Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, Territorians from Darwin to Alice Tenant to Catherine Nolan
Boy to non Beloir and everywhere in between, celebrated Territory
Day yesterday. It is always a massive night well, a
great time to celebrate what is wonderful about being a
Territorian and living in the territory. Now joining me in
the studio right now is the Opposition leader Leofanocchiaro.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning to you and Katie and to all your listeners,
and happy Territory Day for yesterday.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Why did you get up to?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (00:26):
I love Territory Day.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So I went down to Mindle Beach and spoke to
the stillholders down there. Obviously it's been a tumultuous few
weeks where people thought fireworks weren't going to go ahead
at Mindle Beach, So chatting to stellholders, they were very
relieved to be down there, and I know people had
a really good time.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
And then Yah sat down with the kids and let.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
A few of those little buzzy bees off And that's
about as game as I get.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I'm a bit of a skidy cat when it comes
to letting off firecrackers and I'm pretty disappointing actually to
hear this morning that there was apparently some bad behavior
around different locations, but at the Dripstone clips as I
understand that there was people actually throwing fireworks at others,
which is incredibly disappointing. Very I mean, leah r crackers,
(01:11):
firecrackers safe under a possible COLP government.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
They're not only safe, they'll be bigger and better.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I love Territory Day, and what I want to see
if we get the opportunity to govern come August is
a lot more education and awareness about what Territory Day is.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
When I'm out.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
At schools and talking to kids, I always teach them
about self government and how the territory for the last
forty six years has governed itself and prior to that
we didn't. We got told what to do by people
who lived in Canberra. And so what I believe about
Territory Day is that we should all be letting off
a cracker for our birthday, for celebrating what it is
to be governed by territorians for territorians. And I want
(01:49):
to see a much bigger education component come with much
bigger fireworks.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
All right now, I want to talk to you about
some of the really interesting stuff that's happened and continues
to happen, of course, as we near an election.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
In what I would say some pretty interesting news.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
This morning, the Labor Party has now announced that it's
going to match one of the colp's primary policy platforms.
The Chief Minister Evil Aula said, the re elected Labor
government's going to establish a sixty thousand dollars first time
build a grant for territory residents who sign on to
build a first new home or buy an apartment or townhouse.
(02:23):
What do you make of the announcement after highlighting this
as a major policy platform back in May.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I think it shows what we have is a government
that is tired, divided and out of ideas. And Katie,
people say that, you know, the greatest form of flattery
is when someone copies you. But ultimately, this is a
strategy by Labor to win the next election seven weeks out.
It is not a strategy for the territory to rebuild
the territory. And so the colp's policy is very very clear.
(02:52):
This is about making sure that territories can afford to
live here, to have their own peace of land, to
build a house, to start their families here.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
It's about making.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Sure that people can get into existing homes if they
don't want to build, and it's about making sure that
senior Territorians can downsize or right size so that we've
got a mix of housing for everyone. And while Labour's
focused on winning votes, we're focused on rebuilding the territory
and that's what our policy does.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
They've sort of tried to one up you here.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I mean, from what I can gather, the COLP committed
to a fifty thousand dollars home builder plan that was
open to first time buyers, thirty thousand available to interstate
first time buyers to build the Northern Territory I get
people to move here hopefully, and ten thousand dollars for
first time buyers of existing hods. Are you going to
get into a bidding wall now with the government and increase.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It to sixty thousand.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
We're very comfortable with our plans because this is a
population attraction strategy now. Interestingly, we made this announcement as
part of our budget reply back in May, and at
that time Eva Laula called it a brain fart. So
I don't know what Territorians would call today, but ours
is a very deliberate strategy.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
This is a about keeping people here.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Remembering that we lost eight hundred and sixty eight territories
into state last quarter. We need to keep people here.
We need to be moving people through the different sized
housing that we have. We need to be stimulating our
construction sector through that new build and importantly attracting people
to come and live in the territory. And our first
home build a scheme matched with our huge slashes to
(04:25):
payroll tax means that the territory will be the most
competitive place in the country to build a home and
to own a business.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
How do you feel when you sort of like when
you do come out with these policy platforms like in
MAYU came out. It was quite an extensive policy platform
and at the time the Labor Party almost scoffed at
your sort of laughed at you. And then you know,
now they come out and make this announcement today, I mean, what,
how what do you kind of think then when when
(04:54):
they come out with an announcement like today's.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well, it just shows how out of ideas and devoid
of a plan for the future that they are.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Our plan is very clear.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
We need to rebuild the territory, reduce crime and restore
our lifestyle and our building scheme targets territories to stay
here and people to come. Our businesses are dependent on
people coming here. People can't find staff to work.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
We have retail spending flatlining. So population growth is a
huge part of a responsible gut COLP government going forward.
Labor have had eight years, we've been had a labor
government for nineteen of the last twenty three years. Evil
Laula delivered her budget back in May. It didn't have
any money set aside for a first homeowner scheme. So
(05:36):
everything that they are promising in this next seven weeks
is all on top of the eleven billion dollars debt
we have.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I mean, the problem here is that whether it's you
or whether it's labor, we actually can't afford it.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
No, we can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
You can afford it under a CLP government that is
reprioritizing Labour's budget which is wasteful, and making sure that
we spend money on the things we need to spend
money on.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
All Right, this morning, the Sea is actually going to
be announcing a multi cultural that multicultural groups are going
to be able to grow and expand into new facilities
under a one million dollar commitment.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
To tell me a little bit more about.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
This, This is very exciting, so I will be announcing
this today. We have a very strong multicultural community right
across the Northern Territory and so today we will be
announcing that we will put one million dollars, which is
budgeted out of the Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet,
for fifty thousand dollars dollar for dollar grants to improve
existing facilities and places of worship. We will also commit
(06:35):
to seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in grant funding
available for multicultural groups to host all of their beautiful
multicultural events. And we will be fast tracking land release
for those new multicultural groups that don't have their own home.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So why have you decided to make this announcement?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I mean, is it a vote grap This is really
important part again about attracting and retaining people to the territory.
When you are a migrant, and my grandparents migrated here
along with many territorians, will have this shared story. You're
isolated from your family, you're linguistically isolated or often and
so you find family in the people around you who've
(07:11):
taken that shared migration experience, and so to give people
migrants a home where they can continue to celebrate their culture,
their traditions, their food, their language, their dance. It keeps
people here, It builds a family when they don't have
one physically here, which is a really important part of
social cohesion, harmony and making sure that we are a
(07:31):
welcoming place for people to bed down roots for the
long haul.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
All right, I want to move along.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You're calling on the Chief Minister to release the second
Eyekak report into the concerns staffers within the Chief Minister's
Office engaged in political work for Labor during the twenty
twenty election. So this is under the former Chief Minister,
Michael Gunner. When is that report Jue?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Well, we believe it was Jue over the weekend and
so we've heard nothing. Obviously there is change and certainty
in the Ikak office. But Evil Laula was handed the
Operation Jupiter report into Michael Gunner's chartering of flights to
polling boost during caretaker and now we know there's going
to be this secret report on whether or not staff
(08:15):
were campaigning from Parliament House on the taxpayer's dollar and
so in the interest of open and transparent government, that
report needs to be made public and Evil Laula needs
to explain to territories whether she's received it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Ah the changes that the Chief Minister Evia Laula announced
in the wake of the initial report enough.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Oh, look, I think they go a long way to
helping Labor work out what the rules are.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
What about for you guys as well?
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I think it's always been really clear Katie.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You can't campaign using government resources, and it's pretty simple.
You can't be supporting candidates, you can't be running material
and all of these types of things. It's very obvious
Labor clearly needed to relearn the rules and recast the guidelines,
which we support. That's fine, We've got no problem following
the rules. But this is a secret report that no
(09:03):
one knows the status of and it needs to have
it stay in the sun.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So for our listeners, what happens now if say you
want to go to Tenant Creek in the lead into
an election, who foots the bill the COLP and what
happens with Labor.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
That's exactly what they should be doing to speed to it.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
They should be doing the same thing.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
But what we saw is clearly that in the past
the taxpayer has paid for that.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So any travel that you do now in the lead
into the Northern Territory election, the COLP is going to
be paying for.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So when you are traveling for a campaign purpose then yeah,
absolutely the party has to pay for that. So for example,
the YK made it very clear during caretaker there should
be no travel, so we've all committed to that. If
there was to be travel, then absolutely the political parties
would pay all right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Last week, the Member for Catherine, Joe Hersey, joined me
on the show to talk about the situation.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
With crime in Catherine.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
She says things have escalated to the point that there
are not enough police in Catherine.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
She's all so called for a curfew. Do you agree, Oh?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Absolutely, you know Catherine is totally out of control. The
people there are just devastated.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
By the impact. We saw the beauty bar closed.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Down not long ago because she'd been broken into that
many times she couldn't take it anymore. We've had teachers assaulted,
workers assaulted, businesses closing their doors, people leaving Again. This
is a government that tried to talk tough, tried to
pretend that they were taking action on crime, but they haven't,
and every territory knows that life is not safer under labor.
(10:32):
They're not willing to give police the powers they need
to do their job, and they're willing to mislead our community.
I mean, last week we had the Police Association come
out and disprove that Brent Potter had been saying that
attrition had lowered when really it's still at nine percent.
And even the graduation last Friday, and I was there, Katie,
it's great to welcome new recruits into the force. They
(10:54):
graduated the entire group, but thirty three of them are
still at the college.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yes, So this is a real sticking point for me
and something that I was not aware of. So we've
been told that sixty four constables graduated last week.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, they're going and that they're going to hit the beat.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So was that confirmed at that graduation on Friday.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yes, it was.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
They didn't go into that level of detail, but they
basically said that they couldn't do the part of the
awards ceremony because those graduates hadn't finished their training. So
my understanding is thirty three of them remain at the college.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So do you think that's a bit disingenuous. So the
doctors say sixty four have graduated, if some of them
are still training or is it just a situation here
where they're sort of crossing their t's and dotting their eyes. No.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I believe they missed about three weeks of training, which
is substantial levels of training. I mean they were obviously
forced to go to Alice Springs and undertake that work,
of which my understanding was they had a fantastic policing experience.
I mean, of course, if you've put up your hand
to serve, you want to serve. So I've got no
doubt that those recruits willingly went to Alice Springs and
(11:59):
did their and I give them full credit for that,
but they've really been robbed of an experience where they've
been graduated prior to actually finishing.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
They hold another graduation for them, or what's going to happen?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I believe they're going to hold a separate awards service
for you know, the best recruit.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I mean, is this a situation where where the police
minister's being disingenuous though, or is it a situation where
you know, it's an operational thing where those recruits have
had to go and help out we're required.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I don't know the recruits.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Absolutely I believe had to and would have done it anyway.
There's no question they've put up their hand to serve
and they will serve. They're fantastic people and we need
them desperately in the territory. The issue is we've got
a government very desperate to make things look like something
that they're not. And when you have a government dressing
up sixty four recruits graduating when really that number is
(12:50):
minus thirty three, give or take. Or when you've got
a government saying attrition is at six percent when it's
at nine percent, you know you can't trust.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Them all right, Well, look, I know when it comes
to police numbers, it's right from when you guys, when
the COLP was previously in power. It is one of
those things that we can never seem to quite get
to the bottom of. But what I do know right
now is that territories want more police on the beat.
That is fundamentally that is what they want. But look,
I do want to move along because there's been quite
(13:19):
a bit happen and I'm very keen to get your
reaction to the sentencing of Keith kieranoa we know that
obviously the death of Declan Lavity last year is something
that sent shockwaves through the Northern Territory community. We know
that there was the mandatory sentence handed down of twenty years.
The judge, though, did go through some of the prior offending.
(13:40):
I'm keen to get your take in terms of that sentencing,
but also in terms of those prior offenses, and a
lot of discussion has been had over the last year
or so about.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
People being on bail.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yes, what did you make of h Well, look, justice
has been served. I had a long chat with Samara
lavity Deck mother after the trial and I think, you know,
I'm glad that this has all now been resolved. To know,
it allows Samara and her family the opportunity to move
forward in their own way. I mean, the loss of
(14:14):
Declan is absolutely tragic and our community. I mean there
were three or four crime rallies out the front and
Parliament House in the wake of that tragic death, thousands
of people mobilizing to say we've had enough, and yet
this government hasn't come through with any meaningful change. We've
had reviews and outcomes that haven't delivered, wanding laws that
(14:37):
just don't work for our police, and so we've been
very clear that bail is not a right, you know,
it's a privilege, and that's why we will change the
laws so that serious violent offenders start with the position
of no bail.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
We will make sure that the.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Age of criminal responsibility is lowered so that young people
are not falling through the cracks and we can deliver
real consequences, but real pathways out of We will make
sure that wanding laws are made much more flexible for
our police so that they can use them whenever they
need to. There's a range of laws that we're going
to change week one in Parliament Katie, if we win,
(15:12):
because how quite frankly, our community is relying on it.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Do you believe that any of those changes would have
made a difference in this situation.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Well, we will never know, Katie. They may very well
have if the laws were stronger. You just don't know.
But what we know is that nothing is going to
bring Deklan back or all the other territories who've lost
their lives in senseless crime. What we can do, though,
is draw a line in the sand and say no,
we are going to put the rights of our community
to be safe.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
First.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
We are going to give police the power they need
to keep us safe. We are going to deliver consequences.
We are going to rehabilitate offenders, and we're going to
have a safe territory where we can live freely, run
our businesses freely, and stop looking over our shoulder.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I mean, is the talk and is what you're saying though,
just sort of a strategy to appear as though you're
tough on crime and get people to vote for you.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Been talking about changing the laws for eight years, Katie.
This is not a tough on crime approach. It's a
smart on crime approach. We can't grow our population if
people are too scared to live here. John John's is
closing its doors because of crime. Beauty Bar closed its
doors because of crime. Char closed its doors because of crime.
Eight hundred and sixty eight people are moved into state
first quarter of this year. It's a crisis and we
(16:21):
have to do something different.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Okay, we've got a couple of listener questions, Luke wanting
to ask if the CLP will scrap stamp duty with
its home buyers policy.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Look, so we looked at stamp duty and what we
found is it's much more advantageous to the homeowner and
more generous to give the grant. So that's where we
landed on that decision. Fifty thousand for a new build
for first homeowners, ten thousand for first home buyers who
buy and existing, and thirty thousand for anyone else. And
there's been a bit of lack of clarity around what
(16:51):
that thirty thousand and who it's for. That thirty thousand
is for anyone who currently owns a home, lives in
a home, or has owned a home before. If you
are going to go out there and put add stock
to the market and invest in construction and build a
new one, then thirty thousand dollars is going to go
a long way to putting your old home on the
market or making it available for rent and investing in
(17:13):
our future. So that's what our scheme is about.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Alright, Lea, we are going to have to leave it there.
Thanks very much for your time. We'll catch up with
you again soon.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Thank you everyone,