Cunningham: A supercharge in crime in Darwin will have people turning their back on the NT

“For everything we love about Darwin, this is no longer a place where we feel safe”: Those who love the Territory should not be considering leaving in fear of an ongoing crime wave – but they are, writes Matt Cunningham.

Northern Territory Police. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

I love Darwin. It’s my happy place. The place where, like many people who live here, I arrived a long time ago running away from something.

I think there’s a great test as to whether you’re a fair dinkum Territorian.

It happens when you walk out of the airport doors any time between October and April.

If that stifling humidity warms your bones and makes you feel glad to be home, then this is a place where you belong.

I tried going back to Melbourne once and was miserable.

Darwin was under my skin, and the big city with all its crowds and pretension wouldn’t work for me anymore.

My wife and I decided Darwin was where we wanted to raise our children.

From that day forward I’ve never had a single regret.

The idea of leaving Darwin again has never been a conversation in our house.

But that changed last Saturday.

Just after midnight we were woken by a loud bang.

We thought something outside must have fallen over.

But when we went to the bedroom window and looked outside, we saw three kids, maybe 12 or 13 years old, who had broken into our yard.

They were armed with golf clubs and were using them to try to smash their way into our house.

We yelled out at them while calling 000.

Police swarm in front of the Parliament after reports of an armed person in the CBD on March 14, 2024. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

We were on hold for almost five minutes, then were told police were so busy it was unlikely they would be able to send anyone any time soon.

Thankfully the offenders ran away.

I shudder to think what might have happened if they’d made their way into our home, where our three children were asleep.

As we sat awake for the next six hours, jumping at every shadow, we had a conversation we’ve never had in more than eight years since coming back to Darwin.

Is this really where we want to be? Is this where we want our kids to grow up? Because for everything we love about Darwin, this is no longer a place where we feel safe.

In the past two weeks I’ve witnessed a wild brawl out the front of my house, and watched as a man fell over on my nature strip while a woman kicked him, trying to wake him from his drunken slumber.

The damage left after youths with golf clubs smashed a window at Sky News reporter Matt Cunningham's Darwin home during a terrifying attempted break-in while he and his family were home.

On each occasion I called Larrakia Nation.

The first time they said they were about to knock off and couldn’t make it, the second time we waited for a van that never came.

On another occasion I watched as four police cars chased a stolen Land Cruiser straight past my house right at school drop-off time.

The three kids in the car – aged 12 and 13 – were all on bail.

The police are so overwhelmed they can only respond quickly to the most serious cases.

I’m grateful though, to Sergeant Chris Humphries and Constable Emma Lacey from Strikeforce Trident, who came to our house the morning after our attempted break-in and went above-and-beyond both to attempt to identify the offenders, and to put our minds at ease.

You wouldn’t envy any police officer at the moment, because crime in the Northern Territory is literally out of control.

Memories of the Dry by Laurie Cinquina for Northern Exposure.

The government says it has long-term strategies for generational change.

More than five billion dollars in funding announced by the Federal Government this week will undoubtedly help achieve that change, and few would disagree with Chief Minister Eva Lawler’s primary objective to get every Territorian into work.

But in the meantime we are dealing with a generation of abandoned kids who are now teenagers and are running amok, with few real consequences for their actions.

The same kids who have been neglected by their parents and failed by the child protection and education systems have now graduated to a life of crime.

Judges, clearly sympathetic to troubled upbringing of these children, are reluctant to remand them custody, even when they are charged with the most serious crimes.

Take, as an example, a case heard in the NT Supreme Court this month involving a 14-year-old boy being sentenced for threatening a supermarket attendant with a garden saw.

Here’s a brief summary of his appearances in the Youth Justice Court in a little over six months before his sentencing.

He was arrested on August 6 and bailed two days later. Arrested again on August 16 and bailed on September 1. Arrested again on September 5 and bailed on September 6. Arrested again on October 12 and bailed on October 20.

Another Beautiful Sunset in Paradise by Werner Kalin for Northern exposure.

Then on November 20 he is alleged to have threatened a worker with a broken glass bottle at a Darwin convenience store before returning with a metal bar which he swung at the same attendant before a co-offender struck the same attendant in the head.

Two days later it’s alleged the same boy and two co-offenders threatened a worker with a knife while trying to steal beer from a Darwin hotel. He was arrested on November 23 but again granted bail on November 27.

On December 7 it is alleged he punched a security guard in the face at the Casuarina shopping centre before punching and kicking him several times when he was on the ground. Later that night it’s alleged he and co-offenders threatened a shopping centre cleaner with a metal bar and then a knife while trying to steal the cleaner’s car.

It was only after this alleged offending that he was remanded in custody.

In the meantime a string of victims have no doubt been left traumatised by his actions and the workload of our already overstretched police has been compounded.

Once upon a time this government liked to roll out the line that “every Territorian deserves to feel safe”.

It’s put that one on ice lately because it knows that few of us do.

I want to see the generational change this government talks about. I want a Territory where every adult is working and every kid is going to school.

But in the meantime I want to live in a place where law-abiding citizens are protected from those doing the wrong thing, and that’s not happening at the moment.

I want these things because one day I want my kids – even if they’ve moved far away from this place – to walk through those doors at Darwin Airport and be happy that they’re home.