Prime Minister Anthony Albanese copping heat for slow response to Alice Springs crime crisis and ‘strange’ last-minute visit

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has revealed he warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the developing crime crisis in Alice Springs as early as last October but the message fell on deaf ears.  

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese heeded calls from local Indigenous MPs for him to visit the beleaguered outback town and touched down on Tuesday to hold a meeting with community leaders.

The town has experienced a deteriorating law and order situation ever since the lapse of an Intervention-era alcohol ban last July.

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NT Police statistics show that property offences in Alice Springs have skyrocketed by 60 per cent in the last 12 months, assaults were up by 38 per cent and domestic violence increased by 48 per cent.

The Opposition Leader visited Alice Springs last October and tried to warn the Prime Minister of the worsening situation before it got out of hand.

“It was obvious to me then that the situation was completely out of control,” he told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

“Just as you walked around the streets talking to women, to mothers, to grandmothers, Indigenous elders, small business owners – there was just a common theme that ran through all of it.”

The Liberal Leader subsequently arranged a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss what he believed was an urgent situation.

“I thought the situation was so severe that there would be vigilante action and a really violent response on the ground if there wasn’t something done, if there wasn’t an intervention,” he said.

Mr Dutton was also concerned about reports of increasing rates of child sexual abuse in central Australia and wrote to the Prime Minister the same month to request a Royal Commission.

“I’ve still not received a response to that letter,” he said.

The Opposition Leader told Mr Bolt while he welcomed the fact Mr Albanese had headed to Alice Springs, the Prime Minister had done so in “strange circumstances”.

“Where you don’t tell the media you’re going, you go in just for a short period of time and I just question who he’s been able to meet with in such a short visit,” he said.