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Speaker 1: We also know the Northern Territory has now got the

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Speaker 1: largest judicial compliment in its history at nineteen. Now it

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Speaker 1: follows additional appointments being made in an effort to strengthen

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Speaker 1: the courts to meet the demand created by what the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory government sees is the law changes since they

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Speaker 1: have enacted since they were elected one year ago now.

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Speaker 1: Earlier this week, the government announced the appointment of mister

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Speaker 1: Giles O'Brien Harcher and mister Stephen Ladeck as ongoing judges

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Speaker 1: of the Northern Territory Local Court. Now two acting judges

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Speaker 1: have also been appointed to the Local Court for a

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Speaker 1: six month period to March twenty twenty six, Miss Sally

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Speaker 1: Osland's and Mister Jonathan bore Tooley. Now the Attorney General,

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Speaker 1: Marie Clare Boothby joins me on the line to talk

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Speaker 1: more about the appointments and some of the work being

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Speaker 1: undertaken to really try to get things moving within our

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Speaker 1: court system. Good morning to your Attorney General, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning to Katie and your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now, first off, two appointments are two additional judges appointed

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Speaker 1: for the six month period as well. How busy have

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Speaker 1: the courts been in the last six months.

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Speaker 2: Katie, they have been under extreme pressure, not just in

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Speaker 2: the last six months, so I might add this has

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Speaker 2: been a growing problem for a number of years. You know,

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Speaker 2: that's a space which was severely underinvested in over a

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Speaker 2: very long time under the previous government. And of course

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Speaker 2: when we came to government, we said we would invest

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Speaker 2: in our not only our police, but our courts and

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Speaker 2: correction system as well, and they all go hand in hand.

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Speaker 2: You can't have one working without the other. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: Luck you just said that, we've we put on those

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Speaker 2: additional permanent judges. Now that's ongoing. They will be doing

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Speaker 2: a lot of those cases. And those two particular judges

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Speaker 2: have been in that acting position before, so now they're permanent,

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Speaker 2: and of course putting on another two acting to make

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Speaker 2: sure that we can keep up with that demand because

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Speaker 2: we know that we have to deliver that you know,

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Speaker 2: fastjustice for those victims. We can't have them sitting around waiting,

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Speaker 2: and so you know, this is why we invested the

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Speaker 2: you know, the most we've ever invested in our court

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Speaker 2: system to be as part of that one point five

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Speaker 2: billion dollar package.

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Speaker 1: So Attorney General, I mean, can you quantify it for

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Speaker 1: us in terms of the increase that we've seen over

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Speaker 1: the last six months. Like you've said that it is

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Speaker 1: as a result of the legislative changes that have been

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Speaker 1: made by the Colp government that we're seeing, you know,

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Speaker 1: additional pressure on our court system. What kind of numbers

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Speaker 1: are we talking about, you know, on a weekly basis,

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Speaker 1: a monthly basis, whatever sort of figures you've got, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think I will put it into perspective for you, Katie,

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Speaker 2: with the numbers that I do have. If you look

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Speaker 2: at people who were refused bail over this period that

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Speaker 2: over three thousand, three hundred people were refused bail, that's

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Speaker 2: forty four percent increase compared to the same period last

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Speaker 2: year under labor. So that kind of gives you an

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Speaker 2: indication of how many cases that they're working on over

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Speaker 2: a period of time. It does fluctuate every single day,

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Speaker 2: but we are talking in some cases hundreds of cases

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Speaker 2: which are before the courts each day. So the other

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Speaker 2: big number that is really important to note is time

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Speaker 2: on remand, which actually reflects what's going on in the

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Speaker 2: court system because that's when people are waiting around for

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Speaker 2: their hearing and their sentencing. If they are you know,

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Speaker 2: to be sentenced. That used to sit around one hundred

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Speaker 2: and forty days, it's now sitting at one hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty six point five days, So that time has reduced,

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Speaker 2: which shows that some of the things that we're working

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Speaker 2: on in the court system is starting to work. I mean,

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Speaker 2: the demand is still there, but you've got those number

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Speaker 2: of days which are coming down. And you may remember

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Speaker 2: I've spoken to you about this before, with the number

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Speaker 2: of sentence prisoners now does outnumber the number of remand prisoners,

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Speaker 2: which it used to be the other way around, So

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Speaker 2: there is some movement there. I think there's still more

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Speaker 2: work to be done having and this is the whole

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Speaker 2: point of having those additional judges commence, both the permanent

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Speaker 2: ones and also those two acting because if you've got

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Speaker 2: judges that can hold those those hearings, then of course

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Speaker 2: you know more finalizations we call them can occur. And

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Speaker 2: that number is certainly is keeping up with the demand.

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Speaker 2: Still it is a pressure cooker for sure.

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Speaker 1: Are you still looking at holding at court sitting on Saturdays?

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Speaker 3: Is that something that's still on the agenda.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I continue to work with the courts on that,

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Speaker 2: and of course, working with those judges, we're exploring all

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Speaker 2: sorts of different reforms to improve that efficiency. We've already

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Speaker 2: had some kind of hours extending so that they do

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Speaker 2: sit a little bit longer and that has been helping.

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Speaker 2: And then the other part that really helps is with

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Speaker 2: the defense lawyers such as NAJA. They now have a

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Speaker 2: lawyer which is based you know, at a police watchhouse

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Speaker 2: all weekend, and what that does is allow for the

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Speaker 2: defense lawyer to speak to their clients well ahead of

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Speaker 2: that Monday hearing everything it gets prepared so that it

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Speaker 2: can go through a lot smoother. And so we're watching

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Speaker 2: to see how that unfolds because that means that maybe

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Speaker 2: there's some other expansions we can do over the weekend. Yes,

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Speaker 2: but of course having actual courts set up on the

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Speaker 2: weekend is something that I'm still really keen to explore

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Speaker 2: and an am with various stakeholders. But of course, if

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Speaker 2: we can do it in a way that doesn't take

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Speaker 2: up all the other resources that we need to do that,

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Speaker 2: such as you know, defense lawyers in those watchhouses, and

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Speaker 2: that's that's a good result as well. So we're still

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Speaker 2: doing that work and bringing down those numbers so that

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Speaker 2: the times are shorter and those people can get through

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Speaker 2: the system a lot.

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Speaker 1: Faster, Attorney General, one of the big questions from our

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Speaker 1: listeners yesterday when we spoke about this, and also this

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Speaker 1: morning already, how much are these additional changes or the

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Speaker 1: appointment of the judges, how much is it going to cost.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's what the budget was for back in May

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Speaker 2: when we announced that total of one point five million

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Speaker 2: dollars into police, courts and corrections, and a large percentage

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Speaker 2: of that does go to courts, which does pay for

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Speaker 2: those judges. And it's not just the judges. You need

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Speaker 2: court staff. Of course. The more people that are in

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Speaker 2: front of the courts means that, you know, the correction

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Speaker 2: system has to bring them in for those hearings. So

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of different moving parts around that. And

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Speaker 2: that's exactly why we invested that amount, because we said

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Speaker 2: community safety was a time rarity, and this is what

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Speaker 2: a cost to get offenders off the streets and to

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Speaker 2: make sure that they're dealt with and that we do

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Speaker 2: have that faster justice for victims, which is exactly what

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Speaker 2: the community has been calling for for a very long time.

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Speaker 1: Now, Attorney General, you and I have spoken since the

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Speaker 1: Attorney General's Meeting was held in Sydney. But I do

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Speaker 1: see that there's been some coverage over the last couple

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Speaker 1: of days in relation to the closing the gap targets.

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Speaker 1: Now we know the Indigenous Australians Minister, Senator Melanderie McCarthy

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Speaker 1: has been pretty blunt in her assessment of the territories

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Speaker 1: lack of progress in this space, and will has said

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Speaker 1: that the Northern Territory has got the worst outcomes when

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Speaker 1: it comes to closing the gap. She called out the

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Speaker 1: government's recent tough on crime and youth justice reforms telling

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Speaker 1: the NT News last week. Last week I met with

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Chief Minister. In those discussions, I made

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Speaker 1: very clear the concerns I have in regards to First

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Speaker 1: Nations youths in watchhouses and the reintroduction of spit hoods.

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Speaker 1: Attorney General, I mean, what do you say to those

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Speaker 1: like the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister who feel as though

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Speaker 1: some of the legislative changes the Northern Territory government are

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Speaker 1: making will not seeing an improvement when it comes to

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Speaker 1: closing the gap. In fact, I suppose they would argue

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Speaker 1: the opposite, that we're seeing more Indigenous people incarcerated.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for Katie. The close in the gap measure is

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Speaker 2: incredibly important and this has been on the go for

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Speaker 2: a very life time, including under a federal labor government

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Speaker 2: which Malandari is part of, and of course previous labor governments.

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Speaker 2: And so we know that the way that we reduce

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Speaker 2: Aboriginal incarceration, which is part of that, closing the gap

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Speaker 2: to make sure that less people are committing crimes, and

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Speaker 2: that's the measure of success, and so we will continue

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Speaker 2: to work with them. We've actually got, you know, children,

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Speaker 2: We've got more kids going to school now than we

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Speaker 2: had before. That's part of closing the gap. We've got

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Speaker 2: more families that are involved with different parts of the

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Speaker 2: system that allow them to have more support, which is

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Speaker 2: more than what labor had before. And they are the

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Speaker 2: kinds of things where closing the gap can really make it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, does it worry you though that obviously you

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Speaker 1: guys aren't on the same page as the federal Indigenous

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Speaker 1: Affairs minister who's based here in the Northern Territory, given

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Speaker 1: the fact that we are so heavily reliant on federal funding, Like,

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Speaker 1: does it concern you that we may wind up in

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Speaker 1: a situation where they say will do. You know what,

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Speaker 1: we're not providing funding for X, Y and Z because

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Speaker 1: we feel as though these policy measures or these legislative

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Speaker 1: changes that you've put in place are race based and

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Speaker 1: are seeing you know, the closing the gap targets worsened.

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Speaker 2: I don't think there's any talk about removing of funding.

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Speaker 2: I think what they're highlighting is that they know that

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Speaker 2: the closing the gap targets have been a failure for

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Speaker 2: a very long time, and so that's why we're doing

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Speaker 2: the work. We're doing, you know, to reduce crime, which

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Speaker 2: is part of that closing the gap. We just we

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Speaker 2: absolutely need to make sure that less criminals are out

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Speaker 2: there doing the wrong thing. And that's exactly why we've

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Speaker 2: been targeting the pointy end of things. We've had to

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Speaker 2: clean up those serious offenders who are out in our streets.

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Speaker 2: We can't have them continuing to be out there. But

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Speaker 2: then I go back to that data was talking about

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Speaker 2: that before. Under our Seal Peak government, we've now got

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Speaker 2: more sentenced prisoners than romand prisoners, which was the opposite

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Speaker 2: of the course. We know that previously when you're on

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Speaker 2: remand you can't get those rehabilitation programs. We also know

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Speaker 2: that we have rehabilitation happening in our prison system than

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Speaker 2: we had under labor, So we're not ignoring the closing

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Speaker 2: the gap. We're not further removed from the way in

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Speaker 2: which the federal government addresses is we were working towards it.

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Speaker 2: But we have to address the point the end and

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Speaker 2: at the same time which we're doing, address those reissues

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Speaker 2: of crime back to school.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you also have to deal with the issues of

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Speaker 1: crime that people are absolutely well and truly sick of,

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Speaker 1: you know, And I sort of like, in some ways,

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Speaker 1: I don't know what some want to see. Do they

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Speaker 1: think that people who are committing really violent offenses or

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Speaker 1: involved in sexual assaults should be left out on the street, Like,

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Speaker 1: I just sort of don't understand it. I get the

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Speaker 1: argument that there certainly needs to be rehabilitation programs, there

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Speaker 1: does need to be an addressing of these issues at

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Speaker 1: the root cause, but there also needs to be a

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Speaker 1: think about the safety of everybody within the community where

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Speaker 1: you're talking about, you know what, whether you're talking about

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Speaker 1: Tenant Creek, Catherine Darwin, there is an expectation from the

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Speaker 1: broader community that if somebody is a violent offender, that

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Speaker 1: they're not on the straight exactly.

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Speaker 2: And i'd let me be really clear with everybody, Katie

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Speaker 2: is that our laws apply to everybody equally, and so

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Speaker 2: if race is coming into it, we just don't want

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Speaker 2: to not buying into that. I don't take that on board.

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Speaker 2: I believe that everybody, if you're doing the right thing,

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Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about it. If you're breaking

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Speaker 2: the law and you're a serious or violent offender, then

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Speaker 2: you will be dealt with. You won't be out on

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Speaker 2: our streets doing the same sorts of crimes over and

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Speaker 2: over again. You will be incarcerated. It's not a nice

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Speaker 2: place to be and nobody wants to see incarceration rates

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Speaker 2: go up. But more importantly, we cannot keep continuing to

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Speaker 2: let the levels of crime go on that had been

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Speaker 2: going on in our community.

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Speaker 1: Minister, I am just going to ask you about another

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Speaker 1: issue which you may not have a great deal of

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Speaker 1: detail about, but I think it is absolutely raising. We've

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Speaker 1: had Teewee residents get in contact with us. I know

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Speaker 1: there's also an issue out in what air at the

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Speaker 1: moment around the barge and the barge service to those

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Speaker 1: remote communities now being canceled. It's well, it's been. It's

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Speaker 1: no doubt it. There's a concern for a whole raft

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Speaker 1: of reasons. But isn't all then territory government working with

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Speaker 1: both the Tee Wee residents and also with the residents

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Speaker 1: of what Air to try and sort this issue out

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Speaker 1: with the barge service, because otherwise we're going to wind

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Speaker 1: up with people wanting to leave those remote communities. You're

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Speaker 1: going to wind up in a situation where people cannot

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Speaker 1: have the goods that are required delivered to those communities.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Katie, And yes, my understanding of the

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Speaker 2: circumstances is that they have been working with key stakeholders

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Speaker 2: across you know whatever and Tee Weed because obviously the

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Speaker 2: aim is the achieving that reliable freight service ahead of

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Speaker 2: the wet season, because we absolutely have to make sure

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Speaker 2: that there's security of getting food and supplies out to

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Speaker 2: our communities. Yeah, the government is working with those keepers.

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Speaker 1: Now, before I let you go, there's a few things

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Speaker 1: kicking off. We know that the golf is set to

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Speaker 1: kick off. We also know that the motocross GP of

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Speaker 1: Australia is not too far away either. How are we

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Speaker 1: looking in terms of visitor numbers and ticket numbers for

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Speaker 1: these wonderful events.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I'm glad you asked, because this is the part

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Speaker 2: of my portfolio that is really great for Territorians. But

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Speaker 2: there's a serious side and then there's a fun side. Now, yeah, MXGP.

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Speaker 2: We obviously you know that we got we would delivered

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Speaker 2: this under a previous government and it was a bit

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Speaker 2: of a buffer case with huge blowouts and costs. But

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Speaker 2: we've managed to turn it around. We've managed to get

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Speaker 2: the track almost up and ready, like it'll be ready

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Speaker 2: by the time the writers arrive in the territory. But

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Speaker 2: I guess we're shaping up to have a huge, amazing,

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Speaker 2: fantastic event. You would have seen remember the cricket a

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Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago and how successful that was. We

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Speaker 2: see the motocross Gran Grand Prix in a similar vein

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Speaker 2: because we know our territorians love a bit of a

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Speaker 2: redhead experience and we are expecting about thirty two thousand

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Speaker 2: spectators across the three day events, so that's a huge

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Speaker 2: injection into our economy. We know most of the tickets

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Speaker 2: sold already a large percentage from interstatus, which is fantastic.

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Speaker 2: Our caravan parks and our hotels are all booking out,

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Speaker 2: But I just want to have a word of caution

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Speaker 2: to locals. If you want to go along, make sure

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Speaker 2: you get your ticket because if they sell out, to

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Speaker 2: close the gate because you can't squeeze more than you

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Speaker 2: can into a track like that. Yeah, and we want

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Speaker 2: everyone to have a really good experience. So all those ripheads,

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Speaker 2: did you.

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Speaker 3: Say thirty two thousand people you're expecting to.

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Speaker 2: The three days?

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Speaker 3: Over three days? Thirty two thousand, So idea per day?

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Speaker 3: Any idea? How many tickets we've sold so far?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't say the exact number, but I do

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Speaker 2: know that it's quite a majority. And they there's only

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Speaker 2: a few left ready for the locals. And I know

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Speaker 2: what locals sometimes can be like they like to you

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Speaker 2: know what's happening with we can goage try and buy

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Speaker 2: a ticket, but we don't want that to happen. We

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Speaker 2: want all those people that love the MXGP to make

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Speaker 2: sure they get online book a ticket now in various options. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: with you know, three day passes, one day passes, there's

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Speaker 2: something for everyone. But it is absolutely ramping up. I know.

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Speaker 2: That's all of our tourism and hospitality providers have been

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Speaker 2: working together as well to make sure that they can

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Speaker 2: offer all our visitors a great experience and you know,

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Speaker 2: get the town really humming because it will be a success.

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Speaker 2: And of course we're going to have the same MXGP

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Speaker 2: for another few years as well.

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Speaker 1: Look, I will say, I know that the COLP likes

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Speaker 1: to sort of trash the former labor government on a

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Speaker 1: lot of things, but.

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Speaker 3: It sounds as though, you know, things like the.

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Speaker 1: Cricket, things like the motocross that were in play when

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Speaker 1: they were still in were actually good moves. I mean,

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Speaker 1: do you acknowledge that there was to work, some good

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Speaker 1: work happening.

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Speaker 2: Look, I do, and I think you know, I remember

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Speaker 2: by the announcement of their XGP, and but the thing

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Speaker 2: is that all they did was the announcement. I guess

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Speaker 2: the hard rubber hit the road when we had to

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Speaker 2: sort out a bunch of issues to make sure we

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Speaker 2: could get it a the ground. I mean, imagine if

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Speaker 2: you know, you didn't get off the ground because of

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Speaker 2: those blowouts and not being able to work together across

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Speaker 2: the different parts of the tourism, hospitality, the sports. You know,

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Speaker 2: like they all come together to make this happen, and

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Speaker 2: we've had to really pull everyone together to make sure

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Speaker 2: we could get this off the ground. It was the

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Speaker 2: same with the cricket like things don't happen just because

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Speaker 2: you say it's going to happen. You actually have to

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Speaker 2: do a lot of work to get there, and that's

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Speaker 2: certainly what we've done. We you know, whilst whilst it

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Speaker 2: was really tricky at the time when we had those

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Speaker 2: huge blowouts for the MHGP, we said, no, you know what,

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Speaker 2: let's turn this around. Let's make this amazing for territorians

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Speaker 2: and grab visitors. We know they love their rev ed

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Speaker 2: sports and yeah, that's exactly what we're going to deliver.

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Speaker 3: Well, they've got to get out there and get those tickets.

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Speaker 1: Attorney General and also Minister for Various Portfolios Marray Claire

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Speaker 1: Bood be good to talk with you this morning. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, and to your listeners, thank you