E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Queensland curfew proposal; juvenile crime; ADF retention plans; myGov scams
SARAH ABO, HOST: Welcome back. Residents in Dubbo are this morning calling for a strict overnight curfew to be put in place following a growing spate of youth crime incidents. Joining us to discuss, Minister for Government Services and the NDIS, Bill Shorten and 3AW’s Neil Mitchell. Good morning, gents.
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Good morning.
NEIL MITCHELL, 3AW: Morning, Sarah. Just before we get into it, a very serious topic. I want you to be nice to Bill. Karl has been mean to Bill for the past couple of months. He's a mean boy, so I want - it's be nice to Bill day. We're not going to be nasty to Bill. It's all okay.
ABO: Oh, wow. All right, Neil, I'll follow your lead then.
SHORTEN: All right. Yeah, follow Neil's lead.
ABO: Okay. Well, Bill, I do want to start with you, because this curfew idea, you know, it's been floated. We know that there's been this horrific crime in Queensland. For example, three dead after a 13-year-old allegedly crashed a stolen car. Is a curfew an extreme measure or do you think it's necessary?
SHORTEN: I genuinely don't know. I imagine if I was living in a community and I felt unsafe or that my family weren't safe, you'd think about it. I don't want to tell people that they're wrong to think about it, but on the other hand, you need to have the resources to back it up. And I don't know if the police, what they think is the best way to go. At the end of the day, if you've got a group of young kids who are committing crime, I suspect you can't just arrest your way out of that. And I think these problems take a long time to develop. So, I suspect it's all of the above, so to speak, in terms of solutions, schools, but some of these kids might not have parents looking after them. So, I just I just don't know, to be honest
ABO: Resourcing would be an issue following a scheme like this. But Neil, what do you reckon is the answer amid an escalating youth crisis in this country? Obviously, there was that example in Queensland, as we know in Victoria not so long ago with 14 and 15 year old boy charged with the murder of one of their mothers.
MITCHELL: Yeah, look, it's a national trend. We had 6000 offences by 10- to 14-year-olds in the last year. That's up 30%, there’s 18% increase in juvenile crime. The police here call it the Grand Theft Auto generation. Kids are stealing, sneaking into houses, pinching cars, stealing cars, then trying to outrun police. If you're going to do that, I don't think you're going to pay too much attention to a curfew. And we did have curfews here through the COVID lockdowns and crimes still happen. I don't think curfews would work, I wish they would, but I don't think they'll work because any kid who's going to commit serious crimes is not going to worry about a curfew. Go home, catch the kids. When you catch the kids, you take them home. See if it's coming from the home. Deal with the parents. But it is a national trend and a really worrying one. A really worrying one.
ABO: Yeah, it is really worrying. And it makes you wonder what's next. I mean, it's gotten so bad already. I don't know how much more we can take. All right. There has to be something. Let's move on now to the latest scheme to combat the recruitment crisis plaguing the military. $50,000 is being proposed to entice permanent ADF troops to re-enlist for three more years. Bill, it's all well and good, I suppose, to introduce these incentives, but how do we get here in the first place?
SHORTEN: Well, I think it does make sense having a retention bonus. They have them in the private sector for some people. So, if you've spent all this money training someone and they've got a contract of enlistment, you want to try and hang on to them at the end of it. It's one of the things that the Defence Services Review, the Defence Strategic Review looked at is how do we retain skills? I do think there's a challenge with recruiting these days. I've been speaking to people in the military and how do they attract young people for a career in the military? One of the challenges of being in the military is it's an amazing job, but it does involve leaving your home, travelling and being based all around Australia. So, I think they do have a challenge generally with recruitment. So, I think retention bonus is one of the tools. I think it's worth a go. Absolutely.
ABO: I mean some of those reasons are what attract people to the ADF, that's for sure. But Neil, are you confident something like this will work? I mean, is it responsible spending? We're seeing reports to, that we're ill equipped to respond to China's military growth.
MITCHELL: I think it's worth a try. I agree with Bill. Why not give it a go? I think they've got to do more than that. You've got to expand the reserve. How do you do that? You get a pretty good deal out of the reserve. You get a pretty good deal out of the armed forces. But as Bill says, it's pretty disruptive. And I like the idea that they've been playing with of giving the kids a gap year in the military. I know a number of kids who've gone through that doing a gap year and have then signed on. You've got to look at smart ideas because we do need more boots on the ground. This is a start.
ABO: Yeah. All right. Well, there are fresh warnings this morning for Aussies as cyber criminals gain access to myGov accounts. Bill, one Melbourne woman whose account was hacked three years ago had hackers attempt to claim $47,000 from the ATO under her name. I mean this is a government database. How was this even allowed to happen?
SHORTEN: Well, we have - first of all, for Sharon, the lady in the story, since that was covered by 9 and by Neil yesterday, we're reaching out to her just to further assist her. There's a difference between a scam and a hack and that may seem to be splitting hairs, but with a hack, someone steals the data from the database with a scam, someone inadvertently gives their information away. The myGov app hasn't been hacked, but it can be the case that people receive communications online and they think it's legitimate when it's not. The Tax Office has a stolen identity section within there so that they can shut down people accessing the account. But I would just say to people that myGov will not send you a request which includes an offer of a gift voucher to work to access your computer remotely. If you get a text or an email, they won't ask you to send them details. Instead, they'll tell you there's a message and you go to your very safe app.
ABO: The trouble is, Bill, though, that these, I suppose, scams have become so sophisticated that it's actually hard to tell between the real ones and the fake ones these days. I mean, a lot of people are getting actual text messages or correspondence via email or whatever the case may be from their banks or from Medibank, and not believing that it's real. This is the problem. I mean, Neil, you've been on this for a couple of days now.
MITCHELL: Yeah. What I said about being nice to Bill. I didn't mean it. I was only kidding. Bill, myGov is a mess. It is impenetrable. It is impenetrable. It is unusable. If it's not hacked. I'm not surprised because nobody could work out how to use it. Are we sure -
SHORTEN: Which problem do you want to complain about, that you can't hack it or that you can hack it? You don't give me a lot of room between the two propositions.
MITCHELL: No, no, no.
SHORTEN: I think there's a serious issue here about scams.
MITCHELL: Of course there is. Well, I'm not - look, a number of people I've spoken to, and obviously you need to test their cases, reckon they've given their details to nobody other than myGov. And the problem has come from myGov. Now, clearly that needs to be checked, because I agree with you. It's usually a scam. Are we 100% sure, 100% sure, myGov has not been hacked because a lot of people are telling me it's the only place they put their details.
SHORTEN: Well, I have to say just on that, and I'm coming on your show at 9:35 this morning so you can practise your kindness and light.
ABO: You can debate it further there.
SHORTEN: But maybe the issue the issue is, well, the issue is it's people. People giving their information away is what I'm told.
ABO: All right. I can't wait for that. 9:35 30W Neil Mitchell and Bill Shorten, we'll continue this conversation. Thank you both so much for your time. Karl?
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: UFC radio.