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Speaker 1: Now we know. The Northern Territory Chief Minister Lea finochi

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Speaker 1: Airo earlier this week head back at critics of her

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Speaker 1: government's tough on crime approach, saying they should walk in

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Speaker 1: the shoes of victims before expressing their opinions. So later

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Speaker 1: this month, we know that the Colp Government's going to

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Speaker 1: lower the age of criminal responsibility, strengthen bail laws and

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Speaker 1: introduce mandatory sentencing for people who assault frontline workers. Some organizations,

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Speaker 1: including the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, Amnesty International and

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory and also National Children's Commissioners, have criticized

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Speaker 1: the policies, describing them as a retrograde step. But in

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Speaker 1: an interview with Matt Cunningham from Sky News earlier this week,

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Speaker 1: well finochi Airo said her government had a mandate to

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Speaker 1: act after winning seventeen of the Northern Territory's twenty five

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Speaker 1: seats at the August election. Matt Cunningham joins me on

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Speaker 1: the line, Good morning.

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Speaker 2: To you, Matt, morning Cody.

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Speaker 1: Now mate, I mean, we know that the new government

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Speaker 1: is set to make some pretty serious legislative changes when

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Speaker 1: when Parliament sits for the first time, but I mean,

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Speaker 1: it is the what the community was calling for.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is a sort of extraordinary thing, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: I mean it's not as though the government, it's not

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Speaker 2: the CEL went to the election, you know, not saying

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Speaker 2: they were going to do this. They run their entire

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Speaker 2: campaign on it. But since they were elected, there has

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Speaker 2: been a lot of criticism that has come the government's

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Speaker 2: way from various organizations, many of them probably a long

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Speaker 2: way from the Northern Territory, criticizing the government's move particularly

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Speaker 2: to all the age of criminal responsibility, but also the

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Speaker 2: strengthening of fail laws. As we know, they're introducing Declan's Law,

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Speaker 2: named after Declan Lavity, of course, who was killed at

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Speaker 2: the BWS bottle shop at the Darwin Airport tavern last year.

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Speaker 2: So let if not the rat to Presspons this week

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Speaker 2: she was asked about these issues particularly. I asked specifically

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Speaker 2: about criticism of the Northern Territory Police that had come

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Speaker 2: from the Anti Children's Commissioner. Now, there was a report

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Speaker 2: put out at the end of last week that accused

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Speaker 2: police are deliberately targeting Indigenous children, of stereotyping and of

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Speaker 2: being sort of heavy handed with Indigenous people. Her response

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Speaker 2: to that was basically the response that you were just

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Speaker 2: reading out before. She said that there was a lot

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Speaker 2: of political commentary that was going on at the moment,

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Speaker 2: and she said people were entitled to their views and

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Speaker 2: they were entitled to have that political commentary, as she

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Speaker 2: described it. But she said that there would be no

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Speaker 2: apology from her or her government for the approach that

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Speaker 2: they are taking. She said that she wouldn't be standing

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Speaker 2: here right now as Chief Minister if it wasn't for

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Speaker 2: the fact that people wanted action maken on these issues,

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Speaker 2: and if it wasn't for the fact that one of

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Speaker 2: the government that was tougher on crime. She described the

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Speaker 2: form of labor government approaches permittees when it came to

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Speaker 2: crime in the Northern Territory, and she said that she

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Speaker 2: was determined to do things differently and that she was

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Speaker 2: going to follow through on the promises that she made

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Speaker 2: before the election.

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Speaker 1: And Matt, I think the community expects it. I know

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Speaker 1: that there you know, whenever you're making quite strong changes,

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Speaker 1: and these obviously are, there are always going to be

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Speaker 1: different community groups or different groups that have their concerns

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Speaker 1: around those changes. But I mean there's that real sense

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Speaker 1: within the Northern Territory at the moment, or there had

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Speaker 1: certainly been before the election, that we were living in

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Speaker 1: quite a lawless place. You know, crime was, and let's

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Speaker 1: be honest, continues to be rampant. Something's got to change.

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Speaker 1: And though there may be people saying, well, this goes

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Speaker 1: too far, it's punitive, it's a punitive approach, et cetera,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. You know, what we're doing right now hasn't

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Speaker 1: been working.

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Speaker 2: Well. Things that spiral around the control. As you know,

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Speaker 2: your listeners are well and truly aware, and as your

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Speaker 2: program documented you day after day and week after week

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Speaker 2: over the past four or five years. And you know,

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Speaker 2: Martin Dole, the Deputy Commissioner, was on your program earlier

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Speaker 2: this year saying that the crime rate had tripled yep,

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Speaker 2: I think in the last five years, and people were

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Speaker 2: seeing that and feeling that it was everyone's lived experience.

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Speaker 2: You know, everyone had either been a victim of crime

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Speaker 2: or they knew someone who had been a victim of crime,

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Speaker 2: and often often in those cases, they were really serious crimes.

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Speaker 2: You know, I know people who've had their entire home ransacked,

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Speaker 2: their castle, and you know, absolutely traumatic experiences that people

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Speaker 2: have gone through. Now. I know that these people have

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Speaker 2: been called experts, and the experts are saying, oh, well,

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Speaker 2: you know, all of the evident tells us that this

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Speaker 2: is the wrong approach. Well, you know, I think there

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Speaker 2: are another group of experts, and they're called voters. And

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Speaker 2: they went to the polls on August twenty four and

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Speaker 2: they voted emphatically for change seventeen and twenty five seats

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Speaker 2: who voted for the CLP YEP. So there's no doubt

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Speaker 2: that Leofanocchio is going to have a mandate. There's going

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Speaker 2: to be I think a lot of criticism that she's

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Speaker 2: going to face. You know, there are quite a few groups,

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Speaker 2: i'd say, who are far more vocal and far more

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Speaker 2: active when there's a CLP government in power than perhaps

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Speaker 2: when they're the labor one and we're hearing a lot

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Speaker 2: from them already. But she appears determined to follow through

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Speaker 2: and what she promised to do before the election, well.

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Speaker 1: I think she has to right, like you know, one

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Speaker 1: or the other on the like sort of on the

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Speaker 1: other side of that, when you look at politicians, one

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Speaker 1: of the things that really gets under Territorians and Australians

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Speaker 1: noses more generally around politics is when politicians say they're

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Speaker 1: going to do something and then don't follow through with it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, she made it so very clear what she

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Speaker 1: was planning to do to tackle crime. People voted that way.

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Speaker 1: If she now doesn't follow through with that and doesn't

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Speaker 1: make the changes that she'd promised to make, people are

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Speaker 1: going to be ropable.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, the voters who put her into power would be

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Speaker 2: apoplectic if she didn't follow through on the promises that

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Speaker 2: she was making. So, I mean, I'm a little bit

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Speaker 2: surprised that there has been so much of that commentary

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Speaker 2: that Lefkra was talking about given the election result. I mean,

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Speaker 2: people voted at the election. You know, Labor had been

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Speaker 2: in power for eight years. They'd make various changes, they've

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Speaker 2: been the Royal Commission. A lot of the recommendations from

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Speaker 2: that Royal Commission had been implemented. But the result of

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Speaker 2: a lot of that change, for you know, your everyday

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Speaker 2: territorium was that they felt like they were living in

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Speaker 2: a place that was far less safe than it used

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Speaker 2: to be. And so the pendulum, you know, naturally is

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Speaker 2: swinging back the other way. I think, you know, we

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Speaker 2: should at least give the new government an opportunity to

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Speaker 2: see whether the changes that it makes have an impact

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Speaker 2: and whether they work. Before you know, we start sort

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Speaker 2: of throwing bombs and saying, oh, you know, this is

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Speaker 2: not going to work. This is not going to work.

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Speaker 2: You know, And it's always you know, the experts, and

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Speaker 2: it's always the evidence that's not going to work.

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Speaker 1: Well.

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Speaker 2: I think we've had plenty of evidence over the last

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Speaker 2: seven or eight years going the other way hasn't worked

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Speaker 2: particularly well either. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's the thing, and I think that's where

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Speaker 1: a lot of regular people are sort of going, We'll

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Speaker 1: hang on a sec. What the experts have been telling

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Speaker 1: us for the last eight years hasn't worked, So let's

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Speaker 1: try something different and time will tell, right, you know,

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Speaker 1: we know that the first week of parliament sits the

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Speaker 1: week after next. They're going to be busy, aren't they.

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Speaker 1: Mate Like they've got quite a few pieces of legislation

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Speaker 1: that they're looking to introduce. It's going to be a

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Speaker 1: busy time for the new government.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot on the table and interesting to see

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Speaker 2: exactly what this legislation in relation to the mandatory sentencing

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Speaker 2: results on police and other frontline workers. Look Like I've

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Speaker 2: spoken Nathan Finns in the Northern Territory Police Association earlier

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Speaker 2: this week as well, and he was pretty keen to

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Speaker 2: make sure that that legislation gets through and that officers

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Speaker 2: are protected because they've been some pretty serious internets just

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Speaker 2: in the last week, Katie. If you look at our

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Speaker 2: Springs the weekend, there was a female police officer there

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Speaker 2: who ended up in hospital after she was attacked and

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Speaker 2: ended up with glass in her eye. There was another

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Speaker 2: security officer in Alice Springs who was held up at

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Speaker 2: nine point at the weekend. So I think the police

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Speaker 2: and certainly the Police Association are pretty ten to make

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Speaker 2: sure that their members are being protected because we haven't

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Speaker 2: seen some pretty ordinary, yeah, assaults on police in recent times.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, very ordinary assaults, Matt. We're also we'd also heard

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Speaker 1: as well over the last twenty four hours or so.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure whether you've heard anything, but that there'd

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Speaker 1: been a few other sort of break of entries, one

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Speaker 1: of which my understanding was at Tamarin House. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if you've heard much about that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my understanding. I haven't had official confirmation, but

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Speaker 2: my understanding is that there was an incident there to

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Speaker 2: night before last and that maybe some vehicles and some

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Speaker 2: other property was stolen from that premises. Yep, So I'm

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Speaker 2: not exactly sure where that you did at the moment.

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Speaker 2: And also police concerned last night Katie that there was

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Speaker 2: a fourteen year old who had escaped custody and my

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Speaker 2: understanding that was from the Youth Court precinct and that

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Speaker 2: year old has been apprehended this morning though. Yeah, a

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Speaker 2: few security issues there, but it sounds like police have

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Speaker 2: managed to track that fourteen Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right, So I'd mentioned that a little earlier this morning

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Speaker 1: that he'd escaped and then that the police had now

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Speaker 1: obviously been able to recapture him. But I wasn't aware

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Speaker 1: that that was from the Youth Court.

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Speaker 2: That that's my understanding of the situation. Yeah, facility in

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Speaker 2: Minchell Street there, so I believe that that's where he

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Speaker 2: managed to get away from. But thankfully he has been

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Speaker 2: apprehended this morning.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, well done to the police on being able

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Speaker 1: to apprehend him. Well, Matt Cunningham from Sky News, make

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Speaker 1: good to catch up with you this morning, and I

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Speaker 1: believe we've got you in tomorrow hopefully for the week

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Speaker 1: that was in the new studio. I know I'm made

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Speaker 1: blind blind to some degree, so anything could happen tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Let's see if I can get everyone's microphones to work.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, Thanks Matt,