Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are talking to the candidates for the upcoming Northern
Territory election. We are speaking to the candidates from wang
Guri this morning. You've so far heard from Schlockshama from
the Labor Party, Ollie Carlson from VCLP and joining me
now as an independent, Graham Sawyer. Good morning to you, Graham.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Now have you heard the others and do you understand
how we're doing it this morning?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Graham?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Some of it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Awesome?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All right mate, Well we've got about seven minutes. I've
got a series of questions to get through.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
All right, let's do it. Graham.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Why did you decide to put your hand up to
run for the seat of Wanguri?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Look, I gave into community pressure eventually. So there was
the voices of the nt process community independence mechanism running
through the communities up here, and people were trying to
find candidates to run as community independence and lots of
people were saying to me, you've got you. So I
ended up avoiding it for a while but eventually said, yeah,
(01:04):
why the hell not?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
And why do you feel like you're the best person
for the role based on your previous experience in the
community or through prior work.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, Loo, Katie, I've got a pretty interesting set of backgrounds,
I guess in the forty plus years i've been up here,
with the period of the Lord Metgas, you a really
interesting perspective on communities and I've obviously represented Wanguri people
in that process. But also I've spent a lot of
time on boards the board of Youth Works, the board
of the Business Enterprise Center, the board of the Retail
(01:36):
It and so forth, business training advisory councils, which gave
me a really good linkage into the business environment and
Dalen the issues that are affecting them. But I've also,
as you'd know, it's been a fair bit of time
playing around with my passions and environment and my hobbies
around frogs and goannas and related things, which led to
(01:59):
lots of involvement with community and other ways found when
you're engaging with community and doing stuff with communities, there's
really great outcome.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now, what do you see as being the biggest issues
in the electorate.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So the feedback that we've got so far, the biggest
single issue is the lack of transparency, accountability and responsiveness
in the government and then after that you get some
stuff about law and order, particularly youth stuff, and had
a fairly interesting perspective on some of that stuff. And
also the cost of living in economic futures is a
(02:36):
big concern for people.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now when it comes to I guess the issue of crime,
it is one that has been high on the agenda
for a lot of people. How would you be dealing
with that?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
We haven't got long enough to fully explain this, Katie,
but basically, the get tough on crime model that we've
pursued for the last forty years produces exactly what we're
seeing now because it doesn't work. I mean, it takes
the problem and makes it worse. So the work that
I've done with Youth Works and working in the board
(03:10):
there and all the professionals that work in this space,
they've got a whole range of strategies that work, but
they don't get the resourcing. And one of the things
I noticed in some of the previous responses was all
the promises from the government about police and more money
for this and more money for jails and whatever, that
actually makes this problem worse, it doesn't fix it. And
(03:34):
there's a whole bunch of strategies that will work and
do fix it, and the data to back that up.
And you know the victory an example where or the
twenty nine percent productions in youth crime from doing some
of the education based stuff. The Youth Works has demonstrated,
for me weather some really powerful mechanisms that we're not
using up here because the government's got this weird bidding
(03:57):
war with the opposition and about getting tough on crime,
building more prison than demonizing young people, rather than actually
trying to build solutions to this, And just to put
it in a fairly concise point, a youth employment strategy
is probably the best way to get young people out
of this firal. Given the self respect and the confidence
so that they feel like they belong in the community,
(04:19):
you then build into that some skills and get them
into a job and Newtworks has made a lot of
money doing that over the last eight or the year.
The Northern Territory government does not have a youth imployment
strategy with any budget, which I just find absolutely extraordinary.
And you've got governments that are winging about youth stuff
(04:40):
and on the other hand winging about lack of people
for jobs, and yet they don't have a policy design
picks out of them.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Graham, we've hit the four minute mark.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Tell me, how do you plan to deal with some
of the biggest issues in the electorate. I mean, you've
touched on a few of them there. Why do you
think your best place to deal with some of those
issues and how would you deal with them?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, one of the really big things of getting clear
plans in place and advocating for those and getting people
to put systems in place that will actually address it.
So a huge part of our problem is there's all
this smoke and mirror stuff and all these statements to
come out of the fifth floor that don't bear any
reality to what's actually going down on the ground, and
the government's just taken away all of the transparency components
(05:27):
where people can be held to account. So you take
as an example, what I call the corruption clause in
the legislation around the petrol you make. So you've got
this statement that says, decisions under this legislation need to
be made under the principles of the ecologically Sustainable Development Principles,
and then the very next paragraph says, but decisions right
(05:51):
under the fact the minister doesn't need to explain their
reasons to making them. I mean, if ever you've seen
a recipe for avoiding the issue and not and what
you're supposed to do, that's what's there, and that's where
we need to get the accountability. So a lot of
good people out there in the public service who want
to do this and want to do that, who are
constrained by its weird policy stuff that is coming out
(06:12):
of the marketing are on the floor. So we need
to get real about this stuff and put some things
in place, which means explaining and setting up those processes,
but also then monitoring and making sure that those processes
are actually being implemented and people are accountable for what's
actually being done.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Graham, a few quick ones with just over a minute
to go. First off, do you live in the Electorate,
don't you?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Not? Quite? My business is in the Electric, and my
pub and my supermarket in the Electric, in the area
where I go and walk the dog, et cetera. But
my actual bed where I sleep sometimes is over the
other side of the road.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
All right, now, do you plan on moving into the
Electric or do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You'll be right that being that close.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Well, I'm in the most of the time now. Anyways,
I'm actually changing and it's a four minute bike ride.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I think a couple of quick ones. Do you support
the development of Lee Point?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Look, it's an interesting one, Katie, because not in its
current form. No, And I'm waiting with baited breath to
see whether the charges arise out of what happened a
couple of weeks ago actually eventuate and where that comes.
There's some massive problems with that development its current form,
and those need to be resolved before I'm prepared to
make any commitment about supporting that thing. And you know,
(07:35):
there's some absolutely extraordinary breaches of legislation in that, not
the least of which is the EPVP breaches around offset.
It's is sort of one of my areas of expertise professionally,
how it is at the moment.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
All right, we are out of time.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I do want to ask you, though, very quickly, well
do you support gas?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
No? Well, that's not quite true gas in You need
to split what you're talking about when it comes to
gas between.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
The development of onshore gas.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Off sure yep and on shore fracking based gas.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So do you support on shore plans? Do you support
onshore gas?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Not? In the current proposals because it's a massive economic
risk to the Northern territory and will destroy our economy.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
All right, very quick one otherwise I know the other
candidates will not be happy that you've got more time.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Can you tell me how your preference preference is going.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
To roll o, Katie, I'm not going to be telling
people how to put their preferences. That's up to them
as a community. I respect their wisdom and their decision
making and that's their choice.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Well, Graham Sawyer, the Independent candidate for the seat of Wanguri,
good to speak with you this morning.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Thanks Katie, thank you
We are talking to the candidates for the upcoming Northern
Territory election. We are speaking to the candidates from wang
Guri this morning. You've so far heard from Schlockshama from
the Labor Party, Ollie Carlson from VCLP and joining me
now as an independent, Graham Sawyer. Good morning to you, Graham.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Now have you heard the others and do you understand
how we're doing it this morning?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Graham?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Some of it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Awesome?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All right mate, Well we've got about seven minutes. I've
got a series of questions to get through.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
All right, let's do it. Graham.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Why did you decide to put your hand up to
run for the seat of Wanguri?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Look, I gave into community pressure eventually. So there was
the voices of the nt process community independence mechanism running
through the communities up here, and people were trying to
find candidates to run as community independence and lots of
people were saying to me, you've got you. So I
ended up avoiding it for a while but eventually said, yeah,
(01:04):
why the hell not?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
And why do you feel like you're the best person
for the role based on your previous experience in the
community or through prior work.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, Loo, Katie, I've got a pretty interesting set of backgrounds,
I guess in the forty plus years i've been up here,
with the period of the Lord Metgas, you a really
interesting perspective on communities and I've obviously represented Wanguri people
in that process. But also I've spent a lot of
time on boards the board of Youth Works, the board
of the Business Enterprise Center, the board of the Retail
(01:36):
It and so forth, business training advisory councils, which gave
me a really good linkage into the business environment and
Dalen the issues that are affecting them. But I've also,
as you'd know, it's been a fair bit of time
playing around with my passions and environment and my hobbies
around frogs and goannas and related things, which led to
(01:59):
lots of involvement with community and other ways found when
you're engaging with community and doing stuff with communities, there's
really great outcome.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now, what do you see as being the biggest issues
in the electorate.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So the feedback that we've got so far, the biggest
single issue is the lack of transparency, accountability and responsiveness
in the government and then after that you get some
stuff about law and order, particularly youth stuff, and had
a fairly interesting perspective on some of that stuff. And
also the cost of living in economic futures is a
(02:36):
big concern for people.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now when it comes to I guess the issue of crime,
it is one that has been high on the agenda
for a lot of people. How would you be dealing
with that?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
We haven't got long enough to fully explain this, Katie,
but basically, the get tough on crime model that we've
pursued for the last forty years produces exactly what we're
seeing now because it doesn't work. I mean, it takes
the problem and makes it worse. So the work that
I've done with Youth Works and working in the board
(03:10):
there and all the professionals that work in this space,
they've got a whole range of strategies that work, but
they don't get the resourcing. And one of the things
I noticed in some of the previous responses was all
the promises from the government about police and more money
for this and more money for jails and whatever, that
actually makes this problem worse, it doesn't fix it. And
(03:34):
there's a whole bunch of strategies that will work and
do fix it, and the data to back that up.
And you know the victory an example where or the
twenty nine percent productions in youth crime from doing some
of the education based stuff. The Youth Works has demonstrated,
for me weather some really powerful mechanisms that we're not
using up here because the government's got this weird bidding
(03:57):
war with the opposition and about getting tough on crime,
building more prison than demonizing young people, rather than actually
trying to build solutions to this, And just to put
it in a fairly concise point, a youth employment strategy
is probably the best way to get young people out
of this firal. Given the self respect and the confidence
so that they feel like they belong in the community,
(04:19):
you then build into that some skills and get them
into a job and Newtworks has made a lot of
money doing that over the last eight or the year.
The Northern Territory government does not have a youth imployment
strategy with any budget, which I just find absolutely extraordinary.
And you've got governments that are winging about youth stuff
(04:40):
and on the other hand winging about lack of people
for jobs, and yet they don't have a policy design
picks out of them.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Graham, we've hit the four minute mark.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Tell me, how do you plan to deal with some
of the biggest issues in the electorate. I mean, you've
touched on a few of them there. Why do you
think your best place to deal with some of those
issues and how would you deal with them?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, one of the really big things of getting clear
plans in place and advocating for those and getting people
to put systems in place that will actually address it.
So a huge part of our problem is there's all
this smoke and mirror stuff and all these statements to
come out of the fifth floor that don't bear any
reality to what's actually going down on the ground, and
the government's just taken away all of the transparency components
(05:27):
where people can be held to account. So you take
as an example, what I call the corruption clause in
the legislation around the petrol you make. So you've got
this statement that says, decisions under this legislation need to
be made under the principles of the ecologically Sustainable Development Principles,
and then the very next paragraph says, but decisions right
(05:51):
under the fact the minister doesn't need to explain their
reasons to making them. I mean, if ever you've seen
a recipe for avoiding the issue and not and what
you're supposed to do, that's what's there, and that's where
we need to get the accountability. So a lot of
good people out there in the public service who want
to do this and want to do that, who are
constrained by its weird policy stuff that is coming out
(06:12):
of the marketing are on the floor. So we need
to get real about this stuff and put some things
in place, which means explaining and setting up those processes,
but also then monitoring and making sure that those processes
are actually being implemented and people are accountable for what's
actually being done.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Graham, a few quick ones with just over a minute
to go. First off, do you live in the Electorate,
don't you?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Not? Quite? My business is in the Electric, and my
pub and my supermarket in the Electric, in the area
where I go and walk the dog, et cetera. But
my actual bed where I sleep sometimes is over the
other side of the road.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
All right, now, do you plan on moving into the
Electric or do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You'll be right that being that close.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Well, I'm in the most of the time now. Anyways,
I'm actually changing and it's a four minute bike ride.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I think a couple of quick ones. Do you support
the development of Lee Point?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Look, it's an interesting one, Katie, because not in its
current form. No, And I'm waiting with baited breath to
see whether the charges arise out of what happened a
couple of weeks ago actually eventuate and where that comes.
There's some massive problems with that development its current form,
and those need to be resolved before I'm prepared to
make any commitment about supporting that thing. And you know,
(07:35):
there's some absolutely extraordinary breaches of legislation in that, not
the least of which is the EPVP breaches around offset.
It's is sort of one of my areas of expertise professionally,
how it is at the moment.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
All right, we are out of time.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I do want to ask you, though, very quickly, well
do you support gas?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
No? Well, that's not quite true gas in You need
to split what you're talking about when it comes to
gas between.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
The development of onshore gas.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Off sure yep and on shore fracking based gas.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So do you support on shore plans? Do you support
onshore gas?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Not? In the current proposals because it's a massive economic
risk to the Northern territory and will destroy our economy.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
All right, very quick one otherwise I know the other
candidates will not be happy that you've got more time.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Can you tell me how your preference preference is going.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
To roll o, Katie, I'm not going to be telling
people how to put their preferences. That's up to them
as a community. I respect their wisdom and their decision
making and that's their choice.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Well, Graham Sawyer, the Independent candidate for the seat of Wanguri,
good to speak with you this morning.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Thanks Katie, thank you
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