Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has weighed in on the spiralling crime epidemic in the Northern Territory, telling Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson that authorities are not taking enough “action” against violent indigenous offenders because they “don’t want it to appear like a race issue.”
The County Liberal Party Senator said if authorities become too concerned about being labelled racist, they become less “affective when it comes to dealing with these crimes appropriately.”
“It’s happening because there has been lack of action,” Ms Nampijinpa Price said on Monday night during an appearance on Sharri.
“You know a lot of this violence the vast majority of the perpetrators are indigenous.
“Because authorities don’t want it to appear like a race issue they are less likely to be affective when it comes to dealing with these crimes appropriately.”
The former deputy mayor of Alice Springs said the crime wave plaguing the Territory is also due the fact that First Nations kids, are much less likely to be “removed from dysfunctional circumstances.”
“It speaks to the whole issue of child protection in the Northern Territory,” Ms Nampijinpa Price said.
“The children that are on our streets late at night. Because they are indigenous children they are treated differently and therefore aren’t necessarily removed from dysfunctional circumstances.”
Ms Nampijinpa Price also said there’s is an “acceptance of violence” within indigenous culture and it’s essential we start getting “honest” about that to tackle the issue.
“Traditional culture lends itself to the acceptance of violence,” she said.
“This is traditional acceptance of levels of violence and we need to start being honest about that, in order to actually effectively deal with the issue.”
It comes after terrifying footage emerged online of more than a dozen people running after each other wielding tomahawks and other makeshift weapons in a suburban Darwin street on Friday afternoon.
News Source: www.skynews.com.au
