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Speaker 1: A teenager is in a serious condition after he was

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Speaker 1: stabbed at the Royal Darwin Show, with the alleged defender

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Speaker 1: now in custody. The Northern Territory Police said the boy,

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Speaker 1: aged fifteen, was assaulted with a knife by another fifteen

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Speaker 1: year old boy at the showgrounds after an altercation. Now

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Speaker 1: a spokesperson said the alleged defender fled the scene after

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Speaker 1: that incident took place at about eight twenty on Saturday.

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Speaker 1: Police and Saint John Ambulance attended. The victim was conveyed

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Speaker 1: to Royal Darwin Hospital in a serious condition. By ten pm,

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Speaker 1: the alleged defender was located and is in custody. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me in the studio is the Chief Minister Leofanocchio.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to.

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Speaker 3: You, Good morning Cannie, in to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister, Yet another occasion where you and I sit

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Speaker 1: in this studio and talk about horrendous crime. I mean

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Speaker 1: the latest filent attack happening at the show, a place

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Speaker 1: where teenagers and families should be able to go and

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Speaker 1: to enjoy themselves. What was your reaction when you heard

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Speaker 1: that this teenager had been stabbed inside show?

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Speaker 3: Ali, Oh, it's absolutely terrifying.

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Speaker 4: Katie, and you just think about the family, you know,

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Speaker 4: all sorts of thoughts run through your head. You think

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Speaker 4: about all the people who were there who would have

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Speaker 4: witnessed it, or people who would have just been just

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Speaker 4: been there earlier or were going later. I mean, this

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Speaker 4: is the Royal Darwin Show. It should be a place

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Speaker 4: of absolute fun. You should be more worried about eating

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Speaker 4: fairy floss and how you're going to squeeze the most

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Speaker 4: out of the money you have to go on rides,

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Speaker 4: not about whether or not you're safe.

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Speaker 3: So this is not normal behavior.

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Speaker 4: It shows just how weak labor was over that last decade.

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Speaker 4: I mean, these fifteen year olds were just little kids

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Speaker 4: when labor came in. And ultimately the behavior is unacceptable

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Speaker 4: and so thank our police. I mean they responded, were

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Speaker 4: able to apprehend the alleged defender very quickly, which is

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Speaker 4: excellent police work. But we now have a victim and

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Speaker 4: a community traumatized and again wondering when is enough enough?

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Speaker 1: Do you know if the alleged defender or any of

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Speaker 1: those involved were on bail.

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Speaker 4: I don't have any of that information, I'm sorry, Katie,

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Speaker 4: but irrespective, I mean, they you know, it's disgraceful behavior.

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Speaker 4: And so this week in Parliament we've got an opportunity

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Speaker 4: to pass our youth justice reforms and that first trench

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Speaker 4: that we've been talking about for many, many months with

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Speaker 4: your listeners, Katie.

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Speaker 3: So we're going to do that urgently now.

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Speaker 4: Rather than just read out what it's about this week

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Speaker 4: and then wait till September, we're just going to get

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Speaker 4: the whole thing done this week. We'll be briefing the

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Speaker 4: Independence and the and the Opposition today so they'll know

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Speaker 4: what it's all about. It's largely election commitments anyway, but

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Speaker 4: this is just what.

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Speaker 2: Exactly are we going to see changed yep.

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Speaker 3: So this is about some of our election commitments.

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Speaker 4: So we're going to now have mandatory diversions, so if

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Speaker 4: a young person is diverted, they must do it or

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Speaker 4: they will end up back in court. Whereas under Labour's diversion,

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Speaker 4: kids could opt.

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Speaker 3: In, opt out, do nothing. It was just a mess.

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Speaker 2: It's mandatory mandatory yep.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely as of this week, so we're going to we're

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Speaker 4: going to push that through the whole The whole bill

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Speaker 4: will be done by Thursday. So we're also removing detention

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Speaker 4: as last resorts, so for our police and for our courts.

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Speaker 4: Labor made it so that every other option you could

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Speaker 4: think of had to be exhausted before you arrested a

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Speaker 4: person or put them into prison, whereas we're taking that

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Speaker 4: away because courts and police need much stronger discretion on

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Speaker 4: exercising their judgment about whether or not someone is a

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Speaker 4: risk to the community, so detention as last resort is going.

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Speaker 4: If detention is required, it will happen. We're also making

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Speaker 4: sure that embedded in the system is the impact on

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Speaker 4: the victim, because victims have been forgotten about for far

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Speaker 4: too long, and now the courts will once we pass

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Speaker 4: these laws, the courts will have to give much greater

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Speaker 4: weight to the victim and the impact on the victim,

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Speaker 4: which I think is very very powerful. It will also

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Speaker 4: make sure we've moved youth justice out of territory families

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Speaker 4: and into corrections, so it will give our hard working

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Speaker 4: youth justice officers all of the powers and support they

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Speaker 4: need to protect themselves, protect the detainees, and maintain you know,

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Speaker 4: order in the facility.

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Speaker 1: I mean in the situation on the weekend. With any

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Speaker 1: of the changes that you are introducing on urgency to

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Speaker 1: Parliament this week would any of them have made a difference.

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Speaker 1: Do you think in the situation that we saw on

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Speaker 1: the weekend.

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Speaker 3: Those ones I'm not sure.

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Speaker 4: But as what we're also doing is I announced a

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Speaker 4: little while ago, maybe a month ago now, about the

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Speaker 4: thirteen prescribed defenses that we're adding to the list so

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Speaker 4: that police don't have to.

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Speaker 3: What do you call it, divert.

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Speaker 4: Somewhere so that may or may not have had an

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Speaker 4: impact on the outcome of this. You know, it's really

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Speaker 4: hard to sort of speak in a specific instance with

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Speaker 4: what we're proposing, but certainly what this does is give

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Speaker 4: much greater powers and flexibility, not just to our detention systems,

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Speaker 4: but to our police, which is what we're really focused.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you are copying a lot of flak from

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Speaker 1: some in the community. I mean, even this morning, the

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Speaker 1: Office of the Children's Commissioner say that they acknowledge reports

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Speaker 1: of the serious incident that occurred at the Darwin Show

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Speaker 1: on Saturday evening, but they do not condone violence in

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Speaker 1: any form, and that everybody in the community has the

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Speaker 1: right to feel safe and attend community activities without fear

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Speaker 1: for their safety. But the Office of the Children's Commissioners

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Speaker 1: say that they support evidence based approaches to legislative reform

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Speaker 1: and the development of crime prevention initiatives that address crime safety,

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Speaker 1: and the rewrite of the Youth Justice Act is a

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Speaker 1: crucial opportunity to contemporize legislation or legislative approaches that guide

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Speaker 1: the rehabilitation of children in contact with the youth justice

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Speaker 1: system whilst balancing community safety objectives. Now, I think you've

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Speaker 1: got a tough juggle on your hands at the moment

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Speaker 1: because you have got different groups coming out saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're not going down the evidence based approach, but then

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Speaker 1: you've got the community screaming at you that you need

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Speaker 1: to fix this crime. Yesterday, people have had an absolute

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Speaker 1: gun like as the parent of a teenage child that

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Speaker 1: half of their friends write the show on Saturday night,

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Speaker 1: I am utterly appalled that kids are growing up in

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Speaker 1: a community where they have to worry about somebody being

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Speaker 1: stabbed where they are at the show, they have to

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Speaker 1: worry about being belted when they catch a bus. These

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Speaker 1: are the realities of other children living in our community

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Speaker 1: at the moment.

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Speaker 3: And that's exactly right, Katie.

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Speaker 4: And you know what we stand with the everyday territorian

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Speaker 4: who just wants to leave work and love being Territorian.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: The rest of it is just noise and I'm super

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Speaker 4: not interested.

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Speaker 3: Katie put it that way.

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Speaker 4: I mean, the Children's Commissioner can come out and say

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Speaker 4: things like, oh yeah, we know everyone should be safe,

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Speaker 4: but and the land councils can come out and call

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Speaker 4: me racist and whatever else they want to carry on about.

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Speaker 4: At the end of the day, I'm standing here because

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Speaker 4: I'm the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. Because everyday

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Speaker 4: Territorians put me here, Katie, and they gave me important

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Speaker 4: job to do, and I'm telling you now we're doing

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Speaker 4: that job. So the noisy people and the apologists and

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Speaker 4: the activists they can pack up their placards and go home.

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Speaker 4: We're not listening to you. We're listening to people who

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Speaker 4: want to be safe. We're listening to our police and

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Speaker 4: we see a better future for the territory. And if

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Speaker 4: your evidence approached worked, we wouldn't be talking about this

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Speaker 4: right now, because I tell you what, For a decade

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Speaker 4: I sat in Parliament and listened to Labor bang on

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Speaker 4: about evidence based approach and where has it got us

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Speaker 4: in the worst possible position that we've ever been in before,

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Speaker 4: so you can take that as well with your black heart.

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Speaker 3: And find somewhere else.

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Speaker 1: I mean in the situation though with the land councils.

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Speaker 1: You've literally got the Northern territories for Aboriginal land councils

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Speaker 1: joining forces last week accusing the government of overt racism,

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Speaker 1: and I mean the numbers in terms of incarceration really

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Speaker 1: do raise questions in terms of, you know, the level

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Speaker 1: of Indigenous incarceration that we have got, like how how

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Speaker 1: do you deal with this? And how do you you know, look,

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you actually need those

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Speaker 1: land councils on board as well to try and not

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Speaker 1: only create opportunities for people in community, but to try

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Speaker 1: to sort the issues out with crime.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you do.

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Speaker 4: And so if they spend their time doing what a

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Speaker 4: land counsel's job is and less worrying less about my job,

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Speaker 4: and everyone just went and did their actual job, the

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Speaker 4: territory might be moving forward.

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Speaker 2: So how do you think they're not try?

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Speaker 4: I think there are more people commentating than putting their

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Speaker 4: shoulder to the wheel. And if everyone just put their

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Speaker 4: shoulder to the will, we might move forward. So you know,

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Speaker 4: it's very very cheap politics to go to race. It's

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Speaker 4: the lowest form of political exchange, so I'm not interested

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Speaker 4: in it, Katie. At the end of the day, the

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Speaker 4: law is colorblind. It doesn't know what religion you are,

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Speaker 4: it doesn't know you know anything about you. It's applied

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Speaker 4: equally and it's about doing the right thing.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 4: Yes, our Aboriginal incarceration rates are huge, it's appalling. But

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Speaker 4: does that mean if an Aboriginal person doesn't breaks the

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Speaker 4: law that we don't arrest them. Does it mean we

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Speaker 4: don't send an Aboriginal person to prison because they're Aborridginal.

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Speaker 3: That's just not how law.

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Speaker 1: I mean, are you concerns about Are you concerned though

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Speaker 1: about the claims from the Northern Land Council seat or chair,

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Speaker 1: For example, Matthew Ryan telling the media that we have

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Speaker 1: high numbers of incarceration, no opportunities of economic development and

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Speaker 1: that it's a failure of the government. He said, we've

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Speaker 1: had enough and we want to be heard.

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Speaker 4: Well, the land councilors are really responsible for economic development.

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Speaker 4: I mean, it's most Territorians can't believe that if you're

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Speaker 4: a traditional owner, you can't even own your home, you

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Speaker 4: can't even own your block. You can't open a bakery

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Speaker 4: on a community. You can't do anything because of the

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Speaker 4: way that all of the land issues are structured. So

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Speaker 4: I encourage the land councils. We want to work with them,

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Speaker 4: and I've met with the land councils a couple of times,

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Speaker 4: and we're very focused on that economic development component. We

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Speaker 4: want them doing the approvals processes fastest so that Aboriginal

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Speaker 4: people can have jobs on country, they can run businesses

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Speaker 4: on country.

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Speaker 3: Opportunity is endless.

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Speaker 4: But if we sit here talking about opportunity, we'll all

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Speaker 4: be dead and nothing will have happened.

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Speaker 2: So do you think the land councils are holding things up.

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Speaker 4: Well, they have a very important role to play. Again,

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Speaker 4: it's easy to throw stones at someone else. It's not

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Speaker 4: easy to do your actual job. And if they go

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Speaker 4: do theirs and I do mine and everyone else does theirs,

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Speaker 4: the territory will move forward.

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Speaker 3: But these are long standing issues. I mean, we've been

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Speaker 3: in government for eleven months.

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Speaker 4: Labour's solution to Aboriginal high rates of Aboriginal incarceration was

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Speaker 4: just to weaken the laws so that less people went

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Speaker 4: to prison.

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Speaker 3: But crime is out of control.

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Speaker 4: We must have a safe community first.

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister, do you think the changes that you are

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Speaker 1: making when it comes to crime are racist?

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Speaker 4: No, it's just not possible to happen. You make a

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Speaker 4: law and it applies to everyone. And I said this

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Speaker 4: till I'm blue in the face, Katie, and absolutely I

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Speaker 4: can't believe it. As Chief Minister, I have to say this.

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Speaker 4: But if you do the right thing, you're all good.

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Speaker 4: We're not running around throwing people in patty wagons and

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Speaker 4: arresting people and sending it a prison for you know,

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Speaker 4: just going about their everyday life.

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Speaker 1: One of the other claims that the Land Council's made

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Speaker 1: at that press conference last week was well, they called

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Speaker 1: for the federal government to ordit the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 1: spending on our boriginal affairs, claiming the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 1: was profiting from the disadvantage of impoverished communities. Would you

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Speaker 1: welcome and order or do you already have to ordit

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Speaker 1: the books exactly?

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Speaker 4: I mean this again is hilarious because I'm pretty sure

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Speaker 4: it was Senator Price who was saying that the Land

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Speaker 4: Councils needed to be audited and the federal government wouldn't

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Speaker 4: do that. So maybe the federal government can order the

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Speaker 4: land councils. We're certainly going through all of the territory

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Speaker 4: spend and looking at who's got what contracts, what are

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Speaker 4: they meant to be doing, what are the KPIs. We've

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Speaker 4: been trying to get the federal government to do the

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Speaker 4: same thing. So when very happy for this process. There

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Speaker 4: is only so much money we need it to be

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Speaker 4: hitting the ground.

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Speaker 1: It has to be and like this is the thing,

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Speaker 1: you know, we have got a situation where we need

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Speaker 1: opportunities in communities. People need to be able to have

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Speaker 1: job opportunities, to have prospects, to.

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Speaker 2: To you know, to to you know, contribute.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, and there are a number of wonderful locations

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Speaker 1: that actually operate with some great opportunities for Indigenous people.

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Speaker 3: Huge, there's huge opportunity.

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Speaker 4: You think about the Beterloo, you think about the mining opportunities.

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Speaker 4: These are all real jobs on country agricultural opportunities. I mean,

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Speaker 4: the Tiwi Islands are really you know, pro economic development,

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Speaker 4: and their land council and their ts are really keen

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Speaker 4: to see more happening. So again we can talk about

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Speaker 4: opportunity to a blue in the face, but the people

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Speaker 4: who have to do the approvals and get things moving.

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Speaker 3: Need to honor the wishes of the people on the ground.

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Speaker 1: You've finister, just stepping back a moment and going back

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Speaker 1: to the issue of crime, do you feel as though

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Speaker 1: the Land Councils need to do more to support the

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Speaker 1: government in that space.

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Speaker 4: Well, we'll do what we need to do to run

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Speaker 4: the Northern territory. All we want from the Land Councils

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Speaker 4: is to be part of the solution to move the

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Speaker 4: territory forward. So their role isn't necessarily a direct crime role,

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Speaker 4: but obviously they have extremely strong elected Aboriginal leadership across

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Speaker 4: the territory, so their voice is very very powerful. And equally,

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Speaker 4: their opportunity to grow economies in.

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Speaker 3: The Bush is extremely important.

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Speaker 4: So we want to work with them to deliver those

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Speaker 4: outcomes for Aboriginal people on their land and for all

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Speaker 4: people wanting to develop the territory, because we must economically advance,

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Speaker 4: like we absolutely must. It is that at crisis point,

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Speaker 4: and until we do that, you know we're going to

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Speaker 4: keep going backwards.

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Speaker 1: All right. I want to move along because obviously the

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Speaker 1: press conference with the Land Councils was happening last Thursday.

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Speaker 1: Now It was the same day that a man was

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Speaker 1: being sentenced to five and a half years in prison

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Speaker 1: for the sexual assault of a four year.

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Speaker 2: Old girl in Tenant Creek. Now.

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Speaker 1: According to the report by Matt Cunningham from Sky News,

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Speaker 1: the man received a head sentence of eight years with

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Speaker 1: a non parole period of five years and six months

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Speaker 1: self depleting guilty to sexually assaulting the four year old

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Speaker 1: girl in Fbuy last year. Now, I'll take our listeners

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Speaker 1: through some of this detail and I'll want to warn

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Speaker 1: you that it's shocking. The Northern Territory Supreme Court heard

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Speaker 1: the little girl was unsupervised down the street and was

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Speaker 1: approached by the offender. He put his arm around the

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Speaker 1: victim's shoulder and held her hand before leading her into

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Speaker 1: the backyard of a home. The offender heard the girl's

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Speaker 1: aunt calling out for her, but he told her that

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Speaker 1: she was being looked after by another woman inside the house.

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Speaker 1: He then returned to the backyard where he sexually assaulted

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Speaker 1: the girl. Now, the court heard the offender and the

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Speaker 1: four year old girl were alone under the tree for

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Speaker 1: almost five hours between about midnight and five am. He

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Speaker 1: continued to assault her while she was crying and calling

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Speaker 1: out for help. The situation's absolutely horrific. In my opinion,

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Speaker 1: the nation should be horrified. We should all be utterly

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Speaker 1: horrified that this happened to a little girl here in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Were you aware of this situation.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just absolutely horrific, Katie, And it makes you sick,

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Speaker 4: to be honest, it absolutely makes you sick. And this

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Speaker 4: is why we have to continue to do what we're doing.

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Speaker 4: Everyone deserves to live in a safe environment. Our young

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Speaker 4: people deserve to be protected of ove all else. It's

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Speaker 4: why we're doing a lot of work in the children

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Speaker 4: and family space around family responsibility, about changing the way

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Speaker 4: the Child Protection Act works to actually be child focused

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Speaker 4: of what is in the best.

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Speaker 3: Interests of the child. And it's just despicable and disgusting, Katie.

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Speaker 2: It is like there's no other way to put it now.

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Speaker 1: Justice Blockland said that there would be long lasting social

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Speaker 1: and emotional harm to the girl and said that she

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Speaker 1: hoped that she received the support that she needed to

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Speaker 1: overcome her trauma. She said offending of this kind causes

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Speaker 1: great alarm in the community and added it makes members

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Speaker 1: of the community wonder who would possibly offend in this

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Speaker 1: grotesque way, and what kind of person would do this?

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Speaker 1: Like I'm asking myself the same question and wondering how

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Speaker 1: on earth this kind of disgusting offending can be stopped,

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Speaker 1: because let's not forget tenant creeks the same location just

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Speaker 1: a couple of years ago.

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Speaker 2: We're a little two year old.

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Speaker 4: Yeah exactly, and we keep hearing about you know, these

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Speaker 4: things do keep happening, Katie, And at the end of

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Speaker 4: the day, you know, there are some very very unwell

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Speaker 4: people out there, but you know, we have to do

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Speaker 4: everything we can to protect the vulnerable. We have to

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Speaker 4: make sure our community is safe, our police are well resourced,

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Speaker 4: and you know, it's just it's just a very tragic

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Speaker 4: outcome and we certainly want to see that young girl

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Speaker 4: get the full support she needs.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to move along. We're very pressed for time.

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Speaker 1: I want to ask you. We know Parliament is sitting

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Speaker 1: as we just discussed in terms of the youth legislation,

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Speaker 1: but do you know if there's been any update on

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Speaker 1: the situation that the Attorney General, Marie Clear Boothby had told.

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Speaker 2: Us about last week.

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Speaker 1: The courts are going to be extended to sit on

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Speaker 1: Saturdays but she said that some legislation will need to

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Speaker 1: be passed urgently for that to happen. Do you know

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Speaker 1: if that legislation, if that's happening this week or.

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Speaker 2: Is a little further along.

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Speaker 4: Unfortunately we can't have it ready in time, but we're

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Speaker 4: really excited about this piece of reform. Obviously, we've done

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Speaker 4: a lot of work around laws, a lot of work

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Speaker 4: around corrections, and we've done a lot of work around courts,

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Speaker 4: but courts still continues to be a bit of a

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Speaker 4: blockage point for the system, and you need all three

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Speaker 4: working really well. So we've properly funded legal aid, we've

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Speaker 4: got some other things happening. But if we can get

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Speaker 4: longer court hours or weekend courts rolling, that will mean

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Speaker 4: as we can churn through that backlog of remand now

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Speaker 4: that remind we inherited, and so we're actually chipping away

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Speaker 4: at it through our Tiger Task Force, which is designed

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Speaker 4: to go in for early resolution. So we have been

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Speaker 4: really I think we've successfully resolved two hundred matters to

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Speaker 4: take some of that backlog, but there's plenty there and

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Speaker 4: there's no shortage of people committing crime, so obviously we

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Speaker 4: keep adding to the pile but to see that change

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Speaker 4: in our courts will be really good. And if we've

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Speaker 4: got to pass laws, we'll get it happening and it'll

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Speaker 4: be done.

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Speaker 2: Chief Minister. We'll leave it there. Thank you, as always

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Speaker 2: for your time.

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Speaker 3: Thank you everyone. Take care,