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Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio is the president of the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police Association, Nathan Finn.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Finny.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good minning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now, thank you so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Now I know that the Northern Territory Police Association issued

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Speaker 1: a statement a little earlier this morning pretty unhappy with

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Speaker 1: some of the comments that had been made by Minister

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Speaker 1: Naria Kid on the show on Friday. Now, for our

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Speaker 1: listeners out there, if you miss those comments, I will

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Speaker 1: just replay them right now.

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Speaker 2: Take a listen with the.

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Speaker 1: Situation in Malak I mean, if you've got kids that

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Speaker 1: are on the streets then in the early hours of

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Speaker 1: the morning, what would you recommend please locals the police.

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Speaker 4: If you can't get through through one through one, triple four,

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Speaker 4: then you can do an online report.

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Speaker 2: It's through the website. It's very quick. You'll get asked

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Speaker 2: to enter your email address.

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Speaker 4: You'll then get a reference or a promise number and

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Speaker 4: if you share that with your local member in your area.

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Speaker 4: Me in this instance, I can follow it up with

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Speaker 4: the superintendent first thing. And because it's children, I would

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Speaker 4: also go to Minister Warden.

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Speaker 1: So that was to Keis on the show on Friday. Nathan,

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Speaker 1: what was your response to that.

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Speaker 3: Well, basically, Katie, we've had obviously desiding feedback from our

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Speaker 3: members regards to the minister's comments. Our members are beyond

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Speaker 3: exhaust and record levels of crime in the community and

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Speaker 3: lack of support from the government. Unless they're committing crime

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Speaker 3: youth on the street as a child protection issue, it's

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Speaker 3: not the responsibility of the Northern Territory Police.

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Speaker 1: So then, I mean the Chief Ministers sort of doubled

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Speaker 1: down this morning and said that people do need to

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Speaker 1: call one three one triple four, and that then the

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Speaker 1: call taker would be in a situation to determine whether

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Speaker 1: police would.

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Speaker 2: Need to go out or what kind of response was needed.

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Speaker 1: I mean, she spoke about territory housing and also I

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Speaker 1: guess territory families.

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Speaker 2: What did you think of that.

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Speaker 3: It's territory families that's the issue, Katie. We are stretched

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Speaker 3: beyond breaking point of the Northern Territory Police to just

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Speaker 3: have them the government saying ring one three, one triple four.

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Speaker 3: It's just ridiculous. We cannot respond to the things we've

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Speaker 3: got report at the moment, the crime that's being reported,

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Speaker 3: the calls for help from the community. We cannot attend

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Speaker 3: to that at the moment. So to put that extra

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Speaker 3: resource on police, how about territory families have a twenty

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Speaker 3: four hour, seven day and hour response to our people.

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Speaker 1: You're at the point where you're feeling as though, like

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Speaker 1: a member's feeling as though they are the last resort

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Speaker 1: for everything.

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Speaker 3: Definitely, we're the twenty four hour, seven day a week

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Speaker 3: agency that has to respond and pick up the pieces

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Speaker 3: for the Northern Territory Government. We are not there kicking

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Speaker 3: or punching bag. We are doing the best we can

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Speaker 3: with what we've got and we currently haven't got that

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Speaker 3: staffing to do that. So if they want that service

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Speaker 3: to be provided to the community, Territory families, how about

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Speaker 3: you step up to the plate and have that response

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Speaker 3: for you cable view.

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Speaker 1: Well, we did, actually, like we got a few calls

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Speaker 1: from police on Friday. Obviously we're not able to put

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Speaker 1: them to air, they weren't able to voice their opinions,

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Speaker 1: but they were pretty upset, to be honest, by what

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Speaker 1: had been said, and we're feeling as though they're already

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Speaker 1: at the point of exasperation and then to sort of

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Speaker 1: be feeling again as they are the stop gap for

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Speaker 1: another situation.

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Speaker 2: I'm assuming was very frustrating to them.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, definitely. But our members are at their breaking

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Speaker 3: point because of the resourcing issues they have. They're in

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Speaker 3: a position where we cannot keep doing more and more

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Speaker 3: and more with less. It's just a position where it's

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Speaker 3: not sustainable at all now.

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Speaker 1: In a post on social media on the weekend, Mark Turner,

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Speaker 1: the member for Blaine, had said that on the weekend

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Speaker 1: the community watched a red high lux tearing up the

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Speaker 1: middle school in his electorate on the oval there for

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Speaker 1: nearly an hour. In the post, it says I'm advised

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Speaker 1: that Triple zero was called specifically asking for the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory Police, but no one arrived twelve hours on and

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Speaker 1: still no callback to inquire about the situation or to

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Speaker 1: inform if help was en route. They told him that

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Speaker 1: the call handler seemed unfamiliar with Rosebury. He said, I'm

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Speaker 1: unsure if calls are being diverted into state, but what

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Speaker 1: was surprising that an explanation will an explanation was required,

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Speaker 1: and that our community that resources are limited, but we

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Speaker 1: dislike feeling helpless.

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Speaker 3: Definitely, Caddy and obviously the member of Blaine. I did

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Speaker 3: read his post on social media and I do feel

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Speaker 3: for it. The fact is that Palmerston, we had one

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Speaker 3: crew available on evening shift on Saturday night, and that

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Speaker 3: one crew was tied up with an armed defender job

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Speaker 3: until after twenty two hundred hours, so that's from three

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Speaker 3: o'clock through to twenty two hundred hours. I'm advised that

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Speaker 3: they were tied up with that matter and therefore they

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Speaker 3: had to call in the Territory Response CREUP members to

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Speaker 3: actually respond to jobs in the Palmeston area for Saturday

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Speaker 3: evening as.

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Speaker 2: In the TRG.

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Speaker 3: That is correct.

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Speaker 1: The TRG were needing to then be called to just

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Speaker 1: general duty's jobs.

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Speaker 3: That's correct, because we had no other further assistance from

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Speaker 3: any general response members available at that time.

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Speaker 2: Is that pretty unprecedented from your perspective?

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Speaker 3: That is unprecedent. CADI there there to do a job,

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Speaker 3: to do a role. So their initial assessment crew is

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Speaker 3: to roll out to any high risk incidents that obviously

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Speaker 3: occur of that evening and they were taken away from

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Speaker 3: that to do general duty's response jobs because we had

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Speaker 3: no other response canny luck.

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Speaker 1: What is the message from the Police Association today to

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory government because you know, since you've taken

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Speaker 1: on this role, and even when Paul McHugh was still

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Speaker 1: in the role, this is something that's been an ongoing

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Speaker 1: issue for quite some time. But it sort of seems

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Speaker 1: to me that officers are becoming quite exasperated.

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Speaker 3: They are they're at a point where they don't want

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Speaker 3: to come to work, Katie. As much as they want

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Speaker 3: to help the community, they're at a point where they

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Speaker 3: cannot physically do it. Mentally and physically they are struggling

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Speaker 3: every day they go to work, and that's not acceptable.

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Speaker 3: The government has to step up or basically shut up

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Speaker 3: and put up with the resources we've got. The fact

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Speaker 3: is we haven't got them. We cannot respond to these jobs.

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Speaker 3: You can call triple zero fifteen times about the same incident.

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Speaker 3: Doesn't mean we're going to get there any quicker because

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Speaker 3: we haven't got the resource to respond.

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Speaker 1: Now. I understand that there was also an incident in

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Speaker 1: what Air over the weekend.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there was o Katie. I did speak to the

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Speaker 3: officer in charge of what I this morning in relation

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Speaker 3: to it. So roughly Saturday afternoon, there was a they

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Speaker 3: recovered a stylen mode vehicle hit from here and Darne

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Speaker 3: which recovered in what I community. In the early is

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Speaker 3: ours this morning, I believe five o'clock this morning, offenders

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Speaker 3: broke into the compound of the Wadiye police station, potentially

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Speaker 3: smashed the police vehicle to get into the into the

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Speaker 3: stolen vehicle. We had parked in front of it to

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Speaker 3: stop them from moving it because obviously the vehicle had

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Speaker 3: been hot white and didn't have keys to secure the vehicle.

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Speaker 3: They'd done everything they could to secure the vehicle. They

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Speaker 3: smashed the window of the police vehicle, rolled the police

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Speaker 3: vehicle out of the way and then actually stole the

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Speaker 3: motor vehicle again and crashed through the compound fenced in

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Speaker 3: their way far out.

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Speaker 1: So that was in the early hours this morning. So

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Speaker 1: physically rolled the police car.

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Speaker 3: They pushed, the push, the push, the down, push the

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Speaker 3: vehicle out of the way to get access to the

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Speaker 3: style and motor vehicle they had, and then they obviously

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Speaker 3: drove out of the compound providing this is this is

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Speaker 3: a sanctuary for our police members and the police members

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Speaker 3: family Cadie. So they're quite concerned about what's going on

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Speaker 3: out there.

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Speaker 2: Are they feeling worried about.

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Speaker 3: Feeling worried, especially what happens if they get called out

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Speaker 3: to it job Katie and their family's left there and

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Speaker 3: then their compound is breached again and again like it

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Speaker 3: has been. And who's going to protect the family, the members' families.

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Speaker 3: That's where we get to it's just ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: Well, Nathan Finn, it sounds like there are quite a

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Speaker 1: number of issues actually that are pretty frustrating for you

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Speaker 1: guys right now.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, Cardie, and it's just overall frustrating. Obviously we

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Speaker 3: don't get the frustration of the members, but we obviously

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Speaker 3: see it, and they hear it, and they talk to us,

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Speaker 3: and we're obviously they're talking people for them and their concerns,

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Speaker 3: and we're core concerned about our members and our members'

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Speaker 3: safety every day simply because of the lack of resources.

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Speaker 2: Is the Minister for Police doing enough in your opinion.

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Speaker 3: No, I don't believe. So we need to progress this

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Speaker 3: resource allocation review straight away. It's been on the cards

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Speaker 3: for obviously six weeks now, since we first announced it

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Speaker 3: was going to be done this year. We haven't progressed

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Speaker 3: any further. I still haven't seen in terms of reference

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Speaker 3: from the gap even though I've spoken to my numerous

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Speaker 3: occasions relation to that, I still haven't. We still haven't

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Speaker 3: got a resolution of when this is going to take place,

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Speaker 3: who's actually going to do the review for a start,

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Speaker 3: and when it's going to be completed. Well, oh, what

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Speaker 3: I'm saying is that we can't actually wait for this

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Speaker 3: review to be conducted. We need an urgent recall of

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Speaker 3: obviously what's going on in the day and region for

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Speaker 3: our General duty's members because they are struggling. They are struggling,

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Speaker 3: They are in tears every day trying to do the

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Speaker 3: best they possibly can, and then to make a little

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Speaker 3: mistake they get crucified for it.

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Speaker 1: So you've literally got police officers who are contacting you

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Speaker 1: at the moment.

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Speaker 3: In tea and breaking point. At breaking point, Katie. And

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Speaker 3: that's not underestimate the members out there. They are broken,

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Speaker 3: don't know what to do, They're shaking their head, going

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Speaker 3: what else can I do? And we are advocating on

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Speaker 3: their behalf as strong as we can. Every week, I

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Speaker 3: have these conversations with the Commission and his team about

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Speaker 3: the lack of resources, especially for DAAR and General Duties.

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Speaker 3: It's just come to the point where listening to us

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Speaker 3: or not listening to us. Please just give us the

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Speaker 3: credit that this is actually an issue and we're going

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Speaker 3: to try and deal with the issue instead of just

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Speaker 3: saying no, we've got enough to do what we've got.

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Speaker 3: It's not that case.

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Speaker 1: Katie Nathan Finn, the President of the Northern Territory Police Association.

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Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate your time, thank you for coming in.

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Speaker 3: And thank you Katie, and obviously thank you to all

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Speaker 3: the members of the police force out there. We will

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Speaker 3: continue to fight and have your back no matter where

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Speaker 3: we go.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, thanks Finny, We appreciate your time.