The Northern Territory has imposed a youth curfew for 14 days following violent riots which took place through Alice Springs on Tuesday afternoon.
Terrifying scenes emerged from the remote town with videos showing a group of violent rioters storming the streets and throwing bricks at a tavern.
Staff inside the Todd Tavern were forced to take cover as rioters kicked in doors and smashed windows.
NT Chief Minister Eve Gawler on Wednesday afternoon announced the curfew from 6pm to 6am on youth for 14 days, including the Easter long weekend.
“Enough is enough,” she told reporters.
“We want Alice Springs to be a safe place.”
The Australian reported the violence took place after a funeral was held for an 18-year old man who had died while joy-riding in a stolen vehicle.
The vehicle rolled fatally crushing him. Eight youths fled the scene, leaving their friend to die on the footpath.
Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson said he had no words following the violent scenes that took place and called on the federal government to intervene.
“I literally have nothing left to give, I feel defeated, the whole town feels defeated,” he said.
“For 18 months no one listened to us.
“I don’t know what they want Alice Springs to become, but they are not helping.
“We need the federal government to take over the leadership of the NT, if they cannot provide safety in the Alice then the Federal Police or Defence need to step in.”
In January 2022, a policy called Stronger Futures was introduced to help drive positive change for Aboriginal people in the NT.
As part of the policy, people who lived in camps were banned from drinking alcohol to reduce the amount of alcohol related crime that was occurring.
Mr Paterson said that policy was removed because some organisations said, ‘we could not do that.’
“Police auxiliary officers were in bottle shops, now that has been removed.
“You can’t buy alcohol on Mondays or Tuesdays, this happened on a Tuesday.
“The sad thing is that this is not a one off, this is a copy and paste of 12 to 15 months ago.
“Aboriginal Elders are heartbroken and embarrassed, they have not seen anything like it.”
Mr Paterson said two lives had been lost in the last two weeks.
“What’s the tipping point for people to believe we need help here, this can’t be okay in Australia in 2024,” he said.
“Tourism was decimated last year, we were in the papers for all the wrong reasons.
“People aren’t going out to hospitality venues or the cinema at night, people are leaving Alice in droves it is absolutely heartbreaking.”
NT Blain MLA Mark Turner said the “territory was broken” and that situation in Alice Springs was completely unmanageable, he joined voices calling on the federal government to step in and takeover.
“There has been a chronic mismanagement of government in the NT and look at what’s happened,” he said.
“These sorts of things happen when we screw everything else up, this is what is happening in the Alice, the longer they screw up strategies the worse it will get.”
Mr Turner said in order for a western democracy to function there was a contact between its citizens and the government that they government provided a certain amount of safety.
“If no one acts soon the community will take justice into their own hands and we will have a really dangerous mix of angry and traumatised people that will end in death,” he said.
“There has already been deaths and there will be more.
“There are rivers of alcohol in the NT. Put the Genie back in the bottle and ban alcohol.
“You need the riot police to stop the rioting and a community policing strategy with culturally appropriate officers who are trained to take in cultural needs.
“When you put together different teams you need to do it in a way that works.
“The territory is broken.”
Indigenous Minister Linda Burney said the current situation in Alice Springs was “completely unacceptable” after NT Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price repeated her calls to deploy the riot squad to curb violent and anti-social behaviour in the town.
Ms Burney said she had spoken to the territory’s chief minister and said the situation was being taken “very seriously.”
“This behaviour is completely unacceptable – it has no place in any community, in any part of Australia,” she said in a statement.
“Like all states and territories, the NT government has a responsibility to ensure that community safety is prioritised.”
In a speech to the Senate on Wednesday, Senator Price said violence in Alice Springs had reached a “crisis point”.
“We have hundreds of people rioting our streets and acting out violently, this is following a spate of violence, crime, deaths, bashings of 16-year-olds,” she said.
“This Labor government does not have what it takes to fix the situation in Alice Springs.”
More to come