Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says there’s very little bottle shop staff can do when confronted with weapons, after incidents involving an axe, a spear and secateurs

Transcript

Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says there’s very little bottle shop staff can do when confronted with weapons, after incidents involving an axe, a spear and secateurs · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that over the last couple of weeks we've
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: been contacted by a number of listeners who work in
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: bottle shops. They've been subjected to some pretty poor behavior,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: people just turning up and stealing from them. We saw
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: vision last week one person armed with what appeared to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: be a really large stick.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Earlier in the week, a thirty three year old man
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: was arrested by General Judy's members after stealing a quantity
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of alcohol from a business on Harriet Place, where he
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: was later charged with robbery. Now, two women aged twenty
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: one and thirty six were also arrested by Strikeforce Trident
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: detectives following the robbery at a bottle shop in pine Lands,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: where police will allege one of the women threatened staff
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: with a spear. There is no doubt that some of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: these incidents seem to be getting more threatening and based
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: on that weapon, well more violent. So how are those
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: working in bottle shops going and how are the bottle
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: shops going in terms of trying to deal with this issue. Well,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: joining me on the line is the CEO of Hospitality
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: here in the North Than Territory, Alex Bruce. Good morning, Alex,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: good morning, Katie Alex, what are your members telling you.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Has there been an increase in incidents and indeed in
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: sort of the violence that is being experienced in some
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of these incidents at bottle shops.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I think this time of the year we always see
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: a bit of a seasonal spike. And remember last year
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: around this time, unhelpfully, they flown and bust a lot
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: of people in the Howard Springs from remote areas to
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: keep them safe and then let them just walk out
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: and join the itinerant population in and around Darwin. And
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: we really did see that and had chat about that
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: this time last year, and it continued right through till
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: beyond Eastern and we were starting to get concerned about
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: whether it would quieten down for the dry season. So
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: we are having incidences again. It does seem to be
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: more violence attached to some of the ones. I've seen
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: that footage from the one out of pine Land. It's
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: horrific on two fronts. I mean, they come in with
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: weapons and spears and absolutely you feel for the staff
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: and intimidate the staff, and then they proceed to just
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: very casually and over a period of time, help themselves
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to the shelves because you know, It is a situation
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: where the large chains in our space have had to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: issue directions to their staff for the sake of their
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: employee welfare. You know, don't touch them, don't intervene, don't
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: try and grab them, don't get in all tussle with them.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: So yeah, they know that if they can come in
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: and intimidate the staff, it's almost a free for all them.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: They can walk out. There was an axe thrown at
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the staff in a bottle shop up in the Northern
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Suburbs one or two weeks ago. So there are more
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: than just a few isolated incidences, and they seem to
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: realize that if they can head in with with weapons,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: we've got a real issue with dealing with that well.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: And this.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I do think the police were quick to respond to
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the incidences that I was aware of in this space,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: but it's a constant battle for them, and we still
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: have some of our police down in Alice. We still
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: have police attached to ongoing coronials for more than a
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: year now. That seem to be taking away some of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: those frontline resources in the Northern Suburbs and Darwin and Palmerston.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: And alex I guess you know, the thing is like you've,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: like you sort of touched on before with then some
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: of those major chains sort of issuing those directives, don't
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: you know, don't get yourself in a dangerous situation to
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: those employees. You can understand why they're doing that, because
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the last thing anybody wants is for somebody to actually
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: get injured.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Katie. And it's not just the bottle shops. There's
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: been you know, staff having to lock themselves in panic
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: rooms from Darwin rural area venues right the way down
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: into Alice over the past six to twelve months, you know.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: And of course employee safety has to be number one.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: These people are just coming to work. They just want
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: to work hard and earn some good money and be
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: part of hopefully a good safe team. So, you know,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: it is spiking at the moment. There is a real
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: challenge for the government to get back on top of
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: and in control.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you reckon needs to happen, Alex, because
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: it's like it is frightening. I know, I've heard from
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: some of those people that work in bottle shops and
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: you know, they're really lovely and say that they love
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: their jobs. They want to keep working. You know, there's
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: additional things that I guess some of those bottle shop
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: owners have done to try to keep them safe, but
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's getting pretty scary,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: and a lot of them sort of saying they worry
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: about the younger staff and the other people that they
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: work with.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, no one can stand up and give
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: the answer and solve all of our problems. Otherwise would
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: have been done because there are a lot of resources, time,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: good hard working people from police right through the different
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: agencies that are trying to give it a go. I
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: think some of our approach over the last few years
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: where we've softened certain measures. Absolutely that was you know,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. It doesn't
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: fix the long term, multi generational issues that we are facing,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: but we've let the standard that community is willing to
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: accept fall. And you know that's a completely colorblind statement.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: We need to be ensuring that there's a level of
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: standard behavior in the community that we're willing to accept.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: If you're fall below that doesn't matter who you are,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: where you come from, there will be an intervention on
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: you and by all means then throw supports around them
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: and that vulnerable family and try and get them to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: break that cycle. Yeah, but what we've we've over legalized it,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: we've over overwoked it, and we've ended up in this
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: situation where some of those measures they've just eased the
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: reins out over the last few years and we're living
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: through that now.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And Alex, it's bloody tasty when you like, it's
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: hard to watch, let alone think of people being in
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: that situation where you know, where you've got somebody with
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: a huge stick threatening you and wanting their hands on alcohol.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Like you just think it's a scary situation for somebody
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to have to deal with at work.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: That's it. And Katie, the watchhouse in dal And CBD
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: is still closed, and when it is closed, it'll be
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: a real test to see if they're willing to pick
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: up people that are failing to meet the community standard
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: on antisocial behavior, cycle them through there until they basically
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: get to the point where they will take the Larichia
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: flight back to their community, or whether we're going to
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: continue to just issue infringement notices tip out the only
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: continue the circus that happens on a daily basis with
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: a bunch of agencies that have touch points in this space.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I think it is coming to a tipping point where
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: we really do actually need to get out there very
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: clearly and reconfirm that there's a standard of behavior that
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: we must have here too.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Now just tell me, Alex is there like have any
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: of those bottle shops had to sort of take on
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: or do additional things in order to try to keep
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: staff safe.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Oh. Look, it's a tricky one because always the question
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: is what more can we be doing in collaboration with
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: police and the government. You know, last year end of
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: last year, we produced some notices out in all the
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: bottle shops reminding bottle shops of how they have the
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: power to refuse and the way that they can refuse
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: service and everything else over and above the pretty ineffective BDR.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: It's got to be said, and we're doing that. It
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: can lead to some quite aggressive confrontations. It's not perfect.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: And look, I just look at the Little Nucky Street microcosm.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: An individual starts the journey at the bottom of the
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: street in the morning, where there's an orange v and
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: NGO that washes their shirt while they wait. They toddle
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: up to the Indigenous medical provider next door get a
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: free sausage sizzle. They'll then tuddle up to Services Australia
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: and lineup for opening at eight point thirty and I
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: don't know what happens, but somehow they get money in
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: their account and then our bottle shops open at ten
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: and they've got a clean shirt on, they've got something
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: in their belly, which means they're passing our intox text
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: and also spending green on the BDR and they get served.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: I put it to anyone listening why we continue to
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: focus on the bottle shop in that daily journey when
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: you think about all the touch points of that poor,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: vulnerable individual before they walked into our.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Bottle shops, so you reckon they could be more happening
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: before it gets to that point. Realistically, to try and
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: assist people before they're actually stepping into the bottle shop.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of good will out there
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: and a lot of hard work going on by everyone.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Don't mean to be critical about that, but it's just
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: band aid on a band aid on a band aid.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: When are we going to get to the point of
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: seriously case managing these individuals and improving their life.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Alex on the BDR, I mean do you think it's working,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Do you think it's actually helping people, or do you
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: think that the government, I mean, you and I have
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: spoken about this before, like is the time comfort to
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: be seriously reviewed or do you think that some of
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the measures you know that the government have been talking about,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know whether they've even implemented them at this
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: point in time, but you know, refining some of those
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: measures will they help.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Look, the technology that they rolled out has massively improved
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: the speed of the BDR and made it easier for
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: our venues and bottle shops to deal with it, so
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: cudof to that it doesn't cause too much concern from
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: average territories. When they come through our bottle shops, they
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: know it's the system, and we don't really get much
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: push back. You get the odd barkup from a tourist
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: that's coming into contact with it for the first time,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: but it's manageable, and once they understand that everyone has
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: to do that, you know it's generally okay. So I
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: don't think it's burdensome on our retail outlets too much.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: But whether it actually works or not, I don't think
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: you can honestly say that it does.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Katie, Well, this is the thing. I mean, at the moment,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: it's clear to see that there are people that you
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: know that are drinking, they're drinking publicly in the street.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of issues I think it's safe to
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: say right now up here in the top end when
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: it comes to that alcohol issue. So I know that
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: there's certainly some different measures in Central Australia at the moment.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: But yeah, like I just think that we've got to
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: get serious about the way in which we're dealing with
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: this because you know, like you touched on earlier, the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: behavior that is being accepted right now around the Northern
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Territory just shouldn't be.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Absolutely and you know, we all, we all have a
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: role to playing that, especially industry, and we do and
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: we're open to working with all stakeholders to continue to
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: improve where we can. But it's just too easy, too
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: too cheap a hit. We definitely saw that in Alice Springs.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: You know, apart from playing with supply side restrictions, you
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: know that that world that they've tapped for the last
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: two decades, what else are they actually changed down there
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and what happens when they left or will they even left?
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: You know this is we've got to move past the
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: let's just put another band aid on nesting and hope
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: that the media attention moves away and the community starts
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: to get frustrated about the next issue.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Alex, someone has just messaged through in Dust our staff
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: being confronted with weapons and are they seeking additional support
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: from the likes of hospitality and with security measures and
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: We've we've debated the toss about more security and more guards.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: There is an issue you justed to see in some
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: of those branded chained retail outlets. They'll have guards acted
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: and they're under the same directive from head office down south,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: don't intervene, don't touch, so you know, they look good.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: We do need to make sure that the welfare of
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: the staff and contractors as first and foremost. I'm not
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: sure slapping guards on bottle shops is going to help
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: police on bottle shops down the track from Catherine to Alis.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: You know, whilst controversial does seem to have some effect.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: I think there is a different understanding from everyone in
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: the community when you're talking to someone in a police
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: uniform versus a guard. But where are we going with this,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: because again, that's not addressing the underlying issues.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Do you reckon in any way that the BDR is
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: contributing to people sometimes becoming violent when they go to
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: bottle shops?
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I think we say the same thing as
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: those alcohol and other drug experts in the space. If
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: you're restrict the legal supply to problem drinkers, chronic substance abuses, alcoholics,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: they just find ways around it to access to feed
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: their addictions. So we are on board, and we were
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: through the whole Riley Review and we've got to get
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: back to evidence based policy making and then put down
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: the crayons for a while. You know, it's just how
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: do we get to that bigger, hard amountain of work,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: not the stop gap solutions in our space, which they're
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: wearing thin on our industry has.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, before I let you go, Alex, I know that
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: there's obviously the delegation that has been in the UK
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: trying to lure some workers from the UK here to
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. Are they still there and how's it going? Yeah?
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Really positive. So we had a couple over there last
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: week and they're engaging with a lot of the universities
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: and colleges and in our space with hospitality courses. A
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: lot of the UK education institutions you can do six
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: or twelve months placement overseas somewhere and it'll count towards
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: your coursework. So traditionally they've wanted to go over the
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: US a lot of education. Unfortunately they don't know where
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: the NT is. A lot of the times they've never
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: heard of the Northern Territory before. So all of that
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: was done with the universities and colleges last week and
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: this week. Over the next few days we've got venues going.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: There's a broader effort from the Department of Industry, Tourism
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and Trade and Migration MT they're heading over as well.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: There's Chamber of Commerce, Motor Trades, master Builders importantly into
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Department of Health and Territory Families noting they have similar
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: workforce shortages as well. So there's a series of events
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: that roll through over the next ten odd days in
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: the UK and Ireland which we're very hopeful we'll put
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the NT on the map a little bit more and
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: start to get workers and working holiday making backpackers back
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: over here.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Well, let us know how it all goes. I'll be
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: keen to you know, to hear how they end up
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: sort of going once they get back, and hopefully we
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: end up with some of those UK workers here in
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the territory.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Absolutely good on you, Alex.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning.