Young people – under 18 – are banned from walking the streets of the Alice Springs CBD without a “lawful purpose” between 6pm and 6am.

The Northern Territory government declared an “emergency situation” in the town after violence earlier in the week following what is believed to be a family feud at funeral after the death of a young man in an accident involving a stolen car.

Those are the reported facts, yet more underlying problems, well known by authorities, have now come to light which bring into doubt both the effectiveness and the safety of a curfew ruling.

NT Police say they have no wish to criminalise youngsters who are caught out on the streets at night, and will drive them home, or to a safe place.

The problem, as outlined by the The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, is that many homes are unsafe.

“We don’t have the facilities or the capacity to accommodate people who are in this situation, the children are in this position because of whatever else is going on in their lives,” Deputy chief executive of the NAAJA Leeanne Caton said last week.

And why are children out on the streets at night? Many come from unsafe homes, from broken homes, some don’t even have a home to go to, and many are simply wandering the streets because it’s safer there.

If this was leafy Rose Bay in Sydney or Mossman Park in Perth it wouldn’t be happening, money and youth services would appear at the click of a finger – so why are we as a nation allowing it to happen in regional and often marginalised regions of Australia – in the 21st Century?

Some believe the curfew is required, others do not, stating there are deeper underlying issues that need to be addressed.

The lack of investment in youth services in regional Australia, especially within indigenous communities, has seen a massive disconnect between successive governments of all, persuasions and our cultural leaders.

In Alice Springs there are as many as 800 kids every night homeless – yes, 800 children who have nowhere to safe to go.

In the Kimberley there are also serious issues in  the town of Derby where alcohol-related family assaults were 154 times higher than in metropolitan Perth.

A very confronting reason why children roam the streets at night.

There is no magic wand and where the curfew, in some eyes, may serve as a short-term solution, where is the longterm plan?

Overcrowded and dangerously dilapidated houses, alcohol and drug issues, sexual abuse these are long standing issues that current government policy continues to fail on.

We have to give the kids a chance in life – hell, it is 2024 in a supposed western democracy.

Leaving them to an endless cycle of abuse and homelessness to wander the streets at night is no way to treat any Australian.

Isn’t it time we got all stakeholders together – the elders, the civc leaders, youth group mentors – and government agencies who we know have funding available  – to ask: what is missing and what do we have do?