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Speaker 1: Well, we did just hear from the Acting Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Police Commissioner Michael Murphy. He was on the show a

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Speaker 1: short time ago and really covered off on a lot

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Speaker 1: of different subjects for us, but he did speak about

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Speaker 1: this relocation announcement that was made yesterday twenty thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: to try to get people into the force. Now, joining

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Speaker 1: me in the studio right now to talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about this because this is part of what

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Speaker 1: the association has been calling for for some time. It

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Speaker 1: is Lisa Baylis, who's the acting Northern Territory Police Association President.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Lisa.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Great to have you in the studio. Now, what do

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Speaker 1: you make of that announcement that was made yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Firstly, look, I think it's definitely a step in the

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Speaker 2: right direction. The Northern Church of Police force must remain

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Speaker 2: competitive with other jurisdictions and having a relocation allowance up

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Speaker 2: to twenty thousand dollars, we'll definitely go to work in

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Speaker 2: that space. Recently, Queensland Police they announced the same exactly

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Speaker 2: the same initiative up to twenty thousand dollars relocation, so

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Speaker 2: that's what we're competing against and having it the same

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Speaker 2: is really important, I think for from the normal churchy police.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, it seems to be a step in

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Speaker 1: the right direction, and we want to make sure that

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Speaker 1: we are obviously bolstering those numbers so that we've got

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Speaker 1: the number of police officers that we need on the ground.

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Speaker 1: We also talk to the acting Commissioner about the fact

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Speaker 1: that at any one time within the force there is

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Speaker 1: between two hundred and fifty and three hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: people on long service leave recreational leave. On top of that,

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Speaker 1: there's another hundred that are on long leave, so it

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Speaker 1: could be through injury, mental health, stress, various other reasons.

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Speaker 1: It's a it's a massive number for them to be juggling,

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Speaker 1: isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think again, I've come on the show

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Speaker 2: and I've spoken before that, you know, policing as a

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Speaker 2: twenty four to seven occupation and it's actually quite you know,

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Speaker 2: we see a lot of trauma. We're exposed to a

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Speaker 2: lot of incidents and that does take its toll on members.

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Speaker 2: But that physically demanding job means that you're getting physical

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Speaker 2: with people and as a result, sometimes you do get injured.

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Speaker 2: It's not we have that amount of people on sick leave.

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Speaker 2: The long term sick leave can include people that on

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Speaker 2: workers comp as well, And clearly we always want to

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Speaker 2: see our members get back to work as soon as possible,

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Speaker 2: and I.

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Speaker 1: Thought it seemed like a positive thing that he's actually

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Speaker 1: like that they're getting in contact with those people seeing

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Speaker 1: if there's different things that can be done to try

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Speaker 1: to return them to work.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well absolutely, I think the police that are numbers.

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Speaker 2: We've had a high attrition rate the last couple of years.

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Speaker 2: We would like to see that turn around. I don't

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Speaker 2: know in such a short space of time if that

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Speaker 2: can happen, but anything in the right positive direction to

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Speaker 2: get our members back to work and part of the workforce,

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Speaker 2: because that's actually what it comes down to. The more

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Speaker 2: people who are at work, the better morale is the

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Speaker 2: you know, the more there is to share the workload.

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Speaker 1: And there is there is also some that are maybe

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Speaker 1: off due to disciplinary issues, or there are some people

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Speaker 1: that maybe aren't doing their normal jobs due to some

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Speaker 1: disciplinary issues. Again, you know, he said that they're sort

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Speaker 1: of reviewing the way that they look at that. Think

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Speaker 1: that that is something that the association has been pushing

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Speaker 1: for for a while as well, isn't it some changes?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think a lot of the discipline space it's

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Speaker 2: become quite punitive, and I've said it a few times

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Speaker 2: on the show. You know, draconian is the way the

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Speaker 2: legislation sits, but also the policy that surrounds it. We've

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Speaker 2: been pushing for a more of a performance management approach

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Speaker 2: for a lot of the I suppose the mistakes that

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Speaker 2: police make, but having everything sit in the serious misconduct

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Speaker 2: or misconduct space is not always appropriate and often our

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Speaker 2: members will you know, because the timeframes around discipline it

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Speaker 2: is quite disheartening, and then that contributes to time away

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Speaker 2: from work, and the longer away from the work, the

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Speaker 2: harder it is to get them back into the workplace,

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Speaker 2: and ultimately that doesn't help anyone.

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Speaker 1: Lisa, how are things looking from your perspective when it

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Speaker 1: comes to our police numbers at the moment, And you know,

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Speaker 1: we've spoken a lot over the years about the attrition

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Speaker 1: rate and losing officers to other states and territories.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's unfortunate that within Australia, and I think

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Speaker 2: the world's also finding the same thing for policing. Recruitment

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Speaker 2: with police is actually a really competitive space. There is

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Speaker 2: a small pool of people that usually we draw from

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Speaker 2: and that seems to have shrunk over the last couple

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Speaker 2: of years, and we just don't get the same amount

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Speaker 2: of applicants that we used to. And that's the whole thing.

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Speaker 2: Competing with other jurisdictions. We have to remain competitive, so

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Speaker 2: our wages need.

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Speaker 1: To be high.

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Speaker 2: The work we do is very difficult, but having things

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Speaker 2: like relocation all ounce that's on par with other jurisdictions

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Speaker 2: really important. I think that the wages that police earn,

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Speaker 2: we always have to make sure that they sit at

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Speaker 2: a higher end of the scale. Because the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: is isolated, it is you know, the work we do

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Speaker 2: is difficult. A lot of it's in the remote and

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Speaker 2: regional space. It's really important that I think that the

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Speaker 2: government ensures that they remain competitive for the members.

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Speaker 1: Lisa, from your perspective, I know that you and I

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Speaker 1: spoke sort of a week or so ago as well,

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Speaker 1: But how's the morale in the force at the moment?

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Speaker 1: How are our officers that are out there on the

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Speaker 1: front line working there, how are they feeling at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Look, we are still struggling with our resources and it's

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Speaker 2: good to hear the Commissioner saying, you know, we've got

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Speaker 2: to get got to get them back to work, but

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Speaker 2: ultimately we don't have enough numbers to do. The job

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Speaker 2: that's been asked of us by government is a We

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Speaker 2: have seen a huge increase in our crime statistics. There's

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Speaker 2: no surprise there to anyone who's listening on the radio.

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Speaker 2: We need more police to combat that, and I think

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Speaker 2: really disappointing the budget that just came out by the

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Speaker 2: government they haven't addressed that. We heard the Deputy Commissioner

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Speaker 2: small Page in the Coronial say we needed an additional

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Speaker 2: three hundred police. Of course we would like to see

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Speaker 2: more detail around where that figure came from, but to

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Speaker 2: be honest, that's probably that's the start. We actually need

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Speaker 2: to have more numbers.

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Speaker 1: Now let me ask you very quickly about knife crime.

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Speaker 1: It's something that again we've been talking about a lot.

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Speaker 1: It's now looking as though there is some work underway

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Speaker 1: being across to Queensland to look at how they're doing things,

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Speaker 1: the use of those ones and potentially a pilot program.

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Speaker 1: What do you think of it?

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Speaker 2: Look anything that as long as the legislation supports our members,

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Speaker 2: if we're going to be searching people for weapons. We

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Speaker 2: need to make sure that the right policy, the right

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Speaker 2: legislation framework is in place. We want to protect our

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Speaker 2: members obviously and again the community. If there's an increase

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Speaker 2: in people using weapons, using knives, we have to make

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Speaker 2: sure that it's not just about searching for those people.

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Speaker 2: It's a whole range of things, particularly around bail, around chargers,

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Speaker 2: even in the courts of the convictions that are handed down.

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Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time as always, Lisa, thank

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Speaker 1: you so very much for coming in and no doubt

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Speaker 1: we'll talk to you again very soon.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, Katie,