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Speaker 1: Now, obviously we just caught up with the Commander of

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Speaker 1: Darwin and Road Policing and spoke more about some of

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Speaker 1: those most recent crime statistics for the Darwin area, and

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Speaker 1: we're just we know that in Alice Springs there's been

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Speaker 1: some issues for quite a long period of time, I

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Speaker 1: think you'd have to say. And this week in Parliament,

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Speaker 1: Robin Lamley, the Independent Member for Aara Luhn, is going

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Speaker 1: to be a moving emotion that a select Committee of

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Speaker 1: Parliament be created to undertake a full inquiry into crime

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Speaker 1: in Alice Springs. Now joining me on the line right

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Speaker 1: now is the Independent Member for Ora lun Robin Lamley.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Robin.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, thanks for having me now.

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Speaker 1: Robin, I've just been going through the crime statistics with

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Speaker 1: Commander Danny Bacon for the Darwin region. But it would

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Speaker 1: be remiss of me not to mention those stats for

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs, which I did read out a bit earlier

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Speaker 1: on the show as well. And I tell you what

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Speaker 1: in Alice, you know we saw commercial break ins up

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Speaker 1: sixty point two three percent, motor vehicle theft up six

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Speaker 1: point six four percent, property damage twenty three point one

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Speaker 1: four percent, house break ins forty six point four three percent.

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Speaker 1: I guess really, you know, it does just demonstrate an

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Speaker 1: issue that you've been speaking about for an awfully long time.

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Speaker 2: Robin. I have Katie, and we've seen these staggering increases

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Speaker 2: in crime month on month, year on year for at

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Speaker 2: least the last two to three years. So nothing's nothing's improved.

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Speaker 2: In fact, I would argue things are declining, and they

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Speaker 2: certainly have been declining over the last three years, and

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Speaker 2: the stats back it up. It's not a perceptual thing,

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Speaker 2: it's not a political thing. The facts, the figures speak

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Speaker 2: to themselves.

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Speaker 1: So Robin, what is the plan from your perspective tomorrow

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Speaker 1: when Parliament resumes.

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Speaker 2: So I'm moving emotion that will come up first thing

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Speaker 2: tomorrow morning. I'm told although the lead of Opposition, the

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Speaker 2: Leader of Government Business might have a different take on it,

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Speaker 2: but I'm moving a motion that a select committee be

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Speaker 2: created to undertake a full inquiry into crime in Central Australia,

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Speaker 2: essentially looking at what is working and what is not

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Speaker 2: working right across the spectrum policing, looking at alcohol, looking

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Speaker 2: at funding that's going all over the place to non

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Speaker 2: government organizations, community participation. I think that this is the

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Speaker 2: only way that we can entice government to really play

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Speaker 2: a more active role in addressing all the problems that

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Speaker 2: we're experiencing down in ala screens in central Australia.

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Speaker 1: So, Robin, for those out there listening this morning who

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Speaker 1: are thinking, what exactly is a select committee of Parliament,

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Speaker 1: what is this going to do? Just explain it for us.

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Speaker 2: So the Northern Charritory Parliament, just like every other parliament

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Speaker 2: in Australia and throughout the Commonwealth, has a committee structure.

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Speaker 2: We have committees made up of members of Parliament that

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Speaker 2: look into certain issues and at the moment we have

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Speaker 2: the standard committees, but there's only one other committee that's

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Speaker 2: actually looking into the performance or the operation of government,

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Speaker 2: and that's the Public Accounts Committee. So it's not unusual.

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Speaker 2: In fact, it's really really common. The Federal Parliament has

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Speaker 2: dozens of these select committees that look into particular issues

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Speaker 2: affecting Australian So at the moment we have no select

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Speaker 2: committees at all inquiring into any issue in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 2: which is highly unusual. Over the last couple of years,

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Speaker 2: the Gunner government have dismantled the committee structure because it

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Speaker 2: puts pressure on them, it provides scrutiny of them. Ironically,

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Speaker 2: they built it up in seventeen and eighteen to nineteen

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Speaker 2: and then they just mantled at all pretty much in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty because they realized that it was putting a

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Speaker 2: microscope over a lot of the problems that they were

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Speaker 2: providing over and not necessarily delivering on. So this Select

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Speaker 2: Committee will be the only Select committee undertaking an inquiry

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Speaker 2: into an issue in the Northern Territory if it gets

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Speaker 2: up tomorrow, Robert.

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Speaker 1: That's probably quite surprising for a lot of people to

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Speaker 1: hear this morning that there are not Select committees looking

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Speaker 1: into anything else. Because crime is you know, is something

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Speaker 1: that obviously we talk about regularly on this show. It's

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Speaker 1: something that concerns a lot of people, but it's really

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Speaker 1: not the only issue that you would think that there

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Speaker 1: is some further sort of digging into.

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Speaker 2: Look, this is a fascinating topic on its own, Katie.

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Speaker 2: The Parliament of the Northern Territory only it's called a

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Speaker 2: unicameral system. There's only one assembly in all other parliaments

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Speaker 2: in Australia parts from Queensland. In the Northern Territory, you

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Speaker 2: have an upper House and a lower House essentially, so

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Speaker 2: we need these committees to provide almost like the role

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Speaker 2: of a Senate or an upper House. And when you

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Speaker 2: look at what's happening in the Parliament at the moment,

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Speaker 2: the fact that there are no Select committees operating, it's

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Speaker 2: really a very very sad indictment of the Gunma government

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Speaker 2: and the state of democracy in the Northern Territory. So

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Speaker 2: tomorrow me suggesting that a Select committee, which isn't an

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Speaker 2: extraordinary thing anywhere else in Australia, be set up to

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Speaker 2: look at crime in Alice Springs or indeed any other

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Speaker 2: topic as you say, should be embraced by the Parliament

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Speaker 2: and all the backbenches like myself and all the Labor

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Speaker 2: backbenches and the COLP backbenches who form these committees should

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Speaker 2: be touring around the territory and looking at these issues.

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Speaker 2: They should be looking at crime in Palmerston, or health

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Speaker 2: services in you or you know, like there's so many

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Speaker 2: things that the Parliament should be doing, but the government

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Speaker 2: doesn't want them to do it because it puts pressure

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Speaker 2: on them and it means that they've got to sharpen

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Speaker 2: their acts.

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Speaker 1: Well, but you know, I reckon this is imperative. Whether

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Speaker 1: you're talking about Alice Springs or whether you're talking about

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Speaker 1: the Top End or any other part of the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's not about sort of pointing blame at anybody.

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Speaker 1: They're being a Select committee looking into this. It's actually

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Speaker 1: also about making sure that all the different organizations that

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Speaker 1: are government funded as well, that they are all working

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Speaker 1: together and as cohesively as possible to make sure that

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Speaker 1: the services that have sort of been identified are being

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Speaker 1: delivered in such a way that we're reducing crime and

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Speaker 1: that we're reducing some of the other issues that then

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Speaker 1: lead to crimes being committed.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Katie, democracy in the Northern Territory is not alive

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Speaker 2: and well. At a very minimum, we should have at

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Speaker 2: least a couple of Select committees operating at any given

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Speaker 2: point in time looking at anything, I mean anything and everything.

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Speaker 2: You know, in the past, the Select Committee that comes

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Speaker 2: to mind, Jeff Collins headed up a Select committee looking at,

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Speaker 2: you know, basically legalizing marijuana in the Northern Territory. You

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Speaker 2: could have a Select committee looking at euthanasia, the future

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Speaker 2: for euthanasia in the Northern Territory. You could do you

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Speaker 2: have them on absolutely anything and everything. If you go

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Speaker 2: on to the House of Representative site for the Federal

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Speaker 2: Parliament of Australia, they've got an extensive list of all

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Speaker 2: the committees that are functioning looking at all sorts of

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Speaker 2: different issues, including regional newspapers, which I recently wrote a

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Speaker 2: submission to look what I'm proposing tomorrow. It will probably

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Speaker 2: be hailed down by the government because they won't want

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Speaker 2: to look into this very sensitive issue of crime in

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Speaker 2: Central Australia in our springs, but indeed they should. They

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Speaker 2: should be open to democracy and allowing people to participate

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Speaker 2: and talk to other members of Parliament, not ministers, and

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Speaker 2: come up with some recommendations that really might make a difference.

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Speaker 2: But I've written to all the members of all my

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Speaker 2: colleagues or the members of Parliament that I work with,

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Speaker 2: the twenty four others. I've asked them to come on

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Speaker 2: board in a bipartisan manner for the people of Central Australia.

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Speaker 2: I just hope that they are able to open their

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Speaker 2: minds and hearts and allow this to happen in the

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Speaker 2: name of democracy and in the name of goodwill and

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Speaker 2: improving things, improving the lives of territory and Robin.

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Speaker 1: What will need to happen? Are you going to need

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Speaker 1: the government to actually support this for this to happen,

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Speaker 1: because otherwise you simply won't have the numbers even if

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Speaker 1: the opposition and the other independence do support you.

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Speaker 2: That's correct. Without the support of government members, this will

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Speaker 2: not get up. And what we've seen multiple times over

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Speaker 2: the last eighteen months two years is the government shut

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Speaker 2: down debate. So I could literally stand up tomorrow and

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Speaker 2: give my speech and one of them could say, okay,

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Speaker 2: well I move the motion and gag the debate, which

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Speaker 2: I fear could be the tactic of the government. They've

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Speaker 2: done it so many times, and I've never seen this

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Speaker 2: happen before. I've been in Parliament for almost twelve years.

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Speaker 2: I have never seen a government gag debate as much

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Speaker 2: as I have. This guner government. The Leader of Government Business,

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Speaker 2: Natasha File, thinks nothing of shutting down a debate on anything,

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Speaker 2: no matter how important it is for groups of Territorians.

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Speaker 2: So I hope they don't do that. I'll ask them

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Speaker 2: publicly on the radio stage and please don't do that.

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Speaker 2: We need to talk about this and we need to

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Speaker 2: consider setting up this very very important parliamentary inquiry and

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Speaker 2: indeed more parliamentary inquiries into the future looking at other

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Speaker 2: things that matter to territorians.

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Speaker 1: Well and Robin, it's going to be a dicey game

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Speaker 1: for them, I think tomorrow because between you asking for

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Speaker 1: this obviously the Opposition calling for an inquiry following on

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Speaker 1: from the court case last week. Also they are calling

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Speaker 1: for greater scrutiny and for more reporting from the Chief

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Speaker 1: Health Officer when it comes to the decisions around COVID.

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Speaker 1: I think that they've got to be really careful here.

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Speaker 1: You cannot shut everything down and you cannot shut down

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Speaker 1: debate inside Parliament House.

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Speaker 2: Well, they have been, Katie. They literally have been doing

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Speaker 2: it consistently every day of Parliament at least since they've

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Speaker 2: come back been returned to government in August twenty twenty.

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Speaker 2: They have gagged and debate time and time again. In fact,

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Speaker 2: it would be interesting to look at them how many

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Speaker 2: times it's happened. I'd say at least a dozen times

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Speaker 2: in the last eighteen months two years. So don't be

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Speaker 2: surprised that they will try to do that, or that

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Speaker 2: they will just do it because they've got the numbers.

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Speaker 2: It's not good and people need to know more clearly

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Speaker 2: what's going on in Parliament because it's very unimpressive and

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Speaker 2: all the allegations of the former Celp government being arrogant,

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Speaker 2: I truly believe that the Gunner government is more arrogant

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Speaker 2: in many ways than the former Felpea government. A big call.

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Speaker 2: But I'm seeing it and I'm feeling it, and it's arrogant.

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Speaker 2: It looks different that it's still arrogant and probably in

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Speaker 2: a bigger dose in some ways.

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Speaker 1: Well, Robin, please let us know how things progress tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: I know that our listeners will be very keen to

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Speaker 1: find out whether this you know, whether they do agree

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Speaker 1: to this select committee. The only thing I do want

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Speaker 1: to ask as well, Robin, is you know if I

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Speaker 1: agreed to it and there was a possibility of it

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Speaker 1: also including some of the crime issues that we've got

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Speaker 1: in other parts of the territory, would you be open

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Speaker 1: to that?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, Katie. What I see this as being I

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Speaker 2: see it as being the start of a chain reaction.

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Speaker 2: A select Committee looks at crime in central Australia, then

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Speaker 2: they move up up the Stuart Highway to Tenant Creek,

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Speaker 2: then Catherine, then Palmerston, then Darwin, then Milan Boy. It

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Speaker 2: should trigger a chain reaction of Select committees looking at

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Speaker 2: crime right across the Northern Territory and I'll be speaking

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Speaker 2: about that point tomorrow. This is just the start of

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Speaker 2: the work that should be done by parliamentary committees in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Well, Robin Lamley, I always appreciate your time. Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much for having a chat with me this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Katie, thank you