NT budget estimates: Police Minister Kate Worden blind to Chalker’s payout
Police Minister Kate Worden said she does not know the sum of the confidential payout to Jamie Chalker, while telling estimates it was not her decision to dismiss him.
Northern Territory
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Police Minister Kate Worden says she does not know the sum of the former Police Commissioner’s payout but has maintained it will not impact frontline services.
It comes after a fiery budget estimates on Wednesday revealed the confidential compensation to Jamie Chalker will come out of the police budget.
Ms Worden also said on Thursday she was not involved in the decision to dismiss Mr Chalker.
Mr Chalker launched legal action against Ms Worden and Chief Minister Natasha Fyles over the botched sacking before a settlement was reached.
The Territory government released a statement in late April saying the Supreme Court proceedings had been resolved, with neither parties to comment further as they were bound by confidentiality obligations.
Faced with a relentless string of questions from Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro, Ms Worden would not be drawn to which department or minister was responsible for the decision.
“You have asked me for my perspective, you will have to ask other people that question,” Ms Worden said.
“You asked me a direct question about a matter and I’ll say what my part was and the answer is no.”
Ms Finocchiaro said Ms Worden was “happy for police to suffer the hit” from the undisclosed payout.
“Our police force is already under resourced and overworked, and so a sizeable sum being removed without replacement is going to impact their ability to serve and protect our community,” Ms Finocchiaro said.
“My concern is around the fact that as the minister, you’re not championing that portfolio and trying to make sure that you’ve got as much resources as possible for our police.”
Ms Worden said the police budget, which is $526.1m in the upcoming financial year, was large enough to cop the loss.
Both Ms Worden and estimates committee chair Brent Potter also argued questions surrounding Mr Chalker’s payout were not relevant to the 2023-24 budget as they tried to shut down the interrogation.
Araluen MLA Robyn Lambley hit back saying it was not unusual for the opposition and independents to be given “some latitude” to ask broader questions within the public interest.
“Usually ministers are fairly open to that because we get such few occasions or opportunities to scrutinise the government,” she said.
“This is not about government determining what is or isn’t scrutinised. It is about democracy, Mr Chair.”
Chalker payout to impact police budget bottom-line
Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro kicked off questions on Wednesday, attacking Treasurer Eva Lawler on the sum of Mr Chalker’s payout and the government’s legal fees.
After confirming treasury did not provide the police budget extra money to cover the payout, Ms Lawler said she had “no idea at all” whether the compensation was a seven-figure sum.
“I have had no line of sight around that, as is appropriate,” she said.
To a question on the sum of the government’s legal fees in the Supreme Court dispute, Ms Lawler said: “Again that’s a question for the Police Minister or the Minister of Public Employment, I have no line of sight around that matter at all.”
Ms Lawler and the estimates committee chair, Labor’s Fannie Bay MLA Brent Potter, also argued the Opposition Leader’s questions were not relevant to the Treasurer’s opening statement.
“I think you’re just making some things up here, really” Ms Lawler said to Ms Finocchiaro.
“I think we’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about some things that are really quite hypothetical.
“And I would like to actually talk about the economy and the budget in the Northern Territory.”
Ms Finocchiaro said it was “just another example of Labor turning (their) back on police”.
“The Treasurer has this morning admitted that the payout paid to Jamie Chalker was paid for out of the police budget, and no additional funds were provided to the police budget to support this figure,” she said.
“The Treasurer, despite being responsible for all expenditure of taxpayer dollars, continued to say that she had no idea how much the payout was, so could not name what services had to be cut from the police budget to fund this payout.
“Our hardworking police don’t deserve the level of disrespect and disregard shown to them by Labor.
“Our already under-resourced Police have paid for this Fyles Government stuff up.”
Mr Chalker officially stepped down as Police Commissioner in late April following a lengthy dispute and court challenge against the Territory government.
Sky News first revealed the Territory government had asked Mr Chalker to resign on April 1, six months before his contract ended, indicating they had lost confidence in him.
Mr Chalker’s high-profile lawyers issued a statement saying the Commissioner had always intended to finish his contract and seek a renewal, saying he remained “committed” to the police force and the safety of Territorians.
Ms Lawler also confirmed the damage bill to the Howard Springs crisis centre would fall on the existing infrastructure budget, with no additional government funds supplied to the department.
Crime not tourism’s biggest threat: Manison
Crime is not the biggest concern among travellers choosing not to come to the Territory, the government has claimed in budget estimates.
Tourism Minister Nicole Manison said cost of living and other outside pressures, such as airline connectivity and a trend towards travelling overseas again, were leading to a downturn in some markets.
It comes after Alice Springs accommodation providers reported numbers were significantly down at the Finke Desert Race over the long weekend, with one operator tracking a 57 per cent reduction.
“(Crime) is certainly something we listened to industry about, about some of the experiences some people have,” Ms Manison said.
“For some people, I’m sure that that has had an impact on the decision making.
“But the majority of where we’re hearing that those pressures are coming from are interest rate rises, trying to pay the bills, but also having more choice now about where people can actually go with more cruise ships back up and running, airline connectivity and those things.”
Tourism Central Australia chief executive Danial Rochford backed up the minister’s claims but said tackling crime was also “critical”.
“All of the above is critical but no doubt the feedback we’re getting is cost of living, cruise shipping and also the closure of the Fitzroy River Bridge are impacting tourism,” he said.
“Certainly it’s not going to be a record year and many members are still seeing significant declines compared to last year.
“But we are hopeful that the second half of the year will pick up … we’re going to see more of an international tourist surge later in the year.”
The opposition’s tourism spokeswoman and Brennan MLA Marie-Clare Boothby later told this publication the government was “unbelievably out of touch”.
“The facts are that if someone researching a holiday sees a destination not to be safe they will choose elsewhere,” Ms Boothby said.
“If the minister can’t see the correlation with crime and the NT missing out in a competitive market what hope can the industry have in her?
“The impacts of crime were batted away by the Labor minister on every occasion, as was the breakdown of the $35m commitment to ‘market harder’.
“The minister continued to say she was speaking to providers in Alice Springs who were telling her they were having a great season but she couldn’t even name one.”
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