In Central Australia we've had alcohol reduction programs ad nauseum; one week it's no 2L wine casks; next week it's state where you intend to drink your purchase; a week later it's something else.

The people who suffer most inconvenience every time government does something to fix the liquor problem are people like me, of which there are numerous, who drink responsibly. The tourism industry suffers. People from civilised countries like Germany come here and can't get a glass of wine with their dinner.

Nobody has had the courage to tackle the problem at its source ie, with largely aboriginal itinerants. If the government identifies the habitual, invariable drunkards and gets them off the street into a mandatory rehabilitation centre with a razor wire fence, it may at least put the pressure where it lies and the rest of us can get on with our lives.

Restricting trading hours, the volume of wine in containers and so on simply doesn't work. People who want alcohol will find it somewhere and go to extraordinary lengths to do so.

I hope these new arrangements work because we've all had a gut full of the toing and froing of the Territory Labor Government.