The first sitting of the Northern Territory Parliament under the new Finocchiaro Government will begin on October 15, and run for two weeks, with the government saying it will introduce its promised bail reforms, decrease the age of criminal responsibility, and bring in minimum mandatory sentences for assaulting frontline workers in the first week

The government released the dates Friday morning with Parliament scheduled to sit for three days at a time from October 15, October 22, and November 26.

The parliament will be made up of the 17 members of the new CLP government, along with the four remnant Labor members and existing Independents Robyn Lambley and Yingiya Mark Guyula, as well as new Independent Justine Davis, and the Northern Territory’s first Greens member Kat McNamara.

Ms Finocchiaro said community safety would lead the legislative agenda in the first sitting, which included a bail amendment bill while Mr Guluyula said if the CLP did not listen to the people, the government would keep making the mistakes past governments had made.

“The CLP government has been given a mandate to deliver change for all Territorians and we look forward to delivering on our commitments to Territorians,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

“Community safety is my government’s first priority, and we are on track to deliver our promised reforms on bail, and increased police powers, in this first sitting of Parliament.

“Declan’s Law and other measures including criminalising bail breaches, electronic monitoring for people on bail, ram raid legislation, reducing the criminal age of responsibility and minimum mandatory sentences for assaulting frontline workers will be ready as promised.

“My government has a big ship to turn around after a horror eight years under Labor but we are full of hope and optimism for the future of the Northern Territory.”

Mr Guyula said the Finocchiaro Government needed to understand that Aboriginal people know what is best for themselves, and with the government they could work to bring change.

“Usually a government walks in and takes up the power and they start working on issues like police powers, crime etcetera from the position they are in,” Mr Guyula said.

“Labor, for the past eight years, tried to do this. These past governments haven’t gone out onto country and spoken properly to the people and that’s the biggest mistake there is.

“I’m watching to see if this government can turn this around. But if they keep making decisions out of what they think is best instead of listening to the people, they will keep making the mistakes that the past governments have made.

“The decisions in Parliament need to reflect the decisions from people in the communities everywhere; not the other way round, and one size won’t fit everyone.”

Before winning the August 24 Northern Territory election the CLP said the amendments to the Bail Act 1982 would include a presumption against bail for all serious violence offences, for those who had been found guilty of two or more offences within the previous two years, and those alleged to have committed another crime while on bail.

The amendments will also see the reinstatement of breach of bail as an offence for minors, and mandatory electronic monitoring imposed if a repeat offender is granted bail or re-offends while on bail.

In its policy document the CLP said also in the first week of Parliament it would make using a vehicle as a weapon and “posting and boasting” on social media aggravated offences, and that it would give police powers to fine, charge and arrest for public drinking in non-exempt areas.

The Labor government raised the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 last August in line with a recommendation of the royal commission into youth detention, but Ms Finocchiaro promised that her government would reduce it to 10 years of age in the first sittings of Parliament.

This week the Productivity Commission – the federal government’s research and advisory body – which has been critical of states and territories for failing to meet their Closing the Gap commitments, warned that reducing the age of criminal responsibility would result in increased youth crime and elevated rates of Indigenous incarceration in the NT.

The Commission made the extraordinary decision to publicly criticise a government before it introduced its policy, writing in The Australian on Monday that “extensive global research now clearly shows that the younger a child is at their first contact with the criminal justice system, the greater their chances of future offending”.

However Ms Finocchiaro said critics were mounting a “scare campaign”, and that her government had a mandate to change youth justice policies.

“Experts can be political commentators all they like,” she said on ABC Radio Darwin on Tuesday morning.

“My job is to lead the Northern Territory. We have been explicitly clear to Territorians for a number of years around our position on raising the age.