Leader of the Opposition, Lia Finocchiaro, says it’s astonishing the Minister for Territory Families is at odds with her department over what information can be released to the public.
Minister for Territory Families, Kate Worden, couldn’t answer the question of how many children are in the detention centres she is supposed to be managing, when asked on ABC Radio Darwin this morning.
Instead, she responded with “I’d rather not let you know that figure”, and later made the excuse the data was ‘confidential’.
This is in stark contrast to information publicly available on the Territory Families website.
“The problem here is competence, not confidentiality,” said Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro.
“Youth Detention Census numbers are regularly published by Territory Families, the agency she is supposedly leading.
“The publicly available data includes average daily head counts for each week, broken down by location, gender, Aboriginal status and whether they are serving a sentence, or on remand.
“How can Territorians have any faith that the Gunner Government is responding to the crime crisis when the Minister responsible for youth justice is asleep at the wheel.
“The Territory Families website includes a detailed excel spreadsheet with this so-called ‘confidential’ data.
“Michael Gunner appointed Kate Worden to a cabinet-level ministry with a near billion dollar budget, and it’s clear she isn’t even across the basics of her portfolio.”
“Even if she didn’t know the numbers, how could she have not known that this data is public? It’s regularly published by her agency, and regularly quoted in media,” said Ms Finocchiaro.
Attached: 12 months Youth Detention Census data, including break downs by gender, location of detention, sentenced or remand and Aboriginal Status.
Data source: https://territoryfamilies.nt.gov.au/youth-justice/youth-detention-census
