Tough talk to tackle Top End crime wave

The Labor government and the Country ­Liberal ­opposition are once again back to competing over who can be tougher on crime.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

Five years after Australians were shocked by images of young people being mistreated in Northern Territory jails, sparking a royal commission, the Labor government and the Country ­Liberal ­opposition are once again back to competing over who can be tougher on crime.

The Territory is again in the grip of a crime wave, which Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker have sought to blame partly on higher welfare payments during the pandemic stoking alcoholism, violence and child welfare problems.

Officials quote youth recidivism rates strikingly similar to those released in years past — an indication that the pathways from poverty and disadvantage to incarceration remain active, and that the policies introduced to break them have not worked.

Following a spate of unpleasant incidents — such as a woman who says she woke to find herself being sexually assaulted by a 15-year-old who had broken into her home — both parties announced plans to introduce similar law ­reforms to parliament.

Labor wants to tighten bail conditions, expand the use of electronic-monitoring ankle straps and give police extra powers to breathalyse and drug-test young people caught driving motor vehicles.

The opposition wants to remove the presumption in favour of bail (a policy introduced in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT), make breach of bail an offence, and impose electronic-monitoring on alleged young offenders not incarcerated.

Mr Gunner said his government would close a “loophole” allowing youngsters sentenced to diversion to walk away if they failed to complete their programs.

“These are things that have slipped through past governments, both ours and the CLP,” he said. “I was genuinely surprised that was a loophole that existed.”

Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro ridiculed his remark, saying her party had been “talking about this for three years” and ­accusing Mr Gunner of “trying to hide behind” laws that he didn’t understand.

“What we’ve seen is a complete and utter lack of action or acknowledgment from the Gunner government; that its weak laws have contributed to the spike in crime we’ve seen right across the Territory,” she said.

Amnesty International condemned the Gunner government’s plans as a reversal of some of the changes Labor previously made to help stop a repeat of the problems seen at Darwin’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.

“This is a callous, racist legislative crackdown in search of a problem,” Indigenous rights advocate Rodney Dillon said.

“Chief Minister Gunner has picked up the royal commission report and thrown it in the bin.”

Police Minister Nicole Manison said higher welfare payments had a “huge” impact. “We saw the COVID money flow through … and unfortunately … an increase in alcohol consumption and an increase in assaults,” she said.