Sir – Prior to the August 2016 election the now Chief Minister Michael Gunner and the current Member for Braitling, Dale Wakefield, publicly stated that a Gunner Government:
• Would not introduce a floor price for alcohol.
• Would fully maintain police outside of bottle shops.
In an election forum organised by the People’s Alcohol Action Coalition in Alice Springs on August 10, 2016, Dale Wakefield told people that a Gunner Government would not introduce a floor price.
In Parliament on June 22, 2017 Mr Guner confirmed that the government would not reduce or scrap police outside of bottle shops.
It is of great concern that she has mislead Territorians.
Ms Wakefield only won the seat of Braitling by 27 votes. It is not unreasonable to conclude that had she been honest, it is likely she would not be the current Member for Braitling.
As a government that has espoused the virtues of integrity and honesty, this is a major departure from your own promises and commitments to Territorians.
• Will she take these changes in policy to an election before she implements them?
• Will she acknowledge and apologise to Territorians for lying to them?
• Why has the Government decided not to implement the following recommendations from the Reily Alcohol Review:-
Recommendation 3.6.1: POSIs should continue in regional centres after the commencement of the Banned Drinker Register until it can be demonstrated that they are no longer required.
Recommendation 3.6.4: Police should continue to undertake the POSI role until licensing inspectors are employed and trained.
Robyn Lambley MLA (pictured)
Member for Araluen
[ED – The government says it is supporting 3.6.1 and 3.6.4, with the following proviso: “The NT Government recognises the effectiveness of POSIs / Temporary Beat Locations (TBLs) are a harm minimisation tool, particularly in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine.
“The Government, through the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services (Police) is currently developing a more sustainable operational model for POSIs / TBLs, which will involve freeing up valuable Police resources and enable suitable empowered and trained personnel, which may include licensing of cers to replace Police.
“To be considered as part of the Alcohol Harm Minimisation Action Plan 2018-2019.”
The government also says it’s doing a good job, I laughed out loud at that.
The evidence points to the contrary, they seem to be even more inept than those that preceded them (hard to believe).
The good news for us long suffering residents is that we will more than likely have them for another term (sigh).
But they will lose all their southern urban seats and as they did last time they were in powers and hang in there thanks to Darwin’s northern suburbs.
Wow, government breaking promises – that’s new. I think it’s a shame people only get the one chance every few years to make their voices heard and after that day the winners can pretty much do whatever they like.
The people are powerless for the next few years regardless of the lies and broken promises.
The moral of the story is say anything make big promises don’t worry you don’t have to follow through you will still have a job for the next few years and, hey, maybe everyone will have forgotten by the time the next election is on.
Or even better, your only competition is some ding bat and you are assured to get in. This voting system has so many flaws.
If these policies introduced do end up working regardless of election campaign promises to the contrary, does Ms Lambley intend to maintain she was against them from the get go? And will anyone care if what was said a community meeting is gone back on if it solves the alcohol issue?
I think not.
Will Ms Lambley admit that she failed to to nip the situation in the bud when she was a high powered minister and that the statistics may have been climbing during that time as well?
There seems to be a lot of research out there from other parts of the world where alcohol abuse has been curbed by introducing similiar policies, and yet she seems to whinging about it being rolled out.
What alternative strategy does she propose aside from the throw away lines everyone says about POSIs which are already being worked on??
Would be interested to see what solutions she has developed over the MANY years she’s been in Parliament and a minister to combat the issues. My bets are, she has none and thrashing the same old horse in a bid to appear still relevant to voters.
Robyn, put up or shut up. Simple. Otherwise, if you have nothing useful to contribute, move on before you are thrown out.
When polled on proposals to vary time between election(s) be sure to complain IF yearly is not an option.
I’m unsure how and why we allow pollies to continually break election promises. There should be a law against it. Something like the trade practices “goods not as described” or “goods not fit for purpose”.
But someone continually votes for these people.
So, don’t vote and pay the fine like I do, with accompanying letter of course to the Electoral Commission, start an independent party or stop complaining.
Until these pollies are held accountable, we may as well be holding a gun to our own heads.