NT government 'too slow to act' with booze ban
The Labor government will move to reinstate alcohol bans in Northern Territory communities.
The Northern Territory government had been too slow to implement booze bans, the opposition party claimed this week.
Opposition Whip Josh Burgoyne said legislation now being introduced to reimpose alcohol bans should never have been dropped in the first place.
The Labor government will move this week to reinstate grog bans until communities develop their own alcohol management plans under an opt-out agreement.
Burgoyne said the “complete backflip” came after the Territory government had axed previous laws and then denied there was any reason to reintroduce blanket alcohol bans.
“The Labor government here in the Northern Territory essentially opened the floodgates to alcohol in July of last year,” he said.
He said crime skyrocketed after the government allowed the previous Stronger Futures Laws to lapse in July last year.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles had bristled at suggestions blanket alcohol bans should be reintroduced, arguing she did not want to have "a race-based policy that disempowers Aboriginal Territorians".
But the Minister backflipped on that after receiving a copy of the report from Regional Controller Dorrelle Anderson.
Mr Burgoyne said the opposition would “absolutely” support the legislation but added that his party would also move a vote of no confidence against the government.
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