Ms MARTIN - 2000-02-29
Despite Port Darwin being a CLP seat for decades, nothing has been done to tackle the antisocial behaviour problem, particularly in Stuart Park. I have a letter here from Dr David Welch, who is a doctor at the Stuart Park Shops and provides an after hours medical service. I seek leave to table the letter and I would like leave to quote from it as well.
Leave granted.
Ms MARTIN: ‘For over a decade drunken people appear to be able to roam the area with impunity. It is well known that many Stuart Park residents will not go to the Stuart Park shops. They are fearful of being abused or approached for money. They will not let their children go to the shops by themselves for fear of their safety. Residents have seen people fornicating, urinating and defecating in the nearby parks in broad daylight’.
There are solutions to these problems. Continued inaction by the CLP on this issue is unacceptable. So my question is, will the Chief Minister follow Labor’s lead and increase hot spot police patrols to this area, increase funds to the night patrol to allow for a 7 day a week service, and help fund the relocation of St Vincent De Paul to purpose built facilities?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the issue of antisocial behaviour is not confined to the Port Darwin electorate, though I have had many representations, not the least being from the member for Jingili, with regards to the issue of antisocial behaviour and anyone who has lived in Darwin and other areas of the Northern Territory understands that it is a problem in the Northern Territory, no one denies that, and certainly there are strategies that are more successful in some places than others to deal with those particular issues. What does come from all this is that there is no single government strategy, alone, I emphasise the word ‘alone’, that can deal with anti-social behaviour. The most successful strategies come from a cooperative approach that involves community input. I’m pleased to say that those sorts of initiatives are in embryonic form in some respects, in my own electorate of Palmerston, with the cooperation of the Town Council, police and various interest groups in the community, and certainly when it comes to the issue of anti-social behaviour in the electorate of Port Darwin, anyone with an ounce of commonsense would know, firstly, that it’s not confined to that electorate and, secondly, that the government is doing its upmost to deal within the confines of its authority on that and other particular issues.
With regards to the particular issue of the opposition raising the idea that we should have hot spot policing, I found that a fairly odd idea from a fairly odd Leader of the Opposition, because she seems to suggest that somehow our police either don’t know where the hot spots are in the Northern Territory, and in Darwin and, if they did know, they are purposefully avoiding them and, therefore, somehow they will come up with some strange strategy that will force the police to go to these hot spots. The reality is that everyone knows that the police know where the hot spots are and deal with those hot spots as regularly as they can. You simply can’t be there 24 hours a day, everyone knows that, and I have the upmost confidence in our Commissioner of Police in the way he goes about moving his resources to deal with the whole issue of law and order in the Northern Territory.
With regards to the relocation of St Vincent de Paul, the opposition can raise that now because the Port Darwin election is on. Again, that’s an issue that has been considered by government for at least 18 months now. Discussions have been in train ...
Ms Martin: Talk about lack of action.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: The Leader of the Opposition says, ‘Talk about a lack of action’. If she had any ounce of knowledge of the way government goes about doing business and the consultative process that government has to go through, the budgetary process that government has to go through in terms of deciding on these relocations, such as St Vincent de Paul’s, she would know that these things take time. But you certainly can’t come swanning in here at a Port Darwin election and suggest that you’ve got some great idea on moving St Vincent de Paul, because that issue is well in train within the government departments involved, and I know that that issue will be discussed in Cabinet shortly, and certainly will be discussed in budget Cabinet.
We’re very proud in the Northern Territory in terms of our law and order policies. One of the things that the opposition has made much of is the issue of mandatory sentencing, we only have one strategy, and that is mandatory sentencing. On the issue of anti-social behaviour, we only have one strategy and that is mandatory sentencing. The reality is and everyone knows, that to deal with law and order issues, antisocial behaviour, those sorts of issues that can lead to crime are serious or minor in our community, the government deals with them across a whole range of issues. A very well thought through strategy.
We have for example the Living with Alcohol Campaign which is applauded nationally in terms of the initiatives that come through in that campaign and that in itself is not directly aimed at antisocial behaviour but part of the programs involved in that Living With Alcohol overall strategy deal with antisocial behaviour.
We heard the Queensland government the other day making much of the fact that they were going to introduce Aboriginal community police officers in Queensland. Well, we have had Aboriginal community police officers in the Northern Territory for the last 10 years, so it is not as if the Northern Territory government doesn’t have and is not at the forefront on many of these strategies that deal with antisocial behaviour and crime in our community.
On the issue of the further funding of the night patrol, I would remind the honourable member that I was proudly the Health Minister at the time as I recall, where we introduced Night Patrol into Darwin and Palmerston. We said we would trial the program, and we are very pleased with the results of that particular program, and the extension of that program of course will go through the normal budgetary process, and certainly won’t be a knee jerk reaction just because of the Port Darwin by-election.
Leave granted.
Ms MARTIN: ‘For over a decade drunken people appear to be able to roam the area with impunity. It is well known that many Stuart Park residents will not go to the Stuart Park shops. They are fearful of being abused or approached for money. They will not let their children go to the shops by themselves for fear of their safety. Residents have seen people fornicating, urinating and defecating in the nearby parks in broad daylight’.
There are solutions to these problems. Continued inaction by the CLP on this issue is unacceptable. So my question is, will the Chief Minister follow Labor’s lead and increase hot spot police patrols to this area, increase funds to the night patrol to allow for a 7 day a week service, and help fund the relocation of St Vincent De Paul to purpose built facilities?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the issue of antisocial behaviour is not confined to the Port Darwin electorate, though I have had many representations, not the least being from the member for Jingili, with regards to the issue of antisocial behaviour and anyone who has lived in Darwin and other areas of the Northern Territory understands that it is a problem in the Northern Territory, no one denies that, and certainly there are strategies that are more successful in some places than others to deal with those particular issues. What does come from all this is that there is no single government strategy, alone, I emphasise the word ‘alone’, that can deal with anti-social behaviour. The most successful strategies come from a cooperative approach that involves community input. I’m pleased to say that those sorts of initiatives are in embryonic form in some respects, in my own electorate of Palmerston, with the cooperation of the Town Council, police and various interest groups in the community, and certainly when it comes to the issue of anti-social behaviour in the electorate of Port Darwin, anyone with an ounce of commonsense would know, firstly, that it’s not confined to that electorate and, secondly, that the government is doing its upmost to deal within the confines of its authority on that and other particular issues.
With regards to the particular issue of the opposition raising the idea that we should have hot spot policing, I found that a fairly odd idea from a fairly odd Leader of the Opposition, because she seems to suggest that somehow our police either don’t know where the hot spots are in the Northern Territory, and in Darwin and, if they did know, they are purposefully avoiding them and, therefore, somehow they will come up with some strange strategy that will force the police to go to these hot spots. The reality is that everyone knows that the police know where the hot spots are and deal with those hot spots as regularly as they can. You simply can’t be there 24 hours a day, everyone knows that, and I have the upmost confidence in our Commissioner of Police in the way he goes about moving his resources to deal with the whole issue of law and order in the Northern Territory.
With regards to the relocation of St Vincent de Paul, the opposition can raise that now because the Port Darwin election is on. Again, that’s an issue that has been considered by government for at least 18 months now. Discussions have been in train ...
Ms Martin: Talk about lack of action.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: The Leader of the Opposition says, ‘Talk about a lack of action’. If she had any ounce of knowledge of the way government goes about doing business and the consultative process that government has to go through, the budgetary process that government has to go through in terms of deciding on these relocations, such as St Vincent de Paul’s, she would know that these things take time. But you certainly can’t come swanning in here at a Port Darwin election and suggest that you’ve got some great idea on moving St Vincent de Paul, because that issue is well in train within the government departments involved, and I know that that issue will be discussed in Cabinet shortly, and certainly will be discussed in budget Cabinet.
We’re very proud in the Northern Territory in terms of our law and order policies. One of the things that the opposition has made much of is the issue of mandatory sentencing, we only have one strategy, and that is mandatory sentencing. On the issue of anti-social behaviour, we only have one strategy and that is mandatory sentencing. The reality is and everyone knows, that to deal with law and order issues, antisocial behaviour, those sorts of issues that can lead to crime are serious or minor in our community, the government deals with them across a whole range of issues. A very well thought through strategy.
We have for example the Living with Alcohol Campaign which is applauded nationally in terms of the initiatives that come through in that campaign and that in itself is not directly aimed at antisocial behaviour but part of the programs involved in that Living With Alcohol overall strategy deal with antisocial behaviour.
We heard the Queensland government the other day making much of the fact that they were going to introduce Aboriginal community police officers in Queensland. Well, we have had Aboriginal community police officers in the Northern Territory for the last 10 years, so it is not as if the Northern Territory government doesn’t have and is not at the forefront on many of these strategies that deal with antisocial behaviour and crime in our community.
On the issue of the further funding of the night patrol, I would remind the honourable member that I was proudly the Health Minister at the time as I recall, where we introduced Night Patrol into Darwin and Palmerston. We said we would trial the program, and we are very pleased with the results of that particular program, and the extension of that program of course will go through the normal budgetary process, and certainly won’t be a knee jerk reaction just because of the Port Darwin by-election.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016