Northern Territory Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she will introduce a private member's bill to parliament tomorrow, allowing for greater federal oversight of Northern Territory alcohol bans.
Intervention-style bans are set to be reinstated in Aboriginal town camps and Central Australian communities, on the back of a report commissioned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Any communities wanting to opt out of the bans will need to develop their own community alcohol plans and put them to a local ballot, and have 60 per cent or more of residents vote in favour.
Ms Price first flagged her bill in September last year, but said this morning she still plans to push ahead with it, despite yesterday's announcements.
She said the NT government "can't be trusted" to take full responsibility if alcohol bans needed to be reintroduced down the track.
"Should issues start to slide … things like alcohol-related assaults [increasing] in those communities … then the appropriate federal minister can have oversight and can revoke those alcohol management plans sooner than relying on this government to act on anything," she said.
She said the newly announced bans didn't go far enough, as they only cover Central Australia.
"[My] bill is for the entire territory, and it's based on vulnerable communities, so there's no talk about race or targeting any specific people," she said.
"We know that vulnerable people exist across the territory and they're both Indigenous and non-Indigenous in our communities."
The governments' announcement followed months of local and national focus on a crime wave in Alice Springs, following the expiry of Commonwealth legislation enforcing alcohol bans in remote Indigenous communities in the NT.
A number of Indigenous groups, including the Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the Northern Territory (APONT), warned allowing communities to once again access alcohol could lead to increased rates of violence and crime.
'We don't need a voice, we need ears'
Ms Price also took aim at the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament on the ABC's 7.30 last night.
"We don't need a voice, we need ears," she said.
"The situation in Alice Springs has demonstrated the fact that no matter who is trying to talk to the government … they're not in fact listening."
Ms Price is a Senator for the Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party (CLP), but aligns with the Nationals in federal parliament.
With the Nationals announcing their opposition to the Voice late last year, Ms Price told 7.30 she expects the CLP will announce the same position "in the coming weeks".
However, speaking on ABC Darwin this morning, CLP Leader Lia Finocchiaro said her team does not yet have a position on the Voice.
"She [Ms Price] is probably referring to the party component as opposed to the parliamentary team," she said.
"Our parliamentary team has no objection to the Voice, as a principal we're supportive."
Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney has argued the situation in Alice Springs would not have deteriorated to this point had a Voice to Parliament been in place.
Funding package welcome but calls for needs-based focus
Ms Anderson's report included two recommendations: firstly, to reimpose alcohol-free areas in areas of Central Australia, and secondly, for the NT and Commonwealth governments to work to "deliver needs-based funding to regular service providers" in the region.
Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson said the NT government had "done the right thing" by implementing the bans.
"I'm not saying [alcohol bans] need to be in there forever; they just need to be in there while the education and the consultation piece is carried out," he said.
He welcomed the federal funding, expressing optimism it would address the lack of services in remote communities through Central Australia.
Alice Springs-based general practitioner and spokesman for the People's Alcohol Action Coalition, John Boffa, also welcomed the funding.
"That is enough funding, in the right places, in the right programs, to make a difference," Dr Boffa said.
But the Association of Alcohol and other Drugs Northern Territory executive officer Peter Burnheim called for both governments to implement needs-based funding.
"There's been significant shortcomings in the resourcing of the sector for a very long time, and in order to respond to the needs of people who use alcohol and other drugs, our sector needs to be properly resourced to provide those services," he said.
"Population-based funding definitively failed in the territory, where we've got these really excessive costs of delivery."
Speaking on ABC Alice Springs yesterday afternoon, Ms Fyles said the funding package announced on Monday was "to acknowledge ill-fitting policies of many years, that have left us where we are today".
She said future needs-based funding agreements could still be negotiated with the federal government.
