Thirsty Thursdays

[vt1538]

Once again the Alice Springs Council has decided to punish many for the acts of a few.
Because of anti social behaviour by a minority, take away alcohol will no longer be available to buy on Thursdays. While alcohol abuse is a major factor in the social problems in this town their strategies have been to increase prices & remove the availability of alcoholic products.
Personally I can see these steps as having no impact on the problems as welfare cheques are not all paid out on a Thursday. People will just adapt & buy up bigger on the available days. Enabling them to drink more at these times.
Its matters like these that make me feel like leaving my home of the last thirty years & going to a saner climate.
Any thoughts?

[_Mukas_]

thats ridiculous!
i presume it would be from a minority of indigenous people that are the main problem (may be showing niavity) is the reasoning behind it, tell me if im wrong coz ide like to be.
i would have thought that taking the booze away on a thursday would add more tension between those who are causing the trouble and authorities, rather than fix it. mainly coz they would b so used to goin and grabbing a 6pack, now all of a sudden they cant...i know i wouldnt be happy
i wouldnt have done it, but i like to have a drink on a thursday

[vt1538]

I dont want to bring the race of these people into the discussion as I dont want this thread closed.
Another problem that I can forsee is the increase in break & enters to try & get alcohol, or the increase in other substance abuse like petrol which is already a major problem in outlying areas.
There is talk of a mass roll out of opel fuel to curb this problem so I am going to be further disadvantaged as my race cars all need 98 octane. Race regs state that it must be available from a bowser to be able to run it.

[_Mukas_]

fair enough, not fair on the rest of the population
whats the go up there with the sale of spray paint, because i know it was a problem in melbourne a while back where alot of people were chroming on trains, at stations, even walking through the streets of the city off their faces.
it would be hard up there as the resource level probably isnt as high as that of a major city like melbourne, even darwin...
ide be writing very sternly to the people who are thinking of this opel fuel thing, mans gotta race his damn cars

[vh-holden]

hooray for the goverment!!!!

not

that would have to be the stupidist idea. does nothing to solve the problem. but then again it is a cheap option isn't it?

why not just bite the bullet and admit there is a problem and increase funding for useful things like rehab clinics?

[vt1538]

Spray paint, tyre puncture kits & vanilla essence are all under the counter now. There is obviously a few more items that I cant think of at the moment. It really sh!ts me off that a few hundred people can make life hard for tens of thousands.

[vh-holden]

do you think banning drinking in certain public areas would help? I was in alice for a week in february, but didn't really pay much attention to where drinking was going on. I did go into one of the town camps though, and they are shocking.

[Spyper]

Short term fixes never work. They should be relying more on long term strategies such as harm minimisation and education then simply preventing people buying alcohol on Thursday. Drink some metho thursday and hit the bottle-o friday morning.

Great fix.

[vt1538]

There was plans on having a dry town like Port Augusta but that got voted out. With the current 2km dry zone around liquor outlets it makes most of the towns public areas dry already. The problem is this can not be enforced properly due to a lack of police numbers & a court system that treats repeat offenders with kid gloves.

[_Mukas_]

band aid solutions, thats all they are. they have a big problem, stick in a quick fix, once thats not working, do it again...it happens all to often, and in every major city or town. but look at it this way also, if they govt's were to spend big money on big fixes, planning is required and whil this plannign is goin on, people are running riot. i reckon a band aid to start while the root of the problem is discovered and fixed PROPERLY!!! but as i said in another thread, in helping one, you are hindering another

[VLDavo]

its not gonna stop em getting pissed or off there face ......i mean whos gonna refuse to sell a can of spray paint or a tub of glue to em..........or if there feeling abit on the rich side go out and buy a stick.....thursdays will jus turn into a worse day as they find different ways to get off there tits....

i mean there in the middle of nowhere in the stinking heat and most of them dont have jobs wat else are they gonna do

[_Mukas_]

its a catch 22 for the govt. if they dont try to fix a problem , they get hammered and when they at least make an effort they get hammered even harder...noone can think of a perfect solution straight away but one must be seen to be making an effort...

[vt1538]

The problems are difficult to overcome for many reasons.For example the communities around ayers rock banned the sale of alcohol to any of the locals.While this prevented drunks from bothering the tourists the communities then ended up with a sniffer problem much worse than they had with alcohol.
Substance abuse can occur from boredom,a lack of social direction,abuse & many others. Preventing the availability of one only brings another into focus.
Permanent solutions are going to need a hard stance from the government but their fear of a minority backlash has left the majority to suffer their indecision.

[_Mukas_]

..but their fear of a minority backlash has left the majority to suffer their indecision.

and that will forever be a problem within society, because the majority dont protest, its the little people that cause the scenes and its something the govt cant be comfortable ignoring, because it just causes a big cycle...the protesters compain the govt arent doin anything, the majority see this and say hey, they arent doin anything. then once they do do it, its normally a bad solution made purely out of pressure, that keeps the minority happier, but hurts the majority...
to help one, is to hinder another

[Bax]

sounds terrible, the government should have done something about this a long long time ago.

as far as im aware its illegal to drink in a public place? why don't the police for once, pull their fingers out and start putting forward harsher fines for repeat offenders, cut their welfare altogether if they're going to waste it.

I'm coming across quite harshly, which is bad because I do know that it is only a minority that is making the majority look really bad. But the amount of times I've driven/ walked and been hassled by somebody around here because they are off their face on paint, glue, goon or what not.

And the police just sit back and watch it all happen.

[vt1538]

The police are not just sitting back & watching it happen most of the time. In a week there is around 1500 litres of fortified wine poured out by the police & the people moved on.
The number of available police are able to target drinkers in highly visible locations but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Grog running is a highly profitable exercise for the few that can get away with it. This brings the problems to the outskirts of the communities. Then instead of the communities working out the issues they ban the drunks from the community & they end up in town.
The numbers of itinerants in town has escalated to the point that all town camps are overflowing. This then overwhelms the already overworked police force & so on.

[_Mukas_]

is a vicious cycle...

[MOTIV8]

Thirsty Thursdays failed as soon as Centrelink changed the paydays to any day of the week. They used to have that Thirsty Thursdays crap on in the 1980's in Tennant Creek and other places. It didn't work then and it isn't going to work now. What else is a community with 100% unemployment going to do all day every day. There is nothing in those communities like in the towns and cities so who can blame them for coming to town.

Maybe they should set up a few areas with a couple of concrete pads and a tin roof on four poles with a built in firehole/place and a toilet block and a couple of taps.

Maybe they should consult the people who do the public drinking and find out a solution together with them.

Who knows ...... but banning some people from buying alcohol based on the colour of their skin is not the solution. That is perpetuating the racist attitude that seems to be so prevalent in this country against the original owners.

The Northern Territory has some real racial issues and I think it stinks that a lot of the "haves" up there make out it's a black "haves not" problem caused by lazy blackfellas.

[Troy711]

someone i know works for treasury and when they were looking through/retyping budget papers they noticed that there was funding to stop the sale of 'sniffable petrol' and plans to change it to a fuel that doesnt get you high. why do you think diesel is so popular in the outback?

[Bax]

I'll clarify that in no way was I relating back to colour of skin.

The same for stand for everyone, if they've been caught drunk in public so many times, ban them altogether from drinking for so long. I still reckon cut their payments.

What else are they going to do? If they save a bit of cash I'm sure they could set up some kind of infrastructure, get some houses, get some basketball courts, get some big tv's, internet - whatever they'd like.

I mean as far as I know, people on the dole have to apply for jobs or work for the dole schemes. Get them employed somehow, make them do something for their cash rather then sitting around getting pissed and making the lives of countless other people unbearable.

[MOTIV8]

A bit hard to apply for jobs that just aren't there.

[vt1538]

In the paper today mate. 750 unemployed. 165 unskilled job vacancies. Alice is the easiest place to get a job if you want one. Why should people look for a job when they can get the same money sitting on there arse.

[Charg'd]

lock up ya fuel tanks boys

[Troy711]

(sorta) on the subject... has anyone been watching the bush mechanics on ABC on monday nights?

EDIT: actually, id better start a new thread :thumb:

[MOTIV8]

In the paper today mate. 750 unemployed. 165 unskilled job vacancies. Alice is the easiest place to get a job if you want one. Why should people look for a job when they can get the same money sitting on there arse.

Yeah that's a problem all over the country.