Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Declan Laverty was a young man living in Darwin with his father, who described Declan as a wonderful, opinionated, strong lad who loved his football, was working to become a musician, and was studying and putting in a 30-hour week on top of it all. I was shocked and saddened to learn earlier this week that, just after 8.30 pm on Sunday evening, Declan was fatally stabbed while ending his shift at the local bottle shop in Jingili, Darwin, not 20 metres from my own office. Before he died at the scene, he managed to text his dad, saying, 'I love you.' And why was he killed? Because a 19-year-old, who was out on bail over an earlier alleged aggravated assault involving a bladed weapon, was refused service of alcohol as the shop was closed. So he killed a fellow human over a drink. As a mother of four boys myself, and as a mother of a young man who is going to turn 20 soon and whose name is also Declan, this news shook me to my core. I offer my most sincere condolences to Declan's family.

But I have to say that things are not okay in the Northern Territory. A kitchen knife, a 24-centimetre steak knife and an axe are some of the weapons allegedly used just last night in multiple separate incidents at two more bottle shops just down the road in Palmerston. How did the police describe it? As a 'very disappointing night'. It's not disappointing; it's unacceptable. It's unacceptable that people in this country go to work worrying about their safety, and it's unacceptable that parents send their kids off to work worried about whether they're going to come home or not. It is unacceptable. We need real action on crime in the Territory, we need strong action on crime in the Territory, and we need the Territory government to get their act together to keep the people of the Territory safe.