Ms WALKER - 2010-11-24
- Alcohol misuse places a significant burden on the health system. Can you outline to the House how the proposed alcohol reforms will help reduce the health costs associated with alcohol misuse?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nhulunbuy for her question. She has seen the result of the government’s alcohol management plan in her electorate, specifically in Nhulunbuy, and the reduction of crime and antisocial behaviour in that community. When you take tough intervention in a community and put the tools in place for a banning system, which the permit system in Nhulunbuy is, you achieve real results.
The opposition is running this line that we are going to do something against the whole of the Territory community. That is not true. We are going hard after the problem drinker, the recidivist, the habitual drunk, to ban that drinker to get them off-tap so we can see a resultant reduction in crime and antisocial behaviour, like the reductions we have seen in other parts of the Territory, such as Nhulunbuy and Groote Eylandt. We have certainly seen reductions in serious assaults in Alice Springs.
What we have seen in the Territory though is that people are moving to follow the grog. If they are off-tap in one place, they will move to follow the grog. We have seen those results coming through the crime statistics in Alice Springs.
The number of alcohol-related deaths in the Territory is far too high. It is three times the national average. The number of alcohol-related hospital admissions in the Northern Territory is more than double the national average. We know that 60% of all assaults are alcohol related. We know that 67% of domestic violence assaults are alcohol related.
Seventy per cent of the grog consumed in the Territory is purchased off-licence. We need a consistent approach across the Territory, which is what our reforms provide. It does not matter where you live in the Territory, from 1 July we will have a consistent approach to automatic bans for recidivist, habitual drunks and problem drinkers who are going in and out of police protective custody. They will be turned off-tap and banned from purchasing or consuming alcohol. We will have secondary supply measures; there will be bans there as well.
We will be establishing a new tribunal to deal with chronic alcoholism and put in place mandatory treatment and rehabilitation. We will also be rebuilding and strengthening the Alcohol Court, merging it with the Drug Court into a court which has broader powers than it has currently.
We are clearly saying enough is enough. The problem is the problem drinker, the target is the problem drinker; we are turning them off-tap. We are using an ID system as the tool to enforce that. Curiously, the CLP’s response to date is to build a 200-bed facility in Katherine, but have no tool of enforcing any ban they want to bring in, no tool at all. So you could just go around and have a drink, because there is no tool to enforce any bans. They are on their own, they want people to drink early, fall down when they are drunk, and then they will lock them up.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016