Ms CARNEY - 2006-06-13
Should I become Chief Minister, I would immediately make it mandatory to report domestic violence, remove customary law from the consideration of courts when sentencing violent Aboriginal men, remove violent men from their communities while they wait to be dealt with by the courts, cease doing business with Aboriginal organisations where men who hold public office …
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Mr Acting Speaker! This is Question Time, not an opportunity for the Leader of the Opposition to make a policy announcement. It is Question Time to ask questions of ministers, not make policy announcements as to what the Leader of the Opposition may or may not do if she ever becomes Chief Minister.
Mr ACTING SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, please get to the question.
Ms CARNEY: Yes, Mr Acting Speaker. I will cease doing business with Aboriginal organisations where men who hold public office have been convicted of crimes of sexual or physical violence. I would also prioritise the removal of Aboriginal children at risk. I would implement these reforms. However, since you are the Chief Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, will you?
ANSWER
Mr Acting Speaker, when the Opposition Leader puts out a policy statement like that, if she is saying it is an alternative, she should be basing it on fact. This government has taken a lot of action in those areas that have just been identified by the Opposition Leader. It is very interesting that a member of the Country Liberal Party is saying: ‘If I were back in power I would do …’ yet, if you compare that with when they were in power, they were very poor on acting on many of those issues.
A number of the areas that the Opposition Leader identified rely on very effective police action and having effective and properly resourced police. Under the CLP, that was not the case. Under this government, in five years, police resources have increased by 55%. What that means is that there are police who are taking on those tasks. In an important area like domestic violence - wherever it is happening across the Territory - we are having a greater ability to take much more effective action to support women who are the victims of that domestic violence and take their cases to court. That is because we have effective police resources in place to do that. I praise those Domestic Violence Units within our police force – Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin – who are doing that very effective work.
It is all very well for the Opposition Leader to say: ‘If I were Chief Minister I would …’. It is very important to remember that, when the CLP was in government they did not take that action; they did not put the proper resources in place to even take that action. We are dealing here with very serious issues right across the Territory, which this government takes very seriously, and we will continue to take seriously.
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Mr Acting Speaker! This is Question Time, not an opportunity for the Leader of the Opposition to make a policy announcement. It is Question Time to ask questions of ministers, not make policy announcements as to what the Leader of the Opposition may or may not do if she ever becomes Chief Minister.
Mr ACTING SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, please get to the question.
Ms CARNEY: Yes, Mr Acting Speaker. I will cease doing business with Aboriginal organisations where men who hold public office have been convicted of crimes of sexual or physical violence. I would also prioritise the removal of Aboriginal children at risk. I would implement these reforms. However, since you are the Chief Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, will you?
ANSWER
Mr Acting Speaker, when the Opposition Leader puts out a policy statement like that, if she is saying it is an alternative, she should be basing it on fact. This government has taken a lot of action in those areas that have just been identified by the Opposition Leader. It is very interesting that a member of the Country Liberal Party is saying: ‘If I were back in power I would do …’ yet, if you compare that with when they were in power, they were very poor on acting on many of those issues.
A number of the areas that the Opposition Leader identified rely on very effective police action and having effective and properly resourced police. Under the CLP, that was not the case. Under this government, in five years, police resources have increased by 55%. What that means is that there are police who are taking on those tasks. In an important area like domestic violence - wherever it is happening across the Territory - we are having a greater ability to take much more effective action to support women who are the victims of that domestic violence and take their cases to court. That is because we have effective police resources in place to do that. I praise those Domestic Violence Units within our police force – Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin – who are doing that very effective work.
It is all very well for the Opposition Leader to say: ‘If I were Chief Minister I would …’. It is very important to remember that, when the CLP was in government they did not take that action; they did not put the proper resources in place to even take that action. We are dealing here with very serious issues right across the Territory, which this government takes very seriously, and we will continue to take seriously.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016