TUESDAY 23 March 2021
Bad politics won’t deliver safer community
Today’s announcement by the Gunner Government won’t deliver a safer community, but it will cost taxpayers plenty.
The police crime statistics of the past year show no link between the bail reforms of last year, and the issues currently facing Alice Springs.
As the Police Commissioner, Jamie Chalker himself noted last month, if it was about a change in legislation you would see a similar trend across the whole of the Northern Territory. That is not happening.
Instead of addressing the actual causes of crime, and working with families, the Government has taken the quick headline, and abandoned the hard won lessons of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.
Years have been spent on developing solutions with Aboriginal communities through the Aboriginal Justice Agreement – but before that can even be implemented, the Gunner Government, egged on by the Opposition, has gone down the old, expensive, ineffective route of locking up even more kids, who will likely never escape the cycle of reoffending and prison.
Crime is absolutely unacceptable. But the consequence of today’s announcement won’t be safer communities, it will be a more fractured community.
For media enquiries contact Kate Sieper: 0466 745 615
Joint Release from leading Northern Territory Youth Justice Advocates including:
North Australia Aboriginal Justice Agency
Jesuit Social Services
Central Australian Youth Justice Network
NT Council of Social Service