Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Police resources have been under review, as we know with
the Kelly Report released just days ago. Mark Turner, the
Independent Member for Blaine, joins me on the line. Good
morning to you, Mark.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
How are you Ye're really good?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Now?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
What was your reaction to the report when it was
released just a couple of days ago.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's stuff we already know. Yeah, I wish I could
say I'm blown away and this is going to be wonderful,
but it's just not, you know, for your listeners, I
think the best document that you could probably read would
be the Police Association's submission to the police review. It's
(00:42):
really comprehensive, covers all of the issues and doesn't beat
around the bush.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, we spoke, We spoke to the Police Association yesterday
and we did have a good discussion with with Nathan Finn.
And I suppose, you know, like you touched on, there's
a lot of stuff in there that we already we
already know, particularly if you've read those Police Associations surveys
in recent years as well. But I guess what it
provides is a roadmap now for the Northern Territory government,
(01:10):
whoever it is, where they really have to implement these recommendations.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We said that with all the other reviews as well, Katie,
and they didn't.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So what are you saying, you don't reckon they'll do it, Mark.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, the problem you've got and you look at things
like the recommendation for the Police Review Implementation Team and
they specifically recommended that it's done under the direction of
the Commissioner of Police through the Deputy ce role. Those
positions are paid six figure salaries to make sure that
(01:43):
the police force is running. And we've now got another
review saying that the police force isn't running properly, but
we'll let the people who aren't properly running the police
force do a review of themselves. You saw a government
do this, and there was a specific reason with the
Rley review when you had the Alcohol Implementation Review Team
(02:03):
that it was done sitting over the top of the
agency with people from a department Chief Minister's office sticking
in a review team that's under the senior executive at
the police force. I'd imagine we'll find that everything's fine.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So you reckon that the government's just setting themselves up
here to basically, you know, I show that there's nothing
to see.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, it's you know, you look at the figures we've got,
and again in the Police Association review, they've used quotes
from the members on the ground in an effort to
show this is what's actually happening, and it's not addressed
in the review. The review is a shopping list of
what police would like, and you certainly need to have that,
(02:50):
and you need to have specific goals. But I can
tell you that recruiting an extra ten cops into TRG
is not going to fix this unless we change fundamentally
how we're doing things and work smart, not hard.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well, so in terms of I mean in terms of
those additional numbers, like we're talking, you know, two hundred police,
that's what the Northern Territory government had sort of preempted
last week. Anyway, with that announcement, all the additional support
staff as well, where do you reckon we're going to
get done?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I'll give you give you an example when the
Alcohol Police Unit was created and then subsequently disbanded. Government
were funded, government funded police with additional support staff. Then
they got taken offline to do different projects and then
just got swallowed up by that department. And I fear
that that's exactly the same things that would happen. And
(03:45):
as you're rightly pointed out, it's where are we going
to recruit these people from. You've got other jurisdictions who
are going back to international recruiting to try and fill vacancies.
So unless the Northern Territory is going to join SAPHOL sorry,
South Australia Police, w Police and Queensland Police in recruiting internationally,
(04:05):
if they can't find the people, where are we going
to find the people?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah? That's the worry, isn't it. And then you sort
of look at you know, you look at some of
the issues that we face here in the Northern Territory
and I know some people may want to move here,
and we love living here. There's a reason we all
love living here. But for others, you know, it can
mean a massive step away from your family and what
you know. So I do sort of wonder how we're
going to get to a point where we're able to
(04:28):
recruit all of those officers that have been earmarked. But
I want to ask you Mark, because it's something you
and I have spoken about before. It's something that you
have really you know, you've raised as a big issue before.
And that is well being within the Northern Territory Police Force.
We know in the review there is a look at
that well being of officers and there are a number
(04:49):
of recommendations including support mental health well being through the
Wellbeing Strategy of twenty twenty three to twenty seven, foster
of culture to reduce the stigma of mental health issues
and ensure a proactive approach to welfare checks and critical
incident debriefing, as well as providing a safe and inclusive
work environment, promoting cultural responsiveness and cultural safety support enabling
(05:12):
a healthy work life balance, including implementing a fatigue management policy.
Do you think that's going to be enough to ensure
the well being of Northern Territory Police officers.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It's certainly a word salad, isn't it. It is no,
it's just we need tangible actions. Again, I can go
back over the last ten years to when the Police
Social Club was taken away. The police promised that they'd
have the multipurpose facility at the Pete McCauley Center and
then weren't allowed to use it, so it was given
(05:47):
to the college. That was years of fighting and it
is the same people who made these decisions who are
currently in senior executive positions now, So why is it
suddenly going to be a change in how they do
business because of the Kelly Review. You could see in
the NTPA submissions. We still have the issues with communication
(06:10):
between HR and Gallagha Bassett or the lack thereof the insurer.
Police officers are writing their own return to work plans.
I know of instances where police officers have been in
mediation with the Department of the department has said we'll apologize,
but only on the condition that you don't tell anybody
without having the cultural reform at the senior levels. This
(06:35):
is just another word saler that hopefully makes the problem
go away into laughter the election.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So what do you think needs to happen as a
matter of urgency? I mean, obviously the governments they've conducted
this review, they are saying that they're going to be
working through these recommendations. They've accepted fifteen of the eighteen.
The opposition has said the same. It doesn't sound like
you're buying it. So what do you reckon needs to happen?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Well, I'd say I doubt your lists or buy it
as well. I'll be interested if you get any text
saying that this is going to be great and fix everything.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I think people are very keen to see more boots
on the ground, Like they're the kind of things that
they're sort of most worried about, is whether people are
able to take their calls at the emergency communications center,
whether there's going to be enough police to go out
to the call outs that they're being called to. They're
the kind of real person stuff that they're worried about,
and they do want to make sure that officers, you know,
(07:27):
that their mental well being is how it needs to be.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, that's it. We keep breaking up police and we've
been calling for I wrote memorandums about fatigue management policy.
Probably back we'd be looking at ten years ago now
trying to get the department to stop doing things like
have officers on night shift, then at court all day,
and then back on night shift, because that's why you're
(07:54):
breaking them. I have constituents last night who were messaging
me in the morning because we had fifteen people wandering
around the electric with bats and they were sitting on
hold for when it was about seven minutes to try
and get placed. So having more boots on the ground,
we can keep throwing money at having the largest police
(08:16):
force in the country. You know we're going to this
review recommendation will put us up to nine hundred police
officers per hundred thousand. To give you an indication, in
the rest of Australia, you're looking at about two hundred
and thirty eight. I think it is officers per hundred
thousand in Northwestern Australia and Queensland have exactly the same
(08:36):
problems we do. We still don't even have an electronic
rostering system. We don't know where our officers are on
any given day of the week. Until we fix the
issues at the back end, we can certainly keep pouring
water on it, but it's until we work out and
start being with the problems we will have the same
(08:59):
proms and.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We are going to have. Yeah, we're gonna have to
get ready to wrap up. I'm sorry, Mark, we have
I've got to get to another interview. Thank you very
much for your time this morning. I appreciate it. We
will talk to you again very soon.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
No worries.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Thanks, thank you, Thanks so much.