NT politics: Pepper spray amendments proposed for Public Transport Act
Labor is forging ahead with its plan to reshape the use of force on public transport despite concerns around the dangers of capsicum spray.
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Territorians will have to wait at least a month to understand how the controversial use of OC spray on public transport could roll out.
Details on the move’s logistics have been slow to emerge since it was announced in the wake of 20-year-old Declan Laverty’s alleged murder.
Yet Infrastructure, Planning, and Logistics Minister Eva Lawler tabled the Public Transport (Passenger Safety) Amendment Bill 2023 on Thursday, despite concerns around the dangers of putting OC spray into the hands of transit officers.
The Bill would update transit officers’ powers to arrest and detain a person believed to have “committed an offence”.
Ms Lawler said the Bill was in response to “recent escalation in anti-social behaviour”, particularly at bus interchanges.
She said part of that response included equipping transit officers with Oleoresin Capsicum spray.
Ms Lawler said the Bill would add four new subsections to the Public Transport (Passenger Safety) Act 2008, with one specifically addressing the use of OC spray and “other restraints”.
She said approved restraints would only be available to transit officers, not bus drivers or security officers.
Ms Lawler said the proposed amendments would ensure force was used as a last resort, such as to prevent a person from harming themselves or others or in self-defence.
“The powers included in this Bill will provide transit officers with the tools and mechanisms necessary to protect the safety of people using the public bus system, whilst ensuring they use their powers only when reasonably necessary as a last resort and when the outcome could not be achieved in another practical way,” Ms Lawler said.
“These checks and balances are important to ensure the appropriate use of powers by transit safety officers.”
Currently the section of the Act to be amended allows transit officers to arrest a person if they believe an offence was committed, and they must be delivered into police custody as soon as possible.
Debate on the bill was adjourned – parliamentary sittings resume in May.
Top End politician’s plea as he reveals relative allegedly killed
The Territory’s only independent Indigenous MLA has urged the government to put as much urgency on prison alternatives as it has to bail reform.
Mulka MLA Yingiya Mark Guyala raised it as a matter of public importance in parliament on Tuesday, shortly after Labor announced it would be introducing tougher bail laws on urgency.
Mr Guyala said the anti-crime rally following Declan Laverty’s death “made it clear” people wanted change.
He also revealed he had been personally touched by alleged crime with a family member “killed in Rapid Creek” earlier this month.
“Many people across the NT, we have been wanting change for a long time,” the northeast Arnhem MLA said.
“The problems we are seeing in urban centres are being seen everywhere.
“The government announced it will urgently amend bail laws.
“I want to know when it will announce urgent changes for creating alternatives to prison. “When will it announce urgent support to address the underlying issues that are causing crime?
“The big difference is that one of these options brings change and the other continues to create an escalating problem.”
Mr Guyala said governments had “actively stopped” communities from creating their own solutions, pointing to punitive approaches during the Intervention that led to “chaos, full jails and a criminal jailbird culture”.
He said Yolngu peace keepers had not been respected as authority figures.
“When I talk about peace keepers I am talking about the elders in our communities who traditionally have held the role of policing, mediating and peace keeping,” he said.
“It is about keeping harmony, managing clan disputes, helping young people to behave responsibly.
“The government has often responded to my request for peace keepers by saying they have ALOs – Aboriginal police liaison officers.
“This is not the same role as I am talking about, ALOs are not recognised with the authority that I am talking about.”
Despite announcing tougher bail restrictions for offenders and co-offenders involved in a violent weapon crime, Attorney-General Chansey Paech said the only way to stop the Territory’s cycle of crime would be to “address the root causes.”
“Bandaid solutions and longer prison sentences will not work,” Mr Paech said in response to Mr Guyala’s MPI.
“They are tired, old measures which do not deliver long-term change.
“If they did, with one in 100 Territorians currently in prison, we would be the safest jurisdiction in the world.”
Mr Paech told Mr Guyala his government was listening.
“We will soon introduce legislation to introduce community courts,” he said.
“Respected elders and leaders will sit with judges at the time of sentencing.”
The CLP’s Namatjira MLA Bill Yan spoke in support of Mr Guyala’s MLA and questioned why the community courts, a solution put forward in the co-signed Aboriginal Justice Agreement, had not been rolled out.
“Part of the initial discussions in the Aboriginal Justice Agreement when it first commenced four or five years ago, was around developing community court models,” Mr Yan said.
“This has been spoken about for a long time.
“There are some models in Queensland that were looked at, that we knew worked and were having great results for people in those communities.
“Why has it taken so long to develop these things?”
‘Few greater responsibilities’: Child protection reforms pass parliament
Better protections for First Nations kids and children with a disability will be enshrined in Territory laws.
The Care and Protection of Children Amendment Bill 2023 passed during Tuesday’s parliament sittings with bipartisan support.
The legislation has four key changes, some of which are based on recommendations after a 2020 coronial joint inquest into the preventable deaths of six remote Aboriginal children.
Three children died by suicide and three had a history of substance abuse.
Former coroner Greg Cavanagh found government agencies had repeatedly failed to intervene in “conditions of violence, sexual molestation and despair” in the lives of the children and their preventable deaths.
His main recommendation was that a multi-agency Community and Child Safety committee, formed after the government got notice of the inquest, be legislated to ensure “mandatory co-operation, co-ordination and information sharing in a timely manner”.
Attorney-General Chansey Paech said the Amendment Bill would enshrine in law the government’s commitment to that recommendation.
“The framework recognises at its core that better collaboration, better service co-ordination, and better information sharing to support a child and their family will make our children safer,” he said.
“They are children of the Northern Territory, they are children we must do everything we can to give them the best life possible.
“There are few greater responsibilities for any government than protecting our communities, our youngest and most vulnerable.”
Another key reform will see teenage parents able to directly instruct lawyers in proceedings relating to their own children, rather than through a litigation guardian.
The Bill also adds principles to the existing Care and Protection of Children Act 2007 that recognises for the first time the rights of children living with a disability, as well as “recognise the importance of Aboriginal children maintaining the connection to family and culture”.
Mulka MLA Yingiya (Mark) Guyala said the Territory needed a system that both protected children and respected sovereignty.
“I am pleased to support this bill with hope that significant changes will continue,” he said.
“It is important that the rights of families to be a part of decision making is clearly outlined in law.”
The independent MLA pointed to incidents as recent as 2017 where children were removed from their families and communities, with grandparents and potential kinship carers overlooked as guardians.
“Over the past five years the department has increased their focus on kinship care and I think that it will require more work,” he said.
Independent MLA Robyn Lambley said she supported the legislation in full however took aim at the government’s track record of child protection.
“Child protection, the protection of our Territory children, is something that we have failed in successive governments,” she said.
“Why do we have so many children roaming the streets of the Northern Territory at night?
“Isn’t that racist to just ignore the fact that these kids are at risk, that they’re vulnerable?
“We should be talking about the care and protection of Territory children every day in the chamber.”
‘Loud and clear’: Pressure builds on government to pass bail reform
Parliamentary members are heading into another week of heated sittings, with pressure building on the government to introduce bail reform.
It comes after thousands of Territorians protested against violent crime outside Parliament House over the weekend.
Opposition whip Josh Burgoyne said the CLP’s top focus this week would be to press the government to act on bail reform, after Chief Minister Natasha Fyles promised to “review” the presumption of bail on offences involving a weapon.
“We’re looking to further again push for that bail reform to be seriously considered by this government,” he said.
“That’s what needs to be focused on right here.
“There is absolutely no reason why a violent offender should be out on bail – the community deserve to feel safe.”
Namatjira MLA Bill Yan said the opposition had developed its own bail legislation, first presented two years ago, that would have violent and repeat offenders start with a position of no bail.
“We’re working now with the parliamentary council to bring that forward, as fast as we can,” he said.
“We’ve asked them to take it on notice urgently to bring that legislation on as quick as possible (and) the government have the power to do that.”
The party would need to shore up the unlikely support of at least three Labor members, as well as the three independents, for its legislation to pass.
However, Labor’s Blain MLA Mark Turner crossed the floor last week in support of the CLP’s bid to establish a parliamentary inquiry into police.
“I think every MLA in this chamber, Labor MLAs and independent MLAs, need to listen to the people in their electorate,” Mr Yan said.
“That was loud and clear at the rally on Saturday.”
A government spokeswoman said parliament would debate Labor’s Care and Protection of Children Amendment Bill, which aims to address coroner recommendations after inquests into the deaths of six remote Aboriginal children in 2020.
The government is also set to deliver ministerial statements on the Territory economy and infrastructure, while passing two statute law amendment Bills.
Treasurer Eva Lawler said the agenda would be “very broad”.
“I think it will be another good week in parliament,” she said.
“I think Territorians understand that yes, there are lots of issues that we have in the Territory, but we also need to work on passing legislation.
“That will be our focus as well this week is to make sure that the good news stories get out as well.
“When we talk always about some of the negative things that’s happened in the Territory, sometimes we lose sight of the good things.”
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Originally published as NT politics: Pepper spray amendments proposed for Public Transport Act
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