Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says the Biz Secure updates are positive for hospitality businesses being targeted by crime

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Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says the Biz Secure updates are positive for hospitality businesses being targeted by crime · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And as of the first of July well, the government
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is making changes to the one point six million dollar
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: bi secure program. It is all part of their efforts
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to better support territory businesses to improve security, as we
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: heard about yesterday. Now, upgrades to this program include raising
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the amount of individual territory will, raising the amount that
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: an individual territory business can access to fifteen grand to
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  Speaker 1: make a range of permanent security improvements to their premises,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: as well as the co contribution for be Secure that
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: has also been reduced from a fifty percent contribution by
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the government to a seventy five percent contribution. Now the
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  Speaker 1: government's also added a list of pre approved standard improvements
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and a raft of other measures that they are hoping
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  Speaker 1: is going to make a bit of a difference when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to crime and anti social behavior. Now joining
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  Speaker 1: me on the line to talk a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: about this is the CEO of Hospitality here in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory, Alex Bruce. Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Alex, good morning key.
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  Speaker 3: Are there many.
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  Speaker 1: Hospitality businesses at the moment, you know, which are being
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  Speaker 1: targeted when it comes to crime and anti social behavior?
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, yes, but we saw it particularly spike in the
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  Speaker 2: first three months of this year, you know, and I
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  Speaker 2: think the police said a couple of Fridays ago they
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  Speaker 2: were close to four thousand itinerants, when we're usually dealing
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  Speaker 2: with more like a thousand we were getting. There's always
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  Speaker 2: normal bad and every break into a house or a business,
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  Speaker 2: you know, really does take a cost to those involved.
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  Speaker 2: But we're back to just normal bad levels, it seems
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  Speaker 2: from our view looking across the network, there's still things
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  Speaker 2: going on that shouldn't be going on, but it's not
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  Speaker 2: at those particularly high rates that were occurring a couple
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  Speaker 2: of months ago when town was choppers. Yeah, itinerant well.
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  Speaker 1: And you sort of you know, we find that very
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  Speaker 1: often alcohol is a is a target, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: even out of Vallas Springs, I know that you guys
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  Speaker 1: have got plenty of businesses that are part of hospitality
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  Speaker 1: into in Alice Springs as well. What did you make
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  Speaker 1: of yesterday's announcement and what kind of difference do you
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  Speaker 1: think it will make.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, there's a package of different initiatives announced yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: I was down in Alice Springs just on that quickly
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  Speaker 2: back end of last week, and again our venues down
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  Speaker 2: there are reporting that they're getting broken into, but not
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  Speaker 2: at those high rates that they were earlier in the year,
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  Speaker 2: and they suspect unfortunately down there the crimes probably shifted
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  Speaker 2: back into the residential network, people smashing into access beer
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  Speaker 2: fridges and whatnot in people's homes and less so those venues.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: But the changes to be Secure yesterday are very positive
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  Speaker 2: in terms of a bit more support for those businesses
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  Speaker 2: and rather than dollar for dollar, it's three to one now.
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  Speaker 2: But I do hear that, you know, some of the
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  Speaker 2: costs of some of these roller shutters and things can
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  Speaker 2: be thirty forty grams. We appreciate that the government has
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: looked at the constant feedback. Bise Secure has been a
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  Speaker 2: very popular program in the past, as has Alcohol Secure,
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  Speaker 2: which was particularly supporting. You know, I think call those
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  Speaker 2: restaurants with large glass shop fronts securing the alcohol so
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  Speaker 2: that hopefully they don't get broken into as much. We
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  Speaker 2: still here. There are concerns and issues where part of
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  Speaker 2: the processes you need tick off by the fires and
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  Speaker 2: all the rest of it, and they don't. They don't
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  Speaker 2: want us to make our businesses like Fort Knox in
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  Speaker 2: case some little scumbag gets in there after ours and
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: then start the fire. They need to have a safety regress. Well,
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  Speaker 2: for us, that's a second order issue, to be honest
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  Speaker 2: with you, Like some of my venues earlier this year,
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  Speaker 2: we're getting broken into four or five times a week,
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  Speaker 2: so we think we should be allowed to be a
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  Speaker 2: bit more pragmatic. Does seem to be that the hardening
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  Speaker 2: in Alice Springs is allowed to a higher level. We'd
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  Speaker 2: like to see that come to Darwin ultimately.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: That I wondered that those roller shutters, because it is
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  Speaker 1: something that you know that we've discussed before. I know
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  Speaker 1: it at the IgA there and Fanny Bay. They are
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  Speaker 1: in a situation where they couldn't put the roller shutters on.
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  Speaker 1: It's something that we've heard from a few different locations.
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  Speaker 1: So any idea whether that's going to be any different
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  Speaker 1: this time around, Alex, I.
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  Speaker 3: Think I think ultimately they're just going to have to
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  Speaker 3: give ground on it. It's clear they gave ground on
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  Speaker 3: it decades ago in our Springs. Given how long those
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  Speaker 3: communities down there have been suffering with some of these issues,
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  Speaker 3: I think they're just going to give ground on it
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  Speaker 3: up here as well and just start allowing us to
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  Speaker 3: harden it.
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  Speaker 2: Up even more. But you know, we can make these
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  Speaker 2: things like Fort Knox and they're still getting broken into.
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  Speaker 2: So in that regard, it isn't the silver bullet. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't fix it. One of the other initiatives yesterday that
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  Speaker 2: they've flagged is they're looking at more of those private
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  Speaker 2: security patrols. Our feedback is that you know, they keep
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  Speaker 2: the waterfront very very safe, the one in the city,
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  Speaker 2: whilst not fixing everything's definitely helped. You've spoken previously to
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  Speaker 2: the clubs, you know, sp club, trailer boat club, sailing club,
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  Speaker 2: all along that bundilla prethink there they've had some which
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  Speaker 2: has really helped limit the amount of any social behavior
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  Speaker 2: those clubs are experiencing. Especially at dinner time. They were
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  Speaker 2: getting people in off the beach, beach grabbing chips off
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  Speaker 2: people's plates, and they're like, and now it's good that
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  Speaker 2: the government's flag that they're looking at that in the
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  Speaker 2: northern suburbs and Palmerston as well. It's not to replace
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  Speaker 2: the police, but we all know that there are these
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  Speaker 2: workforce shortages right across the board. If some of those
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  Speaker 2: targeted private security patrols can help stop things escalating in
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  Speaker 2: the first place, that so we don't need the polices regularly.
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  Speaker 2: That might be a positive that we're hoping we can
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  Speaker 2: continue to work with the government on and yesterday's announcement
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  Speaker 2: was a good step in that direction.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think everybody sort of thought that, Look, it's
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  Speaker 1: a step in the right direction. Does it go far enough? Well,
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  Speaker 1: it remains to be seen. There will indeed be some
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  Speaker 1: other issues. I'm sure that they're going to have to
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  Speaker 1: work through particular you know, earlier in the week, well yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: I should say, we spoke to the mayor of Alice
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  Speaker 1: Springs who talked about, you know, their chambers being smashed up,
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  Speaker 1: along with other businesses around around Alice Springs and you know,
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  Speaker 1: the police confirming that kids as young as eight were involved. Alex,
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  Speaker 1: do you think that you know, when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: hospitality businesses, do you think that yesterday's announcement does enough
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  Speaker 1: for our regions?
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think it's fair enough that we can have
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  Speaker 2: different solutions for different communities. Alice and even my membership
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  Speaker 2: down there, and what they experience is different and to
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  Speaker 2: a different standard to what we get up in Darwin, CBD.
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  Speaker 2: So happy to work with the government and the councils
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  Speaker 2: to tailorize where we need to. Yesterday though with still
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  Speaker 2: crisis management stuff, Katie, if I can.
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  Speaker 1: Call it that.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's always a lot of focus Riley Review
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  Speaker 2: and all the rest of it on supply side and
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  Speaker 2: secondary supply crisis managements. All well and good, but until
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: we really sink our teeth into those long term structural
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  Speaker 2: social issues that these are just band aids on.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I know that a Leah Finocchiaro yesterday, the opposition leader
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: on the show calling for a review of the BDR.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think about that, Alex.
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  Speaker 2: Our view constantly, and we've been clear to govern on
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  Speaker 2: this for many years now is make the BDR better
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  Speaker 2: at its primary job or get rid of it. We
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  Speaker 2: think it's marginal at best, So how do you make
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: it better? I look, there's a range of things. There's
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: a permit system over in Null and Boy that interfaces
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  Speaker 2: with the BDR. There's one intenant Creek now, so that
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  Speaker 2: when you've hit your limit down in Tennant Creek, it
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  Speaker 2: perhaps you read into those other venues. For certain communities
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  Speaker 2: that are now debating about whether they are going to
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  Speaker 2: remain dry or not, or they might want to limited
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  Speaker 2: a well regulated community club on some of those homelands.
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  Speaker 2: Why when those people come into town, can't they simply
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: have those restrictions throughout is one proposal. I'm not suggesting
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  Speaker 2: that this is universally supported, but there's different ways to
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: look at it. You know, our systems in each different
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  Speaker 2: bottle shop owned by different people don't track or know
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  Speaker 2: when my license is being used across the network. But
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: to the high number, just say, my driver's license got
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  Speaker 2: Skian twenty times in different bottle shops around the territory
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  Speaker 2: in a week. Why isn't that an automatic red flag
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  Speaker 2: to the police to choose whether to follow it up
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  Speaker 2: or not. And if low and behold, I'm a barrel
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  Speaker 2: mundy fisher to it guide, no worries legitimate and they
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  Speaker 2: just make a little note because the police do tell
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  Speaker 2: us that they know that there are some operators out there,
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  Speaker 2: individuals that are highly responsible for a large proportion of
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  Speaker 2: the secondary supply that's going on. Proof of age cards
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  Speaker 2: don't have residential addresses on them, so anytime they do
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  Speaker 2: try to restrict access to people from certain areas, proofs
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  Speaker 2: of age cards get around it pretty quickly. There's low
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: doc requirements in the MVR for vulnerable people, so they
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  Speaker 2: know they can go in and just change one letter
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  Speaker 2: on their name and they effectively get off the BDR
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  Speaker 2: and start scanning green again. All of these issues are
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  Speaker 2: known and we've been putting them to government for a
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  Speaker 2: while now. So yeah, looking at the BDR, I think
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  Speaker 2: that's a sensible how come to see what we can
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  Speaker 2: either make it better or get rid of it.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think, Alex Bruce, will be people that you
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: know that are listening this morning that will agree with you.
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  Speaker 1: They'll either be thinking let's make it better or get
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  Speaker 1: rid of it. I actually err on the side of
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  Speaker 1: let's try and make it a bit better if it
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  Speaker 1: is able to help in some way to curb some
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  Speaker 1: of the issues that we see around the place. But
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  Speaker 1: you've pointed out there are a number of concerns that
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  Speaker 1: I think probably need a relook ash. That is for sure, Alex.
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  Speaker 1: We always appreciate your time. Thank you very much for
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: having a chat with us this morning.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Cheers, Katie, Thank you