Mr GUNNER - 2014-02-11
Assaults are up by 12% across the NT, sexual assaults are up by 7%. Your comments on radio that crime is no longer an issue in Alice Springs have been slammed by people who live there. In the very week you made those comments, there was, unfortunately, tragically, a murder and a stabbing in Alice Springs. Just after you made these comments, your friend and tourist operator, Rex Neindorf, told ABC radio:
Sexual assault is up 7% across the Territory and violent assault is up by 12%.
When will you admit Alice Springs is hurting from an increase in alcohol-related violence, and it is affecting businesses and families?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Fannie Bay for his question. If you want to be the Opposition Leader, you have to ask better questions than that.
Members interjecting.
Mr GILES: I will answer this succinctly for the member for Nhulunbuy. Most serious assaults are domestic violence: people beating up their wives or partners when they are drunk, in the main. Around 75% of those, as I have said in this Chamber before, were not being prosecuted previously. We have now ordered all of those cases to be prosecuted to bring those offenders before the justice system and make sure we provide the best protection for those on the receiving end of assaults.
I answered the last question for the member for Drysdale about seeing the substantial reduction in crime across the Northern Territory, already meeting our 10% targets by a long way, but I also spoke about alcohol protection orders and how they are designed to make an impact on those offending with serious assaults, where the penalty is six months or more and alcohol has been a contributing factor in the crime.
There are more than 500 alcohol protection orders as of this morning, and we are already seeing a reduction in acts intended to cause injury –specifically what the member for Fannie Bay is talking about – by 19.8% in January this year compared to January last year. An almost 20% reduction in acts intended to cause injury is a substantial reduction and a real complement to the commencement of alcohol protection orders in that more women are being protected by the measures we put in place to help stop them being beaten by people who are violently drunk. It has been a challenge in the Northern Territory for many decades, and this is the first significant result in turning around serious assaults in the Northern Territory I have been able to find in the history books.
There are changes in statistics around acts intended to cause injury and all other criminal matters, but seeing an immediate 20% reduction and changes which are helping in the lives of battered women around the Territory – we will continue to do what we can to support reductions in crime and support women who are too often the victims of domestic violence.
- It is not completely cleaned up at all. Certainly, property crime has gone down, that’s because less people are going out stealing grog, but I would say that assaults and those sorts of things have not changed at all.
Sexual assault is up 7% across the Territory and violent assault is up by 12%.
When will you admit Alice Springs is hurting from an increase in alcohol-related violence, and it is affecting businesses and families?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Fannie Bay for his question. If you want to be the Opposition Leader, you have to ask better questions than that.
Members interjecting.
Mr GILES: I will answer this succinctly for the member for Nhulunbuy. Most serious assaults are domestic violence: people beating up their wives or partners when they are drunk, in the main. Around 75% of those, as I have said in this Chamber before, were not being prosecuted previously. We have now ordered all of those cases to be prosecuted to bring those offenders before the justice system and make sure we provide the best protection for those on the receiving end of assaults.
I answered the last question for the member for Drysdale about seeing the substantial reduction in crime across the Northern Territory, already meeting our 10% targets by a long way, but I also spoke about alcohol protection orders and how they are designed to make an impact on those offending with serious assaults, where the penalty is six months or more and alcohol has been a contributing factor in the crime.
There are more than 500 alcohol protection orders as of this morning, and we are already seeing a reduction in acts intended to cause injury –specifically what the member for Fannie Bay is talking about – by 19.8% in January this year compared to January last year. An almost 20% reduction in acts intended to cause injury is a substantial reduction and a real complement to the commencement of alcohol protection orders in that more women are being protected by the measures we put in place to help stop them being beaten by people who are violently drunk. It has been a challenge in the Northern Territory for many decades, and this is the first significant result in turning around serious assaults in the Northern Territory I have been able to find in the history books.
There are changes in statistics around acts intended to cause injury and all other criminal matters, but seeing an immediate 20% reduction and changes which are helping in the lives of battered women around the Territory – we will continue to do what we can to support reductions in crime and support women who are too often the victims of domestic violence.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016