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Katie Woolf spoke with Chief Minister Michael Gunner · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: Joining us in the studio is the Chief Minister, Michael Gunner.
0:02
Speaker 2: Good morning, morning, Katie. Chief.
0:05
Speaker 1: Firstly, we know that we've certainly had a bit of
0:07
Speaker 1: an update on the Brisbane situation. Greater Brisbane's going to
0:10
Speaker 1: lockdown for three days from five pm to s after
0:14
Speaker 1: ten new COVID cases were recorded in the state overnight.
0:17
Speaker 2: What does this mean for the territory.
0:19
Speaker 3: It's a very good question.
0:21
Speaker 4: Doctor Hegey as a Chief Health Officer, is about to
0:24
Speaker 4: participate in the HPPC meeting. That's the meeting of all
0:27
Speaker 4: the Chief officers around the country as well as the
0:29
Speaker 4: Chief Medical Officer, to discuss what's happening. Obviously, where we're
0:33
Speaker 4: at the headline figures and you've read out some of
0:35
Speaker 4: the stats that are there. To make our decision, we
0:38
Speaker 4: need to know a bit more detail about the movement
0:40
Speaker 4: of the virus, essentially how people catching it, where are
0:42
Speaker 4: they catching it, and what the situation is in Brisbane.
0:46
Speaker 4: I'm as probably well briefed as anybody in the country,
0:50
Speaker 4: and I still think it's very hard to draw a
0:51
Speaker 4: clear line through what's actually happening in Queensland. So reports
0:55
Speaker 4: of the weekend of that there was a party and there
0:57
Speaker 4: wasn't a party, for example, around that person who was possit.
1:00
Speaker 4: So getting a good understanding of what's happening there because
1:02
Speaker 4: they are big decisions that we might need to make
1:04
Speaker 4: around borders and that. So Doctor Hegey will have that
1:07
Speaker 4: meeting today. He will then brief us at SIMPSY and
1:09
Speaker 4: we'll have to make a big decision today about how
1:11
Speaker 4: we're handling what's going on in Queensland.
1:13
Speaker 1: So at the moment though, no lockdown to Brisbane at
1:18
Speaker 1: this stage, but waiting for doctor Hugh Hegge to complete
1:20
Speaker 1: that METS just.
1:21
Speaker 3: To confirm what the current measures are.
1:23
Speaker 4: You must isolate and test if you're coming from Brisbane
1:27
Speaker 4: and the modern val area from the twentieth so anyone
1:31
Speaker 4: from the twentieth and obvious anyone arriving since then prior
1:35
Speaker 4: to the twentieth, rough twelfth to the nineteenth. If you
1:37
Speaker 4: are in any way symptomatic, any way symptomatic, you must
1:41
Speaker 4: isolate and test as well. So we are taking it seriously.
1:45
Speaker 4: We'll obviously make a decision today, but whether we have
1:46
Speaker 4: to go further or not. Obviously Brisbane has gone further
1:49
Speaker 4: with that lockdown decision and the Maskes decision that they've
1:52
Speaker 4: made for Queensland too, which so a couple of big
1:55
Speaker 4: decisions there that we need to get a head around
1:56
Speaker 4: why they're doing that, and then what we makes what
1:59
Speaker 4: adds to is as a result of that.
2:01
Speaker 1: Okay, so certainly a moving feast at this point in time,
2:04
Speaker 1: Chief Minister. We know that job Keeper ended in the
2:06
Speaker 1: Northern Territory yesterday. We'll all around Australia. How many territorians
2:10
Speaker 1: were still on job Keeper up until yesterday.
2:12
Speaker 4: The advice I have, and this is early March figures,
2:14
Speaker 4: but I don't think they would have changed much, is
2:16
Speaker 4: around two thousand businesses, which is a lot, and seven
2:19
Speaker 4: and a half thousand work jobs, which is also a lot.
2:23
Speaker 4: Now we've seen a sixty percent decline since September last year,
2:26
Speaker 4: and who was on job keeper?
2:28
Speaker 3: Businesses and people?
2:31
Speaker 4: So the big thing now is how many people will
2:34
Speaker 4: transition into employment? How many businesses were just prepared to
2:37
Speaker 4: wait till the end of job Keeper then pivot in.
2:39
Speaker 4: I am worried for any of those tourism businesses, particularly
2:44
Speaker 4: the international facing tourism businesses, that they have found it
2:49
Speaker 4: difficult to pivot. There isn't necessarily a market ready to
2:51
Speaker 4: go for them, so there are still some people out there.
2:54
Speaker 4: I am worried about the Australian government released job Make
2:57
Speaker 4: if you might remember where they'll put in money one
3:00
Speaker 4: hundred bucks to bucks up to I think it's thirty
3:02
Speaker 4: five years of age that they'll help towards the bill,
3:05
Speaker 4: and we said in the territory will help anyone, so
3:08
Speaker 4: we'll fill in the missing dollars and we will provide
3:10
Speaker 4: it up to twenty dored dollars for everybody that's starting
3:12
Speaker 4: in April, so we're providing some help there with the
3:15
Speaker 4: employment costs.
3:16
Speaker 1: Realistically, though, is that going to be enough to help
3:19
Speaker 1: these two thousand businesses survive?
3:22
Speaker 3: That's the truth test.
3:23
Speaker 4: Now of April, I have written to the Treasury of Friedenburger,
3:27
Speaker 4: as others have over the journey, saying we really would
3:29
Speaker 4: like to see job Keeper extended for those tourism related businesses.
3:33
Speaker 4: Obviously we haven't seen that decision. We've seen the half
3:36
Speaker 4: price fares come in. We've done a lot in the
3:37
Speaker 4: tourism space. We abutter to go into the dry season.
3:40
Speaker 4: So I am hopeful for a lot of businesses, but
3:44
Speaker 4: there are going to be a number out there, particularly
3:45
Speaker 4: those ones who have focused towards international businesses that I
3:48
Speaker 4: think are really going to struggle because we just can't
3:50
Speaker 4: give a date on the international borders.
3:52
Speaker 1: No.
3:52
Speaker 2: Well, and this is a difficult thing.
3:54
Speaker 1: But also when you've got this situation with different borders
3:56
Speaker 1: as well just around Australia opening and closing, it makes
3:59
Speaker 1: a huge impact. Just quickly, though, can you tell me
4:02
Speaker 1: where we're at with the Turk the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission.
4:07
Speaker 1: That report obviously was brought into place or announced towards
4:12
Speaker 1: the end of last year, and certainly some recommendations in
4:15
Speaker 1: there aimed at really keeping the Northern Territory moving. My
4:19
Speaker 1: understanding was that the report from the Chief Executives into
4:22
Speaker 1: their department's roles and responsibilities.
4:25
Speaker 2: I thought that was due in February. Where is it at?
4:28
Speaker 4: So all that work, why the public service, has been
4:30
Speaker 4: done and it's now being embedded in how we do government.
4:33
Speaker 4: So you're going to see a rolling series of announcements,
4:35
Speaker 4: of which some have already been made. So we're more
4:37
Speaker 4: than half the costs for doing planning applications. So I
4:40
Speaker 4: think it was something like three hundred dollars down to
4:42
Speaker 4: one hundred and twenty for essentially a da. I think
4:45
Speaker 4: the rezoning application from like six hundred dollars down to
4:48
Speaker 4: one hundred and something. On Friday, the Deputy Chief Minister
4:51
Speaker 4: announced the approvals process for land clearing has gone from
4:54
Speaker 4: six months to six weeks. So you're going to see
4:57
Speaker 4: a whole series of decisions like that from us. It's
4:59
Speaker 4: all about just how we can do government better, how
5:02
Speaker 4: we can help businesses better, they can do territory that
5:04
Speaker 4: we've announced, that's that online portal that's up. Around two
5:07
Speaker 4: hundred businesses have had their red tape essentially significantly reduced.
5:11
Speaker 3: It's all online.
5:12
Speaker 4: They'd have to go around town dropping in forms or
5:14
Speaker 4: anything like that. They can literally see the progress of
5:16
Speaker 4: their application. So you're going to see a significant number
5:18
Speaker 4: of announcements from us that go to just the way
5:22
Speaker 4: government does business.
5:23
Speaker 3: So that will just be a rolling series of announcements,
5:24
Speaker 3: all right.
5:25
Speaker 2: So that is all underway. That underway, all right.
5:27
Speaker 1: Chief, Let's move along, because you weren't available to come
5:30
Speaker 1: on the show last week. We have covered extensively the
5:33
Speaker 1: proposed changes that your government's put forward when it comes
5:35
Speaker 1: to youth offending and those repeat offenders. But our listeners
5:38
Speaker 1: are keen to really get your take, what changed last
5:42
Speaker 1: week that made you realize that you had to make
5:45
Speaker 1: some changes in this space.
5:47
Speaker 4: Community safety must be the priority, It must always be
5:49
Speaker 4: the priority.
5:50
Speaker 3: How can we make people safer?
5:51
Speaker 4: I think I said this in your show A Lot, Katie,
5:53
Speaker 4: you can never stop working when it comes to making
5:54
Speaker 4: people safer. We promised to strengthen monitoring compliance for bail
5:59
Speaker 4: the election as we were working through how bail and
6:02
Speaker 4: it fed into diversion in the end, how they were
6:04
Speaker 4: working and what some of our principles were.
6:06
Speaker 3: You know, we looked at and said.
6:07
Speaker 4: People shouldn't seriously breach bail, and if they do seriously
6:10
Speaker 4: breach bail, what is a reasonable consequence? And I you know,
6:13
Speaker 4: I've said this on the show A Lot. It's a privilege,
6:14
Speaker 4: not a right. Bail and so if you seriously breached
6:16
Speaker 4: that right gets revoked. And then we're looking at the
6:18
Speaker 4: diversion question. I actually had a few people say this
6:21
Speaker 4: to me that you know, a parent said that their
6:24
Speaker 4: child was diverted, did a couple of days and didn't
6:27
Speaker 4: complete And my position was, well, you have to complete
6:29
Speaker 4: your consequence right, And we asked the question. Somehow this
6:32
Speaker 4: has slipped through various governments. You didn't have to complete diversion,
6:35
Speaker 4: which is just mind boggling.
6:36
Speaker 2: It's mind boggling to me as well.
6:38
Speaker 1: But I guess the thing is that a lot of
6:40
Speaker 1: our listeners have pointed out is you and I have
6:41
Speaker 1: spoken about this before. I guess I've given you examples before,
6:45
Speaker 1: and yet you know you were so hesitant to sort
6:47
Speaker 1: of make any changes to begin with.
6:49
Speaker 2: So you know what really did change.
6:52
Speaker 3: So let's take a step back.
6:54
Speaker 4: My priority remains how do you stop crying from occurring
6:56
Speaker 4: in the first place, and how you can have consequences
6:58
Speaker 4: in place that genuinely break the cycle. That has to
7:00
Speaker 4: be your priority. We said we would do stuff in
7:03
Speaker 4: this bail space at the election. We're working through what
7:06
Speaker 4: those details were, and there's some really obvious things that
7:09
Speaker 4: jumped out, and this diversion one, I think was obvious one.
7:11
Speaker 4: I think it's a very simple question of principles, should
7:14
Speaker 4: someone seriously breach.
7:15
Speaker 3: Bail or not?
7:16
Speaker 4: And so these are things I think a common sense
7:18
Speaker 4: and we'll have a genuine impact. And you just can
7:20
Speaker 4: never stop working. You can never stop working in this
7:22
Speaker 4: space or listening to people, Katie.
7:24
Speaker 1: So I guess now the big question is you know,
7:26
Speaker 1: plenty of people really felt like it was a good
7:29
Speaker 1: thing that the government made this announcement last week, but
7:31
Speaker 1: then those who felt like they were finally being heard
7:34
Speaker 1: sort of started to question towards the end of the
7:36
Speaker 1: week why it's going to take so long to really implement.
7:40
Speaker 1: I mean that legislation isn't going to be debated until May,
7:43
Speaker 1: as I understand, and won't actually pass until August. If
7:47
Speaker 1: this is such a big priority, now, why not get
7:49
Speaker 1: it moving sooner?
7:50
Speaker 4: So it'd be definitely brought into Parliament in May, and
7:53
Speaker 4: we've to make a decision or not about whether we
7:55
Speaker 4: do that on urgency, and we'll do that in consultation,
7:58
Speaker 4: so that we haven't ruled out urgency in May, and
8:00
Speaker 4: we've also.
8:01
Speaker 2: Said will that consultation be with.
8:03
Speaker 4: So it's more as you release the legislation, so press
8:07
Speaker 4: all with the caucus in the Cabinet about where we
8:08
Speaker 4: sit with that, and we will be obviously open to
8:11
Speaker 4: feedback from the different sectors Chamber of Commerce or the Narges.
8:14
Speaker 4: Is obviously very very diverous voices in this space about
8:17
Speaker 4: whether you do an urgency or not. Urgency is a serious,
8:19
Speaker 4: serious decision because sometimes people want to look at the
8:21
Speaker 4: detail for longer. But I also think obviously the quicker
8:24
Speaker 4: you act, the quicker you can make the community safe.
8:26
Speaker 4: So I'm very open to the question of urgency in May.
8:31
Speaker 4: That's full of the bulk of it. The one element
8:33
Speaker 4: that will be if instruction in August at this stay
8:35
Speaker 4: just flavored by powleer counts, will be the traffic changes.
8:38
Speaker 4: That's where we're saying, if you're a youth behind a vehicle,
8:43
Speaker 4: the police must make reasonable efforts to find a responsible
8:45
Speaker 4: adult so they can do a breath test or a
8:47
Speaker 4: drug test, and after a reasonable time has elapsed, because
8:50
Speaker 4: it is very time sensitive doing breath testing or drug testing,
8:53
Speaker 4: that they can do that test.
8:55
Speaker 2: In the meantime.
8:56
Speaker 1: So between now and May, how are police expected to
9:00
Speaker 1: manage the issues we have with repeat offenders? I mean,
9:03
Speaker 1: the Police Commissioner himself said that police analysis of youth
9:07
Speaker 1: offending in twenty twenty showed that around sixteen percent of
9:11
Speaker 1: total offenders were recidivist and responsible for about half of
9:15
Speaker 1: all youth offenses.
9:17
Speaker 2: So how are we going to manage that in the meantime?
9:19
Speaker 3: So police have got significant powers right now.
9:21
Speaker 4: This is going to strengthening what those police powers are
9:24
Speaker 4: but police do have significant capacity and we keep making
9:27
Speaker 4: sure we've got additional police. So, for example, in our springs,
9:31
Speaker 4: I think you want to get down there in a
9:32
Speaker 4: sex so we've had twelve from nixcelet to recruit squad
9:35
Speaker 4: go down. We've got twenty additional police going down. We've
9:37
Speaker 4: got very prominent police presence in our springs. So police
9:40
Speaker 4: do have genuinely significant powers right now we're obviously looking
9:43
Speaker 4: at strengthening those all.
9:45
Speaker 1: Right now, the police associations say that you need to
9:47
Speaker 1: provide a firm timeline of when you intend to roll
9:50
Speaker 1: out these proposed bail reforms, also warning that simply sending
9:53
Speaker 1: more police to our springs will negatively affect other areas.
9:57
Speaker 1: So can you tell us exactly when it is going
9:59
Speaker 1: to be implement I mean you've said that obviously May
10:02
Speaker 1: is when you're going to determine whether it needs to
10:04
Speaker 1: go through on urgency?
10:07
Speaker 2: Is that your priority?
10:08
Speaker 1: Realistically, given what we've all gone through and you know
10:11
Speaker 1: that vision that we saw on a current affair, do
10:13
Speaker 1: you reckon this does need to go through urgently and
10:16
Speaker 1: how soon?
10:16
Speaker 2: Then we'll police have that timeline.
10:18
Speaker 4: So that's about as simple as the timeline gets instruction
10:22
Speaker 4: in May, with possible agency passage in May, and or
10:27
Speaker 4: there's a day in during which is usually for estimates,
10:29
Speaker 4: which is the pass passages of the budget. It's hard
10:31
Speaker 4: the past things on that day or August. So for me,
10:34
Speaker 4: my priority, the way I lean to at the moment
10:37
Speaker 4: is around May. But i'll obviously did under revisement, please
10:40
Speaker 4: association with someone who have significant opinion about that. We
10:43
Speaker 4: obviously want to get the legislation drafted right. Let's be
10:45
Speaker 4: really clear here. If you get the drafting of legislation
10:49
Speaker 4: in this space wrong, the people who win will be
10:52
Speaker 4: the criminal.
10:53
Speaker 3: So you don't want to do that. So you've got
10:54
Speaker 3: to get the drafting right.
10:55
Speaker 1: So you've got to get it right. But your priority
10:57
Speaker 1: is that May is when this.
10:59
Speaker 2: Is going to happen.
11:00
Speaker 1: And does that mean that our police will realistically then
11:03
Speaker 1: be able to you know, to be implementing these changes
11:06
Speaker 1: straight after that legislation goes through.
11:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, the gazetled that usually pretty soon after that, so
11:12
Speaker 4: that you usually enacted very similar soon after you pass
11:14
Speaker 4: it in the main sittings.
11:15
Speaker 1: Okay, look, there's been so much that we've spoken about
11:18
Speaker 1: when it comes to crime, but I do want to
11:19
Speaker 1: get a bit of an update from you on Alice Springs.
11:21
Speaker 1: I know that there's additional police officers been sent to
11:24
Speaker 1: Alice Springs and certainly trying to get a handle on
11:27
Speaker 1: things there. From your account, have you spoken to the
11:30
Speaker 1: Police Commissioner following on from the weekend and how have
11:32
Speaker 1: things gone.
11:33
Speaker 4: I have, and the Police Minister was down there on
11:35
Speaker 4: Friday as well, So I'll be very careful how to
11:39
Speaker 4: describe Alice because it goes through peaks and troughs. But
11:44
Speaker 4: having said that, in any trough there's still a problem.
11:47
Speaker 4: So Alice Springs is an area I consider a hot area,
11:50
Speaker 4: and there's a lot of attension, and when it's down,
11:52
Speaker 4: you go make sure you do the work to keep
11:53
Speaker 4: it down.
11:53
Speaker 3: You can't take that for granted.
11:55
Speaker 4: I just want to comment you said the Police Association
11:57
Speaker 4: said that moving police resources to Alice Springs have a
12:00
Speaker 4: negative impact elsewhere. Their current ones are coming out of
12:03
Speaker 4: recruit squads and not posted elsewhere that they're graduating and
12:05
Speaker 4: going down and adding to the experienced police already in
12:07
Speaker 4: ol Spring. So I'm not sure if that comment is fair,
12:10
Speaker 4: but I'm happy to raise that with the Police Commissioner.
12:12
Speaker 4: Of the Police Association saying I respect what they say,
12:14
Speaker 4: but at the moment they're coming out of recruit squad.
12:16
Speaker 1: Well, we did send others down earlier in the year,
12:18
Speaker 1: didn't we to try and help out as well as
12:20
Speaker 1: part of that operation.
12:21
Speaker 3: So well, police do that all the time.
12:22
Speaker 4: They move people around operationally as needed, so that that's
12:25
Speaker 4: actually a constant police thing, whether it's a remote community,
12:28
Speaker 4: Allos or elsewhere, they're constantly shifting there REASU.
12:30
Speaker 1: Well, and look, I guess the other thing that we're
12:32
Speaker 1: battling with at the moment. Obviously, ALIS has got their
12:34
Speaker 1: issues up here in Darwin. There's been a lot of
12:36
Speaker 1: discussion about that public drunkenness. We shared a video on
12:40
Speaker 1: the Mixed one oh four nine facebook page on Friday.
12:43
Speaker 1: It's had about one hundred and ten thousand people view it.
12:46
Speaker 1: People fighting in the main street, somebody with a sharp
12:50
Speaker 1: edged weapon. I mean, it's disgraceful stuff. Five o'clock in
12:53
Speaker 1: the afternoon, if not earlier. It shouldn't be happening.
12:55
Speaker 4: To put my local member on to wear both hats,
12:58
Speaker 4: local Member Fanny Bay and Chief Ministates. That's probably the
13:01
Speaker 4: more the bigger issue I'm worried about. The moment of
13:03
Speaker 4: my electorate has been the alcohol fueled violence, but it
13:06
Speaker 4: has obviously been impacted in the territory as well. The
13:09
Speaker 4: Police Commission is spoken about this a number of times.
13:11
Speaker 4: We had about ten million dollars extra a week coming
13:13
Speaker 4: into the Midlan territory under the jobsker which is a
13:15
Speaker 4: lot of money and I'm not knocking the Australian government
13:18
Speaker 4: very necessary decisions in and around coronavirus, but that was
13:21
Speaker 4: a lot of money coming in and it made some
13:22
Speaker 4: of the measures we had in place and that we're
13:25
Speaker 4: working redundant essentially for a while there. That's now ending
13:28
Speaker 4: and washing out, but it made it very difficult. And
13:33
Speaker 4: domestic violence assaults, which are tragically increased, are also very
13:38
Speaker 4: time intensive for police.
13:40
Speaker 3: So it was a just an awful outcome.
13:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, have we got an issue though where we've obviously
13:45
Speaker 1: got people traveling in from community to get their hands
13:48
Speaker 1: on alcohol. It's then being misused. I mean the impact
13:51
Speaker 1: that then it's having on territories, but also on tourism.
13:55
Speaker 1: I mean the impact it has on tourism. If you've
13:57
Speaker 1: got a group of tourists that arrive in town and
13:59
Speaker 1: you've got people of fighting publicly it's really tough to
14:04
Speaker 1: deal with utterly unacceptable.
14:07
Speaker 4: We've done a lot of work obviously over decades, but
14:09
Speaker 4: most particularly our government has over the last couple of
14:11
Speaker 4: years around the unregulated drinking of alcohol, so essentially take
14:15
Speaker 4: away alcohol where there is no responsible service of alcohol
14:17
Speaker 4: of aously if you're drinking and living rough One of
14:20
Speaker 4: the things that we've been working on and are ready
14:22
Speaker 4: to go on as we get the power back, is
14:24
Speaker 4: how do you allow the responsible service and consumption of
14:27
Speaker 4: alcohol in more places in the territory. At the moment,
14:30
Speaker 4: there are a lot of drier communities where those communities
14:33
Speaker 4: and everyone in that community has been properly consulted, so
14:36
Speaker 4: you don't take it for granted. Them and children, men
14:37
Speaker 4: will get a chance to ever say and they want
14:39
Speaker 4: to have that right to have.
14:41
Speaker 3: A community club in their community. We're open to that.
14:45
Speaker 4: There has obviously been also a lot of secondary supply
14:47
Speaker 4: caught by police in recent times, so not just people
14:50
Speaker 4: coming into town to drink, there's been a lot of
14:52
Speaker 4: alcohol going out to community to drink, and again done
14:56
Speaker 4: in a way that when no responsible service of alcohol,
14:58
Speaker 4: no responsible consumption of alcohol much rather if people are
15:01
Speaker 4: going to drink and alcohol is legal in the territory.
15:03
Speaker 4: If people are going to drink, to do it in
15:04
Speaker 4: a safe space.
15:05
Speaker 1: When when's the Prime Minister coming up for a visit?
15:08
Speaker 1: Have you spoken to his office? Because it does sound
15:10
Speaker 1: as though there's a few issues here that we need
15:12
Speaker 1: some some federal input on. I mean, you and I
15:15
Speaker 1: have spoken before about the possibility of communities being able
15:17
Speaker 1: to access some smaller amounts of alcohol if it's community lead.
15:20
Speaker 1: I mean, when are we going to get serious about
15:22
Speaker 1: this discussion.
15:23
Speaker 4: I've been with the Prime Minister since speaking Womanister Wyant
15:25
Speaker 4: for example, who has a carriage administratively in this space
15:29
Speaker 4: to the Australian Government. He is supportive based around local
15:31
Speaker 4: decision making. But we're going to get that power back
15:33
Speaker 4: very very soon. I have got open invitation out to
15:36
Speaker 4: scott to visit and had a few chats about that.
15:40
Speaker 4: I'm very hopeful he will come up this year. As
15:42
Speaker 4: you can probably appreciate, it's difficult with the Prime Minister
15:44
Speaker 4: to make travel.
15:46
Speaker 3: Appointments, particularly at the moment there is a bit going on.
15:49
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Minister, when are you expecting then that we'll get
15:52
Speaker 1: that power back for us to make that decision rather
15:54
Speaker 1: than it being a federal government things.
15:55
Speaker 4: A mindstanding, it's this year and we'll be doing the
15:58
Speaker 4: working community.
16:00
Speaker 3: They have to the ones actually lodge application.
16:02
Speaker 4: That makes sense so we can clear the way, but
16:03
Speaker 4: they've still got to do the application, lodgment, the consultation
16:06
Speaker 4: and there are a number of communities who have been
16:08
Speaker 4: doing that work parallel to knowing that the power is
16:10
Speaker 4: going to be returning. So what airway Barunga, Beswick Ways,
16:13
Speaker 4: few different communities working on that.
16:15
Speaker 1: All right, Chief Finister, we are running out of time,
16:17
Speaker 1: But there's one thing that I do certainly want to
16:19
Speaker 1: ask you about. The Northern Territory Police Assistant Commissioner of Crime,
16:23
Speaker 1: Intelligence and Capability PEND a letter to the Northern Territory
16:26
Speaker 1: News in response to a number of serious sexual assaults
16:29
Speaker 1: which have occurred in recent months.
16:31
Speaker 2: In the territory.
16:32
Speaker 1: The letter reads, four recent reported matters involved real people,
16:36
Speaker 1: real victims. The details of those matters are confidential and
16:40
Speaker 1: highly sensitive and personal and could only have come to
16:43
Speaker 1: the knowledge of the media as a result of someone
16:46
Speaker 1: committing a criminal offense in the unauthorized disclosure of such information. Chief,
16:52
Speaker 1: do you think that the public have a right to
16:55
Speaker 1: know about serious sexual assaults?
16:58
Speaker 3: Community safety must come first.
17:00
Speaker 4: So I've met with the police commissioner and had a
17:02
Speaker 4: couple of conversations with him about this, and so for me,
17:04
Speaker 4: it's about community safety and it how's the best way
17:06
Speaker 4: of delivering that. Then police have to make a decision
17:08
Speaker 4: about how they deliver community safety. And the point the
17:10
Speaker 4: commissioner made, it's the reason.
17:11
Speaker 3: One.
17:12
Speaker 4: There is catching the offender so that the crime can't
17:16
Speaker 4: be committed again, and there's letting the public know what
17:18
Speaker 4: they need to know so they can make their own
17:20
Speaker 4: decisions about being safe.
17:22
Speaker 3: Now with a couple.
17:24
Speaker 4: Of incidents recently where I have thought, I think we
17:28
Speaker 4: can understand this. You want to know what's what's going on,
17:31
Speaker 4: and I genuinely, I genuinely get that. I said to
17:33
Speaker 4: the commission like, I'm a bit concerned here about what's
17:36
Speaker 4: happening and the release of the information. The point the
17:39
Speaker 4: Commissioner has made, and this is coming from his detectives
17:41
Speaker 4: working on these cases, is that some of the things
17:43
Speaker 4: that have been discussed and this is not a crack
17:45
Speaker 4: at the media because that they report, they what they learn,
17:47
Speaker 4: and I get that had the potential to compromise some
17:50
Speaker 4: of the work that they're doing and they've also had
17:52
Speaker 4: a number and this really really worries being a number
17:54
Speaker 4: of the victims in those cases reconsidering where they want
17:56
Speaker 4: to pressure charges or not. I've gone, whoall, Okay, that's
18:00
Speaker 4: that's very big as a result of the media, so people.
18:04
Speaker 4: I've had to deal with this a few times in
18:06
Speaker 4: my electorate around sexual assaults where people are really really
18:10
Speaker 4: worried about their child being identified and potentially stigmatized going
18:15
Speaker 4: later into life.
18:17
Speaker 3: That was that was a big.
18:18
Speaker 4: Thing for the commissioner to say to me, and that
18:20
Speaker 4: that that sort of stopped me in my tracks a
18:22
Speaker 4: little bit because I'm very big on the I'm very
18:23
Speaker 4: big on people knowing what they need to know to
18:25
Speaker 4: be to be safe. So for me, I have to
18:27
Speaker 4: I have to trust the police because I don't give
18:30
Speaker 4: them directions in this space. To trust the police that
18:32
Speaker 4: they are making the desciage they can about how they
18:35
Speaker 4: how they report on the crimes that they're working on.
18:40
Speaker 4: And I just said, I the comissioner saying, my absolute
18:43
Speaker 4: priority is community safety. Just as long as I know
18:46
Speaker 4: police are always working towards that outcome. But you know,
18:48
Speaker 4: I'm not going to interfendal give you a direction in
18:50
Speaker 4: this and.
18:50
Speaker 1: Look, I think that is everybody's priority, is community safety.
18:54
Speaker 1: I will say that, you know, I don't think that
18:57
Speaker 1: we need to be detailing all of the details with
19:01
Speaker 1: some of these incidents, but one in particular, and I'm
19:04
Speaker 1: not going to go into a huge amount of detail,
19:06
Speaker 1: one of those in particular happened in broad daylight in
19:08
Speaker 1: the afternoon. It was two adults, as I understand it,
19:13
Speaker 1: a woman sexually assaulted.
19:15
Speaker 2: Allegedly.
19:16
Speaker 1: We have people ringing this station telling us that they'd
19:19
Speaker 1: seen it. I mean, we're not talking about in some
19:21
Speaker 1: of these cases where people are leaking information to the media.
19:26
Speaker 1: It's things that people are seeing on the street themselves.
19:28
Speaker 3: Now.
19:29
Speaker 1: To me, I actually think that the public do have
19:31
Speaker 1: a right to know. Again, I will say, not all
19:35
Speaker 1: the details and certainly not identifying victims, but I do
19:38
Speaker 1: think we have a right to know what's going on
19:40
Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory on our streets.
19:41
Speaker 3: I think that's an extremely reasonable point, Katie.
19:44
Speaker 1: And so I mean, in your opinion, do you think
19:46
Speaker 1: that we should be alerted when there is a serious
19:49
Speaker 1: sexual assault.
19:50
Speaker 4: That's the point I've made to the police commissioner. As
19:52
Speaker 4: I think community sactingy must always come first. I understand
19:56
Speaker 4: they've got to make operational decisions from time to time
19:58
Speaker 4: about not pulling cases at risk or protecting victims. And
20:01
Speaker 4: I've said that's obviously I get that as a carve
20:02
Speaker 4: out commissioner. But the community, the communities know what they
20:08
Speaker 4: need to know to be safe. And so I've spoken
20:11
Speaker 4: the commissioner. I think he understandsatly where I'm coming from.
20:14
Speaker 4: I took what he said with great seriousness. And so
20:20
Speaker 4: for me, if you ask me for a blanket principal position,
20:22
Speaker 4: obviously in case the case we're different, the public have
20:25
Speaker 4: a right to know the things they need to know
20:26
Speaker 4: to be safe.
20:27
Speaker 1: Chief finish to Michael Gnner, we are going to have
20:29
Speaker 1: to leave it there. I've got so many messages I
20:32
Speaker 1: don't have time to read them all out, but we
20:33
Speaker 1: will get to them throughout the show. Always appreciate your time.
20:36
Speaker 3: Thank you,