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Matt Hepworth spoke with Deckchair Cinema General Manager James Parker · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The RSL's controversial proposal to build a new clubhouse on
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the Esplanade. Hit Star and Council tonight executive staff are
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: recommending elected members provide in principal support to the plan,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: but it's coming up against some heavy competition from the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: neighboring deck Chair Cinema. They're worried about noise and light
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: pollution associated with the development. More than eleven thousand people
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: have signed a petition to keep the space free. To
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: talk more about it is James Parker from the deck
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Chair Cinema.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Good morning, James, Hi, Matt, thanks for having me on
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: the show.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: James, it's a big day for both you, the deck
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Chairs Cinema and the RSL today. How are you feeling
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: about tonight's meeting.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: We're very concerned. Obviously the Council administration have put forward
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: their recommendation. We disagree with that. We don't think that
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: that's a particularly good recommendation. Tonight is really do or
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: die for the cinema. It's this is a large development.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: It's roughly eighty meters from I screen, I projectors forty
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: meters from I screen, so it's not a long where
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: if you were to put it on the other side
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: of the cinema, it'd be in our car park.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: And we rely on not having disturbance.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: So if you put a large business like that, it's
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: not just people, it's not just talking. It's cars coming
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: and going, it's the bins going out, it's all the refrigeration,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: you know, it's they're actually really noisy that were disturb us.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: We've been running the Deckchair Cinema for a long time.
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  Speaker 3: It's thriving. Fifty thousand people through the door last year.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Were a really important tourist attraction for the city, and
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: we should be thinking about how we can protect the cinema.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I read an online poll the other day that support
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: for and against this proposal really is fifty to fifty.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Are you surprised at how divisive this has become.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: It is very divisive.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: I can say in my opinion that there's not much
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: public support for it to proceed. The media is very
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: good at showing an unbiased view. But we started a
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: petition and that reached the eleven thousand signatures. When we
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: started that, we knew what the result was going to be.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: You don't start a petition if you think that nobody's
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: going to sign it. We know that the public doesn't
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: support this. They also knew that we were running a
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: petition and had a lot of opportunity if they wanted
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: to poll the public, they could have.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: They didn't because they knew that.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: There wasn't that much public support for them to develop
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: the esplanade. We're talking about deck Chair Cinema, but a
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: lot of our members are concerned about development on the esplanad.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: We've protected that.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: It's one of the most important public spaces in the city.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: We've protected that for a long time. This council and
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: the administration shouldn't be looking at the public land in
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: the city the public open spaces and parks as assets
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: that they can rent out on a commercial basis. It's
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: highly inappropriate and we hope that they'll reconsider it tonight.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Is that part of what this debate comes down to
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  Speaker 1: is it's not an argument or a war of the
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: dick ches Cinema versus the RSL, but it's more about
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: protecting that area. And I guess the fact that you
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: guys don't want any development in that car park.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Our members don't want any development in that car park.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Talking from the cinema's perspective, we don't want a development
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: that's going to disrupt our operations and force us to close.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: The public's point of view is generally that that's a
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: place for reflection and the whole esplanade an open space
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: open for all the public. It shouldn't be given over
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: to any private club properly, to developer or business for
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: a proper you know, to make money there. That's what
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: our members are concerned about. The debate has focused around
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: the cinema a lot, but it is a much wider
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: issue about the public open spaces and the council seeking
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: to rent them out on a commercial basis.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Could there still be a way that both you and
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the RSL can operate together? I mean, there's still a
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: lot of hurdles. Should this past council tonight, there's still
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: more hurdles that they would have to go through.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: But is there a way that.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: The RSL have you sat down and spoken to them
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that they could put in noise mitigation or ways to
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: reduce their light pollutions so it wouldn't affect the deck
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Chair Cinema.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I have to give credit to the RSL because they
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: did the right thing that came street to us, and
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: all respect to the RSL.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I if they were.
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  Speaker 3: Building somewhere that wasn't going to en the cinema, we
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: would be supporting them in general if it wasn't in
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  Speaker 3: one of the important public spaces. But in this instance,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: they're building in a spot that puts in a difficult
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: position where we have to defend ourselves. But they did
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: come to us. They're going to say that the magic
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: of architecture, they're going to reinvent how you can run
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: a club.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic. I don't think that's going to happen. Looking
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  Speaker 2: at every other puck and.
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  Speaker 3: Club around the world, nobody else has managed to do that.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: I don't believe that the RSL is going to manage
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: to reinvent the wheel this time and have a silent
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: club on the hill behind our.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Screen, because they have put their argument has been that
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it will be a family friendly club, and they've put
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of emphasis around that. So you reckon even
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: with the emphasis on that, and it's not going to
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  Speaker 1: be a nightclub or a roundy venue, that it would
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: still affect the dick Chest Cinema to the point where
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you'd have to close.
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  Speaker 3: Well, when you think about noise of the cinema if
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: you went to a cinema and someone, let's say, someone
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: listened to music on the for the whole film, not loudly,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: just quietly, you know, maybe being considerate, but actually that's
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: very inconsiderate and it would drive you nuts. Imagine happen
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: every time you went to the cinema that somebody answered
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: the phone and talked the whole way through, or a
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: group of people had a conversation at the back. They
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: weren't watching the film, you know, it wasn't anything to
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: do with them. They were having their own thing. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it'd be massively damaging for a cinema if that happened.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: It doesn't take a lot of noise. We're very sensitive.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: That's an outdoor cinema. That's the reality of running an
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: outdoor cinema.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: How do you think council will vote tonight?
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Well, there's someone council that are dead for this to
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: go ahead. Some of them haven't visited the cinema. Disappointingly,
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: I would have hoped that they would have come to
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: the cinema to understand how important it is for the
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: people of Darwin before making decisions for the people of Darwin.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Some of them are against it. Some of them, I
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: don't know. Yeah, so we'll have to see. I'm really
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: hoping that they listened to We've got a thousand, two
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: hundred members and eleven thousand people sign a petition. I
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: don't know what the record number of people sign a
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: petition to counselors, but it's not it's way less than that.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: No one's ever put a petition to counsel with that
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: many signatures on it.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: You worried the odds are stacked against you, given that
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the executive staff for recommending elected members providing principal support.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's been Yeah. I mean, looking at that,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: that's that's not good.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: It's it sort of sets them on the front foot that. Yeah,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: and the mayor has been very vocally supportive of the RSL.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: He came out immediately saying the Deccha cinema has to move.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: He retracted that and then he put it out again.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: So he's not concerned by the Deuccha Cinema. And he's
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: very supportive of the RSL. He's a member of the RSL.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if he'll be voting on this. He
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: did declare a conflict of interest in the public forum.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: I visited. He did say he wouldn't vote on it,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: But I haven't seen any conflicts of interest come up
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: in the Council of Gender. I don't really understand the
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: councilor genders. There's a lot of stuff in there. I'm
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: not across it, but i'd be yeah, i'd be pretty
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: sure that he'll vote tonight.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: What's your understanding on what happens next on are if
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: it gets over the line and be if it's rejected.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: If it's rejected, it's the end of the road for
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: this development. Yeah, we can operate the cinema as we
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: have done successfully since two thousand and three on our site.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: If it gets voted in, there's a long road ahead
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: of planning, development approvals, getting designs. We've had to oppose
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: us with very little information, So if it does go through,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: at least we'll get some more information, some actual concrete
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: plans and not just proposals and emotive images.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So even if obviously it does get over the line tonight,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it's certainly not the end for you at the deck
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Chair Cinema, though it is.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: It's not the end for us at the deck Chair Cinema,
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: but it is the going down the road of a
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: very differ path for the cinema.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: What's your final message to those elected members who are
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: going to vote on this tonight.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: They should listen to public opinion.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, they've been contacted thousands of times by people
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: that disagree with development on the esplanade and people that
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: see the value in Dextera Cinema as a tourist attraction.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: They should be.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Listening to the ratepayers and the residents and protecting I mean,
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: especially in a year like this, to endanger one of
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: your important tourist attractions just seems complete nonsense. So hopefully
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: they'll listen to that and reconsider.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: James Parker from the deck Chair Cinema, good luck tonight,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: and thank you so much for your time this morning.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much