Jail for police assaults
THE CLP will introduce new laws to parliament this week to mandate jail time for people who assault frontline workers.
It comes amid damning surveys of the NT Police workforce, which show officers are some of the unhappiest in the nation.
The Sunday Territorian can reveal the opposition will seek to legislate that assaults on police and other frontline workers will result in tougher penalties than common assaults. The laws will include assaults on healthcare workers, paramedics and bus drivers, as well as police.
The NT Police Association has long called for mandatory sentencing for assaults on frontline workers.
But an NT Legal Aid submission in 2018 criticised such laws, saying many perpetrators of violence against officers were “in a state of intoxication and/or agitation”, and “the last thing on their mind would be penal consequences”.
Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said she was a strong believer in deterrence and that she felt the laws would help courts in punishing those offenders who targeted frontline workers.
“If you have strong laws, they act as strong deterrent,” Ms Finocchiaro said.
“We need as (politicians) to meet the expectation of the community, and also set boundaries for our courts to be able to implement.
“So while our courts have great discretion as they should, it’s also important that we’re setting the minimum and the maximum barriers of what the expectation is.”
The CLP will introduce the reforms in parliament this coming week, with politicians to vote it into law in May.
Ms Finocchiaro said she “couldn’t see why” the laws could not get bipartisan support.
Parliament spent much of last week fixated on the crime crisis engulfing parts of the Territory, in particular Alice Springs.
Last week, Police Minister Nicole Manison outlined what the government had done to
bring down crime, including removing youth justice from the Corrections portfolio, cracking down on “ringleaders” who recruit young kids to crime, and tackling recidivism.