Darwin residents voice their approval of decision to approve Dan Murphy’s liquor licence

DARWIN residents have come out strongly in favour of the decision to allow Dan Murphy’s to establish an outlet in Darwin, after an almost five-year battle to be granted a licence

Territorians have weighed in on the decision to approve a liquor licence application for Dan Murphy’s

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DARWIN residents have come out strongly in favour of the decision to allow Dan Murphy’s to establish an outlet in Darwin, after an almost five-year battle to be granted a licence.

The NT News exclusively announced overnight Friday that the liquor retailer would have its licence application approved by the NT Director of Liquor Licensing, Philip Timney.

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Darwinites were quick to voice their thoughts on the NT News’ exclusive story online, with almost 600 comments on our Facebook post about it this morning.

The vast majority were strongly in support of the decision with the most common comments being variations of “Finally!” or “About time!”.

“Yay!!!!!! Finally!!!!!!” wrote Mandy Denton.

“Its about bloody time...” echoed Ryan Whatley

“Great! I can finally have a decent selection of wine to choose from!” said Andrew Lycett.

“omg hallelujah! About time! added Davis Walshe

“Progress for the NT. About time it emerges out of the dark ages,” wrote Peter Melody.

“Yes finally good news for Territorians,” Candice Daby-Carroll said.

“Commonsense in rare cases, wins. Eventually.” added John Vanarey.

At a glance, the comments seemed to be running at more than 90 per cent in favour of a Dan Murphy’s setting up in Darwin.

The ratio of positive to negative comments roughly echoed a long-running poll (see below) that the NT News has run in many of its Dan Murphy’s stories.

The poll has attracted more than 5800 voters, with 83 per cent of respondents in favour of Dan Murphy’s setting up in Darwin, another 5 per cent who don’t care either way, and only 12 per cent of respondents against it,

The percentage of voters in favour versus those against has consistently remained the same since the poll was first run about a year ago.

Other commenters on our post welcomed a Dan’s to Darwin but had a variety of thoughts on the news.

“Great! In favour of a few large bottle shops. People deserve to have choices. In favour of a Dan Murphy” Jacqueline Johnson said.

“This will also be well monitored and not a place people can just hang around and be a nuisance.

“This will greatly reduce anti-social behaviour.

“Sick of the anti-social behaviour and the rubbish.”

Kevin Peart said: “Love that they are coming but the grog will not be at cheaper interstate prices due to our floor price policy.”

“Not that it’s going to be all that cheap with the stupid floor tax but at least we will get a better range” Jess Hyde wrote.

And Sam Burt wondered aloud: “5 years for approval of a bottle shop? No wonder business doesn’t want to come here”.

But there were also some commenter disappointed by the decision.

“The powers that be buckled under the pressure of big business again sad day!!!!,” Jan Curtis said.

“Phew now that important decision is made can the chief maybe look a little south and sort out Katherine’s 3 to 4 week wait to see a GP doctor if you are non indigenous, and maybe chase up our pfas water treatment plant we have been waiting on for years, maybe have a little look at our “water park” also, 300 Klms south of Darwin (sic),” Jeffrey Usher said.

Patricia Paterson said: “We definitely have enough grog shops. Why didn’t they bring another food retailer here instead. Aldi or Costco.”

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