2011-02-15
Lord Mayor of Darwin – Authorisation for Information Leak
Mr MILLS to CHIEF MINISTER
The Sunday Territorian carried a report the media were tipped off regarding a police raid on the Lord Mayor’s home by your spin doctors. Yesterday, you admitted your office was the source of the leak. Did you authorise the leak of information regarding the police operation?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is interesting, after the Christmas break, that this is the most important issue the Leader of the Opposition wishes to debate. I am quite happy to debate it. It is interesting that it is the most important issue at the top of his mind.
First and foremost, I absolutely deny, as I did in the media conference yesterday, that police in any way advised me or my office that the Lord Mayor’s office had been raided, or was about to be raided. Any allegation or assertion that somehow police tipped me, or my office, off, I absolutely refute and find offensive. Also, in that article, there was a proposition that somehow I, or this government, instructed police to raid the Lord Mayor’s home. Again, I deny emphatically and categorically that that was the case.
As I said to the media yesterday, what happened was the police conducted a raid after having a search warrant approved, through the courts, on the Lord Mayor’s home in Wagaman early in the evening. A significant number of police officers were involved in that exercise, which went on for some period of time.
In the event any public figure was to have their home searched by police in such a public way that it became the discussion of many people around this town soon afterwards. I remember coming to work on Wednesday morning and receiving phone calls from a number of people regarding the Lord Mayor’s house being raided. You cannot raid a public figure’s home with a significant number of police officers in a small suburban street in a city like Darwin and not have that become the issue of significant discussion. As I said yesterday, if police raided my home, I am sure everyone around Darwin would know about it within the next five minutes.
Of course it was an issue for discussion, and of course my media people were talking to media outlets about something which was going to become public very quickly; however, it was not done in any way that was promoted by police, or in any way that was planned.
It was as a result of significant speculation right across this community about what had happened. Madam Speaker, nothing untoward took place.
Supplementary Question
Lord Mayor of Darwin – Authorisation for Information Leak
Lord Mayor of Darwin – Authorisation for Information Leak
Mr MILLS to CHIEF MINISTER
It is a very straightforward question, Chief Minister: did you authorise any of your staff to leak confidential information regarding the police raid on Graeme Sawyer’s home? Did you authorise?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am absolutely prepared to say I knew nothing about these conversations until it became the subject of discussion on Sunday. I deny that allegation. There was no authorisation from me at all.
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Distinguished Visitor
Mrs Natasha Griggs MP
Mrs Natasha Griggs MP
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of the member for Solomon, Mrs Natasha Griggs. On behalf of honourable members, I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
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Government Priorities for 2011
Government Priorities for 2011
Ms SCRYMGOUR to CHIEF MINISTER
Can you please update the House on the government’s priorities for 2011?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arafura for her question. Like every year, 2011 brings opportunities and challenges. We are facing a potential challenge right now with a cyclone watch being declared over the greater Darwin area.
Territorians have every reason to feel very optimistic about the future of the Territory in 2011. This is a place that is going ahead in leaps and bounds. We will continue to put Territorians and jobs first. Without a job, you cannot enjoy the great Territory lifestyle. Jobs have always been a key priority for my government.
We will continue to build a world-class education system. Those schools in Rosebery are without compare. What we are doing in distance education and virtual classrooms is leading the world. The reality is, if you go to school regularly in the Northern Territory, you will get a great education. The challenge is those kids who do not attend school; they get left behind.
We will continue to transform our health services. We have more specialist clinicians in the Territory than ever before. With the opening of the Alan Walker Cancer Centre last year we continue to expand services in the Territory.
A landmark achievement this year is the opening of the new clinical school at Charles Darwin University with Flinders University. The fact that you will now be able to go from preschool all the way to becoming a doctor, right here in the Northern Territory, is fantastic and a great milestone.
We will forge ahead with our A Working Future strategy in the bush, working with the Australian government to close that gap on Indigenous disadvantage. Those A Working Future towns are being transformed. I was out with the member for Arafura last weekend, seeing new subdivisions going up and schools being built. We are seeing transformation in our remote communities.
We will continue to work to keep our streets and our communities safe and secure. Cracking down on alcohol-related crime is a key priority for the government this year. At the end of the day, if we do not ban problem drinkers we are not going to reduce crime. That is the key difference between us and the opposition. The opposition wants to pour more grog on the crime problem in the Northern Territory.
We will introduce Cash for Containers and banning plastic bags - major environmental initiatives this year. It will be interesting to see whether the opposition supports our Cash for Containers legislation. We know the member for Brennan has been to New Zealand, courtesy of the big business industry council which wants to delay this. It used to be their policy to support Cash for Containers, but they might have dollar signs in their eyes regarding political donations. We will be passing that legislation, and it is a significant environmental outcome for our community.
Lord Mayor of Darwin - Information Leak
Mr MILLS to CHIEF MINISTER
The police view the release of the Lord Mayor’s name to the media in relation to the raid on his home seriously enough to launch a criminal investigation and to access the personal phone records of an NT News reporter. Can you explain why, when your office is implicated in the release of exactly the same information, it suddenly becomes …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Ms Lawrie: No, there is a difference between the transcripts.
Mr MILLS: Well, that is interesting - very sensitive. Please explain how it is different in your case? Now it is just harmless information warranting no investigation.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, there is a very clear difference of issues here. The first issue is a public police raid on a person in high public profile of course is going to become an issue of intense public speculation. You cannot raid the Lord Mayor’s house in downtown Wagaman without everyone knowing about it and everyone speculating about it.
The Leader of the Opposition likes to get up on his high moral ground and pretends that, in the way media advisors interact with journalists, the opposition does nothing of the sort. The opposition never tries to curry intelligence with journalists, they never spin; they never spin stories and make up issues. They are notorious for it, none more so than the member for Port Darwin.
This was an issue out in the public domain. The issue regarding a recording of a police transcript, a police conversation, a record of interview between a police officer and a suspect, a suspect who had yet to be charged, the fact that the transcript of that record of interview between a police officer and a suspect who had not been charged with anything, was a breach of the law. It was absolutely illegal to release that conversation. In the same way that all of us, as citizens, are protected by the law, so is the Lord Mayor of Darwin.
They are two totally different issues. The fact that police investigated was as a result of a complaint; a complaint that was issued by the Lord Mayor of Darwin who, quite rightly, wanted to know how and why police would have leaked details of a record of interview to the Northern Territory News to end up on the front page of the paper.
The issue regarding the mayor’s house being raided was one of intense public speculation and debate in the same way as if my house was to be raided, or the house of the Deputy Leader or the Leader of the Opposition. It is incredulous to believe that any public figure could have their home raided by police and that would not be an item of intense public discussion.
There was no leak of information from police to my office. A transcript of evidence of a record of interview between a police officer and a suspect of an offence to find its way onto the front page of the paper was an issue where Graeme Sawyer made a complaint to police, police investigated, and police have actually articulated why they took the particular investigative course they did.
Territory Employment Figures
Ms WALKER to TREASURER
Can you please update the House on the latest employment figures for the Territory and what we can expect in the coming years?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nhulunbuy for her question. She understands the importance of jobs and what that ultimately does in terms of a person’s ability to provide for their family. Essentially, if you want a job, come to the Northern Territory. Unemployment is at its lowest ever record level at 2.3%. Compare that to when the CLP was last in government: unemployment was running at 7.4%. We have recorded the lowest unemployment in our nation for 16 months, since October 2009.
When it comes to jobs growth, we are the envy of the nation. Over the past year, when other jurisdictions were losing jobs as a result of the global financial crisis, we saw more than 5000 jobs created in the Territory. To a Labor government, jobs are critically important. They are our number one important economic indicator. We have focused on growing jobs through our record infrastructure spending, a record high of $1.8bn in the 2010-11 budget, plus, we are the lowest-taxing jurisdiction for small- and medium-sized businesses in our nation. That supports jobs.
Territorians can look forward to prosperity and job opportunity through 2011. Access Economics predicts jobs growth in the Territory will reach the second highest in the nation for the next five years, second only to the resource-rich state of Western Australia - a very positive economic pipeline coming through. Of course, we have major projects on the horizon, but it is this government which stepped up and took the tough decision to go into temporary deficit to support jobs in our construction sector through the record $1.5bn spent last financial year, followed up by a record $1.8bn in the 2010-11 budget. Lowest unemployment in the nation at 2.3% - it is a Territory record low unemployment, which is essentially full employment.
If you want a job, come to the Territory. Prosperity is great; this is a great resource-rich jurisdiction, going from strength to strength.
Lord Mayor of Darwin – Authorisation for Information Leak
Mr MILLS to CHIEF MINISTER
The Territory’s Criminal Code makes it an offence for a government employee to unlawfully communicate confidential information which they receive on the job. An unlawful communication is one which is made without authorisation. Either you authorised a smear campaign against the Lord Mayor, or one of your staff has committed a criminal act. Which is it? Did you authorise the smearing of Graeme Sawyer, or has one of your staff broken the law?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition needs to listen. There was no information to illegally communicate. My office was not provided with any information. No information was provided by police to my office regarding the raid on Mr Sawyer’s house …
Mr Elferink: What about your staff?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HENDERSON: I know Inspector Clouseau, the member for Port Darwin, is setting the Leader of the Opposition up with this line of questioning. For any offence to have been committed there would need to have been information for us to communicate. We did not have any information from police.
There was intense speculation and intense conversations around Darwin that the Lord Mayor’s home had been raided. To believe that somehow media advisors and journalists in this town were not going to have conversations about, ‘What is this about the Lord Mayor’s house being raided overnight?’, is just fanciful. To think those conversations were not taking place …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Opposition members!
Mr HENDERSON: If my house was to be raided by 12 police officers and Haritos Street was blocked off whilst that took place, you can bet London to a brick that that would have been an item of immediate news value.
Inspector Clouseau, your line of investigation fails at the first hurdle because there was no information to communicate.
Solar Photovoltaic Panels – Installation Permit Requirements
Mr WOOD to MINISTER for LANDS and PLANNING
I have been approached by a number of solar photovoltaic panel installers across the Territory who have seen their businesses grind to a halt because of a ruling by Building Advisory Services stating that the PV panels now require a building permit prior to installation in declared areas of the Northern Territory. This could mean an extra cost of up to $1500 to install the panels, making it uneconomical for people to bother. Many panels have already been installed across Alice Springs and other centres. The same panels, and I have photographs of them, have just withstood Cyclone Yasi at Mission Beach. The companies which make the panels show wind loadings on their technical sheets - there is BP and SunPower.
Will you fix this so that installers can get back to work, people who are waiting for panels to be installed can have the job completed, and new purchasers will not be put off by the extra $1500 which the Building Advisory Services’ decision will make to the cost of renewable energy systems?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, under the NT Building Act, solar panels have always required a building permit to ensure that panels are appropriately fixed to the roofs and they do not compromise the overall structure of the building. In the interests of community safety, and to ensure structural integrity, photovoltaic panel systems must be appropriately installed and certified. That is the bottom line.
Territorians, in plain speak, do not want their neighbours installing very large and heavy items on to roofs which are not secured by necessary standards. Recent changes have been initiated by Senator Penny Wong in response to risk assessments informed by the experience of the insulation scheme.
The big solar PV equipment providers, Conergy and BP, are working with the NT Building Advisory Committee to resolve building issues for their products. That is a good part of the story; we are working with industry as the member requested
In the meantime, any installations, including government work such as Solar Champions and the National Solar Schools Program, will be required to apply for a building permit. We must maintain the safety of Territory families. Until the industry does its work, we cannot compromise safety. That work will provide evidence that panels perform adequately under stress, which is the only way to ensure the community is safe.
We have been in contact with the Queensland government - another good part of the story - which has similar concerns about solar panels on roofs following Cyclone Yasi. We are keen to understand the performance of solar panels in those conditions. The member has some photos. We are working together on that; we are keen, and we await the report from the Queensland government.
I believe we can streamline the process, as alluded to by the member for Nelson. We are doing our bit to ensure Territorians, who are doing their bit, to achieve good environmental outcomes. An exemption of a requirement to obtain a building permit may be considered by the committee on demonstration by the solar panel industry of the capability of the panels to withstand regional wind speeds. The same process was followed by solar hot water manufacturers. There is a community expectation that the installation of solar panels will not place individuals or the community at risk. I had this discussion in Alice Springs on Friday with Arid Land Centre representatives.
I can assure the member we are working together to streamline the process and deliver the best outcomes without compromising community safety.
Law Regarding Attempted Bribery of Members of the Legislative Assembly
Mr GUNNER to MINISTER for JUSTICE and ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Can you please update the House on the law in the Northern Territory relating to attempted bribery of members of the Legislative Assembly?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Fannie Bay for his question. Section 60 of the Criminal Code Act clearly sets out it is a criminal offence for a member of the Legislative Assembly to solicit, receive or obtain, or agree to receive or obtain, property or a benefit of any kind on the understanding that the exercise by the MLA of his or her duty or authority as a member shall be in any way influenced or affected.
I am not suggesting any MLA in this House has contravened this section. However, this is a timely reminder, especially in light of an e-mail I will table from the President of the CLP, Sue Fraser-Adams, to the CLP parliamentary team. There are many interesting aspects of this e-mail. Particularly interesting is where she suggests that anyone who wants to be Leader of the Opposition should raise $1.5m by 30 June this year. I will read an excerpt of that e-mail:
- I lay down a couple of challenges to you all:
1. If anyone of you thinks they should be the Leader instead of Terry, then over the next six months go out and raise $1.5million and have it in the NT Election account by 30 June 2011.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Ms LAWRIE: They think it is funny, Madam Speaker. They think it is funny that their leadership is for sale at $1.5m …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! I cannot hear …
Mr Elferink: I ask that the member table that document …
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Port Darwin, you do not have the call. Member for Katherine, you had a point of order?
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Madam Speaker, perhaps the Treasurer could explain who paid for that production.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Katherine, it is not a point of order.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, this clearly shows the leadership of the CLP is for sale. It is up for anyone who can get $1.5m into their account by 30 June. It is quite curious that this comes when the CLP is showing reluctance to support the Cash for Containers legislation. Perhaps they are more interested in cash for Country Liberals than Cash for Containers.
Rumours are rife. The member for Port Darwin spent the weekend telling everyone at CLP Central Council he has the numbers and they should be donating to his coffers. But do not count out the member for Fong Lim; we are hearing he also has five numbers and is in the hunt for the donation campaign as well. Let the race begin ...
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Lord Mayor of Darwin – Information Leak
Mr MILLS to CHIEF MINISTER
I quote from the Sunday Forum article written by journalist Matt Cunningham, the section which says:
- But if Mr Sawyer and Mr McRoberts really want to know who leaked the information about the raid on the mayor’s house they’d be well advised to search the phone records of the NT government’s spin doctors. They couldn’t get the word out quickly enough that Mr Sawyer was in hot water.
Who are we expected to believe? Your word or the word of Matt Cunningham?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, as I said, there were conversations taking place between media people who work with us and journalists about very public events that had taken place ...
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, would you just pause and we will stop the clocks momentarily while we find out if Hansard is still working. I suggest it is a lightning strike. I am getting the signal from Mr Gadd that it is working.
Chief Minister, if you can see, you may continue.
Mr HENDERSON: I do not need to read for this, thank you, Madam Speaker. As I said, what happened was a very public event; a significant number of police officers raided the Lord Mayor’s home in a suburban street in Wagaman in a very public way. That, obviously, became the topic of significant discussion ...
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The question was very straightforward: who is misleading Territorians, you or Matt Cunningham?
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Port Darwin, resume your seat. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr HENDERSON: In the words of the article, it also conjectured that I or my office had encouraged the police to raid the Lord Mayor’s home. Nothing could be further from the truth. For any information to be leaked, I or my office would have had to have information from the police. There was nothing to leak because we did not have any information ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Mr HENDERSON: We did not have any information. Police had not provided my office, any of my staff, or me, with any information in regard to the raid on the Lord Mayor’s house. What was leaked - against the law, and about which the Lord Mayor has made an official complaint - was the fact that a transcript of interview between a police officer investigating an alleged offence for which they had been authorised to have a search warrant, before the Lord Mayor was even charged, ended up on the front page of the NT News. That is a totally separate event which occurred, of which there was a specific offence that police have investigated.
In regard to my office, there were discussions between my staff and journalists regarding a heap of rumours and observations which were flying around after a very public police raid on the Lord Mayor’s house …
Mr MILLS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The question was very specific. I have had no indication at all that the Chief Minister is going to answer that question. Who is telling the truth, Cunningham ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order! The Chief Minister has already resumed his seat.
Opposition members, I remind you to put those fake candles away. I am sure it is wonderful, but just put them away, thank you.
National Health Reform Agreement
Mr GUNNER to CHIEF MINISTER
Can you please update the House on the health agreement reached at COAG this week?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Fannie Bay for his question. Affordable, accessible and quality healthcare is a key priority of government. I was very pleased to be a member of COAG which, after significant and intense negotiations, agreed to a new health reform package for Australia for our hospital system. The reform is significant. It delivers an additional $243m to our hospital system over the next seven years and, more importantly, locks the Commonwealth into 50:50 funding of growth in our hospital systems going forward. It is a landmark decision. It is all about putting patients first. It is about reducing waiting times for elective surgery, reducing waiting times in our emergency departments, and more hospital beds for the Northern Territory.
As I said in the media conference yesterday, in regard to national standards for wait times for elective surgery and emergency departments, we are prepared to commit to standards, but they will be determined by an expert panel. There are unique disadvantages faced by the Territory in meeting these standards that are not faced by hospitals on the north shore of Sydney, or downtown suburban Melbourne and Brisbane, and those issues will be worked through.
Let us not forget the significance of hospital funding and the Commonwealth stepping up to 50:50. This is where the Commonwealth was prior to the John Howard years. All John Howard did - and the member for Fong Lim was a member of parliament in that particular era - was rip public money out of hospital systems across Australia. They went from 50:50 funding down to 38%. They ripped billions of dollars out of hospitals across Australia, including the Northern Territory.
This is a landmark decision and I congratulate all Premiers, including the Liberal Party Premiers, and the Prime Minster, and Jon Stanhope, who worked hard to reach an agreement that benefits patients in the Northern Territory and across Australia.
Central Australian Parks – Firefighting Resources
Ms ANDERSON to MINISTER for PARKS and WILDLIFE
Why are parks in Central Australia so under-resourced to prevent or manage bushfires that a ranger in the West MacDonnells has had to resort to constructing a fire trailer from bits and pieces found at the dump? How many of our Central Australian parks are equipped with functioning fire trailers and appropriate bushfire fighting equipment?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Macdonnell for her very important question. We are coming up to what will be one of the biggest fire seasons, particularly in Central Australia, for many years because of the La Nia weather conditions we are facing. We are aware of the upcoming fire season, and we are acutely aware of the parks that we are responsible for, and the work we need to do and are currently doing to prepare for a big fire season.
Late last year I convened a meeting of stakeholders in Alice Springs to prepare. I do not want to wait for the last minute to ensure we have things under way, such as firebreaks and adequately trained people on the land, whether it is on Aboriginal land through the land councils and the rangers, or personal property owners, such as pastoralists. I convened a meeting with the Cattlemen’s Association …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HAMPTON: Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is a very important question and I hope the member for Braitling wants to hear the answer.
Mr Giles interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Braitling!
Mr HAMPTON: Madam Speaker, I convened a meeting late last year with the Cattlemen’s Association, Bushfires NT staff from the Barkly and Central Australian regions, and the land councils to prepare for what is going to be a big bushfire season.
I am aware that we have to be prepared in our parks. We have already begun work on firebreaks through some of those areas, particularly through the Larapinta Drive area and some of the homelands through the Iwupataka Land Trust in conjunction with the Central Land Council and the Cattlemen’s Association.
I can inform the member for Macdonnell that we have also prepared for the 2011 Central Australian fire season with the purchase of a new front end loader for firebreak establishment. We have repaired existing graders for firebreak establishment. We are ordering incendiary material for prescribed burning. More than 100 Central Australians, including Aboriginal ranger groups with the Central Land Council, have been trained in fire management; and we are transferring a Top End staff member to Central Australia for 12 months to further deploy resources as necessary.
I will continue to work with the community of Central Australia, with the Cattlemen’s Association, the land councils and individual landowners. As the Minister for Parks and Wildlife, I will ensure our parks’ staff are properly resourced for bushfire management.
Mataranka Station – Potential Prosecution of Charles Darwin University
Mr WOOD to MINISTER for LOCAL GOVERNMENT
My question is in relation to the death of cattle at Mataranka Station last year. The NT News reported on 26 January this year that a departmental memorandum to you said that the Ombudsman had insisted the matter should have gone to court. It continued saying that the department Acting Chief Executive wrote:
… there would be ‘sensitivities’ if the university was prosecuted.
Could you please say if this article is correct? If it is correct, can you say what the sensitivities were? Will the Charles Darwin University be prosecuted for the death of cattle on Mataranka Station? If not, why not?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. It is an important issue as we look at what has happened at Mataranka. I say from the outset that this government will pursue vigorously what we need to do regarding the Ombudsman’s report. In my discussions with the Ombudsman at the time, I appreciated that this was a critical issue for our department, in particular the Animal Welfare Unit. The government has recognised that there clearly needed to be a better protocol of communication between agencies, because that was lacking.
We have immediately ensured there is a Director of Water Safety and Animal Welfare who has a regulatory and licensing background. Regarding the prosecution, Ray Murphy, a former police officer and a lawyer, is currently investigating the areas which have come through from the Ombudsman’s report.
I say on the record that what has happened to cattle at Mataranka is an absolute disgrace. There is clearly no denying and no abrogation of the importance of this matter and we are pursuing it quite vigorously. If there is one thing I have to say again and again here, to my colleagues, this parliament, and to the department, it is that we must maintain vigilance …
Mr WOOD: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance: my question was about the article, whether it was correct and whether Charles Darwin University was to be prosecuted.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, if you could come to the point fairly quickly.
Ms McCARTHY: Madam Speaker, that article referred to a number of issues, one which I will point out is that there was no fear, and there is no fear now, from our government in prosecuting anyone, least of all Charles Darwin University, if it comes to that …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order! You have the call, minister. Order!
Ms McCARTHY: As I have said to the House, Ray Murphy is currently in the process of finalising further investigations for me and my agency. I will be more than happy to report to the parliament in March on exactly the steps our government will be taking to ensure nothing like this ever happens again across the Northern Territory.
Alice Springs – Alleged Crime Wave
Mr CONLAN to CHIEF MINISTER
I would like to enlighten you to a little thing which is happening in Alice Springs. Crime is tearing the community apart. In the last reported year, there were more than 1700 crimes against the person: assaults, serious assaults, rapes and murders. That is a staggering 25% increase on the previous year. In a town with a population of fewer than 30 000 people, we have had more violence on the streets in Alice Springs than we have seen in Darwin, which has three times the population.
The question is, and I think it is quite reasonable, when will you wake up to reality and admit that Alice Springs is under siege from a crime wave, and when will you deploy an additional 20 police to address that?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I acknowledge there have been significant crime issues of late in Alice Springs. I am in regular contact with the Police Commissioner, as recently as this morning, about policing in Alice Springs. We all know the fuel for so much of this crime and assaults - and tragically, the vast majority of those assaults are committed in a domestic violence situation - is alcohol. Unless we deal with alcohol as a community, it does not matter if you doubled the size of the police force in Alice Springs, you would not get on top of the issues the good people of Alice Springs and Central Australia face.
We have also announced a number of significant initiatives to get young people off the street late at night in Alice Springs. My colleagues, the minister for Justice and the Minister for Central Australia, only a few weeks ago, announced a new corrections facility which will be operational very soon so people can be bailed to that facility and held in remand. We will also be developing secure, safe facilities where police can pick up kids who are roaming the streets at night and get them to those facilities until such time as their parents or guardians who are allowing them to roam the streets at night can be brought before FACS and other agencies to care for their children.
First and foremost, police need to have somewhere to take these kids …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order! Member for Braitling!
Mr HENDERSON: If they wanted to listen to the answer - police need somewhere to take these young people off the streets who are not committing explicit offences but are at risk to themselves, and the community is at risk from their potential behaviour. That is a significant initiative. We have a subcommittee of Cabinet meeting on a weekly basis to drive this. We are looking at a number of options in Alice Springs; taking these kids home is not an option. The reason they are out on the streets in the first place is because home is not a great place to be, predominately because of alcohol issues.
If you look at what we are doing with alcohol, banning problem drinkers, really addressing this issue - the CLP policy, which I assume is still on the books, is to extend trading hours in Alice Springs. More grog is their solution to the problems facing Alice Springs.
Health Priorities for 2011
Ms SCRYMGOUR to MINISTER for HEALTH
This government is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of Territorians and we have a proud record of increased resources and expanded services. Can you please inform the House of the key priorities for the health agenda in 2011?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. Yes, we have a strong record of increasing resources to health services and delivering more safe and sustainable services across the Territory than ever before. That is despite the fact we have some of the sickest population in Australia. We know we have the busiest hospitals in Australia, we know we have the busiest emergency departments in Australia, and we have half the number of GPs per 100 000 population than in South Australia or New South Wales. Despite that, we are working very hard to improve services.
We have already commenced planning for the hospital in Palmerston under the Territory 2030 plan. We have started planning for infrastructure and for services reform in order to keep people out of the hospitals and provide treatment at home.
In Alice Springs, we have planned for a new $20m emergency department and radiology department. The costing and design has been completed and I am pleased to advise that in the next two months we will be calling for tenders.
Many of our healthcare challenges relate to the lack of general practitioners; however, for the first time ever, the Territory has its very own medical school. I am very pleased to announce we have 24 first-year post-graduate students, 10 of them Indigenous, and all are Territory residents.
In addition, CDU has established another graduate entry clinical science degree with 12 positions for people with a degree to continue in a medical career. As the Chief Minister mentioned earlier, you can finish primary school in the Territory, finish medical school, and be employed in the Territory. Not to mention the super clinics. We lobbied the federal government for the establishment of super clinics in the Territory, something the Liberal Party and the CLP objected to and resisted. I am very pleased to announce that this Friday there will be a consultation session at the Crowne Plaza for the establishment of a super clinic in Darwin in the northern suburbs.
We will work very hard to meet the new targets under the COAG agreement. We will be rolling out 14 new beds for sub-acute care; expand the short stay unit at RDH; we have a rapid assessment medical clinic to fast-track patients and bypass the emergency department; a five-bed medi-hotel in Alice Springs with flexible Hospital in the Home support; additional surgical equipment for Tennant Creek, Katherine and Gove to support fly in/fly out surgery capacity; and additional clinical and surgical specialist staff to reduce the waiting list for elective surgery with $2.1m.
The member for Greatorex will be very pleased to know that we are going to have an oncology clinic in Alice Springs to assess and examine people in Alice Springs for referral to the oncology unit. I am thrilled that the largest number of people to stay at the Barbara James Hostel was from Alice Springs – 26 people. It is a fantastic service for all Territorians.
Alice Springs – Government’s Failure to Control Crime
Mr GILES to CHIEF MINISTER
This question is not just about domestic violence. Alice Springs businesses have pooled money to make and pay for advertisements attacking your government’s complete failure to control crime in Alice Springs. This unprecedented act is spurred by shocking increases in the levels of personal and property crime in Alice Springs. Surely, you now realise that you can no longer turn a blind eye to the crisis engulfing Alice Springs? Will you now detail a comprehensive plan to tackle surging criminal activity in Alice Springs and show some leadership, or are you just an out-of-sight, out-of-mind Chief Minister?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I was in Alice Springs just last week. My colleagues, the Attorney-General and the Minister for Central Australia, announced a significant plan to tackle crime in Alice Springs. We now have a Senior Sergeant Patrol Coordinator to coordinate police patrols and other patrols. We have a rolling Operation Harpoon …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! With the member for Greatorex’s insistent interruptions, you cannot actually hear. If you want to know what we are doing, listen up.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! The question has been asked of the Chief Minister. Just listen to the Chief Minister’s answer.
Mr HENDERSON: Thank you. You would think, having asked an important question, they would want to hear the answer.
We have police rolling additional patrols targeting young people on the street at night and removing troublemakers from the street. In this session of parliament, we will be introducing new laws to make breaching bail an offence. Too many of these offenders who are offending are being bailed and then breaching bail. We will make that an offence. We are installing a new 24-bed juvenile detention facility to make it easier for courts to remand people in a secure facility in Alice Springs. There are new short-term safe houses to get kids off the street, and an expansion and relocation of the preventative BushMob juvenile Alcohol and Other Drugs Strategy, and reviewing the Youth Justice Act to strengthen the juvenile justice system.
That is a significant set of reforms. I acknowledge those issues in Alice Springs …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order! Member for Braitling!
Mr HENDERSON: I was in Alice Springs last week meeting with police and business people in Alice Springs. As I said, the one sure-fire policy response that will guarantee more crime in Alice Springs is more grog, and that is the CLP’s policy. The CLP’s policy is to extend trading hours for takeaway alcohol in Alice Springs. We will not do that. We will continue to work with our police and the community in Alice Springs to crack down on the people in Alice Springs who are causing so much trouble there.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Mr HENDERSON: This is a complex set of issues; we all know that. Underlying most of those issues is alcohol. We are going to be turning the tap off on problem drinkers, making alcohol even harder to get for people who abuse alcohol, cause problems, and commit crime and violence in our community.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, before calling the next question, let me remind you because, maybe in the break, you have forgotten Standing Order 51:
- No Member may converse aloud or make any noise or disturbance, which in the opinion of the Speaker is designed to interrupt or has the effect of interrupting a Member speaking.
Education and Training - Priorities in 2011
Ms WALKER to MINISTER for EDUCATION and TRAINING
Education has always been a primary focus of this government. Can you please inform the House of priorities for education in 2011?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question from my colleague, who is also the parliamentary secretary for Education and Training. She has a vital interest, professionally, personally, and politically, in ensuring that kids across the Territory receive a quality education. That is a focus of this government: to ensure that, across the Territory, each child performs and attains to the best of their ability.
I mention my predecessors, the member for Arafura, the member for Wanguri, and the former member for Nhulunbuy, all former Education ministers who have worked hard to put in place a comprehensive policy framework for education. When the Chief Minister was Education minister, he implemented and developed the Smart Territory plan, a four-year plan, across the Territory.
Our policy framework focuses on quality teachers; on early childhood; Families as First Teachers; literacy and numeracy; and attendance, Every Child, Every Day. There is no doubt that the challenge for 2011 for me as Education minister, and for all of us as Territorians, is literacy and numeracy, and school attendance. That is the top priority in my book for 2011.
I have already outlined what our Every Child, Every Day strategy entails. The communication strategy has already begun, and we are looking at widening and refining that. We are in the process of recruiting more attendance and truancy officers at a regional basis across the Territory and, as I outlined to the House last year, the end of the line is a $200 infringement notice for those parents who continue to refuse to send their children to school.
With literacy and numeracy, very importantly, we have adopted a diagnostic approach with a diagnostic kit for teachers and support for teachers to enable them to identify literacy and numeracy problems with children; extensive English as a Second Language training for teachers; and a literacy and numeracy task force. As members would be aware, we have engaged the help of Professor Geoff Masters from the Australian Council for Educational Research. I convened one meeting of principals last year, and I will be convening one again in April.
We are getting behind our teachers in promoting teaching excellence and supporting them in that. We have a comprehensive policy framework for education. In the past year, there was one policy document released by the then shadow, the Opposition Leader, on early childhood which did not even mention Indigenous students. I hope the new shadow will be a bit more active in this space. Education is an important issue; let us debate it.
Alice Springs – Increase in Crime
Mr CONLAN to CHIEF MINISTER
In an incredibly gutless act on the streets of Alice Springs last week, we saw a German tourist stabbed, and her friends assaulted in a random unprovoked attack. You can see it here on the front page of today’s Centralian Advocate and on the front page of today’s NT News. The streets …
Madam SPEAKER: Please pause, member for Greatorex.
Members, if you could put those down, please, or I will be asking you to leave the Chamber. Thank you.
Mr CONLAN: As I say, Madam Speaker, it is on the front page of today’s Centralian Advocate. The streets are no longer safe in Alice Springs because of the rampaging gangs, the crimes, the physical assaults and antisocial behaviour. This is just one particular incident over the summer months.
I was going to ask the Chief Minister a question, but his answers are quite pathetic, and they go on and on and on.
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS
Move Proposed Motion of Censure
Move Proposed Motion of Censure
Mr CONLAN (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent this House from censuring the Northern Territory government and all its ministers for its fundamental …
Dr BURNS (Leader of Government Business): We accept the censure motion.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Can we just hear what it is please, minister?
Mr CONLAN: Madam Speaker, for its fundamental incapacity to protect Territorians from the criminal element in our community; and its consequential failure to protect the whole of the Territory community from flow-on effects from crime in our community.
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of Government Business, you have accepted that?
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, I have already accepted the censure.
Madam SPEAKER: You have accepted that and that is the end of Question Time. Could we please have that circulated? Thank you. It needs to be signed, thank you.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016