Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we now know, and as we've just heard from
the Northern Territory Police Commissioner activating that seventy two hour
well they're not really wanting to call it a curfew
for some reason, but public disorder declaration for Alice Springs
after what was described as a horror weekend. Now joining
me in the studio right now is the Opposition leader leafanokiiro.
Thank you for joining us this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Leader, Good morning Katie and to your listeners, now what do.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You make and do you support this curfew being called?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
The curfew had to be called, but again it's the
ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. We've had the
Chief Minister this morning acknowledge that it's a stopgap measure.
We've just had the Police Commissioner tell your listeners that
demand is too high, which means crime is too high.
Because police's business is to deal with crime and so
what comes next. This government has not got a plan
(00:49):
to deal with law and order, community safety. They've been
very clear they're not changing the laws. They've got a
long long term promise around police numbers which may or
may not happen, but in all years, there won't be
enough territories left to judge them on it. So this
again is a crisis for that town. We've got the
peak tourism season happening, national headlines everywhere because they haven't
(01:12):
dealt with the root causes of crime, they haven't protected
our community and now they've got a curfew.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So from your perspective, I mean, you know, we're like,
we're less than.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Fifty days out from the election now. So for the.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
CLP, for you as the alternative Chief Minister, what are
you going to do differently so that we're not in
a situation where a curfew is needing to be called.
Because the real concern that I've gone is that this
is being normalized, right and I know that and I
did think it was strong words from the Police Commissioner
saying it's not normal, it is not normal for this
to happen, and.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I totally agree.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
But we have reached a point where for us in
the Northern Territory it's almost become normalized.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
It can't be normalized that the CLP has a very
strong plan on youth crime and adult crime. It starts
with Week one of parliament. If we get the privilege
to govern the territory into the future, that we will
strengthen bowl laws that serious violent offenders start with no
bail so that breach of bowel condition is actually an offense,
lower the age of criminal responsibility, have minimum mandatory sentencing
(02:12):
for assaults on police. These are all of the laws
that we are going to change week one if we
are elected. Now, our police have too much crime to
deal with, which is why they can't deal with it,
which is why when your listeners call triple zero, often
no one arrives and that can't be. It's not sustainable
now and it would not be sustainable going forward.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So curfew is.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
A very damaging, very heavy handed approach to a crisis.
We need to stop the crisis happening in the first place,
which is why our investment and root causes of crime
around youth boot camps, having aboriginal leadership and mentorship of
young people in the system, making sure that adult offenders
are actually engaging in skills training, getting jobs while they're
(02:55):
in prison, so when they leave prison they have a job,
alcohol rehabilitation, all the functional, practical things that the government
needs to do to lower crime.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And that's exactly what our plan is.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I suppose you know there will be people listening thinking
that you know, surely even with prisoners going into jail
at the moment or people going into jail at the moment,
the whole aim, right is for those programs to be
getting delivered. You know, we would hope that they are
being delivered. So how are you going to do it
differently if you're saying that they're not so that they
(03:27):
actually are.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, they're not being delivered right now.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
If you're serving a six months or less sentence, you
won't be receiving any training. We know that sentence to
a job, which is a program where prisoners actually go
to work every single day outside of the prison, so
they you know, I was out in a suburb the
other day there was a guy mowing the lawns. He
was working for a private business. He was a prisoner,
So there are that program has been gutted by labor.
(03:53):
We know that there's no compulsory alcohol behavior change, drug
treatment in prison, and which.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Is why that's our focus.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
We've got to have skills training at the forefront. We've
got to have prisoners working community service, whatever it might be,
and we've got to be partnering them with work so
when they leave prison they're in a stable environment going forward,
not just heading back to a life of crime.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Now, we learned yesterday on the show as well with
the Police Association President Nathan Finn, that an officer was
dragged under a cart, suffering fractures to his leg and
arm requiring surgery, while attempting to apprehend a drunk driver
outside of license premises. Now we also know that there
was obviously those four off duty officers who were assaulted.
(04:38):
One of those was a new recruit, so one of them.
She's not going to now be starting work tomorrow, the
Police Commissioners confirmed, as she would have should have been.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yep, that's been.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Pushed back, but just on the assault of the officer
outside of the licensed premises trying to apprehend that drunk driver. Yes,
do you think that there needs to be a look
at chain mandatory minimum sentences.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Question and we've tried to pass that through the parliament
and Labor voted against us. Eva Laula voted against us,
and so did her team. We need minimum mandatory sentencing
for assaults on police, but every single person at work.
If you are listening and you're at work and someone
assaults you, there should be minimum mandatory sentencing and under
(05:22):
the CLP there will be.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Do you luck Do you fear that it could see
people that you know are offending at the lesser end
going to jail.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
No, I'm not worried about that at all.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
There's a court process that happens, and if you assault
someone while they are at work, there should be a
higher consequence for that. And this is exactly the problem
with labor. They've lowered the bar so low for our
community that almost anything goes now and there is a
lawlessness that we've never seen before. It's plaguing people's lives,
destroying communities.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
It's unacceptable. I won't stand for it.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
We are about a safe territory moving forward that comes
with stronger laws, better powers for police, better support for
people to turn their life around, and ultimately we need
to be spending less time talking and thinking about crime
and more time enjoying our life.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Leah Bill in Palmerston wants to know, are you going
to make public drinking illegal? Yes?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Absolutely, and we have again tried to pass that law
through the Parliament and Evil Laula has voted against us
and so have her team, and that's one of the
laws we're going to immediately change in Week one of
Parliament is to make public drinking and non exempt areas
illegal so that people drinking in parts causing antisocial behavior
and crime can be held accountable by our police, because
(06:39):
our police are the ones with the handcuffs on under
this government, not the criminals.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And we've got to turn that around.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
You've got I mean, the tough thing is is it
is a bit of a juggle, right Like you've got
Children's Ground this morning coming out condemning the response from
the territory and federal governments to complex issues in Oura Springs.
They say that yesterday is seventy two hour lockdown enforced
to counter to public disorder is yet another reactionary measure
that fails our community. Children's Ground condemning all forms of violence.
(07:08):
But ongoing oppressive use of power aimed at a whole
community is not the answer, is what they say.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, it's not a long term solution. It's not the answer.
It's a desperate measure that has to be done to
stem the flow of blood. I mean, it's just disgraceful
that we have to call curfews because things are that bad,
and even Laula has no alternative answers to this. We
need to be dealing with the root causes of crime,
getting kids into school, holding parents accountable, diverting the course.
(07:39):
When a young person starts mucking up and interacting in
the justice system, that's when we need to put every
piece of energy and resource into them at that point,
not when they're eighteen years old and they're heading destined
straight for the adult prison. You know, we need to
be intervening earlier. We've had two hundred and fifty million
dollars from Alberneze and his government never Land in Alice Springs.
(08:02):
We've had promise after promise from a labor government that's
been in power for nineteen of the last twenty three years.
They have had their chance to make a difference. They
have failed. It's time to let people run the territory
who have our best interests at heart, and that is
my CLP Team Leah.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
In Queensland, right, they're going a step further so the
opposition in Queensland. They're actually calling for more police and
child safety officers as well as a strengthening of legislation
there So in Queensland young Criminals David Chris Fully the
opposition leader is pitching that young criminals committing serious crimes
(08:40):
be slapped with adult sentences under a major pre election pitch.
Now the policy has found support from some community leaders,
including the Queensland Police Union president and others, as well
as Northern Territory Senator Just Enterprise. But essentially what he
is proposing is the youth committing serious crime including murder, manslaughter,
(09:04):
grievous bodily harm and dangerous operation and unlawful use of
a motor vehicle would be sentenced as adults. What do
you make of this?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, look, I don't know the details, so I won't comment.
It doesn't sound like something that would fit the territories situation.
What we're more focused on is dealing with the root
causes of crime, skills training, getting people work ready and
living meaningful lot and productive lives. So we're very focused
of course on strengthening laws like ram raids for example,
and having boasting and posting legislations something that doesn't currently exist,
(09:37):
and of course making sure that we have jobs and
opportunities for the future, which is why agriculture, defense, mining, gas, tourism,
these are our focus areas for growing our economy because
they represent opportunities not just for the cities, but for
real jobs on country and that's what we're focused on,
is real jobs for people where they live.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Then we can turn than tied around.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Another quick one that's come through from a listener saying,
so Katie, please ask Leah how long is it going
to take to change the laws that she's speaking about
should they gain power.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Oh, that's one week in parliament. It is that is.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
That's supposing that you win by majority.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, if we win government, we can do that in
one week of parliament. And that is why this is
so frustrating. What we have is a government that is
all talk, no action, no delivery. They could have changed
the laws at any point in the last eight years
and they haven't, and in fact, they've weakened them and
watered them down and made them worse. We have never
seen crime this bad, we have never seen dysfunction this bad.
(10:38):
And it's because again they've lowered the bar so low
that anything goes. And that's not the territory I grew
up in. It's not the territory I want for my
kids and for every territory in's future. And it doesn't
have to be that way. Going forward, and that's why
I get up and fight every data. I know. I'm
getting very passionate about this, Katie, but enough is enough.
(10:58):
I'm not going to stand for this territory going down
the toilet because we have incompetent people who've given up,
and we have a tired government that's had a chance
failed and I'm sick of it, and the community is
sick of it, and in forty odd days there's an
opportunity to change that.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, Leah, you definitely are lying down the gauntlet there,
I suppose, as I know, I'm sure that labor's listening
and stepping up to it. So let's wait and see
how things go. It's going to be an interesting race
to the election. Really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks
so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Thank you everyone. Take care,
As we now know, and as we've just heard from
the Northern Territory Police Commissioner activating that seventy two hour
well they're not really wanting to call it a curfew
for some reason, but public disorder declaration for Alice Springs
after what was described as a horror weekend. Now joining
me in the studio right now is the Opposition leader leafanokiiro.
Thank you for joining us this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Leader, Good morning Katie and to your listeners, now what do.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
You make and do you support this curfew being called?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
The curfew had to be called, but again it's the
ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. We've had the
Chief Minister this morning acknowledge that it's a stopgap measure.
We've just had the Police Commissioner tell your listeners that
demand is too high, which means crime is too high.
Because police's business is to deal with crime and so
what comes next. This government has not got a plan
(00:49):
to deal with law and order, community safety. They've been
very clear they're not changing the laws. They've got a
long long term promise around police numbers which may or
may not happen, but in all years, there won't be
enough territories left to judge them on it. So this
again is a crisis for that town. We've got the
peak tourism season happening, national headlines everywhere because they haven't
(01:12):
dealt with the root causes of crime, they haven't protected
our community and now they've got a curfew.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So from your perspective, I mean, you know, we're like,
we're less than.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Fifty days out from the election now. So for the.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
CLP, for you as the alternative Chief Minister, what are
you going to do differently so that we're not in
a situation where a curfew is needing to be called.
Because the real concern that I've gone is that this
is being normalized, right and I know that and I
did think it was strong words from the Police Commissioner
saying it's not normal, it is not normal for this
to happen, and.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I totally agree.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
But we have reached a point where for us in
the Northern Territory it's almost become normalized.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
It can't be normalized that the CLP has a very
strong plan on youth crime and adult crime. It starts
with Week one of parliament. If we get the privilege
to govern the territory into the future, that we will
strengthen bowl laws that serious violent offenders start with no
bail so that breach of bowel condition is actually an offense,
lower the age of criminal responsibility, have minimum mandatory sentencing
(02:12):
for assaults on police. These are all of the laws
that we are going to change week one if we
are elected. Now, our police have too much crime to
deal with, which is why they can't deal with it,
which is why when your listeners call triple zero, often
no one arrives and that can't be. It's not sustainable
now and it would not be sustainable going forward.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So curfew is.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
A very damaging, very heavy handed approach to a crisis.
We need to stop the crisis happening in the first place,
which is why our investment and root causes of crime
around youth boot camps, having aboriginal leadership and mentorship of
young people in the system, making sure that adult offenders
are actually engaging in skills training, getting jobs while they're
(02:55):
in prison, so when they leave prison they have a job,
alcohol rehabilitation, all the functional, practical things that the government
needs to do to lower crime.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And that's exactly what our plan is.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I suppose you know there will be people listening thinking
that you know, surely even with prisoners going into jail
at the moment or people going into jail at the moment,
the whole aim, right is for those programs to be
getting delivered. You know, we would hope that they are
being delivered. So how are you going to do it
differently if you're saying that they're not so that they
(03:27):
actually are.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, they're not being delivered right now.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
If you're serving a six months or less sentence, you
won't be receiving any training. We know that sentence to
a job, which is a program where prisoners actually go
to work every single day outside of the prison, so
they you know, I was out in a suburb the
other day there was a guy mowing the lawns. He
was working for a private business. He was a prisoner,
So there are that program has been gutted by labor.
(03:53):
We know that there's no compulsory alcohol behavior change, drug
treatment in prison, and which.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Is why that's our focus.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
We've got to have skills training at the forefront. We've
got to have prisoners working community service, whatever it might be,
and we've got to be partnering them with work so
when they leave prison they're in a stable environment going forward,
not just heading back to a life of crime.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Now, we learned yesterday on the show as well with
the Police Association President Nathan Finn, that an officer was
dragged under a cart, suffering fractures to his leg and
arm requiring surgery, while attempting to apprehend a drunk driver
outside of license premises. Now we also know that there
was obviously those four off duty officers who were assaulted.
(04:38):
One of those was a new recruit, so one of them.
She's not going to now be starting work tomorrow, the
Police Commissioners confirmed, as she would have should have been.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yep, that's been.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Pushed back, but just on the assault of the officer
outside of the licensed premises trying to apprehend that drunk driver. Yes,
do you think that there needs to be a look
at chain mandatory minimum sentences.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Question and we've tried to pass that through the parliament
and Labor voted against us. Eva Laula voted against us,
and so did her team. We need minimum mandatory sentencing
for assaults on police, but every single person at work.
If you are listening and you're at work and someone
assaults you, there should be minimum mandatory sentencing and under
(05:22):
the CLP there will be.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Do you luck Do you fear that it could see
people that you know are offending at the lesser end
going to jail.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
No, I'm not worried about that at all.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
There's a court process that happens, and if you assault
someone while they are at work, there should be a
higher consequence for that. And this is exactly the problem
with labor. They've lowered the bar so low for our
community that almost anything goes now and there is a
lawlessness that we've never seen before. It's plaguing people's lives,
destroying communities.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
It's unacceptable. I won't stand for it.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
We are about a safe territory moving forward that comes
with stronger laws, better powers for police, better support for
people to turn their life around, and ultimately we need
to be spending less time talking and thinking about crime
and more time enjoying our life.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Leah Bill in Palmerston wants to know, are you going
to make public drinking illegal? Yes?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Absolutely, and we have again tried to pass that law
through the Parliament and Evil Laula has voted against us
and so have her team, and that's one of the
laws we're going to immediately change in Week one of
Parliament is to make public drinking and non exempt areas
illegal so that people drinking in parts causing antisocial behavior
and crime can be held accountable by our police, because
(06:39):
our police are the ones with the handcuffs on under
this government, not the criminals.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And we've got to turn that around.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
You've got I mean, the tough thing is is it
is a bit of a juggle, right Like you've got
Children's Ground this morning coming out condemning the response from
the territory and federal governments to complex issues in Oura Springs.
They say that yesterday is seventy two hour lockdown enforced
to counter to public disorder is yet another reactionary measure
that fails our community. Children's Ground condemning all forms of violence.
(07:08):
But ongoing oppressive use of power aimed at a whole
community is not the answer, is what they say.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, it's not a long term solution. It's not the answer.
It's a desperate measure that has to be done to
stem the flow of blood. I mean, it's just disgraceful
that we have to call curfews because things are that bad,
and even Laula has no alternative answers to this. We
need to be dealing with the root causes of crime,
getting kids into school, holding parents accountable, diverting the course.
(07:39):
When a young person starts mucking up and interacting in
the justice system, that's when we need to put every
piece of energy and resource into them at that point,
not when they're eighteen years old and they're heading destined
straight for the adult prison. You know, we need to
be intervening earlier. We've had two hundred and fifty million
dollars from Alberneze and his government never Land in Alice Springs.
(08:02):
We've had promise after promise from a labor government that's
been in power for nineteen of the last twenty three years.
They have had their chance to make a difference. They
have failed. It's time to let people run the territory
who have our best interests at heart, and that is
my CLP Team Leah.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
In Queensland, right, they're going a step further so the
opposition in Queensland. They're actually calling for more police and
child safety officers as well as a strengthening of legislation
there So in Queensland young Criminals David Chris Fully the
opposition leader is pitching that young criminals committing serious crimes
(08:40):
be slapped with adult sentences under a major pre election pitch.
Now the policy has found support from some community leaders,
including the Queensland Police Union president and others, as well
as Northern Territory Senator Just Enterprise. But essentially what he
is proposing is the youth committing serious crime including murder, manslaughter,
(09:04):
grievous bodily harm and dangerous operation and unlawful use of
a motor vehicle would be sentenced as adults. What do
you make of this?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, look, I don't know the details, so I won't comment.
It doesn't sound like something that would fit the territories situation.
What we're more focused on is dealing with the root
causes of crime, skills training, getting people work ready and
living meaningful lot and productive lives. So we're very focused
of course on strengthening laws like ram raids for example,
and having boasting and posting legislations something that doesn't currently exist,
(09:37):
and of course making sure that we have jobs and
opportunities for the future, which is why agriculture, defense, mining, gas, tourism,
these are our focus areas for growing our economy because
they represent opportunities not just for the cities, but for
real jobs on country and that's what we're focused on,
is real jobs for people where they live.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Then we can turn than tied around.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Another quick one that's come through from a listener saying,
so Katie, please ask Leah how long is it going
to take to change the laws that she's speaking about
should they gain power.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Oh, that's one week in parliament. It is that is.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
That's supposing that you win by majority.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, if we win government, we can do that in
one week of parliament. And that is why this is
so frustrating. What we have is a government that is
all talk, no action, no delivery. They could have changed
the laws at any point in the last eight years
and they haven't, and in fact, they've weakened them and
watered them down and made them worse. We have never
seen crime this bad, we have never seen dysfunction this bad.
(10:38):
And it's because again they've lowered the bar so low
that anything goes. And that's not the territory I grew
up in. It's not the territory I want for my
kids and for every territory in's future. And it doesn't
have to be that way. Going forward, and that's why
I get up and fight every data. I know. I'm
getting very passionate about this, Katie, but enough is enough.
(10:58):
I'm not going to stand for this territory going down
the toilet because we have incompetent people who've given up,
and we have a tired government that's had a chance
failed and I'm sick of it, and the community is
sick of it, and in forty odd days there's an
opportunity to change that.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, Leah, you definitely are lying down the gauntlet there,
I suppose, as I know, I'm sure that labor's listening
and stepping up to it. So let's wait and see
how things go. It's going to be an interesting race
to the election. Really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks
so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Thank you everyone. Take care,
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