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Speaker 1: Just to repeat, we know that the Northern Territory Police

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Speaker 1: are currently searching for a twenty seven year old man,

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Speaker 1: Jermaine Shane austral after he allegedly unlawfully entered a property

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Speaker 1: in Johnson on Sunday with a firearm before fleeing the

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Speaker 1: scene a short time later. The police say that no

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Speaker 1: injuries were reported and the firearm was not discharged, but

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Speaker 1: they formulated an arrest plan with investigators from Serious Crime,

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Speaker 1: the Dog Operations Unit, the Territory Response Group and General

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Speaker 1: Duties deploying into Johnson and the Northern suburbs. He was

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Speaker 1: unable to be located and investigations remain ongoing, with the

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Speaker 1: twenty seven year olds still at large as of this morning.

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Speaker 1: If you've got any information that could indeed help the police,

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Speaker 1: one three one triple four is the number detectives are

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Speaker 1: urging anyone with information on his whereabouts to make contact,

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Speaker 1: but Detective Sergeant Michael Orderman has said that mister austral

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Speaker 1: is not to be approached if cited and contact the

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Speaker 1: police immediately on one three one triple four. Now, the

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Speaker 1: Opposition leader Leah Finocchiaro joins me on the line.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Leah.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Lea, are you concerned that we have indeed

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Speaker 1: got what sounds like an armed man on the loose.

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Speaker 3: It's really terrifying, Katie, and I think, you know, we

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Speaker 3: thank our police for all the hard work they're doing

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Speaker 3: in trying to find this individual that alleged on awful

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Speaker 3: entry actually happened in my electorates. So I've certainly urged

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Speaker 3: to people in Johnston if they do have any information

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Speaker 3: or perhaps they've got something on CCTV, you know, household CCTV,

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Speaker 3: to please provide that to police. But you know, I

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Speaker 3: encourage everyone to heed police's warnings about the individual, but

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Speaker 3: provide any information if you have it.

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Speaker 1: Leah, what are people in your electorates saying after Sunday?

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Speaker 3: Well, they're pretty shocked, as you can imagine, you know,

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Speaker 3: especially on a Sunday. It's just a time when people

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Speaker 3: like to relax. But again, this is just re enforces

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Speaker 3: the high rates of crime that people are experiencing right

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Speaker 3: across the territory and of course that escalation in violent offending.

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Speaker 3: So it's very scary stuff and we certainly hope the

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Speaker 3: police are able to find this person as soon as possible, Lea.

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Speaker 1: I do want to move along and talk about some

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Speaker 1: numbers that I've received or that I've got my hands

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Speaker 1: on from the Northern Territory Police Association in relation to

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Speaker 1: the number of police that have actually retired or left

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Speaker 1: throughout this year, so resignations and retirements. Year to date,

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Speaker 1: there has been one hundred and twelve resignations, eleven retirements,

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Speaker 1: three dismissals. That's taking the total to one hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty six. Those numbers include resignation and retirement of two superintendents,

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Speaker 1: twelve sergeants and senior sergeants, fifty four constables seven well

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Speaker 1: seven other constables by the look of it, and forty auxiliaries.

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Speaker 1: I mean, those numbers, they are big numbers. We know

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Speaker 1: that there has been quite a large number of police

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Speaker 1: officers recruited by the look of it, one hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty three year to date.

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Speaker 2: However, it is quite a loss of experience.

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Speaker 3: Oh, there's no question. And this issue has been going

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Speaker 3: on and just escalated under Labor. I mean, we know

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Speaker 3: that attrition is now at eleven percent. And when you

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Speaker 3: see the high rates of experienced police leaving the force,

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Speaker 3: it creates a huge problem for our police now. We

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Speaker 3: know that they're under more pressure than ever before because

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Speaker 3: of the high rates of crime, because of under resourcing,

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Speaker 3: and that's UNDERCLP For eighteen months, two years, Katie have

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Speaker 3: been calling for a review into our police force because

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Speaker 3: we need to understand why police are leaving, what we

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Speaker 3: can do to retain them, and how to of course

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Speaker 3: better support them to deal with this ongoing workload. Now,

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Speaker 3: for us, it's relatively simple. If you drive down the

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Speaker 3: rate of crime, you will take a lot of pressure

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Speaker 3: off our police. But there's a lot more to it

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Speaker 3: than this, and ultimately ninety seven percent of our police

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Speaker 3: feel like this government don't support them, and that's a

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Speaker 3: message that Natasha Files and her government have not listened

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Speaker 3: to you.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the.

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Speaker 1: Review though now is underway, so we know that that

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Speaker 1: is happening.

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Speaker 2: Do we all just need to be patient here?

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Speaker 3: Well, I don't know if we can be patient. The

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Speaker 3: review is underway and I have met with Vince Kelly

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Speaker 3: and his team around that, but ultimately this government needs

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Speaker 3: to be taking steps immediately to be ensuring that our

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Speaker 3: police feel supported. We know that health and well being

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Speaker 3: has been a major concern from them. We know that

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Speaker 3: this government continues to water down laws and put the

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Speaker 3: rights of offenders above the rights of our community. And

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Speaker 3: ultimately our police are very disgruntled because they are having

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Speaker 3: to run a catch and release program of criminals because

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Speaker 3: labor doesn't want to deal with the level of offending

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Speaker 3: that we have in the territory and that is quite

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Speaker 3: frankly demoralizing for our police, who you know, they catch

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Speaker 3: a criminal only for them to walk free again.

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Speaker 1: Well then, of course, you know, as part of that

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Speaker 1: review they are going to be looking into whether police

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Speaker 1: are you know, sort of doing the role that is

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Speaker 1: expected of them, or or whether the community's expectations of

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Speaker 1: police are maybe greater than what their role actually is.

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Speaker 1: But then you've got a situation whereas part of that

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Speaker 1: liquor review that was released yesterday, there's the recommendation whether

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Speaker 1: the government actually does do this or not, But where

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Speaker 1: we could have a situation where public housing safety offices,

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Speaker 1: park rangers, council rangers, security guards could be doing the

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Speaker 1: job that police usually do and seizing alcohol. I mean,

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Speaker 1: do we need to think outside the square here or

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Speaker 1: is that just going to land us in more trouble?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think the government is just trying to This

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Speaker 3: is all about optics and media management. This is a

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Speaker 3: government trying to look like it's doing something when what

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Speaker 3: every territory knows is a total foul to act. I mean,

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Speaker 3: just last week, Katie, the government provided its review into

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Speaker 3: liquor and it said that police need a range of

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Speaker 3: powers to deal with alcohol. All of those powers were

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Speaker 3: in the legislation that the COLP brought forward on Wednesday.

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Speaker 3: And yet despite the government's own review saying that police

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Speaker 3: need to be able to ask people for id the

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Speaker 3: government just voted down the CLP's legislation, purely putting politics

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Speaker 3: over people. And as long as we have a part

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Speaker 3: time government that's more interested in talking about themselves than

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Speaker 3: talking about the issues affecting the territory and territorians, we're

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Speaker 3: never going to see any change. This government has totally

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Speaker 3: given up and it's all now optics until the next election.

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Speaker 1: Look, I think that is something that the government could

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Speaker 1: have done last week in parliamentary sittings. I do think

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Speaker 1: that while it may have made them sort of have

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Speaker 1: a bit of egg on their face to do what

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Speaker 1: the CLP was proposing, it did seem as though what

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Speaker 1: you were proposing was absolutely what was laid out as

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Speaker 1: part of that White Ranging Liquor review. But nonetheless they

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Speaker 1: haven't done it, so they're going to have to really

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Speaker 1: show the community that they've got some other options up

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Speaker 1: their sleeve. But Lea, I do want to ask. The

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory News is indeed reporting this morning that the

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Speaker 1: union that represents a service station employee who lost an

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Speaker 1: eye when a stick was thrown during a store rampage,

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Speaker 1: the SDA, Well, they're accusing the Northern Territory government of

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Speaker 1: breaking a promise to make workplaces safer. Their secretary, Josh Peek,

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Speaker 1: has told the paper that the government had broken a

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Speaker 1: promise made after the death of bottle shop worker Declan

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Speaker 1: Lavity in March to do safety audits at late night

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Speaker 1: retail outlets. Leara, are you aware of whether these audits

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Speaker 1: are taking place and should they be?

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Speaker 3: I certainly haven't heard any feedback that they are taking place.

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Speaker 3: But what we know is that after Declan Lavity was

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Speaker 3: killed that the government put forward this sort of nine

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Speaker 3: point eleven point so called plan to make a plan

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Speaker 3: to manage optics. They wanted Territorians to feel like they

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Speaker 3: were doing something when they weren't. And we've seen even

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Speaker 3: just last week the Order to General come out and

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Speaker 3: find the Chief Minister a guilty of misleading around this

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Speaker 3: very issue of Boo reform. And so what we've got

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Speaker 3: is a man who's lost his eye here in Darwin.

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Speaker 3: We've got a Matt in Alice Springs exactly the same

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Speaker 3: thing happened to him through crime. And people are absolutely

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Speaker 3: terrified for their safety. And this government continues to pretend

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Speaker 3: that it's doing something when it is and its words

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Speaker 3: don't match his actions. There is a total failure to act.

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Speaker 3: And you know, as late as last week we had

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Speaker 3: a labor federal member saying that this government stopped listing

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Speaker 3: and stopped acting. And that's exactly the way that Territorians feel.

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Speaker 1: When I mean when the paper asks though the government

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Speaker 1: whether there had been an order, a government spokespersons apparently

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Speaker 1: told them that it had been rolling out the Business

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Speaker 1: Security and Safety Audit Program to assist businesses access an

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Speaker 1: independent assessment and evaluation of their security and staff safety.

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Speaker 1: Is that satisfactory in your eyes?

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Speaker 3: Well, the best way to make workers safe is to

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Speaker 3: get criminals off the street. And so all of these

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Speaker 3: band aid solutions that the government is coming up with

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Speaker 3: again to try and create an optical illusion that the

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Speaker 3: government's taking action is ridiculous. What we know is that

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Speaker 3: when there's criminals on the street, innocent Territorians are the

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Speaker 3: ones who pay the price. And so going back to

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Speaker 3: that issue of high police attrition, we need to be

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Speaker 3: supporting our police and the community with laws that are

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Speaker 3: going to put their right to be safe first. And

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Speaker 3: what we have instead is a government that every single

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Speaker 3: day ignores the plight of the twenty seven thousand Territorians

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Speaker 3: who are victims of crime already this year, Katie, and

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Speaker 3: many thousands more to come over the rights of you know,

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Speaker 3: under the rights of the criminals. They protect the criminal

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Speaker 3: instead of the community.

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Speaker 1: Leah, I want to move along because there has been

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Speaker 1: a lot of controversy over the leasing of the day

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Speaker 1: and Port by the then Colp government, which you were

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Speaker 1: part of. Our reviews now been undertaken by the Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister and Cabinet into the lease of the Darwin Port

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Speaker 1: and there's going to be no changes to that lease

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Speaker 1: over the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company.

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Speaker 2: Do you think that's the right decision?

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Speaker 3: Well, ultimately this has been reviewed now at the highest

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Speaker 3: possible level, and so you have to accept that on

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Speaker 3: face value that that has been done thoroughly. You would

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Speaker 3: think that if there was a problem, the federal government

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Speaker 3: would be the ones to call that out, and they haven't,

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Speaker 3: which gives certainty to Territorians that now we can move

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Speaker 3: forward and what we really need to focus on is

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Speaker 3: growing our economy. What we want to see is more

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Speaker 3: coming over our port, in and out of our port.

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Speaker 3: That's going to create jobs for Territorians, that's going to

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Speaker 3: grow our importance in the region. So we're looking forward

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Speaker 3: to you know, we certainly have a very strong plan

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Speaker 3: for our economy going forward, Kadie, if we're given the chance,

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Speaker 3: you know, we want to see greaterzation of our rail,

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Speaker 3: of our port and our relationship with our near neighbors

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Speaker 3: in Asia.

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Speaker 1: Do you regret that decision though? I mean you were,

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Speaker 1: like I said, you were part of the CLP government

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Speaker 1: that had made that decision back when the COLP was

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Speaker 1: in power.

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Speaker 2: Do you regret that decision?

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Speaker 3: Well, it certainly wasn't my decision, Katie. I was a

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Speaker 3: backbencher in that government, but still part of the government.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Well, anyone who thinks about backbenches calling the shots doesn't

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Speaker 3: understand politics, Katy.

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Speaker 1: But I mean you guys, will you guys still criticize

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Speaker 1: back benches of the Labor Party right now so you

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Speaker 1: know you are still part of a team that makes decisions.

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Speaker 3: Honestly, No, look listen, so you're saying.

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Speaker 1: That you have you had absolutely no idea about decisions

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Speaker 1: that were being made by the CLP government when you

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Speaker 1: were part of it.

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Speaker 3: Cabinets make cabinet decisions, Katie, That's how governments work. I

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Speaker 3: was part of the Port Committee, which is a bipartisan

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Speaker 3: committee of the Parliament, which Michael Gunner was also on,

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Speaker 3: and so that committee went around the country exploring different

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Speaker 3: port options from government owned ports, lease ports, a whole

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Speaker 3: range of different arrangements as exist in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland,

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Speaker 3: et cetera. And a report was then provided to the Parliament.

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Speaker 3: And so fast forward to now we have had I

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Speaker 3: think two reviews into the port lease the federal Labor government.

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Speaker 3: So again this is Labour's opportunity. If Labor disliked this

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Speaker 3: so much, why haven't Territory Labor done something to correct

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Speaker 3: that decision?

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Speaker 1: You guys make the decision to begin with. But kay,

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Speaker 1: that was But it's going to continue to come up, Leer.

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Speaker 1: It's one of those things that it is going to

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Speaker 1: continue to come up, rightly or wrongly.

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Speaker 2: The fact that the CLP did lease it out.

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Speaker 3: I'm not denying the CLP lease support. What I'm saying

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Speaker 3: is we've now had several federal reviews. If something needed

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Speaker 3: to be done, the federal government should have identified that

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Speaker 3: as part of its review and Territory Labor should take action.

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Speaker 3: Now neither have seen any to have a cause of action,

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Speaker 3: which in my view gives certainty, and we should be

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Speaker 3: focusing on the future use of that port to grow

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Speaker 3: our economy, create jobs and have a stronger territory.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's move along, because we do know as

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Speaker 1: well that findings from the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into

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Speaker 1: the Local Decision Making Framework, they were tabled in Parliament

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Speaker 1: earlier this year. Now, the opposition yesterday released a statement

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Speaker 1: saying that the findings prove that the Files Labor government's

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Speaker 1: delivery of local decision making on the ground has been

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Speaker 1: slow and the outcomes are disappointing. Why do you not

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Speaker 1: feel that they're delivering in this space?

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Speaker 3: Well, their own report was really scathing of how local

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Speaker 3: decision making has rolled out, and ultimately, when the eleven

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Speaker 3: communities who are participating in government so called local decision

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Speaker 3: making program find it confusing and a point the Aboriginal

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Speaker 3: Peak Organizations of the Northern Territory have actually withdrawn from

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Speaker 3: that program, then you know it is a total failure.

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Speaker 3: And ultimately, Katie, this is people living in the Bush

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Speaker 3: who for twenty years, two decades have suffered under labor,

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Speaker 3: who have removed their right to local government at a

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Speaker 3: local level, who have now promised the world with local

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Speaker 3: decision making and totally failed and have no pathway going forward.

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Speaker 3: And that's in stark contrast to the CLP, who have

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Speaker 3: a firm commitment to be working with Aboriginal people living

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Speaker 3: in the Bush around making sure that we have significant

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Speaker 3: local government reform that is going to give power back

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Speaker 3: to communities to make the decisions and the best interests

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Speaker 3: of their people.

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Speaker 1: I know though that the government would say, on one hand,

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Speaker 1: you're being critical of them on this, but on the

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Speaker 1: other you're saying that you don't want treaty in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory and that the CLP obviously we're not supportive

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Speaker 1: of the Voice to Parliament. Now we know that there

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Speaker 1: are indeed local communities saying that they do want treaties.

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Speaker 1: So can you really be critical of the government on

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Speaker 1: this when you don't have a lot of credits.

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Speaker 2: Some would argue in this.

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Speaker 3: Space, Ultimately, labor have failed Aboriginal Territorians in the Bush

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Speaker 3: for twenty years.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but you guys have also been in power, and

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Speaker 1: we know that Liberal Coalition government's been in power on

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Speaker 1: a federal scale as well at different times. So I

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Speaker 1: think that there's definitely on both sides of politics, everybody's

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Speaker 1: had a part to play.

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Speaker 3: Well. Ultimately, when you have Aboriginal Territorians, nearly half didn't

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Speaker 3: turn out to vote on the Voice. Those who did

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Speaker 3: voted for the Voice. You can very clearly see that

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Speaker 3: people wanted change. Now, the referendum wrapped up Voice, treaty

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Speaker 3: and truth telling and that was resoundingly rejected by Territorians

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Speaker 3: and the nation and clearly showing it's not the way forward.

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Speaker 2: According to Marion Scrimjaw, though not in the Bush.

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Speaker 3: Well, of course she would say that because she's a

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Speaker 3: strong proponent for the Voice. But if Aboriginal people really

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Speaker 3: desperately wanted the Voice, why was there such a low

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Speaker 3: voter turnout. Ultimately, what we need is practical policies. We're

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Speaker 3: not interested in that glossy titles and all of these

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Speaker 3: concepts that people can't get their head around with no detail.

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Speaker 3: What we know is that when we're out in the bush,

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Speaker 3: the number one issue people talk to us about is

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Speaker 3: the fact that Labor took away their voice at a

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Speaker 3: local government level by destroying community controlled government councils. And

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Speaker 3: so that's why we're working on practical policies that make

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Speaker 3: a real difference in people's lives going forward.

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Speaker 1: Can you understand, though, how some people may see the

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Speaker 1: irony in that when you didn't support the.

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Speaker 3: Voice, Katie, the entire country didn't support the voice. And

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Speaker 3: so I think it's time to draw a line in

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Speaker 3: the sand and move forward. If Labor want to continue

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Speaker 3: to reflect back on how disappointing the outcome was for them,

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Speaker 3: then they need to take a really good, hard look

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Speaker 3: in the mirror, because ultimately they're the ones who failed

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Speaker 3: to provide adequate information to our community, and they're the

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Speaker 3: ones who promise the world and underdelivered. What I'm focused

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Speaker 3: on is practical policies that are going to improve the

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Speaker 3: lives of territories no matter where they live. And so

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Speaker 3: when it comes to the Bush, we know that local

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Speaker 3: government is critical, and when it comes to all of

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Speaker 3: the territory, we know that issues like driving down rates

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Speaker 3: of crime are going to significantly improve people's lives.

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Speaker 1: Well, Leah Finocchiara, I always appreciate your time, but Parliament

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Speaker 1: indeed back again today. What's on the Colp's agenda.

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Speaker 3: So today we've got a matter of public importance around

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Speaker 3: this government's failure to deliver a strong economy. We know

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Speaker 3: that for nineteen consecutive quarters we have been ranked as

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Speaker 3: the worst performing economy in the nation. Our economy is

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Speaker 3: going backwards, we've had no new major projects and so

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Speaker 3: we're very concerned about the future growth of the territory

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Speaker 3: and jobs for territorians going forward. And so today we're

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Speaker 3: going to call the government out on that issue because ultimately,

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Speaker 3: if people can't have a strong career here, if they

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Speaker 3: can't have jobs and pathways for their children, people will leave.

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Speaker 3: So a strong economy is critical to the territory's future.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time this morning, and

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Speaker 1: we'll be keeping an eye on Parliament and see how

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Speaker 1: it all goes great.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, take care, thank you.