The Northern Territory's Associations and Liquor Amendment Bill 2022 passed in May gave indigenous communities the choice to 'opt-in' to a two-year extension of their alcohol-free status.But out of 215 homelands, 12 remote communities and 32 town camps, only seven Aboriginal communities opted for the two-year extension, including Bagot, a northern suburb of Darwin. CEO of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Donna Ah Chee said the decision to overturn the alcohol ban, which she labelled as 'positive discrimination', has caused an increase in severe alcohol-related injuries in some Indigenous communities. 

'We think it was a positive discrimination because it was so effective in helping to close the gap for our people,' Ms Ah Chee told ABC RN on Wednesday. 

'It actually protects the rights of women and children to be free from violence. 

'Things have not settled. We're hearing from multiple sources that are telling us that the harms have gone up a lot and have stayed up. 

'We understand there has been an increase in severe alcohol-related fractures requiring surgery.'

Ms Ah Chee said anecdotal evidence from police, ambulance and hospital staff, as well as 'many community members', revealed all-night partying is at a much higher rate than before. 

She has called for transparency from the Northern Territory government and urged for the introduction of monitoring groups that rely on community data to establish the effects of alcohol in remote communities.

'We're only hearing anecdotally, and that's why I think we need to get this data and make it available so we cannot have a 'she said he said' moment,' Ms Ah Chee said.  

'We're hearing this on the ground which is being said differently in the higher levels of government so I think we need to have some transparency.

'If things are as the chief minister says, that things have gone back to normal, let's look at that because that's not what we're seeing on the ground.'

Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles defended the move to lift alcohol restrictions and argued Aboriginal communities have the right to make such decisions. 

'The intervention caused significant harm to Indigenous Territorians - they literally had their rights taken from them overnight,' Ms Fyles said.  

'In the last few weeks the conversation was almost as though the intervention was an amazing saviour but you're asking me to go back to a race-based policy.