15 February 2023

Inherent tensions: alcohol, poverty, and the role of governments in remote Australia

A week or so ago, on a visit to the ICU ward in the Alice Springs hospital, the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney was shocked to discover that of the 16 beds in the ICU, 14 were occupied by Indigenous women who had been subjected to violent assaults. Alcohol is widely acknowledged to be an element in most if not all these cases.