CANBERRA, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Health professionals have called for a rural community in Australia's Northern Territory (NT) to be subjected to a five-year alcohol ban.
The NT government has imposed an emergency two-week alcohol restriction on Tennant Creek, almost 1,000 km south of Darwin, after a spike in alcohol-fuelled violence which resulted in the death of a man and the alleged rape of a two-year-old girl.
Roel Codron, a doctor in Tennant Creek, said that in his time in the town it had become commonplace to treat drunk pregnant women, people who had attempted suicide while intoxicated, children with fetal alcohol syndrome and people injured in alcohol-fuelled incidents.
"The problems of Tennant Creek are based on alcohol, and the easy availability is causing problems right from pregnancy until death," Codron told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Friday.
"My solution is that we have to stand together and say 'enough is enough'."
"We need to allow the town to recover, and so we need a five-year moratorium on alcohol."
"I would like to see both entrances to Tennant Creek policed 24 hours a day, and in that way the town can take a stand to say that we are a dry community."
Earlier in March, NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner unveiled a "five-point action plan" to counter alcohol abuse in the outback.
"Key actions" of the plan included improving child protection, domestic and family and youth services, including additional funding for those services.
