Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Chamber of Commerce NT CEO Greg Ireland on business concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour

Transcript

Chamber of Commerce NT CEO Greg Ireland on business concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that yesterday obviously, what we've seen in the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: CBD at the Woolworth shopping center, well, it caused a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: lot of distress. I think people were absolutely disgusted to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: see the behavior that had unfolded the afternoon prior. We'd
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: spoken to witnesses who talked of the horror really of
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: seeing people there with massive knives. But we do know
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that anti social behavior is having such a big impact
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: on a lot of businesses around the Northern Territory. And
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: joining me on the line to talk further about this
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: is Greg Island, the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce CEO.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Greg.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you today?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Not too bad, Greg? There's been a lot of incidents,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: well a lot of incidents over recent weeks, but certainly
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: this week that shopping center brawl and nudity in the streets.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: We'd also seen what's been the reaction from this from
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the business community.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the reaction is continuing along the lines
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: that has four quittes time, Katie. People are I guess
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: getting very very frustrated with some of any social behavior
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: we're seeing. Not only you know are in this behavior.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: We saw a couple of days ago, but just defecating
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: in the streets and just leaving this and horrible things everywhere.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: It's been pointed out to me by a number of
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  Speaker 2: retailers in the main CBD area and it just continues
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to erode our quality of life and then their presentation
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: to our magnificent visitors that are here at the moment.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I thought to myself yesterday, as that
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: vision was going viral and as everybody in Darwin was
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: talking about what had gone on in the city, I thought,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I feel for everybody that was there. I certainly feel
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: for everybody that was working, but I also feel for
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: all of those business operators and owners in our CBD
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: thinking to themselves, you know, we're trying to draw people
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to the city and stuff like this is continuing to happen.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, you know it's your family and my family
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: could have been in there in that environment and something
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: done toward happens to someone that you love. It's a
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: huge impact. But we don't want people feeling afraid to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: go to the CBD and engage with our retailers and
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: other businesses in that environment. And it's just terrible. That said,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: we've got to feel for friends down in Alice Springs
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  Speaker 2: and Tender Creek where this is pretty much a daily
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  Speaker 2: occurrence and we're seeing it up here for getting to
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: that extreme level. They've been dealing with it for many,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: many months, and it's pretty bad, that's for sure.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Greg. Do you think yesterday was a breaking point? I mean,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: to have something like that happen all Tuesday afternoon, I
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: should say it was a breaking point to have something
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: like that happen in our capital city, right in the CBD,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: after what has been a tumultuous time, to say the least,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Like you said, Alice Springs, dealing with stuff like this
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: on the daily. We've seen that public drunkenness, public nakedness,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: all sorts of things. Do you hope that this is
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a bit of a turning point for us?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Well, let's hope so. And what we don't want it
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  Speaker 2: to be is part of the normalizing process to say
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: that it's happened before and we'll just continue to tolerate it.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: So we'll be certainly as active as we can talking
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: with Minister Warden and everyone else that will listen to
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: us about that exact problem that the Chamber has actually
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: appointed a person down in our springs to focus specifically
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: on any social behavior and it's impact on business. So
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: that's a bit of a first for us. So that
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: person's meeting Institute for only a few days now, and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: we're already seeing quite signed engagement and feedback to the
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: chamber about everyone's concerns in this space. So we'll continue
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: to be as active as we can.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Greg. Our business is at breaking point here with this issue, well, the.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Breaking point with a couple of issues, Katie, that's certainly
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: one of them. It really is distracting from what should
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: be a very very positive time. There are other challenges
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: workforce and really getting people to participate inside their business
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: to help lift our levels of service and make sure
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: we're maximizing the opportunity. So between workforce shortages and crime
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: and anti social behavior, it's very very frustrating for many
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: many businesses out there.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: When you talk about that workforce shortage and when you
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: talk about trying to lure people to work in the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory. What kind of impact does something like happened
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: earlier in the week have.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's very negative, Katie. It's certainly a disincentive for
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  Speaker 2: anyone to want to come and work and live in
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: the territory. No one wants to be exposed to that
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: kind of behavior, and it's something that we really do
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: need government and the police to stamp out and get
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: on top of as quickly as possible. You know, we
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: are out there actively trying to attract people. A recent
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  Speaker 2: delegation from Darwin City Care Council looks like it's bringing
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: up to fifty workers back into the territory from Indonesia.
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  Speaker 2: That's a fantastic outcome, but we don't want those people
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  Speaker 2: changing their minds on the basis of something they saw
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  Speaker 2: in the news.
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  Speaker 1: Greg, Are there any new sort of solutions or actions
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: that are being taken by business owners at the moment
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: When it comes to the anti social behavior side of things, it's.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Very very difficult, and we really do strongly encourage business
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: owners not to participate or get involved in the actual
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: issues themselves. We're very thankful that the government has changed
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: the parameters around the secure grants, increased the funding, lowered
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: the percentage that business needs to contribute to get some
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: of these more permanent physical barriers in place. But it
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  Speaker 2: would be really nice if the general community and the
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  Speaker 2: people involved in this were just respectful of others and
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: didn't carry on in this particular manner. It certainly seems
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: to be an issue that is building momentum rather than
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: in the other way.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is the worry I think for everybody.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: We're sort of not seeing an improvement in this space.
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  Speaker 1: If anything, it feels as though it's getting worse after
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: what's happened this week. Do we need more police on
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  Speaker 1: the beat from your perspective, it's an interesting question.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I'm told reliably by the Minister's office there's more police
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: in Alice and Darwen and perhaps ever has been before.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: But I'm also hearing that there's quite a number of
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: them that are either on leave or limited duties for
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: mental health reasons and other challenges, So that might translate
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: into less boots on the ground. And boots on the
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: ground is exactly what we need. So we welcome the
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: private security editions that have been made and looking forward
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: to the outcomes of that, because it's really only been
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: in place for a week or two.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: What do you think about this push from some other
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: industry groups, But also it looks as though it's the
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: opposition as well today to reinstate this for mcgoglaw making
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: it illegal to drink within two kilometers of a licensed premise.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Well, we know that alcohol is a significant contribution to
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of these violence related issues, so therefore potentially
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: limiting access to that has some potential benefits. So I
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: can see the merit behind that. It's a very very
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: broad and complex issue. Know what applies to one group
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: really needs to apply to us all. And if we're
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: prepared to make that as part of a solution at
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: a community level, I think it's worth for sure.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Well, Greg Island, the see of the Chamber of Commerce,
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  Speaker 1: we really appreciate you having a chat with us this morning.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you, You're welcome.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Katie.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Thanks