Politicians, business owners react to Alice Springs curfew
Local and federal politicians as well as business leaders have weighed in on the measures introduced to reduce crime in the Red Centre. Here’s what they had to say.
Northern Territory
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In the almost 24 hours since a 72-hour curfew was enacted for Alice Springs, nurmerous federal and local leaders have weighed in.
On Monday, the NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy issued a Public Disorder Declaration for all residents of Alice Springs following a spate of violent crime across the outback town.
The declaration, applied to residents and visitors of all ages, will be in place from Monday, July 8 to Thursday, to July 11 between 10pm and 6am each day.
Here’s how each politician and business leader has reacted to the measures.
INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS MINISTER
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said the issues in Alice Springs had been a “long time in the making” and in her view the only way to address the problems was by governments and the community working together backed up with long-term funding.
“We have made a four year commitment of $250 million ... (that) involves increasing funding for police domestic violence services, and new services,” she said.
“We’re seeing some really positive things starting to happen.”
Ms Burney said a further $40m in funding was resulting in young Indigenous people reengaging with education and “attending school more than they ever have”.
SENATOR LINDA BURNEY
But Coalition spokeswoman for child protection and the prevention of family violence Senator Kerrynne Liddle accused Labor of a lack of transparency around funding decisions for support services in Central Australia and failing to produce evidence of any success as a result of the spending.
“We need more information about how funding decisions were arrived at, and it’s not good enough to say we handed the money over, community knows best,” Ms Liddle said.
“You show the evidence.”
Ms Liddle said the NT government also needed to be held accountable for making sure measures in Alice Springs were successful.
“Children need to be in school, parents need to parent, it’s not all about a policing response,” she said.
“The majority of people who live in that town, including visitors from remote communities, they want to live safely and go about their business.
“It’s a very small number of people doing the wrong thing, we should all be very concerned about the delivery of outcomes given the amount of funding - almost $300m - put into Central Australia.”
She also questioned the logic behind funding construction of a temporary ice skating rink in Alice Springs during the middle of Summer as a community safety measure.
“Show me the evidence that actually contributed to safety, not just for the kids walking the streets at night, but the other residents too,” she said.
ACTING OPPOSITION LEADER SUSSAN LEY
Acting opposition leader Sussan Ley said a lack of leadership at a federal level was hampering any “permanent improvement” in Alice Springs, adding it was “not clear” the funding provided to support the community had “made it where it is needed”.
Ms Ley said authorities should be “wary” of locking people down because of the “bad behaviour of others”.
“As the President of the Northern Territory Police Association Nathan Finn highlights, the Northern Territory is experiencing a lack of police resourcing to deal with the crime in the area,” she said.
“By imposing a curfew, additional police have to be drawn away from other much-needed areas of the Territory, making curfews an unsustainable solution to the problem of violent crime.”
Ms Ley said young Indigenous people often found themselves on the streets at night because they were avoiding volatile home situations.
“The Albanese government needs to focus on preventative measures that stop kids getting into violent crime in the first place,” she said.
SENATOR JACINTA PRICE
Jacinta Price says the latest Alice Springs curfew is not a long-term solution, arguing the snap decision is a “temporary” measure likely to be repeated.
On Tuesday morning, Senator Price told ABC Breakfast that curfews were not a viable long term solution.
“I’ve always said that curfews are really only temporary measures.”
Senator Price said boarding facilities needed to be built in the region to house the vulnerable children who roam the town’s streets.
“These kids come from town camps and they’re some of our most marginalised – we need to look at the problem and start with them before they head down the road toward incarceration and the sorts of behaviour we’re seeing carried out on our streets.”
Asked what other long-term solutions would help Indigenous Australians, Senator Price said native title arrangements and the NT’s Land Rights Act needed review to deliver “economic independence”.
“There’s a whole raft of things that need to be re-thought that I think we’ve done incorrectly over the decades and we need to bring that into line to the rest of Australia now.”
Senator Price maintained the latest curfew would not be the last.
“I think it will probably be longer than three days and if it is just three days then I’ve no doubt there’ll be another snap curfew because (the) problems aren’t fixed through a curfew.”
INDEPENDENT MEMBER ROBYN LAMBLEY
Meanwhile, independent Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley told Sunrise that the curfew was a “relief” for residents, but maintained the long term solution was “very difficult”.
“It’s about housing (and) it’s about making sure kids go to school – we’ve got the lowest level of school attendance in the Northern Territory now than what we’ve seen for many, many years,” she said.
“Things are sliding backwards in many respects (and) you’ve got the ongoing problem of alcohol right throughout the Northern Territory, yet in Alice Springs we’ve got the strictest alcohol policies probably in Australia.”
OPPOSITION LEADER LIA FINOCCHIARO
Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro called the curfew “the only tool this government has” to keep Alice residents safe.
“We support the curfew being called because it’s a measure that’s desperately needed in the absence of anything else,” she said.
“This is a government that’s out of ideas, out of touch, not listening to the community, and after eight long, tired years, what we’ve got is a government that doesn’t have a plan for our future.”
Ms Finocchiaro said the CLP’s plan to tackle the “root causes of crime” will see the party implement boot camps with Aboriginal mentorship for young people, work camps for adult prisoners and compulsory drug, alcohol, and behaviour change rehabilitation programs.
CHIEF MINISTER EVA LAWLER
“Party, but you can’t be blind drunk,” was the message from Chief Minister Eva Lawler as Alice Springs prepared to enter its second curfew this year on Monday.
Speaking in Darwin after commissioner Michael Murphy called a snap 72-hour curfew in Alice Springs in response to four days of violence and social unrest in the town, Ms Lawler said the curfew would provide police with a circuit breaker to stop violence and unrest.
Ms Lawler linked the violence to up to 5000 visitors in the town for the weekend’s Alice Springs show and described offending in the town in recent days as unacceptable.
The curfew zone applied to Alice Springs CBD between Anzac Hill, Schwartz Crescent, to the hospital from the Stuart Highway to Leichardt and Stott Terrace.
“This curfew is for youth, as well as adults,” Ms Lawler said. “You can enter the zone for lawful reason such as attending an event, work, fleeing domestic violence, or going to a hospitality venue.
“Curfews are an important tool at the disposal of police to restore order and improve community safety. The offending in Alice Springs over the last few days has been unacceptable and will provide police with extra powers to get on top of the situation on the ground in Alice Springs.
“This is exactly why my government passed curfew legislation in May. We want police to use the curfew powers when it’s needed, and that time is right now.”
Ms Lawler said “substantial numbers” of additional people were in Alice Springs during the show and school holidays.
“Sometimes when the show’s on in Alice Springs we see an additional 5000 people,” she said. “They’re not just people from the Northern Territory by the way, we see people from the APY lands, from across the border in WA going into Alice Springs as a hub.
“The show brings people from far and wide into Alice Springs so anecdotally I think there were a large number, possibly another 5000 people in Alice Springs. So this curfew is about all of that, getting on top of the issues of crime, by also about returning people to country, returning them home to their own states as well.”
Ms Lawler acknowledged the risk officers faced in the wake of the weekend’s assault on four police
“I do understand a father and how heartbroken and disappointed he is particularly the pride he must feel having a daughter who’s a police officer,” Ms Lawler said.
“I can assure that father the police force will look after his daughter, the commissioner of police will make sure in her line of duty she will be looked after.”
POLICE MINISTER BRENT POTTER
Police Minister Brent Potter said the latest curfew prompted by three separate violent incidents in the town over recent days, including the assault of four off-duty police officers by a mob of 20 people, an officer being run-down at a point-of-sale intervention and fighting at a NAIDOC week event, would not necessarily set a precedent.
“I don’t think it sets a precedent, I think the police commissioner has to weigh up every individual event with the resources he has in the environmental context it occurs in,” Mr Potter said.
“In relation to the specific threshold for offending I think in this instance we’ve seen 72 hours of different types but all arguably related to some form of violence,” he said.
“There’s been no discussion of an extension and I’ll continue to engage with the police commissioner as I have done before because every individual incident is a concern.”
Mr Potter said an additional 33 police recruits had been based in Alice Springs since graduating last month.
OPPOSITION WHIP JOSHUA BURGOYNE
Braitling MLA Joshua Burgoyne said the CLP “knew” the curfew was coming and welcomed it after the tumultuous 72 hours police responded to over the weekend.
He said the 80-person brawl, multiple alleged attacks on police, and snap curfew was a “dagger to the heart” of Alice Springs.
“One of these new (police) recruits had not even done a day in the job and they’ve already been brutally bashed in our town,” Mr Burgoyne said.
“This is simply unacceptable and the people involved must be held to account.
“We must see them brought to justice.
“I think it’s so important at this time that everyone in the community understands this is being called as a result of failures - failures of government to ensure that people can be protected and feel safe in their own communities.”
His biggest concerns were around the curfew’s operative function and how the public - who might be “unaware” of the unfolding situation - would learn of the curfew and its impact.
“How is it going to be co-ordinated? How will it actually be spoken about? Will there be media going out? Will people be receiving text messages? How will people actually know that this curfew was in place?”
Mr Burgoyne said he wanted to see “violent offenders” off the streets of Alice Springs.
He said he would be “interested” to know whether the individuals involved in Sunday’s brawl have a criminal history.
Mr Burgoyne said alcohol was a “major factor” in many of the incidents recorded in Alice Springs and called for mandatory alcohol rehabilitation.
“We know that in many cases young people are also being involved,” he said.
“We need to ensure that young people are getting to school - it is the right of young people to go to school … aren’t out on our streets late at night.
TODD MALL TRADERS PRESIDENT
Todd Mall Traders Association president Venita Poblocki welcomed the curfew but said it was a relief to see it would not last as long as the previous curfew.
Ms Poblocki said the duration of the last curfew perpetuated a “negative media cycle” in a town that is “already struggling to attract tourism”.
“We would like to see perhaps instead of a curfew - which is a sort of a reaction to the last 72 hours - we’d rather see a continued visible police presence in the populated areas.
“(Have) the foresight to understand that there’s going to be a lot of people in town for cracker night and for the show, and therefore the police numbers need to reflect that as well to deal with the issues that are going to result.”
Ms Poblocki said the curfew might have an impact on night traders but not to the same level as it had in the past due to the short period it would span from Monday.
“It certainly won’t affect the daytime traders,” she said.
GREENS CANDIDATE ASTA HILL
NT Greens Braitling candidate Asta Hill said she was “saddened” by the weekend’s turmoil.
But Ms Hill said the “kneejerk response” was not the answer to solving crime in the embattled city.
“It pushes vulnerable people to the fringes and collectively punishes our town,” she said.
“The NT has the highest rates of homelessness in the country - more than 12 times the national average.
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