Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A teenager is in a serious condition after he was
stabbed at the Royal Darwin Show, with the alleged defender
now in custody. The Northern Territory Police said the boy,
aged fifteen, was assaulted with a knife by another fifteen
year old boy at the showgrounds after an altercation. Now
a spokesperson said the alleged defender fled the scene after
(00:20):
that incident took place at about eight twenty on Saturday.
Police and Saint John Ambulance attended. The victim was conveyed
to Royal Darwin Hospital in a serious condition. By ten pm,
the alleged defender was located and is in custody. Now
joining me in the studio is the Chief Minister Leofanocchio.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Good morning to.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
You, Good morning Cannie, in to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Chief Minister, Yet another occasion where you and I sit
in this studio and talk about horrendous crime. I mean
the latest filent attack happening at the show, a place
where teenagers and families should be able to go and
to enjoy themselves. What was your reaction when you heard
that this teenager had been stabbed inside show?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Ali, Oh, it's absolutely terrifying.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Katie, and you just think about the family, you know,
all sorts of thoughts run through your head. You think
about all the people who were there who would have
witnessed it, or people who would have just been just
been there earlier or were going later. I mean, this
is the Royal Darwin Show. It should be a place
of absolute fun. You should be more worried about eating
fairy floss and how you're going to squeeze the most
out of the money you have to go on rides,
(01:25):
not about whether or not you're safe.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So this is not normal behavior.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
It shows just how weak labor was over that last decade.
I mean, these fifteen year olds were just little kids
when labor came in. And ultimately the behavior is unacceptable
and so thank our police. I mean they responded, were
able to apprehend the alleged defender very quickly, which is
excellent police work. But we now have a victim and
(01:52):
a community traumatized and again wondering when is enough enough?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Do you know if the alleged defender or any of
those involved were on bail.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
I don't have any of that information, I'm sorry, Katie,
but irrespective, I mean, they you know, it's disgraceful behavior.
And so this week in Parliament we've got an opportunity
to pass our youth justice reforms and that first trench
that we've been talking about for many, many months with
your listeners, Katie.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
So we're going to do that urgently now.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Rather than just read out what it's about this week
and then wait till September, we're just going to get
the whole thing done this week. We'll be briefing the
Independence and the and the Opposition today so they'll know
what it's all about. It's largely election commitments anyway, but
this is just what.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Exactly are we going to see changed yep.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So this is about some of our election commitments.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
So we're going to now have mandatory diversions, so if
a young person is diverted, they must do it or
they will end up back in court. Whereas under Labour's diversion,
kids could opt.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
In, opt out, do nothing. It was just a mess.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It's mandatory mandatory yep.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Absolutely as of this week, so we're going to we're
going to push that through the whole The whole bill
will be done by Thursday. So we're also removing detention
as last resorts, so for our police and for our courts.
Labor made it so that every other option you could
think of had to be exhausted before you arrested a
person or put them into prison, whereas we're taking that
(03:16):
away because courts and police need much stronger discretion on
exercising their judgment about whether or not someone is a
risk to the community, so detention as last resort is going.
If detention is required, it will happen. We're also making
sure that embedded in the system is the impact on
the victim, because victims have been forgotten about for far
(03:37):
too long, and now the courts will once we pass
these laws, the courts will have to give much greater
weight to the victim and the impact on the victim,
which I think is very very powerful. It will also
make sure we've moved youth justice out of territory families
and into corrections, so it will give our hard working
youth justice officers all of the powers and support they
(03:58):
need to protect themselves, protect the detainees, and maintain you know,
order in the facility.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I mean in the situation on the weekend. With any
of the changes that you are introducing on urgency to
Parliament this week would any of them have made a difference.
Do you think in the situation that we saw on
the weekend.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Those ones I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
But as what we're also doing is I announced a
little while ago, maybe a month ago now, about the
thirteen prescribed defenses that we're adding to the list so
that police don't have to.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
What do you call it, divert.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Somewhere so that may or may not have had an
impact on the outcome of this. You know, it's really
hard to sort of speak in a specific instance with
what we're proposing, but certainly what this does is give
much greater powers and flexibility, not just to our detention systems,
but to our police, which is what we're really focused.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I mean, you are copying a lot of flak from
some in the community. I mean, even this morning, the
Office of the Children's Commissioner say that they acknowledge reports
of the serious incident that occurred at the Darwin Show
on Saturday evening, but they do not condone violence in
any form, and that everybody in the community has the
right to feel safe and attend community activities without fear
(05:15):
for their safety. But the Office of the Children's Commissioners
say that they support evidence based approaches to legislative reform
and the development of crime prevention initiatives that address crime safety,
and the rewrite of the Youth Justice Act is a
crucial opportunity to contemporize legislation or legislative approaches that guide
(05:36):
the rehabilitation of children in contact with the youth justice
system whilst balancing community safety objectives. Now, I think you've
got a tough juggle on your hands at the moment
because you have got different groups coming out saying, you know,
you're not going down the evidence based approach, but then
you've got the community screaming at you that you need
to fix this crime. Yesterday, people have had an absolute
(05:59):
gun like as the parent of a teenage child that
half of their friends write the show on Saturday night,
I am utterly appalled that kids are growing up in
a community where they have to worry about somebody being
stabbed where they are at the show, they have to
worry about being belted when they catch a bus. These
(06:22):
are the realities of other children living in our community
at the moment.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
And that's exactly right, Katie.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
And you know what we stand with the everyday territorian
who just wants to leave work and love being Territorian.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
The rest of it is just noise and I'm super
not interested.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Katie put it that way.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I mean, the Children's Commissioner can come out and say
things like, oh yeah, we know everyone should be safe,
but and the land councils can come out and call
me racist and whatever else they want to carry on about.
At the end of the day, I'm standing here because
I'm the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. Because everyday
Territorians put me here, Katie, and they gave me important
job to do, and I'm telling you now we're doing
(07:02):
that job. So the noisy people and the apologists and
the activists they can pack up their placards and go home.
We're not listening to you. We're listening to people who
want to be safe. We're listening to our police and
we see a better future for the territory. And if
your evidence approached worked, we wouldn't be talking about this
right now, because I tell you what, For a decade
I sat in Parliament and listened to Labor bang on
(07:24):
about evidence based approach and where has it got us
in the worst possible position that we've ever been in before,
so you can take that as well with your black heart.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And find somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I mean in the situation though with the land councils.
You've literally got the Northern territories for Aboriginal land councils
joining forces last week accusing the government of overt racism,
and I mean the numbers in terms of incarceration really
do raise questions in terms of, you know, the level
of Indigenous incarceration that we have got, like how how
(07:59):
do you deal with this? And how do you you know, look,
at the end of the day, you actually need those
land councils on board as well to try and not
only create opportunities for people in community, but to try
to sort the issues out with crime.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, you do.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
And so if they spend their time doing what a
land counsel's job is and less worrying less about my job,
and everyone just went and did their actual job, the
territory might be moving forward.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So how do you think they're not try?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
I think there are more people commentating than putting their
shoulder to the wheel. And if everyone just put their
shoulder to the will, we might move forward. So you know,
it's very very cheap politics to go to race. It's
the lowest form of political exchange, so I'm not interested
in it, Katie. At the end of the day, the
law is colorblind. It doesn't know what religion you are,
it doesn't know you know anything about you. It's applied
(08:48):
equally and it's about doing the right thing.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Now.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Yes, our Aboriginal incarceration rates are huge, it's appalling. But
does that mean if an Aboriginal person doesn't breaks the
law that we don't arrest them. Does it mean we
don't send an Aboriginal person to prison because they're Aborridginal.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
That's just not how law.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I mean, are you concerns about Are you concerned though
about the claims from the Northern Land Council seat or chair,
For example, Matthew Ryan telling the media that we have
high numbers of incarceration, no opportunities of economic development and
that it's a failure of the government. He said, we've
had enough and we want to be heard.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Well, the land councilors are really responsible for economic development.
I mean, it's most Territorians can't believe that if you're
a traditional owner, you can't even own your home, you
can't even own your block. You can't open a bakery
on a community. You can't do anything because of the
way that all of the land issues are structured. So
I encourage the land councils. We want to work with them,
and I've met with the land councils a couple of times,
(09:47):
and we're very focused on that economic development component. We
want them doing the approvals processes fastest so that Aboriginal
people can have jobs on country, they can run businesses
on country.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Opportunity is endless.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
But if we sit here talking about opportunity, we'll all
be dead and nothing will have happened.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So do you think the land councils are holding things up.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Well, they have a very important role to play. Again,
it's easy to throw stones at someone else. It's not
easy to do your actual job. And if they go
do theirs and I do mine and everyone else does theirs,
the territory will move forward.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
But these are long standing issues. I mean, we've been
in government for eleven months.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Labour's solution to Aboriginal high rates of Aboriginal incarceration was
just to weaken the laws so that less people went
to prison.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
But crime is out of control.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
We must have a safe community first.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Chief Minister, do you think the changes that you are
making when it comes to crime are racist?
Speaker 4 (10:40):
No, it's just not possible to happen. You make a
law and it applies to everyone. And I said this
till I'm blue in the face, Katie, and absolutely I
can't believe it. As Chief Minister, I have to say this.
But if you do the right thing, you're all good.
We're not running around throwing people in patty wagons and
arresting people and sending it a prison for you know,
(11:01):
just going about their everyday life.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
One of the other claims that the Land Council's made
at that press conference last week was well, they called
for the federal government to ordit the Northern Territory government
spending on our boriginal affairs, claiming the Northern Territory government
was profiting from the disadvantage of impoverished communities. Would you
welcome and order or do you already have to ordit
the books exactly?
Speaker 4 (11:23):
I mean this again is hilarious because I'm pretty sure
it was Senator Price who was saying that the Land
Councils needed to be audited and the federal government wouldn't
do that. So maybe the federal government can order the
land councils. We're certainly going through all of the territory
spend and looking at who's got what contracts, what are
they meant to be doing, what are the KPIs. We've
been trying to get the federal government to do the
(11:43):
same thing. So when very happy for this process. There
is only so much money we need it to be
hitting the ground.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It has to be and like this is the thing,
you know, we have got a situation where we need
opportunities in communities. People need to be able to have
job opportunities, to have prospects, to.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
To you know, to to you know, contribute.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, and there are a number of wonderful locations
that actually operate with some great opportunities for Indigenous people.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Huge, there's huge opportunity.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
You think about the Beterloo, you think about the mining opportunities.
These are all real jobs on country agricultural opportunities. I mean,
the Tiwi Islands are really you know, pro economic development,
and their land council and their ts are really keen
to see more happening. So again we can talk about
opportunity to a blue in the face, but the people
who have to do the approvals and get things moving.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Need to honor the wishes of the people on the ground.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
You've finister, just stepping back a moment and going back
to the issue of crime, do you feel as though
the Land Councils need to do more to support the
government in that space.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Well, we'll do what we need to do to run
the Northern territory. All we want from the Land Councils
is to be part of the solution to move the
territory forward. So their role isn't necessarily a direct crime role,
but obviously they have extremely strong elected Aboriginal leadership across
the territory, so their voice is very very powerful. And equally,
(13:11):
their opportunity to grow economies in.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
The Bush is extremely important.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
So we want to work with them to deliver those
outcomes for Aboriginal people on their land and for all
people wanting to develop the territory, because we must economically advance,
like we absolutely must. It is that at crisis point,
and until we do that, you know we're going to
keep going backwards.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
All right. I want to move along because obviously the
press conference with the Land Councils was happening last Thursday.
Now It was the same day that a man was
being sentenced to five and a half years in prison
for the sexual assault of a four year.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Old girl in Tenant Creek. Now.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
According to the report by Matt Cunningham from Sky News,
the man received a head sentence of eight years with
a non parole period of five years and six months
self depleting guilty to sexually assaulting the four year old
girl in Fbuy last year. Now, I'll take our listeners
through some of this detail and I'll want to warn
you that it's shocking. The Northern Territory Supreme Court heard
(14:10):
the little girl was unsupervised down the street and was
approached by the offender. He put his arm around the
victim's shoulder and held her hand before leading her into
the backyard of a home. The offender heard the girl's
aunt calling out for her, but he told her that
she was being looked after by another woman inside the house.
He then returned to the backyard where he sexually assaulted
(14:32):
the girl. Now, the court heard the offender and the
four year old girl were alone under the tree for
almost five hours between about midnight and five am. He
continued to assault her while she was crying and calling
out for help. The situation's absolutely horrific. In my opinion,
(14:53):
the nation should be horrified. We should all be utterly
horrified that this happened to a little girl here in
the Northern Territory.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Were you aware of this situation.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah, it's just absolutely horrific, Katie, And it makes you sick,
to be honest, it absolutely makes you sick. And this
is why we have to continue to do what we're doing.
Everyone deserves to live in a safe environment. Our young
people deserve to be protected of ove all else. It's
why we're doing a lot of work in the children
and family space around family responsibility, about changing the way
(15:30):
the Child Protection Act works to actually be child focused
of what is in the best.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Interests of the child. And it's just despicable and disgusting, Katie.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
It is like there's no other way to put it now.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Justice Blockland said that there would be long lasting social
and emotional harm to the girl and said that she
hoped that she received the support that she needed to
overcome her trauma. She said offending of this kind causes
great alarm in the community and added it makes members
of the community wonder who would possibly offend in this
(16:04):
grotesque way, and what kind of person would do this?
Like I'm asking myself the same question and wondering how
on earth this kind of disgusting offending can be stopped,
because let's not forget tenant creeks the same location just
a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
We're a little two year old.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Yeah exactly, and we keep hearing about you know, these
things do keep happening, Katie, And at the end of
the day, you know, there are some very very unwell
people out there, but you know, we have to do
everything we can to protect the vulnerable. We have to
make sure our community is safe, our police are well resourced,
(16:42):
and you know, it's just it's just a very tragic
outcome and we certainly want to see that young girl
get the full support she needs.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Okay, I'm going to move along. We're very pressed for time.
I want to ask you. We know Parliament is sitting
as we just discussed in terms of the youth legislation,
but do you know if there's been any update on
the situation that the Attorney General, Marie Clear Boothby had told.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Us about last week.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
The courts are going to be extended to sit on
Saturdays but she said that some legislation will need to
be passed urgently for that to happen. Do you know
if that legislation, if that's happening this week or.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Is a little further along.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Unfortunately we can't have it ready in time, but we're
really excited about this piece of reform. Obviously, we've done
a lot of work around laws, a lot of work
around corrections, and we've done a lot of work around courts,
but courts still continues to be a bit of a
blockage point for the system, and you need all three
working really well. So we've properly funded legal aid, we've
got some other things happening. But if we can get
(17:39):
longer court hours or weekend courts rolling, that will mean
as we can churn through that backlog of remand now
that remind we inherited, and so we're actually chipping away
at it through our Tiger Task Force, which is designed
to go in for early resolution. So we have been
really I think we've successfully resolved two hundred matters to
take some of that backlog, but there's plenty there and
(18:02):
there's no shortage of people committing crime, so obviously we
keep adding to the pile but to see that change
in our courts will be really good. And if we've
got to pass laws, we'll get it happening and it'll
be done.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Chief Minister. We'll leave it there. Thank you, as always
for your time.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Thank you everyone. Take care,
A teenager is in a serious condition after he was
stabbed at the Royal Darwin Show, with the alleged defender
now in custody. The Northern Territory Police said the boy,
aged fifteen, was assaulted with a knife by another fifteen
year old boy at the showgrounds after an altercation. Now
a spokesperson said the alleged defender fled the scene after
(00:20):
that incident took place at about eight twenty on Saturday.
Police and Saint John Ambulance attended. The victim was conveyed
to Royal Darwin Hospital in a serious condition. By ten pm,
the alleged defender was located and is in custody. Now
joining me in the studio is the Chief Minister Leofanocchio.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Good morning to.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
You, Good morning Cannie, in to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Chief Minister, Yet another occasion where you and I sit
in this studio and talk about horrendous crime. I mean
the latest filent attack happening at the show, a place
where teenagers and families should be able to go and
to enjoy themselves. What was your reaction when you heard
that this teenager had been stabbed inside show?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Ali, Oh, it's absolutely terrifying.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Katie, and you just think about the family, you know,
all sorts of thoughts run through your head. You think
about all the people who were there who would have
witnessed it, or people who would have just been just
been there earlier or were going later. I mean, this
is the Royal Darwin Show. It should be a place
of absolute fun. You should be more worried about eating
fairy floss and how you're going to squeeze the most
out of the money you have to go on rides,
(01:25):
not about whether or not you're safe.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So this is not normal behavior.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
It shows just how weak labor was over that last decade.
I mean, these fifteen year olds were just little kids
when labor came in. And ultimately the behavior is unacceptable
and so thank our police. I mean they responded, were
able to apprehend the alleged defender very quickly, which is
excellent police work. But we now have a victim and
(01:52):
a community traumatized and again wondering when is enough enough?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Do you know if the alleged defender or any of
those involved were on bail.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
I don't have any of that information, I'm sorry, Katie,
but irrespective, I mean, they you know, it's disgraceful behavior.
And so this week in Parliament we've got an opportunity
to pass our youth justice reforms and that first trench
that we've been talking about for many, many months with
your listeners, Katie.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
So we're going to do that urgently now.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Rather than just read out what it's about this week
and then wait till September, we're just going to get
the whole thing done this week. We'll be briefing the
Independence and the and the Opposition today so they'll know
what it's all about. It's largely election commitments anyway, but
this is just what.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Exactly are we going to see changed yep.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So this is about some of our election commitments.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
So we're going to now have mandatory diversions, so if
a young person is diverted, they must do it or
they will end up back in court. Whereas under Labour's diversion,
kids could opt.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
In, opt out, do nothing. It was just a mess.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It's mandatory mandatory yep.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Absolutely as of this week, so we're going to we're
going to push that through the whole The whole bill
will be done by Thursday. So we're also removing detention
as last resorts, so for our police and for our courts.
Labor made it so that every other option you could
think of had to be exhausted before you arrested a
person or put them into prison, whereas we're taking that
(03:16):
away because courts and police need much stronger discretion on
exercising their judgment about whether or not someone is a
risk to the community, so detention as last resort is going.
If detention is required, it will happen. We're also making
sure that embedded in the system is the impact on
the victim, because victims have been forgotten about for far
(03:37):
too long, and now the courts will once we pass
these laws, the courts will have to give much greater
weight to the victim and the impact on the victim,
which I think is very very powerful. It will also
make sure we've moved youth justice out of territory families
and into corrections, so it will give our hard working
youth justice officers all of the powers and support they
(03:58):
need to protect themselves, protect the detainees, and maintain you know,
order in the facility.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I mean in the situation on the weekend. With any
of the changes that you are introducing on urgency to
Parliament this week would any of them have made a difference.
Do you think in the situation that we saw on
the weekend.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Those ones I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
But as what we're also doing is I announced a
little while ago, maybe a month ago now, about the
thirteen prescribed defenses that we're adding to the list so
that police don't have to.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
What do you call it, divert.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Somewhere so that may or may not have had an
impact on the outcome of this. You know, it's really
hard to sort of speak in a specific instance with
what we're proposing, but certainly what this does is give
much greater powers and flexibility, not just to our detention systems,
but to our police, which is what we're really focused.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I mean, you are copying a lot of flak from
some in the community. I mean, even this morning, the
Office of the Children's Commissioner say that they acknowledge reports
of the serious incident that occurred at the Darwin Show
on Saturday evening, but they do not condone violence in
any form, and that everybody in the community has the
right to feel safe and attend community activities without fear
(05:15):
for their safety. But the Office of the Children's Commissioners
say that they support evidence based approaches to legislative reform
and the development of crime prevention initiatives that address crime safety,
and the rewrite of the Youth Justice Act is a
crucial opportunity to contemporize legislation or legislative approaches that guide
(05:36):
the rehabilitation of children in contact with the youth justice
system whilst balancing community safety objectives. Now, I think you've
got a tough juggle on your hands at the moment
because you have got different groups coming out saying, you know,
you're not going down the evidence based approach, but then
you've got the community screaming at you that you need
to fix this crime. Yesterday, people have had an absolute
(05:59):
gun like as the parent of a teenage child that
half of their friends write the show on Saturday night,
I am utterly appalled that kids are growing up in
a community where they have to worry about somebody being
stabbed where they are at the show, they have to
worry about being belted when they catch a bus. These
(06:22):
are the realities of other children living in our community
at the moment.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
And that's exactly right, Katie.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
And you know what we stand with the everyday territorian
who just wants to leave work and love being Territorian.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
The rest of it is just noise and I'm super
not interested.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Katie put it that way.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I mean, the Children's Commissioner can come out and say
things like, oh yeah, we know everyone should be safe,
but and the land councils can come out and call
me racist and whatever else they want to carry on about.
At the end of the day, I'm standing here because
I'm the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. Because everyday
Territorians put me here, Katie, and they gave me important
job to do, and I'm telling you now we're doing
(07:02):
that job. So the noisy people and the apologists and
the activists they can pack up their placards and go home.
We're not listening to you. We're listening to people who
want to be safe. We're listening to our police and
we see a better future for the territory. And if
your evidence approached worked, we wouldn't be talking about this
right now, because I tell you what, For a decade
I sat in Parliament and listened to Labor bang on
(07:24):
about evidence based approach and where has it got us
in the worst possible position that we've ever been in before,
so you can take that as well with your black heart.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And find somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I mean in the situation though with the land councils.
You've literally got the Northern territories for Aboriginal land councils
joining forces last week accusing the government of overt racism,
and I mean the numbers in terms of incarceration really
do raise questions in terms of, you know, the level
of Indigenous incarceration that we have got, like how how
(07:59):
do you deal with this? And how do you you know, look,
at the end of the day, you actually need those
land councils on board as well to try and not
only create opportunities for people in community, but to try
to sort the issues out with crime.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, you do.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
And so if they spend their time doing what a
land counsel's job is and less worrying less about my job,
and everyone just went and did their actual job, the
territory might be moving forward.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So how do you think they're not try?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
I think there are more people commentating than putting their
shoulder to the wheel. And if everyone just put their
shoulder to the will, we might move forward. So you know,
it's very very cheap politics to go to race. It's
the lowest form of political exchange, so I'm not interested
in it, Katie. At the end of the day, the
law is colorblind. It doesn't know what religion you are,
it doesn't know you know anything about you. It's applied
(08:48):
equally and it's about doing the right thing.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Now.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Yes, our Aboriginal incarceration rates are huge, it's appalling. But
does that mean if an Aboriginal person doesn't breaks the
law that we don't arrest them. Does it mean we
don't send an Aboriginal person to prison because they're Aborridginal.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
That's just not how law.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I mean, are you concerns about Are you concerned though
about the claims from the Northern Land Council seat or chair,
For example, Matthew Ryan telling the media that we have
high numbers of incarceration, no opportunities of economic development and
that it's a failure of the government. He said, we've
had enough and we want to be heard.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Well, the land councilors are really responsible for economic development.
I mean, it's most Territorians can't believe that if you're
a traditional owner, you can't even own your home, you
can't even own your block. You can't open a bakery
on a community. You can't do anything because of the
way that all of the land issues are structured. So
I encourage the land councils. We want to work with them,
and I've met with the land councils a couple of times,
(09:47):
and we're very focused on that economic development component. We
want them doing the approvals processes fastest so that Aboriginal
people can have jobs on country, they can run businesses
on country.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Opportunity is endless.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
But if we sit here talking about opportunity, we'll all
be dead and nothing will have happened.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So do you think the land councils are holding things up.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Well, they have a very important role to play. Again,
it's easy to throw stones at someone else. It's not
easy to do your actual job. And if they go
do theirs and I do mine and everyone else does theirs,
the territory will move forward.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
But these are long standing issues. I mean, we've been
in government for eleven months.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Labour's solution to Aboriginal high rates of Aboriginal incarceration was
just to weaken the laws so that less people went
to prison.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
But crime is out of control.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
We must have a safe community first.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Chief Minister, do you think the changes that you are
making when it comes to crime are racist?
Speaker 4 (10:40):
No, it's just not possible to happen. You make a
law and it applies to everyone. And I said this
till I'm blue in the face, Katie, and absolutely I
can't believe it. As Chief Minister, I have to say this.
But if you do the right thing, you're all good.
We're not running around throwing people in patty wagons and
arresting people and sending it a prison for you know,
(11:01):
just going about their everyday life.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
One of the other claims that the Land Council's made
at that press conference last week was well, they called
for the federal government to ordit the Northern Territory government
spending on our boriginal affairs, claiming the Northern Territory government
was profiting from the disadvantage of impoverished communities. Would you
welcome and order or do you already have to ordit
the books exactly?
Speaker 4 (11:23):
I mean this again is hilarious because I'm pretty sure
it was Senator Price who was saying that the Land
Councils needed to be audited and the federal government wouldn't
do that. So maybe the federal government can order the
land councils. We're certainly going through all of the territory
spend and looking at who's got what contracts, what are
they meant to be doing, what are the KPIs. We've
been trying to get the federal government to do the
(11:43):
same thing. So when very happy for this process. There
is only so much money we need it to be
hitting the ground.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It has to be and like this is the thing,
you know, we have got a situation where we need
opportunities in communities. People need to be able to have
job opportunities, to have prospects, to.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
To you know, to to you know, contribute.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, and there are a number of wonderful locations
that actually operate with some great opportunities for Indigenous people.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Huge, there's huge opportunity.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
You think about the Beterloo, you think about the mining opportunities.
These are all real jobs on country agricultural opportunities. I mean,
the Tiwi Islands are really you know, pro economic development,
and their land council and their ts are really keen
to see more happening. So again we can talk about
opportunity to a blue in the face, but the people
who have to do the approvals and get things moving.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Need to honor the wishes of the people on the ground.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
You've finister, just stepping back a moment and going back
to the issue of crime, do you feel as though
the Land Councils need to do more to support the
government in that space.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Well, we'll do what we need to do to run
the Northern territory. All we want from the Land Councils
is to be part of the solution to move the
territory forward. So their role isn't necessarily a direct crime role,
but obviously they have extremely strong elected Aboriginal leadership across
the territory, so their voice is very very powerful. And equally,
(13:11):
their opportunity to grow economies in.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
The Bush is extremely important.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
So we want to work with them to deliver those
outcomes for Aboriginal people on their land and for all
people wanting to develop the territory, because we must economically advance,
like we absolutely must. It is that at crisis point,
and until we do that, you know we're going to
keep going backwards.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
All right. I want to move along because obviously the
press conference with the Land Councils was happening last Thursday.
Now It was the same day that a man was
being sentenced to five and a half years in prison
for the sexual assault of a four year.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Old girl in Tenant Creek. Now.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
According to the report by Matt Cunningham from Sky News,
the man received a head sentence of eight years with
a non parole period of five years and six months
self depleting guilty to sexually assaulting the four year old
girl in Fbuy last year. Now, I'll take our listeners
through some of this detail and I'll want to warn
you that it's shocking. The Northern Territory Supreme Court heard
(14:10):
the little girl was unsupervised down the street and was
approached by the offender. He put his arm around the
victim's shoulder and held her hand before leading her into
the backyard of a home. The offender heard the girl's
aunt calling out for her, but he told her that
she was being looked after by another woman inside the house.
He then returned to the backyard where he sexually assaulted
(14:32):
the girl. Now, the court heard the offender and the
four year old girl were alone under the tree for
almost five hours between about midnight and five am. He
continued to assault her while she was crying and calling
out for help. The situation's absolutely horrific. In my opinion,
(14:53):
the nation should be horrified. We should all be utterly
horrified that this happened to a little girl here in
the Northern Territory.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Were you aware of this situation.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah, it's just absolutely horrific, Katie, And it makes you sick,
to be honest, it absolutely makes you sick. And this
is why we have to continue to do what we're doing.
Everyone deserves to live in a safe environment. Our young
people deserve to be protected of ove all else. It's
why we're doing a lot of work in the children
and family space around family responsibility, about changing the way
(15:30):
the Child Protection Act works to actually be child focused
of what is in the best.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Interests of the child. And it's just despicable and disgusting, Katie.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
It is like there's no other way to put it now.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Justice Blockland said that there would be long lasting social
and emotional harm to the girl and said that she
hoped that she received the support that she needed to
overcome her trauma. She said offending of this kind causes
great alarm in the community and added it makes members
of the community wonder who would possibly offend in this
(16:04):
grotesque way, and what kind of person would do this?
Like I'm asking myself the same question and wondering how
on earth this kind of disgusting offending can be stopped,
because let's not forget tenant creeks the same location just
a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
We're a little two year old.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Yeah exactly, and we keep hearing about you know, these
things do keep happening, Katie, And at the end of
the day, you know, there are some very very unwell
people out there, but you know, we have to do
everything we can to protect the vulnerable. We have to
make sure our community is safe, our police are well resourced,
(16:42):
and you know, it's just it's just a very tragic
outcome and we certainly want to see that young girl
get the full support she needs.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Okay, I'm going to move along. We're very pressed for time.
I want to ask you. We know Parliament is sitting
as we just discussed in terms of the youth legislation,
but do you know if there's been any update on
the situation that the Attorney General, Marie Clear Boothby had told.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Us about last week.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
The courts are going to be extended to sit on
Saturdays but she said that some legislation will need to
be passed urgently for that to happen. Do you know
if that legislation, if that's happening this week or.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Is a little further along.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Unfortunately we can't have it ready in time, but we're
really excited about this piece of reform. Obviously, we've done
a lot of work around laws, a lot of work
around corrections, and we've done a lot of work around courts,
but courts still continues to be a bit of a
blockage point for the system, and you need all three
working really well. So we've properly funded legal aid, we've
got some other things happening. But if we can get
(17:39):
longer court hours or weekend courts rolling, that will mean
as we can churn through that backlog of remand now
that remind we inherited, and so we're actually chipping away
at it through our Tiger Task Force, which is designed
to go in for early resolution. So we have been
really I think we've successfully resolved two hundred matters to
take some of that backlog, but there's plenty there and
(18:02):
there's no shortage of people committing crime, so obviously we
keep adding to the pile but to see that change
in our courts will be really good. And if we've
got to pass laws, we'll get it happening and it'll
be done.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Chief Minister. We'll leave it there. Thank you, as always
for your time.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Thank you everyone. Take care,
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