Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being pushed to take urgent action to stem a spike in alcohol-fuelled crime and violence in the Northern Territory.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton called on Mr Albanese to re-instate alcohol bans in remote Indigenous communities.

The Central Desert Regional Council, which covers a region of more than 280,000 square kilometres north of Alice Springs, has reported an uptick in antisocial behaviour and domestic violence since the controversial intervention-era Stronger Futures legislation expired last year.

NT attorney-general Chansey Paech has acknowledged the Alice Springs community is “hurting” from the rise in crime and antisocial behaviour.

“There’s no single solution to crime and antisocial behaviour,” he wrote on Twitter.

He said the NT government was tackling the problem in several ways, including risk-based alcohol licensing, safer street design, events and activities to recapture the CBD and reforming the justice system.

Mr Dutton said on Monday that Northern Territory police, emergency services and other key providers were struggling to control the uptick in alcohol-related incidents since the bans lifted.

He said he expected vigilante action from some parts of the community because “the police are throwing their hands up in the air, they’re overwhelmed with the amount of work”.

“The fact is that you do need to have these laws in place, that’s the advice from the women and the grandparents I’ve met with on the ground,” he told Sky News.

“You have to have that law and order so that kids can go to school, so that they can have a safe environment to grow up in.”

Mr Dutton said the opposition would support emergency measures aimed at curbing violence and crime in the region, including Australian Federal Police support or additional funding for family services workers.

Last week, Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson called for the AFP or defence personnel to be sent to the territory to help quell the crime spike.

“The Prime Minister should have been there by now, but he should go tomorrow and I would be happy to travel with him,” Mr Dutton said.

“If the level of violence, of crime, of sexual assault, of domestic and family violence was occurring in Brisbane or in Melbourne or in Hobart or in Sydney, there would be outrage.”

Central Australian Youth Justice chair Kirsten Wilson said “a spike in antisocial behaviour” was common in the area during January.

“We go through this every year and you constantly hear the narrative that it’s always worse than it’s ever been before, but the reality, I guess, of the experience of lots of people here is that there is a consistent issue with crime within our community,” she said.

Ms Wilson said comments about potential vigilante action were concerning.

“We don’t want to see that, but realistically we also know that – and the police have said this many times before – we can’t arrest our way out of this problem. It’s been an issue for a long time and it needs long-term responses to the concerns that we have within the community,” she said.

Mr Albanese is yet to respond publicly. However, a spokeswoman for the federal government said at the weekend that reports of increasing crime rates were “concerning”.

“We are focused on working in partnership with the NT government and the local community, because we know that the best solutions come from local communities themselves,” the spokeswoman told the ABC.

“The Commonwealth is funding a $14 million community safety and well-being supports in Alice Springs, while also making significant investments as part of our Plan for Central Australia.”

NT senator and former deputy mayor of Alice Springs, Jacinta Price, said Alice Springs had been described as a “war zone” and young children were learning antisocial behaviour from older children.

Senator Price said easier access to alcohol was exacerbating the problem.

“People are leaving their children in Alice Springs and are more concerned with consuming alcohol than parenting children,” she said.

– with AAP