Mr MILLS - 2008-02-20
According to your own figures, with an average of, say, 250 regular drunks on our streets, each must have been apprehended about 106 times last year. Surely, this demands an intervention policy. The CLP does have a policy to deal with habitual drunks. As a part of that policy, any person apprehended three times in six months for being drunk will become subject of a control order, and a failure to comply with that order will mean a likely gaol sentence. Will you now show some courage and support such an idea, or will you simply continue to promise new programs that amount to zero?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question and announcement via a question in Question Time of a new CLP policy. Good luck that they are thinking about new policies.
The issue of dealing with antisocial behaviour across the Northern Territory is not a one-shot-in-the-locker policy approach. It requires a complex set of issues to be dealt with. Earlier this week, I introduced in this parliament the most comprehensive plan ever seen in the Northern Territory to deal with these issues. It involves a new frontline patrol service being staffed by police and Justice officers to intervene early, before people start making a nuisance of themselves, to encourage people to move home ...
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: You love your pretty coloured little charts there, Leader of the Opposition. I have already explained what has led to those increases.
We have also announced a significant increase in funding for temporary accommodation. We have also announced the re-establishment of the Night Patrol to work with police. We have announced additional funding to organisations to assist people to get home. We have announced a dedicated response line where people can call and have calls coordinated by police to despatch people out to deal with the issues.
We are also working on the causes of the issues. This is where the CLP fall down, as a result of 27 years of neglect. We are seeing significant increases in expenditure, as the Minister for Housing told us, for housing in the bush. If we improve housing and education in the bush, we get jobs and economic development happening in the bush, that is going to make a very significant impact over time on the problems that we are seeing around the long grass and with excessive alcohol abuse across the Northern Territory. This is about a comprehensive plan. We are going to seize the moment to work with the Commonwealth government on the causes of so much of this antisocial behaviour.
What does the CLP have, Madam Speaker? A one-shot-in-the-locker, quick one-page media release policy approach to life. Put out a media release. That is their policy. In 27 years, they did nothing. They could not even provide a secondary education system in the bush after 27 years. They decimated our police force by refusing to recruit for four years. They allowed overcrowding to explode in housing across the Northern Territory. They had no focus on delivering jobs in the bush. There was zero growth in the Northern Territory economy when we came to government.
I am not saying this is easy, but we have a comprehensive approach to this right across the Northern Territory. If the CLP have a policy at all, it is on a one-page media release. We are getting on with the job. We are investing in our police force, in education, in housing, and in non-government organisations to deal with these issues. We will continue to work across the Northern Territory to reduce antisocial behaviour in our towns and cities and communities across the Territory.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question and announcement via a question in Question Time of a new CLP policy. Good luck that they are thinking about new policies.
The issue of dealing with antisocial behaviour across the Northern Territory is not a one-shot-in-the-locker policy approach. It requires a complex set of issues to be dealt with. Earlier this week, I introduced in this parliament the most comprehensive plan ever seen in the Northern Territory to deal with these issues. It involves a new frontline patrol service being staffed by police and Justice officers to intervene early, before people start making a nuisance of themselves, to encourage people to move home ...
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: You love your pretty coloured little charts there, Leader of the Opposition. I have already explained what has led to those increases.
We have also announced a significant increase in funding for temporary accommodation. We have also announced the re-establishment of the Night Patrol to work with police. We have announced additional funding to organisations to assist people to get home. We have announced a dedicated response line where people can call and have calls coordinated by police to despatch people out to deal with the issues.
We are also working on the causes of the issues. This is where the CLP fall down, as a result of 27 years of neglect. We are seeing significant increases in expenditure, as the Minister for Housing told us, for housing in the bush. If we improve housing and education in the bush, we get jobs and economic development happening in the bush, that is going to make a very significant impact over time on the problems that we are seeing around the long grass and with excessive alcohol abuse across the Northern Territory. This is about a comprehensive plan. We are going to seize the moment to work with the Commonwealth government on the causes of so much of this antisocial behaviour.
What does the CLP have, Madam Speaker? A one-shot-in-the-locker, quick one-page media release policy approach to life. Put out a media release. That is their policy. In 27 years, they did nothing. They could not even provide a secondary education system in the bush after 27 years. They decimated our police force by refusing to recruit for four years. They allowed overcrowding to explode in housing across the Northern Territory. They had no focus on delivering jobs in the bush. There was zero growth in the Northern Territory economy when we came to government.
I am not saying this is easy, but we have a comprehensive approach to this right across the Northern Territory. If the CLP have a policy at all, it is on a one-page media release. We are getting on with the job. We are investing in our police force, in education, in housing, and in non-government organisations to deal with these issues. We will continue to work across the Northern Territory to reduce antisocial behaviour in our towns and cities and communities across the Territory.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016