Tensions are flaring in the Northern Territory over changes to crime and justice policy as the second week of sittings for the new parliament gets underway. An Aboriginal politician has warned proposed public drinking measures could result in more people sleeping rough facing fines or jail time urging people to return to their remote communities.
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00:00The new NT Parliament has resumed sittings for the second day today and they've spent
00:06the majority of the morning debating these new public drinking measures.
00:11And under these new proposed laws, people who are caught drinking in public or being
00:15a public nuisance could be fined $900 or even be arrested.
00:20And this is all part of a suite of crime crackdown reforms, which the new country Liberal Party
00:26government says is all about restoring community safety to the Northern Territory, but also
00:31increasing the ability of our police force to deal with these kinds of offences.
00:37Now, long-serving independent and Arnhem Land politician Yingya Gyula has come out very
00:42strongly against these laws.
00:44He says they're going to disproportionately impact Aboriginal people and instead of dealing
00:49with drinking as a health issue, instead they're going to inflame stigma around drinking and
00:56also result in more vulnerable people, particularly those who are sleeping rough in urban centres
01:01like here in Darwin, being punished instead of helped.
01:04Here's a little bit of what that independent member had to say.
01:08I am warning my people to start moving back, going home, to be really who we are.
01:19Because I'm warning them and I'm telling them that this law is a bad law.
01:28Bad law.
01:29Now, the government has almost leant into that argument this morning.
01:33The Treasurer Bill Yan said that these laws do not discriminate and he even encouraged
01:39people who want to return to their remote communities to do so.
01:43Here's what Bill Yan had to say in response this morning.
01:46Well the laws that the COP are bringing into place apply to everyone.
01:49It doesn't matter who you are or what you are or where you're from.
01:52If you cause a nuisance whilst drinking in a public place, the law will apply to you.
01:56And I applaud Yingya Gyula for what he said.
02:00If people here in town want to be back on community, well they should be heading back
02:04to community or back to their outstations.
02:07And of course the other compounding issue or concern is that the more people that get
02:12arrested, well the more pressure there could be on a prison system here in the Northern
02:15Territory which we know is bursting at the seams.
02:18And the government's new corrections plan, which is all about freeing up space in our
02:22watch houses and in our prisons, is yet another thing that it's expected to come up in Parliament
02:28later this afternoon.
02:29So certainly a lot of complex and intertwined issues there for both people in Parliament
02:34to unpack but also for the community.