Under the umbrella of prime minister John Howard's plan to seize control of more than 60 Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, as part of a military-backed operation to confront alcoholism and child sexual abuse in remote communities, bottle shops across the Northern Territory will be legally bound to demand photo ID and record the names and addresses of anyone buying more than three cartons of beer.
The new laws are aimed at stopping 'grog runs' into Aboriginal communities, an extremely profitable bootlegging enterprise, but Howard is expected to stick to his promise to impose these new restrictions on alcohol sales to the majority-white mining communities as well.Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said the laws are designed to "strike a balance which does not disrupt normal people" who are consuming alcohol responsibly.
"So, if you're getting a pallet of booze and it sounds a bit suss, we can obviously follow up that sort of thing and find out whether or not it's going where you would expect it to be," he said.
That should go down a storm.
Strict controls on alcohol sales, bans on pornography? It's all starting to sound a wee bit Talibanesque.
