Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We know that a manhunt is continuing in Darwin after
a prisoner escaped from custody at the Darwin Local Court
on Friday. As you heard on the show, police say
that forty four year old Bran Graham fled after allegedly
scaling an enclosed court doc before running from the courthouse
and into the CBD. Now. He was appearing in court
(00:21):
on drugs and weapons charges and was being supervised by
private security contractor G four S at the time. Police
have appealed for public assistance as that search well, I
think it's entering its fifth or sixth day now. It
would be warning members of the public not to approach
him and to call Triple zero with any sightings. Joining
(00:41):
us in the studio is the Corrections Minister. He is
also the Deputy Chief Minister. Jared Maylee. Good morning to you, Good.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Jared, what's the latest on this situation from your.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Understanding, minderstanding, he's still at large and in my view, Katie,
he must be getting some help. You can't just run
out of the court and essentially disappear in Darwin. The
police do a great job and I'm sure they'll get him,
no doubt that they'll get him in the end. But
this seems to me, in my view again, an organized escape.
He's jumped over and I've been in court. I know
how big those barriers are, so he's pretty athlete to
get out, and he's.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Just paint a bit of a picture for us, like
how big are those barriers to get out of?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, if he's in Court one, which is the main court,
it would be I'm almost two meters so it's taller
than me. And to get over that, he had to
jump over that and then run out through two doors
and then go out through the security which is Wilson,
then go outside, so it's not an easy run to
get out out of the court.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Now, Deputy Chief and is do we know that G
four is the private security firm oversee the management of
prisoners at the courthouse. Are they reviewing their processes? Now?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yes, yes they are. They're reviewing those processes to make
sure this can't happen again again. Like I said, it
seems to be an organized escape, but yeah, they are
going to review it to make sure this can't happen again.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
You worried this blog's dangerous.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, I don't know his full background, but I just
do know that the police do a wonderful job. They
will be all over this. They will be looking at him,
and I'd hate to be in his shoes, because, like
I said earlier, the cops will get in. Now.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
We know that many held concerns when the government announced
the privatization of the management of prisoners. Does this demonstrate
that things aren't going as smoothly as what we'd all hoped?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I absolutely not, Katie. This is actually going really smoothly,
because I mean, you've.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Got a prisoner on the loose, she got a potentially
dangerous prisoner on the loose.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, we do, Katie. But what it does is we've
bolstered the correctional staff. The world trained officers are behind
the wire doing their thing. The gfours are doing the transfer,
and do also look at the prison sits. So with
the whole system is working. Well, nothing is perfect, Katie.
And so this folk's got away. The police are going
to get him. We've done a review of what's going
(02:40):
on because we need to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I mean, well, that's exactly right. You want to make
sure it doesn't happen again. But then you want to
make sure that this blog doesn't do anything dangerous while
he's out on the run and when G four s
were meant to be overseeing Ash.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, yeah, Katie, it will mitigate the risk and I gained.
I don't think you could ever make it completely escape
proof because people are getting away for years right across Australia,
right across the world in fact. But what we'll do
is mitigate it, will make sure that's very difficult to
have a gain because we don't want it to happen again,
and this needs to be caught.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
What's next? As you know, like I just touched on,
we've currently got what sounds like a pretty dangerous person
on the run.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, look Katie, and the police are after him, and
I am sure that the police are doing all they can.
They've got a huge toolkit to go and catch these
people and they will be scanning the streets and I'll
get him in due course.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
All right. Correctional officers are due to walk off the
job today after the government failed in this urgent bid
to stop the action in the Fair Work Commission, so
they're going to undertake a twelve hours stoppage at the
Darwin Correctional Center as well as the Berimer Correctional Center.
Now on Friday, the government and the Department orders in
the Fair Work Commission to block the action, arguing that
(03:45):
it should be stopped. That application was dismissed by the
Fair Work Commission. What is your reaction to these ongoing
concerns being raised by guards?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Look, Katie, we need to continue to negotiate instead of
this matter. In due course, we will continue to negotiating
good faith. We know that when these enterprise bargaining schemes
get renewed, there's also some talk and some industrial action.
I think last time there was an industrial action. It's
just part of the negotiations. We are continued to go
to good faith. We want this resolved just just as
(04:16):
much as you do, okay, because we want to make
sure that prison officers who do a good job go
to work safely, come home safely and not over work.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So did you try and stop that industrial action? If
you're listening to them, why did you try to stop
that from happening.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Kadie, Well, on two heads here, really, I think on
the first one. Else on a safety point of view,
for there are all admin staff at the prison who
are still working today, so they're not going to go
on strike with the correction officers, so they have to
step up and go into places where they're not actually
normally work, so they're not into the behind the wire stuff,
but they're going to do more work. And also the
(04:49):
safety and the rehabilitation programs off the prison has stopped
today as well, and we're trying to break that cycle
of reoffending.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I mean, what are they asking for. What's the sticking
point here that the government, you know, through this fare
like through the negotiations, that you're not able to come
to an agreement, Katie.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
There's a number of minor things. Again I'm not actually
at the negotiating table, so I couldn't give exactly what
they are exactly, but I do know that we're horing
over the percentage, we're arguing over, you know, agreement with
the unit to get involved in how the operation of
the prison works. So there's a number of small things, Kadie.
My understanding is things have been going well and a
lot of those bugs have been mined out, but obviously
(05:27):
not to the union's happiness, and they're going on straight today,
which you're entitled to do. They can do what they
want to do, but what we want to do is
when the finishes get back to the negotiating table, try
and resolve, but as quick as we can, because we
want the question facility to be operating safely for prison
officers and also for the prisoners.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
All right, Deputy Chief Minister, it was a big weekend
unfortunately when it comes to crime. I know that your government,
the government that you're part of, have certainly been you know,
talking about the fact that you believe these crime stats
are coming down. But over the weekend we saw that
Northern Territory Police they're investigating a number of serious incidents.
In Darwin, a woman remains in a critical condition after
(06:06):
an alleged stabbing at Coconut Grove. Two elderly men were
allegedly assaulted and had their vehicles stolen at Karama. Then
in Tenant Creek, a man was arrested following an alleged
domestic violence assault on a pregnant woman. And in Alice
Springs police are searching for an offender who allegedly threatened
an eighty three year old woman with a knife before
stealing her handbag. There was also three cars set on
(06:31):
fire in Tenant, a man was hospitalized with serious injuries
and three men were arrested amid a violent disturbance involving
up to one hundred people at that town camp near
Tenant Creek. That's not to mention the people who seem
to have set up camp outside the NT and used drinking,
leaving rubbish everywhere. Same thing at Perap what's going on
at the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Look, Katie, this crime is unacceptable at the moment, and
this goverment has been working hard and will continue to
work hard to reduce crime. We have put more numbers
in the police, We've up the correction, we've sorted out
the court. Things continue to go and the crime SATs
are going down, Katie, but they are These scenarios you
just read out are unacceptable and we will continue to
(07:13):
work to make sure that we can get the community safe,
because community safety is a number one Priori.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
What do you reckon? Things are flaring up at the moment,
like you see an influx of people to town. I
mean we're talking about all different locations, which I guess
is a concerning part. And even over the last week
or two we've been talking a lot about Catherine, so
it does seem as though. You know, you have an
operation in Palmerston, for example, where you try to stop
crime there and unfortunately I don't know whether it is
(07:39):
the case. But is it moving people to other areas.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Well, Katie, I don't know either, but we are the
police do a wonderful job, and I want to say
that from the beginning they are going out day in
day out, running towards danger. In this escape that we
just spoke about, that's taking resources away from the police.
So we all need to continue to work together to
try and bring this crime back under control, because any
crime is unacceptable. But this is really you know, we
can do our bit and the police do their bit,
(08:03):
but the community also need to be able to step
up some of these What do you mean What do
you mean? Well, you know some of these offenders are
quite young and you know, the middle age offenders. What
about their families, what about their communities, what about some
of its traditional owners that elders in those communities. We
need to work together and I know that we are,
but it's really a community led response here. We're doing
our bit and we'll continue to do our bit and
(08:23):
work harder and make the tough decisions, but we need
to make sure that this is a community responsibility and
some of those older people need to step up, some
of those community leaders need to step up and take
some responsibility as well.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Deputy Chief Minister. One of the areas where there have
been concerns with crime from time to time and some
really serious issues at different times as well is Nightcliff,
now the Nightcliffe Police Station. It's been announced this morning
that the facility, well it's going to transition. It's going
to be turned into the nt Foreign Emergency Services with
a fit for purpose headquarters for the first time. So essentially,
(08:57):
you know, we're getting rid of I guess from that area.
And the Chief Minister saying in a statement that the
move cleans up another mess left by the former government
which promised twenty four to seven police but delivered a
twelve million dollar administration building that did nothing to combat
spiraling crime rates. I mean, what a better scenario have
actually been to make sure that that police station is
(09:19):
operational with police.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, okay, but the problem was that was a purely
political decision by the Labor government and it was a
complete failure. They built essentially admin building, there was no cells,
there was not a functional police station. It couldn't be
used as a functional police station. So that was just
some sort of deal to get votes in nightclif I
could assume, I don't know, but it was a complete failure.
What we've done, Kate. Instead of you're sitting there and
(09:43):
being a white elephant, we're going to move in the
police and the fieries in there to make it their headquarters.
We know that there's police stations at Casherina and Darwin
around so the police do a wonderful job and I
can't stress that enough, but we need to make sure
that that failure from the labor government is utilized. It's
a big twelve million dollar bills.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Is this just another political decision though? Where you guys
are going, Well, we don't hold the seat, you know,
Yeah there's crime there, but we're going to move the
firies in.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
No. No, because at the moment, Katie, the fire is
as you know, we're separate from police and they've been
housed in different locations, so they haven't got a central
location where all the fire's head honchos I'm sitting and
operate from. They're in all different buildings spread across the
northern charritory across Darwin. So what we're doing is we're
going to move them into one so they can function
better and be all together, so they can use to
(10:28):
go use that facility to help and make sure they
do their job better.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Will they still be based I know there's quite a
few of them at Isle of Street there in that
Wilner area. Are they still going to be based there
or are you moving people out?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
No, Katie, this is going to be the headquarters for
the fireries. You still have the fire stations where the
fire trucks are. But are we're talking the admin's staff,
all the behind the scenes stuff. They'll be based there
in one unit together so they can operate more effectively.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
What do you say to the people of Nightcliff right,
who a lot of them we've spoken to over the
last six months where they continue to have issues with
anti social behavior. I mean, just last week I was
sent a video of a woman basically sitting in the
middle of the road intoxicated anti social behavior. They've been
really upset about the fact that I think it's Vinnie's
that is just sort of you know, in that Coconut
(11:14):
Grove area as well, and they some of the residents
there feelers. So the movement of Vinnie's there has caused
some issues with antisocial behavior. You know, they've got ongoing
concerns with not only anti social behavior but crime, Like
it has been an area that suffered from some really
serious crime over the last couple of years. I mean
the death of Linford Fike across the road from that
(11:35):
police station is one that just will stand out to
anybody listening. What do you say to those people who
are like, well, hang on a sec now, we don't
even have a police presence.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
There, Okay, What I say to those people? Crime is
right across the Northern Territory. It's unacceptable. You just mentioned
earlier about the one hundred people ride in Tenant Creek
and cars getting burned and someone seriously injured. They are
not alone, they don't have special rights. It's all equal
right across in Northern Territory, and we're going to work
hard to make sure that crime right across the territory
is brought down to an acceptable level. We're not going
(12:05):
to focus on one area police. We'll do operations in
one area. They're doing at Palmersant the moment, so they'll
work around when they pick these hotspots, but everyone's equal.
Crime is right across and on the charity is completely
unacceptable and we will continue to work and make those
tough decisions to bring that crime down. And the evidence
is there, Katie. Those crimes has are going down, maybe
not as quick as some people would like, but they
(12:26):
are on the way down. And I think people who
got some short memories, Katie, what was like when Abeling
government the crime was through, the roofs were going up.
They're on the way down. Not perfect, but we'll continue
to work hard to keep the community safe.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
All right, Jared, I do want to ask you with
you had on as the Minister for Mining and Resources,
Nathan river Mine. We spoke to the union on Friday
last week. The administrators have been called in. Territorians working
out there are going to be really very lucky if
they get paid the money that they're owed for the
work that they've done.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
What information do you have on this, look, Katie, I
don't have a lot of information, but I do know
that our department has been working with them. This is
a private company administrator. I think they had a meeting
this weekend to try and work out what's going on.
It's sort of like the hospital, Katie, there's a private company.
The administrators that come in, they will work through to
work out what assets available, how much money is in
(13:18):
the bank, they work out who's got the debts are
and they'll spread that money evenly across all the debtors
and also the employees. It's a sad situation, but unfortunately
as happens in private companies.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Is there anything like is there any support or anything
that the government can do to try to assist those
territorians that you know that may be left out of pokers.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I think, Katie, if you've got a workplace problem, you
go to fair work and if you've got a so
there are those government agencies that are available, and we
ask those people to contact them fair work and work
safe to make sure they do and get their benefits
and work hard to get what they can they're entitled to.
So we've got those government agencies and I ask those people,
and I've said it before, reach out if it's a
(13:56):
fair work, if it's something wrong with the work site,
and also just reach out to those government departments. They're
there to be able to help them.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Deputy Chief Minister a couple of quick messages before I
let you go. Someone's message through and said, now they're
moving Trident Strikeforce, Trident DV etc. To Beera Murray.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Is that the case, Katie? I don't know what that
right now. I could get back to you, but I
don't know the top of my hand.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Somebody else's message through and said good morning, Katie. It
is newsworthy that the Chief Minister chose to publicly criticize
labor today, while the police officers affected by the Nightclift
decision were reportedly not informed before the media release was issued.
Despite media reporting that the Territory Safety Divisions played a
significant role in the success of the Greater Darwin Centralized
(14:38):
Social Order concept and Operation Ventura, contributing to reducing crime
and anti social behavior. If reducing crime is truly the
government's priority, there's a strong argument that greater value should
be placed on supporting the officers responsible for delivering these outcomes.
I know it's not your portfolio, jerreed, but is that
the case? Were the police not actually no all this, Katie.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I can't come on it. I just simply don't know
the answer to that, and we can.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
John three though that that's a bit you know, that's
not on if that's the case.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
If that's not on, but I think that the police
senior staff do a wonderful job and they communicate through
your agency, Katie. So I don't know what that happened there,
but we'll send to look into it. But I think
we need to make our focus on the community, keeping
it safe and also the reason we don't have this big,
huge bucket of money. We've got what we've got and
we need to use that wisely and make sure that
(15:31):
the cherity no matter where you live, you've got access
to police, you've got community safety, because that's what he
were really focused.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
On, Deputy Chief Minister Jared Maylee. We better leave it there.
Thank you very much for your time. Much appreciated.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Thank you, Katie,
We know that a manhunt is continuing in Darwin after
a prisoner escaped from custody at the Darwin Local Court
on Friday. As you heard on the show, police say
that forty four year old Bran Graham fled after allegedly
scaling an enclosed court doc before running from the courthouse
and into the CBD. Now. He was appearing in court
(00:21):
on drugs and weapons charges and was being supervised by
private security contractor G four S at the time. Police
have appealed for public assistance as that search well, I
think it's entering its fifth or sixth day now. It
would be warning members of the public not to approach
him and to call Triple zero with any sightings. Joining
(00:41):
us in the studio is the Corrections Minister. He is
also the Deputy Chief Minister. Jared Maylee. Good morning to you, Good.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Jared, what's the latest on this situation from your.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Understanding, minderstanding, he's still at large and in my view, Katie,
he must be getting some help. You can't just run
out of the court and essentially disappear in Darwin. The
police do a great job and I'm sure they'll get him,
no doubt that they'll get him in the end. But
this seems to me, in my view again, an organized escape.
He's jumped over and I've been in court. I know
how big those barriers are, so he's pretty athlete to
get out, and he's.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Just paint a bit of a picture for us, like
how big are those barriers to get out of?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, if he's in Court one, which is the main court,
it would be I'm almost two meters so it's taller
than me. And to get over that, he had to
jump over that and then run out through two doors
and then go out through the security which is Wilson,
then go outside, so it's not an easy run to
get out out of the court.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Now, Deputy Chief and is do we know that G
four is the private security firm oversee the management of
prisoners at the courthouse. Are they reviewing their processes? Now?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yes, yes they are. They're reviewing those processes to make
sure this can't happen again again. Like I said, it
seems to be an organized escape, but yeah, they are
going to review it to make sure this can't happen again.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
You worried this blog's dangerous.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, I don't know his full background, but I just
do know that the police do a wonderful job. They
will be all over this. They will be looking at him,
and I'd hate to be in his shoes, because, like
I said earlier, the cops will get in. Now.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
We know that many held concerns when the government announced
the privatization of the management of prisoners. Does this demonstrate
that things aren't going as smoothly as what we'd all hoped?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I absolutely not, Katie. This is actually going really smoothly,
because I mean, you've.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Got a prisoner on the loose, she got a potentially
dangerous prisoner on the loose.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, we do, Katie. But what it does is we've
bolstered the correctional staff. The world trained officers are behind
the wire doing their thing. The gfours are doing the transfer,
and do also look at the prison sits. So with
the whole system is working. Well, nothing is perfect, Katie.
And so this folk's got away. The police are going
to get him. We've done a review of what's going
(02:40):
on because we need to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I mean, well, that's exactly right. You want to make
sure it doesn't happen again. But then you want to
make sure that this blog doesn't do anything dangerous while
he's out on the run and when G four s
were meant to be overseeing Ash.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, yeah, Katie, it will mitigate the risk and I gained.
I don't think you could ever make it completely escape
proof because people are getting away for years right across Australia,
right across the world in fact. But what we'll do
is mitigate it, will make sure that's very difficult to
have a gain because we don't want it to happen again,
and this needs to be caught.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
What's next? As you know, like I just touched on,
we've currently got what sounds like a pretty dangerous person
on the run.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, look Katie, and the police are after him, and
I am sure that the police are doing all they can.
They've got a huge toolkit to go and catch these
people and they will be scanning the streets and I'll
get him in due course.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
All right. Correctional officers are due to walk off the
job today after the government failed in this urgent bid
to stop the action in the Fair Work Commission, so
they're going to undertake a twelve hours stoppage at the
Darwin Correctional Center as well as the Berimer Correctional Center.
Now on Friday, the government and the Department orders in
the Fair Work Commission to block the action, arguing that
(03:45):
it should be stopped. That application was dismissed by the
Fair Work Commission. What is your reaction to these ongoing
concerns being raised by guards?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Look, Katie, we need to continue to negotiate instead of
this matter. In due course, we will continue to negotiating
good faith. We know that when these enterprise bargaining schemes
get renewed, there's also some talk and some industrial action.
I think last time there was an industrial action. It's
just part of the negotiations. We are continued to go
to good faith. We want this resolved just just as
(04:16):
much as you do, okay, because we want to make
sure that prison officers who do a good job go
to work safely, come home safely and not over work.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So did you try and stop that industrial action? If
you're listening to them, why did you try to stop
that from happening.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Kadie, Well, on two heads here, really, I think on
the first one. Else on a safety point of view,
for there are all admin staff at the prison who
are still working today, so they're not going to go
on strike with the correction officers, so they have to
step up and go into places where they're not actually
normally work, so they're not into the behind the wire stuff,
but they're going to do more work. And also the
(04:49):
safety and the rehabilitation programs off the prison has stopped
today as well, and we're trying to break that cycle
of reoffending.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I mean, what are they asking for. What's the sticking
point here that the government, you know, through this fare
like through the negotiations, that you're not able to come
to an agreement, Katie.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
There's a number of minor things. Again I'm not actually
at the negotiating table, so I couldn't give exactly what
they are exactly, but I do know that we're horing
over the percentage, we're arguing over, you know, agreement with
the unit to get involved in how the operation of
the prison works. So there's a number of small things, Kadie.
My understanding is things have been going well and a
lot of those bugs have been mined out, but obviously
(05:27):
not to the union's happiness, and they're going on straight today,
which you're entitled to do. They can do what they
want to do, but what we want to do is
when the finishes get back to the negotiating table, try
and resolve, but as quick as we can, because we
want the question facility to be operating safely for prison
officers and also for the prisoners.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
All right, Deputy Chief Minister, it was a big weekend
unfortunately when it comes to crime. I know that your government,
the government that you're part of, have certainly been you know,
talking about the fact that you believe these crime stats
are coming down. But over the weekend we saw that
Northern Territory Police they're investigating a number of serious incidents.
In Darwin, a woman remains in a critical condition after
(06:06):
an alleged stabbing at Coconut Grove. Two elderly men were
allegedly assaulted and had their vehicles stolen at Karama. Then
in Tenant Creek, a man was arrested following an alleged
domestic violence assault on a pregnant woman. And in Alice
Springs police are searching for an offender who allegedly threatened
an eighty three year old woman with a knife before
stealing her handbag. There was also three cars set on
(06:31):
fire in Tenant, a man was hospitalized with serious injuries
and three men were arrested amid a violent disturbance involving
up to one hundred people at that town camp near
Tenant Creek. That's not to mention the people who seem
to have set up camp outside the NT and used drinking,
leaving rubbish everywhere. Same thing at Perap what's going on
at the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Look, Katie, this crime is unacceptable at the moment, and
this goverment has been working hard and will continue to
work hard to reduce crime. We have put more numbers
in the police, We've up the correction, we've sorted out
the court. Things continue to go and the crime SATs
are going down, Katie, but they are These scenarios you
just read out are unacceptable and we will continue to
(07:13):
work to make sure that we can get the community safe,
because community safety is a number one Priori.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
What do you reckon? Things are flaring up at the moment,
like you see an influx of people to town. I
mean we're talking about all different locations, which I guess
is a concerning part. And even over the last week
or two we've been talking a lot about Catherine, so
it does seem as though. You know, you have an
operation in Palmerston, for example, where you try to stop
crime there and unfortunately I don't know whether it is
(07:39):
the case. But is it moving people to other areas.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Well, Katie, I don't know either, but we are the
police do a wonderful job, and I want to say
that from the beginning they are going out day in
day out, running towards danger. In this escape that we
just spoke about, that's taking resources away from the police.
So we all need to continue to work together to
try and bring this crime back under control, because any
crime is unacceptable. But this is really you know, we
can do our bit and the police do their bit,
(08:03):
but the community also need to be able to step
up some of these What do you mean What do
you mean? Well, you know some of these offenders are
quite young and you know, the middle age offenders. What
about their families, what about their communities, what about some
of its traditional owners that elders in those communities. We
need to work together and I know that we are,
but it's really a community led response here. We're doing
our bit and we'll continue to do our bit and
(08:23):
work harder and make the tough decisions, but we need
to make sure that this is a community responsibility and
some of those older people need to step up, some
of those community leaders need to step up and take
some responsibility as well.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Deputy Chief Minister. One of the areas where there have
been concerns with crime from time to time and some
really serious issues at different times as well is Nightcliff,
now the Nightcliffe Police Station. It's been announced this morning
that the facility, well it's going to transition. It's going
to be turned into the nt Foreign Emergency Services with
a fit for purpose headquarters for the first time. So essentially,
(08:57):
you know, we're getting rid of I guess from that area.
And the Chief Minister saying in a statement that the
move cleans up another mess left by the former government
which promised twenty four to seven police but delivered a
twelve million dollar administration building that did nothing to combat
spiraling crime rates. I mean, what a better scenario have
actually been to make sure that that police station is
(09:19):
operational with police.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, okay, but the problem was that was a purely
political decision by the Labor government and it was a
complete failure. They built essentially admin building, there was no cells,
there was not a functional police station. It couldn't be
used as a functional police station. So that was just
some sort of deal to get votes in nightclif I
could assume, I don't know, but it was a complete failure.
What we've done, Kate. Instead of you're sitting there and
(09:43):
being a white elephant, we're going to move in the
police and the fieries in there to make it their headquarters.
We know that there's police stations at Casherina and Darwin
around so the police do a wonderful job and I
can't stress that enough, but we need to make sure
that that failure from the labor government is utilized. It's
a big twelve million dollar bills.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Is this just another political decision though? Where you guys
are going, Well, we don't hold the seat, you know,
Yeah there's crime there, but we're going to move the
firies in.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
No. No, because at the moment, Katie, the fire is
as you know, we're separate from police and they've been
housed in different locations, so they haven't got a central
location where all the fire's head honchos I'm sitting and
operate from. They're in all different buildings spread across the
northern charritory across Darwin. So what we're doing is we're
going to move them into one so they can function
better and be all together, so they can use to
(10:28):
go use that facility to help and make sure they
do their job better.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Will they still be based I know there's quite a
few of them at Isle of Street there in that
Wilner area. Are they still going to be based there
or are you moving people out?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
No, Katie, this is going to be the headquarters for
the fireries. You still have the fire stations where the
fire trucks are. But are we're talking the admin's staff,
all the behind the scenes stuff. They'll be based there
in one unit together so they can operate more effectively.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
What do you say to the people of Nightcliff right,
who a lot of them we've spoken to over the
last six months where they continue to have issues with
anti social behavior. I mean, just last week I was
sent a video of a woman basically sitting in the
middle of the road intoxicated anti social behavior. They've been
really upset about the fact that I think it's Vinnie's
that is just sort of you know, in that Coconut
(11:14):
Grove area as well, and they some of the residents
there feelers. So the movement of Vinnie's there has caused
some issues with antisocial behavior. You know, they've got ongoing
concerns with not only anti social behavior but crime, Like
it has been an area that suffered from some really
serious crime over the last couple of years. I mean
the death of Linford Fike across the road from that
(11:35):
police station is one that just will stand out to
anybody listening. What do you say to those people who
are like, well, hang on a sec now, we don't
even have a police presence.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
There, Okay, What I say to those people? Crime is
right across the Northern Territory. It's unacceptable. You just mentioned
earlier about the one hundred people ride in Tenant Creek
and cars getting burned and someone seriously injured. They are
not alone, they don't have special rights. It's all equal
right across in Northern Territory, and we're going to work
hard to make sure that crime right across the territory
is brought down to an acceptable level. We're not going
(12:05):
to focus on one area police. We'll do operations in
one area. They're doing at Palmersant the moment, so they'll
work around when they pick these hotspots, but everyone's equal.
Crime is right across and on the charity is completely
unacceptable and we will continue to work and make those
tough decisions to bring that crime down. And the evidence
is there, Katie. Those crimes has are going down, maybe
not as quick as some people would like, but they
(12:26):
are on the way down. And I think people who
got some short memories, Katie, what was like when Abeling
government the crime was through, the roofs were going up.
They're on the way down. Not perfect, but we'll continue
to work hard to keep the community safe.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
All right, Jared, I do want to ask you with
you had on as the Minister for Mining and Resources,
Nathan river Mine. We spoke to the union on Friday
last week. The administrators have been called in. Territorians working
out there are going to be really very lucky if
they get paid the money that they're owed for the
work that they've done.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
What information do you have on this, look, Katie, I
don't have a lot of information, but I do know
that our department has been working with them. This is
a private company administrator. I think they had a meeting
this weekend to try and work out what's going on.
It's sort of like the hospital, Katie, there's a private company.
The administrators that come in, they will work through to
work out what assets available, how much money is in
(13:18):
the bank, they work out who's got the debts are
and they'll spread that money evenly across all the debtors
and also the employees. It's a sad situation, but unfortunately
as happens in private companies.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Is there anything like is there any support or anything
that the government can do to try to assist those
territorians that you know that may be left out of pokers.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I think, Katie, if you've got a workplace problem, you
go to fair work and if you've got a so
there are those government agencies that are available, and we
ask those people to contact them fair work and work
safe to make sure they do and get their benefits
and work hard to get what they can they're entitled to.
So we've got those government agencies and I ask those people,
and I've said it before, reach out if it's a
(13:56):
fair work, if it's something wrong with the work site,
and also just reach out to those government departments. They're
there to be able to help them.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Deputy Chief Minister a couple of quick messages before I
let you go. Someone's message through and said, now they're
moving Trident Strikeforce, Trident DV etc. To Beera Murray.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Is that the case, Katie? I don't know what that
right now. I could get back to you, but I
don't know the top of my hand.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Somebody else's message through and said good morning, Katie. It
is newsworthy that the Chief Minister chose to publicly criticize
labor today, while the police officers affected by the Nightclift
decision were reportedly not informed before the media release was issued.
Despite media reporting that the Territory Safety Divisions played a
significant role in the success of the Greater Darwin Centralized
(14:38):
Social Order concept and Operation Ventura, contributing to reducing crime
and anti social behavior. If reducing crime is truly the
government's priority, there's a strong argument that greater value should
be placed on supporting the officers responsible for delivering these outcomes.
I know it's not your portfolio, jerreed, but is that
the case? Were the police not actually no all this, Katie.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I can't come on it. I just simply don't know
the answer to that, and we can.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
John three though that that's a bit you know, that's
not on if that's the case.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
If that's not on, but I think that the police
senior staff do a wonderful job and they communicate through
your agency, Katie. So I don't know what that happened there,
but we'll send to look into it. But I think
we need to make our focus on the community, keeping
it safe and also the reason we don't have this big,
huge bucket of money. We've got what we've got and
we need to use that wisely and make sure that
(15:31):
the cherity no matter where you live, you've got access
to police, you've got community safety, because that's what he
were really focused.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
On, Deputy Chief Minister Jared Maylee. We better leave it there.
Thank you very much for your time. Much appreciated.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Thank you, Katie,
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