NT News calls for help to reclaim Territory from scourge of violent crime

It’s time to stand up and reclaim our homes, our lives and our safety from the scourge of violent crime that is affecting our communities, but we can’t do it alone.

There is a fury building in the hearts of Territorians.

It’s a fury that needs to extend beyond our borders and into the hearts of every Australian.

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese smiled for the cameras and announced a new NRL team for Papua New Guinea on Thursday morning, an Alice Springs mother sat by her two-month-old daughter’s bed after her skull was beaten in – allegedly by two youth offenders, who we are told both had extensive criminal histories.

This mother did everything she could to protect her baby and three other children during the horrifying ordeal, but now she and her husband are faced with a heartbreaking wait to ascertain whether their child has lasting brain damage.

They should have been safe in their home enjoying the school holidays; instead, they were allegedly terrorised by two teenagers who, by all accounts, should have been locked up.

Their story is, sadly, not unique.

It’s time to stand up and reclaim our homes, our lives and our safety from the scourge of violent crime that is affecting our communities.

But we can’t do it alone.

We need a united front from the very top echelons of government in this country to the everyday people of every community.

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy were on the first flight to Alice Springs on Thursday morning in the wake of the incident to stand before the cameras and announce essentially nothing.

We appreciate the government has inherited a mess from eight years of poor leadership in this space from previous Labor governments – but it should not have taken a baby’s skull being fractured for our leaders to respond.

Their actions now are simply damage control.

It seems the plan is to rob Peter to pay Paul by moving police resources from other jurisdictions in the Territory, leaving them unprotected – and so the cycle continues.

The Australian Federal Police, Defence and the PM have not been called in to help.

So, we will do it for them.

Consider this our call to arms. This is our SOS. We need help – now.