Bill Yan

Yes, it is a bit of a read, but it shows the lack of concern from this Government for victims. The response from the Police Minister is an insult to every victim out there, particularly the victims of the horrendous assault I speak of.

Yesterdays question to the Police Minister

Mr YAN to MINISTER for POLICE, FIRE and EMERGENCY SERVICES

Earlier this month footage emerged of a 15-year-old boy an afternoon walk in Alice Springs who was attacked by three youths, one brandishing an axe. One of these youths was later arrested by police and released the next day. The youths then confronted the boy at his school four days later and continued to threaten him.

These assaults have left the young man traumatised, with his mother looking to relocate the family in order to rebuild their lives and escape the crime crisis in Alice Springs.

When will you stop putting the rights of criminals ahead of the rights of victims and make protecting Territorians your priority?

ANSWER

Mr Speaker, the answer to that is every single day, Member for Namatjira. We acknowledge the issue. Every time we listen to your one dimensional questions, we agree that every Territorian has that right to feel safe. We do not walk away from that. You will never hear us saying that.

We are able to be multi-dimensional. There is that old saying about walking and chewing gum at the same time, and it is relevant to this issue. I note that those opposite constantly have one approach to this—to lock them up.

If we could all visualise for a moment a 10 year old in an adult corrections system—that is their current policy. We do not talk about that, and we do not talk about individual cases.

It is not good for those instances to occur. The police have agreed with us publically that we cannot arrest our way out of this but, we must have that level of policing. We need community policing, and we have that and all of those things in place.

We have a system in place that is robust, because we believe in early intervention and prevention on top of policing. It is that simple—not the one-dimensional approach of locking up kids and demonising people with addictions and all of that.

Our number one priority is working to keep the community safe but at the same time, if there is an opportunity we recognise for a young person to be turned around earlier in their life—the other side has probably never looked at the statistics or the economic costs of putting a young person into youth detention. We know that later when they have been exposed to that for a longer period of time they are highly likely to go to an adult correction facility. We will invest considerably in that. Our investment is growing every year, which is why we are investing in improved facilities where we can help these young people turn their lives around.

We know, on this side of the house, that demonising and locking kids up is not the solution. They did not learn from a royal commission; they continue to pedal the same rubbish, and it is disappointing listen to the same rhetoric time and time again. Where is their sustainable plan for change that supports victims by changing the narrative?