2008-02-19
Madam Speaker Aagaard took the Chair at 12 noon.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received a letter from the Leader of Government Business proposing changes to membership of Assembly committees, with effect from 18 February 2008, as follows:
Environment and Sustainable Development Committee: the member for Daly be discharged and the member for Arnhem be appointed;
Substance Abuse Committee: the member for Daly be discharged and the member for Port Darwin be appointed; and
Sport and Youth Committee: the member for Daly be discharged and the member for Macdonnell be appointed.
I table the letter from the Leader of Government Businesses.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly agree to the changes to Assembly committees as contained in the letter tabled.
Motion agreed to.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I table the Administrative Arrangements Order of Government dated 15 February 2008 in the Northern Territory Gazette No S8. The arrangements are as follows:
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I advise that the member for Brennan has been elected as Government Whip.
Mr McADAM (Barkly): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 1478 petitioners praying that a regional prison be located in Tennant Creek. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
Mr KIELY (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, as we know, Darwin was Australia’s front line in World War II and has a rich war time history. Last year, this government added several significant World War II heritage sites in the Top End to the Northern Territory Heritage List. The 17 Mile Camp, the Strauss antiaircraft gun emplacement, the Pell Airfield RAAF engineering workshops, and the Noonamah cricket pitch and oval were all added to the Heritage Register in 2007.
Many may not know that Alice Springs also played a significant role in the defence of Australia during World War II. I am pleased to inform the House today that there are seven sites around Spencer Hill that we are also adding to the Heritage List: the detention compound; the magazine store; the power station site; the concrete slab inscribed site, the concrete slab site, the kitchen site, and the vehicle maintenance site will all be added to the Heritage Register.
These military sites located around the base and east of Spencer Hill developed as a direct response to a strategic requirement to supply Darwin and the Top End of the Northern Territory during World War II. Established from April 1942 following the arrival of 147 and 148 Australian General Transport Companies at Alice Springs, the sites were collectively an important component of camp areas established to administer units, accommodate personnel, and provide a range of maintenance and service facilities to the largest fleet of vehicles used for convoy duties along the ‘Track’ to Darwin and the Top End of the Territory. Both the 147 and 148 AGTCS were replaced by the 121 and 122 AGTCS from December 1942 and, with an increase in the numbers of convoys and the supplies they transported, the area evolved as the camps expanded to meet the demand of the operational units to the north.
Alice Springs played a vital role in the supply of operational units in the north, and the military population and infrastructure expanded rapidly to meet strategic requirements. Much of the infrastructure installed by the military played an important part in the post-war development of the town and region.
Following the cessation of hostilities in 1945, the main camp areas south of Spencer Hill were developed as a residential area, the old East Side. Plans to develop the area in the 1980s were opposed by resident groups and the site remained a recreation reserve.
Spencer Hill was named for the noted anthropologist in 1952, and was declared a sacred site in July 1998, acknowledging its significance to the Arrernte, who call it Tyuretye. The former World War II sites around the base and next to Spencer Hill collectively form one of the very few military sites and one of the only two associated with wartime convoys in the Alice Springs area, and represent a significant part of the heritage of the town and region.
The Territory is unique. Our people and our landscape were touched like no other in Australia by World War II. As we remember those involved in the Bombing of Darwin today, I believe it is appropriate that we also recall that the whole Territory played a significant role in World War II. Heritage listing these sites will ensure that our history and our appreciation of those who served in Alice Springs is recognised and preserved.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his report this morning associated with World War II. It is an appropriate day to be discussing it following the commemoration this morning. This morning would have highlighted to us what terrible conditions those people fought under at that time. Most times when we are here commemorating the Bombing of Darwin, it is usually hot and we have sweat pouring off us, so today was a different scenario.
You are right to talk about the contribution of Central Australia to World War II. We talk about Darwin all the time, naturally, because this is where the centre of all the activity was, but other parts of the Northern Territory were also involved with the war effort.
One thing I do want to mention today, minister, is the World War II Museum. I know that when it was first announced it was going to be placed next to this building. I had this horrible thought: ‘Why in the hell would you do that?’ Thank goodness there has been overwhelming support from the public to say that that it is not a good location and it should be at East Point with other structures significant to World War II. I hope the minister will look at that seriously and listen to what the people and the community are saying, and really uplift that area. It would make such a difference to all of those people who come, not only to commemorate and remember World War II, but also to make it a really good tourism precinct for World War II.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Katherine, your time has expired.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his report. I also support what the member for Katherine has said. I have said in parliament before that I believe that the World War II museum placed next to this building would be inappropriate. This building, with the balance it has with the two lawn areas on either side, would be spoilt by putting the museum next door to it. It would be great if it could be put at East Point. If there are some problems with that, I hope the government could work through those issues.
I thank the government for the work it has done in declaring World War II heritage sites, especially the Strauss cricket ground. There have been times when, if it had been left as it was, it could have been threatened by other developments, so I appreciate what the government has done.
Minister, I also note a letter you sent me in relation to a concern expressed to me by Mr Bob Walker from New South Wales who visited Darwin last year. He was concerned about the receipt and despatch buildings at the RAAF Base. He had heard that that building was going to be demolished. His understanding of that building was that it was there during World War II, and still has, I gather, bullet holes and shrapnel in it. I appreciate, minister, that you have written to me saying that you will look into it. I also received a letter from Damien Hale, who has also said the same thing.
I appreciate this government and the Commonwealth government’s attempts to retain our heritage, which I believe is not only important from a historical point of view, but also from an economic one in relation to tourism.
Mr KIELY (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, I thank the members for Katherine and Nelson for their input. I believe it shows bipartisan support and the way we view our heritage is bipartisan. It is a Territory thing and it does not belong to any one particular party.
In regard to the siting of the World War II museum, it is in the public arena now and this government is seeking feedback from the public. I was there on the weekend at the open display at the Artillery Museum. Fay Karamanakis is to be commended for her passion and her effort. I had quite a good chat with her. The community is out on where a museum will be. It seems that there is very strong support for one. Let us not forget the multitude of sites that we have. We have the fortifications at East Point; the Adelaide River War Memorial Cemetery, which is very moving; the fortifications on Casuarina Beach; and the Adelaide River Snake Gully …
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Mr VATSKALIS (Defence Support): Madam Speaker, today we remember the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin. Defence has played an important role in the socioeconomic development of the Northern Territory since the establishment of Fort Dundas on Melville Island in 1824.
I am very proud of the efforts of our government and my Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development for their role and efforts to maximise the opportunities for local business in relation to Defence support. The Northern Territory is the only state or territory to have a Minister for Defence Support. We have done so because of the importance we place on this area for the current and future development of the Territory. Today, around 10% of all Australian permanent Defence Force personnel are based in the Northern Territory. Almost 13 000 Defence personnel and families reside in the Northern Territory, making up about 6% of our population. Residents of Darwin and Palmerston are familiar with the Defence Force as neighbours but Defence is also an important contributor to the regional population of the Territory too, Alice Springs and Katherine in particular. Defence also contributes to other regions and indigenous communities through the operation of Norforce, which I understand is the largest employer of indigenous people in the Northern Territory.
The Defence industry is an important and growing industry and, in recognition of this, last year I launched the Northern Territory Defence Support Industry Development Strategy 2007-2017. The arrival in the Territory of the Armidale class patrol boats, Abrams tanks, Tiger helicopters, and a variety of other new platforms brings new and highly complex technology and more Defence personnel to the Territory. This new equipment means that Northern Territory businesses will need to develop new technical capabilities if they are to participate in evolving technology being delivered by prime contractors.
Last year, I led a number of business delegations to interstate conferences and expos. Eight Northern Territory businesses travelled to the Land Warfare Conference as part of the Northern Territory government and industry exhibit promoting our local industry capability that supports defence. Business such as RANms, Dawson’s Diesel, Carcom, North Australian Technologies, and others were all enthusiastic participants. Northern Territory delegates were given the opportunity to actively promote their individual capabilities to Defence and Defence prime contractors attending the conference. I was proud of our business capabilities and professionalism.
Members would be well aware of the Defence Support Hub being developed close to Robertson Barracks. The growing Defence presence in the Territory is increasing demand for infrastructure and the Defence Support Hub is a major initiative of the Northern Territory government to allow the Defence support industry to align its capability to deliver support to Defence for their equipment and technology.
I spoke earlier about the value of the Defence presence and its contribution to the Northern Territory. This large Defence presence in the Territory requires a high level of support, not only for personnel, but for their families. Defence wives, husbands and partners represent an important part of the community and workforce. They often bring skills and experience eagerly sought by industry, the public service and non-government organisations. They include teachers, nurses, childcare workers, shop assistants, secretaries, small business owners - the list goes on. They all enjoy the Territory’s lifestyle but, importantly, contribute to the growth of the Northern Territory’s economy and population. Each year, many Defence members and their families are posted to the Territory for an average of two years, making them an important integral part of the Territory’s economy and community.
The Territory government understands the challenges each posting brings, such as finding new schools and childcare for children, partners finding work, and families establishing new networks. To help Australian Defence Force families get the most from their Top End posting, the government made a commitment in the lead-up to the last election to introduce a ‘Defence Support For Families’ package of measures to support Defence Force families. The cornerstone of this package has been the establishment of a Defence Community Liaison position within the Defence Support Division of the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development. This office will organise ‘Welcome to the Territory’ expos that will be held for Defence families in interstate locations prior to any major relocation of Defence units to the Territory. The expo will deliver information about life in the Territory, school and childcare services, job opportunities and health services.
It is great to see people still commemorating the bombing of Darwin as an important event. The Northern Territory government recognises the importance of the Defence presence in the Territory in the past and will continue to support the presence in the future.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for the statement. It is a good day to make a report to this House given the Bombing of Darwin commemoration. With respect, not a lot was new in your report. You will remember towards the end of last year there was a ministerial statement which involved a relatively lengthy debate. Many issues were covered then. With respect, it seems that your report is a summarised highlight of that debate.
Minister, you referred once again to the defence hub. It is, in fact, a notice of intention by the Labor government in the Territory and every so often, one or another of you bobs up and says: ‘Oh, we are going to deliver this defence hub.’ You outlined what it will do. You touched upon what it is. Perhaps, you would be good enough to tell us when it is going to materialise?
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his report. He said that our defence facilities are seen in Darwin and Palmerston, but many of them are in the rural area. The major ones are there such as the Shoal Bay Transmitter Station, the Humpty Doo Naval Facility, and Kowandi North and Kowandi South which are now called the Howard Springs Defence Base. Robertson Barracks is a most important part of our community and I hope one day to see a master plan for it. I have been pushing this issue for a long time as we need a second entrance to the Robertson Barracks. The amount of traffic coming out of Robertson Barracks affects residential areas. Minister, if you could push something through with the Commonwealth Department of Defence in relation to speeding that up, it would be most appreciated. I am sure the residents of Knuckeys Lagoon would also appreciate that.
In relation to the Defence Support Hub, I noticed a block of land out there that is meant to be the Defence Support Hub. I know they have laid a water line out to there so far, or some sort of communication channel, and that is about all that has happened. I would advise, minister, that you have a look at that particular site. When it went to planning, we said many times that part of that site goes under water. If you go out there you would get a wonderful reflection of the magnetic anthills on the bottom third of that block. It is amazing that under planning that part was approved for a defence hub. That is the decision of the Planning Authority and, unfortunately, that is the way they want to go.
I note that there is also a helicopter service facility up for approval at the old piggery site. I am not sure if that is going to be related to the defence area. If it is, and if you have any information on that, minister, it would be appreciated. We all support what the defence does in our community. They have been a major part of our history, play an important part in the development of the north and will continue to do so. Thank you for your report.
Mr VATSKALIS (Defence Support): Madam Speaker, I thank the members for their responses. I always like it when the member for Araluen leads with her chin. The reason the hub is not completed is that we have had many inquiries and expressions of interest, all conditional on the approval by the federal government of the defence procurement and the awarding of contracts, which the current federal Leader of the Opposition and incompetent ex-Defence minister withdrew and caused to be delayed for another year.
If you do not believe me, you only had to watch the 7.30 Report yesterday and hear the statements by defence experts about the $23bn procurement that all went wrong. Everything was summed up by the current Minister for Defence’s statement that he had inherited a nightmare.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, starting back at school is always an exciting time for students and, in the Territory this year, it was an even more exciting time for the 32 500 government school students and the 2500 teachers with the full implementation of a number of important initiatives.
The start of the 2008 school year sees the Year 7s joining the Year 8s and 9s in the middle schools across the Territory. The Northern Territory government has invested $87.7m in Building Better Schools in the Territory to equip our students to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Building Better Schools came out of the review of secondary education in the Territory, led by Dr Gregor Ramsey. The government accepted most of the review’s 52 recommendations and we are now seeing these implemented across the Territory. The focus is on improving literacy and numeracy outcomes of our students in the middle years and preparing those students for their senior years.
Beside the infrastructure, the Northern Territory government has invested in qualified counsellors and career advisors in secondary schools; more funds for Vocational Education and Training; developed a new staffing formula for schools - middle schools are staffed on a 1:17 student to teacher ratio; a quality leading-edge distance education service with new interactive distance learning studio in Katherine; providing specialist teachers for remote schools and more support services for remote schools including an indigenous student leadership and mentorship program; and developing a teaching and learning framework to improve the delivery of classroom programs.
The system-wide focus on secondary education is seeing results. In 2007, 985 students achieved their Northern Territory Certificate of Education compared with 933 in 2006, and I am confident these numbers will keep increasing.
Compulsory school uniforms for Transition to Year 9 students in government schools started at the beginning of the 2008 school year. This policy followed considerable feedback from school councils and parents. The government’s intention with this policy is to minimise clothing cost burdens for parents, promote a positive school image, and eliminate the negative social pressures on students of keeping up with fashion and brand names, which any parent of a teenager will tell you is a constant headache. Under the policy, each government school, in conjunction with the parent and the respective school councils, has developed its own school uniform policy.
Many parents across the Territory are using the Northern Territory government’s $50 Back to School Voucher to offset the cost of purchasing school uniforms. The Back to School Voucher has been well received by parents. It helps a little at that time of the year when Territory families can be feeling the pinch. I was at Nightcliff Primary School with the member for Nightcliff on the first day of school, welcoming the children starting school for the first time. It was lovely to see every child walking through the front gate with their new school uniforms and a smile on their face. Every parent who spoke to me said making school uniforms compulsory was a positive move.
The annual presentation ceremonies for the Northern Territory Board of Studies in Darwin and Alice Springs are very much a tradition and firmly marked in the education calendar. The Board of Studies ceremony recognises the students who have the highest scores in their NT Certificate of Education; that is, those students who, through their hard work and commitment to study over their 12 years of schooling, have achieved remarkable results. The ceremony also recognised the achievement of our top Vocational Education and Training students, as well as outstanding primary school students who would now be starting their middle year schooling.
As I said earlier, 2007 was an exceptional year for students in education, with 29 students scoring the top 20 scores with aggregate subject achievement scores of 90 to 99. These scores will get these students into any university in the country. I particularly mention Kelly Beneforti from Casuarina Secondary College who was the highest-scoring Year 12 student in the Territory, with a score of 99 out of 100.
Madam Speaker, it has been a good year for education. I congratulate all of those students, their families, and sincerely thank the teachers and principals. It will be a great year this year with middle schools. It has started off positively. I congratulate the previous Education ministers for listening to parents and the school community and making those policy changes which have been beneficial to every Territory family with school-aged children.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I, too, commend those who are involved in the commencement of this school year – the teachers, the school principals, the administrators, front office staff, and the school parent councils. They carry the greater load in implementing a plan that government has announced.
When government describes this as an education reform, and then points to the amount of money that has been spent, we have to ask the question. An education reform focuses not so much on buildings which are incomplete in Palmerston, and buses which we have problems with, particularly in Palmerston, but it goes to more important things, such as the structure and the nature of the curriculum and the strengthening of the teaching profession. That is what a real education reform is about.
You talked about Professor Gregor Ramsey, and say you have just about implemented all of the recommendations in that review. However, there was one important recommendation that has been overlooked, and I believe it is critical if you are talking about improvements in education, and that is the educational standards unit, that facility to measure the improvement in education. Now, the Productivity Commission runs that kind of line over our educational improvement, and there are clearly challenges there for the enterprise of education in the Northern Territory.
Minister, I welcome you and congratulate you on taking up this great challenge. There are some achievements of the Labor government in education, particularly delivery of remote education. Noel Pearson has said some very interesting things in collaboration with Macquarie University. I am wondering whether you have a response to those initiatives which will add well to the concerns about raising the quality of the remote teaching profession. I support those ideas and I look forward to hearing a comment on those and further opportunities to discuss education matters in the Territory.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, I also hope that the minister brings on a statement about education, because there are too many things that we can talk about in a short report. Yes, you are right, it is good to see the kids go back so successfully.
Twenty-five years ago, Sadadeen Primary School opened, and who was the inaugural principal? Yours truly. So I hope you are going to celebrate this year some way with Sadadeen Primary. It is a great school. We talk about flexible school hours and flexible ways schools accommodate children. They have their lunchtime at 10.30 am because the kids are hungry by then, and they go to about 11.15 am and then they have a short break at lunch time, 12 noon to 12.30 pm. It is a good way of accommodating young children who, as we all know, get up early. They might get up at 6.30 am for school, get to school and are often hungry by 10.30 am. Sadadeen Primary is a great school and we are hoping to have great celebrations this year.
I also want to talk about flexible school hours. Much has been discussed about it, but it is my understanding that bush schools, in particular, have flexible school hours. I hope that is continued because, quite often, in summer, it is good to get up early and, in winter it is good to sleep in a bit later. I have had some feedback about some of the holiday programs utilising school facilities. There are millions of dollars in school facilities throughout the Territory, and I am not sure that we make enough use of our schools out of school hours. They are just some of the things I would like to discuss with you and, perhaps, you could bring on a statement for us.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I thank both members for their contribution. Education is an important area for all of us. It affects all of us, it is about our children and grandchildren. It is about the future of the next generation.
The member for Blain raised the issue of standards and an important recommendation that was left out of the Ramsey report. That is not true. The Department of Education has implemented a standards unit and they are looking at urban as well as remote. There is a lot of work going on internally in the department to address, particularly, the capacity of our remote communities working with principals and working with those schools, and that same work is also being conducted through our urban schools.
Member for Braitling, I will be presenting a fuller statement on education from urban to remote. There are a number of good things happening out there and often they do not get said. I will be bringing on a statement to look at all of those issues which we can debate further.
Reports noted pursuant to standing orders.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have given my leave to the member for Nelson to make a personal explanation. I remind honourable members that a personal explanation is not a debate. I ask you to listen to the member in silence.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, recently, the Minister for Planning and Lands read from a letter I had written to the Development Consent Authority regarding a rezoning application to expand the existing Commercial zone C and rezone the remaining land at Coolalinga RR, Rural Living; CB, Caravan Park; CL, Community Living; SU, Specific Use; and CN, Conservation.
The minister indicated to the House that I had not supported the application. She then read out various lines from my letter, which was tabled at that time and highlighted. These were the lines that were read out: ‘I could not support that waiver of a minimum lot size’. Then she read: ‘I know there is need in the rural area for an aged care facility. This proposal does not fit the bill’.
In relation to caravan park tourists she said, quoting from my letter: ‘Although I do not have a problem with a caravan park per se, there seems to be some confusion as to what clientele this caravan park is being built for. The heading says ‘tourist’ but the notes speak about ‘a housing choice for the community’. Is this to be a tourist park or a permanent caravan park? Each would need a different approach in design.’ The minister then goes straight on and says, and I am quoting from Hansard, it finishes with the words: ‘I could not support the proposal.’
Madam Speaker, I would like to read the whole letter so that I can explain the essence of the letter and others can make their own judgment about whether parliament’s leg was being pulled the other night. My letter was not an objection. If it had been I would have started off the letter with the words ‘I object’ but instead I wrote:
In the next line I wrote:
That is the basis on which I wrote the letter.
The next paragraph related to the RR zone and I wrote:
This is the section the minister quoted:
Then I went on to say:
Madam Speaker, you will note that what I wrote was: ‘I would support it if the minimum lot size was 1 ha’, but the minister only highlighted the words: ‘I could not support that waiver of the minimum lot size.’
We come to the section on the proposed aged care facility. This is what I wrote:
The minister joined the first part of the second line there; she said: ‘The site, 1.25 ha, is too small’. Then she added the last six words from the next sentence: ‘but it needs to be done properly’. She took two phrases out of context. The bit in the middle is deliberately left out. This is sometimes called a sin of omission.
The minister’s quote about the caravan park is accurate and says that I clearly had no problem with the caravan park, but then the minister drags a sentence from the end of the page and attaches it to a paragraph that it does not relate to. You would not know that the minister had done that without reading the letter. I will point out that on the second page of my letter, the second paragraph in the caravan park/tourist section, the words: ‘I could not support the proposal’ came from the last paragraph and are attached to that paragraph.
Mrs Braham: Misleading.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order, I do not think.
Ms LAWRIE: The member for Braitling just said ‘misleading’. I know that members can only do so by way of substantive motion.
Madam SPEAKER: I ask you to withdraw. Can we just listen to the rest of this explanation in silence, please? It is not a debate. Member for Nelson, I had advised you it needed to be very short.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Honourable members, order! Member for Nelson, please continue.
Mr WOOD: Thank you, Madam Speaker. There is a section on the commercial zone, about which I said I do not have a problem with proposed commercial development which is already permitted on that site at Coolalinga. I made some notes saying:
There was also a note about the traffic works. I had seen maps that I had not seen before, and I wrote:
My last paragraph was:
Madam Speaker, you could construe that I was referring to the whole proposal but, if you read it in context, that was not the intention. Otherwise, that would not have said ‘residential development’ in the paragraph. You need to read it as a whole.
Like other letters I have sent to the planning authority, you can support an application subject to changes. Put in this context, I supported the commercial zone, the main part of this development, and a development I believe many people wanted. I could support the residential development as long as it was within a district centre, which the minister could have mentioned if she had wanted to. The whole plan is actually within the Coolalinga locality. Of course, I support an aged-care facility. I said it should be bigger. Regarding the caravan park, I wanted to know what type of caravan park it was going to be. I was not disagreeing with a caravan park.
We have a letter, when read as a whole, showing there was support for the proposal, subject to changes in the residential zone to allow for smaller lots. This letter also goes to the planning authority, and the planning authority also has minutes. I will not read all the minutes. However, if you read the minutes, you will see - as it happens in planning authority meetings - you have a chance to talk to the developer. The developer also can bring in new ideas. You will find that anyone at a planning authority meeting can adjust their views accordingly, because that is what planning is about.
My letter, minister, was to put forward some positive changes to the application, hoping that the minister would consider changing the Coolalinga District Centre …
Mr Kiely: This is going …
Mr WOOD: No, it is not, because this is the essence of the letter. The essence was hoping that the minister would …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I was always under the impression that something like this was about getting the record right on what was tabled or said in parliament. The member seems to be going right into the debate and explaining his own actions.
Mr Mills: No, he is not.
Mrs Miller: No, he is just giving an explanation.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr KIELY: I think he is going a little beyond what this ...
Madam SPEAKER: The minister is certainly correct in that you are not allowed to introduce any new material. Member for Nelson, have you nearly completed your statement?
Mr WOOD: I have, but as I said ...
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Nelson, you advised me you had two pages in total. How much longer is it?
Mr WOOD: I am coming to the conclusion. That is it.
Mr Kiely: That was just the intro.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Nelson, if you could please hasten your explanation. Please do it as quickly as possible.
Mr WOOD: Okay. Madam Speaker, when you read the whole letter, the correct transcript of the planning meeting, and the comments I have made elsewhere, it can be quickly seen the minister was trying to pull a swifty on the parliament in an attempt to deflect criticism ..
Ms Lawrie: Not at all! You are hypocritical.
Mr WOOD: Madam Speaker, I support the application. I had concerns about sections of the application, and that is what the essence of the letter was to the planning authority.
WORKERS REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 135)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill now be read a second time.
The bill will amend matters addressed by the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, the mediation process, the deemed acceptance of a deferred claim, and the anomalies that exist for prescribed volunteers.
The bill will reduce the length of time workers have to wait before making applications to the Work Health Court and provide full disclosure of medical reports for the mediation process. Also, the bill will address an unfortunate anomaly in the act by making provisions for the deeming of a workers compensation claim to have been accepted if the employer does not notify the worker of a decision to accept or dispute the claim within 56 days of a decision to defer liability. The bill will also address the unfair advantage of prescribed volunteers to receive financial compensation greater than that currently available to other Territory workers.
In 2004, a review of the Northern Territory’s Workers Compensation Scheme mediation process was conducted. A report of the review findings was compiled, and all seven recommendations from the review were approved by the former Minister for Employment, Education and Training. The two outstanding recommendations needing to be addressed require legislative amendment. Currently, when a dispute arises between an injured worker and their employer’s insurer, prior to a person making application to the Work Health Court for a hearing, they must participate in the Work Health Authority’s mediation process. This requirement has been established to provide an avenue by which a dispute can be resolved without instituting legal proceedings.
Once a request for mediation is received, NT WorkSafe must refer the matter to a mediator within seven days. The mediator then has 28 days in which to complete the mediation process. The review found the 28 day time frame too long. The worker, who would have had their workers compensation benefit denied or reduced, are often stressed and find any delay in obtaining redress difficult. The review recommended that the mediation time frame be reduced to 21 days.
Recommendation 2 was that full disclosure of all medical reports be required prior to a mediation conference occurring. Currently, once appointed, the mediator is provided with copies of all documents supplied to NT WorkSafe by the parties seeking to mediate an issue. However, the worker may not possess copies of all medical reports the insurer has obtained. The insurance company only has to provide NT WorkSafe with a copy of the medical reports they rely on to dispute liability. All other information can be withheld, for example, reports of medical practitioners who are consulted by the insurer but support the worker’s argument. The worker may know a medical report exists because a particular doctor has examined him or her. The worker may have an understanding of the doctor’s possibly supportive view as a result of a conversation during examination.
The review found the value of mediation as a low cost, efficient means of resolving disputed claims is currently being hindered in successfully resolving disputes by the fact that full disclosure of medical reports is not provided for in the act. Therefore, a number of matters that may otherwise be resolved through mediation proceed to the Work Health Court. Workers do not approach the court specifically to gain access to these reports. They make application to the court to resolve the issue in dispute, knowing that, in the process, these reports, which were not offered up prior to or during mediation, must now be provided to all parties and considered by the court. It is submitted that full disclosure of all medical reports prior to a mediation conference will facilitate a fairer and timelier resolution of the dispute.
Addressing the anomaly regarding the deeming of a workers compensation claim will close an unintentional loophole that may afford the insurer a benefit for not making a decision on a claim. An insurer, within 10 working days after receiving a claim for compensation, must notify the worker who lodged the claim that it either accepts liability, defers accepting liability, or disputes liability for compensation. When a deferral occurs, it is usually to provide the employer and their insurer with an opportunity to investigate matters pertaining to the claim. A deferral remains in force for up to 56 days after the worker has been notified of the decision to defer. However, if a decision to accept or deny liability is not made in that time, payment of weekly benefits will continue until such time as a decision is made and the worker notified.
During the deferral period, the injured worker cannot receive reimbursement for medical, other treatment or rehabilitation costs except for injuries involving mental stress. The proposed amendment will allow the worker to receive reimbursement for medical, other treatment and rehabilitation costs from the first day they became entitled to compensation and will give the necessary incentive to the employer and their insurer to make a timely decision as to liability following an earlier decision to defer.
Addressing the anomaly regarding the prescribed volunteer section of the act will remove the current opportunity for injured prescribed volunteers to receive workers compensation benefits for life on top of their normal salary from their usual employment. NT WorkSafe was advised of a claim involving a volunteer bushfire fighter. This claim has drawn attention to the anomalies associated with section 66 of that act. In particular, it is anomalous that a prescribed volunteer, which is unlike other workers pursuant to section 66 of the act, in conjunction with regulation 8 is entitled to at least 50% of average weekly earnings, which is currently $516.50 per week, for as long as he or she has any level of impairment as a result of their injury regardless of any income they may be receiving as a result of being employed.
A worker is considered to be demonstrating impairment if not working full-time in their normal pre-injury duties. For example, in the reported case, the injured volunteer bushfire fighter had returned to full-time employment, but because he retained a minor knee injury that prevented him from being able to climb ladders, he is entitled to benefits pursuant to section 66 and regulation 8 for life.
This bill will reduce the length of time that workers have to wait before being able to make an application to the court; provide for the full disclosure of medical reports in an effort to reduce the number of disputes being referred to the court; close the loopholes in the legislation with regards to the deeming of a claim to have been accepted; and remove the current capacity for injured prescribed volunteers to receive workers compensation benefits for life on top of the salary for full-time employment.
Madam Speaker, I table the explanatory statement. I commend the bill to honourable members.
Debate adjourned.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr BURNS (Racing, Gaming and Licensing): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Liquor Act and liquor regulations to provide for an identification system for the sale of takeaway liquor in Alice Springs, Katherine, Pine Creek, Mataranka and Victoria River; and to remedy a minor drafting error in the Liquor Amendment Regulations 2007 in relation to the Gove identification system.
The Northern Territory government is committed to reducing liquor-related harm in the Northern Territory. Controlling the supply of liquor is an essential part of this government’s strategy to combat alcohol abuse and the serious social and health problems that result from such abuse. In Katherine and Alice Springs, the consumption of liquor and the number of alcohol-related incidents causing harm to these communities is completely unacceptable. Community leaders and members have requested the government step in immediately to reduce the incidence of public fighting, domestic violence, indecent behaviour and obscene language that occurs all too often because of alcohol abuse. For the Katherine and Alice Springs communities this is a very serious issue that requires immediate, dramatic counter measures. The slight inconvenience of this new system will be more than compensated by the reduction in crime and antisocial behaviour caused by people who should not have access to alcohol. These reforms, along with others being introduced by the Northern Territory government, will support these communities to address these very serious issues.
In Alice Springs, initiatives introduced, such as the increase in public restricted areas, are already demonstrating improvements for this community. We must now build on this improvement.
The Liquor Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 will provide for an identification system in Katherine, Alice Springs, Pine Creek, Mataranka and Victoria River. Select takeaway licences will be required to scan identification from a customer before any sale of liquor.
Upon scanning, a computer-based system will reveal if the customer is subject to any court restrictions in regard to their purchase of liquor. The licensees will be required to comply with these restrictions. The bill establishes licence conditions for affected licensees, creates penalties for non-compliance with those conditions, and identifies which licensees the system will apply to.
The bill imposes the following new conditions on affected licensees and their staff: an obligation to scan a customer’s identification before any sale of liquor; an obligation not to sell liquor to a customer contrary to any prohibition revealed by the identification system; an obligation not to disclose or use any information learned from the system, other than in compliance with this proposal; and an obligation not to damage or tamper with the scanner or the hardware or software system associated with it.
Each of these conditions is also an offence if contravened, attracting a maximum penalty of $2200 or an on-the-spot fine of up to $220. The option of a prosecution or infringement notice will be available for each of these offences. It is a defence to a prosecution if the offending party has a reasonable excuse. An example of a reasonable excuse will be if the scanning system is not operating properly.
The information on the licensee’s system will be linked to a database created by the Office of Courts Administration. The courts will enter data, following an order made by the court. The court, at present, has the capacity to make orders in the following context: a prohibition notice, pursuant to the Liquor Act; an alcohol intervention order, pursuant to the Alcohol Court Act; a domestic violence order that limits or prohibits alcohol purchases - currently, this would be a domestic violence order granted by the court, not an order granted by police; and a bail condition that limits or prohibits alcohol purchases - again, this only applies to court bail not police bail. Both police domestic violence orders and police bail have been excluded from the operation of the system as it is acknowledged such orders may be changed in a short time by the court or may be removed. Administratively, this quick change in circumstances would make it difficult to guarantee that the court’s database is up-to-date and accurate. Accuracy is essential; these forms of orders have, therefore, been excluded to ensure accuracy of the database.
The bill also identifies what type of identification can be used under this system. It allows the use of a driver’s licence, a passport, or any other identification approved by the Director of Licensing. This list includes 19 forms of domestic identification, including unique forms of indigenous identification, and 150-plus international forms of identification. Considerable work has been undertaken to ensure that the system will not unfairly discriminate against any one sector of the community.
Amendments to the regulations will also identify which licensees this system will apply to. It will only apply to the takeaway operation of these licensees. Clubs are excluded from the system because they already have strict conditions imposed on their licences - to only sell to club members - and can lose their licence if they sell outside of these conditions.
This system will enable better enforcement of court orders that impose liquor restrictions. It will help to prevent members of the community who behave in violent or antisocial ways when affected by alcohol from purchasing alcohol.
These are serious measures that are designed to substantially reduce alcohol-related harm in these communities. My strong preference is to work cooperatively with licensees to install and introduce the identification system during March, before its use becomes compulsory, following the passage and commencement of this bill. To that end, an extensive training and education campaign is under way. However, I acknowledge that many in the Alice Springs and Katherine communities see this as an emergency situation. I will, therefore, be keeping a close eye on progress, and uptake by licensees, to determine whether further steps are necessary prior to its formal commencement.
Finally, I note that the bill also attends to a minor drafting error in the Liquor Amendment Regulations 2007, which are yet to commence. The correction is to explicitly state that the regulations amend the liquor regulations. Whilst this intent is apparent on the face of the amending regulations, it was thought appropriate to make this clear beyond doubt. These regulations relate to the roll-out of a different identification system in Gove.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Mr Earl Irving, Consul General of the United States of America. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend to you a warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the member for Fannie Bay be granted leave of absence for today as she is unwell.
Motion agreed to.
Continued from 29 November 2007.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, it is the intention of the opposition to support this bill. There are a number of important issues covered in this bill. We acknowledge that there is some give and take in the application of these improved measures which will ensure a smooth process.
However, there seems to be a lack of discretion when it comes to the agent who is able to adjudicate in these matters and it says they must ensure that there are no complaints regarding the process. I am wondering why the word ‘must’ is there rather than ‘should’. There seems to be a lack of discretion built into it. That is just a matter of clarification that is sought.
Apart from that, rather than take unnecessary time to go through it and recap, generally the position of the opposition is one of support, acknowledging that there is some give and take as it applies to developers. We look forward to the progress of this bill.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, these amendments are a first tranche of amendments to this particular legislation regarding land title and related matters. This legislation needs to be able to change in keeping pace with changes in modern life. We have seen many unit developments in and around Darwin, and in some of the older suburbs like Stuart Park, which are strongly affected by this legislation. There have been some amendments since 1976 when this legislation came into being – that was the two bits of legislation that affect this particular area, the Unit Titles Act and the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act.
These amendments are the first tranche of amendments that are to do with where these acts impinge on the Planning Act. As was said in the second reading speech, there will be further amendments to make this area contemporary and change the law.
It mainly pertains to subdivision provisions of the Planning Act. It has been a little while since I was Planning minister but I understand that one of the problems is that there have been distortions around the consent process for some particular types of development. In other words, people do not have to go through a consent process, for example, if you are subdividing an R2 block or what was formerly an R2 block in a place like Stuart Park. What is being done here is saying that all these subdivisions of unit titles, etcetera, now have to go through the consent process to make it a uniform process.
One of the amendments is to the provision requiring the Registrar-General to require consent for unit titles purposes from all persons with a registered interest in land before any dealing can occur. The amendment will mean that consent will only be required for any matter that might impinge on the rights of any person with interest in a particular block of land; that is where the interest is adversely affected. Only in these cases will the Registrar-General require consent for unit titles subdivisions. The position will be the same as for ordinary subdivisions of land.
Also, regarding electronic transactions and contracts, clearing up an anomaly that, I suppose, exists now because some of these transactions can occur electronically or require input through government systems. If those systems are down, and we know electronic systems sometimes are, it clarifies the issues around those contracts.
In relation to the specific question asked by the member for Blain, I will just ask and clarify …
Mr Mills: Do you want me to clarify the question?
Dr BURNS: Member for Blain, it is a very good question that you have asked. The initial answer that I have is that ‘must’ rather than ‘should’ pertains to providing some certainty around the process, particularly regarding objections. I am also advised that the Registrar-General has some discretionary power or discretion within the act to decide the validity of those objections. I hope that answers your question.
I am glad that the opposition is supporting this bill. As I said, it is the first tranche of changes. There are more to come and there will be wider amendments regarding this bill. It is very important that this is the first step around some issues that are occurring. I commend this bill to the House.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
Continued from 28 November 2007.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I will be brief. The opposition supports this bill. We acknowledge that this bill is a product of a national agreement to recognise professional standards across jurisdictions. All jurisdictions are introducing similar legislative instruments and this bill has been approved by the Professional Standards Council of Australia.
The original Professional Standards Act was passed in the Territory as part of the national law reform package as a response to tort law reforms. The act allows firms to establish a policy package that is recognised by the Professional Standards Council of Australia. The purpose is to ensure elevated professional standards that will have the effect of diminishing - it is intended - tortious actions.
We also acknowledge that, where firms operate in more than one jurisdiction, this bill will allow for the recognition upon application of the firm’s Professional Standards Scheme in the other jurisdiction where it proposes to operate. The Territory will reciprocate by recognising the schemes of firms based in jurisdictions other than in the Territory.
It is our view that this was a reasonably straightforward bill. It is supportable for some of the reasons I have outlined but, more relevantly I suppose, for those outlined in your second reading speech.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak in support of the Professional Standards Amendment Bill 2007. I stress it is about mutual recognition of the Northern Territory and the state Professional Standards Schemes to ensure appropriate limitation for occupational liability for professional practitioners. The real asset is that professionals, including professional engineers such as I was before I entered parliament, work transcends state boundaries. It is important that recognition be given as it has been a bit of bar to businesses and professionals to expand into areas interstate.
The Professional Standards Amendment Act was introduced in 2006 by this government. I take members back about 10 years before that - and this is the real dilemma I have with the bill – and there was a long period where the previous government really did not act on it. It became a very serious situation. It culminated with professional indemnity insurance skyrocketing and it was keeping people, like myself and other Northern Territory businesses, back. We were not able to get insured. When we got insurance, the difficulty became getting re-insured. There were limitations on what we could get into. It was a pretty tough time. The annoying part is that it was there for a long time before we came to government. Why did not the previous government do something? That is a pretty clear question. I think it is quite simple. It was a very complex process that we had to go through. I think it simply was too hard.
I applaud the bipartisan approach you have here today. I could not let this situation go by without commending the government for what it has done in introducing the original Professional Standards Bill, and the amendment now, because it was a really difficult time for Territory businesses and Territory professionals. They were being held back. That is at the heart of it. Each jurisdiction has its own scheme but we need to ensure there is reciprocity of mutual recognition. That is the absolute essence to this. That way businesses can come to the Territory, our businesses can go interstate, and they can all operate on a level playing field. It is also about protecting consumer rights. That was done through the original bill, but this bill also tidies it up to make sure there is mutual recognition of the risk management strategies. It is not about taking away consumer rights; it never was originally and certainly is not now.
This is about promoting homegrown Territory businesses. I applaud the CLP’s bipartisan support. It is good that they have come on board and have added their bit to it. Historically, there was a long period where they did not do anything and I believe they need to acknowledge that. It was a difficult task. It meant involving and engaging with the other states and territories. It meant that the Commonwealth had to come on board with the same legislation to encapsulate it. What has gone down in history, and I will not let it be forgotten, is the fact that there was not the support for local homegrown professionals by the previous CLP government. That hurt many Territory businesses. It is not right for it to go unrecorded. I know it was hard to introduce those laws. I know you might have upset some interstate businesses here which were friends of the government of the day. I believe that the government is elected for their own people, to protect their own people first. I think that that was a time that the CLP let Territory people, Territory professionals, and Territory businesses down
There was a time in the early 1990s when businesses were suffering, they were hurting. The government of the day let those people down. I went through that period. I suffered, along with all my other colleagues, not just in engineering - architecture, the legal profession, in other professional arenas, because this government would not do something to help us.
I am fortunate to be elected to parliament, to be able to remind people and members of this House of that period. I am proud to be a part of this government which has actually delivered something, which means I will not lose everything I own through having inadequate professional indemnity cover. It was costing a fortune. I could not afford to pass these costs on. Bigger businesses were certainly passing them on and those costs were travelling onto the consumers. That was not helping the consumers, either.
I put it on the record right now that that was not right. It was unfair. There is a lesson to be learned out of that by the opposition, that if ever the day does come - and I assume it will happen someday, maybe I will be pushing up daisies - when that does happen you will remember Territorians next time, you will remember homegrown businesses and homegrown professionals and you will act accordingly and not sell us out.
Businesses here need to develop. They will develop now under the latest amendments to the act. Businesses will be able to grow here; they will be home grown businesses. They will be able to go interstate and be able to compete and be recognised on an equal footing. That is because you have a situation which is very helpful and that is because you have Labor states everywhere and you have a Labor federal government which is even going to help more to facilitate this. We, on our side of the House, the Labor side, actually care about people and about businesses. I am not saying that you do not care about businesses but I think you sometimes forget on that side of the House. And that is a shame for our system of democracy, our system of fairness and being decent people.
I am not saying that the ills of the past are reflected in you as current members, but it is a salient time for you to remember what really happened back then and not to brush it under the carpet with some flippant remarks about: ‘Yes, we support this and we want to move on’. I know you would rather forget the past but I am not going to let you. I want to go on the public record saying that you did not do the right thing in the past and this Labor government is rectifying that.
On behalf of all professionals, engineers, architects, lawyers, etcetera, I commend the government for it. I thank the minister for introducing this bill. I am very pleased to be here in parliament when it will be passed, as I am sure it will be.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I thank all members for their contribution to this debate, and I thank the opposition for their support. As the member for Araluen very succinctly summarised, this legislation is all about mutual recognition of professional schemes that blend with occupational liability across Australia. It is legislation which has come from the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General, otherwise known as SCAG, and all states and territories have adopted this legislation or very close variants of it. In essence, as the member for Goyder said, this is all about recognition that businesses operate in a national marketplace.
I thank members for their contribution. I thank the member for Goyder, particularly, for his contribution. He talked about how this legislation will take away some of the barriers that have existed to local businesses expanding. It is a two-way street, though. Interstate businesses can come here but I know quite a number of Territory businesses that will welcome this legislation as an opportunity to expand nationally.
The member for Goyder mentioned skyrocketing professional indemnity costs in the past and the need to address that. He was lamenting the fact this issue had not been addressed before now. I recognise that the member for Goyder is an engineer by profession and this legislation covers the engineering profession. I know the member for Goyder has worked all over the place. He has worked in New Guinea, and particularly in the Territory. He was one of the main engineers involved in the construction of the railway. What a great project that was and what benefits that that is reaping.
Mrs Miller: Do not start on that again.
Dr BURNS: Well, that is right. It was the previous government, and Barry Coulter, a man of energy and vision, whom I have acknowledged in this place previously, members opposite. I acknowledge Barry Coulter. I am also acknowledging someone pretty special in this place, who is not only qualified as an engineer but also in the area of minerals and science, and who has a masters degree in the economics of these areas. I listen when the member for Goyder speaks on a whole range of issues, particularly those in which he has professional expertise.
In summary, I thank all members for their contribution here today. I commend this bill to the House.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, today I intend to inform the House about my government’s comprehensive Antisocial Behaviour Package. Territorians agree that antisocial behaviour in our community is totally unacceptable and the government is committed to tackling it. Our comprehensive plan includes: the establishment of a first response patrol; a dedicated antisocial behaviour report line; the reintroduction of the Darwin area night patrol; closed circuit television cameras; increased short-term accommodation; and a boost to the Return to Home program. There will be an increased level of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies.
It is no secret that the urban centres of the Territory are experiencing some difficulties with antisocial behaviour in public spaces. These problems are prevalent in many other capital cities in Australia, and we have seen much reporting of the problem in the popular media. Of particular concern is the number of young Territorians involved in antisocial or low level unlawful behaviour who are caught in a downward spiral towards potentially more serious crime. The causes of antisocial behaviour are embedded in many complex, difficult and underlying issues. These include a lack of suitable temporary accommodation; easy access to alcohol; a lack of public facilities; a lack of valuing of appropriate public behaviour, and many family circumstances where parents lack the means or wherewithal to provide for the day-to-day needs of their children.
Alcohol is a prevalent factor in violent incidents, both in families and public places. The causes of antisocial behaviour and family dysfunction need to be tackled if we are to make a real difference to countering antisocial behaviour over the longer term. In developing an approach to public safety, we have also heeded lessons and experiences from Queensland and Western Australia which are making inroads in the effective management of antisocial behaviour. This is reflected in a number of integrated initiatives that are being introduced across government and the non-government sector, including alcohol management initiatives, health and rehabilitation initiatives, short- and long-term accommodation options, support for those involved in the criminal justice system, and a structured approach to assisting families which have complex problems that get in the way of them caring adequately for their children.
A significant part of the government’s response to antisocial behaviour is the development and resourcing of a model for urban areas in the Territory that recognises the good existing services in many areas across government already dealing with the issues, through programs and services, but also recognises there are some gaps and some areas that need strengthening.
The package of measures is a key plank in my government’s approach to urban antisocial behaviour. The model supports a zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour in public. It is the most comprehensive package of measures ever designed to tackle antisocial behaviour in Palmerston and Darwin. There is, therefore, a focus on keeping people out of the justice system and preserving and enhancing their individual wellbeing.
For this model to work, it requires the commitment and involvement of all government and non-government service providers, and the establishment of a coordinated system of referrals between service providers which include police, community patrols, short- and long-term accommodation providers, health and rehabilitation systems, Centrelink, transport providers, and Corrections officers.
The model also has a focus on case management of individual circumstances. The First Response Patrol, staffed by police and officers from the Department of Justice, will be established to monitor and assess antisocial behaviour hot spots. First Response Patrol officers will notify relevant agencies such as the police, Larrakia Nation, Mission Australia, or the Health department, and coordinate responses including police involvement and transportation to medical treatment and accommodation. $2.2m will be allocated over three years to establish and run the patrols. The government will work cooperatively with both Darwin and Palmerston City Councils in delivering the patrols.
The dedicated antisocial behaviour report line will be established for members of the public to report antisocial behaviour. Coordinated by police, information reported will be fed to NT Police, the First Response Patrol, or community patrols as appropriate. A local night patrol will be reintroduced and operated by a non-government agency with $1.4m in funding over three years from the Territory government. The federal intervention has seen an increase in the number of itinerants in Darwin, and the night patrol will work with police by responding to reports of drunks and non-violent antisocial behaviour in public places.
Closed circuit television will be installed around the Casuarina shopping precinct and the Darwin CBD. Darwin residents should be able to move around the city centre and their largest retail precinct without being humbugged and harassed. The government will work closely with the police, traders and other stakeholders to determine the best way to install and operate the cameras. The Territory government has committed $3.125m over three years to install and operate the camera network, and will work with the Rudd government and the Darwin City Council on delivering the project.
Increased short-term accommodation services will be provided in Darwin as a result of a $2.77m funding commitment, boosting bed numbers by 127. $2.7m will be allocated to the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre to upgrade and expand its short-term accommodation facilities at Boulter Road, providing an additional 112 beds. A further three dwellings on Boulter Road will also be upgraded providing another 15 short-term accommodation beds. This increase in facilities will be an important boost in resources to help get people out of the long grass and back on track.
The Return to Home program will be boosted, including $0.9m to Larrakia Nation over three years, to assist in establishing and operating an information and referrals office in Palmerston, supporting its existing service in Darwin. The information and referrals office provides indigenous people who are living or visiting Darwin with proof of identification, access to Centrelink, support to return home, and referrals to support services such as accommodation.
There will be a new level of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies. The tasking and coordination group led by police has been established to link agencies including Centrelink, Health, councils and Larrakia Nation, providing more effective response to tackling antisocial behaviour. These issues support the government’s alcohol policy initiatives including dry areas and bans on drinking in common areas in a number of public housing unit complexes.
An illustration of how part of our comprehensive package works is as follows. On the identification of a problem or potential problem, trained community patrol and police officers will establish the circumstances of the people involved. These officers assess the situation and the individuals for the following options: transport to hospital or other medical care; transport to temporary accommodation - and whether shelter or hospital is most appropriate; transport home to family or friends if they already have accommodation; or police intervention in aggressive or criminal situations. While individuals are in temporary accommodation, there is an assessment made whether to refer the individual to health or rehab services, permanent accommodation providers, or help them to access transport to their home communities.
Each individual’s journey through the system will be monitored and managed by service providers at regular case management meetings. For this model to be successful there will need to be an excellent level of coordination between government and non-government service providers in parallel with the introduction of a range of new or enhanced services which I will now outline.
A 24-hour reporting line to enable members of the community to report antisocial behaviour and receive a response will be established. Depending on the circumstances, police may be requested to attend the scene or another more appropriate intervention such as the day or night patrol will be arranged.
A First Response Patrol will be established to assist with interventions in Darwin and Palmerston that do not require an immediate enforcement approach. The patrol will engage with people who are living in an itinerant lifestyle or who are intoxicated in public places, encourage them to take up other options, such as Return to Country, accommodation or refer them to other services. The First Response Patrol will specialise in effective engagement. However, they will remain in contact with police throughout to provide information about each situation as it develops. The patrol will be a key link to children and youth at risk, ensuring that relevant government agencies are aware that intervention and support is needed.
A community operated night patrol will be re-established. The night patrol will assist intoxicated people in public places to get help to sober up. The night patrol will use regular patrol routes in Darwin and Palmerston, as well as linking with the 24-hour reporting line and the First Response Patrol to effectively target hotspots.
A Palmerston information and referral office, operating on a similar basis to the service already established by Larrakia Nation in Casuarina, will be provided. This service will assist in linking indigenous people living in the area, or visiting from home communities, or interstate to access supported accommodation and return to country services.
The services I have outlined are important new investments to support the integrated public safety model that is a key antisocial behaviour policy plank of my government. The services will broaden options for responding to the causes of antisocial behaviour before it gets out of hand, and provide a better range of non-enforcement alternatives for dealing with antisocial behaviour when it is reported.
As another key plank in managing antisocial behaviour, I am pleased to advise that funding has been approved for the implementation of a project to install and monitor CCTV cameras in the Darwin CBD and Casuarina shopping precinct. The Darwin City Council will be an important stakeholder in this project, and I have asked government officials to work with the council to determine the most appropriate method of installation, monitoring and ownership of the CCTV system.
In addition, a staged implementation plan for the installation of CCTV in other areas, including Palmerston, over a three year period will be developed. It is on top of the commitment already in place to support the installation of CCTV in the Alice Springs mall and surrounding areas. This will enable targeted responses to antisocial behaviour and assist in identifying individuals and gathering evidence for prosecution.
The Department of Health and Community Services is actioning a range of measures that will respond to identified service gaps or the need to strengthen existing service delivery. These measures include a centralised assessment and client support function to follow up with clients referred through the criminal justice system; delivery of in-reach alcohol and other drug services for prisoners incarcerated for periods of less than six months; a service to coordinate the health care of itinerants and temporary visitors to Darwin; and the provision of more support for renal clients.
Territory Housing has addressed the lack of short-term managed accommodation by upgrading and expanding existing infrastructure at Berrimah for this purpose. As a result, Darwin will have an additional 127 beds available for short-term accommodation. More will be done on the accommodation front in the near future with the upgrading of three further facilities to provide another 15 short-term accommodation beds.
This government has funded some of the Territory’s most respected NGOs – Larrakia Nation, Mission Australia and Tangentyere Council - to provide return to country, intervention and support services for itinerant and homeless people in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine and Alice Springs respectively. These NGOs will provide services ranging from simple interventions for clients wanting to pay to return to country, or for accommodation, to ongoing structured case management for clients as appropriate, including practical assistance for prisoners from remote communities on their release. Further support will also be provided to people needing to travel to urban centres for renal treatment through linking in to accommodation support programs and the provision of dedicated renal support workers.
Last week, I outlined in the House the initiatives my government is implementing to tackle youth crime and antisocial behaviour through the Youth Justice Strategy. The Youth Justice Strategy is another significant plank of the government’s response to antisocial behaviour, complementing the other initiatives covered in my statement. Underpinning the strategy is a coordinated interagency approach by the Department of Justice; Family and Community Services; Employment, Education and Training; and Northern Territory Police. The strategy will not interfere with the usual delivery of service to a family by these government agencies or other organisations, and it will not replace community welfare or child protection protocols or services, but rather strengthen these services through better coordination and offer an alternative support for families which are not coping.
As outlined in my earlier statement, the Youth Justice Strategy involves introduction of family responsibility agreements and orders; development of the family responsibility centre; development of integrated youth hubs or safe places; and commencement of a camp in the Alice Springs region.
It is hoped that the two step approach to agreements and orders will provide the structure and support needed to be a wake-up call for parents or guardians who need to pay attention to the day-to-day needs of their children; provide the expected level of supervision required to keep them out of trouble; and address those aspects of their own behaviour that are preventing them from being a positive and effective influence on the behaviour of their children.
Family responsibility centres will keep track of agreements; case manage agreements for high need families; provide advice and referrals for parents and guardians; and escalate matters where parents or guardians refuse to enter into or comply with an agreement. Specialist intensive family intervention programs provided by the non-government sector will also be part of the strategy. Youth hubs will provide somewhere for young people to go at night rather than be out on the street. They will provide a layer of assessment and referral that is needed to get the message across to young people that they can change course and there are other options. The youth camp facility will operate to enable young people to continue with their education away from negative peer pressure and undesirable influences.
The Alice Springs Alcohol Management Plan identified a range of initiatives to tackle alcohol-related harm and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs. Some initiatives under the plan have already been implemented including the introduction of public restricted areas. A major new initiative will be controlling access to alcohol through the installation of electronic photo ID systems in all major takeaway outlets in Katherine, Alice Springs, Pine Creek, Mataranka and Victoria River. This initiative will be part of a strategy to reduce alcohol-related antisocial behaviour in these communities. The new system, which will be implemented as soon as possible this year following legislative amendments, is designed to help licensees and their staff to more effectively identify problem drinkers who are the subject of prohibition orders or court-imposed restrictions.
Whilst it is the case that everyone will have to show photo ID and there may be some initial inconvenience in obtaining or presenting acceptable ID, the benefits of the system in targeting problem drinkers will outweigh any inconvenience that others may face, and the system is more streamlined than the current manual system. Only licensees selling takeaway to the public will be participating in the new system including licenced stores, drive-through bottle shops and hotel bottle stores. Clubs and hotels which have limited takeaway available for bone fide guests are not included in this measure.
One further measure that will be of interest is the enhancement of powers of Transport Safety Officers. We have all heard about antisocial behaviour incidents involving our bus drivers. Another measure adopted by my government is the announcement of tough new penalties for people who attack private bus drivers and taxi drivers, giving them the same protection as public bus drivers. Under this initiative, the maximum penalty for common assault on a bus or taxi driver will increase from one to five years.
I have provided an outline of progress in relation to antisocial behaviour initiatives being actioned across government. These initiatives will be carefully monitored to assess their effectiveness in dealing with antisocial behaviour. They represent a considerable investment by this government to tackle the problem so that we have an appropriate range of responses available and we can all enjoy public places without concern for our safety. I conclude by saying that in particular these initiatives demonstrate this government’s efforts to actively and positively manage youth issues. Healthy, engaged young people have the potential to make a profound impact on the future of the Territory.
Madam Speaker, as I have said before, antisocial behaviour is not a new problem and there is no quick fix. It requires ongoing measures to tackle both the causes and consequences of the problem. The approach must be coordinated and it must be effective but, above all, the government will continue to tackle antisocial behaviour with short-, medium- and long-term solutions that help us protect our great Territory lifestyle.
Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, the Chief Minister heads a government that is in its 7th year and for those seven years has been telling Territorians how they are making things better. Today, the Chief Minister has informed the House about how his government will yet again solve the issue of antisocial behaviour.
The Chief Minister’s announcement today, while it has some interesting and potentially worthy small announcements, unfortunately is neither comprehensive nor does it contain the solid actions necessary to break the cycle you are so clearly unable to do. What we have is an announcement of a continuation of the government’s spin and a fragmented piecemeal approach which will not deliver Territorians a safer community.
We have heard it all before. Territorians are sick of your promises, your headlines and your failure to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. The promise is more programs, more packages, better cooperation, and a commitment to tackle the problem. To tackle the problem you have to get on the playing field, and the government has been so busy hiding in the change rooms that Territorians are sick and tired of having to confront the issue themselves.
Assaults across the Territory are up by 68% last year alone. Chief Minister, you have said that there are only about 200 to 300 drunks on our streets yet apprehensions of this group reached 26 448 times last year. That means you must have arrested each drunk 106 times. How is it you can lock up the same people 100 times and not get to the bottom of the problem; not build a program to address these problems; and not once and for all deal comprehensively and effectively with antisocial behaviour? I can hear the groans already from those opposite talking of how big a task it is and how it takes time.
The previous Chief Minister must have coined the phrase …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Mr MILLS: … ‘that this is a complicated …
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, please pause. There is a point of order.
Mr KIELY: Madam Speaker, I would like to put on the Hansard that there were no groans, there was nothing coming from this side of the House. He gets up and attributes things over here …
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Minister, resume your seat. Leader of the Opposition, continue.
Mr Mills: Yes there were, but I go on. The honourable member has departed, groaning.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, the Leader of the Opposition has the call. I would appreciate no further interjections.
Mr Mills: The previous Chief Minister loved to coin the phrase ‘it is a complicated matter’. After nearly seven years of complexity, it is not unreasonable for Territorians now to expect some action and get some results. Instead, Chief Minister, the gang problem was not even clearly acknowledged as a problem until the media and community pressure forced some action. Territorians are absolutely sick and tired of being humbugged every time they go to the shops. They are sick and tired of crossing the streets to avoid antisocial behaviour. Territorians are tired of hearing about antisocial behaviour on our bus service. Even the bus drivers have had enough and commenced action.
Chief Minister, explain to me and to Territorians how what you have to offer is not more of the same, how it is a comprehensive package with the tough measures necessary and, most importantly, when things will improve.
Throughout your entire statement, just like every other announcement, there is not a single measurable marker for how and when Territorians will see action. You revisit previous announcements, you re-announce previous strategies and when bad news comes through you dream up a small dollop of money for yet another re-badged program in the hope that the issue will disappear. You provide spin and numbers to say how fantastic things are, and how the fabulous Territory lifestyle will be protected by your government. Is this government the sole holder of the key to the fabled Territory lifestyle? To many Territorians all the government does for the law-abiding citizens of the Territory is to make it harder for them to go about their business, and allow them to be subjected to humbugging and antisocial behaviour along the way.
Chief Minister, barely a Wet Season goes by without a new announcement from the government about how the antisocial problem will be tackled. Consider 21 February last year when government announced that its new legislation tackles the cause of antisocial behaviour through treatment and rehabilitation and ‘… is one part of a targeted and evidence-based approach that includes many other elements such as more police and resources, hot spot targeting and the alcohol framework’.
Consider 12 February last year when you stated that two new police vehicles have greatly boosted the police resources available for targeted policing of street crime and antisocial behaviour hotspots, and that:
and there are:
What about on 28 March, when the government announced:
Chief Minister, you have just announced another antisocial behaviour package. This package comes just one year after your last failed package and, prior to that, your Community Harmony package. There is no doubt this latest package is a result of polling you have commissioned which told you your crime and antisocial packages have not worked. This is another example of the government spending money outside your formal budget process because you create policy on the run - policy and programs targeted at the media cycle and not at actually dealing with the substantive issues.
The government has prior form on packages - you do not deliver. Territorians are tired of the rhetoric you deliver on the issue of their safety on the streets and antisocial behaviour. The most action comes in the form of your spin on what you will do. You will deliver a new package, you will tackle the problem, you are on the right track - these are the words that we hear. Today’s announcement reminds Territorians that your new packages do not work, you have not tackled the problem, and that you are on the wrong track and are being run over by this blight.
Few other Australians have to endure the humbugging and antisocial behaviour that you have permitted to run unfettered through our urban centres. Your inaction detracts from the Territory as a place to live, work and play. Your inaction detracts from the Territory’s reputation as a tourist hot spot, as it is an antisocial behaviour hot spot. Your inaction makes it harder for small business owners to go about their business. Territorians deserve better. Today’s announcement is simply an admission of seven years of failure.
This side of politics would deliver. First, regarding antisocial behaviour by young people, young people must be at school, in training or in employment. We will ensure that schools have the full backing of the Education department and the law to make students attend school. Those who are going off the rails will be referred to youth camps. Those whose behaviour warrants it will be referred to boot camps. This is not a weekend of sitting around the campfire singing songs and feeling loved; this will be months of hard work, training, learning and acquiring of appropriate behaviour and skills - no iPod, no computer, no television. If young people want to continue in their antisocial behaviour, they will end up at the boot camp. If they want to engage in criminal behaviour, then they go on to Don Dale.
Habitual drunks must be taken off our streets. Under a CLP government, any person who is apprehended for being drunk three times in six months will be brought before a tribunal and become subject to a control order. This action is not about waiting until someone is assaulted and has their property damaged or stolen before action is taken. Your alcohol courts wait until a crime is committed. Your alcohol courts do not take tough or proactive stances. This is, in part, why the revolving door keeps spinning.
In comparison, the CLP will make it an offence to breach this control order. That is the sort of tough action needed in conjunction with the support measures to help those who have a genuine problem. We are not talking about people who are a little under the weather. To be picked up by the police in these circumstances you need to be seriously affected by alcohol or drugs. That is a requirement of the Police Administration Act. If the assertions by the Chief Minister are correct, then there are only 200 or 300 people who will be affected by this legislation. Alcohol abuse fuels violence against people and property.
Government has betrayed itself in how it advocates these sorts of packages. Was the reasoning for this package because of policy need? Was it well-developed and implemented in a timely manner? Or was it because of the results of your polling over the last few weeks? I am not one for coincidences, but it is all a bit too cute that the ALP did polling on antisocial behaviour and then – hey, presto! - here is a new package of changes to be announced. Why was it that we know well ahead of time that the Wet Season brings people into town? We know that the rates of drunks going through protective custody continues to rise massively, and that violent crime continues to rise, yet government announcements come at the eleventh hour after we are well into a problem period.
I know that many opposite want to blame the intervention for many of the problems that have been created, but just stop and reflect for a moment. How long has it been since the federal intervention began? Also, reflect upon what we, the CLP, and many others said at the time: make sure you put in place the resources to deal with exoduses into our towns. What has happened? Eight months after the intervention, well into the Wet Season, what do we see? Relatively small amounts of new funding for programs that should have been under way months ago, if not years ago. Go right ahead, Chief Minister, keep announcing plans and programs on the run to suit your media cycles, but let this be a warning to you: Territorians are on to you. They are on to your failure. They have a comprehensive plan and are seeing you like a rabbit in the front of the headlights. Your announcements today have been the subject of no planning whatsoever. There is no mention of this in the budget process, and it is not like we know that there is going to be a shift towards town as a result of the intervention - it is not news.
The tragedy in all of this is that Territorians, hard-working Territorians, who just want to get on with their lives, free from government interference and with a surety of safety, will be the ones who will be directly affected by your comprehensive failure.
In respect to housing – a comprehensive plan is needed, one that is not bound by a particular ideology but rather focused on how we can solve the problems we have today, and into the future, in a sustainable manner.
As I said at the beginning, some of what has been announced today will have some isolated impact, some of this will be positive, but when the dam wall is breached, we need a remedy greater than patches. Running repairs will not do. The wall must be rebuilt.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I support the Chief Minister’s statement which sets out this government’s comprehensive package to combat antisocial behaviour in Darwin and Palmerston. To pick up on some of what the Leader of the Opposition was trying to assert, that somehow what was announced by the Chief Minister yesterday has suddenly condensed, has suddenly crystallised out of nothing, is foolish. I can assure members of the opposition that government has been working on this range of measures for some time.
When I was Police minister, I travelled to Cairns to look at what is known as the Cairns model, on which parts of what the Chief Minister announced yesterday comprise. They have been very successful in Cairns. They have adopted a case management approach. They have also adopted many of the things that we first adopted. There has been a very positive interchange, I believe, between Cairns and Darwin. If I am not wrong, I think the Leader of the Opposition might also have gone to Cairns to see what they have implemented.
I can assure the Leader of the Opposition that, both as Police minister and now as Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, there have been discussions within Cabinet and with agencies. Agencies have brought forward this very cogent plan to be implemented across the Northern Territory, and in Darwin and Palmerston in particular. I believe it is folly and completely incorrect for the Leader of the Opposition to try to assert that this has just come out of nowhere, because it has not.
Antisocial or violent behaviour, harassment and humbugging will not be tolerated, whether it takes the form of brawls outside nightclubs in the CBD, intimidation or threats by youths at shopping precincts, or loud, drunken abuse hurled by itinerants in residential areas. Law-abiding Territory residents and families should not be fearful attending shops, going out for dinner in town, or walking through their local park. Unfortunately, early evidence coming into government from a variety of sources paints a clear picture.
The federal intervention, and its complete ban on alcohol in prescribed areas, is driving alcohol dependent people and their families into major urban centres, particularly Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek. When the previous federal government was in power, I attended a meeting with Senators David Johnson and David Tollner, held at the Nightcliff Sports Club. I pleaded with the Senator then, who was the federal minister for Justice, about the effects of the intervention; that the intervention would result in a big influx of people coming from the outlying areas into town. We already had a problem. What we are saying is that the intervention has added to that problem. It is a completely undesirable situation for the residents of urban centres and it is an undesirable situation for those people who are floating into town from the outlying regions.
There is no doubt in my mind that the intervention has driven many people into town. In a teleconference, when he deigned to speak to us, Mal Brough was informed of exactly the same thing. He ‘broughed’ it aside, he brushed it aside, he was not interested in that. He was told very clearly, by me, by the member for Barkly and also the member for Karama that this would be the result. He was not interested. He did not care. The former federal government had ample warning about this, the way that they were implementing it, and the effects it would have.
We do not apologise for the fact that we have upped the ante in terms of our programs and funding to address this issue. The most recent influx in Katherine and all the centres right up and down the Territory is a result of the intervention. People can see that. As a government we are acting responsibly to try to address this very important issue. This is why we are acting swiftly to combat the problem through a coordinated case management process. Together, these initiatives form a public safety model that draws on city programs such as those in Cairns which I have mentioned previously, which have yielded strong results.
The Chief Minister has set out the main components of the package, many of which fall under my direct responsibility as the minister for Justice, Minister for Health and Minister for Alcohol Policy. These include establishing a First Response Patrol, at a cost of $2.2m over three years, made up of sworn police officers and Department of Justice liaison officers, to monitor and intervene in antisocial behaviour hot spots; introduction of a dedicated Darwin area night patrol, at a cost of $1.4m over three years, that will respond quickly and get drunk people off the streets and into suitable accommodation; setting up a 24-hour dedicated reporting telephone line so that residents and members of the public can inform patrols or police about incidents of antisocial behaviour, violence or harassment; installation of closed circuit television cameras in the Darwin central business district and Casuarina precincts, with committed Territory government funding of $3.125m over three years to rapidly locate potential problems and prosecute offenders committing acts of vandalism or violence; boosting short-term accommodation beds by 127 at a cost of $2.77m so that people have a clean, orderly and functional residence while agencies assist them to return home or access other services; and expanding the Return to Country program that is already yielding, I think, significant results, in getting people back to their communities at a cost of $650 000 each year over three years. Perhaps most important to the success of this plan is the concerted effort across agencies to establish tasking coordination groups to support implementation of these initiatives.
What we saw in Cairns was a program that was led by police. This is exactly what is happening here. Although there are various groups, police are the leaders and basically, this, I believe, will be a key to success. Why is coordination so important? We recognise that each initiative will simply not have the required results operating in isolation or opposition to the other. They must work in concert to identify problems or potential problems, get patrol officers to the site to intervene, case manage itinerants into accommodation or travel home, and to access health, legal and rehabilitation services.
Importantly, people will not be just moved on around the suburbs. Patrols and services will be in regular communication to ensure they know who they are dealing with, where they can be taken, what health or social problems they face and how they can be best resolved.
Many of the antisocial issues now facing us stem from alcohol abuse. That is why, in conjunction with the initiatives outlined above, I am putting in a range of strategies as Minister for Alcohol Policy. These strategies are designed to address the Territory’s excessive and alarming levels of alcohol consumption and decrease alcohol-related harm. They include:
development of local alcohol management plans comprising supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction steps;
development, implementation and monitoring of alcohol management plans involving both government and non-government organisations and industry representatives across the Northern Territory;
new conditions on takeaway liquor licences, on-premises sales to reduce trading hours and the types of products being sold;
work in partnership with the Australian Hotels Association to develop liquor accords and to assist the AHA to support their members deal with issues such as responsible service of alcohol and community education on responsible drinking;
the introduction of an electronic ID system for the purchase of alcohol in Katherine and Alice Springs; and
the permit system for the purchase of takeaway alcohol in the East Arnhem region and the declaration of dry restricted areas in urban areas where the possession and consumption of alcohol is prohibited. For example, I recently declared public places in nine Territory Housing complexes dry. No longer will residents have to put up with unwanted drunken guests making their common areas dangerous and intimidating.
As I noted earlier, people will not simply be moved on within an urban area. Officers will actively engage with people to find out where they are from, why they are in town and the best way to get them home. Results from one component of this plan are already coming in. Larrakia Nation has been engaged to operate the expanded Return to Country program. In December 2007, 196 people were removed from urban areas and assisted in their travel home, the cost of which they repaid in instalments. The January figures which will be provided to government shortly are expected to be over the 200 mark. A large proportion of people released from the watch-house are now also accessing the Return to Country program. People who have been found drunk and disorderly are being provided with the means to get themselves home instead of simply wandering back into town to find alcohol.
Correctional Services, Larrakia Nation and other organisations are working together to provide similar support for people on their release from prison to find accommodation, to re-establish contact with their family, and to receive the support they need when returning to their community. This project is giving offenders a way to escape the cycle of offending that often arises from being alone and simply trapped in the city or town with no accommodation and easy access to alcohol and other negative influences.
Another important component is the First Response Patrol to be manned by police officers, ACPOs and justice liaison officers. This strategy is based upon street-based outreach services - otherwise known as the Cairns model - of dealing with the antisocial behaviour which the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Justice along with the then CEO of the Department of the Chief Minister, viewed firsthand and recommended for introduction in the Northern Territory due to similar issues faced in each community. The Cairns team is a highly visible unit that has been very successful in responding to adult antisocial behaviour and alleviating previously high levels of public concern regarding such behaviour in public places.
The Territory’s patrol is designed to be in regular contact with and complementary to the Return to Country services offered by Larrakia Nation which will report operationally to a nominated police coordinator who, in turn, will report to and be tasked by the Darwin Tasking Coordination Group. This will ensure the officers on the ground can relay information about new hotspots and issues directly and rapidly to the coordination group.
The patrol will also be able to direct people visiting or living rough in the Palmerston area to a new Larrakia Nation information referrals office which will mirror the role of the Larrakia Nation office in Casuarina. The Larrakia Nation Casuarina office, located adjacent to Centrelink, assists in providing proof of identification, return to country, and accommodation referral services to indigenous people who are living in or visiting Darwin from remote or interstate areas. Data provided by Larrakia Nation indicates high use of these services, particularly in relation to assistance in accessing supported accommodation, access to birth certificate and proof of identity services, and the transport and the Return to Country service. The current information referrals office is more easily accessible to those living in and around the Darwin area.
The establishment of a similar service in the Palmerston area will assist in linking those people living in and around this area to supported accommodation and Return to Country services. Location of an information and referral office beside or as close to as possible to the Palmerston Centrelink office may also be beneficial, as there are strong links between the services provided by the two – for example, the Return to Country program is a user pays service that relies on the recipient putting in place Centrepay deductions.
I am also pleased to set out the parts of this package that fall under the Health portfolio. The government has allocated $1m a year for two years under the plan to target health issues facing itinerants and people within the Territory’s criminal justice system. This money will fund a centralised assessment and client support system to manage referrals and follow-ups of offenders with specific health problems. This includes in-reach intervention and treatment services for prisoners incarcerated for less than six months. Their time inside is an opportunity for government to directly treat health complaints that may be contributing to their offending behaviour. Also, for people coming into town for renal treatment, $250 000 is available under this plan to provide more accommodation support and enlist dedicated renal support workers. This will complement a similar amount of funding aimed at wider health care coordination and support for visitors to Darwin.
In the face of reports of increased itinerancy and antisocial behaviour in urban areas due, in large part, to people leaving areas prescribed under the federal intervention, this government is acting swiftly and positively. As Larrakia Nation coordinator, Ilana Eldridge, noted on radio this morning:
I say ‘hear, hear’, Madam Speaker, to those comments. This view is also reflected by Mission Australia’s Jane Lawton who has stated this package is a positive step. She has commended our holistic approach to combating homelessness, antisocial behaviour and itinerancy. As Ms Lawton said this morning:
Madam Deputy Speaker, this government believes that antisocial behaviour and violent behaviour often fuelled by grog is not something that Darwin and Palmerston and other residents across the Territory should have to accept as a cost of living. That is why we are taking important steps to reduce the problem on a coordinated case-by-case basis, and are putting in the resources to back up our plans. We are going to have people on the ground day and night engaging with itinerants and visitors who would be healthier and happier back home, and giving them the means and the support to get back there.
I commend the Chief Minister’s statement and the work put into this package by government and, in particular, the lead agencies of Justice, Police, Department of the Chief Minister, Housing and Health.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Deputy Speaker, although I invariably disagree with the minister over there, I do enjoy listening to him because, given the shuffling around on the other side, in a parliament that some are saying is becoming a bit dull, he tends to wake us up. I thank you for that. However, you cannot be serious! You know the holes in this statement as well as I do. Let us go through a few, shall we?
Okay, let us start on page no 1: … comprehensive antisocial behaviour package’ - I have not been able to do a word search but I have a sneaking suspicion that is not the first time that expression has been used. Towards the bottom of the first page, this is fascinating:
Well, how the worm has turned. Now we have, in February 2008, a year later, the government saying it is no secret that the urban centres of the Territory are experiencing some difficulties with antisocial behaviour in public places. I think some polling has been done. Have I not been vindicated, Madam Deputy Speaker? I think so.
Let us go on. Page 2 towards the bottom, second last paragraph:
The sentence goes on. Let us have another walk down memory lane. This time let us go to a media release issued by Peter Toyne on 21 February 2006 - there is something about law and order and antisocial behaviour happening in February. It happened in February 2006 with a big bang; it happened in February 2007 with a bang. It is now February 2008. Is there something about February that makes the Labor Party think, ‘Oh, we had better start talking about this’, over and above the polling? Anyway, 21 February 2006, in relation to the antisocial behaviour laws that the government passed, Dr Toyne said:
Now they are saying the causes of antisocial behaviour and family dysfunction need to be tackled, and here I was thinking, on the basis of Dr Toyne’s media release of 21 February 2006, that the very legislation about which he spoke was, in fact, tackling it: ‘That is why the legislation tackles the cause of antisocial behaviour’.
Let us keep going. On page 2 of the Chief Minister’s statement, he says:
Let us go back to Dr Toyne’s media release of 21 February 2006:
So, Territorians gave the government a message that alcohol-related crime must stop. He said: ‘We are now delivering on that promise’. Well, here we are, two years down the track, February again, and we have: ‘Alcohol is a prevalent factor in violent incidents, both in families and in public places’. Well, according to your own spin, you were not only working on it two years ago, you fixed it. I will come back to alcohol management if I have time.
Let us talk about the reference to zero tolerance. Anyone with a sense of humour will appreciate this one. Page 3, bottom paragraph:
There is another media release from Dr Toyne and, blow me down, 14 February 2006. There is something about February. In Chief Minister Henderson’s statement it states: ‘The model supports a zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour in public’. Let us see what Dr Toyne said two years ago:
Mr Conlan: You are kidding. You are kidding.
Ms CARNEY: No, member for Greatorex. That is what he said. I will say it again: ‘… the Opposition Leader’s idea of creating a Public Order Act with a zero tolerance approach towards alcohol-related antisocial behaviour is shallow and dangerous’. We cop the abuse of members opposite, particularly the Chief Minister and his predecessor, that we are a policy-free zone. I think they have been taking our policies pretty consistently, member for Greatorex. Here it is, page 3, Chief Minister’s statement, the subject of this debate: ‘The model supports zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour in public’.
Wait, there is more. Page 4, here is an inconsistency:
Is it not inconsistent, when looking at the media release, again February, this time 2008, jointly issued by the Attorney-General and Chief Minister, in relation to Youth Justice – well, they call it a strategy; we have not seen it - and juvenile offenders:
Talk about a policy-free zone. You lot are spinning your wheels. You are really good at that. I suppose everyone has to be really good at something. You are a policy-free zone and it is evident on a number of levels. How is it that you can, with a straight face as it were, say to Territorians in relation to youth offenders, on the one hand: ‘Oh, no, we are going to get tough and we are going to lock them up’, but on the other in relation to the Antisocial Behaviour Initiatives that there will be ‘a focus on keeping people out of the justice system by preserving and enhancing their individual wellbeing’?
Is this not a schizophrenic approach to policy making? It must be schizophrenic. It is full of inconsistency. All we ask is that you make up your mind which horse you are going to ride and go for it unashamedly. Do not dish these kinds of inconsistencies up to us because we will not only catch you out, we will tell our fellow Territorians, as if they do not already know, that you are full of inconsistencies and, most importantly, you are full of political puffery.
Let us move on. We are still only on page 4, halfway down:
This is an absolute ripper. Blow me down, once again, it is a February reference, 14 February 2006. At that time, the now Chief Minister was minister for Police. That was before he was sacked and before he sacked or got rid of the ex-Chief Minister. He was asked a question by the member for Macdonnell in relation to alcohol-related crime and antisocial behaviour in this place on 14 February 2006. This is what the now Chief Minister said:
I will read it again because it is significant: ‘In Darwin patrolling the antisocial behaviour hot spots is best done by specially trained and equipped police officers’. Today, the Chief Minister, the same person, says:
Is this not inconsistent? Of course it is. A couple of years ago, the Chief Minister said: ‘Oh, no, patrolling hot spots is best done by the specially-trained and equipped police of whom all Territorians are proud’. Today, he is saying we might throw in a few public servants to see if they can assist.
As was stated in the Leader of the Opposition’s media release:
Politics is an incredible thing because two years ago that is what the Chief Minister was saying as Police minister, but today he is saying something else. One wonders where it is all going to stop but we will go on.
The local night patrol - again showing in a policy sense the schizophrenic disposition of this government. Was it not the case that night patrol resources had been reduced in relatively recent years? Now, however, it is going to get a boost and a good thing, too. No doubt about that.
Let us talk about the closed circuit television cameras to be installed. This is on page 5:
etcetera.
Being from Alice Springs, I take a somewhat parochial view. I would have liked to have seen in this statement being debated in the Territory parliament today: ‘Darwin and Alice Springs residents should be able to move around the city or town centre and their largest retail precinct without being humbugged and harassed’. I am sure my colleague from Katherine would quite like that to have been said in relation to Katherine. So, what a very Darwin-focused little number this one is.
There is always a difference between what this government says and what this government does. In fact, when reviewing what members opposite have said in their endeavours to spin their way through antisocial efforts in this place and beyond, I have noticed that the former Chief Minister and, I think, the current Chief Minister, using the expression: ‘It is not words that are important, it is action’, and it is action. Why do I say that? Because, in relation to the CCTV cameras, members will remember that prior to the Alice Springs sittings in April last year, the government steadfastly refused to provide any money, any assistance for CCTV cameras. In fact, the then minister for Police, now Attorney-General, wrote a letter in response to a petition, saying: ‘Nope, not going to do it’.
Five hundred people turned up to the Convention Centre - that is a conservative guess - and then there was a back flip. The good people of Alice Springs bought that. They were entitled to because, after battling for a significant amount of time, when they finally got the government’s attention they believed they were going to get a good deal when it came to CCTV. Alas, that was not the case. The government, if we scratch below the surface, from memory, it was $100 000 and it is a one-off payment. What does that mean? It means that there is no same-time monitoring of the CCTV cameras in Alice Springs or, if there is, it is extremely limited and, in any event, will only happen for one year. Is that a good deal for the people of Alice Springs? No.
Might the Darwin residents walking around the Casuarina shopping precinct reasonably expect –apart from that the government did well, I understand, on the news services today, and presumably did all right in the paper – to say, like the people of Alice Springs a little down the track: ‘Well, you promised us this, but we are not happy because you are only giving us a little of it’. It catches up with governments. It will always catch up with governments when you do that. It might take a while, but it will get you in the end. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot be a long-standing, successful government when you dupe people not infrequently. They wake up to it.
Interestingly, on page 6 of the Chief Minister’s statement, there is a reference to:
I note with some interest - and I am sure my colleague, the member for Greatorex will as well - that during the federal election, the member for Lingiari jumped up and tossed in - I think it was - an extra $4m for the aquatic centre in Alice Springs. The reason I refer to that is that it illustrates the difference – does it not? - between the top of the Northern Territory and the bottom of the Northern Territory. In the top, what is regarded as a top of mind issue - a really serious issue and one that your political party will pitch seriously towards in the lead-up to the election, whenever that may be - law and order and antisocial behaviour. In the south, just chuck in some dough for them to paddle in. When the aquatic centre was initially proposed it was a good project and, I believe in the long term, it will be. However, I use that to illustrate the fundamental difference between the north and the south - and I certainly wish it were not so ...
Mr CONLAN: Madam Deputy Speaker, I move an extension of time for the member for Araluen pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Mr Bonson: No, no, please!
Motion agreed to.
Ms CARNEY: Thank you. That was very interesting. You should not speak without thinking, Matty. You should not do it because you are now a minister of the Crown - somewhat remarkably in my view - and you are depriving one of your parliamentary colleagues the opportunity to participate in this debate. That is not democratic; it is a dreadful thing to do. You, no doubt, will stand up and talk about how wonderful this statement is ...
Ms SCRYMGOUR: A point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker! Can you please tell the member for Araluen we are debating a statement on antisocial behaviour? What she is talking about is absolutely irrelevant to what the statement is about. Rather than being provocative, she should direct her remarks through the Chair and get on with it. She has less than 10 minutes.
Ms CARNEY: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, I accept that I should direct my comments through the Chair. As for the other so-called points of order, I respectfully suggest that there are none.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, my point of order is quite relevant. The member for Araluen called a member by his name, ‘Matty’; questioned his integrity as a minister; that it was surprising. That has absolutely no relevance to the statement that we are talking about at the moment.
Ms CARNEY: Madam Deputy Speaker, we will press on.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will just make a ruling on that. There is no point of order, but I ask the member for Araluen to make mention of members by their electorate or position, and to direct all comments through the Chair.
Ms CARNEY: Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is interesting, in any event, that the first line of this statement of the Chief Minister says:
The member for Millner is a member of this government. For him to have a bit of a go because a member of this side seeks an extension so that matters can properly be put in relation to what the government has spun outside this Chamber as a very important statement and a very important series of initiatives, not only is rude in the extreme but it is arrogant as well. I guess there are no surprises there.
Turning to page 7 of the statement, and this is a little beauty, too - the Tasking and Coordination Group led by police. Let us see the spin on this one. It will be a February release. Yes, it is a February release.
Mr Conlan: February-mania.
Ms CARNEY: February-mania. This is the Chief Minister’s release: ‘Comprehensive New Plan to Tackle Anti-Social Behaviour’. It was a long release intended to convey the impression that all of these things were new. In fact, the word new, N E W, just like law, L A W and tax cuts, was used in this media release. Why it was used, and what was the context, is as follows:
and it lists them:
It very much seeks to convey, by using the word new, that this is a new initiative, part of this so-called package of the government. Well, the Tasking and Coordination Group is not new. It is not new. How dare the Chief Minister, with all of his little groupies seeking to propagate the spin, try to suggest that this is new? It is not new.
Mr Conlan: It is new for February 2008.
Ms CARNEY: It is a new February initiative, I guess. I do not recall any February ...
Members interjecting.
Ms Scrymgour interjecting.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Arafura!
Ms CARNEY: I am simply making this point, and it is an important point. It goes back to that you cannot pull over the wool over everyone’s eyes all of the time.
Mr Conlan interjecting.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex!
Ms CARNEY: This government is very good at spinning and, presumably, it has done very well in the media. What I will predict is that the Chief Minister will probably write a letter to everyone in the northern suburbs - it will probably be a glossy - all, of course, at the taxpayer expense. I look forward to the Leader of the Opposition’s motion tomorrow in relation to government advertising and so on. However, I digress.
It is mischievous to try to spin some of this stuff in the terms outlined by the Chief Minister. I suppose we should not be surprised.
Here is another good one, on page 8:
You would have to say that that sounds great, as did the old phone number at the Alice Springs Police Station. That sounded great, and members will remember, from the parliamentary sittings in April last year, the then Police minister, now Attorney-General, kept saying: ‘If you ring this number, it will take you straight to the heart of the Alice Springs Police Station’. People, for some time prior to that and since then, tried to ring that number and they could not get through. I understand, and I am advised by constituents, that, notwithstanding the representations made by the previous Chief Minister, the problem still remains. You have to ask, why is it that, in the Northern Territory in 2008, in a town like Alice Springs, you cannot get through to the police station? I know that is a very serious issue for police. They are immensely irritated by it. However, it pales into insignificance when one considers the anger and distress of people trying to get through.
We would read in this statement that a 24-hour reporting line to enable members of the community to report antisocial behaviour will be established. I hope you set up a communications system that is more advanced than the one that was based at the Alice Springs Police Station as of April last year.
There is another point to make - and it is silent on this point. One gets the impression that this 24-hour reporting line to enable members of the community to report antisocial behaviour and receive a response will be established in Alice Springs. Will it? I would be very grateful if the Chief Minister would comment on that in his response. Will it be established in Katherine? Might one exist in Tennant Creek? These are the regional centres. We say, as indeed many others do, that we need more police in Alice Springs, but we know that there are police in Alice Springs and they are very busy attending to reports of antisocial behaviour and other crimes.
We would support the introduction of a reporting line. Why hasn’t the Chief Minister said when it is going to be implemented? I am thinking that it is going to be a budget announcement; that it is going to be wrapped up in possibly an election announcement, whether it is this year or next year.
Mr Conlan: They are saving it for next February.
Ms CARNEY: Maybe saving for next February, indeed, member for Greatorex. When is it going to be established? Where is it going to be established? What cost and who is going to run it, what sort of training is going to be provided to those running it, and what sort of organisational structure might it be? That is not clear from the statement. Again, political pop and puffery.
On page 11 of the statement there is a reference to the CCTV cameras in Alice Springs. I note that I do not have much time left, which is very unfortunate because I know the member for Millner is just sitting on the edge of his chair wanting so much more.
I will finish by talking about the dry town initiative. I believe that the Attorney-General is genuinely motivated to do his best with respect to the effect alcohol has on so many of our fellow Territorians. I remember the debate - I think it was either last October or November. After the Substance Abuse committee report, we had a great debate, it really was a great debate, he said so, I said so, and others said so as well, about alcohol. I impressed upon him the need as far as my own constituency was concerned to take the people of Alice Springs with him otherwise he would lose them completely. I saw him nodding away and he got it. I was delighted that, in a very genuine sense, I thought he understood it and acknowledged the point I was making.
I am not sure that there is a hell of a lot of good will in Alice Springs at present for this government. There are many reasons for that. I did say at the time, from memory, what small amount of good will was left, they were going to give it to the government in respect of the dry town proposal.
However, when we have one of our newspapers saying, as we said in Question Time today, the dry town is a farce, when we know that the police commander wants more police, when we know that the member for Stuart only a few months ago was talking about the dry town and his words were ‘to support the police’, when members of government, members of the police and the residents are calling out for more police, I just fail to understand why government will not do it.
In the context of all of the announcements with respect to antisocial behaviour, maybe there is a reason. We have provided a number of alternatives, but whenever we have suggested them, whenever we have raised our concerns, government members slam us in ways that are disgraceful and contemptuous. We wear that, because that is the nature of opposition. What really riles us, and what really riles me, is that the government just keeps coming back again and again, putting the same bunch of words in the same sentences, occasionally taking our policies on the way through without acknowledgement.
I guess that is the way an arrogant government works but the people in my electorate expect better. I know this government spins. I know it sinks to unspeakably low depths when it comes to the extent to which it spins. If you want to spin in your own back yard, you try your hardest, but do not dare to do that to the people in my electorate or in Alice Springs.
Mr VATSKALIS (Business and Economic Development): Madam Deputy Speaker, whilst I support this statement by the Chief Minister I have to say I always enjoy the former Leader of the Opposition speaking. She has passion; I have said that before. She builds up a really good argument. She picks up the mistakes but, at the end, she leaves me totally unsatisfied because she never gives any solutions, her own version of what should be done. Okay, it is the job of the opposition to criticise the government but go a step further. If you think we are do something wrong, come up with a solution. We never get that. We always hear what went wrong, what she perceives we did wrong.
I am very disappointed that she is sitting on the backbench. I think she is much better than the person who is the Leader of the Opposition now, the person who admitted he was not up to it a few years back She has passion, she has drive, she fights for her electorate, and it is really good to see her putting forward her own version.
Antisocial behaviour, unfortunately, has been a serious issue for Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs for many years. I remember that from the time I came to the Territory in 1983. I remember in 1999, Shane Stone, then Chief Minister of the Territory, saying he was fed up with itinerants; saying we should monster and stomp them out of town. That was his solution. I remember in 2000 when Denis Burke pleaded with the federal government to pay people’s welfare payments on the communities; to make sure that services were delivered in the communities. Of course, the problem now is that welfare is not paid by cheque; it is not paid in your community. It is put in an account which you can access from anywhere in the Territory, anywhere in Australia. If you have an EFTPOS card, you can even access your account overseas. The problem has now moved out of the communities to the Territory and, from my own personal experience, into other areas in Australia.
Last year I was in Perth - I had lived in Perth for seven years – and it never had an itinerant problem. You would not see itinerants in the middle of Perth. I was astounded when I went for a walk in the morning to see, outside the local McDonalds restaurant, about 20 itinerants with their mattresses, coats and cask of wine. It was seven o’clock in the morning. When I met my fellow minister in Perth, a good friend from the old days, I asked him: ‘What has happened?’ He said to me that because of the way accounts are now paid, because of their mobility, people from the country, from the Kimberleys, come to Perth.
If you watched the Channel 9 news yesterday, the statement by one of these itinerants was loud and clear. ‘We come down here to drink’. That is the problem of itinerancy. They create a problem everywhere: in Alice Springs, Casuarina, Tennant Creek and Katherine. The problems they create affect all of us.
That is the reason in the past I have advocated for strong measures to be taken, to such an extent that the Northern Territory Labor Party is more right wing than Jodeen Carney and her fellow members. I do not care. I work hard, like you do, for my constituents. That is what my constituents want, that is what I want. I have experienced harassment every day, not only in Casuarina but also in Darwin, and I have experienced the same in Alice Springs,
I was in Alice Springs for the past few days and when I walked down the mall I was able to do so without being harassed. I also crossed the Todd without being harassed. I went from the Quest Apartments to the mall without being harassed. It was a significant change in Alice Springs from what I saw two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. I hope it continues to be like that. Yes, there are problems. But nobody says that if we declare this town a dry town the problems will be completely solved. Nobody could actually succeed unless you put a fence around the town and prohibit certain groups of people coming into it. You cannot say this town now is clear, the problems are resolved. But we are here to try.
As I said before, previous governments tried and failed. We probably tried and failed in some areas, but we tried. We tried because we found out what worked, and we did it again. Somebody said: ‘Bring back night patrols’, so we did. We removed it and we found out that it was effective. By the way, when the night patrol was in Darwin, they had the 24-hour telephone number which I had in my mobile and, if I needed it, I would push that button and speak directly to the night patrol.
The movement of rural people to the urban centres is not only a Territory problem or an Australian problem, it is a world problem. I am proud to say that we are the first government which actually tried and are prepared to try again. We are prepared to try to fix the things that we did not get right the first time. We tried; nobody can complain to us about that.
Let me make clear that what I am talking about is the measures we are taking - not about people walking the streets. We are not talking about people who sit in the parks. We are not talking about people who get together - black, whites or in-betweens. Everybody is entitled to do that. I have no problem with people sitting in the park and talking. I have a serious problem when there are people in the park who start drinking and then start bashing their wives, their girlfriends, their kids. I have a problem with these people choosing to come to Darwin, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, or Katherine to drink. They drag with them two-year-old, four-year-old, six-year-old kids, who run around the streets, roaming around without attending school, and nobody cares if they are fed, looked after, or what happens to them.
I am not going to support groups that exhibit criminal behaviour. I am not going to sit down and take it easy when I see people sitting around drinking, and causing problems for the neighbourhoods of the park. They leave a mess behind that somebody else has to clean and off they go. I will not support that. I argue strongly with the authorities and the council that the people have a responsibility - especially the council - not to allow these people to camp in parks, to defecate and urinate, or even have sex in parks. Council close their eyes and do not do anything, despite the fact that they have by-laws. I have picked up the book and have shown the Town Clerk the section of by-laws that refer to these particular illegal activities. The council’s excuse was that they do not have enough forces to attend.
We have had enough. The community, the government, and I, as a local member, have had enough. I am very pleased that my voice and the voices of my colleagues here have been heard by the government and action has been taken. Previous governments, as I said before, had different solutions – monstering and stomping, and paying the welfare in the communities. We believe now that this government is setting in place the framework to address this problem. I am not saying it is going to be resolved tomorrow. I am not saying it is going to be resolved in a week. It is a difficult problem. It is a very difficult problem, but we are going to try.
Of course, on top of that we have the federal intervention. Do not get me wrong; the intervention should have happened in the Territory 30 years ago. Do not get me wrong; I believe the intervention is a good idea. Any government that takes action to protect its citizens is a good government and takes good action. The problem is, people in Canberra think about the Territory without talking to Territorians - without talking to elected members, not just from the Labor side, but from both sides. They made a decision in Canberra that applies to the Territory without talking to people who live in the Territory and who know the conditions.
It does not take much to think that, if you quarantine the money in certain communities, people are going to walk out to somewhere else. If I lived in Yuendumu and you wanted to take some of my money, I would take a car, drive to Darwin, live in the long grass, and you cannot touch my money anymore. It does not take much to think that if you give food coupons, somebody is going to sell some of them to get money to get alcohol. But did they ask anybody? No. They knew all the solutions. In this day and age, it is very easy to have a key card and all the quarantined money could go to the key card with your photograph to be used not only in Woolworths, Coles, or some supermarket, but anywhere in the Territory. And that key card cannot be sold. You cannot accept that, because it has a photograph and a name and you present it, people would know who you are.
The other thing of course - and I am angry about the way the intervention was handled - it portrayed Territorians as rednecks; as people who do not care about other people, and portrayed all Aboriginal people as child molesters, as wife bashers. The media had a field day. The Territory was hell on earth. However, to date, not one case of child abuse has been referred to the police as required by law in the Territory. On the other hand, people have been arrested in Kalumburu, Western Australia and in Aurukun, Queensland. That is the shortcomings of the intervention. It was a really good plan but badly executed and badly timed.
One of the consequences of the intervention was the arrival of significant numbers of itinerants to drink, not only in Darwin, but in Alice Springs, probably from other communities, and in Katherine. The government has had to rethink the policies and introduce a new approach to deal with this situation. I believe the way we are going is a very good way. The Chief Minister announced a package of reforms. This package outlined to you puts a number of very strong and determined measures aimed at bringing to a stop antisocial behaviour that plagues our cities and regions.
Many times I have asked for stronger police support in my electorate. Many times I argued for Casuarina Shopping Square to have CCTV on their premises. The previous management failed to do that. The new management put 150 CCTVs on their premises. The advice I got from them, after they installed the CCTVs, is that antisocial behaviour within their premises has declined significantly. They work. I am pleased that we are prepared to do it, not in a particular shopping centre, but in a particular shopping precinct in a particular area. I think Mitchell Street should be the first area to have CCTVs to avoid the antisocial behaviour problems caused by young white men and women who come out of clubs at 3 o’clock in the morning. Their antisocial behaviour is beyond belief. I believe it should be installed there first.
The Darwin area night patrol is an excellent idea. First of all, we ask too much of the police. It does not matter how many police you have, you cannot have a police officer on every corner. The police will attend and assess the importance and, between me and you, if I have to choose between a domestic dispute where somebody is beating up his wife or girlfriend, and somebody who is drunk, and you have to call a police officer, I know what crime I am going to choose to attend - I am going to choose to attend the domestic violence issue.
The issue of the increase in short-term accommodation: quite a lot of people come to Darwin. These people come for various reasons. I have people who come to Darwin because their relatives are attending the hospital. They come to Darwin and they have nowhere to stay. They have not programmed their arrival; they have not programmed their accommodation. They are followed by a group. Their money runs out and they are stuck in the long grass until the next pay arrives and then, by that time, it is too late. We have to provide some accommodation for these people. We also have to provide them the opportunity to be able to go back home, and have them pay it back through their welfare payments.
The important thing is, nothing will happen if we work in isolation. This is not only the NT government’s problem, this is not only the council’s problem; this is a problem for the government, the council and the Commonwealth authorities, especially Centrelink. Just like they have done it in Cairns, we can do it here, and many people who have travelled to Cairns have seen the model and they have brought it back. I read the report they produced, and I thought it was a very good idea. The police, the council, the welfare authorities, and the prison authorities are all working well. One example: people commit crimes, they go to prison, they are released from prison, and they stay in Darwin, meet the old mates, go down the pub, go down the long grass, get drunk. In Cairns, the offender comes out of prison, the prison authority’s work with the Commonwealth to facilitate their return to their country, take them home. You do not have these gaps between release from prison and return to country. Offenders do not dwell in bad company that could create problems.
The First Response Patrol is a good idea. You have a phone, pick up the phone, ring, they will arrive and assess the situation: ‘why are you here? Is it because you have nowhere to stay? We can organise short -term accommodation. Are you stuck here because you do not have money? We can organise to have you referred to someone who can get you back to your country. Are you a person who has high alcohol dependency? We will try to find a solution. You cannot stay here, it is a public park; there are other places to go’. That is how we have to work.
The money has to come with it. You cannot do all this without money. You can talk as much as you like, you can say anything you like, but unless there is real money on the table, nothing is going to happen. We are prepared to put forward the money - $10m over three years. I believe we are going to see some results.
In my new portfolio, Housing, there are significant problems. I am the first to admit that. We cater for all sorts of people – good families, working class families, low income families. We cater for people who, for one reason or another, have high alcohol dependency, drug dependency and, the other problem, relationships. I have people in my electorate who have applied to Territory Housing to have no alcohol on the premises. So, when the relatives arrive from bush, they know if they go there they cannot drink. They do not go there and we avoid the problems they create. I have other places where they come to my office crying, saying relatives have come from the bush and have brought with them five cartons of wine and had a party all night. The neighbourhood was up in arms. The police arrived and everything was hell. But we are working with these people. We are tough. We are prepared to issue restricted orders. Many of these people come to us and ask for a dry premises order. That is significant.
We have assisted 243 households to be declared dry, and a further 40 restricted premises declarations are in train. We now see a trend where people are saying: ‘Enough is enough. We don’t want our house to be used as a party house so you can’t drink here’. That solves the problems.
In early February, the Minister for Alcohol Policy working with my predecessor, and I have to say it was a fantastic job, banned the consumption of alcohol in the common areas of nine public housing complexes in Darwin and Alice Springs. This will ensure that tenants and neighbours can safely enjoy their homes and neighbourhoods. Northern Territory Housing is working with the Office of Racing, Gaming and Licensing to have the common areas in another 21 unit complexes declared dry. We have also put 88 acceptable behaviour agreements in place across the Territory with 13 more on the way. These agreements have served as a wake-up call to the overwhelming majority of households. They know very well that if they step out of line they are going to have something happening to them. It may be a threat. It may be considered as a threat but people living around them have the right to enjoy a quiet lifestyle, a good night’s sleep, and not have to put up with screaming and yelling and all the problems associated with alcohol.
We have invested $1.1m this year for security patrols of public housing across the Territory. This is for people who live in public housing but there are people who do not live in houses. They come from the communities and they are stuck in town, as I said before. The boost to the Return to Home program means that we are now able to assist more people to move back to their communities. Nearly $1m was provided to the Larrakia Nation over three years to assist in operating an information referral office in Palmerston supporting their existing services in Darwin. That provides indigenous people living in or visiting Darwin with proof of identification, access to Centrelink, support with returning home and referral support services such as accommodation. It is a comprehensive package. It is a package that the government put in place.
Yes, I know there are arguments from the other side that you have done it before. Probably we have done it before but we did not do it well or it did not keep going well for the simple reason that there are too many factors affecting the behaviour of people coming to Darwin.
People who live in Canberra never thought that what they did with the intervention would create a wave of alcohol refugees leaving the communities so they would not lose their money. These people moved to the urban centres where access to alcohol is easier. People also leave dry communities. When they come here, they come to drink and, of course, things get out of hand and they stay here longer. Some of them stay for ever and ever.
It is the responsibility of all elected members of government. It is the responsibility of the local council. We cannot say that the council has no responsibility, and has no role to play. Let us face it: these people have access to money in Darwin, in Alice Springs, wherever they are and we have to work together to find out the patterns, where the money is paid, how they are paid, and where they stay.
It is a comprehensive package. I have asked many times for a package like this. Some people consider it as an extreme, right-wing package. I do not think it is extremely right-wing. We have the responsibility as local members to stand up and say: ‘Kids cannot be abused. Women cannot be bashed up. When you come to drink here, I have no problems with you sitting down to drink. Have a drink, but there is a line you cannot cross. Your drinking cannot become my problem. If your drinking is your problem, it has to be your problem but not become my problem or our problem’.
By implementing such a comprehensive package for antisocial behaviour with some people, I think we will find a solution. Not today, not tomorrow, not in the second seven days, but we are on the way to find a solution.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I commend the Chief Minister for the package he brought to government.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Madam Deputy Speaker, I respond to the minister’s statement on antisocial behaviour initiatives. In the four years that I have been in this House we have spent a considerable length of time discussing antisocial behaviour. Here we are, back here again, talking about something that is supposedly new called ‘a comprehensive plan’ listing these six things here. When I first read it this morning, I thought: ‘Oh, gosh. Here we go again’. It just seems to me that for years we have been talking about the issues that we have had in Katherine. Every single one of them is in here.
The statement mainly addresses Darwin and Palmerston. To me, it seems this comprehensive package is now being introduced because the problems we are discussing have finally arrived on Darwin and Palmerston’s front door steps. It has been in Katherine and other regional communities for years. There is no blame from me to be bandied from one side of politics to the other, because there is not a very simple solution to the issue.
There have been many programs trialled. I have been involved with tourism since 1989 and, in all the programs that have been trialled, there is no doubt that there has been limited success. As I said, most Territorians are sick and tired of antisocial behaviour and so they should be. They just do not want to hear the words and more platitudes about antisocial behaviour and a new program that is being trialled. They actually want results. That is what the people of Katherine want.
The first time I started talking about antisocial behaviour, I had been the Chairman of the Katherine Region Tourist Association for four years. At one particular meeting I went back through the minutes. I asked: ‘How many times have I said this same thing in these meetings?’ The issue of serious antisocial behaviour in Katherine was brought up at every monthly meeting. That was the first time I approached the former member for Katherine. That was in the previous government. Despite the members opposite here claiming nothing was tried before they came in 2001, that is quite wrong. There were things trialled. I am not saying that they had a great deal of success. They had some limited success but at least somebody was trying to do something.
The minister has made the point that Territorians are saying it is totally unacceptable that we have antisocial behaviour in our communities. Yes, it is. I have very publicly said on many occasions that, in my opinion, zero tolerance is the only way to go. To get to that zero tolerance, we have to stop this soft shoe treatment. That has been proved over and over again. Being all touchy and soft and handling these problems in a so-called delicate way is not going to work.
One program that was supposed to deal with that was the Harmony Group. The community harmony programs first started in Katherine in 2002. I was one of those people who thought it was a really good idea. But like all others, it was an idea that just did not bring great benefits. It dragged on for too long, people became bored with it, different departments fell out when new people came in, the new people had different ideas and, in the end, it became a talkfest. Many people walked away from it. Government departments walked away from it. It became of absolutely no benefit to Katherine at all.
There was habitual drunks legislation in 2005; there were the alcohol courts in 2005, there were better laws in 2006 and there has been a minister for Alcohol since 2007. We had a very comprehensive substance abuse inquiry which we reported on last year. Visiting those communities and regional towns highlighted to us the significance of the problem. Well, it did not highlight it, we were already aware of it. It just brought home to us again that something serious had to be done.
One of the most important things that would make a big difference - and we talk about it over and over again and we have asked for it over and over again, and, as usual, the political game gets played - is more police. There is absolutely no question that more police are needed in our streets, especially in Katherine, because that is where I witness the problems. The police are absolutely stretched to their limit carrying out their daily tasks.
The situation with antisocial behaviour is so serious that it warrants police being designated just to deal with itinerants and antisocial behaviour, and there are not enough of them. It is good that we have night patrols. We do have a limited night patrol and we have had it for years. I have not checked on it recently, but the night patrol used to finish at 5 pm. That was not very satisfactory because the problems are starting well and truly after 5 pm. One of the problems that I have with the night patrols is that there are well-meaning people working on it, giving their time but, whenever I tried to access that patrol when I had a business, I was never able to get them. That highlighted problems of lack of training, and there being not enough of them. There needed to be much more intensive training and, of course, they were limited with the powers they had.
The minister said somewhere in his statement that we need to encourage them - the patrols need to encourage these people to return to their homes and get off the streets. The majority of people that I am talking about who caused the antisocial behaviour in Katherine are beyond talking to and trying to convince them. I have been living there since 1989 and I can tell you there are at least 50 of those people who are living in Katherine who have been there on the streets and in the long grass since 1989. How are you going to say to those people: ‘Where would you like to go?’ They will tell you in no uncertain terms where you can go. That is exactly what they do. Any suggestion that they return to anywhere - they do not want to go. They are perfectly happy living in the long grass the way they have been doing for all those years. What happens to those? They are there by choice - they are actually there by choice.
A couple of them now live here in Darwin. I see one in Raintree Park when I walk home each night. He usually calls out and says something to me and I pretend I have not seen him, because I do not want to start getting involved with the same scenario that I used to with him when we were at Red Gum Tourist Park. It is his choice to live in the long grass. When he was in Katherine, he was given public housing directly behind Red Gum in the public housing units. It was just following the flood and a lot of money was spent by the Territory government in 1998 following the Katherine flood to upgrade those units and to refurbish them. I can assure you that this particular person and his partner, within the space of three months, were removed from there. They had totally wrecked it. Once again, it had to be completely refurbished. It was not that he did not have the opportunity to have public housing; he did not want it.
The government has to deal with those sorts of people too. Where are they going to go? You talk about providing homes and housing for those people to get them off the streets, but I am sorry, there are many people out there who just do not want to go anywhere else than where they are right now. That makes it really difficult, because they have hangers-on and they drink. They are drinking over here in Raintree Park; I see them all drinking there. It is a real problem. That is why I say you really need to have designated police getting the message through to them: ‘I am sorry, you cannot drink here and you cannot drink anywhere in this area that has been declared dry. It is not acceptable’.
In Katherine and everywhere, alcohol is inevitably linked to antisocial behaviour. Of course, there has been a lot of blame put on the federal government for implementing the NT intervention. We can talk about whether the way it was done was good or bad, but it was done for a reason. The intervention has been blamed for the influx of people to, not so much Katherine, but Darwin and Palmerston.
Long before the intervention, the dry town declaration in Port Augusta was already sending indigenous people up the Stuart Highway to Coober Pedy, Andamooka and to Alice Springs. Finally, Alice Springs became a dry town so they moved further up the track. The timing of them all arriving here in Darwin combines with the dry town legislation, and I support it, by the way. I support dry town legislation, but what happened is Port Augusta implemented theirs, and it is working very well, people started to leave because they could not drink publicly in Port Augusta, so they have came up the Stuart Highway. They have come to Alice Springs, and when Alice Springs started to take some serious steps to address their antisocial and drunken behaviour, they started to move further up the track. They reached Tennant Creek, then Katherine, and we had stacks of them in Katherine, and then they finally came up here, because Katherine is now a dry town.
Added to that, this time of the year, every single year in January and February, there is an influx of indigenous people from remote communities who come in because they know they are going to be isolated if they stay out in their community because of floodwaters, or the creeks and rivers are up. That is exactly what has happened. This year has been extremely wet. There are many people who have deliberately come into town because they have nothing to do out there, and they stay in town. It appears that they are caught in town, but many of them have deliberately come in to stay. They do not want to go back out until it becomes dry again.
With everything that is being introduced in this package - short-term accommodation, the boost to the Return to Home program, the dedicated line for reporting antisocial behaviour – has anyone considered that visitors to our regional towns would not know the number to ring and who to contact. They experience the antisocial behaviour, and they are not sure who to contact. They sometimes come into my office, or they go to the Visitors Centre. They get a double whammy of it outside the Visitors Centre in Katherine, which is a nice shaded, grassy area, so it is an inviting area for them to gather.
A member of the public who lives on a station property outside Katherine suggested to me, after his wife was recently subjected to some fairly unpleasant humbugging, that there needs to be a dedicated telephone line with a distinct number which would be easy to remember. His suggestion was 000 HUMBUG. There should be a sign that says 000 HUMBUG. It would be the 000, but the HUMBUG would be different numbers to what the 000 number is now, so that there was no confusion. I thought it was a pretty good idea. It would be on signs coming into all the Territory regional towns so that people knew what to do if they were getting humbugged. They do not want to dial 000 because somebody is harassing them for money because they want a drink, but they want to get in touch with somebody to come and do something. I thought 000 HUMBUG was a good idea. Why doesn’t the Northern Territory pick it up and patent it? I reckon it is a good idea. Humbugging is what we do not want, and that is what happens in our towns.
We are talking about antisocial behaviour and, of course, most of this is to do with alcohol. If you are going to put in these extra beds, yes, you definitely need extra beds to cater for those drunks and get them off the street, but do not forget places like Katherine, which are full continuously. The sobering-up shelter, even with the dry town, is full. The excess of those people who are taken off the streets have to go into police custody overnight for police protection, for their safety. There needs to be more beds in Katherine. There definitely needs to be a detox centre. If we are serious about trying to make some changes with antisocial behaviour, we have to start addressing the people who come in off the streets on what I call the spin dryer, because they come in on a regular basis into the sobering-up shelter, clean them up, wash them up, wash their clothes, give them something to eat and send them off. They regularly spin back in, and in and in and out and in and out.
I knew some people who used to come into my shop when I had Red Gum whom I had not seen for a few weeks and I would say: ‘Where have you been?’, whatever the name was, and I would not mention names, and they would say: ‘We’ve been up at Berrimah, missus’. I would say: ‘What are you doing there?’ They would deliberately get picked up. They would deliberately go to the sobering-up shelter knowing that they had gone there too many times and they were going to have to go to Berrimah to dry out. So they would go up for four, five or six weeks and ‘Seems to be a pretty good place, missus’ and they would dry out. They would come back looking pretty good because they had had some food in them and, blow me down, within a week or two they are back doing the same thing again. That is the cycle we have to break. Those people I am referring to were long-grassers and still are; they are still living in the long grass.
If we are serious about making a dent into alcohol problems which contribute to antisocial behaviour in our communities we must have sobering-up shelters that can cope with the numbers. We must have a detox centre and then we must have a rehabilitation centre located appropriately in each of the regional towns like Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Borroloola, probably - I am not sure if they would be able to have one there as I think the pub is closed again. Unless they have those things, we are not going to make any difference and we will be back here in the next 10 years, still talking about the same thing.
I have spoken before about rehabilitation centres that work for indigenous people. I know I have talked incessantly about Dillinya and Sheila Millar, but that is a perfect example of an indigenous-trained person who knows how to deal with the problems of her people. She has successfully treated people for alcohol abuse for some time. She has recovered alcoholics living out there. Do not try to re-invent the wheel. Look at what does work. That has worked.
The Minister for Housing spoke about problems with public housing. There are many problems with public housing in our regional towns. I can speak for Katherine because I live behind five public houses which used to have families living in them who had been there for many years, but with the change of the policies and the way things were handled by Territory Housing, those people had to move on. I have now had the most incredible number of families through three houses that are directly and diagonally behind me that have been completely refurbished several times. I am getting very frustrated with the antisocial behaviour that goes on in those places. Territorians are paying for those refurbishments. That money needs to be spent far more wisely, not spent on people who abuse the process. I am really annoyed with that. They need to have urban living programs and definitely need to learn how to live in an environment other than what they would prefer to live in. I find that very annoying.
The minister’s statement about antisocial behaviour initiatives is all very grand. You have them in a comprehensive plan. Now, please, deliver them. Give us some police to go with it so that we can really make it work. If you need double the police numbers, give us double the police numbers. Otherwise we are just paying lip service to this again.
Mr BONSON (Sport and Recreation): Madam Speaker, I, and I am sure Territorians, welcome the statement by the Chief Minister on this government’s initiative to deal with antisocial behaviour in the Darwin and Palmerston areas. No one should have to put up with unacceptable behaviour. People of Darwin and Palmerston and any other urban centre should be able to go about their business without being humbugged by drunks. We remain committed to being tough with the drunks who inflict themselves on ordinary Territorians.
The package announced by the Chief Minister is going to reinforce the efforts of those currently working on the front line tackling this problem. The package outlined by the Chief Minister recognises antisocial behaviour is a complex problem. A simplistic, one dimensional process will not work. Monstering and stomping, as advocated by a former CLP Chief Minister, will not work. It certainly did not work at the time. The CLP had 27 years to deal with this problem. They failed. We will be tough, but as a government we know we have to also attack the root cause of the problem. The package outlined by the Chief Minister recognises that we must continue working to evolve and refine our approaches to this problem. As the Chief Minister said, we will continue to monitor the success of this latest initiative. This ongoing assessment is vital. To do otherwise would be foolish.
This package will complement measures already put in place by this government. That was a fact acknowledged by Jane Lawton of Mission Australia on ABC radio news today. Ms Lawton, welcoming the announcement, said:
Whether the opposition likes it or not, the word ‘holistic’ is the key word. The government’s holistic $10m package will feature: a First Response Patrol; a dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line; a Darwin area night patrol; closed circuit television cameras; increased short-term accommodation; a boost to the Return to Home program; and a new level of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies.
We all know there has been a problem with antisocial behaviour in our urban centres, including Palmerston and Darwin. As someone who has grown up in Darwin, I have to say this is not a new problem. Sadly, antisocial behaviour has been with us for many years. Anybody who tries to tell us this is a new problem does not understand the Northern Territory. It was a fact of life when I was younger, and it was a problem when we came to government in 2001. I should add that, since 2001, this government has added 200 officers to our police force. We had to deal with the legacy of the CLP’s freeze on police recruitment in the early 1990s. The CLP’s recruitment freeze achieved nothing in the fight against antisocial behaviour. You have to have enough police on the front line to deal with this problem.
Police will work with agencies like Mission Australia and Larrakia Nation to deal with antisocial behaviour. Historically, Darwin has had to cope with itinerant behaviour on our streets. I know, as a young man, I was always aware of antisocial behaviour by young people. This package will bolster the government’s ongoing efforts to counter antisocial behaviour. Our antisocial behaviour problems are exacerbated by alcohol. Territorians from all walks of life are drinking far too much. On average, adult Territorians drink 17.3 litres of pure alcohol a year compared with 10 litres elsewhere in the country. The Minister for Alcohol Policy previously outlined to this House government initiatives aimed at reducing alcohol consumption in the Territory. We cannot deal with antisocial behaviour without dealing with alcohol abuse. Much of the antisocial behaviour in our urban centres is fuelled by alcohol. It is vital that we make a meaningful impact on alcohol consumption. We are doing that.
The problem with antisocial behaviour is complex and deep-seated. Unfortunately, it has been made worse by the federal government’s intervention. The previous federal government and the former Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Mal Brough, were warned that there would be an influx of people into urban centres as a result of the intervention. In typical style, he did not want to listen. I know my colleague, the Minister for Alcohol Policy, raised this issue with him on a number of occasions but he refused to listen. The intervention affects traditional people on city streets and in the centre of places like Darwin and Palmerston. Unfortunately, too many people coming from the bush to urban centres like Darwin and Palmerston have been sucked into downward and damaging cycles of life in the long grass. We have to work to not only deal with the antisocial behaviour this group is causing but, as a responsible government, we have to find ways to help them out of their destructive, downward spiral.
The initiatives contained in the package will all play a role in achieving this end. The Return to Home initiatives have proved highly successful in getting people in out major centres out of the long grass. Many people who come to places like Darwin and Palmerston for legitimate reasons often find themselves trapped in a life of drinking and despair. It is important we work to break the cycle of misery and get them back to their families.
We have also drawn on experiences from Western Australia and Queensland. At least two government ministers have visited Cairns to learn how Cairns was able to deal with a significant antisocial behaviour problem. I also visited Cairns in my first term as elected member and saw the good work that was happening to address these issues. As I understand it, it was threatening the viability of the region’s tourism industry. Central to what can be called the ‘Cairns model’, is a high degree of cooperation between government and non-government agencies. This includes a high level of cooperation between Queensland government agencies and local government. Cairns has also benefited from the introduction of CCTV cameras. According to my colleagues and from what I have observed, they have been central to the success of antisocial measures in Cairns.
The Chief Minister has announced the installation of closed circuit television cameras in the Darwin CBD and the Casuarina shopping precinct. I am confident this initiative will play a significant role in both moderating the behaviour of certain groups and assisting the authorities in dealing with incidents after the fact.
While police will continue to play a central front-line role in their efforts to curb antisocial behaviour, I welcome the reintroduction of a night patrol to the Darwin area. I am confident that the night patrol will work with police to deal with antisocial behaviour. The introduction of a dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line makes good sense. I also welcome the $2.77m increase to short-term accommodation, which is a further reflection of the government’s recognition that a simplistic approach will not work. We have to work at this problem from many angles and that is what we are doing.
This package has been a long time in the making. It has come after a good deal of consideration by Cabinet. It has come about after examination of interstate experiences. It has been designed to fit in with initiatives already announced by this government, including our alcohol management plans and the introduction of dry and restricted areas.
As Jane Lawton of Mission Australia said, this is an holistic package. It is one that has been developed over time. It has been developed to complement initiatives already announced by this government. To depict otherwise is wrong. I am confident that the package announced by the Chief Minister will work to address the long-standing issue of antisocial behaviour in urban centres like Darwin and Palmerston. I commend the Chief Minister’s statement to the House.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I would like to comment on the Chief Minister’s statement on antisocial initiatives. At the outset, I feel that I have heard this all before. These issues have been around an awful long time. I do not think you can blame one particular party or another. We have a society that has, basically, had an association with alcohol for a long time.
I have said before that when I first went to Daly River when I was 19 there were two pubs - one at Daly River Crossing and one near Wooliana at Robbie’s Sandbar. That was in 1970. There were many people affected by alcohol then. There were many women affected by alcohol through domestic violence or just abusing alcohol themselves. Therefore, it is not a new issue and it is a difficult issue.
Whilst this package looks good on the surface, generally speaking, it is a reactive package. It is a package that says ‘we have a problem, now let us see how we can fix it’. I believe we are still a long way behind trying to find out how we stop this problem occurring in the first place. I have said before that there is not enough emphasis on educating people about the problems associated with the misuse of alcohol. The alcohol industry is an extremely powerful industry.
I have said before, as well, that we ban the advertising of tobacco because it causes health problems, but how many people have car accidents because of tobacco? How many people start a fight at home with their partner because of tobacco? How many people get involved in violent crimes because of tobacco? We banned tobacco advertising. We see it written on a packet of cigarettes and we continually say to people that smoking is very harmful. It causes all sorts of problems. It costs our society a large amount of money when we have to try to cure people who suffer the effects of smoking.
When it comes to alcohol, for some reason, it is a bit of a no-go area. It infiltrates our lives from social and advertising aspects. Our social life is centred around drinking. Unless I go to the Salvation Army or something, I do not think I can go to any parties in Darwin or the rural area where there would not be a fairly reasonable supply of alcohol. It would be the norm. As a non-drinker, I used to get annoyed going to a party where they would drink all the soft drink first and then get into the alcohol later, which left me high and dry, literally. But, that is the way social life is in Darwin; it revolves around alcohol.
Advertising – watch the cricket. You know who sponsors the cricket – VB. The football - it will be one of the alcohol companies. They put smart advertisements on and get a bit of a laugh out of the audience. That is all done to attract attention. That is what it is about. Sport is one of the biggest industries in the Northern Territory. Many of our indigenous people love sport, so what better place to advertise alcohol than at a football ground. What better place to sell alcohol than a football ground. I went to the football the other night and, sure enough, the main type of alcohol that was sold was full strength, Cougar and, maybe, Melbourne. There might have been some Mid Strength there, as well. There is a market there that the alcohol industry enjoys. The facts are that they do not want it to be restrained because they make lots of money. They are a very powerful lobby group, and one that the federal government gets quite a substantial amount of cash from, so you would not expect the government to have a program which would reduce the sale of alcohol.
I do not believe we do enough in our society to frown on the behaviour that comes from drunkenness. Once, being drunk in a public place was an offence. You have to wonder whether we should reintroduce it. Except for going that one step and saying that drunkenness is an offence and therefore we will pick you up, we are saying your behaviour is antisocial, you are humbugging people. We are going round in a circle which avoids the fact. The fact is that we are sick of drunken people in public places annoying us but we will not arrest them for being drunk. We will arrest them for the other issues that are associated with that drunkenness.
Drunkenness in our society tends to be a bit of a badge of honour. We do not say it is a problem. Occasionally, you will hear doctors say that binge drinking is harmful to teenagers. How many teenagers listen to that? How many parties have been in your area where the party has gotten out of hand simply because of the amount of alcohol being drunk? We are not talking about light beer here. We are talking about spirits. That is what many kids drink today. There have been parties in my electorate that have gotten out of hand, where police have had bottles thrown at them, and the ambulance officers have had the same. You would have to say that is all associated with the abuse of alcohol.
Where are we going as a society? Are we saying: ‘Let us put all these ‘fix-it’ things here. Let us look at these things that will remove people after they are in a state of intoxication’, instead of asking: ‘What are we going to do to stop people getting into this state of affairs in the first place?’ That is not easy; there is no doubt about that. Ask anybody who goes to AA how hard it is to pull themselves out of the mire of alcohol. I do not believe we are making a clear, continuous public statement to people that alcohol, when abused, causes our society major problems.
This antisocial behaviour initiative is mainly aimed at indigenous people. Why aren’t we saying the same thing to non-indigenous people? If I was an indigenous person and I saw a normal party in Darwin that gets a bit out of hand about midnight or something, I would say: ‘Oh well, that is the way it is done’. That is the example we give to indigenous people. I always think of the advertisement on television, I think, for XXXX when a guy would open up the back of his ute and you would see an entire ute full of grog. Well, the message is that that is a great thing to do, drink it all, it is fantastic. We might laugh about it; we might think that it is pretty funny. It probably was a funny advertisement. What is the message it sends to other people, especially indigenous people who may not see the subtlety in what is being said? They may presume the idea is we all drink a lot of grog. That it is the norm.
It is excessive drinking that is causing the problems that we are trying to fix today. I do not think you can get around that. Where are the initiatives to change our habits in relation to the use of alcohol? Is it such an in-thing in our society, is it such a ‘you have to drink otherwise you are not cool’ type of mentality that we have today, that we are scared to move in that direction? We will spend millions of dollars trying to patch up the problems, but what would we spend on early intervention? There are other programs where people will tell you that, if you spend a million dollars on early intervention, you will save yourself $15m down the track. Here we have a classic example where we are going to spend $15m down the track but what are we spending up-front to try to change behaviour? That is a matter that concerns me.
I am also concerned that this broad-brush name ‘antisocial’ is a bit too narrow. I am saying the word is broad, but this initiative is actually fairly narrow in its use. I have antisocial behaviour in my electorate and it is not indigenous people. I can tell you that. These are people with fast cars, plenty of money to burn, and they burn it on rubber and we call them hoons. You probably have them in some of your suburbs. I have had major problems with hoons, especially out in the Howard River Park area and other parts of the rural area. We have continually tried to get something done about it. The police work as best they can. I have even asked the government to look at some sort of CCTV set-up to put on the roads that are the main target of these hoons. I have not got anywhere. In fact, with a couple of constituents, we were looking at buying a camera from Dick Smith’s and setting it up opposite some of these roads. We were told because of the quality of the video we would probably not get evidence from those cameras that would hold up in court. When we went to the police they said they did not have enough money for that. Then I see umpteen million dollars spent on the introduction of closed circuit television cameras and I wonder why we cannot get some to stop antisocial behaviour in our area.
Is this really going to be a plan that the government is going to act on? Again, I relate to the hoon issue. I asked the minister for roads and infrastructure last year whether she would change the legislation that we commonly call ‘hooning’ legislation, so that the first offence by someone caught hooning was the confiscation of their car. The reason for that is if there is a problem in a neighbourhood with people doing burn-outs, donuts and generally being antisocial, if you remove the car, you remove the problem. The government said it does not want to be that harsh: ‘The first offence will be a yellow ticket, a warning’, so that is what they did. Then I asked the minister, if that is not working would she introduce a change. The minister said: ‘I will send it off to the Road Safety Council committee and they can report’. That, I think, was at least 12 months ago. It is not big issue. It does not require a big change in legislation, yet I have heard nothing from the government.
Later on during the year, I asked: ‘What is happening?’ I said we are waiting for this report and the minister gave me the answer: ‘We have demerit points now’. Demerit points do not change anything. Demerit points do not remove the problem. Here is the chance for the government to show a bit of initiative like the Western Australian government is showing at the moment. It has major hoon problems in Perth. My daughter used to live there for a couple of years. There were always problems with antisocial behaviour by people hooning around the country. Mr Carpenter, the Premier of Western Australia, recently announced that he was going to introduce tougher hoon legislation where cars will be confiscated for a week. I am not saying that. I am saying just a weekend – 48 hours.
We do not appear to be fair dinkum when it comes to antisocial behaviour. Antisocial behaviour is not just about indigenous issues. It is about a lot of other behaviour. Behaviour of hoons on the road is an extremely serious issue because people are killed and injured. That has happened in the rural area recently and in times gone past. We really need to be attacking that.
There is the issue about youth camps. I appreciate the government has introduced the idea recently in parliament but it seemed to be an awful long time coming. It had to wait for a by-election - the by-election for Greatorex - before it would look at youth camps. The Labor candidate in Alice Springs for that by-election suggested that is what we needed. All of a sudden, the government decided, ‘That is a good idea. We will support that’. I have spoken about similar things time and time again, long before the Greatorex by-election. It was like words floating in the air when it came to any action about it. I appreciate that the government is now starting to look at it.
The member for Katherine mentioned farms for people going through rehabilitation. There are going to be people who are able to try to change their lives around. Many of those people are the people you will see at AA meetings. There will be people who have enough strength to do it on their own and change their lives, but there are some people who are past the point of no return. They simply do not have the capability of overcoming problems with alcohol and they need some forcible assistance, if you can put it that way. There is a need for some low-security places out in the areas in the bush where these people can dry out, where they can receive medical attention, where they have a chance to do some basic literacy and numeracy, where they can have time to, hopefully, recover. They may have work there: woodwork, metalwork. They may have some gardens they can work in, whatever. We need to look at alternatives. We can have detox units. They are good. We can have all those sorts of things.
It is interesting that the Salvation Army is looking at putting a 50-bed hostel at Knuckeys Lagoon. I believe the application for that siting comes up this Friday. From what I have seen of it, it appears to be a very good facility. It has to go through some planning stages. Sometimes when people see rehabilitation centres, they get a bit concerned. The Salvation Army does a professional job and they will run a very professional facility when it is built.
They are good things but there is also a need for those people who are well past it, who have probably been through the revolving door time after time after time, to be forcibly taken out to a place where they have to stay. They simply have to stay for the benefit of themselves and the benefit of the rest of us. We do not want these people always back in town, humbugging, putting their own lives at risk crossing roads at night drunk, putting other peoples’ lives at risk. We need to do some positive things about those people. It is not easy. Sheila Millar at Dillinya – there is a person who knows how to do it. She is a tough lady and she uses what you would call ‘tough love’. She works hard to help those people. She will tell you that as she fixes up one group of people, another batch comes in. Unless we stop that continual supply of people who have alcohol problems, unless we start to intervene at an early stage, we will need a lot more Sheila Millars.
I am interested if the minister could give me some statistics about the success of the Return to Home program. If this is successful, then, in theory, we should be seeing a drop in the numbers of people returning. These may be new people; they may be the same people. Statistics would have to show whether we are getting the same people coming back from these communities, or whether they are new people who have come back because of, as the member for Millner said, the intervention process. I do not know. However, to realistically look at whether the program is working, you would need some detailed statistics to be analysed to see if that was the case.
I am not sure what the Harmony Program does now. It did have an office at the Knuckey Lagoon community. On my recent trips there I did not see any sign of it operating any more. I do not know what has happened to it but, if it is happening, it is happening very quietly - or it has been abandoned altogether. I am interested to know whether the Harmony office at Knuckey Lagoon still exists.
In talking about the establishment of First Response Patrol, do we have the funds and the numbers of police to do that? That is extra police, I would imagine, if you have a First Response Patrol. A dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line, I presume, that is a 24-hour reporting line. I gather that the people who already work our police lines are overworked, so you need more people to run an antisocial behaviour reporting line. Will that antisocial behaviour reporting line be applicable to the hoons? If I ring up and say there is a bunch of hoons ripping up the road at the front, driving all over the place, will that antisocial behaviour reporting apply to them, or is it just simply for drunks and people humbugging in Darwin and Palmerston? We need to know whether it is for a dedicated area or not.
All these things might sound great. As I have said many times before, you can introduce all these things but if I ask the minister to come back in 12 months time and tell us if there has been any change, that is the only way we are going to see whether this program works. We have had programs; we have had many things. The Leader of the Opposition listed a whole range of programs that government has put forward over the last six to seven years. It would be good to see a report from the government – a no-holds-barred, honest report - as to whether those programs have made any difference. Before we start putting new programs into place, we should look at the programs we already have, assess them, see whether they have been a success or failure and, then, if we can learn from that, introduce either improved programs or get rid of those old programs altogether.
I am interested to see what happens in the future, Madam Speaker. It is important, but I will wait and see.
Ms ANDERSON (Macdonnell): Madam Speaker, I support the Chief Minister’s statement. I will not go over everything that my colleagues have spoken about this evening, but touch on a few points that were in the statement.
As Territorians, we all deserve to be safe, and our children need to be safe. I know in Alice Springs that young children go to the cinema and my own child often goes to the cinema with his friends. Unfortunately, there is a huge amount of antisocial behaviour at the front of the cinema.
The Chief Minister, and this government, has heard the cry of all Territorians and introduced this statement which is addressing the cries: ‘Help us with the antisocial behaviour that we see on our streets’. It is not just in Alice Springs but Darwin, Katherine and Tennant Creek. Madam Speaker herself, when we were dining out in Alice Springs, saw antisocial behaviour in the mall where people, dining out with friends and colleagues, were interrupted by people coming up and taking food off the tables. It is a real intrusion into people’s lives. As Territorians, whether we are black or white, we deserve to have our rights respected, to dine with our husbands or fiances or friends, without being interrupted by drunken people.
It is a huge step that the Chief Minister and this government has taken in putting together a package that does not just attack people, but has a look, overall, at all the problems of Aboriginal people. This government has put together a good package. That it looks at shelters for the long-grassers, or the itinerants, in Alice Springs shows that they are concerned about people’s wellbeing. When they have a package that includes people being picked up and taken to shelters, it shows that this government is concerned about people’s wellbeing, because when people are crossing streets, there are often accidents, and people get killed in these accidents.
I believe that the focus and emphasis that the Chief Minister and this government has put together in this package really shows to Territorians that we are concerned about all Territorians, and that it is a Territory for all Territorians.
We should feel pleased, with our children and our families, to occupy public space, have barbecues, and not be threatened, and be free to walk down the mall in Darwin and in Alice Springs without being humbugged for money and cigarettes. It is a huge crisis.
I congratulate the Chief Minister for bringing this statement to this House. It is a good package and has a good focus. We have identified all the problems related to antisocial behaviour. Probably we in this House know better than others that alcohol is the key factor in all antisocial behaviour. It is the key factor in family dysfunction, in child abuse, in many dysfunctions that we see with children not going to school because they have been kept up all night by drunken relatives or a drunken mum and dad.
From a remote electorate point of view, this is a wonderful package. I put my appreciation on record to the Chief Minister, and especially to the government, for having a look at all aspects of antisocial behaviour. We know it is disturbing, and we need to encourage our people to go home. The government has built people houses, beautiful houses, worth $300 000, $400 000, $500 000 and $600 000. We need to ask the question: why are they all in our hub towns? Why do they have so much dysfunction? We need to encourage these people to go home. I believe the step that this government has taken is a wonderful step. I commend the statement to the House.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, I am staggered that the Chief Minister put out this statement today after all that went on last week. We debated the antisocial issues last week. We had this huge debate on who was going to represent Central Australia in this parliament because our Minister for Central Australia had stepped down. And what do we find? We get this statement that is all about Darwin and Palmerston. Yes, it might be a great package, but you had to go into the fine detail to find anything about Alice Springs. This is a politically idiotic thing to do. I do not know who the advisor was who said: ‘Minister, make this statement today,’ when he has had all that flack about Central Australia. It is obviously targeting Darwin and Palmerston. Yes, it is a good package. I am sure Darwin and Palmerston will be fine. But why do it? Is it, hit me, hit me, please? My phone started ringing as soon as it hit the headlines. People are saying: ‘Hey! What’s going on? Not only do we have a guy from Daly or somewhere who is our minister for Central Australia, but the Chief Minister has now announced all these goodies for Darwin and Palmerston. What about me?’
That is the message the government is sending out there with that statement and this press release which says quite blatantly: ‘… has announced the most comprehensive package of measures ever developed to tackle antisocial behaviour around Darwin and Palmerston’.
Excuse me? The Territory is not just Darwin and Palmerston. There are other people who live in the Territory. What about Katherine or Tennant Creek or Alice Springs or Yulara? What about your remote communities? I could not believe that anyone could be so crazy to come out with a statement that is so biased towards Darwin and Palmerston after what happened in this House last week. I do not know whether the new Chief Minister is getting a bit thick in the head or something - I should not say that. I take that back - is getting a little misled. I thought it was a pretty crazy time to be delivering a package like this.
There are good things in there. One of the things I want to talk about is the ‘establishment of a First Response Patrol’. Is this like the task force in Alice Springs that suddenly comes down and tries to sort us out? What is it exactly? I am not quite sure. You talk about short-term accommodation and I give the previous Minister for Housing credit. The short-term accommodation at Stuart Lodge in Alice Springs is working well.
He talks about prisoners going back to communities. I have told the story before about how many of our prisoners work in the community before they are released. One had a job all lined up, was put into the Salvation Army Hostel, his mates arrived and he never got to the job. It is really important we look after our prisoners, that we provide a halfway house or we make sure they get home. That is a good initiative. We talk about more police in Alice Springs. We keep being told that we have more police there. We were promised horse patrols; I think they are doing them once a week now. They would be really good up and down the river. We have restrictions, restrictions, restrictions. I believe government is trying to say: ‘We are trying to show this package to address all these things’. I still ask: where is the preventative stuff? Where are the programs to stop this stuff?
I also say to all the ministers in this parliament: you pass laws. What do you do then? How do you get the message out to the people in communities and regional centres that there has been a new law passed? Do you just put out a media release and hope like heck the media tells everyone? Or do you do what you should? Do you provide some education? Do you get on the airwaves? Do you send out videos? Do you send the message through advertisements? I do not think I have seen any advertisement about the dry town for Alice Springs or an ID card coming up. How are we supposed to know this? How do people out there know?
Many of our people are illiterate. They cannot read a newspaper, not that they would probably bother to. Who is telling them what the new laws are? Who is telling them that you cannot come into Alice Springs, buy a carton of grog and sit under a tree? Who is telling them you cannot do that in Darwin anymore? It is fine to pass laws. It is fine to talk about it in here and get on the different media outlets and talk about it, but, if you do not tell the people out there what the laws are, how do they know? That is why you end up with a situation where people come in, break the law and get into a terrible cycle of alcohol abuse or what have you.
I say to all the ministers here: think about it. If you pass a law that is going to impact upon the lives of the people of the Territory, how are they going to know about it? How are you going to reach the people who are illiterate? How are you going to reach the people who never see a newspaper? How are you going to reach the people who never bother to watch the news? Politicians may be addicted to watching news but there many people out there who are not. They would rather watch the footie. This is one of the faults we have. Perhaps this is why many of the laws we have introduced or are introducing are not working, because we are just not getting the message across.
We heard the Chief Minister say: ‘We are going to tell everyone about the history of the Bombing of Darwin’. Fine, that is great. In your school curriculum we used to have something called law and order, or social studies or something similar. Do we tell schools to make sure people know what our laws are? What is right and wrong? What is respect? What are people’s properties? No. Let’s make sure our education curriculum also passes on the messages to our kids because they are the next generation coming up.
It concerns me that we are putting in all this package of measures to address antisocial problems but we have not taught the people about the laws we have introduced that they are now breaking. If they are breaking them through ignorance, then that is our fault. It is not necessarily their fault because we need to get that message out.
In Question Time today, I asked about the night patrol and Tangentyere which are currently funded by the federal government. The night patrol is good but, if you have only one car, you really cannot address the problem. If one car is attending a DV and another call comes in, by the time they have sorted out that problem with the DV, it is too late. But if you have cars to go to a hot spot straightaway and assist those people, whether it is to go to the sobering-up shelter, to go home, to go to relatives or short-term accommodation, go to hospital, whatever, then that is good. That stops the next step. But you really need to make sure we have those vehicles.
I know you are introducing the night patrol again in Darwin. I thought it was a disaster when they took it away. We should be saying to other places in the Territory that night patrols are good. They really are and we really need that extra funding in Alice Springs to have two cars on the road, not just one. It is not a lot of money, either. If you gave them an additional $200 000 a year they would have a good service. They would have the staff required and they could do it well.
The day patrol is funded by the NT government and people are pretty happy with that. I have this nice shady spot outside my office where I often get drinkers. I walk out and say: ‘Hey, you are not allowed to drink here’. They move on but, now and again, someone is a bit inebriated or collapses and I call the day patrol. They pick the person up and take them to the best place for them to be at that time. The day patrol has two cars, split shifts and operates five days a week. That funding has been fairly firm for a few years.
The Return to Country that you have up here has restarted in Alice Springs. It is a good program. I can only encourage the government to continue funding that. The problem we have in Alice Springs is that we only have one ‘troopie’ to address the problem of taking people back home. The ‘bush bus’ is there. They have been given more money to operate and get people home but the buses travel thousands and thousands of kilometres on fairly rough roads. They are not going to last forever. Additional funding to keep the buses running is a necessity. It is not a luxury and it is something that should be happening.
I hope the minister is funding the youth patrol. The youth patrol needs to work late in the night. Of course, when you ask people to work later in the night, you increase the wages, the salaries and the overtime rates for them. It puts the cost up but, again, it is not a lot of money. The youth patrol needs to work later in the night because that is when many of the problems occur.
I agree that there are many programs we need to fix some of the antisocial behaviour we have around the place but I do not think it is the only thing we should be doing. It would be better to have preventative measures. It would be better that people did not have to come into town to have a drink or whatever. No one minds them coming into town and shopping or going to hospital and then going home, but some of them get stuck, as we all know. How many of them have life on their community that is active? We have heard of some of the good communities in the Top End and the activities they are doing, which is great.
Often, there are programs happening in the Centre, and one was a voluntary youth program that went to Kintore. It was young people from south who operated it. They have lost their funding. It is a shame that some of those programs cannot continue. It is a bit like the school holiday period. I am interested to hear how many school holiday programs this government funds out in the bush? As I say, we need a real debate on education to find that out because if we do not make life busy, active, then we look for mischief; it is as simple as that.
It is an interesting statement. I am not sure why the government would issue it this week. Obviously, they are going to get knocked by the members of the opposition and the Independents about what happens to the other regions and the Centre. It is heavily biased towards Darwin and Palmerston. Obviously, there is a reason for it and only government, I suppose, knows that. To me, it was crazy that it should come out at this time. Why do you want to do that when you know that you are going to get knocked and bagged? You had all that debate about the Minister for Central Australia last week. I am interested to see whether the new Minister for Central Australia responds to this and, in his response, if he talks about the Centre or will he again speak only of the Top End?
Madam Deputy Speaker, it is interesting times. Let us hope the government does what it says it is going to do for Darwin and Palmerston. However, most of all, let us hope the government also thinks bigger and wider and deeper, and thinks about what it is going to do for the rest of the Territory.
Mr KIELY (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Deputy Speaker, before I talk about the minister’s statement on antisocial behaviour, I would like to pick up on a couple of points made by the member for Braitling. I can understand her passion for the Centre. It is a passion that all of us share. We are all Territorians and we all want to see the Territory prosper and for all of us to live in a degree of safety that we rightly deserve.
The Chief Minister has stated first-up - and the Attorney-General - that the alcohol, antisocial, and crime strategies are not about a one-size-fits-all. It is about looking at what fits particular regions. This is where this particular package fits in well with that philosophy.
I noticed that while the member for Braitling was critical, saying this was all Palmerston and Darwin, and what about the Centre, she then went on to name a whole range of initiatives in Alice Springs that we are undertaking. She did not say there are initiatives in Darwin or anything like that. She rolled out a whole raft of programs operating in Alice Springs. She brought out many good points, saying: ‘This one could do with more funding’, or ‘We have horse patrols, but we have only them once, and maybe we need to have them a couple of times’. They are all there. There is a range of issues there; there are youth initiatives, all sorts of things going on in Alice Springs.
I also remind the member for Braitling that, earlier today, in Question Time when asked about what is happening in Alice Springs, the Deputy Chief Minister mentioned that something like $8m goes into different programs in Alice Springs alone. I understand her passion and I commend the member for Braitling for saying: ‘What about Alice?’ It gets back to the one-size-fits-all philosophy. We recognise that. We are looking at it. We have done a huge amount of work in Alice Springs. We recognise that there is still a lot more to be done. We are working through it with a range of strategies.
We are looking to improve the lifestyle of all Territorians, not just ones here and ones there. We are looking at Territorians in Alice Springs, Ti Tree, Tennant Creek, Katherine, all the way up the track, Pine Creek, Elliott; the whole lot, and out in the bush. So it is there. It is there for all of us. Really, it is a matter of not saying: ‘What about me?’ We should be hearing a bit of cheering: ‘This is great, this is wonderful’.
Regarding the intervention and dry town legislation, I do not entirely agree with the road trip that the member for Katherine took us on. It was an interesting thought that it started in Port Augusta and it has rolled its way up here, like some sort of cane toad invasion. I do not quite agree with that. I believe that influx is very much down to the intervention. There is the matter of the Wet Season being here, and we do, at this time of year, have an influx of countrymen from the bush. We always have and we always will. But, what is different about this time? It is the intervention. Overlay that on everything else and this is what you get.
So, it is a range of factors. It is an age old problem that we have. It is getting worse. We recognise that. The Opposition Leader came out with a range of programs that we have undertaken since 2002. Surely that demonstrates that this is a government prepared to have a look at the issue, prepared to be innovative and look at new programs, to come to grips with the problems of society as they evolve. That is not a shameful thing to do. That is not a terrible thing to be acknowledging. We acknowledge that the Harmony project started off well; it has now run its race. We now have to look to other programs on top of that. That is what this is doing.
This is the most comprehensive package of measures ever developed to tackle antisocial behaviour around Darwin and Palmerston. You only have to walk around the city and the northern suburbs to see that antisocial behaviour is a major problem that requires urgent attention. Antisocial behaviour is totally unacceptable. I hear that directly from my constituents, as I am sure do most other members of this House.
Territorians should not have to tolerate antisocial behaviour as they go about their daily lives. All Territorians deserve to feel safe and happy. This government is committed to tackling the problem, and helping those who cause the problem. We have seven platforms to this program here. The first is a First Response Patrol. The member for Braitling asked what does a First Response Patrol do. How do you inform people that you are making these laws which will affect them? How does this happen? It is all part of the First Response Patrols. The First Response Patrol, staffed by police and officers from the Department of Justice, will be established to monitor and assess antisocial behaviour hot spots. First Response Patrol officers will notify relevant agencies, such as the police, Larrakia Nation, Mission Australia or the Health Department, and coordinate responses, including police involvement, transportation to medical treatment and accommodation. We are allocating $2.2m over three years to establish and run these patrols, and the government will also work cooperatively with the Darwin and Palmerston City Councils in delivering the patrols.
These First Response Patrols are not hit squads. They are not going out there monstering and stomping people, roughing them up and taking sticks to them in the night, or people wearing balaclavas. These are trained officers who will go out, talk to these people in the long grass, find out what their needs are, and, if they are pie-eyed, pickled and causing strife, get the police there. If it is a bunch of people who are on the way to getting pie-eyed and pickled, who reckon that Darwin is a bit of a party town, a bit of Bali on the mainland, who come from the bush and think: ‘You beauty! I’m in the party town. I can crack a tinnie here!’ While one or two might be tolerated and acceptable, if it gets to three or four, five or six, up to 10, and people starting to get antisocial, then that is when it will come. The first stage will have them being contacted. They will have a relationship established with these First Patrol Officers who will be able to assess the situation, who will be able to advise these people and say: ‘Drinking in this park here is a crime. You had best stop it’. We know that countrymen love sitting around and having a chatter, and they love having a loud chatter, to be more precise. There is nothing wrong with that. It is the way they communicate and get the message across. It is only when grog sneaks in the way it does, that you get all those other associated issues, and it becomes a problem. The First Response Patrol will be able to sort that out.
As far as communication goes, I expect there will be advice and communication going out to the communities, particularly the ones that see Darwin as their service point. Most certainly the land councils will be advised of this. We have a very active and informed network of representatives out on communities who will be giving advice about this. I am comfortable that the information the member for Braitling says is required to go out there - the different forms of communication not to be relied on such as the radio, the television - will be avoided and the people be informed pretty well directly. I am confident that will occur. I am hopeful that will put aside the very relevant and accurate concerns the member for Braitling has.
We will also have a dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line which will be established for members of the public to report antisocial behaviour. Coordinated by police, information recorded will be fed to the Northern Territory Police, the First Response Patrol or community patrols as appropriate sponsors. Many of us - I will not say all of us - have dialled 131 444 when we have seen antisocial behaviour in our constituency. We are aware that if there are other more urgent jobs the police will prioritise these reports. On the greater scale of things, the noise that people might be making in a park with one or two extra cans - if it has not escalated into mayhem – will go down the line of response times. We understand that. It will be fantastic to have a dedicated service that we know will be responded to, by the First Response Patrol. That will go a long way to making people feel comforted when they have a party of 10 or 12 drinkers partying next door to them that it will be looked at, it will be addressed pretty quickly. That is a marvellous initiative.
The Darwin area night patrol will be re-introduced and operated by a non-government agency with $1.4m funding over three years from government. The federal intervention has seen an increase in the number of itinerants in Darwin and the night patrol will work with police by responding to reports of drunks and non-violent antisocial behaviour in public places.
I am happy to see the return of the night patrol. As one of our strategies we had a look at the night patrols. They were becoming ineffective because they did not have the powers of arrest, and the liaison between the night patrol and police was not what it should have been. We said that we will try to slip those responsibilities over to the police in the form of giving them the resources and money which would enable them to bring on community patrol officers. We have seen over time that, while they have been effective in some areas because of the priorities of the police, they have not been as effective as what we have wanted, particularly when you bring in this intervention-type influx that we have seen. There has been a need to beef up the resources, not necessarily beef up the police, using sworn officers, which cost a lot of money to train. No matter what you do, if you have a sworn officer there, then you can bet they will be dragged off to other business in the end because that is just the nature of the police service. If you have a sworn officer, they will be shuffled off to other crime spots. It is great to see the night patrol back. It will be of great benefit to Palmerston and Darwin.
As I understand it, Alice Springs does have a night patrol …
Mrs Braham: Not funded by this government.
Mr KIELY: I am not talking about the funding of it, but they do have a night patrol.
Mrs Braham: They have one car.
Mr KIELY: Yes, and that is one more car than what Darwin has. ‘What about me? Why haven’t I got a night patrol?’ Well, I am glad to say that Darwin is finally going to catch up with Alice Springs which has been streets ahead of us with this initiative. So, we are taking a leaf out of Alice Springs book, member for Braitling, thank you.
Closed circuit television cameras will be installed around the Casuarina shopping precinct and Darwin CBD. Darwin residents should be able to move around the city centre and the largest retail precinct without being humbugged or harassed. The government will work closely with the police. Traders and other stakeholders will determine the best way to install and operate the cameras. The Henderson government has committed $3.125m over three years to install and operate the camera network and work with the Rudd government and the Darwin City Council on delivering the project. It is fantastic to have CCTV in the city and at the Casuarina shopping precinct. That is the whole precinct, not just Casuarina Square. It is not meant to pick up little shoplifters or anything of that nature. These cameras will be at the Casuarina shopping complex at Casuarina Square and pick up any antisocial behaviour.
They will be in town. It is going to be really good because it has been put in there to help with this influx. There is going to be a side benefit with coverage of Mitchell Street. There is a big win there if we can curtail the amount of antisocial behaviour in town and Casuarina through these cameras. That is going to free up more police for the suburbs. It is a win all the way around. I am really looking forward to them providing some great results and for a good rationalisation of our resources.
We are looking at an increase in short-term accommodation services which will be provided in Darwin as a result of the $2.77m funding commitment boosting their numbers by 127. $2.7m will be allocated to the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre to upgrade and expand short-term accommodation facilities at Boulter Road; providing an additional 112 beds, a further three dwellings on Boulter Road will be upgraded providing another 15 short-term accommodation beds. It is a great facility run by the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre. They do a wonderful job. It is great to see those beds in there. I have heard criticism from the opposition benches about how we have all these problems, what are we are going to do, and we need all these back up services. Well, we have these bed numbers on Boulter Road, easily accessible for night patrols to get the people to. It is a great initiative. That will be a great support to the whole strategy.
It also gets back to the bit about how we are not monstering and stomping drunks out of the city or Casuarina into the suburbs. What we are doing is managing the situation and getting it so that we address it and can get them back to country. That is what it is all about. It is not about hiding it. I remember in the Stone years when the monstering and stomping did go on, how I had drunks in the school yards in Malak and Wulagi. That is what happened. That is what monstering and stomping does. That won’t happen with this program. That is the great thing about this. We will be able to work with these people and work so that they understand that they will need to return to country.
The Return to Home program has been boosted now by just short of $1m to Larrakia Nation over three years for assistance in establishing and operating an information and referrals office in Palmerston supporting our existing services in Darwin. Services which are doing a fantastic job but, because of the influx in numbers due to the intervention, they do not have the capacity. We are looking to build that capacity. The information and referrals office provides indigenous people who are living in, or visiting, Darwin proof of identification, access to Centrelink, support to return home, and referrals such as accommodation. It is a great package.
We are talking about new levels of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies. The Tasking Coordination Group led by police has been established to link agencies including Centrelink, Health, councils and Larrakia Nation providing more effective response to tackling antisocial behaviour. This package supports our alcohol policy initiatives.
There is no quick fix to antisocial behaviour. We have been at it now for six and a bit years. We are rolling along and improving it as we come along. We are standing up and acknowledging when things do not work. But we are not walking away from it. We are looking at other platforms to address the problem in different, more meaningful ways.
The member for Macdonnell said that there are issues in the communities which we have to address. We are looking at those programs as well. We are working in there. We are working at the stumps, we are going all the way through, all the way down the pitch to try to address this problem. It is not one-shot-in-the-locker; there is no silver bullet.
It is a bit disheartening when you hear the opposition launch themselves into this without any real thought about what it means and how it does build on everything. It is a negativism that we have come to expect. The opposition thrives on antisocial behaviour; they just think: ‘This is great; this will give us a chance to get re-elected because we will be able to say look at how terrible it is - look at all the drunks in the street’. They should be coming on board and saying: ‘What can we do to assist you? How can we advertise these services from our electorate offices?’ They do not do that - not at all. It is much to their everlasting shame that they will not promote government projects. They will not say: ‘The government has this happening. Why don’t you contact them to try to get on the program?’
The Leader of the Opposition goes to town about ‘Work with me; I want to work with you. Let us work in harmony, and let us get together for the betterment of the Territory’ – mealy-mouth words coming from him. They do not mean a cracker! He has bagged this. If he was dinkum about trying to solve the problem, he would get behind it. He would have all this information sitting on the counter in the front of his office, and be distributing it through the letterboxes of his electorate. How many times do you think the Leader of the Opposition would put out any information about any government initiatives? How much information do you think he has on government programs in his office? How much? Any takers? Zero! How dinkum is he? He is about as dinkum as the amount of information he has on these programs – zero.
Mr HAMPTON (Stuart): Madam Deputy Speaker, I support the Chief Minister’s statement on antisocial behaviour and the package outlined by the Chief Minister today. It is a package of initiatives that all people living in Darwin and Palmerston will welcome. We should call on all members living in Darwin and Palmerston to support it. It is too important an issue not to support. To bag it is easy, but to get out there, support it, come back to government and give us some constructive ideas on how we can improve the package is another thing.
It is also good, members for Braitling and Macdonnell, to see Central Australia has a strong group of representatives in parliament as well. Most speakers have outlined how there are quite a number of initiatives in the Centre. There is nothing wrong with us talking about the initiatives for Darwin and Palmerston. It is a different region to Central Australia so there are a number of different initiatives required for the issues that people here face. They may have different circumstances to us in the Centre. Therefore, there is no problem at all for our Chief Minister to say this is a raft of packages that people in Darwin and Palmerston need. They are part of the Territory, so there are no problems at all with us talking about it. We are all Territorians; we all have to work together. We are all tackling the same issues.
I will get back to Central Australia in a minute. During my contribution to the Territory Infrastructure for the Future statement on Thursday, I stated that bricks and mortar were very important but, equally important was the investment and social development of our people. The member for Sanderson commented that one size does not fit all; we need a region-by-region approach to tackle antisocial behaviour.
My belief is that this package announced by the Chief Minister today clearly demonstrates how this government is going to invest and bring along those Territorians who, unfortunately, have become involved in antisocial behaviour, or in the early stages of the justice system.
The opposition’s spin about government reinventing or re-announcing antisocial behaviour policy is just that - spin. The fact that this government has brought forward this package on antisocial behaviour as a major priority for our community, and continues towards working these initiatives, does not mean that it is bad government. The problem is so complex that it is important for government to continuously review where things are at in their community.
The intervention into the Northern Territory by the previous federal government is just one example of why it is important to sit down, slow down, review or evaluate what are our government directions in areas of policy.
As the Chief Minister has stated, this problem of antisocial behaviour is not new. It has been around the urban and regional centres of the Northern Territory for many years. It is also a problem that other centres, such as St Kilda in Melbourne and Glenelg in Adelaide have had to deal with. Governments have had to enact legislation for dry areas to manage the problems in those cities.
Certainly, I hear what my colleagues have said today, that the former federal government’s intervention has had a significant impact on this type of antisocial behaviour in the northern suburbs of Darwin or in Palmerston. When you are going through the comprehensive plan - the establishment of a First Response Patrol, a dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line, the re-introduction of the Darwin area night patrol, the CCTV cameras in the CBD of Darwin and Casuarina, increased short-term accommodation and a boost to the Return to Home Program - out of all of those initiatives there is one in particular I would like to talk about briefly and that is the night patrols.
I acknowledge that many remote communities in Central Australia and in my electorate have had to deal with antisocial behaviour for many years. In many cases, they have probably led the way in self-policing initiatives that have evolved over the years. The night patrol is one such initiative that grew out of communities like Yuendumu, and organisations like the Julalikari Council in Tennant Creek during the early 1990s in response to antisocial behaviour, family violence, alcohol abuse and petrol sniffing.
A particular case in point is the Yuendumu women’s night patrol established by the women to combat the drinking and petrol sniffing problems in their community. These women worked on a voluntary basis and, on most occasions, patrolled the community on foot up until recent times. Today, we still see some people having to patrol their communities on foot. So, in terms of the member for Braitling’s comments, certainly a second vehicle would be most welcome. We must not forget that, in the early days, the night patrols were done by people themselves out of their own will and desire to deal with the problems that they had to face and they often patrolled their communities on foot.
In relation to the Julalikari Council, I believe the member for Braitling may have been involved in the organisation back in the early days. The Julalikari model was recommended by the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody to be considered for use in other communities as a way of improving Aboriginal and police relations, achieving substantially lower crime rates.
The other initiative worth mentioning is the Community Law and Justice Committees that, in the early days, through Ali Curung, in the electorate of Barkly, led the way as an alternative model for law and justice. The Ali Curung law and justice group and the Kurduju model in the Warlpiri region are models that are inclusive. They bring in the elders. They respect them and give them the opportunity to become involved and engaged in dealing with contemporary law and order issues. Community empowerment and control to deal with the problems has worked to some degree, as the previous two examples demonstrate. I know that many people in the bush expect the same level of law and order, or policing, as the major centres in Darwin and Alice Springs today.
There was another comment by the member for Braitling in regard to communication. I agree with her. It is important that any policy or package that governments put out needs to be communicated in people’s first language. I consider that was one of the strengths of the law and justice committee model, as well as the night patrol models at Yuendumu and Julalikari. These were run by the people. Local people were out there on the ground; multilingual people who could speak the language and communicate what they were trying to do to the people they were helping. I support that comment, and a way of demonstrating that need is by looking at those two examples: Julalikari and the Yuendumu Women’s Night Patrol.
In terms of the intervention, there is one area that I strongly support, and that is extra police resources, and police stations at places like Utopia, Willowra and Nyirripi. These police resources and stations have made significant improvements in the law and order of those communities. In the early days, the night patrols and the law and justice committees played an important role but, in today’s world, people in the bush expect to have the same level of policing as we enjoy in Alice Springs or in Darwin.
I firmly believe that we need to continue to support, fund and resource our remote area night patrols. I will be monitoring how the new shire arrangements that are coming into place will provide that continued support and resources, particularly to those patrols in my electorate.
The other thing I would like to raise and put on the public record is that, with the remote area night patrols and elders on our communities, we need to work on the relationship with police on the ground. We know there are many federal police officers coming in and cultural awareness workshops with the elders, the communities and the new police coming in would be worth pursuing.
The relevance of me mentioning the night patrols and the law and justice committees is that it is important to acknowledge that Central Australia has led the way - particularly those people in the bush - for the rest of the Territory in terms of law and order and social behaviour initiatives. I acknowledge all those old people, particularly those who in the early days founded and worked on those night patrols on a voluntary basis. We can put a lot of money into this initiative, but unless there is the will and unless you have a strong volunteer base support backing it up, then we could be here in another 10 years talking about the same issues. I acknowledge those people as well.
Regarding Alice Springs, I join with the member for Macdonnell, and the member for Barkly, Elliot McAdam in acknowledging that we probably have firsthand experience of antisocial behaviour. Antisocial behaviour encompasses a whole range of different behaviours. One we can all relate to is being humbugged by family, being humbugged by people who know us in the electorates in Alice Springs or in Tennant Creek, whether it is for food, or for money. That is one aspect that has impacted on all members from Central Australia.
Alice Springs is a great place to live. It is my home town. I have grown my family up there, my young family. Everyone, whether you are living in Sadadeen or at a town camp, wants to enjoy living in such a great place. You also want to have a safe and harmonious community. I commend this government’s initiatives in moving Alice Springs ahead. This government has been fairly courageous in tackling the social issues. We have demonstrated to the Territory community, particularly to Alice Springs, that we are not going to walk away from antisocial behaviour, in particular from the alcohol-related issues that we face in Alice Springs.
The alcohol task force is a key area of this government’s Moving Alice Springs Ahead policy. There have been a number of initiatives from that group. The task force is made up of people who live in Alice Springs and have a lot of experience and a genuine desire to improve things in Alice Springs.
I want to go through some of the initiatives in Alice Springs that this government has been able to deliver. In terms of the police, there is the Social Order Task Force which is making better use of intelligence information and targeting hot spots to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour throughout Alice Springs. There is also the mounted police, that the member for Braitling touched on. Also, if you are walking around Alice Springs, you see police on motor bikes patrolling the Todd River and even on push bikes patrolling the streets. So, this government has put a lot of effort and resources into the police patrolling in Alice Springs. I believe the mounted police unit costs something like $500 000 per annum.
Another point that the Chief Minister touched on was short-term accommodation. I acknowledge the efforts of the previous Minister for Housing in this regard. There has been some great work done in Alice Springs with short-term accommodation. One example is the Stuart Lodge complex in Alice Springs to allow for families, particularly women, coming in from communities, to access health services. Often renal patients coming in bring extra family members with them. The extra bedrooms put into Lindsay Avenue at the old Topsy Smith Hostel and also the Yipirinya Hostel will certainly go a long way in supporting short-term accommodation. We have also provided an additional $600 000 to increase bus services to help people return to their communities once their business in Alice Springs is done.
We have touched on the night patrols for Tangentyere Council. A lot of money has gone into those with the youth patrol, the night patrol and the day patrol. Yes, a lot of money gone into that area. During Question Time, the member for Sanderson raised how we have put in over $8m into Alice Springs youth services. The Minister for Employment, Education and Training talked the other day in parliament about how to coordinate those youth services better to get more bang for our buck, and to get better outcomes for the people of Alice. That is another area that we have done a lot for Alice Springs - in terms of investing in the youth services. Aranda House has 12 beds; a total of 36 at a cost of $550 000 - providing accommodation for adult offenders. These are just some of the initiatives I thought I would mention.
The CCTV cameras are another initiative. Whilst some of the opposition call it a ‘back flip’, in the Alice Springs parliament last year, there was no doubt that the community gave this government a clear message on law and order and antisocial behaviour. This government listened and delivered on the CCTV cameras.
In closing remarks, I commend the Chief Minister’s statement. We can tackle the issues, whether they are in Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs or Tennant Creek. Unless you put resources into the communities where these people are coming from, then it is going to be difficult for any government. I acknowledge the Closing the Gap policy this government announced last year; $286m towards a five year action plan including money into child protection, remote area policing, alcohol and drug management, health, housing, education, employment and economic development opportunities, and cross-cultural understanding in the bush. I am proud of this government’s efforts committing to closing the gap between the bush and towns and Darwin. It is important we cover that part of the Territory community as well.
There are very encouraging signs with our new Prime Minister, the policy commission and the extra money into housing. We can get people to return to country but, unless we have a safe community for them to return to, unless we have housing, jobs, a good school for their kids to attend, we are going to be chasing our tails around in another 10 years.
I am proud of being a part of this government because we are investing in the bush, and we are tackling the hard issues in the major centres in Darwin and Palmerston. I commend this statement to the House.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Deputy Speaker, it is with pleasure that I support the statement by the Chief Minister this evening. Some great initiatives have been announced and, like other speakers, I am very happy to see the government putting money towards the night patrols in Palmerston because they provided a great service. Taking the focus away from the patrols and putting extra money into the police was pursuing a worthwhile idea but, with the increase of people into the main centres following the Northern Territory intervention, there is a role that the night patrol can again play as part of the full matrix of services to assist people and answer the need for Palmerston residents to be able to report antisocial behaviour and see something done very quickly in response to those reports.
And not necessarily police action. I do not believe that police action is necessarily always the best response. As an example, recently there was a shopkeeper with whom I have developed a good rapport over the years since becoming the member for Brennan who had a bit of an issue with people congregating outside his shop. My suggestion to him after contacting me was to contact Larrakia Nation to see if they could offer any assistance. In fact, they could and did. They had some of their people talk to the group that was congregating, and the group dispersed. The shopkeeper was very happy with the result. Larrakia Nation was happy, and I am sure the people who had been congregating were very happy not to, once again, be the subject of the attention of police. So there you have an effective, non-police response to something that was bothering one of the shopkeepers in Palmerston - a fantastic result.
We have some people with great initiative in Palmerston. Recently, a shopkeeper rang the ABC talkback radio show - and I will not embarrass her by saying who it was, but I certainly did recognise who it was. This shopkeeper caught a young person doing some graffiti on the wall of the building. She asked what they were doing and had a chat to this youth. All credit to the young person involved; they got some detergent and cleaning solution and cleaned off the graffiti, had a bit of a chat with this lady shopkeeper in my area, and that was the end of that. A good result all round, I thought.
That is something about this set of initiatives - and I will refer to it as a matrix because it is. They are interrelated; they link into one another. The idea is for the sum total to be greater than merely the sum of all the parts - and I believe it will be.
We were entertained quite a bit by the member for Araluen earlier tonight - which was funny because last week I got into trouble with the member for Katherine for being too dramatic and theatrical. The member for Katherine, at the time, said she thought that it would be better if people stuck to the points and did not add colour and flourish. I am glad to see that the member for Araluen ignored the deputy leader and continued in her style of colour and flourish. I will do my best to do the same.
The phrase that comes to mind – and this is not, and nor should it be seen as a direct attack on any individual because it is not meant like that at all, and I mean that sincerely. When the CLP start talking and try to throw back the policy vacuum argument that we have levelled at the CLP - because let us face it, it is a policy vacuum – they ought to be a bit careful and mindful that people in glass houses should be wary of throwing stones. I am just going to go through a bit of an unrehearsed exercise.
Let us have a look at the Country Liberal Party’s website. Let us go to the home page. Let us start off there and see what happens. Oh yes, a lovely picture of the Leader, the member for Blain, greets us. Latest media release, ‘Pulling the Pin on Political Propaganda’. Oh, they are going to start doing that, that is nice of them, excellent. Same old song. Here is an attack on Labor government’s latest plan to deal with antisocial behaviour, talking about us rehashing things, I think, just from my quick read.
Okay, let us go to policies. Let us go to the policy page and see what we can find there. Nine policies on the CLP policy page. First one: Young Driver Policy. Okay, not a problem. Budget 2006 announcement: Life Long Learning. Budget 2006 announcement: Zero Tolerance on Crime – A Safer Territory. A fact sheet on Dry Areas proposals. Budget announcement: Healthy Active Kids Need Healthy - oh, that is right, that was the Red, Yellow, Green Light policy that the Leader of the Opposition had - was that last year that came out? Or was it the year before? So, a little ageing there. Budget 2006 announcement: HECS Incentive Payment for Health Professionals. So, we are still in Budget 2006. Oh, policy statement: Seatbelts, excellent. Our commitment to getting middle school right, okay, and A Strong and Safer Territory, Safe Streets Policy.
Oh, my goodness! I open up the policy and I am greeted by a picture of the member for Araluen as Leader of the CLP. I thought there had been a change. Has there been another one I have not been informed of? Who would know? Perhaps the Country Liberal Party ought to be updating its web page. Let us have another look.
I know, HECS Initiative for Health Care. Let us see. I have some grave feelings about this. I did when they first brought it out, but that is beside the point. At least it was a new policy. Oh, excellent. Again, we have the Opposition Leader, and I quote from the page, Ms Jodeen Carney, the member for Araluen - I do not want to get into trouble for referring to people by their names, but that is what it says - and shadow Health minister, Richard Lim. My goodness! This is the CLP’s policy on their website as the most up-to-date policy, and it has the former member for Greatorex still there. It does not take much to cut and paste the photos into the policy even if you do not change the wording. There you go. In terms of policies, I think the CLP has a bit of work to do there. Maybe the attention of the Leader of the Opposition was taken by other things, like becoming the Leader of the Opposition, who knows.
As I said at the start of my statement, I welcome the funding to re-establish the night patrols in Palmerston. I also very much welcome the $2.77m funding commitment boosting short-term bed numbers by 127, as well as the further $2.7m allocated to the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre to upgrade its facility at Boulter Road, providing an additional 112 beds. We need to be continually mindful of the requirement for short-term beds.
Palmerston is a very young community, as well as fast growing. Unfortunately, there are a number of young people who, for a number of reasons, find themselves homeless. We are very lucky to have the number of non-government organisations that we do, working with homeless youth, assisting them to access housing options. However, short-term bed space is in very high demand for youths. I have been told by a number of youth workers that the search to find a short-term solution to take youths who are generally couch surfing and staying at friends’ places, and that sort of thing to keep themselves off the street, has been getting harder and harder. Hopefully, this additional provision of - I would say 239 beds roughly on those figures - will have a flow-on effect. Even if those beds are not suitable for young people that will have a flow-on effect of making others available.
I welcome the extra funding so that the Larrakia Nation can open an information and referral office in Palmerston. I have already given one account of the excellent work that Larrakia Nation does in Palmerston. I cannot speak highly enough of the patrols they do and the effort they put in to ensuring that life for residents of Palmerston and for those who are just passing through is as comfortable and least problematic as possible.
There was a mention by the Chief Minister of youth hubs. It will not surprise members, particularly during these sittings, how strong an advocate I am of youth hubs and youth services, particularly the Palmerston youth drop-in centre which gets a huge number of kids of an evening. These kids would be on the street if they did not have the drop-in centre to go to. The people at the drop-in centre do a fantastic job working with them and being positive role models for these kids to look up to. They are someone the kids can talk to because they may not have an older brother or sister, or mum or dad, that they feel comfortable talking to about what is going on in their lives. I am sure they do open up to the role models that are there and those models have a positive influence on their life.
I continue to be amazed that the CLP does not support this sort of facility, does not want to see it, has no trouble with funding being reduced and the facilities closing down, and obviously does not value, as I do, the fantastic role that the centres like the Palmerston YMCA drop-in centre provide - which is a pity. All they want to do is make it hard for everyone, or make it easy for young people especially to get into trouble and then come down on them like a ton of bricks, send them off to a boot camp, because obviously they have got into trouble solely for the reason that they are just no-good citizens and they need re-education, but just throw them into detention and be done with it.
Perhaps it gives the appearance that you have a solution. When you go to the policy page of the CLP website, any solution is several years old. My advice to the people of the Territory would be ‘do not bother’. I recall raising this once before and the CLP said: ‘Wait! They are coming. We have them.’ They have taken a long time coming, is all I can say. Perhaps, rather than putting the spin out there, they should front up with some policy documents which the people of the Territory can look at and assess. Then Territorians can compare them to the policies of the government and the policy work that this government continues to do.
I commend the Chief Minister on the statement. I look forward to the matrix of initiatives taking shape. I believe that they will have a positive effect. I hope many people in the community will see that, as well, on the ground.
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I thank honourable members for their contribution to a debate on a very important issue for the Northern Territory. I will be brief in summing up the debate because the Hansard is there for everybody to see.
My colleague, the member for Brennan, has hit the nail right on the head: this is a matrix of responses to very complex issues that lead to antisocial behaviour across the Northern Territory. There are no single solutions to this problem and, until we have, in particular, our remote indigenous communities and people who live on them, up to par in education, in being represented in the workforce and in being engaged in the economy, we are going to see the sorts of issues around the Northern Territory that this statement and the policy matrix attempts to deal with.
I was disappointed that we did not have a more thoughtful contribution from the members opposite in regard to what is a very complex social and economic set of circumstances that lead to antisocial behaviour across the Northern Territory. This response, and the series of initiatives my government has outlined over the last two weeks, are certainly trying to deal with the causes as well as the effects of antisocial behaviour and youth crime.
This is not the package alone. As the member for Stuart said, our Closing the Gap package is very much aimed at really trying to improve conditions on remote communities in education, health, housing, and employment outcomes, complementing what we are doing here with this set of initiatives around our antisocial behaviour and youth crime.
It is a complex matrix in a multifaceted response. It was disappointing that the opposition just could not go past some petty point scoring and politics. As my colleague, the member for Brennan said, the opposition has a long way to go in developing policies that really do show that they possibly have some viable policies to contribute to the Northern Territory.
This is an issue that the government will continue to work on. I thank all of my colleagues, not only my Cabinet colleagues, but my Caucus colleagues; and colleagues who represent the regions and the remote parts of the Territory, because this is a whole of Territory issue. It is not just an issue for Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs. Until we significantly improve education and employment outcomes, we are going to continue to deal with the sorts of issues that lead to alcohol abuse, antisocial behaviour and crime, which does result from the very poor circumstances that many of our indigenous Territorians find themselves in.
This is a huge body of work. I am enormously enthused to be working with a federal government this year that is also committed to putting its shoulder to the wheel to improve outcomes for indigenous people right across Australia. I am very enthused in regard to the apology that was given to the Stolen Generations in the federal parliament. That really does put, I suppose, a defining point in time about the policies of the past and walking together to improve outcomes for indigenous people into the future with that issue having been dealt with and resolved so wonderfully by our Prime Minister. Talking to some of the older Territorians out in the community today at the reception commemorating the 66th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin, people were still talking about that.
From my point of view as Chief Minister, it is a year of hope. We have a big body of work to do, but we have a Commonwealth government that is up to it. The structures are being put in place to deal with this complex set of issues, and we, as a government, will continue to work as hard as we can right across the Northern Territory to improve conditions in the bush, and also deal with problems that we are experiencing in our towns.
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their contributions and commend the statement to the House.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
Mr VATSKALIS (Business and Economic Development): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Madam Speaker, Gong Xi Fa Cai, welcome to the Year of the Rat. I wish my constituents of Chinese descent, the Chinese community, friends, colleagues and staff a happy and prosperous Year of the Rat. May the little critters bring you much joy and success. I am looking forward to having my electorate office blessed this Saturday for the commencement of another prosperous Chinese New Year.
I welcome students and teachers back to school. It is a new school year, and Dripstone becomes the middle school with the Year 7s for the first time together with Years 8 and 9. I am very pleased, as is every other parent who has school-aged kids, with the $50 Back to School bonus. It came in very handy. I am buying some Dripstone T-shirts for Michael. He looks very colourful. The T-shirts were designed by the Dripstone schoolchildren. It is easy for all of us, avoiding the fights in the morning about what clothes to wear, what logos he has to have.
Dripstone now has a name change; it is called the Dripstone Middle School. This year, 600 students started at the school in Years 7, 8 and 9. I am advised by the principal, Lyn Elphinstone, that there has been an excellent response to the new uniform from students, teachers and parents, and an excellent response to the new format of the school.
Teacher, Rebecca Glasby, participated in the Australian government Summer School for Teachers of English. She was one of 200 English teachers from Australia who participated in the intensive program. Language teacher, Rosellina Martone, participated in an intensive Italian language program in Italy over the Christmas break. Two science teachers, Margaret Girdham and Phil Bloomfield, are part of an exciting science initiative. Their science class will be participating in this national program during Term 1. John Joseph, ‘the brain man’, is back and will be conducting a workshop for teachers and a group of students in mid-February.
Nakara Primary School principal, Barry Griffin, advised me that the school had a fantastic start this year. It has been great to see practically every student coming to school in school uniform and attending their classes with such enthusiasm. Barry also advised me that four new teachers are in place at Nakara this year: Ruth Mulligan, music teacher; Karen Page in Transition; Margot Hudson in Year 3/4; and Amanda Docksey in preschool. Barry also advised me there are many new students and families in Nakara this year and I am happy to welcome you all to Nakara.
Alawa Primary School has begun the school year very enthusiastically with professional development activities focusing on working as a cooperative team to achieve student and learning outcomes, as well as preparing to become a Charles Darwin teaching school. The principal, Sharon Reeves, advised this will improve student learning as we articulate our good teaching practices for pre-service teachers.
Approximately 200 Alawa students returned to well-prepared classrooms and immediately focused on high expectations of behaviour and forming good school routines. I am very pleased to say that both Nakara and Alawa are preparing for the consultations with the design team for the upgrade of the two schools. As we promised in the 2005 election, there is a $2m upgrade for the two schools at Stage 2.
I welcome a new teacher at the Royal Darwin Hospital School - Tania Nicholls - and also wish Tania and Sue a wonderful year for 2008. The Royal Darwin Hospital School provides schooling for children who, for one reason or another, are in Royal Darwin Hospital. It plays a significant role for children who are there for an extensive period of time. During my last visit, I realised that many of the children like the interactive computer games and learning activities. I was pleased to donate a flat screen for one of the computers to replace the old bulky screen. I realised how pleased the kids were because now they could play games and see things better.
I was extremely pleased about the new land release at Lyons. The Lee Point Crossing was released for sale to the public on 19 January and was in significant demand, with people queuing up from very early in the morning. From the 15 home sites, eight were sold on the day, with a further two taken later. Lee Point Crossing is conveniently located off Lee Point Road via Daldawa Terrace. It is situated on a slightly elevated position and is very close to the Garanmanak Park and the neighbourhood facility, just a short stroll away.
One of my favourite social clubs, the Happy Migrant Social Club, is a wonderful group of people who are a mixture of many different cultural groups and ages that usually meet at the Casuarina Library community room every Monday and Wednesday morning to enjoy a social gathering and to learn English in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. As the library is being refurbished over the next few months, I have offered my electorate office community room facilities to the group to hold their classes. I am very pleased they accepted. If any of you know someone who is a recent migrant who wants to learn English in a jovial environment, please let them know they can contact my electorate office for further information.
A significant program is the After School Communities Program. This is a wonderful program giving many young children the opportunity to learn a new sport and stay fit and healthy. The Northern Territory Manager, David Brabham, advised there will be 70 sites operating across the Northern Territory in 2008. One of those will be Nakara Primary School in my electorate. Others will be at Lake Alexander, with sports like canoeing, and Touch NT, with touch football and skipping. I thank David and all the members of the After School Communities Program for the good work they are doing with children.
I pay tribute to an Alice Springs businessman who passed away recently. John King was born and raised in Alice Springs and attended OLSH Primary School. After attending Rostrevor College in Adelaide, John was delighted to return to his home town and work in the family’s furniture store.
In 1973, John had the opportunity to buy the family business and the world of furniture, carpet, curtains and manchester became his daily diet. To ensure that consumers in Alice Springs enjoyed their shopping experience, the Kings furniture store located at Hearne Place was, indeed, a shopping experience. After Hearne Place, there were several homes for Kings Furnishers and The Bed Shed on the North Stuart Highway, and they were always on the ‘left side’ as, according to John, this was the maximum exposure side. For 27 years, John’s business provided excellent service and Kings Furnishers and The Bed Shed became known as a one-stop-shop for all facets of home furnishings. Commercial businesses also utilised John’s flair for decorating, and he gained enormous satisfaction from working with architects. His work is still standing the test of time in various public and commercial buildings in Central Australia.
In the early 1980s, John was elected as an Alice Springs alderman and gave his time generously for five years. He was Chairman of the Works and Parks Committee and a member of the Planning Committee. John enjoyed these roles immensely as he was part of the decision-making process regarding the town’s development.
John King was an integral part of the Alice Springs business community, and his faith and commitment will be missed. I extend my sympathies to his wife, Stephanie and children, Nathan, Sam and Josh.
I will finish because I know my colleague, the member for Johnston, wants to go home early to look after his beloved Bruiser which is there alone and I believe he is a bit hungry!
Dr BURNS (Johnston): Madam Deputy Speaker, tonight I acknowledge Dr Tarun Weeramanthri, formerly of the Department of Health and Community Services, and recognise his contribution to the Northern Territory.
Dr Weeramanthri, Assistant Secretary Quality and Strategy, Chief Health Officer and Principal Medical Advisor, resigned on 11 January 2008 to take up a position in Western Australia as Executive Director, Public Health and Chief Health Officer.
Tarun first came to the Territory in 1991 as a Research Fellow in Aboriginal Health at the Menzies School of Health Research. Five years later, he joined the Department of Health and Community Services as a community physician at the Centre for Disease Control and specialist physician at Royal Darwin Hospital. In 2004, Tarun was appointed to the department’s executive and took on the roles of the Chief Health Officer and Principal Medical Advisor.
Tarun has provided exceptional leadership and strategic advice on medical and public health issues and standards. As a well-recognised figure in Aboriginal health and chronic disease, Tarun has been an educator, keynote speaker, researcher and leader in the Territory and in the national arena. He chaired the Northern Territory Clinical Reference Group and the Northern Territory Council on Safety and Quality in Health Care, both of which he established in 2004, and has represented the Territory at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.
Tarun’s legacy in the Northern Territory will long be remembered as one of the major driving forces in the establishment of the Northern Territory Preventable Chronic Disease Strategy.
In his role as an outreach physician, Tarun established strong networks with the non-government sector to facilitate their involvement with the strategy’s development. Since its introduction in 1999, the strategy has become a guiding framework for the development of primary health care services and has been influential in national policy development. Tarun has continued his commitment to see the strategy evolve with new evidence and health research.
The Northern Territory has earned a strong reputation at managing disasters, largely as a result of our effective leaders. Tarun has contributed strongly to this reputation in many ways – as a clinician at Royal Darwin Hospital treating burns victims during the first Bali bombings; disaster coordinator for the second Bali bombings; public health physician during the East Timor evacuation in 1999; and, finally, with the evacuation of nine injured East Timorese policemen to Darwin in 2006, all of whom survived.
Tarun has also been an active contributor to the Darwin community. With his wife, Karen, he was involved in setting up the Milkwood Steiner School, first in the old Nightcliff Scout Hall and then the Marrara site. He was a dedicated junior soccer coach with the Mindil Aces and was a driving force as the playing coach of the Chrisp Street Old Boys Masters team whose motto is ‘the older we are the better we were’. At Tarun’s farewell there were many anecdotes and stories about the Chrisp Street Old Boys’ games. They are a great group and they have a great time. I reckon they are a jewel in the crown of soccer within the Northern Territory.
Tarun is held in high esteem for his medical and community expertise. We will certainly miss his presence in the Territory.
On a personal note, Tarun was a colleague of mine at Menzies School. He was someone I always looked up to, always someone with very wise advice. He gave me a lot of support when I was at the Menzies School completing my PhD. All the advice he gave me was spot on. I certainly appreciated that. I interacted with him many times long before I came into parliament as someone in the non-government health sector. Tarun is someone who has a lot of expertise and also a lot of compassion. As a minister, I cannot speak of Tarun highly enough with regard to the fearless and frank advice that he gave the government. I am sure our loss is Western Australia’s gain. They certainly have someone who is capable, has a lot of courage, and who certainly knows his stuff.
To Tarun and Karen and their four young children, Pieta, Cassiel, Thelonius and Pascale, we wish them all the best for the future in Western Australia.
Tonight, I want to go back in time a bit. Christmas time is always a good time of the year and I want to talk about Carols by Candlelight. It is very important that this event gets the recognition it deserves within this House of Parliament. We get so caught up in the round of Christmas parties and ensuring we keep in touch with friends here, interstate and overseas that it is wonderful to relax in the delightful atmosphere of the amphitheatre in the George Brown Botanic Gardens and join in the traditional singing of Christmas carols. It is fantastic to look around and see the joy on the kids’ faces in the candlelight and see their parents with their carol books getting into the spirit of togetherness and mutual harmony. It is especially great to see the wide cultural and diverse community that is Darwin, all joining together. There are families from all over the world having a great time catching up with friends and neighbours for the festive season.
Carols by Candlelight was first held in Melbourne in 1938 with 10 000 people gathered at Alexandra Gardens to sing carols with a choir and a new Australian Christmas tradition was born.
At the 2007 performance of Carols by Candlelight in Darwin, the record crowd enjoyed great weather to be entertained by the Darwin City Brass Band, Darwin Youth Choir, Kormilda College Choir and local celebrities such as Toni Melese, 105.7’s Annie Gaston, Sand Williams who is very well known to the members here, George Barker, Mike Foley, and young Rosie Greenwell, a 15-year-old who I am sure is going great places with her talent. Rosie did a great job of Jingle Bell Rock and Silent Night while the new Administrator, His Honour Tom Pauling, accompanied the Darwin Youth Choir singing We Three Kings.
The gold coin donation and sale of candles raised funds for the Down Syndrome Association of the Northern Territory, the Territory Palliative Care Hospice and the Darwin RSPCA.
I congratulate the organisers on such a fantastic event. The Christmas in Darwin Committee comprises Sharon Todd as Chair; Phil Hedger as Vice Chair; Ron Roberts, Public Officer; event coordinator and stage manager, Ann Hedger and Roger Coutts; committee members, and Carol Wallbank who is secretary/treasurer. The committee was assisted by members of the Kiwanis, led by Maurie Johnson, who also did the food on the night. The Kiwanis do a great job for our community.
A community benefit grant and a grant from the Chief Minister, together with sponsorship from Channel Nine and Jonathan Uptin, who did a great job compering the night, ensured that the night was a fantastic success. The committee should rightly be proud of their efforts this year. It was wonderful and we look forward to their efforts next year.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I went to the Board of Studies Awards in Alice Springs and really enjoyed looking at what is happening. ‘Promoting Excellence in School Learning’ was on their brochure, and I wish to speak about some of the young people who received awards.
The top student in Alice Springs with the highest TER score was a young lady from St Philip’s, Sashika Richards. She had a TER score of 99.6. How on earth can anyone get 99.6? That is an amazing score. I have to congratulate her for this huge achievement. She has accepted a place at ANU in a Bachelor of Philosophy with Science Honours. This course starts students on research from the beginning of their studies and they are mentored by successful scientists. It sounds like a fabulous place to start a career in science. I know Sashika will be a good student there.
Her sister completed her schooling at the end of 2006. Her TER score was 82.4, so both are obviously very brilliant young ladies. While her sister was doing her final year, she taught instrumental music at St Philip’s. She has achieved some amazing things. She was Young Centralian of the Year on Australia Day. She is studying at Adelaide University at the Conservatorium for a degree in Music Education. So, two amazing young sisters. I just could not believe that anyone could get 99.6; that is an amazing score.
There were two other students who were in the top 20, Emily Ryan and David Johnston, both from Centralian Senior Secondary School. They are young people in Alice Springs who have done very well. I am not quite sure whether they are going straight on to university or whether they are having a year off, which often happens.
Some of the students who received Certificates of Merit were Ryan Bailey from Centralian Senior Secondary College in English Communications; Khiani Payne in Language Revival 1; Staci Trindfle-Price in Language Revival 1; Edward Tikoft in Physics; and Nicole Zimmerman in Communication Products A. They received their Certificates of Merit from the Deputy of the Administrator.
Also at that presentation, there was the Administrator’s Medal for a young scholar. As you know, the Administrator’s Medal celebrates academic achievement, as well as demonstrated strength of character and responsibility, and contribution to the school community, and is presented to students in their final year of primary school. Primary schools nominate their highest achiever for the award of the Administrator’s Medal and a panel selects the winners. Medals are awarded to one student in the non-government sector and one student in each government school cluster.
This medal went to William Molloy from Larapinta Primary School. William is a wonderful young man. Academically, he is quite brilliant, but he has such self-assurance and self-confidence, that I am quite sure he will do very well when he goes on to secondary school. Larapinta Primary School tends to nurture their students in a very good way, and his contribution to the school as one of the senior students is recognised with the Administrator’s Medal. I congratulate him.
There was another young lad there by the name of Mitchell Wooding. Mitchell was given a Vocational Education and Training Award in Automotive. These VET awards are presented to senior secondary students who have demonstrated a high level of commitment, skill and achievement while undertaking a VET course, trainee sports program, or a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship as part of the Northern Territory Certificate of Education. This is a wonderful program. The students of the Northern Territory can access a range of Vocational Education and Training pathways, and VET in School fosters and develops work and employable skills and provides clear and recognised pathways to employment, further education, and training.
When I met Mitchell, it was a delight to find out that his grandmother was Alice Tice, who had been my secretary when I was Principal of Sadadeen Primary School. His mother was a young student in those days. His mother sent me a little about Mitchell, because I asked about him. He was a very presentable young man. He was born in Alice Springs in 1990, and his mother said he was a nice surprise for his brother, Mathew, who is three years older. Mitchell lived most of his life in Alice Springs and was fortunate to have lived four years on Kangaroo Island, where his sister, Caitlin, was born. Mitchell was always the kid who would take things apart just to see how they worked, and try to fix something that had broken. I am certain there are things he must have broken just to fix. He was always working on remote control car motors, motorcycles, beat-up old cars and the like. So his choice of career is fitting for him; that is, in the automotive industry.
Mitchell began his school-based apprenticeship in 2005 with Group Training NT, and Jim Smart of Alice Off Road Mechanical Services while attending Year 10 at Alice Springs High School at the age of 15. In 2006, Mitchell was awarded the Group Training NT school-based Apprentice of the Year. In 2007, Mitchell was awarded the Charles Darwin University Most Outstanding School-based Apprentice in Automotive Award. He came to Darwin in September for the NT Training Awards, where he was awarded the 2007 School-based Apprentice of the Year in the Northern Territory. Mitchell was nominated for the Stella Axarlis Australian School-based Apprentice of the Year, and was a finalist at the Australian Training Awards held in Hobart in November 2007.
He completed Year 12 in December 2007 aged 17. The Pathways program which allows kids to stay at school but start their training or apprenticeship is a fabulous program. We should be encouraging more young people to do it.
Mitchell’s other passion is Australian Rules football. He has loved football since he was five years old and living in a small community. Mitchell has recently relocated to Adelaide where he is continuing his apprenticeship on a full-time basis for Jarvis Ford as a third-year apprentice. That is pretty amazing. He starts in Alice Springs and then goes on to a big company like Jarvis Ford. He is also training with the North Adelaide Roosters in the Under 19s Division. His goal is to complete his apprenticeship and play football, and he is working very hard to achieve his goal. His mum said: ‘We are very proud of Mitchell and his efforts and all his accomplishments, big and small. To top it off, Mitchell is just nice to have around and be around’.
I congratulate Mitchell on a huge achievement as a young apprentice trainee, and for what he has achieved. He is a great example of what can be done in the VET area for students in the Territory. I also wish him well in his football career. It is great that he is able to do both at the same time. I thank his mother for sending me this information. It is always a pleasure to hear good things about students you have taught and their kids who are growing up now and achieving well. Congratulations, Mitchell.
Also at that presentation of the Board of Studies, Declan Furber-Gillick from Centralian College received a VET award for Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Recreation. Unfortunately, I do not have any further information I can give you about this particular young man.
All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon to see the pride of the parents who, obviously, had done so much for these students. It generated a good feeling in the audience to see these students, who are no longer students but young people, receiving their awards. These are people who had achieved so well. They worked hard, and deserved everything they got. To all of them, I say congratulations. I wish them well for their future, and well done.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to make note of the member for Casuarina’s comment on the Happy Migrant Centre. It takes me back some 14 years to when I was a candidate for the seat of Jingili, now Johnston. That group was going back then. I would like to acknowledge the fact that they are still going. They are a vibrant, great little group and I add my support to that of the member for Casuarina and his comments about how well they do. They are a great group.
It was really interesting, the other night I was at a function for the Chinese New Year and a Vietnamese/Australian chap - I cannot recall his name -came up to me and said: ‘G’day, Ted, how are you going?’ I said: ‘Hello’, thinking he was one of my constituents from the rural area. As we got talking I realised he was not. He lived in urban Darwin. He told me the story about how he and his father had met me at the Happy Migrant Centre. His father was an active member who had learned to speak English there. His father still had a photo of me from many years ago and was very proud of that. I will make an attempt to touch base with him and his Dad again. It was a nice little touch and reflects on the great cosmopolitan society we have in Darwin. I was touched by the moment of spontaneity.
To hear the member for Casuarina talking about the Happy Migrant Centre still going strong, and teaching, mostly senior new Territorians, or new Australians, how to speak English, or to enhance their English skills, is a great thing. I am very pleased to hear that they are still going. I wish them all the best.
I will get back to my electorate now, because last week I did not complete my history of what has happened in the schools in my electorate since the last sittings.
I am very pleased to announce some exciting things are happening at Taminmin High School. Recently, I was pleased to attend the Northern Territory Board of Studies 2007 Student Awards presentation ceremony at Parliament House. Two Taminmin Year 12 students from 2007 were honoured at the awards.
Rosaline Ho received two awards in front of her very proud parents, mum, Daybra Martinez, and father, Viet Cau Ho. This was for her work in Information Technology. Rosaline received a Certificate of Merit for Desktop Publishing presented by the NT Administrator. She also received the Information, Processing and Publishing Award from the Australian Computer Society. Both these are very notable awards and she is a very worthy recipient.
Another outstanding student from Taminmin was Jacqui Harrison. She received the Vocational Education and Training in School Award for Tourism and Hospitality presented by the Minister for Employment, Education and Training.
Taminmin has started the year on a high note. Enrolments are above expectations at a little over 1050. There have been significant enrolment inquiries but, unfortunately, some students who do not live in the rural area who want to attend the school have had to be turned away. This growth can be seen as a tribute to the great work being done by the school. The hard-working staff and teachers have implemented or expanded a number of new areas of study, including the Leading Learner Program, which now includes Years 7 and 10. There are now nearly 150 students inducted into this elite academic excellence program which specifically targets students aiming for university entrance.
Another recent advancement at Taminmin has been the introduction of the online curriculum system. All students in the middle schools are now operating with this great tool, developed by Taminmin to access curriculum right down to the classroom resource level. The school commenced developing this tool from the announcement of middle schooling in April 2006. It will now be expanded to include senior and VET courses.
Taminmin High School recently purchased two new Daedong tractors with $100 000 worth of assistance from the Department of Employment, Education and Training in a one-off grant. I recently visited the school with minister Scrymgour when she officially unveiled the new tractors on Thursday, 7 February. The tractors will be used extensively on the school farm and to train students who are completing their Certificate II in Rural Operations. Incidentally, I hear that this acquisition is causing a little jealousy in the community, with the staff at the Freds Pass Reserve looking on with green eyes. I can understand that. I also acknowledge during that unveiling by the minister for Education, the great effort by the hospitality students at the school. We had a great feed and they were very dignified and well presented in the way that they made sure that everyone had something to eat. It was great food.
While the big news on the Taminmin Farm has been the delivery of the tractors, many other things have been happening there as well. Over the holidays, the school secured the purchase of a new five tonne cattle truck. I remember at the last Freds Pass Show that the school’s old truck broke down. It caused some havoc out there because they had cattle they were sending to the show and they had to quickly organise some alternative transport. That really brought home to them the need for a new truck. The school principal made sure this proceeded. We now have a great new five tonne cattle truck. It was on display with the tractors the day the minister visited. It was a great delight to see that as well. This truck will allow them not only to move the stock but gives them the capacity to show stud animals at more venues over the coming years.
The aquaculture plant is also operational now and is stocked with barramundi. Red claw crayfish will be introduced in the near future and maybe even mud crabs. Most importantly, the plant will be used to teach students the principles of aquaculture as a unit in agriculture. That is a very important aspect. I am very pleased that the school can proudly announce it has the biggest VET program in the Territory and is expanding all the time, and has made some great moves into the Arnhem Land area. I will be talking about that at a future date.
In December 2007, the highlight was the primary school Literacy Awards. I was very pleased to represent the new Chief Minister when presenting the 2008 Chief Minister’s Literacy Awards at the rural primary schools in Goyder. These are the public primary schools. The awards recognise those primary students who have shown considerable improvement, or success, in literacy. It is an honour to be presented with this award. The awards are part of the NT government’s Focus on Literacy program which is about getting school, parents and students to work together to improve literacy in our primary school students.
I would like to mention those students who were very worthy recipients.
From Humpty Doo: Matthew Nguyen, Meshelle Fry, Samantha Green, Cooper Norris, Carla Tilling, Joshua Holden, Josh Robinson, Joseph Black, Meaghan Mulvey, Rebecca Haala, Kate Johnson, Lisa Roscarel, Joshua Eddy, Liam Haala, Catherine Knight, Luke Purtill, Zoe Owens, James Best, Jessica Ardley, Callum Le Lay, Dylan Johnson, Destin Whiteley, Douglas McGregor.
My electorate officer and I made sure we visited all the schools. We went from Humpty Doo to Bees Creek where the worthy recipients were: Wade Marshall, Zoe Hargood, Mattea Breed, Chanese Taylor, Jaide Cain, Teale McMahon, Lucy Ratahi, Jayme Frost, Caitlynn Ivanetz, Caitlin Moore, Allanna Neave, Zoe Smith, Elise Williams, Skye Wilkins, Georgia Barlow and Luke Bradley.
At Girraween, the worthy recipients were Charlotte Buckley-Scullion, David Hemopo, Laura Luchetti, Jamie Maxwell, Brody Matthews, Kata Burt, Monique Packham, Brenton Cottle, Morgan Brown, Jay Abela, Brittany Cugliari and Demi Tinning.
We went on to Berry Springs where the worthy recipients were Georgia Roach, Yuki Ruzsicska, Taniel Ledingham, Michaela Butt, Catherine Mulvaney, Gabrielle Johnson, Matthew Ketchell-Stone, Sophie Port, Brooke Illingworth, William Smith and Amy Packham.
I had the honour of going to the Middle Point School and attending their presentation night, where I was very pleased to be able to present the Chief Minister’s Literacy Awards to Isaak Bradford and Johnny Nguyen, two very worthy recipients, and, at Belyuen, we had Bridgette Bilbil and Denise Moreen, again, two very worthy recipients.
I wish all those students the best in their future studies. I know they are very worthy recipients of those awards.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
TABLED PAPER
Committee Membership - Changes
Committee Membership - Changes
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received a letter from the Leader of Government Business proposing changes to membership of Assembly committees, with effect from 18 February 2008, as follows:
Environment and Sustainable Development Committee: the member for Daly be discharged and the member for Arnhem be appointed;
Substance Abuse Committee: the member for Daly be discharged and the member for Port Darwin be appointed; and
Sport and Youth Committee: the member for Daly be discharged and the member for Macdonnell be appointed.
I table the letter from the Leader of Government Businesses.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly agree to the changes to Assembly committees as contained in the letter tabled.
Motion agreed to.
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I table the Administrative Arrangements Order of Government dated 15 February 2008 in the Northern Territory Gazette No S8. The arrangements are as follows:
- PAUL HENDERSON
Chief Minister
Police, Fire and Emergency Services
Major Projects and Trade
Climate Change
Territory-Federal Relations and Statehood
Information, Communications and Technology Policy
Multicultural Affairs
MARION SCRYMGOUR
Employment, Education and Training
Family and Community Services
Child Protection
Indigenous Policy
Arts and Museum
Women’s Policy
Treasurer
Planning and Lands
Infrastructure and Transport
Public Employment
CHRIS BURNS
Health
Justice and Attorney-General
Racing, Gaming and Licensing
Alcohol Policy
KON VATSKALIS
Business and Economic Development
Tourism
Housing
Asian Relations
Regional Development
Defence Support
Essential Services
CHRIS NATT
Primary Industry and Fisheries
Mines and Energy
LEN KIELY
Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage
Parks and Wildlife
MATTHEW BONSON
Sport and Recreation
Corporate and Information Services
Senior Territorians
Young Territorians
Assisting the Chief Minister on Multicultural Affairs
ROB KNIGHT
Local Government
Central Australia
GOVERNMENT WHIP
Appointment of Member for Brennan
Appointment of Member for Brennan
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I advise that the member for Brennan has been elected as Government Whip.
PETITION
Regional Prison in Tennant Creek
Regional Prison in Tennant Creek
Mr McADAM (Barkly): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 1478 petitioners praying that a regional prison be located in Tennant Creek. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
- We the undersigned respectfully showeth our great sense of concern in the lack of attention demonstrated by the government to the provision of those basic services in Tennant Creek and the Barkly region of what most Territorians take for granted, and to the provision of equitable distribution of major capital works projects.
Your petitioners do humbly observe the government’s plan to commit major new expenditure to significantly increase prison capacity in the Northern Territory, possibly through establishing a new regional prison.
Your petitioners do further observe that such a project has a requirement for new operational staffing, education, health and other services, and will create significant ongoing economic activity that, in a needy region, will optimise economic, social and environmental return on capital.
Your petitioners do humbly pray that the Legislative Assembly take the necessary steps to make the Northern Territory government locate a regional prison in Tennant Creek to ensure equity and service delivery and to underwrite the economic future of Tennant Creek and the Barkly region. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
MINISTERIAL REPORTS
World War II Heritage Sites
World War II Heritage Sites
Mr KIELY (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, as we know, Darwin was Australia’s front line in World War II and has a rich war time history. Last year, this government added several significant World War II heritage sites in the Top End to the Northern Territory Heritage List. The 17 Mile Camp, the Strauss antiaircraft gun emplacement, the Pell Airfield RAAF engineering workshops, and the Noonamah cricket pitch and oval were all added to the Heritage Register in 2007.
Many may not know that Alice Springs also played a significant role in the defence of Australia during World War II. I am pleased to inform the House today that there are seven sites around Spencer Hill that we are also adding to the Heritage List: the detention compound; the magazine store; the power station site; the concrete slab inscribed site, the concrete slab site, the kitchen site, and the vehicle maintenance site will all be added to the Heritage Register.
These military sites located around the base and east of Spencer Hill developed as a direct response to a strategic requirement to supply Darwin and the Top End of the Northern Territory during World War II. Established from April 1942 following the arrival of 147 and 148 Australian General Transport Companies at Alice Springs, the sites were collectively an important component of camp areas established to administer units, accommodate personnel, and provide a range of maintenance and service facilities to the largest fleet of vehicles used for convoy duties along the ‘Track’ to Darwin and the Top End of the Territory. Both the 147 and 148 AGTCS were replaced by the 121 and 122 AGTCS from December 1942 and, with an increase in the numbers of convoys and the supplies they transported, the area evolved as the camps expanded to meet the demand of the operational units to the north.
Alice Springs played a vital role in the supply of operational units in the north, and the military population and infrastructure expanded rapidly to meet strategic requirements. Much of the infrastructure installed by the military played an important part in the post-war development of the town and region.
Following the cessation of hostilities in 1945, the main camp areas south of Spencer Hill were developed as a residential area, the old East Side. Plans to develop the area in the 1980s were opposed by resident groups and the site remained a recreation reserve.
Spencer Hill was named for the noted anthropologist in 1952, and was declared a sacred site in July 1998, acknowledging its significance to the Arrernte, who call it Tyuretye. The former World War II sites around the base and next to Spencer Hill collectively form one of the very few military sites and one of the only two associated with wartime convoys in the Alice Springs area, and represent a significant part of the heritage of the town and region.
The Territory is unique. Our people and our landscape were touched like no other in Australia by World War II. As we remember those involved in the Bombing of Darwin today, I believe it is appropriate that we also recall that the whole Territory played a significant role in World War II. Heritage listing these sites will ensure that our history and our appreciation of those who served in Alice Springs is recognised and preserved.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his report this morning associated with World War II. It is an appropriate day to be discussing it following the commemoration this morning. This morning would have highlighted to us what terrible conditions those people fought under at that time. Most times when we are here commemorating the Bombing of Darwin, it is usually hot and we have sweat pouring off us, so today was a different scenario.
You are right to talk about the contribution of Central Australia to World War II. We talk about Darwin all the time, naturally, because this is where the centre of all the activity was, but other parts of the Northern Territory were also involved with the war effort.
One thing I do want to mention today, minister, is the World War II Museum. I know that when it was first announced it was going to be placed next to this building. I had this horrible thought: ‘Why in the hell would you do that?’ Thank goodness there has been overwhelming support from the public to say that that it is not a good location and it should be at East Point with other structures significant to World War II. I hope the minister will look at that seriously and listen to what the people and the community are saying, and really uplift that area. It would make such a difference to all of those people who come, not only to commemorate and remember World War II, but also to make it a really good tourism precinct for World War II.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Katherine, your time has expired.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his report. I also support what the member for Katherine has said. I have said in parliament before that I believe that the World War II museum placed next to this building would be inappropriate. This building, with the balance it has with the two lawn areas on either side, would be spoilt by putting the museum next door to it. It would be great if it could be put at East Point. If there are some problems with that, I hope the government could work through those issues.
I thank the government for the work it has done in declaring World War II heritage sites, especially the Strauss cricket ground. There have been times when, if it had been left as it was, it could have been threatened by other developments, so I appreciate what the government has done.
Minister, I also note a letter you sent me in relation to a concern expressed to me by Mr Bob Walker from New South Wales who visited Darwin last year. He was concerned about the receipt and despatch buildings at the RAAF Base. He had heard that that building was going to be demolished. His understanding of that building was that it was there during World War II, and still has, I gather, bullet holes and shrapnel in it. I appreciate, minister, that you have written to me saying that you will look into it. I also received a letter from Damien Hale, who has also said the same thing.
I appreciate this government and the Commonwealth government’s attempts to retain our heritage, which I believe is not only important from a historical point of view, but also from an economic one in relation to tourism.
Mr KIELY (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, I thank the members for Katherine and Nelson for their input. I believe it shows bipartisan support and the way we view our heritage is bipartisan. It is a Territory thing and it does not belong to any one particular party.
In regard to the siting of the World War II museum, it is in the public arena now and this government is seeking feedback from the public. I was there on the weekend at the open display at the Artillery Museum. Fay Karamanakis is to be commended for her passion and her effort. I had quite a good chat with her. The community is out on where a museum will be. It seems that there is very strong support for one. Let us not forget the multitude of sites that we have. We have the fortifications at East Point; the Adelaide River War Memorial Cemetery, which is very moving; the fortifications on Casuarina Beach; and the Adelaide River Snake Gully …
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Defence Force Presence in the Territory
Mr VATSKALIS (Defence Support): Madam Speaker, today we remember the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin. Defence has played an important role in the socioeconomic development of the Northern Territory since the establishment of Fort Dundas on Melville Island in 1824.
I am very proud of the efforts of our government and my Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development for their role and efforts to maximise the opportunities for local business in relation to Defence support. The Northern Territory is the only state or territory to have a Minister for Defence Support. We have done so because of the importance we place on this area for the current and future development of the Territory. Today, around 10% of all Australian permanent Defence Force personnel are based in the Northern Territory. Almost 13 000 Defence personnel and families reside in the Northern Territory, making up about 6% of our population. Residents of Darwin and Palmerston are familiar with the Defence Force as neighbours but Defence is also an important contributor to the regional population of the Territory too, Alice Springs and Katherine in particular. Defence also contributes to other regions and indigenous communities through the operation of Norforce, which I understand is the largest employer of indigenous people in the Northern Territory.
The Defence industry is an important and growing industry and, in recognition of this, last year I launched the Northern Territory Defence Support Industry Development Strategy 2007-2017. The arrival in the Territory of the Armidale class patrol boats, Abrams tanks, Tiger helicopters, and a variety of other new platforms brings new and highly complex technology and more Defence personnel to the Territory. This new equipment means that Northern Territory businesses will need to develop new technical capabilities if they are to participate in evolving technology being delivered by prime contractors.
Last year, I led a number of business delegations to interstate conferences and expos. Eight Northern Territory businesses travelled to the Land Warfare Conference as part of the Northern Territory government and industry exhibit promoting our local industry capability that supports defence. Business such as RANms, Dawson’s Diesel, Carcom, North Australian Technologies, and others were all enthusiastic participants. Northern Territory delegates were given the opportunity to actively promote their individual capabilities to Defence and Defence prime contractors attending the conference. I was proud of our business capabilities and professionalism.
Members would be well aware of the Defence Support Hub being developed close to Robertson Barracks. The growing Defence presence in the Territory is increasing demand for infrastructure and the Defence Support Hub is a major initiative of the Northern Territory government to allow the Defence support industry to align its capability to deliver support to Defence for their equipment and technology.
I spoke earlier about the value of the Defence presence and its contribution to the Northern Territory. This large Defence presence in the Territory requires a high level of support, not only for personnel, but for their families. Defence wives, husbands and partners represent an important part of the community and workforce. They often bring skills and experience eagerly sought by industry, the public service and non-government organisations. They include teachers, nurses, childcare workers, shop assistants, secretaries, small business owners - the list goes on. They all enjoy the Territory’s lifestyle but, importantly, contribute to the growth of the Northern Territory’s economy and population. Each year, many Defence members and their families are posted to the Territory for an average of two years, making them an important integral part of the Territory’s economy and community.
The Territory government understands the challenges each posting brings, such as finding new schools and childcare for children, partners finding work, and families establishing new networks. To help Australian Defence Force families get the most from their Top End posting, the government made a commitment in the lead-up to the last election to introduce a ‘Defence Support For Families’ package of measures to support Defence Force families. The cornerstone of this package has been the establishment of a Defence Community Liaison position within the Defence Support Division of the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development. This office will organise ‘Welcome to the Territory’ expos that will be held for Defence families in interstate locations prior to any major relocation of Defence units to the Territory. The expo will deliver information about life in the Territory, school and childcare services, job opportunities and health services.
It is great to see people still commemorating the bombing of Darwin as an important event. The Northern Territory government recognises the importance of the Defence presence in the Territory in the past and will continue to support the presence in the future.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for the statement. It is a good day to make a report to this House given the Bombing of Darwin commemoration. With respect, not a lot was new in your report. You will remember towards the end of last year there was a ministerial statement which involved a relatively lengthy debate. Many issues were covered then. With respect, it seems that your report is a summarised highlight of that debate.
Minister, you referred once again to the defence hub. It is, in fact, a notice of intention by the Labor government in the Territory and every so often, one or another of you bobs up and says: ‘Oh, we are going to deliver this defence hub.’ You outlined what it will do. You touched upon what it is. Perhaps, you would be good enough to tell us when it is going to materialise?
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his report. He said that our defence facilities are seen in Darwin and Palmerston, but many of them are in the rural area. The major ones are there such as the Shoal Bay Transmitter Station, the Humpty Doo Naval Facility, and Kowandi North and Kowandi South which are now called the Howard Springs Defence Base. Robertson Barracks is a most important part of our community and I hope one day to see a master plan for it. I have been pushing this issue for a long time as we need a second entrance to the Robertson Barracks. The amount of traffic coming out of Robertson Barracks affects residential areas. Minister, if you could push something through with the Commonwealth Department of Defence in relation to speeding that up, it would be most appreciated. I am sure the residents of Knuckeys Lagoon would also appreciate that.
In relation to the Defence Support Hub, I noticed a block of land out there that is meant to be the Defence Support Hub. I know they have laid a water line out to there so far, or some sort of communication channel, and that is about all that has happened. I would advise, minister, that you have a look at that particular site. When it went to planning, we said many times that part of that site goes under water. If you go out there you would get a wonderful reflection of the magnetic anthills on the bottom third of that block. It is amazing that under planning that part was approved for a defence hub. That is the decision of the Planning Authority and, unfortunately, that is the way they want to go.
I note that there is also a helicopter service facility up for approval at the old piggery site. I am not sure if that is going to be related to the defence area. If it is, and if you have any information on that, minister, it would be appreciated. We all support what the defence does in our community. They have been a major part of our history, play an important part in the development of the north and will continue to do so. Thank you for your report.
Mr VATSKALIS (Defence Support): Madam Speaker, I thank the members for their responses. I always like it when the member for Araluen leads with her chin. The reason the hub is not completed is that we have had many inquiries and expressions of interest, all conditional on the approval by the federal government of the defence procurement and the awarding of contracts, which the current federal Leader of the Opposition and incompetent ex-Defence minister withdrew and caused to be delayed for another year.
If you do not believe me, you only had to watch the 7.30 Report yesterday and hear the statements by defence experts about the $23bn procurement that all went wrong. Everything was summed up by the current Minister for Defence’s statement that he had inherited a nightmare.
Commencement of 2008 School Year
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, starting back at school is always an exciting time for students and, in the Territory this year, it was an even more exciting time for the 32 500 government school students and the 2500 teachers with the full implementation of a number of important initiatives.
The start of the 2008 school year sees the Year 7s joining the Year 8s and 9s in the middle schools across the Territory. The Northern Territory government has invested $87.7m in Building Better Schools in the Territory to equip our students to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Building Better Schools came out of the review of secondary education in the Territory, led by Dr Gregor Ramsey. The government accepted most of the review’s 52 recommendations and we are now seeing these implemented across the Territory. The focus is on improving literacy and numeracy outcomes of our students in the middle years and preparing those students for their senior years.
Beside the infrastructure, the Northern Territory government has invested in qualified counsellors and career advisors in secondary schools; more funds for Vocational Education and Training; developed a new staffing formula for schools - middle schools are staffed on a 1:17 student to teacher ratio; a quality leading-edge distance education service with new interactive distance learning studio in Katherine; providing specialist teachers for remote schools and more support services for remote schools including an indigenous student leadership and mentorship program; and developing a teaching and learning framework to improve the delivery of classroom programs.
The system-wide focus on secondary education is seeing results. In 2007, 985 students achieved their Northern Territory Certificate of Education compared with 933 in 2006, and I am confident these numbers will keep increasing.
Compulsory school uniforms for Transition to Year 9 students in government schools started at the beginning of the 2008 school year. This policy followed considerable feedback from school councils and parents. The government’s intention with this policy is to minimise clothing cost burdens for parents, promote a positive school image, and eliminate the negative social pressures on students of keeping up with fashion and brand names, which any parent of a teenager will tell you is a constant headache. Under the policy, each government school, in conjunction with the parent and the respective school councils, has developed its own school uniform policy.
Many parents across the Territory are using the Northern Territory government’s $50 Back to School Voucher to offset the cost of purchasing school uniforms. The Back to School Voucher has been well received by parents. It helps a little at that time of the year when Territory families can be feeling the pinch. I was at Nightcliff Primary School with the member for Nightcliff on the first day of school, welcoming the children starting school for the first time. It was lovely to see every child walking through the front gate with their new school uniforms and a smile on their face. Every parent who spoke to me said making school uniforms compulsory was a positive move.
The annual presentation ceremonies for the Northern Territory Board of Studies in Darwin and Alice Springs are very much a tradition and firmly marked in the education calendar. The Board of Studies ceremony recognises the students who have the highest scores in their NT Certificate of Education; that is, those students who, through their hard work and commitment to study over their 12 years of schooling, have achieved remarkable results. The ceremony also recognised the achievement of our top Vocational Education and Training students, as well as outstanding primary school students who would now be starting their middle year schooling.
As I said earlier, 2007 was an exceptional year for students in education, with 29 students scoring the top 20 scores with aggregate subject achievement scores of 90 to 99. These scores will get these students into any university in the country. I particularly mention Kelly Beneforti from Casuarina Secondary College who was the highest-scoring Year 12 student in the Territory, with a score of 99 out of 100.
Madam Speaker, it has been a good year for education. I congratulate all of those students, their families, and sincerely thank the teachers and principals. It will be a great year this year with middle schools. It has started off positively. I congratulate the previous Education ministers for listening to parents and the school community and making those policy changes which have been beneficial to every Territory family with school-aged children.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I, too, commend those who are involved in the commencement of this school year – the teachers, the school principals, the administrators, front office staff, and the school parent councils. They carry the greater load in implementing a plan that government has announced.
When government describes this as an education reform, and then points to the amount of money that has been spent, we have to ask the question. An education reform focuses not so much on buildings which are incomplete in Palmerston, and buses which we have problems with, particularly in Palmerston, but it goes to more important things, such as the structure and the nature of the curriculum and the strengthening of the teaching profession. That is what a real education reform is about.
You talked about Professor Gregor Ramsey, and say you have just about implemented all of the recommendations in that review. However, there was one important recommendation that has been overlooked, and I believe it is critical if you are talking about improvements in education, and that is the educational standards unit, that facility to measure the improvement in education. Now, the Productivity Commission runs that kind of line over our educational improvement, and there are clearly challenges there for the enterprise of education in the Northern Territory.
Minister, I welcome you and congratulate you on taking up this great challenge. There are some achievements of the Labor government in education, particularly delivery of remote education. Noel Pearson has said some very interesting things in collaboration with Macquarie University. I am wondering whether you have a response to those initiatives which will add well to the concerns about raising the quality of the remote teaching profession. I support those ideas and I look forward to hearing a comment on those and further opportunities to discuss education matters in the Territory.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, I also hope that the minister brings on a statement about education, because there are too many things that we can talk about in a short report. Yes, you are right, it is good to see the kids go back so successfully.
Twenty-five years ago, Sadadeen Primary School opened, and who was the inaugural principal? Yours truly. So I hope you are going to celebrate this year some way with Sadadeen Primary. It is a great school. We talk about flexible school hours and flexible ways schools accommodate children. They have their lunchtime at 10.30 am because the kids are hungry by then, and they go to about 11.15 am and then they have a short break at lunch time, 12 noon to 12.30 pm. It is a good way of accommodating young children who, as we all know, get up early. They might get up at 6.30 am for school, get to school and are often hungry by 10.30 am. Sadadeen Primary is a great school and we are hoping to have great celebrations this year.
I also want to talk about flexible school hours. Much has been discussed about it, but it is my understanding that bush schools, in particular, have flexible school hours. I hope that is continued because, quite often, in summer, it is good to get up early and, in winter it is good to sleep in a bit later. I have had some feedback about some of the holiday programs utilising school facilities. There are millions of dollars in school facilities throughout the Territory, and I am not sure that we make enough use of our schools out of school hours. They are just some of the things I would like to discuss with you and, perhaps, you could bring on a statement for us.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I thank both members for their contribution. Education is an important area for all of us. It affects all of us, it is about our children and grandchildren. It is about the future of the next generation.
The member for Blain raised the issue of standards and an important recommendation that was left out of the Ramsey report. That is not true. The Department of Education has implemented a standards unit and they are looking at urban as well as remote. There is a lot of work going on internally in the department to address, particularly, the capacity of our remote communities working with principals and working with those schools, and that same work is also being conducted through our urban schools.
Member for Braitling, I will be presenting a fuller statement on education from urban to remote. There are a number of good things happening out there and often they do not get said. I will be bringing on a statement to look at all of those issues which we can debate further.
Reports noted pursuant to standing orders.
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
Member for Nelson
Member for Nelson
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have given my leave to the member for Nelson to make a personal explanation. I remind honourable members that a personal explanation is not a debate. I ask you to listen to the member in silence.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, recently, the Minister for Planning and Lands read from a letter I had written to the Development Consent Authority regarding a rezoning application to expand the existing Commercial zone C and rezone the remaining land at Coolalinga RR, Rural Living; CB, Caravan Park; CL, Community Living; SU, Specific Use; and CN, Conservation.
The minister indicated to the House that I had not supported the application. She then read out various lines from my letter, which was tabled at that time and highlighted. These were the lines that were read out: ‘I could not support that waiver of a minimum lot size’. Then she read: ‘I know there is need in the rural area for an aged care facility. This proposal does not fit the bill’.
In relation to caravan park tourists she said, quoting from my letter: ‘Although I do not have a problem with a caravan park per se, there seems to be some confusion as to what clientele this caravan park is being built for. The heading says ‘tourist’ but the notes speak about ‘a housing choice for the community’. Is this to be a tourist park or a permanent caravan park? Each would need a different approach in design.’ The minister then goes straight on and says, and I am quoting from Hansard, it finishes with the words: ‘I could not support the proposal.’
Madam Speaker, I would like to read the whole letter so that I can explain the essence of the letter and others can make their own judgment about whether parliament’s leg was being pulled the other night. My letter was not an objection. If it had been I would have started off the letter with the words ‘I object’ but instead I wrote:
- I would like to comment on the above proposal.
In the next line I wrote:
- Although I do not object to the development of the land, the subject of this proposed amendment, I do have some concerns.
That is the basis on which I wrote the letter.
The next paragraph related to the RR zone and I wrote:
- Firstly, the RR zone has a minimum lot size of 1 ha. This application is for 4000 m blocks which are well under the minimum lot size.
This is the section the minister quoted:
- I could not support that waiver of the minimum lot size.
Then I went on to say:
- If the developer wishes to have smaller blocks then the Coolalinga District Centre needs to be expanded so as to cater for smaller lot sizes normally found in urban zones. If rural land can be subdivided into lot sizes smaller than normally allowed in the rural area then a precedent would be set which could lead to applications by developers outside of district centres or local nodes to apply for small lot subdivisions. This could lead to a breakdown of the Litchfield Land Use Objectives. Unless the boundary of Coolalinga is expanded to include the proposed development, I could not support the RR zone in its present state. I would support it if the minimum lot size proposed was 1 ha.
Madam Speaker, you will note that what I wrote was: ‘I would support it if the minimum lot size was 1 ha’, but the minister only highlighted the words: ‘I could not support that waiver of the minimum lot size.’
We come to the section on the proposed aged care facility. This is what I wrote:
- Whilst I know there is a need in the rural area for an aged care facility this proposal does not fit the bill. A true aged care facility should include independent, semi-dependent and dependent units with some type of medical facility attached. This development appears to cater for the fit aged retirees but not for those who, as they get older, need some assistance. The site, 1.25 ha, is too small, especially if a true aged care facility was to be developed. There is a need for this type of development, but it needs to be done properly.
The minister joined the first part of the second line there; she said: ‘The site, 1.25 ha, is too small’. Then she added the last six words from the next sentence: ‘but it needs to be done properly’. She took two phrases out of context. The bit in the middle is deliberately left out. This is sometimes called a sin of omission.
The minister’s quote about the caravan park is accurate and says that I clearly had no problem with the caravan park, but then the minister drags a sentence from the end of the page and attaches it to a paragraph that it does not relate to. You would not know that the minister had done that without reading the letter. I will point out that on the second page of my letter, the second paragraph in the caravan park/tourist section, the words: ‘I could not support the proposal’ came from the last paragraph and are attached to that paragraph.
Mrs Braham: Misleading.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order, I do not think.
Ms LAWRIE: The member for Braitling just said ‘misleading’. I know that members can only do so by way of substantive motion.
Madam SPEAKER: I ask you to withdraw. Can we just listen to the rest of this explanation in silence, please? It is not a debate. Member for Nelson, I had advised you it needed to be very short.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Honourable members, order! Member for Nelson, please continue.
Mr WOOD: Thank you, Madam Speaker. There is a section on the commercial zone, about which I said I do not have a problem with proposed commercial development which is already permitted on that site at Coolalinga. I made some notes saying:
- I would be interested to know whether the actual amount of land required (11.65 ha) includes the Stavris Block … as that block is now not included in the development.
There was also a note about the traffic works. I had seen maps that I had not seen before, and I wrote:
- I noticed on page 15 of the traffic report, a map showing future road networks. Does that indicative plan have any standing with the Department of Infrastructure and Planning future road networks for Coolalinga?
My last paragraph was:
- In summary, I would only support more closely developed residential development inside a district centre. Development as proposed outside of a district centre or local node could lead to poor planning and a breakdown of the rural area objectives. If the government is willing to expand the Coolalinga District Centre boundary, then I could support more dense development, but without the move by the government, I could not support the proposal.
Madam Speaker, you could construe that I was referring to the whole proposal but, if you read it in context, that was not the intention. Otherwise, that would not have said ‘residential development’ in the paragraph. You need to read it as a whole.
Like other letters I have sent to the planning authority, you can support an application subject to changes. Put in this context, I supported the commercial zone, the main part of this development, and a development I believe many people wanted. I could support the residential development as long as it was within a district centre, which the minister could have mentioned if she had wanted to. The whole plan is actually within the Coolalinga locality. Of course, I support an aged-care facility. I said it should be bigger. Regarding the caravan park, I wanted to know what type of caravan park it was going to be. I was not disagreeing with a caravan park.
We have a letter, when read as a whole, showing there was support for the proposal, subject to changes in the residential zone to allow for smaller lots. This letter also goes to the planning authority, and the planning authority also has minutes. I will not read all the minutes. However, if you read the minutes, you will see - as it happens in planning authority meetings - you have a chance to talk to the developer. The developer also can bring in new ideas. You will find that anyone at a planning authority meeting can adjust their views accordingly, because that is what planning is about.
My letter, minister, was to put forward some positive changes to the application, hoping that the minister would consider changing the Coolalinga District Centre …
Mr Kiely: This is going …
Mr WOOD: No, it is not, because this is the essence of the letter. The essence was hoping that the minister would …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I was always under the impression that something like this was about getting the record right on what was tabled or said in parliament. The member seems to be going right into the debate and explaining his own actions.
Mr Mills: No, he is not.
Mrs Miller: No, he is just giving an explanation.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr KIELY: I think he is going a little beyond what this ...
Madam SPEAKER: The minister is certainly correct in that you are not allowed to introduce any new material. Member for Nelson, have you nearly completed your statement?
Mr WOOD: I have, but as I said ...
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Nelson, you advised me you had two pages in total. How much longer is it?
Mr WOOD: I am coming to the conclusion. That is it.
Mr Kiely: That was just the intro.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Nelson, if you could please hasten your explanation. Please do it as quickly as possible.
Mr WOOD: Okay. Madam Speaker, when you read the whole letter, the correct transcript of the planning meeting, and the comments I have made elsewhere, it can be quickly seen the minister was trying to pull a swifty on the parliament in an attempt to deflect criticism ..
Ms Lawrie: Not at all! You are hypocritical.
Mr WOOD: Madam Speaker, I support the application. I had concerns about sections of the application, and that is what the essence of the letter was to the planning authority.
WORKERS REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 135)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill now be read a second time.
The bill will amend matters addressed by the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, the mediation process, the deemed acceptance of a deferred claim, and the anomalies that exist for prescribed volunteers.
The bill will reduce the length of time workers have to wait before making applications to the Work Health Court and provide full disclosure of medical reports for the mediation process. Also, the bill will address an unfortunate anomaly in the act by making provisions for the deeming of a workers compensation claim to have been accepted if the employer does not notify the worker of a decision to accept or dispute the claim within 56 days of a decision to defer liability. The bill will also address the unfair advantage of prescribed volunteers to receive financial compensation greater than that currently available to other Territory workers.
In 2004, a review of the Northern Territory’s Workers Compensation Scheme mediation process was conducted. A report of the review findings was compiled, and all seven recommendations from the review were approved by the former Minister for Employment, Education and Training. The two outstanding recommendations needing to be addressed require legislative amendment. Currently, when a dispute arises between an injured worker and their employer’s insurer, prior to a person making application to the Work Health Court for a hearing, they must participate in the Work Health Authority’s mediation process. This requirement has been established to provide an avenue by which a dispute can be resolved without instituting legal proceedings.
Once a request for mediation is received, NT WorkSafe must refer the matter to a mediator within seven days. The mediator then has 28 days in which to complete the mediation process. The review found the 28 day time frame too long. The worker, who would have had their workers compensation benefit denied or reduced, are often stressed and find any delay in obtaining redress difficult. The review recommended that the mediation time frame be reduced to 21 days.
Recommendation 2 was that full disclosure of all medical reports be required prior to a mediation conference occurring. Currently, once appointed, the mediator is provided with copies of all documents supplied to NT WorkSafe by the parties seeking to mediate an issue. However, the worker may not possess copies of all medical reports the insurer has obtained. The insurance company only has to provide NT WorkSafe with a copy of the medical reports they rely on to dispute liability. All other information can be withheld, for example, reports of medical practitioners who are consulted by the insurer but support the worker’s argument. The worker may know a medical report exists because a particular doctor has examined him or her. The worker may have an understanding of the doctor’s possibly supportive view as a result of a conversation during examination.
The review found the value of mediation as a low cost, efficient means of resolving disputed claims is currently being hindered in successfully resolving disputes by the fact that full disclosure of medical reports is not provided for in the act. Therefore, a number of matters that may otherwise be resolved through mediation proceed to the Work Health Court. Workers do not approach the court specifically to gain access to these reports. They make application to the court to resolve the issue in dispute, knowing that, in the process, these reports, which were not offered up prior to or during mediation, must now be provided to all parties and considered by the court. It is submitted that full disclosure of all medical reports prior to a mediation conference will facilitate a fairer and timelier resolution of the dispute.
Addressing the anomaly regarding the deeming of a workers compensation claim will close an unintentional loophole that may afford the insurer a benefit for not making a decision on a claim. An insurer, within 10 working days after receiving a claim for compensation, must notify the worker who lodged the claim that it either accepts liability, defers accepting liability, or disputes liability for compensation. When a deferral occurs, it is usually to provide the employer and their insurer with an opportunity to investigate matters pertaining to the claim. A deferral remains in force for up to 56 days after the worker has been notified of the decision to defer. However, if a decision to accept or deny liability is not made in that time, payment of weekly benefits will continue until such time as a decision is made and the worker notified.
During the deferral period, the injured worker cannot receive reimbursement for medical, other treatment or rehabilitation costs except for injuries involving mental stress. The proposed amendment will allow the worker to receive reimbursement for medical, other treatment and rehabilitation costs from the first day they became entitled to compensation and will give the necessary incentive to the employer and their insurer to make a timely decision as to liability following an earlier decision to defer.
Addressing the anomaly regarding the prescribed volunteer section of the act will remove the current opportunity for injured prescribed volunteers to receive workers compensation benefits for life on top of their normal salary from their usual employment. NT WorkSafe was advised of a claim involving a volunteer bushfire fighter. This claim has drawn attention to the anomalies associated with section 66 of that act. In particular, it is anomalous that a prescribed volunteer, which is unlike other workers pursuant to section 66 of the act, in conjunction with regulation 8 is entitled to at least 50% of average weekly earnings, which is currently $516.50 per week, for as long as he or she has any level of impairment as a result of their injury regardless of any income they may be receiving as a result of being employed.
A worker is considered to be demonstrating impairment if not working full-time in their normal pre-injury duties. For example, in the reported case, the injured volunteer bushfire fighter had returned to full-time employment, but because he retained a minor knee injury that prevented him from being able to climb ladders, he is entitled to benefits pursuant to section 66 and regulation 8 for life.
This bill will reduce the length of time that workers have to wait before being able to make an application to the court; provide for the full disclosure of medical reports in an effort to reduce the number of disputes being referred to the court; close the loopholes in the legislation with regards to the deeming of a claim to have been accepted; and remove the current capacity for injured prescribed volunteers to receive workers compensation benefits for life on top of the salary for full-time employment.
Madam Speaker, I table the explanatory statement. I commend the bill to honourable members.
Debate adjourned.
LIQUOR LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 134)
(Serial 134)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr BURNS (Racing, Gaming and Licensing): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Liquor Act and liquor regulations to provide for an identification system for the sale of takeaway liquor in Alice Springs, Katherine, Pine Creek, Mataranka and Victoria River; and to remedy a minor drafting error in the Liquor Amendment Regulations 2007 in relation to the Gove identification system.
The Northern Territory government is committed to reducing liquor-related harm in the Northern Territory. Controlling the supply of liquor is an essential part of this government’s strategy to combat alcohol abuse and the serious social and health problems that result from such abuse. In Katherine and Alice Springs, the consumption of liquor and the number of alcohol-related incidents causing harm to these communities is completely unacceptable. Community leaders and members have requested the government step in immediately to reduce the incidence of public fighting, domestic violence, indecent behaviour and obscene language that occurs all too often because of alcohol abuse. For the Katherine and Alice Springs communities this is a very serious issue that requires immediate, dramatic counter measures. The slight inconvenience of this new system will be more than compensated by the reduction in crime and antisocial behaviour caused by people who should not have access to alcohol. These reforms, along with others being introduced by the Northern Territory government, will support these communities to address these very serious issues.
In Alice Springs, initiatives introduced, such as the increase in public restricted areas, are already demonstrating improvements for this community. We must now build on this improvement.
The Liquor Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 will provide for an identification system in Katherine, Alice Springs, Pine Creek, Mataranka and Victoria River. Select takeaway licences will be required to scan identification from a customer before any sale of liquor.
Upon scanning, a computer-based system will reveal if the customer is subject to any court restrictions in regard to their purchase of liquor. The licensees will be required to comply with these restrictions. The bill establishes licence conditions for affected licensees, creates penalties for non-compliance with those conditions, and identifies which licensees the system will apply to.
The bill imposes the following new conditions on affected licensees and their staff: an obligation to scan a customer’s identification before any sale of liquor; an obligation not to sell liquor to a customer contrary to any prohibition revealed by the identification system; an obligation not to disclose or use any information learned from the system, other than in compliance with this proposal; and an obligation not to damage or tamper with the scanner or the hardware or software system associated with it.
Each of these conditions is also an offence if contravened, attracting a maximum penalty of $2200 or an on-the-spot fine of up to $220. The option of a prosecution or infringement notice will be available for each of these offences. It is a defence to a prosecution if the offending party has a reasonable excuse. An example of a reasonable excuse will be if the scanning system is not operating properly.
The information on the licensee’s system will be linked to a database created by the Office of Courts Administration. The courts will enter data, following an order made by the court. The court, at present, has the capacity to make orders in the following context: a prohibition notice, pursuant to the Liquor Act; an alcohol intervention order, pursuant to the Alcohol Court Act; a domestic violence order that limits or prohibits alcohol purchases - currently, this would be a domestic violence order granted by the court, not an order granted by police; and a bail condition that limits or prohibits alcohol purchases - again, this only applies to court bail not police bail. Both police domestic violence orders and police bail have been excluded from the operation of the system as it is acknowledged such orders may be changed in a short time by the court or may be removed. Administratively, this quick change in circumstances would make it difficult to guarantee that the court’s database is up-to-date and accurate. Accuracy is essential; these forms of orders have, therefore, been excluded to ensure accuracy of the database.
The bill also identifies what type of identification can be used under this system. It allows the use of a driver’s licence, a passport, or any other identification approved by the Director of Licensing. This list includes 19 forms of domestic identification, including unique forms of indigenous identification, and 150-plus international forms of identification. Considerable work has been undertaken to ensure that the system will not unfairly discriminate against any one sector of the community.
Amendments to the regulations will also identify which licensees this system will apply to. It will only apply to the takeaway operation of these licensees. Clubs are excluded from the system because they already have strict conditions imposed on their licences - to only sell to club members - and can lose their licence if they sell outside of these conditions.
This system will enable better enforcement of court orders that impose liquor restrictions. It will help to prevent members of the community who behave in violent or antisocial ways when affected by alcohol from purchasing alcohol.
These are serious measures that are designed to substantially reduce alcohol-related harm in these communities. My strong preference is to work cooperatively with licensees to install and introduce the identification system during March, before its use becomes compulsory, following the passage and commencement of this bill. To that end, an extensive training and education campaign is under way. However, I acknowledge that many in the Alice Springs and Katherine communities see this as an emergency situation. I will, therefore, be keeping a close eye on progress, and uptake by licensees, to determine whether further steps are necessary prior to its formal commencement.
Finally, I note that the bill also attends to a minor drafting error in the Liquor Amendment Regulations 2007, which are yet to commence. The correction is to explicitly state that the regulations amend the liquor regulations. Whilst this intent is apparent on the face of the amending regulations, it was thought appropriate to make this clear beyond doubt. These regulations relate to the roll-out of a different identification system in Gove.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
DISTINGUISHED VISITOR
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Mr Earl Irving, Consul General of the United States of America. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend to you a warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Member for Fannie Bay
Member for Fannie Bay
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the member for Fannie Bay be granted leave of absence for today as she is unwell.
Motion agreed to.
LAND TITLE AND RELATED LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 131)
(Serial 131)
Continued from 29 November 2007.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, it is the intention of the opposition to support this bill. There are a number of important issues covered in this bill. We acknowledge that there is some give and take in the application of these improved measures which will ensure a smooth process.
However, there seems to be a lack of discretion when it comes to the agent who is able to adjudicate in these matters and it says they must ensure that there are no complaints regarding the process. I am wondering why the word ‘must’ is there rather than ‘should’. There seems to be a lack of discretion built into it. That is just a matter of clarification that is sought.
Apart from that, rather than take unnecessary time to go through it and recap, generally the position of the opposition is one of support, acknowledging that there is some give and take as it applies to developers. We look forward to the progress of this bill.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, these amendments are a first tranche of amendments to this particular legislation regarding land title and related matters. This legislation needs to be able to change in keeping pace with changes in modern life. We have seen many unit developments in and around Darwin, and in some of the older suburbs like Stuart Park, which are strongly affected by this legislation. There have been some amendments since 1976 when this legislation came into being – that was the two bits of legislation that affect this particular area, the Unit Titles Act and the Real Property (Unit Titles) Act.
These amendments are the first tranche of amendments that are to do with where these acts impinge on the Planning Act. As was said in the second reading speech, there will be further amendments to make this area contemporary and change the law.
It mainly pertains to subdivision provisions of the Planning Act. It has been a little while since I was Planning minister but I understand that one of the problems is that there have been distortions around the consent process for some particular types of development. In other words, people do not have to go through a consent process, for example, if you are subdividing an R2 block or what was formerly an R2 block in a place like Stuart Park. What is being done here is saying that all these subdivisions of unit titles, etcetera, now have to go through the consent process to make it a uniform process.
One of the amendments is to the provision requiring the Registrar-General to require consent for unit titles purposes from all persons with a registered interest in land before any dealing can occur. The amendment will mean that consent will only be required for any matter that might impinge on the rights of any person with interest in a particular block of land; that is where the interest is adversely affected. Only in these cases will the Registrar-General require consent for unit titles subdivisions. The position will be the same as for ordinary subdivisions of land.
Also, regarding electronic transactions and contracts, clearing up an anomaly that, I suppose, exists now because some of these transactions can occur electronically or require input through government systems. If those systems are down, and we know electronic systems sometimes are, it clarifies the issues around those contracts.
In relation to the specific question asked by the member for Blain, I will just ask and clarify …
Mr Mills: Do you want me to clarify the question?
Dr BURNS: Member for Blain, it is a very good question that you have asked. The initial answer that I have is that ‘must’ rather than ‘should’ pertains to providing some certainty around the process, particularly regarding objections. I am also advised that the Registrar-General has some discretionary power or discretion within the act to decide the validity of those objections. I hope that answers your question.
I am glad that the opposition is supporting this bill. As I said, it is the first tranche of changes. There are more to come and there will be wider amendments regarding this bill. It is very important that this is the first step around some issues that are occurring. I commend this bill to the House.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AMENDMENT (MUTUAL RECOGNITION) BILL
(Serial 125)
(Serial 125)
Continued from 28 November 2007.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I will be brief. The opposition supports this bill. We acknowledge that this bill is a product of a national agreement to recognise professional standards across jurisdictions. All jurisdictions are introducing similar legislative instruments and this bill has been approved by the Professional Standards Council of Australia.
The original Professional Standards Act was passed in the Territory as part of the national law reform package as a response to tort law reforms. The act allows firms to establish a policy package that is recognised by the Professional Standards Council of Australia. The purpose is to ensure elevated professional standards that will have the effect of diminishing - it is intended - tortious actions.
We also acknowledge that, where firms operate in more than one jurisdiction, this bill will allow for the recognition upon application of the firm’s Professional Standards Scheme in the other jurisdiction where it proposes to operate. The Territory will reciprocate by recognising the schemes of firms based in jurisdictions other than in the Territory.
It is our view that this was a reasonably straightforward bill. It is supportable for some of the reasons I have outlined but, more relevantly I suppose, for those outlined in your second reading speech.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak in support of the Professional Standards Amendment Bill 2007. I stress it is about mutual recognition of the Northern Territory and the state Professional Standards Schemes to ensure appropriate limitation for occupational liability for professional practitioners. The real asset is that professionals, including professional engineers such as I was before I entered parliament, work transcends state boundaries. It is important that recognition be given as it has been a bit of bar to businesses and professionals to expand into areas interstate.
The Professional Standards Amendment Act was introduced in 2006 by this government. I take members back about 10 years before that - and this is the real dilemma I have with the bill – and there was a long period where the previous government really did not act on it. It became a very serious situation. It culminated with professional indemnity insurance skyrocketing and it was keeping people, like myself and other Northern Territory businesses, back. We were not able to get insured. When we got insurance, the difficulty became getting re-insured. There were limitations on what we could get into. It was a pretty tough time. The annoying part is that it was there for a long time before we came to government. Why did not the previous government do something? That is a pretty clear question. I think it is quite simple. It was a very complex process that we had to go through. I think it simply was too hard.
I applaud the bipartisan approach you have here today. I could not let this situation go by without commending the government for what it has done in introducing the original Professional Standards Bill, and the amendment now, because it was a really difficult time for Territory businesses and Territory professionals. They were being held back. That is at the heart of it. Each jurisdiction has its own scheme but we need to ensure there is reciprocity of mutual recognition. That is the absolute essence to this. That way businesses can come to the Territory, our businesses can go interstate, and they can all operate on a level playing field. It is also about protecting consumer rights. That was done through the original bill, but this bill also tidies it up to make sure there is mutual recognition of the risk management strategies. It is not about taking away consumer rights; it never was originally and certainly is not now.
This is about promoting homegrown Territory businesses. I applaud the CLP’s bipartisan support. It is good that they have come on board and have added their bit to it. Historically, there was a long period where they did not do anything and I believe they need to acknowledge that. It was a difficult task. It meant involving and engaging with the other states and territories. It meant that the Commonwealth had to come on board with the same legislation to encapsulate it. What has gone down in history, and I will not let it be forgotten, is the fact that there was not the support for local homegrown professionals by the previous CLP government. That hurt many Territory businesses. It is not right for it to go unrecorded. I know it was hard to introduce those laws. I know you might have upset some interstate businesses here which were friends of the government of the day. I believe that the government is elected for their own people, to protect their own people first. I think that that was a time that the CLP let Territory people, Territory professionals, and Territory businesses down
There was a time in the early 1990s when businesses were suffering, they were hurting. The government of the day let those people down. I went through that period. I suffered, along with all my other colleagues, not just in engineering - architecture, the legal profession, in other professional arenas, because this government would not do something to help us.
I am fortunate to be elected to parliament, to be able to remind people and members of this House of that period. I am proud to be a part of this government which has actually delivered something, which means I will not lose everything I own through having inadequate professional indemnity cover. It was costing a fortune. I could not afford to pass these costs on. Bigger businesses were certainly passing them on and those costs were travelling onto the consumers. That was not helping the consumers, either.
I put it on the record right now that that was not right. It was unfair. There is a lesson to be learned out of that by the opposition, that if ever the day does come - and I assume it will happen someday, maybe I will be pushing up daisies - when that does happen you will remember Territorians next time, you will remember homegrown businesses and homegrown professionals and you will act accordingly and not sell us out.
Businesses here need to develop. They will develop now under the latest amendments to the act. Businesses will be able to grow here; they will be home grown businesses. They will be able to go interstate and be able to compete and be recognised on an equal footing. That is because you have a situation which is very helpful and that is because you have Labor states everywhere and you have a Labor federal government which is even going to help more to facilitate this. We, on our side of the House, the Labor side, actually care about people and about businesses. I am not saying that you do not care about businesses but I think you sometimes forget on that side of the House. And that is a shame for our system of democracy, our system of fairness and being decent people.
I am not saying that the ills of the past are reflected in you as current members, but it is a salient time for you to remember what really happened back then and not to brush it under the carpet with some flippant remarks about: ‘Yes, we support this and we want to move on’. I know you would rather forget the past but I am not going to let you. I want to go on the public record saying that you did not do the right thing in the past and this Labor government is rectifying that.
On behalf of all professionals, engineers, architects, lawyers, etcetera, I commend the government for it. I thank the minister for introducing this bill. I am very pleased to be here in parliament when it will be passed, as I am sure it will be.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I thank all members for their contribution to this debate, and I thank the opposition for their support. As the member for Araluen very succinctly summarised, this legislation is all about mutual recognition of professional schemes that blend with occupational liability across Australia. It is legislation which has come from the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General, otherwise known as SCAG, and all states and territories have adopted this legislation or very close variants of it. In essence, as the member for Goyder said, this is all about recognition that businesses operate in a national marketplace.
I thank members for their contribution. I thank the member for Goyder, particularly, for his contribution. He talked about how this legislation will take away some of the barriers that have existed to local businesses expanding. It is a two-way street, though. Interstate businesses can come here but I know quite a number of Territory businesses that will welcome this legislation as an opportunity to expand nationally.
The member for Goyder mentioned skyrocketing professional indemnity costs in the past and the need to address that. He was lamenting the fact this issue had not been addressed before now. I recognise that the member for Goyder is an engineer by profession and this legislation covers the engineering profession. I know the member for Goyder has worked all over the place. He has worked in New Guinea, and particularly in the Territory. He was one of the main engineers involved in the construction of the railway. What a great project that was and what benefits that that is reaping.
Mrs Miller: Do not start on that again.
Dr BURNS: Well, that is right. It was the previous government, and Barry Coulter, a man of energy and vision, whom I have acknowledged in this place previously, members opposite. I acknowledge Barry Coulter. I am also acknowledging someone pretty special in this place, who is not only qualified as an engineer but also in the area of minerals and science, and who has a masters degree in the economics of these areas. I listen when the member for Goyder speaks on a whole range of issues, particularly those in which he has professional expertise.
In summary, I thank all members for their contribution here today. I commend this bill to the House.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Antisocial Behaviour Initiatives
Antisocial Behaviour Initiatives
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, today I intend to inform the House about my government’s comprehensive Antisocial Behaviour Package. Territorians agree that antisocial behaviour in our community is totally unacceptable and the government is committed to tackling it. Our comprehensive plan includes: the establishment of a first response patrol; a dedicated antisocial behaviour report line; the reintroduction of the Darwin area night patrol; closed circuit television cameras; increased short-term accommodation; and a boost to the Return to Home program. There will be an increased level of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies.
It is no secret that the urban centres of the Territory are experiencing some difficulties with antisocial behaviour in public spaces. These problems are prevalent in many other capital cities in Australia, and we have seen much reporting of the problem in the popular media. Of particular concern is the number of young Territorians involved in antisocial or low level unlawful behaviour who are caught in a downward spiral towards potentially more serious crime. The causes of antisocial behaviour are embedded in many complex, difficult and underlying issues. These include a lack of suitable temporary accommodation; easy access to alcohol; a lack of public facilities; a lack of valuing of appropriate public behaviour, and many family circumstances where parents lack the means or wherewithal to provide for the day-to-day needs of their children.
Alcohol is a prevalent factor in violent incidents, both in families and public places. The causes of antisocial behaviour and family dysfunction need to be tackled if we are to make a real difference to countering antisocial behaviour over the longer term. In developing an approach to public safety, we have also heeded lessons and experiences from Queensland and Western Australia which are making inroads in the effective management of antisocial behaviour. This is reflected in a number of integrated initiatives that are being introduced across government and the non-government sector, including alcohol management initiatives, health and rehabilitation initiatives, short- and long-term accommodation options, support for those involved in the criminal justice system, and a structured approach to assisting families which have complex problems that get in the way of them caring adequately for their children.
A significant part of the government’s response to antisocial behaviour is the development and resourcing of a model for urban areas in the Territory that recognises the good existing services in many areas across government already dealing with the issues, through programs and services, but also recognises there are some gaps and some areas that need strengthening.
The package of measures is a key plank in my government’s approach to urban antisocial behaviour. The model supports a zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour in public. It is the most comprehensive package of measures ever designed to tackle antisocial behaviour in Palmerston and Darwin. There is, therefore, a focus on keeping people out of the justice system and preserving and enhancing their individual wellbeing.
For this model to work, it requires the commitment and involvement of all government and non-government service providers, and the establishment of a coordinated system of referrals between service providers which include police, community patrols, short- and long-term accommodation providers, health and rehabilitation systems, Centrelink, transport providers, and Corrections officers.
The model also has a focus on case management of individual circumstances. The First Response Patrol, staffed by police and officers from the Department of Justice, will be established to monitor and assess antisocial behaviour hot spots. First Response Patrol officers will notify relevant agencies such as the police, Larrakia Nation, Mission Australia, or the Health department, and coordinate responses including police involvement and transportation to medical treatment and accommodation. $2.2m will be allocated over three years to establish and run the patrols. The government will work cooperatively with both Darwin and Palmerston City Councils in delivering the patrols.
The dedicated antisocial behaviour report line will be established for members of the public to report antisocial behaviour. Coordinated by police, information reported will be fed to NT Police, the First Response Patrol, or community patrols as appropriate. A local night patrol will be reintroduced and operated by a non-government agency with $1.4m in funding over three years from the Territory government. The federal intervention has seen an increase in the number of itinerants in Darwin, and the night patrol will work with police by responding to reports of drunks and non-violent antisocial behaviour in public places.
Closed circuit television will be installed around the Casuarina shopping precinct and the Darwin CBD. Darwin residents should be able to move around the city centre and their largest retail precinct without being humbugged and harassed. The government will work closely with the police, traders and other stakeholders to determine the best way to install and operate the cameras. The Territory government has committed $3.125m over three years to install and operate the camera network, and will work with the Rudd government and the Darwin City Council on delivering the project.
Increased short-term accommodation services will be provided in Darwin as a result of a $2.77m funding commitment, boosting bed numbers by 127. $2.7m will be allocated to the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre to upgrade and expand its short-term accommodation facilities at Boulter Road, providing an additional 112 beds. A further three dwellings on Boulter Road will also be upgraded providing another 15 short-term accommodation beds. This increase in facilities will be an important boost in resources to help get people out of the long grass and back on track.
The Return to Home program will be boosted, including $0.9m to Larrakia Nation over three years, to assist in establishing and operating an information and referrals office in Palmerston, supporting its existing service in Darwin. The information and referrals office provides indigenous people who are living or visiting Darwin with proof of identification, access to Centrelink, support to return home, and referrals to support services such as accommodation.
There will be a new level of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies. The tasking and coordination group led by police has been established to link agencies including Centrelink, Health, councils and Larrakia Nation, providing more effective response to tackling antisocial behaviour. These issues support the government’s alcohol policy initiatives including dry areas and bans on drinking in common areas in a number of public housing unit complexes.
An illustration of how part of our comprehensive package works is as follows. On the identification of a problem or potential problem, trained community patrol and police officers will establish the circumstances of the people involved. These officers assess the situation and the individuals for the following options: transport to hospital or other medical care; transport to temporary accommodation - and whether shelter or hospital is most appropriate; transport home to family or friends if they already have accommodation; or police intervention in aggressive or criminal situations. While individuals are in temporary accommodation, there is an assessment made whether to refer the individual to health or rehab services, permanent accommodation providers, or help them to access transport to their home communities.
Each individual’s journey through the system will be monitored and managed by service providers at regular case management meetings. For this model to be successful there will need to be an excellent level of coordination between government and non-government service providers in parallel with the introduction of a range of new or enhanced services which I will now outline.
A 24-hour reporting line to enable members of the community to report antisocial behaviour and receive a response will be established. Depending on the circumstances, police may be requested to attend the scene or another more appropriate intervention such as the day or night patrol will be arranged.
A First Response Patrol will be established to assist with interventions in Darwin and Palmerston that do not require an immediate enforcement approach. The patrol will engage with people who are living in an itinerant lifestyle or who are intoxicated in public places, encourage them to take up other options, such as Return to Country, accommodation or refer them to other services. The First Response Patrol will specialise in effective engagement. However, they will remain in contact with police throughout to provide information about each situation as it develops. The patrol will be a key link to children and youth at risk, ensuring that relevant government agencies are aware that intervention and support is needed.
A community operated night patrol will be re-established. The night patrol will assist intoxicated people in public places to get help to sober up. The night patrol will use regular patrol routes in Darwin and Palmerston, as well as linking with the 24-hour reporting line and the First Response Patrol to effectively target hotspots.
A Palmerston information and referral office, operating on a similar basis to the service already established by Larrakia Nation in Casuarina, will be provided. This service will assist in linking indigenous people living in the area, or visiting from home communities, or interstate to access supported accommodation and return to country services.
The services I have outlined are important new investments to support the integrated public safety model that is a key antisocial behaviour policy plank of my government. The services will broaden options for responding to the causes of antisocial behaviour before it gets out of hand, and provide a better range of non-enforcement alternatives for dealing with antisocial behaviour when it is reported.
As another key plank in managing antisocial behaviour, I am pleased to advise that funding has been approved for the implementation of a project to install and monitor CCTV cameras in the Darwin CBD and Casuarina shopping precinct. The Darwin City Council will be an important stakeholder in this project, and I have asked government officials to work with the council to determine the most appropriate method of installation, monitoring and ownership of the CCTV system.
In addition, a staged implementation plan for the installation of CCTV in other areas, including Palmerston, over a three year period will be developed. It is on top of the commitment already in place to support the installation of CCTV in the Alice Springs mall and surrounding areas. This will enable targeted responses to antisocial behaviour and assist in identifying individuals and gathering evidence for prosecution.
The Department of Health and Community Services is actioning a range of measures that will respond to identified service gaps or the need to strengthen existing service delivery. These measures include a centralised assessment and client support function to follow up with clients referred through the criminal justice system; delivery of in-reach alcohol and other drug services for prisoners incarcerated for periods of less than six months; a service to coordinate the health care of itinerants and temporary visitors to Darwin; and the provision of more support for renal clients.
Territory Housing has addressed the lack of short-term managed accommodation by upgrading and expanding existing infrastructure at Berrimah for this purpose. As a result, Darwin will have an additional 127 beds available for short-term accommodation. More will be done on the accommodation front in the near future with the upgrading of three further facilities to provide another 15 short-term accommodation beds.
This government has funded some of the Territory’s most respected NGOs – Larrakia Nation, Mission Australia and Tangentyere Council - to provide return to country, intervention and support services for itinerant and homeless people in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine and Alice Springs respectively. These NGOs will provide services ranging from simple interventions for clients wanting to pay to return to country, or for accommodation, to ongoing structured case management for clients as appropriate, including practical assistance for prisoners from remote communities on their release. Further support will also be provided to people needing to travel to urban centres for renal treatment through linking in to accommodation support programs and the provision of dedicated renal support workers.
Last week, I outlined in the House the initiatives my government is implementing to tackle youth crime and antisocial behaviour through the Youth Justice Strategy. The Youth Justice Strategy is another significant plank of the government’s response to antisocial behaviour, complementing the other initiatives covered in my statement. Underpinning the strategy is a coordinated interagency approach by the Department of Justice; Family and Community Services; Employment, Education and Training; and Northern Territory Police. The strategy will not interfere with the usual delivery of service to a family by these government agencies or other organisations, and it will not replace community welfare or child protection protocols or services, but rather strengthen these services through better coordination and offer an alternative support for families which are not coping.
As outlined in my earlier statement, the Youth Justice Strategy involves introduction of family responsibility agreements and orders; development of the family responsibility centre; development of integrated youth hubs or safe places; and commencement of a camp in the Alice Springs region.
It is hoped that the two step approach to agreements and orders will provide the structure and support needed to be a wake-up call for parents or guardians who need to pay attention to the day-to-day needs of their children; provide the expected level of supervision required to keep them out of trouble; and address those aspects of their own behaviour that are preventing them from being a positive and effective influence on the behaviour of their children.
Family responsibility centres will keep track of agreements; case manage agreements for high need families; provide advice and referrals for parents and guardians; and escalate matters where parents or guardians refuse to enter into or comply with an agreement. Specialist intensive family intervention programs provided by the non-government sector will also be part of the strategy. Youth hubs will provide somewhere for young people to go at night rather than be out on the street. They will provide a layer of assessment and referral that is needed to get the message across to young people that they can change course and there are other options. The youth camp facility will operate to enable young people to continue with their education away from negative peer pressure and undesirable influences.
The Alice Springs Alcohol Management Plan identified a range of initiatives to tackle alcohol-related harm and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs. Some initiatives under the plan have already been implemented including the introduction of public restricted areas. A major new initiative will be controlling access to alcohol through the installation of electronic photo ID systems in all major takeaway outlets in Katherine, Alice Springs, Pine Creek, Mataranka and Victoria River. This initiative will be part of a strategy to reduce alcohol-related antisocial behaviour in these communities. The new system, which will be implemented as soon as possible this year following legislative amendments, is designed to help licensees and their staff to more effectively identify problem drinkers who are the subject of prohibition orders or court-imposed restrictions.
Whilst it is the case that everyone will have to show photo ID and there may be some initial inconvenience in obtaining or presenting acceptable ID, the benefits of the system in targeting problem drinkers will outweigh any inconvenience that others may face, and the system is more streamlined than the current manual system. Only licensees selling takeaway to the public will be participating in the new system including licenced stores, drive-through bottle shops and hotel bottle stores. Clubs and hotels which have limited takeaway available for bone fide guests are not included in this measure.
One further measure that will be of interest is the enhancement of powers of Transport Safety Officers. We have all heard about antisocial behaviour incidents involving our bus drivers. Another measure adopted by my government is the announcement of tough new penalties for people who attack private bus drivers and taxi drivers, giving them the same protection as public bus drivers. Under this initiative, the maximum penalty for common assault on a bus or taxi driver will increase from one to five years.
I have provided an outline of progress in relation to antisocial behaviour initiatives being actioned across government. These initiatives will be carefully monitored to assess their effectiveness in dealing with antisocial behaviour. They represent a considerable investment by this government to tackle the problem so that we have an appropriate range of responses available and we can all enjoy public places without concern for our safety. I conclude by saying that in particular these initiatives demonstrate this government’s efforts to actively and positively manage youth issues. Healthy, engaged young people have the potential to make a profound impact on the future of the Territory.
Madam Speaker, as I have said before, antisocial behaviour is not a new problem and there is no quick fix. It requires ongoing measures to tackle both the causes and consequences of the problem. The approach must be coordinated and it must be effective but, above all, the government will continue to tackle antisocial behaviour with short-, medium- and long-term solutions that help us protect our great Territory lifestyle.
Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, the Chief Minister heads a government that is in its 7th year and for those seven years has been telling Territorians how they are making things better. Today, the Chief Minister has informed the House about how his government will yet again solve the issue of antisocial behaviour.
The Chief Minister’s announcement today, while it has some interesting and potentially worthy small announcements, unfortunately is neither comprehensive nor does it contain the solid actions necessary to break the cycle you are so clearly unable to do. What we have is an announcement of a continuation of the government’s spin and a fragmented piecemeal approach which will not deliver Territorians a safer community.
We have heard it all before. Territorians are sick of your promises, your headlines and your failure to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. The promise is more programs, more packages, better cooperation, and a commitment to tackle the problem. To tackle the problem you have to get on the playing field, and the government has been so busy hiding in the change rooms that Territorians are sick and tired of having to confront the issue themselves.
Assaults across the Territory are up by 68% last year alone. Chief Minister, you have said that there are only about 200 to 300 drunks on our streets yet apprehensions of this group reached 26 448 times last year. That means you must have arrested each drunk 106 times. How is it you can lock up the same people 100 times and not get to the bottom of the problem; not build a program to address these problems; and not once and for all deal comprehensively and effectively with antisocial behaviour? I can hear the groans already from those opposite talking of how big a task it is and how it takes time.
The previous Chief Minister must have coined the phrase …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Mr MILLS: … ‘that this is a complicated …
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, please pause. There is a point of order.
Mr KIELY: Madam Speaker, I would like to put on the Hansard that there were no groans, there was nothing coming from this side of the House. He gets up and attributes things over here …
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Minister, resume your seat. Leader of the Opposition, continue.
Mr Mills: Yes there were, but I go on. The honourable member has departed, groaning.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, the Leader of the Opposition has the call. I would appreciate no further interjections.
Mr Mills: The previous Chief Minister loved to coin the phrase ‘it is a complicated matter’. After nearly seven years of complexity, it is not unreasonable for Territorians now to expect some action and get some results. Instead, Chief Minister, the gang problem was not even clearly acknowledged as a problem until the media and community pressure forced some action. Territorians are absolutely sick and tired of being humbugged every time they go to the shops. They are sick and tired of crossing the streets to avoid antisocial behaviour. Territorians are tired of hearing about antisocial behaviour on our bus service. Even the bus drivers have had enough and commenced action.
Chief Minister, explain to me and to Territorians how what you have to offer is not more of the same, how it is a comprehensive package with the tough measures necessary and, most importantly, when things will improve.
Throughout your entire statement, just like every other announcement, there is not a single measurable marker for how and when Territorians will see action. You revisit previous announcements, you re-announce previous strategies and when bad news comes through you dream up a small dollop of money for yet another re-badged program in the hope that the issue will disappear. You provide spin and numbers to say how fantastic things are, and how the fabulous Territory lifestyle will be protected by your government. Is this government the sole holder of the key to the fabled Territory lifestyle? To many Territorians all the government does for the law-abiding citizens of the Territory is to make it harder for them to go about their business, and allow them to be subjected to humbugging and antisocial behaviour along the way.
Chief Minister, barely a Wet Season goes by without a new announcement from the government about how the antisocial problem will be tackled. Consider 21 February last year when government announced that its new legislation tackles the cause of antisocial behaviour through treatment and rehabilitation and ‘… is one part of a targeted and evidence-based approach that includes many other elements such as more police and resources, hot spot targeting and the alcohol framework’.
Consider 12 February last year when you stated that two new police vehicles have greatly boosted the police resources available for targeted policing of street crime and antisocial behaviour hotspots, and that:
Government knows the patrolling of antisocial behaviour and violent crime is most effectively done by specially trained and tasked Police officers …
and there are:
- … further elements of the government’s package of initiatives to break the cycle of antisocial behaviour ….
What about on 28 March, when the government announced:
- The Territory government is on the right track with its focus on reducing alcohol-fuelled violence …
Chief Minister, you have just announced another antisocial behaviour package. This package comes just one year after your last failed package and, prior to that, your Community Harmony package. There is no doubt this latest package is a result of polling you have commissioned which told you your crime and antisocial packages have not worked. This is another example of the government spending money outside your formal budget process because you create policy on the run - policy and programs targeted at the media cycle and not at actually dealing with the substantive issues.
The government has prior form on packages - you do not deliver. Territorians are tired of the rhetoric you deliver on the issue of their safety on the streets and antisocial behaviour. The most action comes in the form of your spin on what you will do. You will deliver a new package, you will tackle the problem, you are on the right track - these are the words that we hear. Today’s announcement reminds Territorians that your new packages do not work, you have not tackled the problem, and that you are on the wrong track and are being run over by this blight.
Few other Australians have to endure the humbugging and antisocial behaviour that you have permitted to run unfettered through our urban centres. Your inaction detracts from the Territory as a place to live, work and play. Your inaction detracts from the Territory’s reputation as a tourist hot spot, as it is an antisocial behaviour hot spot. Your inaction makes it harder for small business owners to go about their business. Territorians deserve better. Today’s announcement is simply an admission of seven years of failure.
This side of politics would deliver. First, regarding antisocial behaviour by young people, young people must be at school, in training or in employment. We will ensure that schools have the full backing of the Education department and the law to make students attend school. Those who are going off the rails will be referred to youth camps. Those whose behaviour warrants it will be referred to boot camps. This is not a weekend of sitting around the campfire singing songs and feeling loved; this will be months of hard work, training, learning and acquiring of appropriate behaviour and skills - no iPod, no computer, no television. If young people want to continue in their antisocial behaviour, they will end up at the boot camp. If they want to engage in criminal behaviour, then they go on to Don Dale.
Habitual drunks must be taken off our streets. Under a CLP government, any person who is apprehended for being drunk three times in six months will be brought before a tribunal and become subject to a control order. This action is not about waiting until someone is assaulted and has their property damaged or stolen before action is taken. Your alcohol courts wait until a crime is committed. Your alcohol courts do not take tough or proactive stances. This is, in part, why the revolving door keeps spinning.
In comparison, the CLP will make it an offence to breach this control order. That is the sort of tough action needed in conjunction with the support measures to help those who have a genuine problem. We are not talking about people who are a little under the weather. To be picked up by the police in these circumstances you need to be seriously affected by alcohol or drugs. That is a requirement of the Police Administration Act. If the assertions by the Chief Minister are correct, then there are only 200 or 300 people who will be affected by this legislation. Alcohol abuse fuels violence against people and property.
Government has betrayed itself in how it advocates these sorts of packages. Was the reasoning for this package because of policy need? Was it well-developed and implemented in a timely manner? Or was it because of the results of your polling over the last few weeks? I am not one for coincidences, but it is all a bit too cute that the ALP did polling on antisocial behaviour and then – hey, presto! - here is a new package of changes to be announced. Why was it that we know well ahead of time that the Wet Season brings people into town? We know that the rates of drunks going through protective custody continues to rise massively, and that violent crime continues to rise, yet government announcements come at the eleventh hour after we are well into a problem period.
I know that many opposite want to blame the intervention for many of the problems that have been created, but just stop and reflect for a moment. How long has it been since the federal intervention began? Also, reflect upon what we, the CLP, and many others said at the time: make sure you put in place the resources to deal with exoduses into our towns. What has happened? Eight months after the intervention, well into the Wet Season, what do we see? Relatively small amounts of new funding for programs that should have been under way months ago, if not years ago. Go right ahead, Chief Minister, keep announcing plans and programs on the run to suit your media cycles, but let this be a warning to you: Territorians are on to you. They are on to your failure. They have a comprehensive plan and are seeing you like a rabbit in the front of the headlights. Your announcements today have been the subject of no planning whatsoever. There is no mention of this in the budget process, and it is not like we know that there is going to be a shift towards town as a result of the intervention - it is not news.
The tragedy in all of this is that Territorians, hard-working Territorians, who just want to get on with their lives, free from government interference and with a surety of safety, will be the ones who will be directly affected by your comprehensive failure.
In respect to housing – a comprehensive plan is needed, one that is not bound by a particular ideology but rather focused on how we can solve the problems we have today, and into the future, in a sustainable manner.
As I said at the beginning, some of what has been announced today will have some isolated impact, some of this will be positive, but when the dam wall is breached, we need a remedy greater than patches. Running repairs will not do. The wall must be rebuilt.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I support the Chief Minister’s statement which sets out this government’s comprehensive package to combat antisocial behaviour in Darwin and Palmerston. To pick up on some of what the Leader of the Opposition was trying to assert, that somehow what was announced by the Chief Minister yesterday has suddenly condensed, has suddenly crystallised out of nothing, is foolish. I can assure members of the opposition that government has been working on this range of measures for some time.
When I was Police minister, I travelled to Cairns to look at what is known as the Cairns model, on which parts of what the Chief Minister announced yesterday comprise. They have been very successful in Cairns. They have adopted a case management approach. They have also adopted many of the things that we first adopted. There has been a very positive interchange, I believe, between Cairns and Darwin. If I am not wrong, I think the Leader of the Opposition might also have gone to Cairns to see what they have implemented.
I can assure the Leader of the Opposition that, both as Police minister and now as Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, there have been discussions within Cabinet and with agencies. Agencies have brought forward this very cogent plan to be implemented across the Northern Territory, and in Darwin and Palmerston in particular. I believe it is folly and completely incorrect for the Leader of the Opposition to try to assert that this has just come out of nowhere, because it has not.
Antisocial or violent behaviour, harassment and humbugging will not be tolerated, whether it takes the form of brawls outside nightclubs in the CBD, intimidation or threats by youths at shopping precincts, or loud, drunken abuse hurled by itinerants in residential areas. Law-abiding Territory residents and families should not be fearful attending shops, going out for dinner in town, or walking through their local park. Unfortunately, early evidence coming into government from a variety of sources paints a clear picture.
The federal intervention, and its complete ban on alcohol in prescribed areas, is driving alcohol dependent people and their families into major urban centres, particularly Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek. When the previous federal government was in power, I attended a meeting with Senators David Johnson and David Tollner, held at the Nightcliff Sports Club. I pleaded with the Senator then, who was the federal minister for Justice, about the effects of the intervention; that the intervention would result in a big influx of people coming from the outlying areas into town. We already had a problem. What we are saying is that the intervention has added to that problem. It is a completely undesirable situation for the residents of urban centres and it is an undesirable situation for those people who are floating into town from the outlying regions.
There is no doubt in my mind that the intervention has driven many people into town. In a teleconference, when he deigned to speak to us, Mal Brough was informed of exactly the same thing. He ‘broughed’ it aside, he brushed it aside, he was not interested in that. He was told very clearly, by me, by the member for Barkly and also the member for Karama that this would be the result. He was not interested. He did not care. The former federal government had ample warning about this, the way that they were implementing it, and the effects it would have.
We do not apologise for the fact that we have upped the ante in terms of our programs and funding to address this issue. The most recent influx in Katherine and all the centres right up and down the Territory is a result of the intervention. People can see that. As a government we are acting responsibly to try to address this very important issue. This is why we are acting swiftly to combat the problem through a coordinated case management process. Together, these initiatives form a public safety model that draws on city programs such as those in Cairns which I have mentioned previously, which have yielded strong results.
The Chief Minister has set out the main components of the package, many of which fall under my direct responsibility as the minister for Justice, Minister for Health and Minister for Alcohol Policy. These include establishing a First Response Patrol, at a cost of $2.2m over three years, made up of sworn police officers and Department of Justice liaison officers, to monitor and intervene in antisocial behaviour hot spots; introduction of a dedicated Darwin area night patrol, at a cost of $1.4m over three years, that will respond quickly and get drunk people off the streets and into suitable accommodation; setting up a 24-hour dedicated reporting telephone line so that residents and members of the public can inform patrols or police about incidents of antisocial behaviour, violence or harassment; installation of closed circuit television cameras in the Darwin central business district and Casuarina precincts, with committed Territory government funding of $3.125m over three years to rapidly locate potential problems and prosecute offenders committing acts of vandalism or violence; boosting short-term accommodation beds by 127 at a cost of $2.77m so that people have a clean, orderly and functional residence while agencies assist them to return home or access other services; and expanding the Return to Country program that is already yielding, I think, significant results, in getting people back to their communities at a cost of $650 000 each year over three years. Perhaps most important to the success of this plan is the concerted effort across agencies to establish tasking coordination groups to support implementation of these initiatives.
What we saw in Cairns was a program that was led by police. This is exactly what is happening here. Although there are various groups, police are the leaders and basically, this, I believe, will be a key to success. Why is coordination so important? We recognise that each initiative will simply not have the required results operating in isolation or opposition to the other. They must work in concert to identify problems or potential problems, get patrol officers to the site to intervene, case manage itinerants into accommodation or travel home, and to access health, legal and rehabilitation services.
Importantly, people will not be just moved on around the suburbs. Patrols and services will be in regular communication to ensure they know who they are dealing with, where they can be taken, what health or social problems they face and how they can be best resolved.
Many of the antisocial issues now facing us stem from alcohol abuse. That is why, in conjunction with the initiatives outlined above, I am putting in a range of strategies as Minister for Alcohol Policy. These strategies are designed to address the Territory’s excessive and alarming levels of alcohol consumption and decrease alcohol-related harm. They include:
development of local alcohol management plans comprising supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction steps;
development, implementation and monitoring of alcohol management plans involving both government and non-government organisations and industry representatives across the Northern Territory;
new conditions on takeaway liquor licences, on-premises sales to reduce trading hours and the types of products being sold;
work in partnership with the Australian Hotels Association to develop liquor accords and to assist the AHA to support their members deal with issues such as responsible service of alcohol and community education on responsible drinking;
the introduction of an electronic ID system for the purchase of alcohol in Katherine and Alice Springs; and
the permit system for the purchase of takeaway alcohol in the East Arnhem region and the declaration of dry restricted areas in urban areas where the possession and consumption of alcohol is prohibited. For example, I recently declared public places in nine Territory Housing complexes dry. No longer will residents have to put up with unwanted drunken guests making their common areas dangerous and intimidating.
As I noted earlier, people will not simply be moved on within an urban area. Officers will actively engage with people to find out where they are from, why they are in town and the best way to get them home. Results from one component of this plan are already coming in. Larrakia Nation has been engaged to operate the expanded Return to Country program. In December 2007, 196 people were removed from urban areas and assisted in their travel home, the cost of which they repaid in instalments. The January figures which will be provided to government shortly are expected to be over the 200 mark. A large proportion of people released from the watch-house are now also accessing the Return to Country program. People who have been found drunk and disorderly are being provided with the means to get themselves home instead of simply wandering back into town to find alcohol.
Correctional Services, Larrakia Nation and other organisations are working together to provide similar support for people on their release from prison to find accommodation, to re-establish contact with their family, and to receive the support they need when returning to their community. This project is giving offenders a way to escape the cycle of offending that often arises from being alone and simply trapped in the city or town with no accommodation and easy access to alcohol and other negative influences.
Another important component is the First Response Patrol to be manned by police officers, ACPOs and justice liaison officers. This strategy is based upon street-based outreach services - otherwise known as the Cairns model - of dealing with the antisocial behaviour which the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Justice along with the then CEO of the Department of the Chief Minister, viewed firsthand and recommended for introduction in the Northern Territory due to similar issues faced in each community. The Cairns team is a highly visible unit that has been very successful in responding to adult antisocial behaviour and alleviating previously high levels of public concern regarding such behaviour in public places.
The Territory’s patrol is designed to be in regular contact with and complementary to the Return to Country services offered by Larrakia Nation which will report operationally to a nominated police coordinator who, in turn, will report to and be tasked by the Darwin Tasking Coordination Group. This will ensure the officers on the ground can relay information about new hotspots and issues directly and rapidly to the coordination group.
The patrol will also be able to direct people visiting or living rough in the Palmerston area to a new Larrakia Nation information referrals office which will mirror the role of the Larrakia Nation office in Casuarina. The Larrakia Nation Casuarina office, located adjacent to Centrelink, assists in providing proof of identification, return to country, and accommodation referral services to indigenous people who are living in or visiting Darwin from remote or interstate areas. Data provided by Larrakia Nation indicates high use of these services, particularly in relation to assistance in accessing supported accommodation, access to birth certificate and proof of identity services, and the transport and the Return to Country service. The current information referrals office is more easily accessible to those living in and around the Darwin area.
The establishment of a similar service in the Palmerston area will assist in linking those people living in and around this area to supported accommodation and Return to Country services. Location of an information and referral office beside or as close to as possible to the Palmerston Centrelink office may also be beneficial, as there are strong links between the services provided by the two – for example, the Return to Country program is a user pays service that relies on the recipient putting in place Centrepay deductions.
I am also pleased to set out the parts of this package that fall under the Health portfolio. The government has allocated $1m a year for two years under the plan to target health issues facing itinerants and people within the Territory’s criminal justice system. This money will fund a centralised assessment and client support system to manage referrals and follow-ups of offenders with specific health problems. This includes in-reach intervention and treatment services for prisoners incarcerated for less than six months. Their time inside is an opportunity for government to directly treat health complaints that may be contributing to their offending behaviour. Also, for people coming into town for renal treatment, $250 000 is available under this plan to provide more accommodation support and enlist dedicated renal support workers. This will complement a similar amount of funding aimed at wider health care coordination and support for visitors to Darwin.
In the face of reports of increased itinerancy and antisocial behaviour in urban areas due, in large part, to people leaving areas prescribed under the federal intervention, this government is acting swiftly and positively. As Larrakia Nation coordinator, Ilana Eldridge, noted on radio this morning:
- Our plan is not simply about moving people around town; it is about providing a service to get people healthy, get them off the streets and home as soon as possible.
I say ‘hear, hear’, Madam Speaker, to those comments. This view is also reflected by Mission Australia’s Jane Lawton who has stated this package is a positive step. She has commended our holistic approach to combating homelessness, antisocial behaviour and itinerancy. As Ms Lawton said this morning:
- I think the package that has been announced is an holistic approach to what needs to have occurred and the linkages between the streamlined contact points for community complaints, the alcohol policies that have already been put in place, the additional accommodation that is there.
Madam Deputy Speaker, this government believes that antisocial behaviour and violent behaviour often fuelled by grog is not something that Darwin and Palmerston and other residents across the Territory should have to accept as a cost of living. That is why we are taking important steps to reduce the problem on a coordinated case-by-case basis, and are putting in the resources to back up our plans. We are going to have people on the ground day and night engaging with itinerants and visitors who would be healthier and happier back home, and giving them the means and the support to get back there.
I commend the Chief Minister’s statement and the work put into this package by government and, in particular, the lead agencies of Justice, Police, Department of the Chief Minister, Housing and Health.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Deputy Speaker, although I invariably disagree with the minister over there, I do enjoy listening to him because, given the shuffling around on the other side, in a parliament that some are saying is becoming a bit dull, he tends to wake us up. I thank you for that. However, you cannot be serious! You know the holes in this statement as well as I do. Let us go through a few, shall we?
Okay, let us start on page no 1: … comprehensive antisocial behaviour package’ - I have not been able to do a word search but I have a sneaking suspicion that is not the first time that expression has been used. Towards the bottom of the first page, this is fascinating:
- It is certainly no secret that the urban centres of the Territory are experiencing some difficulties with antisocial behaviour in public places.
- ‘The Opposition Leader continues to talk down Alice Springs - her own community,’ said Mr McAdam.
‘Instead of talking about all the positive things happening in Alice Springs, Ms Carney used last night’s adjournment to list her claims of community disorder’.
Ms Anderson said such diatribe is not only unwelcome, it is potentially damaging.
Well, how the worm has turned. Now we have, in February 2008, a year later, the government saying it is no secret that the urban centres of the Territory are experiencing some difficulties with antisocial behaviour in public places. I think some polling has been done. Have I not been vindicated, Madam Deputy Speaker? I think so.
Let us go on. Page 2 towards the bottom, second last paragraph:
- The causes of antisocial behaviour and family dysfunction need to be tackled ….
The sentence goes on. Let us have another walk down memory lane. This time let us go to a media release issued by Peter Toyne on 21 February 2006 - there is something about law and order and antisocial behaviour happening in February. It happened in February 2006 with a big bang; it happened in February 2007 with a bang. It is now February 2008. Is there something about February that makes the Labor Party think, ‘Oh, we had better start talking about this’, over and above the polling? Anyway, 21 February 2006, in relation to the antisocial behaviour laws that the government passed, Dr Toyne said:
- That’s why the legislation tackles the cause of antisocial behaviour through treatment and rehabilitation.
Now they are saying the causes of antisocial behaviour and family dysfunction need to be tackled, and here I was thinking, on the basis of Dr Toyne’s media release of 21 February 2006, that the very legislation about which he spoke was, in fact, tackling it: ‘That is why the legislation tackles the cause of antisocial behaviour’.
Let us keep going. On page 2 of the Chief Minister’s statement, he says:
- Alcohol is a prevalent factor in violent incidents, both in families and in public places.
Let us go back to Dr Toyne’s media release of 21 February 2006:
- Dr Toyne said during the last election campaign, Territorians gave the government a very clear message that alcohol-related crime must stop.
‘We are now delivering on that promise, and will implement a communication strategy to outline the new laws,’ he said.
So, Territorians gave the government a message that alcohol-related crime must stop. He said: ‘We are now delivering on that promise’. Well, here we are, two years down the track, February again, and we have: ‘Alcohol is a prevalent factor in violent incidents, both in families and in public places’. Well, according to your own spin, you were not only working on it two years ago, you fixed it. I will come back to alcohol management if I have time.
Let us talk about the reference to zero tolerance. Anyone with a sense of humour will appreciate this one. Page 3, bottom paragraph:
- The model supports a zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour in public.
There is another media release from Dr Toyne and, blow me down, 14 February 2006. There is something about February. In Chief Minister Henderson’s statement it states: ‘The model supports a zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour in public’. Let us see what Dr Toyne said two years ago:
- The Justice Minister, Dr Peter Toyne, says the Opposition Leader’s idea of creating a Public Order Act with a ‘zero tolerance’ approach towards alcohol-related antisocial behaviour is shallow and dangerous.
Mr Conlan: You are kidding. You are kidding.
Ms CARNEY: No, member for Greatorex. That is what he said. I will say it again: ‘… the Opposition Leader’s idea of creating a Public Order Act with a zero tolerance approach towards alcohol-related antisocial behaviour is shallow and dangerous’. We cop the abuse of members opposite, particularly the Chief Minister and his predecessor, that we are a policy-free zone. I think they have been taking our policies pretty consistently, member for Greatorex. Here it is, page 3, Chief Minister’s statement, the subject of this debate: ‘The model supports zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour in public’.
Wait, there is more. Page 4, here is an inconsistency:
- There is, therefore, a focus on keeping people out of the justice system and preserving and enhancing their individual wellbeing.
Is it not inconsistent, when looking at the media release, again February, this time 2008, jointly issued by the Attorney-General and Chief Minister, in relation to Youth Justice – well, they call it a strategy; we have not seen it - and juvenile offenders:
- The move will prevent offenders using juvenile diversion as a revolving door.
- Repeat offenders will have to go to court to face the consequence of their actions, including detention.
Talk about a policy-free zone. You lot are spinning your wheels. You are really good at that. I suppose everyone has to be really good at something. You are a policy-free zone and it is evident on a number of levels. How is it that you can, with a straight face as it were, say to Territorians in relation to youth offenders, on the one hand: ‘Oh, no, we are going to get tough and we are going to lock them up’, but on the other in relation to the Antisocial Behaviour Initiatives that there will be ‘a focus on keeping people out of the justice system by preserving and enhancing their individual wellbeing’?
Is this not a schizophrenic approach to policy making? It must be schizophrenic. It is full of inconsistency. All we ask is that you make up your mind which horse you are going to ride and go for it unashamedly. Do not dish these kinds of inconsistencies up to us because we will not only catch you out, we will tell our fellow Territorians, as if they do not already know, that you are full of inconsistencies and, most importantly, you are full of political puffery.
Let us move on. We are still only on page 4, halfway down:
- The First Response Patrol staffed by police and officers from the Department of Justice will be established to monitor and assess antisocial behaviour hot spots.
This is an absolute ripper. Blow me down, once again, it is a February reference, 14 February 2006. At that time, the now Chief Minister was minister for Police. That was before he was sacked and before he sacked or got rid of the ex-Chief Minister. He was asked a question by the member for Macdonnell in relation to alcohol-related crime and antisocial behaviour in this place on 14 February 2006. This is what the now Chief Minister said:
- In Darwin, patrolling the antisocial behaviour hot spots is best done by specially trained and equipped police officers.
I will read it again because it is significant: ‘In Darwin patrolling the antisocial behaviour hot spots is best done by specially trained and equipped police officers’. Today, the Chief Minister, the same person, says:
- The First Response Patrol staffed by police and officers from the Department of Justice will be established to monitor and assess antisocial behaviour hot spots.
Is this not inconsistent? Of course it is. A couple of years ago, the Chief Minister said: ‘Oh, no, patrolling hot spots is best done by the specially-trained and equipped police of whom all Territorians are proud’. Today, he is saying we might throw in a few public servants to see if they can assist.
As was stated in the Leader of the Opposition’s media release:
- The so-called First Response Patrol highlights the half-baked nature of these measures. The first response to antisocial behaviour should be the dispatch of a police patrol to deal with the problem. This proposal has police and public servants ‘monitoring and assessing antisocial hotspots’. The police already know where the antisocial hot spots are – they just need adequate resources to deal with them.
Politics is an incredible thing because two years ago that is what the Chief Minister was saying as Police minister, but today he is saying something else. One wonders where it is all going to stop but we will go on.
The local night patrol - again showing in a policy sense the schizophrenic disposition of this government. Was it not the case that night patrol resources had been reduced in relatively recent years? Now, however, it is going to get a boost and a good thing, too. No doubt about that.
Let us talk about the closed circuit television cameras to be installed. This is on page 5:
- Closed circuit television cameras will be installed around the Casuarina shopping precinct and the Darwin CBD. Darwin residents should be able to move around the city centre and their largest retail precinct without being humbugged and harassed …
etcetera.
Being from Alice Springs, I take a somewhat parochial view. I would have liked to have seen in this statement being debated in the Territory parliament today: ‘Darwin and Alice Springs residents should be able to move around the city or town centre and their largest retail precinct without being humbugged and harassed’. I am sure my colleague from Katherine would quite like that to have been said in relation to Katherine. So, what a very Darwin-focused little number this one is.
There is always a difference between what this government says and what this government does. In fact, when reviewing what members opposite have said in their endeavours to spin their way through antisocial efforts in this place and beyond, I have noticed that the former Chief Minister and, I think, the current Chief Minister, using the expression: ‘It is not words that are important, it is action’, and it is action. Why do I say that? Because, in relation to the CCTV cameras, members will remember that prior to the Alice Springs sittings in April last year, the government steadfastly refused to provide any money, any assistance for CCTV cameras. In fact, the then minister for Police, now Attorney-General, wrote a letter in response to a petition, saying: ‘Nope, not going to do it’.
Five hundred people turned up to the Convention Centre - that is a conservative guess - and then there was a back flip. The good people of Alice Springs bought that. They were entitled to because, after battling for a significant amount of time, when they finally got the government’s attention they believed they were going to get a good deal when it came to CCTV. Alas, that was not the case. The government, if we scratch below the surface, from memory, it was $100 000 and it is a one-off payment. What does that mean? It means that there is no same-time monitoring of the CCTV cameras in Alice Springs or, if there is, it is extremely limited and, in any event, will only happen for one year. Is that a good deal for the people of Alice Springs? No.
Might the Darwin residents walking around the Casuarina shopping precinct reasonably expect –apart from that the government did well, I understand, on the news services today, and presumably did all right in the paper – to say, like the people of Alice Springs a little down the track: ‘Well, you promised us this, but we are not happy because you are only giving us a little of it’. It catches up with governments. It will always catch up with governments when you do that. It might take a while, but it will get you in the end. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot be a long-standing, successful government when you dupe people not infrequently. They wake up to it.
Interestingly, on page 6 of the Chief Minister’s statement, there is a reference to:
- The NT government has committed $3.125m over three years to install and operate the camera network and will work with the Rudd government and the Darwin City Council on delivering the project.
I note with some interest - and I am sure my colleague, the member for Greatorex will as well - that during the federal election, the member for Lingiari jumped up and tossed in - I think it was - an extra $4m for the aquatic centre in Alice Springs. The reason I refer to that is that it illustrates the difference – does it not? - between the top of the Northern Territory and the bottom of the Northern Territory. In the top, what is regarded as a top of mind issue - a really serious issue and one that your political party will pitch seriously towards in the lead-up to the election, whenever that may be - law and order and antisocial behaviour. In the south, just chuck in some dough for them to paddle in. When the aquatic centre was initially proposed it was a good project and, I believe in the long term, it will be. However, I use that to illustrate the fundamental difference between the north and the south - and I certainly wish it were not so ...
Mr CONLAN: Madam Deputy Speaker, I move an extension of time for the member for Araluen pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Mr Bonson: No, no, please!
Motion agreed to.
Ms CARNEY: Thank you. That was very interesting. You should not speak without thinking, Matty. You should not do it because you are now a minister of the Crown - somewhat remarkably in my view - and you are depriving one of your parliamentary colleagues the opportunity to participate in this debate. That is not democratic; it is a dreadful thing to do. You, no doubt, will stand up and talk about how wonderful this statement is ...
Ms SCRYMGOUR: A point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker! Can you please tell the member for Araluen we are debating a statement on antisocial behaviour? What she is talking about is absolutely irrelevant to what the statement is about. Rather than being provocative, she should direct her remarks through the Chair and get on with it. She has less than 10 minutes.
Ms CARNEY: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, I accept that I should direct my comments through the Chair. As for the other so-called points of order, I respectfully suggest that there are none.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, my point of order is quite relevant. The member for Araluen called a member by his name, ‘Matty’; questioned his integrity as a minister; that it was surprising. That has absolutely no relevance to the statement that we are talking about at the moment.
Ms CARNEY: Madam Deputy Speaker, we will press on.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will just make a ruling on that. There is no point of order, but I ask the member for Araluen to make mention of members by their electorate or position, and to direct all comments through the Chair.
Ms CARNEY: Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is interesting, in any event, that the first line of this statement of the Chief Minister says:
- Today I intend to inform the House about my government’s ...
The member for Millner is a member of this government. For him to have a bit of a go because a member of this side seeks an extension so that matters can properly be put in relation to what the government has spun outside this Chamber as a very important statement and a very important series of initiatives, not only is rude in the extreme but it is arrogant as well. I guess there are no surprises there.
Turning to page 7 of the statement, and this is a little beauty, too - the Tasking and Coordination Group led by police. Let us see the spin on this one. It will be a February release. Yes, it is a February release.
Mr Conlan: February-mania.
Ms CARNEY: February-mania. This is the Chief Minister’s release: ‘Comprehensive New Plan to Tackle Anti-Social Behaviour’. It was a long release intended to convey the impression that all of these things were new. In fact, the word new, N E W, just like law, L A W and tax cuts, was used in this media release. Why it was used, and what was the context, is as follows:
- New level of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies – The Tasking and Coordination Group, led by police, has been established to link agencies …
and it lists them:
- … providing a more effective response to tackling antisocial behaviour.
It very much seeks to convey, by using the word new, that this is a new initiative, part of this so-called package of the government. Well, the Tasking and Coordination Group is not new. It is not new. How dare the Chief Minister, with all of his little groupies seeking to propagate the spin, try to suggest that this is new? It is not new.
Mr Conlan: It is new for February 2008.
Ms CARNEY: It is a new February initiative, I guess. I do not recall any February ...
Members interjecting.
Ms Scrymgour interjecting.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Arafura!
Ms CARNEY: I am simply making this point, and it is an important point. It goes back to that you cannot pull over the wool over everyone’s eyes all of the time.
Mr Conlan interjecting.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex!
Ms CARNEY: This government is very good at spinning and, presumably, it has done very well in the media. What I will predict is that the Chief Minister will probably write a letter to everyone in the northern suburbs - it will probably be a glossy - all, of course, at the taxpayer expense. I look forward to the Leader of the Opposition’s motion tomorrow in relation to government advertising and so on. However, I digress.
It is mischievous to try to spin some of this stuff in the terms outlined by the Chief Minister. I suppose we should not be surprised.
Here is another good one, on page 8:
- A 24 hour reporting line to enable members of the community to report antisocial behaviour and receive a response will be established.
You would have to say that that sounds great, as did the old phone number at the Alice Springs Police Station. That sounded great, and members will remember, from the parliamentary sittings in April last year, the then Police minister, now Attorney-General, kept saying: ‘If you ring this number, it will take you straight to the heart of the Alice Springs Police Station’. People, for some time prior to that and since then, tried to ring that number and they could not get through. I understand, and I am advised by constituents, that, notwithstanding the representations made by the previous Chief Minister, the problem still remains. You have to ask, why is it that, in the Northern Territory in 2008, in a town like Alice Springs, you cannot get through to the police station? I know that is a very serious issue for police. They are immensely irritated by it. However, it pales into insignificance when one considers the anger and distress of people trying to get through.
We would read in this statement that a 24-hour reporting line to enable members of the community to report antisocial behaviour will be established. I hope you set up a communications system that is more advanced than the one that was based at the Alice Springs Police Station as of April last year.
There is another point to make - and it is silent on this point. One gets the impression that this 24-hour reporting line to enable members of the community to report antisocial behaviour and receive a response will be established in Alice Springs. Will it? I would be very grateful if the Chief Minister would comment on that in his response. Will it be established in Katherine? Might one exist in Tennant Creek? These are the regional centres. We say, as indeed many others do, that we need more police in Alice Springs, but we know that there are police in Alice Springs and they are very busy attending to reports of antisocial behaviour and other crimes.
We would support the introduction of a reporting line. Why hasn’t the Chief Minister said when it is going to be implemented? I am thinking that it is going to be a budget announcement; that it is going to be wrapped up in possibly an election announcement, whether it is this year or next year.
Mr Conlan: They are saving it for next February.
Ms CARNEY: Maybe saving for next February, indeed, member for Greatorex. When is it going to be established? Where is it going to be established? What cost and who is going to run it, what sort of training is going to be provided to those running it, and what sort of organisational structure might it be? That is not clear from the statement. Again, political pop and puffery.
On page 11 of the statement there is a reference to the CCTV cameras in Alice Springs. I note that I do not have much time left, which is very unfortunate because I know the member for Millner is just sitting on the edge of his chair wanting so much more.
I will finish by talking about the dry town initiative. I believe that the Attorney-General is genuinely motivated to do his best with respect to the effect alcohol has on so many of our fellow Territorians. I remember the debate - I think it was either last October or November. After the Substance Abuse committee report, we had a great debate, it really was a great debate, he said so, I said so, and others said so as well, about alcohol. I impressed upon him the need as far as my own constituency was concerned to take the people of Alice Springs with him otherwise he would lose them completely. I saw him nodding away and he got it. I was delighted that, in a very genuine sense, I thought he understood it and acknowledged the point I was making.
I am not sure that there is a hell of a lot of good will in Alice Springs at present for this government. There are many reasons for that. I did say at the time, from memory, what small amount of good will was left, they were going to give it to the government in respect of the dry town proposal.
However, when we have one of our newspapers saying, as we said in Question Time today, the dry town is a farce, when we know that the police commander wants more police, when we know that the member for Stuart only a few months ago was talking about the dry town and his words were ‘to support the police’, when members of government, members of the police and the residents are calling out for more police, I just fail to understand why government will not do it.
In the context of all of the announcements with respect to antisocial behaviour, maybe there is a reason. We have provided a number of alternatives, but whenever we have suggested them, whenever we have raised our concerns, government members slam us in ways that are disgraceful and contemptuous. We wear that, because that is the nature of opposition. What really riles us, and what really riles me, is that the government just keeps coming back again and again, putting the same bunch of words in the same sentences, occasionally taking our policies on the way through without acknowledgement.
I guess that is the way an arrogant government works but the people in my electorate expect better. I know this government spins. I know it sinks to unspeakably low depths when it comes to the extent to which it spins. If you want to spin in your own back yard, you try your hardest, but do not dare to do that to the people in my electorate or in Alice Springs.
Mr VATSKALIS (Business and Economic Development): Madam Deputy Speaker, whilst I support this statement by the Chief Minister I have to say I always enjoy the former Leader of the Opposition speaking. She has passion; I have said that before. She builds up a really good argument. She picks up the mistakes but, at the end, she leaves me totally unsatisfied because she never gives any solutions, her own version of what should be done. Okay, it is the job of the opposition to criticise the government but go a step further. If you think we are do something wrong, come up with a solution. We never get that. We always hear what went wrong, what she perceives we did wrong.
I am very disappointed that she is sitting on the backbench. I think she is much better than the person who is the Leader of the Opposition now, the person who admitted he was not up to it a few years back She has passion, she has drive, she fights for her electorate, and it is really good to see her putting forward her own version.
Antisocial behaviour, unfortunately, has been a serious issue for Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs for many years. I remember that from the time I came to the Territory in 1983. I remember in 1999, Shane Stone, then Chief Minister of the Territory, saying he was fed up with itinerants; saying we should monster and stomp them out of town. That was his solution. I remember in 2000 when Denis Burke pleaded with the federal government to pay people’s welfare payments on the communities; to make sure that services were delivered in the communities. Of course, the problem now is that welfare is not paid by cheque; it is not paid in your community. It is put in an account which you can access from anywhere in the Territory, anywhere in Australia. If you have an EFTPOS card, you can even access your account overseas. The problem has now moved out of the communities to the Territory and, from my own personal experience, into other areas in Australia.
Last year I was in Perth - I had lived in Perth for seven years – and it never had an itinerant problem. You would not see itinerants in the middle of Perth. I was astounded when I went for a walk in the morning to see, outside the local McDonalds restaurant, about 20 itinerants with their mattresses, coats and cask of wine. It was seven o’clock in the morning. When I met my fellow minister in Perth, a good friend from the old days, I asked him: ‘What has happened?’ He said to me that because of the way accounts are now paid, because of their mobility, people from the country, from the Kimberleys, come to Perth.
If you watched the Channel 9 news yesterday, the statement by one of these itinerants was loud and clear. ‘We come down here to drink’. That is the problem of itinerancy. They create a problem everywhere: in Alice Springs, Casuarina, Tennant Creek and Katherine. The problems they create affect all of us.
That is the reason in the past I have advocated for strong measures to be taken, to such an extent that the Northern Territory Labor Party is more right wing than Jodeen Carney and her fellow members. I do not care. I work hard, like you do, for my constituents. That is what my constituents want, that is what I want. I have experienced harassment every day, not only in Casuarina but also in Darwin, and I have experienced the same in Alice Springs,
I was in Alice Springs for the past few days and when I walked down the mall I was able to do so without being harassed. I also crossed the Todd without being harassed. I went from the Quest Apartments to the mall without being harassed. It was a significant change in Alice Springs from what I saw two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. I hope it continues to be like that. Yes, there are problems. But nobody says that if we declare this town a dry town the problems will be completely solved. Nobody could actually succeed unless you put a fence around the town and prohibit certain groups of people coming into it. You cannot say this town now is clear, the problems are resolved. But we are here to try.
As I said before, previous governments tried and failed. We probably tried and failed in some areas, but we tried. We tried because we found out what worked, and we did it again. Somebody said: ‘Bring back night patrols’, so we did. We removed it and we found out that it was effective. By the way, when the night patrol was in Darwin, they had the 24-hour telephone number which I had in my mobile and, if I needed it, I would push that button and speak directly to the night patrol.
The movement of rural people to the urban centres is not only a Territory problem or an Australian problem, it is a world problem. I am proud to say that we are the first government which actually tried and are prepared to try again. We are prepared to try to fix the things that we did not get right the first time. We tried; nobody can complain to us about that.
Let me make clear that what I am talking about is the measures we are taking - not about people walking the streets. We are not talking about people who sit in the parks. We are not talking about people who get together - black, whites or in-betweens. Everybody is entitled to do that. I have no problem with people sitting in the park and talking. I have a serious problem when there are people in the park who start drinking and then start bashing their wives, their girlfriends, their kids. I have a problem with these people choosing to come to Darwin, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, or Katherine to drink. They drag with them two-year-old, four-year-old, six-year-old kids, who run around the streets, roaming around without attending school, and nobody cares if they are fed, looked after, or what happens to them.
I am not going to support groups that exhibit criminal behaviour. I am not going to sit down and take it easy when I see people sitting around drinking, and causing problems for the neighbourhoods of the park. They leave a mess behind that somebody else has to clean and off they go. I will not support that. I argue strongly with the authorities and the council that the people have a responsibility - especially the council - not to allow these people to camp in parks, to defecate and urinate, or even have sex in parks. Council close their eyes and do not do anything, despite the fact that they have by-laws. I have picked up the book and have shown the Town Clerk the section of by-laws that refer to these particular illegal activities. The council’s excuse was that they do not have enough forces to attend.
We have had enough. The community, the government, and I, as a local member, have had enough. I am very pleased that my voice and the voices of my colleagues here have been heard by the government and action has been taken. Previous governments, as I said before, had different solutions – monstering and stomping, and paying the welfare in the communities. We believe now that this government is setting in place the framework to address this problem. I am not saying it is going to be resolved tomorrow. I am not saying it is going to be resolved in a week. It is a difficult problem. It is a very difficult problem, but we are going to try.
Of course, on top of that we have the federal intervention. Do not get me wrong; the intervention should have happened in the Territory 30 years ago. Do not get me wrong; I believe the intervention is a good idea. Any government that takes action to protect its citizens is a good government and takes good action. The problem is, people in Canberra think about the Territory without talking to Territorians - without talking to elected members, not just from the Labor side, but from both sides. They made a decision in Canberra that applies to the Territory without talking to people who live in the Territory and who know the conditions.
It does not take much to think that, if you quarantine the money in certain communities, people are going to walk out to somewhere else. If I lived in Yuendumu and you wanted to take some of my money, I would take a car, drive to Darwin, live in the long grass, and you cannot touch my money anymore. It does not take much to think that if you give food coupons, somebody is going to sell some of them to get money to get alcohol. But did they ask anybody? No. They knew all the solutions. In this day and age, it is very easy to have a key card and all the quarantined money could go to the key card with your photograph to be used not only in Woolworths, Coles, or some supermarket, but anywhere in the Territory. And that key card cannot be sold. You cannot accept that, because it has a photograph and a name and you present it, people would know who you are.
The other thing of course - and I am angry about the way the intervention was handled - it portrayed Territorians as rednecks; as people who do not care about other people, and portrayed all Aboriginal people as child molesters, as wife bashers. The media had a field day. The Territory was hell on earth. However, to date, not one case of child abuse has been referred to the police as required by law in the Territory. On the other hand, people have been arrested in Kalumburu, Western Australia and in Aurukun, Queensland. That is the shortcomings of the intervention. It was a really good plan but badly executed and badly timed.
One of the consequences of the intervention was the arrival of significant numbers of itinerants to drink, not only in Darwin, but in Alice Springs, probably from other communities, and in Katherine. The government has had to rethink the policies and introduce a new approach to deal with this situation. I believe the way we are going is a very good way. The Chief Minister announced a package of reforms. This package outlined to you puts a number of very strong and determined measures aimed at bringing to a stop antisocial behaviour that plagues our cities and regions.
Many times I have asked for stronger police support in my electorate. Many times I argued for Casuarina Shopping Square to have CCTV on their premises. The previous management failed to do that. The new management put 150 CCTVs on their premises. The advice I got from them, after they installed the CCTVs, is that antisocial behaviour within their premises has declined significantly. They work. I am pleased that we are prepared to do it, not in a particular shopping centre, but in a particular shopping precinct in a particular area. I think Mitchell Street should be the first area to have CCTVs to avoid the antisocial behaviour problems caused by young white men and women who come out of clubs at 3 o’clock in the morning. Their antisocial behaviour is beyond belief. I believe it should be installed there first.
The Darwin area night patrol is an excellent idea. First of all, we ask too much of the police. It does not matter how many police you have, you cannot have a police officer on every corner. The police will attend and assess the importance and, between me and you, if I have to choose between a domestic dispute where somebody is beating up his wife or girlfriend, and somebody who is drunk, and you have to call a police officer, I know what crime I am going to choose to attend - I am going to choose to attend the domestic violence issue.
The issue of the increase in short-term accommodation: quite a lot of people come to Darwin. These people come for various reasons. I have people who come to Darwin because their relatives are attending the hospital. They come to Darwin and they have nowhere to stay. They have not programmed their arrival; they have not programmed their accommodation. They are followed by a group. Their money runs out and they are stuck in the long grass until the next pay arrives and then, by that time, it is too late. We have to provide some accommodation for these people. We also have to provide them the opportunity to be able to go back home, and have them pay it back through their welfare payments.
The important thing is, nothing will happen if we work in isolation. This is not only the NT government’s problem, this is not only the council’s problem; this is a problem for the government, the council and the Commonwealth authorities, especially Centrelink. Just like they have done it in Cairns, we can do it here, and many people who have travelled to Cairns have seen the model and they have brought it back. I read the report they produced, and I thought it was a very good idea. The police, the council, the welfare authorities, and the prison authorities are all working well. One example: people commit crimes, they go to prison, they are released from prison, and they stay in Darwin, meet the old mates, go down the pub, go down the long grass, get drunk. In Cairns, the offender comes out of prison, the prison authority’s work with the Commonwealth to facilitate their return to their country, take them home. You do not have these gaps between release from prison and return to country. Offenders do not dwell in bad company that could create problems.
The First Response Patrol is a good idea. You have a phone, pick up the phone, ring, they will arrive and assess the situation: ‘why are you here? Is it because you have nowhere to stay? We can organise short -term accommodation. Are you stuck here because you do not have money? We can organise to have you referred to someone who can get you back to your country. Are you a person who has high alcohol dependency? We will try to find a solution. You cannot stay here, it is a public park; there are other places to go’. That is how we have to work.
The money has to come with it. You cannot do all this without money. You can talk as much as you like, you can say anything you like, but unless there is real money on the table, nothing is going to happen. We are prepared to put forward the money - $10m over three years. I believe we are going to see some results.
In my new portfolio, Housing, there are significant problems. I am the first to admit that. We cater for all sorts of people – good families, working class families, low income families. We cater for people who, for one reason or another, have high alcohol dependency, drug dependency and, the other problem, relationships. I have people in my electorate who have applied to Territory Housing to have no alcohol on the premises. So, when the relatives arrive from bush, they know if they go there they cannot drink. They do not go there and we avoid the problems they create. I have other places where they come to my office crying, saying relatives have come from the bush and have brought with them five cartons of wine and had a party all night. The neighbourhood was up in arms. The police arrived and everything was hell. But we are working with these people. We are tough. We are prepared to issue restricted orders. Many of these people come to us and ask for a dry premises order. That is significant.
We have assisted 243 households to be declared dry, and a further 40 restricted premises declarations are in train. We now see a trend where people are saying: ‘Enough is enough. We don’t want our house to be used as a party house so you can’t drink here’. That solves the problems.
In early February, the Minister for Alcohol Policy working with my predecessor, and I have to say it was a fantastic job, banned the consumption of alcohol in the common areas of nine public housing complexes in Darwin and Alice Springs. This will ensure that tenants and neighbours can safely enjoy their homes and neighbourhoods. Northern Territory Housing is working with the Office of Racing, Gaming and Licensing to have the common areas in another 21 unit complexes declared dry. We have also put 88 acceptable behaviour agreements in place across the Territory with 13 more on the way. These agreements have served as a wake-up call to the overwhelming majority of households. They know very well that if they step out of line they are going to have something happening to them. It may be a threat. It may be considered as a threat but people living around them have the right to enjoy a quiet lifestyle, a good night’s sleep, and not have to put up with screaming and yelling and all the problems associated with alcohol.
We have invested $1.1m this year for security patrols of public housing across the Territory. This is for people who live in public housing but there are people who do not live in houses. They come from the communities and they are stuck in town, as I said before. The boost to the Return to Home program means that we are now able to assist more people to move back to their communities. Nearly $1m was provided to the Larrakia Nation over three years to assist in operating an information referral office in Palmerston supporting their existing services in Darwin. That provides indigenous people living in or visiting Darwin with proof of identification, access to Centrelink, support with returning home and referral support services such as accommodation. It is a comprehensive package. It is a package that the government put in place.
Yes, I know there are arguments from the other side that you have done it before. Probably we have done it before but we did not do it well or it did not keep going well for the simple reason that there are too many factors affecting the behaviour of people coming to Darwin.
People who live in Canberra never thought that what they did with the intervention would create a wave of alcohol refugees leaving the communities so they would not lose their money. These people moved to the urban centres where access to alcohol is easier. People also leave dry communities. When they come here, they come to drink and, of course, things get out of hand and they stay here longer. Some of them stay for ever and ever.
It is the responsibility of all elected members of government. It is the responsibility of the local council. We cannot say that the council has no responsibility, and has no role to play. Let us face it: these people have access to money in Darwin, in Alice Springs, wherever they are and we have to work together to find out the patterns, where the money is paid, how they are paid, and where they stay.
It is a comprehensive package. I have asked many times for a package like this. Some people consider it as an extreme, right-wing package. I do not think it is extremely right-wing. We have the responsibility as local members to stand up and say: ‘Kids cannot be abused. Women cannot be bashed up. When you come to drink here, I have no problems with you sitting down to drink. Have a drink, but there is a line you cannot cross. Your drinking cannot become my problem. If your drinking is your problem, it has to be your problem but not become my problem or our problem’.
By implementing such a comprehensive package for antisocial behaviour with some people, I think we will find a solution. Not today, not tomorrow, not in the second seven days, but we are on the way to find a solution.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I commend the Chief Minister for the package he brought to government.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Madam Deputy Speaker, I respond to the minister’s statement on antisocial behaviour initiatives. In the four years that I have been in this House we have spent a considerable length of time discussing antisocial behaviour. Here we are, back here again, talking about something that is supposedly new called ‘a comprehensive plan’ listing these six things here. When I first read it this morning, I thought: ‘Oh, gosh. Here we go again’. It just seems to me that for years we have been talking about the issues that we have had in Katherine. Every single one of them is in here.
The statement mainly addresses Darwin and Palmerston. To me, it seems this comprehensive package is now being introduced because the problems we are discussing have finally arrived on Darwin and Palmerston’s front door steps. It has been in Katherine and other regional communities for years. There is no blame from me to be bandied from one side of politics to the other, because there is not a very simple solution to the issue.
There have been many programs trialled. I have been involved with tourism since 1989 and, in all the programs that have been trialled, there is no doubt that there has been limited success. As I said, most Territorians are sick and tired of antisocial behaviour and so they should be. They just do not want to hear the words and more platitudes about antisocial behaviour and a new program that is being trialled. They actually want results. That is what the people of Katherine want.
The first time I started talking about antisocial behaviour, I had been the Chairman of the Katherine Region Tourist Association for four years. At one particular meeting I went back through the minutes. I asked: ‘How many times have I said this same thing in these meetings?’ The issue of serious antisocial behaviour in Katherine was brought up at every monthly meeting. That was the first time I approached the former member for Katherine. That was in the previous government. Despite the members opposite here claiming nothing was tried before they came in 2001, that is quite wrong. There were things trialled. I am not saying that they had a great deal of success. They had some limited success but at least somebody was trying to do something.
The minister has made the point that Territorians are saying it is totally unacceptable that we have antisocial behaviour in our communities. Yes, it is. I have very publicly said on many occasions that, in my opinion, zero tolerance is the only way to go. To get to that zero tolerance, we have to stop this soft shoe treatment. That has been proved over and over again. Being all touchy and soft and handling these problems in a so-called delicate way is not going to work.
One program that was supposed to deal with that was the Harmony Group. The community harmony programs first started in Katherine in 2002. I was one of those people who thought it was a really good idea. But like all others, it was an idea that just did not bring great benefits. It dragged on for too long, people became bored with it, different departments fell out when new people came in, the new people had different ideas and, in the end, it became a talkfest. Many people walked away from it. Government departments walked away from it. It became of absolutely no benefit to Katherine at all.
There was habitual drunks legislation in 2005; there were the alcohol courts in 2005, there were better laws in 2006 and there has been a minister for Alcohol since 2007. We had a very comprehensive substance abuse inquiry which we reported on last year. Visiting those communities and regional towns highlighted to us the significance of the problem. Well, it did not highlight it, we were already aware of it. It just brought home to us again that something serious had to be done.
One of the most important things that would make a big difference - and we talk about it over and over again and we have asked for it over and over again, and, as usual, the political game gets played - is more police. There is absolutely no question that more police are needed in our streets, especially in Katherine, because that is where I witness the problems. The police are absolutely stretched to their limit carrying out their daily tasks.
The situation with antisocial behaviour is so serious that it warrants police being designated just to deal with itinerants and antisocial behaviour, and there are not enough of them. It is good that we have night patrols. We do have a limited night patrol and we have had it for years. I have not checked on it recently, but the night patrol used to finish at 5 pm. That was not very satisfactory because the problems are starting well and truly after 5 pm. One of the problems that I have with the night patrols is that there are well-meaning people working on it, giving their time but, whenever I tried to access that patrol when I had a business, I was never able to get them. That highlighted problems of lack of training, and there being not enough of them. There needed to be much more intensive training and, of course, they were limited with the powers they had.
The minister said somewhere in his statement that we need to encourage them - the patrols need to encourage these people to return to their homes and get off the streets. The majority of people that I am talking about who caused the antisocial behaviour in Katherine are beyond talking to and trying to convince them. I have been living there since 1989 and I can tell you there are at least 50 of those people who are living in Katherine who have been there on the streets and in the long grass since 1989. How are you going to say to those people: ‘Where would you like to go?’ They will tell you in no uncertain terms where you can go. That is exactly what they do. Any suggestion that they return to anywhere - they do not want to go. They are perfectly happy living in the long grass the way they have been doing for all those years. What happens to those? They are there by choice - they are actually there by choice.
A couple of them now live here in Darwin. I see one in Raintree Park when I walk home each night. He usually calls out and says something to me and I pretend I have not seen him, because I do not want to start getting involved with the same scenario that I used to with him when we were at Red Gum Tourist Park. It is his choice to live in the long grass. When he was in Katherine, he was given public housing directly behind Red Gum in the public housing units. It was just following the flood and a lot of money was spent by the Territory government in 1998 following the Katherine flood to upgrade those units and to refurbish them. I can assure you that this particular person and his partner, within the space of three months, were removed from there. They had totally wrecked it. Once again, it had to be completely refurbished. It was not that he did not have the opportunity to have public housing; he did not want it.
The government has to deal with those sorts of people too. Where are they going to go? You talk about providing homes and housing for those people to get them off the streets, but I am sorry, there are many people out there who just do not want to go anywhere else than where they are right now. That makes it really difficult, because they have hangers-on and they drink. They are drinking over here in Raintree Park; I see them all drinking there. It is a real problem. That is why I say you really need to have designated police getting the message through to them: ‘I am sorry, you cannot drink here and you cannot drink anywhere in this area that has been declared dry. It is not acceptable’.
In Katherine and everywhere, alcohol is inevitably linked to antisocial behaviour. Of course, there has been a lot of blame put on the federal government for implementing the NT intervention. We can talk about whether the way it was done was good or bad, but it was done for a reason. The intervention has been blamed for the influx of people to, not so much Katherine, but Darwin and Palmerston.
Long before the intervention, the dry town declaration in Port Augusta was already sending indigenous people up the Stuart Highway to Coober Pedy, Andamooka and to Alice Springs. Finally, Alice Springs became a dry town so they moved further up the track. The timing of them all arriving here in Darwin combines with the dry town legislation, and I support it, by the way. I support dry town legislation, but what happened is Port Augusta implemented theirs, and it is working very well, people started to leave because they could not drink publicly in Port Augusta, so they have came up the Stuart Highway. They have come to Alice Springs, and when Alice Springs started to take some serious steps to address their antisocial and drunken behaviour, they started to move further up the track. They reached Tennant Creek, then Katherine, and we had stacks of them in Katherine, and then they finally came up here, because Katherine is now a dry town.
Added to that, this time of the year, every single year in January and February, there is an influx of indigenous people from remote communities who come in because they know they are going to be isolated if they stay out in their community because of floodwaters, or the creeks and rivers are up. That is exactly what has happened. This year has been extremely wet. There are many people who have deliberately come into town because they have nothing to do out there, and they stay in town. It appears that they are caught in town, but many of them have deliberately come in to stay. They do not want to go back out until it becomes dry again.
With everything that is being introduced in this package - short-term accommodation, the boost to the Return to Home program, the dedicated line for reporting antisocial behaviour – has anyone considered that visitors to our regional towns would not know the number to ring and who to contact. They experience the antisocial behaviour, and they are not sure who to contact. They sometimes come into my office, or they go to the Visitors Centre. They get a double whammy of it outside the Visitors Centre in Katherine, which is a nice shaded, grassy area, so it is an inviting area for them to gather.
A member of the public who lives on a station property outside Katherine suggested to me, after his wife was recently subjected to some fairly unpleasant humbugging, that there needs to be a dedicated telephone line with a distinct number which would be easy to remember. His suggestion was 000 HUMBUG. There should be a sign that says 000 HUMBUG. It would be the 000, but the HUMBUG would be different numbers to what the 000 number is now, so that there was no confusion. I thought it was a pretty good idea. It would be on signs coming into all the Territory regional towns so that people knew what to do if they were getting humbugged. They do not want to dial 000 because somebody is harassing them for money because they want a drink, but they want to get in touch with somebody to come and do something. I thought 000 HUMBUG was a good idea. Why doesn’t the Northern Territory pick it up and patent it? I reckon it is a good idea. Humbugging is what we do not want, and that is what happens in our towns.
We are talking about antisocial behaviour and, of course, most of this is to do with alcohol. If you are going to put in these extra beds, yes, you definitely need extra beds to cater for those drunks and get them off the street, but do not forget places like Katherine, which are full continuously. The sobering-up shelter, even with the dry town, is full. The excess of those people who are taken off the streets have to go into police custody overnight for police protection, for their safety. There needs to be more beds in Katherine. There definitely needs to be a detox centre. If we are serious about trying to make some changes with antisocial behaviour, we have to start addressing the people who come in off the streets on what I call the spin dryer, because they come in on a regular basis into the sobering-up shelter, clean them up, wash them up, wash their clothes, give them something to eat and send them off. They regularly spin back in, and in and in and out and in and out.
I knew some people who used to come into my shop when I had Red Gum whom I had not seen for a few weeks and I would say: ‘Where have you been?’, whatever the name was, and I would not mention names, and they would say: ‘We’ve been up at Berrimah, missus’. I would say: ‘What are you doing there?’ They would deliberately get picked up. They would deliberately go to the sobering-up shelter knowing that they had gone there too many times and they were going to have to go to Berrimah to dry out. So they would go up for four, five or six weeks and ‘Seems to be a pretty good place, missus’ and they would dry out. They would come back looking pretty good because they had had some food in them and, blow me down, within a week or two they are back doing the same thing again. That is the cycle we have to break. Those people I am referring to were long-grassers and still are; they are still living in the long grass.
If we are serious about making a dent into alcohol problems which contribute to antisocial behaviour in our communities we must have sobering-up shelters that can cope with the numbers. We must have a detox centre and then we must have a rehabilitation centre located appropriately in each of the regional towns like Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Borroloola, probably - I am not sure if they would be able to have one there as I think the pub is closed again. Unless they have those things, we are not going to make any difference and we will be back here in the next 10 years, still talking about the same thing.
I have spoken before about rehabilitation centres that work for indigenous people. I know I have talked incessantly about Dillinya and Sheila Millar, but that is a perfect example of an indigenous-trained person who knows how to deal with the problems of her people. She has successfully treated people for alcohol abuse for some time. She has recovered alcoholics living out there. Do not try to re-invent the wheel. Look at what does work. That has worked.
The Minister for Housing spoke about problems with public housing. There are many problems with public housing in our regional towns. I can speak for Katherine because I live behind five public houses which used to have families living in them who had been there for many years, but with the change of the policies and the way things were handled by Territory Housing, those people had to move on. I have now had the most incredible number of families through three houses that are directly and diagonally behind me that have been completely refurbished several times. I am getting very frustrated with the antisocial behaviour that goes on in those places. Territorians are paying for those refurbishments. That money needs to be spent far more wisely, not spent on people who abuse the process. I am really annoyed with that. They need to have urban living programs and definitely need to learn how to live in an environment other than what they would prefer to live in. I find that very annoying.
The minister’s statement about antisocial behaviour initiatives is all very grand. You have them in a comprehensive plan. Now, please, deliver them. Give us some police to go with it so that we can really make it work. If you need double the police numbers, give us double the police numbers. Otherwise we are just paying lip service to this again.
Mr BONSON (Sport and Recreation): Madam Speaker, I, and I am sure Territorians, welcome the statement by the Chief Minister on this government’s initiative to deal with antisocial behaviour in the Darwin and Palmerston areas. No one should have to put up with unacceptable behaviour. People of Darwin and Palmerston and any other urban centre should be able to go about their business without being humbugged by drunks. We remain committed to being tough with the drunks who inflict themselves on ordinary Territorians.
The package announced by the Chief Minister is going to reinforce the efforts of those currently working on the front line tackling this problem. The package outlined by the Chief Minister recognises antisocial behaviour is a complex problem. A simplistic, one dimensional process will not work. Monstering and stomping, as advocated by a former CLP Chief Minister, will not work. It certainly did not work at the time. The CLP had 27 years to deal with this problem. They failed. We will be tough, but as a government we know we have to also attack the root cause of the problem. The package outlined by the Chief Minister recognises that we must continue working to evolve and refine our approaches to this problem. As the Chief Minister said, we will continue to monitor the success of this latest initiative. This ongoing assessment is vital. To do otherwise would be foolish.
This package will complement measures already put in place by this government. That was a fact acknowledged by Jane Lawton of Mission Australia on ABC radio news today. Ms Lawton, welcoming the announcement, said:
- The package that has been announced is an holistic approach to what needs to occur …
Whether the opposition likes it or not, the word ‘holistic’ is the key word. The government’s holistic $10m package will feature: a First Response Patrol; a dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line; a Darwin area night patrol; closed circuit television cameras; increased short-term accommodation; a boost to the Return to Home program; and a new level of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies.
We all know there has been a problem with antisocial behaviour in our urban centres, including Palmerston and Darwin. As someone who has grown up in Darwin, I have to say this is not a new problem. Sadly, antisocial behaviour has been with us for many years. Anybody who tries to tell us this is a new problem does not understand the Northern Territory. It was a fact of life when I was younger, and it was a problem when we came to government in 2001. I should add that, since 2001, this government has added 200 officers to our police force. We had to deal with the legacy of the CLP’s freeze on police recruitment in the early 1990s. The CLP’s recruitment freeze achieved nothing in the fight against antisocial behaviour. You have to have enough police on the front line to deal with this problem.
Police will work with agencies like Mission Australia and Larrakia Nation to deal with antisocial behaviour. Historically, Darwin has had to cope with itinerant behaviour on our streets. I know, as a young man, I was always aware of antisocial behaviour by young people. This package will bolster the government’s ongoing efforts to counter antisocial behaviour. Our antisocial behaviour problems are exacerbated by alcohol. Territorians from all walks of life are drinking far too much. On average, adult Territorians drink 17.3 litres of pure alcohol a year compared with 10 litres elsewhere in the country. The Minister for Alcohol Policy previously outlined to this House government initiatives aimed at reducing alcohol consumption in the Territory. We cannot deal with antisocial behaviour without dealing with alcohol abuse. Much of the antisocial behaviour in our urban centres is fuelled by alcohol. It is vital that we make a meaningful impact on alcohol consumption. We are doing that.
The problem with antisocial behaviour is complex and deep-seated. Unfortunately, it has been made worse by the federal government’s intervention. The previous federal government and the former Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Mal Brough, were warned that there would be an influx of people into urban centres as a result of the intervention. In typical style, he did not want to listen. I know my colleague, the Minister for Alcohol Policy, raised this issue with him on a number of occasions but he refused to listen. The intervention affects traditional people on city streets and in the centre of places like Darwin and Palmerston. Unfortunately, too many people coming from the bush to urban centres like Darwin and Palmerston have been sucked into downward and damaging cycles of life in the long grass. We have to work to not only deal with the antisocial behaviour this group is causing but, as a responsible government, we have to find ways to help them out of their destructive, downward spiral.
The initiatives contained in the package will all play a role in achieving this end. The Return to Home initiatives have proved highly successful in getting people in out major centres out of the long grass. Many people who come to places like Darwin and Palmerston for legitimate reasons often find themselves trapped in a life of drinking and despair. It is important we work to break the cycle of misery and get them back to their families.
We have also drawn on experiences from Western Australia and Queensland. At least two government ministers have visited Cairns to learn how Cairns was able to deal with a significant antisocial behaviour problem. I also visited Cairns in my first term as elected member and saw the good work that was happening to address these issues. As I understand it, it was threatening the viability of the region’s tourism industry. Central to what can be called the ‘Cairns model’, is a high degree of cooperation between government and non-government agencies. This includes a high level of cooperation between Queensland government agencies and local government. Cairns has also benefited from the introduction of CCTV cameras. According to my colleagues and from what I have observed, they have been central to the success of antisocial measures in Cairns.
The Chief Minister has announced the installation of closed circuit television cameras in the Darwin CBD and the Casuarina shopping precinct. I am confident this initiative will play a significant role in both moderating the behaviour of certain groups and assisting the authorities in dealing with incidents after the fact.
While police will continue to play a central front-line role in their efforts to curb antisocial behaviour, I welcome the reintroduction of a night patrol to the Darwin area. I am confident that the night patrol will work with police to deal with antisocial behaviour. The introduction of a dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line makes good sense. I also welcome the $2.77m increase to short-term accommodation, which is a further reflection of the government’s recognition that a simplistic approach will not work. We have to work at this problem from many angles and that is what we are doing.
This package has been a long time in the making. It has come after a good deal of consideration by Cabinet. It has come about after examination of interstate experiences. It has been designed to fit in with initiatives already announced by this government, including our alcohol management plans and the introduction of dry and restricted areas.
As Jane Lawton of Mission Australia said, this is an holistic package. It is one that has been developed over time. It has been developed to complement initiatives already announced by this government. To depict otherwise is wrong. I am confident that the package announced by the Chief Minister will work to address the long-standing issue of antisocial behaviour in urban centres like Darwin and Palmerston. I commend the Chief Minister’s statement to the House.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I would like to comment on the Chief Minister’s statement on antisocial initiatives. At the outset, I feel that I have heard this all before. These issues have been around an awful long time. I do not think you can blame one particular party or another. We have a society that has, basically, had an association with alcohol for a long time.
I have said before that when I first went to Daly River when I was 19 there were two pubs - one at Daly River Crossing and one near Wooliana at Robbie’s Sandbar. That was in 1970. There were many people affected by alcohol then. There were many women affected by alcohol through domestic violence or just abusing alcohol themselves. Therefore, it is not a new issue and it is a difficult issue.
Whilst this package looks good on the surface, generally speaking, it is a reactive package. It is a package that says ‘we have a problem, now let us see how we can fix it’. I believe we are still a long way behind trying to find out how we stop this problem occurring in the first place. I have said before that there is not enough emphasis on educating people about the problems associated with the misuse of alcohol. The alcohol industry is an extremely powerful industry.
I have said before, as well, that we ban the advertising of tobacco because it causes health problems, but how many people have car accidents because of tobacco? How many people start a fight at home with their partner because of tobacco? How many people get involved in violent crimes because of tobacco? We banned tobacco advertising. We see it written on a packet of cigarettes and we continually say to people that smoking is very harmful. It causes all sorts of problems. It costs our society a large amount of money when we have to try to cure people who suffer the effects of smoking.
When it comes to alcohol, for some reason, it is a bit of a no-go area. It infiltrates our lives from social and advertising aspects. Our social life is centred around drinking. Unless I go to the Salvation Army or something, I do not think I can go to any parties in Darwin or the rural area where there would not be a fairly reasonable supply of alcohol. It would be the norm. As a non-drinker, I used to get annoyed going to a party where they would drink all the soft drink first and then get into the alcohol later, which left me high and dry, literally. But, that is the way social life is in Darwin; it revolves around alcohol.
Advertising – watch the cricket. You know who sponsors the cricket – VB. The football - it will be one of the alcohol companies. They put smart advertisements on and get a bit of a laugh out of the audience. That is all done to attract attention. That is what it is about. Sport is one of the biggest industries in the Northern Territory. Many of our indigenous people love sport, so what better place to advertise alcohol than at a football ground. What better place to sell alcohol than a football ground. I went to the football the other night and, sure enough, the main type of alcohol that was sold was full strength, Cougar and, maybe, Melbourne. There might have been some Mid Strength there, as well. There is a market there that the alcohol industry enjoys. The facts are that they do not want it to be restrained because they make lots of money. They are a very powerful lobby group, and one that the federal government gets quite a substantial amount of cash from, so you would not expect the government to have a program which would reduce the sale of alcohol.
I do not believe we do enough in our society to frown on the behaviour that comes from drunkenness. Once, being drunk in a public place was an offence. You have to wonder whether we should reintroduce it. Except for going that one step and saying that drunkenness is an offence and therefore we will pick you up, we are saying your behaviour is antisocial, you are humbugging people. We are going round in a circle which avoids the fact. The fact is that we are sick of drunken people in public places annoying us but we will not arrest them for being drunk. We will arrest them for the other issues that are associated with that drunkenness.
Drunkenness in our society tends to be a bit of a badge of honour. We do not say it is a problem. Occasionally, you will hear doctors say that binge drinking is harmful to teenagers. How many teenagers listen to that? How many parties have been in your area where the party has gotten out of hand simply because of the amount of alcohol being drunk? We are not talking about light beer here. We are talking about spirits. That is what many kids drink today. There have been parties in my electorate that have gotten out of hand, where police have had bottles thrown at them, and the ambulance officers have had the same. You would have to say that is all associated with the abuse of alcohol.
Where are we going as a society? Are we saying: ‘Let us put all these ‘fix-it’ things here. Let us look at these things that will remove people after they are in a state of intoxication’, instead of asking: ‘What are we going to do to stop people getting into this state of affairs in the first place?’ That is not easy; there is no doubt about that. Ask anybody who goes to AA how hard it is to pull themselves out of the mire of alcohol. I do not believe we are making a clear, continuous public statement to people that alcohol, when abused, causes our society major problems.
This antisocial behaviour initiative is mainly aimed at indigenous people. Why aren’t we saying the same thing to non-indigenous people? If I was an indigenous person and I saw a normal party in Darwin that gets a bit out of hand about midnight or something, I would say: ‘Oh well, that is the way it is done’. That is the example we give to indigenous people. I always think of the advertisement on television, I think, for XXXX when a guy would open up the back of his ute and you would see an entire ute full of grog. Well, the message is that that is a great thing to do, drink it all, it is fantastic. We might laugh about it; we might think that it is pretty funny. It probably was a funny advertisement. What is the message it sends to other people, especially indigenous people who may not see the subtlety in what is being said? They may presume the idea is we all drink a lot of grog. That it is the norm.
It is excessive drinking that is causing the problems that we are trying to fix today. I do not think you can get around that. Where are the initiatives to change our habits in relation to the use of alcohol? Is it such an in-thing in our society, is it such a ‘you have to drink otherwise you are not cool’ type of mentality that we have today, that we are scared to move in that direction? We will spend millions of dollars trying to patch up the problems, but what would we spend on early intervention? There are other programs where people will tell you that, if you spend a million dollars on early intervention, you will save yourself $15m down the track. Here we have a classic example where we are going to spend $15m down the track but what are we spending up-front to try to change behaviour? That is a matter that concerns me.
I am also concerned that this broad-brush name ‘antisocial’ is a bit too narrow. I am saying the word is broad, but this initiative is actually fairly narrow in its use. I have antisocial behaviour in my electorate and it is not indigenous people. I can tell you that. These are people with fast cars, plenty of money to burn, and they burn it on rubber and we call them hoons. You probably have them in some of your suburbs. I have had major problems with hoons, especially out in the Howard River Park area and other parts of the rural area. We have continually tried to get something done about it. The police work as best they can. I have even asked the government to look at some sort of CCTV set-up to put on the roads that are the main target of these hoons. I have not got anywhere. In fact, with a couple of constituents, we were looking at buying a camera from Dick Smith’s and setting it up opposite some of these roads. We were told because of the quality of the video we would probably not get evidence from those cameras that would hold up in court. When we went to the police they said they did not have enough money for that. Then I see umpteen million dollars spent on the introduction of closed circuit television cameras and I wonder why we cannot get some to stop antisocial behaviour in our area.
Is this really going to be a plan that the government is going to act on? Again, I relate to the hoon issue. I asked the minister for roads and infrastructure last year whether she would change the legislation that we commonly call ‘hooning’ legislation, so that the first offence by someone caught hooning was the confiscation of their car. The reason for that is if there is a problem in a neighbourhood with people doing burn-outs, donuts and generally being antisocial, if you remove the car, you remove the problem. The government said it does not want to be that harsh: ‘The first offence will be a yellow ticket, a warning’, so that is what they did. Then I asked the minister, if that is not working would she introduce a change. The minister said: ‘I will send it off to the Road Safety Council committee and they can report’. That, I think, was at least 12 months ago. It is not big issue. It does not require a big change in legislation, yet I have heard nothing from the government.
Later on during the year, I asked: ‘What is happening?’ I said we are waiting for this report and the minister gave me the answer: ‘We have demerit points now’. Demerit points do not change anything. Demerit points do not remove the problem. Here is the chance for the government to show a bit of initiative like the Western Australian government is showing at the moment. It has major hoon problems in Perth. My daughter used to live there for a couple of years. There were always problems with antisocial behaviour by people hooning around the country. Mr Carpenter, the Premier of Western Australia, recently announced that he was going to introduce tougher hoon legislation where cars will be confiscated for a week. I am not saying that. I am saying just a weekend – 48 hours.
We do not appear to be fair dinkum when it comes to antisocial behaviour. Antisocial behaviour is not just about indigenous issues. It is about a lot of other behaviour. Behaviour of hoons on the road is an extremely serious issue because people are killed and injured. That has happened in the rural area recently and in times gone past. We really need to be attacking that.
There is the issue about youth camps. I appreciate the government has introduced the idea recently in parliament but it seemed to be an awful long time coming. It had to wait for a by-election - the by-election for Greatorex - before it would look at youth camps. The Labor candidate in Alice Springs for that by-election suggested that is what we needed. All of a sudden, the government decided, ‘That is a good idea. We will support that’. I have spoken about similar things time and time again, long before the Greatorex by-election. It was like words floating in the air when it came to any action about it. I appreciate that the government is now starting to look at it.
The member for Katherine mentioned farms for people going through rehabilitation. There are going to be people who are able to try to change their lives around. Many of those people are the people you will see at AA meetings. There will be people who have enough strength to do it on their own and change their lives, but there are some people who are past the point of no return. They simply do not have the capability of overcoming problems with alcohol and they need some forcible assistance, if you can put it that way. There is a need for some low-security places out in the areas in the bush where these people can dry out, where they can receive medical attention, where they have a chance to do some basic literacy and numeracy, where they can have time to, hopefully, recover. They may have work there: woodwork, metalwork. They may have some gardens they can work in, whatever. We need to look at alternatives. We can have detox units. They are good. We can have all those sorts of things.
It is interesting that the Salvation Army is looking at putting a 50-bed hostel at Knuckeys Lagoon. I believe the application for that siting comes up this Friday. From what I have seen of it, it appears to be a very good facility. It has to go through some planning stages. Sometimes when people see rehabilitation centres, they get a bit concerned. The Salvation Army does a professional job and they will run a very professional facility when it is built.
They are good things but there is also a need for those people who are well past it, who have probably been through the revolving door time after time after time, to be forcibly taken out to a place where they have to stay. They simply have to stay for the benefit of themselves and the benefit of the rest of us. We do not want these people always back in town, humbugging, putting their own lives at risk crossing roads at night drunk, putting other peoples’ lives at risk. We need to do some positive things about those people. It is not easy. Sheila Millar at Dillinya – there is a person who knows how to do it. She is a tough lady and she uses what you would call ‘tough love’. She works hard to help those people. She will tell you that as she fixes up one group of people, another batch comes in. Unless we stop that continual supply of people who have alcohol problems, unless we start to intervene at an early stage, we will need a lot more Sheila Millars.
I am interested if the minister could give me some statistics about the success of the Return to Home program. If this is successful, then, in theory, we should be seeing a drop in the numbers of people returning. These may be new people; they may be the same people. Statistics would have to show whether we are getting the same people coming back from these communities, or whether they are new people who have come back because of, as the member for Millner said, the intervention process. I do not know. However, to realistically look at whether the program is working, you would need some detailed statistics to be analysed to see if that was the case.
I am not sure what the Harmony Program does now. It did have an office at the Knuckey Lagoon community. On my recent trips there I did not see any sign of it operating any more. I do not know what has happened to it but, if it is happening, it is happening very quietly - or it has been abandoned altogether. I am interested to know whether the Harmony office at Knuckey Lagoon still exists.
In talking about the establishment of First Response Patrol, do we have the funds and the numbers of police to do that? That is extra police, I would imagine, if you have a First Response Patrol. A dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line, I presume, that is a 24-hour reporting line. I gather that the people who already work our police lines are overworked, so you need more people to run an antisocial behaviour reporting line. Will that antisocial behaviour reporting line be applicable to the hoons? If I ring up and say there is a bunch of hoons ripping up the road at the front, driving all over the place, will that antisocial behaviour reporting apply to them, or is it just simply for drunks and people humbugging in Darwin and Palmerston? We need to know whether it is for a dedicated area or not.
All these things might sound great. As I have said many times before, you can introduce all these things but if I ask the minister to come back in 12 months time and tell us if there has been any change, that is the only way we are going to see whether this program works. We have had programs; we have had many things. The Leader of the Opposition listed a whole range of programs that government has put forward over the last six to seven years. It would be good to see a report from the government – a no-holds-barred, honest report - as to whether those programs have made any difference. Before we start putting new programs into place, we should look at the programs we already have, assess them, see whether they have been a success or failure and, then, if we can learn from that, introduce either improved programs or get rid of those old programs altogether.
I am interested to see what happens in the future, Madam Speaker. It is important, but I will wait and see.
Ms ANDERSON (Macdonnell): Madam Speaker, I support the Chief Minister’s statement. I will not go over everything that my colleagues have spoken about this evening, but touch on a few points that were in the statement.
As Territorians, we all deserve to be safe, and our children need to be safe. I know in Alice Springs that young children go to the cinema and my own child often goes to the cinema with his friends. Unfortunately, there is a huge amount of antisocial behaviour at the front of the cinema.
The Chief Minister, and this government, has heard the cry of all Territorians and introduced this statement which is addressing the cries: ‘Help us with the antisocial behaviour that we see on our streets’. It is not just in Alice Springs but Darwin, Katherine and Tennant Creek. Madam Speaker herself, when we were dining out in Alice Springs, saw antisocial behaviour in the mall where people, dining out with friends and colleagues, were interrupted by people coming up and taking food off the tables. It is a real intrusion into people’s lives. As Territorians, whether we are black or white, we deserve to have our rights respected, to dine with our husbands or fiances or friends, without being interrupted by drunken people.
It is a huge step that the Chief Minister and this government has taken in putting together a package that does not just attack people, but has a look, overall, at all the problems of Aboriginal people. This government has put together a good package. That it looks at shelters for the long-grassers, or the itinerants, in Alice Springs shows that they are concerned about people’s wellbeing. When they have a package that includes people being picked up and taken to shelters, it shows that this government is concerned about people’s wellbeing, because when people are crossing streets, there are often accidents, and people get killed in these accidents.
I believe that the focus and emphasis that the Chief Minister and this government has put together in this package really shows to Territorians that we are concerned about all Territorians, and that it is a Territory for all Territorians.
We should feel pleased, with our children and our families, to occupy public space, have barbecues, and not be threatened, and be free to walk down the mall in Darwin and in Alice Springs without being humbugged for money and cigarettes. It is a huge crisis.
I congratulate the Chief Minister for bringing this statement to this House. It is a good package and has a good focus. We have identified all the problems related to antisocial behaviour. Probably we in this House know better than others that alcohol is the key factor in all antisocial behaviour. It is the key factor in family dysfunction, in child abuse, in many dysfunctions that we see with children not going to school because they have been kept up all night by drunken relatives or a drunken mum and dad.
From a remote electorate point of view, this is a wonderful package. I put my appreciation on record to the Chief Minister, and especially to the government, for having a look at all aspects of antisocial behaviour. We know it is disturbing, and we need to encourage our people to go home. The government has built people houses, beautiful houses, worth $300 000, $400 000, $500 000 and $600 000. We need to ask the question: why are they all in our hub towns? Why do they have so much dysfunction? We need to encourage these people to go home. I believe the step that this government has taken is a wonderful step. I commend the statement to the House.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, I am staggered that the Chief Minister put out this statement today after all that went on last week. We debated the antisocial issues last week. We had this huge debate on who was going to represent Central Australia in this parliament because our Minister for Central Australia had stepped down. And what do we find? We get this statement that is all about Darwin and Palmerston. Yes, it might be a great package, but you had to go into the fine detail to find anything about Alice Springs. This is a politically idiotic thing to do. I do not know who the advisor was who said: ‘Minister, make this statement today,’ when he has had all that flack about Central Australia. It is obviously targeting Darwin and Palmerston. Yes, it is a good package. I am sure Darwin and Palmerston will be fine. But why do it? Is it, hit me, hit me, please? My phone started ringing as soon as it hit the headlines. People are saying: ‘Hey! What’s going on? Not only do we have a guy from Daly or somewhere who is our minister for Central Australia, but the Chief Minister has now announced all these goodies for Darwin and Palmerston. What about me?’
That is the message the government is sending out there with that statement and this press release which says quite blatantly: ‘… has announced the most comprehensive package of measures ever developed to tackle antisocial behaviour around Darwin and Palmerston’.
Excuse me? The Territory is not just Darwin and Palmerston. There are other people who live in the Territory. What about Katherine or Tennant Creek or Alice Springs or Yulara? What about your remote communities? I could not believe that anyone could be so crazy to come out with a statement that is so biased towards Darwin and Palmerston after what happened in this House last week. I do not know whether the new Chief Minister is getting a bit thick in the head or something - I should not say that. I take that back - is getting a little misled. I thought it was a pretty crazy time to be delivering a package like this.
There are good things in there. One of the things I want to talk about is the ‘establishment of a First Response Patrol’. Is this like the task force in Alice Springs that suddenly comes down and tries to sort us out? What is it exactly? I am not quite sure. You talk about short-term accommodation and I give the previous Minister for Housing credit. The short-term accommodation at Stuart Lodge in Alice Springs is working well.
He talks about prisoners going back to communities. I have told the story before about how many of our prisoners work in the community before they are released. One had a job all lined up, was put into the Salvation Army Hostel, his mates arrived and he never got to the job. It is really important we look after our prisoners, that we provide a halfway house or we make sure they get home. That is a good initiative. We talk about more police in Alice Springs. We keep being told that we have more police there. We were promised horse patrols; I think they are doing them once a week now. They would be really good up and down the river. We have restrictions, restrictions, restrictions. I believe government is trying to say: ‘We are trying to show this package to address all these things’. I still ask: where is the preventative stuff? Where are the programs to stop this stuff?
I also say to all the ministers in this parliament: you pass laws. What do you do then? How do you get the message out to the people in communities and regional centres that there has been a new law passed? Do you just put out a media release and hope like heck the media tells everyone? Or do you do what you should? Do you provide some education? Do you get on the airwaves? Do you send out videos? Do you send the message through advertisements? I do not think I have seen any advertisement about the dry town for Alice Springs or an ID card coming up. How are we supposed to know this? How do people out there know?
Many of our people are illiterate. They cannot read a newspaper, not that they would probably bother to. Who is telling them what the new laws are? Who is telling them that you cannot come into Alice Springs, buy a carton of grog and sit under a tree? Who is telling them you cannot do that in Darwin anymore? It is fine to pass laws. It is fine to talk about it in here and get on the different media outlets and talk about it, but, if you do not tell the people out there what the laws are, how do they know? That is why you end up with a situation where people come in, break the law and get into a terrible cycle of alcohol abuse or what have you.
I say to all the ministers here: think about it. If you pass a law that is going to impact upon the lives of the people of the Territory, how are they going to know about it? How are you going to reach the people who are illiterate? How are you going to reach the people who never see a newspaper? How are you going to reach the people who never bother to watch the news? Politicians may be addicted to watching news but there many people out there who are not. They would rather watch the footie. This is one of the faults we have. Perhaps this is why many of the laws we have introduced or are introducing are not working, because we are just not getting the message across.
We heard the Chief Minister say: ‘We are going to tell everyone about the history of the Bombing of Darwin’. Fine, that is great. In your school curriculum we used to have something called law and order, or social studies or something similar. Do we tell schools to make sure people know what our laws are? What is right and wrong? What is respect? What are people’s properties? No. Let’s make sure our education curriculum also passes on the messages to our kids because they are the next generation coming up.
It concerns me that we are putting in all this package of measures to address antisocial problems but we have not taught the people about the laws we have introduced that they are now breaking. If they are breaking them through ignorance, then that is our fault. It is not necessarily their fault because we need to get that message out.
In Question Time today, I asked about the night patrol and Tangentyere which are currently funded by the federal government. The night patrol is good but, if you have only one car, you really cannot address the problem. If one car is attending a DV and another call comes in, by the time they have sorted out that problem with the DV, it is too late. But if you have cars to go to a hot spot straightaway and assist those people, whether it is to go to the sobering-up shelter, to go home, to go to relatives or short-term accommodation, go to hospital, whatever, then that is good. That stops the next step. But you really need to make sure we have those vehicles.
I know you are introducing the night patrol again in Darwin. I thought it was a disaster when they took it away. We should be saying to other places in the Territory that night patrols are good. They really are and we really need that extra funding in Alice Springs to have two cars on the road, not just one. It is not a lot of money, either. If you gave them an additional $200 000 a year they would have a good service. They would have the staff required and they could do it well.
The day patrol is funded by the NT government and people are pretty happy with that. I have this nice shady spot outside my office where I often get drinkers. I walk out and say: ‘Hey, you are not allowed to drink here’. They move on but, now and again, someone is a bit inebriated or collapses and I call the day patrol. They pick the person up and take them to the best place for them to be at that time. The day patrol has two cars, split shifts and operates five days a week. That funding has been fairly firm for a few years.
The Return to Country that you have up here has restarted in Alice Springs. It is a good program. I can only encourage the government to continue funding that. The problem we have in Alice Springs is that we only have one ‘troopie’ to address the problem of taking people back home. The ‘bush bus’ is there. They have been given more money to operate and get people home but the buses travel thousands and thousands of kilometres on fairly rough roads. They are not going to last forever. Additional funding to keep the buses running is a necessity. It is not a luxury and it is something that should be happening.
I hope the minister is funding the youth patrol. The youth patrol needs to work late in the night. Of course, when you ask people to work later in the night, you increase the wages, the salaries and the overtime rates for them. It puts the cost up but, again, it is not a lot of money. The youth patrol needs to work later in the night because that is when many of the problems occur.
I agree that there are many programs we need to fix some of the antisocial behaviour we have around the place but I do not think it is the only thing we should be doing. It would be better to have preventative measures. It would be better that people did not have to come into town to have a drink or whatever. No one minds them coming into town and shopping or going to hospital and then going home, but some of them get stuck, as we all know. How many of them have life on their community that is active? We have heard of some of the good communities in the Top End and the activities they are doing, which is great.
Often, there are programs happening in the Centre, and one was a voluntary youth program that went to Kintore. It was young people from south who operated it. They have lost their funding. It is a shame that some of those programs cannot continue. It is a bit like the school holiday period. I am interested to hear how many school holiday programs this government funds out in the bush? As I say, we need a real debate on education to find that out because if we do not make life busy, active, then we look for mischief; it is as simple as that.
It is an interesting statement. I am not sure why the government would issue it this week. Obviously, they are going to get knocked by the members of the opposition and the Independents about what happens to the other regions and the Centre. It is heavily biased towards Darwin and Palmerston. Obviously, there is a reason for it and only government, I suppose, knows that. To me, it was crazy that it should come out at this time. Why do you want to do that when you know that you are going to get knocked and bagged? You had all that debate about the Minister for Central Australia last week. I am interested to see whether the new Minister for Central Australia responds to this and, in his response, if he talks about the Centre or will he again speak only of the Top End?
Madam Deputy Speaker, it is interesting times. Let us hope the government does what it says it is going to do for Darwin and Palmerston. However, most of all, let us hope the government also thinks bigger and wider and deeper, and thinks about what it is going to do for the rest of the Territory.
Mr KIELY (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Deputy Speaker, before I talk about the minister’s statement on antisocial behaviour, I would like to pick up on a couple of points made by the member for Braitling. I can understand her passion for the Centre. It is a passion that all of us share. We are all Territorians and we all want to see the Territory prosper and for all of us to live in a degree of safety that we rightly deserve.
The Chief Minister has stated first-up - and the Attorney-General - that the alcohol, antisocial, and crime strategies are not about a one-size-fits-all. It is about looking at what fits particular regions. This is where this particular package fits in well with that philosophy.
I noticed that while the member for Braitling was critical, saying this was all Palmerston and Darwin, and what about the Centre, she then went on to name a whole range of initiatives in Alice Springs that we are undertaking. She did not say there are initiatives in Darwin or anything like that. She rolled out a whole raft of programs operating in Alice Springs. She brought out many good points, saying: ‘This one could do with more funding’, or ‘We have horse patrols, but we have only them once, and maybe we need to have them a couple of times’. They are all there. There is a range of issues there; there are youth initiatives, all sorts of things going on in Alice Springs.
I also remind the member for Braitling that, earlier today, in Question Time when asked about what is happening in Alice Springs, the Deputy Chief Minister mentioned that something like $8m goes into different programs in Alice Springs alone. I understand her passion and I commend the member for Braitling for saying: ‘What about Alice?’ It gets back to the one-size-fits-all philosophy. We recognise that. We are looking at it. We have done a huge amount of work in Alice Springs. We recognise that there is still a lot more to be done. We are working through it with a range of strategies.
We are looking to improve the lifestyle of all Territorians, not just ones here and ones there. We are looking at Territorians in Alice Springs, Ti Tree, Tennant Creek, Katherine, all the way up the track, Pine Creek, Elliott; the whole lot, and out in the bush. So it is there. It is there for all of us. Really, it is a matter of not saying: ‘What about me?’ We should be hearing a bit of cheering: ‘This is great, this is wonderful’.
Regarding the intervention and dry town legislation, I do not entirely agree with the road trip that the member for Katherine took us on. It was an interesting thought that it started in Port Augusta and it has rolled its way up here, like some sort of cane toad invasion. I do not quite agree with that. I believe that influx is very much down to the intervention. There is the matter of the Wet Season being here, and we do, at this time of year, have an influx of countrymen from the bush. We always have and we always will. But, what is different about this time? It is the intervention. Overlay that on everything else and this is what you get.
So, it is a range of factors. It is an age old problem that we have. It is getting worse. We recognise that. The Opposition Leader came out with a range of programs that we have undertaken since 2002. Surely that demonstrates that this is a government prepared to have a look at the issue, prepared to be innovative and look at new programs, to come to grips with the problems of society as they evolve. That is not a shameful thing to do. That is not a terrible thing to be acknowledging. We acknowledge that the Harmony project started off well; it has now run its race. We now have to look to other programs on top of that. That is what this is doing.
This is the most comprehensive package of measures ever developed to tackle antisocial behaviour around Darwin and Palmerston. You only have to walk around the city and the northern suburbs to see that antisocial behaviour is a major problem that requires urgent attention. Antisocial behaviour is totally unacceptable. I hear that directly from my constituents, as I am sure do most other members of this House.
Territorians should not have to tolerate antisocial behaviour as they go about their daily lives. All Territorians deserve to feel safe and happy. This government is committed to tackling the problem, and helping those who cause the problem. We have seven platforms to this program here. The first is a First Response Patrol. The member for Braitling asked what does a First Response Patrol do. How do you inform people that you are making these laws which will affect them? How does this happen? It is all part of the First Response Patrols. The First Response Patrol, staffed by police and officers from the Department of Justice, will be established to monitor and assess antisocial behaviour hot spots. First Response Patrol officers will notify relevant agencies, such as the police, Larrakia Nation, Mission Australia or the Health Department, and coordinate responses, including police involvement, transportation to medical treatment and accommodation. We are allocating $2.2m over three years to establish and run these patrols, and the government will also work cooperatively with the Darwin and Palmerston City Councils in delivering the patrols.
These First Response Patrols are not hit squads. They are not going out there monstering and stomping people, roughing them up and taking sticks to them in the night, or people wearing balaclavas. These are trained officers who will go out, talk to these people in the long grass, find out what their needs are, and, if they are pie-eyed, pickled and causing strife, get the police there. If it is a bunch of people who are on the way to getting pie-eyed and pickled, who reckon that Darwin is a bit of a party town, a bit of Bali on the mainland, who come from the bush and think: ‘You beauty! I’m in the party town. I can crack a tinnie here!’ While one or two might be tolerated and acceptable, if it gets to three or four, five or six, up to 10, and people starting to get antisocial, then that is when it will come. The first stage will have them being contacted. They will have a relationship established with these First Patrol Officers who will be able to assess the situation, who will be able to advise these people and say: ‘Drinking in this park here is a crime. You had best stop it’. We know that countrymen love sitting around and having a chatter, and they love having a loud chatter, to be more precise. There is nothing wrong with that. It is the way they communicate and get the message across. It is only when grog sneaks in the way it does, that you get all those other associated issues, and it becomes a problem. The First Response Patrol will be able to sort that out.
As far as communication goes, I expect there will be advice and communication going out to the communities, particularly the ones that see Darwin as their service point. Most certainly the land councils will be advised of this. We have a very active and informed network of representatives out on communities who will be giving advice about this. I am comfortable that the information the member for Braitling says is required to go out there - the different forms of communication not to be relied on such as the radio, the television - will be avoided and the people be informed pretty well directly. I am confident that will occur. I am hopeful that will put aside the very relevant and accurate concerns the member for Braitling has.
We will also have a dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line which will be established for members of the public to report antisocial behaviour. Coordinated by police, information recorded will be fed to the Northern Territory Police, the First Response Patrol or community patrols as appropriate sponsors. Many of us - I will not say all of us - have dialled 131 444 when we have seen antisocial behaviour in our constituency. We are aware that if there are other more urgent jobs the police will prioritise these reports. On the greater scale of things, the noise that people might be making in a park with one or two extra cans - if it has not escalated into mayhem – will go down the line of response times. We understand that. It will be fantastic to have a dedicated service that we know will be responded to, by the First Response Patrol. That will go a long way to making people feel comforted when they have a party of 10 or 12 drinkers partying next door to them that it will be looked at, it will be addressed pretty quickly. That is a marvellous initiative.
The Darwin area night patrol will be re-introduced and operated by a non-government agency with $1.4m funding over three years from government. The federal intervention has seen an increase in the number of itinerants in Darwin and the night patrol will work with police by responding to reports of drunks and non-violent antisocial behaviour in public places.
I am happy to see the return of the night patrol. As one of our strategies we had a look at the night patrols. They were becoming ineffective because they did not have the powers of arrest, and the liaison between the night patrol and police was not what it should have been. We said that we will try to slip those responsibilities over to the police in the form of giving them the resources and money which would enable them to bring on community patrol officers. We have seen over time that, while they have been effective in some areas because of the priorities of the police, they have not been as effective as what we have wanted, particularly when you bring in this intervention-type influx that we have seen. There has been a need to beef up the resources, not necessarily beef up the police, using sworn officers, which cost a lot of money to train. No matter what you do, if you have a sworn officer there, then you can bet they will be dragged off to other business in the end because that is just the nature of the police service. If you have a sworn officer, they will be shuffled off to other crime spots. It is great to see the night patrol back. It will be of great benefit to Palmerston and Darwin.
As I understand it, Alice Springs does have a night patrol …
Mrs Braham: Not funded by this government.
Mr KIELY: I am not talking about the funding of it, but they do have a night patrol.
Mrs Braham: They have one car.
Mr KIELY: Yes, and that is one more car than what Darwin has. ‘What about me? Why haven’t I got a night patrol?’ Well, I am glad to say that Darwin is finally going to catch up with Alice Springs which has been streets ahead of us with this initiative. So, we are taking a leaf out of Alice Springs book, member for Braitling, thank you.
Closed circuit television cameras will be installed around the Casuarina shopping precinct and Darwin CBD. Darwin residents should be able to move around the city centre and the largest retail precinct without being humbugged or harassed. The government will work closely with the police. Traders and other stakeholders will determine the best way to install and operate the cameras. The Henderson government has committed $3.125m over three years to install and operate the camera network and work with the Rudd government and the Darwin City Council on delivering the project. It is fantastic to have CCTV in the city and at the Casuarina shopping precinct. That is the whole precinct, not just Casuarina Square. It is not meant to pick up little shoplifters or anything of that nature. These cameras will be at the Casuarina shopping complex at Casuarina Square and pick up any antisocial behaviour.
They will be in town. It is going to be really good because it has been put in there to help with this influx. There is going to be a side benefit with coverage of Mitchell Street. There is a big win there if we can curtail the amount of antisocial behaviour in town and Casuarina through these cameras. That is going to free up more police for the suburbs. It is a win all the way around. I am really looking forward to them providing some great results and for a good rationalisation of our resources.
We are looking at an increase in short-term accommodation services which will be provided in Darwin as a result of the $2.77m funding commitment boosting their numbers by 127. $2.7m will be allocated to the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre to upgrade and expand short-term accommodation facilities at Boulter Road; providing an additional 112 beds, a further three dwellings on Boulter Road will be upgraded providing another 15 short-term accommodation beds. It is a great facility run by the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre. They do a wonderful job. It is great to see those beds in there. I have heard criticism from the opposition benches about how we have all these problems, what are we are going to do, and we need all these back up services. Well, we have these bed numbers on Boulter Road, easily accessible for night patrols to get the people to. It is a great initiative. That will be a great support to the whole strategy.
It also gets back to the bit about how we are not monstering and stomping drunks out of the city or Casuarina into the suburbs. What we are doing is managing the situation and getting it so that we address it and can get them back to country. That is what it is all about. It is not about hiding it. I remember in the Stone years when the monstering and stomping did go on, how I had drunks in the school yards in Malak and Wulagi. That is what happened. That is what monstering and stomping does. That won’t happen with this program. That is the great thing about this. We will be able to work with these people and work so that they understand that they will need to return to country.
The Return to Home program has been boosted now by just short of $1m to Larrakia Nation over three years for assistance in establishing and operating an information and referrals office in Palmerston supporting our existing services in Darwin. Services which are doing a fantastic job but, because of the influx in numbers due to the intervention, they do not have the capacity. We are looking to build that capacity. The information and referrals office provides indigenous people who are living in, or visiting, Darwin proof of identification, access to Centrelink, support to return home, and referrals such as accommodation. It is a great package.
We are talking about new levels of cooperation between all government and non-government agencies. The Tasking Coordination Group led by police has been established to link agencies including Centrelink, Health, councils and Larrakia Nation providing more effective response to tackling antisocial behaviour. This package supports our alcohol policy initiatives.
There is no quick fix to antisocial behaviour. We have been at it now for six and a bit years. We are rolling along and improving it as we come along. We are standing up and acknowledging when things do not work. But we are not walking away from it. We are looking at other platforms to address the problem in different, more meaningful ways.
The member for Macdonnell said that there are issues in the communities which we have to address. We are looking at those programs as well. We are working in there. We are working at the stumps, we are going all the way through, all the way down the pitch to try to address this problem. It is not one-shot-in-the-locker; there is no silver bullet.
It is a bit disheartening when you hear the opposition launch themselves into this without any real thought about what it means and how it does build on everything. It is a negativism that we have come to expect. The opposition thrives on antisocial behaviour; they just think: ‘This is great; this will give us a chance to get re-elected because we will be able to say look at how terrible it is - look at all the drunks in the street’. They should be coming on board and saying: ‘What can we do to assist you? How can we advertise these services from our electorate offices?’ They do not do that - not at all. It is much to their everlasting shame that they will not promote government projects. They will not say: ‘The government has this happening. Why don’t you contact them to try to get on the program?’
The Leader of the Opposition goes to town about ‘Work with me; I want to work with you. Let us work in harmony, and let us get together for the betterment of the Territory’ – mealy-mouth words coming from him. They do not mean a cracker! He has bagged this. If he was dinkum about trying to solve the problem, he would get behind it. He would have all this information sitting on the counter in the front of his office, and be distributing it through the letterboxes of his electorate. How many times do you think the Leader of the Opposition would put out any information about any government initiatives? How much information do you think he has on government programs in his office? How much? Any takers? Zero! How dinkum is he? He is about as dinkum as the amount of information he has on these programs – zero.
Mr HAMPTON (Stuart): Madam Deputy Speaker, I support the Chief Minister’s statement on antisocial behaviour and the package outlined by the Chief Minister today. It is a package of initiatives that all people living in Darwin and Palmerston will welcome. We should call on all members living in Darwin and Palmerston to support it. It is too important an issue not to support. To bag it is easy, but to get out there, support it, come back to government and give us some constructive ideas on how we can improve the package is another thing.
It is also good, members for Braitling and Macdonnell, to see Central Australia has a strong group of representatives in parliament as well. Most speakers have outlined how there are quite a number of initiatives in the Centre. There is nothing wrong with us talking about the initiatives for Darwin and Palmerston. It is a different region to Central Australia so there are a number of different initiatives required for the issues that people here face. They may have different circumstances to us in the Centre. Therefore, there is no problem at all for our Chief Minister to say this is a raft of packages that people in Darwin and Palmerston need. They are part of the Territory, so there are no problems at all with us talking about it. We are all Territorians; we all have to work together. We are all tackling the same issues.
I will get back to Central Australia in a minute. During my contribution to the Territory Infrastructure for the Future statement on Thursday, I stated that bricks and mortar were very important but, equally important was the investment and social development of our people. The member for Sanderson commented that one size does not fit all; we need a region-by-region approach to tackle antisocial behaviour.
My belief is that this package announced by the Chief Minister today clearly demonstrates how this government is going to invest and bring along those Territorians who, unfortunately, have become involved in antisocial behaviour, or in the early stages of the justice system.
The opposition’s spin about government reinventing or re-announcing antisocial behaviour policy is just that - spin. The fact that this government has brought forward this package on antisocial behaviour as a major priority for our community, and continues towards working these initiatives, does not mean that it is bad government. The problem is so complex that it is important for government to continuously review where things are at in their community.
The intervention into the Northern Territory by the previous federal government is just one example of why it is important to sit down, slow down, review or evaluate what are our government directions in areas of policy.
As the Chief Minister has stated, this problem of antisocial behaviour is not new. It has been around the urban and regional centres of the Northern Territory for many years. It is also a problem that other centres, such as St Kilda in Melbourne and Glenelg in Adelaide have had to deal with. Governments have had to enact legislation for dry areas to manage the problems in those cities.
Certainly, I hear what my colleagues have said today, that the former federal government’s intervention has had a significant impact on this type of antisocial behaviour in the northern suburbs of Darwin or in Palmerston. When you are going through the comprehensive plan - the establishment of a First Response Patrol, a dedicated antisocial behaviour reporting line, the re-introduction of the Darwin area night patrol, the CCTV cameras in the CBD of Darwin and Casuarina, increased short-term accommodation and a boost to the Return to Home Program - out of all of those initiatives there is one in particular I would like to talk about briefly and that is the night patrols.
I acknowledge that many remote communities in Central Australia and in my electorate have had to deal with antisocial behaviour for many years. In many cases, they have probably led the way in self-policing initiatives that have evolved over the years. The night patrol is one such initiative that grew out of communities like Yuendumu, and organisations like the Julalikari Council in Tennant Creek during the early 1990s in response to antisocial behaviour, family violence, alcohol abuse and petrol sniffing.
A particular case in point is the Yuendumu women’s night patrol established by the women to combat the drinking and petrol sniffing problems in their community. These women worked on a voluntary basis and, on most occasions, patrolled the community on foot up until recent times. Today, we still see some people having to patrol their communities on foot. So, in terms of the member for Braitling’s comments, certainly a second vehicle would be most welcome. We must not forget that, in the early days, the night patrols were done by people themselves out of their own will and desire to deal with the problems that they had to face and they often patrolled their communities on foot.
In relation to the Julalikari Council, I believe the member for Braitling may have been involved in the organisation back in the early days. The Julalikari model was recommended by the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody to be considered for use in other communities as a way of improving Aboriginal and police relations, achieving substantially lower crime rates.
The other initiative worth mentioning is the Community Law and Justice Committees that, in the early days, through Ali Curung, in the electorate of Barkly, led the way as an alternative model for law and justice. The Ali Curung law and justice group and the Kurduju model in the Warlpiri region are models that are inclusive. They bring in the elders. They respect them and give them the opportunity to become involved and engaged in dealing with contemporary law and order issues. Community empowerment and control to deal with the problems has worked to some degree, as the previous two examples demonstrate. I know that many people in the bush expect the same level of law and order, or policing, as the major centres in Darwin and Alice Springs today.
There was another comment by the member for Braitling in regard to communication. I agree with her. It is important that any policy or package that governments put out needs to be communicated in people’s first language. I consider that was one of the strengths of the law and justice committee model, as well as the night patrol models at Yuendumu and Julalikari. These were run by the people. Local people were out there on the ground; multilingual people who could speak the language and communicate what they were trying to do to the people they were helping. I support that comment, and a way of demonstrating that need is by looking at those two examples: Julalikari and the Yuendumu Women’s Night Patrol.
In terms of the intervention, there is one area that I strongly support, and that is extra police resources, and police stations at places like Utopia, Willowra and Nyirripi. These police resources and stations have made significant improvements in the law and order of those communities. In the early days, the night patrols and the law and justice committees played an important role but, in today’s world, people in the bush expect to have the same level of policing as we enjoy in Alice Springs or in Darwin.
I firmly believe that we need to continue to support, fund and resource our remote area night patrols. I will be monitoring how the new shire arrangements that are coming into place will provide that continued support and resources, particularly to those patrols in my electorate.
The other thing I would like to raise and put on the public record is that, with the remote area night patrols and elders on our communities, we need to work on the relationship with police on the ground. We know there are many federal police officers coming in and cultural awareness workshops with the elders, the communities and the new police coming in would be worth pursuing.
The relevance of me mentioning the night patrols and the law and justice committees is that it is important to acknowledge that Central Australia has led the way - particularly those people in the bush - for the rest of the Territory in terms of law and order and social behaviour initiatives. I acknowledge all those old people, particularly those who in the early days founded and worked on those night patrols on a voluntary basis. We can put a lot of money into this initiative, but unless there is the will and unless you have a strong volunteer base support backing it up, then we could be here in another 10 years talking about the same issues. I acknowledge those people as well.
Regarding Alice Springs, I join with the member for Macdonnell, and the member for Barkly, Elliot McAdam in acknowledging that we probably have firsthand experience of antisocial behaviour. Antisocial behaviour encompasses a whole range of different behaviours. One we can all relate to is being humbugged by family, being humbugged by people who know us in the electorates in Alice Springs or in Tennant Creek, whether it is for food, or for money. That is one aspect that has impacted on all members from Central Australia.
Alice Springs is a great place to live. It is my home town. I have grown my family up there, my young family. Everyone, whether you are living in Sadadeen or at a town camp, wants to enjoy living in such a great place. You also want to have a safe and harmonious community. I commend this government’s initiatives in moving Alice Springs ahead. This government has been fairly courageous in tackling the social issues. We have demonstrated to the Territory community, particularly to Alice Springs, that we are not going to walk away from antisocial behaviour, in particular from the alcohol-related issues that we face in Alice Springs.
The alcohol task force is a key area of this government’s Moving Alice Springs Ahead policy. There have been a number of initiatives from that group. The task force is made up of people who live in Alice Springs and have a lot of experience and a genuine desire to improve things in Alice Springs.
I want to go through some of the initiatives in Alice Springs that this government has been able to deliver. In terms of the police, there is the Social Order Task Force which is making better use of intelligence information and targeting hot spots to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour throughout Alice Springs. There is also the mounted police, that the member for Braitling touched on. Also, if you are walking around Alice Springs, you see police on motor bikes patrolling the Todd River and even on push bikes patrolling the streets. So, this government has put a lot of effort and resources into the police patrolling in Alice Springs. I believe the mounted police unit costs something like $500 000 per annum.
Another point that the Chief Minister touched on was short-term accommodation. I acknowledge the efforts of the previous Minister for Housing in this regard. There has been some great work done in Alice Springs with short-term accommodation. One example is the Stuart Lodge complex in Alice Springs to allow for families, particularly women, coming in from communities, to access health services. Often renal patients coming in bring extra family members with them. The extra bedrooms put into Lindsay Avenue at the old Topsy Smith Hostel and also the Yipirinya Hostel will certainly go a long way in supporting short-term accommodation. We have also provided an additional $600 000 to increase bus services to help people return to their communities once their business in Alice Springs is done.
We have touched on the night patrols for Tangentyere Council. A lot of money has gone into those with the youth patrol, the night patrol and the day patrol. Yes, a lot of money gone into that area. During Question Time, the member for Sanderson raised how we have put in over $8m into Alice Springs youth services. The Minister for Employment, Education and Training talked the other day in parliament about how to coordinate those youth services better to get more bang for our buck, and to get better outcomes for the people of Alice. That is another area that we have done a lot for Alice Springs - in terms of investing in the youth services. Aranda House has 12 beds; a total of 36 at a cost of $550 000 - providing accommodation for adult offenders. These are just some of the initiatives I thought I would mention.
The CCTV cameras are another initiative. Whilst some of the opposition call it a ‘back flip’, in the Alice Springs parliament last year, there was no doubt that the community gave this government a clear message on law and order and antisocial behaviour. This government listened and delivered on the CCTV cameras.
In closing remarks, I commend the Chief Minister’s statement. We can tackle the issues, whether they are in Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs or Tennant Creek. Unless you put resources into the communities where these people are coming from, then it is going to be difficult for any government. I acknowledge the Closing the Gap policy this government announced last year; $286m towards a five year action plan including money into child protection, remote area policing, alcohol and drug management, health, housing, education, employment and economic development opportunities, and cross-cultural understanding in the bush. I am proud of this government’s efforts committing to closing the gap between the bush and towns and Darwin. It is important we cover that part of the Territory community as well.
There are very encouraging signs with our new Prime Minister, the policy commission and the extra money into housing. We can get people to return to country but, unless we have a safe community for them to return to, unless we have housing, jobs, a good school for their kids to attend, we are going to be chasing our tails around in another 10 years.
I am proud of being a part of this government because we are investing in the bush, and we are tackling the hard issues in the major centres in Darwin and Palmerston. I commend this statement to the House.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Deputy Speaker, it is with pleasure that I support the statement by the Chief Minister this evening. Some great initiatives have been announced and, like other speakers, I am very happy to see the government putting money towards the night patrols in Palmerston because they provided a great service. Taking the focus away from the patrols and putting extra money into the police was pursuing a worthwhile idea but, with the increase of people into the main centres following the Northern Territory intervention, there is a role that the night patrol can again play as part of the full matrix of services to assist people and answer the need for Palmerston residents to be able to report antisocial behaviour and see something done very quickly in response to those reports.
And not necessarily police action. I do not believe that police action is necessarily always the best response. As an example, recently there was a shopkeeper with whom I have developed a good rapport over the years since becoming the member for Brennan who had a bit of an issue with people congregating outside his shop. My suggestion to him after contacting me was to contact Larrakia Nation to see if they could offer any assistance. In fact, they could and did. They had some of their people talk to the group that was congregating, and the group dispersed. The shopkeeper was very happy with the result. Larrakia Nation was happy, and I am sure the people who had been congregating were very happy not to, once again, be the subject of the attention of police. So there you have an effective, non-police response to something that was bothering one of the shopkeepers in Palmerston - a fantastic result.
We have some people with great initiative in Palmerston. Recently, a shopkeeper rang the ABC talkback radio show - and I will not embarrass her by saying who it was, but I certainly did recognise who it was. This shopkeeper caught a young person doing some graffiti on the wall of the building. She asked what they were doing and had a chat to this youth. All credit to the young person involved; they got some detergent and cleaning solution and cleaned off the graffiti, had a bit of a chat with this lady shopkeeper in my area, and that was the end of that. A good result all round, I thought.
That is something about this set of initiatives - and I will refer to it as a matrix because it is. They are interrelated; they link into one another. The idea is for the sum total to be greater than merely the sum of all the parts - and I believe it will be.
We were entertained quite a bit by the member for Araluen earlier tonight - which was funny because last week I got into trouble with the member for Katherine for being too dramatic and theatrical. The member for Katherine, at the time, said she thought that it would be better if people stuck to the points and did not add colour and flourish. I am glad to see that the member for Araluen ignored the deputy leader and continued in her style of colour and flourish. I will do my best to do the same.
The phrase that comes to mind – and this is not, and nor should it be seen as a direct attack on any individual because it is not meant like that at all, and I mean that sincerely. When the CLP start talking and try to throw back the policy vacuum argument that we have levelled at the CLP - because let us face it, it is a policy vacuum – they ought to be a bit careful and mindful that people in glass houses should be wary of throwing stones. I am just going to go through a bit of an unrehearsed exercise.
Let us have a look at the Country Liberal Party’s website. Let us go to the home page. Let us start off there and see what happens. Oh yes, a lovely picture of the Leader, the member for Blain, greets us. Latest media release, ‘Pulling the Pin on Political Propaganda’. Oh, they are going to start doing that, that is nice of them, excellent. Same old song. Here is an attack on Labor government’s latest plan to deal with antisocial behaviour, talking about us rehashing things, I think, just from my quick read.
Okay, let us go to policies. Let us go to the policy page and see what we can find there. Nine policies on the CLP policy page. First one: Young Driver Policy. Okay, not a problem. Budget 2006 announcement: Life Long Learning. Budget 2006 announcement: Zero Tolerance on Crime – A Safer Territory. A fact sheet on Dry Areas proposals. Budget announcement: Healthy Active Kids Need Healthy - oh, that is right, that was the Red, Yellow, Green Light policy that the Leader of the Opposition had - was that last year that came out? Or was it the year before? So, a little ageing there. Budget 2006 announcement: HECS Incentive Payment for Health Professionals. So, we are still in Budget 2006. Oh, policy statement: Seatbelts, excellent. Our commitment to getting middle school right, okay, and A Strong and Safer Territory, Safe Streets Policy.
Oh, my goodness! I open up the policy and I am greeted by a picture of the member for Araluen as Leader of the CLP. I thought there had been a change. Has there been another one I have not been informed of? Who would know? Perhaps the Country Liberal Party ought to be updating its web page. Let us have another look.
I know, HECS Initiative for Health Care. Let us see. I have some grave feelings about this. I did when they first brought it out, but that is beside the point. At least it was a new policy. Oh, excellent. Again, we have the Opposition Leader, and I quote from the page, Ms Jodeen Carney, the member for Araluen - I do not want to get into trouble for referring to people by their names, but that is what it says - and shadow Health minister, Richard Lim. My goodness! This is the CLP’s policy on their website as the most up-to-date policy, and it has the former member for Greatorex still there. It does not take much to cut and paste the photos into the policy even if you do not change the wording. There you go. In terms of policies, I think the CLP has a bit of work to do there. Maybe the attention of the Leader of the Opposition was taken by other things, like becoming the Leader of the Opposition, who knows.
As I said at the start of my statement, I welcome the funding to re-establish the night patrols in Palmerston. I also very much welcome the $2.77m funding commitment boosting short-term bed numbers by 127, as well as the further $2.7m allocated to the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre to upgrade its facility at Boulter Road, providing an additional 112 beds. We need to be continually mindful of the requirement for short-term beds.
Palmerston is a very young community, as well as fast growing. Unfortunately, there are a number of young people who, for a number of reasons, find themselves homeless. We are very lucky to have the number of non-government organisations that we do, working with homeless youth, assisting them to access housing options. However, short-term bed space is in very high demand for youths. I have been told by a number of youth workers that the search to find a short-term solution to take youths who are generally couch surfing and staying at friends’ places, and that sort of thing to keep themselves off the street, has been getting harder and harder. Hopefully, this additional provision of - I would say 239 beds roughly on those figures - will have a flow-on effect. Even if those beds are not suitable for young people that will have a flow-on effect of making others available.
I welcome the extra funding so that the Larrakia Nation can open an information and referral office in Palmerston. I have already given one account of the excellent work that Larrakia Nation does in Palmerston. I cannot speak highly enough of the patrols they do and the effort they put in to ensuring that life for residents of Palmerston and for those who are just passing through is as comfortable and least problematic as possible.
There was a mention by the Chief Minister of youth hubs. It will not surprise members, particularly during these sittings, how strong an advocate I am of youth hubs and youth services, particularly the Palmerston youth drop-in centre which gets a huge number of kids of an evening. These kids would be on the street if they did not have the drop-in centre to go to. The people at the drop-in centre do a fantastic job working with them and being positive role models for these kids to look up to. They are someone the kids can talk to because they may not have an older brother or sister, or mum or dad, that they feel comfortable talking to about what is going on in their lives. I am sure they do open up to the role models that are there and those models have a positive influence on their life.
I continue to be amazed that the CLP does not support this sort of facility, does not want to see it, has no trouble with funding being reduced and the facilities closing down, and obviously does not value, as I do, the fantastic role that the centres like the Palmerston YMCA drop-in centre provide - which is a pity. All they want to do is make it hard for everyone, or make it easy for young people especially to get into trouble and then come down on them like a ton of bricks, send them off to a boot camp, because obviously they have got into trouble solely for the reason that they are just no-good citizens and they need re-education, but just throw them into detention and be done with it.
Perhaps it gives the appearance that you have a solution. When you go to the policy page of the CLP website, any solution is several years old. My advice to the people of the Territory would be ‘do not bother’. I recall raising this once before and the CLP said: ‘Wait! They are coming. We have them.’ They have taken a long time coming, is all I can say. Perhaps, rather than putting the spin out there, they should front up with some policy documents which the people of the Territory can look at and assess. Then Territorians can compare them to the policies of the government and the policy work that this government continues to do.
I commend the Chief Minister on the statement. I look forward to the matrix of initiatives taking shape. I believe that they will have a positive effect. I hope many people in the community will see that, as well, on the ground.
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I thank honourable members for their contribution to a debate on a very important issue for the Northern Territory. I will be brief in summing up the debate because the Hansard is there for everybody to see.
My colleague, the member for Brennan, has hit the nail right on the head: this is a matrix of responses to very complex issues that lead to antisocial behaviour across the Northern Territory. There are no single solutions to this problem and, until we have, in particular, our remote indigenous communities and people who live on them, up to par in education, in being represented in the workforce and in being engaged in the economy, we are going to see the sorts of issues around the Northern Territory that this statement and the policy matrix attempts to deal with.
I was disappointed that we did not have a more thoughtful contribution from the members opposite in regard to what is a very complex social and economic set of circumstances that lead to antisocial behaviour across the Northern Territory. This response, and the series of initiatives my government has outlined over the last two weeks, are certainly trying to deal with the causes as well as the effects of antisocial behaviour and youth crime.
This is not the package alone. As the member for Stuart said, our Closing the Gap package is very much aimed at really trying to improve conditions on remote communities in education, health, housing, and employment outcomes, complementing what we are doing here with this set of initiatives around our antisocial behaviour and youth crime.
It is a complex matrix in a multifaceted response. It was disappointing that the opposition just could not go past some petty point scoring and politics. As my colleague, the member for Brennan said, the opposition has a long way to go in developing policies that really do show that they possibly have some viable policies to contribute to the Northern Territory.
This is an issue that the government will continue to work on. I thank all of my colleagues, not only my Cabinet colleagues, but my Caucus colleagues; and colleagues who represent the regions and the remote parts of the Territory, because this is a whole of Territory issue. It is not just an issue for Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs. Until we significantly improve education and employment outcomes, we are going to continue to deal with the sorts of issues that lead to alcohol abuse, antisocial behaviour and crime, which does result from the very poor circumstances that many of our indigenous Territorians find themselves in.
This is a huge body of work. I am enormously enthused to be working with a federal government this year that is also committed to putting its shoulder to the wheel to improve outcomes for indigenous people right across Australia. I am very enthused in regard to the apology that was given to the Stolen Generations in the federal parliament. That really does put, I suppose, a defining point in time about the policies of the past and walking together to improve outcomes for indigenous people into the future with that issue having been dealt with and resolved so wonderfully by our Prime Minister. Talking to some of the older Territorians out in the community today at the reception commemorating the 66th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin, people were still talking about that.
From my point of view as Chief Minister, it is a year of hope. We have a big body of work to do, but we have a Commonwealth government that is up to it. The structures are being put in place to deal with this complex set of issues, and we, as a government, will continue to work as hard as we can right across the Northern Territory to improve conditions in the bush, and also deal with problems that we are experiencing in our towns.
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their contributions and commend the statement to the House.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr VATSKALIS (Business and Economic Development): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Madam Speaker, Gong Xi Fa Cai, welcome to the Year of the Rat. I wish my constituents of Chinese descent, the Chinese community, friends, colleagues and staff a happy and prosperous Year of the Rat. May the little critters bring you much joy and success. I am looking forward to having my electorate office blessed this Saturday for the commencement of another prosperous Chinese New Year.
I welcome students and teachers back to school. It is a new school year, and Dripstone becomes the middle school with the Year 7s for the first time together with Years 8 and 9. I am very pleased, as is every other parent who has school-aged kids, with the $50 Back to School bonus. It came in very handy. I am buying some Dripstone T-shirts for Michael. He looks very colourful. The T-shirts were designed by the Dripstone schoolchildren. It is easy for all of us, avoiding the fights in the morning about what clothes to wear, what logos he has to have.
Dripstone now has a name change; it is called the Dripstone Middle School. This year, 600 students started at the school in Years 7, 8 and 9. I am advised by the principal, Lyn Elphinstone, that there has been an excellent response to the new uniform from students, teachers and parents, and an excellent response to the new format of the school.
Teacher, Rebecca Glasby, participated in the Australian government Summer School for Teachers of English. She was one of 200 English teachers from Australia who participated in the intensive program. Language teacher, Rosellina Martone, participated in an intensive Italian language program in Italy over the Christmas break. Two science teachers, Margaret Girdham and Phil Bloomfield, are part of an exciting science initiative. Their science class will be participating in this national program during Term 1. John Joseph, ‘the brain man’, is back and will be conducting a workshop for teachers and a group of students in mid-February.
Nakara Primary School principal, Barry Griffin, advised me that the school had a fantastic start this year. It has been great to see practically every student coming to school in school uniform and attending their classes with such enthusiasm. Barry also advised me that four new teachers are in place at Nakara this year: Ruth Mulligan, music teacher; Karen Page in Transition; Margot Hudson in Year 3/4; and Amanda Docksey in preschool. Barry also advised me there are many new students and families in Nakara this year and I am happy to welcome you all to Nakara.
Alawa Primary School has begun the school year very enthusiastically with professional development activities focusing on working as a cooperative team to achieve student and learning outcomes, as well as preparing to become a Charles Darwin teaching school. The principal, Sharon Reeves, advised this will improve student learning as we articulate our good teaching practices for pre-service teachers.
Approximately 200 Alawa students returned to well-prepared classrooms and immediately focused on high expectations of behaviour and forming good school routines. I am very pleased to say that both Nakara and Alawa are preparing for the consultations with the design team for the upgrade of the two schools. As we promised in the 2005 election, there is a $2m upgrade for the two schools at Stage 2.
I welcome a new teacher at the Royal Darwin Hospital School - Tania Nicholls - and also wish Tania and Sue a wonderful year for 2008. The Royal Darwin Hospital School provides schooling for children who, for one reason or another, are in Royal Darwin Hospital. It plays a significant role for children who are there for an extensive period of time. During my last visit, I realised that many of the children like the interactive computer games and learning activities. I was pleased to donate a flat screen for one of the computers to replace the old bulky screen. I realised how pleased the kids were because now they could play games and see things better.
I was extremely pleased about the new land release at Lyons. The Lee Point Crossing was released for sale to the public on 19 January and was in significant demand, with people queuing up from very early in the morning. From the 15 home sites, eight were sold on the day, with a further two taken later. Lee Point Crossing is conveniently located off Lee Point Road via Daldawa Terrace. It is situated on a slightly elevated position and is very close to the Garanmanak Park and the neighbourhood facility, just a short stroll away.
One of my favourite social clubs, the Happy Migrant Social Club, is a wonderful group of people who are a mixture of many different cultural groups and ages that usually meet at the Casuarina Library community room every Monday and Wednesday morning to enjoy a social gathering and to learn English in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. As the library is being refurbished over the next few months, I have offered my electorate office community room facilities to the group to hold their classes. I am very pleased they accepted. If any of you know someone who is a recent migrant who wants to learn English in a jovial environment, please let them know they can contact my electorate office for further information.
A significant program is the After School Communities Program. This is a wonderful program giving many young children the opportunity to learn a new sport and stay fit and healthy. The Northern Territory Manager, David Brabham, advised there will be 70 sites operating across the Northern Territory in 2008. One of those will be Nakara Primary School in my electorate. Others will be at Lake Alexander, with sports like canoeing, and Touch NT, with touch football and skipping. I thank David and all the members of the After School Communities Program for the good work they are doing with children.
I pay tribute to an Alice Springs businessman who passed away recently. John King was born and raised in Alice Springs and attended OLSH Primary School. After attending Rostrevor College in Adelaide, John was delighted to return to his home town and work in the family’s furniture store.
In 1973, John had the opportunity to buy the family business and the world of furniture, carpet, curtains and manchester became his daily diet. To ensure that consumers in Alice Springs enjoyed their shopping experience, the Kings furniture store located at Hearne Place was, indeed, a shopping experience. After Hearne Place, there were several homes for Kings Furnishers and The Bed Shed on the North Stuart Highway, and they were always on the ‘left side’ as, according to John, this was the maximum exposure side. For 27 years, John’s business provided excellent service and Kings Furnishers and The Bed Shed became known as a one-stop-shop for all facets of home furnishings. Commercial businesses also utilised John’s flair for decorating, and he gained enormous satisfaction from working with architects. His work is still standing the test of time in various public and commercial buildings in Central Australia.
In the early 1980s, John was elected as an Alice Springs alderman and gave his time generously for five years. He was Chairman of the Works and Parks Committee and a member of the Planning Committee. John enjoyed these roles immensely as he was part of the decision-making process regarding the town’s development.
John King was an integral part of the Alice Springs business community, and his faith and commitment will be missed. I extend my sympathies to his wife, Stephanie and children, Nathan, Sam and Josh.
I will finish because I know my colleague, the member for Johnston, wants to go home early to look after his beloved Bruiser which is there alone and I believe he is a bit hungry!
Dr BURNS (Johnston): Madam Deputy Speaker, tonight I acknowledge Dr Tarun Weeramanthri, formerly of the Department of Health and Community Services, and recognise his contribution to the Northern Territory.
Dr Weeramanthri, Assistant Secretary Quality and Strategy, Chief Health Officer and Principal Medical Advisor, resigned on 11 January 2008 to take up a position in Western Australia as Executive Director, Public Health and Chief Health Officer.
Tarun first came to the Territory in 1991 as a Research Fellow in Aboriginal Health at the Menzies School of Health Research. Five years later, he joined the Department of Health and Community Services as a community physician at the Centre for Disease Control and specialist physician at Royal Darwin Hospital. In 2004, Tarun was appointed to the department’s executive and took on the roles of the Chief Health Officer and Principal Medical Advisor.
Tarun has provided exceptional leadership and strategic advice on medical and public health issues and standards. As a well-recognised figure in Aboriginal health and chronic disease, Tarun has been an educator, keynote speaker, researcher and leader in the Territory and in the national arena. He chaired the Northern Territory Clinical Reference Group and the Northern Territory Council on Safety and Quality in Health Care, both of which he established in 2004, and has represented the Territory at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.
Tarun’s legacy in the Northern Territory will long be remembered as one of the major driving forces in the establishment of the Northern Territory Preventable Chronic Disease Strategy.
In his role as an outreach physician, Tarun established strong networks with the non-government sector to facilitate their involvement with the strategy’s development. Since its introduction in 1999, the strategy has become a guiding framework for the development of primary health care services and has been influential in national policy development. Tarun has continued his commitment to see the strategy evolve with new evidence and health research.
The Northern Territory has earned a strong reputation at managing disasters, largely as a result of our effective leaders. Tarun has contributed strongly to this reputation in many ways – as a clinician at Royal Darwin Hospital treating burns victims during the first Bali bombings; disaster coordinator for the second Bali bombings; public health physician during the East Timor evacuation in 1999; and, finally, with the evacuation of nine injured East Timorese policemen to Darwin in 2006, all of whom survived.
Tarun has also been an active contributor to the Darwin community. With his wife, Karen, he was involved in setting up the Milkwood Steiner School, first in the old Nightcliff Scout Hall and then the Marrara site. He was a dedicated junior soccer coach with the Mindil Aces and was a driving force as the playing coach of the Chrisp Street Old Boys Masters team whose motto is ‘the older we are the better we were’. At Tarun’s farewell there were many anecdotes and stories about the Chrisp Street Old Boys’ games. They are a great group and they have a great time. I reckon they are a jewel in the crown of soccer within the Northern Territory.
Tarun is held in high esteem for his medical and community expertise. We will certainly miss his presence in the Territory.
On a personal note, Tarun was a colleague of mine at Menzies School. He was someone I always looked up to, always someone with very wise advice. He gave me a lot of support when I was at the Menzies School completing my PhD. All the advice he gave me was spot on. I certainly appreciated that. I interacted with him many times long before I came into parliament as someone in the non-government health sector. Tarun is someone who has a lot of expertise and also a lot of compassion. As a minister, I cannot speak of Tarun highly enough with regard to the fearless and frank advice that he gave the government. I am sure our loss is Western Australia’s gain. They certainly have someone who is capable, has a lot of courage, and who certainly knows his stuff.
To Tarun and Karen and their four young children, Pieta, Cassiel, Thelonius and Pascale, we wish them all the best for the future in Western Australia.
Tonight, I want to go back in time a bit. Christmas time is always a good time of the year and I want to talk about Carols by Candlelight. It is very important that this event gets the recognition it deserves within this House of Parliament. We get so caught up in the round of Christmas parties and ensuring we keep in touch with friends here, interstate and overseas that it is wonderful to relax in the delightful atmosphere of the amphitheatre in the George Brown Botanic Gardens and join in the traditional singing of Christmas carols. It is fantastic to look around and see the joy on the kids’ faces in the candlelight and see their parents with their carol books getting into the spirit of togetherness and mutual harmony. It is especially great to see the wide cultural and diverse community that is Darwin, all joining together. There are families from all over the world having a great time catching up with friends and neighbours for the festive season.
Carols by Candlelight was first held in Melbourne in 1938 with 10 000 people gathered at Alexandra Gardens to sing carols with a choir and a new Australian Christmas tradition was born.
At the 2007 performance of Carols by Candlelight in Darwin, the record crowd enjoyed great weather to be entertained by the Darwin City Brass Band, Darwin Youth Choir, Kormilda College Choir and local celebrities such as Toni Melese, 105.7’s Annie Gaston, Sand Williams who is very well known to the members here, George Barker, Mike Foley, and young Rosie Greenwell, a 15-year-old who I am sure is going great places with her talent. Rosie did a great job of Jingle Bell Rock and Silent Night while the new Administrator, His Honour Tom Pauling, accompanied the Darwin Youth Choir singing We Three Kings.
The gold coin donation and sale of candles raised funds for the Down Syndrome Association of the Northern Territory, the Territory Palliative Care Hospice and the Darwin RSPCA.
I congratulate the organisers on such a fantastic event. The Christmas in Darwin Committee comprises Sharon Todd as Chair; Phil Hedger as Vice Chair; Ron Roberts, Public Officer; event coordinator and stage manager, Ann Hedger and Roger Coutts; committee members, and Carol Wallbank who is secretary/treasurer. The committee was assisted by members of the Kiwanis, led by Maurie Johnson, who also did the food on the night. The Kiwanis do a great job for our community.
A community benefit grant and a grant from the Chief Minister, together with sponsorship from Channel Nine and Jonathan Uptin, who did a great job compering the night, ensured that the night was a fantastic success. The committee should rightly be proud of their efforts this year. It was wonderful and we look forward to their efforts next year.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I went to the Board of Studies Awards in Alice Springs and really enjoyed looking at what is happening. ‘Promoting Excellence in School Learning’ was on their brochure, and I wish to speak about some of the young people who received awards.
The top student in Alice Springs with the highest TER score was a young lady from St Philip’s, Sashika Richards. She had a TER score of 99.6. How on earth can anyone get 99.6? That is an amazing score. I have to congratulate her for this huge achievement. She has accepted a place at ANU in a Bachelor of Philosophy with Science Honours. This course starts students on research from the beginning of their studies and they are mentored by successful scientists. It sounds like a fabulous place to start a career in science. I know Sashika will be a good student there.
Her sister completed her schooling at the end of 2006. Her TER score was 82.4, so both are obviously very brilliant young ladies. While her sister was doing her final year, she taught instrumental music at St Philip’s. She has achieved some amazing things. She was Young Centralian of the Year on Australia Day. She is studying at Adelaide University at the Conservatorium for a degree in Music Education. So, two amazing young sisters. I just could not believe that anyone could get 99.6; that is an amazing score.
There were two other students who were in the top 20, Emily Ryan and David Johnston, both from Centralian Senior Secondary School. They are young people in Alice Springs who have done very well. I am not quite sure whether they are going straight on to university or whether they are having a year off, which often happens.
Some of the students who received Certificates of Merit were Ryan Bailey from Centralian Senior Secondary College in English Communications; Khiani Payne in Language Revival 1; Staci Trindfle-Price in Language Revival 1; Edward Tikoft in Physics; and Nicole Zimmerman in Communication Products A. They received their Certificates of Merit from the Deputy of the Administrator.
Also at that presentation, there was the Administrator’s Medal for a young scholar. As you know, the Administrator’s Medal celebrates academic achievement, as well as demonstrated strength of character and responsibility, and contribution to the school community, and is presented to students in their final year of primary school. Primary schools nominate their highest achiever for the award of the Administrator’s Medal and a panel selects the winners. Medals are awarded to one student in the non-government sector and one student in each government school cluster.
This medal went to William Molloy from Larapinta Primary School. William is a wonderful young man. Academically, he is quite brilliant, but he has such self-assurance and self-confidence, that I am quite sure he will do very well when he goes on to secondary school. Larapinta Primary School tends to nurture their students in a very good way, and his contribution to the school as one of the senior students is recognised with the Administrator’s Medal. I congratulate him.
There was another young lad there by the name of Mitchell Wooding. Mitchell was given a Vocational Education and Training Award in Automotive. These VET awards are presented to senior secondary students who have demonstrated a high level of commitment, skill and achievement while undertaking a VET course, trainee sports program, or a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship as part of the Northern Territory Certificate of Education. This is a wonderful program. The students of the Northern Territory can access a range of Vocational Education and Training pathways, and VET in School fosters and develops work and employable skills and provides clear and recognised pathways to employment, further education, and training.
When I met Mitchell, it was a delight to find out that his grandmother was Alice Tice, who had been my secretary when I was Principal of Sadadeen Primary School. His mother was a young student in those days. His mother sent me a little about Mitchell, because I asked about him. He was a very presentable young man. He was born in Alice Springs in 1990, and his mother said he was a nice surprise for his brother, Mathew, who is three years older. Mitchell lived most of his life in Alice Springs and was fortunate to have lived four years on Kangaroo Island, where his sister, Caitlin, was born. Mitchell was always the kid who would take things apart just to see how they worked, and try to fix something that had broken. I am certain there are things he must have broken just to fix. He was always working on remote control car motors, motorcycles, beat-up old cars and the like. So his choice of career is fitting for him; that is, in the automotive industry.
Mitchell began his school-based apprenticeship in 2005 with Group Training NT, and Jim Smart of Alice Off Road Mechanical Services while attending Year 10 at Alice Springs High School at the age of 15. In 2006, Mitchell was awarded the Group Training NT school-based Apprentice of the Year. In 2007, Mitchell was awarded the Charles Darwin University Most Outstanding School-based Apprentice in Automotive Award. He came to Darwin in September for the NT Training Awards, where he was awarded the 2007 School-based Apprentice of the Year in the Northern Territory. Mitchell was nominated for the Stella Axarlis Australian School-based Apprentice of the Year, and was a finalist at the Australian Training Awards held in Hobart in November 2007.
He completed Year 12 in December 2007 aged 17. The Pathways program which allows kids to stay at school but start their training or apprenticeship is a fabulous program. We should be encouraging more young people to do it.
Mitchell’s other passion is Australian Rules football. He has loved football since he was five years old and living in a small community. Mitchell has recently relocated to Adelaide where he is continuing his apprenticeship on a full-time basis for Jarvis Ford as a third-year apprentice. That is pretty amazing. He starts in Alice Springs and then goes on to a big company like Jarvis Ford. He is also training with the North Adelaide Roosters in the Under 19s Division. His goal is to complete his apprenticeship and play football, and he is working very hard to achieve his goal. His mum said: ‘We are very proud of Mitchell and his efforts and all his accomplishments, big and small. To top it off, Mitchell is just nice to have around and be around’.
I congratulate Mitchell on a huge achievement as a young apprentice trainee, and for what he has achieved. He is a great example of what can be done in the VET area for students in the Territory. I also wish him well in his football career. It is great that he is able to do both at the same time. I thank his mother for sending me this information. It is always a pleasure to hear good things about students you have taught and their kids who are growing up now and achieving well. Congratulations, Mitchell.
Also at that presentation of the Board of Studies, Declan Furber-Gillick from Centralian College received a VET award for Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Recreation. Unfortunately, I do not have any further information I can give you about this particular young man.
All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon to see the pride of the parents who, obviously, had done so much for these students. It generated a good feeling in the audience to see these students, who are no longer students but young people, receiving their awards. These are people who had achieved so well. They worked hard, and deserved everything they got. To all of them, I say congratulations. I wish them well for their future, and well done.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to make note of the member for Casuarina’s comment on the Happy Migrant Centre. It takes me back some 14 years to when I was a candidate for the seat of Jingili, now Johnston. That group was going back then. I would like to acknowledge the fact that they are still going. They are a vibrant, great little group and I add my support to that of the member for Casuarina and his comments about how well they do. They are a great group.
It was really interesting, the other night I was at a function for the Chinese New Year and a Vietnamese/Australian chap - I cannot recall his name -came up to me and said: ‘G’day, Ted, how are you going?’ I said: ‘Hello’, thinking he was one of my constituents from the rural area. As we got talking I realised he was not. He lived in urban Darwin. He told me the story about how he and his father had met me at the Happy Migrant Centre. His father was an active member who had learned to speak English there. His father still had a photo of me from many years ago and was very proud of that. I will make an attempt to touch base with him and his Dad again. It was a nice little touch and reflects on the great cosmopolitan society we have in Darwin. I was touched by the moment of spontaneity.
To hear the member for Casuarina talking about the Happy Migrant Centre still going strong, and teaching, mostly senior new Territorians, or new Australians, how to speak English, or to enhance their English skills, is a great thing. I am very pleased to hear that they are still going. I wish them all the best.
I will get back to my electorate now, because last week I did not complete my history of what has happened in the schools in my electorate since the last sittings.
I am very pleased to announce some exciting things are happening at Taminmin High School. Recently, I was pleased to attend the Northern Territory Board of Studies 2007 Student Awards presentation ceremony at Parliament House. Two Taminmin Year 12 students from 2007 were honoured at the awards.
Rosaline Ho received two awards in front of her very proud parents, mum, Daybra Martinez, and father, Viet Cau Ho. This was for her work in Information Technology. Rosaline received a Certificate of Merit for Desktop Publishing presented by the NT Administrator. She also received the Information, Processing and Publishing Award from the Australian Computer Society. Both these are very notable awards and she is a very worthy recipient.
Another outstanding student from Taminmin was Jacqui Harrison. She received the Vocational Education and Training in School Award for Tourism and Hospitality presented by the Minister for Employment, Education and Training.
Taminmin has started the year on a high note. Enrolments are above expectations at a little over 1050. There have been significant enrolment inquiries but, unfortunately, some students who do not live in the rural area who want to attend the school have had to be turned away. This growth can be seen as a tribute to the great work being done by the school. The hard-working staff and teachers have implemented or expanded a number of new areas of study, including the Leading Learner Program, which now includes Years 7 and 10. There are now nearly 150 students inducted into this elite academic excellence program which specifically targets students aiming for university entrance.
Another recent advancement at Taminmin has been the introduction of the online curriculum system. All students in the middle schools are now operating with this great tool, developed by Taminmin to access curriculum right down to the classroom resource level. The school commenced developing this tool from the announcement of middle schooling in April 2006. It will now be expanded to include senior and VET courses.
Taminmin High School recently purchased two new Daedong tractors with $100 000 worth of assistance from the Department of Employment, Education and Training in a one-off grant. I recently visited the school with minister Scrymgour when she officially unveiled the new tractors on Thursday, 7 February. The tractors will be used extensively on the school farm and to train students who are completing their Certificate II in Rural Operations. Incidentally, I hear that this acquisition is causing a little jealousy in the community, with the staff at the Freds Pass Reserve looking on with green eyes. I can understand that. I also acknowledge during that unveiling by the minister for Education, the great effort by the hospitality students at the school. We had a great feed and they were very dignified and well presented in the way that they made sure that everyone had something to eat. It was great food.
While the big news on the Taminmin Farm has been the delivery of the tractors, many other things have been happening there as well. Over the holidays, the school secured the purchase of a new five tonne cattle truck. I remember at the last Freds Pass Show that the school’s old truck broke down. It caused some havoc out there because they had cattle they were sending to the show and they had to quickly organise some alternative transport. That really brought home to them the need for a new truck. The school principal made sure this proceeded. We now have a great new five tonne cattle truck. It was on display with the tractors the day the minister visited. It was a great delight to see that as well. This truck will allow them not only to move the stock but gives them the capacity to show stud animals at more venues over the coming years.
The aquaculture plant is also operational now and is stocked with barramundi. Red claw crayfish will be introduced in the near future and maybe even mud crabs. Most importantly, the plant will be used to teach students the principles of aquaculture as a unit in agriculture. That is a very important aspect. I am very pleased that the school can proudly announce it has the biggest VET program in the Territory and is expanding all the time, and has made some great moves into the Arnhem Land area. I will be talking about that at a future date.
In December 2007, the highlight was the primary school Literacy Awards. I was very pleased to represent the new Chief Minister when presenting the 2008 Chief Minister’s Literacy Awards at the rural primary schools in Goyder. These are the public primary schools. The awards recognise those primary students who have shown considerable improvement, or success, in literacy. It is an honour to be presented with this award. The awards are part of the NT government’s Focus on Literacy program which is about getting school, parents and students to work together to improve literacy in our primary school students.
I would like to mention those students who were very worthy recipients.
From Humpty Doo: Matthew Nguyen, Meshelle Fry, Samantha Green, Cooper Norris, Carla Tilling, Joshua Holden, Josh Robinson, Joseph Black, Meaghan Mulvey, Rebecca Haala, Kate Johnson, Lisa Roscarel, Joshua Eddy, Liam Haala, Catherine Knight, Luke Purtill, Zoe Owens, James Best, Jessica Ardley, Callum Le Lay, Dylan Johnson, Destin Whiteley, Douglas McGregor.
My electorate officer and I made sure we visited all the schools. We went from Humpty Doo to Bees Creek where the worthy recipients were: Wade Marshall, Zoe Hargood, Mattea Breed, Chanese Taylor, Jaide Cain, Teale McMahon, Lucy Ratahi, Jayme Frost, Caitlynn Ivanetz, Caitlin Moore, Allanna Neave, Zoe Smith, Elise Williams, Skye Wilkins, Georgia Barlow and Luke Bradley.
At Girraween, the worthy recipients were Charlotte Buckley-Scullion, David Hemopo, Laura Luchetti, Jamie Maxwell, Brody Matthews, Kata Burt, Monique Packham, Brenton Cottle, Morgan Brown, Jay Abela, Brittany Cugliari and Demi Tinning.
We went on to Berry Springs where the worthy recipients were Georgia Roach, Yuki Ruzsicska, Taniel Ledingham, Michaela Butt, Catherine Mulvaney, Gabrielle Johnson, Matthew Ketchell-Stone, Sophie Port, Brooke Illingworth, William Smith and Amy Packham.
I had the honour of going to the Middle Point School and attending their presentation night, where I was very pleased to be able to present the Chief Minister’s Literacy Awards to Isaak Bradford and Johnny Nguyen, two very worthy recipients, and, at Belyuen, we had Bridgette Bilbil and Denise Moreen, again, two very worthy recipients.
I wish all those students the best in their future studies. I know they are very worthy recipients of those awards.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016