ADAM STEER, HOST: This week students from six Darwin public schools were banned from Casuarina Square for 48 hours due to fighting and generally running amok. Acting Children's Commissioner Nicole Hucks said this.

AUDIO – NICOLE HUCKS, ACTING NT CHILDREN’S COMMISSIONER: “This is what we need to think about going forward is kids need a space and a place in the community, in any community. And right now in the Darwin northern suburbs, we need to have a look at what are those spaces that these kids can attend. Casuarina Square. It's aircon, it's hot. The humidity here in Darwin is ridiculous. But these kids don't have a space. We had this Shak facility, a youth facility in Casuarina just next to the Casuarina village that's been closed for some years now.”

STEER: So we put that to the Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis yesterday.

AUDIO – KON VATSKALIS, DARWIN LORD MAYOR: “It's easy to call the Council to do everything. But there's another level of government. The Northern Territory Government has been toying, throwing the ball around where they're going to put it. They're going to put it somewhere near the Casuarina village shopping centre. They're going to put it in the old fire station. Can you please make a decision so we all know where it’s going to go so we can work together to make it a reality. I understand young kids need a place, and I'm so sorry about the humidity. I used to go play in the square when it was ten degrees up in Athens when I was growing up. And probably the same where you grew up. You were going out in the square, football stadiums and everywhere else. It seems like all the young kids now, they're just sweet butterflies. They can't take the humidity. We've got a beautiful skate park in Jingling gardens. We've got absolutely gorgeous ovals. You can go and kick a ball.”

STEER: So the Lord Mayor there, basically calling all teens snowflakes in the Top End of the Northern Territory. Luke Gosling, federal Member for the Darwin seat of Solomon. Luke, good morning. Just to confirm, where is the proposed new youth centre going?

LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Thanks, Adam. Yeah, maybe the Lord Mayor was out of town three months ago when we announced – myself and Lauren Moss announced – that the old Casuarina fire station will be the location for the youth engagement hub. And from that point they engaged the consulting company, the NT Government did, to work with youth, to work with youth providers, to talk to the community. And that consultation process obviously went over Christmas New Year. And in this next couple of weeks they've gotten up to the stage where those groups are there consulting with will be able to view sort of a fly through-type display and that will give them hopefully the finishing touches so they can get the principles of the youth engagement hub agreed to. And then of course, they can move into design. And everyone wants that process to happen as quickly as possible.

STEER: So you committed $5 million to the project in last year's election, and there was a lot made in November last year when it was announced that finally we'd found a spot, it was going to be the old fire station. Poor Men’s Shed getting kicked out. But that's where the youth centre is going to be. As you say, they've done some consultation before the project goes to design phase. Is the Government moving quickly enough to set up the hub? It's just a youth centre. When I went to them when I was a teenager, I'm 50 years old.

GOSLING: Yeah. So keep in mind there's a couple of things that need to happen. It's not the poor Men's Shed in that I’ve secured $1,000,000 for them to build a new shed. So they're happy about the move, but of course they've got to get their shed in place so they can move all their stuff into it so that the old Casuarina fire station can be demolished. Now that can all happen over this dry season. But I'm glad we are very quickly moving into the— when I say we, the NT Government are moving into the design phase, because then it'll take time for all the drawings to be made up. And I think if the Lord Mayor is obviously very keen, as everyone is, to see this happen. And we need to have that cooperation between different levels of government. But I'll be providing the funding from the Federal Government as soon as there's a proposal that comes to us. And yeah, it may be that there's even more funding than $5 million needed. The $1 million for the Men’s Shed is not part of that $5 million. That's additional.

STEER: Okay. So the project, when it was announced last year, said it would build on the successful youth hub model already operating in Palmerston, which is based on partnerships between the Department of Territory Families, Housing and Community, City of Palmerston and non-government providers. So does the Darwin City Council, as far as you understand, will it have anything to do with the Casuarina youth hub?

GOSLING: Yeah, I think it should as a service provider for sure. These things are always done based in partnership and Palmerston is a good model. The Red Cross have been doing a great job out at Sanderson Middle School filling that gap in the meantime. But we don't want that gap to grow. So we do need a sense of urgency to move into the design phase. We need a sense of urgency to allow the construction of the shed for the Darwin Men's Shed group out at Marrara, and that all needs to happen concurrently, and that's what we're getting after right now.

STEER: So I mean, part of this is about the anti-social behaviour that's going on with some youth, not all youth, but some youth. And we saw those students banned from Casuarina shopping centre due to that. I asked you in November after we revealed the Northern Territory Government was spending $1,000,000 a year on dog patrols in Malak and Karama in a bid to curb that anti-social behaviour there. If we were at crisis point, it would be fair enough to say, Look Gosling, the situation has deteriorated since then. There would not be a single person listening to the radio right now who has not either suffered a break in or know someone in Darwin who has been broken into in the last 12 weeks. You said to me in November last year, “whatever we can do federally to assist the Northern Territory Government, we stand ready to do that”. So has the Northern Territory Government asked for your help there? What's going on there?

GOSLING: You know, obviously Darwin and Alice Springs, we've come in with massive support to the NT Government, from the Federal Government to tackle the challenges there, the short-term challenges and the longer term ones. And yeah, we remain ready to talk to the NT Government about any other assistance that they may require. They're obviously

putting their minds to that on a daily basis, whether it be alcohol policy, whether it be

getting the youth engagement hub rolled out with, you know, whatever it may be. And I feel as always that we owe it to the victims of crime that we get after these initiatives as quickly as possible, because doesn't matter whether it's a business doing the right thing, the cops, the same sort of treatment as a as perhaps one of these convenience corner stores that is not doing the right thing, then that other business is a victim. So I think that's what the NT Government are trying to do across the board, is get the right balance between making sure the Territorians that are doing the right thing have the right services and making sure that we crack down hard on those people that are doing the wrong thing, whether that be young people through the justice system, but also making sure that there's enough diversionary outlets for them so that we stop kids, particularly younger kids, from going the wrong way and get them into other avenues.

STEER: But what can you do as a federal member of the government? I mean, the police, that's not your remit. That's a Territory government remit, as you've explained before. I mean, federally, basically the responsibility is infrastructure, but it is your electorate where there's situations, there's an issue going on. What can you do?

GOSLING: You know, daily I'm out in the community talking to people about the challenges that they're facing and as a conduit to the NT Government and to council for that matter, to take solutions. People come to me if they feel like they're not being heard by another level of government. So I just continue to play that role. But also if there's asks from the NT Government for federal government supporting in terms of funding, well then that's what we're there to do. And you've seen that happen in Alice Springs where the Federal Government, in fact the Prime Minister went to Alice Springs, talked to people and he's providing significant funding to address some of the issues down there. And we'll do the same in any other place where the NT Government is needing more support.

STEER: You're on ABC Radio Darwin, Adam Steer with you this morning. Luke Gosling, the federal Member for Solomon, is your special guest. The Northern Territory Government's moratorium on new takeaway liquor licenses comes to an end in August this year. Again, this is a Northern Territory Government decision, but would you like that moratorium to continue?

GOSLING: You know, as I said, Adam, I think they've got to get the balance right and they're aware of the need to do that. I'll leave that to them. Alcohol reform is something that all Territorians have an interest in because, you know, obviously Alex Bruce does the right thing by the members of his organisation and says that it's a factor, but everyone knows that drinking when it's not done in a responsible way does create enormous harm in our community. I want to see the alcohol providers be responsible and the government's got a role to make a decision about what level of supply is available in the community, what hours, what days made available to what people, but also what consequences there are for people who don't do the right things. So the NT Government has got some decisions to make in that area and I think they’ll make the right ones in consultation with the community and with experts, and important with police, because of course they’re the ones that are out there on the front line needing to deal with those that are breaking the law.

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