Alice Springs Alcohol Court a Joke

The Territory Opposition wants the failed Alcohol Courts scrapped after a repeat offender avoided punishment in Alice Springs because the Court did not have the power to invoke a suspended sentence.

ABC radio reports Lynda Daegar faced the Alice Springs Magistrates Court this morning charged with breaching a prohibition order. Despite Ms Daegar being convicted of 31 offences, including assaults, the Alcohol Court Magistrate had no power to order her to serve the suspended sentence despite breaching her prohibition order.

“We warned the Government the real flaw with Alcohol Courts was that they provided an escape hatch for convicted criminals,” says Jodeen Carney, Shadow Attorney General.

When the legislation was debated in 2005 the Opposition opposed it because “the bills in their present form are inadequate to the task at hand. They fall short because of their lack of scope, and they give criminals a chance to escape sentence.”

“Now we have a serial criminal thumbing her nose at the Court and there is no real punishment,” says Ms Carney.

“The debacle of the Alcohol Courts is symptomatic of Labor’s abject failure to address rising assault rates and anti-social behaviour.

“Earlier this year it was revealed that in the first 18 months the Alcohol Courts were operating, a mere 99 people across the Territory were referred to them.

“Of the 99, just 27 had successfully completed a Court ordered treatment program.

“In the same period of time almost 40,000 people were taken into protective custody for being drunk in public.

“It’s hard to imagine a less effective or more expensive means of dealing with alcohol related crime and anti-social behaviour.”

2008-06-24