and we welcome him to come back because
3:24
Speaker 7: Territorians have been calling out for people to help Alice Springs.
3:28
Speaker 7: I mean it's a town in absolute crisis and this
3:30
Speaker 7: has been going on for some time. Our members in
3:33
Speaker 7: Alice Springs, Bill Yan and Joshua Burgoyne wrote to the
3:36
Speaker 7: Prime Minister back in January and they haven't even got
3:38
Speaker 7: a reply from him. And so for the Police Minister,
3:41
Speaker 7: who is the person who is wholly responsible for overseeing
3:45
Speaker 7: the worst crime crisis that we've ever had in the territory,
3:48
Speaker 7: to call out somebody, a senior politician from Canberra a
3:52
Speaker 7: dog act is absolutely disgusting. I mean, what kind of
3:55
Speaker 7: message does this send to the community that if you
3:57
Speaker 7: come out and try and help a Territori and help
4:00
Speaker 7: the state that we're in, that you're going to be
4:02
Speaker 7: called a name.
4:03
Speaker 3: I mean that is absolutely disgusting.
4:05
Speaker 8: So let's just be very clear that this was all
4:08
Speaker 8: about politics, absolutely, Dutton and politics, So that calling is
4:15
Speaker 8: Liberals and the Coalition are obviously in huge disarray over
4:19
Speaker 8: the voice.
4:19
Speaker 5: So what do you do? You then go to Alas Springs.
4:22
Speaker 8: You go with just enterprise and you create a big
4:24
Speaker 8: scene there, so you deflect basically, but.
4:27
Speaker 1: You know a little bit of history.
4:29
Speaker 2: And as a treasurer, thing is though, that would be
4:31
Speaker 2: the case if there wasn't issues in Alice Springs. So
4:34
Speaker 2: I just want to say that would be the case
4:36
Speaker 2: if there was an issues in Alice Springs. But the
4:38
Speaker 2: fact that there still is issues in Alice Springs, that
4:42
Speaker 2: is why he's actually aidy to go there, and that's
4:44
Speaker 2: why it's such a thorn in the side for the
4:46
Speaker 2: federal government and indeed the Northern Territory government.
4:49
Speaker 8: So Katie, I mean, I would like to actually be
4:52
Speaker 8: able to have a say that would be useful in
4:54
Speaker 8: this conversation. So just to be clear, we have seen
4:58
Speaker 8: improvements in and that's in the data. We've seen those
5:01
Speaker 8: improvements in hospital admissions. We've seen that is improvements on
5:05
Speaker 8: the ground in Alice Springs.
5:06
Speaker 5: Yes, there was a.
5:07
Speaker 8: Spike over I think it was a weekend or two ago,
5:09
Speaker 8: but we have seen improvements on the ground. But you know,
5:12
Speaker 8: as treasurer, let me just remind people it was the
5:15
Speaker 8: cop that called the Royal Commission. We have spent as
5:18
Speaker 8: a government nearly two hundred and fifty million dollars around
5:22
Speaker 8: child protection. Where was dounton then when we had to
5:26
Speaker 8: spend money, that's when the Libs were in government for
5:29
Speaker 8: nine years. They should have put their hands in their
5:32
Speaker 8: pockets and provided funding to the territory. That's when they
5:35
Speaker 8: had the opportunity to do that.
5:37
Speaker 1: They haven't done it.
5:38
Speaker 8: So why have a say now, No, come out now
5:40
Speaker 8: and have a say when you did nothing for nine
5:43
Speaker 8: years and put no money towards this issue.
5:45
Speaker 1: So you reckon.
5:46
Speaker 2: There's been no money whatsoever you know, put forward by
5:49
Speaker 2: the Federal Coalition when they are in power to face
5:53
Speaker 2: this issue.
5:53
Speaker 8: So the Royal Commission, the Royal Commission cost fifty million
5:56
Speaker 8: dollars originally and then it was another fifty million dollars.
6:00
Speaker 8: Northern Territory government had to pay for all of that.
6:02
Speaker 8: So even though it was Turnbull and Giles that called
6:05
Speaker 8: the Royal Commission together, the Anti government paid for And.
6:08
Speaker 1: That is the reason for all of our shoes right now.
6:11
Speaker 8: Well it would have been helpful. As I said, we
6:13
Speaker 8: are a small place. We struggle around.
6:16
Speaker 2: I mean, do you think the Royal Commission being called
6:18
Speaker 2: is the reason for all of our is shoes.
6:20
Speaker 8: Now, the Royal Commission wasn't the no no, no, you're no.
6:23
Speaker 8: The Royal Commission provided clear information, clear recommendations. It would
6:28
Speaker 8: have been very useful for the federal government to be
6:30
Speaker 8: able to put in substantial amounts of money rather than
6:33
Speaker 8: the NT having to do that as well. I mean,
6:35
Speaker 8: we're happy to go fifty to fifty with any of
6:37
Speaker 8: those things, but if they'd put in those dollars then
6:40
Speaker 8: it would have been made of life much easier for
6:42
Speaker 8: the territory. It allows us also then to spend money
6:45
Speaker 8: in other areas. That's the issue as a treasurer, Katie.
6:48
Speaker 5: There's a couple of things.
6:50
Speaker 9: One I think you said that Minister Warden said that
6:53
Speaker 9: Antigument's got a group on the town of all of Springs.
6:55
Speaker 9: I seriously doubt that crime's got a group on the
6:57
Speaker 9: town in allos stringtown.
6:58
Speaker 5: That's the first thing.
7:00
Speaker 9: The second thing is clearly there's some politics at play
7:02
Speaker 9: because of the lost two politicians, there's four politicians.
7:05
Speaker 5: But it is just enterprise. It's a territory.
7:07
Speaker 9: She's a senator, so she's brought along, you know, the
7:10
Speaker 9: Liberal leader to see talk do whatever. Having said that
7:16
Speaker 9: Thatton's got form for coming out and just chucking things
7:19
Speaker 9: out there without any evidence.
7:21
Speaker 5: I don't know if listeners recall some time.
7:23
Speaker 9: Back he was the one that said people scared to
7:25
Speaker 9: go out of their homes in Melbourne because of the
7:27
Speaker 9: African refugees and how they were running rampant across the city,
7:30
Speaker 9: et cetera, et cetera.
7:31
Speaker 5: So you know, he's got form for coming out.
7:34
Speaker 9: And being calling out things without any evidence or facts
7:38
Speaker 9: and exaggerating and also boarding onto nastiness at times.
7:42
Speaker 5: Now.
7:43
Speaker 1: I think people would accept more.
7:45
Speaker 9: Of what he's doing, what he said, if he got
7:47
Speaker 9: rid of all that side of his personality and just
7:50
Speaker 9: stuck with the facts.
7:51
Speaker 3: And we've actually got some facts.
7:56
Speaker 7: The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in the twenty
7:59
Speaker 7: twenty twenty twenty twenty one and this is the Child
8:02
Speaker 7: Protection notification or investigation. All the other states are like
8:07
Speaker 7: in their nineteen or twenties and the Northern Territory is
8:10
Speaker 7: ninety five point five. I mean that is so astronomically high,
8:14
Speaker 7: so much so all the other states are sitting at
8:18
Speaker 7: about nineteen or twenty and the Northern Territory for the
8:22
Speaker 7: Child Protection Notification or investigation is ninety five point five,
8:27
Speaker 7: so twenty compared to ninety five.
8:28
Speaker 5: I can't actually try and explain there, but let's be.
8:31
Speaker 7: It's the reports of the child protection so the mandatory
8:34
Speaker 7: sentencing of the menitary reporting that the Minnesoti refers to
8:37
Speaker 7: percent of children in the territory are reported on or
8:40
Speaker 7: what's the ninety five percent talking about? This is basically
8:43
Speaker 7: comparing the child the child abuse reports in the Northern
8:47
Speaker 7: Territory compared to other states. So we need to have
8:50
Speaker 7: these people talk about this.
8:51
Speaker 8: I mean, we cannot be five percent of children in
8:53
Speaker 8: the territory are reported to territory families.
8:55
Speaker 5: I don't know where five times the national average.
8:57
Speaker 3: That's what this is saying.
8:58
Speaker 2: All right, well, look we'll go back and have a
9:00
Speaker 2: look at those numbers. But I think you know the
9:03
Speaker 2: thing is here that obviously everybody's getting quite bogged down
9:05
Speaker 2: in the comments made by Peter Dutton yesterday, which I
9:07
Speaker 2: think is fair enough.
9:08
Speaker 1: You know, there is serious there are serious questions.
9:11
Speaker 2: That's right in terms of him having to answer or
9:14
Speaker 2: him having to actually you know, basically provides some basis
9:18
Speaker 2: to the claims that he has made. But the fact
9:20
Speaker 2: in the Northern Territory is, and particularly in Alice Springs
9:23
Speaker 2: right now, is the town's been screaming out for help
9:27
Speaker 2: for an incredibly long period of time. You know, we've
9:30
Speaker 2: got another crime rally then up here in the top
9:33
Speaker 2: end tomorrow we saw thousands of people turn up to that.
9:36
Speaker 2: Anybody who believes that crime is not the number one issue,
9:39
Speaker 2: and you know the social issues that we're facing in
9:42
Speaker 2: the Northern Territory right now, that they're not the number
9:44
Speaker 2: one issue for territorians, I think would have to be
9:47
Speaker 2: living under a rock.
9:49
Speaker 6: Monny yesterday said though it was put to her, how
9:53
Speaker 6: is Alice Springs been going, because she'd said that she
9:56
Speaker 6: had been there, should be going there in a couple
9:58
Speaker 6: more weeks. Malandari had just been down there as well,
10:01
Speaker 6: and you know, they pointed to the figures that had
10:02
Speaker 6: seen there had been a drop in emergency departments, present presentations,
10:07
Speaker 6: police call out, DV instances and youth engagement post those
10:13
Speaker 6: alcohol restrictions being brought in. But as Matt Patterson has said,
10:17
Speaker 6: it's coming from a very high base. Yeah, so it's
10:21
Speaker 6: really not at a good level full stop.
10:24
Speaker 8: So yeah, so just to be clear, nobody, nobody, and
10:27
Speaker 8: you know, not neither Kate Warden, nor In or Mulandieri
10:30
Speaker 8: or lid Bernie saying that crime isn't an issue in
10:33
Speaker 8: Alice Springs. What they were talking about was the act
10:36
Speaker 8: of Peter Dutton where he talked about sexual abuse. So
10:39
Speaker 8: he's not talking about general abuse or neglective student of children.
10:45
Speaker 8: He was talking about sexual abuse and saying you know
10:48
Speaker 8: that this is extremely high all of these sorts of things,
10:51
Speaker 8: and that you know the facts. We're asking for those
10:54
Speaker 8: facts and if he has examples, and we said that
10:56
Speaker 8: if he's got examples of children being sexually abused or
10:59
Speaker 8: just in price, they need to report it's that's.
11:03
Speaker 5: Were the issue.
11:04
Speaker 4: Examples of that many times over.
11:06
Speaker 6: I mean most recently that we don't many people's minds
11:09
Speaker 6: is the rape of the two year old in ten
11:12
Speaker 6: correct and the investigation of notifications that came prior to
11:16
Speaker 6: that that it was seen by the Children's Commission as
11:18
Speaker 6: a foreseeable risk.
11:20
Speaker 3: That's right.
11:20
Speaker 8: But you know, children have been sexually abused in Australia.
11:23
Speaker 8: Let's you know, we can talk about the Catholic jack.
11:25
Speaker 8: Children have been sexually abused in Australia since Bloody The
11:28
Speaker 8: place was probably settled.
11:29
Speaker 5: Look but it is an issue in the territory.
11:31
Speaker 8: We have mandatory reporting and we absolutely make sure and
11:36
Speaker 8: as I said, all the good territory family people out
11:38
Speaker 8: there who work so hard to address the issue, to
11:42
Speaker 8: take children, to look after children. So that was the
11:44
Speaker 8: issue around Peter Dutton using sexual abuse. Then we had
11:48
Speaker 8: Johnny Howard come in and jump on board. So that
11:50
Speaker 8: is just the classic play from the Liberal coalition to
11:53
Speaker 8: bring John Howard in the old Stager, you know, to
11:57
Speaker 8: bolset their problems that they've got.
11:59
Speaker 2: Look, I understand the point that you're making, even that
12:01
Speaker 2: you know, obviously we've got a situation where where you know,
12:04
Speaker 2: the Labor Party feels as though Alice Springs is being politicized,
12:08
Speaker 2: you know, to suit their agenda.
12:11
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. So that people and this is.
12:14
Speaker 2: The hard like this is I think what is at
12:16
Speaker 2: the heart of the whole situation right now is that
12:21
Speaker 2: the Northern Territory is able to be politicized because we
12:24
Speaker 2: are in a situation which a really dire situation.
12:28
Speaker 1: So for a lot of.
12:29
Speaker 2: People in Alice Springs and even yesterday for us on
12:32
Speaker 2: the show, we have messages coming through people saying Katie,
12:34
Speaker 2: do you know what.
12:35
Speaker 1: I'm ready for the federal police to step in. We've
12:38
Speaker 1: had enough of the way that things are going. And
12:41
Speaker 1: so that's like.
12:42
Speaker 2: That's not just a you know, one off or two
12:45
Speaker 2: off sort of people, you know, coming up and saying that.
12:48
Speaker 2: It's a situation where it is literally all that anybody
12:52
Speaker 2: is concerned about right now. When you've got the mayor
12:54
Speaker 2: of a town in the Northern Territory saying, please just
12:58
Speaker 2: help us to feel safe in our homes, that's actually
13:02
Speaker 2: a failure of the government.
13:03
Speaker 9: Chadi, I think with I mean, yes, don't forget Peter
13:07
Speaker 9: Dutton in his previous life was a Minister for amongst
13:10
Speaker 9: other things, border protection, Federal Police and things of that nature.
13:14
Speaker 9: And that wasn't not so long ago. I mean, this
13:16
Speaker 9: issue with Callas Springs has been brewing and bubbling along
13:18
Speaker 9: for quite a few years now, because we've had Robin
13:20
Speaker 9: Lambley in the House talk about it, you know, adnause
13:22
Speaker 9: him and trying to get people to pay attention, particularly
13:24
Speaker 9: the government. But you know, he's if he is serious
13:27
Speaker 9: about wanting to help the people of Valla Springs, and
13:29
Speaker 9: he should be joining forces with his federal counterpart or
13:33
Speaker 9: who is in charge of the federal case now, you know,
13:37
Speaker 9: so that's one thing. But the other thing I just
13:39
Speaker 9: wanted to comment about. I mean, he made claims about
13:41
Speaker 9: sexual abuse, and no doubt that does exist, but there's
13:44
Speaker 9: also just what I would call general route neglect. Like
13:47
Speaker 9: I've heard some stories and I've read some stories about
13:50
Speaker 9: the children on the streets who are just hungry.
13:52
Speaker 1: So you've got we actually here Minister for Police.
13:56
Speaker 2: We've actually had her in the studio say to us
13:58
Speaker 2: that there kids out on the street because they don't
14:01
Speaker 2: have somewhere safe to go.
14:02
Speaker 1: So that's a very good point.
14:04
Speaker 2: Kesier, where you know, yes, I know that we are
14:06
Speaker 2: talking about Peter Dutton's comments that he'd made about child
14:09
Speaker 2: sexual abuse, But how is it okay then for all
14:13
Speaker 2: of us to know that there are kids out on
14:14
Speaker 2: the street late at night and kids on the street
14:17
Speaker 2: who don't have somewhere safe to go that continue to
14:20
Speaker 2: be in that situation, Katie.
14:22
Speaker 9: The other thing I've been thinking is, yes, all sorts
14:25
Speaker 9: of ages, all young on the streets at night running running, right,
14:28
Speaker 9: But you know, what are they doing in the daytime,
14:30
Speaker 9: because clearly they wouldn't be going to school, so maybe
14:32
Speaker 9: they're sleeping.
14:34
Speaker 5: So it's a it's a I mean, we've.
14:37
Speaker 9: Seen the vision, it's been on the news, it's been
14:38
Speaker 9: on various Facebook posts. So there's clearly a lot of
14:41
Speaker 9: young people. And I bet you that the authorities know
14:44
Speaker 9: the family groupings, they know which camp they've come from,
14:46
Speaker 9: they know the families, They probably know the individuals.
14:48
Speaker 5: They've probably been.
14:48
Speaker 9: Arrested many times. So there's a certain amount of known quantities.
14:53
Speaker 9: But it's just no one seems to be prepared to
14:56
Speaker 9: take a tough measure, whatever that may be. Like, clearly
14:59
Speaker 9: there's a proper night with so many young people on
15:01
Speaker 9: the streets creating problems and what's making crust. That is
15:04
Speaker 9: where things have to stop. They have to be taken
15:06
Speaker 9: off the streets. So the question is how.
15:08
Speaker 5: Is go going to do it so that happens, That
15:10
Speaker 5: absolutely happens.
15:11
Speaker 8: There's so the aureos, there's people, there's youth workers that
15:15
Speaker 8: are on the streets seven days a week. They're there till,
15:17
Speaker 8: you know, all hours of the night, and they are
15:19
Speaker 8: working with those kids, picking up those kids, taking those
15:22
Speaker 8: kids home or taking them if they can't be home.
15:25
Speaker 8: They then work with you know, carers and people like that.
15:29
Speaker 8: You know, the other one is through schools. The schools
15:31
Speaker 8: are providing breakfast, they're providing lunches for kids, they are
15:35
Speaker 8: providing food for families four kids across all of the territory.
15:40
Speaker 2: The really obvious question is, you know, for I guess,
15:43
Speaker 2: for an example, the people of Alice Springs listening this
15:46
Speaker 2: morning are going to be thinking to themselves, what about
15:48
Speaker 2: on the weekend where you've got hundreds of kids that
15:50
Speaker 2: are congregated in the CBD, what is the situation then,
15:54
Speaker 2: because it clearly looked as though there wasn't enough police.
15:57
Speaker 1: You know, there wasn't.
15:58
Speaker 2: They weren't being taken home, there's cars being stolen. So
16:03
Speaker 2: you know, I suppose I've made this point so many times.
16:06
Speaker 2: I actually made it to Peter Dutton yesterday after that
16:09
Speaker 2: press conference. People are over the politics. They actually want
16:12
Speaker 2: Peter Dutton to go and sit down with the Prime Minister.
16:15
Speaker 2: They want the Prime Minister to go to Ollie Springs,
16:17
Speaker 2: they want the Prime Minister to come here to Darwin
16:20
Speaker 2: and actually see for themselves exactly what's going on. I
16:23
Speaker 2: think we're all like, we're all at that point where
16:25
Speaker 2: we know that there's not a simple solution that's going
16:28
Speaker 2: to change things.
16:29
Speaker 1: Overnight. But we're at our wits needs.
16:32
Speaker 6: To be like a respite of some sort, and that's
16:35
Speaker 6: what came post those our coal restrictions. They had been
16:38
Speaker 6: calling for something a stop gap to just stem some
16:43
Speaker 6: of the tide of what the anecdotal evidence had been showing.
16:47
Speaker 6: And now obviously we've got this data that backed up
16:49
Speaker 6: what people had been saying. So they experienced that respite,
16:53
Speaker 6: and then post the Prime Minister arriving, and then now
16:56
Speaker 6: Matt Patterson says their residents feel like it's going on
17:00
Speaker 6: back to quote normal, which is very far from normal
17:03
Speaker 6: what people should be living with. So he believes that
17:06
Speaker 6: there's not enough boots on the ground. It's not so
17:08
Speaker 6: much the call for AFP to come in and take over.
17:12
Speaker 6: We've heard time and time again that our police force
17:14
Speaker 6: is so stretched to the limits.
17:15
Speaker 4: It's to supplement and provide that extra Is.
17:19
Speaker 2: It a situation hang on just one moment, Murray clip
17:23
Speaker 2: even is it a situation where the government is too
17:25
Speaker 2: proud to ask for that support from the federal police
17:27
Speaker 2: because we know that you know Rees kersh Or is
17:30
Speaker 2: the is in charge of the of the Federal Police.
17:33
Speaker 2: He used to be the commissioner here I don't think
17:35
Speaker 2: that anybody would see it as sort of being, you know,
17:39
Speaker 2: like a failing of the government if they said, you
17:41
Speaker 2: know what, we do actually need some extra boots on
17:43
Speaker 2: the ground at the moment to just try to keep
17:45
Speaker 2: things a little bit more under control, and that presence,
17:48
Speaker 2: because there is no doubt that that police presence does
17:51
Speaker 2: actually make a difference.
17:54
Speaker 5: But you know it doesn't make a difference, Katie.
18:00
Speaker 8: Know what, what do you actually want the federal police
18:02
Speaker 8: to be doing.
18:03
Speaker 5: To be walking the streets in our streets?
18:10
Speaker 8: As we said, there are police walking in the streets,
18:12
Speaker 8: there are police in Alice Streams, there's youth workers in
18:15
Speaker 8: Alice Springs, there's ngngos in Alice Springs as well. It
18:17
Speaker 8: would just as I said, it isn't about asking the
18:20
Speaker 8: federal police. I'm sure the federal police have got plenty
18:22
Speaker 8: to do themselves, but it is about what we can
18:25
Speaker 8: do in the territory and we'll continue to do that
18:28
Speaker 8: work in the terror From.
18:29
Speaker 2: That situation on the weekend where there was kids everywhere
18:32
Speaker 2: in the CBD and there's stolen cars being driven around,
18:35
Speaker 2: do you not think that some extra police on the
18:37
Speaker 2: ground might have assisted.
18:39
Speaker 8: Yeah, possibly, they probably could have could assist, but you
18:41
Speaker 8: know that's up to the Northern Territory Police Force. That's
18:44
Speaker 8: why we have a Northern Territory Police Force and so
18:47
Speaker 8: and that's you know, that's those operational matters that the
18:49
Speaker 8: police need to do. If they need to surge as
18:53
Speaker 8: they call it, if they need to put more police
18:54
Speaker 8: in place, that's the work that they do. So I'm
18:57
Speaker 8: sure that the police who are on the ground would
18:59
Speaker 8: have spoken and called for more police to be down there,
19:02
Speaker 8: and so then it becomes an operational matter where they'll
19:05
Speaker 8: put in an operation from the anti police will put
19:08
Speaker 8: an operation to address those issues. Katie Off just had
19:11
Speaker 8: a text come through from Joshua Burgoyne, who is the
19:13
Speaker 8: member down in Alice Springs, and he said that overnight
19:16
Speaker 8: a childcare center was broken into forty five families having
19:19
Speaker 8: to now arrange alternative arrangements for their kids as a
19:22
Speaker 8: result of the break in. That is the second time
19:24
Speaker 8: that that childcare center has had to close in the
19:26
Speaker 8: last three months, and the fourth break in in six months.
19:30
Speaker 3: He said. The alleged kids that.
19:31
Speaker 7: Were caught were aged thirteen and fourteen, and he's asking
19:34
Speaker 7: how is that to occur? And it kind of like
19:37
Speaker 7: you're talking about police, which is resources. We had the
19:40
Speaker 7: Prime Minister come into Alice Springs a couple of months
19:42
Speaker 7: ago and promised two hundred and fifty million dollars four resources,
19:46
Speaker 7: and then we've had stakeholders that are saying that they're
19:48
Speaker 7: looking for that money. Where is that money, and they're
19:50
Speaker 7: saying they have to wait until the budget exactly even
19:52
Speaker 7: I mean the Order Treasurer over night in the territory.
19:55
Speaker 7: Why aren't you going as a priority to the Prime
19:57
Speaker 7: Minister and saying where is this money? We need it now,
19:59
Speaker 7: not in six.
20:00
Speaker 5: Murray clare, two hundred and fifty million dollars is a
20:02
Speaker 5: lot of.
20:03
Speaker 8: Money and right now they've needed it for years, So
20:05
Speaker 8: it'll be in the budget Murray clear. I mean if
20:08
Speaker 8: you had an understanding of the budget process, you'd know
20:10
Speaker 8: that it would have to be in the budget process.
20:13
Speaker 3: People in federal police.
20:16
Speaker 8: So in the meantime there is agencies, all of the
20:19
Speaker 8: agencies in other springs, whether it's education, health, territory, families, police,
20:24
Speaker 8: the very focused. We've got Derell Anderson that's leading the
20:26
Speaker 8: group down there. And as you said, the figures show
20:29
Speaker 8: an improvement in the data, but of course, as I said,
20:33
Speaker 8: it's never enough. If there's always if there's a break
20:35
Speaker 8: in the breaking a childcare is a terrible situation. One
20:37
Speaker 8: thing understand that.
20:38
Speaker 4: One thing that's confused me.
20:40
Speaker 6: I put we put questions to Linda Burnie's office as
20:43
Speaker 6: to as to that money, and they've actually said that
20:46
Speaker 6: some of it has apparently already flowed out to services
20:49
Speaker 6: that were supposedly ending their funding rounds on June thirty,
20:54
Speaker 6: but that and extending them potentially for at least another
20:57
Speaker 6: two years. But that confuses because we were promised that
21:01
Speaker 6: there would be an audit of all the services and
21:04
Speaker 6: bodies in Alice Springs that are supposed to be providing
21:07
Speaker 6: the support, the child service whatever down there, and yet
21:12
Speaker 6: this funding is coming to continue on for two years.
21:14
Speaker 6: So that feels like a bit of a contradiction.
21:16
Speaker 4: Do you know anything about that?
21:18
Speaker 5: No, I'm not across why.
21:20
Speaker 8: But you know it would be I presume that there
21:22
Speaker 8: would be some service that it was an imperative that
21:24
Speaker 8: it continued, and so they would be just getting early advice.
21:27
Speaker 8: Obviously when you do the budget, you know what's in
21:30
Speaker 8: the budget, So they would have got early advice that
21:32
Speaker 8: they would be continuing to get some funding after June thirtieth,
21:34
Speaker 8: so they wouldn't need to lay people off.
21:36
Speaker 5: That would be why and.
21:38
Speaker 8: It would be a service that would have been recognized
21:41
Speaker 8: by people on the ground as a service that needed
21:43
Speaker 8: to continue.
21:44
Speaker 2: All right, We're going to take a really short break
21:46
Speaker 2: when we come back because we are talking so much
21:48
Speaker 2: about the police. I do want to speak about the
21:50
Speaker 2: fact that we still don't know exactly what the future
21:52
Speaker 2: of the Police Commissioner hold.
21:54
Speaker 1: So we'll be talking about that in just a moment.
21:56
Speaker 2: It's just twenty seven minutes after nine o'clock. If you
21:59
Speaker 2: have just joined us, I've seen the studio. We've got
22:00
Speaker 2: the Treasurer, Evil Laula, We've got Keesiapuric, the Independent Member
22:03
Speaker 2: for Goid, Kathleen Gazola from nine News Darwin, and also
22:07
Speaker 2: Marie Claire Boothby from the COLP. Now we have been
22:11
Speaker 2: speaking about the issues obviously not only in Central Australia
22:15
Speaker 2: but around the Northern Territory when it comes to crime.
22:18
Speaker 2: And we also know that last week the Northern Territory
22:21
Speaker 2: government's desire for the Commissioner to resign had dominated headlines
22:26
Speaker 2: and then over the weekend just gone over the Easter weekend,
22:29
Speaker 2: the Commissioner issued a statement through his legal representation saying
22:34
Speaker 2: the ongoing speculation in relation to the Commissioner is not
22:38
Speaker 2: in the interests of the brave women and men of
22:40
Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Police Force or the public, let alone
22:44
Speaker 2: fair to a Commissioner who's been discharging his duties with
22:47
Speaker 2: integrity in the interests of the public. In order to
22:50
Speaker 2: attempt to resolve the unfortunate matter, the Commissioner has proposed
22:55
Speaker 2: that a mediation take place between the legal representatives of
22:58
Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Government and the legal representatives of the Commissioner,
23:03
Speaker 2: to be chaired by an eminent retired judge from an
23:06
Speaker 2: interstate jurisdiction. It is the desire of the Commissioner that
23:10
Speaker 2: the mediation take place as a matter of urgency now.
23:15
Speaker 2: The statement went on to say that the commission has
23:17
Speaker 2: been appointed to his role until November twenty twenty three,
23:21
Speaker 2: with the option for renewal of his four year contract
23:24
Speaker 2: to be subject to discussions in May. So we know
23:27
Speaker 2: that we're just about in May, and we are in
23:30
Speaker 2: this situation where the Chief Minister had told us earlier
23:35
Speaker 2: in the week well that she is hoping to have
23:39
Speaker 2: the issue resolved quite quickly, but there has been I
23:43
Speaker 2: guess a refusal from the government to really say whether
23:46
Speaker 2: they've got confidence in the Police commissioner at this point
23:48
Speaker 2: in time.
23:50
Speaker 1: Here, I can see you're ready.
23:51
Speaker 8: To go there.
23:52
Speaker 9: I just think I just think it's the most alarming
23:55
Speaker 9: and poor mismanagement of a termination of employment I've ever
23:59
Speaker 9: seen my whole born days.
24:01
Speaker 7: You know.
24:02
Speaker 5: And the fact that it's at the top the topst
24:04
Speaker 5: that's not a good word.
24:05
Speaker 9: The fact that it's at the highest level, meaning a
24:07
Speaker 9: Commissioner of Police and the Chief Minister or whoever rang
24:11
Speaker 9: the Police commission to say they didn't have confidence in
24:14
Speaker 9: me anymore.
24:15
Speaker 5: Clearly the commissioner.
24:16
Speaker 9: Said no, I'm not going to resign, and then it
24:19
Speaker 9: was like, oh shit, now what do we do. So
24:22
Speaker 9: my way of thinking is that, as I think I've
24:25
Speaker 9: said before on this show or elsewhere, the crisis management
24:28
Speaker 9: is exceptionally poor when you hit, when you get a
24:31
Speaker 9: major crisis, and addressing the crisis by the government is
24:35
Speaker 9: very poor. Now there's issues about the Police Commissioner, his performance,
24:39
Speaker 9: his attitude, the surveys of Police Association, etc.
24:42
Speaker 5: Etc.
24:43
Speaker 9: But I agree fully with the Police Association's statement that
24:46
Speaker 9: it's a bit rich. The rank and file have certain
24:49
Speaker 9: limitations on them when it comes to appeals for discipline reasons.
24:53
Speaker 9: Or the case of Mark Casey, who was he was
24:57
Speaker 9: on leave without with pay for nearly ten months trying
25:01
Speaker 9: to sort out his issue and then they just sacked him.
25:04
Speaker 5: Clearly he can appeal, but it's up to two years
25:06
Speaker 5: before you get your appeal heads a long time.
25:07
Speaker 9: And yet this dude comes along and says, oh, I
25:09
Speaker 9: want a retired judge from inter state, eminently qualified.
25:12
Speaker 5: Well, what's wrong with the retired judges here?
25:14
Speaker 9: You know, the government's quite happy to use the Trevor
25:15
Speaker 9: rileyes for you know, liquor reviews.
25:17
Speaker 5: We've got Graham Whole that's we retired.
25:20
Speaker 9: So is he is he suggesting that any ex judge
25:22
Speaker 9: here or some qualified mediator is going to be biased. Well,
25:25
Speaker 9: I think that's insulting to our people here in the
25:27
Speaker 9: Northern Territory. And why can't his lawyers then just negotiate
25:30
Speaker 9: with the government laws. Clearly it'll be the Solicitor General's office.
25:33
Speaker 9: Like if he really thinks that, you know, he's owed something,
25:36
Speaker 9: or he thinks he's going to hang on to job
25:37
Speaker 9: for another four years.
25:38
Speaker 5: He's clearly delusional, you know, like, just sort it out.
25:41
Speaker 9: And get on with either an acting commissioner or go
25:44
Speaker 9: through the process for pointing a new commissioner. Because it's
25:46
Speaker 9: undermining confidence in all of the territory, not just the
25:50
Speaker 9: police force and how we go about our law and order,
25:52
Speaker 9: but it's undermining all of the territory. You can't even
25:54
Speaker 9: sort out an imployment issue with the police commissioner. How
25:56
Speaker 9: can you run the territory government?
25:59
Speaker 1: Look, it has been managed.
26:01
Speaker 5: People are saying, yeah, it.
26:02
Speaker 2: Certainly has not been managed in the best way, you know,
26:06
Speaker 2: I mean, Eva, is it safe to say that the
26:08
Speaker 2: Northern Territory cabinet right now does not have confidence in
26:11
Speaker 2: the Police commissioner?
26:13
Speaker 8: Okay, do you know the police commissioner. The Police commissioner
26:15
Speaker 8: has done, you know, a commendable job, a very strong job,
26:20
Speaker 8: all through COVID. But it is a government prerogative to
26:23
Speaker 8: not renew a contract of an executive contract or an
26:26
Speaker 8: executive officer. So just for people who don't understand or
26:30
Speaker 8: don't have a background in the public service, there are
26:32
Speaker 8: permanent positions in the public service. They go up to
26:34
Speaker 8: the senior administrative officer too.
26:37
Speaker 5: So say O two.
26:38
Speaker 8: After that there's executive contract officers. So you know ECO
26:42
Speaker 8: one's two threes four or five six's. You've heard of those,
26:45
Speaker 8: but that's what an ECO. As an executive contract officer,
26:49
Speaker 8: you take that. You know, that's one of the risks,
26:51
Speaker 8: I guess, or one of the things that you then
26:53
Speaker 8: choose if you're moving from a permanent position to an
26:56
Speaker 8: executive officer position, is that your contract may not be renewed.
27:00
Speaker 5: And so you know that's the case. There's been those conversations.
27:03
Speaker 8: Achieve Minister said that around not renewing the contract of
27:07
Speaker 8: the commissioner. So that process will go through and as
27:10
Speaker 8: I said, yes it's been made public, we don't know.
27:14
Speaker 8: Most times, the average public servant who doesn't have their
27:17
Speaker 8: contract renewed isn't in the public arena.
27:20
Speaker 5: And those things happen. They happen quite regularly.
27:22
Speaker 8: It might be that a department wants to restructure, so
27:25
Speaker 8: in education we had a large restructure earlier or late
27:29
Speaker 8: last year, so there were people that then are either
27:31
Speaker 8: offered different positions or they don't have their contract renewed.
27:35
Speaker 8: It is a pretty straightforward process in the public sector.
27:38
Speaker 8: The issue with this one is it's now in the
27:40
Speaker 8: public arena.
27:41
Speaker 6: You believe he did a commendable job, but you don't
27:43
Speaker 6: have confidence in him.
27:45
Speaker 8: Well, as I said, I've got absolute confidence in our
27:49
Speaker 8: police force in the Northern Territory. We've got Michael Murphy
27:52
Speaker 8: acting as commissioner. And Michael Murphy is already We've seen
27:56
Speaker 8: that he's out in the ground, he's doing what needs
27:58
Speaker 8: to do be done as an acting commissioner.
28:00
Speaker 2: It's the thing that's difficult, I guess at the moment
28:04
Speaker 2: is that, you know, when you talk about the police force,
28:08
Speaker 2: there has been so much discussion about the need for
28:12
Speaker 2: additional police I mean, we'd heard that from the Police Association.
28:16
Speaker 2: We've spoken so much about, you know, about the crime
28:19
Speaker 2: issues that they're dealing with, and our Northern Territory police
28:22
Speaker 2: are there on the front line dealing with such serious
28:25
Speaker 2: and hard situations. And you know, we hear on the
28:28
Speaker 2: phone lines, we hear every single day in the studio
28:31
Speaker 2: people saying that they really think that the Northern Territory
28:34
Speaker 2: Police do an incredible job, but it's a bloody hard
28:37
Speaker 2: one and that they don't feel as though there's enough
28:39
Speaker 2: of them. But we also know that morale wise, according
28:42
Speaker 2: to those recent Police Association surveys, morale is low. You've
28:47
Speaker 2: got some police officers that are looking at their exit strategies.
28:51
Speaker 2: But also that survey that was held towards the end
28:54
Speaker 2: of last year, as you touched on before Keys here,
28:56
Speaker 2: did show that seventy nine nearly eighty percent of the
29:00
Speaker 2: is IT took part in that.
29:00
Speaker 1: So they didn't have confidence.
29:02
Speaker 6: And I mean that's the thing. There's question marks of
29:05
Speaker 6: the timing of this whole thing that's come out. Obviously
29:08
Speaker 6: negotiation must have hit some sort of stalemate or I
29:11
Speaker 6: mean where obviously before May so like something's come to Yeah,
29:16
Speaker 6: something's come about it. This timing, it didn't come straight
29:18
Speaker 6: after the survey, but after the surveyed we'd heard the
29:22
Speaker 6: government give confidence in him. So there's big question marks
29:25
Speaker 6: extra around this that can't quite work out.
29:27
Speaker 5: There's a couple of sides to this story.
29:29
Speaker 9: One is, obviously you know how it's been handled to society,
29:32
Speaker 9: of how the police Commission in these latter months has performed.
29:36
Speaker 5: Yes, I agree with Eva.
29:38
Speaker 9: During the COVID stuff, Commissioner Chalker and the boss Lady
29:43
Speaker 9: of Health who goes names of sketching, but Professor something
29:46
Speaker 9: they did an excellent job in keeping the community safe
29:49
Speaker 9: and the community come and they briefed independent members because
29:51
Speaker 9: I know they're briefing government opposition, so that time it's
29:54
Speaker 9: a given.
29:54
Speaker 5: He did a good job. But he should be doing
29:56
Speaker 5: a good job. He's at the top of the tree.
29:58
Speaker 9: So I think the the fact that he requested a
30:01
Speaker 9: mediator intrigues me because Arthur Moses, the lawyer he has secured,
30:06
Speaker 9: is one of the top barrister lawyers in the country.
30:08
Speaker 9: He's been President of the National Law Council. He was
30:11
Speaker 9: the barrister solicitor for Christian Holgate when she had her
30:15
Speaker 9: issue with the Australian Post, etc.
30:18
Speaker 5: Yeah, Christian Porter.
30:20
Speaker 9: So there's no doubt the man is a top level
30:22
Speaker 9: fellow in the legal world. So why the hell does
30:26
Speaker 9: mister Tauper think he needs a mediator to come across
30:29
Speaker 9: and above. So this is a general of the Northern
30:31
Speaker 9: Territory who's eminently qualified and Arthur Moses, I just think
30:34
Speaker 9: it's ridiculous. And I guarantee you he's not going to
30:37
Speaker 9: pay for that mediator. He'll expect the anti government to
30:38
Speaker 9: pay that mediator because the person.
30:40
Speaker 5: Might do it for love.
30:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, the ins and outs of that.
30:45
Speaker 7: Believe that we've had two weeks of uncertainty now, we
30:48
Speaker 7: haven't been able to hear from the Files about what's
30:50
Speaker 7: going on and who is actually going to be.
30:52
Speaker 5: Our next police commissioner going forward.
30:54
Speaker 7: So while Natasha Files and Jamie Chalker are fighting this out,
30:57
Speaker 7: I mean, who is fighting for the territory and who
30:59
Speaker 7: is fighting this crime crisis we're having. I mean, that's
31:02
Speaker 7: my biggest concern because that's what territories are telling me
31:05
Speaker 7: while all this is going on. Then it's like the
31:08
Speaker 7: leadership of the police is rudderless and we need them
31:11
Speaker 7: now more than ever. You know, de Sasher Files. I
31:14
Speaker 7: think she said the other day that she needs to
31:16
Speaker 7: follow process. I mean, clearly she didn't follow process when
31:20
Speaker 7: she tried to terminate the police commissioner.
31:22
Speaker 3: So how do you know that that's what she said if.
31:25
Speaker 8: You're presuming here, Let's just be clear, as I said
31:28
Speaker 8: the chief commissioners.
31:29
Speaker 5: She said on radio the chief Commissioner's.
31:32
Speaker 8: Contract was up for a mule and that there's a
31:35
Speaker 8: process around that in the public sector, if you want
31:37
Speaker 8: to read the Public Sector Act or the Police Administration
31:39
Speaker 8: Act around notifying that, as you say, six months out
31:44
Speaker 8: at the kat you said, may so that's a process
31:46
Speaker 8: that's gone through the police.
31:49
Speaker 5: Michael.
31:50
Speaker 8: The Police Service has Michael Murphy. Michael Murphy who's acting commissioner.
31:55
Speaker 8: The police commissioner also was actually going to be on leave.
31:58
Speaker 8: So it isn't rad The police force is an organization,
32:03
Speaker 8: that's it's a command and control organization. Every division would
32:06
Speaker 8: have a has a boss, every division has a commander,
32:10
Speaker 8: so of course they just get on and do the
32:12
Speaker 8: job that they the policy.
32:13
Speaker 3: Kathleen at the press conference.
32:15
Speaker 4: About this, the same script we're hearing.
32:17
Speaker 3: It's just lines, it's just garbage.
32:21
Speaker 5: Any lines true of the matter.
32:23
Speaker 8: And as I said, if you, if any any public
32:26
Speaker 8: servants who are out there listening, know how an executive contract,
32:30
Speaker 8: then that's why I was trying to explain it an
32:31
Speaker 8: executive contract officer position.
32:34
Speaker 2: And Howard, interesting thing was the timing though, like Kathleen
32:40
Speaker 2: and pointed out, just a moment ago is timing wise
32:42
Speaker 2: because I suppose, you know, people would have would have
32:45
Speaker 2: understood or maybe would have thought, okay, after the Police
32:48
Speaker 2: Association survey with were those quite scathing results, people may
32:53
Speaker 2: have gone, oh okay, well fair enough. But I guess
32:55
Speaker 2: with that timing now and the timing in the way
32:58
Speaker 2: that it's rolled out, and then for the last sort
33:01
Speaker 2: of two weeks we've had this unreal situation where where
33:05
Speaker 2: the Chief Minister has not been prepared to say whether
33:07
Speaker 2: she's got confidence in Jamie Chalker or not.
33:09
Speaker 1: That's the part I.
33:10
Speaker 2: Think that's sort of perplexing everybody, or that people are
33:13
Speaker 2: watching ongoing. Goodness me, this has not been managed well
33:16
Speaker 2: at all.
33:17
Speaker 5: There's probably very good reasons and I accept them.
33:19
Speaker 9: Why the Minister and the Chief Minister can't say those
33:22
Speaker 9: words because the Police commissioners started a legal action against
33:27
Speaker 9: the anti government. So if the Chief Minister comes out
33:30
Speaker 9: and says, yes, I've got I've still got good confidence.
33:32
Speaker 2: In the then.
33:34
Speaker 9: The lawyer will say, yeah, but why are you trying
33:36
Speaker 9: to stack him? So you know, I accept what the
33:38
Speaker 9: government's doing and it's frustrating as it is for listeners
33:40
Speaker 9: and for yourself as an interviewer.
33:43
Speaker 5: But what even said is quite correct.
33:45
Speaker 9: I mean, his contract was coming up and for whatever
33:47
Speaker 9: reason we'll never know unless someone writes a book about
33:49
Speaker 9: it talks about it, the government no longer wanted to
33:51
Speaker 9: have him as the Police Commissioner. And the fact that
33:53
Speaker 9: that's unpalatable to him. Well, it's going to be very unpalatable,
33:57
Speaker 9: you know.
33:57
Speaker 5: The statement you.
34:01
Speaker 1: Go to the heart of the.
34:02
Speaker 5: Forms, you know.
34:04
Speaker 9: And I can sympathize with the poor Barsett having lost
34:08
Speaker 9: my speakers rong, you know. So, But the fact is
34:12
Speaker 9: contract hasn't been renewed for whatever reason. Confidence is just
34:16
Speaker 9: the general term lack of confidence. But underneath that there's
34:18
Speaker 9: obviously been some issues between the Antiicupet executive and the
34:21
Speaker 9: Police Commissioner. What it's about specifically, we can only guess,
34:25
Speaker 9: but it's how it's been managed so that she just
34:27
Speaker 9: get on with it and say, right, this is the
34:29
Speaker 9: deal through Thislicita General and take it or leave it.
34:32
Speaker 5: Look your contracts.
34:33
Speaker 2: And I guess if I was the commissioner, I would
34:35
Speaker 2: be thinking to myself as well, why were we in
34:37
Speaker 2: a situation just weeks ago where both the Minister and
34:40
Speaker 2: the Chief Minister were saying that they did have confidence
34:42
Speaker 2: in me?
34:42
Speaker 1: So what has changed in those most recent weeks?
34:45
Speaker 2: So I can understand why we are sort of in
34:47
Speaker 2: this difficult situation now, but it is a tough one.
34:51
Speaker 2: It is one that the Northern Territory Police Association had
34:54
Speaker 2: said that they want resolved that they want resolved quickly.
34:56
Speaker 2: They'd spoken about those double standards, but they had also,
34:59
Speaker 2: of course spoken about the fact that they do need
35:03
Speaker 2: we do need that certainty. The police force needs that certainty,
35:06
Speaker 2: but the wider community does as well.
35:08
Speaker 6: Either way this goes, you know, if if he gets
35:12
Speaker 6: a renewal, which you know, then obviously relationships between both
35:16
Speaker 6: levels of executive have to be repaired to some extent.
35:19
Speaker 4: Obviously it's not a great look.
35:21
Speaker 6: And then if it goes down the other avenue, that's
35:23
Speaker 6: going to be a long.
35:24
Speaker 4: Process in and of itself as well.
35:26
Speaker 2: Well, look, we'll keep it close on things. Let's take
35:28
Speaker 2: a bit of a break. You are listening to mix
35:30
Speaker 2: one oh four nine's three sixty. It is the week
35:32
Speaker 2: that was is just seventeen minutes away from ten o'clock
35:36
Speaker 2: that number. If you'd like to call through this morning
35:38
Speaker 2: eight nine four one one oh four nine.
35:39
Speaker 1: You can also send us a text message.
35:41
Speaker 2: Plenty of messages coming through and I will get to
35:43
Speaker 2: those a little bit later this morning. Now, well, there's
35:46
Speaker 2: been a few other things floating around this week. I
35:49
Speaker 2: do just want to touch on because we've got so
35:51
Speaker 2: many messages, We've had so many messages about this over
35:54
Speaker 2: recent weeks, Howard springs out there at the Center for
35:59
Speaker 2: National Resilient and claims by the opposition that there's been
36:03
Speaker 2: damage caused out the era. I know that I've had
36:06
Speaker 2: people get in contact with us here as well at
36:08
Speaker 2: the station saying that there's been damage caused. We asked
36:10
Speaker 2: the Chief Minister about it though on Wednesday this week
36:14
Speaker 2: and she had said that there's only sort of general
36:16
Speaker 2: wear and tear.
36:17
Speaker 1: True, not true, are you know? Kizier.
36:22
Speaker 9: I've had people who've worked in there speak to me.
36:24
Speaker 9: I don't have any photographic evidence, but there has been
36:26
Speaker 9: quite for that.
36:28
Speaker 2: On a few occasions on air, I've said, you know,
36:30
Speaker 2: if anybody's got photographic evidence, and nobody's been prepared to
36:33
Speaker 2: provide me with that, or nobody's man in contact with that.
36:36
Speaker 9: Many contractors have been on site whilst servicing the facility,
36:39
Speaker 9: and many contractors have gone in to fix up the damage,
36:42
Speaker 9: and they're all there's a lot of security out there
36:44
Speaker 9: and they're not allowed to take photographs cleaves. Some of
36:45
Speaker 9: them might try and take photographs surreptitiously. But there's been
36:49
Speaker 9: skip bins there. I know because I know the company
36:51
Speaker 9: that will supply them that's been loaded up with rubbish
36:54
Speaker 9: stuff like broken toilets, wreck mattresses, windows have been broken,
36:58
Speaker 9: whatever have they broken them? And you know that doesn't
37:01
Speaker 9: happen with just wear and tear, like I know. I
37:03
Speaker 9: did hear an interview with Jared Marliy and someone on
37:06
Speaker 9: the other station, and yes, alcohol has gone back in there,
37:10
Speaker 9: and yes people have gone back in drunk and been
37:12
Speaker 9: naughty and all that sort of stuff. But they're individuals
37:14
Speaker 9: and that's their home away from home kind of thing.
37:17
Speaker 9: But there was certain requirements around it, and that's just
37:20
Speaker 9: to maintain law and order and to look after particularly
37:22
Speaker 9: there's about something three or four hundred children or something,
37:24
Speaker 9: so you know you've got to look after all these
37:25
Speaker 9: little people.
37:26
Speaker 10: But to.
37:28
Speaker 9: And if the damage has been there, which I believe
37:30
Speaker 9: it has, I mean, that's just wrong. Like the government
37:34
Speaker 9: has provided you this facility free of charge, and the
37:37
Speaker 9: bill will be picked up by the taxpayers, which is
37:40
Speaker 9: us in here. But it could all be sorted by
37:44
Speaker 9: who's portfolio accounts under families if the government said to
37:48
Speaker 9: the opposition and perhaps are just a couple of selected media,
37:51
Speaker 9: All right, let's just put this to bed because it's
37:53
Speaker 9: just festering and it's going to get worse. And go
37:55
Speaker 9: for a visit and it could be done like in
37:58
Speaker 9: a hour. Just go because it's I mean, that facility,
38:00
Speaker 9: as we know, houses three and a half thousand people.
38:03
Speaker 9: So they're not in the whole complex. They'll only be
38:05
Speaker 9: in one area of that complex and one will be
38:08
Speaker 9: able to see. But yes, Skipping's have taken away a
38:10
Speaker 9: whole lot of stuff, and contractors are I don't know
38:13
Speaker 9: if they sign anything. I haven't been told that, but
38:14
Speaker 9: they definitely have been told they cannot take any photographs
38:16
Speaker 9: of anything.
38:17
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean totally unacceptable to see any damage of
38:20
Speaker 8: any public property or government property. Yeah, nobody wants to
38:24
Speaker 8: see that, but you know, that's what happens in an emergency.
38:28
Speaker 8: The Northern Territory government has to make sure that people
38:31
Speaker 8: who are you know, vulnerable, people who don't have somewhere
38:35
Speaker 8: to go that have a safe place, and that's you know,
38:39
Speaker 8: originally we're looking at Fosky Pavilion, but then realized that
38:43
Speaker 8: it was going to be you know, more than a
38:44
Speaker 8: few days, and so had to look to the Center
38:48
Speaker 8: for National Resilience. So yeah, I think everybody agrees it
38:51
Speaker 8: is totally unacceptable.
38:53
Speaker 5: You know, I was. I went through cyclone, Tracy. I
38:55
Speaker 5: was evacuated to Noagra.
38:57
Speaker 8: Army camp as a twelve year old then Brisbane, And yeah,
39:02
Speaker 8: I mean, of course you're all on your best behavior there,
39:04
Speaker 8: but again there's alcohol involved. You know, We've made sure
39:07
Speaker 8: that there's police there. We've made sure that there's security
39:10
Speaker 8: officers there. If people come back drunk, they're in a
39:13
Speaker 8: contained area and you know, like a spin dryer until
39:17
Speaker 8: they dry out. But yeah, it is totally unacceptable if
39:20
Speaker 8: there is any damage there. And yeah, it is frustrating
39:24
Speaker 8: as a government because you yeah, we're doing the right thing.
39:27
Speaker 8: We are doing the right thing. If we didn't do that,
39:29
Speaker 8: we would be in big trouble. If we said no, sorry,
39:32
Speaker 8: there's nowhere for you to go, it will be in trouble.
39:36
Speaker 1: So you've got to make sure that there is somewhere
39:38
Speaker 1: for people to go. So there, So obviously by the.
39:41
Speaker 2: Sounds of it, people either coming back intoxicated or trying
39:44
Speaker 2: to drink has been a bit of an issue.
39:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, it has been.
39:48
Speaker 8: I don't think there's any you know, nobody said there isn't,
39:51
Speaker 8: you know, And the government has put a number of
39:52
Speaker 8: things in place you know, there's well, we've lowered the
39:56
Speaker 8: speed limit along Hot White Would Road how It Springs
39:59
Speaker 8: Road there, So we've done a lot of things to
40:01
Speaker 8: make sure that people are safe there. And as I said,
40:05
Speaker 8: when they come back if they're intoxicated, that they are
40:08
Speaker 8: in one particular area. So then yeah, as you said,
40:11
Speaker 8: they are not in the areas with families, with wives
40:14
Speaker 8: and partners and children. But yes, it is totally unacceptable
40:18
Speaker 8: that people are not doing the right thing when you
40:22
Speaker 8: are being evacuated, and we would expect people to be
40:25
Speaker 8: on their very best behavior. But as we see in
40:28
Speaker 8: the territory, when alcohol gets involved, people don't always do
40:31
Speaker 8: the right thing.
40:32
Speaker 7: So when we find out how much is going to
40:34
Speaker 7: cost to repair these damages to Howard Springs, is anyone
40:38
Speaker 7: going to be held to account for that bad behavior?
40:40
Speaker 7: I mean territories are asking this question. I mean a
40:43
Speaker 7: lot of people out of Darwin. Many people in Darwen
40:45
Speaker 7: have been out to that facility, either working or part
40:48
Speaker 7: of that whole evacue process, in even quarantine. So it
40:53
Speaker 7: could be really clear to see the damage that has
40:55
Speaker 7: been done and it could be expected to be who
40:59
Speaker 7: knows how much it could millions like who is going
41:01
Speaker 7: to be held accountable to that?
41:03
Speaker 5: Well, the same question.
41:04
Speaker 9: I don't know, perhaps another minister might be able to ask.
41:08
Speaker 9: I mean, what's happened with the repair bill.
41:09
Speaker 3: To the jail?
41:11
Speaker 5: I mean that was trashed two years ago and apparently
41:13
Speaker 5: the repair bill was going to.
41:14
Speaker 10: Be ten.
41:16
Speaker 4: Committed insurance and it is starting to work on that.
41:20
Speaker 9: That's taking build That's a lot of money. That was
41:22
Speaker 9: obviously a ride with both prisoners. So that's one situation
41:27
Speaker 9: because you're incarcerated, but that's a massive bill.
41:30
Speaker 5: And well, these kind of buildings.
41:32
Speaker 9: That powd springs are like what are you going to
41:34
Speaker 9: demandable kind of structures? So, I mean it's pretty easy
41:37
Speaker 9: to replace them, but that's not the point that.
41:40
Speaker 5: Answer your question.
41:41
Speaker 7: It's going to pay exactly, but that's going to have
41:43
Speaker 7: it needs to be held to account for that because
41:45
Speaker 7: you can't just go around damaging things, especially government property,
41:48
Speaker 7: where they have gone over and above to try and
41:50
Speaker 7: help these people. I mean, this is part of this
41:52
Speaker 7: whole lawlessness society that we're in right now. You can't
41:55
Speaker 7: people can't get away with anything that needs to be
41:56
Speaker 7: held to account.
41:59
Speaker 2: Fever, I'm sure something that you'll be having to juggle
42:01
Speaker 2: with the I'm assuming with the infrastructure, but also treasurer.
42:05
Speaker 8: Yeah, as we said, it is totally unacceptable for people
42:08
Speaker 8: to damage things in the territory.
42:10
Speaker 2: Look, we are going to take a very short break
42:12
Speaker 2: because we're very fast, running out of time, and I
42:14
Speaker 2: do want to just touch on We'll take a very
42:16
Speaker 2: short break and then I want to touch on some
42:18
Speaker 2: of those soaring prices when it comes to essential workers
42:21
Speaker 2: trying to rent places to live. It's a tough one.
42:24
Speaker 2: We spoke about it a little bit earlier in the week,
42:26
Speaker 2: so stick around. Still plenty more coming your way. It
42:29
Speaker 2: is just eight minutes away from ten o'clock if you've
42:32
Speaker 2: just joined us. We've got Marie Claire Boothby, Kathleen Gazola,
42:35
Speaker 2: Kesiopuric and Evil Lawla in the.
42:36
Speaker 1: Studio with us now.
42:38
Speaker 2: Yesterday we actually spoke about housing and this new report
42:43
Speaker 2: found that soaring rents are pricing essential workers out of
42:46
Speaker 2: their communities across Australia, with the average employee spending around
42:50
Speaker 2: two thirds of their income on housing. So the national
42:54
Speaker 2: housing campaign Everybody's Home, has released this priced Out report,
42:58
Speaker 2: which compares data on against the award wages for fifteen
43:02
Speaker 2: essential worker categories, and the report found that since March
43:06
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, essential workers have lost an average of six
43:10
Speaker 2: hours from their weekly income to rent increases, So it
43:13
Speaker 2: is an average of thirty seven days each year. We're
43:16
Speaker 2: talking about workers in age care, childcare, hospitality, postal, meatpacking, freight.
43:22
Speaker 1: They're just to sort of name a few.
43:24
Speaker 2: We caught up with Peter McMillan yesterday from NT Shelter
43:27
Speaker 2: and spoke a little bit more.
43:28
Speaker 1: About the situation.
43:30
Speaker 2: It's you know, I guess in this instance we're talking rent,
43:34
Speaker 2: but bloody hell, the cost of livings high, isn't ash?
43:36
Speaker 6: I mean to add to that, we had domain report
43:39
Speaker 6: last week I think, and their latest quarterly rent report
43:43
Speaker 6: had houses at high records that we haven't seen since
43:47
Speaker 6: twenty twelve, and that for units it had reached thirty
43:52
Speaker 6: dollars lower than the twenty fourteen heigh.
43:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
43:55
Speaker 8: So yeah, government recognizes this is an absolutely difficult and
43:59
Speaker 8: impertive issue. Out our last budget, our last anti budget,
44:03
Speaker 8: we had done the report bringing land to market, so
44:06
Speaker 8: how can we facilitate more land?
44:09
Speaker 5: And so we've done land releases.
44:11
Speaker 8: So in Holts, for example, that tender should be I
44:15
Speaker 8: mean the expression of interest should announced very soon. Around
44:18
Speaker 8: another four hundred lots there in Catherine. I was in
44:21
Speaker 8: Catherine last week, Catherine East releasing more land there that
44:25
Speaker 8: the headworks are. I think we're sixteen million to put
44:27
Speaker 8: headworks into Catherine East, also in Tenant, but also kill Gareff,
44:31
Speaker 8: so trying to get land onto.
44:33
Speaker 5: The market as quickly as possible.
44:35
Speaker 8: We have that fifty percent infill as well as fifty
44:38
Speaker 8: percent new greenfield, so there is some good land. I
44:41
Speaker 8: mean Malac with the old caravan park. There's new subdivision
44:44
Speaker 8: that's going in there. I've approved a number of apartment
44:48
Speaker 8: buildings also in Darwin. But one of the issues also
44:51
Speaker 8: we're facing is it's costing about thirty percent more to
44:54
Speaker 8: build and that's Australia wide. So of course if you're
44:57
Speaker 8: a developer or a builder, and we've seen touch wood,
45:00
Speaker 8: we've been quite fortunate here. We haven't seen those big
45:03
Speaker 8: builders going broke, but we've seen that into state in
45:06
Speaker 8: New South Wales Victoria.
45:08
Speaker 5: So it is a difficult situation.
45:10
Speaker 8: But the federal government they made an announcement and that'll
45:13
Speaker 8: be followed up in the budget about building a million
45:15
Speaker 8: new houses in Australia.
45:17
Speaker 5: But it has to be in good land.
45:19
Speaker 8: So they've said to the territory and every state and territory,
45:22
Speaker 8: you need to allocate land where we can then allocate
45:25
Speaker 8: you builds and so it might be around affordable housing.
45:29
Speaker 5: So there is some affordable housing in the territory. We
45:31
Speaker 5: need more.
45:32
Speaker 8: So you've got your social housing, which is your public
45:34
Speaker 8: housing that we see, but you also need affordable housing
45:37
Speaker 8: for the person who.
45:38
Speaker 5: It might be a young family.
45:40
Speaker 8: Yeah, a young family, but you're in retail or in
45:43
Speaker 8: childcare something where your wage isn't high, so you need
45:46
Speaker 8: to be able to afford that rather than paying you
45:48
Speaker 8: for money.
45:48
Speaker 2: You've found some land either that you've put to the
45:50
Speaker 2: federal government that we can get a bit of cash.
45:52
Speaker 8: So that's at Holts. That's a land there. So that
45:55
Speaker 8: went out in the expression of interest late last year.
45:58
Speaker 8: There was a number of companies that have applied to
46:00
Speaker 8: develop that land. So we'll be seeing that an announcement
46:03
Speaker 8: very soon. But there's four hundred lots there and then
46:06
Speaker 8: we'll push through to Kawandy as well.
46:08
Speaker 5: But yeah, there is strong demand.
46:10
Speaker 8: But you know, if you drive through Zicicoli, there's plenty
46:12
Speaker 8: of building happening out with Zecolia Aspire and lots of
46:16
Speaker 8: new houses going in there for young families.
46:19
Speaker 9: I don't know a lot of detail about it, but
46:21
Speaker 9: maybe the government should look like in Act in Canberra,
46:24
Speaker 9: they in the private sector in par fact, they have
46:26
Speaker 9: perpetual leases for private but they have a formula where
46:29
Speaker 9: you can only increase the rent by so much yep.
46:33
Speaker 9: So like if it was a five hundred I think
46:34
Speaker 9: it's about five hundred dollars house unit whatever, you can
46:37
Speaker 9: only increase it by about sort of thirty forty dollars,
46:39
Speaker 9: you know, so it actually helps the market to be
46:42
Speaker 9: affordable for people rather than as has happened here.
46:45
Speaker 5: You know, rents go astronomically high.
46:46
Speaker 9: So maybe the government should be looking at something like
46:48
Speaker 9: what they do in the Act, with a formula to
46:50
Speaker 9: keep rents realistic in line with Well, that's.
46:52
Speaker 2: A hard one because I guess you don't want to
46:54
Speaker 2: be meddling too much into into the private sector, but
46:57
Speaker 2: then you do want to make sure that you know
46:59
Speaker 2: that people can afford to live here, particularly you know,
47:01
Speaker 2: when we're talking about filling those essential worker roles, and
47:04
Speaker 2: we know that we have had a shortage in different
47:07
Speaker 2: areas when it comes two jobs being filled. And when
47:10
Speaker 2: you talk about the fact that we're always wanting to
47:12
Speaker 2: build the population in the Northern Territory and grow the population,
47:15
Speaker 2: so I guess it is something that we need to
47:17
Speaker 2: keep it Onye.
47:18
Speaker 8: He's really vitally important. As he said, we need more
47:20
Speaker 8: migrants in the Northern Territory, but they need somewhere to live.
47:23
Speaker 8: So it is about trying to push really quickly to
47:26
Speaker 8: get new subdivisions out and the government's very much focused
47:30
Speaker 8: on that.
47:30
Speaker 5: But it has to be a range of range as well.
47:33
Speaker 8: One of the things I did in Catherine will say
47:35
Speaker 8: that in the areas that are high and dry in Catherine,
47:38
Speaker 8: people with large blocks can put in granny flats and
47:42
Speaker 8: you know, or put in dual occupancy here. So we
47:45
Speaker 8: did an exemption around the Planning Act to see that happen.
47:48
Speaker 8: So that is about, you know, it might be a
47:50
Speaker 8: young female teacher in town and not want to rent
47:53
Speaker 8: a house, or could afford a house, but can have
47:55
Speaker 8: a granny flat at the back of something.
47:56
Speaker 2: What's funny, isn't it, Because you know, I lived in
47:58
Speaker 2: Perth before I lived in the Northern Territory and there's
48:00
Speaker 2: so many triplex blocks. There's so many people that actually
48:03
Speaker 2: have those older blocks where they've got other you know,
48:06
Speaker 2: like other tendencies or other other smaller units on their block,
48:09
Speaker 2: whereas here in the Northern Territory we're like, nah, we
48:11
Speaker 2: want our big get out of space space if we're
48:16
Speaker 2: rural people.
48:17
Speaker 10: The reality is that you know, that is actually an
48:20
Speaker 10: option you would think, and it's probably not a bad
48:23
Speaker 10: option to look at in some locations, like you said
48:25
Speaker 10: in Catherine, and even in I want.
48:28
Speaker 9: To mention that boogie word, there's also Woodell that the
48:30
Speaker 9: minister could be looking to development a massive chunk of
48:35
Speaker 9: land down there with some infrastructure already.
48:38
Speaker 1: Well, look we've run out, Yes, get one, you.
48:42
Speaker 7: Go for what I think about costs of living, and
48:44
Speaker 7: I know that people definitely run across the territory is suffering.
48:46
Speaker 7: This is it's it's all over the place, and it
48:49
Speaker 7: is worth here than he is in other states. I
48:51
Speaker 7: can't help but think about our economy in the Northern
48:53
Speaker 7: Territory and the fact that we need to grow that economy.
48:55
Speaker 7: I mean, the government has the goal of the forty
48:58
Speaker 7: billion by twenty thirty. There was twelve major projects on
49:02
Speaker 7: the major projects just listen, they are.
49:03
Speaker 3: Sort of all falling over one at a time.
49:05
Speaker 7: I mean, it's it's so important that this government focuses
49:07
Speaker 7: on our economy, which then attracts the population, which then
49:10
Speaker 7: can help with our cost of living. And so far,
49:12
Speaker 7: you know, we've just seen none of that. It's just
49:13
Speaker 7: failure after failure.
49:15
Speaker 5: Those your lines. We absolutely have very much focused.
49:18
Speaker 8: I'm about to head to the Minerals Council lunch and
49:21
Speaker 8: there's a lot happening in that space, I can tell you.
49:24
Speaker 2: So we have run out of time. Marie Claire Booby
49:27
Speaker 2: from the COLP, thank you so much for your time this.
49:29
Speaker 3: Morning, Katie.
49:29
Speaker 7: I just want to mention the rally, the crime rally
49:31
Speaker 7: for the community that's going to be Apartment House at
49:33
Speaker 7: four pm tomorrow. I really hope that EVA is going
49:36
Speaker 7: to be there this time. You said last time that
49:38
Speaker 7: it wasn't a place for you, and I think you know,
49:40
Speaker 7: to have some courage and show some real guts and
49:43
Speaker 7: go and you know, stand shouldered shoulder with territories and
49:45
Speaker 7: listen to what they've got to say about crime.
49:47
Speaker 1: Kathleen Gazzola from nine News Darwin, thank you. See you
49:50
Speaker 1: guys easier if youreck, Okay. I just want to do
49:54
Speaker 1: a shout out.
49:54
Speaker 9: I know it's in Greek Orthodox Eastern this sure is,
49:57
Speaker 9: but it's also the Bhist on the Buddhist cal I
50:00
Speaker 9: don't really their new year. So all my Cambodian constituency
50:02
Speaker 9: Vietnamese out there, today's their special day for ceremony and
50:06
Speaker 9: over the weekend. So happy New Year to all those
50:08
Speaker 9: people in the Buddhist community.
50:09
Speaker 8: Good stuff, evil or yeah, well, yes, it's the mud
50:12
Speaker 8: racing on and the week after the rain last night.
50:16
Speaker 8: It'll be very muddy at the mud racing, but that's
50:18
Speaker 8: certainly yeah, call out to everybody to head to the
50:21
Speaker 8: mud racing.
50:22
Speaker 2: Well that is all we've got time for this morning.
50:24
Speaker 2: Stick around, though, plenty more coming your way on three
50:26
Speaker 2: point sixty after ten o'clock