'Come out and call me racist': NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro blasts ‘placard-waving activists' fighting her crime crackdown, flags more youth justice changes
The NT Government will urgently pass changes to the Youth Justice Act this week following the stabbing of a 15-year-old boy at the Royal Darwin Show on Saturday night.
The boy remains in a serious condition in Royal Darwin Hospital while police have charged another 15-year-old boy with recklessly endangering life and possessing a weapon.
There has been widespread criticism of the CLP Government's tough approach to crime, including from the NT Children's Commissioner and the Territory's four biggest land councils.
They have argued for an 'evidence-based' approach to addressing crime, while the Northern Land Council accused the government of implementing racist policy.
But Mrs Finocchiaro said the incident was 'not normal' and would not be accepted by her government.
'The Children's Commissioner can come out and say things like 'everyone should be safe but', and the Land Councils can come out and call me racist and whatever else they want to carry on about,' she told Mix FM radio.
'At the end of the day I'm standing here as the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory because everyday Territorians put me here, and they gave me an important job to do and I can tell you, we're doing that job.
'The noisy people and the apologists and the activists, they can pack up their placards and go home. We're not listening to you.
'We're listening to people who want to be safe, we're listening to our police, and we're seeing a better future for the Territory, and if your evidence-based approach worked, we wouldn't be talking about this right now because I tell you what, for a decade I sat in parliament and listened to Labor bang on about evidence-based approach and where has it got us, in the worst possible position that we've ever been in before.'
The legislative changes will roll back many of the policies implemented following the 2017 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children.
It will remove the requirement for detention to be a last resort for children, make the completion of diversion programs compulsory and return the use of spit hoods to youth detention facilities.
In a joint statement issued last week, the Northern, Central, Anindilyakwa and Tiwi land councils called on the Federal Government to intervene over the NT Government's failure to address shocking rates of Aboriginal incarceration.
'Federal funding for our people props up the NT's budget,' Northern Land Council chair Matthew Ryan said.
'The Australian government needs to hold the NT government accountable and make sure its laws and policies match the intent of that funding – to help our communities.'
But Mrs Finocchiaro said she would not change her government's approach.
'Yes, our Aboriginal incarceration rates are huge,' she said.
'It's appalling. But does that mean if an Aboriginal person breaks the law that we don't arrest them? Does it mean we don't send an Aboriginal person to prison because they're Aboriginal, that's just not how law works.'
The Chief Minister denied her government was implementing racist policy.
'It's very, very cheap politics to go to race,' she said.
'It's the lowest form of political exchange so I'm not interested in it. At the end of the day the law is colourblind, it doesn't know what religion you are, it doesn't know anything about you, it's applied equally and it's about doing the right thing.
'You make a law and it applies to everyone. I say this until I'm blue in the face and I can't believe I have to say this, but if you do the right thing you're all good.'
Northern Territory Opposition Leader Selena Uibo said the government had broken its promise to fix crime after winning last August's election.
"The CLP continue to use slogans and catchy phrases but they fail to do the work and the heavy lifting expected of them,' she said.
'They promised Territorians they would make the Territory safer. We have not seen that in the 11 months of the CLP Government."
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