00:00The new NT Parliament has resumed sittings for the second day today and they've spent
00:06the majority of the morning debating these new public drinking measures.
00:11And under these new proposed laws, people who are caught drinking in public or being
00:15a public nuisance could be fined $900 or even be arrested.
00:20And this is all part of a suite of crime crackdown reforms, which the new country Liberal Party
00:26government says is all about restoring community safety to the Northern Territory, but also
00:31increasing the ability of our police force to deal with these kinds of offences.
00:37Now, long-serving independent and Arnhem Land politician Yingya Gyula has come out very
00:42strongly against these laws.
00:44He says they're going to disproportionately impact Aboriginal people and instead of dealing
00:49with drinking as a health issue, instead they're going to inflame stigma around drinking and
00:56also result in more vulnerable people, particularly those who are sleeping rough in urban centres
01:01like here in Darwin, being punished instead of helped.
01:04Here's a little bit of what that independent member had to say.
01:08I am warning my people to start moving back, going home, to be really who we are.
01:19Because I'm warning them and I'm telling them that this law is a bad law.
01:28Bad law.
01:29Now, the government has almost leant into that argument this morning.
01:33The Treasurer Bill Yan said that these laws do not discriminate and he even encouraged
01:39people who want to return to their remote communities to do so.
01:43Here's what Bill Yan had to say in response this morning.
01:46Well the laws that the COP are bringing into place apply to everyone.
01:49It doesn't matter who you are or what you are or where you're from.
01:52If you cause a nuisance whilst drinking in a public place, the law will apply to you.
01:56And I applaud Yingya Gyula for what he said.
02:00If people here in town want to be back on community, well they should be heading back
02:04to community or back to their outstations.
02:07And of course the other compounding issue or concern is that the more people that get
02:12arrested, well the more pressure there could be on a prison system here in the Northern
02:15Territory which we know is bursting at the seams.
02:18And the government's new corrections plan, which is all about freeing up space in our
02:22watch houses and in our prisons, is yet another thing that it's expected to come up in Parliament
02:28later this afternoon.
02:29So certainly a lot of complex and intertwined issues there for both people in Parliament
02:34to unpack but also for the community.
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