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Speaker 1: Well, as we discussed just a couple of moments ago

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Speaker 1: with the Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole, there was

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Speaker 1: chaotic scenes in Alice Springs on Monday, with the machete

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Speaker 1: wielding teenager running through the center and reportedly swinging the

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Speaker 1: weapon like a madman. The Australian newspaper reporting an elderly

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Speaker 1: man narrowly avoided being hacked with that machete, which was

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Speaker 1: wielded by the young person wearing an electronic monitoring device. Now,

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Speaker 1: Robin Lamley joins me from Alice Springs this morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to.

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Speaker 3: You, Robin, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: Robin.

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Speaker 1: We just heard from the Northern Territory Police Commissioner. He'd

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Speaker 1: spoken really about the unbelievable efforts of the two off

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Speaker 1: duty female police officers who helped to well to intervene

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Speaker 1: in this incredibly dangerous situation on Monday.

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Speaker 2: What's the reaction been from the community.

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Speaker 3: I think people are shocked. Of course, this doesn't happen

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Speaker 3: every day in Alice Springs, but it it's reasonably consistent

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Speaker 3: with what we've seen over the last four or five

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Speaker 3: years in terms of crime and attacks involving weapons. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: in the middle of one of our one of two,

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Speaker 3: one of our two shopping centers in Alice Springs. People

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Speaker 3: running around with knives. It's just crazy. It's just unacceptable

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Speaker 3: and our ageous.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. There's no other way to put it.

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Speaker 2: I mean, Robin. In terms of.

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Speaker 1: The efforts of the two off duty police officers, do.

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Speaker 2: You know those women? What are people saying in Alice?

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Speaker 3: Well? I know one of them. Well, Jim Hamilton is

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Speaker 3: an absolute legend in our town. She's front and center

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Speaker 3: helping people whenever she can. She would I think she

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Speaker 3: would have been there selling legacy for legacy, selling badgers

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Speaker 3: and paraphernalia for Remembrance Day. That's what she does. She's

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Speaker 3: an incredibly kind, generous, loving person who I admire so much.

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Speaker 3: So for Jen to be there and to try and

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Speaker 3: arrest this young man wielding a machete is is quite unbelievable.

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Speaker 3: But yet I saw the footage of her chasing after

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Speaker 3: him and I thought, Jen, be careful, you know, you're

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Speaker 3: putting yourself in danger. But she's a very experienced police officer,

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Speaker 3: so she would have known what she was doing. Yes, yeah,

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Speaker 3: I do know just Jen. I don't know who the

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Speaker 3: other the other ladies.

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Speaker 1: Annie Curtis is her name from what the UNT News

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Speaker 1: is reporting Jen Hamilton and Annie Curtis. And I know

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Speaker 1: the Commissioner had just told us as well on the

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Speaker 1: show that the Chief Minister's written to him, you know,

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Speaker 1: recommending or saying that she really thinks they need to

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Speaker 1: be recognized for their bravery. And I think the whole

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Speaker 1: of the community would agree.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look absolutely incredible that they were there and able

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Speaker 3: to respond and in doing so the other people around safe.

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Speaker 3: I think, yeah, they need to be hon it absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Hey, Robin, you and I have spoken before, you know

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Speaker 1: about those crime stats. I know that the crime stats

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Speaker 1: were reflecting that things were getting a bit better. You know,

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Speaker 1: the feeling on the ground is always you know, people

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Speaker 1: sort of if you've been impacted by crime, you never

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Speaker 1: really feel like those stats are getting any better. But

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Speaker 1: does this incident. I guess it is indicative. And we

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Speaker 1: said the same thing to the police commissioner. It's indicative

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Speaker 1: of the fact that, you know, there's still a long

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Speaker 1: way to go.

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Speaker 3: A very long way to go. I don't think we're

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Speaker 3: out of our crime crisis here yet. We've had some

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Speaker 3: encouraging statistics come through the last lot pertaining to August

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Speaker 3: of this year shows a decrease in crime right across

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Speaker 3: the board compared with August of the year before. But

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Speaker 3: people are still very tentative, very careful in calling it

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Speaker 3: out too soon that we're out of the woods. So

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Speaker 3: I think we're on the edge here. I think Alice

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Speaker 3: Springs is definitely on the edge. We could fall either way.

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Speaker 3: We could continue to see an improvement or we could

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Speaker 3: very easily see a deterioration. Again, don't forget that we

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Speaker 3: are now heading towards the very long hot summer months

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Speaker 3: here in Alice Springs, where things traditionally get worse before

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Speaker 3: they get better. So, while not meaning to be too pessimistic,

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Speaker 3: I would think that most people are cautiously just sitting

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Speaker 3: on the fence, waiting to see what happens.

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Speaker 1: Being realistic about it after really yeah, well after years

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Speaker 1: of feeling pretty ordinary about the situation.

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Speaker 3: Yes, definitely, Robin.

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Speaker 2: I know that you've.

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Speaker 1: Also raised some concerns in Central Australia that residents are

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Speaker 1: being hit with soaring flood insurance premiums, some policies now

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Speaker 1: costing more than twenty thousand dollars a year, or being

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Speaker 1: refused all together.

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Speaker 2: What is go here?

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Speaker 3: Well, this is not peculiar to our springs. I have

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Speaker 3: to say there are other places around Australia experiencing what

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Speaker 3: we're experiencing here. But people who are deemed to be

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Speaker 3: in the high risk flood areas of Aura Springs are

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Speaker 3: in trouble when it comes to their insurance premiums. Some

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Speaker 3: properties have been uninsurable and we've heard of a few

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Speaker 3: cases recently of people being quoted over twenty thousand dollars

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Speaker 3: a year for their normal residential premiums insurance premiums. And

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Speaker 3: this is about the risk of flooding in Alice Springs,

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Speaker 3: which might sound a bit ironic to top enders, but

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Speaker 3: it's also about crimes. So we have a big problem

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Speaker 3: in this town and the fact that we haven't had

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Speaker 3: any increase in flood mitigation measures in this town for

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Speaker 3: many decades is a real problem. Expecting rain in the

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Speaker 3: next twenty four to forty eight hours, we're expecting a

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Speaker 3: lot of rain, and if we were to have a

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Speaker 3: one in one hundred year flood, which like the most

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Speaker 3: recent one was in eighty eight, so we are sort

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Speaker 3: of due for something quite significant that all the properties

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Speaker 3: that were flooded back then, would be flooded now you'd

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Speaker 3: see the same level of damage because nothing's been done

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Speaker 3: pretty much to mitigate against flood Robin.

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Speaker 2: What do you reckon needs to happen?

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Speaker 1: You know, I guess it's never real sexy for a

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Speaker 1: government to announce, hey, we're doing this around flood mitigation,

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Speaker 1: but it's absolutely needed.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's not sexy at all, and that's why the

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory government has not invested in flood mitigation in

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Speaker 3: our town for many years. But it's a big, big problem.

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Speaker 3: A flood mitigation inquiry or report was commissioned by the

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Speaker 3: Giles government back in twenty sixteen. It landed on the

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Speaker 3: desk of the the new Labor Chief Minister, Michael Gunner

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Speaker 3: back in twenty seventeen, and they proposed a ten year

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Speaker 3: plan which if they had implemented fairly quickly, would have

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Speaker 3: been due to almost expire by now. But instead nothing

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Speaker 3: was taken up. None of the recommendations of that report

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Speaker 3: were adopted, so we're exactly where we were twenty thirty

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Speaker 3: years ago, and that's a problem. It's a problem in

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Speaker 3: terms of the impact of flood but it's a problem

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Speaker 3: for residents of this town because they are getting slugged

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Speaker 3: these really high insurance premiums for just living here in

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Speaker 3: areas that aren't traditionally known to flood, but have been

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Speaker 3: deemed high risk by insurance companies who are now extremely

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Speaker 3: risk adversed. And what's happened over in the on the

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Speaker 3: Eastern Seaboard, all those places like Lismore that were wiped

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Speaker 3: out a couple of times within a matter of months,

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Speaker 3: that's having a significant impact on what's happening here in

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Speaker 3: our town. It's making living in Alice Springs even more

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Speaker 3: unaffordable than it ever was and more unattractive, which is

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Speaker 3: really really bad news for our town. So the Northern

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Speaker 3: Territory government needs to look at that. I do know

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Speaker 3: that the local ministers MLAs Brish Burghle and Bill Yen

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Speaker 3: are thinking about it, prompted by this recent spate of

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Speaker 3: media attention on the problems of astronomical insurance premiums in

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Speaker 3: the town. So we'll wait and see what they come

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Speaker 3: up with. But nothing new delivered in this space for decades.

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Speaker 3: It is just an embarrassment and a very very poor

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Speaker 3: indictment of our leadership. It shows a lack of understanding

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Speaker 3: of how important these things are, these long term strategies

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Speaker 3: and policies that have to be phood in place. I mean, Katie,

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Speaker 3: you know, we just seem to bounce from one crisis

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Speaker 3: to the other, and I think governments are almost in

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Speaker 3: a crisis management mode rather than thinking about what the

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Speaker 3: long term needs of communities are. And the long term

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Speaker 3: need of this community of Alice Springs is robust and

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Speaker 3: contemporary and effective flood mitigation.

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Speaker 2: Well, and you've got to be able to do both.

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Speaker 1: You know, You've got to be able to manage the crises,

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Speaker 1: but then you also have to be able to plan

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Speaker 1: long term.

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Speaker 2: So we'll follow up.

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Speaker 1: We'll see whether we can have a chat with maybe

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Speaker 1: Josh Bergoin about this at some point and talk a

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Speaker 1: little more on it. Robin, I always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything else happening in Alice Springs at the

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Speaker 1: moment that we should know about very briefly? A.

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Speaker 3: Look, we're just plotting along, looking forward to Christmas and

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Speaker 3: lots of events here. The town is doing okay through

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Speaker 3: all the negatives, Katie, we are just plotting a and

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Speaker 3: getting on with it. And this town bounces back like

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Speaker 3: no other.

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Speaker 1: Because You're a resilient bunch, Robin. There is no doubt

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Speaker 1: about that.

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Speaker 3: And at the very core of why we live here,

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Speaker 3: it's because it's a great place to live.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know it can be hard sometimes, can't it.

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Speaker 2: Robin love having a chat with you.

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Speaker 1: We'll catch up with you again. When's Parliament sitting for

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Speaker 1: the final week of the year. Is it next week

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Speaker 1: or the week after?

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Speaker 3: Darts on the Tuesday, the twenty fifth of November. So

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Speaker 3: we go, we head back up north. Will I head

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Speaker 3: back up north next Sunday? Next Sunday night?

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, we'll catch up with you. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: that week, Robin,