NT’s right to booze and boat gains pre-election thumbs-up

Instead, it’s up to a retiring member of the Country Liberal Party opposition to call an election promise from his party to never introduce a blood alcohol limit on the water – the ruling Labor Party has said the same – as “nonsensical”.

Gary Higgins, the member for Daly who will retire on the eve of the August 22 election, accused his party of letting the Territory down by failing to address the problem.

"It sends the wrong message," Higgins told the ABC yesterday. "I know a lot of people in both political parties won't address this issue and I think it's because of politics, not what we really need to do for the Territory.

"Until we actually admit this is something that we have to do and start to implement something, I think we run the risk of having accidents."

The CLP’s pre-election guarantee that it too would turn a blind eye to booze-boating will reinforce the Territory as having the most lax boating laws in Australia, and comes in defiance of a 2018 review of alcohol policies and legislation suggesting a 0.05 limit should be introduced on the water.

The current Labor Government quietly dropped all of the review’s recommendations in 2019 despite Chief Minister Michael Gunner saying the NT lagged behind every other state and territory when ti came to on-water safety.

"Royal Life Saving have actually shown that we have got the worst water safety rates in the country around this and obviously there's plenty of research and evidence that shows if you have a 0.05 [blood alcohol reading] you aren't safe behind the wheel or behind the tiller," Gunner said in the wake of the report’s release.

But now, as the NT prepares for an August 22 election, its residents’ right to enjoy a beer or two while fishing looks safe.

Under the Lia Finocchiaro-led CLP’s policy, the NT would cement its place as Australia’s recreational fishing paradise “for generations to come”.

As well as saying never to the booze ban, the CLP has also promised to never introduce boat licencing, meaning Territory boaters will only need to adhere to on-water safety standards to qualify for an on-water beer and a fish.

It said it would also guarantee that recreational fishers would never be locked out of marine parks in the NT if it came to power.

The ruling Labor Government is yet to release any of its policies. The recently formed Territory Alliance has released a policy paper saying it would also boost recreational fishing in the Territory, but did not weigh in on the alcohol argument.