Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Namatjira Bill Yan says he’s trying to help an Alice Springs health worker relocate after her son was attacked with an axe

Transcript

Member for Namatjira Bill Yan says he’s trying to help an Alice Springs health worker relocate after her son was attacked with an axe · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Obviously, we caught up with Fawn in Alice Springs a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: little bit earlier this morning, following on from that terrible
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: situation that her son was in after being assaulted allegedly
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: with an axe and then being threatened again on Friday. Now,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the Member for Namajira, Bill Yan, joins me on the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: line right now.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Bill, Good morning Katie.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: How are you going?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Not too bad?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Bill, I know that you've been trying to work with
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Fawn to really yeah, I guess to really just try
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and help her family at this point after what's been
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: an incredibly difficult situation.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, the staff that Fawn and her son have
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: been through is really horrendous, and I think anyone has
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: seen that vision is really quite harrowing when you see that,
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: you see what those kids were doing to her son,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: and of course then yeah, they've come back on Friday
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: to have another go and luckily enough the young fellow
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: see him coming and was able to get away the
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Principals office. But it's at a point now for finding
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: her family that they can't live in the town anymore.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: I don't blame her, right, it's a horrible situation. So
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: she's trying to get out of Alice now and she
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  Speaker 3: wants to get up to Darwin. I've been helping her
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  Speaker 3: because she works for the Department Help and she was
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: transferred to Darwin, and of course we don't want to
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: lose people from within Hell. So I helped her yesterday
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: sort of write a letter to Health and I've spoken
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to the Chief Ministry as well about providing some assistance
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: and maybe a compassionate transfer to kid on up to Darwin.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: But of course she's going to need a little bit
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: more help. I think it's all one thing to say, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's great to get to darn but she's gonna be
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: looking for accommodation of course, and maybe a little bit
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: of help in that move, and of course a new
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: school for a son. So yeah, that's where we need
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: our community spirit in the charity to sort of step up.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, So, Bill So has that Has the transfer
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: definitely been confirmed at this point or is it still
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: sort of Is she still going through that process.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: I think that they're just going through the process now, Katie, So,
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  Speaker 3: I said, I sent the letter through yesterday, and I said,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: I said, I sort of spoke with Natasha Fhiles on
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Friday evening I'll send her a message just about the
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: situation and give her a bit of her heads up
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  Speaker 3: and yeah, look, I really hope that help see the
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: situation that pron is in and the situation that her
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: family faces here in town and get on board. And yeah,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: she has to help for a number of years now,
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: and we want to keep it.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think they have to bill.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: Look, they're going to have to.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: It's clear that things are not okay for her and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: her family at this point in time. And I know that,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you know, I am sure that our communit everybody listening
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: this morning, if there are you know, if there is
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: anything that that family needs that you know, people are
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: going to try to help them the best that they can,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: because that's a terrible situation where they no longer feel
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: safe to live in Alice Springs as a result of
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: what's happened to her son.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I said, I said, I met with one
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  Speaker 3: yesterday and she's she's not letting her son out in public,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: she's sort of she let him go to friends place.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: She absolutely petrified it something further is going to happen
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: to the gung collar And yeah, I said that vision
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: of what actually took place last Monday. I've not seen
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: anything like that. Corrections, Katie, and I've seen some it's
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: not nice things, but that vision, Yeah, that really rocked me.
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  Speaker 3: What I've seen last week is the level of viciousness
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  Speaker 3: that took place is just it's unbelievable.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: It really is.
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  Speaker 1: And Bill, you know, I think it's sort of points
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to what everybody is really concerned with right now, not
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: only in Alice Springs. I mean, we're seeing it at
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: its worst right now in Alice Springs. But you know,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: this this concern that there are some young people in
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  Speaker 1: our community who have absolutely no regard for the law
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  Speaker 1: or for anybody else.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's the concerning thing, Katie. Look, we all
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: want to see the town come back. We all live here,
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  Speaker 3: we all love it, but we're seeing people leaving here.
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  Speaker 3: Catherine Stuffing the same thing. But this level of lawlessness
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  Speaker 3: and this disrespect for and it's everybody in the community.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter who you are, there's a disrespect for everyone. Well,
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  Speaker 3: we've got some local community leaders. We had the meeting
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  Speaker 3: the other week. Yeah, we're organized by Thompson. That was
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  Speaker 3: number one. Then excuse me, we've got some local Aboriginal
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  Speaker 3: leaders organizing a meeting with Aboriginal people here to try
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  Speaker 3: and come up with some solutions. So I think I'm
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  Speaker 3: really looking for to the outcomes of that and what
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: work they can do. Also to work with the rest
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  Speaker 3: of the community to try and address this stuff, because
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  Speaker 3: as a community, we can't continue to live the way
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: that we are otherwise it'll be nothing about community.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Left absolutely, Bill. When is that meeting of Aboriginal leaders happening?
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  Speaker 3: I think it might be this week Katie or early
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  Speaker 3: next week. Q Kenny from Titchkala has organized it and
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  Speaker 3: she's core for Aboriginal people here in the community and
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  Speaker 3: only Aboriginal people to attend. So I'm really really pleased
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  Speaker 3: to see that happening because it shows support from right
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  Speaker 3: across our community. It doesn't matter from what walk or
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: life you're from. We all want to see some changes,
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  Speaker 3: positive outcomes for the people of that community and for
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: the families and kids of the people in the town
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  Speaker 3: camps and around the communities. It's around our springs. So
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: it's a great initiative. I wish to be absolute best.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, good on them, and I hope that's you know
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  Speaker 1: that they do have some really good solutions brought forward
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  Speaker 1: as well. I think that's a really good idea that
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  Speaker 1: they are getting together as well, and you know they
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: want to see some change in this space. I think
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: that absolutely everybody does.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Bill.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I said said it's great to see
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: the community working together to affect this change because we
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: certainly needed to happen. We're also we needed the support
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: from government as always because they played they're going to
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: play a major role. We'll wait, so what comes out
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: of this report. Yeah, at the at the end of
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: this week, and we'll get what we're allowed to see
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  Speaker 3: that comes from this report. But yeah, we said we
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: need to do something to stop the things that have
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: happened to find on her some we can't continue to
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  Speaker 3: allow that to happen to other members of our community.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: That's exactly spot on, Bill.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: We are expecting obviously that that report is going to
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: be made public at some point this week. I mean,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: do you really think that we're in a situation though,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: where that Stronger Future's legislation it needs to be overturned,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: and not just for Central Australia, but.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: For right around the Northern Territory.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: As Marian Scrimjaw had suggested on the show last week.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Well, I think so, Katie. I think it was pulled
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: in haste. It was pulled without proper consideration. Drop it
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  Speaker 3: back in, make it an opt out rather than opt in,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: and start working seriously on those alcohol management plans for
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: those communities I mean out in the bush and talk
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: to different communities. Some want to stay dry, they know
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: that they don't want alcohol on the communities that some
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: communities want to go down the social club model. So
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: those communities need the time to have those discussions within
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: their communities, within their leaders, to decide what they want
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  Speaker 3: to do. It was pulled preemptory and we've seen the
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  Speaker 3: hurt and the suffering and the pain that that's caused.
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  Speaker 3: And I really support what Marian said the other week
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: that this is not race based policy. Then the governor
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: need to stop using that term. This is about protecting women,
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  Speaker 3: kids and families out in the bush, So that comes
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  Speaker 3: first and foremost over anything else. Yes, that's what we
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  Speaker 3: need to do first up is protect those people and
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  Speaker 3: then given the ability to make those good decisions based
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  Speaker 3: on good consultation within their communities as to what they
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: want to do moving forward.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Well, Bill Yan, the member FORANEMA, Jira, I really appreciate
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Please keep in contact with us,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and I know that Fonon will keep in contact with
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: us as well. But let us know how things are
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: tracking there with that transfer and if that happens, any
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: support that she does require in Darwin, and we'll make
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: sure that our listeners are made.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Aware of it.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, and look, thanks for listeners up in Darwen
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: and for supporting fon if she needs to meet up
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: to Darwin or she's coming to darn one way or another.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, I'd appreciate any support that people and Dawn
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: can give her in that move.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Bell, thanks so much for your time this morning.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: It's greatly appreciated.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: Jeez, Katie, thank you, thank you,