Ms FINOCCHIARO - 2014-05-14
Can you please inform the House about funding in Budget 2014-15 for youth justice?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Drysdale for her question. She and I often discuss matters of justice in the Northern Territory. I am always grateful for her input and insight. She is a fine representative of the people of her electorate.
It is a sad fact and a sad truth that so many parents in our community are disengaged with their children. I was watching something on Channel 9 the other night where some kids were running amok in a shop in the northern suburbs, basically terrorising the shopkeeper. Largely, that is the fault of disengaged, disinterested and careless parents, and the starting position of any community should be to say to parents, ‘You should do your job’. Sadly, some parents do not come up to the mark and it is up to government to try to fill the gap.
Governments as parents do not traditionally have good outcomes. We have seen that repeated again and again, and the former Labor ministers have articulated that themselves. Nevertheless, we have to get involved in that space and, as a consequence of that, we have. This government is strident in developing policies which will attend to youth justice issues in the Northern Territory in a fashion that they have never been attended to before.
Whilst I hear the Leader of the Opposition complaining, this is a focal point of government. It annoys me that the same surnames I have in custody as the minister for Child Protection ultimately become the same surnames I have in custody in juvenile detention and, sadly, into the adult environment.
We have introduced a system of boot camps, and we will continue to roll them out with funding to accommodate them. We will see detention-focused boot camps and intervention-focused boot camps operating in the Northern Territory.
We are interested in early intervention and we will respond on the ground with government departments working locally with NGOs. I have made it abundantly clear that …
Ms Lawrie: You have slashed the NGO budgets.
Mr ELFERINK: Do you stay silent, at any stage? Do you ever be quiet? All I hear is the Leader of the Opposition making excuses for her failures in government. She despises the fact that somebody might have more passion and fire in the belly than she or any of her government ministers ever had in this important area. We will and are achieving results; property crime is down and it will not be long before you find that crimes against people are coming down substantially in the NT, a product of the work of this government.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Drysdale for her question. She and I often discuss matters of justice in the Northern Territory. I am always grateful for her input and insight. She is a fine representative of the people of her electorate.
It is a sad fact and a sad truth that so many parents in our community are disengaged with their children. I was watching something on Channel 9 the other night where some kids were running amok in a shop in the northern suburbs, basically terrorising the shopkeeper. Largely, that is the fault of disengaged, disinterested and careless parents, and the starting position of any community should be to say to parents, ‘You should do your job’. Sadly, some parents do not come up to the mark and it is up to government to try to fill the gap.
Governments as parents do not traditionally have good outcomes. We have seen that repeated again and again, and the former Labor ministers have articulated that themselves. Nevertheless, we have to get involved in that space and, as a consequence of that, we have. This government is strident in developing policies which will attend to youth justice issues in the Northern Territory in a fashion that they have never been attended to before.
Whilst I hear the Leader of the Opposition complaining, this is a focal point of government. It annoys me that the same surnames I have in custody as the minister for Child Protection ultimately become the same surnames I have in custody in juvenile detention and, sadly, into the adult environment.
We have introduced a system of boot camps, and we will continue to roll them out with funding to accommodate them. We will see detention-focused boot camps and intervention-focused boot camps operating in the Northern Territory.
We are interested in early intervention and we will respond on the ground with government departments working locally with NGOs. I have made it abundantly clear that …
Ms Lawrie: You have slashed the NGO budgets.
Mr ELFERINK: Do you stay silent, at any stage? Do you ever be quiet? All I hear is the Leader of the Opposition making excuses for her failures in government. She despises the fact that somebody might have more passion and fire in the belly than she or any of her government ministers ever had in this important area. We will and are achieving results; property crime is down and it will not be long before you find that crimes against people are coming down substantially in the NT, a product of the work of this government.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016