Alcohol, DV emergencies flatline after Alice Springs booze bans

Eight weeks after Alice Springs was slapped with strict new booze bans, hospital emergencies for two main issues have dropped considerably. See the figures here.

Hospital emergencies related to alcohol and domestic violence have plummeted in Alice Springs in the eight weeks since strict limits on takeaway liquor sales were reintroduced in the outback town.

New Alice Springs hospital figures obtained exclusively by News Corp show “alcohol related” emergency department presentations dropped 40 per cent and domestic violence related injuries more than halved in February compared to the previous month when restrictions were not in place.

Community leaders have welcomed the respite, but have warned ongoing challenges, including anti-social behaviour, youth crime and violence, remain.

At the height of the Alice Springs alcohol-fuelled crime crisis in December there were 246 domestic violence presentations to hospital, which dropped to 97 in February.

Alcohol-related injury presentations peaked at 732 in November, which dropped to 390 in February and then fell even further to 231 for the first three weeks of March.

Alice Springs has seen a sharp decrease in domestic violence and alcohol-related hospital emergencies since the takeaway alcohol limits were imposed. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Lingiari Labor MP Marion Scrymgour told News Corp the declining hospital presentations were an “important start” for frontline workers and victims of violence.

“Our hospital staff are at the coalface of this issue, and they have worked extremely hard, in very tough circumstances, to deal with the challenges facing our town,” she said.

But Ms Scrymgour said she strongly believed alcohol was only one of the challenges facing the town.

“I was back in Alice over the weekend break from parliament – things are still dire,” she said.

“We are facing major challenges – there is no running away from that.”

Ms Scrymgour said the Central Australia Plan bringing together all levels of government, community organisation and the business sector “needs to work”.

Country Liberal Party Northern Territory Senator Nampijinpa Price said a reduction in crime was good, but urged caution in “claiming a victory”.

Senator for the Northern Territory and the former deputy mayor of Alice Springs Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said she was pleased to see a reduction. Picture: Mark Brake

“The long term trends still show a significant problem and we must deal with it completely,” she said.

“We need the Northern Territory Government to get serious about the problem of crime in Alice Springs and across the entire territory, they need to get tough on crime and tough on recidivism.”

Alice Springs Councillor Steve Brown also welcomed the reduction in hospital presentations, but warned many of the youth anti-social behaviour problems in the town had returned.

“The trouble is every time we succeed in attracting enough attention to make some changes, we get some token support and then everyone walks away again,” he said.

“We have not yet seen the shift to more meaningful long term change.”

Officials still want to see a more marked decrease in youth anti-social crime.

Mr Brown said while there had been a “lull” in alcohol-fuelled behaviour among adults, many young people had returned to the streets in recent weeks.

“We had three ram raids over the weekend with the entire front of a building taken out, that kind of behaviour has returned,” he said.

Mr Brown said the council was seeking more infrastructure investment to support both the town and the more than 250 surrounding communities.