The Prime Minister is accompanied by the Federal Minister of Indigenous Australians Linda Burney and Senator Pat Dodson - an indigenous elder and leading figure of Reconciliation.
Malarndirri McCarthy, deputy minister for Indigenous Australians, will also accompany the prime minister.
Aliice Springs has witnessed a sharp rise in crime and alcohol- fuelled violence in 2022. According to locals, this is the worst social crisis in recent decades.
The issue came to the fore with the recent publication of Northern Territory police data that saw a 43% increase in violent attacks in 2022. This figure includes a 53% increase in incidents of alcohol-related assaults.
Also, according to the same data, 'commercial break ins' and home invasions have increased by more than 50%.
Jamie Chalker, Chief of Police of the Northern Territory, said that police collected this data after the ending of prohibitions on the sale and consumption of alcohol six months ago. The ban had been imposed in the context of the 'intervention' in the Northern Territory.
The police chief said services in remote communities are "structuraly broken"and that for decades they have been pushing residents to service centres of other areas such as Alice Springs. Mr Chalker argued that a “wider debate” was needed about the factors behind the data and levels of crime and alcohol addiction.
“Prisons are full,” he said.
Albanese and his high-ranking government officials accompanying him will meet with the Northern Territory's chief minister Natasha Fyles at Alice Spings as well as representatives of the indigenous health organisation Central Australia Aboriginal Congress.
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Yesterday, the leader of the federal opposition Peter Dutton called for a Federal Police (AFP) force to be sent to Alice Springs in order to deal with the situation. On the same wavelength were the statements of the mayor of the city Matt Paterson who called for both the deployment of an AFP team and the Armed Forces.
