Ms LAWRIE - 2014-03-26
Tomorrow there is a rally in Alice Springs against your Alcohol Protection Orders, which rally organiser, Alison Furber calls ‘racist laws’. Alison Furber goes on to say:
Barbara Shaw, from Alice Springs, is calling for the reinstatement of the Banned Drinker Register saying the government is not listening to the people.
CAALAS principal lawyer, Mark O’Reilly, describes your APO legislation as problematic and says:
Your actions have caused racial tension in Alice Springs. What are you going to say to the people of Alice Springs at the rally tomorrow, and why are you making police do your dirty work?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the end of that question is completely absurd. Why are we making police do dirty work? We are asking police to undertake policing responsibilities.
Many people in the Northern Territory, the majority of Alice Springs and many people around Australia would know the situation in Central Australia several years ago. There was a national media focus on the debilitating circumstances around crime and alcohol consumption and what was occurring in our community - be it property crime, sexual assault or domestic violence – statistically, it was out of this world. It was causing significant mayhem for victims of crime. There are many women in Central Australia, particularly Aboriginal women, who were becoming the victims of ongoing and repeated domestic violence and sexual assault and something needed to occur.
Since 2005, as the Health minister has reported, until today presentations at Alice Springs hospital have continued to rise - including throughout the time of the BDR escalating - and something needed to occur.
We removed the Banned Drinker Register and put in a range of measures to try to address the issue around domestic violence, sexual assaults and crimes related to the consumption of alcohol. Those measures include extra police on the street, temporary Beat locations outside bottle shops to try to stop people from having their top-up alcohol late at night - their secondary consumption - the mandatory alcohol treatment and alcohol protection orders.
We have seen, February on February, a reduction on early figures of 22% on serious assaults in Central Australia and across the Territory. We have seen a drop in per capita alcohol consumption of 7% since we removed the Banned Drinker Register, the lowest figure since before 2001-02 across the Territory of 12.84 litres per person …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. What does the Chief Minister have to say to the residents of Alice Springs in relation to the rally?
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order.
Mr GILES: There is no doubt our measures have been successful. Crime - including property crime - assaults, alcohol consumption and domestic violence assaults are all down, which is a positive for victims of domestic violence.
Some people in Central Australia think this unfairly targets Aboriginal people. Every time I have been through a drive-through bottle shop or a takeaway bottle shop, I have had my licence checked and been asked if I am drinking grog. Every time I have been with someone else, it does not matter if they are Caucasian or otherwise, those people have been checked.
We are seeing a reduction in alcohol consumption and crime, which is protecting women. I think this is a good thing and we will stick with it.
- We feel like we are below the white people; they're making us feel like we are worthless.
Barbara Shaw, from Alice Springs, is calling for the reinstatement of the Banned Drinker Register saying the government is not listening to the people.
CAALAS principal lawyer, Mark O’Reilly, describes your APO legislation as problematic and says:
- It's the police's job to enforce the law; I think it's a bad law.
Your actions have caused racial tension in Alice Springs. What are you going to say to the people of Alice Springs at the rally tomorrow, and why are you making police do your dirty work?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the end of that question is completely absurd. Why are we making police do dirty work? We are asking police to undertake policing responsibilities.
Many people in the Northern Territory, the majority of Alice Springs and many people around Australia would know the situation in Central Australia several years ago. There was a national media focus on the debilitating circumstances around crime and alcohol consumption and what was occurring in our community - be it property crime, sexual assault or domestic violence – statistically, it was out of this world. It was causing significant mayhem for victims of crime. There are many women in Central Australia, particularly Aboriginal women, who were becoming the victims of ongoing and repeated domestic violence and sexual assault and something needed to occur.
Since 2005, as the Health minister has reported, until today presentations at Alice Springs hospital have continued to rise - including throughout the time of the BDR escalating - and something needed to occur.
We removed the Banned Drinker Register and put in a range of measures to try to address the issue around domestic violence, sexual assaults and crimes related to the consumption of alcohol. Those measures include extra police on the street, temporary Beat locations outside bottle shops to try to stop people from having their top-up alcohol late at night - their secondary consumption - the mandatory alcohol treatment and alcohol protection orders.
We have seen, February on February, a reduction on early figures of 22% on serious assaults in Central Australia and across the Territory. We have seen a drop in per capita alcohol consumption of 7% since we removed the Banned Drinker Register, the lowest figure since before 2001-02 across the Territory of 12.84 litres per person …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. What does the Chief Minister have to say to the residents of Alice Springs in relation to the rally?
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order.
Mr GILES: There is no doubt our measures have been successful. Crime - including property crime - assaults, alcohol consumption and domestic violence assaults are all down, which is a positive for victims of domestic violence.
Some people in Central Australia think this unfairly targets Aboriginal people. Every time I have been through a drive-through bottle shop or a takeaway bottle shop, I have had my licence checked and been asked if I am drinking grog. Every time I have been with someone else, it does not matter if they are Caucasian or otherwise, those people have been checked.
We are seeing a reduction in alcohol consumption and crime, which is protecting women. I think this is a good thing and we will stick with it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016