A lobby group has called on the Northern Territory to release more data illustrating the extent of the harm caused, since long-term alcohol bans were lifted across dozens of Indigenous communities in July.
There is particular concern around the level of alcohol-related harm occurring in the Central Australian town of Alice Springs, which serves as a services hub for dozens of surrounding communities.
While the NT government said there had been "no substantial increases" in harm to the community since the Stronger Futures legislation ended, police and other frontline organisations have told a different story about the impact alcohol is having.
In the the latest NT Police statistics, there was a 159 per cent jump in assaults involving alcohol in Alice Springs in August 2022, compared to the same period last year.
But the extent of the harm cannot be fully captured without additional data being from the NT government, according to leading alcohol reform lobby group People's Alcohol Action Coalition (PAAC).
PAAC spokesperson John Boffa said the number of assaults causing serious harm — broken down by region — was a key data set held by the government.
"These are the assaults that could have killed someone, but didn't," Dr Boffa said.
"We only publicly see the data at a territory level — it's useless.
"We need to see that broken down by region over time — that's what's really going to tell us the level of the harm and the severity of the harm that we're seeing."
Data dashboard still in development
Meanwhile, three-and-a-half months after the Stronger Futures legislation ended, a "real-time" data monitoring dashboard being developed by the NT and federal governments to assess the impact of the changes remains incomplete.
Emergency department presentations at hospitals, and rates of police arrests and child removals, are among the data points being integrated.
"We're hoping that this data will become public in a report that we can all look at, then everyone can examine [it]," Dr Boffa said.
"If we're going to make informed decisions, we've got to know the extent of the increased harm."
'Range' of factors at play
Last month, NT Police Commander Danny Bacon said he had no doubt lifting the alcohol bans had contributed to an increase in assaults, but he also pointed to other forces at play.
"There are a range of different factors — sometimes it might be overcrowding in houses, relationship breakdowns, finance pressures, certainly COVID in regards to isolation … and pressures on family is certainly a contributing factor," he said.
"It's about putting that support around families and putting that support around victims as well."
In a statement, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said work was underway to create the dashboard.
"I have met with [non-government organisations] and Aboriginal health partners, and there will be more meetings to come," she said.
"[The] Alcohol Data Dashboard will provide us with up-to-date data from a range of areas including health, education, housing, policing and families.
"We are looking at data regularly."
Editor's note 1/11/2022: This story has been amended to correct an error that stated the Stronger Futures legislation had been repealed (the legislation ended), and to correct a figure relating to an increase in assaults involving alcohol.
