Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As you've heard throughout this morning, we know that unfortunately
another horrendous situation occurring on Friday night. Police are indeed
investigating the stabbing death of a man in the city.
At about twelve thirty am on Saturday, I should say
police received a report of stabbing on Kavanagh Street, Darwin City.
When they arrived, cruise located a male aged thirty six
(00:22):
who'd been stabbed in the stomach. Paramedics conveyed the victim
to Royal Dahin Hospital in a critical condition, but he
died as a result of his injuries. Now, crime scene
was declared and the area was cordoned off on Saturday.
Major crime detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding that incident
and are indeed calling for anyone with information to come forward.
(00:44):
So if you've got any further detail that you can
pass on to the Northern Territory Police. One three to one,
triple four is the number. Now, this incident, along with
many others, have left a lot of people in the
CBD really called on the Northern Territory government to take
some ergent action when it comes to crime and to
(01:05):
restore community safety. Now, joining me on the line right
now is a local business owner, the owner of Stomp Shoes,
Gella Catus.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Good morning to Gella.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Good morning Katie.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Gella.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
What is your reaction or what was your reaction to
this latest incident over the weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Well, it's a terrific really like it's one thing after
another and it just seems to be escalating, and I
think things are just getting worse and not better, and
people are like dying. It's not like doing. They are dying.
They're getting hurt, they're getting severely hurt. And it's just
gotten to a point where I don't know, something has
(01:46):
to change drastically because people are they're too scared to
walk the streets, they're scared to walk to their car.
There's too like I know where we're planning a dinner shortly,
and we're all navigating how we're all going to get,
where going to go, and where we're all going to park,
and how we're all going to walk together. We've really
had to plan and change how we do things because
(02:08):
we just don't feel there's no trust.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
And Gela, the thing is like I wish you were exaggerating.
I wish we were in a situation where it was
a bit of an exaggeration that you that your personal safety,
you know, was such an issue, But the fact is
here you yourself have had one of your staff members, Leah,
who we spoke to on it, just you know, two
weeks ago after she was assaulted in the CBD walking
(02:35):
to her car after work.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, like where I don't even I'm sorry, I'm so stuck.
I mean, the fear, the constant reminder, the people are
just I think we've just had enough. Like it's just
gotten to a point where people just do not feel safe.
(02:59):
They they've had to work out how I mean. You know,
Leah was very, very lucky a young man came along
to save her, because I don't know what would have
physically have happened. I mean, those girls were relentless, and
two days later they were spotted back down the alleyway
doing the same things, you know, So there's a problem
in itself. So there's no repercussion, there's no accountability, there's
(03:24):
no okay, who was looking for these kids eleven, thirteen,
and fifteen years old? Who's looking for these kids? They're
not one was turning up to school, had a beautiful
eighty five percent attended straight at school mix ups gets
mixed up with this thirteen year old suddenly not at school,
starts chrombing, which is a massive problem, massive problem. And
(03:46):
no one's looking for these kids to say why aren't
you at school? Why are you're at home? Who's looking
after you? And you know the girls didn't know what
they were doing. That's how, you know crazy this stuff is.
I didn't realize how toxic, but it's compared to ice,
so you know we have a problem. We had three
youths on Friday going around, one with a knife. They
(04:10):
were all under eighteen. One with the knife right now.
On Friday walked in yep, Friday afternoon, and I had
a customer run into the store saying, there's three young
boys running down the street and two adults are chasing them.
Looked like they had someone's handbag, so they were obviously
on the run. And then before I could turn around
(04:30):
and I saw security outside and I said, look, you
know there's three young youths going around. You should be vigilant.
He said, well, you know, there's been a couple of incidences.
We're onto it. Were chasing them. But then I find
out from the manager at Splash that one of them,
had a knife and walked into the store and if
it wasn't for a male customer being in there who
(04:52):
managed to shush them out and scare them off. And
they ended up I think stealing something from the front
and making a run for it. What was going to ha?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Men, my god?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Where my alarm bells are going off? Going? Okay? Lee
got attacked on her way to her car on the street.
Now if you're coming into our stores, I mean, what
panic button do I press for that? Katie?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
How do I protect myself? How do I protect my
staff and my customers?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Like?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
How do I how? How does the government explain to
my children and my husband? Oh, my mum got stabbed
at work? Like I like, we've had this young boy
working at night die. His mom is trying to wake
up people, make them realize that, you know, your kids,
go to work, feel safe, come home and be okay.
(05:39):
Not text his mom and dad to say, hey, I've
been stabbed. I'm going to die. I love you. I
what is this is wrong?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It is?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Come on, government, wake up? You know in the last
two years, I'm just gonna have a rant, Katie.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I'm sorry. So it's fine.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
In the last two years, we've had Harvest Press broken glass.
Last week itself, the owner from Delaney's came across his
window got broken into, blood everywhere. Poor Darlene at Attitude
for Men. Her whole front panel of her shop gone.
You know, the boys are good things. When they were open,
they got broken into twice and then just recently from behind. Again,
(06:19):
it's just one thing after another. I mean, yeah, we've
seen a little bit different. We don't have alcohol in
our premises and things like that, but it doesn't matter.
Now they're walking in with a knife. What do we
do now?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I mean, you know, if we'll have no amount of
de escalation training, you know, no amount of de escalation
training like the government's rolling out a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Is going to help.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
The fact is here we've got a really serious situation. Well,
that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I'm not employing people to be bodyguards. And that's the
same roup. I've had several conversations with the owners of
Morrish as well. They're hiring weight stuff. They shouldn't have
to get physical or has to you know, do that
sort of thing, because you know, I understand, like I
even listen to your show on Friday, and I listened
(07:10):
to the politicians talk and say, you know, oh, poor Leah,
you know she has to look over at shoulder now
and and does that get tucked under the carpet, because
that just get forgotten about it and the next victim
and the next victim. And then one thing that has
really come out about this whole situation is that the
general public have come in here over the last two
(07:30):
weeks and said to us straight out, oh my god,
is she okay?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Are you guys okay?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
This is horrific, This is wrong. And every single one
of those people had a story, had a story about
violent behavior, had a story about cars being broken into houses,
both bring into either them or directly affecting them. So
this is becoming like a normal conversation.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And it can't, Honestly, it can't.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Like Gella, I feel like I've been banging my head
against a wall on this top for years, to be honest.
You know when it started to decline is when I
was screaming at the then Chief Minister Michael Gunner to
listen to the community. And unfortunately, nothing's gotten better. It
feels as though and even like you've said, you know,
when you're interacting with other long term territories, they're telling you.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It's gotten worse. You can't ignore that.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
We can't ignore the fact that one of your staff's
been bashed on our way to the car.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
You can't ignore the fact that.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Somebody has been stabbed in the CBD on Saturday morning.
And that's not the first incident of such severity that
we've seen.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
It like, it has to change.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
You know. I feel like I'm really passionate. You can
hear it. I love my town. Okay, it's our town too. Okay,
it's my Darlin too. I keep saying it. This is
where you know. I left Darlin for five years and
we were at a stand still, and we decided to
come back here to raise our children because I said
to my hed the born and bred Melbourne and right,
(09:03):
if we go back to Gowen one, we'll probably never leave.
Or seventeen years later here we are still right two.
It's the perfect place to raise our girls. It's the
perfect place. It's safe, it's easy. Life is just still there.
There's no hustle and bustle. The kids are safe. Well,
I can't say that anymore. I can't say that anymore
at all. I have nervous energy when my kids went
(09:26):
to the movies on the weekend, I have nervous energy
when the kids got a casurina. I have nervous because
my kids have been assaulted at their workplaces as well.
You know, like it's relentless, and all we get is
that's sorry, I'm so sorry that happened to you. I'm
so sorry this is this, And it's like, well, that's
not going to be good enough. You know, it's not
good enough.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Well, and they need to remember there the politicians who
can make change, you know, they're the people who can
actually change the policy settings so that things can.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Get sorted out. What we're doing is not working.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Look, even on Friday, listening to the show, I heard
support for security guards. I heard support for the police.
I had support for business owners. Yes, I had support.
People came in to see me and gave me cards
to say, hey, you need ve secure, Hey you need that,
or we have viscure. We have done those things and
there are a few other things that can do. But
(10:22):
not once in your show did I hear, hey, let's
find some solution to get these kids off the street.
Why they're not at school. Why they're not at home
if they're in the foster kid system? Where are child services?
Why aren't they ringing a bell when they Okay, they've
missed two days of school, Okay, let's go find them.
I know, I get a text message from the school
(10:42):
where my kids aren't turned up to school? Ye'll just
say where are your kids? And sometimes they even get
a phone call. Where is that? Why? Two days after
I Lea got attacked, I was out doing my rubbish
and two young girls at ten past eight on a
Wednesday morning were caught chroming on down off the lane
and we shoot off ten past eight in the morning,
(11:05):
been all of fifteen years old. Like, who is looking
for these kids? These kids need help? Okay, I don't
know what their personal situation is, but no one's looking
for them. And then they get up to mischief and
then we're paying the price of that mischief. Yeah, I
don't think so. I don't see how that is logical
or fair.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Gelup, we are going to have to get ready to
wrap up.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But I do want to ask you, you know, I mean,
you've really you have outline what you want the government
to do there, but you know, look, how important is
it that they take action and they take it fast.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Well, I don't think. I mean, you're going to run
into a couple of situations. You're going to get people
fed up and take action into their own hands. And
that's not what we want, really is it, Because you know,
if someone's going to get hurt, you need action. Now.
This seft approach is not working. It hasn't worked all
this time because say that we don't have a crime problem. Man,
(12:02):
you must live in some kind of bubble because all
you have to do is go to your local super
market to realize that we do have a major problem. Okay,
denial is not going to help. I don't think it's
a matter who said she. I think both governments have
to work together to get on part together to realize,
you know this, this approach isn't working. We've got to
change our tactic and we've got to work harder and
(12:24):
stronger because people are leaving the territory. They're leaving our
awesome towns. I mean, this is a fantastic place I have.
I'm so committed here, and this is why I'm passionate,
because why should I move my business?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Why should I leave?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Why should I close that these are the things that
go through my mind. But you I think they just
I think they need a harder approach. I think they
need a firmer approach, and they need to follow through
with all this money that they're lashing out to all
these departments to say, Okay, is this working? Because I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Because if it's not to me, well that's right.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
If it's not work, if they're not KPI's being reached,
and if they're not, actually you know, if we're not
seeing some kind of positive impact, well i'd been requestioning
where money is being invested.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I just want to say I think the police and
security guards are doing awesome jobs. Yeah, they are only
doing what they can and I understand that this is
where the lawn need to change, okay, because then we
have more power so that kids don't reoffend or don't
offend because they're scared of the repercussions to the action.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Gella, I really appreciate your time this morning, and I
can hear the passion in your voice, and I can
hear it because you're a long term territory and who
wants this place to thrive and you want to be
able to raise your kids here and you want to
feel safe being able to do that.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Absolutely, thank you, thank.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
You, thank you said a good no, not at all, Gella,
don't at all. Don't apologize because, honestly, what you guys
have been through over the last couple of weeks, and
what you've seen your friend and staff member go through,
I can totally understand why you're fired up and why
you want some action.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Thank you, thank you,