Mr MITCHELL - 2001-06-06
Members may recall yesterday I asked the question regarding the tendering of the night patrol service in Darwin. Last night, the member for Wanguri made certain claims in his comments on the Chief Minister’s law and order statement. I just ask the minister if he can comment on those claims?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, this is indeed the same tenor. What we are talking about here are some issues that have been mentioned in this House that are incorrect, and I think it is really important that we correct this misinformation because, potentially it is misleading the House and I am sure that the member for Wanguri would not want to do that. So I would like to put it on the record in the event he wants to keep repeating the claims, because he will then know that he has that particular issue hanging over his head.
In the case of the night patrol, this is another fine service and initiative of this government that was denigrated yesterday. It was done in a couple of ways on the public record, but I was curious as to why the member for Wanguri would be so far wrong. My press officer actually stumbled on it, he said, what he is doing is quoting from his press release of this time last year. And lo and behold! we dug it out and there it was, so he has a filing system that’s got regurgitated; he pushes the button, out it comes. In the interim, he has not really had a look at some of the developments that have taken place, particularly with this service, which has changed its provider.
We have changed how the night patrol runs. It was run through AIMSS, and that is a matter that has been discussed in this House. We had some reviews; that was also discussed in the House. In fact, we have the Leader of the Opposition misleading this House on that particular occasion, when she told us that she had not heard any particular complaints about the service, and she later had to - well, I don’t think she’s apologised - but when I produced the letter where she herself in fact wrote to me complaining, I think you can understand why it is necessary to put some of this in perspective.
In June last year ...
Ms Martin: Simply telling lies there and you know.
Mr SPEAKER: I would ask the Leader of the Opposition to withdraw that.
Ms MARTIN: I will withdraw it but he knows perfectly ...
Mr SPEAKER: Without, without ...
Mr DUNHAM: In Hansard last year, 13 June, I correct ...
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Speaker! If he thinks I misled the House then he should bring on a substantive motion. He should do something ...
Mr SPEAKER: That is also true. You cannot infer that the Leader of the Opposition has misled the House without a substantive motion in that regard. So I would ask you to withdraw that comment as well.
Mr DUNHAM: I withdraw the comment that the Leader of the Opposition misled this House.
The interesting thing is in Hansard last year - and members can go and have a look at it - I corrected the member for Wanguri and his claim that 11 out of 13 staff had been sacked. I corrected him in this House. That is in the Parliamentary Record. The numbers were very wrong and they were wrong on a couple of counts. First, we talked about it in here and second, the member for Wanguri had been briefed in my office the day before so he knew the case.
Last night, he again repeated this 11 out of 13 staff business. He knows the numbers and the numbers can be reconciled and he can talk to the current providers and he can look at Hansard and he can go back to his briefing notes. Again last night, 11 out of 13. While I am sure he would not deliberately mislead this House, those numbers are wrong and they should be put in the correct perspective. He talked about the sobering up shelter being worse off - and this is the nub of the question - because the police now have to do much more work because they are not doing the right job. The police are now doing much more work than they did when the previous night patrol was in place.
I have provided a graph and I am happy to table it for the benefit of honourable members. It shows that the police are being freed up to do the urgent work that is required of them rather than attending to drunks lying on our streets. It demonstrates that the night patrol has alleviated the police with the lower line of pickups - for instance, these figures go through to May - the numbers coming into the shelter from the night patrol are over 80%. When he peruses the record of June last year he will see that the number we were talking about was 56%. We were quite proud of the fact that that displacement had occurred then, that the night patrol picked up 50%. It is now over 80%.
He also made some allegations about how many cars were on the road, and I will not take anymore of parliament’s time, but I will say that the press and other commentators should treat with caution many of the things that are said by the member for Wanguri.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, this is indeed the same tenor. What we are talking about here are some issues that have been mentioned in this House that are incorrect, and I think it is really important that we correct this misinformation because, potentially it is misleading the House and I am sure that the member for Wanguri would not want to do that. So I would like to put it on the record in the event he wants to keep repeating the claims, because he will then know that he has that particular issue hanging over his head.
In the case of the night patrol, this is another fine service and initiative of this government that was denigrated yesterday. It was done in a couple of ways on the public record, but I was curious as to why the member for Wanguri would be so far wrong. My press officer actually stumbled on it, he said, what he is doing is quoting from his press release of this time last year. And lo and behold! we dug it out and there it was, so he has a filing system that’s got regurgitated; he pushes the button, out it comes. In the interim, he has not really had a look at some of the developments that have taken place, particularly with this service, which has changed its provider.
We have changed how the night patrol runs. It was run through AIMSS, and that is a matter that has been discussed in this House. We had some reviews; that was also discussed in the House. In fact, we have the Leader of the Opposition misleading this House on that particular occasion, when she told us that she had not heard any particular complaints about the service, and she later had to - well, I don’t think she’s apologised - but when I produced the letter where she herself in fact wrote to me complaining, I think you can understand why it is necessary to put some of this in perspective.
In June last year ...
Ms Martin: Simply telling lies there and you know.
Mr SPEAKER: I would ask the Leader of the Opposition to withdraw that.
Ms MARTIN: I will withdraw it but he knows perfectly ...
Mr SPEAKER: Without, without ...
Mr DUNHAM: In Hansard last year, 13 June, I correct ...
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Speaker! If he thinks I misled the House then he should bring on a substantive motion. He should do something ...
Mr SPEAKER: That is also true. You cannot infer that the Leader of the Opposition has misled the House without a substantive motion in that regard. So I would ask you to withdraw that comment as well.
Mr DUNHAM: I withdraw the comment that the Leader of the Opposition misled this House.
The interesting thing is in Hansard last year - and members can go and have a look at it - I corrected the member for Wanguri and his claim that 11 out of 13 staff had been sacked. I corrected him in this House. That is in the Parliamentary Record. The numbers were very wrong and they were wrong on a couple of counts. First, we talked about it in here and second, the member for Wanguri had been briefed in my office the day before so he knew the case.
Last night, he again repeated this 11 out of 13 staff business. He knows the numbers and the numbers can be reconciled and he can talk to the current providers and he can look at Hansard and he can go back to his briefing notes. Again last night, 11 out of 13. While I am sure he would not deliberately mislead this House, those numbers are wrong and they should be put in the correct perspective. He talked about the sobering up shelter being worse off - and this is the nub of the question - because the police now have to do much more work because they are not doing the right job. The police are now doing much more work than they did when the previous night patrol was in place.
I have provided a graph and I am happy to table it for the benefit of honourable members. It shows that the police are being freed up to do the urgent work that is required of them rather than attending to drunks lying on our streets. It demonstrates that the night patrol has alleviated the police with the lower line of pickups - for instance, these figures go through to May - the numbers coming into the shelter from the night patrol are over 80%. When he peruses the record of June last year he will see that the number we were talking about was 56%. We were quite proud of the fact that that displacement had occurred then, that the night patrol picked up 50%. It is now over 80%.
He also made some allegations about how many cars were on the road, and I will not take anymore of parliament’s time, but I will say that the press and other commentators should treat with caution many of the things that are said by the member for Wanguri.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016