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Speaker 1: We know that the Northern Territory Police Association, well, they've

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Speaker 1: gone to new lengths to try to get members a

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Speaker 1: pay rise, launching an ad campaign targeting the government. The president,

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Speaker 1: Paul McCue, says that negotiations have been ongoing since February

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Speaker 1: and there's no sign of an agreement being reached before

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Speaker 1: the end of the year. With members still not satisfied

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Speaker 1: with the government's two percent offer. He joins me on

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Speaker 1: the line right now, Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Paul, Morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: How are you not too bad? Paul? Where are negotiations at?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously long and protracted negotiations. We've been under way

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Speaker 2: since February of this year and today it only had

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Speaker 2: one formal offer from government, which was under the old

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Speaker 2: wage freeze policy. So here we are at Christmas time.

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Speaker 2: Our members have made it quite clear to us through

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Speaker 2: our survey earlier this year and also in more recent

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Speaker 2: times that they're fed up. They've had enough of the delays.

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Speaker 2: They are out there every day putting their life on

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Speaker 2: the line for the government and the community. They want

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Speaker 2: to see the government get serious and put something to

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Speaker 2: them that they expect that rewards the job that they

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Speaker 2: do out there. And right now it's such a competitive

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Speaker 2: market in terms of policing. We're seeing so many people

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Speaker 2: you leave the NT police. We need to do something

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Speaker 2: about that and do it urgently.

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Speaker 1: And it's you know, like across the board, you've got

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Speaker 1: all of the frontline workers basically of the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: right now saying hang on, our wages need to be

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Speaker 1: keeping up with, you know, with the cost of living.

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Speaker 2: I know that.

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Speaker 1: Really the push that the association's going with now is

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Speaker 1: like I've never seen the association sort of go so

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Speaker 1: hard in terms of being fairly critical of the government

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Speaker 1: not coming to the table.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, they've got a duty when these negotiations

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Speaker 2: come around to be fair income about it. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we've been here since February waiting for a change and

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Speaker 2: it hasn't come yet. We are making ourselves available, of course,

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Speaker 2: as often as necessary to try and push the for

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Speaker 2: our members. They've made it quite clear. And we go

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Speaker 2: back to that survey I mentioned previously that we had

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Speaker 2: a few months ago. Eighty eight percent of our members

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Speaker 2: at that survey. A thousand people replied to that survey

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Speaker 2: completely rejected that initial offer of government. We've seen ninety

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Speaker 2: three percent of our members. You say, there is not

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Speaker 2: enough police out there, and we've got such competitive markets

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Speaker 2: in into state police jurisdictions, we can't afford to sit

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Speaker 2: on our hands. That's what they've been doing. Since we

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Speaker 2: commenced negotiations Katie in February, we've seen one hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty police that's essentially ten percent of our front line

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Speaker 2: walk out the door do other jobs. I mean, that

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Speaker 2: is catastrophic numbers when you talk about such a small

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Speaker 2: police force we've got up here.

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Speaker 1: What do you want to see from the government pool

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Speaker 1: and when do you want to be able to sit

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Speaker 1: down with them and go.

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Speaker 2: Through all of this. Well, obviously we've got meetings continuing,

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Speaker 2: but what we need is an offer or formal offer,

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Speaker 2: you know, put to us so we can put it

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Speaker 2: to our membership if we feel it's appropriate. We've got

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Speaker 2: other police forces offering significantly more than two percent. You know,

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Speaker 2: this isn't just about money. This is about making sure

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Speaker 2: we've got the recognition for our police here in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory they deserve. They've been out there doing it

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Speaker 2: tough like many frontline workers over the last few years,

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Speaker 2: but coupled with inflation, coupled with the significantly high attrition

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Speaker 2: rate and the significantly competitive market. We're in Katie and

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Speaker 2: we've seen all those attacks on our police recently. They've

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Speaker 2: played out in the public, you know, people using weapons

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Speaker 2: against some including vehicles. This is a time the government

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Speaker 2: need to put this to bed. They need to come

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Speaker 2: to us urgently and resolve this as quickly as they can.

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Speaker 2: Otherwise our members are just not going to put up

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Speaker 2: with it.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon? You're going to lose members over the

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Speaker 1: Christmas period if they don't try to sort this out.

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Speaker 2: Well, we know there's active campaigns targeting our experienced officers

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Speaker 2: here in the NT. We see it every day on

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Speaker 2: social media here in terms of attracting two other police forces.

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Speaker 2: I know personally there's several police officers with applications in

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Speaker 2: with other police forces and other jobs. They're just waiting

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Speaker 2: to hear back, you know as we speak, and we

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Speaker 2: don't want to see that. It's costing millions and millions

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Speaker 2: to keep recruiting these numbers every year. And it's good

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Speaker 2: we're recruiting, but you know that's enormous amounts of money

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Speaker 2: we're spending when we just need to be investing in

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Speaker 2: those we've got and keep them here in the nt Well.

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Speaker 1: Paul mcue, it is. It's an interesting time. I think

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Speaker 1: you'd have to say right now, the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 1: not only needing to get to the table with you guys.

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Speaker 1: I know they've got the offer out for the teachers

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Speaker 1: at the moment. I know the nurses are also pretty concerned,

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Speaker 1: and we've got to make sure, you know, if we

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Speaker 1: are going to be the wonderful, prosperous place that we

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Speaker 1: want to be, we've got to make sure that we've

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Speaker 1: got enough police, educators, nurses, all of those frontline workers.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean we need to look after them. We

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Speaker 2: need to make sure they remain here in the nt year,

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Speaker 2: in the NTA, and the way of doing that is

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Speaker 2: to resolve this issue for our police that they've been

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Speaker 2: waiting so long for since every of this year, and

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Speaker 2: it's going to happen sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 1: Well, Paul McCue, thank you as always for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning. We'll probably catch up with you again before Christmas.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, thanks Katy, good on you, thank you