The Northern Territory chief minister, Eva Lawler, has announced a two-week curfew for young people in Alice Springs after a violent incident outside a town pub on Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Lawler said the state of emergency had been declared and young people would be subject to the curfew between 6pm and 6am.
Additional police and liquor inspectors will also be deployed in the town following a series of violent unrests after the commemoration of the death of a teenager.
“We want people in Alice Springs to be able to walk down the street, feel safe, be able to go to the shopping centre, pick up their kids from school and not be concerned about their own safety,” Lawler said.
The curfew, which was welcomed by the federal government, comes after chaos descended on the Red Centre on Tuesday afternoon, when up to 70 people attacked the local pub, the Todd Tavern. The Northern Territory police commissioner, Michael Murphy, alleged some of the violence was related to the death of an 18-year-old man in a car accident earlier this month.
The 18-year-old died on 8 March when an allegedly stolen car rolled over in the CBD.
Murphy said the government had listened to his advice, warning there would be an “increase in tempo and visibility” of officers to drive down crime.
“We saw … really violent behaviour yesterday associated with the death of an 18-year-old male,” he said.
“That’s led to family feuds and that’s what erupted in Alice Springs yesterday.”
Footage of the incident has been shared widely on social media, and depicts several young people throwing themselves at the glass doors of the pub.
Cars in the area were also smashed and hit with rocks and bricks and a 16 and 18-year-old were arrested at the location.
Later on Tuesday evening, the ceremony was continuing at Hidden Valley town camp outside Alice Springs when more than 150 people were allegedly involved in a violent brawl.
The brawl resulted in broken windows, smoke damage to a house and a car set on fire.
Three people, aged 19, 31 and 50, have been arrested, while more than 50 weapons were seized.
Murphy said he was fed up with the rising crime rates in Alice Springs.
“People have had a gutful, and frankly so have I, around some of the behaviours we’re seeing in town, unacceptable behaviours, or lack of authority or lack of respect for authority,” he said.
He said NT police were reviewing footage of the unrests and were preparing to make more arrests.
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The Alice Springs mayor, Matt Paterson, took to social media to express his frustration with the violence.
“Horrendous doesn’t cut it, but I have run out of words,” he said.
“I don’t know if there is a big enough rooftop to scream from – that we need help.”
Paterson has previously called for federal assistance or a military intervention in the desert town, as has Senator Jacinta Price.
The Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, welcomed the temporary curfew. “I hope this is a circuit breaker that will improve community safety,” she said.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, asked the prime minister during question time why the federal government hadn’t done more to stem the crisis.
Anthony Albanese said he had visited the NT and the town “more than the three previous Liberal prime ministers combined, in two years” and had recently boosted funding for remote housing by $4bn.
But the NT’s Australian of the Year Blair McFarland warned the curfew was a “knee jerk reaction”, adding the announcement was equivalent to “closing the door after the horse was bolted”.
“It’s really clumsy – this is not going to help. It’s just another thing that will make kids angry and disaffected because people will feel they’re being punished,” he said.
McFarland said calls for the ADF to come were “craziness” that would do nothing to address rising crime rates.
He also pointed to concerns over vulnerable youth who may not have a safe residence during the curfew. According to the NT Shelter, the Territory has 12 times the national average rate of homelessness. Some 16.5% of people under 18 are without a place of residence.
“Grinding poverty and absolute food insecurity is [an] underlying driver,” McFarland said. “This generation grew up when the army invaded. It didn’t work. We need to intervene based on a hierarchy of needs.”
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