• 4 months ago
Meanwhile, safety concerns and high rates of crimes have been the hot button issues in the Northern Territory all year and they could have a big impact on the NT election result in less than two weeks. But what will it actually mean for those on the ground?

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00:00It was stolen, driven around town and then it was taken out and then set on fire and
00:07burnt to the ground.
00:09Ben Crawford has called Alice Springs his home for life, but crime and a perceived failure
00:16of the government to address its drivers has left many like him on the brink.
00:21This place has pushed them to the end, it's pushed them to the end and they've just got
00:24enough.
00:25I can't, I just can't deal with it.
00:26Shame, shame, shame.
00:30With a territory election looming, the questions keep coming about what it will take to bring
00:35down the crime rates and when.
00:38A bottle shop worker has been killed in a brazen stabbing in Darwin's northern suburbs.
00:43My government will declare an emergency situation in Alice Springs.
00:47It starts with our police needing better powers.
00:50Governments have failed us, let's be real.
00:54On the other side of the territory, it's training day for the Palmerston Raiders.
00:59Talk to anyone here, crime has flow-on effects on their daily lives.
01:04Unfortunately, you'd like to say it's avoidable but it's not, it's there, it's raw, it's in
01:08your face.
01:09It could be just down the road.
01:11Yasmin Isaac knows it all too well, her family home in the remote Top End was recently ransacked.
01:18My parents went back to see, you know, people walk into a house and just take everything.
01:24Yeah, felt very violated.
01:27Here in the Northern Territory last year saw a record number of assaults, unlawful entries
01:32and motor vehicle thefts.
01:35Now both major parties are promising voters they can bring down crime rates.
01:40On Labor's side, they're offering more than half a billion dollars for police to increase
01:45the number of officers on the streets over the coming years.
01:49They'll also repurpose two rehabilitation facilities into low-security women's prisons
01:55and earlier this year passed legislation empowering the police commissioner to be able to call
02:00a curfew across the Northern Territory.
02:03On the other hand, the country Liberal Party want to lower the age of criminal responsibility
02:08from 12 to 10 years old.
02:10They also want to introduce youth boot camps and prisoner programs as well as build new
02:16jails and make breach of bail a criminal offence.
02:21Some aren't waiting on the government to find solutions.
02:24Raiders President Rod Greenwood, or Greeny as he's known by the players, knows the value
02:29of a safe place.
02:32His team offering a chance for those caught up by the impacts of crime to blow off some
02:37steam on the paddock.
02:39We've got police officers, we've got people that have unfortunately, they've had to serve
02:42their punishment or do their time but they've come here and be equal with everyone and get
02:47to play the game together and you know that's the best part about a club.
02:52For this organisation in Darwin, working with mainly First Nations boys and men to try help
02:58steer them away from a path of crime, it's not the major parties that have the solutions.
03:03The way we do things are different and they have to be different because what's happening
03:08right now with the youth justice responses doesn't work.
03:11What does good help look like for you?
03:14Four years ago Jai Cardona started Brother to Another.
03:18He says short term solutions can't create the lasting change required for a safer Northern
03:24Territory.
03:25We need to look at multi-generational change which won't happen in an election cycle, which
03:30most politicians and most parties don't want to look at those long term solutions because
03:35one it might not be pretty enough or it just might not happen with significant change in
03:41that four years as opposed to hitting a curfew or changing an age or having more police.
03:48A firm belief that the answers to the NT's crime problems already exist in the community
03:53and now it's up to the next government to prove it's listening.

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