‘Unliveable’: Alice Springs bakery broken into for 42nd time
An Alice Springs business owner shining a light on the local crime wave says the town will soon be “unliveable”, after his bakery was trashed for the 42nd time.
An Alice Springs business owner shining a light on the local crime wave has warned the town will soon be “unliveable”, after his bakery was trashed for the 42nd time.
Darren Clark, 51, gained worldwide media attention last month through his Action for Alice Facebook page, where he has documented the skyrocketing incidents of assaults, break-ins, car thefts and anti-social behaviour forcing many residents to flee.
But Action for Alice, which has been posting videos, photos and messages sent to Mr Clark from Alice locals for the past three years, has been silent since earlier this month — and could soon be gone for good.
The social media giant on Friday slapped Mr Clark with a 28-day ban for posting a video showing a brawl, a week after hitting him with a seven-day ban over another violent clip citing “bullying and harassment”.
That came as his bakery was broken into yet again over the weekend, causing $3000 worth of damage.
“They were looking for car keys and cash,” he told news.com.au.
“We don’t have any on the premises, so it was just smashed windows and doors.”
Mr Clark said after this month’s announcements of alcohol bans and another $250 million in funding, the spotlight had turned away from Alice and things had “gone back” to the way they were.
“All of the problem drinkers we had here, they’ve gone somewhere else for their grog,” he said.
“They’ve gone to Mount Isa, Katherine, Ceduna, Wyalla. There’s a heap of illegal grog going into communities, and it’s gone back to what it was before with the youth crime. They stole a couple of cars over the weekend, broke into heaps of businesses, people have come back from holidays and their houses are trashed.”
Mr Clark said there had been “announcements of money here before and nothing changes, so no one was holding their breath”.
“The same people, the same organisations will get the money again, so it’ll just be frittered away again,” he said.
“You need to audit the lot of them and see if they’ve met any of their KPIs, what have their outcomes been. When you’re throwing money around again, say these are your KPIs and set them really high. Someone has to monitor them.”
The baker, who previously told news.com.au he feared the violence in the town was getting so bad it would become “fly-in, fly-out” within five years, said Alice was on track to be “just unliveable”.
“That’s where it’ll end up,” he said.
“No one’s going out still. I talk to cafe owners and restaurant owners, they’re waiting for leases to run out now because they won’t hang on. There’s just no one moving around.”
Part of the problem, he said, was there are so many public servants in Alice scared to speak out. Many of those local workers would send Mr Clark messages to post anonymously on the Facebook page.
Fearing he will ultimately be banned from Facebook, Mr Clark is in the process of setting up an Action for Alice website and Twitter account.
“Public servants can’t say a word here — nurses, health workers, police officers, firemen — anyone that works in a government department here they can’t say anything,” he said.
“If they speak out against the government they’re gone.”
It comes after the latest figures released by NT Police on Friday laid bare the scale of the crime wave gripping the town.
The monthly crime statistics included new data covering the month of December 2022, providing the final outcome for the calendar year compared with 2021.
Overall, alcohol-related assaults increased by a shocking 68 per cent, domestic violence-related assaults were up 66 per cent and assaults were up 51 per cent. Property damage rose 55 per cent, commercial break-ins by 47 per cent, motor vehicle thefts by 13 per cent and house break-ins by 9 per cent.
In the Alice Springs local government area, which has a population of just 28,000, there were a total of 2823 assaults recorded in 2022, 1886 domestic assaults, 1521 alcohol-related assaults and 79 sexual assaults.
There were 959 house break-ins, 834 commercial break-ins, 408 motor vehicle thefts and 3631 cases of property damage, the figures show.
Amid growing public outcry and heightened media attention on the Central Australian town, the Northern Territory government caved to pressure earlier this month, announcing a reintroduction of alcohol bans in Indigenous communities.
“We’ve heard loudly and clearly that the matter and decision of alcohol on community needs to be one that is made by the entire community,” NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles announced last Monday.
“That is why we’re creating a circuit breaker and implementing temporary dry zones until communities can develop and vote on the alcohol management plans, the community alcohol plans, they want to see. It is important for all of us as Territorians to tackle this issue once and for all.”
At the same time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a new $250 million package to support youth engagement and diversion programs, job creation and improving health services.
“The truth is that all governments could have done better. All governments — Labor, Liberal, Northern Territory, here in Canberra, could have done better,” he told parliament.
“This is about intergenerational disadvantage. It is about a lack of employment services, a lack of community services, a lack of educational opportunity.”
— with NCA NewsWire
Originally published as ‘Unliveable’: Alice Springs bakery broken into for 42nd time
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