Mr MILLS - 2008-02-21
In respect to the 26 448 instances of protective custody last year, over 24 800 were, sadly, Aboriginal people - not tourists, new Australians or new Territorians. I table the addendum to the 2006-07 Police Annual Report. Is it now not patently clear that you cannot deflect, in any way, from the direct link between the additional 10 million litres of alcohol consumed in the Territory and the increased number of drunks on the streets?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It is very sad for the Territory community that we are going to have a rerun of yesterday’s Question Time in today’s Question Time, because we debated the same issues in yesterday’s Question Time that we are today. It just goes to show what a policy-free zone the opposition is, when they do not have new questions to ask today that they did not ask yesterday. There are a lot of issues affecting the Northern Territory. If we want to have a repeat of this Question Time day after day, we will.
As I said yesterday, the reason the figures show we have more people in protective custody than we had four or five years ago is because we have more police in Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs taking people into protective custody. As we have acknowledged in this parliament, we have seen, since the intervention in particular, more people coming into our urban centres, accessing alcohol, living in the long grass, with an associated rise in antisocial behaviour. That would also lead to an increase in people being taken into protective custody.
We are not denying that there is not a problem here. However, the reason there are more people in protective custody is that there are more police out there. When the CLP were in government and we had 200 fewer police in our police force, we did not have so many people in protective custody. I am sure even the CLP would not say that, in 2000-01, we did not have a problem with itinerants and public drunkenness across the Northern Territory because, yes, we did. There were more people on the streets because there were not the police out there to take people into protective custody.
We are not denying that there is a problem. We are not saying that we have solved this problem, but we have acknowledged it. We have a range of measures in place to deal with not only the consequences of antisocial behaviour, such as funding new frontline patrols that I announced earlier this week, which would be Police and Justice officers; re-funding the Night Patrol to get them back out there helping police; a report line for the public to report antisocial behaviour through to police so the appropriate agencies can be dispatched; additional temporary accommodation, with 127 extra beds, to take people off the streets. The CCTV cameras in Darwin CBD and Casuarina business district is a very strong signal that antisocial behaviour in these areas will not be tolerated and, if you do engage in offences, then you will be picked up and police will have that information. We will have a coordinator of that strategy, bringing together Territory and federal government agencies, non-government organisations and Centrelink to try to better effectively deal with the problem.
Madam Speaker, we acknowledge that we do have issues. We have 200 more police out there to deal with the issue than the CLP ever had, a comprehensive approach to how to deal with it, including increasing funding for the Return to Country program. What do the CLP have? Nothing - absolutely nothing, apart from poring over statistics and annual reports to try to paint a picture that, somehow, we are not acknowledging the problem.
This government acknowledges and deals with issues. We put in a range of measures that are funded. All the CLP can do is pore over statistics. There is not a creative policy mind amongst them. If we are going to have a re-run of yesterday’s Question Time, I am happy to have it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It is very sad for the Territory community that we are going to have a rerun of yesterday’s Question Time in today’s Question Time, because we debated the same issues in yesterday’s Question Time that we are today. It just goes to show what a policy-free zone the opposition is, when they do not have new questions to ask today that they did not ask yesterday. There are a lot of issues affecting the Northern Territory. If we want to have a repeat of this Question Time day after day, we will.
As I said yesterday, the reason the figures show we have more people in protective custody than we had four or five years ago is because we have more police in Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs taking people into protective custody. As we have acknowledged in this parliament, we have seen, since the intervention in particular, more people coming into our urban centres, accessing alcohol, living in the long grass, with an associated rise in antisocial behaviour. That would also lead to an increase in people being taken into protective custody.
We are not denying that there is not a problem here. However, the reason there are more people in protective custody is that there are more police out there. When the CLP were in government and we had 200 fewer police in our police force, we did not have so many people in protective custody. I am sure even the CLP would not say that, in 2000-01, we did not have a problem with itinerants and public drunkenness across the Northern Territory because, yes, we did. There were more people on the streets because there were not the police out there to take people into protective custody.
We are not denying that there is a problem. We are not saying that we have solved this problem, but we have acknowledged it. We have a range of measures in place to deal with not only the consequences of antisocial behaviour, such as funding new frontline patrols that I announced earlier this week, which would be Police and Justice officers; re-funding the Night Patrol to get them back out there helping police; a report line for the public to report antisocial behaviour through to police so the appropriate agencies can be dispatched; additional temporary accommodation, with 127 extra beds, to take people off the streets. The CCTV cameras in Darwin CBD and Casuarina business district is a very strong signal that antisocial behaviour in these areas will not be tolerated and, if you do engage in offences, then you will be picked up and police will have that information. We will have a coordinator of that strategy, bringing together Territory and federal government agencies, non-government organisations and Centrelink to try to better effectively deal with the problem.
Madam Speaker, we acknowledge that we do have issues. We have 200 more police out there to deal with the issue than the CLP ever had, a comprehensive approach to how to deal with it, including increasing funding for the Return to Country program. What do the CLP have? Nothing - absolutely nothing, apart from poring over statistics and annual reports to try to paint a picture that, somehow, we are not acknowledging the problem.
This government acknowledges and deals with issues. We put in a range of measures that are funded. All the CLP can do is pore over statistics. There is not a creative policy mind amongst them. If we are going to have a re-run of yesterday’s Question Time, I am happy to have it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016