Alcohol bans will be reinstated in central Australia, banning the sale of alcohol to Aboriginal people living in town camps and remote communities.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles announced the bans on Monday.
She will introduce urgent legislation in the NT parliament next week to reinstate the bans.
“For far too long decisions about Alice Springs and the NT have been made in Canberra, with little to no consultation with the people that these decisions impact upon. And today this changes,” Ms Fyles said.
The NT government will bring forward legislation to strengthen alcohol restrictions. I want to be clear – this is not Stronger Futures, but NT
legislation that allows a clear process. Then plan will follow community practices.”
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Albanese visits Alice Springs amid crime wave
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The decision comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Alice Springs during January amid growing frustration at alcohol-fuelled violence and theft in the town.
Mr Albanese confirmed the plan in Parliament on Monday.
“This isn’t just about alcohol. Indeed, of the 96 remote communities in the Northern Territory, 88 of them are dry,” he said.
“This is about intergenerational disadvantage. It is about a lack of employment services, a lack of community services, a lack of educational opportunity. This is intergenerational disadvantage.”
The government has also committed $250 million to the Central Australia Plan for such things as community engagement, youth diversion and on-country learning.
Ms Fyles said the updated alcohol restrictions were based on the recommendations of the new central Australian regional controller Dorrelle Anderson.
Ms Anderson, who was appointed after Mr Albanese’s visit, reviewed the territory’s opt-in alcohol restrictions, which replaced expired Intervention-inspired liquor bans last year.
Under the new legislation, communities can apply to opt out of the ban, as long as 60 per cent of residents support the decision and they have an alcohol management plan.
Earlier on Monday, Indigenous senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price made an impassioned plea for alcohol bans to return in Alice Springs to tackle a surging crime wave.
The NT senator told the chamber her family had experienced sexual violence, trauma and murder in central Australia because of alcohol.
The Country Liberal Party senator said she planned to move a bill to legislate the reinstatement of alcohol bans, following the lapsing last year of Stronger Futures.
Senator Price said she’d been working on her bill since August, weeks after the legislation lapsed.
“It’s not something that has come about as a knee-jerk reaction,” she said.
“I knew with the removal of the cashless debit card, with the ending of the Stronger Futures legislation, this was going to happen.
“I don’t want to lose any more family members to alcohol-fuelled violence in town camps.”
She also invited Mr Albanese to talk to her, saying she could bring a wealth of knowledge and personal experience to the table.
“I would absolutely welcome a conversation with the Prime Minister. It’s no longer about politics, it’s about saving lives,” she said in Canberra.
“I’ve lived my entire life in Alice Springs. I know what the situation is on the ground.”
-with AAP
