Police ban more than 500 itinerants and drunks from Cairns city centre

Police are banning more than 10 problem drunks each week from stepping foot in the city’s chief party district.

Drunk and unconscious businessman lying on a counter

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POLICE are banning more than 10 problem drunks each week from stepping foot in the city’s chief party district.

New figures reveal 533 banning notices from the Cairns Safe Night Precinct — which spans the CBD — were issued last year as authorities cracked down on alcohol-fuelled violence and anti-social behaviour.

Cairns Safe Night Precinct president Paul Garnham said the majority of orders were issued to itinerants rather than out-of-control patrons at the city’s pubs and clubs.

“They get a bit rowdy from time to time, especially when they keep getting moved around town and it’s wet,” he said.

It is an issue the city has long grappled with, and one Cairns MP Michael Healy has taken it upon himself to try solve.

Cairns MP Michael Healy. PICTURE: STEWART MCLEAN

Over the recent months he has overseen five inter-agency meetings with the State Government’s housing, community services, health and police departments and non-government organisations including Anglicare.

“I’ve asked them to put a document together by the end of February for me to take down to Brisbane in time for the next budget,” he said.

Options include establishing a 24-hour detox facility in Cairns and expanding Anglicare’s diversionary centre on Lyons St, which was set up as an alternative to formal incarceration for intoxicated people in the wake of a royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.

“We also have indigenous people coming down from remote communities but not necessarily getting sent home,” Mr Healy said.

“So we’re looking at how we return them to country.”

Cairns Chamber of Commerce president Nick Loukas urged the government to investigate a minimum floor price for alcohol.

“We’ve stimulated debate but we haven’t seen a lot of progress so far,” he said.

Cairns Regional Council Mayor Bob Manning said the key to fixing the problem was to get people back to their communities where they had homes and families who could help look after them.

“Police can pick them up and take the off the street to dry out for a while, but the other half of the equation is getting them home,” he said.

“The vast majority of these people have homes somewhere, but it’s not here.

“They are here because they fall into accident and temptation.

“The State Government should be giving these people help by putting detox centres in those communities — that’s part of their responsibility.”

Banning notices can be issued to people who behave in a disorderly, violent or offensive way at a licensed premises, safe night precinct or at an event where alcohol is being sold.

Bans can last for between 10 days and three months depending on the severity of the offence, and photo identification can be distributed to pubs and clubs to allow them to block offenders at the door.

Originally published as Police ban more than 500 itinerants and drunks from Cairns city centre