The Northern Territory opposition has introduced a bill that would make drinking in public a criminal offence — a proposal a legal expert says has "foreseeable racially discriminatory outcomes".
The bill, introduced in parliament today by deputy Country Liberal Party (CLP) leader Gerard Maley, would make drinking in public within 2 kilometres of a licensed premises an offence, unless the local council had expressly provided written permission.
It follows calls from Darwin CBD retailers for more to be done to combat alcohol-fuelled violence, which they say is a threat to their staff and customers.
The proposed changes would give police the power to demand identification from, arrest, threaten to arrest, and issue $785 fines to people drinking in public.
The bill includes provisions for repeat offenders to be put on the NT's Banned Drinkers Register.
It followed the NT government passing urgent legislation last night to reimpose alcohol bans in town camps and Aboriginal communities amid a national debate about alcohol-fuelled crime in Central Australia.
"It (the proposed legislation) will stop the antisocial behaviour caused by public drunkenness," Mr Maley said.
"You won't be able to go around and openly hold a VB can or a bottle of rum in your hand and drink down the street.
"It's going to give the police more tools to be able to help Territorians right across the Northern Territory."
Drinking in public was previously an offence in the NT until changes to the Liquor Act were made in 2019 in response to recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Kumanjayi Langdon, 59, died in a police watch house in 2015 after being arrested in Darwin's CBD under the old legislation.
Bill has 'forseeably negative impact' for Aboriginal people
Christopher Cunneen, from the University of Technology Sydney's Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, said the proposed law would disproportionately impact Aboriginal and otherwise marginalised people.
"In most cases, people drinking in public don't necessarily have the opportunity to drink at home, so we're talking about a process that essentially criminalises homelessness and poverty," Professor Cunneen said.
"That in itself has a foreseeably negative impact on Aboriginal people.
"There's no point pretending that it would be any other way, that it won't have a component, a strong component, of racial discrimination in terms of impact."
He said a reintroduction of a public drinking offence would be a step in the opposite direction of the rest of the country, with Victoria recently announcing the decriminalisation of public drunkenness in response to coronial findings into the death in custody of Tanya Day.
"If we're thinking back to 2017 and 2018 when the legislation was in place … if we look at the data on fines … it's just overwhelmingly used against Aboriginal people," he said.
"For someone who's an alcoholic, to fine them to stop them from drinking — it's just completely, really, ridiculous to think that it will."
Aboriginal Justice Agreement co-chair Olga Havnen said the proposed law would be a "retrograde step".
"I would've hoped that trying to keep people out of jail would be the sensible thing to do because we know incarceration doesn't work [and] it's very expensive," she said.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said police did not need additional powers around public drinking.
"Police still have the powers to tip out, seize and destroy alcohol consumed in these areas, take individuals into protective custody if they present a risk to themselves or those around them, arrest if an offence is being committed, and issue banning notices if they suspect an offence is about to be committed," she said.
In March last year, the CLP became a signatory of the Aboriginal Justice Agreement, which names setting up alternatives to custody and ensuring laws do not discriminate against Aboriginal people among its commitments.
When asked, Mr Maley said the bill was "certainly not" a race-based policy.
Business owner supports greater police powers
The owner of a cafe in Darwin's CBD, who did not want to be named, said he supported police having more powers to deal with people who drank in public.
"There's fights across the road every morning. Everywhere you see empty Bundaberg [Rum] cans and bottles, glass smashed," he said.
"Every morning, you don't know what's happened. You've got to come in here and wonder if it's going to be OK or not."
He said he did not necessarily want people arrested, but he wanted police to be able to move people on.
"I walk through and [people] are sleeping in every doorway, intoxicated," he said.
Rob Waters, a long-term sales representative in Darwin, said he supported any law that would give police the power to curb crime rates.
"Every single week, I'm running into a business … you go in there and the owner's in there in tears trying to work out what to do next," he said.
"We need to get to get on with living our lives and sleeping tight at night and not having to come into work the next day and something's gone wrong."
Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Ireland said the changes would likely be "broadly supported" by members of the community advocating for more to be done to address domestic and family violence.
But he added they might fail to act as a deterrent to people with drinking problems.
"I'm not quite sure the people involved will take that (the potential penalties) into account at the time, so it's a difficult one," he said.
Government introduces trespassing laws, votes down parliament alcohol ban
Debate on the CLP's bill was adjourned until the next parliamentary sittings in March.
This morning, the government also introduced proposed changes to the NT's trespass laws.
They are a part of a suite of measures it announced in October last year to "protect victims and businesses from crime and antisocial behaviour".
The bill allows security guards, as well as business owners and managers, to issue trespass notices.
The changes would also mean people who returned to a premises within a designated period after being given a trespass notice would be fined $3,080.
Independent MLA Robyn Lambley's bill, which would have seen alcohol banned in Northern Territory Parliament House, was voted down by the government this afternoon.
"I think given the enormity of the problems that we have in the Northern Territory related to alcohol, I think it's just time that we put our hand up and took some restrictions ourselves," Ms Lambley said earlier this week.
Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison said in parliament today that an alcohol ban in parliament was not necessary.
"People can be very assured that when they come in this place they do take their responsibilities and their obligations very seriously," she said.
