If I could improve my community (and that is beyond the ability of an advancing septuagenarian) it would be by the elimination of crime particularly those infractions which are opportunistic.

Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Nhulunbuy, and indeed every town and settlement within the Northern Territory is subject to a growing crime rampage. Some of it is alcohol-induced, other breaches simply, it seems, for the hell of it.

Much of the crime within the Northern Territory is being committed by young people, as young as 10 years of age. Car stealing, smashing into buildings, ram-raiding, breaking into homes, and torching cars, have become the nefarious domain of people of tender years. This includes 12 and 13 and 14-year-old children. One of the favourite pastimes is to steal vehicles, and random buildings, smash into other vehicles, particularly police wagons and know of course that they will get away with it because of the weakness of our judicial system and because punishment is not considered to be as important as rehabilitation.

LinkedIn with all of this is the need (and this would be one of my improvement measures) for parents and caregivers to be primarily and fully responsible for their children. They are not! Children often don’t feel safe at home and that’s why they run around the streets and get into trouble.

The situations in which I speak are escalating in the Northern Territory and I can only see things getting worse.