Northern Territory's 'nuisance public drinking' law sees dozens of people fined, three arrested

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Dozens of people have been fined and three arrests have been issued in Darwin and Alice Springs over breaches of the Country Liberal Party government's new public drinking law.

Transcript

00:00Rachel Murphy runs a busy café in Darwin's northern suburbs.

00:06But it's not just the customers she has to worry about.

00:09People have come in and taken alcohol off our shelves and harassed the staff.

00:14The Northern Territory Government passed a law in October making it an offence to drink

00:18and cause a nuisance in a public place.

00:21The ABC can reveal dozens of people have been fined and three arrested under the legislation,

00:27but there's still questions on if the law is actually making a difference.

00:31Even when we've called for help, it's, you know, the help's come hours later.

00:35The Territory's peak body for alcohol and drug reform says many of the people receiving

00:40fines are unemployed and sleeping rough, leading some in the community to question how they'll

00:46ever be paid back.

00:47Well, I mean, I guess we've all got questions about whether or not they're working, what

00:51the point of the fines are, are they going to be recovered.

00:54What we know is that alcohol is one of the biggest causes of harm, death in our community

00:59and crime, obviously.

01:01Is this kind of measure actually going to impact on that?

01:04While questions remain around the effectiveness of the new laws, experts say the government

01:08should be providing more support services if it wants to see a change in offenders'

01:12behaviour.

01:13The things that work best for a kind of population who are experiencing as many intersecting

01:17challenges as we're talking about here really need this wraparound care support.

01:22And also case management, thinking about all kinds of things, including the broader

01:26health care needs, their transport needs, their housing needs, as well as things like

01:31alcohol and drugs.

01:32The government's approach to alcohol-related crime will likely come under scrutiny in the

01:36coming months, as it attempts to pass laws lowering the cost of alcohol.

01:41For now, it's unclear when community members like Rachel can expect change.

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