NT wages new campaign against drunks

A few pretend to be picnicking on the ground, laughing and eating, while their friends act as police officers.

Pretty soon those imitating the officers start making a siren sound, rush towards them and haul away those sitting on the ground.

This scene, witnessed recently, hints at what the children see - the daily tension between the Northern Territory Police and public drunks, 85 per cent of whom are estimated to be indigenous people.

Last year Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Payne from Alice Springs said the "vast majority" of police work involved dealing with people seriously affected by alcohol.

About 236,000 people live in the NT, and in the 12 months ending April 30 last year police took people into protective custody nearly 26,000 times, although some were repeat offenders.

The average adult Territorian drinks the equivalent of about 15 litres of pure alcohol each year.

According to a 2009 report that would make it the second highest rate of per capita alcohol consumption in the world if it was a separate country.

Since coming to power in August last year the Country Liberal Party (CLP) has been targeting public drunkenness.

From urging the public to confront drunks to plans to lock up problem drinkers, a raft of new policies are generating controversy.

The NT government says it won't back down.

"For families and communities it just means people get a break from these people," says Robyn Lambley.

Lambley recently became the NT's first Alcohol Rehabilitation Minister.

There are more police on the streets since the CLP took office and mandatory rehabilitation at "prison farms" for repeat drunks is on the way.

A specialist substance abuse court created by the former government will be closed.

Under the mandatory rehabilitation plan, people taken into protective custody by police three times in two months could be forced into rehab.

Once seen by a doctor and approved by a tribunal, problem drinkers may be forced into a centre for up to 12 weeks - to dry out, get counselling and learn to be more responsible.

The NT government is denying claims from its critics that the new laws could breach the federal Racial Discrimination Act.

Lambley admits it's likely the majority of those forced into rehab will be indigenous people but the policy isn't discriminatory.

"I don't think we are discriminating," Lambley says.

Criminal Lawyers Association NT president Russell Goldflam isn't so sure.

"Are they likely to be racist laws in the colloquial sense of the term racist? My answer is yes," Goldflam says.

He says because the new laws haven't gone before parliament it is impossible to know if they will breach federal race laws but they are vulnerable to a possible legal challenge.

Others are warning that forcing people away from their families or workplaces to dry out for months could be counterproductive.

The government says the tribunal is likely to allow community rehabilitation in such circumstances.

The Banned Drinkers Register (BDR) brought in by the former Labor government was ineffective, the new administration says, and has also been axed.

That scheme forced anyone buying takeaway grog to show photo ID and automatically disallowed sales to those on a list of problem drinkers.

Deciding to scrap the BDR caused a strong reaction, with some applauding the move but others claiming it "turned on the tap" for alcoholics wanting to get their fill.

Steven Kunoth helps run the Darwin Night Patrol, a group that directly assists about 5000 drunken people on the streets of the city each year.

The group takes those it believes are a danger to themselves or others to sobering up shelters or their homes.

Sometimes the patrol takes people to police.

The group lost NT government funding last year, before the federal government offered to pay the organisation's running costs.

Kunoth says the BDR should never have been axed and there's more disruption since it was removed.

"Anti-social behaviour is definitely on the rise," he says.

"If you have got free access to alcohol then that is what they do, they just spend their money on alcohol," Kunoth says.

On Thursday the government warned anti-social behaviour at public housing, including from drunks, will be more harshly dealt with.

At least seven tenants, including young families, have been evicted for bad behaviour since the Country Liberal Party (CLP) came to power.

The CLP says it is not good to focus on the supply of alcohol to curb drunken behaviour, because it unfairly punishes people able to drink responsibly.

Dr John Boffa from the People's Alcohol Action Coalition disputes that.

"Alcohol supply needs to be reduced at its source in ways that do not strain valuable police resources," he says.

Dr Boffa is a former NT Australian of the Year and now works at a community health service in Alice Springs.

He is defending moves by the federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin who has called for assessors to look into two so-called "animal bars" in Alice Springs.

Those bars open early and close about 2pm, the same time bottle shops in the town open, and have been blamed for contributing to the Alice Springs' alcohol issues.

But the NT government is rejecting the federal minister's call, saying some interest groups want to see an almost complete ban on alcohol.

"Jenny Macklin I think is probably one of those leading the charge," said Deputy Chief Minister Dave Tollner recently.

"Certainly in Alice Springs she wants to see us move Aborigines out of the highly regulated licensed bars and into the river bed.

"To me that makes no sense whatsoever," Tollner said.

Source: AAP