Leader of the Opposition – Lia Finocchiaro
During Question Time yesterday, under interrogation by the CLP, Eva Lawler confessed to intentionally concealing the preliminary findings of the independent review concerning NT Police.
When Labor’s latest Chief Minister, Eva Lawler, was asked whether she or any members of her Cabinet had seen the interim report, Lawler arrogantly said:
“One of the privileges of being in Government, you get to lead the public sector. And we instigated the review of the NT Police.”
Lawler then confirmed an interim report had been given to the Government but not to Opposition or Independent MLA’s despite Labor’s promise that this would be ‘independent’.
The CLP have been calling for an independent review into police for years and Labor voted down these calls seven times in parliament.
Finally, after years of pressure and three surveys by the NTPA showing over 90% of our police don’t feel supported by the Labor Government, they finally agreed to an independent review.
At the time, the disgraced Brent Potter spoke on the importance of this review being independent, saying “I don’t believe in paying parliamentarians to sit on another parliamentary review. Let’s get an independent one.”
Unfortunately, but true to form, Labor is now sitting on this repot, which undermines the hard work put into it by many people and its perceived independence by keeping it only in the hands of the Government. This is what they did with the behind closed-doors review into the ICAC.
Our police deserve far better than a Labor Government biding their time in an attempt to claw back sentiment after 8 years of failing police and allowing our streets to get out of control.
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