Labor vows to get tougher on problem drinkers

The Labor Party has announced plans to force problem drinkers on to income management if it is re-elected at the Northern Territory election.

Chief Minister Paul Henderson says the government would also give police the powers to drug-test people involved in serious assaults, matching a Country Liberals policy announced earlier in the campaign.

Mr Henderson says drugs and alcohol are often involved in violent crimes.

He says if people who have been on the Banned Drinkers Register for 12 months refuse to go to rehabilitation, they will have their Centrelink payments cut.

"The work that we've done with the Commonwealth Government means that Centrelink will be able to quarantine up to 70 per cent of your income and put that on a Basics card," he said.

"This is very much a tough love option."

The Northern Territory Criminal Lawyers Association has called on the Country Liberals to announce their alcohol policy.

Paul Henderson says if people who have been on the Banned Drinkers Register for
12 months refuse to go to rehabilitation, they will have their Centrelink payments cut.

The Country Liberals say they will introduce a safe streets audit and scrap the existing Banned Drinkers Register if elected.

Criminal Lawyers Association president Russell Goldflam says police support the drinkers register.

He says more needs to be done to stop alcohol-related violence.

"Doing an audit is not going to cost an enormous amount and it's not going to produce any disastrous effects," he said.

"I am not saying it is a bad thing but it's a bit of a substitute for actually doing something.

"What I'd like see the Country Liberals do is announce what their alcohol policy is.

"Alcohol is right at the heart of the appalling levels of offending that we have got in the community."

Mr Goldflam says Labor needs to focus less on hard drugs and more on stopping alcohol-related violence.

He says he doesn't think there is any point in increasing penalties because the Territory already has the toughest sentencing laws in the country.

"There is a huge problem of violence with drugs in the Northern Territory, but it is not the drugs they're talking about, it's alcohol," he said.

"I'm not saying there is no amphetamine on the streets of Darwin, or Alice Springs, but the size of that problem pales in comparison to the scale of alcohol-fuelled violence."

Source: ABC News, 14 August 2012