Dutton, Price in Darwin to rally around CLP as crime focus of election agenda

The opposition has met with business leaders and frontline workers in Darwin for a ‘confronting’ roundtable on crime, as federal pollies give weight to CLP election campaign.

NT Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, NT Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro, Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and CLP candidate Clinton Howe doorstop in Darwin after a roundtable to discuss crime in the NT. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton met with business leaders and frontline workers in Darwin for what he described as a “confronting” roundtable on crime.

Mr Dutton, joined by Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, threw their support behind NT Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro ahead of the August 24 election, with hopes a CLP victory could turn the tide on Labor governance.

“Today we’ve heard from a lot of local Territorians who are really concerned about where Labor has delivered the Territory, and that is to a situation where people are worried about their businesses,” Mr Dutton said.

“We’ve heard a lot about not just the impact on businesses, but on households as well. This is not how it should be and there’s a much better way.”

Mr Dutton said the economy was suffering because of law and order issues, creating a less certain environment for businesses to invest and grow.

“When you don’t enforce the rule of law, when you don’t provide support to the police, when you don’t provide support to local households and local small businesses, there’s a price to pay – there’s an economic price, as well as a law and order price to pay,” he said.

Mr Dutton hit out at Anthony Albanese’s Garma speech, in which part of the PM’s renewed vision for economic development in the bush was to extend the Future Made in Australia renewables agenda.

“The Prime Minister’s response here is that he wants to build wind turbines and solar panels in Indigenous communities,” Mr Dutton said.

“We want there to be jobs and to be housing, we want people to be gainfully employed, we want good health services, but you can’t do that if you pretend that there’s nothing wrong.”

He said a coalition government would “improve” funding to combat domestic violence in the NT.

NT Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price addresses the crime roundtable in Darwin. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Senator Price said the NT was “suffering” under government failures on crime.

“We’ve seen a Prime Minister who has come with weasel words to the Northern Territory on several occasions, who’s splashed around $250m in Central Australia that seemingly does nothing to improve the crime, the rate of abuse, that locals are experiencing on a daily basis,” she said.

Chief Minister Eva Lawler said Mr Dutton was welcome to “try talk up Lia’s prospects”, but Labor had “done the hard yards”.

Ms Lawler pointed to $570m extra police funding, curfew legislation, and new residential youth justice facilities.