Jacinta Nampijinpa Price broke down in tears on Saturday during an interview to discuss the current crime wave in her hometown of Alice Springs.
The Northern Territory senator said she fears going shopping in the town due to attacks on women, and said that children are regularly being attacked while out alone.
Speaking to Peta Credlin on Sky News, Senator Price said she warned her son, 22, to be careful when picking his younger brother up from a shift at the cinema because ‘young people are deliberately ramming cars’.
‘There hasn’t been any let up in terms of that activity that is going on every night,’ she said in the emotional interview.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price broke down in tears on Saturday while discussing the crime wave in Alice Springs
She added that she’d been warned to stay away from the town’s shopping centre in the daytime because there was an offender who was groping women.
Senator Price added that last week, a 12-year-old had been attacked and groped on her way to school.
‘It’s really heartbreaking, because you don’t want to talk about your town this way. But we’re sick of it,’ she said before breaking down in tears and apologising.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t think I would get to this point, but… I love this town,’ she added.
The politician also offered a fiery spray against Northern Territory politicians and commentators who have criticised opposition leader Peter Dutton after he raised the issue of child sexual abuse in the town during a visit.
Mr Dutton has called for the Australian Federal Police to be sent in to work with local police in tackling crime, saying ‘There needs to be a greater presence on the ground.’
Senator Price added that last week, a 12-year-old had been attacked and groped on her way to school
Crime has surged in Alice Springs in recent years with Ms Price drawn to tears over the situation
But local leaders have questioned his motives, with Kate Worden, the Territory’s police minister, telling reporters on Thursday it was a ‘dog act’.
‘What we’ve seen over the last couple of days from Peter Dutton in central Australia is absolutely opportunistic, political game-playing, and using the most vulnerable people here in the heart of our nation as a pawn in that game,’ she said.
‘It’s quite frankly, a dog act.’
Hitting out at journalists and politicians, Ms Price said attacks on Mr Dutton are ‘beyond her’.
‘For adults… who have the responsibility to protect the lives of the vulnerable to attempt to downplay it, to call people like our leader Peter Dutton names and suggest it’s a “dog act”, that he’s actually investing time to listen to people on the ground and to hear what’s going on… its just beyond me,’ she said.
She added that she’d been warned to stay away from the town’s shopping centre in the daytime because there was an offender who was groping women
Businesses are regularly broken into in the town, with photos taken by locals showing the dismay (pictured)
‘It’s just beyond me why there is this sort of denial, this behaviour.’
She claimed that there are children in Alice Springs ‘as young as two’ who have STIs and called out supporters of the Voice for ’empowering’ those who downplay these issues.
‘I’d say to people like [veteran journalist] Kerry O’Brien, I’d say to people like the Premier of Tasmania, and those Liberals who think this is a wonderful idea, that if you support this Voice you’re actually supporting the voices that are coming out and criticising people like me and Peter Dutton who want to do something to change things on the ground for these vulnerable children,’ Senator Price said.
‘You will be empowering the voices that are trying to downplay the situation on the ground in places like Alice Springs.
‘That’s why this Voice is so dangerous, because that’s who will be empowered by this – not the little kids who have been sexually abused, not their voices.’
Ms Price’s comments comes after Peter Dutton tore into an ABC reporter during a press conference in Alice Springs, ridiculing the journalist by saying ‘that is such an ABC question’.
The journalist asked Mr Dutton about his call for a royal commission to look into rates of child sexual abuse in central Australia following criticism from SNAICC, a national non-government peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
‘They have labelled it an uninformed approach. Why do you think those peak bodies are rejecting those calls by you and what evidence do you have that there is this so-called rampant child sexual abuse?’ the ABC reporter asked.
‘With respect, that’s such an ABC question,’ a bemused Mr Dutton replied, later adding that the reporter wasn’t doing his job properly.
‘Do you live locally, do you speak to people on the streets, do you hear what it is they’re saying to you?
‘(Police and social workers) have kids taking them back into homes where they’ve been sexually assaulted and six-year-olds grabbing onto their legs begging not to be left there.
‘They’re the people who are on the front line,’ Mr Dutton said.
He said he did not know what academics or bureaucrats are saying on the issue, but ‘I can tell you though what the human experience is on the frontline.
‘And if the ABC don’t see fit to report that then frankly I think it reflects more on the ABC than it does on the locals here.’
The Liberal party leader was not yet finished, though, telling the reporter that ‘I don’t think you’re doing your job if you’re denying the reality of the circumstances on the ground.’
A clearly aggravated Peter Dutton (pictured) accused an ABC reporter of not doing his job properly
Ms Price, who was standing beside Mr Dutton, then unleashed on SNAICC, saying it does not have its priorities right.
‘I think questions need to be put back on organisations like SNAICC who are tasked to uphold the human rights of Indigenous children but instead run an ideological line.’
She said ‘it’s more important (to SNAICC) that these children are supposed to be connected to (their Indigenous) culture than to actually have their human rights upheld’.
Ms Price is tipped to become the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians following the resignation of Julian Leeser over the Liberals’ opposition to a Voice to Parliament.
On Wednesday, Mr Dutton focussed on the crime wave in Alice Springs when he met business owner Darren Clark who has been pleading for more federal government help in the town.
Mr Dutton called for the Australian Federal Police to be sent in to work the local police in tackling crime, saying ‘There needs to be a greater presence on the ground.’
Shocking footage posted online shows a car burning brightly with flames soaring into the night sky
He previously called for the AFP to be used in Alice Springs three months ago.
Alice Springs has been branded ‘lawless’ due to its surging crime rate.
One night last month saw cars set alight, homes burnt down and a TV station was broken into.
Shocking footage posted online from March 24 shows a car burning brightly with flames soaring into the night sky, while other videos show several police cars chasing after allegedly stolen vehicles.
Meanwhile, one local said he had lost most of his possessions after a separate fire ripped through his family home, also burning down two other homes and several cars.
The fire, which destroyed properties in a rural area adjacent to Alice Springs’ airport, is believed to have been deliberately lit.
Businessman Darren Clarke, who often calls for greater action on crime in the outback town and has seen his bakery robbed dozens of times, made a passionate plea to Anthony Albanese to crack down on crime in the NT town in a call to Ben Fordham on 2GB.
One video shows Mr Clarke talking to police at the site of the burned out car in the K-Mart car park
The business owner said it was the fifth time in two years that his business had been broken into
Another blaze, believed to have been deliberately started, saw three homes and several cars burn down
‘We’ve had another night of total anarchy. Our CBD is full of youths, it’s full of drunks. It’s out of control. We’ve had businesses broken into. An indigenous TV station smashed up, a vehicle full of technical gear stolen.
‘We’ve got a car on fire in the K-Mart car park. Another car set on fire in another suburb. When does this stop?
‘Albanese, step up to the plate. Start looking after your people or this place is going to burn to the ground. Or you’ll have no one living here.
‘We’ve had enough. Prime Minister, govern for everyone. If not, then let someone else do it. This simply isn’t good enough anymore.’
One local described losing almost everything he owned after his family home was destroyed
Mr Clarke, who also runs the Action for Alice Facebook group, posted several photos of the Imparja Television station, which was raided on Friday night
One video shows Mr Clarke talking to police at the site of the burned out car in the K-Mart car park.
There, he is warned that he is in a crime scene, to which he replies: ‘The whole place is a crime scene.’
Mr Clarke, who also runs the Action for Alice Facebook group, posted several photos of the Imparja Television station, which was raided on Friday night.
Photos show heavy damage to the studio, with smashed walls and evidence of the offices being rifled through.
Meanwhile, another shocking video shows a gang of young men breaking into a business in the town.
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