‘Stop welfare on takeaway alcohol days’: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s call for PM to save Alice Springs

The Country Liberal Party NT government continues to struggle to contain an increase in violent criminal and anti-social behaviour inherited from its Labor predecessor.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Picture: Gera Kazakov

Anthony Albanese must back the Northern Territory’s plea to stop distributing welfare payments the same day takeaway alcohol is available or the Alice Springs crime crisis will worsen, Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has declared.

The Country Liberal Party NT government continues to struggle to contain an increase in violent criminal and anti-social behaviour inherited from its Labor predecessor.

Senator Nampijinpa Price writes in The Australian on Monday that Mr Albanese must back the CLP government’s welfare moves if Alice Springs is to thrive going forward.

“To keep things in true perspective – the proposed reforms that Anthony Albanese won’t touch with a 10-foot pole are not proposals that will decimate the lives of our most vulnerable,” she writes.

“Take the Territory government’s proposed reforms to Centrelink payments, for example. Ensuring payments aren’t made on days when takeaway alcohol is available, or requiring regular reporting in order to receive benefits, are not some kind of fatal deprivation.

“They are to restore the reciprocity we require of every Australian citizen – the give and take of living in a liberal democracy where rights and obligations come as a packaged deal.”

In mid-December, following a visit to Alice Springs after the assault on a two-month-old baby and the alleged rape of a healthcare worker, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said she had identified seven “critical areas” that require federal government attention.

Her plan involves amendments to Centrelink payments so they are made only on non-takeaway alcohol days, compulsory work and training programs with reporting obligations and 100 per cent income management for parents of youth offenders, and that royalty payments be made in communities, not Alice Springs.

But with Labor yet to back the Chief Minister’s plan, Senator Nampijinpa Price writes that the Prime Minister must take action now.

“This is not suddenly leaving people high and dry with no government welfare, it’s about requiring mature and responsible decision-making, for example around the school attendance of their child should a person want less restrictive forms of that benefit,” she writes.

“Or take the proposed reforms to the distribution of royalty money by land councils. Again, this isn’t about removing people’s eligibility to receive what they are entitled to, it is simply about distributing those funds in a way that discourages destructive behaviour.

“Anthony Albanese’s opposition to these proposed reforms proves that he doesn’t really love this country. If he did, he would back in a Territory government that does, regardless of differing political persuasions.”

Last week the NT Liquor Commission approved a licensed club house for the remote community of Wadeye, one of the nation’s largest remote communities. Just hours later, police officers were subjected to a “violent and appalling attack” when responding to an alcohol-fuelled domestic violence call-out during which officers were attacked by a large group of 30-40 people who began to throw rocks at them.

In the violent incident, a 14-year-old girl is alleged to have tackled a police officer, causing him to fall on his back, and a 30-year-old woman allegedly began biting the officer’s ankle multiple times.

NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said it was “abundantly clear that alcohol continues to play a significant role in enabling harm within our communities”, but despite this, NT police executives still support the granting of the licence.

“I couldn’t think of a more atrocious idea myself but I’m obviously not as smart as the executives,” said one officer. “This place is such a clusterf--k.”