Tag: Survey

Majority of NT Police Association members have no confidence in Commissioner Jamie Chalker, according to a survey

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 12, 2022
No Comments on Majority of NT Police Association members have no confidence in Commissioner Jamie Chalker, according to a survey

Northern Territory Police officers “do not have confidence” in Commissioner Jamie Chalker, have low morale and are lacking resources, according to a damning union survey.

The NT Police Association (NTPA), a union which represents officers, undertook a survey of its members after calls for a vote of no confidence in Commissioner Chalker.

1,044 officers took part in the survey out of 1,608 who were eligible, which the union said was the highest number of participants ever.

79.7 per cent said they did not have confidence in the commissioner.

The survey comes as concerns grow about crime in the Northern Territory, which has become a major issue in the upcoming by-election in the seat of Fannie Bay.

There has also been another jump in domestic violence cases.

Paul McCue stands at a press conference — Paul McCue said the results would be discussed at the union’s annual conference next week. (ABC News: Mitchell Woolnough)

Police force ‘in complete crisis’, union claims

In an internal email from union president Paul McCue, seen by the ABC, the key issues identified by the survey included low morale, pay freeze concerns and a lack of resources.

“92.6 per cent of respondents said they do not think there are enough police in the NT to do what is being asked of them,” Mr McCue wrote.

79.4 per cent of respondents rated current morale in the NT Police Force as low, or very low [and] 87.9 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied with the current pay freeze offer from the Commissioner and Government.”

In a media statement released this morning, Mr McCue said the results showed the police force was “in complete crisis”.

“Our members do not have confidence in the commissioner, they overwhelmingly reject the government’s … pay freeze,” he said.

“They think morale is at an all-time low, and there clearly needs to be an urgent review into staffing which is completely insufficient to undertake the roles our members are being forced to do.”

Yuendumu shooting among reasons for confidence vote

Survey questions seen by the ABC asked respondents to give reasons why they had no confidence in Mr Chalker’s leadership.

Among the multiple-choice options was “the management and communication relating to the Yuendumu critical incident.”

NT Police Constable Zachary Rolfe was charged, and later found not guilty, of murder after shooting Yuendumu man Kumanjayi Walker during an attempted arrest in 2019.

In March, Commissioner Chalker “completely rejected” allegations of any political interference regarding the matter.

Zachary Rolfe was found not guilty of all charges in March.(ABC News: Che Chorley)

Other reasons officers could give for a lack of confidence included “does not understand the challenges of NT policing”, “the application of the disciplinary and complaints process” and a “failure to retain police”.

Commissioner ‘aware of confidence sentiment’

In a statement this morning, Commissioner Chalker said he had been notified of the survey results on Thursday night.

“We have been aware of the confidence sentiment for some time,” he said.

The Commissioner said he intended to discuss the results at the NT Police Association’s annual conference in Darwin next week, after further details had been provided to the union’s members over coming days.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says he’ll directly address the issues at next week’s conference. (ABC NewsTiffany Parker)

“We remain committed to working with our people and the NTPA to continue to advance the NT Police Force and the health and wellbeing of all of our members,” he said.

“We look forward to discussing the issues raised in the survey and talking directly to the conference next week.”

Union Conference to be held next week

Mr McCue said in the email to union members that the results and “any further action to be considered” would be discussed at next week’s annual conference.

“From the outset, I have been upfront about providing the results of this survey to not only the membership, but also the Commissioner of Police and Government,” he wrote.

“Which ensures as much openness and transparency around the results as possible.”

Mr McCue also said Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, Police Minister Kate Worden and Shadow Police Minister Lia Finocchiaro had been notified of the results.

Tags commissioner, jamie chalker, northern territory, nt, police, police association, Survey

Australia

Victoria University study suggests children experience high rates of violence in community sport

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 10, 2022
No Comments on Victoria University study suggests children experience high rates of violence in community sport

Eighty-two per cent of people sampled in a study conducted by Victoria University have reported experiencing at least one form of interpersonal violence when participating in community sport as a child.

The survey, which is the most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, asked 886 adults whether they had experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence, as well as neglect, from either coaches, peers or parents during childhood.

Seventy-six per cent said they had experienced psychological violence or neglect, 66 per cent reported physical violence and 38 per cent reported sexual violence.

One in three respondents, meanwhile, said they had experienced all four forms of violence.

The respondents had participated in a large variety of sports, with nearly 70 represented.

A graph showing key statistics including that 82% of respondents experienced at least one type of violence — Seventy per cent of respondents experienced physical and psychological violence from a peer. (Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)

While such large numbers may come as a surprise to some, study co-author Mary Woessner said she was not shocked.

“From the literature, and knowing what’s happening internationally, I would say that’s right about what we were expecting,” Dr Woessner told the ABC.

“One of the first things you need to create change, positive change, is generate understanding that there’s a problem.

“We just want people to know it exists, so we can make evidence-based decisions to change it.”

Dr Woessner’s co-author, Aurélie Pankowiak, explained that the survey asked participants about explicit examples of violence they may have experienced in a sporting context.

Dr Aurélie Pankowiak poses for a photo on one of the basketball courts at Victoria University — Aurélie Pankowiak co-authored the study with Mary Woessner.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)

For neglect, for example, participants were asked if they had experienced being refused time off for medical injuries.

For psychological, participants were asked whether they had been insulted, threatened or humiliated (for example by being bullied, given an unwanted nickname violence or otherwise ostracised).

“We had very concrete examples of different types of violence, so we did not leave it up to the person’s interpretation of whether or not what they experienced was violent,” Dr Pankowiak said.

One reason for this, the authors say, is that it can take victims a long time to recognize that what they experienced constituted violence.

“The average reporting time for sexual abuse can be 20 years or longer,” Dr Woessner said.

“At the moment we have a system that relies on children telling us what happened while knowing that the vast majority of literature says they won’t [come forward] for years to come.

“That’s why in this study, the easiest and safest way of collecting this data was to do it retrospectively. [by asking adults].”

Most children experience violence from peers

In a first, the study sought to break down children’s experiences of violence by who perpetrated it, including peers and parents as well as coaches.

This breakdown showed that 73 per cent of respondents experienced violence from their peers, followed by coaches (60 per cent) and parents (35 per cent).

Most respondents had experienced violence from a peer. A coach was the next most common.(Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)

Dr Woessner said distinguishing who was perpetrating violence was important because most academic literature, as well as media coverage, has focused on violence perpetrated by coaches, usually at the elite level.

This includes high-profile cases like that of Larry Nassar, the former US Olympic gymnastics team doctor who is serving an effective life sentence for sexually abusing at least 40 girls and women.

Australian swimmer Maddie Groves also recently came forward with the allegation that she was sexually abused by a former coach who is still working in the sport.

“You can distance yourself from an Olympic athlete experiencing abuse and start to think that it only happens at the elite level,” Dr Woessner said.

“There’s a mentality, ‘well that’s not my child, it’s not happening in my sport, or at my club’ … but I think with this data we can show that it might be.”

Data collected by Dr Pankowiak and Dr Woessner also showed significant gendered differences in the types of violence being experienced by men, women and gender-diverse people in childhood.

Women were more likely to experience sexual violence compared to men, while they were also more likely to experience psychological violence and neglect.

Men, on the other hand, were more likely to experience physical violence from a peer.

“When you talk about a gendered experience, we sometimes focus only on women,” Dr Woessner said.

“But it’s not that men aren’t experiencing violence, they’re just experiencing different types.”

Women experienced higher rates of sexual and psychological violence, as well as neglect.

The authors also analyzed a third category, gender-diverse people, encompassing those who identified as non-binary, gender questioning or selected “don’t know” for their gender identity.

While the sample size was small, at 17 people total, the authors found gender-diverse people experienced higher rates of many types of violence compared to cisgender men and women.

“We know from the literature broadly that marginalized communities experience institutionalized violence,” Dr Pankowiak said.

What was less clear, Dr Pankowiak said, was how the experience of systemic marginalization translated into interpersonal violence in a sporting context.

“We need an understanding of what’s driving those rates,” Dr Woessner said.

“We are talking about gender diversity here, but we know that the LGBTQI+ community broadly, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, they all have higher risks. We just don’t fully understand why and how that’s happening.”

A wake-up call with ‘no quick fix’

While this particular study did not look at the impacts of the childhood experience of violence, the authors said there was clear evidence that it could have lifelong detrimental effects.

“We do know that there are long-term impacts,” Dr Woessner said.

“Often they [victim survivors] leave sport. They might only leave the team they’re on, but there are some people who leave sport entirely.

Co-author Mary Woessner hopes the study will be a call to action for Australian sport.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)

“Beyond the individual, you see families torn apart, you see communities torn apart.

“Community sport is led by volunteers, and when something like this happens, it impacts not just the individual but their friends, their family, and by default the community.”

Moving forward, the authors argued it was essential to intervene early so that children and adults could continue to enjoy the many benefits sport provides.

“What we’re seeing in the data is that we have a cultural normalization of violence in sport,” Dr Woessner said.

“It’s systemic, there’s not one type of violence or only one type of perpetrator and it’s happening across all sports.”

Dr Woessner added that while there was no “quick fix”, there were clear steps sports could take to safeguard children.

“When we’re thinking about changing culture, we need to go a step further than just education and policies,” Dr Woessner said.

“We need to go from the ground up and work with clubs on initiatives that are long-lasting and can create behavioral change.

“I would hope that this data starts to change public perception on the prevalence of these experiences in community sport and that it calls sports to action.”

If you believe you have experienced violence during your childhood participation in sport, you can lodge a complaint through Sport Integrity Australia’s online portal.

Tags abuse, CALD, child, child sexual abuse, children, coach, Data, Fitness, gender, gender diverse, gymnastics, impacts, Larry Nassar, LGBT, LGBTQI, Maddie Groves, Men, neglect, non-binary, Pankowiak, parent, peer, prevail, psychological, reporting, research, Sport, standards, statistics, study, Survey, swimming, victoria college, Violence, Woessner, women

Republicans leading midterm race for House: CBS poll

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 1, 2022
No Comments on Republicans leading midterm race for House: CBS poll

New CBS News Battleground Tracker polling shows Republicans in the lead for control of the House ahead of this year’s midterm elections, with 230 seats projected for the GOP and 205 for Democrats.

GOP wins in 230 districts would give Republicans 12 seats more than the 218 needed to control the chamber.

Democrats currently claim a slim majority of 220 seats to Republicans’ 211.

The poll’s margin of error for the parties’ projections is 12 seats.

The survey also found that Democrats are disenchanted with current affairs and less likely to show up to vote than their Republican counterparts.

Sixteen percent of Democrats and 43 percent of Republicans, meanwhile, said that they feel that congressional Democrats have not delivered on promises made in their last campaign cycle.

Sixty-seven percent of Democratic voters say congressional Democrats have delivered on “some” of those promises, and 17 percent believe they’ve delivered on “most or all.”

Sixty-eight percent of Republicans and a mere 7 percent of Democrats feel that congressional Republicans are fighting for them on the Hill.

Just half of surveyed voters felt enthusiastic about turning out for the vote in November.

And more Democrats reported being spurred to vote by former President Trump than by their own party leader.

Just 39 percent of Democrats say their midterm congressional vote is “a lot” about President Biden, compared to 62 percent of Republicans. By comparison, 46 percent of Democrats say their midterm vote is “a lot” about Trump, as did 47 percent of Republicans.

Conducted July 27-29, the tracker surveyed 1,743 registered voters weighted for gender, age, race, education and 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error is 3 points.

— Updated at 12:56 pm

Tags chicken, democrats, house control, midterm 2022, midterm elections, republicans, Survey

Key points:

Key points:

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories