Alice Springs cannot be allowed to remain in a cycle of despair

The imposition of a two-week youth curfew in Alice Springs following an outbreak of violence has again exposed Australia’s dark heart ruined by the poverty of dispossession.

According to local police, the violence began when people from the Utopia district north of Alice Springs arrived in town to commemorate the death of an 18-year-old man who was killed on March 8 after the stolen car he was travelling in rolled. The group attacked other family members in an Alice pub on Tuesday, throwing rocks and bricks and causing $30,000 damage to the Todd Tavern. Another brawl involving 150 people armed with weapons broke out nearby later that evening. It followed a confrontation on Saturday when a group of about 10 young women bashed and stripped a 16-year-old girl.

The NT government has declared an emergency, banned under 18-year-olds from the CBD at night and is rushing in police reinforcements to restore and maintain control. Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson called for outside help. “I literally have nothing left to give, I feel defeated, the whole town feels defeated,” he said. “For 18 months no one listened to us. I don’t know what they want Alice Springs to become.”

What a mess. The territory’s hopes for better days are continually undermined by the threat that a powder keg is about to explode. Tragically, when it blows, the damage is rarely fully repaired.

This is not a new problem. A damning 2016 ABC Four Corners program exposed just how the territory’s juvenile detention system had degenerated into venal brutality and corruption: Australia’s collective conscience was seared by footage of teenage detainees sprayed with tear gas; of 17-year-old Dylan Voller shackled to a restraining chair by his wrists, ankles and head, a “spit hood” obscuring his face; of prison guards who were “cage fighters”; of the prison minister roaring off astride a Harley-Davidson juxtaposed with his own department’s torture videos. Then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was so outraged he bypassed the culpable Darwin administration and established a royal commission into youth justice in the Northern Territory.

Overnight the territory became Australia’s shame. The incoming Labor government committed to closing Darwin’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. Eight years later, little has changed. The centre is still the territory’s youth prison and local politicians continue to bicker about its future.

The latest violence in Alice Springs has not deterred politicians climbing on board to score points. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton argued about who had visited Alice Springs the most. Local senator and opposition minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price called for Australian Defence Force personnel on the streets, evoking memories of the so-called NT Intervention, the Howard government’s controversial 2007 response to a Northern Territory government report on child sexual abuse.