Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we know that over the weekend. It looks like
it was a massive weekend. In fact, in Central Australia
they had the west Max Monster get underway. Plenty of people,
there are hundreds of people taking part in that one,
and well from the look of those results, there was
a number of there's a number of grueling trail races
obviously that make up that running festival. Bush and Alice
(00:21):
Springs local Simon Juke smashed the course in a record
for the grueling two hundred and thirty one kilometer Sonda Monster.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Can you imagine running that far? That is insane.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
But joining me on the line right now from Alice Springs,
it is actually the mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Patterson.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good morning to you.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Matt, Good morning Katie, thanks for having me mate.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Looks like it was a massive weekend in Central Australia
with the west Max Monster underway. It sounds like it
all went pretty well. It sounds like it was probably
a positive time for Alice.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, and we also had opening of a new playground here,
we had the west Max, there were some fundraisers going on,
so it was a good weekend for our springs and
the residents. It was nice to all come together for
a positive change.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
That is good to hear. How has it all been
going that?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I look, it slowed down, Katie, like that I can
say that with confidence it has slowed down. I mean
it's still in our face though, Like I'm not saying
that it's disappeared. It's still out and about. But we
always see any social behavior slow down at this time
of year because of the weather. I mean, you know
it's zero and one degrees overnight, so it does trend
(01:35):
this way over time. But it is giving the residence
a bit of relief, which is clearly a nice change.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh, absolutely and much needed.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Mate.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
We know the Chief Minister was there on the weekend
as well. Did you meet with her and are you
starting to sort of see any change in terms of
some of the different NGOs that are operating and some
of that funding flowing through.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, so we've seen some of the funding come through,
especially with the tweet. They'll be on the ground soon enough.
But look, as I've said, it's slide down hasn't disappeared.
We've seen some positives with the Monday Tuesday alcohol restrictions
as well, the domestic violence numbers have dropped. They're not
through the floor, but they've certainly dropped, So it is
it is coming along. I did meet with the Chief
(02:22):
as we opened the new park out at Kilgarriff on
the weekend.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Obviously the Chief Minision and I catch up quite often,
which is great on our behalf. We've greatly received on
our behalf. So we'll continue to work with the Northern
Tertiary Government to try to address some of the challenges
that we continue to face.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, goodness, as you've had a lot a lot of
challenges in recent months. Now you mentioned then those extra
police on the ground, when are they sort of expected
to become operational.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I think at the end of the next month, is
my understanding, Cadio. That could be wrong, but that's my understanding.
So I said, there's a big bucket of police coming
and as well, we're getting some new police officers just
from the last group that has graduated. So I think,
as I've said many times, more passive surveillance the better
(03:15):
for us. And whilst we're seeing Monday Tuesday, we're seeing
less domestic violence. We can see we're seeing a few
more proactive police patrols, and you tie that in with
Lurtep that we're doing the traditional owner patrols day and night.
It's been that has been very well received, especially in
the CBD. So things are changing for the better in
(03:37):
town at the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
How are those alcohol restrictions going? As you said there
you know Monday Tuesday, it does mean that there are
less sort of call outs for domestic violence related incidents.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
How are the restrictions going.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, we're seeing there was a suite of changes, so
it's hard to say which of the changes is the
one that's making the most effect. You'd have to speak
to industry about whether the alcohol sales are necessarily going down.
But the big change, and I've urged government on many
(04:11):
times if anything changes, don't change the one transaction per day.
So what happens is you have to scan your license,
but you can only buy go to one bottle shop
per day. And that is what I believe is having
an effect on lower secondary supply because people who sell
secondary supply, they don't go in and get twelve cartons
(04:32):
and twelve bottles of rum at a time. They're going
around to each individual takeaway outlet and buying a bottle
and a bottle and a Carton and really going under
the radar where this eliminates that. So this is the
one piece that you can make any change you want
going backwards, but do not change the one transaction per
person per day.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It makes you like, it really makes me wonder whether
it's something that needs to be implemented across the territory,
that one transaction per day.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Look, you know, as I said, we've had a suite
of changes, but you know, why do people need to
go to the bottle shop model months? You know, and
I understand that some people they might buy a bottle
of champagne and need to buy a bottle of wine
and they don't have it, so they go to another shop.
I understand that. But on face value, it's working. And
I understand that, you know, Dale and Catterin are facing
(05:20):
some changes. So you know, it would be my recommendation
to you to give it a go in the short
term to just see if it has any effect, because
things certainly couldn't have got any worse. It didn't feel
like an alice. They made that change and things are better.
So you know, I urge whoever's making the decisions, do
(05:40):
not change that one are going forward.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, it's something I reckon that's worth worth us having
a bit of a closer look at as well. Matt, Hey,
we know that last week or towards Friday, I think
it was, the Northern Territory Police said that they'd had
quite a large operation. They'd launched Operation Brentwood. They had
a three day traffic blitz and they also sort of
had a large scale drug and alcohol testing stations along
(06:03):
the Victoria Highway and Stuart Highway, and they and were
in a situation where they'd intercepted the car traveling from
South Australia to indigenous communities in Central Australia. Thirty nine
five liter casks of wine seized and destroyed. Then on
the eighteenth of May, forty five liter casks of wine.
I guess that sort of goes to show you as well,
(06:25):
doesn't it. How you know these different measures, Well, hopefully
they'll make a difference. I know in this case they'd
still had their hands on that alcohol to get out
to the communities.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
But this is sort of why some of those measures
needs to be in place.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah, and I think it's going to be a wake
up call to people who are doing secondary supply that
you know, they will be caught and I congratulate the
police on that task force. I think that it's it'll
obviously be well received and less alcohol going out to
the community is clearly better and beneficial for everyone because
the flow on effects. I mean, you know where we're
located on the map. We are a service hub at times,
(07:01):
so it takes you know, it doesn't bottleneck our health
system EI when things like that are getting restricted, So
it's well received.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Hey, Matt, Obviously there's been quite a bit of talk
and will now been quite a bit of movement by
the look of things on the situation with the footy
since we last spoke. It's looking as though the Central
Australia Football League competition is going to return to Alice
Springs following those negotiations between yourself and also the AFL
Chief Executive Gillan McLaughlin.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
What changed from the council's perspective.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So it has already changed, Katie. We've rescinded that motion
to allow the footy back. They were here yesterday, the
ten teams, so I kicked off yesterday. Look, I think
we were trying to negotiate with AFL ANDT for eighteen
months to get to this point. We went from thirteen
weeks of football and other springs down to eleven, and
(07:56):
what was agreed on was four weeks. And what that
looks like is a week in Olus a week out Bush,
So we don't have people staying around who don't have
anywhere to live. People are coming in to play their
foot in and then they're going back to community, kids
are going back to school. I think it's a positive
outcome for all parties. I think everyone wins. But I
(08:17):
think what the important part is as well is it's
really raised the concernuty I feel that we've all been
saying about is the lack of infrastructure at Bush and
so AFOOL have certainly come to the party with that
because we should be having more community football on community,
not in our springs and having this hub and spoke
model or this hybrid model I think everyone benefits out
(08:40):
of and that's what we've seen on the weekend and
we'll see next weekend as well.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So a reduction in the number of rounds And how
did it go yesterday? How did it go with people playing?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Oh look, I think that they had a pretty good brief.
I mean the piece for our springs communities. We can
ramp up resources for four weeks and that's what's so
it's four weeks intown, four weeks out Bush. You can
really ramp up for those four weeks, and that's what
stakeholders have done. Look all wait and see the flower
one out of this weekend. Yet by all reports it
(09:13):
was you know, the community were on their best behavior.
Are people coming in they come in and less straight away.
So it was something that you know, we've spent talking
about for a long time and we finally got there
after months of negotiation.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Hey, Matt, On another separate issue, there has been issues
with rocks throwing in Alice Springs. It's something that you
and I have spoken about before. Last week in Parliament,
Robin Lamley raised the fact that a mosque was being targeted.
It's now being reported that multiple agencies, including the Northern
Territory Police and Territory Families are working together to try.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And stop you throwing rocks.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, not only at Alice Springs at their only mosque,
your only mosque that is in Alice, but also across
the board. Do you have any idea exactly what measures
are going to be taken to try to stop these
rock throwing incidents that you've seen an increase in.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Now, I'm not across all of the measures, and I'm
meeting with the masiplayer this week, but the majority of
rock throwing does happen over that side of town. And
you know, it happened to a friend of mine coming
home from the football on the weekend. So things just
need to you know, it's pretty scary the rock throwing,
seeing people lose their ryan Alice springs. We're pretty lucky
(10:25):
that it hasn't been any worse than that, which I
mean is pretty severe injury. So you know, it's pretty
harhous to be throwing rocks at a moving vehicle. I
don't know who's in there. You know, lots of people
have young, young kids over that side of town. So look,
I think clearly that needs to be addressed, and it's
great to see that the Northern CHURCHIY government have responded,
(10:46):
but hopefully the response is no more rock throwing from people,
and people who are caught with the rocks they need
to face consequences. Quite frankly, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
It's pretty shocking stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
And she said, you know, we have seen someone lose
their eye over a rock throwing incident. We've spoken to
tour operators who've said that there were rocks being thrown
at tour buses. That was a little while back, but
nonetheless it's a serious concern and you just should not
have people on the street throwing rocks a moving cars.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
No, I mean, it's it's hard to sad on that
it's happening, you know, and the severity of the things
that can go wrong from the scare. It's not just
the car. If you hit the driver, what happens is
a flow on. I mean, it's just it's ridiculous. And
as I said, then if people are caught or when
they're caught, then there needs to be consequences for the
(11:38):
actions because the damage that can do to people. And
you know, I'm not worried about the vehicles. I'm worried
about people's safety here. That's the priority. Just the damager
can be done, it's carnage. So we just yeah, needs
to be addressed.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, shock and stuff. Well, Matt Patterson, it's always good
to catch up with you. We really appreciate your time
this morning, mate. No doubt we'll talk to you again
very soon.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
No worries, Katie, have a good day to you.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Too, Thanks mate,
Now we know that over the weekend. It looks like
it was a massive weekend. In fact, in Central Australia
they had the west Max Monster get underway. Plenty of people,
there are hundreds of people taking part in that one,
and well from the look of those results, there was
a number of there's a number of grueling trail races
obviously that make up that running festival. Bush and Alice
(00:21):
Springs local Simon Juke smashed the course in a record
for the grueling two hundred and thirty one kilometer Sonda Monster.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Can you imagine running that far? That is insane.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
But joining me on the line right now from Alice Springs,
it is actually the mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Patterson.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good morning to you.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Matt, Good morning Katie, thanks for having me mate.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Looks like it was a massive weekend in Central Australia
with the west Max Monster underway. It sounds like it
all went pretty well. It sounds like it was probably
a positive time for Alice.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, and we also had opening of a new playground here,
we had the west Max, there were some fundraisers going on,
so it was a good weekend for our springs and
the residents. It was nice to all come together for
a positive change.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
That is good to hear. How has it all been
going that?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I look, it slowed down, Katie, like that I can
say that with confidence it has slowed down. I mean
it's still in our face though, Like I'm not saying
that it's disappeared. It's still out and about. But we
always see any social behavior slow down at this time
of year because of the weather. I mean, you know
it's zero and one degrees overnight, so it does trend
(01:35):
this way over time. But it is giving the residence
a bit of relief, which is clearly a nice change.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh, absolutely and much needed.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Mate.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
We know the Chief Minister was there on the weekend
as well. Did you meet with her and are you
starting to sort of see any change in terms of
some of the different NGOs that are operating and some
of that funding flowing through.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, so we've seen some of the funding come through,
especially with the tweet. They'll be on the ground soon enough.
But look, as I've said, it's slide down hasn't disappeared.
We've seen some positives with the Monday Tuesday alcohol restrictions
as well, the domestic violence numbers have dropped. They're not
through the floor, but they've certainly dropped, So it is
it is coming along. I did meet with the Chief
(02:22):
as we opened the new park out at Kilgarriff on
the weekend.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Obviously the Chief Minision and I catch up quite often,
which is great on our behalf. We've greatly received on
our behalf. So we'll continue to work with the Northern
Tertiary Government to try to address some of the challenges
that we continue to face.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, goodness, as you've had a lot a lot of
challenges in recent months. Now you mentioned then those extra
police on the ground, when are they sort of expected
to become operational.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I think at the end of the next month, is
my understanding, Cadio. That could be wrong, but that's my understanding.
So I said, there's a big bucket of police coming
and as well, we're getting some new police officers just
from the last group that has graduated. So I think,
as I've said many times, more passive surveillance the better
(03:15):
for us. And whilst we're seeing Monday Tuesday, we're seeing
less domestic violence. We can see we're seeing a few
more proactive police patrols, and you tie that in with
Lurtep that we're doing the traditional owner patrols day and night.
It's been that has been very well received, especially in
the CBD. So things are changing for the better in
(03:37):
town at the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
How are those alcohol restrictions going? As you said there
you know Monday Tuesday, it does mean that there are
less sort of call outs for domestic violence related incidents.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
How are the restrictions going.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, we're seeing there was a suite of changes, so
it's hard to say which of the changes is the
one that's making the most effect. You'd have to speak
to industry about whether the alcohol sales are necessarily going down.
But the big change, and I've urged government on many
(04:11):
times if anything changes, don't change the one transaction per day.
So what happens is you have to scan your license,
but you can only buy go to one bottle shop
per day. And that is what I believe is having
an effect on lower secondary supply because people who sell
secondary supply, they don't go in and get twelve cartons
(04:32):
and twelve bottles of rum at a time. They're going
around to each individual takeaway outlet and buying a bottle
and a bottle and a Carton and really going under
the radar where this eliminates that. So this is the
one piece that you can make any change you want
going backwards, but do not change the one transaction per
person per day.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It makes you like, it really makes me wonder whether
it's something that needs to be implemented across the territory,
that one transaction per day.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Look, you know, as I said, we've had a suite
of changes, but you know, why do people need to
go to the bottle shop model months? You know, and
I understand that some people they might buy a bottle
of champagne and need to buy a bottle of wine
and they don't have it, so they go to another shop.
I understand that. But on face value, it's working. And
I understand that, you know, Dale and Catterin are facing
(05:20):
some changes. So you know, it would be my recommendation
to you to give it a go in the short
term to just see if it has any effect, because
things certainly couldn't have got any worse. It didn't feel
like an alice. They made that change and things are better.
So you know, I urge whoever's making the decisions, do
(05:40):
not change that one are going forward.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, it's something I reckon that's worth worth us having
a bit of a closer look at as well. Matt, Hey,
we know that last week or towards Friday, I think
it was, the Northern Territory Police said that they'd had
quite a large operation. They'd launched Operation Brentwood. They had
a three day traffic blitz and they also sort of
had a large scale drug and alcohol testing stations along
(06:03):
the Victoria Highway and Stuart Highway, and they and were
in a situation where they'd intercepted the car traveling from
South Australia to indigenous communities in Central Australia. Thirty nine
five liter casks of wine seized and destroyed. Then on
the eighteenth of May, forty five liter casks of wine.
I guess that sort of goes to show you as well,
(06:25):
doesn't it. How you know these different measures, Well, hopefully
they'll make a difference. I know in this case they'd
still had their hands on that alcohol to get out
to the communities.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
But this is sort of why some of those measures
needs to be in place.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah, and I think it's going to be a wake
up call to people who are doing secondary supply that
you know, they will be caught and I congratulate the
police on that task force. I think that it's it'll
obviously be well received and less alcohol going out to
the community is clearly better and beneficial for everyone because
the flow on effects. I mean, you know where we're
located on the map. We are a service hub at times,
(07:01):
so it takes you know, it doesn't bottleneck our health
system EI when things like that are getting restricted, So
it's well received.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Hey, Matt, Obviously there's been quite a bit of talk
and will now been quite a bit of movement by
the look of things on the situation with the footy
since we last spoke. It's looking as though the Central
Australia Football League competition is going to return to Alice
Springs following those negotiations between yourself and also the AFL
Chief Executive Gillan McLaughlin.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
What changed from the council's perspective.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So it has already changed, Katie. We've rescinded that motion
to allow the footy back. They were here yesterday, the
ten teams, so I kicked off yesterday. Look, I think
we were trying to negotiate with AFL ANDT for eighteen
months to get to this point. We went from thirteen
weeks of football and other springs down to eleven, and
(07:56):
what was agreed on was four weeks. And what that
looks like is a week in Olus a week out Bush,
So we don't have people staying around who don't have
anywhere to live. People are coming in to play their
foot in and then they're going back to community, kids
are going back to school. I think it's a positive
outcome for all parties. I think everyone wins. But I
(08:17):
think what the important part is as well is it's
really raised the concernuty I feel that we've all been
saying about is the lack of infrastructure at Bush and
so AFOOL have certainly come to the party with that
because we should be having more community football on community,
not in our springs and having this hub and spoke
model or this hybrid model I think everyone benefits out
(08:40):
of and that's what we've seen on the weekend and
we'll see next weekend as well.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So a reduction in the number of rounds And how
did it go yesterday? How did it go with people playing?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Oh look, I think that they had a pretty good brief.
I mean the piece for our springs communities. We can
ramp up resources for four weeks and that's what's so
it's four weeks intown, four weeks out Bush. You can
really ramp up for those four weeks, and that's what
stakeholders have done. Look all wait and see the flower
one out of this weekend. Yet by all reports it
(09:13):
was you know, the community were on their best behavior.
Are people coming in they come in and less straight away.
So it was something that you know, we've spent talking
about for a long time and we finally got there
after months of negotiation.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Hey, Matt, On another separate issue, there has been issues
with rocks throwing in Alice Springs. It's something that you
and I have spoken about before. Last week in Parliament,
Robin Lamley raised the fact that a mosque was being targeted.
It's now being reported that multiple agencies, including the Northern
Territory Police and Territory Families are working together to try.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And stop you throwing rocks.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, not only at Alice Springs at their only mosque,
your only mosque that is in Alice, but also across
the board. Do you have any idea exactly what measures
are going to be taken to try to stop these
rock throwing incidents that you've seen an increase in.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Now, I'm not across all of the measures, and I'm
meeting with the masiplayer this week, but the majority of
rock throwing does happen over that side of town. And
you know, it happened to a friend of mine coming
home from the football on the weekend. So things just
need to you know, it's pretty scary the rock throwing,
seeing people lose their ryan Alice springs. We're pretty lucky
(10:25):
that it hasn't been any worse than that, which I
mean is pretty severe injury. So you know, it's pretty
harhous to be throwing rocks at a moving vehicle. I
don't know who's in there. You know, lots of people
have young, young kids over that side of town. So look,
I think clearly that needs to be addressed, and it's
great to see that the Northern CHURCHIY government have responded,
(10:46):
but hopefully the response is no more rock throwing from people,
and people who are caught with the rocks they need
to face consequences. Quite frankly, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
It's pretty shocking stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
And she said, you know, we have seen someone lose
their eye over a rock throwing incident. We've spoken to
tour operators who've said that there were rocks being thrown
at tour buses. That was a little while back, but
nonetheless it's a serious concern and you just should not
have people on the street throwing rocks a moving cars.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
No, I mean, it's it's hard to sad on that
it's happening, you know, and the severity of the things
that can go wrong from the scare. It's not just
the car. If you hit the driver, what happens is
a flow on. I mean, it's just it's ridiculous. And
as I said, then if people are caught or when
they're caught, then there needs to be consequences for the
(11:38):
actions because the damage that can do to people. And
you know, I'm not worried about the vehicles. I'm worried
about people's safety here. That's the priority. Just the damager
can be done, it's carnage. So we just yeah, needs
to be addressed.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, shock and stuff. Well, Matt Patterson, it's always good
to catch up with you. We really appreciate your time
this morning, mate. No doubt we'll talk to you again
very soon.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
No worries, Katie, have a good day to you.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Too, Thanks mate,
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