Yesterday Cairns hosted a alcohol-related crime and violence conference at the Reef Hotel Casino. Senior Sergeant Peter Banaghan from Cairns Police organised the conference in an effort to target these issues head on. Speakers from Geelong in Victoria and Newcastle in New South Wales attended the conference and shared their experiences and knowledge around alcohol-related prevention and intervention.
The event was attended by all three emergency service agencies, Cairns Taxis, Sunbus, liquor industry representatives, relevant service agencies and representatives from the Cairns City Licensees Safety Association and the Far North Liquor Accord Alliance.
The conference was opened by local Member of Parliament Mr Gavin King and Chief Superintendent Paul Taylor.
Mr King stated that one-in-three complaints to his office were related to alcohol and the Cairns Base Hospital also bore the resulting burden through intoxicated people taking up much-needed beds simply due to being overly intoxicated.
Chief Superintendent Taylor spoke of the victims of alcohol violence and how it affected families. Wives were subjected to domestic violence, children don’t sleep so can’t attend school and also spoke of the assaults on police, ambulance officers and taxi drivers. C/S Taylor stated it was the whole community’s responsibility to deal with alcohol-related crime and violence, not just the police.
Mrs Lisa Armstrong-Rowe, the Community Safety Officer for the Greater City of Geelong and Sergeant Wayne Buck from the NSW Liquor licensing Unit shared how their states dealt with alcohol-related crime and violence and they also participated in the afternoon workshop to nominate prevention/intervention strategies for Cairns.
Ian Leavers from the Police Union travelled from Brisbane to join the conference and spoke of the resulting effects to police officers and their families from officers being assaulted by drunken patrons.
Geoff Nash from the Queensland Ambulance Service painted the human face of violence in our city and Bill Cummings placed the cost of alcohol-related crime and violence in Cairns at approximately $150.9 million per annum. This includes the social and economic cost to Cairns, per person assaulted or offending. All the speakers agreed the only way forward was through collective action.
It was not about more police, but about people being responsible.
The Cairns Safer Streets Task Force expressed their support of the conference and is taking recommendations from the afternoon workshop to include in their strategies for a safe Cairns.
Interventions are to be formulated after the workshop by Senior Sergeant Banaghan with support from Mrs Charmaine Hayes-Jonkers, a criminologist from James Cook University and implemented at a later date when funding is available.
The event was supported by Cairns Police and local business Safe -T- Card