Ms WALKER - 2009-02-19
Today, the Chief Minister and the Minister for Central Australia announced a major initiative to tackle youth crime, both in the immediate and the long term in Alice Springs. This is a bold, multipronged initiative that will see far greater coordination in the delivery of services in Alice Springs, and improved delivery in education and police services. Will the Chief Minister advise the House on the implementation plans for these reforms?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nhulunbuy for her question. The package of initiatives announced today is the most comprehensive action plan to tackle youth crime and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs. We as a government, and I know this parliament, take this matter seriously and we have acted accordingly.
I am grateful for the excellent work done by the member for Macdonnell, the new Minister for Central Australia, and members opposite who have Alice Springs seats. It has been a significant piece of work that has been brought together and endorsed by Cabinet, and will be funded by Cabinet, to tackle youth crime and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs.
These reforms will be implemented as from now, in a comprehensive and planned way and it will not be rushed. We will make sure of this, because these reforms involve police services, education services, service coordination and security services. They involve coordination with the Alice Springs Town Council and with the non-government sector in Alice Springs.
I pay tribute to the Mayor of Alice Springs, Damien Ryan, for the great leadership that he shows in Alice Springs, and I mean that sincerely. He works in a bipartisan way across the political spectrum and he is not a mayor who talks his town down. He talks Alice Springs up at every opportunity. He is a man who is consistently searching for solutions and does not amplify the problems.
The reforms will see the ANZAC Middle School and the Alice Springs Middle School merged into one, more effective, better focused middle school, but with two campuses. Both campuses will remain open, but they will be able to be utilised with a different focus in each area. It will be a big body of work, in consultation with everyone involved to make the best use of those two facilities. One of those facilities will be used to re-engage kids who have dropped out of the education system with innovative, different educational approaches, with a boarding school associated with it as well, to re-engage kids with the education system.
I look forward, as the debate rolls out, to seeing those schools merge into one middle school with two campuses for the beginning of the 2010 school year. Cabinet will receive an implementation brief on this in the near future.
We will be talking with the Australian government about the boarding school and proposal that has been put forward. This will be the first time there is a boarding facility on the campus of any government school in the Northern Territory. It will be very interesting as we work through the issues about the kids who will be there and how the boarding facility will be run. I look forward to working with the community as that unfolds.
The Police Beat is expected to be in place in July; we have brought that forward. It will be a key part of providing a very visible face of policing in the CBD to help reassure people and businesses in the mall, and security patrols will stay in place until the Police Beat comes online.
There has been talk about transferring CCTV monitoring to Darwin. I am open to that. I know the police have had significant difficulty recruiting police auxiliaries in Alice Springs. I believe they have had some recent success. I believe the current arrangement for monitoring in Alice Springs is not as effective as it could be - that is not denigrating the people who are monitoring that now - this is a specialist tool. We have committed an extra $1.1m to expand CCTV monitoring through the CBD, and $200 000 a year for monitoring. We are open to how the monitoring can take place better than it is now.
The youth coordinator funding will be available from now. It will be a question of how long it takes us to find the right person for the job. The Police Youth Club and the coordination of youth services will occur when this person is in place.
I thank all members who have taken part in this debate, and the member for Macdonnell, who facilitated the original meetings. I believe that once we implement this suite of initiatives, it should improve antisocial behaviour and youth crime in Alice Springs.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nhulunbuy for her question. The package of initiatives announced today is the most comprehensive action plan to tackle youth crime and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs. We as a government, and I know this parliament, take this matter seriously and we have acted accordingly.
I am grateful for the excellent work done by the member for Macdonnell, the new Minister for Central Australia, and members opposite who have Alice Springs seats. It has been a significant piece of work that has been brought together and endorsed by Cabinet, and will be funded by Cabinet, to tackle youth crime and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs.
These reforms will be implemented as from now, in a comprehensive and planned way and it will not be rushed. We will make sure of this, because these reforms involve police services, education services, service coordination and security services. They involve coordination with the Alice Springs Town Council and with the non-government sector in Alice Springs.
I pay tribute to the Mayor of Alice Springs, Damien Ryan, for the great leadership that he shows in Alice Springs, and I mean that sincerely. He works in a bipartisan way across the political spectrum and he is not a mayor who talks his town down. He talks Alice Springs up at every opportunity. He is a man who is consistently searching for solutions and does not amplify the problems.
The reforms will see the ANZAC Middle School and the Alice Springs Middle School merged into one, more effective, better focused middle school, but with two campuses. Both campuses will remain open, but they will be able to be utilised with a different focus in each area. It will be a big body of work, in consultation with everyone involved to make the best use of those two facilities. One of those facilities will be used to re-engage kids who have dropped out of the education system with innovative, different educational approaches, with a boarding school associated with it as well, to re-engage kids with the education system.
I look forward, as the debate rolls out, to seeing those schools merge into one middle school with two campuses for the beginning of the 2010 school year. Cabinet will receive an implementation brief on this in the near future.
We will be talking with the Australian government about the boarding school and proposal that has been put forward. This will be the first time there is a boarding facility on the campus of any government school in the Northern Territory. It will be very interesting as we work through the issues about the kids who will be there and how the boarding facility will be run. I look forward to working with the community as that unfolds.
The Police Beat is expected to be in place in July; we have brought that forward. It will be a key part of providing a very visible face of policing in the CBD to help reassure people and businesses in the mall, and security patrols will stay in place until the Police Beat comes online.
There has been talk about transferring CCTV monitoring to Darwin. I am open to that. I know the police have had significant difficulty recruiting police auxiliaries in Alice Springs. I believe they have had some recent success. I believe the current arrangement for monitoring in Alice Springs is not as effective as it could be - that is not denigrating the people who are monitoring that now - this is a specialist tool. We have committed an extra $1.1m to expand CCTV monitoring through the CBD, and $200 000 a year for monitoring. We are open to how the monitoring can take place better than it is now.
The youth coordinator funding will be available from now. It will be a question of how long it takes us to find the right person for the job. The Police Youth Club and the coordination of youth services will occur when this person is in place.
I thank all members who have taken part in this debate, and the member for Macdonnell, who facilitated the original meetings. I believe that once we implement this suite of initiatives, it should improve antisocial behaviour and youth crime in Alice Springs.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016