Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Alice Springs imposing a curfew after string of disturbances

The Australian outback town of Alice Springs has issued a three-night stay-at-home order after a weekend of violent incidents.

These include a brawl involving 80 people and a knife attack on a 42-year-old woman.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says the factors behind the crime wave are complicated - and it's unlikely the curfew will help.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murrio Old's Ossie correspondents with us.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Now, how maas, good afternoon, heaven Mars.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What is the point and bringing in a three day
curfew at the start of the week when people always
get on the terps at the end of the week.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, well, good point, And there's a thousand and one
question swirling around about this. You'll recall earlier this year
there was a three week curfew. Violence vanished off the streets.
This one will run three days, expires on Thursday. But
I heard that clip you just played. There is not
just about policing. I mean, the police can go on
there and arrest everybody, but there running up the jail

(00:32):
cells and Alice Springs and anywhere else in the Northern
Territory for that matter, to take everybody. It's much more
complex than just wallapers going in and you know, banging
heads with billy clubs. It is a really complex, highly
highly integrated kind of all branches of government solution required here.

(00:53):
I mean, you had four off duty police officers, three women,
one fella going home on Sunday morning attacked by twenty
young people. There was a police officer a runover outside
a bottle shop last Friday night, a woman stabbed on Sunday.
Now you know what's the answer. No one's got an answer.
A lot of these kids come from dysfunctional homes. There's
no home to go to. They're not getting fed, they're

(01:15):
not getting clean clothes, they're not going to school. And
it's just really simplistic to say it's a police issue.
It's a whole lot more than that, ever, and where
the answer lies on bugget of my note.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know either. I mean I think
they've got to find it within themselves unfortunately. And Alice
Springs listen, speaking of violence, though, You've got a guy
who is charged with stabbing his partner to death, who's
actually peid in court.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Now, look if he hasn't, he's about to a twenty
one year old fellow. The allegation is that he stabbed
a twenty one year old woman who's partnered to death yesterday,
run away from the home they shared and ended up
back I think at the family home about ten k's away. Now,

(01:55):
to say that's the tip of the iceberg is ridiculous.
There's a new start out this afternoon in the Australian
newspaper over here, the Murdoch press, have a listen to this.
Are you sitting down? Up to ten times as many
women are taking their own lives as those who were
murdered by their abusers. And here's another stat from a
Sydney lawyer we spoke to this morning. She specialized in

(02:16):
domestic violence. She's an Indigenous woman herself, a victim of DV,
a victim of sexual assault. She says, nearly two women
are dying every week in this country at the hands
of their abusive partners. And here's another stat I want
to share with you. This lawyer who is in the
front line of all of this, she's dealing with these
women every single day and their kids. She says, ninety

(02:39):
percent of women who are getting flogged by their partners
or getting sexually assaulted by their partners don't even bother
reporting it to police. They either don't trust the police
or don't think it'll do any bloody good. Can you
imagine that? Yeah, what's wonderful.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
How much about also is that they're afraid of the
retribution of their partner if they do report it.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Of course, all of that and you know it's not
just themselves they're concerned about. They're worried about their kids,
about their children. Look what happened on Sunday morning in
Sydney when that guy allegedly set his house on five
either way?

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Do we know what was going on there with them?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
No, we don't. They still haven't been able to speak
to him. He remains in a coma. But the allegation
is he splashed the patrol around the house, set the
joint on fire. One child said to a neighbor, Daddy
tried to kill.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Us rough man. There's something's gone very very wrong with
that guy. Hey listen, I see the Home Affairs Departments
ordered a government wide audit of all Internet facing technology.
That suggests to me that they think that there's bugs.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Oh no, kidding about absolutely. As we go to were
this afternoon, me speaking to you just today, there's a
brand new story hit the wires. The Australian government and allies,
which I guess includes Wellington, are accusing a Chinese spy
agency of targeting government and private sector networks in this country.
A major escalation of concern at government level. That this

(03:59):
order comes after I'm concerned about foreign interference and influence threats.
That's according to the ABC. The government, of course responsible
is responsible for operating really really sensitive things, I mean
critical systems, safeguarding vital data. I mean think about defense,
think about social security. And so there's a real concern

(04:19):
that ever more sophisticated foreign actors think China. In this case,
there is the allegation are getting smarter and better at
sneaking in, pinching data and then using it back against Australia.
So this is a is a federal government wide audit.
Exactly what they mean by Internet facing technology, I'm too
dumb to understand that, but suffice to say, very clever

(04:42):
people are now carrying out that order to try and
make things a hell of a lot here.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
It just means it means your phone that's connected to
the internet, or your laptop that's connected to the internet.
That's all it means. Really, Yeah, thanks, You're welcome anytime.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
You're clever.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Thank you very much, Old Australia correspondent. For more from
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