Geoffrey Wangupa Jungarray Barnes has slammed both the Country Liberal Party’s temporary beat locations and Territory Labor’s former banned drinkers’ register as a “failure” that did nothing to address the harm caused by alcohol abuse.

He added that he believed it was time indigenous leaders were asked to the table to help formulate a long-term plan that was consistent across the NT and took skin colour out of the equation.

“I’d like to see that, because in the news, in the media, it’s always been whitefellas talking about our problems,” he said angrily.

“It’s about time [to include] us leaders that are directly impacted by these policies, these racist policies that come out from the government.”​

There is mounting evidence that the Giles government’s TBL policy is having an impact on Katherine businesses not involved in the supply of alcohol as community members bypass the town for Darwin, which does not have police officers stationed in bottle shops.

While the government, Katherine Town Council and Chamber of Commerce NT continue to sing the praises of the policy and refute its impact on businesses, Mr Barnes said several Lajamanu families were no longer spending their money in town.

He acknowledged that the policy had cleaned up Katherine, however, he said he had experienced first-hand how uncomfortable some indigenous Territorians felt while trying to do general shopping or “buy a few beers like anyone else”.

“Grog is destroying our people, that is a fact,” he said.

“But we want to be treated fairly on our own country.

“Us leaders want [a policy] to work, too.”​

“I tell you what, a lot of people now go straight through to Darwin and they’re starting to boycott Katherine,” Mr Barnes said.

"It’s a political football, or stunt, whatever you call it.

“It’s frustrating and hurting our people.”

The peak body for the Territory’s alcohol and other drug agencies echoed the sentiment that neither the TBL nor the BDR – which Territory Labor has hinted it would reintroduce if it won the NT election in August – did little more than push problem drinkers elsewhere.

Association of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies NT program manager Miranda Halliday said that so-called point-of-sale intervention strategies failed to provide any long-term assistance to those they targeted.

“It’s important to reiterate that POSIs are initiatives to reduce the sale and consumption of alcohol to those who are perceived to be at risk of significant harm only,” she said.

“There is no question that either initiative has been somewhat advantageous in the short term toward reducing supply where deemed necessary.

“However, this is by no means a definitive response to preventing and reducing harms associative with excessive alcohol consumption.”

The alcohol policy debate was reignited in Parliament last month when Opposition spokeswoman for alcohol policy Natasha Fyles and Member for Katherine Willem Westra van Holthe traded insults about the effectiveness of TBLs.

Ms Fyles said a recent visit to Katherine highlighted an obvious economic downturn, which she described as an “unintended consequence of pushing people away from the community”.

Mr Barnes said he wanted to see alcohol management become a key election issue and challenged Chief Minister Adam Giles and Opposition Leader Michael Gunner to face the problem head-on.

“I’d like to see the Chief Minister and Opposition Leader come and sit with us people out in communities [before the election],” he said.

“All I ask is fairness.”