Residents in Central Australian Indigenous communities may be asked to vote on whether they opt into alcohol bans, under a proposal floated by the Northern Territory's chief minister.
The territory's alcohol policies have been brought into focus over the past week, amid a dramatic spike in crime in the town of Alice Springs in the past six months.
Significant restrictions on the purchase of takeaway alcohol were unveiled as a three-month circuit-breaker, while the federal and Northern Territory governments work on a longer-term solution to the issue.
Communities in the Northern Territory were given the option to "opt in" to continue with Intervention-era alcohol restrictions in July last year, after federal legislation enforcing grog bans expired.
At the time, Indigenous groups and the territory's opposition party, the CLP, urged the government to enact legislation to instead make remote communities "opt out" of alcohol bans as a default.
Speaking this morning, the Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the Northern Territory's electoral commission could conduct ballots to gauge support for restrictions on alcohol, in communities where local decision-making on the issue has been contested.
"We have seen a number of communities opt in — they have made that local decision that they want to not have alcohol. Other community leadership we have consulted with have said, 'we don't want to opt in, it's a legal product'," she said.
"Yet you have people say, you didn't talk to the right person, you didn't consult the right person.
"And so that is why, there has been an idea for communities, if they wish, to take a ballot so everyone over 18 can have their voice heard on this issue."
Ms Fyles said her proposal would be worked on in coming days, and if implemented would allow local communities to express their voice fairly.
She also ruled out a return to previous alcohol bans, labelling them "race-based" and saying they disregarded the wishes of local communities.
Crisis 'is in the bush', not just Alice, traditional owners say
Among measures announced on Tuesday by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was the appointment of a Central Australian regional controller, Dorrelle Anderson, who will oversee federal and territory coordination across the region.
Ms Anderson will also hand a report to Mr Albanese and Ms Fyles by February 1 on a range of policy measures, including around alcohol, that can be implemented in Central Australia.
However, there has been significant criticism that steps have not also been taken to tackle youth crime or provide needs-based domestic violence funding to the region.
Speaking to ABC Radio Alice Springs this morning, Lhere Artepe chief executive Graeme Smith said the levels of crime in Alice Springs were only a side-effect of a failure to provide adequate social support and investment into remote communities.
"When the communities dry up through a lack of investment, they're forced into one place like a funnel, into Alice Springs," he said.
"It's like a flood — what happens upstream comes downstream."
Ms Fyles this morning acknowledged more resources needed to be put into Central Australia to slow the trend of people moving into Alice Springs from outlying remote communities.
Mr Smith said he was not yet convinced that the plans announced on Tuesday would make long-term progress to addressing the problems in Central Australian communities.
"I'm yet to hear any real investment in the bush … and I'm yet to hear any real announcement about what we're doing to target the youth," he said.
"These [government] strategies are all targeted at restricting alcohol to adults."
Mr Smith said the Commonwealth needed to have greater responsibility in developing remote communities after compulsorily acquiring and promising to upgrade them.
"The federal government over a decade ago, under the Coalition, promised our communities township-like places to live at," he said.
"And since then investment has not followed the narrative."
