Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But as I mentioned a little bit earlier, a twenty
one year old Danish tourist is recovering after allegedly being
knocked unconscious by a man who then stomped on her
head in Alice Springs. Now joining me in the studio
is the acting Chief Minister, Jered Maylee. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning Katie, and good morning listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Now, Minister, what was your reaction when you learned what
had happened to this twenty one year old Danish tourist
in Alice Springs. I mean it's horrendous.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh look, I when I heard about that, it was
just gut renching that someone's coming over here to have
it holiday be the tourist and get that you get assaulted,
getting knocked unconscious and go to hospital. It's just unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It is unacceptable, and that's what the community is really
screaming out about. I know that Labour's you know, taken
a bit of a jab at you guys and said, well,
you promised to be tough on crime, you promised to
make a difference in this space and it's not working.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, we are promised to being tougher crime and we
are I think it is working it is definitely. I
was in Alice Springs for a Monday and Tuesday this week.
But the upside is I spoke to Commissioner Doll about
this matter very recently and he was explaining to me
that the offender was arrested in twelve minutes. So the
offense took just after four o'clock. The police were called,
(01:09):
they turned up, and also the community members around it
actually said that's the offender over there. So the police
did a great job. So I wanted to do a
great She had twelve minutes, so this terrible offense happened.
Twelve minutes later, he's arrested. The community members who intervene
to stop it. When the police turn up, they're helpful.
There he was, they arrested him. So this fella has
been remanded in custody.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
That it is really good that the police were able
to get there quickly, right, But the problem is that
this is happening and it's you know, in this instance,
it's happened to a young tourist who's in Ella Springs,
and it doesn't matter whether it's a tourist, it doesn't
matter whether it's a local. It's totally unacceptable behavior. But
what do we do to ensure that other tourists don't
have an experience like this when they're visiting the Northern Territory,
(01:52):
Like it's woeful.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh, it's wondeful, and like there's been they says about
our laws. The bailors are too strong and too tough,
and we're not you know, we're intervening all these human rights.
But we make no apologies. We've made the laws stronger.
We are going to continue to make sure the teritory
is protected, and we need to do more legislation changes
we will because is unaccepted.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I mean, is there a disconnect here? And I've been
asking our listeners this morning whether a couple of situations
meet community expectation. Now I'll take you through one of
those that ran on the ABC News last night. A
Northern Territory Supreme Court judge suspended the four year sentence
of a woman who pleaded guilty to causing serious harm
to a sixteen year old girl, citing inhumane conditions at
(02:34):
the Allice Springs Watchhouse. Now. According to the report, the
offender was one of eleven people on March twenty twenty
four who chased the teenager down and assaulted her pulled
the girl down by her hair, stomped on and kicked
her face and body. Co offenders then stripped the girl
of her clothes before the offender, who was eighteen at
the time, dragged her naked down a street as others
(02:58):
continued to kick her. Now. In her sentencing remarks last month,
Justice Judith Kelly labeled the offender's behavior as a very
serious offense and said even without a victim impact statement,
it was clear the pain and the fear that the girl,
who was only sixteen years old must have experienced now.
Justice Kelly also noted that the victim presented to hospital
(03:20):
after that incident with a collapsed lung and later needed
her chest draint. Despite the seriousness of this offense, Justice
Kelly said that she would take into account the offender's
early guilty play and the very very appalling conditions that
she suffered while she was reminded at the Alice Springs
watch House for twenty two days. I mean. Justice Kelly
(03:44):
placed the offender on a four year suspended sentence dating
back to early January. Do you think that's in line
with the community's expectations.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Look, ultimately, we've got to be careful with say, because
we do have the separation of powers and being exploit
I understand how that works, but ultimately I think it doesn't,
you know, And I can tell you right now, Alice Springs,
there's no corrections off correction prisoners in the watchhouse. So
this is not an ideal situation.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And what's to go with these women? Have they all
been moved out? Now?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah? Yeaht the moment that Alice Springs is there's only
the police prisoners, and you know, ultimately the police catch
someone and then they remind them, and then they get
ready to go to court. And then once they go
to court, they go back to the watchhouse or they
go to a prison, depending on where they are and
how full the prisons are, and all sorts of operational matters.
But look, this doesn't meet community expectations. We need to
(04:32):
make sure that if you're going to do such an
horrendous offense, is that there's a consequence for your punishment.
We're inherited this problem about these watchhouses from the previous
labor government. We've gone through, we've fixed the problem. We've
got basically bear them up and running. There's three hundred
and fifty odd and forty eight new beds there open yesterday.
We've got another forty eight opening after easter. This is
a This is not going to be a problem we
(04:53):
can fix straight away because you can't get infrastructure immediately,
but we are working on it.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I mean, are you concerned though, that judges could bail
more offenders due to those conditions in the watchhouses. I
know you've said that they've been moved out of the watchhouses,
but I mean are you concerned that even when they're
remanded in their waiting for their court date, that it
could be a situation then where the judge goes, oh,
you know what, you've been in appalling conditions. So we're
(05:17):
not going to we're going to suspend your sentence.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
It's a matter for the judge what they do. But ultimately,
I think we need to make sure that if there's
a crime committed, there's going to be a consequence, and
we make no apologies for having our tougher laws in
relation to bail.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I mean, in this instance, so like twenty two days
in a watchhouse for flogging someone allegedly down the street,
ripping her clothes off, I mean, does that pass the
pub test to you?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, there needs to be a consequence to your actions,
and that seems to be a terrible action. And holding
someone in a watchhouse is not an ideal or they're
designed for short stays, and I've been to all the
watch houses to see what's going on. We need to
get them into the prison because we're talking about rehabilitation.
We need to make sure that these offenders know what
they did was wrong so we can break the cycle.
And having them sitting in a watchhouse doesn't allow that
(06:02):
to happen. But we need to get them into the
prison system.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I just want to get it really clear at the moment.
What you're saying is that there is no correctional prisoners
in the Alice Springs watchouse. What about up here in
the top end? No.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
In Adam Springs there's Neil. But in Darwin Palmerston there's
sixty prisoners who are in police custody and then need
to go to a prison. At some stage. They haven't
been to a prison yet, so they might be arrested
by the police and this is a normal operation. The
police arrest them, they hold them in a watch house,
they go to court and then after court they go
(06:35):
to one of the prisons. At the moment. Some of
them are going back to the watchhouse because the prisons
are full, so they still haven't actually been been delivered
to a prisoner yet, so they're in police custody. So
there's a bit of a technical argument, but ultimately they've
been reminded.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Look for me, and I think for a lot of
our listeners, and they may correct me if they feel differently,
but I think for me, what I'm worried about is
that somebody can commit a really serious affect. They could
be you know, they could be reminded in the watchhouse
for that serious offense. Then they front up to court
and there sentences potentially being suspended because a judge feels
(07:12):
as though the time that they've served in a watchhouse
is adequately and is adequate enough.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, that doesn't meet community expectation. If you committed in
a serious defense, you need to be punished for that.
There needs to be a consequence, and you also need
to go through rehabilitation programs as well, which is to
try and break that cycles.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So how far off are we do you reckon from
fixing this? So this because I think ultimately what people
are going to want to hear this morning is Okay,
this has happened once. How do we stop it from
happening again?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, the unfortunately, we can't tell the judges what to do.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
But if there was like if there were spaces in
the jail rather than them being in what the judge
is described as inhumane you know, conditions, would it be
a different you know, like, could it be a different story.
And I guess that's what I'm getting at because I
know that that's not in your you know, within your
realm of what you can fix. The judge obviously has
to act independently, but as the Corrections Minister, is there
(08:03):
a way that we can make sure that the conditions
are at a standard that then you can't like that
a judge can't be making this decision.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well, we're working hard to do that. And we inherited
a major problem in relation to the infrastructure in the
prisons was neglected for years, for eight years the labor
government didn't do anything about it, and overflowed into the watchhouse.
There's been short staff. We're recruiting as we speak. Tomorrow,
I'm going to I think the thirty I'm passing our
parade for a new prison officers. We've got the gfours
(08:33):
into the dah And Watchhouse. We're trying to expand that
into the prison health visits as well, to be able
to make sure the prison officers who do a great
job of behind the whire to look after the prisoners
and make sure that there's going to be a spot
for those people if you need to be there, because
we do something about it. But unfortunately it's not a
quick fix and it does take time.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I know we've got a situation where the Independence Justine
Davis Senior Gayula, they attended the correctional facilities with the
Greens men Cat macnamara now Justin Davis took to social
media to say that what she saw was concerning she reckons.
There's severe overcrowding, people sleeping on wall to wall mattresses,
Rehab programs not being delivered. Do you think that's appropriate?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Look, there are programs being delivered. I was in Alice
Springs on Monday and I spoke to the education to
the teachers essentially, and it's about education. There's a Rage
program that's up and running. There's Quick Smart which is
up and running. I went to the Industries and Alice
Springs they're up and running. Where the engineering where they're
doing the number plates, all the number of plates in
the Northern Territory done there. I went through the process
(09:36):
with them. So it's not ideal. Don't get me wrong,
I'm not saying but we need to break the cycle.
So we need to make sure that there's a consequence
for the offending, which is prison, and then when you're
in prison, you need to be able to go. Remember
our programs are sentenced to a skill because when you
get out, he's the best way to break the cycle
is to get a job.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, spot on. Now, while I'm on this discussion mostly
about bail, I was appalled to learn while I was
away that one of the teens who assaulted Trevor Miller,
the seventy one year old man in Palmerston last week,
was also bailed a number of times and was on
bail when he allegedly invaded seventy one year old Trevor's
(10:13):
home and assaulted him. Now the Australian newspaper revealed that
one of those teenagers was on bail for the third
time since mid December and has more than fifty active
charges before the Northern Territory courts. The fourteen year old
is reportedly currently before the courts on charges including but
(10:33):
not limited to, multiple counts of trespass, aggravated burglary, assault,
aggravated assault, and contravening domestic violence orders, as well as
shoplifting and theft. Now, I keep scratching my head, Minister,
when I hear a people offending while they are on bail.
What is the process in terms of does corrections the
(10:54):
Corrections Department have the opportunity to oppose bail when or
if someone is in their care.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
So, Katie, how it works is the corrections don't oppose bail.
It's the defense lawyers or the prosecution. They work out
what their position is and they put their position to
the judge and then the judge makes it a decision
based on the evidence before and whether the bail should
be granted or not. But in this particular case, it's
very interesting that on the sixth of March, the court
(11:22):
ordered a bail assessment of that particular offender, which was
assessed to go into the First Steps program, which is
bail supported accommodation. He was found not suitable by corrections.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
That report was.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Given to the judge and then the judge still gave
that young fender bail to I think it's to his
mum's or his parents.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So correction said he was not suitable to go on
bail on the sixth of March.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And to their first Step program, which is a bail
supported accommodation in Yarrawanga. It holds there so.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Not suitable to go into that program. I mean, now
that's too high risks. So that's the sixth of March.
I mean, less than a month later, we're in a
situation where a seventy one year old man is in
a critical condition in hospital, allegedly because of this same offender.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
There you go, so ultimately the courts ordered a bail assessment.
The bail assentiment was done by correction. It's very similar
to the one in Alice Springs where the young offender
was going up to the funeral again assessed by Corrections
not suitable and the court still gave him bail. And
then this is a consequence of.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
What is going on here?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, I suppose it's really it's a matter for the court.
You'd have to get the chief judge in to say
is this really two expectations of the community. The process
was followed, bail was opposed by the prosecution, an assessment
was done, found not suitable and still ground.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Do you think that's to the community's expectations.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I don't think it is at all.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
So what can we do, Like, what do you do
to try to minimize this from happening again? Because my
biggest concern here is the victim, right, Like I just
think to myself, there needs to be Yes, there does
need to be programs that young people can undertake to
try to get them on the right track. Nobody would
disp that. But if you've got somebody that you are
concerned that corrections oppose that person being bailed to you know,
(13:08):
a particular facility, and I don't want to talk about
specific so don't want to end up, you know, getting
myself in trouble. But how do you stop this from
happening again, minister? Because it is a woeful situation when
somebody is allegedly on bail and then commits a very
serious crime while on bail.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well, the way around it, Katie is to change the legislation.
Could the court interpret the legislation? The governments make the
legislation and then the courts are forced or interpret it
and at the moment we do have the separation of
powers where the courts do have some discretion and if
they aren't making decisions in line with the community expectations,
it'll be up to us to make sure that the
legislation is very, very strict and very narrow so they
(13:51):
can't have that determination, which is what we'll have to do.
And we make no apologies. We are going to strengthen
the laws and to all the naysayers out there as
they or the too tough, well, this is example why
we make laws to make sure that bail is refused.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Now, before I let you go, Acting Chief Minister, I
do just want to ask you about the situation with
the Darwin Port. It He is looking as though whoever
wins government federally is going to return it to Australian hands,
the Coalition promising to acquire it compulsorily and compensate Langbridge
if an Australian government approved operator isn't found within a
(14:27):
period of time. Labor saying that they'll enter formal negotiations
with potential buyers, building on informal talks, adding the Commonwealth
would intervene if it got to that point. What do
you make of the commitments from both major parties.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well, Dunton came out to darwhen I was with him
when he made that announcement, and he was very clear
that he's going to enter into negotiations and then if
that doesn't occur, he's going to make leigership changes, the
bail proposals, the labour's proposal. I'm not really sure but
that it was just a quick phone call on onto
the ABC maybe for it's got some heads up or something.
I'm not sure, but we don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
What they do. They haven't met with you about it.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
No, So what needs to happen is there needs to
be some certainty. Times are changing across the world. When
it was least years and years ago, I wasn't involved,
but the world has changed in scene. We need to
look forward, not backwards, and we need some certainty either
way and we need to wait to see what happens
on the third of May.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Well, look, we'll all be keeping a close on that,
a really quick one. Somebody we do get this message
like weekly, when are bush camps going to start?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Well, we're working on making a bush camp in Catherine
right now and as we speak we're trying to find
a suitable location and we've got a plan ready to go.
There are some demoundables ready to go, so once we
actually find the suitable location, it will happen quite quickly.
And we're working hard to get it happen because it's
about breaking the cycle, getting these people out into job
ready situations so they can finish their time in prison
(15:51):
and they go out into community as a better person.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Well, Jereed Maylee, the Acting Chief Minister, we will leave
it there. Thank you so much all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Say one thing. They had their first win last week
and I'm excitedly well.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Them and the Dolphins both finally mate, I've got my
red and white skirt on for the Dolphins today, go
the Dolphins and yeah, let's it'll be a fantastic weekend
of footy out there at TiO, no doubt, thousands of
Territorians flocking out there to see Paramatter Eels take on
the Canberra Raiders.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I have my special socks on, oh my paramatter socks.
Good on, my lucky socks. Good on your minister, Thanks
so much for your time this morning.
But as I mentioned a little bit earlier, a twenty
one year old Danish tourist is recovering after allegedly being
knocked unconscious by a man who then stomped on her
head in Alice Springs. Now joining me in the studio
is the acting Chief Minister, Jered Maylee. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning Katie, and good morning listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Now, Minister, what was your reaction when you learned what
had happened to this twenty one year old Danish tourist
in Alice Springs. I mean it's horrendous.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh look, I when I heard about that, it was
just gut renching that someone's coming over here to have
it holiday be the tourist and get that you get assaulted,
getting knocked unconscious and go to hospital. It's just unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It is unacceptable, and that's what the community is really
screaming out about. I know that Labour's you know, taken
a bit of a jab at you guys and said, well,
you promised to be tough on crime, you promised to
make a difference in this space and it's not working.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, we are promised to being tougher crime and we
are I think it is working it is definitely. I
was in Alice Springs for a Monday and Tuesday this week.
But the upside is I spoke to Commissioner Doll about
this matter very recently and he was explaining to me
that the offender was arrested in twelve minutes. So the
offense took just after four o'clock. The police were called,
(01:09):
they turned up, and also the community members around it
actually said that's the offender over there. So the police
did a great job. So I wanted to do a
great She had twelve minutes, so this terrible offense happened.
Twelve minutes later, he's arrested. The community members who intervene
to stop it. When the police turn up, they're helpful.
There he was, they arrested him. So this fella has
been remanded in custody.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
That it is really good that the police were able
to get there quickly, right, But the problem is that
this is happening and it's you know, in this instance,
it's happened to a young tourist who's in Ella Springs,
and it doesn't matter whether it's a tourist, it doesn't
matter whether it's a local. It's totally unacceptable behavior. But
what do we do to ensure that other tourists don't
have an experience like this when they're visiting the Northern Territory,
(01:52):
Like it's woeful.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh, it's wondeful, and like there's been they says about
our laws. The bailors are too strong and too tough,
and we're not you know, we're intervening all these human rights.
But we make no apologies. We've made the laws stronger.
We are going to continue to make sure the teritory
is protected, and we need to do more legislation changes
we will because is unaccepted.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I mean, is there a disconnect here? And I've been
asking our listeners this morning whether a couple of situations
meet community expectation. Now I'll take you through one of
those that ran on the ABC News last night. A
Northern Territory Supreme Court judge suspended the four year sentence
of a woman who pleaded guilty to causing serious harm
to a sixteen year old girl, citing inhumane conditions at
(02:34):
the Allice Springs Watchhouse. Now. According to the report, the
offender was one of eleven people on March twenty twenty
four who chased the teenager down and assaulted her pulled
the girl down by her hair, stomped on and kicked
her face and body. Co offenders then stripped the girl
of her clothes before the offender, who was eighteen at
the time, dragged her naked down a street as others
(02:58):
continued to kick her. Now. In her sentencing remarks last month,
Justice Judith Kelly labeled the offender's behavior as a very
serious offense and said even without a victim impact statement,
it was clear the pain and the fear that the girl,
who was only sixteen years old must have experienced now.
Justice Kelly also noted that the victim presented to hospital
(03:20):
after that incident with a collapsed lung and later needed
her chest draint. Despite the seriousness of this offense, Justice
Kelly said that she would take into account the offender's
early guilty play and the very very appalling conditions that
she suffered while she was reminded at the Alice Springs
watch House for twenty two days. I mean. Justice Kelly
(03:44):
placed the offender on a four year suspended sentence dating
back to early January. Do you think that's in line
with the community's expectations.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Look, ultimately, we've got to be careful with say, because
we do have the separation of powers and being exploit
I understand how that works, but ultimately I think it doesn't,
you know, And I can tell you right now, Alice Springs,
there's no corrections off correction prisoners in the watchhouse. So
this is not an ideal situation.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And what's to go with these women? Have they all
been moved out? Now?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah? Yeaht the moment that Alice Springs is there's only
the police prisoners, and you know, ultimately the police catch
someone and then they remind them, and then they get
ready to go to court. And then once they go
to court, they go back to the watchhouse or they
go to a prison, depending on where they are and
how full the prisons are, and all sorts of operational matters.
But look, this doesn't meet community expectations. We need to
(04:32):
make sure that if you're going to do such an
horrendous offense, is that there's a consequence for your punishment.
We're inherited this problem about these watchhouses from the previous
labor government. We've gone through, we've fixed the problem. We've
got basically bear them up and running. There's three hundred
and fifty odd and forty eight new beds there open yesterday.
We've got another forty eight opening after easter. This is
a This is not going to be a problem we
(04:53):
can fix straight away because you can't get infrastructure immediately,
but we are working on it.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I mean, are you concerned though, that judges could bail
more offenders due to those conditions in the watchhouses. I
know you've said that they've been moved out of the watchhouses,
but I mean are you concerned that even when they're
remanded in their waiting for their court date, that it
could be a situation then where the judge goes, oh,
you know what, you've been in appalling conditions. So we're
(05:17):
not going to we're going to suspend your sentence.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
It's a matter for the judge what they do. But ultimately,
I think we need to make sure that if there's
a crime committed, there's going to be a consequence, and
we make no apologies for having our tougher laws in
relation to bail.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I mean, in this instance, so like twenty two days
in a watchhouse for flogging someone allegedly down the street,
ripping her clothes off, I mean, does that pass the
pub test to you?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, there needs to be a consequence to your actions,
and that seems to be a terrible action. And holding
someone in a watchhouse is not an ideal or they're
designed for short stays, and I've been to all the
watch houses to see what's going on. We need to
get them into the prison because we're talking about rehabilitation.
We need to make sure that these offenders know what
they did was wrong so we can break the cycle.
And having them sitting in a watchhouse doesn't allow that
(06:02):
to happen. But we need to get them into the
prison system.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I just want to get it really clear at the moment.
What you're saying is that there is no correctional prisoners
in the Alice Springs watchouse. What about up here in
the top end? No.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
In Adam Springs there's Neil. But in Darwin Palmerston there's
sixty prisoners who are in police custody and then need
to go to a prison. At some stage. They haven't
been to a prison yet, so they might be arrested
by the police and this is a normal operation. The
police arrest them, they hold them in a watch house,
they go to court and then after court they go
(06:35):
to one of the prisons. At the moment. Some of
them are going back to the watchhouse because the prisons
are full, so they still haven't actually been been delivered
to a prisoner yet, so they're in police custody. So
there's a bit of a technical argument, but ultimately they've
been reminded.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Look for me, and I think for a lot of
our listeners, and they may correct me if they feel differently,
but I think for me, what I'm worried about is
that somebody can commit a really serious affect. They could
be you know, they could be reminded in the watchhouse
for that serious offense. Then they front up to court
and there sentences potentially being suspended because a judge feels
(07:12):
as though the time that they've served in a watchhouse
is adequately and is adequate enough.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, that doesn't meet community expectation. If you committed in
a serious defense, you need to be punished for that.
There needs to be a consequence, and you also need
to go through rehabilitation programs as well, which is to
try and break that cycles.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So how far off are we do you reckon from
fixing this? So this because I think ultimately what people
are going to want to hear this morning is Okay,
this has happened once. How do we stop it from
happening again?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, the unfortunately, we can't tell the judges what to do.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
But if there was like if there were spaces in
the jail rather than them being in what the judge
is described as inhumane you know, conditions, would it be
a different you know, like, could it be a different story.
And I guess that's what I'm getting at because I
know that that's not in your you know, within your
realm of what you can fix. The judge obviously has
to act independently, but as the Corrections Minister, is there
(08:03):
a way that we can make sure that the conditions
are at a standard that then you can't like that
a judge can't be making this decision.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well, we're working hard to do that. And we inherited
a major problem in relation to the infrastructure in the
prisons was neglected for years, for eight years the labor
government didn't do anything about it, and overflowed into the watchhouse.
There's been short staff. We're recruiting as we speak. Tomorrow,
I'm going to I think the thirty I'm passing our
parade for a new prison officers. We've got the gfours
(08:33):
into the dah And Watchhouse. We're trying to expand that
into the prison health visits as well, to be able
to make sure the prison officers who do a great
job of behind the whire to look after the prisoners
and make sure that there's going to be a spot
for those people if you need to be there, because
we do something about it. But unfortunately it's not a
quick fix and it does take time.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I know we've got a situation where the Independence Justine
Davis Senior Gayula, they attended the correctional facilities with the
Greens men Cat macnamara now Justin Davis took to social
media to say that what she saw was concerning she reckons.
There's severe overcrowding, people sleeping on wall to wall mattresses,
Rehab programs not being delivered. Do you think that's appropriate?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Look, there are programs being delivered. I was in Alice
Springs on Monday and I spoke to the education to
the teachers essentially, and it's about education. There's a Rage
program that's up and running. There's Quick Smart which is
up and running. I went to the Industries and Alice
Springs they're up and running. Where the engineering where they're
doing the number plates, all the number of plates in
the Northern Territory done there. I went through the process
(09:36):
with them. So it's not ideal. Don't get me wrong,
I'm not saying but we need to break the cycle.
So we need to make sure that there's a consequence
for the offending, which is prison, and then when you're
in prison, you need to be able to go. Remember
our programs are sentenced to a skill because when you
get out, he's the best way to break the cycle
is to get a job.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, spot on. Now, while I'm on this discussion mostly
about bail, I was appalled to learn while I was
away that one of the teens who assaulted Trevor Miller,
the seventy one year old man in Palmerston last week,
was also bailed a number of times and was on
bail when he allegedly invaded seventy one year old Trevor's
(10:13):
home and assaulted him. Now the Australian newspaper revealed that
one of those teenagers was on bail for the third
time since mid December and has more than fifty active
charges before the Northern Territory courts. The fourteen year old
is reportedly currently before the courts on charges including but
(10:33):
not limited to, multiple counts of trespass, aggravated burglary, assault,
aggravated assault, and contravening domestic violence orders, as well as
shoplifting and theft. Now, I keep scratching my head, Minister,
when I hear a people offending while they are on bail.
What is the process in terms of does corrections the
(10:54):
Corrections Department have the opportunity to oppose bail when or
if someone is in their care.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
So, Katie, how it works is the corrections don't oppose bail.
It's the defense lawyers or the prosecution. They work out
what their position is and they put their position to
the judge and then the judge makes it a decision
based on the evidence before and whether the bail should
be granted or not. But in this particular case, it's
very interesting that on the sixth of March, the court
(11:22):
ordered a bail assessment of that particular offender, which was
assessed to go into the First Steps program, which is
bail supported accommodation. He was found not suitable by corrections.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
That report was.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Given to the judge and then the judge still gave
that young fender bail to I think it's to his
mum's or his parents.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So correction said he was not suitable to go on
bail on the sixth of March.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And to their first Step program, which is a bail
supported accommodation in Yarrawanga. It holds there so.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Not suitable to go into that program. I mean, now
that's too high risks. So that's the sixth of March.
I mean, less than a month later, we're in a
situation where a seventy one year old man is in
a critical condition in hospital, allegedly because of this same offender.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
There you go, so ultimately the courts ordered a bail assessment.
The bail assentiment was done by correction. It's very similar
to the one in Alice Springs where the young offender
was going up to the funeral again assessed by Corrections
not suitable and the court still gave him bail. And
then this is a consequence of.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
What is going on here?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, I suppose it's really it's a matter for the court.
You'd have to get the chief judge in to say
is this really two expectations of the community. The process
was followed, bail was opposed by the prosecution, an assessment
was done, found not suitable and still ground.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Do you think that's to the community's expectations.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I don't think it is at all.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
So what can we do, Like, what do you do
to try to minimize this from happening again? Because my
biggest concern here is the victim, right, Like I just
think to myself, there needs to be Yes, there does
need to be programs that young people can undertake to
try to get them on the right track. Nobody would
disp that. But if you've got somebody that you are
concerned that corrections oppose that person being bailed to you know,
(13:08):
a particular facility, and I don't want to talk about
specific so don't want to end up, you know, getting
myself in trouble. But how do you stop this from
happening again, minister? Because it is a woeful situation when
somebody is allegedly on bail and then commits a very
serious crime while on bail.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well, the way around it, Katie is to change the legislation.
Could the court interpret the legislation? The governments make the
legislation and then the courts are forced or interpret it
and at the moment we do have the separation of
powers where the courts do have some discretion and if
they aren't making decisions in line with the community expectations,
it'll be up to us to make sure that the
legislation is very, very strict and very narrow so they
(13:51):
can't have that determination, which is what we'll have to do.
And we make no apologies. We are going to strengthen
the laws and to all the naysayers out there as
they or the too tough, well, this is example why
we make laws to make sure that bail is refused.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Now, before I let you go, Acting Chief Minister, I
do just want to ask you about the situation with
the Darwin Port. It He is looking as though whoever
wins government federally is going to return it to Australian hands,
the Coalition promising to acquire it compulsorily and compensate Langbridge
if an Australian government approved operator isn't found within a
(14:27):
period of time. Labor saying that they'll enter formal negotiations
with potential buyers, building on informal talks, adding the Commonwealth
would intervene if it got to that point. What do
you make of the commitments from both major parties.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well, Dunton came out to darwhen I was with him
when he made that announcement, and he was very clear
that he's going to enter into negotiations and then if
that doesn't occur, he's going to make leigership changes, the
bail proposals, the labour's proposal. I'm not really sure but
that it was just a quick phone call on onto
the ABC maybe for it's got some heads up or something.
I'm not sure, but we don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
What they do. They haven't met with you about it.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
No, So what needs to happen is there needs to
be some certainty. Times are changing across the world. When
it was least years and years ago, I wasn't involved,
but the world has changed in scene. We need to
look forward, not backwards, and we need some certainty either
way and we need to wait to see what happens
on the third of May.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Well, look, we'll all be keeping a close on that,
a really quick one. Somebody we do get this message
like weekly, when are bush camps going to start?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Well, we're working on making a bush camp in Catherine
right now and as we speak we're trying to find
a suitable location and we've got a plan ready to go.
There are some demoundables ready to go, so once we
actually find the suitable location, it will happen quite quickly.
And we're working hard to get it happen because it's
about breaking the cycle, getting these people out into job
ready situations so they can finish their time in prison
(15:51):
and they go out into community as a better person.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Well, Jereed Maylee, the Acting Chief Minister, we will leave
it there. Thank you so much all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Say one thing. They had their first win last week
and I'm excitedly well.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Them and the Dolphins both finally mate, I've got my
red and white skirt on for the Dolphins today, go
the Dolphins and yeah, let's it'll be a fantastic weekend
of footy out there at TiO, no doubt, thousands of
Territorians flocking out there to see Paramatter Eels take on
the Canberra Raiders.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I have my special socks on, oh my paramatter socks.
Good on, my lucky socks. Good on your minister, Thanks
so much for your time this morning.
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