June 21, 2026 • 16 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we know that the Chief Minister is expected to
join a national meeting of Australia's state and territory leaders
today after the Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi confirmed yesterday that
the fuel excise cut is going to be extended for
another month, with petrol and diesel prices sixteen cents per
liter cheaper compared to normal prices in July. Now, in
(00:22):
March alban Easy announced a three month cut to this
fuel excise of thirty two cents per liter. But joining
us in the studio to tell us a little bit
more is the Chief Minister Leafanocchiaro. Good morning to your chief.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good morning Katie and to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Now you're set to join the national leaders meeting this morning.
What's the plan yep.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So the Prime Minister has made a big announcement around
halving the fuel excise and making sure that Territorians and
all Australians have the opportunity to get cheaper fuel at
the bowser. We know for several months now things have
been extraordinarily priced due to obviously the crisis in the
straight of home was so this is really welcome news.
(01:01):
We welcome what the Prime Minister has done and they've
shown great leadership on this fuel issue. And then it'll
be a matter then, of course, of if there's things
that the states and territories can do, and we're very
welcoming and supportive of any action that we can do.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So is there anything that you reckon the Northern Territory
can do?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, we can. We can forego GST, for example.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And you're prepared to do that. Yeah, people would say
we need it in other era.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I know, we need every bloody scent, right, but you know,
so you've got to acknowledge the pain people are feeling
at the pump. This is a temporary, just awful thing
that you can't predict, and you've just got to do
the right thing at times like this. So we're very
happy to, you know, give up a bit of GST for.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
The greater good.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Much.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Oh you wind up being a couple of million, I reckon,
But we'll have to see. And at the end of
the day, if that gives every territory in some relief
until this is all sorted out, then so be it
all right.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So, I mean that'll be the discussion that's had today
and then you'll have that confirmation you reckon by later
this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, definitely, definitely, and I'm sure some media will go
out confirming that so that all Australians can understand what
that looks like.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And so will it really just be extended do you
think until the end of August or around August?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah, I'm not one hundred percent sure on what the
Prime Minister's plans are, but as things improve and go
back to normal, obviously that will reduce.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
All right, well, we'll wait and hear exactly what comes
out of that meeting today. Now let's talk health. I
know that questions last week were being asked about whether
the Northern Territory government's got plans to build a new
major hospital, after the Health Minister, Steve Edgington had confirmed
there are not during this term now. The comments came
despite ongoing concerns about aging infrastructure and pressure on the
(02:44):
health system. During estimate, Steve Edgington revealed that Royal Darwin,
Alice Springs and Catherine Hospitals will not be replaced as
into health as we know, they continue to manage workforce shortages,
rising demand and repeated code yellows, Chief Minister, are we
not building a new hospital at all? Or what is
(03:04):
the situation here.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, so there has been no planning done by the
previous Labor government around this.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So what we have done is we've.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Got Chris Hosking taking a real deep dive into all
health infrastructure across the Northern territory so that we can
create a plan going forward that is really important work
that just doesn't exist and needs to be done, and.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
We certainly acknowledge people's concerns.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We've got the brand new thirty two bed ward that
is just in its commissioning phase. Now we've got the
new mental health ward opening very soon as well, So
there's lots of stuff happening in this space. It just
needs to be pulled together in a comprehensive master plan.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So because I know that some people felt really sort
of disappointed when they heard the Health Minister say that
last week, obviously the opposition jumped on it as you
want if you're an opposition and said, you know, no
new hospital, but is there potential here that there could
be a new tower built or something like that, because
we all understand that there are different areas of the
hospital right now that actually don't need to be that's
(04:05):
run and don't need to be replaced. I mean, you've
got places like the Allen Walker Cancer Center, You've got
the hospice, You've got a whole heap of other areas
out there that are still you know, in good nick.
But there are some areas that literally look like they're
falling apart. Like we had messages coming through last week
where people are sharing bathrooms with four people. I get
it that that might need to happen, but they can't
even lock the bloody door.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah yeah, Look, and you're absolutely right, Katie. So our
entire hospital network, and particularly at Addie Hage, is all
at different stages.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So there's some stuff that is brand new.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I know, the Pediatric's Award, for example, was redone in
the last ten years.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
So it's about and this is the work that mister
Hoskin will do.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It's about where is everything at it its stage of life,
is it repairs and maintenance, is it brand new? What
does that look like? And just I mean, just for
any example. You know, there's a hospital in Sydney that
was built in seventeen eighty five, you know, and it's
still in operational hospital. So Age, we shouldn't be just
about ours fucking make light of it. But we do
(05:03):
need to do a deep dive into what needs to
be done and where we're at, and then what we
can improve on.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Because I mean even things like the air conditioning totally
you know, being a debacle and you just go, all right, well,
how can we make some changes if we don't if
we're not in a position where we can pay to
totally fix it or to knock it down. But so
from what you were saying to us this morning, because
I want to be really clear here because last week,
you know, people were feeling quite upset thinking all right,
(05:30):
no new hospital under this term or no new hospital.
But from what you're saying, there is planning happening under
all the major infrastructure, yes, to work out what's next.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, exactly. So none of that work has been done.
There's no plan in a draw somewhere that we're just
choosing to ignore it. Just there has been no holistic
look at health infrastructure across the territory. And this includes
remote health clinics. For example, we have this real mishmash
of government controlled Aboriginal new controlled organizations. Then some of
(06:01):
them are still owned by NTG. You've got Alice Springs,
Catherine in a flood zone. There's a whole raft of challenges,
so we need to take a really strategic look at it.
And as I said, particularly for ardie H. You know,
you've got Palmerston able to support ardie H in some
context and that's an important part of the puzzle. You've
then got new words coming on, You've got Alan Walker,
and then we've got to look at where needs the
(06:24):
most love, or where.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Needs new bits, or what's next.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I guess still a lot of people listening this morning, though,
they're going to be thinking how do we ever get
there when we've got like a sixty six million dollar
overtime bill last year, which is fair enough, Yeah, yep,
because you know we need those stuff to be able
to operate. It is what it is. But how are
we ever going to get there?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
No, we can, and people should be you know, people
shouldn't be too you know, I don't want people to
be stressed about this. It's a government problem and we've
got to manage it and deal with it. If you
are unwell, please avail yourself of the healthcare. We have
amazing people doing amazing things and despite the pressures on
the seat, and we continue to have really strong recruitment.
(07:02):
It's actually been fantastic to see an increase in frontline workers,
particularly in our nurses and our doctors, and so, you know,
I've never hear anyone say anything bad about the health stuff.
You know, they're just doing a great job in really
difficult circumstances, which is not even unique to the territory.
But we've got to make a plan. That's the very
(07:23):
first stage, yep. And we're starting from scratch. There's nothing
has been done, and so it's a big body of
work and we've just got to chip away at it.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
All right, Chief Minister, a few listener questions, I'll just
take it to one of those morning three sixty ten.
Can you ask the Chief Minister about the cost of
flights in and out of Darwin. If they're willing to
assist motorists with fuel, why not help with the cost
of flights.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
They are absolutely hideous at the moment. It's really scary.
I've just had two staff alone this morning explain to
me family situations that they can't deal with, probably because
of the exorbitant cost of flights. So I absolutely hear
people on that we do through the We have like
a a scheme that supports airlines to come to the
(08:08):
Territory where we can sort of underwrite the cost of seats.
But that and that is working well, but it's not
providing the relief that people know what else can be done?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Here? Are there some levers that the Northern Territory government
can pull? Like I know that we can always call
on the feeds, right, but sure it seems like sometimes
they're not listening. So what can the Northern terre Sometimes
well what can the Northern Territory government do? Because I
guess I always ask what's in your remit?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Well, yeah, that's right, that's right. I mean short of
heavily subsidizing, which is you know, it's it's not my money,
it's tax payers, it's all your listeners. They go to work,
they work hard, they pay tax and we would be
subsidizing people's flights, which we do to an extent to
secure roots and connectivity. It's a really challenging issue that
Minister Carl is leading. We've just actually had error dilly
(08:54):
now doing a dilly Darwin fly. But of course people
are really wanting to get into state, and particular when
family families need you and you need them, you know
you want to be able to not spend two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
You would have seen Matt Cunningham's report last week where
you know it was cheaper to fly from Sydney to
la than what it is to fly into State. I
just wonder, you know, if between you the wa premiere,
you know, the premiere of Queensland where we have really
regional areas where the sit down together and go right,
how can we force some pressure here on these airlines
(09:28):
and get the Prime Minister to come along for the party. Yeah, look, I.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Want absolutely be up for that, Katie. We've seen a
real walking away from regional airlines. I mean, the big
players have a responsibility in this too. It goes back
to that age old discussion about cabotage and whether we
should be allowing international airlines to service some.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Of those routes.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
So it's a huge and important part of living in
the territory is having accessibility and then making that affordable.
So everything's on the table for us, and again Minister
Carl is really spearating that for the government, it's just
extremely unfortunate what is happening.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Well, we're keen to try and get her on the
show tomorrow. Anyway to talk about those delly flights, So
we might see if we can find out more about that. Hey,
I want to ask you these the crime stats, they
came out again on Friday, and they do continue to
show reductions across several major offense categories. Despite the numbers,
there are still territorians that say that they're not feeling
(10:24):
safer and they remain concerned about crime in their communities. Chief,
what do you say to those people. I mean, obviously
these statistics show that crime is trending down, but you know,
like even last night we had a situation where sixteen
year olds trying to steal a car from somebody in Kuram.
There's never going to be no crime, but you've still
got people that are feeling really worried about it. Oh.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Absolutely, And you know this will be a perpetual issue
that we have to continue to keep our number one priority.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
There's no two ways about it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
We have to have a safe community to be able
to thrive, to be able to support people living here,
grow our economy and have good things, so it will
continue to be our number one proty. You're right, the
data is amazing, but we've always said the data is
but one measure, it's people's sentiment. I get a lot
of good feedback from people saying they can see the difference,
but everyone acknowledges there's more work to do. If you
(11:17):
want a data snapshot, we have driven the number of
offenses so this is each individual crime down to twenty
seventeen levels, so we've scraped ten years off the number
offenses happening in the territory. Now. No other juristiction is
going backwards like we are in terms of less offending,
which is great, but there's a lot more work to do.
(11:37):
We acknowledge that, and for example, next week we'll graduate
our first tranch of police public safety offices. You know,
some of them will be heading to Catherine ten and
hours here in Darwin. We've got two more squads this year.
So it just continues to be a work in progress
along with our rule.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Chief someone's just messaged through, Katie, can you please ask
the Chief Minister if O C. Spray is going to
be continued past September. I reckon it will be. We
will review it in September. We're already having a deep
dive into it because it's gone so well.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
We're looking at ways that maybe potentially we could expand it.
Are there are there some measures we could relax, are
there's some measures we need to strengthen. So all of
that is going to be properly looked at, and I'll
have an answer on that definitely before the end of
the year. But I think it's safe to say if
it keeps tracking as well as it has, it will
absolutely be a leegal.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's an interesting one, isn't it, Because there was a
lot of people that had a lot of concerns before
that OC spray rolled out. But it really doesn't seem
to have sort of gotten in the wrong hands, like
people suspected that it might.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Ah, the sky was going to fall down, Katie, it
was going to be the greatest disaster of humankind, and
it hasn't been right. So you know, if you don't
try new things, you won't get different results. And we've
been brave and bold enough to put people's rights to
be saved first and.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
This is a good example of it. Look, there are
a lot of messages coming in this morning. Can you
ask the Chief Minister about all the needles that have
been reported around the hub and also fast food areas
in Palmerston that are yet to be cleaned up. Do
you know much about this?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I don't, but that sounds incredibly concerning and I'll make
sure I follow that up straight after this.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, please do hate a couple of quick ones, couple
of positive ones, supercars on the weekend. How'd it go?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
It was great and our attendance of locals was up,
so four thousand additional locals went this year, so forty
thousand people through the gates, which was amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
We hadn't you reckon that?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Well?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We really wanted to since since coming to government, I
really wanted to refocus on locals. We had the same
number of interstate which is great because they spend money
and it's a great churn through the economy, but I,
you know, locals have to love it and be able
to access it to and I really really wanted people
to be get, you know, fall back in love with supercars,
(13:49):
and so we're doing a lot of work to make
it more more accessible for locals. So that's been really good,
and we'll review it again this year and make it
bigger and better. Next year's actually very exciting. It will
be the first time there's twilight racing.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Do we need lights? Do we need to do some
work out there for it.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, Look, I think I think it's all there.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
No one's mentioned it to me, but Twilight Racing is
locked in, so that would be an additional feature last year.
This year we also had the Monster Trucks and the
only other place in the country that does the Twilight
Race is Sydney, but they don't have the the epic
festival nature of supercars like we do. So this is
a really bucket list motorsport event. We should really drive
up into State tourism next night.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It should be good. Hey, another quick one Territory Day
next week? What is like, what's the government got planned
for this year when it comes to Territory.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Day, Well, hold on to your hats because we have
got John Stevens coming to sing at Mindle Beach and
he'll be singing take Me Back, which I'm sure a
few people will I.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Reckon people will enjoy that.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I'll enjoy that. Being mixed listeners, it's probably the right vintage,
although I reckon you and IK we're waiting that kind
of stuff. We're too cool and young, f fit and amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It's going to be good.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Mindele Beach is going to go off, We're going to
have the flyover. We've got fireworks. Fireworks are all locked in.
Remember last year there had no issues. No, oh golly.
Last year I had to you know, go to war
with my colleagues in New South Wales and Queensland to
get our fireworks across the border. This year, it's all
locked in, fireworks are safe, secure here. We will be
(15:27):
having a great night. And I think for the forty
eight year, I just want everyone to remember we've done
a big push in the schools teaching kids about what
is Territorday, because when you ask a kid, they're usually like, oh,
you let off fireways And I'm saying to.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Them, why why, why why do we do that?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
And to celebrate self government back ups getting through one
hundred percent. I went to Durak School assembly on Friday
and the answers out of those kids was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
They were all.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Dressed up in territory gear, fishing shirts and cowboy hats
and singing the territory song and.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Oh, it's just beautiful.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's it's really important to be proud of where we
are as a jurisdiction. You know, only forty eight years
ago we had our own flat, we had our own parliament,
and we're still on a journey one day to statehood.
I really believe in that, Katie, So I want everyone
to think of y day as our birthday and let
off a cracker for the fact that we are. We
are fantastic and we don't need people in Camberra telling
us what to do. We can look after us here.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, here, here, well, Chief Minister Leah Finocchiaro, we better
leave it there. Good to catch up with you. Thank you,
as always for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Take care everyone,
And we know that the Chief Minister is expected to
join a national meeting of Australia's state and territory leaders
today after the Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi confirmed yesterday that
the fuel excise cut is going to be extended for
another month, with petrol and diesel prices sixteen cents per
liter cheaper compared to normal prices in July. Now, in
(00:22):
March alban Easy announced a three month cut to this
fuel excise of thirty two cents per liter. But joining
us in the studio to tell us a little bit
more is the Chief Minister Leafanocchiaro. Good morning to your chief.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good morning Katie and to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Now you're set to join the national leaders meeting this morning.
What's the plan yep.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So the Prime Minister has made a big announcement around
halving the fuel excise and making sure that Territorians and
all Australians have the opportunity to get cheaper fuel at
the bowser. We know for several months now things have
been extraordinarily priced due to obviously the crisis in the
straight of home was so this is really welcome news.
(01:01):
We welcome what the Prime Minister has done and they've
shown great leadership on this fuel issue. And then it'll
be a matter then, of course, of if there's things
that the states and territories can do, and we're very
welcoming and supportive of any action that we can do.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So is there anything that you reckon the Northern Territory
can do?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, we can. We can forego GST, for example.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And you're prepared to do that. Yeah, people would say
we need it in other era.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I know, we need every bloody scent, right, but you know,
so you've got to acknowledge the pain people are feeling
at the pump. This is a temporary, just awful thing
that you can't predict, and you've just got to do
the right thing at times like this. So we're very
happy to, you know, give up a bit of GST for.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
The greater good.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Much.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Oh you wind up being a couple of million, I reckon,
But we'll have to see. And at the end of
the day, if that gives every territory in some relief
until this is all sorted out, then so be it
all right.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So, I mean that'll be the discussion that's had today
and then you'll have that confirmation you reckon by later
this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, definitely, definitely, and I'm sure some media will go
out confirming that so that all Australians can understand what
that looks like.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And so will it really just be extended do you
think until the end of August or around August?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah, I'm not one hundred percent sure on what the
Prime Minister's plans are, but as things improve and go
back to normal, obviously that will reduce.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
All right, well, we'll wait and hear exactly what comes
out of that meeting today. Now let's talk health. I
know that questions last week were being asked about whether
the Northern Territory government's got plans to build a new
major hospital, after the Health Minister, Steve Edgington had confirmed
there are not during this term now. The comments came
despite ongoing concerns about aging infrastructure and pressure on the
(02:44):
health system. During estimate, Steve Edgington revealed that Royal Darwin,
Alice Springs and Catherine Hospitals will not be replaced as
into health as we know, they continue to manage workforce shortages,
rising demand and repeated code yellows, Chief Minister, are we
not building a new hospital at all? Or what is
(03:04):
the situation here.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, so there has been no planning done by the
previous Labor government around this.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So what we have done is we've.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Got Chris Hosking taking a real deep dive into all
health infrastructure across the Northern territory so that we can
create a plan going forward that is really important work
that just doesn't exist and needs to be done, and.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
We certainly acknowledge people's concerns.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We've got the brand new thirty two bed ward that
is just in its commissioning phase. Now we've got the
new mental health ward opening very soon as well, So
there's lots of stuff happening in this space. It just
needs to be pulled together in a comprehensive master plan.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So because I know that some people felt really sort
of disappointed when they heard the Health Minister say that
last week, obviously the opposition jumped on it as you
want if you're an opposition and said, you know, no
new hospital, but is there potential here that there could
be a new tower built or something like that, because
we all understand that there are different areas of the
hospital right now that actually don't need to be that's
(04:05):
run and don't need to be replaced. I mean, you've
got places like the Allen Walker Cancer Center, You've got
the hospice, You've got a whole heap of other areas
out there that are still you know, in good nick.
But there are some areas that literally look like they're
falling apart. Like we had messages coming through last week
where people are sharing bathrooms with four people. I get
it that that might need to happen, but they can't
even lock the bloody door.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah yeah, Look, and you're absolutely right, Katie. So our
entire hospital network, and particularly at Addie Hage, is all
at different stages.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So there's some stuff that is brand new.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I know, the Pediatric's Award, for example, was redone in
the last ten years.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
So it's about and this is the work that mister
Hoskin will do.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It's about where is everything at it its stage of life,
is it repairs and maintenance, is it brand new? What
does that look like? And just I mean, just for
any example. You know, there's a hospital in Sydney that
was built in seventeen eighty five, you know, and it's
still in operational hospital. So Age, we shouldn't be just
about ours fucking make light of it. But we do
(05:03):
need to do a deep dive into what needs to
be done and where we're at, and then what we
can improve on.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Because I mean even things like the air conditioning totally
you know, being a debacle and you just go, all right, well,
how can we make some changes if we don't if
we're not in a position where we can pay to
totally fix it or to knock it down. But so
from what you were saying to us this morning, because
I want to be really clear here because last week,
you know, people were feeling quite upset thinking all right,
(05:30):
no new hospital under this term or no new hospital.
But from what you're saying, there is planning happening under
all the major infrastructure, yes, to work out what's next.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, exactly. So none of that work has been done.
There's no plan in a draw somewhere that we're just
choosing to ignore it. Just there has been no holistic
look at health infrastructure across the territory. And this includes
remote health clinics. For example, we have this real mishmash
of government controlled Aboriginal new controlled organizations. Then some of
(06:01):
them are still owned by NTG. You've got Alice Springs,
Catherine in a flood zone. There's a whole raft of challenges,
so we need to take a really strategic look at it.
And as I said, particularly for ardie H. You know,
you've got Palmerston able to support ardie H in some
context and that's an important part of the puzzle. You've
then got new words coming on, You've got Alan Walker,
and then we've got to look at where needs the
(06:24):
most love, or where.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Needs new bits, or what's next.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I guess still a lot of people listening this morning, though,
they're going to be thinking how do we ever get
there when we've got like a sixty six million dollar
overtime bill last year, which is fair enough, Yeah, yep,
because you know we need those stuff to be able
to operate. It is what it is. But how are
we ever going to get there?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
No, we can, and people should be you know, people
shouldn't be too you know, I don't want people to
be stressed about this. It's a government problem and we've
got to manage it and deal with it. If you
are unwell, please avail yourself of the healthcare. We have
amazing people doing amazing things and despite the pressures on
the seat, and we continue to have really strong recruitment.
(07:02):
It's actually been fantastic to see an increase in frontline workers,
particularly in our nurses and our doctors, and so, you know,
I've never hear anyone say anything bad about the health stuff.
You know, they're just doing a great job in really
difficult circumstances, which is not even unique to the territory.
But we've got to make a plan. That's the very
(07:23):
first stage, yep. And we're starting from scratch. There's nothing
has been done, and so it's a big body of
work and we've just got to chip away at it.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
All right, Chief Minister, a few listener questions, I'll just
take it to one of those morning three sixty ten.
Can you ask the Chief Minister about the cost of
flights in and out of Darwin. If they're willing to
assist motorists with fuel, why not help with the cost
of flights.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
They are absolutely hideous at the moment. It's really scary.
I've just had two staff alone this morning explain to
me family situations that they can't deal with, probably because
of the exorbitant cost of flights. So I absolutely hear
people on that we do through the We have like
a a scheme that supports airlines to come to the
(08:08):
Territory where we can sort of underwrite the cost of seats.
But that and that is working well, but it's not
providing the relief that people know what else can be done?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Here? Are there some levers that the Northern Territory government
can pull? Like I know that we can always call
on the feeds, right, but sure it seems like sometimes
they're not listening. So what can the Northern terre Sometimes
well what can the Northern Territory government do? Because I
guess I always ask what's in your remit?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Well, yeah, that's right, that's right. I mean short of
heavily subsidizing, which is you know, it's it's not my money,
it's tax payers, it's all your listeners. They go to work,
they work hard, they pay tax and we would be
subsidizing people's flights, which we do to an extent to
secure roots and connectivity. It's a really challenging issue that
Minister Carl is leading. We've just actually had error dilly
(08:54):
now doing a dilly Darwin fly. But of course people
are really wanting to get into state, and particular when
family families need you and you need them, you know
you want to be able to not spend two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
You would have seen Matt Cunningham's report last week where
you know it was cheaper to fly from Sydney to
la than what it is to fly into State. I
just wonder, you know, if between you the wa premiere,
you know, the premiere of Queensland where we have really
regional areas where the sit down together and go right,
how can we force some pressure here on these airlines
(09:28):
and get the Prime Minister to come along for the party. Yeah, look, I.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Want absolutely be up for that, Katie. We've seen a
real walking away from regional airlines. I mean, the big
players have a responsibility in this too. It goes back
to that age old discussion about cabotage and whether we
should be allowing international airlines to service some.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Of those routes.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
So it's a huge and important part of living in
the territory is having accessibility and then making that affordable.
So everything's on the table for us, and again Minister
Carl is really spearating that for the government, it's just
extremely unfortunate what is happening.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Well, we're keen to try and get her on the
show tomorrow. Anyway to talk about those delly flights, So
we might see if we can find out more about that. Hey,
I want to ask you these the crime stats, they
came out again on Friday, and they do continue to
show reductions across several major offense categories. Despite the numbers,
there are still territorians that say that they're not feeling
(10:24):
safer and they remain concerned about crime in their communities. Chief,
what do you say to those people. I mean, obviously
these statistics show that crime is trending down, but you know,
like even last night we had a situation where sixteen
year olds trying to steal a car from somebody in Kuram.
There's never going to be no crime, but you've still
got people that are feeling really worried about it. Oh.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Absolutely, And you know this will be a perpetual issue
that we have to continue to keep our number one priority.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
There's no two ways about it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
We have to have a safe community to be able
to thrive, to be able to support people living here,
grow our economy and have good things, so it will
continue to be our number one proty. You're right, the
data is amazing, but we've always said the data is
but one measure, it's people's sentiment. I get a lot
of good feedback from people saying they can see the difference,
but everyone acknowledges there's more work to do. If you
(11:17):
want a data snapshot, we have driven the number of
offenses so this is each individual crime down to twenty
seventeen levels, so we've scraped ten years off the number
offenses happening in the territory. Now. No other juristiction is
going backwards like we are in terms of less offending,
which is great, but there's a lot more work to do.
(11:37):
We acknowledge that, and for example, next week we'll graduate
our first tranch of police public safety offices. You know,
some of them will be heading to Catherine ten and
hours here in Darwin. We've got two more squads this year.
So it just continues to be a work in progress
along with our rule.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Chief someone's just messaged through, Katie, can you please ask
the Chief Minister if O C. Spray is going to
be continued past September. I reckon it will be. We
will review it in September. We're already having a deep
dive into it because it's gone so well.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
We're looking at ways that maybe potentially we could expand it.
Are there are there some measures we could relax, are
there's some measures we need to strengthen. So all of
that is going to be properly looked at, and I'll
have an answer on that definitely before the end of
the year. But I think it's safe to say if
it keeps tracking as well as it has, it will
absolutely be a leegal.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's an interesting one, isn't it, Because there was a
lot of people that had a lot of concerns before
that OC spray rolled out. But it really doesn't seem
to have sort of gotten in the wrong hands, like
people suspected that it might.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Ah, the sky was going to fall down, Katie, it
was going to be the greatest disaster of humankind, and
it hasn't been right. So you know, if you don't
try new things, you won't get different results. And we've
been brave and bold enough to put people's rights to
be saved first and.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
This is a good example of it. Look, there are
a lot of messages coming in this morning. Can you
ask the Chief Minister about all the needles that have
been reported around the hub and also fast food areas
in Palmerston that are yet to be cleaned up. Do
you know much about this?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I don't, but that sounds incredibly concerning and I'll make
sure I follow that up straight after this.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, please do hate a couple of quick ones, couple
of positive ones, supercars on the weekend. How'd it go?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
It was great and our attendance of locals was up,
so four thousand additional locals went this year, so forty
thousand people through the gates, which was amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
We hadn't you reckon that?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Well?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We really wanted to since since coming to government, I
really wanted to refocus on locals. We had the same
number of interstate which is great because they spend money
and it's a great churn through the economy, but I,
you know, locals have to love it and be able
to access it to and I really really wanted people
to be get, you know, fall back in love with supercars,
(13:49):
and so we're doing a lot of work to make
it more more accessible for locals. So that's been really good,
and we'll review it again this year and make it
bigger and better. Next year's actually very exciting. It will
be the first time there's twilight racing.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Do we need lights? Do we need to do some
work out there for it.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, Look, I think I think it's all there.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
No one's mentioned it to me, but Twilight Racing is
locked in, so that would be an additional feature last year.
This year we also had the Monster Trucks and the
only other place in the country that does the Twilight
Race is Sydney, but they don't have the the epic
festival nature of supercars like we do. So this is
a really bucket list motorsport event. We should really drive
up into State tourism next night.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It should be good. Hey, another quick one Territory Day
next week? What is like, what's the government got planned
for this year when it comes to Territory.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Day, Well, hold on to your hats because we have
got John Stevens coming to sing at Mindle Beach and
he'll be singing take Me Back, which I'm sure a
few people will I.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Reckon people will enjoy that.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I'll enjoy that. Being mixed listeners, it's probably the right vintage,
although I reckon you and IK we're waiting that kind
of stuff. We're too cool and young, f fit and amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It's going to be good.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Mindele Beach is going to go off, We're going to
have the flyover. We've got fireworks. Fireworks are all locked in.
Remember last year there had no issues. No, oh golly.
Last year I had to you know, go to war
with my colleagues in New South Wales and Queensland to
get our fireworks across the border. This year, it's all
locked in, fireworks are safe, secure here. We will be
(15:27):
having a great night. And I think for the forty
eight year, I just want everyone to remember we've done
a big push in the schools teaching kids about what
is Territorday, because when you ask a kid, they're usually like, oh,
you let off fireways And I'm saying to.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Them, why why, why why do we do that?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
And to celebrate self government back ups getting through one
hundred percent. I went to Durak School assembly on Friday
and the answers out of those kids was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
They were all.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Dressed up in territory gear, fishing shirts and cowboy hats
and singing the territory song and.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Oh, it's just beautiful.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's it's really important to be proud of where we
are as a jurisdiction. You know, only forty eight years
ago we had our own flat, we had our own parliament,
and we're still on a journey one day to statehood.
I really believe in that, Katie, So I want everyone
to think of y day as our birthday and let
off a cracker for the fact that we are. We
are fantastic and we don't need people in Camberra telling
us what to do. We can look after us here.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, here, here, well, Chief Minister Leah Finocchiaro, we better
leave it there. Good to catch up with you. Thank you,
as always for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Take care everyone,
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