Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, there is certainly a lot to cover off on
this morning, a very busy newsday, and we know that
the Australian newspaper and other media reporting the sudden cancelations
of Bonza Aircraft. Well budget carrier Bonds are announcing a
temporary suspension of its services in response to the sudden
cancelation of flights across the network. Travelers at airports on
(00:21):
the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, Melbourne Avalon all this
morning learning that their flights with the low cost airline
had been axed without notice. Now, obviously the CEO sort
of playing things down to some degree, apologizing to customers
saying that they're working as quickly as possible to determine
a way forward. But there is reports that some of
(00:41):
those planes have actually been seized. So what exactly does
this mean for the Northern Territory in terms of those flights.
And everybody was really very happy we were going to
see budget flights in and out of the Northern Territory.
Now joining us in the studio as she does about
this time most tuesdays, it is the opposition and later
Leah finochi are O, Good morning, Lea, Good.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Morning Katie, are you wonderful listeners LEA.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
First off, this you know, this situation with Bonza. I'm
guessing it's going to be pretty disappointing to a lot
of Territorians. This morning we get charged an absolute arma
leak to fly in and out of the NT and
we finally had this airline that seemed like it was
going to be a budget airline, seemed like it was
going to be the great thing for us. Now looks
like they're grounded for now at least.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, it's certainly going to be disappointing for a lot
of people, and it's going to give people an even
greater loss of hope that they have for the future.
You know, we hear constantly from Territorians about how the
lack of flights and then the price of flights is
really making it difficult for them to live here. People
want to return overseas to visit family or go into state.
(01:47):
I hear stories all the time, Katie of people going Darwin, Sydney, Sidney,
Bali Bali onwards.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I mean, it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
And so this is another blow and I think a
big question certainly we'll be asking in estimate. It's in
a month's time is around what sort of money the
territory has put into this, because of course we had
the airline attraction scheme and the government's seem very cagey
about how it works, and so we'll be getting to
the bottom of how it works and how much they've spent.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, I think that a lot of people are going
to want to know the answer to that, exactly how
much money we have invested in trying to get bonds
here and fair enough, you've got to take those risks,
I guess at different times, but when you look at it,
they really haven't been operating for.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Very long at all now, Yeah, and you know what
due diligence was done, how his bonds are selected, what
kind of work was done in the background to provide
that certainty to territorians. I think there's nothing worse than
raising people's hopes and then failing on those expectations, particularly
at a time where things are very very tough. Cost
of living is obviously much higher here than elsewhere, and there's.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
A lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
People are feeling the pinch in a lot of ways,
and so this is just another blow. And we saw
the population data come out where we're losing over three
thousand people a year, and this is just another one
of those factors that contribute to people packing up and leaving.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now, Liah, before I talk about population, we know the
Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi Well arrived in Alice Springs yesterday.
I'm told not a huge amount of questions from journalists
when he did arrive and at that pressa. But the
visit does follow several high profile incidents in recent months,
including a riot through the CBD which triggered a three
week youth curfew. What do you make of the Prime
(03:26):
Minister's visit.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Well, I think you know he's just coming here to
save face. He was flew into Alice Springs over a
year ago to tell Natasha Farles and Labor how to
do their job as the end of Stronger Futures caused
carnage and chaos right across the territory, and promised two
hundred and fifty million dollars of which I didn't even
think half has been spent. So if he's coming to
Alice Springs with another checkbook that isn't going to pay out.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
At the bank, he may as well go somewhere else.
I mean, it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Federal Attorney General Mark drey First released a statement saying
the Commonwealth was providing fourteen point two two million dollars
in funding to deliver policing and other community safety support
in Alice Springs. But look, is this new money or
is that a re announcement from your perspective.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Well, who knows. It doesn't even matter if it is
new money or a re announcement. They haven't delivered on
the money that they promised that was going to be
immediate in January last year.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I don't know if Labour have ever looked up the
definition of a media, but it's not over a year
and so people in Alice Springs who were desperately looking
for that two point fifty to create more police, more
licensing inspectors, and a range of other measures to drive
down drive down crime have been left just sort of
shaking their heads, thinking, why is this guy doing this
(04:37):
to us again, raising false expectations and totally failing to deliver.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Marian Scrimjaw had said just a couple of weeks ago
that she was going to be writing to Mark Dreyfus,
the Federal Attorney General, about the possibility of really ensuring
that any federal money that is then invested into different programs,
into different you know, different community groups or organizations. Probably
a better word that they would obviously be forced to
(05:03):
disclose how that money was being spent and that there'd
be greater transparency in order. So I think was the word.
I mean, you've gone to step further at different times
and said that realistically it needs to go further than that.
We need to know exactly how this money is being spent,
and there needs to be KPIs.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
There does need to be KPIs and you know Josh
Burgo and Bill Yan Steve Edgington wrote to the Prime
Minister again a year ago now saying there needs to
be an ordit into this money coming into the territory.
What are the KPIs on expended showing what outcomes do
we want At the end of the day, if we're
going to spend tax payers money, there has to be
an outcome that the government is trying to achieve. If
(05:38):
that is to drive down crime and better support youths
and families not to enter a life of crime, then
we need to measure that. Now, all you have to
do is look at the crime stats to see that
that's not.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
What's playing out.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Crime's going up, not doubt, which tells you there's something
broken in the system.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Much i'd like to see from the Prime Minister today
while he's in it, We.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Would just like to see him deliver on his last
lot of promises from over a year ago. There's no
certainty around the remaining one hundred million dollars and there's
no certainty on how the one hundred and fifty is
going to be spent, so he just needs to actually
deliver on what he said he would do over a
year ago.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Look, the ABC is this morning reporting the ABC News
Online that fifty million dollars has gone to community and
regional infrastructure. Thirty million for remote training hubs to help
First Nations people access on a country vocational education and training,
thirty million to support place based initiatives in regional and
remote Central Australia targeted at strengthening family and community safety.
(06:35):
Forty mili for on country learning, twenty three point five
for improving First Nations health outcomes, ten million dollars for
Justice reinvestment three point nine for youth services three point
six to establish up to five junior Ranger sites. Seven
point five to help deliver the plan itself.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
It sounds robbery to me, Katie.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I mean, is this money they want to spend and
they're hoping to spend, or is this money they have spent.
It can't be money they have spent because we know
in last year's federal budget they only put up the
one fifty.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
They didn't put up the whole two fifty.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So it's been allocated so far. The federal government's saying,
so that money has been allocated. I mean, either way,
do you think like there does need to obviously be
money invested into things like different change behavior problems to.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Spend the money we just want them to spend the money.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Can more of that money, you know, given the fact
that we've we've surged police into other springs and we
know that that does have an impact around the rest
of the Northern territory, does more of that money actually
need to be spent on making sure we've got enough
policy it should be.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I mean, if you've got two hundred and fifty million
dollars to tackle crime, there's elements of it that need
to go into crime prevention, which includes working with families
and young people, But a lot of it needs to
go into policing and all of those pointy end issues
into our court systems for example. So again there's a
whole one hundred million dollars that hasn't been budgeted for
by the federal government. So they are very desperate to
(07:58):
paint a picture of money flying out the door, left,
right and center. But the reality on the ground is
on whether or not there's been delivery, whether or not
there's better outcomes. No one is going to tell you
that there's better outcomes, and we clearly haven't seen delivery
because otherwise that two hundred and fifty would have been
budgeted for last year.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Let's move along the issue of crime. We know it's massive.
It's massive right across the Northern Territory and has been
for a long time. Now. The owner of popular ice
cream shop John Johns in the city has again been
forced to close doors due to safety concerns. Now he's
taken to social media to say, due to multiple incidents
involving anti social behavior and crime, we've decided to once
(08:36):
again stay closed to ensure the safety of our staff.
We are again putting further measures in place to protect
our staff and customers. We're unsure how long this process
is going to take, but safety is paramount. Unfortunately, crime
in Darwin has risen to a level where the owner
of John John's fears for his staff, his customers, and
(08:57):
his own safety. Now I actually feel pretty sad to
think that someone an awesome business owner is an awesome
young bloke, you know, and a location which my family
loves to go to, that they're in this situation. Lea,
what do you think needs to happen right now in
the city so that businesses can operate?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Well, I keep coming back to it.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I must sound like a broken record, but we have
to strengthen the laws and we have to give police
greater powers.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
There's no ways around us.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So you can talk about all this fluffy stuff that
labor want to talk about, and intervention programs and all
of these things. Everything has its place. But at the
end of the day, if the police don't have the
powers to deal with these issues, and the laws are
two weeks so they're getting spat back out of court
faster than the cops could get them in there, it's
broken and so we have to go into parliament. We
have to give police back the two kilometer law, better
(09:48):
enforcement of public drinking. We have to make sure they
can deal with youth offenders, that we fix bail because
bail is absolutely broken and there's no quick way. Sorry,
there's a quick way to deal with literally do it
in Parliament in two weeks.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
But there's no other way around that.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
So anyone who wants to tell you there's all these
other solutions, you can't escape the fact that you need
more police powers and stronger laws.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Are you going to hit out to go and see John.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, I actually spoke to John on Saturday, Katie. He
rang me in despair and it's heartbreaking. I mean, we're
talking about an ice cream shop in the middle of
our city. You name me one ice cream shop in
this country that has had to close down, not once,
not twice over threats of safety to their staff and
their patrons. I mean, this is it's a little scene.
(10:33):
It's so scene. This is next level stuff. We're about
to go into tourism season. That's a prime location. People
should feel safe. It's about our lifestyle as well. Again,
going back to those figures of people leaving When you
can't even come into town for an ice cream with
the kids, you know you've got problems well, look, we
are going to catch up with John this morning at
about ten forty five and find out a bit more
(10:53):
about the incidents that have led to this closure on
this occasion.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
But Lea, I do want to ask you. I mean,
it looks like the lines are being drawn it comes
to education. Ahead of the election, you vowed or the
opposition vowing to find or income manage parents who let
their children skip school if you are elected, claiming that
it's going to help to tackle youth crime. Meanwhile, we
know the federal and territory labor governments, well they're committing
(11:17):
one point three four billion dollars to education in the budget.
They say it's going to bring public schools up to
full funding standards for the first time. Now, just on
the income management or finding parents if their children do
skip school, just talk me through on a practical level,
how that's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, great question.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
So it is I want people to understand because this
is important and labor again and trying to mighty the
waters here. It is currently the law that if your
child is over six years old, you have to send
them to school. Now, there are always reasons, reasonable reasons,
while why a child can't go to school, they're sick,
you might be taking a day extra of here and
there to go on our holiday, whatever it might be.
There are reasons, there are practical reasons, but the law
(12:00):
is that if you don't send your child to school,
you should be case managed. So if it's I'm talking
about persistent non attendance. For example, in the Barkley we
have an attendance rate of forty six percent. Forty six percent,
So this is not about the child who misses three
days of school a year. This is about kids who
aren't even going to school for half the year, Katie,
So they should be case managed. To work out with
(12:21):
the family why they're not going to school, what the
roadblocks are, and how we can address that, and then
that progresses. You can find families, you can prosecute families.
But also we're more interested in income managing, so there
are referral pathways to the Commonwealth to support people to
make sure they're spending money on food, on clothing, on
(12:41):
shelter for their children rather on other things. And this
is about getting kids to school. We cannot an education
is the key to the future. We cannot have a
strong economy, a strong society. If kids are attending school
less than fifty percent of the time.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Do you have any idea of just how many kids
are chronically not attending schoo Oh, it's.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
One hundreds, if not thousands. I don't have that daughter
in front of me, but it is. It is absolutely available,
and it's terrible. You can't get good literacy and numeracy
outcomes if you're attending school half the time, or even
less than half the time, Katie.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And so that's our focus. We've got to get kids
in school.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
You know, there are a lot of families out there
who just don't send their kids to school at all
because they see no value in it. Now, our view
is that no parent has a right to deprive their
child of a future. Now, if you persistently keep your
child at home for most of the year, that is
depriving their right and access to education.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Look, I guess I'm just trying to wrap my head
around it because at the moment, and I think it
sounds like a good idea. It sounds like a good
idea if a parent isn't being responsible enough to get
their kids to school, it sounds like the right thing
to do so that every kid gets the opportunity for
an education. But would you need the federal government support
for income management, then.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yes you do. So there's two pathways.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
One is under the Education Act, which means we can
do case management family Responsibility agreement, so you're actually supposed
to the government is just ignoring the law. You are
meant to be entering into family responsibility agreements, which are
effectively a contract between the family and the government to
say this is the plan going forward. And we've only
seen this government do twenty four of those across the
(14:13):
entire child protection and education space, so they're not enforcing it.
Then there's income management, which is a referral passway through
the Commonwealth, so there are a number of leavers we
can pull, including having truancy officers. So this for us
is really a three pronged approach at trying out our
hardest to make sure kids are in classrooms, in front
(14:33):
of teachers, having access to education.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So play Devil's advocate here, though, do you run the
risk of pushing kids that are already potentially in vulnerable
situations into even worse situations by their families seeing not
receiving that you know, not receiving their income and not
receiving that money. I mean, do you potentially sort of
put them in a worse situation than what they're already in.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
It's a good question, and so there's a difference. So
income manager is not about cutting income that has been
a previous system.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
This is about income managing.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
So for example, you know it's a rule on the
basics card that you can't buy alcohol or cigarettes, So
it's things like that. It's about quarantining money to make
sure it's going in the right places not the wrong places.
Which is the expectation of taxpayers that people who are
supported by the community through their taxpayer dollars into center
link response.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Though to a labor federal government.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Well that's on them.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
If they're not willing to accept referrals from the Northern
Territory government and allow children to not attend school and
families and kids to suffer, I mean, that would just
be incredible. What we're talking about here is effectively child neglect.
If you are not allowing your child access to education.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That is neglect.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
How could they ever grow up and have a job,
How can they ever grow up and interact and support
themselves to get a rental accommodation to enter into work
to fill out basic forms. You just can't do it,
and so we have to at all costs be protecting
the rights of children to grow up in a safe
environment where they have an education and have a future.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Just very quickly, what about for those parents that do
want their kids to go and go to school and
they're refusing.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, well that's right.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And that's where this can provide a lot of support
to families because they're absolutely our families who are pulling
their hair out and want help.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
And this is the crazy thing, Katie.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I actually talk to a lot of families who would
love to send their kids to a boot camp, to
some sort of service or diversion, and they can't because
their child's not engaging in the justice system, thank goodness.
And yet you have families of kids who are engaging
in the justice system who should be going to these
programs and are refusing to attend because the government allows
them the opportunity to say, oh, no, I'm not doing that.
(16:47):
So it's the system is absolutely broken. There's no question.
If we win in August, there is a mess of
great proportions to fix. But we're very clear in our focus.
This is just about basic fundamentals. We want territories to
be safe, we want them to have a good job,
we want kids to get an education, and we want
kids to be raised in healthy, happy environments. That's the
(17:08):
basis of everything we do, Katie, everything we believe in,
and that's what we would do if we win in August.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Well, Leah fan Occiaro, we are going to have to
leave it there, and it is getting more and more interesting.
I think as we lead into an election, we are
now starting to see those different policies and different plans
come into play, so territorians will obviously be able to
make up their own minds. Leah, good to speak with
you as always, appreciate your time, Take care everyone. Thank you,
Well, there is certainly a lot to cover off on
this morning, a very busy newsday, and we know that
the Australian newspaper and other media reporting the sudden cancelations
of Bonza Aircraft. Well budget carrier Bonds are announcing a
temporary suspension of its services in response to the sudden
cancelation of flights across the network. Travelers at airports on
(00:21):
the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, Melbourne Avalon all this
morning learning that their flights with the low cost airline
had been axed without notice. Now, obviously the CEO sort
of playing things down to some degree, apologizing to customers
saying that they're working as quickly as possible to determine
a way forward. But there is reports that some of
(00:41):
those planes have actually been seized. So what exactly does
this mean for the Northern Territory in terms of those flights.
And everybody was really very happy we were going to
see budget flights in and out of the Northern Territory.
Now joining us in the studio as she does about
this time most tuesdays, it is the opposition and later
Leah finochi are O, Good morning, Lea, Good.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Morning Katie, are you wonderful listeners LEA.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
First off, this you know, this situation with Bonza. I'm
guessing it's going to be pretty disappointing to a lot
of Territorians. This morning we get charged an absolute arma
leak to fly in and out of the NT and
we finally had this airline that seemed like it was
going to be a budget airline, seemed like it was
going to be the great thing for us. Now looks
like they're grounded for now at least.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, it's certainly going to be disappointing for a lot
of people, and it's going to give people an even
greater loss of hope that they have for the future.
You know, we hear constantly from Territorians about how the
lack of flights and then the price of flights is
really making it difficult for them to live here. People
want to return overseas to visit family or go into state.
(01:47):
I hear stories all the time, Katie of people going Darwin, Sydney, Sidney,
Bali Bali onwards.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I mean, it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
And so this is another blow and I think a
big question certainly we'll be asking in estimate. It's in
a month's time is around what sort of money the
territory has put into this, because of course we had
the airline attraction scheme and the government's seem very cagey
about how it works, and so we'll be getting to
the bottom of how it works and how much they've spent.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, I think that a lot of people are going
to want to know the answer to that, exactly how
much money we have invested in trying to get bonds
here and fair enough, you've got to take those risks,
I guess at different times, but when you look at it,
they really haven't been operating for.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Very long at all now, Yeah, and you know what
due diligence was done, how his bonds are selected, what
kind of work was done in the background to provide
that certainty to territorians. I think there's nothing worse than
raising people's hopes and then failing on those expectations, particularly
at a time where things are very very tough. Cost
of living is obviously much higher here than elsewhere, and there's.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
A lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
People are feeling the pinch in a lot of ways,
and so this is just another blow. And we saw
the population data come out where we're losing over three
thousand people a year, and this is just another one
of those factors that contribute to people packing up and leaving.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now, Liah, before I talk about population, we know the
Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi Well arrived in Alice Springs yesterday.
I'm told not a huge amount of questions from journalists
when he did arrive and at that pressa. But the
visit does follow several high profile incidents in recent months,
including a riot through the CBD which triggered a three
week youth curfew. What do you make of the Prime
(03:26):
Minister's visit.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Well, I think you know he's just coming here to
save face. He was flew into Alice Springs over a
year ago to tell Natasha Farles and Labor how to
do their job as the end of Stronger Futures caused
carnage and chaos right across the territory, and promised two
hundred and fifty million dollars of which I didn't even
think half has been spent. So if he's coming to
Alice Springs with another checkbook that isn't going to pay out.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
At the bank, he may as well go somewhere else.
I mean, it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Federal Attorney General Mark drey First released a statement saying
the Commonwealth was providing fourteen point two two million dollars
in funding to deliver policing and other community safety support
in Alice Springs. But look, is this new money or
is that a re announcement from your perspective.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Well, who knows. It doesn't even matter if it is
new money or a re announcement. They haven't delivered on
the money that they promised that was going to be
immediate in January last year.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I don't know if Labour have ever looked up the
definition of a media, but it's not over a year
and so people in Alice Springs who were desperately looking
for that two point fifty to create more police, more
licensing inspectors, and a range of other measures to drive
down drive down crime have been left just sort of
shaking their heads, thinking, why is this guy doing this
(04:37):
to us again, raising false expectations and totally failing to deliver.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Marian Scrimjaw had said just a couple of weeks ago
that she was going to be writing to Mark Dreyfus,
the Federal Attorney General, about the possibility of really ensuring
that any federal money that is then invested into different programs,
into different you know, different community groups or organizations. Probably
a better word that they would obviously be forced to
(05:03):
disclose how that money was being spent and that there'd
be greater transparency in order. So I think was the word.
I mean, you've gone to step further at different times
and said that realistically it needs to go further than that.
We need to know exactly how this money is being spent,
and there needs to be KPIs.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
There does need to be KPIs and you know Josh
Burgo and Bill Yan Steve Edgington wrote to the Prime
Minister again a year ago now saying there needs to
be an ordit into this money coming into the territory.
What are the KPIs on expended showing what outcomes do
we want At the end of the day, if we're
going to spend tax payers money, there has to be
an outcome that the government is trying to achieve. If
(05:38):
that is to drive down crime and better support youths
and families not to enter a life of crime, then
we need to measure that. Now, all you have to
do is look at the crime stats to see that
that's not.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
What's playing out.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Crime's going up, not doubt, which tells you there's something
broken in the system.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Much i'd like to see from the Prime Minister today
while he's in it, We.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Would just like to see him deliver on his last
lot of promises from over a year ago. There's no
certainty around the remaining one hundred million dollars and there's
no certainty on how the one hundred and fifty is
going to be spent, so he just needs to actually
deliver on what he said he would do over a
year ago.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Look, the ABC is this morning reporting the ABC News
Online that fifty million dollars has gone to community and
regional infrastructure. Thirty million for remote training hubs to help
First Nations people access on a country vocational education and training,
thirty million to support place based initiatives in regional and
remote Central Australia targeted at strengthening family and community safety.
(06:35):
Forty mili for on country learning, twenty three point five
for improving First Nations health outcomes, ten million dollars for
Justice reinvestment three point nine for youth services three point
six to establish up to five junior Ranger sites. Seven
point five to help deliver the plan itself.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
It sounds robbery to me, Katie.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I mean, is this money they want to spend and
they're hoping to spend, or is this money they have spent.
It can't be money they have spent because we know
in last year's federal budget they only put up the
one fifty.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
They didn't put up the whole two fifty.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So it's been allocated so far. The federal government's saying,
so that money has been allocated. I mean, either way,
do you think like there does need to obviously be
money invested into things like different change behavior problems to.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Spend the money we just want them to spend the money.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Can more of that money, you know, given the fact
that we've we've surged police into other springs and we
know that that does have an impact around the rest
of the Northern territory, does more of that money actually
need to be spent on making sure we've got enough
policy it should be.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I mean, if you've got two hundred and fifty million
dollars to tackle crime, there's elements of it that need
to go into crime prevention, which includes working with families
and young people, But a lot of it needs to
go into policing and all of those pointy end issues
into our court systems for example. So again there's a
whole one hundred million dollars that hasn't been budgeted for
by the federal government. So they are very desperate to
(07:58):
paint a picture of money flying out the door, left,
right and center. But the reality on the ground is
on whether or not there's been delivery, whether or not
there's better outcomes. No one is going to tell you
that there's better outcomes, and we clearly haven't seen delivery
because otherwise that two hundred and fifty would have been
budgeted for last year.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Let's move along the issue of crime. We know it's massive.
It's massive right across the Northern Territory and has been
for a long time. Now. The owner of popular ice
cream shop John Johns in the city has again been
forced to close doors due to safety concerns. Now he's
taken to social media to say, due to multiple incidents
involving anti social behavior and crime, we've decided to once
(08:36):
again stay closed to ensure the safety of our staff.
We are again putting further measures in place to protect
our staff and customers. We're unsure how long this process
is going to take, but safety is paramount. Unfortunately, crime
in Darwin has risen to a level where the owner
of John John's fears for his staff, his customers, and
(08:57):
his own safety. Now I actually feel pretty sad to
think that someone an awesome business owner is an awesome
young bloke, you know, and a location which my family
loves to go to, that they're in this situation. Lea,
what do you think needs to happen right now in
the city so that businesses can operate?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Well, I keep coming back to it.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I must sound like a broken record, but we have
to strengthen the laws and we have to give police
greater powers.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
There's no ways around us.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So you can talk about all this fluffy stuff that
labor want to talk about, and intervention programs and all
of these things. Everything has its place. But at the
end of the day, if the police don't have the
powers to deal with these issues, and the laws are
two weeks so they're getting spat back out of court
faster than the cops could get them in there, it's
broken and so we have to go into parliament. We
have to give police back the two kilometer law, better
(09:48):
enforcement of public drinking. We have to make sure they
can deal with youth offenders, that we fix bail because
bail is absolutely broken and there's no quick way. Sorry,
there's a quick way to deal with literally do it
in Parliament in two weeks.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
But there's no other way around that.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
So anyone who wants to tell you there's all these
other solutions, you can't escape the fact that you need
more police powers and stronger laws.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Are you going to hit out to go and see John.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, I actually spoke to John on Saturday, Katie. He
rang me in despair and it's heartbreaking. I mean, we're
talking about an ice cream shop in the middle of
our city. You name me one ice cream shop in
this country that has had to close down, not once,
not twice over threats of safety to their staff and
their patrons. I mean, this is it's a little scene.
(10:33):
It's so scene. This is next level stuff. We're about
to go into tourism season. That's a prime location. People
should feel safe. It's about our lifestyle as well. Again,
going back to those figures of people leaving When you
can't even come into town for an ice cream with
the kids, you know you've got problems well, look, we
are going to catch up with John this morning at
about ten forty five and find out a bit more
(10:53):
about the incidents that have led to this closure on
this occasion.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
But Lea, I do want to ask you. I mean,
it looks like the lines are being drawn it comes
to education. Ahead of the election, you vowed or the
opposition vowing to find or income manage parents who let
their children skip school if you are elected, claiming that
it's going to help to tackle youth crime. Meanwhile, we
know the federal and territory labor governments, well they're committing
(11:17):
one point three four billion dollars to education in the budget.
They say it's going to bring public schools up to
full funding standards for the first time. Now, just on
the income management or finding parents if their children do
skip school, just talk me through on a practical level,
how that's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, great question.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
So it is I want people to understand because this
is important and labor again and trying to mighty the
waters here. It is currently the law that if your
child is over six years old, you have to send
them to school. Now, there are always reasons, reasonable reasons,
while why a child can't go to school, they're sick,
you might be taking a day extra of here and
there to go on our holiday, whatever it might be.
There are reasons, there are practical reasons, but the law
(12:00):
is that if you don't send your child to school,
you should be case managed. So if it's I'm talking
about persistent non attendance. For example, in the Barkley we
have an attendance rate of forty six percent. Forty six percent,
So this is not about the child who misses three
days of school a year. This is about kids who
aren't even going to school for half the year, Katie,
So they should be case managed. To work out with
(12:21):
the family why they're not going to school, what the
roadblocks are, and how we can address that, and then
that progresses. You can find families, you can prosecute families.
But also we're more interested in income managing, so there
are referral pathways to the Commonwealth to support people to
make sure they're spending money on food, on clothing, on
(12:41):
shelter for their children rather on other things. And this
is about getting kids to school. We cannot an education
is the key to the future. We cannot have a
strong economy, a strong society. If kids are attending school
less than fifty percent of the time.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Do you have any idea of just how many kids
are chronically not attending schoo Oh, it's.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
One hundreds, if not thousands. I don't have that daughter
in front of me, but it is. It is absolutely available,
and it's terrible. You can't get good literacy and numeracy
outcomes if you're attending school half the time, or even
less than half the time, Katie.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And so that's our focus. We've got to get kids
in school.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
You know, there are a lot of families out there
who just don't send their kids to school at all
because they see no value in it. Now, our view
is that no parent has a right to deprive their
child of a future. Now, if you persistently keep your
child at home for most of the year, that is
depriving their right and access to education.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Look, I guess I'm just trying to wrap my head
around it because at the moment, and I think it
sounds like a good idea. It sounds like a good
idea if a parent isn't being responsible enough to get
their kids to school, it sounds like the right thing
to do so that every kid gets the opportunity for
an education. But would you need the federal government support
for income management, then.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yes you do. So there's two pathways.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
One is under the Education Act, which means we can
do case management family Responsibility agreement, so you're actually supposed
to the government is just ignoring the law. You are
meant to be entering into family responsibility agreements, which are
effectively a contract between the family and the government to
say this is the plan going forward. And we've only
seen this government do twenty four of those across the
(14:13):
entire child protection and education space, so they're not enforcing it.
Then there's income management, which is a referral passway through
the Commonwealth, so there are a number of leavers we
can pull, including having truancy officers. So this for us
is really a three pronged approach at trying out our
hardest to make sure kids are in classrooms, in front
(14:33):
of teachers, having access to education.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So play Devil's advocate here, though, do you run the
risk of pushing kids that are already potentially in vulnerable
situations into even worse situations by their families seeing not
receiving that you know, not receiving their income and not
receiving that money. I mean, do you potentially sort of
put them in a worse situation than what they're already in.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
It's a good question, and so there's a difference. So
income manager is not about cutting income that has been
a previous system.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
This is about income managing.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
So for example, you know it's a rule on the
basics card that you can't buy alcohol or cigarettes, So
it's things like that. It's about quarantining money to make
sure it's going in the right places not the wrong places.
Which is the expectation of taxpayers that people who are
supported by the community through their taxpayer dollars into center
link response.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Though to a labor federal government.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Well that's on them.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
If they're not willing to accept referrals from the Northern
Territory government and allow children to not attend school and
families and kids to suffer, I mean, that would just
be incredible. What we're talking about here is effectively child neglect.
If you are not allowing your child access to education.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That is neglect.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
How could they ever grow up and have a job,
How can they ever grow up and interact and support
themselves to get a rental accommodation to enter into work
to fill out basic forms. You just can't do it,
and so we have to at all costs be protecting
the rights of children to grow up in a safe
environment where they have an education and have a future.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Just very quickly, what about for those parents that do
want their kids to go and go to school and
they're refusing.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, well that's right.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And that's where this can provide a lot of support
to families because they're absolutely our families who are pulling
their hair out and want help.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
And this is the crazy thing, Katie.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I actually talk to a lot of families who would
love to send their kids to a boot camp, to
some sort of service or diversion, and they can't because
their child's not engaging in the justice system, thank goodness.
And yet you have families of kids who are engaging
in the justice system who should be going to these
programs and are refusing to attend because the government allows
them the opportunity to say, oh, no, I'm not doing that.
(16:47):
So it's the system is absolutely broken. There's no question.
If we win in August, there is a mess of
great proportions to fix. But we're very clear in our focus.
This is just about basic fundamentals. We want territories to
be safe, we want them to have a good job,
we want kids to get an education, and we want
kids to be raised in healthy, happy environments. That's the
(17:08):
basis of everything we do, Katie, everything we believe in,
and that's what we would do if we win in August.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Well, Leah fan Occiaro, we are going to have to
leave it there, and it is getting more and more interesting.
I think as we lead into an election, we are
now starting to see those different policies and different plans
come into play, so territorians will obviously be able to
make up their own minds. Leah, good to speak with
you as always, appreciate your time, Take care everyone. Thank you,
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