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FROM PARLIAMENT
Lia Finocchiaro Shadow Police Minister
WHERE’S THE SUPPORT FOR OUR POLICE? It's been another incredibly tough year and you have, again, gone above and beyond to uphold your oath to serve and protect. As always, we thank you for keeping Territorians safe.
LIA FINOCCHIARO MLA, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR POLICE
What your members were subjected to on the weekend of the Darwin lockout can’t be described as anything less than disgusting. We condemn in the strongest terms those who made the appalling decision to attack police, and we continue to work with the NTPA to strengthen laws around assaults on police and emergency service workers – including mandatory sentencing. I’d also like to highlight recent messaging from police that should be sending serious alarm bells to the Gunner Labor Government that its law and order policy – and in particular youth justice reform – isn’t working.
“The community expects police to be everything to everyone.” That’s what Superintendent Tony Deutrom told ABC radio Alice Springs on October 21. He’s absolutely right. We’ve seen the slow creep of police duties extend to liquor licensing inspectors, COVID compliance and CHO direction enforcement, taxi drivers for youths when there’s no one else to take them home, or ferrying chronic alcoholics to sobering up shelters. Superintendent Deutrom went on to say “Our prisons are full, our Youth Detention centres are full, our health system is clogged up with alcohol-related and harm issues, our public housing system is jammed up, there’s a
