Alice Springs cannot be allowed to remain in a cycle of despair

According to local police, the violence began when people from the Utopia district north of Alice Springs arrived in town to commemorate the death of an 18-year-old man who was killed on March 8 after the stolen car he was travelling in rolled. The group attacked other family members in an Alice pub on Tuesday, throwing rocks and bricks and causing $30,000 damage to the Todd Tavern. Another brawl involving 150 people armed with weapons broke out nearby later that evening.

The NT government has declared an emergency, banned under 18-year-olds from the CBD at night and is rushing in police reinforcements to restore and maintain control. Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson called for outside help. “I literally have nothing left to give, I feel defeated, the whole town feels defeated,” he said. “For 18 months no one listened to us. I don’t know what they want Alice Springs to become.

What a mess. The territory’s hopes for better days are continually undermined by the threat that a powder keg is about to explode. Tragically, when it blows, the damage is rarely fully repaired.

While an interfamily brawl appears the catalyst this time, the current trouble has been a slow-moving car crash for several years with no one doing much about it. Alice Springs’ crisis results from the glaring inequalities that propel children and teenagers towards crime. The policy of jailing youngsters in Don Dale not only goes against the royal commission recommendations but is futile. There is no quick fix. It will take a lot of work, time and money to turn it around. But to keep doing little condemns the town to a repeat cycle of despair.

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