Council is currently coordinating a Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) Community Safety Plan, which is important to the social wellbeing and presentation of the community. Some of the issues that may be considered are as follows.

Noisy parties

Nobody wants to be kept awake all night and sometimes for days by ridiculously loud music blaring out from big speakers in houses or parked cars.

Only a limited number of houses in each community continually act in this anti-social manner with no consideration for their neighbourhoods. Parties are now spilling over into public areas.

Council and the Department of Housing (which control all the social housing) have the ability to apply a ‘three strikes and you are out’ policy and make an example of one of the worst offenders.

Police are limited in the action they can take and no one wants to walk into a rowdy party full of drunken people in the early hours of the morning. Could Council By-Laws designate restricted public areas – for example the Ininjoo Lookout – after a certain time?

Unsightly rubbish problem

Wild parties contribute to the local rubbish problem, which is already significant. This reflects badly on the community, especially in the eyes of visitors. It’s easy to forget that Bamaga used to be a finalist in the tidy towns competition.

Council By-Laws in regards to the dumping of rubbish should be properly applied and enforced.

Alcohol Management Plan (AMP)

The AMP could also be considered as part of the Community Safety Plan. Residents are currently limited by carriage limits to one carton of beer or mixed drinks, plus two litres of wine in the NPA. Strict penalties apply for breaching the AMP.

This rule doesn’t apply to Thursday Island, which has a similar Indigenous population to the NPA, or to ‘mainstream’ Australia, so it seems discriminatory. Even tour groups visiting Bamaga obtain a license so that everyone on the bus can avoid these limits.

The Bamaga Post Office now has a liquor license because many people are buying online, but residents can only pick up one carton at a time, regardless of the size of their order. Is it fair for residents of Injinoo to have to drive 20 km to and from Bamaga every time they want to buy a carton?

Many community members would like to see the AMP revised to either be the same as Thursday Island or to be amended so the carriage applies to each adult in a vehicle (similar to tour groups).

Alcohol in glass

Bamaga Tavern is prohibited from selling alcohol in glass, but many people prefer their beer, wine or pre-mixed drinks in glass bottles. These items are being purchased online, from Thursday Island and in Weipa, but the Tavern cannot sell the same products and compete with this.

The AMP should be consistent when it comes to selling alcohol in glass, whether that’s allowing the Tavern to sell alcohol in glass or making it illegal for all alcohol in glass to enter the community.

The above needs to be considered in the context of alcohol-related violence, family violence, underage drinking, sly grogging, anti-social behaviour, discrimination against Indigenous communities and a whole range of interrelated issues.