June 9, 2026 • 13 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We know it was a massive weekend in Alice Springs
of course over the weekend with the Pink Desert Race
happening in Central Australia. And while the weekend was hugely
successful for the town, we also know that sadly, a
competitor died following a crash during the opening leg of
the Fink Desert Race. Now major crash investigators are examining
the circumstances surrounding the incident and a report will be
(00:22):
prepared for the coroner. We are going to be speaking
to the Northern Territory Police Commissioner a bit later on
the show to find out more about well the whole
operation that was underway in Fink on the weekend. But
joining us live on the line is the member for
Ara lun She's also the Speaker of the Northern Territories
Legislative Assembly, Robin Lambley.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good morning to you, Robin, Good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Robin. Lovely to have you on the show. As always,
a huge weekend in Alice. Unfortunately some really sad news though,
well you know, Alice just doesn't seem to be able
to get a break at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yes, it was a very sad event that happened on
Sunday afternoon. A local lad, Maddie Belford and we call
him Maddi b. He crashed his motorbike and lost his life.
A young chap of I think Maddie's twenty seven. He
was a great friend of my son's and a lot
(01:23):
of local people are absolutely devastated by this.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm really yeah, I am so sorry to hear that, Robin,
and I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry for the
whole community's loss. You know, it's a real like it's
it's so tough. Would I can't even begin to imagine
how people are be feeling in Alice Springs because it's
such a wonderful event. But you know, when something like
this happens, it's hard not to feel really sad and
(01:51):
for things to be quite somber.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Absolutely, it just changed the whole tone of the event.
So he he didn't get far down the track, and
I think he lost his life around one pm or thereabout,
so he would have been quite a fair way back
in the pack. They were over five hundred bikes. So yeah,
(02:18):
Maddie grew up in Alice Springs and his life was
in Alice Springs up until fairly recently he went over
to Cannes and was really making a go of his
life over there was a trade. He just a lovely,
lovely young man and I know his mum quite well,
and his brother lives in Alice. So yeah, it's terrible.
(02:41):
You know, it's a small town, Alice Springs. You know,
Darwin is a small town, but we're even smaller down there,
and so the associations and connections run deep, and particularly
for kids who've grown up in Alice, you know, they're
a part of all our hearts. Just devastating. Well, we'll
(03:02):
just wait to see what happened and we'll bury him
in a week or two. I gather and.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Robin, like I say, my thoughts really with his family,
with you, with everybody at this time. I can't begin
to imagine how difficult it is. I know, we spoke
to Chancey Paike yesterday, part of the opposition team, and
he'd sort of he'd raised and I don't know whether
you know whether this is a path that you know
(03:28):
that the Fink organizers would go down, but he sort
of said, you know, given the size and the magnitude
and the danger involved in the think race, he sort
of just pondered whether the government need to be more
involved in the management of it.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Look, I'm not sure what the answer to that is.
I think every year that goes by, there's more and
more rules and regulations around everything to do with this race,
the Think Desert race something. When the man the spectator
was killed a few years back, that changed everything dramatically
around where people could camp and stand and watch, and
(04:09):
we had to get used to that. I don't know
the answer to that, and I guess that's something that
the Think Committee will mull over and the government will
mull over in the coming months. But just a piece
of information that is really positive is the Think Dere's
a committee have offered to pay for Matty B's funeral.
I spoke to his mum yesterday, so that takes a
(04:32):
lot of pressure off her and the family and that's
just a really lovely thing to do. But how it
changes things going forward, I think it's inevitable that things
just get tighter and tougher around regulations. That's the way
society is these days, isn't it, Katy. But it is
extremely dangerous what they do, the bugies, but particularly the bikes,
(04:56):
and I quite frankly inge at the thought of what
they do. I can barely watch it. It just it
just beggars belief. How many people you really put their
life on the line to participate? And look, Robin, you
and I something incredible. It's going to say, Spirits must
(05:17):
be incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
We must not have the adrenaline for it. I don't think, Robin,
but I know for those young ones, and.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Certainly I love it.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
They love it and you know, and that's the really
difficult part is it's incredibly dangerous, but it's also something
that people absolutely love.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, well, Maddie Bee came over from Cannes to writhe
in think and it's it's kind of a pathway to
adulthood in Alice Springs. If the boys don't ride in sync,
you're kind of lucky. As a parent, you know, you
feel like you've escaped something quite profound. But for many
other parents and families and kids, you know they're to
(06:00):
be a part of it because the kids are raised
thinking that this is what you do when you get
to a certain age, You jump on a bike and
you ride two hundred and twenty seven kilometers through the
toughest terrain in Australia probably to Think and then the
next day you come back again and if you make it,
then you've achieved something quite incredible. And to those that
(06:22):
don't make it, that's another story.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
It is a really nice gesture for the THINK organizers
to offer to pay for his funeral, for Maddie Bee's funeral,
and you know that is that's a nice thing to hear.
And I'm not sure how his family would be feeling
about that, but no doubt it does take.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Me very grateful. His mother was extremely grateful. I've known Lynn.
You know, when my kids grew up, they're the same
age as Maddie Bee, and Lynn did it tough. You know,
she has a great and she did everything for the kids.
But for the most part, I think Lynn was on
her own raising the kids. So this is an enormous
(07:07):
gesture for Lynn and Mattie's brother. So, yeah, an incredibly
kind and generous thing to do. Robert.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Look, I appreciate you talking to us about that. I
know it's not easy. I appreciate you talking to us
about it. Let's move along to something else that's happening
in the territory at the moment, and that is well
budget estimates, Robin, how are things going well? How did
they go on that first day from your.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Perspective, look, I thought the Chief Minister did well. She
was very well prepared. There were a few interesting things
from my perspective, that came up. There was a bit
of talk about the lobbyist Register. I mean, most people
wouldn't even know what that is, and I barely know myself,
but you know, the lobbyists are people that represent different
(07:59):
organizations and companies that make appointments to see ministers and
talk about how they can further the interests of their
clients and work with government to do deals basically, and
the government set up a lobbyist register a couple of well,
probably about a year ago, I think they set it up.
(08:20):
And there's twenty six lobbyists registered on the Northern Territory
list now and in other states and apparently there's over seventies,
so we don't have as many yet as others. But
I just thought it was really interesting that that's been established.
And I had a bit of a look at who's
actually on the register, and I don't recognize too many
(08:42):
of the individual's names, but a lot of companies are represented,
and you know, just the inside of how government operates
and interfaces with companies and big business and what goes
on behind the scenes. I think is quite interesting and
it's really good that they've set that up. There was
a a lot of pressure from the opposition to the
government to do that, and it's done, and it's no
(09:04):
big deal and it's operating, and so it creates another
layer of transparency around what government's up to and who
they're talking to.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Well, you've given Kathleen n I a bit of homework. We'll
go check out the lobby register there. See what names
will recognize.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well that I didn't recognize. Many I did recognize Christopher Pine.
Remember he was the former federal Minister for Education. He's
a lobbyist. He's got his own company and he represents
a number of other companies and businesses. A few other
names you will recognize that most I hadn't heard of.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, we'll go and suss it out. Hey, Robin, before
I let you go, we've had quite a bit of
discussion over the last well, you know, over the last
few days, last couple of weeks. But it looks like
it was a pretty busy weekend when it comes to crime.
Across the Northern Territory. And then yesterday we had well
a bloke who ran for the Labor Party out in Palmerston,
Tayler Burke. He's also coach out there. He'd taken to
(10:02):
social media last night to say that he was coaching
the footy team out at one of the OVAL's out
there in Palmerston. And then you know a bloke had
been stabbed or it turns out a sixteen year old
who'd been stabbed, you know, came running over sort of
asking for help. He said. The police did a phenomenal job,
but unfortunately, you know, like we're being subjected, and I
(10:24):
know that you guys in Ala Springs are certainly very
well aware of this, subjected to various different incidents of crime.
From your perspective, how are things going at the moment,
particularly when we hear the government saying that the crime
stats show that, you know, things are going getting a
bit better.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, I'm always a little bit hesitant to celebrate any
improvement or well improvement in the stats, because you hear
things like that happening. I think that the stats do
indicate that there has been in an improvement, But in
(11:02):
Alice Springs, depending on what day you talk to people
and what's happened the night before. It just you know,
it's it's nothing to quite celebrate. Yet that's the point
I'm trying to make, Katie. Yeah, I mean, there was
some there was a horrendous incident north of Alice Springs
on an outstation over the weekend and people, a group
(11:25):
of people just attacked these people that were living that
live in in an outstation. Horrendous violence, and you know
that it just doesn't stop. And I guess, you know,
whilst we need to give credit where credits due, we've
still got a hell of a long way.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
To goo, have we. Yeah, we do. I think that's
that's very true. And you know though, the thing that
I do like is that we do hear that, you know,
from the police and from the minister where the Chief Minister,
where they're saying, well, yeah, look, things are getting better,
but that doesn't mean that we still doing this work.
And I think that that's really important. You know, they're
not gas lighting us, they're not pretending it's not happening,
(12:06):
which is how I think a lot of us felt
under the former government.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And Katie, we must continue to put pressure on the
government because as soon as you take the pressure off,
I find governments start to relax and move on to
something else. I thought it was interesting last week. I
think we spoke about Catherine, the Mayor of Catherine, jumping
up and down and complaining good on her, and that's
(12:31):
what we all need to continue to do. Yes, things
have improved, but yes, look at look over here, look
at what's happening over here. Don't rest on your laurels.
And I know the police aren't resting on their laurels,
but you know, people like me and you with the media,
that's our responsibility to make it, make it clearly, make
(12:53):
the messaging around. You know the fact that crime is
still a problem, and you don't take your foot off
the accelerator.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Well we certainly won't. Robin Lamley, it is always good
to catch up with you. I really appreciate your time
this morning. Thank you very much, thank you, thanks so much,
We know it was a massive weekend in Alice Springs
of course over the weekend with the Pink Desert Race
happening in Central Australia. And while the weekend was hugely
successful for the town, we also know that sadly, a
competitor died following a crash during the opening leg of
the Fink Desert Race. Now major crash investigators are examining
the circumstances surrounding the incident and a report will be
(00:22):
prepared for the coroner. We are going to be speaking
to the Northern Territory Police Commissioner a bit later on
the show to find out more about well the whole
operation that was underway in Fink on the weekend. But
joining us live on the line is the member for
Ara lun She's also the Speaker of the Northern Territories
Legislative Assembly, Robin Lambley.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good morning to you, Robin, Good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Robin. Lovely to have you on the show. As always,
a huge weekend in Alice. Unfortunately some really sad news though,
well you know, Alice just doesn't seem to be able
to get a break at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yes, it was a very sad event that happened on
Sunday afternoon. A local lad, Maddie Belford and we call
him Maddi b. He crashed his motorbike and lost his life.
A young chap of I think Maddie's twenty seven. He
was a great friend of my son's and a lot
(01:23):
of local people are absolutely devastated by this.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'm really yeah, I am so sorry to hear that, Robin,
and I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry for the
whole community's loss. You know, it's a real like it's
it's so tough. Would I can't even begin to imagine
how people are be feeling in Alice Springs because it's
such a wonderful event. But you know, when something like
this happens, it's hard not to feel really sad and
(01:51):
for things to be quite somber.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Absolutely, it just changed the whole tone of the event.
So he he didn't get far down the track, and
I think he lost his life around one pm or thereabout,
so he would have been quite a fair way back
in the pack. They were over five hundred bikes. So yeah,
(02:18):
Maddie grew up in Alice Springs and his life was
in Alice Springs up until fairly recently he went over
to Cannes and was really making a go of his
life over there was a trade. He just a lovely,
lovely young man and I know his mum quite well,
and his brother lives in Alice. So yeah, it's terrible.
(02:41):
You know, it's a small town, Alice Springs. You know,
Darwin is a small town, but we're even smaller down there,
and so the associations and connections run deep, and particularly
for kids who've grown up in Alice, you know, they're
a part of all our hearts. Just devastating. Well, we'll
(03:02):
just wait to see what happened and we'll bury him
in a week or two. I gather and.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Robin, like I say, my thoughts really with his family,
with you, with everybody at this time. I can't begin
to imagine how difficult it is. I know, we spoke
to Chancey Paike yesterday, part of the opposition team, and
he'd sort of he'd raised and I don't know whether
you know whether this is a path that you know
(03:28):
that the Fink organizers would go down, but he sort
of said, you know, given the size and the magnitude
and the danger involved in the think race, he sort
of just pondered whether the government need to be more
involved in the management of it.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Look, I'm not sure what the answer to that is.
I think every year that goes by, there's more and
more rules and regulations around everything to do with this race,
the Think Desert race something. When the man the spectator
was killed a few years back, that changed everything dramatically
around where people could camp and stand and watch, and
(04:09):
we had to get used to that. I don't know
the answer to that, and I guess that's something that
the Think Committee will mull over and the government will
mull over in the coming months. But just a piece
of information that is really positive is the Think Dere's
a committee have offered to pay for Matty B's funeral.
I spoke to his mum yesterday, so that takes a
(04:32):
lot of pressure off her and the family and that's
just a really lovely thing to do. But how it
changes things going forward, I think it's inevitable that things
just get tighter and tougher around regulations. That's the way
society is these days, isn't it, Katy. But it is
extremely dangerous what they do, the bugies, but particularly the bikes,
(04:56):
and I quite frankly inge at the thought of what
they do. I can barely watch it. It just it
just beggars belief. How many people you really put their
life on the line to participate? And look, Robin, you
and I something incredible. It's going to say, Spirits must
(05:17):
be incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
We must not have the adrenaline for it. I don't think, Robin,
but I know for those young ones, and.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Certainly I love it.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
They love it and you know, and that's the really
difficult part is it's incredibly dangerous, but it's also something
that people absolutely love.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, well, Maddie Bee came over from Cannes to writhe
in think and it's it's kind of a pathway to
adulthood in Alice Springs. If the boys don't ride in sync,
you're kind of lucky. As a parent, you know, you
feel like you've escaped something quite profound. But for many
other parents and families and kids, you know they're to
(06:00):
be a part of it because the kids are raised
thinking that this is what you do when you get
to a certain age, You jump on a bike and
you ride two hundred and twenty seven kilometers through the
toughest terrain in Australia probably to Think and then the
next day you come back again and if you make it,
then you've achieved something quite incredible. And to those that
(06:22):
don't make it, that's another story.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
It is a really nice gesture for the THINK organizers
to offer to pay for his funeral, for Maddie Bee's funeral,
and you know that is that's a nice thing to hear.
And I'm not sure how his family would be feeling
about that, but no doubt it does take.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Me very grateful. His mother was extremely grateful. I've known Lynn.
You know, when my kids grew up, they're the same
age as Maddie Bee, and Lynn did it tough. You know,
she has a great and she did everything for the kids.
But for the most part, I think Lynn was on
her own raising the kids. So this is an enormous
(07:07):
gesture for Lynn and Mattie's brother. So, yeah, an incredibly
kind and generous thing to do. Robert.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Look, I appreciate you talking to us about that. I
know it's not easy. I appreciate you talking to us
about it. Let's move along to something else that's happening
in the territory at the moment, and that is well
budget estimates, Robin, how are things going well? How did
they go on that first day from your.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Perspective, look, I thought the Chief Minister did well. She
was very well prepared. There were a few interesting things
from my perspective, that came up. There was a bit
of talk about the lobbyist Register. I mean, most people
wouldn't even know what that is, and I barely know myself,
but you know, the lobbyists are people that represent different
(07:59):
organizations and companies that make appointments to see ministers and
talk about how they can further the interests of their
clients and work with government to do deals basically, and
the government set up a lobbyist register a couple of well,
probably about a year ago, I think they set it up.
(08:20):
And there's twenty six lobbyists registered on the Northern Territory
list now and in other states and apparently there's over seventies,
so we don't have as many yet as others. But
I just thought it was really interesting that that's been established.
And I had a bit of a look at who's
actually on the register, and I don't recognize too many
(08:42):
of the individual's names, but a lot of companies are represented,
and you know, just the inside of how government operates
and interfaces with companies and big business and what goes
on behind the scenes. I think is quite interesting and
it's really good that they've set that up. There was
a a lot of pressure from the opposition to the
government to do that, and it's done, and it's no
(09:04):
big deal and it's operating, and so it creates another
layer of transparency around what government's up to and who
they're talking to.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Well, you've given Kathleen n I a bit of homework. We'll
go check out the lobby register there. See what names
will recognize.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well that I didn't recognize. Many I did recognize Christopher Pine.
Remember he was the former federal Minister for Education. He's
a lobbyist. He's got his own company and he represents
a number of other companies and businesses. A few other
names you will recognize that most I hadn't heard of.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, we'll go and suss it out. Hey, Robin, before
I let you go, we've had quite a bit of
discussion over the last well, you know, over the last
few days, last couple of weeks. But it looks like
it was a pretty busy weekend when it comes to crime.
Across the Northern Territory. And then yesterday we had well
a bloke who ran for the Labor Party out in Palmerston,
Tayler Burke. He's also coach out there. He'd taken to
(10:02):
social media last night to say that he was coaching
the footy team out at one of the OVAL's out
there in Palmerston. And then you know a bloke had
been stabbed or it turns out a sixteen year old
who'd been stabbed, you know, came running over sort of
asking for help. He said. The police did a phenomenal job,
but unfortunately, you know, like we're being subjected, and I
(10:24):
know that you guys in Ala Springs are certainly very
well aware of this, subjected to various different incidents of crime.
From your perspective, how are things going at the moment,
particularly when we hear the government saying that the crime
stats show that, you know, things are going getting a
bit better.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, I'm always a little bit hesitant to celebrate any
improvement or well improvement in the stats, because you hear
things like that happening. I think that the stats do
indicate that there has been in an improvement, But in
(11:02):
Alice Springs, depending on what day you talk to people
and what's happened the night before. It just you know,
it's it's nothing to quite celebrate. Yet that's the point
I'm trying to make, Katie. Yeah, I mean, there was
some there was a horrendous incident north of Alice Springs
on an outstation over the weekend and people, a group
(11:25):
of people just attacked these people that were living that
live in in an outstation. Horrendous violence, and you know
that it just doesn't stop. And I guess, you know,
whilst we need to give credit where credits due, we've
still got a hell of a long way.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
To goo, have we. Yeah, we do. I think that's
that's very true. And you know though, the thing that
I do like is that we do hear that, you know,
from the police and from the minister where the Chief Minister,
where they're saying, well, yeah, look, things are getting better,
but that doesn't mean that we still doing this work.
And I think that that's really important. You know, they're
not gas lighting us, they're not pretending it's not happening,
(12:06):
which is how I think a lot of us felt
under the former government.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And Katie, we must continue to put pressure on the
government because as soon as you take the pressure off,
I find governments start to relax and move on to
something else. I thought it was interesting last week. I
think we spoke about Catherine, the Mayor of Catherine, jumping
up and down and complaining good on her, and that's
(12:31):
what we all need to continue to do. Yes, things
have improved, but yes, look at look over here, look
at what's happening over here. Don't rest on your laurels.
And I know the police aren't resting on their laurels,
but you know, people like me and you with the media,
that's our responsibility to make it, make it clearly, make
(12:53):
the messaging around. You know the fact that crime is
still a problem, and you don't take your foot off
the accelerator.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Well we certainly won't. Robin Lamley, it is always good
to catch up with you. I really appreciate your time
this morning. Thank you very much, thank you, thanks so much,
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