Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us from Alice Springs this morning is the opposition
leader Leah Finocchiarro.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning to you, Leah.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Good morning Katie, and you're wonderful listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Now, Leah, first up, we've now learned the thirteen year
old who allegedly jumped the fence at a Lachland Catholic
college and assaulted innocent youth has been charged with aggravated assault,
trespass and serious breach of bail. Leah, it's pretty concerning
to hear this person's being charged with the serious breach
of bail. I mean, this is exactly what people are
(00:30):
concerned about, that people on bail are continuing to offend.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
It's a really good example of a broken system under
a government that refuses to admit they got it wrong
when they watered down the laws and took away powers
from police. And as we can see now, people's lives
are literally being impacted by this. We've got young people
being allegedly assaulted at school, schools having to go into lockdown,
(00:59):
totally unexcpt tipple and a government still pretending like crime
and the territory is that on some sort of equal
footing to the rest of this country, which is absolutely
categorically is not.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, look, I'm I had been told by parents at
the school that their understanding was that the young person
who jumped the fence had an ankle monitoring bracelet on.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I had hoped that I was wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I had hoped that I had heard it, you know, secondhand,
and that it wasn't correct. But then to hear that
this person's been charged with a serious breach of bail,
I think people are just feeling a bit broken about
this whole situation.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
People are broken, they're losing hope, they're demoralized. I mean,
the good question to ask, Katie is was this person
bailed despite the fact that it was a serious breach
of bail? And that will probably indicated even more serious
problem we had the system. But you know, Katie, eight
hundred and sixty eight territorians left the territory last quarter
(01:58):
to move into state, and so crime is having a
serious issue. It's something people are talking about and changing
their life around. It's something they're moving out of the
territory because of It's totally unacceptable, and yet it is fixable.
I mean, there are immediate things we could do tomorrow
to address law and order. While we take care and
(02:20):
make sure that we're turning people's lives around and addressing
those root causes well of crime. But Labour just doesn't
want to do anything.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And look, you and I've spoken about some of what
could be done really rather quickly. I do want to
get to one of those things in a moment. Before
we do, though, I want to talk about this footage
that was on Sky News yesterday. They're reporting that community
leaders are demanding urgent action after a sixteen year old
girl was stripped and bashed by a group of youths
(02:47):
on the street in Alice Springs. So Sky New has
obtained this footage of the incident, which occurred on Saturday morning,
March sixteenth. Police said there had been a brawl involving
up to fifty people along Gregory and Hartley. It's in
Alice Springs, CBD. Officers said the sixteen year old victim
was not involved in the initial brawl before she was
attacked by up to ten other girls. The video shows
(03:09):
the girls kicking the victim while she's on the ground,
stomping on her and trying to strip her naked. The
yippering Your School principal Gavin Morris said the footage has
the well, it's the worst that he's seen in twenty
five years working as an educator. Lea, have you seen
that footage and what was your reaction?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I have seen the footage, Katie, and it's absolutely hideous.
It's heart renting, and it makes you reflect on what
is going on in the Northern Territory where young people
think that that behavior is okay. It is an absolute
disgrace that that is happening on our streets. That young
girl there for the whole world to see. It's just disgraceful.
(03:54):
It is absolutely at breaking point here in Alice Springs
and unfortunately the people living here, those types of public
brawls and disgraceful incidents are happening every single day, sometimes
multiple times a day, and people here just feel completely
abandoned and forgotten. And as I said before, there are
immediate actions we can take to make our community safe.
(04:16):
We must be making sure that kids are getting to school,
that there's an audit into all funding going into service
delivery across the territory so that we can hold people
accountable for spending that taxpayer dollar dollar delivering services and
making sure the money is going where it needs.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
To go over lia is an order. I mean, is
an audit going to go far enough? Or does there
need to be a royal commission into the funding going
into these services in Central Australia.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I think royal commissions are just too expensive and take
too long, Whereas an audit can be done really quickly.
It can be done at a territory level and we
can get to the bottom of it pretty fast, but
there needs to be much doing around How.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Who would conduct that audit?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, there's a number of professionals around the country who
could do that audit Katie for example, retired auditor generals
or other people from finance backgrounds. There are people around
who can do this work. I've got no doubt in
my mind about that. But when Labor just handing out
money without any KPIs or expectations on program delivery, what
(05:26):
you have is a situation where things aren't working, there's
a lack of accountability, and there's not endless money. We
need to make sure the money we have is being
spent in the areas that will make the most impact.
And we know under Labor they're not delivering tougher laws,
they're not delivering boot camps, they're not delivering outcomes that
are making people's lives better and so what we're seeing
(05:47):
is a failure right across the system, from when a
young person is first born and requires better support and
support to their family right through to when they're offended
sod LEA.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
What do you think that an order would deliver? Or
why do you think that an audit into all of
these services in Central Australia is required right now? Because
some people listening might be thinking, come on, we know
what needs to be done, just get on with doing
it and what it's going to take forever. But there
is a lot of money flowing into a centralist flowing
(06:19):
into Central Australia that's meant to be delivering these services.
I mean, what do you think an order is going
to achieve?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, it's hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more, Katie.
Honestly it is hundreds of millions of dollars. So I
hear what your listeners are saying, and they're right, let's
just get on with it and we can, but we
also need to be doing the audit. So what the
audit would do is look at duplication of services, So
which agencies and NGOs are meant to be providing drug
(06:47):
and alcohol services. For example, it might be family supports,
that might be interventions for young people. It might be
assessing health and well being, you know, assessment around you know,
whether or not a child needs greater support in the classroom,
NDAs you name it. So there's a range of service
(07:08):
providers out there right from people who are you know,
running bus services and in the list is extensive, and
so who's doing those services? What outcomes are supposed to
happen as a result of those services? Could those services
be strengthened?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Isitor?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Is there a successful service that has a lack of
funding and it can't go far enough, whereas other services
aren't getting the results that they perhaps anticipated. And this
is not about pointing the finger at the NJY sector
to say you're not doing good enough, but it's about
creating accountability and spending our money and focusing our resources
in delivering our comes, not just running program I mean, Leah, are.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
The NGOs doing good enough in Central Australia right now?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Well, I think that we've heard from Matt Patterson, the mayor,
We've heard from Gavin you know there we you certainly
I mean Steve Edgington, Josh Bergoyn and Bill Yen wrote
to the Prime Minister about this issue. I think it
was January last year, Katie, and they still haven't got
a reply to their letter. So it's a significant issue
that needs a light shone on it and we need
(08:13):
to be working together. There needs to be a clear
strategy for everyone and we all need to be pulling
in the same direction. And of course part of that
for the CLP is around having a very clear direction
that we must be addressing the demand for alcohol through
compulsory alcohol treatment.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
All right, we have spoken at lengths over the last
week or so about the new South Wales premiere introducing
these boast and post change legislation. Now the Deputy Chief
Minister on the week that was made it sound as
though there is something or it is something that the
government's considering. But the Chief Minister yesterday is said on
the show that they're going to look at this as
part of the review which is being undertaken, which will
(08:52):
not be complete until year's end.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Do you think that that's fast enough.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Nothing that labor are doing on or an order or
our economy is fast enough, Katie, and the Deputy Chief
Minister at Chancey Paig will say and do anything to
try and trick Territorians into voting for labor.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So will you introduce I mean, if you are elected
in August, will you introduce changes around boasting and posting
that could see people get up to two years longer
in prison if they share their crimes online.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, that is exactly right. So we've already drafted legislation
that creates a new offensive ram raid and an offense
of if you're posting on your crime on social media.
And what that does is it means if you're stealing
a vehicle, for example, and you post that crime on
social media, that's an aggravating an offense and that takes
(09:42):
the penalty then up to a maximum of twelve years.
So it's a significant piece of work.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Would the minimum be though, Like, what would the minimum be?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Because we hear that a lot at the moment, you know,
the maximum even the government saying all right, the maximum
penalty for assaulting a police officer is X, Y and Z.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But then you go, well, hang on, what's the minut.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah? So the minimum for stealing a vehicle, I don't
have it in front of me Katie, but I don't
know that there is a minimum mandatory sentence for that.
But what we're doing is making the posting on social
media and aggravating offense. So it's similar to New South Wales.
These isn't two you know, you get two years jail
if you do it. It's an option, a sentencing option
(10:23):
for the court. But what we want to do is
then the strongest possible message that these types of crimes are.
We're going to give the courts the opportunity of the
police number one, the opportunity to charge for those new
types of offenses that we're seeing, and then the courts
options to sentencing. And that's what we need. We need
a law, legal framework that has rigor, that allows the
(10:45):
authorities to deliver the consequences that our community expects.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
All right, Lea, are a few things to get through
very quickly. I know we're both pressed for time. Last week,
Steve Edgington, the Member for Barclay, resigned as the Shadow
Minister for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, he said he took
the decision because he did not want to distract from
the devastatingly high rates of domestic and family and sexual
(11:10):
violence in the Northern.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Territory, Lea.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Did Steve actually say he wanted to resign all together?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
So, you know, Steve took the time to think about
what he would do going forward, and ultimately he came
to me and resigned from the Domestic, Family and Sexual
Violence portfolio, which of course I accepted. That afternoon, I
went straight back down into Parliament and made the changes
so that Joe Hersey is now our shadow Minister, so
(11:38):
that there's a seamless transition there for of course the
sector and stakeholders to have that important point of contact.
And domestic violence is a serious issue across the territory. Steve,
nor I nor our team want any distraction from that.
We've got domestic violence figures, assaults up eighty three percent
(11:58):
across the territory. Labor came to power, so this is
a serious issue that we can't afford to have.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Did he say though, that he wanted to resign all together.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Ultimately Steve resigned from the domestic violence portfolio and I
accepted that.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So he didn't say that he was happy to resign
all together from the role.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Well, I think there were a number of discussions that day.
Steve obviously spent time thinking about what he thought the
best course of action was. But what was brought to
me was him resigning from the DV portfolio. I accepted
that and moved very quickly to put Joe Hursey into
that role.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Where were you aware of the extent of the offending
by his electorate officer?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
No, so I wasn't aware of any offending. But you know,
the action's been taken to stand down the person involved.
There's now an investigation on foot and that will have
to see its cause.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I mean, do you think that it was appropriate that
he was employed in the first place.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Well, I think Steve has been really clear about his
reasons for employing that staff member, and clearly now there's
going to be a look back to see what information
was disclosed and whether or not that was indeed accurate.
But I think what's most important is that Steve has
recognized that him remaining in that role could be a
(13:19):
distraction from an issue he is deeply passionate about. I mean,
this is I.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Guess I'll put it to you this way. Would you like,
would you employ somebody with that history?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Look, Steve's made it really clear that had he have
known everything that's been alleged, he would not have employed
that person. But there's an investigation now, Katie, that's got
to take its course and the person has been stood
down pending the outcome.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
LEA a quick one from one of our listeners. Therees
has emailed through and said, good morning, Katie. Can you
please ask the opposition leader what she plans to do
if elected about the crime in the Northern Territory. Now,
I know you've gone through some of this before, so
we might keep it brief, but it it does seem
at the moment you know that a lot of people
(14:04):
are thinking to themselves, Okay, I don't know exactly what's
going to go on at the election come August, but
I want to know how the CLP is going to
deal with the very serious issue that we are seeing
when it comes to crime.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah, great question, and we would deal with it immediately,
so that first sittings of Parliament we will walk into
the Parliament with a raft of law changes that are
going to give police greater powers to deal with public
drinking problem, drunks and youth offenders. We're also going to
make sure that the revolving door of bail is dealt
with with law changes that see all serious violent vendors
(14:40):
start with a position of no bail. We've got new
ram raid legislation and the posting and boasting legislation all
ready to go, and so there is a range of
measures we can take immediate action on. We can also
then make sure our police are well supported with what
they need to do their job seriously, fast tracked recruitment
(15:00):
for our police, and also then work on that long
term reform that we need, which our focus is a
CLP is on getting kids to school. And I've got
the data here. I'm sitting in Alice Springs right now
and the attendance rate for kids in Central Australian region
is sixty five percent. It's just not good enough. We
can't have kids with strong futures. If these are the
(15:22):
numbers we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
What about what about the Northern Territory government right now
with their review into youth justice, It's not going to
be complete until the.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
End of the year.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
If elected, is the CLP actually going to, you know,
to accept the recommendations of that review.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I've got no confidence in anything Labor does on this issue.
I believe this is a political tactic, a trick to
say to people that we're doing something when really they're not.
We don't need a review into youth justice. And actually, Katie,
it's Labor and Eva Lawler and her government who actually
did a secret youth bail review last year and have
never released it to the public. How did I that
(16:03):
certainly will not be well. We talked about it last
year and Kate Warden came out and said it would
be made public and then she said it was cabinet
and confidence. But Labor currently have a review, a secret
review into youth bail, and we believe the reason they
haven't released it is because it proposes even weaker laws,
which is something the CLP is not interested in whatsoever.
(16:27):
We believe in making our community say first and foremost
and backing our police, and we will throw everything we
have at that, Katie, because community safety has got to
be number one.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Well, Leah Finocchiaro, we are going to have to leave
it there. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much
for joining us from Alice this morning.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Thank you, take care everyone.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Thank you
Joining us from Alice Springs this morning is the opposition
leader Leah Finocchiarro.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning to you, Leah.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Good morning Katie, and you're wonderful listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Now, Leah, first up, we've now learned the thirteen year
old who allegedly jumped the fence at a Lachland Catholic
college and assaulted innocent youth has been charged with aggravated assault,
trespass and serious breach of bail. Leah, it's pretty concerning
to hear this person's being charged with the serious breach
of bail. I mean, this is exactly what people are
(00:30):
concerned about, that people on bail are continuing to offend.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
It's a really good example of a broken system under
a government that refuses to admit they got it wrong
when they watered down the laws and took away powers
from police. And as we can see now, people's lives
are literally being impacted by this. We've got young people
being allegedly assaulted at school, schools having to go into lockdown,
(00:59):
totally unexcpt tipple and a government still pretending like crime
and the territory is that on some sort of equal
footing to the rest of this country, which is absolutely
categorically is not.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, look, I'm I had been told by parents at
the school that their understanding was that the young person
who jumped the fence had an ankle monitoring bracelet on.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I had hoped that I was wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I had hoped that I had heard it, you know, secondhand,
and that it wasn't correct. But then to hear that
this person's been charged with a serious breach of bail,
I think people are just feeling a bit broken about
this whole situation.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
People are broken, they're losing hope, they're demoralized. I mean,
the good question to ask, Katie is was this person
bailed despite the fact that it was a serious breach
of bail? And that will probably indicated even more serious
problem we had the system. But you know, Katie, eight
hundred and sixty eight territorians left the territory last quarter
(01:58):
to move into state, and so crime is having a
serious issue. It's something people are talking about and changing
their life around. It's something they're moving out of the
territory because of It's totally unacceptable, and yet it is fixable.
I mean, there are immediate things we could do tomorrow
to address law and order. While we take care and
(02:20):
make sure that we're turning people's lives around and addressing
those root causes well of crime. But Labour just doesn't
want to do anything.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And look, you and I've spoken about some of what
could be done really rather quickly. I do want to
get to one of those things in a moment. Before
we do, though, I want to talk about this footage
that was on Sky News yesterday. They're reporting that community
leaders are demanding urgent action after a sixteen year old
girl was stripped and bashed by a group of youths
(02:47):
on the street in Alice Springs. So Sky New has
obtained this footage of the incident, which occurred on Saturday morning,
March sixteenth. Police said there had been a brawl involving
up to fifty people along Gregory and Hartley. It's in
Alice Springs, CBD. Officers said the sixteen year old victim
was not involved in the initial brawl before she was
attacked by up to ten other girls. The video shows
(03:09):
the girls kicking the victim while she's on the ground,
stomping on her and trying to strip her naked. The
yippering Your School principal Gavin Morris said the footage has
the well, it's the worst that he's seen in twenty
five years working as an educator. Lea, have you seen
that footage and what was your reaction?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I have seen the footage, Katie, and it's absolutely hideous.
It's heart renting, and it makes you reflect on what
is going on in the Northern Territory where young people
think that that behavior is okay. It is an absolute
disgrace that that is happening on our streets. That young
girl there for the whole world to see. It's just disgraceful.
(03:54):
It is absolutely at breaking point here in Alice Springs
and unfortunately the people living here, those types of public
brawls and disgraceful incidents are happening every single day, sometimes
multiple times a day, and people here just feel completely
abandoned and forgotten. And as I said before, there are
immediate actions we can take to make our community safe.
(04:16):
We must be making sure that kids are getting to school,
that there's an audit into all funding going into service
delivery across the territory so that we can hold people
accountable for spending that taxpayer dollar dollar delivering services and
making sure the money is going where it needs.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
To go over lia is an order. I mean, is
an audit going to go far enough? Or does there
need to be a royal commission into the funding going
into these services in Central Australia.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I think royal commissions are just too expensive and take
too long, Whereas an audit can be done really quickly.
It can be done at a territory level and we
can get to the bottom of it pretty fast, but
there needs to be much doing around How.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Who would conduct that audit?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, there's a number of professionals around the country who
could do that audit Katie for example, retired auditor generals
or other people from finance backgrounds. There are people around
who can do this work. I've got no doubt in
my mind about that. But when Labor just handing out
money without any KPIs or expectations on program delivery, what
(05:26):
you have is a situation where things aren't working, there's
a lack of accountability, and there's not endless money. We
need to make sure the money we have is being
spent in the areas that will make the most impact.
And we know under Labor they're not delivering tougher laws,
they're not delivering boot camps, they're not delivering outcomes that
are making people's lives better and so what we're seeing
(05:47):
is a failure right across the system, from when a
young person is first born and requires better support and
support to their family right through to when they're offended
sod LEA.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
What do you think that an order would deliver? Or
why do you think that an audit into all of
these services in Central Australia is required right now? Because
some people listening might be thinking, come on, we know
what needs to be done, just get on with doing
it and what it's going to take forever. But there
is a lot of money flowing into a centralist flowing
(06:19):
into Central Australia that's meant to be delivering these services.
I mean, what do you think an order is going
to achieve?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, it's hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more, Katie.
Honestly it is hundreds of millions of dollars. So I
hear what your listeners are saying, and they're right, let's
just get on with it and we can, but we
also need to be doing the audit. So what the
audit would do is look at duplication of services, So
which agencies and NGOs are meant to be providing drug
(06:47):
and alcohol services. For example, it might be family supports,
that might be interventions for young people. It might be
assessing health and well being, you know, assessment around you know,
whether or not a child needs greater support in the classroom,
NDAs you name it. So there's a range of service
(07:08):
providers out there right from people who are you know,
running bus services and in the list is extensive, and
so who's doing those services? What outcomes are supposed to
happen as a result of those services? Could those services
be strengthened?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Isitor?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Is there a successful service that has a lack of
funding and it can't go far enough, whereas other services
aren't getting the results that they perhaps anticipated. And this
is not about pointing the finger at the NJY sector
to say you're not doing good enough, but it's about
creating accountability and spending our money and focusing our resources
in delivering our comes, not just running program I mean, Leah, are.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
The NGOs doing good enough in Central Australia right now?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Well, I think that we've heard from Matt Patterson, the mayor,
We've heard from Gavin you know there we you certainly
I mean Steve Edgington, Josh Bergoyn and Bill Yen wrote
to the Prime Minister about this issue. I think it
was January last year, Katie, and they still haven't got
a reply to their letter. So it's a significant issue
that needs a light shone on it and we need
(08:13):
to be working together. There needs to be a clear
strategy for everyone and we all need to be pulling
in the same direction. And of course part of that
for the CLP is around having a very clear direction
that we must be addressing the demand for alcohol through
compulsory alcohol treatment.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
All right, we have spoken at lengths over the last
week or so about the new South Wales premiere introducing
these boast and post change legislation. Now the Deputy Chief
Minister on the week that was made it sound as
though there is something or it is something that the
government's considering. But the Chief Minister yesterday is said on
the show that they're going to look at this as
part of the review which is being undertaken, which will
(08:52):
not be complete until year's end.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Do you think that that's fast enough.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Nothing that labor are doing on or an order or
our economy is fast enough, Katie, and the Deputy Chief
Minister at Chancey Paig will say and do anything to
try and trick Territorians into voting for labor.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So will you introduce I mean, if you are elected
in August, will you introduce changes around boasting and posting
that could see people get up to two years longer
in prison if they share their crimes online.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, that is exactly right. So we've already drafted legislation
that creates a new offensive ram raid and an offense
of if you're posting on your crime on social media.
And what that does is it means if you're stealing
a vehicle, for example, and you post that crime on
social media, that's an aggravating an offense and that takes
(09:42):
the penalty then up to a maximum of twelve years.
So it's a significant piece of work.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Would the minimum be though, Like, what would the minimum be?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Because we hear that a lot at the moment, you know,
the maximum even the government saying all right, the maximum
penalty for assaulting a police officer is X, Y and Z.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But then you go, well, hang on, what's the minut.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah? So the minimum for stealing a vehicle, I don't
have it in front of me Katie, but I don't
know that there is a minimum mandatory sentence for that.
But what we're doing is making the posting on social
media and aggravating offense. So it's similar to New South Wales.
These isn't two you know, you get two years jail
if you do it. It's an option, a sentencing option
(10:23):
for the court. But what we want to do is
then the strongest possible message that these types of crimes are.
We're going to give the courts the opportunity of the
police number one, the opportunity to charge for those new
types of offenses that we're seeing, and then the courts
options to sentencing. And that's what we need. We need
a law, legal framework that has rigor, that allows the
(10:45):
authorities to deliver the consequences that our community expects.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
All right, Lea, are a few things to get through
very quickly. I know we're both pressed for time. Last week,
Steve Edgington, the Member for Barclay, resigned as the Shadow
Minister for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, he said he took
the decision because he did not want to distract from
the devastatingly high rates of domestic and family and sexual
(11:10):
violence in the Northern.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Territory, Lea.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Did Steve actually say he wanted to resign all together?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
So, you know, Steve took the time to think about
what he would do going forward, and ultimately he came
to me and resigned from the Domestic, Family and Sexual
Violence portfolio, which of course I accepted. That afternoon, I
went straight back down into Parliament and made the changes
so that Joe Hersey is now our shadow Minister, so
(11:38):
that there's a seamless transition there for of course the
sector and stakeholders to have that important point of contact.
And domestic violence is a serious issue across the territory. Steve,
nor I nor our team want any distraction from that.
We've got domestic violence figures, assaults up eighty three percent
(11:58):
across the territory. Labor came to power, so this is
a serious issue that we can't afford to have.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Did he say though, that he wanted to resign all together.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Ultimately Steve resigned from the domestic violence portfolio and I
accepted that.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So he didn't say that he was happy to resign
all together from the role.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Well, I think there were a number of discussions that day.
Steve obviously spent time thinking about what he thought the
best course of action was. But what was brought to
me was him resigning from the DV portfolio. I accepted
that and moved very quickly to put Joe Hursey into
that role.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Where were you aware of the extent of the offending
by his electorate officer?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
No, so I wasn't aware of any offending. But you know,
the action's been taken to stand down the person involved.
There's now an investigation on foot and that will have
to see its cause.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I mean, do you think that it was appropriate that
he was employed in the first place.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Well, I think Steve has been really clear about his
reasons for employing that staff member, and clearly now there's
going to be a look back to see what information
was disclosed and whether or not that was indeed accurate.
But I think what's most important is that Steve has
recognized that him remaining in that role could be a
(13:19):
distraction from an issue he is deeply passionate about. I mean,
this is I.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Guess I'll put it to you this way. Would you like,
would you employ somebody with that history?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Look, Steve's made it really clear that had he have
known everything that's been alleged, he would not have employed
that person. But there's an investigation now, Katie, that's got
to take its course and the person has been stood
down pending the outcome.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
LEA a quick one from one of our listeners. Therees
has emailed through and said, good morning, Katie. Can you
please ask the opposition leader what she plans to do
if elected about the crime in the Northern Territory. Now,
I know you've gone through some of this before, so
we might keep it brief, but it it does seem
at the moment you know that a lot of people
(14:04):
are thinking to themselves, Okay, I don't know exactly what's
going to go on at the election come August, but
I want to know how the CLP is going to
deal with the very serious issue that we are seeing
when it comes to crime.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah, great question, and we would deal with it immediately,
so that first sittings of Parliament we will walk into
the Parliament with a raft of law changes that are
going to give police greater powers to deal with public
drinking problem, drunks and youth offenders. We're also going to
make sure that the revolving door of bail is dealt
with with law changes that see all serious violent vendors
(14:40):
start with a position of no bail. We've got new
ram raid legislation and the posting and boasting legislation all
ready to go, and so there is a range of
measures we can take immediate action on. We can also
then make sure our police are well supported with what
they need to do their job seriously, fast tracked recruitment
(15:00):
for our police, and also then work on that long
term reform that we need, which our focus is a
CLP is on getting kids to school. And I've got
the data here. I'm sitting in Alice Springs right now
and the attendance rate for kids in Central Australian region
is sixty five percent. It's just not good enough. We
can't have kids with strong futures. If these are the
(15:22):
numbers we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
What about what about the Northern Territory government right now
with their review into youth justice, It's not going to
be complete until the.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
End of the year.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
If elected, is the CLP actually going to, you know,
to accept the recommendations of that review.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I've got no confidence in anything Labor does on this issue.
I believe this is a political tactic, a trick to
say to people that we're doing something when really they're not.
We don't need a review into youth justice. And actually, Katie,
it's Labor and Eva Lawler and her government who actually
did a secret youth bail review last year and have
never released it to the public. How did I that
(16:03):
certainly will not be well. We talked about it last
year and Kate Warden came out and said it would
be made public and then she said it was cabinet
and confidence. But Labor currently have a review, a secret
review into youth bail, and we believe the reason they
haven't released it is because it proposes even weaker laws,
which is something the CLP is not interested in whatsoever.
(16:27):
We believe in making our community say first and foremost
and backing our police, and we will throw everything we
have at that, Katie, because community safety has got to
be number one.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Well, Leah Finocchiaro, we are going to have to leave
it there. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much
for joining us from Alice this morning.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Thank you, take care everyone.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Thank you
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