The Lawler Government has extended the Alice Springs youth curfew for another six days, after it was recommended in a meeting of the Territory Emergency Management Council yesterday.
Chief Minister Eva Lawler said in a statement that the curfew would run until 6am on Tuesday, April 16, which was the end of the school holidays, with the decision to extend the curfew made at the TEMC meeting on Tuesday.
Police Commissioner Michael Murphy is the Territory Controller in emergency situations and the head of the TEMC, which is tasked with providing the Minister for Emergency Services with advice for declaring emergency situations. Acting head public servant Andrew Kirkman co-chaired the meeting the government said.
The curfew bans young people under the age of 18 from entering the town centre from 6pm to 6am without a valid reason and was due to end on Wednesday.
“The curfew is proving to work as a circuit breaker measure,” Ms Lawler said in a statement.
“It is important that we don’t lose the momentum that we’ve established. We are taking a common sense approach to improving community safety.
“Work is being done right now to ensure that community is prepared for when the curfew ends and we continue to have a strong presence from police, Territory Families and the Department of Education.”
A plan for what will follow after the curfew is lifted next week was not provided.
The curfew came about after an emergency declaration was ordered the day after a riot in the streets of Alice Springs occurred on Tuesday March 26, despite the Emergency Management Act – which was established to provide emergency powers during a severe weather disaster event – specifically stating it cannot be used “to put down a riot or other civil disobedience”.
Chief Minister Eva Lawler confirmed she ordered the emergency situation on March 27, with the assistance of Police Minister Brent Potter and Mr Murphy, which appears to violate proper Cabinet processes, and which has also led the government to change its original reasons for theemergency declaration last week.
Recently released public records show on March 27, Mr Potter signed the declaration to enact the “emergency situation” for Alice Springs, however he was forced to amend that order the next day and sign it as Minister for Emergency Services because it appeared the government did not know which ministry was responsible for enacting the “emergency situation”.
The NT Police Association president Nathan Finn said the association was concerned about the lawfulness of the Minister’s declaration and said he was concerned because police officers were the people that must enforce the Minister’s declaration.
“A member of the police force only has protection under the law when they are acting in the execution of their duty. Arguably, a police member enforcing an unlawful declaration is not acting in the execution of his or her duty and is therefore not afforded that protection,” he said.
Quelle surprise…
The medium and long-term solutions to this mayhem lie with cultural elders and traditional owners.
Community-led solutions will be the best.