Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now now joining me live on the line, is the Speaker
(00:03):
of the Northern Territories Legislative Assembly. She is also the
Independent member for Ara Lewin. Robin Lamley, good.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Morning, good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Lovely to have you on the show for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Lovely to be on your show.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's been a while, it has now, Robin. There's been
that there's a lot to discuss. I might keep I
might get you to have your hat on as a
speaker to begin with, and just ask you first off
about this situation from late last week. I mean there's
been a lot of discussion about the rainbow flags and
the Torres Strait Island of flags being removed from the
Royal Darwin and Palmerston Hospital. Four years then, we apparently
(00:40):
saw a staffer from Selena Rubo's office were banned from
entering Parliament House for a week after being captured on
CCTV cameras entering a lift near the Opposition Leader's office,
then exiting on the fifth floor where the Chief Minister's
officers are. That staff are seen heading towards the fifth
floor men's toilets, where they'd plastered a poster of the
(01:02):
anti Health Minister Steve Edgington superimposed over a rainbow robin.
How did you find out or how did you become
aware of this incident?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, Katie, I will begin by saying, with my speaker's
hat on, I don't want to, I cannot and I
don't want to breach the confidence of some members of Parliament.
But it came to me as a complaint. I had
no idea what the significance of that image was of
Minister Steve Edgington in front of a flag. I live
(01:39):
in Ala Springs. I wasn't up to date as to
what was going on. But what I will say, Katie,
rather than talk about the details, which are all pretty
much on the public record anyway. But you know, as
a new speaker, I think I have to set the
highest of standards for behavior with in Parliament House. With
(02:03):
so much crime and anti social behavior in our community. Now,
I'm just not going to tolerate bad behavior of any kind,
political behavior outside the chamber, offensive behavior, inappropriate behavior. I'm
just going to really have it. I've decided to take
(02:24):
almost like a zero tolerance approach because I think in
this day and age, if you can look to Parliament
House as setting the standard then that's a very positive
thing for everyone. So when I looked at the issue,
looked at the evidence, obviously, I contacted the Opposition leader.
(02:47):
She was great, she got onto it straight away, and
I made the decision to deny this member of staff
access for a week. But having said that, Katie, the
same consequence will be placed on anyone, any staff member,
any member, any visitor who behaves in this way. It
(03:10):
will be a consistent approach.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I think that's a really good approach to have as
the Speaker, because we do look to Parliament House and
we look to our parliamentarians, and we have an expectation
that people that work inside Parliament House well, that they
uphold a standard that should be expected of them. We
do expect people to behave well when they are inside
(03:35):
Parliament House, particularly elected members, but also staffers and staffers
are chosen by elected members. People do need to behave appropriately.
So I know there's some people maybe saying, oh, that's
a you know, that's a fairly large consequence for somebody
sticking a poster up, But I think if you don't
sort of set the standards early, you run the risk
of people running a mark.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Absolutely, Katie, this House and I'm standing here in Parliament
House at the moment. We have to set the standard.
Staff who work here know what is acceptable behavior. They
should know what misconduct is. They should know that doing
what that gentleman did is not on And it's been
(04:21):
dealt with the way I've decided to deal with it.
And it won't be about anything to do with where
people sit on the political spectrum. It's just about an
incident involving bad behavior and all bad behavior will be
treated the same. My leadership call.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Fair call, I say, I mean, maybe others won't agree
with me, but I think it's absolutely fair enough. Rob,
and I do want to ask the first week of
parliamentary sittings next week, is there quite a lot on
the agenda.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, at this stage there's two on the agenda, the
repeal of the minimum pricing for alcohol the Liquor Legislation
Amendment Bill that that should be coming up next week.
I haven't had confirmation of this, but I'm just looking
at the two bills that are on the agenda at
this stage. And the other one is the Payroll Tax
(05:18):
Amendment Bill, which aims to assist more businesses by increasing
the tax free threshold and Essentially that will mean a
cutting revenue for the Northern Territory. But the aim here
I understand of the governments is to is by cutting tax,
(05:41):
they hope that businesses will reinvest in the Northern Territory
the money that they're saved by not paying that tax.
So that those are the two bills on the table
at the moment. But as of yesterday, I think we
all heard that the government intends to scrap the debt
ceiling that we're reliably informed will happen next week too.
(06:04):
But there's a lot of pomp and ceremony happening next
week because the first day of sittings is next Tuesday,
and that always sees a celebration. You've got the Chinese gosh,
what do you call it? The Chinese dances coming along
(06:25):
chong Hwa Society line dances. Gosh, I've been watching them
for years. Why can't I remember that? That's always a feature,
the blessing of the Assembly by a member of the
local religious fraternity. This year we've got Bishop Charles Gauci.
And also what happens, Katie on Tuesday is we've got
(06:50):
something that only happens once every four years. It's called
the Address in reply ceremony. So I'll be suspending parliament
just before or eleven and all the members of Parliament
will be walking over to the Administrator's office house on
the seaside there and we go through a ceremony of
(07:14):
presenting the address and reply to the Administrator, and I
introduce all the members of Parliament to the Administrator, and
I think we have a cup of tea in a photograph.
So that's part of the pomp and ceremony of being
a part of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Westminster system.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, right, and so that's something that happens every four years,
did you.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Say yes, so people might remember or if they don't.
On the very first day of the opening of Parliament,
the Administrator outlines the policies and the agenda for the
new government. And we saw the Honorable Hugh Hegy do
(07:56):
that back in October, and normally this address and Reply
would have happened a bit sooner, but we're doing that
on Tuesday. So the Parliament has accepted the Administrator's address
speech outlining the agenda for the new government that happened
(08:17):
in October, and so now we will return to him
and provide the formal reply to the administrator's address.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, it sounds like it's going to be a busy,
busy first week of parliament, Robin.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's probably meaningless to a lot of people, but you
know it's a part of the formal West, the system
that we are a part of, and all that sort
of thing is important absolutely for us to adhere to
and enjoy.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, it gives people a bit of an idea what's
going on as well, you know, it's sort of it
allows us to get a bit of a better understanding
of what is going to happen next week by you
making us aware of it. Robin, you had on now
as the independent member Forarara lun How are things going
in Alice Springs. I mean we had a bit of
good news earlier in the week with the announcement of
(09:09):
the direct flights of course from Alice Springs to Cans.
How do you feel as those things are going at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Look, I had a chat yesterday afternoon with a fabulous
Centrailian who manages the Luatip Enterprises, three IgA supermarkets in
Alice Springs and I'm sure he won't be mentioning him.
He's just an absolute champion and does a splendid job
(09:36):
on behalf of Luratip enterprises that contribute so much to
our community. Timber his name is He was telling me
that from their perspective, and these are three of the
most popular and frequented bottle shops and supermarkets in Alice Springs,
that crime has definitely reduced and that came as as
(09:59):
a prize to me. He was very ardament, very clear
that they're seeing a reduction in crime and anti social
behavior in their three supermarkets. So I think that's really
good news. Sometimes you don't get a clear perspective, but
I think from Timber, I think he's absolutely on the
(10:20):
cold face seeing what happens. So if he thinks things
are getting better, then I'm very encouraged.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well, we all hope, so, I mean, I think the
people of Alice Springs deserve it, and there does seem
to have been some, you know, some big changes in
terms of We learned from the Chief Minister a little
earlier in the week that the South Australian Police officers
that have been spending some time in Alice Springs assisting
the Northern Territory Police they've finished up a bit earlier
in the week. Do you think that's going to make
(10:46):
much of a difference, or at this point in time,
have the Northern Territory Police really been, you know, doing
quite a good job in terms of keeping things under control.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think a reduction in police officers on the ground
is a bit concerning. But having said that, Katie, if
they've locked up as many, who's left, I mean, I'm.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Not more than three hundred arrests is what they'd said
on social media over the last twenty four hours, So
they said that they've you know, they feel as though
they've achieved incredible results. They've now made more than three
hundred arrests and achieved more before the operation wrapped up.
They took to Facebook to share the latest Operation Ludlow
(11:34):
update yesterday AVO and said that the operation had achieved
incredible results for the residents of Alice Springs.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Well, I hope that's true. I'm hearing good things. I'm
on ABC Radio this morning and Alice Springs. The police
they give a daily update of what happened over the
last twenty four hours. There were no break ins reported,
no major incidents, so things are starting to turn around,
(12:06):
and I think this tough on crime approach, even though
it goes down like a lead balloon in some sectors
of the community. I think as a medium term solution,
I think it's working.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, well that's the thing, you know, the numbers are
sort of showing that it's working. Robin, just a really
quick one before I let you go. There's apparently some
images the NT news reporting this morning, some images of people.
Well it's been said that they're declared that they're patrolling
a meth lab in Alice Springs. Have you seen this.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I've seen the images. I was trying to work out
where it was. It's then I read that it's the
images are from a rural block. Look, those images look
like some from somewhere else. It didn't look like Australia.
Even it looked like in the Middle East. That's very concerning,
(12:59):
and it looked like that carrying weapons to patrol and
secure the facility wherever it is. Look, I don't know
anything more than what you know, Katie, but that was
those images were very concerning.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, I feel the same and look, by the look
of it. The Northern Territory Police say that they are
investigating that matter to identify the alleged defenders. So We'll
wait and hear what comes out of there. Robin Lamley,
the Speaker of the Northern Territories Legislative Assembly, also the
Independent Member fer our Land. We always appreciate your time.
Thank you for chatting with us today.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Katie, thank you, thank you so
Now now joining me live on the line, is the Speaker
(00:03):
of the Northern Territories Legislative Assembly. She is also the
Independent member for Ara Lewin. Robin Lamley, good.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Morning, good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Lovely to have you on the show for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Lovely to be on your show.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's been a while, it has now, Robin. There's been
that there's a lot to discuss. I might keep I
might get you to have your hat on as a
speaker to begin with, and just ask you first off
about this situation from late last week. I mean there's
been a lot of discussion about the rainbow flags and
the Torres Strait Island of flags being removed from the
Royal Darwin and Palmerston Hospital. Four years then, we apparently
(00:40):
saw a staffer from Selena Rubo's office were banned from
entering Parliament House for a week after being captured on
CCTV cameras entering a lift near the Opposition Leader's office,
then exiting on the fifth floor where the Chief Minister's
officers are. That staff are seen heading towards the fifth
floor men's toilets, where they'd plastered a poster of the
(01:02):
anti Health Minister Steve Edgington superimposed over a rainbow robin.
How did you find out or how did you become
aware of this incident?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, Katie, I will begin by saying, with my speaker's
hat on, I don't want to, I cannot and I
don't want to breach the confidence of some members of Parliament.
But it came to me as a complaint. I had
no idea what the significance of that image was of
Minister Steve Edgington in front of a flag. I live
(01:39):
in Ala Springs. I wasn't up to date as to
what was going on. But what I will say, Katie,
rather than talk about the details, which are all pretty
much on the public record anyway. But you know, as
a new speaker, I think I have to set the
highest of standards for behavior with in Parliament House. With
(02:03):
so much crime and anti social behavior in our community. Now,
I'm just not going to tolerate bad behavior of any kind,
political behavior outside the chamber, offensive behavior, inappropriate behavior. I'm
just going to really have it. I've decided to take
(02:24):
almost like a zero tolerance approach because I think in
this day and age, if you can look to Parliament
House as setting the standard then that's a very positive
thing for everyone. So when I looked at the issue,
looked at the evidence, obviously, I contacted the Opposition leader.
(02:47):
She was great, she got onto it straight away, and
I made the decision to deny this member of staff
access for a week. But having said that, Katie, the
same consequence will be placed on anyone, any staff member,
any member, any visitor who behaves in this way. It
(03:10):
will be a consistent approach.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I think that's a really good approach to have as
the Speaker, because we do look to Parliament House and
we look to our parliamentarians, and we have an expectation
that people that work inside Parliament House well, that they
uphold a standard that should be expected of them. We
do expect people to behave well when they are inside
(03:35):
Parliament House, particularly elected members, but also staffers and staffers
are chosen by elected members. People do need to behave appropriately.
So I know there's some people maybe saying, oh, that's
a you know, that's a fairly large consequence for somebody
sticking a poster up, But I think if you don't
sort of set the standards early, you run the risk
of people running a mark.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Absolutely, Katie, this House and I'm standing here in Parliament
House at the moment. We have to set the standard.
Staff who work here know what is acceptable behavior. They
should know what misconduct is. They should know that doing
what that gentleman did is not on And it's been
(04:21):
dealt with the way I've decided to deal with it.
And it won't be about anything to do with where
people sit on the political spectrum. It's just about an
incident involving bad behavior and all bad behavior will be
treated the same. My leadership call.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Fair call, I say, I mean, maybe others won't agree
with me, but I think it's absolutely fair enough. Rob,
and I do want to ask the first week of
parliamentary sittings next week, is there quite a lot on
the agenda.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, at this stage there's two on the agenda, the
repeal of the minimum pricing for alcohol the Liquor Legislation
Amendment Bill that that should be coming up next week.
I haven't had confirmation of this, but I'm just looking
at the two bills that are on the agenda at
this stage. And the other one is the Payroll Tax
(05:18):
Amendment Bill, which aims to assist more businesses by increasing
the tax free threshold and Essentially that will mean a
cutting revenue for the Northern Territory. But the aim here
I understand of the governments is to is by cutting tax,
(05:41):
they hope that businesses will reinvest in the Northern Territory
the money that they're saved by not paying that tax.
So that those are the two bills on the table
at the moment. But as of yesterday, I think we
all heard that the government intends to scrap the debt
ceiling that we're reliably informed will happen next week too.
(06:04):
But there's a lot of pomp and ceremony happening next
week because the first day of sittings is next Tuesday,
and that always sees a celebration. You've got the Chinese gosh,
what do you call it? The Chinese dances coming along
(06:25):
chong Hwa Society line dances. Gosh, I've been watching them
for years. Why can't I remember that? That's always a feature,
the blessing of the Assembly by a member of the
local religious fraternity. This year we've got Bishop Charles Gauci.
And also what happens, Katie on Tuesday is we've got
(06:50):
something that only happens once every four years. It's called
the Address in reply ceremony. So I'll be suspending parliament
just before or eleven and all the members of Parliament
will be walking over to the Administrator's office house on
the seaside there and we go through a ceremony of
(07:14):
presenting the address and reply to the Administrator, and I
introduce all the members of Parliament to the Administrator, and
I think we have a cup of tea in a photograph.
So that's part of the pomp and ceremony of being
a part of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Westminster system.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, right, and so that's something that happens every four years,
did you.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Say yes, so people might remember or if they don't.
On the very first day of the opening of Parliament,
the Administrator outlines the policies and the agenda for the
new government. And we saw the Honorable Hugh Hegy do
(07:56):
that back in October, and normally this address and Reply
would have happened a bit sooner, but we're doing that
on Tuesday. So the Parliament has accepted the Administrator's address
speech outlining the agenda for the new government that happened
(08:17):
in October, and so now we will return to him
and provide the formal reply to the administrator's address.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, it sounds like it's going to be a busy,
busy first week of parliament, Robin.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's probably meaningless to a lot of people, but you
know it's a part of the formal West, the system
that we are a part of, and all that sort
of thing is important absolutely for us to adhere to
and enjoy.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, it gives people a bit of an idea what's
going on as well, you know, it's sort of it
allows us to get a bit of a better understanding
of what is going to happen next week by you
making us aware of it. Robin, you had on now
as the independent member Forarara lun How are things going
in Alice Springs. I mean we had a bit of
good news earlier in the week with the announcement of
(09:09):
the direct flights of course from Alice Springs to Cans.
How do you feel as those things are going at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Look, I had a chat yesterday afternoon with a fabulous
Centrailian who manages the Luatip Enterprises, three IgA supermarkets in
Alice Springs and I'm sure he won't be mentioning him.
He's just an absolute champion and does a splendid job
(09:36):
on behalf of Luratip enterprises that contribute so much to
our community. Timber his name is He was telling me
that from their perspective, and these are three of the
most popular and frequented bottle shops and supermarkets in Alice Springs,
that crime has definitely reduced and that came as as
(09:59):
a prize to me. He was very ardament, very clear
that they're seeing a reduction in crime and anti social
behavior in their three supermarkets. So I think that's really
good news. Sometimes you don't get a clear perspective, but
I think from Timber, I think he's absolutely on the
(10:20):
cold face seeing what happens. So if he thinks things
are getting better, then I'm very encouraged.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well, we all hope, so, I mean, I think the
people of Alice Springs deserve it, and there does seem
to have been some, you know, some big changes in
terms of We learned from the Chief Minister a little
earlier in the week that the South Australian Police officers
that have been spending some time in Alice Springs assisting
the Northern Territory Police they've finished up a bit earlier
in the week. Do you think that's going to make
(10:46):
much of a difference, or at this point in time,
have the Northern Territory Police really been, you know, doing
quite a good job in terms of keeping things under control.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think a reduction in police officers on the ground
is a bit concerning. But having said that, Katie, if
they've locked up as many, who's left, I mean, I'm.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Not more than three hundred arrests is what they'd said
on social media over the last twenty four hours, So
they said that they've you know, they feel as though
they've achieved incredible results. They've now made more than three
hundred arrests and achieved more before the operation wrapped up.
They took to Facebook to share the latest Operation Ludlow
(11:34):
update yesterday AVO and said that the operation had achieved
incredible results for the residents of Alice Springs.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Well, I hope that's true. I'm hearing good things. I'm
on ABC Radio this morning and Alice Springs. The police
they give a daily update of what happened over the
last twenty four hours. There were no break ins reported,
no major incidents, so things are starting to turn around,
(12:06):
and I think this tough on crime approach, even though
it goes down like a lead balloon in some sectors
of the community. I think as a medium term solution,
I think it's working.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, well that's the thing, you know, the numbers are
sort of showing that it's working. Robin, just a really
quick one before I let you go. There's apparently some
images the NT news reporting this morning, some images of people.
Well it's been said that they're declared that they're patrolling
a meth lab in Alice Springs. Have you seen this.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I've seen the images. I was trying to work out
where it was. It's then I read that it's the
images are from a rural block. Look, those images look
like some from somewhere else. It didn't look like Australia.
Even it looked like in the Middle East. That's very concerning,
(12:59):
and it looked like that carrying weapons to patrol and
secure the facility wherever it is. Look, I don't know
anything more than what you know, Katie, but that was
those images were very concerning.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, I feel the same and look, by the look
of it. The Northern Territory Police say that they are
investigating that matter to identify the alleged defenders. So We'll
wait and hear what comes out of there. Robin Lamley,
the Speaker of the Northern Territories Legislative Assembly, also the
Independent Member fer our Land. We always appreciate your time.
Thank you for chatting with us today.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Katie, thank you, thank you so
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