Mrs MILLER - 2006-02-21
Tourism operators in the Territory are more and more critical about the rising incidence of drunken behaviour on the ability to sell the Northern Territory. How will your government be addressing drunken behaviour and other unsightly, ungaolable offences which continue to occur in our parks, streets and malls, other than making a lot of noise and delivering nothing other than window dressing?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I will answer the question, however, it is an awfully inaccurate question, and …
Mrs Miller: Oh, it is not. Do not be so insulting to the tourist operators.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: … full of misinformation. Let us deal with the issue of tourism. I do not believe I have misrepresented the situation today in terms of antisocial behaviour. It is a problem.
Ms Carney: It is. You should do something about it, shouldn’t you?
Madam SEPAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition!
Ms MARTIN: We have put considerable resources towards antisocial behaviour and, in regard to tourism, yes, I am concerned. It is one of the key things that drives this government to tackle the problem: we do not want visitors to our Territory being harassed, being yelled at, and sadly, it does happen.
I compliment the Northern Territory Police and the Cruise Ship Facilitation Committee, which is made up of people in the Darwin area who are involved with cruise ships, on the initiatives they have taken to deal with any antisocial behaviour when visitors, like the thousands coming off the Aurora today, come into the CBD. It has been a problem in the past. The police have responded and, can I say, joining many of those tourists in the mall at lunchtime, there was a very visible police presence. I thank our police; they are dealing with the issue. It was raised with them by the Cruise Ship Facilitation Committee. As government, we have responded, and the police have responded very well.
I am very conscious of the fact that there are occasions when antisocial behaviour does impact on tourists. It did emerge in the New Year period when there was a cruise ship in town and there has been action taken. We will continue to take that action, and we will continue to recognise that this is a difficult problem. It does not mean that we take a soft approach, we take a tough approach. We have good police resources tackling the issue, we have community patrols backing them up, and we have a whole range of strategies. However, we will not recriminalise drunkenness, Madam Speaker, we will not.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I will answer the question, however, it is an awfully inaccurate question, and …
Mrs Miller: Oh, it is not. Do not be so insulting to the tourist operators.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: … full of misinformation. Let us deal with the issue of tourism. I do not believe I have misrepresented the situation today in terms of antisocial behaviour. It is a problem.
Ms Carney: It is. You should do something about it, shouldn’t you?
Madam SEPAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition!
Ms MARTIN: We have put considerable resources towards antisocial behaviour and, in regard to tourism, yes, I am concerned. It is one of the key things that drives this government to tackle the problem: we do not want visitors to our Territory being harassed, being yelled at, and sadly, it does happen.
I compliment the Northern Territory Police and the Cruise Ship Facilitation Committee, which is made up of people in the Darwin area who are involved with cruise ships, on the initiatives they have taken to deal with any antisocial behaviour when visitors, like the thousands coming off the Aurora today, come into the CBD. It has been a problem in the past. The police have responded and, can I say, joining many of those tourists in the mall at lunchtime, there was a very visible police presence. I thank our police; they are dealing with the issue. It was raised with them by the Cruise Ship Facilitation Committee. As government, we have responded, and the police have responded very well.
I am very conscious of the fact that there are occasions when antisocial behaviour does impact on tourists. It did emerge in the New Year period when there was a cruise ship in town and there has been action taken. We will continue to take that action, and we will continue to recognise that this is a difficult problem. It does not mean that we take a soft approach, we take a tough approach. We have good police resources tackling the issue, we have community patrols backing them up, and we have a whole range of strategies. However, we will not recriminalise drunkenness, Madam Speaker, we will not.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016