People who commit crimes involving a weapon will have their right to bail revoked in the Northern Territory.
The NT government will introduce new legislation this week to revoke the presumption of bail for people charged with using weapons, even if they are not holding the weapon themselves.
It's the first step in a series of measures announced by the government in response to increased crime rates over the last year.
"If you are charged with a violent offence involving a weapon, it is expected that you will sit on remand and out of the community until your case is heard," Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said.
"We refuse to let knife crime become the norm here in the Territory and these changes send a strong message to the community."
The push to revisit crime legislation comes after the recent fatal stabbing of 20-year-old Darwin BWS worker Declan Laverty.
"We have worked with all of the relevant agencies over the last week to make sure that our response is considered and that there are no unintended consequences throughout the justice system," Attorney-General Chansey Paech said.
"What we have seen today is immediate amendments that we can make in line with the community's expectations, and (that) provide that accountability around public safety."
More than 2000 people attended a rally over the weekend to express their dissatisfaction with what they saw as the NT government's inaction on crime.
But in a recent survey conducted on behalf of the governance committee of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Justice Agreement (NTAJA), two-thirds of respondents said they wanted to see more alternatives to prison in the NT justice system.
Seven out of 10 respondents said they felt the system had failed the Aboriginal community.
"So-called 'tough on crime' approaches to justice have done nothing to break the cycle of offending or reduce the prevalence of crime in our communities," NTAJA committee co-chair Olga Havnen said.
Accompanying the survey was a report that recommended six alternatives to the current system including alternatives to jail, more community-based and non-financial options for paying fines and a focus on reducing recidivism.
"Diversion, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies that are culturally appropriate and community-based work by disrupting the cycle of offending and avoiding future contact with the criminal justice system," Ms Havnen said.
On Monday, NT opposition spokesman Bill Yan said while his Country Liberal Party backed the strengthening of bail laws, that did not necessarily mean people should be sent to jail.
"There's an opportunity for the government to do things smarter, better, manage people and reduce some of the workload on our correctional services staff," Mr Yan told journalists.
"There are lots of low level offences and low risk offenders who could be doing their time better and serving our community better," he said.
Last Friday, prisons in the NT set a record for holding the highest number of offenders.
According to the NTAJA report, the amount of taxpayer money spent on prisons in the NT has doubled over the last ten years to almost $150 million a year.
