Save Alice Springs meeting proposes $1.5bn compensation claim

Alice Springs residents are claiming ‘crime crisis negligence’ and calling for compensation as Tourism Central Australia urges government support and response.

Tourism Central Australia’s head has called for governments to step in and support the beleaguered region, after an “unprecedented” meeting in Alice Springs.

Alice Springs residents have proposed launching a $1.5bn compensation claim against the NT government for what they say is a “failure to address the crime crisis” gripping Central Australia.

TCA chief executive Danial Rochford, who was at the meeting, said the number of people and emotion in the room was “unprecedented”.

“It was clearly an indication of the exasperation in the town,” he said.

“Our town is broken and we need our governments to be stepping in to support us at our time of need.

“We need to get real here and realise this is a major national disgrace that needs an Australian government response.”

Mr Rochford called for investment in Indigenous economic development, wraparound youth services and preventative policing, saying claimed alcohol management was just “a small part of the equation.”

Thousands of residents attended the Save Alice Springs town meeting on Monday, which followed weeks of the town being in the national spotlight over local crime levels.

However, the meeting was cut short by tensions over what some claimed were divisive solutions.

Meeting organiser Garth Thompson proposed the Alice Springs community sue the NT government for $1.5bn in compensation for “negligence”.

“The negligence we are being provided by our government needs to stop,” the Jetcor Yamaha Honda dealership owner said.

“There are so many different avenues in which we are being neglected, that its hard to pinpoint just one.”

Police officers chat to a young man in Alice Springs. Picture: Mark Brake

But Mr Thompson specifically called out the judicial system, claiming bail conditions were too lenient and said welfare was failing children.

“Kids on the street … are seen as Aboriginal before they are seen as kids that need welfare,” he said.

“Our government is scared to put it in paper because they don’t want to be seen as a racist town.”

Mr Thompson called the alcohol control measures, which limits when booze can be sold and how much can be bought, as “quite disgusting”.

“We’re all affected. We’re all controlled. And we’re all put in a place where we’re disadvantaged by their decisions to try and fix a problem with a Band-Aid,” he said.

The hour-long town meeting was cut short after 20 minutes after people shouted objections to Mr Thompson’s comments, particularly when he called for residents to report children out of school to police for a welfare check.

Some attendees took to social media after the meeting to debate issued from the public forum.

Ashley Morgan wrote the compensation plan was a “self-centered reactionary” that pushed for government payouts to homeowners, while not actually addressing underfunding for infrastructure and services for disadvantaged communities.

“The point is there are systemic reasons crime exists and it would be pertinent to address those issues to stop the proliferation of entrenched poverty and crime,” Ms Morgan wote on Facebook.

“Solutions lie in investing in structural change.”

An NT government spokeswoman said no compensation claim had been made.

“The Territory government is investing in revitalising Alice Springs and making it the country’s inland capital,” she said.

“No single solution will solve these issues, it takes hard work and tough decisions – but we will continue to work at it every single day.

Last week, Attorney-General Chansey Paech emphasised the crime narrative should not just be on “bush people”, many of whom have been displaced in Alice Springs from flooding.

He said Alice Springs residents also needed services to break cycles of anti-social behaviour.

During his compensation call, Mr Thompson compared Alice Springs residents to the NT government’s $35m payout to Don Dale detainees.

The 2021 payment followed the 2017 Royal Commission finding children in care were subjected to racist and verbal abuse, bribed by workers to assault and degrade each other, filmed by guards while showering, choked and thrown to the ground, exposed to unhygienic conditions, denied access to basic human needs like water, food and the use of toilets, sprayed with pepper spray, and placed in spit hoods and restraint chairs.

He said each of the 15,000 ratepaying addresses, businesses and community groups should be given $100,000 each, with a total compensation claim of $1.5bn.

Police patrolling the streets of Alice Springs at night. Picture: Mark Brake

Mr Thompson said the 2500-person meeting was a headcount as part of a potential legal action, and called for volunteers to help push the compensation claims and to build a website.

The meeting comes as additional restrictions could be imposed on Alice Springs in coming days as the Prime Minister’s deadline for a new report looms.

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson said it was good to see about 3500 people at the meeting calling for change.

“It just goes to show that people are fed up in Alice Springs and are all advocating for change which is fantastic to see,” Mr Paterson said.

“The main feedback was that people just want change, that’s the big one, we can’t continue to live this way.”

The mayor said the major long term solution was wrapping services around kids and giving them a future.

“The first solution is wrapping services around the kids, so they’ve actually got a future for their education,” he said.

“Because the longer that we leave these kids on the street the harder the problem will be to fix.

“We need to wrap services around the kids and make sure we can get them into the system.”

Chief Minister does not rule out more restrictions for Alice Springs

At a press conference on Monday, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles was repeatedly asked if she believed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would overturn her “opt-in alcohol bans” later this week and force an opt-out policy as many community services had originally called for

Ms Fyles did not confirm or dispute the question but instead referred to the three-month liquor bans that were announced last week.

“So we’ve announced the restrictions for the short term, the longer term measures we will share ... but it’s important that the community’s view is heard and the accusation has been that we’re not listening to the right people in those communities,” Ms Fyles said.

“So that is where the idea of a ballot across community to make sure all voices are heard, remembering this is a legal product (alcohol) in the Northern Territory and Australia, and we did have a race-based policy previously.”

The Territory’s first central controller Dorelle Anderson will provide an initial report on Wednesday, reviewing the booze bans Mr Albanese announced a week ago.

The report is expected to provide a list of recommendations to address the escalating crime, social, emotional and health issues plaguing the Red Centre.

In May last year, after 15 years of alcohol policy imposed by the federal government, Ms Fyles announced nearly 400 remote communities, town camps, outstations and homelands would again be able to choose if they continued to prohibit alcohol or return to accessing the legal substance like “all other Australian citizens”.

However just seven months after Ms Fyles announced the opt-in policy she conceded caused “harm”, she said only 18 communities had indicated they would like to continue alcohol restrictions.

The deadline passed on Tuesday for communities being able to opt-in to alcohol bans under the Territory government’s original strategy post-Stronger Futures.

“We’ll outline to the community later this week, what will be delivered and how it will be delivered,“ she said.

“You won’t see the Alcohol Management Plans finalised, for example, but you have a clearer understanding of how they will be developed with communities.”