NT and Commonweath share responsibility for lawless behaviour in Alice Springs

One of the great tragedies of the law-and-order crisis that has gripped Alice Springs is the fact it has taken an upcoming election to spur the Northern Territory government into action. NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler on Wednesday declared an “emergency situation” and a snap two-week curfew as an attempt to stop under-18s gathering in the town’s CBD between 6pm and 6am.

Street riots that captured national attention were the culmination of a wave of criminal behaviour in which youths have stolen vehicles and terrorised the streets at night. Ms Lawler, who faces an election in August, has previously blamed youth crime on Australia’s colonial history. This approach will not solve the problem.

The federal government, and Anthony Albanese personally, cannot wash their hands of the situation. The Prime Minister’s claim to have been a frequent visitor to the NT is disingenuous. The reality is he has been criticised for having spent more time at the Australian Open tennis than he did in Alice Springs at the height of the last law-and-order crisis in January last year.

There are many longstanding issues that have led to a situation where large groups of young people have been free to roam and terrorise a world-recognised city in the centre of the nation. But chief among them has been a lack of long-term planning, strategy and action on the part of NT authorities in co-operation with the commonwealth.

The genesis of the current breakdown was a failure of the NT government to quickly fill the gap when federal alcohol restrictions were removed. When they were belatedly reintroduced it was with the buy-in and approval of all Aboriginal communities. This alone puts the lie to claims that non-Indigenous leaders living in comfort a long way from the action know what is best for remote communities. The same appears to be true for the latest law-and-order response. Local Indigenous leaders have welcomed a promise of a curfew and increased policing, and asked to be involved. Bureaucratic agencies, including legal groups, have criticised the measures as a knee-jerk response that would punish young people. This view ignores the competing rights of Alice Springs residents to live their lives in safety and with security to plan for the future. Businesses cannot be expected to invest and operate in an atmosphere of lawlessness. If allowed to become further entrenched, the problems will worsen and the remedies become more difficult. This is particularly so given the role now being played by social media such as TikTok, which allows wayward youths to film their activities and post them online as an encouragement to others. The zero-tolerance, “broken windows” approach used to return order to New York City in the 1990s has shown itself to be a template for success. The broken windows theory is that visible signs of crime, anti-social behaviour and civil disorder create an environment that encourages further crime and disorder. This is true of the current situation in Alice Springs.

Long-term solutions are more difficult. But a curfew will provide an opportunity to assess the familial conditions that allow unsupervised unruly behaviour to flourish. As Indigenous affairs reporter Paige Taylor has written, there are programs that have been successful. One is the Target 120 program in Western Australia that was conceived in 2017 to help 120 families whose children were in regular contact with police. Families are given intensive support to solve big and small problems in their lives, leading to a 65 per cent reduction in the children’s contact with police, as well as big savings for taxpayers and long-term benefits for the children involved.

Rather than riots and petty crime, children must have something more wholesome to broadcast on social media through which they define their lives. Sporting and community programs and activities that challenge the skills of energetic youth and build self-esteem can have lifetime benefits.

Ultimately, there must be personal responsibility for actions. This extends to families taking responsibility for school attendance, nutrition, proper supervision and providing a role model for a stable life. It also extends to politicians and community leaders who must think outside the crime-and-punishment mentality and dedicate the resources necessary to ensure alternatives exist to lawless behaviour.