A First Nations federal assistant minister is calling for a crackdown on the alcohol industry across the Northern Territory to help curb crime and antisocial behaviour.
It follows newly released NT police statistics that show crime continues to surge in regional towns such as Alice Springs and Katherine, with high rates of assaults, break-ins and property offences.
On Monday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the Australian Federal Police should be deployed in Alice Springs to help restore law and order, following pleas for federal assistance from the town's mayor Matt Paterson.
However, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy said the onus must be on the liquor industry to help bring down the rates.
"What we need to see is the alcohol industry step up as well in this space, and remove the amounts of alcohol that's being sold — not just in Central Australia — but right across the Northern Territory," she said.
Senator McCarthy's comments come as a Senate inquiry examines the lapse of the Stronger Futures legislation, which triggered the lifting of long-term alcohol bans in dozens of remote NT communities last year.
She said Mr Dutton should urge the alcohol industry to give evidence at the Senate inquiry, given "one of the main issues that we see occurring in Central Australia is the issue around alcohol".
Retailers impose alcohol purchase limits
The Northern Territory already has some of the tightest alcohol regulations in the country.
They include a Banned Drinkers Register (BDR), a floor price and Police Auxiliary Liquor Inspectors stationed outside some NT bottle shops.
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.
In response to the rising violence in Alice Springs, Coles and the group behind BWS, Endeavour Drinks, have temporarily removed one-litre bottles of spirits from their shelves and restricted shoppers to six bottles of wine per day.
Some small business owners have also told the ABC they have imposed their own alcohol limits at their stores.
Darwin mayor backs tougher alcohol rules
Darwin Mayor Kon Vatskalis has joined Senator McCarthy's push for further measures tackling alcohol addiction across the NT.
"We need to really have a serious look at how we actually sell alcohol, and who drinks it," he said.
"The reality is, it's a very small minority who abuses alcohol but the majority pays for it."
Mr Vatskalis said ratepayers were forking out "an arm and a leg" for the council to clean up broken glass and other alcohol-related damage every year.
He said the alcohol industry could do more to curb the crisis by reducing opening hours at bottle shops and employing their own liquor inspectors at retailers across the territory.
"They should have to employ liquor inspectors in front of the stores to make sure people do the right thing and don't buy excessive amounts of alcohol," he said.
"If they're repeat offenders and they keep coming back, [the inspectors] can stop them like they do in Alice Springs and other towns in the territory."
He also said the NT government should follow Western Australia's lead and expand its Banned Drinkers Register to include people who regularly purchase excessive amounts of alcohol, as well as those who have committed alcohol-related offences.
In some parts of WA, staff at bottle shops must record the amount and type of alcohol purchased to ensure shoppers do not buy above alcohol limits in any given day.
"I've seen with my own eyes how they use the BDR in Western Australia and Kununurra more effectively than we use it here," Mr Vatskalis said.
