An Indigenous Labor leader fed-up with the youth crime crisis gripping Alice Springs has revealed the three ways to clean up the Outback town.
Senator Marion Scrymgour, federal member for Lingiari that incorporates the central Australian town, said the community and youths are being failed by a system that slaps them on the wrist and sends them back to dysfunctional homes.
Senator Scrymgour had her own house broken into while she was sleeping in January with the break-in just one of a flood of crimes committed by young people.
A public bus was robbed, a rock was thrown at an elderly woman while countless cars were stolen over the summer period.
The mum-of-three outlined three ways change can immediately happen in the town as she urged authorities to stop treating child criminals like ‘little angels’.
Among her changes were holding parents accountable for the behaviour of their children, conducting an urgent review of the Youth Justice Act and establishing more Indigenous-led outreach programs.
Labor Senator Marion Scrymgour said authorities need to stop ‘pussy-footing’ around and crack down on youth crime
Car thefts leading to wrecks are a common sight on the streets of Alice Springs
Locals say youth roaming the streets and going on joyrides is an ongoing problem
‘There’s got to be a rethink of how we deal (with youth crime) … a bit of tough love never hurt anyone and I think that’s what needs to come into this equation,’ Senator Scrymgour told The Australian.
‘We’ve got to stop pussyfooting around here and thinking that these kids are being taken home to a responsible adult because in a lot of these cases there isn’t a responsible adult there and the reality is these kids don’t listen.’
Since 2019, the rates of assaults, property offences and domestic violence incidents in the NT have risen sharply, according to official figures.
Businesses have been forced to board up windows to prevent break-in, install bollards to thwart ram raids and the local Coles supermarket is entirely locked down at night by automatic metal roller shutters.
Bakery owner Darren Clark who founded the Action for Alice Facebook group said the problem is the worst he’s seen it in 25 years.
‘They’ve driven a car into the bakery. We’ve got now big bollards out the front. A lot of businesses around town now have got bollards so they can’t ram raid,’ he said in 2023.
‘In one week, my business got broken into three times, and on the fourth night, they broke into my home and stole two cars. Then they broke into the shop again.’
Cars are a regular target of youth offenders running amok in Alice Springs
The Coles in Alice Springs after closing is fortified by metal roller shutters following break-ins
Children as young as 10 have reportedly been involved in joyriding in stolen cars in recent incidents leading Senator Scrymgour to voice concerns if the problem isn’t controlled it is a matter of time before one of them gets seriously hurt.
Under changes to Northern Territory law in 2022 the criminal age of responsibility was raised from 10 to 12, with then Chief Minister Natasha Fyles saying ‘primary school-aged kids … are not hardened criminals who need to be locked away’.
‘You are sentencing them to increased behavioural problems, and potentially and most likely, the evidence shows us, a life of criminal activity,’ she said.
Senator Scrymgour said while she didn’t necessarily disagree with the change it was clear that it had not made an improvement.
She said a wider review of the effectiveness of the Youth Justice Act, under consideration by Labor, should be a priority that needs to be done within the year.
‘I’m not left and I’m not woke, I just think we’ve got to hurry up and stop thinking that all of these measures are working, because they’re not.’
Anthony Albanese flew into Alice Springs in January last year in response to residents concerns about alcohol-fuelled violence, break-ins and kids roaming the streets dominating headlines ahead of the Voice to Parliament vote.
But former Alice Springs deputy mayor Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in December last year accused the PM of being missing-in-action on Indigenous issues since the referendum was voted down.
New NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler earlier this month announced her government’s own review of youth justice laws.
At the opening of the new ‘high-tech’ $32million Alice Springs Youth Detention centre last Monday, Ms Lawler said admitted the youth crime problem was a failure of government.
She said a focus of the new centre would be partly to hold youth offenders to account for their actions but also, just as important, was to set them on a better path.
‘I know the community expects there to be strong consequences for young people who do the wrong thing in the Territory and this is an important part of that puzzle,’ she said
NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler said a new detention facility would focus on rehabilitation for youth detainees
‘But part of that puzzle is also making sure that young people that do he wrong thing, that find themselves (here) also are then on a pathway to a better life.
‘It is about making sure that young people who are here get the education, the training, the pathways to jobs, the pathways to working in the NT.
‘So if you are a young person who finds themself (here) we need to make sure that that is an opportunity to turn your life around and get you then to being a successful citizen, a healthy citizen, a great young person in the NT.’
