"Town is racist"

A public crime meeting was held at Katherine's Town Square, where emotions ran hot when the town's recent spate of youth crime was discussed and claims of racism were aired.

Organised by Car Parts NT's Chris Eiermann, a large group of locals gathered to have their say.

"I think we need to publicly stand up and talk," Mr Eiermann said about his motivation to call for a public crime meeting.

"It's time to end private conversations. It's time to speak up.

"The main street looks like we're preparing for an apocalypse.

"Enough is enough."

Katherine's Shane Mott echoed the sentiment.

"We're getting flogged here," he said.

"And it's been going for so long that we turn a blind eye to people abusing and bashing each other in the streets.

"I don't have the answers - but what are we becoming that we accept this behaviour?"

Geoffrey Newton, whose Top Saddlery in the main street has been broken into numerous times, called on the Federal and NT Governments to step in to curb Katherine's crime issues.

"It doesn't matter what side of politics you're on, offenders need to be held accountable," he said.

"Once welfare kicked in, nobody had any meaning left in life. You've got to expect the type of social decay we're seeing right now.

"The root cause is how the Federal and the NT Government are handling it."

2022 Brolga Tourism Award winner Petrena Ariston who operates Top Didj on Gorge Road said Katherine had been asking for help with social issues for "40 odd years".

"For more than 40 years, we have asked for somewhere for kids to sleep at night," she said.

"We talk about getting kids off the streets at night - but these kids aren't going home because they don't have a safe place to go to.

"What we're doing at the moment isn't working.

"Our children don't need a jail, they need help. They're traumatised."

Mrs Ariston said it was time to "forget about political correctness" and "take children away from parents who can't control or care for their kids".

"Instead of spending billions on jails and detention centres, the Government needs to spend money on a place where kids can go, instead of sending them home to where they see nothing but alcohol and violence."

Many of the business owners and locals who attended the crime meeting voiced their disappointment in the "millions being given to organisations across town" to help with social disorder and youth problems, but without a visible result.

But a youth worker, who asked not to be named, said the funding Katherine's non-governmental organisations were receiving wasn't enough, with some programs only funded with minimal staff and during day-time hours only.

"We would quite happily run a program all night," she said. "But at the moment we're just a band-aid. But we want to be part of the solution."

But Artback NT's Kamahi Djordon King said a solution could only be found by involving "more black people".

"Why don't we see the same problems in towns in Western Australia? Because they didn't have the intervention," he said.

"When someone comes and takes away people's rights, you start to dislike white people.

"And when kids from out bush come into town and get treated like s**t, of course they develop a hatred for the white system.

"This town is so f***ing racist.

"A solution needs to involve black people."

Katherine Town Council Mayor Lis Clark, who attended the crime meeting, said it was important Governments and service providers and the council came together to work on a joint approach.

She said she would like to see a youth centre or safe house established in Katherine, manned 24 hours, to provide "a safe place to stay".

"Crime in Katherine is worse than ever. We all need to come together now and the Government needs to get on board to help those children and our town."

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