Mr McCARTHY - 2008-09-11
Since the election, you have visited Alice Springs and Tennant Creek to reaffirm your commitment to both towns and, in particular, to law and order. Can the Chief Minister outline what the government has committed that will improve the operation of the police stations in these towns?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Barkly for his question. As a government we are implementing a range of initiatives, and adopting fresh ideas about policing to deliver better results in terms of safety of the community right across the Northern Territory.
Examples include our Safer Streets policy, Police Beats initiatives, and the Bagot Police Post which, together, will deliver an additional 84 police officers right across the Northern Territory, an additional 12 auxiliaries, and that is on top of the 240 extra police we have put into our police force over the last seven years.
I am also conscious of the need to provide our police with equipment and facilities to support them in their job. There is also over $13m over the next couple of years to upgrade the police communications network across the Northern Territory. We are also investing in infrastructure to provide appropriate facilities for the police to work from across the Northern Territory.
Following my visits to Alice Springs and Tennant Creek earlier in the year to meet with local police, I made a commitment during the election that we will upgrade the existing police stations in these locations. I announced $6m to redevelop the Alice Springs Police Station, which has gone down very well. That station is almost 40 years old and it does not meet the needs of the police today.
I visited Tennant Creek a few weeks before the election, met with the police there, and could see very clearly that they have outgrown the police station. There is $2.5m to upgrade Tennant Creek Police Station, and that is on top of the work that is already under way. In Casuarina, there is $8m to upgrade the police station. Anyone who had been in that police station would see that it was in dire need of total redevelopment.
We are committed to resourcing our police force, providing the personnel for our police force after the decades in which they were run down under the CLP; equipping our police force; and providing them with the laws to make the Territory a safer place. Together with the capital funding, they will provide real job and economic opportunities with the upgrades in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. We are a government that is on with the job. We have made these commitments and we will deliver on the commitments for our police force right across the Northern Territory.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Barkly for his question. As a government we are implementing a range of initiatives, and adopting fresh ideas about policing to deliver better results in terms of safety of the community right across the Northern Territory.
Examples include our Safer Streets policy, Police Beats initiatives, and the Bagot Police Post which, together, will deliver an additional 84 police officers right across the Northern Territory, an additional 12 auxiliaries, and that is on top of the 240 extra police we have put into our police force over the last seven years.
I am also conscious of the need to provide our police with equipment and facilities to support them in their job. There is also over $13m over the next couple of years to upgrade the police communications network across the Northern Territory. We are also investing in infrastructure to provide appropriate facilities for the police to work from across the Northern Territory.
Following my visits to Alice Springs and Tennant Creek earlier in the year to meet with local police, I made a commitment during the election that we will upgrade the existing police stations in these locations. I announced $6m to redevelop the Alice Springs Police Station, which has gone down very well. That station is almost 40 years old and it does not meet the needs of the police today.
I visited Tennant Creek a few weeks before the election, met with the police there, and could see very clearly that they have outgrown the police station. There is $2.5m to upgrade Tennant Creek Police Station, and that is on top of the work that is already under way. In Casuarina, there is $8m to upgrade the police station. Anyone who had been in that police station would see that it was in dire need of total redevelopment.
We are committed to resourcing our police force, providing the personnel for our police force after the decades in which they were run down under the CLP; equipping our police force; and providing them with the laws to make the Territory a safer place. Together with the capital funding, they will provide real job and economic opportunities with the upgrades in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. We are a government that is on with the job. We have made these commitments and we will deliver on the commitments for our police force right across the Northern Territory.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016