'; ?> Repealing alcohol bans in Indigenous communities | What The People Want
Repealing alcohol bans in Indigenous communities
Tuesday, 23 October 2012 21:45 | Written by Graham Young

I'm confused by the Queensland government's move to lift the alcohol bans in Indigenous communities. It's not that long ago that John Howard, under the influence of Mal Brough, imposed alcohol bans in the Northern Territory as part of cleaning-up corruption and abuse. Both got a lot of credit from Liberal voters for this, but 5 years later we see Liberal state and territory governments moving in the opposite direction.

This can't be explained on the basis of the Liberals broader constituency which leans against it, as do the supporters of every other major or major minor party.

We got a good political cross-section from 320 responses:

Australian Democrats

1%

Bob Katter's Australian Party

7%

Family First

1%

Greens

14%

Independent

3%

Labor

25%

Liberal National Party

48%

One Nation

1%

Other

1%

Grand Total

100%

Which split 55/45 two-party preferred.

The state government is proposing to lift bans on alcohol in Queensland's Aboriginal communities. How strongly would you agree or disagree with that proposal?

Lifting alcohol ban

Bob Katter's Australian Party

Greens

Labor

Liberal National Party

Total

Strongly agree

5%

11%

1%

9%

8%

Agree

5%

9%

7%

23%

16%

Neither agree nor disagree

35%

16%

8%

16%

16%

Disagree

20%

23%

31%

15%

20%

Strongly disagree

30%

36%

44%

30%

34%

Unsure

5%

5%

9%

6%

7%

Grand Total

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

Total agree

10%

20%

8%

32%

23%

Total disagree

50%

59%

75%

46%

54%

Net agree

-40%

-39%

-67%

-13%

-31%

There is certainly no widespread call to change the status of the bans with disagreement running at 54% overall, and 50% or better in all groups bar the Liberals. And even with the Liberals, only 32% support lifting the bans, with support everywhere else peaking at 20%.

We concluded on-air that there was local Aboriginal politics driving this change of position. The Northern Territory government just changed on the basis of Indigenous voters moving across to the Country Liberal Party, and they have a similar policy. The qual shows just how complex the situation is.

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