Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford says the announcements to address crime in Alice Springs are underwhelming, shattering his hopes for real change

Transcript

Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford says the announcements to address crime in Alice Springs are underwhelming, shattering his hopes for real change · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well throughout last year you would have heard my next
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: guest on the show. On numerous occasions, we'd spoken about
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: rocks being thrown at tour buses as they headed into
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs. We've spoken about the former chair of Central
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Australian Tourism being assaulted in the car park outside of supermarket.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: There's been so many occasions where we have spoken to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford and talked about the absolute need for change
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: when it came to crime, anti social behavior, alcohol issues
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: in the town and the impact that it's having on tourism.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: And joining me on the line right now is the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: CEO of Central Australian Tourism, Daniel Rochford. Good morning to you. Daniel.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Hey Kadian, good one to you.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Listen, Daniel, you and I, like I've just said, have
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: spoken on so many occasions about the urgent need for
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: really serious action in Alice Springs, and over the last
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks it has reached the poor point of
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: becoming a national embarrassment, to the point where the Prime
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Minister's obviously flown in yesterday and made some pretty sweeping
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: announcements with the Chief Minister. Do you think they go
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: far enough.
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  Speaker 2: Katie, I'm heartbroken, Like yesterday's announcement was just so underwhelming,
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  Speaker 2: to say the least. I'm heartbroken for my town. I'm
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: heartbroken for the kids and all the victims of the
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: crime that we've had to endure over the last few years.
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  Speaker 2: What we needed yesterday was our leaders from both the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: federal and territory governments to make a clear statement of
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: this is how we're going to fix this issue. What
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: we got was just one piece of the puzzle. And
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  Speaker 2: this is such a complex and fix the crime crisis
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: that we have here. This is not just about olcohol.
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  Speaker 2: It's about so much more than that. And I'm just
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  Speaker 2: sit to death of politicians coming into my town asking
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: for community led solutions when we time after time say
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: this is what you should be doing, but not being
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  Speaker 2: listened to. And you and I have talked about this
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  Speaker 2: so many times. The simple thing that we ask is
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  Speaker 2: more resources. That's not just more resources for police preventative
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  Speaker 2: policing on the streets. That's more resources to wrap care
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: around these kids, to put more resources out into bush
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  Speaker 2: community so we see more less people come into our springs.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: But what we got yesterday was just one piece of
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  Speaker 2: the puzzle. And if you think this is going to
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  Speaker 2: fix the problem, just look at Tenant Creek. Tenant Creek
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: have these restrictions that were put in place yesterday, and
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  Speaker 2: every day you get home invasions, you get crime that's
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  Speaker 2: besieging that community. And if the government's both the federal
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: and territory government, think what they announced yesterday is going
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: to fix the problem, I don't know. I'm sorry, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: I just I'm sorry to sound like I am, but
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I am just feeling like the violin player on the Titanicum.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Mate, you sound exasperated, and Daniel, to be honest, I
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: can one hundred percent understand why you're feeling that way,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and I'm not surprised. You know, when you're grappling with
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the issues that are being grappled within Ela Springs right now,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and you're then, on the other hand, trying to promote
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  Speaker 1: the Red Center as a tourism destination, you're fighting the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: unwinnable battle.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that is and look, I'm as ever, very
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: aware that this national exposure is hurting our industry immeasurably.
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  Speaker 2: And look, I guess I have to play the pragmatic
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: card that if we don't fix that this issue, it's
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: going to hurt our industry and more so. So we
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: do have to fix the causal issues and then deal
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: with the branding problems. But we are certainly getting cancelation
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: after cancelation. We are getting phone call all morning lighting
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: up saying, you know, from potential tourists coming to our
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: town saying is it safe to come there? So you
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: know we are dealing with that. But I guess I
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: just want to bring it back to the core issue
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  Speaker 2: if we've got to solve this problem, and what we
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  Speaker 2: can't have is what we've had time after time is
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: politicians flying into our spring announcing one piece of the puzzle.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: We need the kitchen sink thrown at this and we
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: need it now.
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  Speaker 1: Kaye and Daniel. You've been saying that for some time,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: and let's be honest, there's not been an improvement. If anything,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: there's been a decline. So you know what you have
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  Speaker 1: been saying over the last few months has been correct.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It's been correct to want that urgency. Now just tell me,
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  Speaker 1: and I know you're not wanting to dwell on the negatives,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: but how many cancelations would you say that you have
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: had in the last twenty four hours or so.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Look, our phones haven't stopped.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Wow.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm hearing significant cancelations of conferences and yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and this is not just an issue of impacting our springs.
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  Speaker 2: That's all something impacting U LaRue. You know I'm hearing
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  Speaker 2: and that's occurring down in the Lassida as well. So yeah, look,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: you know, when you have such wide exposure to the issues,
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  Speaker 2: you're always going to have that occur. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: but ultimately, and I bring it back to the point is,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we do have to bring it back to
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  Speaker 2: the dealing with the with the causal issues. And if
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  Speaker 2: we don't fix the crime, you know, our industries are
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: going to suffer, you know, the long term pain of
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  Speaker 2: a decline. If we can get on top of this,
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  Speaker 2: deal with the branding, then we can get the spinnaker
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: back up. But we've got to deal with the primary
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: and cause all issues.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so true. You know, if you're able to
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  Speaker 1: get on top of it, then you're able to start
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  Speaker 1: to you know, get those building blocks in place to
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: rebuild and to rebuild tourism. But while the issue continues
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  Speaker 1: to burn on, there's not you know, there's you can't
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  Speaker 1: you can't. You're in sort of this, you know, this
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  Speaker 1: holding pattern.
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  Speaker 2: I honestly don't know what more I can do. And look,
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  Speaker 2: I'm almost feeling apologetic to the people of our springs.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a community leader here. I sit on the social
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  Speaker 2: order response and I just cannot get this through to
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  Speaker 2: our governments that we need more resources and we need
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  Speaker 2: the kitchen think thrown at this. I know, we just
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: sit to death of politicians flying into town just giving
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  Speaker 2: one piece of a puzzle. And until such time we
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: throw the kitchen think at this, we will not fix
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  Speaker 2: the problem. And I'm sorry to sound negative, but it
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: is just the state that we live in here. And
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  Speaker 2: you've heard all this morning of the six situations. To
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  Speaker 2: give your listeners as understanding, you know, today's the twenty
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: four is that we've been broken in fifteen times just
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: since January one. We had three major incidences just yesterday
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  Speaker 2: in our visitor information center. So this is an issue
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that is not going away until governments take it to
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  Speaker 2: another level. We are not going to address this issue.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you, and Daniel, please don't apologize,
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  Speaker 1: because you know you've been trying for months and months
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  Speaker 1: to really get this point across and to let the
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  Speaker 1: government every you know, both tiers of government, both locally
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  Speaker 1: and federally, make them aware of the impact that this
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: is having on tourism. So, you know, I don't apologize.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I think that you guys need to continue to speak out.
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  Speaker 1: And while it is really difficult right now that it
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: is on that national scale and it's obviously having a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: negative impact towards tourism, I really hope you know that
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  Speaker 1: this is the wake up call that is required and
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that we are finally going to see something change.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the thing about it, Katie, and look, the single
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: biggest thing that the government can do right here, right now.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not too I get a chance to listen to
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: your interview with the Chief this morning, but on ABC
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  Speaker 2: Radio in Alice, the Chief said that she was going
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: to be writing to Jamie Chalker to ask for a
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  Speaker 2: statement of the resources that we saw in early December.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: That's just not good enough, Katie. We need the Chief
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Minister and her police commissioner to stand up this morning
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  Speaker 2: to say this will happen and give assurances to the
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: local community that the preventative policing is put in place. Now.
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  Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of people who have views
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: about extra boots on the ground. But what I saw
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  Speaker 2: in early December was with the prominence that the Operation
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Drina had was that those police officers were preventing crime
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: before crime was occurring. That's what we need. We need
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: to stabilize the streets of Alice Springs. And I said
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  Speaker 2: last year and I reiterate it today to you and
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  Speaker 2: to your listeners, the government of of the Northern Territory
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: just does not have control of this town until such
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  Speaker 2: time they put those significant resources in place to make
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  Speaker 2: sure these streets are stabilized. We are just losing this battle.
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  Speaker 1: Before I let you go, Daniel, we did speak to
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Steve Sheer from thrifty a little bit earlier this morning.
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  Speaker 1: He said that you know that the negativity on social media,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: in terms of being shared sort of on the caravanning
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  Speaker 1: pages and the drive tourism pages is having a massive
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  Speaker 1: impact on Central Australia right now. You know from what
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  Speaker 1: you've told me this morning, there's been hundreds of cancelations already.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: But I'm assuming that you know that this is really hurting.
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  Speaker 1: This is hurting tourism severely.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're getting cancelations from America, from England from Germany
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  Speaker 2: well so. And the damage to our industry after what
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: has been the most challenging crisis that we had to
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  Speaker 2: face under COVID, this is COVID was nothing compared to this.
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  Speaker 2: This is destroying the tourism industry of Central Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, Daniel, you know, I said it all through last year,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, I can't believe we're having to start
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: this year in exactly the same way. And I feel
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  Speaker 1: for you guys. Honestly, it's heartbreaking to hear what's happening
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: in Alice Springs. And you know, all that I can
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: say is that we will continue to keep the pressure
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  Speaker 1: on because something's got to change.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And look, you know, I know all we
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: need is to for our governments to come together and
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  Speaker 2: not just pick one thing, but focus all their attention
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  Speaker 2: at this and you know, throw the kitchen think at it,
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  Speaker 2: because until they have, until such time they do that,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: we are just going to live day in, day out.
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  Speaker 2: I woke up at one am thinking my house was
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: being broken into last night. You know, we live with
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  Speaker 2: that day in, day out, night in, night out, until
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  Speaker 2: such time that our streets are stabilized. You know, we
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: are not going to be able to rest easy. Yeah.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford, the CEO of Tourism Central Australia. As always,
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time, no doubt we'll be speaking again
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: in the coming days. Thanks Katie, thank you,