Chief minister insists causes of crime being addressed
Lloyd Jones |
More than $500 million will go to one territory’s prison system to keep pace with tough new bail laws but the chief minister insists her government is also addressing the root causes of crime.
The Country Liberal Party government’s first budget for the Northern Territory delivered on Tuesday features a record $1.34 billion spend on police, corrections and justice.
Corrections services will get more than $500 million to ensure extra beds and services to cope with a boosted jail population resulting from the tougher bail laws, with youth offenders mainly impacted.
The government has been criticised by the Labor opposition and justice reform groups for taking a punitive approach to crime rather than tackling its root causes.
But Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro insists her government is taking decisive action to break the cycle of crime by addressing its causes through a package of early intervention, education, family support and housing initiatives in the budget.
“You don’t fix crime by only responding after it happens. You prevent it by investing in addressing the root causes of crime,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.
The budget had a strong emphasis on youth engagement, family safety and community wellbeing, she said.
Ms Finocchiaro said her government was driving reforms to improve school attendance and hold parents accountable for ensuring children attend.
That involved referring parents to income support if they deprived their children of education, school attendance officers issuing infringement notices for chronic non-attendance and more school-based police officers to promote safety.
The budget also delivers $204 million for family support services and $20.9 million for child protection, $138.6 million for out-of-home care and $73.2 million to support homelessness services.
It includes $6.6 million per annum in ongoing funding for the Circuit Breaker program operating in Darwin, Alice Springs and Katherine.
This initiative targets young people aged 10 to 17 who are at risk of entering the youth justice or child protection systems, offering case management and family support, supervised accommodation where needed, local supervision to keep at-risk youth off the streets and keeping kids in school and families accountable.
To tackle overcrowding and poor housing conditions the government is investing in up to 2700 new homes and a major repairs and maintenance program under the jointly funded $4 billion remote housing agreement.
A much-loved Darwin store owner’s fatal stabbing on April 23 inspired what are being billed as Australia’s toughest bail laws.
The NT government brought in the reforms barely a week after 71-year-old Linford Feick was allegedly stabbed to death by a teenager who was on bail for “serious matters” and has since been charged with murder.
When the bail laws were passed Opposition Leader Selena Uibo said Labor would support them “in good faith” but they were a “band-aid solution”.
Justice Reform Initiative executive director Mindy Sotiri said the record spend on law and order was “a clear example of getting the policy and resource settings completely wrong”.
“The NT remains Australia’s most imprisoned jurisdiction, with an incarceration rate three times greater than anywhere else in Australia – and that number continues to rise due to punitive legislative settings,” she said.
AAP
