Claims gangs of Pacific Islanders are smuggling kava into Australia's Northern Territory could see a government ban on the traditional drink.
The proposed ban comes as Australian aid funds the development of bottled kava as an export industry in Fiji.
The federal indigenous affairs minister and Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion, says it should be banned and he will push for that.
Kava is already illegal in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land because of the health, social and financial impacts.
A Northern Territory police detective superintendant, Tony Fuller, of the Drug and Organised Crime Division, says kava compounds existing health and substance abuses issues, so it adds one more layer of problems to the community.
Photo: RNZ
Currently two kilos of kava per person can legally be brought into Australia from Pacific Islands countries.