Alice Springs report to recommend NT government reinstate alcohol bans

An Alice Springs-based leader has called on the NT chief minister to ‘take responsibility’ for the government’s decisions on alcohol policies across the Territory.

The Northern Territory Government is being urged to immediately reinstate alcohol bans in Alice Springs town camps after a report recommended they be restored without delay.

But the NT and federal governments have pushed back a decision on the issue until next week.

Independent Alice Springs-based MLA Robyn Lambley said the government needed to apologise for the disastrous decision to allow the “rivers of grog” to flow freely in Alice Springs and overturn the decision today.

“They’re deeply embarrassed now by what’s happening now on the national stage,” she said.

“The Chief Minister has failed the people of Central Australia, so has Minister Chansey Paech, they are now in a position where they have to apologise.

“They have to backflip and they have to take responsibility for the fact that they were responsible for one of the most destructive decisions I’ve ever seen in my time in the Territory and that’s almost 30 years.”

Officers of the Northern Territory's Mounted Police Unit patrol Alice Springs at night. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The alcohol ban recommendation is the same model that had been proposed by Aboriginal health organisations who had warned there would be carnage when the bans were lifted last July.

The bans had been introduced as part of the Howard Government’s NT Intervention in 2007 and continued under Labor’s Stronger Futures legislation from 2012.

But when Stronger Futures expired on July 17 the bans were removed overnight.

Instead, the Northern Territory Government introduced and “opt-in” system, allowing alcohol to return to the camps and hundreds of smaller homelands and Indigenous communities unless they opted to remain dry.

Fewer than 20 of these communities – and just one Alice Springs town camp – opted to remain dry.

Ms Fyles met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Thursday afternoon after receiving the report from Central Australian Regional Controller Dorelle Anderson.

Sources have told Sky News the report recommends the NT government “urgently” legislates amendments to its liquor act to impose alcohol restrictions in Central Australia including town camps.

This would remain in place until alcohol management plans are developed by the community if they chose to opt out of these restrictions.

But Ms Fyles refused to say if the restrictions would be reinstated.

“What I’m saying is I’m not pre-empting the contents of that report I will pay it the respect,” she said before her meeting with Mr Albanese.

“We will discuss it and work collaboratively on the recommendations, plural, in that report.”

Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson welcomed the report’s recommendation.

According to senior government sources, the report also recommends the Federal Government step up with more needs-based funding to address the issues in Alice Springs.

It’s understood the Northern Territory government is arguing for more funding if it is to overturn the decision to return the alcohol bans.

The federal government is adamant the bans need to be reinstated but has delayed a decision until next week.

“I met with Natasha Fyles this afternoon after having received the report from the Office of the Central Australian Regional Controller,” Mr Albanese said on Twitter.

“The report will be considered by respective cabinets next week.”

In a statement issued after the meeting, Mr Fyles said the discussions had been “constructive”.

“We continue working together, listening to the local community and taking action in the best interests of all Territorians,” she said.

“We are not giving up on Alice Springs.”

Originally published as Alice Springs report to recommend NT government reinstate alcohol bans