The year in Northern Territory politics appears to be winding up in much the same way it began. The Fyles Labor government announced it would be rolling out a suite of new measures to try and quell a rising tide of crime across the jurisdiction, including new laws and liquor restrictions.
At a press conference on Monday, it was quick to say the changes were coming as a result of listening to police, who are struggling with a seemingly unending workload of crime and drunkenness.
Among the changes, bottle shops across Darwin soon won’t be allowed to open until midday.
NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy had indeed called for changes to bottle shop opening hours for some respite for his officers. In fact, he’d called for them to go even further than they have.
Later opening hours will be beneficial for our operations, and ultimately, protect vulnerable people in our community, Commissioner Murphy told the media.
I wanted a 2pm extension to the opening hours, and obviously the government have to make a decision around that.
The government is saying that it’s listening but, realistically, stakeholders such as the Darwin Lord Mayor have been calling for such restrictions to be installed in the Top End for months and months.
In this latest announcement, history also seems to be repeating itself; Earlier this year, with alcohol abuse spiralling out of control in Alice Springs, the Fyles government wouldn’t immediately act to install new restrictions until it was essentially forced to do so by a frustrated commonwealth.
But this latest announcement had more of an immediate backlash than the instance in Alice Springs.
It quickly became clear this week that the government had failed to consult with key stakeholders who will be impacted by the changes, including the NT Police Association (NTPA) and Hospitality NT.
The NTPA said it was told about planned law changes, including a controversial move to arm private security guards with capsicum spray, minutes before they were announced to the media.
NTPA president Nathan Finn accused the government of using police as political pawns.
Hospitality NT also said it was blindsided by the changes to liquor store opening hours, with the organisation’s head Alex Bruce furious about the lack of consultation.
He accused NT Labor of making populist moves to try to win support ahead of next year’s election.
At the moment, these guys, they are governing for polls, Mr Bruce said.
Mr Bruce also said Chief Minister Natasha Fyles had verbally promised to industry heads just days ago that there would be no further changes to liquor policy in this term in government.
The biggest impact of the chief minister’s actions [on Monday] go to her honesty and integrity, and calls that to question in our industry now, he said.
By the middle of the week, the government was on the back foot.
Ms Fyles conceded the government’s communication could’ve been handled better and Police Minister Brent Potter also acknowledged that not everyone will be happy with this.
We have to be dynamic and agile, and I appreciate the position that hospitality have, and absolutely, we can always do consultation better, Mr Potter said.
The government’s acknowledgements have allowed them to fall into the hands of critics like the Country Liberal Party (CLP) opposition, which has accused Labor of creating policy on the run.
The Fyles cabinet’s performance outside of parliament was a precursor to what was to come inside.
The final days of sittings for 2023 were riven with pot shots at the opposition, Dorothy Dixer questions and self-congratulating speeches, as the government’s new laws sailed through on urgency.
The parliamentary theatre was also in full swing.
On Wednesday, Treasurer Eva Lawler was booted from parliament for an hour, and her fellow ministers moved to turn on their own Speaker, Mark Monaghan, for having kicked her out.
And there was the moment Attorney-General Chansey Paech launched into a verbal attack on the CLP regarding policies about Aboriginal equality, saying the CLP would put Aboriginal people on the menu if it won the NT election next August.
The statement conveniently wipes aside the reality that there are Aboriginal leaders who hold deep concerns over how NT Labor’s new laws will treat their people.
Independent Arnhem Land MLA Yiŋiya Guyula voiced some of these concerns over the new laws yesterday, particularly regarding the government’s move to expand the Banned Drinker Register.
I hoped that there would be a movement by government towards providing more support to address the underlying issues of excessive alcohol consumption and addiction, Mr Guyula said.
However, this bill is not about more support to help individuals or communities deal with the problems of addiction – this is a punitive bill that targets homeless and displaced people who are living on the streets and bush in Darwin.
Some will agree with Labor’s and the NT Police Commissioner’s points that the laws are sensible in light of the dizzying rates of crime that the territory is facing, and that a circuit breaker is needed.
But that’s beyond the point.
NT Labor ends 2023 by rushing out regulations that have been called for all year, from various corners including the CLP and the mayors of Darwin and Katherine, but won’t acknowledge this as a delay.
If it continues with this same approach into the new year, and if crime rates don’t subside in the meantime, chances are NT Labor will have plenty more time for consultation from the opposition benches in 2024.
