Senator Bridget McKenzie joins chorus of voices calling on the Prime Minister to address spiralling Alice Springs crime crisis

Nationals Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie has hit out at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not being “on the ground” in Alice Springs as the town deals with an unfolding crime crisis.

The Northern Territory town has been facing a surge of crime since the state government lifted an Intervention-era ban on alcohol sales in July last year.

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.

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Senator McKenzie told Sky News host Tom Connell the Albanese Government had a “responsibility to do something” about the crime wave.

“This is not some faraway place. This is Australia. This is happening in a community of ours,” she said on Monday.

She called for governments to “throw the book” at the issue and called for the Prime Minister to be on the first flight out of Canberra to see the crisis in the Northern Territory firsthand.

The Victorian Nationals Senator further accused the Prime Minister of staying “locked up in Canberra” instead of treating the issue with the “seriousness” it deserves.

Senator McKenzie has joined a chorus of voices from both sides of the aisle calling for greater government intervention in Alice Springs.

Labor MP for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour – who has lived in Alice Springs for the past 18 months – has called for urgent action to deal with rising crime in the remote town and accused the Northern Territory government of “pussyfooting” around the issue.

Ms Scrymgour called for alcohol bans to be returned to Indigenous communities and town camps as a potential salve to the growing lawlessness.

She also raised concern with the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, saying the referendum “couldn’t be further from people’s view” in Alice Springs.

“Because people are under siege in their own home,” she said.

Country Liberal Party Senator Jacinta Price has also weighed in on the outback town’s crime wave, supporting Ms Scrymgour’s calls for the return of an alcohol ban.

Senator Price – who served on the Alice Springs Town Council for six years – said the decision to allow alcohol back in the community had been “catastrophic”.

“I’ve had phone calls from remote communities where school principals are beside themselves because they’re 500km from Alice Springs and parents are either dumping their children in the community, going back into Alice Springs to buy alcohol, drinking that alcohol on the drive back or taking their children with them while they are drink driving,” she said.

Senator McKenzie said Mr Albanese should prioritise listening to Indigenous voices in government who were calling for further action in Alice Springs.

“We as a Coalition will not stand in the way of throwing any level of resource to actually ensure both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Territorians’ safety at this time,” she said.