Crime and cash

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Imagine this: Two men in a bush community have a score to settle and they decide to do it in Alice Springs, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the town.

On a busy street one of the men, knife in hand, inflicts life-threatening injuries on his opponent. It’s all over in a couple of minutes.

That’s when the taxpayer takes over, big time.

There is much discussion, usually futile, about the social aspects of law and order. Here is a look at the flood of public funds unleashed by an individual's action.

The NT has the nation’s most highly paid police. We have, per head of population, three times as many cops as does all of Australia. We get, also per capita, 4.7 times as much money from Canberra as does the nation.

The police are the first government body to be drawn on in the aftermath of a bloody event, starting by ensuring there is no continuing danger to the public.

A crime scene is set up, the perpetrator is being sought.

Alice Springs has about 220 police officers, including 150 general duties, in sections including crime, traffic, forensic and cultural reform.

Including housing allowance their pay ranges from $145,000 (Constable) to $215,000 (Senior Sergeant).

Next comes the ambulance. St John charges $1,133 for the first 10km if it is a life-threatening emergency.

The hospital Emergency Department is the next stop for the victim now fighting for his life.

NT Health would not disclose Alice Springs specific information about hospital staff. We are limited to 2023/24 annual report for details.

Employee benefit expense amounted to $1,317,664,000, that’s $1.3 billion, for 7300 full time employees, or an average of $180,500 per employee.

The pay for Hospital Medical Officer (doctor) Year 4 is $143,533 and ranges from $122,264 to $175,104.

This is, surprisingly, a lot less than the police remuneration, given that doctors train for up to seven years and police, seven months.

According to the police website, the Recruit Constable training course incorporates 30 weeks paid, full-time training at the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services College in Berrimah.

There is much anecdotal evidence of hospital staff in The Alice benefitting from the broad medical knowledge in that workplace, tragically the result of the high level of illness and trauma in the area.

The hospital is not only one of the region's biggest employers, it also is a major player in holding together the social fabric of the town.

The employment website Seek reports a 4.6 out of 5 total rating from 18 reviews of hospital staff.

Some of the comments, mostly positive: An awesome desert change … great people, great opportunities, great pay and great weather … a long from anywhere … once in a lifetime experience … great community, amazing work culture … great support from the manager and senior staff … Isolation, flights to and from the capital cities are really expensive … Country hospital working environment compared to city environment … I did it with a young family for a year contract. Amazing experience for everyone … adventure … mountain biking.
The attacker has now been arrested, surprisingly quickly, given that he must be aware that he is likely to be spending many years of his life behind bars.

The victim’s condition has made it necessary to evacuate him to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. This is usually done by the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) which, judging by the amount of fundraising for it across the nation, is close to sainthood.

Less admirable is its lack of transparency to the public. We asked: “What is the cost of an aerial evacuation by RFDS from Alice Springs to Adelaide, of a single patient accompanied by a doctor and a nurse?”

After several contacts from the News the service’s Charlie Paterson, EGM for reputation, replied he costs “are determined by contractual funding arrangements with our government partners, in conjunction with the nature of the patient transfer and the unique clinical/logistical requirements of each case”.

That did not contain an answer to our question.

The RFDS uses Swiss Pilatus turboprop aircraft. Charter rates for light jets, up to five passengers, are $2000 to $3500 an hour and can fly 650 kilometres an hour.

State health services at times assist each-other with the treatment of some patients.

Rachael Kay, of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, including the Royal Adelaide Hospital, says it has several arrangements in place with the Northern Territory to support speciality care.

The National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA) plays a role in that while recognising that state and territory governments are the managers of their public health and hospital systems.

“Where patients are treated or transported across jurisdictional boundaries, the Commonwealth's NHRA funding contribution is paid to the Local Hospital Network that provided the clinical service,” says a spokesperson for the Federal Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

“The state or territory contribution is governed by separate financial agreements between the relevant jurisdictions.”

The News has requested details of these cross-border arrangements but understands they are often on a case-by-case basis and details are not released to the public.

Alternately, we've asked for the total payments in the 2023/24 fiscal year. Clearly the "trade" would be mostly one-way, NT patients being treated in Adelaide. We will update this report when we get information.

NT Health, when asked to comment, gave no details about these interstate arrangements.

Meanwhile the justice system is getting busy with the accused attacker. He’s likely to be on remand – imprisoned – and he’s starting to cost our prison system money.

Incarceration costs Australian taxpayers $422 per prisoner per day, or $153,895 per prisoner per year, according to the Institute of Public Affairs in June 2024.

The Greens estimated in 2023 that the cost of imprisoning children was approaching a million dollars a year for each child.

The police have now charged the attacker. At this point, because he has not been convicted, he is referred to as the alleged attacker. A person is deemed innocent unless found guilty by a court.

The process starts in the Magistrate’s Court which is likely to refer the matter to the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile police and a police prosecutor collect evidence to present to the court.

A defence counsel is equally preparing submissions. He or she is likely to be from the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency which which in 2022/23 had a revenue from grants and contributions of $27.8m and spent $20.5m on employee benefits.

Supreme Court judges are paid $517,650 a year. The average length of Supreme Court trials in 2023/24 was 5.8 days.

Staff directly involved in a trial other than the judge are three people inside the courtroom, security staff, court recording staff and registry staff. This differs depending on the complexity and length of the trial and the number of accused, according to a courts media officer.

Depending on the charges, and if found guilty by the jury, the length of imprisonment is likely to be several years.

If one of the proven charges is attempted murder it could be a life sentence.

That essentially means the knife attacker would not be entitled to parole for at least 20 years.

On present dollars that would amount to $3m in public funds to keep behind bars a criminal whose crime took a couple of minutes.

PHOTO: Since 2023 police have "stop and scan powers" to detect and remove knives and other weapons by using metal detecting handheld scanners (wands) in high-risk areas.

UPDATE 11.30am June 20:

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said in a media release this morning: "While property crime has declined, the data shows assault-related offences, particularly domestic and alcohol-related assaults, remain a serious challenge, with rises in several regions."