Top WA cop blasts trial of banned drinkers list

Just 48 people have been placed on Western Australia’s banned drinkers register in the Kimberley in eight months.

WA police commissioner Chris Dawson. Picture: Colin Murty

Just 48 people have been placed on Western Australia’s banned drinkers register in the Kimberley in the eight months since the McGowan government rolled out its response to crisis levels of violence, child rape, prostitution, ­neglect and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in Western Australia’s far north.

State police commissioner Chris Dawson has offered a highly critical assessment of the government’s chosen alcohol policy for the region of 36,000 people – a two-year trial of a banned drinker’s register – claiming it is deeply flawed because anyone can buy ­alcohol for a banned drinker.

He also questions whether it will capture many more people than those already banned from buying alcohol under pre-existing barring notices and prohibition orders. So far, 27 of Kimberley’s banned list are volunteers. The Australian has been told the other 21 were banned under legislation that existed before the trial.

“Unlike the Northern Territory model, there is no legalised offence to prevent the consumption of liquor, or the secondary supply of liquor to banned or prohibited persons,” a submission from police on behalf of Mr Dawson to WA liquor licensing director Lanie Chopping says.

“The limits of the BDR in its present form include that it will not prohibit a person from consuming liquor. Rather, the BDR will only operate to restrain those subject to the register from ­obtaining first person service. “Secondary supply will remain a significant issue.”

Mr Dawson continues to push hard for radical and blanket ­alcohol restrictions in the Kimberley, and wants Ms Chopping to ban bottleshops across the region from selling anything other than light beer, which would effectively force them to close. People could continue to drink full strength ­alcohol in pubs, restaurants and other licensed premises.

Mr Dawson believes this is warranted because of the extent of alcohol-fuelled crime and its ­effects on children.

He has presented Ms Chopping with a startling report about the impact of alcohol in the east Kimberley that says many residents and service providers disclosed incidences of rape, sexual abuse and child prostitution in the town of Kununurra. The researchers said it was reported to them during four field trips that these types of incidents “have increased in recent years and regularly go unreported and undisclosed”.

Written by leading Indigenous academic Marcia Langton and colleagues from the University of Melbourne, the report relies on internal police data and interviews with 66 locals and describes “the shocking extent, gravity and normalisation of violence for the Indigenous community”.

Mr Dawson’s latest submission to Ms Chopping includes evidence that alcohol-fuelled family and domestic violence creates most police work in Broome.

David Whitnell, the officer in charge at Broome when the submission was written, says large volumes of juvenile crime are a “flow-on effect”.

“When responsible persons and family mentors are severely inebriated and lacking the ability to look after themselves let alone the vulnerable youth they are ­responsible for, it is no wonder these youth seek comfort, companionship and recognition amongst their peers,” Sergeant Whitnell writes.

He said violent crime fell away when police were able to arrange temporary bans on full-strength bottleshop sales. This is done ­occasionally and in consultation with licensees in response to ­extreme violence or ahead of large funerals, football carnivals or other events that police fear could result in excessive drinking. Sergeant Whitnell said big chains such as Liquorland and BWS had been “swift and genuine” when he sought restrictions but some independent retailers pushed back.