Today it was announced that Alice Springs will become a 'Dry Town'. In a decision described as 'landmark', the Licencing Commission approved the Town Council's bid to make Alice the first such town in the NT.
On paper it looks good. No more drinking in the streets, the riverbed, the lanes and pavements and parks.
What's not being mentioned is that there is already a drinking ban in town. It is illegal to drink in public anywhere within a 2km radius of Todd Mall.
This includes the main streets, the riverbed, the lanes and pavements and parks that are most frequently inhabited by the groups of indigenous drinkers that the ban is aimed at.
Currently, the police patrol these areas and attempt to enforce the law, but they are severely understaffed.
So unless we are about to receive a sudden influx of extra police, this decision will make no positive difference at all.
The only difference it will make is that if and when the cops are able to move groups of drinkers on, the drinkers will head to the town camps. The town camps are the Indigenous slums on the edge of town, and can be rife with substance abuse and horrific violence as it is. Sending groups of drunk men back to the town camps, where the women and children are essentially stuck, is not going to lead to positive outcomes. The ban is not supported by the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress for this reason.
It seems to be a case of "hear no evil, see no evil". Some of you may have had the pleasure of seeing the recent Today Tonight 'expose' on Alice Springs, the Murder Capital of Australia. TT profiled Advance Alice, a group of whites fed up with feeling unsafe in their own town and calling for a clean up.
The resulting backlash in town wasn't to do with the levels of crime or cries of "DO something!". No, there was anger that tourists would be too scared to visit our hub of a town.
The Mayor, Fran Kilgariff, commenting on a local radio station, angrily rejected the 'Murder Capital of Australia' title.
"What we have is the situation of black people killing black people in the main. And that doesn't make us the murder capital of the world."
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If an Indigenous person kills an Indigenous person it's not murder???
So...move the sometimes-violent drinkers from the centre of town - where they can at least be vaguely monitored - back into the town camps and ignore the resulting atrocities?
This ban is being heralded as a great step forward, but it wont do anything to fix the root causes of alcohol abuse in Alice. Some of the streets might be a little cleaner and emptier, the white folk might feel a little safer, but it will only further widen the gap between white and black and close the eyes of those who are in a position to make amends.
Arrrgh!
For more info see http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1918202.htm
8 comments:
Fantastic post Sar. Great to hear that you're already feeling part of the town.
Can you drink inside pubs, or is it a total blanket ban? Will they make an exception for Tim & Kendall's visit?
Hear hear. Written superbly Ate Ken!
Perhaps a job shift to local government?
That sucks.
Its always weird to hear how screwed up your country is when you are miles away from it. It makes me so angry.
Big love to you, cant wait to read some more informative writing.
xox
Dear mon,
chemists in town have also taken mouth wash off the shelves after noticing a massive increase in the sales and consumption of the stuff. but that's a whole other blog post!!
oh and yes you can still drink in pubs and in your own home, plus up at the telegraph station (excellent location for sunset drinks)! phew.
love youse all. tanks for reading and caring.
nice blog sar. please keep up the oz news for us overseas!
meantime, i was reading this just yesterday too:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD282444.htm
Mon and myself have just been reading "Mountains beyond Mountains", after which I found it particularly shocking that tuberculosis is such a problem in Australia still. TB is a third world disease, what the hell is it doing in the OZ outback for godsake.
i know. it's all TB and giardia. it'd be 'an outrage' if it were in the burbs of sydney or melbourne.
"What we have is the situation of black people killing black people in the main. And that doesn't make us the murder capital of the world."
AWESOME! You see, Kendall and I plan on releasing our inner John Wayne's in Alice Springs...
We planned on dressing up in black tar, and shooting some other black people in the main street - western style...
and now that it's not apparently murder, we'll come away unscathed!
Sweet!
sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! yeh that will be SO cool!
i can;t wait for you two to visit!!!!!!!!!!!! oh and of course i mostly can;t wait for liz to visit. i have no idea who she is but i'm sure she's ace.
do you mind if we don;t leave the house the entire time?
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