NEWS AMA prescribes lockout
THE Territory branch of Australia’s doctors’ union is pushing for late-night lockout laws on Darwin’s Mitchell St, arguing similar laws have cut violence in Sydney’s Kings Cross.
In a submission to the government’s alcohol review, Australian Medical Association NT president Associate Professor Rob Parker said violence on Mitchell St resulted in a “similar pattern of damage” to the pre-lockout laws of Kings Cross.
Opponents of the laws – re- cently relaxed in New South Wales – say they have simply moved drunken violence away from traditional nightspots and have forced the closure of dozens of once-popular venues.
The AMA’s proposal, if accepted by the alcohol review, would clash with current government policy.
Health Minister Natasha Fyles first suggested the laws earlier this year when Chief Minister Michael Gunner was on leave, prompting a rebuke from Mr Gunner on his return.
“There will be no lockout laws. It is not on my radar or Government’s. We are committed to alcohol harm minimisation strategies, but this is not among them,” Mr Gunner said in February.
Prof Parker’s letter to the review panel says: “AMA NT members have informally reported that 75 per cent of the incidents resulting in people with fractured jaws presenting to Royal Darwin Hospital relate to the Mitchell St precinct on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.”
The AMA’s submission is among dozens from healthcare providers, liquor lobbyists, politicians and lawyers, with little common ground among the competing agendas.
Independent MLA Robyn Lambley has called for an end to the double standard which she says has seen Darwin escape the “imposition of the extreme government alcohol policies implemented elsewhere”.
“This is clearly unfair and illogical when you consider alcohol is no less of a problem in Darwin than in other parts of the Territory,” Ms Lambley said.
Ms Lambley said she supported the widely-criticised Alcohol Mandatory Treatment program, which the Gunner government is set to scrap in September.
Ms Lambley has also called for an end to political donations from the liquor industry, while the Australian Hotels Association NT branch, a major bipartisan donor, has called for a ban on “Bunnings style” liquor megastores, as well as other measures which would increase its members’ grip on the Territory’s grog trade.
The expert panel is due to report back to government by September.