As Crikey has reported, there are serious political consequences for Federal Minister for Community Services, Senator Nigel Scullion, Federal MP Dave Tollner and local Country Liberal Party (CLP) MLA Terry Mills arising out of the recent CLP fundraising booze-cruise to the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin.

Tollner is the sort of amiable boofhead that the Territory voters send off to Canberra from time to time and Mills, well, he is the CLP Shadow Minister for just about everything and would represent a serious loss to CLP leader Jodeen Carney’s opposition rump of four members.

It is Scullion that would be the greatest loss to Howard’s NT interventions if he is found to have broken the law, not least because he is a (very) junior Minister to Mal Brough, but because Scullion has provided invaluable service to Brough as his local point-man and interference-runner, both in relation to the Howard/Brough intervention and the tangled web of intrigue that surrounds the consultations about and negotiations for a 99-year lease of townships on the Tiwi Islands on which Supreme Court Justice Steve Southwood will rule tomorrow.

Local MLA and NT Minister for Family & Community Services Marion Scrymgour yesterday told The Age that when Scullion was challenged by locals for taking booze onto the island his response was typical of the attention-deprived: “Don’t you know who I am?”

There may also be serious problems for the loyal CLP booze-cruisers and the owners of the boat, bus and plane that they travelled on.

Crikey has been told that the boat is owned by a CLP supporter and that it crossed to the Tiwi Islands with Scullion and, presumably, the booze aboard. The 30 or so CLP supporters flew over from Darwin in Vintage Aviation’s venerable DC-3, which is maintained by John Hardy’s Hardy Aviation which says that the “Gooney Bird”, as it’s affectionately known, is “no longer in commercial use, but is still serviceable and occasionally used for non-profit purposes”. Like political fundraisers.

After landing at Nguiu, the CLP party met the boat at the Bathurst Island jetty and cast off for a pleasant day’s drinking, fishing, drinking, fundraising, and well, more drinking. Late in the afternoon they returned to the jetty, where Scullion says that he stayed on the boat, later returning to Darwin by sea. The rest of the party did the fifteen-minute-tourist-cruise around the Nguiu township en-route to the airport, waited a 30 minutes or so for the delayed Gooney Bird and returned to Darwin. Crikey has been unable to establish who owned the boat or whether an appropriate licence to sell booze had been obtained or if booze was consumed on board the Gooney Bird on the flights out and back from Bathurst Island.

NT Police have the plane’s passenger manifest and have taken more than 30 witness statements, presumably from at least some of the passengers and others involved in transporting and organising the booze-cruise and certainly from some locals on the island. Among other issues of interest, there are allegations that police on the Tiwi Islands were aware that the CLP party carried and consumed booze on board and on land.

The allegations include that local police did nothing about the apparent carriage and consumption of booze on the island. Crikey has been told that one of the CLP booze-cruisers is a serving NT Police officer.

Crikey asked the NT Police if their Ethical and Professional Standards Command, who investigate complaints and allegations against Police, were involved. They replied that, “At this time the investigation is…ongoing…and being solely conducted by members of the Palmerston Investigation Unit.”

Scullion and Tollner have denied that they have broken the NT Liquor Act restrictions on the Tiwi Islands. Scullion saying that the boat stayed well away from the Nguiu community. Tollner claims that no-one was pi-sed and that they mainly drank lights.

So, what are the consequences if the police investigation finds that booze was carried to and consumed at the Tiwi Islands, then carried across Bathurst Island by bus and consumed at the Nguiu airport, and perhaps, on the plane home to Darwin?

The NT Liquor Act contains serious penalties for anyone caught carrying or consuming alcohol in restricted areas. Section 75 provides that a person guilty of an offence of consuming liquor in a public restricted area can only suffer a maximum penalty of $500. Section 95 provides the Police with broad powers of entry, search, seizure and disposal of any “thing” involved in the carriage or consumption of grog in restricted areas.

The financial costs may not be that great, but there will be more than a few nervous booze-cruisers and transport providers wondering if downing a Crownie or two on a sunny day is really worth a criminal conviction and the loss of their careers, reputations and valuable “things”.

Certainly they’ll look a bit less favourably on any future invitations to go cruising for a boozing with their favourite politicians.