Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
But joining me in the studio right now is the
opposition leader Lea fanocchi Aro.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good morning to you, Lea, Good morning Katie and your
wonderful listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Lea. We wouldn't usually have you on two days in
a row, but it's such massive news actually over the
last twenty four hours, so we do need to speak
to you again.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
First off, what was your response to this review?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
My initial response was that, well, Labour want people to
think that we have a broken police force. What we
actually have is a broken government and the report was
scathing of Labor with how it's dealt with the Triple
zero Center, calls demands on police on crime being the
highest it's ever been in our one hundred and fifty
four year police history, highest attrition rates in the country,
(00:42):
some very damning statistics there that paint a very bleak
picture of a government that's clearly out of its depth,
has no ability to deliver and is desdrawing people's lives
in the process.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
By the look of what Vince Kelly has said in
that review, there have been a number of different incidents
or different situations over the last ten years that have
really sort of led to the police morale dropping quite substantially.
And look, I get what you're saying in terms of
that legislation. I think a lot of people will agree
there does need to be legislative changes. But how big
(01:16):
an impact do you think that some of those some
of those different incidents have had on the police force.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
They've had a profound impact. And this is why Katie
I have stood in Parliament seven times over a number
of years and called for a full parliamentary inquiry into
our police force. This is years too late, and it
was a government desperately not wanting to pop the hood
on the police force because it knew that it's the
failures sit with them, not with our police. And so
(01:43):
you know, the report talks about and it calls it
deeply traumatic events that have happened. I mean, you've got
obviously the comments made by Michael Gunner about consequences will flow.
You've got a whole range of incidences that have totally
destroyed and demoralized our police force and a government that
hasn't acknowledged, that hasn't dealt with that issue and then
(02:05):
continue to underfund our police, have weak laws so that
crime continues out of control. Put more in our police
than ever before not have other agencies pick up the
slack where they need to be, not driving down crime.
I mean, it's been a disastrous period for our police
to suffer under and they're the ones paying the price.
And it's our community paying the price for Labour's failures.
(02:26):
And even yesterday you didn't see contrition from evil Lawla
or Brent Potter acknowledging that the harm that they've caused
over policy failure after policy failure, they're just picking up
and carrying on like as if they're somehow going to
be able to deliver this before August, which they absolutely won't.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, she said that that by the end of June
this year they are going to have you know, they're
going to have a plan of how exactly it's going
to be implemented. I could be paraphrasing there, but then
by basically June of next year, much of those recommendations
are going to being trained to be implemented. Lea, do
(03:03):
you accept all of those recommendations? There was eighteen, the
government's only accepted fifteen.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
What does secal P.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Say, So we accept fifteen recommendations in full. We accept
two recommendations in part, Katie, and one we don't support
it all, so I can.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Go through through those if you can.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So. Recommendation ten has acknowledged that our police do all
of the transfers of prisoners between police and court for example,
and it's just literally like a taxi service. And that's
because our corrections are overworked and under resourced as well,
so police are picking up that slack. Now that's attributing
to over six thousand, eight hundred hours in overtime for
(03:41):
our police. So if we were to take that responsibility
away from our police, which isn't a police responsibility, we
could immediately free up over six eight hundred hours. Now
the problem is labor of underfunded and resourced corrections as well,
So we can't just simply say all right, police, you're
not doing that right now, corrections can do it, it
won't be able to happen. So we do accept that
our police should not be doing that. But what needs
(04:03):
to be done is a further analysis of the options
on how do we then address either the shortfalling corrections
or The report also talks to exploring other options like
what's been done in victorious South Australia and Western Australia
around outsourcing that transfer responsibility and.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
The outsourcing seems like it could be a good idea,
but I guess the problem is then you are obviously
putting that responsibility into the hands of a private company presumably.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Sure, and I mean government does that across a range
of other areas. For example, with housing, we've just transferred hundreds,
if not thousands of houses to the private sector to manage.
So it's not unprecedented, but it does require careful analysis.
So that's why we in part support that recommendation.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So that's number ten. Number ten.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Recommendation eleven is around removing palis. We absolutely do not
support Recommendation eleven. Palis are a critical important part of
proactive policing in our regions. The community support them, they
have an important role, and we will cap palis to
make sure that they see and understand how valuable they
are and that that is a workplace of choice.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yep. So we do not accept that.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And then the other recommendation, which we I guess in
part accept is Recommendation twelve, which calls for the use
of private security to be wound back.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Now that's something that.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
The NTPA have been calling for for a long time.
They call it secondary second tier policing, but it would
be reckless. We understand the recommendation. We understand in a
perfect world you wouldn't have to have that security, but
we don't live in it. We're far from a perfect
world right now, Katie. So we will not be implementing
that anytime in the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Okay, so you did say.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Did you also say that there was something else that
you worn'd accepting or only partly accepting or was that everything?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
No, that was everything?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So two were in part one was not at all,
and the rest were absolutely We support in full.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
We support the timeframes.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
What we were really disappointed in, of course, is the
fact that it was so limited in what the review
considered labor very carefully crafted the terms of reference, not
to include policy failures, not to include what other agencies
and nngs are supposed to be doing, not to include
what laws are broken and need fixing, And so the
review doesn't cover any of that. It's largely the recommendations
(06:14):
of bureaucratic and around structural reform within the department.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I do think it's disappointing that it wasn't able to
look into some of the different policy settings to see
what kind of impact they're having. Because even when you
look at things like the Age of Criminal Responsibility for example,
you know, like how many man hours are our police
actually utilizing to be able to then transport kids home
and that kind of thing, could it actually be could
(06:40):
those man hours be better actually used by territory families
picking up some of that slack.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So I totally take on what you are.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Side one hundred percent, Katie, and that's exactly what we've
been saying. So the CLP has gone above and beyond
this review. This review is important and we largely accept it,
but we will go far beyond that, and a lot
of them that have been highlighted in this review of
the fact that we've had a revolving door of police ministers,
you know, and that government have not had the chief
Minister holding that portfolio. And so the COLP, if elected,
(07:11):
I will be the police minister. The buck will stop
with me. Community safety will be the number one priority
of my government. Every other agency, NGO and person who
lives in the territory will know and understand that because
our actions will meet our words on this, our police
will be supported, our community will be safe, we will
have stronger laws, and then we can have happy families,
(07:32):
a healthy community. We can have a growing economy, strong
business sector. We can get some vibrancy back in this
place and rebuild the territory and be proud once again
to be Territorian. And that all starts with me as
Police Minister. Chief Minister making sure that policing is a
number one priority, Leah.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Very quickly, what do you think needs to be implemented
as a matter of urgency. I mean, Nathan Finn has
said that he is more officers on the ground. We
know that we need more plice on the ground. That's
not a real surprise to anybody, but you know, if
you were chief minister, how would you make that happen quickly?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well, to have more police on the ground, you have
to have a workplace where police feel supported and backed,
and so it's really critically important that police know the
CLP back then one hundred percent that their job is
community safety and that's what we expect them to be doing,
not all the other things they're currently doing. We also
need to fix the broken disciplinary system. I've stood at
(08:28):
a decades, just about a decade's worth of police conferences
where labor have promised a review of the broken disciplinary
system that punishes our police and never delivered a single
thing that needs to be addressed urgently immediately, Katie. So
there's a range of measures, including law reform, including budget
including additional police that need to be done and we
(08:48):
are ready to do them well.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Leah Finocchiaro, the Opposition leader, it's always good to speak
with you.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Thank you very much for your time this morning. Thank you,
take care of rank. You
But joining me in the studio right now is the
opposition leader Lea fanocchi Aro.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good morning to you, Lea, Good morning Katie and your
wonderful listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Lea. We wouldn't usually have you on two days in
a row, but it's such massive news actually over the
last twenty four hours, so we do need to speak
to you again.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
First off, what was your response to this review?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
My initial response was that, well, Labour want people to
think that we have a broken police force. What we
actually have is a broken government and the report was
scathing of Labor with how it's dealt with the Triple
zero Center, calls demands on police on crime being the
highest it's ever been in our one hundred and fifty
four year police history, highest attrition rates in the country,
(00:42):
some very damning statistics there that paint a very bleak
picture of a government that's clearly out of its depth,
has no ability to deliver and is desdrawing people's lives
in the process.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
By the look of what Vince Kelly has said in
that review, there have been a number of different incidents
or different situations over the last ten years that have
really sort of led to the police morale dropping quite substantially.
And look, I get what you're saying in terms of
that legislation. I think a lot of people will agree
there does need to be legislative changes. But how big
(01:16):
an impact do you think that some of those some
of those different incidents have had on the police force.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
They've had a profound impact. And this is why Katie
I have stood in Parliament seven times over a number
of years and called for a full parliamentary inquiry into
our police force. This is years too late, and it
was a government desperately not wanting to pop the hood
on the police force because it knew that it's the
failures sit with them, not with our police. And so
(01:43):
you know, the report talks about and it calls it
deeply traumatic events that have happened. I mean, you've got
obviously the comments made by Michael Gunner about consequences will flow.
You've got a whole range of incidences that have totally
destroyed and demoralized our police force and a government that
hasn't acknowledged, that hasn't dealt with that issue and then
(02:05):
continue to underfund our police, have weak laws so that
crime continues out of control. Put more in our police
than ever before not have other agencies pick up the
slack where they need to be, not driving down crime.
I mean, it's been a disastrous period for our police
to suffer under and they're the ones paying the price.
And it's our community paying the price for Labour's failures.
(02:26):
And even yesterday you didn't see contrition from evil Lawla
or Brent Potter acknowledging that the harm that they've caused
over policy failure after policy failure, they're just picking up
and carrying on like as if they're somehow going to
be able to deliver this before August, which they absolutely won't.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, she said that that by the end of June
this year they are going to have you know, they're
going to have a plan of how exactly it's going
to be implemented. I could be paraphrasing there, but then
by basically June of next year, much of those recommendations
are going to being trained to be implemented. Lea, do
(03:03):
you accept all of those recommendations? There was eighteen, the
government's only accepted fifteen.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
What does secal P.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Say, So we accept fifteen recommendations in full. We accept
two recommendations in part, Katie, and one we don't support
it all, so I can.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Go through through those if you can.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So. Recommendation ten has acknowledged that our police do all
of the transfers of prisoners between police and court for example,
and it's just literally like a taxi service. And that's
because our corrections are overworked and under resourced as well,
so police are picking up that slack. Now that's attributing
to over six thousand, eight hundred hours in overtime for
(03:41):
our police. So if we were to take that responsibility
away from our police, which isn't a police responsibility, we
could immediately free up over six eight hundred hours. Now
the problem is labor of underfunded and resourced corrections as well,
So we can't just simply say all right, police, you're
not doing that right now, corrections can do it, it
won't be able to happen. So we do accept that
our police should not be doing that. But what needs
(04:03):
to be done is a further analysis of the options
on how do we then address either the shortfalling corrections
or The report also talks to exploring other options like
what's been done in victorious South Australia and Western Australia
around outsourcing that transfer responsibility and.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
The outsourcing seems like it could be a good idea,
but I guess the problem is then you are obviously
putting that responsibility into the hands of a private company presumably.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Sure, and I mean government does that across a range
of other areas. For example, with housing, we've just transferred hundreds,
if not thousands of houses to the private sector to manage.
So it's not unprecedented, but it does require careful analysis.
So that's why we in part support that recommendation.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So that's number ten. Number ten.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Recommendation eleven is around removing palis. We absolutely do not
support Recommendation eleven. Palis are a critical important part of
proactive policing in our regions. The community support them, they
have an important role, and we will cap palis to
make sure that they see and understand how valuable they
are and that that is a workplace of choice.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yep. So we do not accept that.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And then the other recommendation, which we I guess in
part accept is Recommendation twelve, which calls for the use
of private security to be wound back.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Now that's something that.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
The NTPA have been calling for for a long time.
They call it secondary second tier policing, but it would
be reckless. We understand the recommendation. We understand in a
perfect world you wouldn't have to have that security, but
we don't live in it. We're far from a perfect
world right now, Katie. So we will not be implementing
that anytime in the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Okay, so you did say.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Did you also say that there was something else that
you worn'd accepting or only partly accepting or was that everything?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
No, that was everything?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So two were in part one was not at all,
and the rest were absolutely We support in full.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
We support the timeframes.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
What we were really disappointed in, of course, is the
fact that it was so limited in what the review
considered labor very carefully crafted the terms of reference, not
to include policy failures, not to include what other agencies
and nngs are supposed to be doing, not to include
what laws are broken and need fixing, And so the
review doesn't cover any of that. It's largely the recommendations
(06:14):
of bureaucratic and around structural reform within the department.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I do think it's disappointing that it wasn't able to
look into some of the different policy settings to see
what kind of impact they're having. Because even when you
look at things like the Age of Criminal Responsibility for example,
you know, like how many man hours are our police
actually utilizing to be able to then transport kids home
and that kind of thing, could it actually be could
(06:40):
those man hours be better actually used by territory families
picking up some of that slack.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So I totally take on what you are.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Side one hundred percent, Katie, and that's exactly what we've
been saying. So the CLP has gone above and beyond
this review. This review is important and we largely accept it,
but we will go far beyond that, and a lot
of them that have been highlighted in this review of
the fact that we've had a revolving door of police ministers,
you know, and that government have not had the chief
Minister holding that portfolio. And so the COLP, if elected,
(07:11):
I will be the police minister. The buck will stop
with me. Community safety will be the number one priority
of my government. Every other agency, NGO and person who
lives in the territory will know and understand that because
our actions will meet our words on this, our police
will be supported, our community will be safe, we will
have stronger laws, and then we can have happy families,
(07:32):
a healthy community. We can have a growing economy, strong
business sector. We can get some vibrancy back in this
place and rebuild the territory and be proud once again
to be Territorian. And that all starts with me as
Police Minister. Chief Minister making sure that policing is a
number one priority, Leah.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Very quickly, what do you think needs to be implemented
as a matter of urgency. I mean, Nathan Finn has
said that he is more officers on the ground. We
know that we need more plice on the ground. That's
not a real surprise to anybody, but you know, if
you were chief minister, how would you make that happen quickly?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well, to have more police on the ground, you have
to have a workplace where police feel supported and backed,
and so it's really critically important that police know the
CLP back then one hundred percent that their job is
community safety and that's what we expect them to be doing,
not all the other things they're currently doing. We also
need to fix the broken disciplinary system. I've stood at
(08:28):
a decades, just about a decade's worth of police conferences
where labor have promised a review of the broken disciplinary
system that punishes our police and never delivered a single
thing that needs to be addressed urgently immediately, Katie. So
there's a range of measures, including law reform, including budget
including additional police that need to be done and we
(08:48):
are ready to do them well.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Leah Finocchiaro, the Opposition leader, it's always good to speak
with you.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Thank you very much for your time this morning. Thank you,
take care of rank. You
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.