Leader of the Opposition – Lia Finocchiaro
Shadow Minister for Territory Families – Joshua Burgoyne MLA
Today Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro condemned the Labor Government for its continued focus on the rights of criminals and total lack of restitution to victims in what can only be described as another blow to victims and Territorians who want to see consequences for crime as Labor makes a $1 million payout to criminals.
“This decision calls into question how much more compensation is going to be paid to criminals serving their time.
“The Labor Government gave $35m to youth criminals without requiring a single dollar to be paid back to victims.
“Now 4 criminals will walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, again without having to pay a single cent back to their victims for the crimes that put them in prison in the first place.
“Territorians are doing it tough with skyrocketing crime and cost of living which is driving people to leave, and they just can’t take this level of demoralisation anymore.
“Natasha Fyles keeps telling people crime is just perception all the while she’s writing a $1million cheque to criminals.” Mrs Finocchiaro said
Shadow Minister for Territory Families Joshua Burgoyne “Back in July 2021 Labor tried to cover up the $35million payout. Since then not one cent has been given to their victims and to add insult to injury now we have these four criminals sharing in $1million.
“For the 2019/20 and 202/21 financial years there were only 16 restitution orders made against youth offenders, of those only 4 were paid in full to a shockingly low total of $614.
“We also know as at 31 March 2023 there were 1,705 active applications from victims of violent crime.
“Labor has to answer to every single victim of crime that is waiting for payments.”
“All this does is further prove that under Labor, crime pays.” Mr Burgoyne said.
ENDS.