Doorstop with NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson and Victorian Police Minister Bob Cameron
National Convention Centre, Canberra
2 July 2010
Topics: National Youth Policing Model; resources rent tax; asylum seekers
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: Today is a very important day for the national police agreement on youth. This is an issue that confronts all communities in Australia. We are very concerned with the way in which we deal with young people. What we do know is that young people are in the higher bracket as offenders and as victims of crime. And we need to therefore do as much as we possibly can to prevent young people being victims of crime or young people being offenders.
For that reason, the police ministers today met to discuss the best way to deal with this challenge and we've reached agreement on a National Youth Policing Model, a set of understandings around the way in which we should operate in the future.
That includes borrowing the best ideas from around the country to adapt to other places. Ensuring that we have, for example, a strong response to drug and alcohol abuse amongst young people. Ensuring we have a strong response to the way in which young people are driving on our roads. Ensuring we have the best practice approach to diversionary strategies to ensure that young people are not offending, that young people are not attracted to anti-social behaviour.
The best way we can do that is to borrow those ideas that are successful in other jurisdictions. And so for example, if it's working in Victoria why can it not be adapted for other parts of the country? If it's working in Darwin why can it not be adapted and used in other parts of this country?
That is the approach that we want to take out of the discussions we held today. We want to reduce the likelihood of young people offending. We want to reduce the likelihood of young people being victims.
We do know that if you're a victim when you're young in life, you are more likely to be an offender later in life. For that reason and for the concern that the community have about young people acting, in some cases, in an anti-social manner, in a violent manner, we have got together, as governments, in order to confront and deal with this challenge.
BOB CAMERON: Well, thank you very much, Brendan. Can I just say that, you know, we've got great young Australians. The bulk of them are going to grow up and they're going to make this nation great. But, of course, as in every cohort of young people, there's a very small number that are unfortunately possessed with anti-social behaviour, that get involved in crime, that get involved in strife and in mischief.
And sometimes, you know, they're otherwise good kids. They just, they get a bit off the tracks, and what we need to do is look across the board as to what are the best things to try and get kids back on the tracks as quickly as possible.
Because what we do know from experience - and I practised law for 10 years - if you get a kid that goes off the track one or two times he'll probably go off the track again three or four times. But if you can get them early, get a diversion program in early, then more than likely you will be able to pull them back.
So having a strategy, having a framework really for us to work through, I think is going to be very important. The sharing of ideas is so essential because when it comes to youth there is no one simple solution. Anybody who thinks that the issue of dealing with youth and youth crime is simple is kidding themselves. It's complicated and recognising that it's complicated and learning from each other is going to be very important as we go forward.
PAUL HENDERSON: Thank you, Bob. It's great today that we've been able to come together, the Commonwealth and all of the states, to sign off on a national model for youth policing. And certainly, as Bob was just saying, the vast majority of young people around Australia are great Australians and they're great kids.
But too many find themselves being victims of crime or perpetrators of crime, and this is about collaboration. This is about sharing best practice. This is about what works and sharing what works around Australia in terms of early intervention, in terms of diversion.
Certainly, juvenile diversion in the Northern Territory, the jury is well and truly out. It works. Diversion programs quite successfully ensure that 70 per cent to 80 per cent of young Territorians who get involved with police, if they go on a diversion program they're very unlikely to reoffend.
So we want to learn about what is best practice with juvenile diversion programs, get those kids into those programs, because they do ensure that kids, if they have been on a successful diversion programs don't reoffend.
So this is about collaboration, about sharing best practice and it's a good agreement with police ministers today.
JOURNALIST: Mr O'Connor, how quickly can this new agreement be put in place?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: What we've done today is reach agreement on a set of principles and strategies. The work had been already undertaken through our offices and the departments to come to a position that will be more effective in our community. And we start from today to make sure we formally share information - as the other ministers have said - share information so we use the best practice approach to protecting our community, to preventing young people getting into either anti-social behaviour or attracted to a life of crime.
And that means we've not only got to have a policing strategy in place but we also, and it's referred to in the model, look to those other social services that young people require, as the Chief Minister said, to prevent them falling into this trap.
And the other thing we know, of course, is that we also intervene to prevent people committing an offence again. We know we can actually tackle recidivism, by intervening early and using diversionary tactics, strategies to get them engaged in employment and in study.
If we can do that, if we can stop people falling between the gaps between employment and education, we will have done a better job for young people in this country and we would have made, as a result, our communities much safer.
JOURNALIST: So much of the structure's there, is that what you're saying? Much of the structure's there for the communication between the Commonwealth and the states, and the states and the states?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: That's absolutely right. There are already existing initiatives that are doing a great job in all jurisdictions. We need to really pick those best initiatives and apply them nationally, adapting them to local communities.
So what works necessarily in the Northern Territory - and the Chief Minister can talk about this - may not work exactly the same way elsewhere. But certain elements of it may be very applicable to other parts of Australia. Paul, if you wanted to add to that.
PAUL HENDERSON: Certainly in the Northern Territory we've got a number of diversion programs, for example, for young Indigenous people in Darwin and Palmerston, where there are Indigenous non-government organisations that will take these kids out of Darwin, out of Palmerston, out into a remote setting and reconnect some of those Indigenous kids back with their culture, back with their elders, in regards to what is right and what is wrong.
And there's no difference between Indigenous culture in terms of what is right and what is wrong, in terms of non-Indigenous. And sometimes it's just about breaking the cycle, giving young people some breathing space, having them surrounded by people with profile and people that they respect as strong role models. And certainly the evidence and the jury is very well and truly out that people come out of those experiences reconnected back into the mainstream and cease their offending.
So you know, it is about sharing best practice, what works, and we now have a mechanism to do that.
JOURNALIST: Chief Minister, the resources rent tax, obviously you've been a supporter of Kevin Rudd's plan. Are you disappointed about the concessions that the Federal Government has made?
PAUL HENDERSON: Oh, not at all. I'm very pleased today to see that at last we've got an agreement. I've been saying from day one that a profits based resource tax is a good tax. We've had this in place in the Northern Territory since 1982 and it has not been a barrier to investment in the mining industry.
So the Northern Territory should always have been, in this debate, a focus on, hey, this can work and it really was to do with the structure of the tax, some of the detail around that. And I have said from day one that this is a tax that does work. It has worked in the Northern Territory. Australians only get one opportunity to exploit these resources and it's certainly more than appropriate that all Australians share in the benefits of those resources.
I urged from day one that the Australian Government and the mining companies sit down, negotiate in good faith, around a profits based tax that the mining industry has always argued for because in the Northern Territory it has been a good tax that has seen significant expansion of our resources industry.
So I'm delighted today that there has been agreement. It's been common sense that's been brought to the table, a win-win outcome for the mining industry for all Australians. This is a good day.
JOURNALIST: Minister O'Connor, are you able to shed any light on reports of a boat carrying about 70 asylum seekers this morning?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: I can confirm I've been advised by Customs and Border Protection, there is a vessel that's been located and boarded at Christmas Island. I haven't been advised to all of the facts but I can confirm that.
As you know what we do as a government is ensure that we rigorously assess the circumstances in which a vessel may have arrived in our shores. In many cases that's an interception at which point the Customs and Border Protection have an obligation to firstly undertake the care of those passengers onboard. Secondly ensure that they do so and they have them board their own vessel in a safe manner.
After which there are other assessments made. At this point I can confirm the vessel. But I do not want to go into the details until I've been properly advised. There's already been too often a misreporting by some media outlets about vessels and I will announce as soon as I possibly can - it will be sometime today - the other facts that I normally disclose as soon as they've been confirmed to me properly.
And I certainly won't be speculating because that's not what governments do.
JOURNALIST: Mr O'Connor, has the amount of boats this year had any impact on the government's stance towards asylum seekers?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: We are very concerned about the vessels that seek to come to our shores in such a manner. As the Prime Minister has made very clear, she is very well aware of the anxiety that some members have in the community about these vessels and about the way in which they seek to come to our shores.
It's for that reason this government dedicates more resources than any other government previously in protecting our borders. We have more aircraft and more fleet and we work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every week, every year to make sure that we protect our borders. That's what the Australian community expect.
As a result of the dedication of more resources, we have had a much greater record in preventing undetected arrivals on the mainland. Under the previous government, almost 10 boats landed on the mainland, including in places close to some very significant communities, Townsville, Cairns. The New South Wales coast was also a place where vessels were arriving.
We had, the Chief Minister's here, we had under the previous government vessels arriving in Northern Territory and Western Australia. Now, we've had a much better record.
But of course in the end, this matter, this challenge will be dealt with by increasing our cooperation with countries within the region, working closely with transit and source countries so that we can slow and ultimately stop these vessels.
We believe that we are, as signatories to the UN convention, that we should treat people properly. But if they are not refugees they will be sent home.
JOURNALIST: Can you shed any light on the 000 call that was made last night?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: I cannot confirm all of the matters that went to this vessel. I've been, as you might understand, at a conference all day today. I've been advised as to the existence of a vessel at Christmas Island and I will be disclosing shortly, the facts surrounding that vessel.
JOURNALIST: Obviously the boat itself was discovered in Australian waters. What does the government need to do to ensure that these vessels don't necessarily make it undetected into Australian waters?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: Well, firstly we can't intercept a vessel outside of Australian waters. We can only intercept a vessel pursuant to law inside the waters. As I've said, Customs and Border Protection, that is our naval personnel and our Customs and Border Protection personnel, do a magnificent job in preventing these vessels hitting the mainland which is by way of comparison, a much better performance than was the case under the previous government.
So we'll just continue to make sure we do our very best in preventing these vessels hitting our mainland. We will continue to work very closely with countries within the region. As I've made clear recently, there have been significant disruptions in Indonesia. The Australian Federal Police work very closely with the Indonesian National Police to disrupt those ventures. So basically disrupting people smuggling syndicates that seek to lure people onto dangerous vessels on perilous journeys, take their life savings and place them in danger.
This is something that this government takes very seriously. That's why we work so closely with the Indonesian Government. That's why there's been more than 3800 people disrupted from embarking on journeys from Indonesia. In fact, in total in the region, almost 5000 people have been prevented embarking on these vessels because of the work of our agencies in those countries working closely with their counterparts.
JOURNALIST: If this latest vessel does have genuine refugees, Christmas Island is near capacity. Where are these people going to go?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: Christmas Island is not at capacity but as you've said you know, we are dealing with an increased number of people seeking asylum. That's as a result of the external factors. It's as a result of the conflict in Sri Lanka and of course the increased violence in some parts of Afghanistan.
We will continue to deal with this in a practical manner. These are practical challenges. So, for example, Minister Evans has increased accommodation on Christmas Island. But let's not forget, the Christmas Island Detention Centre was built by the Howard Government for $405 million of tax payers' money. They did that after 2002, after they had supposedly stopped the boats. The reason they built the Christmas Island Detention Centre, commissioned it in 2002 for it to be complete in 2006 was because they knew then, like they know now that from time-to-time people will seek to come to our shores in this manner.
And the Gillard Government is working very hard with countries in the region to prevent these vessels coming to our shores, prevent people leaving Indonesia and other countries, through working very closely with the Indonesian National Police, working closely with their People Smuggling Taskforce and will continue to do that because we want to prevent people endangering their lives and we respect the fact that people in our community are anxious about the way in which they seek to come to our country.
And we'll continue to do whatever we can to slow and ultimately stop the vessels.
Thanks very much.
