Mr ELFERINK - 2010-10-26
Today you are going to read a statement in this House about your alcohol policy. In the last 10 minutes, I have taken an opportunity to walk across to Bennett Park. I have reported to police six drinkers sitting in the park drinking liquor. I am wondering how you are going to make your alcohol policy work, and what faith Territorians should have in your alcohol policy when you cannot even control the drinkers 50 m from the front door of this building?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question from the member for Port Darwin. It goes to the heart of the point of the alcohol reforms which will be contained within the statement I will deliver in the House this afternoon.
The point is the problem drinker. The point is the person who has an alcohol dependency. The alcohol bans and the banned drinker register are for those six people who are chronic alcoholics, dependent on alcohol. They are the people who are going in and out of protective custody because they are drinking in the morning, in the middle of the day; they are chronically dependent on alcohol. The statistics bear it out - 54 000 police protective custody incidents a year. The police protective custody bans automatically stop them from purchasing or consuming alcohol. The ID system with the police is the enforcement system.
In stark contrast, the CLP wants to extend trading hours in bottle shops in Alice Springs and pour more grog on to the streets. They say they are not. They get the idea of taking the responsibility down to the individual - which is the banned drinker register - but no enforcement tool; it would just be anything goes.
The alcohol reforms go to the heart of the issue: the people who are destroying themselves, their lives, their health, by drinking to risky behaviour extents. All the evaluation reports show it. That is exactly to the heart of our alcohol reforms.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question from the member for Port Darwin. It goes to the heart of the point of the alcohol reforms which will be contained within the statement I will deliver in the House this afternoon.
The point is the problem drinker. The point is the person who has an alcohol dependency. The alcohol bans and the banned drinker register are for those six people who are chronic alcoholics, dependent on alcohol. They are the people who are going in and out of protective custody because they are drinking in the morning, in the middle of the day; they are chronically dependent on alcohol. The statistics bear it out - 54 000 police protective custody incidents a year. The police protective custody bans automatically stop them from purchasing or consuming alcohol. The ID system with the police is the enforcement system.
In stark contrast, the CLP wants to extend trading hours in bottle shops in Alice Springs and pour more grog on to the streets. They say they are not. They get the idea of taking the responsibility down to the individual - which is the banned drinker register - but no enforcement tool; it would just be anything goes.
The alcohol reforms go to the heart of the issue: the people who are destroying themselves, their lives, their health, by drinking to risky behaviour extents. All the evaluation reports show it. That is exactly to the heart of our alcohol reforms.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016