Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Police Association Acting President Lisa Bayliss says a $20,000 relocation allowance will make NT Police more competitive with Queensland Police

Transcript

NT Police Association Acting President Lisa Bayliss says a $20,000 relocation allowance will make NT Police more competitive with Queensland Police · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we did just hear from the Acting Northern Territory
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Police Commissioner Michael Murphy. He was on the show a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: short time ago and really covered off on a lot
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of different subjects for us, but he did speak about
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: this relocation announcement that was made yesterday twenty thousand dollars
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to try to get people into the force. Now, joining
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: me in the studio right now to talk a little
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: bit more about this because this is part of what
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the association has been calling for for some time. It
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: is Lisa Baylis, who's the acting Northern Territory Police Association President.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Lisa.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Great to have you in the studio. Now, what do
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: you make of that announcement that was made yesterday.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Firstly, look, I think it's definitely a step in the
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: right direction. The Northern Church of Police force must remain
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: competitive with other jurisdictions and having a relocation allowance up
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: to twenty thousand dollars, we'll definitely go to work in
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: that space. Recently, Queensland Police they announced the same exactly
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the same initiative up to twenty thousand dollars relocation, so
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: that's what we're competing against and having it the same
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: is really important, I think for from the normal churchy police.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, it seems to be a step in
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the right direction, and we want to make sure that
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: we are obviously bolstering those numbers so that we've got
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the number of police officers that we need on the ground.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: We also talk to the acting Commissioner about the fact
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: that at any one time within the force there is
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: between two hundred and fifty and three hundred and fifty
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: people on long service leave recreational leave. On top of that,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: there's another hundred that are on long leave, so it
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: could be through injury, mental health, stress, various other reasons.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: It's a it's a massive number for them to be juggling,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: isn't it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think again, I've come on the show
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: and I've spoken before that, you know, policing as a
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: twenty four to seven occupation and it's actually quite you know,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: we see a lot of trauma. We're exposed to a
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: lot of incidents and that does take its toll on members.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: But that physically demanding job means that you're getting physical
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: with people and as a result, sometimes you do get injured.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: It's not we have that amount of people on sick leave.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: The long term sick leave can include people that on
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: workers comp as well, And clearly we always want to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: see our members get back to work as soon as possible,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: and I.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Thought it seemed like a positive thing that he's actually
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: like that they're getting in contact with those people seeing
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: if there's different things that can be done to try
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: to return them to work.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well absolutely, I think the police that are numbers.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: We've had a high attrition rate the last couple of years.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: We would like to see that turn around. I don't
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: know in such a short space of time if that
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: can happen, but anything in the right positive direction to
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: get our members back to work and part of the workforce,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: because that's actually what it comes down to. The more
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: people who are at work, the better morale is the
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: you know, the more there is to share the workload.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And there is there is also some that are maybe
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: off due to disciplinary issues, or there are some people
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that maybe aren't doing their normal jobs due to some
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: disciplinary issues. Again, you know, he said that they're sort
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of reviewing the way that they look at that. Think
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that that is something that the association has been pushing
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: for for a while as well, isn't it some changes?
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think a lot of the discipline space it's
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: become quite punitive, and I've said it a few times
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: on the show. You know, draconian is the way the
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: legislation sits, but also the policy that surrounds it. We've
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: been pushing for a more of a performance management approach
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: for a lot of the I suppose the mistakes that
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: police make, but having everything sit in the serious misconduct
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: or misconduct space is not always appropriate and often our
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: members will you know, because the timeframes around discipline it
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: is quite disheartening, and then that contributes to time away
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: from work, and the longer away from the work, the
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: harder it is to get them back into the workplace,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and ultimately that doesn't help anyone.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Lisa, how are things looking from your perspective when it
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: comes to our police numbers at the moment, And you know,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: we've spoken a lot over the years about the attrition
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: rate and losing officers to other states and territories.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's unfortunate that within Australia, and I think
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the world's also finding the same thing for policing. Recruitment
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: with police is actually a really competitive space. There is
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: a small pool of people that usually we draw from
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: and that seems to have shrunk over the last couple
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: of years, and we just don't get the same amount
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: of applicants that we used to. And that's the whole thing.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Competing with other jurisdictions. We have to remain competitive, so
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: our wages need.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: To be high.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: The work we do is very difficult, but having things
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: like relocation all ounce that's on par with other jurisdictions
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: really important. I think that the wages that police earn,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: we always have to make sure that they sit at
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: a higher end of the scale. Because the Northern Territory
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: is isolated, it is you know, the work we do
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: is difficult. A lot of it's in the remote and
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: regional space. It's really important that I think that the
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: government ensures that they remain competitive for the members.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Lisa, from your perspective, I know that you and I
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: spoke sort of a week or so ago as well,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: But how's the morale in the force at the moment?
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: How are our officers that are out there on the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: front line working there, how are they feeling at the moment.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Look, we are still struggling with our resources and it's
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: good to hear the Commissioner saying, you know, we've got
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: to get got to get them back to work, but
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: ultimately we don't have enough numbers to do. The job
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: that's been asked of us by government is a We
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: have seen a huge increase in our crime statistics. There's
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: no surprise there to anyone who's listening on the radio.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: We need more police to combat that, and I think
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: really disappointing the budget that just came out by the
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: government they haven't addressed that. We heard the Deputy Commissioner
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: small Page in the Coronial say we needed an additional
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: three hundred police. Of course we would like to see
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: more detail around where that figure came from, but to
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: be honest, that's probably that's the start. We actually need
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: to have more numbers.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Now let me ask you very quickly about knife crime.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: It's something that again we've been talking about a lot.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: It's now looking as though there is some work underway
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: being across to Queensland to look at how they're doing things,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the use of those ones and potentially a pilot program.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: What do you think of it?
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Look anything that as long as the legislation supports our members,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: if we're going to be searching people for weapons. We
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: need to make sure that the right policy, the right
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: legislation framework is in place. We want to protect our
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: members obviously and again the community. If there's an increase
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: in people using weapons, using knives, we have to make
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: sure that it's not just about searching for those people.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: It's a whole range of things, particularly around bail, around chargers,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: even in the courts of the convictions that are handed down.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time as always, Lisa, thank
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: you so very much for coming in and no doubt
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: we'll talk to you again very soon.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, Katie,