Albo’s visit to Alice raises big questions
The Prime Minister must think Territorians are mugs when reflecting on his Monday night stay in Alice Springs, telling Australians his decisions have made them safer and that there was really nothing to see. The PM declared on radio “we had a drive around and there was not a lot happening to be frank” after cruising with his security detail and entourage on a Monday late-night drive. Is it sheer coincidence he jetted in on Monday and out on Tuesday when legislation dictates there are no takeaway liquor sales on those days and when local frontline workers enjoy a regular, weekly reprieve from alcohol-fuelled domestic and family violence incidents.
Funny that he talks about seeing “concrete examples” of his government’s more than $300m investment, when locals’ response to his ideological mess is to put up bigger fences, higher walls and install more roller shutters.
If I were a gambler, I’d bet he didn’t drop into any family violence services, nor accredited, evidencebased perpetrator programs to learn about outcomes not simply attendance. Oh, and did he take the cameras to service providers like Tangentyere Council, which received a chunk of that $300m and is now making headlines for all the wrong reasons?
The Coalition will continue to call for an inquiry into decision making and we can start with the taxpayer funds distributed for a so-called Better, Safer Future for Central Australia – something locals no doubt
Everyon“e benefits from a better, safer community
have told him they were not feeling. Did he tell Territorians he promised 500 community service workers two years ago providing “practical, immediate action in delivering” them, with 20 for the Northern Territory?
And did he tell them despite the 20 per cent increase in violence across the Territory that what he had actually delivered when he made that statement was absolutely nothing.
While school funding is important money for infrastructure, it does not get kids to school; parents and carers do, but did you hear about individual responsibility? When he said he wanted to look at retention at the Alice Springs School he visited because it was up, he should have more closely checked the facts. School attendance in the NT is up 1.2 per cent but that is nothing to boast about as at Centralian College, term 4 2023 data shows it is up 2 per cent to 67 per cent but the senior school is down 2 per cent to 56.9 per cent – so zero improvement really.
Everyone benefits from a better, safer community.
It starts with a focus on children, with high expectations and delivering on what was promised and intended. Whatever you call it, ‘we’’ will be asking more about the $300m Better, Safer Central Australian Plan to understand what it has actually achieved to make Central Australia better and safer.
Along with my colleague, shadow minister for Indigenous Australians Senator Nampijinpa Price and as shadow minister for Child Protection and Prevention of Family Violence, I will continue to seek an audit and with that, fact, not fiction.