November 25, 2025 • 10 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to hit into our next interview. Joining me
on the line is the Minister for Domestic Family and
Sexual Violence, Robin Karl.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good morning, Minister, Good morning, Katie, good morning too. Listens
and so pleased to hear that things are moving along
and are very relieved that there were no injuries from
the cyclone. Yeah, great job Territorians. Everybody's pitching in, which
is what we do.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
On everybody helping each other out as well, Robin, which
is really nice.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It is it's ants and it's who we are, it's
what we do, and it's a reminder to everybody just
what makes this place so special.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It really is, hey, Robin. A big announcement a little
earlier this morning. The government's going to be quadrupling the
length of band drinker orders, with the Chief Minister saying
the move is backed by the police community. So what
it's going to mean is that, well, they're going to
move from seven day band drinker orders to twenty eight
days from next month. What do you reckon this bdr
(00:56):
change is going to mean?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Okay, it's pretty significant. I think that what we've seen
and will everybody is seen over a period of time
that that seven day band just simply wasn't long enough.
If you think about people even starting to think about
changing behavior, nobody can do it in seven days. So
through discussions with police the review that was undertaking, it
was a very strong recommendation that we move that to
(01:21):
twenty eight days because it just gives a much better
breathing space and gives a greater opportunity for us to
get some of those problem drinkers the support and help
that they need now.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Robin in terms of you know, the alcohol orders and
them increasing, how do you think that that may help
in terms of the level of domestic violence that we're
seeing across the Northern Territory as well.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I think anything that has contributing to domestic violence we
absolutely should be tackling head on. And as we're moving
into the crisis period, holiday periods are always really, really
difficult when it comes to family domestic violence, So anything
we can do that can reduce the potential to trigger
a violent episode is absolutely critical. And obviously we're not
(02:07):
saying that all people in family situations are problem drinkers,
but we certainly know there's a very strong correlation between
escalation of violence in a domestic situation and alcohol. So
this should really give us a good opportunity to break
the cycle of violence that's been happening and move in
(02:28):
more quickly to help these people, the victims, and get
perpetrators into programs that they need to do to look
at changing behavior.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, are we going to then see a bit of
an increase in some of those programs as well, you know,
like some of the alcohol issues programs potentially, because it's
one thing for people to not be able to drink,
but like you touched on there, if you can break
that cycle and not only have them not drinking for
twenty eight days, but potentially you know, making some serious
changes to their lives, surely that'd be a good thing.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And I know Minister Edgington as a responsible minister, as
working very hard with his team to look at how
we can create greater opportunity for people to get into
programs where the trigger point would be to make program mandatory.
And really the educational piece around alcohol is not the answer.
Alcohol is something that we all enjoy. If it's something
(03:20):
that's a problem for you and you need help, we
will be there to help you. And hopefully that twenty
eight day period where people will have a greater opportunity
to sober up, they'll start to realize that they need
some help.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, hey, Robin, I do want to ask you as
well about the launch of the Domestic Family Sexual Violence
Reduction Strategy twenty five to twenty eight. It's and also
a Safety ROADBAP to coincide with the start of the
global sixteen Days of Activism campaign. How is this plan
going to reduce the horrific rates of DV that we
(03:53):
continue to see across the Northern Territory.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Well, the good news, Katie, is that many of these
programs have already started it because the funding came out
and we wanted to make sure that we got that
thirty six million dollars allocated as quickly as possible, and
we gave security to programs that were already in play.
And I'm really happy to report that I had been
hoping that we would start to see a plateauing of
(04:17):
domestic violence across the territory my target day twenty thirty.
As of the end of September, we've seen a decrease
in domestic violence assault across the territory of one point
four percent. So that is a small percentage, but when
you think that I was hoping for a plateauing by
twenty thirty. It's incredibly significant, and we're seeing the greatest
(04:39):
inroads in the Alice Springs area, where we've had a
combination of programs, most importantly the Circuit Breaker program, which
is about to celebrate its first year of operation, where
there's been a huge amount of work done with families
where domestic violence and alcohol have been issues, and that's
one of the reasons the kids have been not at
(05:00):
home when they should be. The work that's been done
by that team, the wrap around services, the stepping in
and actually getting people redirected to other services and where necessary,
moving them into safe environments, is really starting to make
changes in that community's approach. And then if you combine
that with the mandatory remand of people who breach a DBO,
(05:23):
this culmination of all of the things that we've put
in place to look at protecting victims and also breaking
that cycle of violence, we are actually starting to see
us chip away at what's been happening in that space.
So I appreciate its early days, but it's pretty exciting
and I'm looking at it going this is an outcome
(05:43):
we can measure when we talk about these programs often,
and it's not the fault of the programs, but the
previous government was very output focused, so it was like,
how many people have you seen? How many places have
you gone? It didn't really look at Okay, you saw
a thousand people. Of those thousand people, how many of
them have changed their behavior? How many of them are
(06:03):
no longer at risk? How many of them are now
living full and productive life free of domestic violence? So
we're really focusing on outcomes. We really wanted to make
sure we got it right. There was extensive consultation on
this particular strategy, and I was absolutely it was not
negotiable with the Department of Children's and Families that we
(06:25):
needed KPIs that were measurable and were target outcomes, not
just numbers of people through the program.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Robin, what do you say to those that are still
sort of on the other side of the fence here?
I know that I watched the ABC News last night
and they had one of the domestic violence experts on
the who you know who wasn't entirely convinced that the
changes that the government's making having an impact. Like, what
do you say to those people? Because it feels like
you're trying to think outside the box or do things
(06:52):
a little bit differently to what we have previously done.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, well, what I say to those people, they want
us to keep doing the same thing over and over
and over, and we've been doing the same thing over
and over for at least two decades in the territory.
It is not working. We saw an eighty one percent
increase of domestic violence assaults over ten years under the
previous government. We have been in government for fifteen months
and we have already made an inroad into assaults. The
(07:21):
progress that's been made, I'm really I don't know why
the people who are working in this space aren't celebrating that,
because they should be. Perhaps they just haven't caught up
with the facts yet. But the reality is we are
making differences and to me, I've said to all organizations,
including Department of Children's and Family, success would look like
(07:41):
none of us had a job, which would be amazing,
But the reality is that's never going to happen. So
what we want to be able to do is reduce
the pressure on those services, and the best way to
reduce the pressure is to solve the problem before it starts.
And that is why we are focusing on breaking the
cycle of violence and the victim perpetrator approach. At that
(08:03):
point in time when children have an opportunity to understand
that a violent relationship is not normal, that young girls
don't think that you their partner, exhibiting violence to them
is a way of showing that they care about them.
We absolutely have to change that behavior and that understanding
and get in there and give those kids the best
(08:24):
possible chance, and at the same time work with the
people who are already in that cycle and trapped in
a system and a relationship. There is really difficult to
make sure we can protect them. So we need to
look after the pointy end, if you like, the crisis point.
But we can't just focus on that. And unfortunately, what
I hear often out of the sector, the people who
(08:47):
talk publicly is from that crisis side of things. I
have to tell you talking to many many of the
NGO organizations that I do talk to who are working
on through the whole spec of how do we stop
this FI call. Yes we have to look after victims.
Yes we have to deal with perpetrators and change their behavior,
(09:07):
but we must change things and do things differently. I
am incredibly reassured at the significant number of organizations who
are on board with this and are working side by
side with the Department to make this happen.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Robin really quickly before I let you go, because I
know you've got to get into Parliament. But last night,
of course Parliament in Parliament the Integrity and Ethics Commissioner Bill,
a major overhaul, merging the IKAK, the Ombudsman, the Information
Commissioner and the Health Complaints Commissioner into one independent watchdog.
Will it passed, as I understand it, the Opposition saying
(09:41):
that they're just a bit concerned that maybe this is
a cost saving exercise. Is it?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
No, absolutely not, and it's a bit rich really coming
from the opposition. They are in government. They put this
system in place. It's been an absolute disaster. The KAC
Commissioner as it stood, it's costs the territory thirty five
million dollars. It did not give the results that they
claimed it would. So what we did was we got
experts to look at what was happening, how could we
(10:09):
improve it, how could we make this So this absolutely
did the job that it was meant to do, and
the results of that was the legislation that came to
Parliament last night and were passed.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Well, Robin Carl will let you go. Always appreciate your time.
Thank you very much for having a chat with me.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Thanks Kat, It's always good to chat.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Thank you, Thanks so much for your time
We're going to hit into our next interview. Joining me
on the line is the Minister for Domestic Family and
Sexual Violence, Robin Karl.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good morning, Minister, Good morning, Katie, good morning too. Listens
and so pleased to hear that things are moving along
and are very relieved that there were no injuries from
the cyclone. Yeah, great job Territorians. Everybody's pitching in, which
is what we do.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
On everybody helping each other out as well, Robin, which
is really nice.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It is it's ants and it's who we are, it's
what we do, and it's a reminder to everybody just
what makes this place so special.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It really is, hey, Robin. A big announcement a little
earlier this morning. The government's going to be quadrupling the
length of band drinker orders, with the Chief Minister saying
the move is backed by the police community. So what
it's going to mean is that, well, they're going to
move from seven day band drinker orders to twenty eight
days from next month. What do you reckon this bdr
(00:56):
change is going to mean?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Okay, it's pretty significant. I think that what we've seen
and will everybody is seen over a period of time
that that seven day band just simply wasn't long enough.
If you think about people even starting to think about
changing behavior, nobody can do it in seven days. So
through discussions with police the review that was undertaking, it
was a very strong recommendation that we move that to
(01:21):
twenty eight days because it just gives a much better
breathing space and gives a greater opportunity for us to
get some of those problem drinkers the support and help
that they need now.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Robin in terms of you know, the alcohol orders and
them increasing, how do you think that that may help
in terms of the level of domestic violence that we're
seeing across the Northern Territory as well.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I think anything that has contributing to domestic violence we
absolutely should be tackling head on. And as we're moving
into the crisis period, holiday periods are always really, really
difficult when it comes to family domestic violence, So anything
we can do that can reduce the potential to trigger
a violent episode is absolutely critical. And obviously we're not
(02:07):
saying that all people in family situations are problem drinkers,
but we certainly know there's a very strong correlation between
escalation of violence in a domestic situation and alcohol. So
this should really give us a good opportunity to break
the cycle of violence that's been happening and move in
(02:28):
more quickly to help these people, the victims, and get
perpetrators into programs that they need to do to look
at changing behavior.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, are we going to then see a bit of
an increase in some of those programs as well, you know,
like some of the alcohol issues programs potentially, because it's
one thing for people to not be able to drink,
but like you touched on there, if you can break
that cycle and not only have them not drinking for
twenty eight days, but potentially you know, making some serious
changes to their lives, surely that'd be a good thing.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And I know Minister Edgington as a responsible minister, as
working very hard with his team to look at how
we can create greater opportunity for people to get into
programs where the trigger point would be to make program mandatory.
And really the educational piece around alcohol is not the answer.
Alcohol is something that we all enjoy. If it's something
(03:20):
that's a problem for you and you need help, we
will be there to help you. And hopefully that twenty
eight day period where people will have a greater opportunity
to sober up, they'll start to realize that they need
some help.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, hey, Robin, I do want to ask you as
well about the launch of the Domestic Family Sexual Violence
Reduction Strategy twenty five to twenty eight. It's and also
a Safety ROADBAP to coincide with the start of the
global sixteen Days of Activism campaign. How is this plan
going to reduce the horrific rates of DV that we
(03:53):
continue to see across the Northern Territory.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Well, the good news, Katie, is that many of these
programs have already started it because the funding came out
and we wanted to make sure that we got that
thirty six million dollars allocated as quickly as possible, and
we gave security to programs that were already in play.
And I'm really happy to report that I had been
hoping that we would start to see a plateauing of
(04:17):
domestic violence across the territory my target day twenty thirty.
As of the end of September, we've seen a decrease
in domestic violence assault across the territory of one point
four percent. So that is a small percentage, but when
you think that I was hoping for a plateauing by
twenty thirty. It's incredibly significant, and we're seeing the greatest
(04:39):
inroads in the Alice Springs area, where we've had a
combination of programs, most importantly the Circuit Breaker program, which
is about to celebrate its first year of operation, where
there's been a huge amount of work done with families
where domestic violence and alcohol have been issues, and that's
one of the reasons the kids have been not at
(05:00):
home when they should be. The work that's been done
by that team, the wrap around services, the stepping in
and actually getting people redirected to other services and where necessary,
moving them into safe environments, is really starting to make
changes in that community's approach. And then if you combine
that with the mandatory remand of people who breach a DBO,
(05:23):
this culmination of all of the things that we've put
in place to look at protecting victims and also breaking
that cycle of violence, we are actually starting to see
us chip away at what's been happening in that space.
So I appreciate its early days, but it's pretty exciting
and I'm looking at it going this is an outcome
(05:43):
we can measure when we talk about these programs often,
and it's not the fault of the programs, but the
previous government was very output focused, so it was like,
how many people have you seen? How many places have
you gone? It didn't really look at Okay, you saw
a thousand people. Of those thousand people, how many of
them have changed their behavior? How many of them are
(06:03):
no longer at risk? How many of them are now
living full and productive life free of domestic violence? So
we're really focusing on outcomes. We really wanted to make
sure we got it right. There was extensive consultation on
this particular strategy, and I was absolutely it was not
negotiable with the Department of Children's and Families that we
(06:25):
needed KPIs that were measurable and were target outcomes, not
just numbers of people through the program.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Robin, what do you say to those that are still
sort of on the other side of the fence here?
I know that I watched the ABC News last night
and they had one of the domestic violence experts on
the who you know who wasn't entirely convinced that the
changes that the government's making having an impact. Like, what
do you say to those people? Because it feels like
you're trying to think outside the box or do things
(06:52):
a little bit differently to what we have previously done.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, well, what I say to those people, they want
us to keep doing the same thing over and over
and over, and we've been doing the same thing over
and over for at least two decades in the territory.
It is not working. We saw an eighty one percent
increase of domestic violence assaults over ten years under the
previous government. We have been in government for fifteen months
and we have already made an inroad into assaults. The
(07:21):
progress that's been made, I'm really I don't know why
the people who are working in this space aren't celebrating that,
because they should be. Perhaps they just haven't caught up
with the facts yet. But the reality is we are
making differences and to me, I've said to all organizations,
including Department of Children's and Family, success would look like
(07:41):
none of us had a job, which would be amazing,
But the reality is that's never going to happen. So
what we want to be able to do is reduce
the pressure on those services, and the best way to
reduce the pressure is to solve the problem before it starts.
And that is why we are focusing on breaking the
cycle of violence and the victim perpetrator approach. At that
(08:03):
point in time when children have an opportunity to understand
that a violent relationship is not normal, that young girls
don't think that you their partner, exhibiting violence to them
is a way of showing that they care about them.
We absolutely have to change that behavior and that understanding
and get in there and give those kids the best
(08:24):
possible chance, and at the same time work with the
people who are already in that cycle and trapped in
a system and a relationship. There is really difficult to
make sure we can protect them. So we need to
look after the pointy end, if you like, the crisis point.
But we can't just focus on that. And unfortunately, what
I hear often out of the sector, the people who
(08:47):
talk publicly is from that crisis side of things. I
have to tell you talking to many many of the
NGO organizations that I do talk to who are working
on through the whole spec of how do we stop
this FI call. Yes we have to look after victims.
Yes we have to deal with perpetrators and change their behavior,
(09:07):
but we must change things and do things differently. I
am incredibly reassured at the significant number of organizations who
are on board with this and are working side by
side with the Department to make this happen.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Robin really quickly before I let you go, because I
know you've got to get into Parliament. But last night,
of course Parliament in Parliament the Integrity and Ethics Commissioner Bill,
a major overhaul, merging the IKAK, the Ombudsman, the Information
Commissioner and the Health Complaints Commissioner into one independent watchdog.
Will it passed, as I understand it, the Opposition saying
(09:41):
that they're just a bit concerned that maybe this is
a cost saving exercise. Is it?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
No, absolutely not, and it's a bit rich really coming
from the opposition. They are in government. They put this
system in place. It's been an absolute disaster. The KAC
Commissioner as it stood, it's costs the territory thirty five
million dollars. It did not give the results that they
claimed it would. So what we did was we got
experts to look at what was happening, how could we
(10:09):
improve it, how could we make this So this absolutely
did the job that it was meant to do, and
the results of that was the legislation that came to
Parliament last night and were passed.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Well, Robin Carl will let you go. Always appreciate your time.
Thank you very much for having a chat with me.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Thanks Kat, It's always good to chat.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Thank you, Thanks so much for your time
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