Labor will bring back the banned drinker register if it wins the Northern Territory election next year, Michael Gunner has said in his first week as the opposition leader, reopening the debate on the Northern Territory’s controversial alcohol management policy.
Labor has long supported the banned drinker register (BDR), and Gunner’s statement, made just two days after he took over as leader from Delia Lawrie, has renewed debate on the policy which operated for about one year before being scrapped by the Country Liberal government. The decision was criticised by Labor, health bodies, and both sides of federal government.
The BDR required alcohol retailers to scan the photo ID of customers and refuse sale if the customer showed up on the register of problem drinkers.
“It went for about a year and it’s not long enough,” Gunner told local radio on Monday.
“It needs a proper run. We know it works. We know it can be effective and we know you have to look at the supply of alcohol to problem drunks.”
Gunner, who took over the Labor party leadership after Lawrie resigned on Sunday due to being investigated by police, will take the controversial policy to the Northern Territory election in August next year.
The CLP government has repeatedly said the BDR did not work, and that the current policy of temporary beat locations (TBLs) is sufficient. TBLs see police officers stationed outside bottle shops. They check the addresses of those buying alcohol to ensure it is not being taken back to a proscribed, alcohol-free area.
Justice minister, John Elferink, said Gunner had “proven his inexperience by deciding to go back down the same path” as Lawrie in seeking to bring back the BDR.
“Different captain same sinking ship and same failed alcohol policy,” Elferink said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
“It is bizarre that Michael Gunner would promise to scrap something that even his own team admits is working and then resurrect a failed Labor initiative in its place,” he said in reference to opposition spokeswoman Natasha Fyles who reportedly told ABC radio on Tuesday Labor would also scrap TBLs.
TBLs have mixed support. Detractors say it is racially divisive and unfairly targets Aboriginal people. Others have said that although it is effective at each location, there are not enough police to cover all bottle shops and people just go elsewhere.
Dr John Boffa, spokesman for the people’s alcohol action coalition (Paac), has called for a formal, independent evaluation of alcohol management policies “to get over this sort of impasse”.
“If we do that I think we’ll find that both strategies are effective, but I think we’ll find the TBL is more effective,” Boffa, who is also chief medical officer at the central Australian Aboriginal Congress, told Guardian Australia.
He said although TBLs effectively stop 12,000 Aboriginal people from proscribed communities in central Australia buying takeaway alcohol, the BDR target only about 1,000 people who were designated problem drinkers.
“The TBL strategy is getting at many, many more people and led to a bigger drop in alcohol consumption and a bigger drop in harm,” he said.
“Having said that, the photo licensing at the point of sale is, in the view of Paac, a better way to get point-of-sale supply reduction than having police standing outside the outlet. It’s less discriminatory, and applies to everyone more clearly, and it’s cheaper.”
A lack of police resources has meant that for much of this year Alice Springs bottle shops have not all been covered by TBLs all the time.
“On days when it’s not in place the alcohol consumption and harm increases dramatically,” said Boffa, adding that increases in police numbers as announced by the government should see full TBL coverage by the end of the year.
“Once it’s implemented all the time, policymakers need to make a decision on whether it’s better to have the expense of police doing what they’re doing versus photo licensing at the point of sale.”
Boffa said Paac had written to the attorney general, John Elferink, and the chief minister, Adam Giles, calling for an evaluation, but had not yet received a reply.
