NT Police Association president Paul McCue lists top criticism of Jamie Chalker

Union reveals officers’ top complaints against Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker after damning no confidence vote.

NT Police Association president Paul McCue made a damning indictment on the state of Territory policing, slamming the Police Commissioner’s tenure, remote policing resources, pay freeze offers and police discipline.

On the second day of the union’s annual conference on Friday, Mr McCue described the past three years as the most challenging period of the force’s 152-year history.

“It would be a complete understatement to say our members have faced what can only be described as some of the most turbulent and challenging two or three years in the history of policing in the NT and the effects of that are still being felt today,” Mr McCue said.

His keynote speech addressed a resounding no-confidence vote in the recent union survey, in which 79.7 per cent of officers who responded said they did not have faith in Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker.

Mr McCue stopped short of calling for the embattled Police Commissioner to resign, but said there was a deadline to the union’s patience.

“He has to make some changes. It’s up to him to do it. He is the responsible person,” Mr McCue said.

“And quite clearly if those changes don’t take place, of course his position can become untenable.

“We don’t want to see this level of dissatisfaction with our police commissioner,

“But quite clearly our members have had enough and this is what they wanted to achieve and get that message out there loud and clear.”

“The commissioner has publicly said he will not resign, but something needs to change.

“It will be action, not words, that the Commissioner and the government will be judged on.

“Put simply, something needs to change or the Commissioner’s position will be untenable.”

Mr McCue said the call for a no-confidence vote was highly unusual and was sparked by the branches themselves.

“We’re in a democratic union here. People wanted to have their say it’s our job to let that happen,” he said.

Mr McCue’s critical description of the past three years coincides with the tenure of Mr Chalker, who took on the top job in 2019, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the main complaints from the survey were Mr Chalker’s response and the investigation into the shooting of Kumanjayi Walker by Constable Zach Rolfe.

Mr McCue acknowledged it would be difficult to repair the comments made surrounding the Rolfe investigation, but the upcoming coronial inquest would shine some light on the murky issues.

“We know it’s one of the main issues that’s divided our police force for some time,” he said.

Other top priorities were the high attrition rate, disciplinary process issues and understaffing.

“They are frankly sick and tired of turning up to work every single day with little or no support,” Mr McCue said.

“It was around safety. It was around security. It was around them feeling unsafe in the workplace.”

Mr McCue said half the survey responses had detailed comments, meaning the union was still working through hundreds of pages of answers from more than 500 members.

Mr McCue said Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker attended the conference on Thursday to respond to “a lot of questions” from officers.

He said the top brass had committed to meeting weekly with the NTPA to review the damning survey results.

Police Minister Kate Worden said the government would not be calling for the Commissioner to resign, despite the 80 per cent no confidence motion.

“Matters of hiring and firing of CEOs are a matter for government, not for the membership themselves,” Ms Worden said.

“That said it’s really important that we have to understand the sentiment of our police officers and why they feel disengaged from the Police Executive.”

Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro repeated calls for an independent inquiry into the NT Police top brass, but also fell short of calling for Mr Chalker’s head.

“We believe that proper process is to provide the Police Commissioner and his executive the opportunity to show cause and outline what the crisis is, where the issues are and what their plan is to address it,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

After losing four members of the police community to suicide in the first six months of this year, officer mental health was also top of the union’s agenda.

Mr McCue said he welcomed the commitment of an independent review into support and wellbeing within NT Police but what was needed now was “real action”.

“(The review) is something our association lobbied hard for. Now what we need is real action to support the health and wellbeing of our members,” he said.

Mr McCue said collaboration with the government for a review into mandatory and legislative reforms for police assaults “fell flat on its face”.

Former police minister Nicole Manison said in 2021 the government was establishing a working group with the NTPA to review penalties for assaults on police.

Mr McCue said after a year of promises, all the review had to show for its efforts was one meeting in October.

“Time for change is well overdue,” he said

“We are not the government’s punching bags, and our members deserve to be protected more than those who make the cowardly choice to attack our frontline.”

The union president said officers would not accept the NT government’s pay freeze in the upcoming enterprise bargaining agreement.

The recent police union survey found 87.9 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the current pay freeze offer from the Commissioner and the government.

“Our position remains clear, as it has from day one: our members have carried this government through some of the toughest times in the Territory’s history,” Mr McCue said.

“They go to work on the frontline every single day, placing themselves in harm’s way to keep the community safe. Our members have sent a clear message, the wage freeze is rejected.”

Mr McCue will also called for reforms to police discipline practices, after NT Police recorded a 10-year high in the rate of complaints from the public, with 39 complaints for every 100 operational staff.

Northern Territory Police Association president Paul McCue. Picture: Che Chorley

Productivity Commission data found the Territory had the second highest rate of complaints against officers, behind only South Australian Police, and the latest NTPFES annual report said almost 900 complaints were made about potentially badly behaving cops.

The union head said the current approach was failing officers, with the focus too much on punishment not reform.

“For too long, we have been waiting for a real change in approaches to discipline: less punitive, more educational,” he said.

“Why are some of our members waiting two years for a decision on an appeal? Something is broken, and it needs to be fixed. Urgently.”

Mr McCue will also address the state of remote policing and the legacies of the 2007 Federal Intervention.

In January, the union reported that prisoners were falling through the floors of remote stations, built out of shipping containers set up in 2007.

At the time, Mr McCue said 11 of the 14 converted shipping containers used as police stations were no longer fit for purpose.

“It has now been 15 years since the Federal Intervention, yet we still have some officers residing in dilapidated shipping containers originally built for a five-year lifespan.

“That is absolutely disgraceful.”

Originally published as NT Police Association president Paul McCue lists top criticism of Jamie Chalker