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Speaker 1: Well, there is certainly a lot to cover off on

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Speaker 1: this morning, a very busy newsday, and we know that

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Speaker 1: the Australian newspaper and other media reporting the sudden cancelations

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Speaker 1: of Bonza Aircraft. Well budget carrier Bonds are announcing a

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Speaker 1: temporary suspension of its services in response to the sudden

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Speaker 1: cancelation of flights across the network. Travelers at airports on

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Speaker 1: the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, Melbourne Avalon all this

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Speaker 1: morning learning that their flights with the low cost airline

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Speaker 1: had been axed without notice. Now, obviously the CEO sort

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Speaker 1: of playing things down to some degree, apologizing to customers

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Speaker 1: saying that they're working as quickly as possible to determine

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Speaker 1: a way forward. But there is reports that some of

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Speaker 1: those planes have actually been seized. So what exactly does

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Speaker 1: this mean for the Northern Territory in terms of those flights.

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Speaker 1: And everybody was really very happy we were going to

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Speaker 1: see budget flights in and out of the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us in the studio as she does about

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Speaker 1: this time most tuesdays, it is the opposition and later

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Speaker 1: Leah finochi are O, Good morning, Lea, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie, are you wonderful listeners LEA.

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Speaker 1: First off, this you know, this situation with Bonza. I'm

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Speaker 1: guessing it's going to be pretty disappointing to a lot

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Speaker 1: of Territorians. This morning we get charged an absolute arma

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Speaker 1: leak to fly in and out of the NT and

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Speaker 1: we finally had this airline that seemed like it was

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Speaker 1: going to be a budget airline, seemed like it was

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Speaker 1: going to be the great thing for us. Now looks

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Speaker 1: like they're grounded for now at least.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's certainly going to be disappointing for a lot

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Speaker 3: of people, and it's going to give people an even

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Speaker 3: greater loss of hope that they have for the future.

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Speaker 3: You know, we hear constantly from Territorians about how the

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Speaker 3: lack of flights and then the price of flights is

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Speaker 3: really making it difficult for them to live here. People

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Speaker 3: want to return overseas to visit family or go into state.

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Speaker 3: I hear stories all the time, Katie of people going Darwin, Sydney, Sidney,

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Speaker 3: Bali Bali onwards.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's just ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: And so this is another blow and I think a

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Speaker 3: big question certainly we'll be asking in estimate. It's in

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Speaker 3: a month's time is around what sort of money the

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Speaker 3: territory has put into this, because of course we had

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Speaker 3: the airline attraction scheme and the government's seem very cagey

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Speaker 3: about how it works, and so we'll be getting to

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Speaker 3: the bottom of how it works and how much they've spent.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that a lot of people are going

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Speaker 1: to want to know the answer to that, exactly how

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Speaker 1: much money we have invested in trying to get bonds

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Speaker 1: here and fair enough, you've got to take those risks,

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Speaker 1: I guess at different times, but when you look at it,

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Speaker 1: they really haven't been operating for.

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Speaker 3: Very long at all now, Yeah, and you know what

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Speaker 3: due diligence was done, how his bonds are selected, what

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Speaker 3: kind of work was done in the background to provide

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Speaker 3: that certainty to territorians. I think there's nothing worse than

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Speaker 3: raising people's hopes and then failing on those expectations, particularly

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Speaker 3: at a time where things are very very tough. Cost

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Speaker 3: of living is obviously much higher here than elsewhere, and there's.

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Speaker 2: A lot of pressure.

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Speaker 3: People are feeling the pinch in a lot of ways,

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Speaker 3: and so this is just another blow. And we saw

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Speaker 3: the population data come out where we're losing over three

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Speaker 3: thousand people a year, and this is just another one

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Speaker 3: of those factors that contribute to people packing up and leaving.

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Speaker 1: Now, Liah, before I talk about population, we know the

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi Well arrived in Alice Springs yesterday.

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Speaker 1: I'm told not a huge amount of questions from journalists

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Speaker 1: when he did arrive and at that pressa. But the

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Speaker 1: visit does follow several high profile incidents in recent months,

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Speaker 1: including a riot through the CBD which triggered a three

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Speaker 1: week youth curfew. What do you make of the Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister's visit.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think you know he's just coming here to

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Speaker 3: save face. He was flew into Alice Springs over a

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Speaker 3: year ago to tell Natasha Farles and Labor how to

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Speaker 3: do their job as the end of Stronger Futures caused

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Speaker 3: carnage and chaos right across the territory, and promised two

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Speaker 3: hundred and fifty million dollars of which I didn't even

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Speaker 3: think half has been spent. So if he's coming to

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Speaker 3: Alice Springs with another checkbook that isn't going to pay out.

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Speaker 2: At the bank, he may as well go somewhere else.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's just ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: Federal Attorney General Mark drey First released a statement saying

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Speaker 1: the Commonwealth was providing fourteen point two two million dollars

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Speaker 1: in funding to deliver policing and other community safety support

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Speaker 1: in Alice Springs. But look, is this new money or

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Speaker 1: is that a re announcement from your perspective.

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Speaker 3: Well, who knows. It doesn't even matter if it is

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Speaker 3: new money or a re announcement. They haven't delivered on

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Speaker 3: the money that they promised that was going to be

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Speaker 3: immediate in January last year.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if Labour have ever looked up the

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Speaker 3: definition of a media, but it's not over a year

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Speaker 3: and so people in Alice Springs who were desperately looking

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Speaker 3: for that two point fifty to create more police, more

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Speaker 3: licensing inspectors, and a range of other measures to drive

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Speaker 3: down drive down crime have been left just sort of

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Speaker 3: shaking their heads, thinking, why is this guy doing this

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Speaker 3: to us again, raising false expectations and totally failing to deliver.

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Speaker 1: Marian Scrimjaw had said just a couple of weeks ago

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Speaker 1: that she was going to be writing to Mark Dreyfus,

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Speaker 1: the Federal Attorney General, about the possibility of really ensuring

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Speaker 1: that any federal money that is then invested into different programs,

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Speaker 1: into different you know, different community groups or organizations. Probably

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Speaker 1: a better word that they would obviously be forced to

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Speaker 1: disclose how that money was being spent and that there'd

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Speaker 1: be greater transparency in order. So I think was the word.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you've gone to step further at different times

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Speaker 1: and said that realistically it needs to go further than that.

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Speaker 1: We need to know exactly how this money is being spent,

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Speaker 1: and there needs to be KPIs.

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Speaker 3: There does need to be KPIs and you know Josh

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Speaker 3: Burgo and Bill Yan Steve Edgington wrote to the Prime

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Speaker 3: Minister again a year ago now saying there needs to

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Speaker 3: be an ordit into this money coming into the territory.

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Speaker 3: What are the KPIs on expended showing what outcomes do

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Speaker 3: we want At the end of the day, if we're

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Speaker 3: going to spend tax payers money, there has to be

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Speaker 3: an outcome that the government is trying to achieve. If

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Speaker 3: that is to drive down crime and better support youths

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Speaker 3: and families not to enter a life of crime, then

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Speaker 3: we need to measure that. Now, all you have to

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Speaker 3: do is look at the crime stats to see that

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Speaker 3: that's not.

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Speaker 2: What's playing out.

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Speaker 3: Crime's going up, not doubt, which tells you there's something

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Speaker 3: broken in the system.

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Speaker 1: Much i'd like to see from the Prime Minister today

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Speaker 1: while he's in it, We.

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Speaker 3: Would just like to see him deliver on his last

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Speaker 3: lot of promises from over a year ago. There's no

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Speaker 3: certainty around the remaining one hundred million dollars and there's

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Speaker 3: no certainty on how the one hundred and fifty is

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Speaker 3: going to be spent, so he just needs to actually

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Speaker 3: deliver on what he said he would do over a

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Speaker 3: year ago.

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Speaker 1: Look, the ABC is this morning reporting the ABC News

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Speaker 1: Online that fifty million dollars has gone to community and

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Speaker 1: regional infrastructure. Thirty million for remote training hubs to help

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Speaker 1: First Nations people access on a country vocational education and training,

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Speaker 1: thirty million to support place based initiatives in regional and

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Speaker 1: remote Central Australia targeted at strengthening family and community safety.

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Speaker 1: Forty mili for on country learning, twenty three point five

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Speaker 1: for improving First Nations health outcomes, ten million dollars for

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Speaker 1: Justice reinvestment three point nine for youth services three point

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Speaker 1: six to establish up to five junior Ranger sites. Seven

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Speaker 1: point five to help deliver the plan itself.

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Speaker 2: It sounds robbery to me, Katie.

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Speaker 3: I mean, is this money they want to spend and

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Speaker 3: they're hoping to spend, or is this money they have spent.

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Speaker 3: It can't be money they have spent because we know

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Speaker 3: in last year's federal budget they only put up the

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Speaker 3: one fifty.

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Speaker 2: They didn't put up the whole two fifty.

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Speaker 1: So it's been allocated so far. The federal government's saying,

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Speaker 1: so that money has been allocated. I mean, either way,

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Speaker 1: do you think like there does need to obviously be

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Speaker 1: money invested into things like different change behavior problems to.

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Speaker 2: Spend the money we just want them to spend the money.

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Speaker 1: Can more of that money, you know, given the fact

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Speaker 1: that we've we've surged police into other springs and we

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Speaker 1: know that that does have an impact around the rest

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Speaker 1: of the Northern territory, does more of that money actually

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Speaker 1: need to be spent on making sure we've got enough

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Speaker 1: policy it should be.

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Speaker 3: I mean, if you've got two hundred and fifty million

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Speaker 3: dollars to tackle crime, there's elements of it that need

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Speaker 3: to go into crime prevention, which includes working with families

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Speaker 3: and young people, But a lot of it needs to

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Speaker 3: go into policing and all of those pointy end issues

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Speaker 3: into our court systems for example. So again there's a

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Speaker 3: whole one hundred million dollars that hasn't been budgeted for

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Speaker 3: by the federal government. So they are very desperate to

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Speaker 3: paint a picture of money flying out the door, left,

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Speaker 3: right and center. But the reality on the ground is

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Speaker 3: on whether or not there's been delivery, whether or not

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Speaker 3: there's better outcomes. No one is going to tell you

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Speaker 3: that there's better outcomes, and we clearly haven't seen delivery

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Speaker 3: because otherwise that two hundred and fifty would have been

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Speaker 3: budgeted for last year.

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Speaker 1: Let's move along the issue of crime. We know it's massive.

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Speaker 1: It's massive right across the Northern Territory and has been

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Speaker 1: for a long time. Now. The owner of popular ice

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Speaker 1: cream shop John Johns in the city has again been

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Speaker 1: forced to close doors due to safety concerns. Now he's

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Speaker 1: taken to social media to say, due to multiple incidents

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Speaker 1: involving anti social behavior and crime, we've decided to once

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Speaker 1: again stay closed to ensure the safety of our staff.

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Speaker 1: We are again putting further measures in place to protect

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Speaker 1: our staff and customers. We're unsure how long this process

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Speaker 1: is going to take, but safety is paramount. Unfortunately, crime

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Speaker 1: in Darwin has risen to a level where the owner

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Speaker 1: of John John's fears for his staff, his customers, and

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Speaker 1: his own safety. Now I actually feel pretty sad to

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Speaker 1: think that someone an awesome business owner is an awesome

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Speaker 1: young bloke, you know, and a location which my family

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Speaker 1: loves to go to, that they're in this situation. Lea,

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Speaker 1: what do you think needs to happen right now in

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Speaker 1: the city so that businesses can operate?

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Speaker 2: Well, I keep coming back to it.

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Speaker 3: I must sound like a broken record, but we have

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Speaker 3: to strengthen the laws and we have to give police

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Speaker 3: greater powers.

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Speaker 2: There's no ways around us.

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Speaker 3: So you can talk about all this fluffy stuff that

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Speaker 3: labor want to talk about, and intervention programs and all

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Speaker 3: of these things. Everything has its place. But at the

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Speaker 3: end of the day, if the police don't have the

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Speaker 3: powers to deal with these issues, and the laws are

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Speaker 3: two weeks so they're getting spat back out of court

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Speaker 3: faster than the cops could get them in there, it's

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Speaker 3: broken and so we have to go into parliament. We

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Speaker 3: have to give police back the two kilometer law, better

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Speaker 3: enforcement of public drinking. We have to make sure they

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Speaker 3: can deal with youth offenders, that we fix bail because

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Speaker 3: bail is absolutely broken and there's no quick way. Sorry,

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Speaker 3: there's a quick way to deal with literally do it

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Speaker 3: in Parliament in two weeks.

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Speaker 2: But there's no other way around that.

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Speaker 3: So anyone who wants to tell you there's all these

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Speaker 3: other solutions, you can't escape the fact that you need

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Speaker 3: more police powers and stronger laws.

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Speaker 1: Are you going to hit out to go and see John.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I actually spoke to John on Saturday, Katie. He

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Speaker 3: rang me in despair and it's heartbreaking. I mean, we're

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Speaker 3: talking about an ice cream shop in the middle of

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Speaker 3: our city. You name me one ice cream shop in

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Speaker 3: this country that has had to close down, not once,

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Speaker 3: not twice over threats of safety to their staff and

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Speaker 3: their patrons. I mean, this is it's a little scene.

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Speaker 3: It's so scene. This is next level stuff. We're about

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Speaker 3: to go into tourism season. That's a prime location. People

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Speaker 3: should feel safe. It's about our lifestyle as well. Again,

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Speaker 3: going back to those figures of people leaving When you

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Speaker 3: can't even come into town for an ice cream with

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Speaker 3: the kids, you know you've got problems well, look, we

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Speaker 3: are going to catch up with John this morning at

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Speaker 3: about ten forty five and find out a bit more

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Speaker 3: about the incidents that have led to this closure on

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Speaker 3: this occasion.

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Speaker 1: But Lea, I do want to ask you. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it looks like the lines are being drawn it comes

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Speaker 1: to education. Ahead of the election, you vowed or the

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Speaker 1: opposition vowing to find or income manage parents who let

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Speaker 1: their children skip school if you are elected, claiming that

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Speaker 1: it's going to help to tackle youth crime. Meanwhile, we

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Speaker 1: know the federal and territory labor governments, well they're committing

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Speaker 1: one point three four billion dollars to education in the budget.

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Speaker 1: They say it's going to bring public schools up to

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Speaker 1: full funding standards for the first time. Now, just on

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Speaker 1: the income management or finding parents if their children do

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Speaker 1: skip school, just talk me through on a practical level,

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Speaker 1: how that's going to happen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, great question.

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Speaker 3: So it is I want people to understand because this

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Speaker 3: is important and labor again and trying to mighty the

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Speaker 3: waters here. It is currently the law that if your

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Speaker 3: child is over six years old, you have to send

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Speaker 3: them to school. Now, there are always reasons, reasonable reasons,

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Speaker 3: while why a child can't go to school, they're sick,

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Speaker 3: you might be taking a day extra of here and

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Speaker 3: there to go on our holiday, whatever it might be.

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Speaker 3: There are reasons, there are practical reasons, but the law

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Speaker 3: is that if you don't send your child to school,

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Speaker 3: you should be case managed. So if it's I'm talking

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Speaker 3: about persistent non attendance. For example, in the Barkley we

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Speaker 3: have an attendance rate of forty six percent. Forty six percent,

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Speaker 3: So this is not about the child who misses three

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Speaker 3: days of school a year. This is about kids who

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Speaker 3: aren't even going to school for half the year, Katie,

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Speaker 3: So they should be case managed. To work out with

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Speaker 3: the family why they're not going to school, what the

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Speaker 3: roadblocks are, and how we can address that, and then

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Speaker 3: that progresses. You can find families, you can prosecute families.

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Speaker 3: But also we're more interested in income managing, so there

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Speaker 3: are referral pathways to the Commonwealth to support people to

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Speaker 3: make sure they're spending money on food, on clothing, on

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Speaker 3: shelter for their children rather on other things. And this

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Speaker 3: is about getting kids to school. We cannot an education

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Speaker 3: is the key to the future. We cannot have a

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Speaker 3: strong economy, a strong society. If kids are attending school

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Speaker 3: less than fifty percent of the time.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any idea of just how many kids

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Speaker 1: are chronically not attending schoo Oh, it's.

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Speaker 3: One hundreds, if not thousands. I don't have that daughter

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Speaker 3: in front of me, but it is. It is absolutely available,

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Speaker 3: and it's terrible. You can't get good literacy and numeracy

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Speaker 3: outcomes if you're attending school half the time, or even

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Speaker 3: less than half the time, Katie.

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Speaker 2: And so that's our focus. We've got to get kids

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Speaker 2: in school.

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Speaker 3: You know, there are a lot of families out there

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Speaker 3: who just don't send their kids to school at all

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Speaker 3: because they see no value in it. Now, our view

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Speaker 3: is that no parent has a right to deprive their

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Speaker 3: child of a future. Now, if you persistently keep your

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Speaker 3: child at home for most of the year, that is

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Speaker 3: depriving their right and access to education.

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Speaker 1: Look, I guess I'm just trying to wrap my head

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Speaker 1: around it because at the moment, and I think it

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Speaker 1: sounds like a good idea. It sounds like a good

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Speaker 1: idea if a parent isn't being responsible enough to get

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Speaker 1: their kids to school, it sounds like the right thing

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Speaker 1: to do so that every kid gets the opportunity for

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Speaker 1: an education. But would you need the federal government support

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Speaker 1: for income management, then.

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Speaker 2: Yes you do. So there's two pathways.

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Speaker 3: One is under the Education Act, which means we can

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Speaker 3: do case management family Responsibility agreement, so you're actually supposed

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Speaker 3: to the government is just ignoring the law. You are

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Speaker 3: meant to be entering into family responsibility agreements, which are

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Speaker 3: effectively a contract between the family and the government to

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Speaker 3: say this is the plan going forward. And we've only

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Speaker 3: seen this government do twenty four of those across the

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Speaker 3: entire child protection and education space, so they're not enforcing it.

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Speaker 3: Then there's income management, which is a referral passway through

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Speaker 3: the Commonwealth, so there are a number of leavers we

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Speaker 3: can pull, including having truancy officers. So this for us

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Speaker 3: is really a three pronged approach at trying out our

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Speaker 3: hardest to make sure kids are in classrooms, in front

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Speaker 3: of teachers, having access to education.

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Speaker 1: So play Devil's advocate here, though, do you run the

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Speaker 1: risk of pushing kids that are already potentially in vulnerable

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Speaker 1: situations into even worse situations by their families seeing not

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Speaker 1: receiving that you know, not receiving their income and not

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Speaker 1: receiving that money. I mean, do you potentially sort of

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Speaker 1: put them in a worse situation than what they're already in.

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Speaker 3: It's a good question, and so there's a difference. So

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Speaker 3: income manager is not about cutting income that has been

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Speaker 3: a previous system.

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Speaker 2: This is about income managing.

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Speaker 3: So for example, you know it's a rule on the

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Speaker 3: basics card that you can't buy alcohol or cigarettes, So

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Speaker 3: it's things like that. It's about quarantining money to make

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Speaker 3: sure it's going in the right places not the wrong places.

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Speaker 3: Which is the expectation of taxpayers that people who are

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Speaker 3: supported by the community through their taxpayer dollars into center

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Speaker 3: link response.

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Speaker 1: Though to a labor federal government.

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Speaker 2: Well that's on them.

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Speaker 3: If they're not willing to accept referrals from the Northern

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Speaker 3: Territory government and allow children to not attend school and

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Speaker 3: families and kids to suffer, I mean, that would just

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Speaker 3: be incredible. What we're talking about here is effectively child neglect.

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Speaker 3: If you are not allowing your child access to education.

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Speaker 2: That is neglect.

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Speaker 3: How could they ever grow up and have a job,

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Speaker 3: How can they ever grow up and interact and support

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Speaker 3: themselves to get a rental accommodation to enter into work

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Speaker 3: to fill out basic forms. You just can't do it,

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Speaker 3: and so we have to at all costs be protecting

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Speaker 3: the rights of children to grow up in a safe

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Speaker 3: environment where they have an education and have a future.

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Speaker 1: Just very quickly, what about for those parents that do

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Speaker 1: want their kids to go and go to school and

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Speaker 1: they're refusing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's right.

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Speaker 3: And that's where this can provide a lot of support

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Speaker 3: to families because they're absolutely our families who are pulling

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Speaker 3: their hair out and want help.

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Speaker 2: And this is the crazy thing, Katie.

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Speaker 3: I actually talk to a lot of families who would

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Speaker 3: love to send their kids to a boot camp, to

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Speaker 3: some sort of service or diversion, and they can't because

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Speaker 3: their child's not engaging in the justice system, thank goodness.

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Speaker 3: And yet you have families of kids who are engaging

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Speaker 3: in the justice system who should be going to these

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Speaker 3: programs and are refusing to attend because the government allows

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Speaker 3: them the opportunity to say, oh, no, I'm not doing that.

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Speaker 3: So it's the system is absolutely broken. There's no question.

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Speaker 3: If we win in August, there is a mess of

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Speaker 3: great proportions to fix. But we're very clear in our focus.

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Speaker 3: This is just about basic fundamentals. We want territories to

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Speaker 3: be safe, we want them to have a good job,

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Speaker 3: we want kids to get an education, and we want

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Speaker 3: kids to be raised in healthy, happy environments. That's the

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Speaker 3: basis of everything we do, Katie, everything we believe in,

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Speaker 3: and that's what we would do if we win in August.

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Speaker 1: Well, Leah fan Occiaro, we are going to have to

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Speaker 1: leave it there, and it is getting more and more interesting.

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Speaker 1: I think as we lead into an election, we are

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Speaker 1: now starting to see those different policies and different plans

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Speaker 1: come into play, so territorians will obviously be able to

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Speaker 1: make up their own minds. Leah, good to speak with

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Speaker 1: you as always, appreciate your time, Take care everyone. Thank you,