Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Concerns about a lack of consultation with communities over alcohol restriction changes

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Concerns about a lack of consultation with communities over alcohol restriction changes · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: We do know that as of the sixteenth of July,
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  Speaker 1: legislation on the restriction of alcohol in three hundred and
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  Speaker 1: forty four areas where First Nations people live is going
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  Speaker 1: to expire in the Northern Territory. Now c to you,
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  Speaker 1: Professor of Law Elizabeth Spencer says that Indigenous and non
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  Speaker 1: Indigenous organizations have come out against lifting the restrictions without
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  Speaker 1: first consulting with the First Nations communities that it affects.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is Professor
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  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Spencer. Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katy, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much for your time, Professor. What
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  Speaker 1: are your concerns regarding the changes to these alcohol restrictions.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie. So I'm not so much voicing my own
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  Speaker 2: concerns as as noting that it's been a concern that's
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  Speaker 2: been expressed by several Indigenous community groups and leaders calling
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  Speaker 2: for the bands to stay and at the very least
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  Speaker 2: calling for increased consultation with communities. So we're talking about
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  Speaker 2: you know, a range of groups and also the Australian
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  Speaker 2: Human Rights Commissioner June oscar all saying that that more
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  Speaker 2: consultation was needed and the listing of the bands is
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  Speaker 2: can can host serious risks?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. We have certainly had a few of those groups
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  Speaker 1: on the show over the last couple of months raising
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  Speaker 1: those issues and you know, talking about the worries that
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  Speaker 1: they have once alcohol is able to flow back into
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  Speaker 1: those communities. Elizabeth, what's the I mean the government has
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  Speaker 1: said that it's going to be a community led response
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  Speaker 1: with elders and leaders to have their say on whether
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  Speaker 1: alcohol is permitted or restricted. Is that happening from your
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  Speaker 1: perspective and from the research you've done, From.
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  Speaker 2: What I can tell, very little consultation has happened. So
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  Speaker 2: we've known, the community has known for the past ten
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  Speaker 2: years since Stronger Futures legislation came in that there would
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  Speaker 2: be a sunset clause and it would the ban would
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  Speaker 2: lift completely in roughly three hundred and fifty communities in
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  Speaker 2: town camps and homelands as of midnight July sixteenth, So
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  Speaker 2: the levels of consultation appear to have been minimal. The
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  Speaker 2: Commonwealth government has not proposed any alternatives, and so what
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory government has done is come in with
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  Speaker 2: some opt in legislation was passed in late May and
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  Speaker 2: it suggests that this will empower communities by giving them
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  Speaker 2: the option to opt back into bands, but there is
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  Speaker 2: a process that they need to go through, and providing
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  Speaker 2: that legislation in late May and suggesting that they need
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  Speaker 2: to go through the entire process file their applications. Just
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  Speaker 2: just generating the awareness between late May and sort of
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  Speaker 2: the end of June when you'd have to launch your
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  Speaker 2: will large your application would be tough.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this is the thing and we're just weeks a
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  Speaker 1: why now it is? You know, it's about twelve days
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  Speaker 1: twelve thirteen days before this is going to certainly forge
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  Speaker 1: a head. Are you aware of any particular communities that
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  Speaker 1: do want to stay dry? Or what's the you know what?
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  Speaker 1: What are you being told at this point?
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  Speaker 2: So there's a real hue and cry, and I would
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  Speaker 2: refer people to the joint media release of the Central
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  Speaker 2: Australian Aboriginal Congress, the head of NAJA, the Aboriginal Medical
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  Speaker 2: Services Alliance of the Northern Territory, the Northern Territory Council
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  Speaker 2: of Social Services, even the Northern Territory Police, who, according
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  Speaker 2: to the legislation, have a lot to do with as
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  Speaker 2: you would know, a lot to do with the enforcement
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  Speaker 2: of alcohol bands in the communities, and the different kermit
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  Speaker 2: systems and so on. There's a real mosaic of of
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  Speaker 2: of different regulation and different different bands, different kermits across
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  Speaker 2: general restricted areas, alcohol protected areas. So there's there's, you know,
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  Speaker 2: a complexity to this, and and I think that there's
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  Speaker 2: so many organizations that are saying we need more consultation,
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  Speaker 2: we need more information. I'm not aware of a lot
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  Speaker 2: of groups that are that are saying that they think
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  Speaker 2: that the listing of the bands outright without any without
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  Speaker 2: any consultation, without any further uh support for what happens next.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I'm not aware of a lot of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of support for that. If if there is, I
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  Speaker 2: suppose you'll be hearing about it after this.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well this is the thing. I've no doubt that
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  Speaker 1: we will. And you know, I guess the concern here
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  Speaker 1: is what is going happen, you know, come July seventeen
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  Speaker 1: in some of those communities. What are some of those
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  Speaker 1: fears at this point, professor, Well, already, you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, Australia has among the highest levels of alcohol consumption
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  Speaker 2: in the world already, and the Northern Territory has another
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  Speaker 2: fifty percent higher levels of alcohol consumption per capita than
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  Speaker 2: Australia generally we have five to six times and that's
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  Speaker 2: probably a conservative estimate of emergency department presentations, assault road accidents.
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  Speaker 2: Who knows what caused the accident last night, family violence,
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  Speaker 2: child abuse, a drop in school attendance performance, all kinds
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  Speaker 2: of health issues, and the fraying of already fragile social infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: So those are the risks that need to be addressed
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  Speaker 2: by the community as a whole.
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  Speaker 1: There will certainly be some people listening this morning who
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  Speaker 1: are thinking, you know, why shouldn't Aboriginal people living in
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  Speaker 1: communities have the same right says the rest of us.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know that's a really interesting question. Right
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  Speaker 2: and responsibilities go together. And I think we we live
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  Speaker 2: in an era where we have the capability in our
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  Speaker 2: society to consult and to formulate policy that is actually
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  Speaker 2: appropriate for particular communities in consultation with those communities. And
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  Speaker 2: I think that's what's being asked for here. I'm a
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  Speaker 2: planner by trade as well, and I remember in the
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  Speaker 2: early days of my career working with city plans and
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  Speaker 2: so on, and we would do a lot of facilitation,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of consultation upfront. And I used to say, well,
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  Speaker 2: why do we have to do this. It's so expensive,
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  Speaker 2: it's so time consuming. But what you do is you
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  Speaker 2: build understanding, you build consensus, You create genuine appropriate kinds
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  Speaker 2: of responses you real need when you do when you
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  Speaker 2: take the time and make the effort, any investment, frankly
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  Speaker 2: of doing that upfront consultation.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Charles Darwin University Law professor Elizabeth Spencer, we really
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much for having
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  Speaker 1: a chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Katie, I'm the best.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you