That was the title of an ABC News story on Fri Oct 19 2012. The new government here is looking at building two "prison farms" (their words), in order to force mandatory alcohol rehabilitation on people who have alcohol abuse issues. Not sure what the process for referral would be (I'm guessing the government don't know at this stage either), but at some point each person will have to come before the Courts as it is to be mandated by them.

These "prison farms" don't actually exist as yet and they haven't even started to built them but it hasn't stopped the government from lifting the banned drinking register which I blogged about previously. Alcohol abuse in the aboriginal population is such a HUGE issue here and as one police sergeant, who has lived his whole life in the NT told me, "It's all been tried before, twice over and nothing works."

This ABC News audio clip is worth listening to as it is talking about the issues here in Katherine and has the people talking from the communities around here that I largely see through the watch house here.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-19/reports-of-increased-drunkenness-in-nt/4323818?section=nt

After I wrote this blog, the NT government announced how the above will work once these prison farms are built:

Rehab push to get chronic drinkers off streets

By Rick Hind

Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:21pm AEDT

The Northern Territory Government says mandatory alcohol rehabilitation legislation planned for next year could see hundreds of chronic drinkers taken off the streets.

Attorney-General John Elferink has told Parliament that drinkers who are taken into protective custody three times in three months will be given a court order to stop drinking in public.

If they breach that order they will be put into mandatory rehabilitation facilities for three months.

Well, we are back from our Gold Coast holiday where we had a blast. However, I need a holiday to recover from that holiday. Walking around Theme Parks and standing in line for ages waiting for rides sure is tiring. Anyway, I shouldn’t complain as the kids had a great time and seeing them happy makes it all soooo worth it.

However, on the way there driving from Katherine to Darwin to catch my plane, my car died!! Yes, I was stranded in the outback in 38 degree heat for an hour while I waited for roadside rescue to tow me back to Katherine. Thank goodness I joined the AA here just a month earlier for precisely this reason. Now my car has done its dash and is no longer worth fixing so I need to buy another in the coming week SO DEPRESSING!!

Despite this the holiday was still well worth it. I just love the Gold Coast beaches. Not only can you surf and swim in them without being eaten by crocodiles but the weather is just wonderful, and there is so much to do and so many places to dine. We were only there for 7 nights but managed to fit quite a bit in during that time!!

Day 1 – Arrived at Brisbane airport in the middle of the afternoon. Travelled by shuttle for over an hour to arrive at Surfers Aquarius; a beach front Hotel with direct access to the beach. We were on the 23 floor and had amazing views. After arriving we went down to the beach for a quick breath of fresh sea air. The evening was spent dining out and grocery shopping at Woolworths. Kids had a swim in the indoor heated pool and a spa before bed.

Day 2 – Kids woke up at 4am as still on NZ time. Got a shuttle to Dreamworld at 9am, though it took an hour to get there as they have to stop a long the way to pick others up. I think next trip I will hire a car instead, as I hated all the long transfers. We spent the whole day there and didn't get back to the hotel until 6pm. Kids again went for a swim and spa before bed.

Day 3 – Got the shuttle again to Movieworld at 9am where we spend the day. They have some great roller coasters there and I was brave enough to go on some of the thrill ones with my son. His father was not so brave. But one coaster we all went on together as a family and really enjoyed was the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster which starts off as your basic ghost train ride but then suddenly goes roller coaster in the dark so you don't know what turns and twists await you. Again we didn't get back to the hotel until 6pm. Then we just had a low key movie night with the kids at the hotel.

Day 4 – We all spent the morning at the beach. Then we catch the bus to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in the afternoon where we stayed for the evening Yanguwah dinner and show. I highly recommend this show if you have kids, as they see Torres Strait Island dances and Aboriginal dancers and learn a little of the cultures plus they get to partake on stage with them. Also the kids got to hold koalas, a large python, and baby crocs at the show. They thought it was all just AWESOME, as did I!

Day 5 – We decided to spend a day at home as the kids were so tired and the youngest had a cold and had an unsettled night. I took the older kids to the beach in the morning and then we all went to Infinity in the afternoon and had dinner out. Infinity was pretty cool but as it was quite dark, it totally freaked my 7 year old out unfortunately and my husband spent the whole time carrying her. After the kids enjoyed a swim and a spa again before bed!

Day 6 – I stayed at the Hotel with our youngest daughter as she was with a cold and needed the rest. My husband took the older kids back to Dreamworld for the day, the favourite of the Theme Parks, mainly because my middle child could go on all the thrill rides except one there, where at Movieworld she was too short for most of those kind of rides. Also Dreamworld is so much bigger than Movieworld and it has Whitewater World attached so the kids could go on the water rides also. But as it’s such a large theme park, you need to go back if you want to go on all the rides as one day there is not enough. In the evening, I took the two older kids to Draculas Haunted House which is for 10 yr olds and up, where the anticipation of fright was much scarier than the actual horror experienced there. But again, we had a lot of fun!

Day 7 – We all went to Seaworld for the day. I really loved the pengiuns and the live seal and dolphin shows the most but my son’s favourite thing was the Candy Store there and the huge selection of lollies.

Day 8 – up at 2am to catch a 2.30am shuttle back to Brisbane airport to make a 6.30am flight back to NZ. Yes, not good planning on my part there but yet another adventure for the kids.

So yeah, all in all, a pretty busy week with a lot of time spent on buses and shuttles! Now to buy a car!