Mr HIGGINS - 2014-11-26
Can you please update the House on the roll-out of electronic monitoring and how it will be used to track offenders’ movements?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this government has been proud to drive down crime across the Northern Territory since coming to government. Our results in the area of property crime have been nothing shy of astonishing and exceeded the ambitious promises we made to the people of the Northern Territory before coming to government.
This year we have seen substantial downward pressure, particularly through the policies of temporary beat locations, alcohol mandatory treatment, Alcohol Protection Orders and a number of other policies we have put in place which have stopped people committing crimes. That is reflected in our prison population, which is currently tracking at numbers substantially below those projected by the former government in June 2010 which justified the $500m prison being built. However, we press on because there is still, sadly, crime in the community.
Whilst we have a Corrections system which, through Sentenced to a Job, seeks to make citizens out of criminals, some people cannot help themselves.
As a consequence we make certain people at liberty, either through parole who have to prove their citizenship or on bail for crimes they are yet to be convicted of or sentenced for – we find ways to monitor them. We use people to do that, and in more recent times we have been using technology. Simple technology attached to a telephone system can bind a person to a house.
GPS technology can track a person anywhere in the Northern Territory. This technology is currently working on outstations and is very effective. The device we will soon introduce will be a boon to what we are doing in the Northern Territory because the tracking device can also detect the presence of alcohol in a person’s sweat …
Mr Wood: We argued that case last year when you brought in the APOs.
Mr ELFERINK: Were you looking for one?
We are proud of this. I know the member for Nelson is highly critical of us doing this, but we are proud of putting restraint on people who harm the community in which we live. We will place those restraints on them wherever and whenever it is necessary to do so. I make this promise to people in our community who need to be restrained: I have a bracelet for you and it is coming to an ankle near you soon.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this government has been proud to drive down crime across the Northern Territory since coming to government. Our results in the area of property crime have been nothing shy of astonishing and exceeded the ambitious promises we made to the people of the Northern Territory before coming to government.
This year we have seen substantial downward pressure, particularly through the policies of temporary beat locations, alcohol mandatory treatment, Alcohol Protection Orders and a number of other policies we have put in place which have stopped people committing crimes. That is reflected in our prison population, which is currently tracking at numbers substantially below those projected by the former government in June 2010 which justified the $500m prison being built. However, we press on because there is still, sadly, crime in the community.
Whilst we have a Corrections system which, through Sentenced to a Job, seeks to make citizens out of criminals, some people cannot help themselves.
As a consequence we make certain people at liberty, either through parole who have to prove their citizenship or on bail for crimes they are yet to be convicted of or sentenced for – we find ways to monitor them. We use people to do that, and in more recent times we have been using technology. Simple technology attached to a telephone system can bind a person to a house.
GPS technology can track a person anywhere in the Northern Territory. This technology is currently working on outstations and is very effective. The device we will soon introduce will be a boon to what we are doing in the Northern Territory because the tracking device can also detect the presence of alcohol in a person’s sweat …
Mr Wood: We argued that case last year when you brought in the APOs.
Mr ELFERINK: Were you looking for one?
We are proud of this. I know the member for Nelson is highly critical of us doing this, but we are proud of putting restraint on people who harm the community in which we live. We will place those restraints on them wherever and whenever it is necessary to do so. I make this promise to people in our community who need to be restrained: I have a bracelet for you and it is coming to an ankle near you soon.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016