CUTTING LOOSE AND CUTTING BACK: ADDRESSING THE NEED FOR COMMUNITY-CONTROLLED ALCOHOL POLICIES IN AUSTRALIA’S ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES

Abstract

Australia’s Aboriginal peoples have been subjected to government-mandated alcohol restrictions for the last 2 centuries. Between 2007 and 2022, the NTER Intervention and Stronger Futures Act were implemented in the Northern Territory to reduce alcohol-related harms in Aboriginal communities. These restrictions were examples of ‘emergency response’ and ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches to alcohol management. I explore the effects of these alcohol restrictions on Aboriginal communities, arguing that this top-down approach leads to a knowledge gap and communication deficit between the government and the communities affected. This results in the development of discriminatory and culturally inappropriate policies that can potentially exacerbate alcohol-related harms in Aboriginal communities. This thesis argues for the development of community-controlled policies as an alternative to government-mandated restrictions. I complete a case study of Alice Springs, analyzing the absence of community involvement in alcohol policies and the consequent effects on the town’s struggles to curb rates of alcohol-related assaults and other crime. I conclude that the lack of community-controlled policies has led to a weak attempt by the government at finding (and solving) the root causes of the alcohol problem. In order to create sustainable, flexible measures that effectively reduce alcohol-related harms, policy control must be given to Alice Springs’ Aboriginal communities.