Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Police Association President Paul McCue says efforts are being ramped up to secure members an 8 per cent pay rise, with many fed up and leaving the Force

Transcript

NT Police Association President Paul McCue says efforts are being ramped up to secure members an 8 per cent pay rise, with many fed up and leaving the Force · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that the Northern Territory Police Association, well, they've
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: gone to new lengths to try to get members a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: pay rise, launching an ad campaign targeting the government. The president,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Paul McCue, says that negotiations have been ongoing since February
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and there's no sign of an agreement being reached before
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the end of the year. With members still not satisfied
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: with the government's two percent offer. He joins me on
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  Speaker 1: the line right now, Good morning to you.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Paul, Morning Katie.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: How are you not too bad? Paul? Where are negotiations at?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously long and protracted negotiations. We've been under way
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: since February of this year and today it only had
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: one formal offer from government, which was under the old
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: wage freeze policy. So here we are at Christmas time.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Our members have made it quite clear to us through
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: our survey earlier this year and also in more recent
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: times that they're fed up. They've had enough of the delays.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: They are out there every day putting their life on
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: the line for the government and the community. They want
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: to see the government get serious and put something to
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  Speaker 2: them that they expect that rewards the job that they
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: do out there. And right now it's such a competitive
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: market in terms of policing. We're seeing so many people
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: you leave the NT police. We need to do something
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  Speaker 2: about that and do it urgently.
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  Speaker 1: And it's you know, like across the board, you've got
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  Speaker 1: all of the frontline workers basically of the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: right now saying hang on, our wages need to be
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  Speaker 1: keeping up with, you know, with the cost of living.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I know that.
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  Speaker 1: Really the push that the association's going with now is
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: like I've never seen the association sort of go so
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  Speaker 1: hard in terms of being fairly critical of the government
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  Speaker 1: not coming to the table.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, they've got a duty when these negotiations
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  Speaker 2: come around to be fair income about it. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: we've been here since February waiting for a change and
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: it hasn't come yet. We are making ourselves available, of course,
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  Speaker 2: as often as necessary to try and push the for
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: our members. They've made it quite clear. And we go
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  Speaker 2: back to that survey I mentioned previously that we had
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  Speaker 2: a few months ago. Eighty eight percent of our members
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  Speaker 2: at that survey. A thousand people replied to that survey
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  Speaker 2: completely rejected that initial offer of government. We've seen ninety
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: three percent of our members. You say, there is not
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: enough police out there, and we've got such competitive markets
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  Speaker 2: in into state police jurisdictions, we can't afford to sit
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: on our hands. That's what they've been doing. Since we
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: commenced negotiations Katie in February, we've seen one hundred and
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: twenty police that's essentially ten percent of our front line
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: walk out the door do other jobs. I mean, that
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  Speaker 2: is catastrophic numbers when you talk about such a small
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  Speaker 2: police force we've got up here.
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  Speaker 1: What do you want to see from the government pool
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  Speaker 1: and when do you want to be able to sit
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  Speaker 1: down with them and go.
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  Speaker 2: Through all of this. Well, obviously we've got meetings continuing,
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  Speaker 2: but what we need is an offer or formal offer,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: you know, put to us so we can put it
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: to our membership if we feel it's appropriate. We've got
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: other police forces offering significantly more than two percent. You know,
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  Speaker 2: this isn't just about money. This is about making sure
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  Speaker 2: we've got the recognition for our police here in the
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory they deserve. They've been out there doing it
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  Speaker 2: tough like many frontline workers over the last few years,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: but coupled with inflation, coupled with the significantly high attrition
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: rate and the significantly competitive market. We're in Katie and
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  Speaker 2: we've seen all those attacks on our police recently. They've
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: played out in the public, you know, people using weapons
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: against some including vehicles. This is a time the government
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  Speaker 2: need to put this to bed. They need to come
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  Speaker 2: to us urgently and resolve this as quickly as they can.
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  Speaker 2: Otherwise our members are just not going to put up
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  Speaker 2: with it.
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  Speaker 1: Do you reckon? You're going to lose members over the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Christmas period if they don't try to sort this out.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Well, we know there's active campaigns targeting our experienced officers
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  Speaker 2: here in the NT. We see it every day on
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  Speaker 2: social media here in terms of attracting two other police forces.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I know personally there's several police officers with applications in
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  Speaker 2: with other police forces and other jobs. They're just waiting
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  Speaker 2: to hear back, you know as we speak, and we
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  Speaker 2: don't want to see that. It's costing millions and millions
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: to keep recruiting these numbers every year. And it's good
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  Speaker 2: we're recruiting, but you know that's enormous amounts of money
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  Speaker 2: we're spending when we just need to be investing in
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  Speaker 2: those we've got and keep them here in the nt Well.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Paul mcue, it is. It's an interesting time. I think
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  Speaker 1: you'd have to say right now, the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 1: not only needing to get to the table with you guys.
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  Speaker 1: I know they've got the offer out for the teachers
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  Speaker 1: at the moment. I know the nurses are also pretty concerned,
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  Speaker 1: and we've got to make sure, you know, if we
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: are going to be the wonderful, prosperous place that we
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  Speaker 1: want to be, we've got to make sure that we've
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  Speaker 1: got enough police, educators, nurses, all of those frontline workers.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean we need to look after them. We
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: need to make sure they remain here in the nt year,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: in the NTA, and the way of doing that is
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: to resolve this issue for our police that they've been
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: waiting so long for since every of this year, and
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: it's going to happen sooner rather than later.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Paul McCue, thank you as always for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning. We'll probably catch up with you again before Christmas.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, thanks Katy, good on you, thank you