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Speaker 1: Earlier in the week, we told you about a report

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Speaker 1: in the Australian newspaper that the Chief Justice of the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory had said some extreme attacks on Aboriginal women

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Speaker 1: have been attributed to bullshit traditional violence, in which perpetrators

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Speaker 1: seek to justify their crime as the enforcement of their rights.

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Speaker 1: As he warn domestic violences likely worsened in the top

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Speaker 1: end now. Chief Justice Michael Grant was speaking to lawyers

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Speaker 1: at a Darwin conference earlier this month and referenced an

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Speaker 1: Indigenous commentator who noted that drunk Indigenous men abuse their

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Speaker 1: partners for illegitimate reasons, before explaining away the attacks as

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Speaker 1: some sort of traditional right now. He also said that

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Speaker 1: Commonwealth legislation introduced in two thousand and six was intended

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Speaker 1: to protect Aboriginal women by ensuring traditional practices could not

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Speaker 1: be taken into account when sentencing domestic violence offenders. However,

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Speaker 1: he said, if anything, violence against Aboriginal women in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory had increase since those laws were introduced. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line is the Attorney General of

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, Marie Clai Boothby. Good morning to your

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Speaker 1: Attorney General.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie, and to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, as

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Speaker 1: we know the Chief Justice, well, he's not a man

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Speaker 1: who seeks headlines. In fact, it's pretty rare to see

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Speaker 1: public commentary from him, so when he speaks, many will

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Speaker 1: indeed take notice. What did you make of the comments

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Speaker 1: that he made about alcohol, traditional violence and the increased

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Speaker 1: numbers of domestic violence that we're saying, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think you're right, Katie. You know, he doesn't come

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Speaker 2: out and you know, create a whole hit the headlines.

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Speaker 2: But he's a very experienced Supreme Court judge. He's been

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Speaker 2: around a long time, and of course he's a territory

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Speaker 2: and as well born and bred, so he does understand

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Speaker 2: a lot of what goes on. And of course we

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Speaker 2: know that domestic violence in the territory is it's a terrible,

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Speaker 2: terrible state of affairs, and it has been like this

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Speaker 2: for a very long time. I mean, we agree with him.

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Speaker 2: You know, violence is violence and it is not acceptable

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Speaker 2: for any reason. You know, it's culture, tradition, race, none

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Speaker 2: of that is an excuse for violence, and so we

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Speaker 2: agree with him. I meet with the Chief Justice regularly

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Speaker 2: and we're always trying to look at new ways to

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Speaker 2: be able to make changes here in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: so that we don't see these levels of domestic violence

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Speaker 2: occur throughout the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: He said at that Pittington Society event, which was on August, states,

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Speaker 1: I'm now firmly of the view, after ten years in

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Speaker 1: my current role, that personal and specific deterrens don't operate

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Speaker 1: on our Aboriginal offenders as they might do on other offenders.

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Speaker 1: He also said Commonwealth legislation introduced in two thousand and

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Speaker 1: six was intended to protect Aboriginal women by ensuring traditional

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Speaker 1: practices could not be taken into account when sentencing domestic

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Speaker 1: violence offenders. However, he said that if anything, violence against

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Speaker 1: Aboriginal women in the territory had increased since those laws

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Speaker 1: were introduced, is it time to request that the federal

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Speaker 1: government look at this legislation. I'm my understanding is, like

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Speaker 1: I said there, it's Commonwealth legislation, So is it time

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Speaker 1: to have those discussions.

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Speaker 2: I think as a territory we need to look at

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Speaker 2: all of the different legislation that we have available to us,

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Speaker 2: as well as what we have you know, out in

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Speaker 2: our communities available to us as well, and that one

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Speaker 2: piece of legislation is only one part of this massive

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Speaker 2: puzzle that we've got. I mean, of course, in the territory,

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Speaker 2: we have our own laws, and we saw over a

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Speaker 2: number of years those laws of domestic violence be watered

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Speaker 2: down so that the perpetrator were kind of given more

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Speaker 2: rights than the victim. And that's just not the way

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Speaker 2: territorians expect justice to be delivered. Like the victims should

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Speaker 2: absolutely have the right, it's above offenders. And so as

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Speaker 2: a government, that's the work that we have started in

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Speaker 2: terms of making sure that victim's rights are above the offenders.

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Speaker 2: And you know that, I think there's a lot of

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Speaker 2: work to be done out in our Aboriginal communities as well,

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Speaker 2: like on the ground. I mean, those the leaders that

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Speaker 2: come forward and speak up about these things, they need

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Speaker 2: to be supported to do more in their communities and

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Speaker 2: because that's where a lot of sadly, a lot of

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Speaker 2: this stuff occurs. And you know, as a government, we

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Speaker 2: don't accept that level of violence. We also call out

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Speaker 2: those people who call us racist for toughening the laws.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's not racist to want a safer community,

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Speaker 2: and that's exactly what territorians want is a safer community,

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Speaker 2: and so you know that that's work that continues. It's

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Speaker 2: not just commonalth legislation that could be looked at, but

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Speaker 2: right across the territory as well.

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Speaker 1: Attorney General, do you think that traditional culture contributes to

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Speaker 1: our shocking rates of domestic violence?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think there's a number of factors involved. But

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Speaker 2: what I can say, Katie is that I do not

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Speaker 2: buy any of those excuses as to why it is

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Speaker 2: okay to have violence against another person, especially of those

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Speaker 2: people that you are supposed to love dearly. And so

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Speaker 2: you know, if that is something that is used as

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Speaker 2: an excuse, either during police investigations or during a court process,

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Speaker 2: then you know, it's great that the common Wealth did say, well,

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Speaker 2: you can't use those as a reason when you are

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Speaker 2: taking into consideration the sentencing for that, because it shouldn't

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Speaker 2: be a reason to have that kind of violence against someone.

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Speaker 1: All Right, I want to move along because the Standing

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Speaker 1: Council of Attorneys General meeting was held in Sydney last

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Speaker 1: week where Attorneys general from across across the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: across all of Australia meant to strengthen the justice system

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Speaker 1: and community Safety. Now the Council agreed to urgently work

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Speaker 1: towards the implementation by the end of twenty twenty five

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Speaker 1: of mutual recognition of negative working with Children check notices.

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Speaker 1: Why is this going? You know, why is this happening

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Speaker 1: and do you think it's going to make much of

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Speaker 1: a difference for us here in the Northern Territory. How

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Speaker 1: do things currently work?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, this is a regular meeting that the Attorney's

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Speaker 2: General have right across Australia with the Commonwealth Attorney General

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Speaker 2: as well, and this particular meeting was quite focused on

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Speaker 2: these working with Children checks, which is something that each

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Speaker 2: state in territory has the responsibility for and so in

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Speaker 2: other states they've had some challenges where cards they provoked

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Speaker 2: or and then you know, somebody can actually go and

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Speaker 2: apply again and it's sort of not it can take

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Speaker 2: into consideration when you move. And so we agreed, as

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Speaker 2: all jurisdictions that we do want to work towards a

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Speaker 2: strengthened system. What I did make very clear to the

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth is that the Northern Territory does need investment in

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Speaker 2: this space. We can't do it alone. If you know,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of technology that goes into doing this,

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Speaker 2: and we don't have the same sorts of challenge lenges.

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Speaker 1: It's just out of stately, seems unbelievable to me that

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Speaker 1: we don't already have this uniform across the nation, like

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Speaker 1: if somebody, you know, if somebody has a negative working

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Speaker 1: with children check. Notice how there's not some kind of

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Speaker 1: red mark against their names so they simply cannot go

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Speaker 1: and work in another state.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little bit different to a police criminal

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Speaker 2: history check. It kind of there's kind of a lot

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Speaker 2: of different layers. And I guess that's why this has

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Speaker 2: come to light and that it was also given to

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Speaker 2: the attorney generals, even though it sort of sits across

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Speaker 2: a number of other areas and other ministries. But I

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Speaker 2: guess the good thing is that we did agree that

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Speaker 2: we all need to work towards something where we do

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Speaker 2: have that safest strengthened system because it is all stated

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Speaker 2: by state based and every state agreed with this, you know,

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Speaker 2: working towards implementation of it. But again, like I said,

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Speaker 2: in the territory, we do need that investment from the commonwealth,

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Speaker 2: and I made it very clear, and they did say

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Speaker 2: that they are willing to work with us on that

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Speaker 2: and so that work will you know, continue I guess

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Speaker 2: it's always been there, but will continue it to make

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Speaker 2: sure that, you know, our system works the best that

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Speaker 2: it possibly can be. So at the.

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Speaker 1: Moment, like at the moment, could we have somebody that

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Speaker 1: has actually been you know, red card by another state

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Speaker 1: move here to the Northern Territory and could be working

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Speaker 1: with kids and we don't even know.

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Speaker 2: Well, they've got a national reference system across all of

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Speaker 2: the states and territories which does highlight you know, certain

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Speaker 2: things that happen in certain triggers, and so it is

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Speaker 2: very rare that that would happen, but we want to

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Speaker 2: make sure that we're closing down any of those gaps,

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Speaker 2: just to be sure because in other states there has

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Speaker 2: been a case where that happened. So I guess at

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Speaker 2: the end of the day, it's working towards a strengthened system.

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Speaker 2: You know many right across Australia, many of the systems

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Speaker 2: aren't perfect and we always need to be looking at

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Speaker 2: what we can do to strengthen them and of course

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Speaker 2: work together hand in hand with all of our colleagues

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Speaker 2: from across across Australia to make sure that we're always

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Speaker 2: putting children at the forefront of what we need in

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Speaker 2: our safety systems and do that work that's needed.

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Speaker 1: But so essentially we are now going to need this

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Speaker 1: new national reference system, so it's going to have to

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Speaker 1: be rolled out. Is that correct here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we agreed to work towards it. My understanding is

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Speaker 2: that we are the only jurisdiction that doesn't have the

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Speaker 2: proper access to it. This has been a decade old

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Speaker 2: problem that it's never been addressed, to be honest, and

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Speaker 2: so we now are working with the Commonwealth to tap

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Speaker 2: into that system. And that's not to say that there's

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Speaker 2: not a system that exists now. We do have a system,

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Speaker 2: but we want to make sure that we make it

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Speaker 2: as strong as possible so that there aren't any of

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Speaker 2: those people that fall through the cracks. We want those

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Speaker 2: extra safeguards and of course it's because we want our

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Speaker 2: children to be safe. So we'll do that work with

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Speaker 2: the FEDS, and you know, we have the backing of

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Speaker 2: the whole country on that.

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Speaker 1: Well, Attorney General, what assurances can you give to territorians

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Speaker 1: this morning though, when we don't actually you know, to

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Speaker 1: reassure parents, I guess that we don't have unsafe people

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Speaker 1: working in child care centers.

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Speaker 2: Well, what I'll say to parents is that we don't

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Speaker 2: have these same challenges that they've seen in other jurisdictions,

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Speaker 2: and we're much smaller population. We have our own checks,

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Speaker 2: our police do a great job in the systems that

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Speaker 2: they have that they work on, so there's no need

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Speaker 2: for alarm in this space. What is good is that

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Speaker 2: we as different jurisdictions across the country can come together

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Speaker 2: and look at how we can keep strengthening the systems

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Speaker 2: that we have already in place to make them better,

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Speaker 2: you know, going forward, and of course we always want

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Speaker 2: to make things better and more safe and more strong,

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Speaker 2: so that's the work that we're doing well.

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Speaker 1: Attorney General of the Northern Territory, Mari Clear Boothby really

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much for having

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Speaker 1: a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Thank you,