CLP hits out at NAAJA’s ‘irresponsible’ call for Federal Govt to withhold police funding

The NT Attorney-General has come out swinging against calls made by NAAJA for funding to be pulled from Territory police. Read what they said.

Acting NAAJA CEO Anthony Beven and NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby.

The Northern Territory Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has come out swinging against “utterly absurd” calls for the Federal Government to pull funding from NT Police over the conditions faced by jail inmates in the Territory.

The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) acting chief executive Anthony Beven claimed the Country Liberal government’s tough on crime approach was not working, and called for the federal government to intervene.

“The Commonwealth actually funds the Northern Territory police for remote policing,” Mr Beven told ABC Radio.

“We’re calling on the Commonwealth to pull that money or put it on hold until we see the government sit down with Aboriginal leaders and talk about better ways about making the community safe.”

Ms Boothby reiterated the CLP government’s position that “those who break the law will be arrested”.

Mr Beven said the CLP had refused to meet with NAAJA to discuss the growing prisoner numbers and the “unacceptable” conditions in police watch houses where overflow detainees – including children – were being kept.

“We’re seeing young people, as young as 11 … being held in the Palmerston watch-house with the lights on 24 hours a day, in a cell by themselves, with adults in surrounding cells screaming, yelling, and it’s just not acceptable,” Mr Beven said.

“We’re getting to a stage that this is a serious breach of human rights.”

NAAJA said the conditions some detainees were being kept in was ‘a serious breach of human rights’.

Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby said Mr Beven’s comments were “not only irresponsible, they are utterly absurd”.

“To suggest that the Commonwealth should pull funding from the NT Police Force until a meeting takes place is reckless and inflammatory,” she said.

“These kinds of outbursts do nothing but create confusion and fear in remote communities who rely on police for safety and protection.

“Threatening to cut essential funding to remote policing is counter-productive, dangerous, and undermines community confidence.”

She said the CLP government would not be distracted by what she described as “political grandstanding”.

“There is no alternative: those who break the law will be arrested.

“Corrections will continue to expand capacity to ensure those who are remanded or sentenced have a bed, because that’s what the community expects.

“We are fast-tracking infrastructure, strengthening laws, and properly resourcing our police.”

An additional 238 beds will come online at Berrimah Correctional Centre by mid-August, on top of the more than 600 beds the CLP has found in Darwin and Alice Springs since coming to office last August.

The NT Police Association has also been highly critical of the pressures on police watch houses – warning that a death or serious incident in custody was only a matter of time.

Over the weekend more than 100 prisoners were being held in the Palmerston watch-house.

Originally published as CLP hits out at NAAJA’s ‘irresponsible’ call for Federal Govt to withhold police funding