The CLP Government's crime-focused first parliamentary sittings continue, as legislation ensuring minimum mandatory sentences for cowardly assaults on front line workers is set to be introduced.
Minister for Logistics and Infrastructure Bill Yan said assaults on police, paramedics, nurses, doctors, teachers, corrections officers, retail and hospitality workers, bus and taxi drivers, and any other NT worker who is undertaking work in accordance with their duties, was unacceptable.
He said the reforms, to be introduced, debated, and passed in Parliament this week, aligned with community expectations.
"In the election, just eight weeks ago, the CLP was given a clear mandate to deliver these changes to keep our community safe. This crime crisis needs a crisis response," said Mr Yan.
"This includes making spitting on a frontline worker trigger a three-month minimum mandatory sentence.
"Spitting on, punching, kicking or biting police and Territory workers should result in a mandatory minimum sentence, not a get out of jail free card."
It comes as horrific vision from inside a Darwin bus shows what front line workers deal with every single day.
In the vision, a man asks the bus driver to turn his music down but when he's asked to take his seat, he jumps over the top of the barricade, jumping on the driver's head while travelling at speed.
"This footage is sickening, and shows just how desperately we need this legislation," he said.
"No one should go to work and think they might be a victim of a crime like this but it's the reality for many workers in the Territory and it's not good enough."
Mr Yan will table a petition on behalf of the Transport Workers Union to install fit-for-purpose driver protection screens in all Darwin buses.
"It is shocking that in eight years, the former Labor government spent millions of dollars on pet projects but couldn't install something as simple as protection screens for drivers," he said.
"We are already well underway implementing this so bus drivers can do what they're paid to do, and that's get Territorians to their location safely."
The CLP's proposed changes mean:
Assaults on police or emergency workers involving physical harm, or spitting on a frontline worker, will carry a mandatory minimum sentence of three months' imprisonment, including for first-time offenders. Currently, no mandatory minimum exists for spitting.Assaults on police or emergency workers without physical harm will result in a mandatory Community Correction Order, even for first-time offenders. Currently, no mandatory minimum applies.Assaults on workers where physical harm is caused and the offender has a prior conviction for a violent offence, will now carry a mandatory minimum sentence of a term of actual imprisonment. Currently, no mandatory minimum applies.Assaults on workers by a first-time offender where physical harm is caused, will attract a mandatory Community Correction Order. Currently, no mandatory minimum exists.
