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Speaker 1: Absolutely chaotic scenes out of Catherine overnight. Well, here's a

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Speaker 1: bit of the audio, and Northern Territory Police are indeed

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Speaker 1: calling for witnesses after two stolen cars were used to

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Speaker 1: ram two police vehicles overnight. Police were notified about eleven

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Speaker 1: pm that these two stolen cars were being driven by

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Speaker 1: youths in a reckless manner in various locations throughout Catherine.

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Speaker 1: Soon after, while stationary on Catherine Terrace, two police vehicles

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Speaker 1: were rammed, causing significant damage. Fortunately no one was injured

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Speaker 1: or no injuries were sustained by the police or civilians,

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Speaker 1: and the offenders fled the scene in a second car.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about what's happened is the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Police Association President Paul mceue.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Paul, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 3: Paul.

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Speaker 1: Horrifying scenes out of Catherine. I think it'd be safe

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Speaker 1: to say.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it looked terrible, abhorrent and unacceptable scenes. You know,

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Speaker 3: once again, sadly seeing some youth out late at night

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Speaker 3: using a vehicle, weaponizing that vehicle against property and people.

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Speaker 3: You know, disgusting behavior and of course you know the

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Speaker 3: footage itself was frightening to look at yet alone experience

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Speaker 3: firsthand and imagine being there when that took place, really

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Speaker 3: really dangerous situation. Once again, confronted by our officers.

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Speaker 2: How are those police officers today?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, thankfully no injuries. They weren't. I believe we're

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Speaker 3: not in the vehicle. Obviously, there's still an active investigation

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Speaker 3: underway in relation to what took place overall in the

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Speaker 3: town last night. But certainly, once again we've seen our

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Speaker 3: police targeted by youths in a vehicle. We know it

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Speaker 3: took place in our springs last week, and here we

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Speaker 3: are again talking about it and really dangerous situations. And

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Speaker 3: what do we see in that footage At the moment

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Speaker 3: that vehicle collided with those police vehicles, we saw our

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Speaker 3: officers running towards the danger, trying to deal with that

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Speaker 3: as best as they can. I mean, that's how brave

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Speaker 3: they are. They run to it and they deal with

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Speaker 3: it on behalf of our community. So we need to

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Speaker 3: be looking after.

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Speaker 2: Them, Paul.

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Speaker 1: This is the second incident of this kind in as

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Speaker 1: many weeks. It's pretty clear we've got some serious issues

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory right now.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look sadly, it's what we're probably seeing, is this

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Speaker 3: copycat behavior. We're seeing this, you know, for the sake

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Speaker 3: of a thrill, that's steal a car and go on

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Speaker 3: a rampage and post it online. I mean, that's all

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Speaker 3: well and good, but this kills people. This is life

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Speaker 3: threatening stuff we're talking about here, and you alone, the police,

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Speaker 3: or any member of the community don't deserve to have

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Speaker 3: to put up with that. So it's a government issue.

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Speaker 3: They need to have a look at why these kids

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Speaker 3: were out late at night, what's falling down in that

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Speaker 3: family environment or that unit to have this take place.

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Speaker 3: And you know, i'd sadly our police are on the

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Speaker 3: front line dealing with it, and what we don't want

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Speaker 3: to see them thrown under the bus, so to speak,

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Speaker 3: in terms of, you know, if they need to take action,

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Speaker 3: and they should them, well, you know, have to if

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Speaker 3: they need to save themselves or save others. We want

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Speaker 3: to make sure they're protected because the last thing we

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Speaker 3: need is is them questioning what action to take in

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Speaker 3: a dangerous situation like that.

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Speaker 2: Paul, I want to be really clear about this.

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Speaker 1: So do you feel as though this is an operational

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Speaker 1: issue that the Northern Territory police need to deal with

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Speaker 1: or do you feel as though this is now a

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory government issue where they need to have a

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Speaker 1: closer look at their legislation and their policies when it

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Speaker 1: comes to dealing with youth. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think our police deal with dangerous situations every day, Katie.

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Speaker 3: I mean, this is just another one of those. You know,

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Speaker 3: we can't know no amount of policy or procedure or

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Speaker 3: whatever was going to going to change what we saw

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Speaker 3: last night in terms of police operational procedures, but certainly

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Speaker 3: from a government perspective, you know, we don't want to

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Speaker 3: see an increase in this sort of behavior from youth

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Speaker 3: late at night, firstly wondering why they're there in the

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Speaker 3: first place, and secondly, why aren't they at home? You know,

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Speaker 3: because if they're out on the loose, so to speak,

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Speaker 3: and they are young, young individuals, you know, there is

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Speaker 3: a real problem in the community and that's certainly a

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Speaker 3: government government issue.

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Speaker 2: What needs to happen here, Well.

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Speaker 3: Obviously you know the government are looking at taking some

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Speaker 3: form of action. They've spoken about Alice Springs in terms

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Speaker 3: of you know, having a place for young people to

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Speaker 3: go to. But you know, that's that's Alice Springs is

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Speaker 3: obviously the whole other territory to look at. And you know,

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Speaker 3: we we know police are doing all they can, but

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Speaker 3: it can't fall on the shoulders of police. You know,

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Speaker 3: every single time these things happen, they'll deal with those

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Speaker 3: situations as best they can. And thankfully no one was

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Speaker 3: injured last night, but this won't be the last time, sadly.

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Speaker 1: It's honestly, it's outrageous and I know that on a

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Speaker 1: national scale this week there has been a lot seed

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Speaker 1: about youths in don Dale. We know that today does

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Speaker 1: mark five years since that Royal commission or since the yeah,

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Speaker 1: since the Royal commission. But Paul, one thing that I

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Speaker 1: kind of can't wrap my head around at the moment

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Speaker 1: is nationally there is outcry about that.

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Speaker 2: And fair enough, you know, rightly.

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Speaker 1: So, But why is there not outcry on a national

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Speaker 1: scale right now about the issue that we are seeing

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Speaker 1: when it comes to kids driving stolen vehicles? You know

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Speaker 1: what we saw in Alice Springs, eleven year olds allegedly

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Speaker 1: in that car. We're like, that is that deserves national outrage?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look it does, and I mean, we don't want

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Speaker 3: to see children in custodial facilities. You know, that's a

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Speaker 3: parent across the board. But we also don't want to

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Speaker 3: see is that give those young people of green light

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Speaker 3: to do whatever they please in the community at the

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Speaker 3: risk of the safety of our community. You know, talk

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Speaker 3: to some of the people who are left behind after

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Speaker 3: one of their family have been killed as a result

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Speaker 3: of this type of behavior, Have a talk to them

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Speaker 3: and see what they think needs to happen. They are

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Speaker 3: the people left behind with the carnage. The police deal

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Speaker 3: with the aftermath of these matters, and you know, who

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Speaker 3: knows what could have happened in Catherine last night with

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Speaker 3: that sort of behavior. And you know, so the government

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Speaker 3: needs to sit down and really seriously think about this.

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Speaker 3: This can't be a you know, this sort of dysfunction

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Speaker 3: needs attention now, not in a generation's time. And of

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Speaker 3: course our police are on the front line, you know,

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Speaker 3: trying to do the best they can, but you know,

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Speaker 3: no doubt they feel their hands are tired on many occasions.

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Speaker 3: And that's a sad state to be in.

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Speaker 2: Paul Mcue. It is.

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Speaker 1: It's a it's a really difficult situation right now. And

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Speaker 1: I agree with you, I one hundred percent you know acknowledge,

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Speaker 1: and I certainly believe that we've got to get it

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Speaker 1: right when it comes to youth justice and the way

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Speaker 1: in which we deal with kids. But we've got some

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Speaker 1: serious problems right now when it comes to youth crime

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Speaker 1: as well, and something needs to change or we are

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Speaker 1: going to see well, I don't know, honestly, I don't

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Speaker 1: know what else we're going to see, because it sort

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Speaker 1: of feels like we've passed so many of those points

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Speaker 1: that you would have thought would be you know, it

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Speaker 1: would be too.

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Speaker 3: Far, yeah, one hundred percent. And what we don't want

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Speaker 3: to see as a result of this is a disempowering

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Speaker 3: of the police to do their job. They're out there

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Speaker 3: to keep us safe. They need to deal with these

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Speaker 3: situations as they are confronted, and they need to be

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Speaker 3: supported in their decision making by the government when they

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Speaker 3: need to deal with it. And that's certainly the message

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Speaker 3: from our members.

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Speaker 1: Paul mchue, As always, I appreciate your time. If you're

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Speaker 1: speaking to those police officers, we really hope that they

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Speaker 1: are okay after what's unfolded.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, we'll do Thanks Katie, thank you