Northern Territory Police have announced a curfew for Alice Springs, after a recent spike in crime and assaults against local police.
The three-day curfew will prohibit people from entering the Alice Spring CBD without a lawful reason between 10pm to 6am.
It’s the second curfew in the region in the past three months. The first was a youth curfew that applied to under 18s.
Here’s what we know.
The Curfew
Police Commissioner Michael Murphy announced the curfew using new police powers legislated in May.
Murphy says the curfew is in response to increased “significant harm” in Alice Springs over recent days.
If the Police Commissioner wants to extend the three-day curfew, he must seek approval from the NT Police Minister.
NAIDOC Week
The curfew coincides with celebrations across the NT and the rest of Australia for NAIDOC week.
NT Police said it was “very mindful” of the timing. It estimates an additional 5,000 people will be in Alice Springs this week.
“The intent of this declaration is to disrupt the behaviours associated with the harm we are seeing in Alice Springs, and [to adopt] a whole of Government approach to make sure we can look after people and NAIDOC Week safely,” Commissioner Murphy said.
Opposition
Federal Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says the curfews should be a temporary measure.
She noted that many children in the NT “fall completely through the cracks”.
“Indigenous children, certainly around in my community and throughout the Northern Territory, experience the highest rates of domestic and family violence, child sexual abuse… The lives of these children need to be looked at much closer,” Nampijinpa Price told the ABC.
