Alcohol retailers can play a bigger part in stemming alcohol-fuelled violence and crime in Alice Springs, Northern Territory government minister Kate Worden says.
High crime rates and continued domestic and public violence in Alice Springs has prompted demands for action including a call from the local mayor for the army or federal police to be called in to help.
The call was hosed down by NT Police and Police Minister Kate Worden, who is also the minister for the prevention of domestic violence.
But she said, along with increased policing and controversial child protection changes, the government was looking "again" at ways to tackle alcohol addiction fuelling violence in the Central Australian town.
She said she hoped to meet with liquor retailers in Alice Springs on Thursday to discuss the issues.
"We have to be doing this together," she said.
"Alcohol retailers have a part to play, as does government, but we all need to make sure that we're looking at this, we're not just [having] a knee jerk reaction that affects everybody.
"We need to make sure that we can come up with some local solutions around alcohol, we're looking at absolutely everything we can at the moment to make sure that we've got a solid plan about tackling that issue."
Since Stronger Futures laws came to an end last July, making liquor legal in dozens of Aboriginal living areas for the first time in 15 years, there has been a surge in alcohol-fuelled violence in the region.
The Northern Territory already has some of the tightest alcohol regulations in the country, including a Banned Drinkers Register (BDR), Police Auxiliary Liquor Inspectors — stationed outside some NT bottle shops — and a floor price.
Licensed grocery stores — excluding Coles and Woolworths — are also required to cap their liquor sales so that they do not exceed 25 per cent of total sales.
Minister Worden said she was now looking at additional "levers" government could pull, but wanted to take a more collaborative approach with the liquor retailers.
"I'm really keen to sit them at the table and ask them if they've got solutions things like secondary supply," she said.
"There's a number of people are on a Banned Drinkers Register … some of those people are still accessing alcohol.
"I want to see the retailers front and centre in this debate, and I want to make sure that we're hearing their voices because I suspect they might have some really good ideas about how we can work and solve this issue together."
'We're not doing anything wrong'
Haydn Rodda, who owns and operates two licensed grocery stores in Alice Springs, said he had not yet heard about the meeting, but welcomed the opportunity to meet with the minister.
"The anti-social behaviour is just out of control," he said.
Mr Rodda said while he supported the use of PALIs, there were some policies that were not working as intended.
In December, he was fined by the Northern Territory Liquor Commission for exceeding the 25 per cent liquor cap at his Milner Road Foodtown store, and now his other store, Pigglys Supermarket, is on the verge of exceeding the cap.
"We've tried to restrict the sale of alcohol in both our premises," Mr Rodda said.
"In Pigglys, for example, we've decided to shut [the bottle shop] at 7pm [instead of 9pm], but now we're facing the problem when the police do leave the bottle shop at 7pm, all the anti-social behaviour that we get after that is just out of control, when the supermarket's still open.
"It's not fair legislation — there's still other premises that can still sell huge amounts of alcohol … we're only a very small fish."
Mr Rodda said he was already imposing volume limits on liquor sales at both his stores.
"We limited our sales when we have no police to people buying one litre [of spirits] — that's all they're going to get, maybe two 700mL bottles, or only one carton of beer.
"We're also going to be cutting out of the 30-pack [of beers] just to control our percentage sales."
The business owner said a strong presence of PALIs made a positive impact, but flagged that they had only been stationed at his stores intermittently in recent weeks.
"Obviously, the police are stretched to the max, and the last few weeks, all the shops haven't been manned. It makes a huge effect when the police aren't here," he said.
"I don't know how we're going to fix it if the police can't man the stores.
"We're not doing anything wrong. We're licensed to sell alcohol, we're not the bad people here. We're just doing a job just running a supermarket."
Alcohol laws in the Northern Territory are currently under a three-year review by the NT government.
Ms Worden ruled out reinstating Stronger Futures restrictions, however, communities and town camps can opt in to be a dry community until January 31, 2023.