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Katie Woolf spoke with CLP Member for Namatjira Bill Yan · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining us on the line is the colp's member for Namajira,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Bill Yang.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Bill Mare and Katie.
• 0:06
  Speaker 4: How are you?
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well mate, I'm not sure what happened with our
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: phone lines before, but I was just talking about and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: certainly letting our listeners know that you'd spoken a couple
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of weeks ago in Parliament about some of the issues
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: that we've got with crime in Alice Springs.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Now you spoke about a restaurant.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Owner who was concerned that they were on the verge
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of needing to put on a security guard to protect
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: patrons and staff. I understand though, that that same business
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: owner was assaulted last week.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Tell us what happened.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, it's pretty sad when you think about it.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: I spoke about this in parliament as a matter of
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: public importance around the issues we're phacing here in All
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Springs and had the restaurant he who was at the
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: point in time where you thought he might have to
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: put on a security guard, which is pretty bad.
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  Speaker 3: And of course, yeah, last week there was someone there
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  Speaker 3: that was on the beam because they've caused trouble before
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: and when fuse service, he'd got violent and.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: The owner of the restaurant ended up being sold in
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: trying to protect one of the other staff members.
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  Speaker 2: Goodness me, is that is that owner?
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Okay, Well, he's got a hell of a show on
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: or I can tell you.
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  Speaker 4: And he went into the hospital to get checked out.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: He seems to be okay. Of course, as you imagine,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: pretty shaken up. It's not something you expect to happen.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: But yeah, he's doing okay at the moment. But yeah,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: certainly worrying.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Just talk us through, Bill.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, we've spoken about the issues with anti social
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: behavior and crime in Alice Springs on numerous occasions. From
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: what I can gather and certainly what I've heard from
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the police, they've amped up their numbers down there and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: had their they've they've got the task force that are
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: certainly concentrating on this kind of thing.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Has it made much of a difference.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: I think in some areas there's been some difference. We've
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: got viper happening down here, which is specifically targeting I
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: suppose younger offenders and properly type crime, but we're still
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: seeing some other bits and pieces taking place. And you
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: would have seen some of the stuff on it's been
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: report on social media and then made it onto mainstream
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: meeting where people being assaulted in the streets and assaulted
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: inside restaurants. That sort of stuff still carrying on. So
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I don't know that the police are doing that. I
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: suppose the best they can, but we need to be
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: a little bit proactive in how we tackle some of
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: this stuff, and maybe a more visual police presence in
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  Speaker 3: the CBD at night might be the only way to
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: do it.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: But what a business owners saying to you as the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: local member? You know, what are they saying to you?
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And what are residents saying to you right now?
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: Well?
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  Speaker 3: There at their which end, k they don't know what
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: to do. And just in this one restaurant, yeah they've
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: had to put on a security guard. But I've seen
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: some of the visuals of fights and assaults inside restaurants
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: and you can see the business owners cow in the background.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: They shouldn't have to put up with this that they
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: don't need. They need to know how to run their business,
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  Speaker 3: they don't need to know how to break up fights
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: and protect their patrons. So yeah, it's quite bad and
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: they just don't know what to do anymore.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: And it makes you wonder as well.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: You know, for some of those business owners if they're
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: going to get to the point where they think, well,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: we don't we just don't want to operate anymore.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Well, and that's part of the problem, Katie, is that
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: businesses are already doing it really tough during COVID and everything else,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: and they're struggling to stay of flight. They're struggling to
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: keep the doors open, let alone putting some of these
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: crime issues on top of that to compound it. There's
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: lots of businesses at that point where do we really
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: want to stay open? Do we close the doors? We
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: had businesses here in our Springs in the mall we're
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: actually keeping their doors locked to keep people out and
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: waiting for people to come and knock on the door
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  Speaker 3: who wanted to come in.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: That's how bad it got it one stay wow, Bill,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I read on social media as well, and please correct.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Me if this is the case or isn't the.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Case That Fiery is that also had some of their
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: stuff stolen as well when they're out on a job.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen that on social media. I can't confirm
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  Speaker 3: if it's true or not. Go buy reports. Is that
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: is while so out on a job, some people got
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: into the station and got into their personal view. So
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: you go to wonder sometimes what hope have we got well?
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  Speaker 1: And you just wonder, you know, I really just wonder
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  Speaker 1: what the answer is. I've lived in Alice Springs. It's
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: a lovely place. I think we all, you know, everybody
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: knows what a great place it is. But if it
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: gets to the point where residents aren't feeling safe and
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: they're feeling really worried about this type of thing happening,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: you just sort of wonder what the answer is.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: I keep saying, I think we all need.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: To put our politics aside and just try to sort
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: something out to get the community back to the way
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  Speaker 1: it needs to be.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: Well.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I said, I love ol Springs two k. It's thirty
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: years here now, and I've been stating in parliament that
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: we need to have a bit of a bipart as
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: it approach on how to tackle some of these things.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: There needs to be some community led solutions around this.
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  Speaker 3: Some people are going to have to make some hard
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: decisions on how we might tackle it. The elders and
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: the traditional loaners in and around the place need to
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: be involved in any solutions that we come up with.
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  Speaker 3: But we can't keep going down this road. Our springs
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: a beautiful and wonderful place and it really hurts to
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: see it like this.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet well, Bill Yan, I really appreciate your
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: time this morning.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I pass on our well wishes please to that business
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: owner who was assaulted. You know, it's so upsetting to
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: hear that kind of thing happening in the Northern Territory,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So please pass on our well wishes well.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: Dokay, Thanks you, Tom, and you have a great Christmas.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: You too, mate, Thank you, thanks for having a chat
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: with us here.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: Katie, thank you.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: That is the member Foranamajira there, Bill. Yeah, and gee,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what it is a terrible situation, you know,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: where you've got a business owner who's being assaulted while
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: they're at work, trying to protect their staff, and then
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: having to put on private security.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: It seems pretty unbelievable. I know.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: We got to the point even in Darwin City a
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: while back. You'll remember at I think it was at
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Frankies that used to be there at the end of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Raintree Park. They got to the point where they'd had
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to hire their own private security as well at one
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: point because the anti social behavior was quite bad. I mean,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: you've just got to question how we get to that point.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And I know that the police are obviously incredibly busy,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: they're out managing a lot of different things. But you
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: just wonder, as a community, how have we come to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: just accept that that sort of behavior is happening and
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: we turn a blind eye to it. I don't think
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: we can, particularly in Alice Springs. You know, we've got
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: a town there that is screaming out for help, and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I think that, like I said to Bill, our politicians
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: need to sort of put their differences aside here and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: try their best to come to some sort of resolution
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: for the town.