Dozens of people have been fined and three arrests have been issued in Darwin and Alice Springs over breaches of the Country Liberal Party government's new public drinking law.
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00:00Rachel Murphy runs a busy café in Darwin's northern suburbs.
00:06But it's not just the customers she has to worry about.
00:09People have come in and taken alcohol off our shelves and harassed the staff.
00:14The Northern Territory Government passed a law in October making it an offence to drink
00:18and cause a nuisance in a public place.
00:21The ABC can reveal dozens of people have been fined and three arrested under the legislation,
00:27but there's still questions on if the law is actually making a difference.
00:31Even when we've called for help, it's, you know, the help's come hours later.
00:35The Territory's peak body for alcohol and drug reform says many of the people receiving
00:40fines are unemployed and sleeping rough, leading some in the community to question how they'll
00:46ever be paid back.
00:47Well, I mean, I guess we've all got questions about whether or not they're working, what
00:51the point of the fines are, are they going to be recovered.
00:54What we know is that alcohol is one of the biggest causes of harm, death in our community
00:59and crime, obviously.
01:01Is this kind of measure actually going to impact on that?
01:04While questions remain around the effectiveness of the new laws, experts say the government
01:08should be providing more support services if it wants to see a change in offenders'
01:12behaviour.
01:13The things that work best for a kind of population who are experiencing as many intersecting
01:17challenges as we're talking about here really need this wraparound care support.
01:22And also case management, thinking about all kinds of things, including the broader
01:26health care needs, their transport needs, their housing needs, as well as things like
01:31alcohol and drugs.
01:32The government's approach to alcohol-related crime will likely come under scrutiny in the
01:36coming months, as it attempts to pass laws lowering the cost of alcohol.
01:41For now, it's unclear when community members like Rachel can expect change.