Ms LAWRIE - 2013-03-28
Your alcohol and crime policies are a disaster. The biggest talking point in this town, and from Alice Springs to Darwin, is the dramatic increase in public drunkenness, violence and vandalism. Whether it is the town camps in Alice Springs, the CBD of Darwin or the suburbs of our town, there is a steep rise in public drunkenness. People are despairing. You promised new alcohol laws would be brought in immediately, laws that experts agree will fail. But seven months later, they are nowhere to be seen. Why do Territorians have to face such a horrible increase in public drunkenness - more drunks on the streets - while you do nothing?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. We came into government in August last year and our role in addressing the law and order concerns is cleaning up Labor’s mess, yet again. We are not bringing in alcohol reform policies and rehabilitation because there is nothing wrong; we are bringing them in because, after eleven-and-a-half years of your governance, things were not working. Our Alcohol Rehabilitation minister is working tirelessly on trying to put a rehabilitation model in place. You will see an announcement on that very soon. We have expedited what we can do. We are putting in place a legislative framework and you will see that coming forward very soon.
I find it interesting that people are criticising our legislative agenda and what we are putting in place when it has not been put in place yet. I also find it very funny that you come here with your glass jaw, leading with your chin saying ‘Why are you doing this and what is happening?’
We have to try to clean up your failures over the last eleven-and-a-half years. The Banned Drinker Register - who did it ban? You talk about 2500 people. It did not ban people from drinking; it banned people from buying takeaway alcohol. You could still go to the pub and buy grog. You could drink at home, in a town camp, in the street; you could sit in a restaurant and have a glass of wine. It did not ban people from drinking, all it did was penalise the good people who do the right thing and are responsible. Our framework will try to rehabilitate people. We recognise that some people have a substance abuse problem. We want to deal with the problem, and that is what the rehabilitation component is for.
In relation to whether things got better or worse, in the current financial year, alcohol-related antisocial incidents in Darwin and Palmerston have decreased by 15.2%.
Leading with the chin - it is15.2%. Not only are you on all these fairy dust things trying to stir up trouble in the community saying this is bad and that is bad, the statistics show a 15.2% reduction based on your previous work.
We know there is a problem. We are not walking away from the problem, but we know things are getting better. We are bringing in an alcohol rehabilitation framework. One of our biggest challenges is how we fund it because we were left with a $5.5bn debt.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. We came into government in August last year and our role in addressing the law and order concerns is cleaning up Labor’s mess, yet again. We are not bringing in alcohol reform policies and rehabilitation because there is nothing wrong; we are bringing them in because, after eleven-and-a-half years of your governance, things were not working. Our Alcohol Rehabilitation minister is working tirelessly on trying to put a rehabilitation model in place. You will see an announcement on that very soon. We have expedited what we can do. We are putting in place a legislative framework and you will see that coming forward very soon.
I find it interesting that people are criticising our legislative agenda and what we are putting in place when it has not been put in place yet. I also find it very funny that you come here with your glass jaw, leading with your chin saying ‘Why are you doing this and what is happening?’
We have to try to clean up your failures over the last eleven-and-a-half years. The Banned Drinker Register - who did it ban? You talk about 2500 people. It did not ban people from drinking; it banned people from buying takeaway alcohol. You could still go to the pub and buy grog. You could drink at home, in a town camp, in the street; you could sit in a restaurant and have a glass of wine. It did not ban people from drinking, all it did was penalise the good people who do the right thing and are responsible. Our framework will try to rehabilitate people. We recognise that some people have a substance abuse problem. We want to deal with the problem, and that is what the rehabilitation component is for.
In relation to whether things got better or worse, in the current financial year, alcohol-related antisocial incidents in Darwin and Palmerston have decreased by 15.2%.
Leading with the chin - it is15.2%. Not only are you on all these fairy dust things trying to stir up trouble in the community saying this is bad and that is bad, the statistics show a 15.2% reduction based on your previous work.
We know there is a problem. We are not walking away from the problem, but we know things are getting better. We are bringing in an alcohol rehabilitation framework. One of our biggest challenges is how we fund it because we were left with a $5.5bn debt.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016