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Speaker 1: Police have charged three Darwin residents over an alleged multimillion

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Speaker 1: dollar defense fraud scheme Dallas Win, Natalie Wynn and Michael Buckley.

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Speaker 1: The AFP claimed the defense employee, their spouse and a

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Speaker 1: company director worked together to funnel almost seventy one million

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Speaker 1: dollars into contracts to a business that they controlled. Now

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Speaker 1: during raids on Friday, officers seized cash, electronics, jewelry, documents,

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Speaker 1: a firearm and a small amount of suspected drugs. All

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Speaker 1: three people have been charged with dishonesty gaining a benefit

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Speaker 1: from a commonwealth entity, while the defense staffer also faces

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Speaker 1: a charge of abusing public office. They're due to face

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Speaker 1: the Darwin Local Court this morning. The Chief Minister Leafanocchiaro

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Speaker 1: joins me in the studio. Good morning to your chief.

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

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Speaker 1: Now, over the weekend these people were arrested. One of

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Speaker 1: them who has been identified as Michael Buckley. He's currently

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Speaker 1: an Industry Capability Network in board member and also on

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Speaker 1: the board of Master Builders in t Now master Builders

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Speaker 1: have announced that they're no longer going to be He's

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Speaker 1: no longer going to be on their board. What's going

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Speaker 1: to happen with the with the ICN board. Is that

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Speaker 1: a government appointment?

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Speaker 3: I don't believe so, But we aren't trying to track

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Speaker 3: down ICN to see what their next steps look like.

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Speaker 3: Obviously Master Builders has shown great leadership and made the

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Speaker 3: right decision, acting very swiftly there, and we support that decision,

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Speaker 3: and I suspect ICM will have more to say about

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Speaker 3: that today.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So it's not the Government's not involved in that

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Speaker 1: in any way. Now.

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Speaker 3: The government utilizes ICN and I believe there's some funding arrangements,

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Speaker 3: but it is its own independent board, so they will

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Speaker 3: have to come to.

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Speaker 2: Their own decision.

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Speaker 3: But I think looking to how master Builders has acted

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Speaker 3: the you know, it's probably inevitable the same result would follow.

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Speaker 1: I believe he was also on the committee that you'd

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Speaker 1: had earlier in the year as well, which you know,

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Speaker 1: which was looking to cut.

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Speaker 2: Red tight Yeah, the Approvals Fast Task Force.

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Speaker 3: Yes, so that was appointed back in about November last year.

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Speaker 3: Their work concluded in July, and that was a group

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Speaker 3: of private sector pulled together to look at right across

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Speaker 3: all industries, how we could better rearrange our regulatory frameworks

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Speaker 3: to make us more competitive, so that work has wrapped up.

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Speaker 3: That board was then dismissed because they'd completed their saying

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Speaker 3: Yes to business report and now government is implementing the recommends.

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Speaker 1: So is you concerned in any way about this person's

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Speaker 1: involvement on that board or with that work.

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Speaker 3: No, not on the task force that was a large

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Speaker 3: group of people and their role was to advise government

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Speaker 3: on how we could streamline processes. Obviously, then that's all

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Speaker 3: gone through government to say well, how can we make

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Speaker 3: things better? For example, some of them are around decision

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Speaker 3: making time frames, some of them are processes. But what

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Speaker 3: I have done, Katie is asked the Treasurer to make

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Speaker 3: sure that he takes a look at whether there are

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Speaker 3: any contracts outstanding at the moment with company and just

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Speaker 3: to make sure even though the allegations that have come

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Speaker 3: to light over the weekend are federally related, we just

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Speaker 3: need to make sure that the territories.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was going to be my next question.

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Speaker 1: I know you just touched on that, but are you

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Speaker 1: going to be seeking the Infrastructure Department review any of

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Speaker 1: those contracts that mister Buckley has obviously been engaged yes with,

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Speaker 1: through those businesses that he's involved.

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Speaker 3: In yes, So the Treasury is also the Darli minister,

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Speaker 3: so he's doing that work now.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so that work is Underwhy, yes, are there concerns.

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Speaker 3: Not at this stage, Katie, And again all of the

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Speaker 3: allegations relate to federal matters.

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Speaker 2: But we are doing our due diligence.

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Speaker 1: Were you Were you aware of any of these investigations.

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Speaker 3: No, And I think it's taken everyone by great surprise.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's obviously a very well known company and

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Speaker 3: defense work is extremely important to the Northern Territory and

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Speaker 3: I think Master Builder's reaction really says it all, Katie.

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Speaker 3: But obviously this is before the courts today, and well,

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Speaker 3: you know we'll all be learning more as an unfold.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and everybody has the right to that natural justice,

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Speaker 1: which we will be keeping a very close eye on.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, when you're talking about winning defense contracts,

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Speaker 1: and we know that it's so difficult for Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: businesses to win defense contracts as it is, are there

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Speaker 1: concerns here about the reputation of the Northern Territory's whole

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Speaker 1: industry when something like this happens.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I wouldn't want our entire construction industry to

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Speaker 3: be painted with the same brush. It's obviously a very

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Speaker 3: you know, significant, significant allegations have been made and actions taken,

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Speaker 3: and that is before the court. But you know, we

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Speaker 3: have an incredible construction sector and they're working really hard.

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Speaker 3: They're they're quite literally building the territory, Katie, and so

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Speaker 3: all of the right safeguards need to be in place.

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Speaker 3: But I wouldn't like to see everyone in that industry demonized.

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Speaker 3: And there's important work to do, and we still stand

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Speaker 3: ready to be that defense partner of choice and make

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Speaker 3: sure that locals get that really important work.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's going to be a lot of concerned

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Speaker 1: people listening this morning. You know, that business has a

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Speaker 1: lot of employees. There are a lot of people that

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Speaker 1: work on defense contracts. There are a lot of people

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Speaker 1: that are going to be really wondering what this all

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Speaker 1: means for the Northern Territories construction sector. And you know,

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Speaker 1: more generally this morning, there's some really big projects at

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Speaker 1: the moment that M and J Builders are working on

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Speaker 1: and there's a lot of people that are going to

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Speaker 1: be pretty worried.

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Speaker 3: I imagine their staff are very concerned, as would subcontractors be.

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Speaker 3: And I think there's going to be a lot to

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Speaker 3: unpick over the coming days, weeks, and perhaps even months, Katie.

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Speaker 3: But again, the process is now before the courts. We

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Speaker 3: do have to await the outcome and allow those processes

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Speaker 3: to take their course. And you know, if people have concerns,

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Speaker 3: I imagine the first stop would be Master builders.

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Speaker 1: Do you see that there's going to sort of need

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Speaker 1: to be any kind of I don't know the government

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Speaker 1: involved in this in any way, shape or forth.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think it's early days and obviously these are

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Speaker 3: federal contracts, federal defense work, and so you know, we'll

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Speaker 3: do our bin in looking into Northern Territory contracts if any,

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Speaker 3: and we just have to wait and see.

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Speaker 1: All right, there is quite a bit happening around the place,

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Speaker 1: and there are calls for more funding when it comes

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Speaker 1: to the Northern Territories court system. With new figures revealing

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Speaker 1: a large amount of prisoners haven't been sentenced now, the

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Speaker 1: ABC last week reporting that as of this time last week,

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Speaker 1: fifty two percent of prisoners in the Darwin Correction Center

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Speaker 1: were awaiting sentencing. It's also been revealed that across the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory, forty one percent of all prisoners have not

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Speaker 1: been sentenced. Chief Minister, This is an issue you and

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Speaker 1: I have previously spoken about. Has there been any improvement

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Speaker 1: on these remand numbers since the beginning of the year. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 3: We've done a huge amount of work as part of

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Speaker 3: our one point five billion dollar commitment to courts, corrections

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Speaker 3: and police and so we you know, the situation which

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Speaker 3: when we came to government in August last year was

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Speaker 3: at prisons were overflowing, at bursting point. They had had

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Speaker 3: to cut you know, the prisoner lawn, the pensioner lawnmowing servers,

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Speaker 3: the metal work would work, number plate making, all of

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Speaker 3: those things had to be canceled, so we inherited a mess.

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Speaker 3: We then increase the laws, which put more pressure on

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Speaker 3: the system, but we opened up Behmer Prison and a

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Speaker 3: number of other things, and so things are tracking quite

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Speaker 3: well and we've been able to now get back into

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Speaker 3: the rehabilitation and all of the programs. But just to

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Speaker 3: give some data on that, we've not only secured legal

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Speaker 3: AIDS funding, which was abysmal under Labor, we've also made

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Speaker 3: twenty prosecutors permanent, and then we've got thanks to Declan's Law,

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Speaker 3: and we've just you know, commemorated or celebrated. I suppose

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Speaker 3: one year of Declan's law, last sittings, Katie, and we've

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Speaker 3: had a thirty eight percent increase in bail refusals, which

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Speaker 3: is huge, huge numbers, and that and thirty three percent

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Speaker 3: for young people, so very large numbers of people not

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Speaker 3: getting bail.

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Speaker 2: And despite all of that.

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Speaker 3: Additional pressure, because we've put the rights of people to

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Speaker 3: be safe above the rights of criminals, we've dropped the

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Speaker 3: remand time by seven percent, so that's very significant work.

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Speaker 3: And we actually have more people in prison who are

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Speaker 3: sentenced than on remand, which under labor was the other

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Speaker 3: way around.

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Speaker 1: So what do you make of these comments that are

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Speaker 1: being made by legal groups saying that the courts are

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Speaker 1: severely under resourced. I mean, do you think that there

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Speaker 1: is still a need for additional funding for legal aid

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Speaker 1: and the justice system or do you feel as though

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Speaker 1: the work's done.

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Speaker 2: No, no, the work's not done.

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Speaker 3: But in terms of the funding, we've just about got

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Speaker 3: that right. So there still need to be more investment

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Speaker 3: and obviously there's a budget round coming up, so it's

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Speaker 3: never job done. But the impact we've had in terms

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Speaker 3: of putting more criminals behind bars and fix our court

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Speaker 3: and correction system has been it's indisputable. I mean, we've

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Speaker 3: stood up a task force that tries to res matters early.

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Speaker 3: They've resolved four hundred matters since February this year, so

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Speaker 3: that's taken pressure out of the system.

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Speaker 2: We've reduced the number of victims.

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Speaker 3: By seven point four percent, which again has eased pressure

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Speaker 3: on the system and remand has decreased my twelve percent

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Speaker 3: sit between May and September this year. So it's you know,

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Speaker 3: what we're doing is working at both ends. People are

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Speaker 3: facing consequences and the systems being more used better.

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Speaker 1: No doubt that any victim of crime will be pleased

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Speaker 1: to hear that. But there is also the concern that

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Speaker 1: some people are spending longer on romand then the sentences

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Speaker 1: they ultimately receive. I mean, what are you going to

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Speaker 1: do to fix that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and that may very well be the case, and

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Speaker 3: that's where that work around reducing that remand times so important.

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Speaker 3: So we've dropped it by seven percent, you know, compared

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Speaker 3: to a year ago, which is terrific, or you know,

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Speaker 3: up to twelve percent now when you look from May

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Speaker 3: and so we just have to keep that work going

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Speaker 3: it involves, you know, investment in the system and processing

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Speaker 3: people quickly. So we've done a lot of work and Katie, ultimately,

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Speaker 3: you know, crime stats will be out again this Friday,

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Speaker 3: so people will be able to judge.

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Speaker 2: Whether or not the data is moving in the right direction.

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Speaker 3: Certainly, to this point this year, things have been going

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Speaker 3: very well, with plenty more work to do, and we've

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Speaker 3: still got some really meaningful reform that has to be

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Speaker 3: done through to early into the next year.

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Speaker 2: But this is not ever a.

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Speaker 1: Job done, Katie, It's never, absolutely not, particularly when you're seeing,

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Speaker 1: you know, a teenager with an ankle monitoring bracelet allegedly

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Speaker 1: slashing an elderly person in the shopping center and Alice Springs,

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Speaker 1: the work is far from this. In fact, you know,

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Speaker 1: when you view something like that, you think, goodness, me,

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Speaker 1: is everything working?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And so it certainly is.

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Speaker 3: And when you look at the Alice Springs starter, I

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Speaker 3: mean their crime stats are amazing. I mean we have

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Speaker 3: had a seventeen percent reduction in DV in Alice Springs,

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Speaker 3: which is just amazing. So plenty more work to do,

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Speaker 3: and then there's all the root causes stuff. Let's not

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Speaker 3: forget we're talking pointing and you've offended, cops have got you,

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Speaker 3: you're before the courts. There's also our getting kids to

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Speaker 3: schools circuit breaker program through children and families holding parents

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Speaker 3: accountable family responsibility agreements, and that's you know, that's the longer,

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Speaker 3: harder piece of work is stopping young people from entering

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Speaker 3: the justice system in the first place, and a lot

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Speaker 3: of it is a lack of parenting and a lack

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Speaker 3: of parental accountability, which we're working through so that you know,

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Speaker 3: it can never be a job done, but we can

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Speaker 3: continue to focus on it as our number one priority,

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Speaker 3: and the data is showing that it's working.

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Speaker 1: Now, speaking of school, we learned last week that the

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Speaker 1: future of Yipper in your school in Alae Springs is

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Speaker 1: under three so after just fifty students turned up to

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Speaker 1: class on Thursday, down from its peak enrollment of three

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty. Now the school has had some real

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Speaker 1: issues to deal with. We know staff were told on

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Speaker 1: Wednesday that between fifteen and twenty of them would be

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Speaker 1: made redundant after those plunging enrollments left the school three

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Speaker 1: point seven million dollars in dick to the federal government.

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Speaker 1: Has the school sought assistance from the North and Territory government.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe it has.

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Speaker 3: But this is a school that's funded by the federal government,

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Speaker 3: and your Preimier School actually has a three point seven

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Speaker 3: million dollar debt to the federal government. So what has

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Speaker 3: happened Obviously there's been a lot of publicity and turmoil

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Speaker 3: in that school.

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Speaker 2: They've dropped from three hundred and.

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Speaker 3: Sixty students down to fifty, which is obviously now why

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Speaker 3: it's becoming a viability issue for that school, which is

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Speaker 3: which is terribly sad.

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Speaker 2: Katie it genuinely is.

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Speaker 3: But this is a matter for the federal government to

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Speaker 3: work through and resolve either to resource the school for

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Speaker 3: the numbers they have, or work through how to build

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Speaker 3: up those school numbers again and create confidence in that system.

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Speaker 1: And so it's not the Northern Territory Education Department that

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Speaker 1: needs to help with that, No, it's not.

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Speaker 3: It's actually the federal government, which is why it's very

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Speaker 3: confusing that the member Fillingiari has come out pointing the

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Speaker 3: finger at us.

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Speaker 2: She should be pulling out with a mirror and look

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Speaker 2: at us.

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Speaker 1: We've actually got Melanderira McCarthey on the Senator and Indigenous

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Speaker 1: Affairs Minister about this at nine forty five this morning.

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Speaker 1: So, so what you're saying is that it falls under there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, correct, correct.

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Speaker 3: So we've been working with the school around the recommendations

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Speaker 3: of a report that was done. But ultimately, yipper in

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Speaker 3: your school is a federally funded school, yipper in your

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Speaker 3: three point seven million to the federal government.

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Speaker 1: So in terms of the operation of that school, are

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Speaker 1: you telling me that the Northern Territory government or the

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Speaker 1: Education Department's got no oversight of that? And in terms

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Speaker 1: of helping.

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Speaker 3: Them, it's not necessarily we don't have any oversight, but

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Speaker 3: it is I don't want to say private school because

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Speaker 3: that's not the right word, but it's a non Northern

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Speaker 3: Territory government school. If I could put it in independence

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Speaker 3: and independence well, thank you Katie, where it escaped me.

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Speaker 3: So it is an independent school and the arrangement is

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Speaker 3: that federal funding. Now we have the Department of Business

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Speaker 3: working through with the federal government. Those twenty six recommendations

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Speaker 3: are around improvements to the school, but ultimately, when it

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Speaker 3: comes to funding, that does sit with the federal government.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so the funding sits with them. So is there

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Speaker 1: any other work that the Northern Territory government could be

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Speaker 1: doing with you for and your school at this point

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Speaker 1: in time to try to help them, because really the

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Speaker 1: last thing we'll want to say is this school closed

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Speaker 1: down right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we don't.

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Speaker 3: And I think the best thing that could happen is

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Speaker 3: that confidence is restored to that school, so we could

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Speaker 3: boost the numbers. Now, if they hadn't dropped from three

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Speaker 3: sixty to fifty kids, we probably.

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Speaker 2: Wouldn't be having this conversation.

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Speaker 3: So it really all sits around certainty for families to

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Speaker 3: be sending their kids to that school and certainty of

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Speaker 3: funding to be able to provide the educational offerings that

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Speaker 3: do you.

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Speaker 1: Think they're going to be able to do that? Given

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Speaker 1: you know, given the history around the former principal, Gavin Morris,

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Speaker 1: you know, questionably managing things. I guess to put it mildly,

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Speaker 1: what steps could the government now be taking to sort

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Speaker 1: of ensure that that school can continue to operate and

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Speaker 1: managed without staff losing their jobs?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it could be a range of things

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Speaker 3: that clearly the federal government's going to have to extend

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Speaker 3: the level of debt that youre in you have if

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Speaker 3: they're committed to having that school open, they're going to

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Speaker 3: have to rebuild trust with the community, which would involve

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Speaker 3: a range of things of bringing families together and and

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Speaker 3: leadership structures and curriculum and all of those types of things.

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Speaker 3: So there's probably a lot of work to be done there, Katie,

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Speaker 3: I think that's fair to say. And it's a beautiful

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Speaker 3: little school that we'd love to see continue operating and

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Speaker 3: we'll do what we can in terms of those regulatory

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Speaker 3: compliance components, but ultimately, when it comes to funding and

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Speaker 3: giving certainty to teachers, that does sit with the federal government.

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Speaker 1: All right, Chief Minister, a couple of quick ones. We

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Speaker 1: know that in will in use this morning certainly covering

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Speaker 1: off on this kinetic sand. We know that there's real

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Speaker 1: concerns at the moment right around Australia with different schools

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Speaker 1: having this kinetic sand and the presence of asbestos. Where

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Speaker 1: are things that from your perspective in the end to yes,

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Speaker 1: So we haven't had to close any schools. However, three

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Speaker 1: early learning centers that's Palmersten, Marara and Holy Spirit.

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Speaker 2: Have decided to close for cleaning today.

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Speaker 3: And we have full government schools that have alternative learning

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Speaker 3: programs today. While there's cleaning and process and that's nightcliff

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Speaker 3: gear in hump Dido and driver. But last night we

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Speaker 3: had so the department has done a lot of work.

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Speaker 3: Obviously we want safe schools for teachers and students and

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Speaker 3: so a lot of cleaning has taken place. Ten school

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Speaker 3: sites returned clear results, which means there was no detection

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Speaker 3: of airborne or respiratory as passed us, which is great.

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Speaker 3: So the risk does remain low. Health, Education and Work

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Speaker 3: Safer working together on this. So we are pouring a

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Speaker 3: huge amount of resources into this because we don't want

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Speaker 3: the disruption for our kids or our families, but we

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Speaker 3: do need it to be a safe place for everyone.

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Speaker 1: Chiefiness, just very quickly, I know that you're in Perth

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Speaker 1: last week looking at the shiplift facilities that they've got there.

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Speaker 1: Have you learned anything that you think is going to

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Speaker 1: help us here in the Northern Territory. I mean our

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Speaker 1: shiplift it's blown out of the water in terms of cost.

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Speaker 1: But is there any way that we're going to be

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Speaker 1: able to make this I don't know, absolutely essential for

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Speaker 1: any ship to be using in Australia.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I think this is a critical piece of infrastructure.

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Speaker 3: It has absolutely let down Territorians in terms of the

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Speaker 3: decisions the previous labor government made and around the cost.

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Speaker 3: And I accept that that is really unpalatable for Territorians,

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Speaker 3: But what we now have to do is make good

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Speaker 3: of a bad situation. And so Henderson Maritime Industry Precinct

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Speaker 3: is an incredible facility in Wa. So I went down

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Speaker 3: with the territory coordinator and we had a number of

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Speaker 3: meetings and site visits and briefings around the shipbuilding that's

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Speaker 3: happening for defense and commercial. But then how the territory

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Speaker 3: is a natural place for sustainment.

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Speaker 2: Because Wa is very far away.

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Speaker 3: They suffer the same tyranny of distance as we do,

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Speaker 3: except we are arguably better positioned, particularly in the Indo Pacific.

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Speaker 3: So a lot of good things learned and taken away

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Speaker 3: from that. And I also then went and visited Quinana

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Speaker 3: Industrial Precinct, which is where their gas comes in, and

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Speaker 3: they've created an entire industrial hub as a result of

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Speaker 3: that energy source, which of course we want to replicate.

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Speaker 2: When Beaterloo gets off the ground.

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Speaker 1: Chief Instill, we're going to have to leave it there.

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Speaker 1: Really good to speak with you this morning, Thanks so much.

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Speaker 2: For your time, take care everyone.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,