Is Alice Springs a Failed City?

Alice Springs holds the title of Australia’s most dangerous town. A change of Government in the Northern Territory last year led by Country Liberal Party Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has not made it safe again.

On Friday a 27 year old Aboriginal man was stabbed multiple times in the chest in broad daylight in the Alice Springs CBD when a brawl broke out involving 20 people. Police arrested a 22 year old man.

In December last year, the nation was shocked by the news of horrific violence being perpetrated in two separate home invasions in Alice Springs.

A woman woke to an unknown man allegedly sexually assaulting her. Police arrested and charged 22-year-old man with two counts of rape, gross indecency without consent, aggravated burglary, being armed with an offensive weapon and traffic offences.

A two-month-old little girl who had her skull fractured during a home invasion had to be flown to Adelaide for treatment. The mother whose other three children were also in the home, was holding the baby when one of the two teenagers allegedly involved struck them with a weapon. $57k was raised through a GoFundMe for the family. It was later revealed that the two teenagers arrested have collectively been charged with more than 300 other offences and have been bailed 35 times.

Lia Finocchiaro flew into Alice Springs following the attack on the baby girl and was heckled by Action for Alice founder Darren Clark. The Action for Alice Facebook page has been censored.

She has done nothing pic.twitter.com/GRGRUBrKmz

— Action for Alice 2020 (@actionforalice) December 11, 2024

Then 92-year-old Musician Ted Egan, a former Administrator of the Northern Territory, chased three youth thieves out of his home who stole personal items. Egan’s wife Nerys 84 was also at home during the robbery. Egan told Sky News Australia, ‘They could have killed me in a minute flat’.

Under the previous Territory Labor Government Chief Minister Eva Lawler imposed two curfews on Alice Springs in response to mass violence. The first was a youth curfew for under 18s for two weeks from 6pm to 6am in March 2024. This was in response to a riot in the Alice Springs CBD after the funeral of an 18 year old Aboriginal man who died in a crash while riding in an alleged stolen car with others.The riot involved 150 people with the windows of the Todd Tavern smashed. During NADIOC week last July, the entire town of Alice Springs was subject to a three snap three-day curfew from 10pm till 6am after off-duty police officers were assaulted.

Reformed criminal Spanian toured Alice Springs one weekend and witnessed street violence and anti-social behaviour.

The surge in violence and crime in Alice Springs and other Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory can be traced to the Albanese Government abolishing the cashless debit welfare which could not be used for alcohol or gambling card. Its abolition and has also led to children going hungry, missing school and wandering the streets at night.

At the beginning of 2023, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a fly-in fly-out visit to Alice Springs. He promised a $250 million funding package to address Indigenous disadvantage in the region. The Mayor of Alice Springs Matt Paterson at the time called for a federal intervention invovling the deployment of the Australian Federal Police or the Australian Defence Force. He said “It needs to get better. We need help. As I said, people are leaving Alice Springs in droves. If we don’t address it, there will be no Alice Springs left.”

It’s worth asking the question: Is Alice Springs becoming a failed city? Why would any Australian want to visit Alice Springs for a holiday anymore? The romance of the red centre has been shattered.

Last year the Finocchiaro Government reduced the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10. This month it introduced new bail laws that require judges to be satisfied that an alleged offender will not pose a risk to the community if granted bail. This was in response to the stabbing death of Darwin shopkeeper Linford Feick, the man charged with his murder Phillip Randel Maurice Parry was out on bail at the time.

I have limited this article to only discussing Alice Springs and the alleged crimes that I have mentioned above are not even a comprehensive list from the town over the past 3 years. Violent crime and social disorder are a territory-wide problem with Alice Springs as the epicentre. One possible solution lies in its neighbouring state of Queensland with the Crisafulli Liberal National Government’s signature adult crime, adult time laws already having a significant impact in reducing violent crime.

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