Chief Minister Natasha Fyles says she is listening to the overwhelming majority of Territory police officers who no longer have confidence in Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker by continuing to support him, saying the government still needs to understand the “complexity of these complexities” facing the police force.

Ms Fyles could not explain what her government will do about the deep resentment towards the commissioner amid various other serious problems facing the police force found in a recent survey of rank-and-file members, with nearly 80 per cent of more than 1000 officers saying they have lost confidence in Mr Chalker and a further 79 per cent saying morale is low or extremely low.

In a radio interview, Ms Fyles at times blamed COVID-19 for the problems facing police and at other times said she does not understand how a record spend in police was not producing results.

But she did not mention the possibility of sacking Mr Chalker or ordering a new review into what the police union called a “complete crisis” currently facing police.

“I think that the fact that the Police Minister [Kate Worden] has spoken to the association and will attend their conference later this week, we need to understand the complexity of these complexities, of these issues, and how we’re going to drive that change because it’s not just about dollars and systems and resources,” Ms Fyles told Mix 104.9.

“That is all incredibly important. And that has been delivered and will continue to be, so, but it’s how can we support them in doing their jobs right across the Territory and there’s different issues in different parts of the Territory.”

When asked if she had an immediate plan to address the crisis, Ms Fyles indicated she did not and again said the only plan at this point involved the Minister speaking to all parties at the NTPA’s annual conference later this week.

“We will understand these headline figures that we’re hearing [from the survey], what is driving that and what can we do to improve our police service,” she said.

“We have to understand the complexities of these issues, and it will take time but I understand that our police officers want to see some immediate action but they also want to know some of those long term issues are being addressed and will be addressed.”

The survey also found that a massive 92.6 per cent of officers said they do not believe there are enough police in the NT to do what is asked of them.

Ms Fyles later said she does not understand how police could feel there are not enough resources put into policing after the government raised funding by $100 million over the last six years.

“So why has that not driven the change that we would have expected?” she said.

“I think it is really important at [the NTPA] conference, for the Minister to get her head [around the situation] and understand all of these issues. So that we can work together to drive that change.”

She did not suggest poor leadership was the reason for why the increased funding has still left police feeling under-resourced.

Opposition calls for inquiry into police command structure

On Friday, the CLP Opposition called for an inquiry into the internal police command structure by a retired judge, a comprehensive review of police resourcing and for Police Minister Kate Worden to be stood down.

CLP Leader Lia Finocchiaro said the government was ignoring major problems with the police service but for unknown reasons, she stopped short of calling for Mr Chalker to resign or be stood down, taking aim at the Minister instead.

“For two years Labor has ignored the very clear signals that have been sent by our police,” she said.

“Attrition has hit 11 per cent, police morale is at an all-time low, police resourcing is inadequate, crime is escalating exponentially, the former and current Chief Minister has failed to hold the police portfolio, mental health concerns and tragedy have been covered up. This is all while division between the rank and file and police executive widens.

“All of this has been allowed to get worse under the watchful eye of two chief ministers and two police ministers.”

The NTPA survey was called after nine of 12 police union regions across the NT called for a vote of no confidence in the commissioner. The executive, the government and the union had previously down-played the growing resentment against Mr Chalker, claiming it was only a “small faction” of agitators causing a “distraction”.

Despite the top brass and the union claiming they were not aware of the driving issues for the vote of no confidence, the survey offered a list for officers to select from, including one option referencing the “Yuendumu critical incident”, as well as that the commissioner does not understand the challenges of NT policing and does “not have a clear vision”, discipline and complaints processes, the high attrition rates and “perception of double standards”.

Those results have not been released yet.