Law and order for Alice Springs

The crisis in child welfare and public safety gripping Alice Springs is a damning indictment on the competence of the Northern Territory government. No side of politics is free from responsibility given that the decision to allow the Stronger Futures provisions — through which the commonwealth took responsibility for alcohol management on remote communities — to lapse was made by the Morrison Coalition. But the situation has been allowed to deteriorate to a state of lawlessness and drunken violence under the Albanese government’s watch, despite clear warnings of what would happen.

The federal government was too quick to abandon the fate of Alice Springs and surrounding communities to the NT, guided by advice from Indigenous advisory body the National Indigenous Australians Agency that the NT government was “well placed to deliver its jurisdictional responsibilities with targeted strategies to address alcohol misuse, land tenure issues and food security concerns”. This clearly has not been the case. Alice Springs residents who have borne the financial and emotional toll of the breakdown of law and order are preparing to launch a class action against the NT government, claiming it has been negligent in not providing the security and safety measures that are its responsibility. Even faced with near anarchy on the streets, NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has been slow to grasp the enormity of the challenge. It underscores the provincial and local council-like stature of the NT administration, something it shares with the parochial and out-of-touch Australian Capital Territory government.

Mr Albanese was right to visit Alice Springs but must not be allowed to walk away from the problem. John Howard was correct to launch the federal intervention into NT Aboriginal communities that led ultimately to the Stronger Futures legislation. It is time for the federal government to put aside its ideological prejudices and listen to those with experience on the ground. These include Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who can see through the posturing of urban elites and is putting forward a bill to immediately reapply the alcohol bans in communities and town camps until such time as communities develop appropriate alcohol management plans if they choose to opt out of dry community status.