An Indigenous Labor leader fed up with the youth crime crisis gripping Alice Springs has unveiled three ways to clean up the Outback town.
Marion Scrymgour, federal member for Lingiari, which includes the central Australian town, said the community and young people are being let down by a system that slaps them on the wrist and sends them back to dysfunctional homes.
The mother-of-three had her own home broken into while she slept in January. The burglary was just one of many crimes committed by young people.
A public bus was robbed, a stone was thrown at an elderly woman and numerous cars were stolen during the summer period.
Ms Scrymgour outlined three ways in which change can happen immediately in the city, as she urged authorities to stop treating child criminals as ‘little angels’.
Her changes included holding parents accountable for their children’s behavior, conducting an urgent review of the Youth Justice Act and creating more Indigenous-led outreach programs.
Labor MP Marion Scrymgour said authorities must stop the ‘pussy-foot’ and crack down on youth crime
Car thefts leading to wrecks are a common sight on the streets of Alice Springs
Locals say young people roaming the streets and taking joyrides are an ongoing problem
“There needs to be a rethink of the way we deal (with youth crime) … a little tough love never hurt anyone and I think that’s what needs to be factored into this equation,” Ms Scrymgour shared. The Australian.
“We need to stop walking around here thinking that these children are being taken home to a responsible adult, because in many of these cases there is no responsible adult present and the reality is these children are not listening.”
The numbers of assaults, property crimes and domestic violence incidents in the NT have risen sharply since 2019, according to official figures.
Businesses have been forced to board up windows to prevent break-ins, install bollards to prevent ram raids and the local Coles supermarket is completely closed off at night by automatic metal shutters.
Bakery owner Darren Clark, who founded the Facebook group Action for Alice, said the problem was the worst he had seen in 25 years.
‘They drove into the bakery in a car. We now have large bollards at the front. Many businesses in the city now have bollards so they can’t ram raid,” he said in 2023.
‘In one week my business was broken into three times, and on the fourth night they broke into my house and stole two cars. Then they broke into the store again.’
Cars are a regular target of youth offenders running amok in Alice Springs
The Coles in Alice Springs is being reinforced by metal shutters after hours after burglaries
Children as young as ten have reportedly been involved in joyriding in stolen cars in recent incidents, leading Ms Scrymgour to express her concerns if the problem is not brought under control it is only a matter of time before one of them is seriously injured.
Under changes to Northern Territory law in 2022, the criminal age of responsibility was raised from 10 to 12, with then Prime Minister Natasha Fyles saying that “primary school-aged children… are not hardened criminals who should be locked up.”
“You’re sentencing them to increasing behavioral problems, and possibly and most likely, the evidence shows, a life of criminal activity,” she said.
Ms Scrymgour said she did not necessarily disagree with the change, but it was clear it had not delivered any improvements.
She said a wider review of the effectiveness of the Youth Justice Act, which is being considered by Labour, should be a priority to be carried out within a year.
‘I’m not gone and I’m not awake. I just think we need to hurry up and stop thinking that all these measures are working, because they are not.”
Anthony Albanese flew to Alice Springs in January last year in response to residents’ concerns about alcohol-fuelled violence, burglaries and children wandering the streets dominating the headlines ahead of the Voice to Parliament vote.
But former Alice Springs deputy mayor Jacinta Nampijinpa Price accused the prime minister in December last year of being missing on Indigenous issues since the referendum was voted down.
New NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler announced her government’s own review of youth justice laws earlier this month.
Speaking at the opening of the new $32 million ‘high-tech’ Alice Springs Youth Detention Center last Monday, Ms Lawler said the problem of youth crime was a failure of government.
The focus of the new center would be partly on holding juvenile offenders accountable for their actions, but also, just as importantly, putting them on a better path, she said.
“I know the community expects that there will be major consequences for young people who do the wrong thing in the area, and this is an important part of that puzzle,” she said.
NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler said a new detention facility would focus on the rehabilitation of youth prisoners
‘But part of that puzzle is also ensuring that young people who do the wrong thing, who also encounter themselves (here), are on their way to a better life.
“It’s about making sure that young people who are here get the education, the training, the pathways to jobs, the pathways to work in the NT.
‘So if you’re a young person who finds themselves (here), we need to make sure that this is an opportunity to change your life and then make you a successful citizen, a healthy citizen, a great young person in the NT. ‘