Ms WALKER - 2011-03-30
Can you please update the House on the government’s commitment to tackle alcohol-related crime across the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nhulunbuy. Over 66% of all violent crime in Alice Springs is alcohol induced. If you are not cracking down on alcohol, you cannot crack down on crime. Later on today, in this sittings, we will be introducing the toughest crackdown on alcohol-related crime in this country’s history: Enough is Enough.
Contrast our position on alcohol and alcohol-related crime with the opposition. Our reforms will ban problem drinkers. People who are taken into protective custody night after night, who commit acts of domestic violence on their partners whilst intoxicated, who neglect their kids and do not send them to school as a result of alcohol, will be banned from purchasing takeaway alcohol in the Northern Territory. We will establish a banned drinkers register right across the Northern Territory. From Nhulunbuy to Alice Springs, if you are banned in one place you will be banned right across the Northern Territory.
Compare that to the opposition in Alice Springs. They oppose the banned drinkers register. They oppose banning problem drinkers from accessing takeaway alcohol. They will continue to allow people to drink themselves stupid and get taken into protective custody night after night. Not only will they not support the banned drinkers register across the Northern Territory, they also believe things will improve in Alice Springs if bottle shops are allowed to open for an extra four hours a day.
More grog means more crime. That is the position of the opposition, because they are in the pockets of vested interests which retail alcohol in this town. Those are the people they are hostage to because, if they were serious about crime in Alice Springs, they would support our reforms. They would say enough is enough, support banning problem drinkers from accessing takeaway alcohol, support a banned drinkers register to give the courts the ability to ban people from accessing alcohol, and support Family and Children’s Services workers to put people on the banned drinkers registers where kids are being neglected and not going to school because of alcohol abuse in the family.
The opposition supports more grog - four hours more trading of alcohol, four hours of trading in misery in Alice Springs, four hours of more crime and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs - because they are in the pockets of a small number of licensees who have vested interests in peddling misery in this town.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nhulunbuy. Over 66% of all violent crime in Alice Springs is alcohol induced. If you are not cracking down on alcohol, you cannot crack down on crime. Later on today, in this sittings, we will be introducing the toughest crackdown on alcohol-related crime in this country’s history: Enough is Enough.
Contrast our position on alcohol and alcohol-related crime with the opposition. Our reforms will ban problem drinkers. People who are taken into protective custody night after night, who commit acts of domestic violence on their partners whilst intoxicated, who neglect their kids and do not send them to school as a result of alcohol, will be banned from purchasing takeaway alcohol in the Northern Territory. We will establish a banned drinkers register right across the Northern Territory. From Nhulunbuy to Alice Springs, if you are banned in one place you will be banned right across the Northern Territory.
Compare that to the opposition in Alice Springs. They oppose the banned drinkers register. They oppose banning problem drinkers from accessing takeaway alcohol. They will continue to allow people to drink themselves stupid and get taken into protective custody night after night. Not only will they not support the banned drinkers register across the Northern Territory, they also believe things will improve in Alice Springs if bottle shops are allowed to open for an extra four hours a day.
More grog means more crime. That is the position of the opposition, because they are in the pockets of vested interests which retail alcohol in this town. Those are the people they are hostage to because, if they were serious about crime in Alice Springs, they would support our reforms. They would say enough is enough, support banning problem drinkers from accessing takeaway alcohol, support a banned drinkers register to give the courts the ability to ban people from accessing alcohol, and support Family and Children’s Services workers to put people on the banned drinkers registers where kids are being neglected and not going to school because of alcohol abuse in the family.
The opposition supports more grog - four hours more trading of alcohol, four hours of trading in misery in Alice Springs, four hours of more crime and antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs - because they are in the pockets of a small number of licensees who have vested interests in peddling misery in this town.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016