Alice Springs Mayor reveals what needs to be done to stop violence in outback town

The mayor of an outback town in the grips of a violent crime wave has said the most important point of action is to get youths off the streets.

Alice Springs in the Northern Territory has recently descended into chaos with locals now spotting people strolling down the streets armed with machetes and knives in broad daylight.

Mayor Matt Paterson said the problem had become so severe that residents were now afraid to go to sleep in fear of intruders breaking into their homes in the middle of the night.

The Prime Minister recently made a short visit to the town where he announced $48.8million in funding would go towards programs to address the crime issue over the next two years.

Alcohol restrictions were also implemented but Mr Paterson said booze was just one of the many problems Alice Springs was facing.

‘There is so much anti-social behaviour and domestic violence going on in our community that it really needs to be on a national stage,’ he told The Today Show on Wednesday.

See also  Fury as the SNP quietly bans wood-burning stoves from newbuild homes in Scotland amid green drive - sparking fears for pensioners and remote Highland communities

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson said alcohol was just one of the problems the outback town was facing

Mr Paterson said as many as 80 children could be roaming around the streets on any night.

‘That’s the reality because for these kids it’s safer for them to be on the streets than at home,’ he said.

‘So we need to start having conversations around why these kids are there and where do we take them because the longer we leave these kids on the street, the longer we’re setting them up for failure.’

The mayor said he would be looking into a report made at the request of Anthony Albanese that was being handed down on Wednesday.

Alice Springs in the Northern Territory has recently descended into chaos with locals now afraid to go to sleep in fear of home intruders

The Prime Minister recently made a short visit to the town where he announced new alcohol restrictions

As many as 3,000 locals – 10 per cent of the town’s population – turned out to a community meeting on Tuesday to discuss the escalating crime wave.

‘That’s a town at breaking point,’ Mr Paterson said.

‘We can’t continue to live the way we’re living and feel like prisoners in our own home.

‘It’s getting awfully difficult to live here. You get people who are scared to go to bed at night because they’re not sure what’s going to happen while they’re asleep.’

Another issue the mayor pointed to was the lack of police, adding that health services were also pushed to their limits.

Following Mr Albanese’s visit to the town, booze restrictions now include a ban on takeaway alcohol sales on Monday and Tuesday as well as limits on bottle shop opening hours. 

Fury had erupted when the town’s grog ban was controversially lifted in July last year, further impacting an already suffering town.

On Monday afternoon a teenager was set on upon by axe-wielding youths in a horrific broad daylight attack.  

The 16-year-old boy was walking in the Alice Springs suburb of Braitling when three young people attacked him.

‘They have an axe and hit him multiple times in his face, stomach, leg and other parts of his body,’ his mother Namfon Fon wrote on Facebook.

Alice Springs police have confirmed to Daily Mail Australia a teenage boy who allegedly struck Ms Fon’s son with ‘an edged weapon’ has since been arrested. 

Disturbing video of the assault obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows three young males – one wielding an axe or hatchet – laying into the teenager, hitting and kicking him as he cowers in a park.

Ms Fon said ‘luckily’ her son did not appear to have been cut by the axe’s blade, but that he ended up in hospital after police and paramedics arrived. 

He has since been discharged. 

Namfon Fon’s son, 16, was set upon by three youths armed with an axe who struck him on his ‘face, stomach, leg and other parts of his body’ in Alice Springs on Monday