Northern Territory criminal law faces an overhaul with repeat and violent alleged offenders to be refused bail and the age of criminal responsibility lowered again to 10, in what the incoming Country Liberal party chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro, says are her priorities after a landslide victory in Saturday’s territory election.
Finocchiaro met the territory’s police chief, Michael Murphy, and top official, Ken Davies, on Sunday and announced on Monday that she expected parliament to resume in mid-to-late October, with a tightening of bail laws her first order of business.
“Our public service, and particularly our police and whole of government response to addressing law and order is something that must be started immediately,” Finocchiaro said in Darwin on Monday.
“Community safety is by far the greatest issue facing the territory and all other good things will come from having law and order across the territory.”
Finocchiaro’s CLP swept to power on Saturday, securing at least 16 of the territory’s 25 seats and reducing Labor to possibly as few as four, after eight years in office.
The incoming chief minister said that within the first parliamentary week, she would introduce what she has called “Declan’s law”, named after 20-year-old bottle shop worker Declan Laverty who was murdered last year by a teenager on bail for aggravated assault.
“I said in no uncertain terms to the police commissioner that his police have our full support, that they will be provided with the laws and the resources they need to make our community safe.”
She said she would also return the age of criminal responsibility to 10, which the Labor government raised to 12 two years ago, “so that young people can be held accountable and that appropriate consequences for their age are delivered”.
Finocchiaro wants to introduce “boot camps” among mandatory diversionary programs for young offenders.
“It’s not just about dealing with young people or offenders once they’re already committing crimes,” she said. “This is about making sure we give kids every opportunity in life to succeed, and that’s why our focus on getting kids to school is a very important part of our plan to reduce crime.”
She said she would press ahead with introducing a retention bonus for police and shifting responsibility for youth justice away from the territory families department and back to the corrections portfolio.
Asked if she planned to seek support across the NT parliament or use her now-overwhelming majority to ram through changes, she said she preferred cooperation but that “this is about delivering on the mandate that Territorians have given us”.
“They want to see change, and we must deliver that.”
Finocchiaro’s campaign platform also promised to reintroduce truancy officers to police school absences and vowed to hold parents accountable for their children’s criminal behaviour by threatening to have government benefits restricted.
“If parents are not caring for their children’s basic needs they will be referred to commonwealth income management like the basics card,” the CLP platform said.
Finocchiaro’s incoming government also inherits more than $10bn in debt and has not outlined any detailed debt-reduction plan.
“There will need to be some reprioritisation of pet projects and wasteful spending,” she said.
