Police and Health workers prohibited from giving evidence on coon Alcoholism

[Br.IanVonTurpie]

http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/northern-territory-police-and-health-workers-barred-from-giving-evidence-to-an-inquiry-on-indigenous-alcohol-use-mp-warren-snowdon-says/story-fnk0b1zt-1227295969698

NORTHERN Territory police and health workers have been barred from giving evidence to an inquiry on Indigenous alcohol use, federal MPs say. 
 
Labor MP for Lingiari Warren Snowdon told community leaders on Groote Eylandt the federal inquiry wanted to hear from officers in NT communities about which harm-reduction measures were succeeding or failing.

But Territory government employees such as police and health workers "are not allowed to talk to us", Mr Snowdon said on Wednesday.

The committee chairman, Liberal MP Sharman Stone, said the NT government had determined its written submissions were complete and there was nothing to add.

"We're very disappointed about that," she said.

"What's in their submissions is written by someone in Darwin who may not be on the ground," Mr Snowdon said.

"It's most important to allow local coppers and clinicians to tell us about their experience. That's what we're interested in." The NT police minister has been contacted for comment.

The NT government submission says addressing alcohol misuse is a key social and economic priority.

The inquiry is travelling around Australia to uncover patterns of supply of, and demand for, alcohol in different communities, why people drink at harmful levels, rates of alcohol-related violence, and ways to minimise alcohol misuse.

DRINKING IN THE NT

● Territorians drink alcohol at 1.5 times the national average - the highest rate in Australia

● In 2004-05, alcohol misuse in the NT cost $4197 per adult - more than four times the national cost of $943 per adult

● In 2012-13, the estimated per capita consumption of alcohol in the NT was 12.84 litres per person, compared with the national average of 10.4 litres

● Alcohol-related hospitalisations in the NT were 414 per 10,000 Aboriginal people compared with 63 per 10,000 non-Aboriginal people

● 60 per cent of NT police work is alcohol-related

● Almost nine in 10 children on child protection orders in 2011-12 had one or both parents drinking at worrying levels


So stop treating the abbos as equals and ban them from grog!