Relaxed grog bans 'to revive violence', Aboriginal leaders warn

THE nation's toughest restrictions on alcohol sales in Aboriginal communities will be relaxed by Queensland.

THE nation's toughest restrictions on alcohol sales in Aboriginal communities will be relaxed by Queensland, triggering warnings from indigenous leaders that progress on violence and school attendance could be destroyed.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin immediately declared any change to the state's pioneering alcohol management plans, allowing entire communities to be declared dry, must not be at the expense of "vulnerable women and children".

Blasting the review of the alcohol management plan system announced yesterday by the Newman government, former ALP national president and Generation One boss Warren Mundine said it risked bringing back "the nightmare" of freely available grog to remote indigenous communities.

Marcia Langton, a professor of Australian indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne, said AMPs had cut the hospitalisation rate for alcohol-related assaults.

"It would be tragic to lose the momentum built up over 20 years in Aboriginal communities to tackle problems, such as violence, inflamed and exacerbated by alcohol and drug abuse," she said. "Every other community in Australia lives with a range of restrictions on alcohol supply, ranging from restricted hours of sale to restrictions on drinking in specified public places."

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda echoed Ms Macklin's call for children, women and the elderly to be shielded if liquor was reintroduced to dry communities, but said prohibition could not be foisted on indigenous people. "No imposed solution will be sustainable and work in the long term," Mr Gooda told The Australian.

"If it's going to be prohibition, people have to want it - it's got to be owned by the community."

Queensland's Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Glen Elmes, revealed yesterday that communities with zero alcohol limits would be able to opt out of a mandated AMP provided they could demonstrate it would not undo gains made through the control of alcohol.

The AMP system established a decade ago to cover 19 remote indigenous communities in Queensland had a use-by date and should not be imposed on communities that did not support alcohol bans or limits, Mr Elmes said. "What we have done for well over 200 years is sit around and dictate to indigenous people what they will do, where they will live, where they will go and how they will operate," he said.

"I want to have a mature . . . discussion with each individual community to set up something that suits them. They own it, they drive it."

Mr Elmes stressed, however, that communities would be under no obligation to change existing AMP arrangements.

After briefing indigenous mayors yesterday, he said Aurukun, on Cape York Peninsula - a success story of the program - had signalled that it would stick with its total alcohol ban.

"They can opt one way or another," Mr Elmes said. "There are a number of communities that have a zero approach to alcohol and they may want to transition away from that . . . there are others that may want to tinker at the edges of what they have already got. But we have made it very clear that this is a proposal that the community owns, and the council - that it's up to the local council as the democratically elected leaders to run it."

As an alternative to prohibiting alcohol outright, AMPs in Queensland can restrict the availability of liquor by volume and type.

Palm Island, off Townsville, allows people of drinking age to purchase only one carton of light or mid-strength beer at a time, while prohibiting spirits and wine.

In Hopevale, 360km north of Cairns, a drinker can buy 30 cans of beer or a 750ml bottle of non-fortified wine.

The restrictions have been credited with lowering violence and boosting school attendance.

Local hospital admissions in Aurukun for assault-related injury fell dramatically from 22 per 1000 persons in 2002-03, when its AMP was established, to 7.4 persons in 2010-11, according to state government figures.

School attendance increased from 37.9 per cent in 2008, to 70.9 per cent this year.

But critics say the bans open the door to contraband drink-running, potentially dangerous home brews, drugs and substance abuse. It is racist, they contend, for remote indigenous communities to be singled out when alcohol abuse is a problem across all sections of society.

Mr Mundine rejected this argument. "I've been up to some of these communities. If you look at the difference since before alcohol was banned to now it is enormous," he said.

"They want to bring the nightmare back, it's a disgrace. We are on the threshold of actually starting to get commercial activity in some of these towns . . . we are on the cusp of moving ahead.

"This would be a retrograde step and a disaster for these communities, quite frankly. You would have to have a hole in your head to even consider it."

Professor Langton said the Queensland government was responding to "a specious argument" that alcohol restrictions in remote Aboriginal communities were an abuse of human rights.

"This is wrong and misinformed," she said.

Ms Macklin said her key concern was protecting women and children. "If the Queensland government does intend to make changes in this area, they must put every effort into listening to the people who are most vulnerable, first. Changes must also be based on robust evidence, so we can be sure that women and children aren't at risk."

Aurukun Mayor Derek Walpo said the alcohol ban was still essential to the community of about 1200, despite a "nightmare" surge this year in the sly-grog trade.

"We don't want to uplift our AMP," he said. "If we have more people working then eventually the AMP will fall away. We want to implement our law and order."

But Aboriginal health campaigner and nursing expert, associate professor Gracelyn Smallwood, said it was more important to take a "holistic approach" to combating alcohol abuse, and this involved tackling problems with employment and overcrowded housing.

Additional reporting: Rosanne Barrett