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Katie Woolf spoke with Member for Braitling Joshua Burgoyne on the Chief Ministers visit to Alice Springs · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right now we're going to head on down to Alice
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Springs and joining us on the line is the Member
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: for Braitling, Joshua Burgoing.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Josh.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. I
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  Speaker 1: know it's been a busy one for you yourself and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: well the other COLP member and also the member Wealthy
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  Speaker 1: Independent Member Robin Lamley are joining forces this morning and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: it is you guys calling on Michael Gunner to sit
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  Speaker 1: down with Alice Springs victims of crime.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, certainly, Katie, look the three representatives. Like a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people, yesterday we started hearing that Michael Gunner was
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  Speaker 3: coming down to Alice Springs and unfortunately this is a
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  Speaker 3: far too common occurrence when basically we hear this through
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  Speaker 3: the media or by someone we know that the Chief
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  Speaker 3: Minister might be coming down. No one knows who is
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  Speaker 3: meeting with, we have no idea why he's in town,
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  Speaker 3: and basically everyone just feels like, obviously the issue of
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: crime is absolutely huge. You think that you would at
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: least drop in on the local representatives who are duly
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  Speaker 3: elected to ask him how things are going. I've certainly
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  Speaker 3: had that courtesy offered to me by Minister Kate Wooden
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  Speaker 3: when she's come down to other Springs, but from the
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  Speaker 3: Chief Minister, the Chief Minister of DWN and apparently not
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  Speaker 3: Ala Springs. Yeah, he feels the need just to come
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  Speaker 3: and go in the same day and not really take
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  Speaker 3: any time to talk to anyone about the real issues
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  Speaker 3: that we face down here. So it's very disappointing and
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  Speaker 3: shows a lack of leadership on his behalf.
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  Speaker 2: So Josh, have you had any insight into who he
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  Speaker 2: is going to be meeting with?
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  Speaker 3: No idea, Katie, Absolutely, no idea. And I think this
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  Speaker 3: really just goes to the cause of the thing. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: people in Alice Springs are really concerned about what's currently
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  Speaker 3: happening here. And to listen to the Chief Minister the
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  Speaker 3: other day on your program and I had to do
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  Speaker 3: a post about I couldn't believe that he said, we
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  Speaker 3: have extremely strong bail laws down here at Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you talk to the police. If a young
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  Speaker 3: offender smashes the window every neither week, that young offender,
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  Speaker 3: if he does not opt to do diversion or something else,
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  Speaker 3: that young offender could possibly end up being bailed every
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  Speaker 3: single time they are offending, and that is happening in
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  Speaker 3: other Springs. Young people are offending over and over again
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  Speaker 3: and they're getting bailed. And it's not about locking up kids, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: It's about ensuring the programs are there so these young
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  Speaker 3: people can be properly rehabilitated, because that's what we want
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  Speaker 3: to the community. We want to see more people, you know,
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  Speaker 3: coming to the community and actually being a part of it.
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  Speaker 3: But unfortunately what's happening is business owners are just being
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  Speaker 3: absolutely smashed at the moment. And it's really hard when
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  Speaker 3: you do go and speak to those business owners to
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  Speaker 3: see the fear in their eyes and how upset they are.
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  Speaker 3: And a lot of them are unfortunately contemplating leaving other Springs.
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  Speaker 3: And I don't want that to happen.
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  Speaker 2: No, I agree with you, Josh, I know that.
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  Speaker 1: I'm fairly sure it's a resident of Alice Springs who's
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  Speaker 1: actually started a petition to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.
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  Speaker 1: It's a class action against an than Territory government for
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  Speaker 1: lack of action and results in addressing youth crime. It's
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  Speaker 1: been created by Ben Kitson. I believe he's Allie Springs resident.
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  Speaker 2: Have I got that wrong?
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  Speaker 1: Look?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I certainly saw the change dot org petition come
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  Speaker 3: up yesterday. Yeah, last night I was amazed. I sort
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  Speaker 3: of just sat there for five minutes last night. I
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  Speaker 3: was watching the TV and you could see the numbers
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  Speaker 3: certainly piling in. And are you currently aware of what
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  Speaker 3: that petition is up to?
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  Speaker 1: It's currently sitting at four thousand, five hundred and ninety
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  Speaker 1: one signatures. I know that in the past sometimes the
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  Speaker 1: government's sort of been critical of some of these types
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  Speaker 1: of petitions and said that there's people signing from, you know,
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  Speaker 1: from interstate or overseas. But if you go on there
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  Speaker 1: are a lot of the names on there actually look
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  Speaker 1: like long term territorians.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think irrespective of exactly the numbers and who
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  Speaker 3: has signed up, it just goes to show you the
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  Speaker 3: frustration that people have in the community. They feel like
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  Speaker 3: nothing's being done, and then when the Chief Minister does
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  Speaker 3: come down to our springs, it feels like it's a
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  Speaker 3: tick and flick exercise where he's not actually taking the
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  Speaker 3: time to stop in to meet with everyone. It's just
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  Speaker 3: really frustrating because we are generally genuinely trying to get results.
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  Speaker 3: That's why the three MLAs, myself, Bill Yarn and Robin
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  Speaker 3: Lambley have come together. We've just said, look, we know
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  Speaker 3: I've had disagreements in the past, but hopefully, maybe, just maybe,
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  Speaker 3: if we send a letter to the Chief Minister invited
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  Speaker 3: and meet with all three of us. We don't expect
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  Speaker 3: him that to go to all three of our officers.
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  Speaker 3: We'll go to one place. Let's just all meet up.
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  Speaker 3: We thought we might be able to just get him
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  Speaker 3: for five minutes and explain to him the severity of
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  Speaker 3: the issues that we're dealing with down here. We haven't
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  Speaker 3: heard back. I understand the letter only went three yesterday afternoon,
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  Speaker 3: but you would have thought, I mean, singers have no
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  Speaker 3: idea who he's actually is meeting with. I mean, who
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  Speaker 3: knows what his schedule looks like.
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  Speaker 1: Josh, are you just playing politics here? Some people listening
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  Speaker 1: might be wondering that.
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  Speaker 3: Playing politics? I think when you have look at the
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  Speaker 3: fact that literally, on a daily basis, Katie, I'm getting
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  Speaker 3: people call into my office ring me up. They are
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  Speaker 3: really worried about what's happening. Now. Everyone in Alice Springs
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  Speaker 3: feels like the Chief Minister just isn't listening. I mean
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  Speaker 3: he literally doesn't have a member of Parliament who was
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  Speaker 3: actually represented down here in Central Australia, the Minister for
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  Speaker 3: Central Australia, the Member for Quadja Chanzy Paid. I mean
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  Speaker 3: he's just been gone. I mean you have a look
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  Speaker 3: through his Facebook, Cecee, whether he's actually admitting to the
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  Speaker 3: issues that we face down here in regards to crime.
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  Speaker 3: I put something up the other day, Katie, and it
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  Speaker 3: really just goes to show you this isn't just about politics.
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  Speaker 3: In October last year, Alice Springs, a population of twenty
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  Speaker 3: six thousand, had more break ins total property offenses than Darwin,
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  Speaker 3: a community of eighty six thousand people. Now, surely that
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  Speaker 3: just goes to show you how bad things have got
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  Speaker 3: down here. Twenty six thousand people. We've got more total
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  Speaker 3: property offenses occurring in Alice Springs in October of last
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  Speaker 3: year than Darwin, a place that has three times the
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  Speaker 3: amount of people. Now that just isn't that is unsustainable.
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  Speaker 3: People are dealing with that on a daily basis. So yeah, okay,
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  Speaker 3: people might say playing politics, Well, you know, police statistics
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  Speaker 3: don't lie, and there's a lot of people that are
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  Speaker 3: just sick and tired of even ringing up and reporting
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  Speaker 3: a lot of this and if those people are listening, please,
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  Speaker 3: if you are affected by crime, ring up, because it's
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  Speaker 3: so important that we actually get a real picture of
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  Speaker 3: what's happening down here.
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  Speaker 2: I feel for you guys, I really do.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's something that we've all been talking about
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  Speaker 1: for such a long time. And I said this earlier
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  Speaker 1: on the week that was I think we all just
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  Speaker 1: need to sort of, you know, to.
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  Speaker 2: Have a look at doing things slightly different.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the government's got to kind of take a
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  Speaker 1: step to the side for a second and instead of
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  Speaker 1: you know, not liking the message that they're getting or
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  Speaker 1: the messenger, they have to kind of listen a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more deeply to what Territorians are saying to them
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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Katie, and I mean to their credit. Last year
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  Speaker 3: in Parliament we spoke very continually about the need for
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  Speaker 3: a twenty four to seven youth pub. Now we got
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  Speaker 3: a twenty four to seven youth pub. Unfortunately it was
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  Speaker 3: right in the center of town and that has brought
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  Speaker 3: its own issues. So you know, the people that work
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  Speaker 3: in that twenty four to seven youth pub and I
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  Speaker 3: actually went down there and spent a couple of hours
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  Speaker 3: late one night, saw young kids as young as a
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  Speaker 3: coming and going from that center. The people that are
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  Speaker 3: working there are doing really good work. Perhaps we could
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  Speaker 3: just get the mechanisms, you know, a little bit better. Obviously,
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  Speaker 3: there was no consultation with anyone from town when that
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  Speaker 3: went in. To my knowledge, the people in the street
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  Speaker 3: weren't consulted. We certainly weren't consulted as local representatives. If
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  Speaker 3: you had something like that in a community center, in
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  Speaker 3: a town camp where I spoke to a lot of
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  Speaker 3: the young kids that were using the center, a lot
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  Speaker 3: of them are coming from town camps. If you had
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  Speaker 3: these centers there, then it would give them somewhere to
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  Speaker 3: be at night. You'd had the support of services from
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  Speaker 3: territory families wrapping around them. I think that there's some
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  Speaker 3: good things happening. We're just not quite getting it right
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  Speaker 3: at the moment. So let's listen to people of Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 3: We're not all you know, we're not asking for anything ridiculous.
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  Speaker 3: We just want to be heard. If the government's willing
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  Speaker 3: to sit down and speak with us, or hey, we'd
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  Speaker 3: be happy to chat.
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  Speaker 1: Josh Burgoyne, I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Do let us know how you go and let us know.
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  Speaker 1: If you have any luck being able to catch up
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  Speaker 1: with the Chief Minister.
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  Speaker 3: I certainly won't hold my breath, Katie, but thank you
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  Speaker 3: very much for the opportunity to come on your show today.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks mate, we'll talk to you again very soon. That
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  Speaker 1: is the Member for Brakling there, Joshua Burgoyne