Alice Springs locals have issued a desperate plea to the Prime Minister after a night of violent crime which saw a television broadcast centre broken into.
Overnight Imparja Television was broken into and a vehicle full of equipment was stolen. Another car appeared to have been torched in the car park of the local Kmart.
Imparja Television is a free-to-air broadcaster affiliated with the Nine Network, the publisher of this website.
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About $10,000 of damage was done inside Imparja, though the broadcasts were not affected.
When the vehicle was stolen, it was rammed through the car park roller door.
Darren Clarke from Action for Alice recorded an angry and impassioned plea and shared it with the Ben Fordham show on 2GB.
"It's full of youths. It's full of drunks. It's out of control," Clarke said.
"Albanese, step up to the plate."
He lambasted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for only staying in the city for four hours during his visit.
"Don't ignore us any longer Anthony. Govern for all the people in Australia.
"You've got young kids running the streets here, mate. You will never ever fix this cycle of crime.
"We're all scared. We've all had enough."
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9news.com.au has reached out to the Northern Territory Police for comment.
Alice Springs has seen a dramatic rise in crime in the past few years, with assaults especially high.
Data released in February showed a dramatic spike in crime between 2021 and 2022.
Assaults went up 51 per cent in one calendar year, with 2823 reported in a town of 26,000.
Domestic violence-related assaults spiked even higher, up 65 per cent. Alcohol-related assaults were up 68 per cent.
There were 1886 reported instances of domestic violence, and 1521 assaults related to alcohol.
Property damage was up 55 per cent, and commercial break-ins were up 47 per cent.
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