Mrs BRAHAM - 2005-08-23
Prior to the election, you said you would introduce a new dry area initiative, and that was to declare urban public spaces and living areas as alcohol-free. Many tenants in public housing try to control the drunken behaviour of visitors by putting up ‘no grog’ signs on their doors. When will you legislate to make these ‘no grog’ signs legal, and to give teeth to tenants who want to keep out the drunks?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this was an important issue in the election campaign - the management of some of the complex issues surrounding antisocial behaviour. During the election campaign, having reviewed our strategies under the Community Harmony scheme right across the Northern Territory, we changed the focus of some of those initiatives. Some worked well, some were not working well. One we have decided to change in Darwin, for example, is who runs community patrols. By November this year, ACPOs will be running community patrols. There will be a much closer connection with police and greater powers for those ACPOs as they run the very important community patrols in Darwin.
There were other aspects of changes. The member for Braitling mentioned a key one. Ffor individuals, shopping centres, and housing complexes,. to be able to say, iIf a group of individuals decide that they want a dry area declared, that they can go to the Liquor Commission, where there will be a process which we are developing to do that. There are also other important aspects, such as the prohibition orders for people who are picked up three times within six months, and the fact that there will be an insistence from the court that they goattend for alcohol rehabilitation and treatment. There is a whole range of things.
What we have in place currently, led by the Department of Justice, is that the relevant agencies are sitting down and working through the details of that package. As I said in the election campaign, legislation to support those different areas will be in this parliament by the end of the year. Hopefully, we will introduce the relevant legislation in October, and pass it in the November /or December sittings, the last sittings of the year. That is what we are aiming at.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this was an important issue in the election campaign - the management of some of the complex issues surrounding antisocial behaviour. During the election campaign, having reviewed our strategies under the Community Harmony scheme right across the Northern Territory, we changed the focus of some of those initiatives. Some worked well, some were not working well. One we have decided to change in Darwin, for example, is who runs community patrols. By November this year, ACPOs will be running community patrols. There will be a much closer connection with police and greater powers for those ACPOs as they run the very important community patrols in Darwin.
There were other aspects of changes. The member for Braitling mentioned a key one. Ffor individuals, shopping centres, and housing complexes,. to be able to say, iIf a group of individuals decide that they want a dry area declared, that they can go to the Liquor Commission, where there will be a process which we are developing to do that. There are also other important aspects, such as the prohibition orders for people who are picked up three times within six months, and the fact that there will be an insistence from the court that they goattend for alcohol rehabilitation and treatment. There is a whole range of things.
What we have in place currently, led by the Department of Justice, is that the relevant agencies are sitting down and working through the details of that package. As I said in the election campaign, legislation to support those different areas will be in this parliament by the end of the year. Hopefully, we will introduce the relevant legislation in October, and pass it in the November /or December sittings, the last sittings of the year. That is what we are aiming at.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016