Anthony Albanese says total alcohol ban on the table for Alice Springs

A total alcohol ban could be on the cards for Alice Springs as the outback town grapples with a surge in crime.

A total alcohol ban remains “on the table” as the Prime Minister urgently seeks solutions to the surge in crime and anti-social behaviour in Alice Springs.

But Anthony Albanese has dismissed claims the Voice to Parliament would do little to curb the crisis in the outback town that has now captured the attention of national media.

A delegation of high profile politicians, including Mr Albanese and Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney and NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, made an emergency visit to the town on Tuesday amid mounting pressure for the government to act.

Immediate restrictions, including a three-month ban on the sale of takeaway alcohol on Mondays and Tuesdays and reduced trading hours on other days, were announced.

“I was absolutely convinced that there needed to be a response,” Mr Albanese told Sky News on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister said the leaders, who met with the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, NPY Women’s Council and the NT Police, had made important progress.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Pat Dodson and Linda Burney eet with community groups, local council, the NT Government and frontline services in Alice Springs to discuss crime. Picture: PMO

All options, including further restrictions such as a total ban, would be considered when a progress report is handed back in February, he said.

Mr Albanese again rejected calls for the government to send in the Australian Federal Police, insisting the “solution wasn’t just to lock more people up”.

A lack of housing and recent rain events were also listed, alongside the scale-back of intervention-era alcohol bans by the NT police commissioner, as reasons behind the recent uptick in crime, he said.

Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson said while federal action had been needed, he wasn’t sure Mr Albanese’s course was the right one.

“We see break ins for alcohol already happening. So what’s going to happen now when people can’t get alcohol for basically two and a half days,” he told Sky News.

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson said the alcohol restrictions didn’t go to the heart of the youth crime problem.

“This announcement only really focuses on alcohol … It doesn’t focus on getting the kids off the street – that’s the piece that’s really missing.”

NT Police statistics show that reported property offences have jumped by almost 60 per cent over the past 12 months, while assaults increased by per cent and domestic violence assaults were up 48 per cent.

Earlier this week, critics of the government’s proposal to enshrine a First Nation’s Voice to Parliament in the constitution used the figures to illustrate their argument that practical, not symbolic, action was needed.

But the Prime Minister insisted the issue was neither here nor there and encouraged leaders to be above politics.

“The Voice isn’t the end. The Voice is the means to the end,” he told Sky News.

“What we should not have here is a missed opportunity. I think Noel Pearson said during the week, by all means you want to argue on party political terms, talk about a range of other things.

“But this should be above politics.”