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Speaker 1: Now we know that yesterday, unfortunately, we learned that Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory police officers have charged an eighteen year old man

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Speaker 1: after he allegedly assaulted five officers during an arrest on Saturday.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to talk us through

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Speaker 1: this situation is the Police Association President Paul McHugh.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Paul, morning Katie. Here, are you going?

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Speaker 2: Not too bad? Paul?

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Speaker 1: What happened with these officers over the course of the weekend.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look sadly another day another assault on several of

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Speaker 3: our officers down there in our Springs. And this was

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Speaker 3: also on the back of another assault on an officer

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Speaker 3: in Catherine where they were spat at as well there

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Speaker 3: on Saturday. So it seems to be quite a regular occurrence,

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Speaker 3: and we talk about a lot. But on Saturday down

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Speaker 3: there in our Springs, an officer just going about their

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Speaker 3: duties at one of the bottle shops there obviously identified

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Speaker 3: this eighteen year old who had an outstanding warrant, had

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Speaker 3: breached Supreme Court bail after being released on a suspended

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Speaker 3: sentence for ironically assaulting police, amongst other matters, and as

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Speaker 3: that officer attempted to apprehend that particular individual. They turned

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Speaker 3: extremely violent, repeatedly punching that officer to the head, striking

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Speaker 3: him with a closed fist, and then I believe it

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Speaker 3: or not, attending to bite one of the officer's ears

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Speaker 3: and spit directly at the members. I mean, it took

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Speaker 3: multiple officers, some off duty to go and try and

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Speaker 3: control this individual, and sadly it didn't even stop there.

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Speaker 3: Once they got this person back to the watchhouse, the

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Speaker 3: attack continued and officers there were spat at with spit

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Speaker 3: hitting them all over their face in one of the

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Speaker 3: eyes of the officers. So horrendous situation and something that's

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Speaker 3: far too common for our people on the front line.

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Speaker 1: It is absolutely outrageous behavior and disgusting stuff.

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Speaker 2: How are those officers?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, we've our representatives down there in Alice Springs

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Speaker 3: a touch base with all of those officers involved. Going okay,

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Speaker 3: several as they do. They carried on and got on

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Speaker 3: with their shift that particular day, believe it or not,

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Speaker 3: but obviously some needed to get treatment and some now

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Speaker 3: have an agonizing weight to determine if they've indeed contracted

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Speaker 3: a communicable disease after that vile, disgusting act from an

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Speaker 3: eighteen year old who clearly has absolutely no respect for

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Speaker 3: police and the work they do.

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you must be getting frustrated by this.

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Speaker 1: How common and how often are we seeing assaults against

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Speaker 1: police officers.

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Speaker 3: It's pretty much every day, Katie. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 3: we've been monitoring the court court listen, and there would

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Speaker 3: barely be a day that goes by without somebody in

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory fronting up to a court for an

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Speaker 3: assault police matter, yet alone assaults on any other frontline workers.

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Speaker 3: So you know, this is far too common occurrence. There's

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Speaker 3: clearly not as strong enough to terrent out there in

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Speaker 3: the community. And you know, you only got to post

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Speaker 3: something up around this on social media. You can see

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Speaker 3: them in the expectation. They are outraged, as are those

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Speaker 3: officers subject to these assaults. That there's simply isn't strong

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Speaker 3: enough to terrance out Therefore, for those who want to

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Speaker 3: attack police and other frontline workers, it's not good enough.

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Speaker 1: Well, we heard yesterday from the paramedics from Saint John's

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Speaker 1: that a paramedic had been spat on over the weekend

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Speaker 1: as well, so we know that it is something that's

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Speaker 1: impacting many of our frontline workers. Last week the Opposition attempted,

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Speaker 1: I believe, to introduce legislation or introduce legislation in this space.

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Speaker 2: Paul, what do you think needs to happen here?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we've obviously lobbied for a long time around the

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Speaker 3: sentencing provisions for people found guilty of assaulting our police

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Speaker 3: and obviously that would flow through to other frontline workers

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Speaker 3: such as our ambulance officers and so forth. So right

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Speaker 3: now there's not a strong enough to terran around sentencing

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Speaker 3: for people who are found guilty of these vicious assaults.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's quite clear from our member feedback and

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Speaker 3: we've surveyed them time and time again on this issue

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Speaker 3: and they tell us it's not strong enough. There's not

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Speaker 3: strong enough to terrence for people who want to assault people.

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Speaker 3: They I mean, we are losing so many frontline workers

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Speaker 3: here in the Nt Katie Police as well as others.

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Speaker 3: We need to be doing everything we can to keep them.

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Speaker 3: If we're not going to stand up and protect them

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Speaker 3: with stronger legislation, the Sealpe did try and introduce some

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Speaker 3: in Parliament to be debated. The Chief Ministers come out,

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Speaker 3: which is pleasingly to hear that he wants to obviously

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Speaker 3: progress discussions in that space. We met with the Minister

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Speaker 3: last Friday and expressed our concerns that a working group

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Speaker 3: established under the current government has simply stalled. We've had

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Speaker 3: one meeting in six months and our members feel it's

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Speaker 3: very tokenistic. There needs to be some real action here

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Speaker 3: and some real reform otherwise we'll lose more even more members.

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Speaker 2: Well, just taught me through this.

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Speaker 1: So the Chief Minister has said that he's open to

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Speaker 1: some changes to this legislation. You then said that you

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Speaker 1: met with the Police Minister on Friday. Essentially you have

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Speaker 1: told the Police Minister that this working group stalled.

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Speaker 2: What needs to happen?

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Speaker 1: Does this working group need to get back underway as well,

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Speaker 1: or what do you reckon needs to happen here?

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Speaker 3: Well, the Minister advises that, you know, she certainly is

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Speaker 3: expecting that working group to progress rather quickly, but you know,

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Speaker 3: I'm sadly I don't have confidence that that's going to happen.

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Speaker 3: You know, we've been hearing that for six months. Nothing's

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Speaker 3: taken place other than one meeting which achieved pretty much nothing.

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Speaker 3: So I mean, let's be fair income here. We need

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Speaker 3: some real action and we need this to be taken

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Speaker 3: seriously because each and every day our members are solded

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Speaker 3: is yet another assault that's getting through the gaps of

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Speaker 3: what community expect around sentencing for these people, and so

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Speaker 3: they're just not feeling supported in this space whatsoever.

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Speaker 1: Paul, do you think that the government is just sort

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Speaker 1: of trying to appease everybody here?

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Speaker 2: I mean, on one side of the fence.

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Speaker 1: You've got you know, you've got these you've got these

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Speaker 1: reports about the spi hoods, and you know, some sectors

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Speaker 1: saying that spi hood should no longer be able to

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Speaker 1: be used, and restraint chairs as well are no longer

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Speaker 1: able to be used.

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Speaker 2: So that's on one side.

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Speaker 1: Then obviously, are the likes of yourself saying that we

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Speaker 1: need to make sure that there are tougher penalties for

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Speaker 1: those who assault police officers, i e. Spit on police officers,

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Speaker 1: which is I'm assuming when a spi hood may be

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Speaker 1: required if they are in the watch house and doing

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Speaker 1: something of that nature. Do you think that the government

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Speaker 1: is trying to appease everybody here and not actually you know,

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Speaker 1: making decisions that are going to you know, going to

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Speaker 1: be the right thing for those on the ground.

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Speaker 3: Look, there's no doubt there's pressures from all sides. There's

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Speaker 3: no doubt there are people completely opposed to some of

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Speaker 3: the processes in place for dealing with people who become violent.

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Speaker 3: But from our perspective, our members have a work health

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Speaker 3: safety requirement, are not to go to work and be assaulted. Remember,

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Speaker 3: they want to go home every shift. They don't want

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Speaker 3: to be spat at. They are the ones generally that

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Speaker 3: will have to deal with people when they first come

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Speaker 3: into the attention of police, who are generally you know

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Speaker 3: that these people are often as we've seen in this

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Speaker 3: instance down in Our Springs, they're violent, they are irrational,

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Speaker 3: they are not following directions of police, and they want

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Speaker 3: to attack them. Now, you know, it is the obligation

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Speaker 3: of the employer, that is the government, to make sure

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Speaker 3: our members are safe and right now, in the absence

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Speaker 3: of any other procedure or process, that is what's being used,

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Speaker 3: and that is what we support until there's a suitable alternative.

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Speaker 1: Paul, if this legislation doesn't change, and if the government

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Speaker 1: doesn't take a strong stance here against these assaults that

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Speaker 1: we're seeing against police officers, what do you think the

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Speaker 1: rammification is going to be well?

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Speaker 3: Police will not put up with being assaulted time and

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Speaker 3: time again. I mean, we are One of the major

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Speaker 3: concerns for us is many of our as we know,

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Speaker 3: many of our new young police who we've had a

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Speaker 3: lot joined in the last two years because we've lost

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Speaker 3: so many. They are the future of the police force

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Speaker 3: here in the territory. They are the future leaders that

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Speaker 3: you want to keep and you want to retain here

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Speaker 3: in the NT and work for many, many years to come.

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Speaker 3: But if they are going to go to work and

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Speaker 3: be assaulted at the rate they are at the moment,

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Speaker 3: which is extremely alarming, they won't hang around. They will

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Speaker 3: move on to other careers and we will lose good people.

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Speaker 3: And that's the last thing we can really afford to

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Speaker 3: do right now.

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Speaker 1: Pull on those rates of police officers leaving. How are

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Speaker 1: we sitting for this year?

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Speaker 3: Look, it's still on target for the previous year, Katie,

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Speaker 3: which was an all time record. We are still tracking

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Speaker 3: to lose well over one hundred plus people this year.

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Speaker 3: We've got huge concerns of course around that attrition rate.

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Speaker 3: We have for a long time. We do know that

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Speaker 3: the government and Commissioner have committed to maintaining recruitment but

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Speaker 3: it is becoming very thin on the ground out there,

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Speaker 3: and we have very competitive conditions of service for police

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Speaker 3: and other jurisdictions which are looking very attractive, and we

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Speaker 3: need to do all we can to make sure we're

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Speaker 3: keeping the ones here.

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Speaker 1: In the end, to Paul, before I let you go,

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Speaker 1: you and I have spoken on numerous occasions over the

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Speaker 1: last couple of weeks following on from the trial of

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Speaker 1: Zach Rolf. We know that there has been further reports

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Speaker 1: throughout last week in the Australian newspaper for the details

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Speaker 1: emerging about what the Police Commissioner knew and when where

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Speaker 1: are things at. Has there been a vote of confidence

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Speaker 1: in the Police Commissioner?

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Speaker 2: Is there going to be?

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Speaker 3: No? Not at this stage. Of course, We've had quite

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Speaker 3: a few members contact us and raise their concerns with us,

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Speaker 3: But right now we know there is an investigation underway.

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Speaker 3: We know there is an Ikach review happening until such

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Speaker 3: time as we provided evidence out of such a review

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Speaker 3: that there has been some wrongdoing. No, there is no

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Speaker 3: vote of no confidence in the Commissioner at this point

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Speaker 3: in time, and we've just got to remember that. And

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Speaker 3: I'm not trying to defend the commissioner here by any stretch.

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Speaker 3: But we've got to make sure that we have some facts,

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Speaker 3: we have some evidence, and if there is, of course,

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Speaker 3: ultimately at the end of all this, of course he

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Speaker 3: will be responsible and he's accountable for that. But right now,

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Speaker 3: of course we have a lot of upset members. But

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Speaker 3: right now we need to focus on making sure you know,

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Speaker 3: we've got enough people to do the job. I can

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Speaker 3: tell you right now morale has affected far more right

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Speaker 3: now with having not enough people to do the job

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Speaker 3: on a day to day basis than it is with

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Speaker 3: anything else. So that should be our focus for the.

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Speaker 2: Time, bab Paul, Before I let you go, how is

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Speaker 2: that morale? Again?

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Speaker 1: I know I've asked you this on numerous occasions over

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Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks, but how are our police

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Speaker 1: force tracking?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it's tough times. Obviously, we're trying to get

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Speaker 3: around to as many stations as we can at the moment,

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Speaker 3: and as I've said on many occasions, you know, the

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Speaker 3: biggest concern we have is is obviously making sure we've

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Speaker 3: got enough numbers to do the job, and that's really

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Speaker 3: what's affecting morale more than anything right now. But we've

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Speaker 3: got some incredibly good people out there doing some great

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Speaker 3: work for this community, and you know, we're certainly behind

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Speaker 3: and one hundred percent and we will continue to do

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Speaker 3: so well.

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Speaker 1: Police Association President Paul Mchew, we always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for speaking with us this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Cotie, thank you,