Martin defends proposal for habitual drunks

On the eve of the Northern Territory election, Chief Minister Clare Martin is maintaining tougher laws are needed to get habitual drunks off the streets.

The cornerstone of Labor's new law and order policy is to offer drunks who are regularly picked up by police, the option of rehabilitation or jail.

Some Aboriginal groups claim it is a racist approach, but Ms Martin says other Indigenous leaders back the laws.

Ms Martin has told the ABC's AM that existing programs are not effective in directing habitual drunks into rehabilitation.

"And there's probably something like, across the Territory, between 100 and 200 who the police have told us are habitual drunks," she said.

"That's what we want to tackle and it's the damage to them and the disproportionate damage they do to the community and the violence to women and children we want to tackle."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 17 Jun 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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