Mr GUNNER - 2013-08-21
The head of the NT Police Association, Vince Kelly, this morning confirmed that police are avoiding taking drunks into protective custody. Your own deputy, Dave Tollner, confirmed earlier this year that police are taking drunks to hospital instead of police cells. Not a single person in the Territory believes your claims that public drunkenness is down. Why are you crowding our hospital emergency departments with drunks?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, that is a completely misleading question. If you want to get a briefing, I am happy to tell you how many people have been picked up by police, how many are being dropped home, how many are being taken to sobering-up shelters, and how many are going to hospital if they are crook. You will probably find it is between one to four per day; sometimes in some hospitals it is fewer than one per day. That is because people have a lot of illness.
You will find the number of people police are picking up is down across the board, in some places by 55%. The number of alcohol-related antisocial behaviour incidents in the Northern Territory is substantially down ...
Members interjecting.
Mr GILES: The assault level … I can tell you the figures. The average per day of people who cannot go into protective custody because of a serious illness who are being dropped at hospital, a sobering-up shelter, or taken home: from the Darwin Metropolitan Command is 0.86 people per day; from the Northern Command it is 0.91 people per day; and from the Southern Command it is 2.23 people per day. This idea that there are drunks flooding the hospital is completely misleading. They are police figures.
The variation in protective custody episodes for Darwin Metropolitan Command is down 14.54%. for Northern Command is down 22.23%. and Southern Command is down 49.6% ...
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Would the Chief Minister kindly table that document?
Mr GILES: No, I do not table briefing notes I write for myself, Opposition Leader.
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition Leader, he has declined to table his notes. They are his own notes. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Could he provide a version of that which does not have his own notes to the opposition?
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: Madam Speaker, in total, protective custodies are down 29.91%.
However, I advise Labor if they want to find out more about this to read the Hansard of estimates. I know you all got tired and went home early and may have missed some of it, but this was discussed at estimates when you all went home too tired and could not do the work.
Repeating those figures: a 29.91% decrease in protective custodies; in the Southern Command a 49.6% decrease. I will go through those hospital numbers again, because you keep saying people are going to hospital. In the Darwin Metropolitan Command, 0.86 of a person is going to the hospital; from the Northern Command 0.91 of a person, and in the Southern Command 2.23 people.
This idea that all these people who are drunk are going to the hospital is completely false. You are trying to mislead parliament in making these assertions in the statement before your question. If you want to have a real look at some of the reasons the hospitals are being clogged up, have a look at what is happening with the federal government on aged care, and how the aged care people are blocking beds, and the asylum seekers who are blocking over 1000 beds a year in the hospital.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, that is a completely misleading question. If you want to get a briefing, I am happy to tell you how many people have been picked up by police, how many are being dropped home, how many are being taken to sobering-up shelters, and how many are going to hospital if they are crook. You will probably find it is between one to four per day; sometimes in some hospitals it is fewer than one per day. That is because people have a lot of illness.
You will find the number of people police are picking up is down across the board, in some places by 55%. The number of alcohol-related antisocial behaviour incidents in the Northern Territory is substantially down ...
Members interjecting.
Mr GILES: The assault level … I can tell you the figures. The average per day of people who cannot go into protective custody because of a serious illness who are being dropped at hospital, a sobering-up shelter, or taken home: from the Darwin Metropolitan Command is 0.86 people per day; from the Northern Command it is 0.91 people per day; and from the Southern Command it is 2.23 people per day. This idea that there are drunks flooding the hospital is completely misleading. They are police figures.
The variation in protective custody episodes for Darwin Metropolitan Command is down 14.54%. for Northern Command is down 22.23%. and Southern Command is down 49.6% ...
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Would the Chief Minister kindly table that document?
Mr GILES: No, I do not table briefing notes I write for myself, Opposition Leader.
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition Leader, he has declined to table his notes. They are his own notes. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Could he provide a version of that which does not have his own notes to the opposition?
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: Madam Speaker, in total, protective custodies are down 29.91%.
However, I advise Labor if they want to find out more about this to read the Hansard of estimates. I know you all got tired and went home early and may have missed some of it, but this was discussed at estimates when you all went home too tired and could not do the work.
Repeating those figures: a 29.91% decrease in protective custodies; in the Southern Command a 49.6% decrease. I will go through those hospital numbers again, because you keep saying people are going to hospital. In the Darwin Metropolitan Command, 0.86 of a person is going to the hospital; from the Northern Command 0.91 of a person, and in the Southern Command 2.23 people.
This idea that all these people who are drunk are going to the hospital is completely false. You are trying to mislead parliament in making these assertions in the statement before your question. If you want to have a real look at some of the reasons the hospitals are being clogged up, have a look at what is happening with the federal government on aged care, and how the aged care people are blocking beds, and the asylum seekers who are blocking over 1000 beds a year in the hospital.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016