LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
SELENA UIBO MLA
Lia’s lack of Planning leaves Communities Un-protected
17/12/24
The Labor Opposition is calling on the Government to confirm to Territorians that there will be adequate police resources in their communities over the holiday period.
Despite predictable crime spikes over summer in Alice Springs and months of warnings from locals, Lia Finocchiaro and the Country Liberal Government did nothing to prepare.
Lia has been forced to act after a number of deplorable incidents, with additional police now sent to Alice Springs. There should have been a strengthened and visible police presence in place weeks ago.
It is extremely concerning that there was a shocking spate of violent crime in Katherine over the weekend with reports of only one police unit in a town of 10,000 people to respond. This simply isn’t good enough.
The Chief Minister needs to come out and tell Territorians what police resourcing is in place; not just for Alice Springs, but for Tennant Creek, Katherine, Darwin and everywhere in between over this period.
This Government loves to spruik its plans for arresting people after crimes have been committed but they have never had any answers for preventing crime in the first place.
The Chief Minister won’t even call a curfew for Alice Springs which has been shown to work as a crime circuit breaker.
Quotes attributed to Leader of the Opposition Selena Uibo:
“How could a politician who staked her entire political career on fixing crime, not plan for summer in Alice Springs?
"Instead of preparing Alice Springs over summer, the Chief Minister has been issuing press release after press release congratulating herself on rushing her new laws through Parliament, but they won’t take effect until next year. If she thought they would help, why wait?
“Territorians are now in a position where police are being pulled from their communities because Lia has no plans for preventing crime. The CLP Government needs to act now to ensure that communities right across the Territory have enough police on deck over the holiday period.
“Prior to the election the CLP claimed they had a “plan of action” but the last week has shown they only had a plan to get elected – not to protect Territorians.”