Chief Minister Natasha Fyles says more data needed on impact of Alice Springs alcohol restrictions

The Chief Minister says data from the first three months of alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs revealed a ‘mixed response’, following calls for the measures to be made permanent.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles says the government does not currently have enough data to consider making alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs permanent.

Speaking to ABC Radio Alice Springs on Wednesday, Ms Fyles said she supported “any measure that reduces harm in our community” but believed the government needed to “fully understand the impact (of restrictions) before we would make them long term”.

The comments follow Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy calling for temporary alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs to be made permanent.

Ms Fyles originally introduced restrictions on purchasing takeaway alcohol under an emergency provision for three months in February, before they were extended in April for another three-month period ending on July 27.

At the time of the extension announcement, the government said data would be closely monitored while it “remained agile with policy settings”.

There was kickback against the announcement from the CLP, with Opposition health spokesman Bill Yan calling the extension “a cop out if it isn’t back up with further commitments to do the work needed on alcohol policy”.

“Her comments saying that the restrictions are working, show how out of touch she really is with what we’re continuing to face every single day,” he said.

Ms Fyles said one of the reasons restrictions were extended was due to not enough data being collected during the first three months of restrictions.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said there was not enough data to confirm the full impact of alcohol restrictions on Alice Springs. Picture: Annabel Bowles

“February, March and April we saw a significant decline in alcohol-related presentations and alcohol related police statistics in February,” she said.

“March we saw a slight increase, but we did have some other factors that we believe contributed to that, and we saw a decrease in April.

“So we really didn’t get enough data from those statistics, we needed to see what the next three months would be like.

“So we’ll be very much looking at that data and balancing it with the impact on residents of Central Australia, but also looking at other measures we could potentially put in place to strengthen what we have already that might curb this alcohol-related harm.”

Bottle shops in Alice Springs have been closed on Monday and Tuesday since February, with liquor only able to be purchased from two venues in the town on Sunday. Picture: Sam Boneham

She said the government was doing an “enormous amount of work” to understand the full impact of alcohol on the community.

“We’ve got the floor price, we’ve got the banned drinker register, we’re currently doing the three year Liquor Act review,” she said.

“We’re looking at the tools we’ve got and how we can essentially have the most minimal impact on the large majority of Territorians that do the right thing and target those that cause harm and restrict supply to them.

“So I know that the Monday and Tuesday is inconvenient for some people, but it gives our emergency services a break.”

The comments come after a tragic week in Alice Springs, as a 32-year-old man fatally stabbed outside Todd Tavern just hours after a three-year-old boy died in a house fire last Thursday.