Only days after Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro compared the crime crisis engulfing the Territory to a train wreck, Alice Springs residents are now calling for a State of Emergency to be declared.
In her keynote speech at the Property Council’s State of the Union lunch on Monday, Mrs Finocchiaro likened the Northern Territory to a train.
“The most spectacular derailment has been the crime carriage. When it lurched into crisis, the Labor government sped it up and sent the crime carriage crashing into the small business car, the tourism car, and the passenger cars,” she said.
“On Mix FM with Katie Woolf this morning, Natasha Fyles delivered only lip service to Territorians who are watching the train crash in what feels like slow motion under a government not willing to do a thing to stop it happening.”
Mrs Finocchiaro said the CLP Opposition was building an extensive crime policy.
“Crime is paralysing the Territory, forcing people to flee interstate, challenging the mental health and wellbeing of our police, and destroying our way of life. It has a profound social and economic impact,” she said.
“Apparently, none of this is the Labor government’s fault, and they have absolved themselves of any obligation to defend or explain, using the Parliament as a blunt instrument to silence criticism.
“Where we are now is not where we are destined to stay – under a CLP government I will lead, we will put the rights of Territorians to be safe above the rights of offenders and will fix Labor’s bail laws by making breach of bail condition an offence, and we’ll introduce a presumption against bail for repeat offenders.”
In addition, a CLP Government will:
- Put youth justice in Corrections and let Territory Families look after the care and protection of children
- Make police the highest priority by ensuring that I, as Chief Minister, will hold that portfolio,
- Establish a purpose-built ‘sentence to a skill’ jobs training facility to give kids a real chance to change their life,
- Address public drunkenness by giving police the actual powers they need to deal with problem drunks, and work with communities around developing social clubs with local control
- Scrap the minimum alcohol floor price, which has not reduced alcohol harm, but has simply caused problem drinkers to switch from cask wine to hard spirits
- Invest in the Australian Nurse Family Partnerships Program, tackle alcohol and drug abuse and clamp down on non-attendance at school
- Deal with the broken disciplinary system under Police Administration Act
- Establish a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, triple zero call centre in Alice Springs
- Reinstate ‘sentenced to a job’ for adult prisoners so they are given every opportunity to change their lives
- Ensure people who assault Police, Ambos, Bus Drivers, Taxi Drivers and other Territory Workers face imprisonment – even for first time offenders, and
- Return to police the power to use spit hoods to protect our frontline workers from these disgusting and life threatening attacks.
“My team and I have the vision for a Territory that is a safe place to live, work and prosper,” Mrs Finocchiaro said.
“We will set the new direction with fresh tracks laid out based on what is important to Territorians – that starts with tackling this crime crisis.”
ENDS