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Speaker 1: The Northern Territory Police Association says that the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: governments proposed two percent pay rise for police is grossly

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Speaker 1: inadequate to reward our hard working police and combat skyrocketing

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Speaker 1: cost of living pressures. As we know, yesterday the Australian

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Speaker 1: Bureau of Statistics released those figures which did highlight that

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Speaker 1: the rise of the annual inflation rate to seven point

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Speaker 1: three percent. Well and here in Darwin an annual rise

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Speaker 1: of seven percent. They're massive numbers no matter how you

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Speaker 1: look at it. The Northern Territory Police Association President Paul

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Speaker 1: McHugh said that the inflation rate in regional and remote

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Speaker 1: areas of the Northern Territory where a large number of

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Speaker 1: police officers are stationed, would be significantly higher. Paul mceue

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Speaker 1: joins me on the show. Now, good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Paul, morning Katie.

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Speaker 3: How are you very well?

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Speaker 1: Now, Paul, what exactly are police asking for here?

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean, obviously it's an extremely competitive time around

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Speaker 3: the country for policing and what we've seen, you know,

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Speaker 3: right from the beginning of negotiations with government is a

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Speaker 3: wage two which does nothing at all to retain our

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Speaker 3: police that we really need desperately to keep and stop

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Speaker 3: them moving into State, as well as combat the obvious

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Speaker 3: cost of living pressures. You know that everyone's facing, and

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Speaker 3: you know, no more than in the territory here where

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Speaker 3: it's already expensive to live. So, you know, we've been

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Speaker 3: in discussions for a long time with government. It's taking

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Speaker 3: a long time to get nowhere. Our members are frustrated.

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Speaker 3: They have done more than ever before for this government

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Speaker 3: over the last few years and this two percent that

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Speaker 3: they're putting on the table in short terms, A response

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Speaker 3: from one of my members yesterday is a complete and

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Speaker 3: utter insult. So that's how they're feeling about it right now, Paul.

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Speaker 1: I know that I've seen in Queensland also in wa

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Speaker 1: obviously they've come to those pay agreements and have made

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Speaker 1: some pretty decent sort of changes. I guess for police officers,

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Speaker 1: what's happening into state and what do you think could

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Speaker 1: be happening here in the northern territory.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, one of the biggest things happening into State

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Speaker 3: is a really active recruitment drive for experienced police. It

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Speaker 3: is a you know, it's a difficult time to recruit

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Speaker 3: police across the entire country. Have seen some of our

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Speaker 3: biggest states, who are traditionally got people lined up for

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Speaker 3: years waiting to become police, suddenly have shortages. They are

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Speaker 3: now actively targeting the northern territory for our experienced officers.

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Speaker 3: We know the Federal Police for example, have got an

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Speaker 3: active campaign on social media targeting our experienced detectives many

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Speaker 3: of our specialist skills that we've gained up here. And

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Speaker 3: we've now seen of course Queensland, which should really be

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Speaker 3: seen as one of our main competitors given the attractive

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Speaker 3: nature of living in Queensland.

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Speaker 2: They've just put a paydal out which is about to.

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Speaker 3: Go to the vote of their membership over there, which

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Speaker 3: far outstrips anything we've got here and is a real

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Speaker 3: concern about lose more people over the border.

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Speaker 1: Now, can I ask where are things at with these negotiations,

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Speaker 1: because from that statement that you'd sent out yesterday, or

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Speaker 1: that your team had sent out yesterday, it was pretty

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Speaker 1: scathing of the fact that the government have not sat

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Speaker 1: down at the table with you. It said that there's

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Speaker 1: been crickets.

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Speaker 3: Well, well, I mean essentially, I mean this shouldn't be

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Speaker 3: a surprise. These deals, wage deals and negotiations come around

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Speaker 3: regularly for three years. The government had been aware come

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Speaker 3: February of this year, we will be ready, and we were.

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Speaker 3: It has taken an extraordinary amount of time to receive

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Speaker 3: any feedback from the government in relation to what their

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Speaker 3: position is. Weeks and weeks and weeks they announced to

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Speaker 3: two percent, a flip on their wage freeze to two percent, which,

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Speaker 3: of course, based on the latest CPI figures, is a

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Speaker 3: negative wage growth of five percent. We are yet to

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Speaker 3: receive any other correspondence that we can put to our members.

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Speaker 2: Who are without a pay deal and without a.

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Speaker 3: Pay rise since the end of June of this year.

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Speaker 3: So they're very frustrated. They're getting to the end of

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Speaker 3: their tether and if the feedback back's coming into our

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Speaker 3: offices in the to go by, they've just about had enough.

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Speaker 1: What's going to happen, Paul? Are we going to see

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Speaker 1: police officers leave the Northern Territory?

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Speaker 2: We already are.

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Speaker 3: I mean, this is a reality, Katie. We're sitting at

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Speaker 3: high attrition rates as it is. You know, I'm sure

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Speaker 3: the Commissioner would want to be spending you know, his

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Speaker 3: budget more on retaining and developing our members rather than

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Speaker 3: continual recruiting to cover the loss of so many people

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Speaker 3: each and every year, and this pay deal does nothing

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Speaker 3: to want to want to keep people here in the end.

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Speaker 2: Ten There's no doubt about it.

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Speaker 1: Now, Paul. When I read the statement that the Association

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Speaker 1: sent out yesterday on air, I did have some members

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Speaker 1: of the public say, Katie, I get it, police need

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Speaker 1: to be paid well, but most of us are in

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Speaker 1: the same or worse situation in the private sector, Paul.

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Speaker 1: Are police and other public servants being greedy?

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Speaker 2: No, not at all.

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Speaker 3: I mean you want police, you want good police, and

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Speaker 3: you want people to stay here. It is one of

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Speaker 3: the most difficult jobs you can imagine here in the

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory, being.

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Speaker 2: A police officer.

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Speaker 3: They do some of the most incredible work you can imagine.

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Speaker 3: Some of it is the toughest work you could ever imagine,

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Speaker 3: and they live in some of the harshest environments you

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Speaker 3: know that we experience up here in the NT, in

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Speaker 3: all parts of the territory. You know, it's not being greedy.

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Speaker 3: This is being fair and reasonable. And our original offer

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Speaker 3: to government was fair and reasonable. You know it was

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Speaker 3: along the certainly on the back of evidence provided by

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Speaker 3: our membership through surveys so we know exactly what they

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Speaker 3: were after and the government have failed to come to

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Speaker 3: the table. And now we're in a situation, of course

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Speaker 3: where inflation is sky high, it's even going higher, and.

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Speaker 2: We yet to resolve the issue.

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Speaker 3: So absolutely our members deserve it.

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Speaker 1: So Paul, what exactly do officers want at this point?

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Speaker 1: What do they you know, what do they want the

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Speaker 1: Minister for Public Employment to sit down at the table with,

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Speaker 1: What do they want to say.

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Speaker 3: They want to come to What they actually want to

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Speaker 3: see is the commitment from government to negotiate quickly, negotiating

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Speaker 3: good faith and put something to our membership that we

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Speaker 3: are going.

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Speaker 2: To say this is a good deal.

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Speaker 3: This is going to want to make you stay here

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Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory, you know, stop looking into state.

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Speaker 3: We want to retain our people. But right now, our

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Speaker 3: government taking so long to even get to the table,

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Speaker 3: our members are starting to go and I know full

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Speaker 3: well there are many officers with applications for interostate jurisdictions.

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Speaker 3: It's happening every single week that we're losing people of

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Speaker 3: these other forces, and you know, it is a real

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Speaker 3: concern and we just want to see a commitment from

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Speaker 3: government and we're taking that up with the minister this week.

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Speaker 1: Paul. I've got a message that's come through from Kim

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Speaker 1: in Humpty Do and it says, Hi, Katie, can you

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Speaker 1: please ask Paul Mcue if they've sorted the exit interviews

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Speaker 1: out for police. I'm still waiting for mine, as many

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Speaker 1: others are as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Look, I understand they're putting a more formal process sorry

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Speaker 3: in place.

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Speaker 2: You know, we certainly support that.

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Speaker 3: If people have left and they wanted an exit interview

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Speaker 3: and didn't get it, they need to let the department know,

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Speaker 3: they need to let us know and we can follow

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Speaker 3: it up because it's so important to get reasons why

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Speaker 3: people have less and people need to be one hundred

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Speaker 3: percent honest about those reasons.

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Speaker 1: Paul, can I ask where to now? What is going

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Speaker 1: to happen now with this? You know, with the situation

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Speaker 1: on the pay with the police, what we've done.

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Speaker 3: Katie on behalf of our membership has written to the

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Speaker 3: Commissioner of Police earlier this week. We've advised him that

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Speaker 3: were yet to receive an updated offer from government. We've

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Speaker 3: asked for that to be provided within seven days or

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Speaker 3: we'll issue a new A lot of claims on behalf

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Speaker 3: of our members and then we'll continue negotiations from there.

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Speaker 3: But we've written this week to the Commissioner. We'll be

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Speaker 3: speaking to the Ministry as well, and then we'll update

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Speaker 3: our members accordingly.

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Speaker 1: Paul, you know the last time you and I spoke,

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Speaker 1: I know it's sort of said something similar in terms

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Speaker 1: of writing to the minister. You have there been any action.

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Speaker 2: Now?

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Speaker 3: Probably one of the most disappointing aspects to be Frank

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Speaker 3: Kate is the lack of engagement from the Minister for

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Speaker 3: Public Employment. Now it is his responsibility to resolve these

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Speaker 3: issues whilst he has the Office of the Commissioner for

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Speaker 3: Public Employment in negotiations. He is a responsible minister and

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Speaker 3: right now he's got a very very unhappy police force.

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Speaker 3: He's not engaging with us at all. He is handballed,

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Speaker 3: simply handballing it to his Office of Commissioner for Public Employment.

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Speaker 3: Our members expect the ministers to be actively involved in

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Speaker 3: resolving these issues now that it's dragged on so long

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Speaker 3: and there's been no engagement whatsoever, that is probably the

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Speaker 3: most disappointing aspect at this point.

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Speaker 1: And are police feeling disappointed or disrespected because of that feeling?

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Speaker 3: Let down, completely let down. You have a look at

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Speaker 3: what police have done for the government.

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Speaker 2: Over the last few years.

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Speaker 3: Police were expected to be ready to be deployed at

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Speaker 3: the drop of a hat through the COVID pandemic.

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Speaker 2: They did it. They left their.

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Speaker 3: Families, They went to all parts of the territory while

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Speaker 3: everyone else got to go and go and live at

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Speaker 3: home and stay at home and be safe. Aside from,

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Speaker 3: of course, all the other health workers that contributed. And

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Speaker 3: now they're feeling completely let down. They're feeling like the

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Speaker 3: government just don't care.

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Speaker 1: Paul. You know, the last look. In the last few months,

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Speaker 1: there has obviously been that survey that you and I

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Speaker 1: have spoken at length about. Would you say that morale

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Speaker 1: is better or worse since that survey was released?

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Speaker 3: I certainly can't imagine it's improved at this point in time.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we've thankfully got some incredible police officers in

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Speaker 3: this police force, many many new young police officers of

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Speaker 3: course that we see regularly out and about doing a

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Speaker 3: great job. But I can tell you there's no way

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Speaker 3: the morales improved since that survey are given. We're still

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Speaker 3: struggling to fill out. We still haven't resolved this pay issue,

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Speaker 3: and we're still losing so many people, and that is

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Speaker 3: the key fact. We're losing so many people still that

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Speaker 3: we really need to retain, and that's a problem for

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Speaker 3: the community if we're not going to retain those experience members.

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Speaker 1: Well, Police Association President Paul mchu or, I always appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time. Thank you very much for speaking with me

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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Speaker 2: No worries, cheers, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you