Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we know, Parliament is indeed going to be rescheduled. Well,
it's been rescheduled. It is sitting today on urgency. We
just heard from the Speaker of the Northern Territories Legislative Assembly,
Robin Lamley, that the last time this happened was about
five years ago through the COVID emergency. Joining me on
the line is the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory,
(00:20):
Lea fanocchi Airo. Good morning, Chief Minister.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning Katie, and good morning to your.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Listener, Chief Minister. Some further detail now since we last
spoke on Monday on exactly what legislation is going to
be amended, can you talk our listeners through that?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah? Absolutely, So today at ten o'clock Parliament has been
recalled and we're just going to have an entire day
of parliament based around this bill. There'll be no other
parliamentary business. It won't be a normal sitting day. It's
an emergency day to urgently pass this bill. The details
of the bill are now very clear and we've briefed
Labor and the Independent members late yesterday afternoon. And so
(01:00):
how it will work is we've looked to the New
South Wales model and made it stronger than that. In
New South Wales they have an overarching test of community
safety when considering bail. What we've done is taken that
and made it two additional tests in our system. So
currently judges have to go through a long list of
(01:22):
things they consider under the Bail Act, and what we've
done is inserted into that a community safety test around
whether or not there is a risk to the community
if a person is bailed, and then a second test,
which is where the decision maker, which might be the courts,
or it might be a judge, or it might be police,
(01:43):
have to satisfy themselves with a high degree of confidence
that the person they are considering vaal for will not
go on to commit a prescribed offense or another serious
offense or endanger the community, which is a very high threshold.
That is not only stronger than New South Wales because
it's two additional tests, but our list of prescribed defenses
(02:07):
is in excess of two hundred different crimes, so it's
much longer. And also in New South Wales this community
safety test only applies to youths. We are making it
apply to both youths and adults. And on top of that, Katie,
and I've talked to you about it over the last
couple of weeks where we've been doing our rewrite of
(02:27):
the Use Justice Act and we were looking at removing
the principle of detention as last resort for young people.
We will remove that today as well, on top of
this additional double community safety test.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Do you know if the opposition is going to support
that aspect of this with the youths.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I don't know. Officially. My understanding is they have indicated
they will, and we're unclear about the Crossbench Chief Minister.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Obviously, this all seems like, you know, like a lot
of sense in the sense that that community safety test.
I mean, we've already had people message through this morning
saying Katie one in particular, set, I'm stupefied that that's
not already part of the legislation. But you know, nonetheless,
this is a good thing that this is changing. I
think the community's expectation is that it does. But what
(03:19):
is going to stop a judge from still releasing somebody
on bail? I mean, is there any recourse whatsoever if
it is still determined, if the judge considers everything and
says all right, well it does seem as though this
person is going to be not a risk to the community,
yet they do go out and defend what's the recourse.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, there is no recourse. But what this does is
not just mean that it's our government that has community
safety as its top priority. It means that the courts
now have that priority as well. So it is different.
And I think when we saw the bail example happen
with the large Manu case, obviously the Chief Justice put
(04:02):
out his four page letter which highlighted this option, and
we've taken it up. It was something we were looking
at straight away as part of that bigger rewrite, but
we've urgently brought it forward to today to make it
abundantly clear, absolutely crystal crystal clear. The community safety is
a very very important consideration and ultimately people can still
(04:25):
be bailed under this system, but it requires then an
absolute conscious decision making of the decision maker around whether
or not there is an ongoing risk to the community
and any risk of further offending. And so the people
who are bailed should not present a risk to the community,
in which case that's absolutely fine. Bail is you know,
(04:48):
you're in a position of innocent until proven guilty and
if you're not a risk to the community, then there's
no reason why the judiciary can't make those decisions. But
what we're trying to stop is obviously who have a
propensity to offend?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Chief Minister, is there going to be a review of
those already on bail to ensure that there are not
other violent criminals out there putting the community at risk
that should be behind bars.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, and we're dealing with historical issues. I mean, we've
had an entire system geared up around the right of
the offender and their traumatic experiences in life versus the
trauma of the community in being subjected to crime. So
this is a big reframe that we're doing as a
new government. But ultimately we've got corrections and police backtracking
(05:36):
through everyone who is on bail under Labour's laws.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So there is a review underway right now.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah. Yeah, they're working through doing those bail checks and
all of those things. But ultimately, people bailed under the
old system, unless they come into contact in terms of
a breach of bail or something like that, they get
to continue being on bail. So that's why that view
is important moving forward.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
So let me just get this really straight for the community.
So there is a review underway into everybody that's currently
on bail. But unless they breach their bail, that will
not change. Even if they are a serious violent offender,
they'll remain on bail.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
If they're on bail and they're complying with their bail
and they're not offending, yes they will continue on bail.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And do you feel comfortable with that?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, that is it is. It is a situation. It
is you know, they have been bailed under a previous
law and that law continues to apply to them. But
what we've done is made sure our new test applies
straight away. So for example, if they if someone breaches
their bail might be a condition of bail or something
(06:50):
like that, then the new test applies. If they commit
an offense and apply for bail, will the new test
will apply. If they commit in a events before our
law changes, but they say it was yesterday but they
haven't had their bail application yet, our new law will apply.
And we've also made it so that if someone is
(07:13):
charged or someone's matter is through the local court and
then it jumps up into the Supreme Court because of
the severity of the matter, then that will be treated
under the new test pity a fresh bail application, so
it is comprehensive and then Police and Corrections are doing
that the historical work of checking through who are currently
(07:34):
out on bail.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And Chief Minister, do Police and Corrections have any idea
how many people we currently have on bail?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, they would. It's a substantively it's a substantial number
of people who are out on bail, you know, for many, many,
many various difference types of crime.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Is there going to be a review or another look
at as well the way in which these ankle monitoring
devices are either handed out or more because it seems
like they're not working, particularly in the cases of utes.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah. So we've talked about this before, Katie, and it's
work we're doing as part of our processes on coming
to government is how we can strengthen electronic monitoring, get
better process communication between Corrections and police, live monitoring, all
of those different types of things because it is a
third party system, it's not a government system. So that
(08:27):
work is happening and it's been happening urgently, and I
think when we're nearly at a point where we can
move forward with some good change in that space. So
that is coming together, and you know, we just continue
to push. It's not just bailed. There's lots of other
areas that.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Are and I do want to ask about a few
of those. I mean, there's questions coming through. Have the
amendments been properly thought through? I mean, some people are
saying this is a knee jerk reaction after what has
been a week since the tragedy that we saw in Nightcliff.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
No, so sorry, Yes, it has been well thought through.
And ultimately, if we've got to go back and change
things again, we've got the opportunity to do that in May.
But ultimately, once Justice Grant raised this issue a couple
of months ago, we've started work on it and absolutely
flagged it as like fantastic, we'll do that. So it's
(09:20):
been part of the mix of the rewrite of the
Youth Justice Act. I've urgently brought it forward because it's
not just the tragic death we've seen last week. There's
been a number of very serious offenses alleged to being
committed by people on bail, and so we've brought this
forward because it is the pinnacle paramount test. It overarches
(09:42):
all consideration.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Now in terms of in terms of the changes, so obviously,
you know, judges need to be confident that there's not
a further risk to the community when it comes to
community safety. You spoke about the youth element as well,
where where you know remand is no longer a final resort,
so essentially, you know, people can be taken into detention
(10:07):
or detention probably is the more correct term. What do
you think this is going to mean in terms of
the number of young people that we've got then in
our youth detention facilities and how often our young people
being you know, let out to maybe stay at another
another supervised facility rather than in a corrections facility when
(10:29):
the community's expectation may be that they are under the
care of corrections.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, so we I don't know those numbers, but for example,
just the New South Wales test alone, which is that
community safety test we will put to Parliament today, that
created a thirty two percent increase in incarceration of young
people in New South Wales. So we fully expect those numbers,
if not higher, just as a result of our Bower laws.
(10:56):
On top of that, removing the principle of detention last resort,
just remove this concept that young people can't be dealt
with under the law like it's just again going back
to the historical issues, you know, Coronial after coronial, Royal
commission after royal commission, labor, you know, moving in a
totally different direction where no one's held responsible for their
(11:18):
own actions, and so to have police and the courts
having to start with a position of, well, I shouldn't
be involved in this with this young person in the
first place. By removing that, we can deal with young
people properly, and at the end of the day, we
would rather intervene in a young person's life earlier and
have the chance to put them on the right cause,
(11:39):
make sure they understand what they did was wrong and
give them the support they need to move forward and
be productive. Then wait until they're an adult, they continue
with their offending and they end up in an adult prison,
you know, virtually in and out for the rest of
their life.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's what we're trying to stop, Chief Minister. How how
much room do we have in the youth prison at
the moment?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Oh, I don't have the numbers, but we do have
capacity there. I'm continent of that. Our prison system is
over Florench But yeah, you know, it is what it is.
There either on the street or they're in prisons.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So the re terms of like in terms of the
adult correctional facilities, we are expecting to see a massive
surge here from what I can gather in terms or
quite an I I mean, I don't know. Are you
expecting it to be a massive surge in prisoner numbers
and what are you anticipating.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, we don't have a specific number, but absolutely we're
ready and expecting a huge increase in pressure. So this is,
you know, just it is what it is. There is
nothing we can do about that. We've inherited a system
that wasn't fit for purpose. So already in eight months
we've brought on more than five hundred additional beds. We've
(12:50):
got another one hundred imminent, and we've had thirty one
corrections officers just graduate and there's thirty three more in
the knowledge right now. We've got the G four S
staff obviously supporting that and will continue to grow those numbers.
So it is an imperfect situation. But at the end
(13:10):
of the day, like I said, people are either on
the street or they're in prison or in a detention facility,
and Chief story right right now?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Are we in a situation though within our correctional facilities,
people aren't actually undertaking rehabilitation programs, so they're not actually
doing anything to become better people rather than better crims.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
No, and I've got some great updates on that, Katie.
I'm really glad you are so despite I mean, and
people are very familiar with the challenges we have in corrections.
Despite the absolute best efforts of our staff out there
doing an incredible job. We are still delivering education and
rehab and work school programs despite all of the pressure issues,
(13:56):
and we're having really good results. So for example, our
Rage Pro which is a six month intensive DV program,
we had forty one completions this year versus twelve under Labor,
so huge increase. We had one hundred and three completions
of a family violence program compared to ninety five under Labor.
(14:17):
And for educational programs, we had six hundred and seventy
one prisoners complete them compared to five hundred and fifty three.
So some really good data. And that's completion. That's not
people who you know, just signed up to it. That's
that's completions. And we'll you know, we want to really
really grow that. But we've we've got to steady the
ship and right now we're in a crisis situation that
(14:39):
requires a crisis response. But people can rest assure there
is rehab going on and it's getting out.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
There, and Je's beinester. I know you've got to get
into Parliament in just a couple of moments. I want
to ask you. We did have a situation earlier, well
actually towards the end of last week where Larikia Nation,
their CEO, Michael Rotima, had released a statement and he
said that Larichi Nations calling on senior Aboriginal law men
and women from remote communities supported by the Northern, Central,
(15:08):
Tiwei and and Deliaqua Land Councils to work alongside us
in restoring community discipline and cultural authority, including returning non
permanent residents to their home communities where appropriate, and addressing
unacceptable behaviors that harm our people and our reputation. He
said he's also personally written to both yourself and the
(15:29):
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in March, seeking your support for
a formal initiative that empowers their senior Aboriginal law men
and women to lead culturally appropriate responses to this growing crisis.
Is that something that also needs to be happening, Like
I totally, you know, I think at the moment, we've
(15:50):
got what feels like a gaping wound that needs to
be worked upon in the like right now. But then
we also have a situation where behavior does not seem
to be getting better, and you've got Aboriginal leadership stepping
forward saying you know, we want to make some impact
in this space. Is that something that you're prepared to
(16:12):
work with them on.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh? Absolutely, absolutely, Katie. And it's an important part of it.
And the root causes part is critical, and having the
buy in of Aboriginal leadership is critical as well, and
their involvement in this space. And that's all that root
causes work that is run simultaneous with the point and stuff.
Often we only get to talk about corrections, courts, police
(16:37):
because it's the most pressing, but equally it's why we're
taking parental responsibility really seriously by you know, having enforceable
family responsibility agreements getting kids to school, and we're having
some really good impact on families getting kids to school
because of the tough approach we've taken with parents. So
(16:57):
that work will continue on and we'll continue those conversations
with Larochia Nation. And you know, this is a community
problem as much as anything else. But we've all got
to make sure that there's personal responsibility and at the
end of the day, people don't have to make the
decision to do the wrong thing. And that's the point
we have to get to.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Chief Minister Leah Fanocchiaro. We are going to have to
leave it there. Thank you for your time. It is
much appreciated. I know our listeners appreciate the fact that
you have talked us through how this legislation is going
to change. Look, I think we all hope that it's
going to make a difference, but time will tell.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah. Absolutely, and you know nothing is one hundred percent,
but this puts an extremely high threshold and make sure
that the community's safety is enshrined in the law. There's
no getting around that. If your listeners want to tune
in today, you can do that from your desktop, a
work or at home or wherever you might be. Through
the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory and this will
(17:57):
be the only thing that we go through today.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Deep Minister, thank you appreciate your time
As we know, Parliament is indeed going to be rescheduled. Well,
it's been rescheduled. It is sitting today on urgency. We
just heard from the Speaker of the Northern Territories Legislative Assembly,
Robin Lamley, that the last time this happened was about
five years ago through the COVID emergency. Joining me on
the line is the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory,
(00:20):
Lea fanocchi Airo. Good morning, Chief Minister.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning Katie, and good morning to your.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Listener, Chief Minister. Some further detail now since we last
spoke on Monday on exactly what legislation is going to
be amended, can you talk our listeners through that?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah? Absolutely, So today at ten o'clock Parliament has been
recalled and we're just going to have an entire day
of parliament based around this bill. There'll be no other
parliamentary business. It won't be a normal sitting day. It's
an emergency day to urgently pass this bill. The details
of the bill are now very clear and we've briefed
Labor and the Independent members late yesterday afternoon. And so
(01:00):
how it will work is we've looked to the New
South Wales model and made it stronger than that. In
New South Wales they have an overarching test of community
safety when considering bail. What we've done is taken that
and made it two additional tests in our system. So
currently judges have to go through a long list of
(01:22):
things they consider under the Bail Act, and what we've
done is inserted into that a community safety test around
whether or not there is a risk to the community
if a person is bailed, and then a second test,
which is where the decision maker, which might be the courts,
or it might be a judge, or it might be police,
(01:43):
have to satisfy themselves with a high degree of confidence
that the person they are considering vaal for will not
go on to commit a prescribed offense or another serious
offense or endanger the community, which is a very high threshold.
That is not only stronger than New South Wales because
it's two additional tests, but our list of prescribed defenses
(02:07):
is in excess of two hundred different crimes, so it's
much longer. And also in New South Wales this community
safety test only applies to youths. We are making it
apply to both youths and adults. And on top of that, Katie,
and I've talked to you about it over the last
couple of weeks where we've been doing our rewrite of
(02:27):
the Use Justice Act and we were looking at removing
the principle of detention as last resort for young people.
We will remove that today as well, on top of
this additional double community safety test.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Do you know if the opposition is going to support
that aspect of this with the youths.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I don't know. Officially. My understanding is they have indicated
they will, and we're unclear about the Crossbench Chief Minister.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Obviously, this all seems like, you know, like a lot
of sense in the sense that that community safety test.
I mean, we've already had people message through this morning
saying Katie one in particular, set, I'm stupefied that that's
not already part of the legislation. But you know, nonetheless,
this is a good thing that this is changing. I
think the community's expectation is that it does. But what
(03:19):
is going to stop a judge from still releasing somebody
on bail? I mean, is there any recourse whatsoever if
it is still determined, if the judge considers everything and
says all right, well it does seem as though this
person is going to be not a risk to the community,
yet they do go out and defend what's the recourse.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, there is no recourse. But what this does is
not just mean that it's our government that has community
safety as its top priority. It means that the courts
now have that priority as well. So it is different.
And I think when we saw the bail example happen
with the large Manu case, obviously the Chief Justice put
(04:02):
out his four page letter which highlighted this option, and
we've taken it up. It was something we were looking
at straight away as part of that bigger rewrite, but
we've urgently brought it forward to today to make it
abundantly clear, absolutely crystal crystal clear. The community safety is
a very very important consideration and ultimately people can still
(04:25):
be bailed under this system, but it requires then an
absolute conscious decision making of the decision maker around whether
or not there is an ongoing risk to the community
and any risk of further offending. And so the people
who are bailed should not present a risk to the community,
in which case that's absolutely fine. Bail is you know,
(04:48):
you're in a position of innocent until proven guilty and
if you're not a risk to the community, then there's
no reason why the judiciary can't make those decisions. But
what we're trying to stop is obviously who have a
propensity to offend?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Chief Minister, is there going to be a review of
those already on bail to ensure that there are not
other violent criminals out there putting the community at risk
that should be behind bars.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, and we're dealing with historical issues. I mean, we've
had an entire system geared up around the right of
the offender and their traumatic experiences in life versus the
trauma of the community in being subjected to crime. So
this is a big reframe that we're doing as a
new government. But ultimately we've got corrections and police backtracking
(05:36):
through everyone who is on bail under Labour's laws.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So there is a review underway right now.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah. Yeah, they're working through doing those bail checks and
all of those things. But ultimately, people bailed under the
old system, unless they come into contact in terms of
a breach of bail or something like that, they get
to continue being on bail. So that's why that view
is important moving forward.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
So let me just get this really straight for the community.
So there is a review underway into everybody that's currently
on bail. But unless they breach their bail, that will
not change. Even if they are a serious violent offender,
they'll remain on bail.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
If they're on bail and they're complying with their bail
and they're not offending, yes they will continue on bail.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And do you feel comfortable with that?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, that is it is. It is a situation. It
is you know, they have been bailed under a previous
law and that law continues to apply to them. But
what we've done is made sure our new test applies
straight away. So for example, if they if someone breaches
their bail might be a condition of bail or something
(06:50):
like that, then the new test applies. If they commit
an offense and apply for bail, will the new test
will apply. If they commit in a events before our
law changes, but they say it was yesterday but they
haven't had their bail application yet, our new law will apply.
And we've also made it so that if someone is
(07:13):
charged or someone's matter is through the local court and
then it jumps up into the Supreme Court because of
the severity of the matter, then that will be treated
under the new test pity a fresh bail application, so
it is comprehensive and then Police and Corrections are doing
that the historical work of checking through who are currently
(07:34):
out on bail.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And Chief Minister, do Police and Corrections have any idea
how many people we currently have on bail?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, they would. It's a substantively it's a substantial number
of people who are out on bail, you know, for many, many,
many various difference types of crime.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Is there going to be a review or another look
at as well the way in which these ankle monitoring
devices are either handed out or more because it seems
like they're not working, particularly in the cases of utes.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah. So we've talked about this before, Katie, and it's
work we're doing as part of our processes on coming
to government is how we can strengthen electronic monitoring, get
better process communication between Corrections and police, live monitoring, all
of those different types of things because it is a
third party system, it's not a government system. So that
(08:27):
work is happening and it's been happening urgently, and I
think when we're nearly at a point where we can
move forward with some good change in that space. So
that is coming together, and you know, we just continue
to push. It's not just bailed. There's lots of other
areas that.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Are and I do want to ask about a few
of those. I mean, there's questions coming through. Have the
amendments been properly thought through? I mean, some people are
saying this is a knee jerk reaction after what has
been a week since the tragedy that we saw in Nightcliff.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
No, so sorry, Yes, it has been well thought through.
And ultimately, if we've got to go back and change
things again, we've got the opportunity to do that in May.
But ultimately, once Justice Grant raised this issue a couple
of months ago, we've started work on it and absolutely
flagged it as like fantastic, we'll do that. So it's
(09:20):
been part of the mix of the rewrite of the
Youth Justice Act. I've urgently brought it forward because it's
not just the tragic death we've seen last week. There's
been a number of very serious offenses alleged to being
committed by people on bail, and so we've brought this
forward because it is the pinnacle paramount test. It overarches
(09:42):
all consideration.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Now in terms of in terms of the changes, so obviously,
you know, judges need to be confident that there's not
a further risk to the community when it comes to
community safety. You spoke about the youth element as well,
where where you know remand is no longer a final resort,
so essentially, you know, people can be taken into detention
(10:07):
or detention probably is the more correct term. What do
you think this is going to mean in terms of
the number of young people that we've got then in
our youth detention facilities and how often our young people
being you know, let out to maybe stay at another
another supervised facility rather than in a corrections facility when
(10:29):
the community's expectation may be that they are under the
care of corrections.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, so we I don't know those numbers, but for example,
just the New South Wales test alone, which is that
community safety test we will put to Parliament today, that
created a thirty two percent increase in incarceration of young
people in New South Wales. So we fully expect those numbers,
if not higher, just as a result of our Bower laws.
(10:56):
On top of that, removing the principle of detention last resort,
just remove this concept that young people can't be dealt
with under the law like it's just again going back
to the historical issues, you know, Coronial after coronial, Royal
commission after royal commission, labor, you know, moving in a
totally different direction where no one's held responsible for their
(11:18):
own actions, and so to have police and the courts
having to start with a position of, well, I shouldn't
be involved in this with this young person in the
first place. By removing that, we can deal with young
people properly, and at the end of the day, we
would rather intervene in a young person's life earlier and
have the chance to put them on the right cause,
(11:39):
make sure they understand what they did was wrong and
give them the support they need to move forward and
be productive. Then wait until they're an adult, they continue
with their offending and they end up in an adult prison,
you know, virtually in and out for the rest of
their life.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's what we're trying to stop, Chief Minister. How how
much room do we have in the youth prison at
the moment?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Oh, I don't have the numbers, but we do have
capacity there. I'm continent of that. Our prison system is
over Florench But yeah, you know, it is what it is.
There either on the street or they're in prisons.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So the re terms of like in terms of the
adult correctional facilities, we are expecting to see a massive
surge here from what I can gather in terms or
quite an I I mean, I don't know. Are you
expecting it to be a massive surge in prisoner numbers
and what are you anticipating.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, we don't have a specific number, but absolutely we're
ready and expecting a huge increase in pressure. So this is,
you know, just it is what it is. There is
nothing we can do about that. We've inherited a system
that wasn't fit for purpose. So already in eight months
we've brought on more than five hundred additional beds. We've
(12:50):
got another one hundred imminent, and we've had thirty one
corrections officers just graduate and there's thirty three more in
the knowledge right now. We've got the G four S
staff obviously supporting that and will continue to grow those numbers.
So it is an imperfect situation. But at the end
(13:10):
of the day, like I said, people are either on
the street or they're in prison or in a detention facility,
and Chief story right right now?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Are we in a situation though within our correctional facilities,
people aren't actually undertaking rehabilitation programs, so they're not actually
doing anything to become better people rather than better crims.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
No, and I've got some great updates on that, Katie.
I'm really glad you are so despite I mean, and
people are very familiar with the challenges we have in corrections.
Despite the absolute best efforts of our staff out there
doing an incredible job. We are still delivering education and
rehab and work school programs despite all of the pressure issues,
(13:56):
and we're having really good results. So for example, our
Rage Pro which is a six month intensive DV program,
we had forty one completions this year versus twelve under Labor,
so huge increase. We had one hundred and three completions
of a family violence program compared to ninety five under Labor.
(14:17):
And for educational programs, we had six hundred and seventy
one prisoners complete them compared to five hundred and fifty three.
So some really good data. And that's completion. That's not
people who you know, just signed up to it. That's
that's completions. And we'll you know, we want to really
really grow that. But we've we've got to steady the
ship and right now we're in a crisis situation that
(14:39):
requires a crisis response. But people can rest assure there
is rehab going on and it's getting out.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
There, and Je's beinester. I know you've got to get
into Parliament in just a couple of moments. I want
to ask you. We did have a situation earlier, well
actually towards the end of last week where Larikia Nation,
their CEO, Michael Rotima, had released a statement and he
said that Larichi Nations calling on senior Aboriginal law men
and women from remote communities supported by the Northern, Central,
(15:08):
Tiwei and and Deliaqua Land Councils to work alongside us
in restoring community discipline and cultural authority, including returning non
permanent residents to their home communities where appropriate, and addressing
unacceptable behaviors that harm our people and our reputation. He
said he's also personally written to both yourself and the
(15:29):
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in March, seeking your support for
a formal initiative that empowers their senior Aboriginal law men
and women to lead culturally appropriate responses to this growing crisis.
Is that something that also needs to be happening, Like
I totally, you know, I think at the moment, we've
(15:50):
got what feels like a gaping wound that needs to
be worked upon in the like right now. But then
we also have a situation where behavior does not seem
to be getting better, and you've got Aboriginal leadership stepping
forward saying you know, we want to make some impact
in this space. Is that something that you're prepared to
(16:12):
work with them on.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh? Absolutely, absolutely, Katie. And it's an important part of it.
And the root causes part is critical, and having the
buy in of Aboriginal leadership is critical as well, and
their involvement in this space. And that's all that root
causes work that is run simultaneous with the point and stuff.
Often we only get to talk about corrections, courts, police
(16:37):
because it's the most pressing, but equally it's why we're
taking parental responsibility really seriously by you know, having enforceable
family responsibility agreements getting kids to school, and we're having
some really good impact on families getting kids to school
because of the tough approach we've taken with parents. So
(16:57):
that work will continue on and we'll continue those conversations
with Larochia Nation. And you know, this is a community
problem as much as anything else. But we've all got
to make sure that there's personal responsibility and at the
end of the day, people don't have to make the
decision to do the wrong thing. And that's the point
we have to get to.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Chief Minister Leah Fanocchiaro. We are going to have to
leave it there. Thank you for your time. It is
much appreciated. I know our listeners appreciate the fact that
you have talked us through how this legislation is going
to change. Look, I think we all hope that it's
going to make a difference, but time will tell.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah. Absolutely, and you know nothing is one hundred percent,
but this puts an extremely high threshold and make sure
that the community's safety is enshrined in the law. There's
no getting around that. If your listeners want to tune
in today, you can do that from your desktop, a
work or at home or wherever you might be. Through
the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory and this will
(17:57):
be the only thing that we go through today.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Deep Minister, thank you appreciate your time
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