Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Could trespasser laws be the answer to Casuarina Square's antisocial behaviour issues? Sentinel Property Group CEO Warren Ebert says it would curb repeat offenders

Transcript

Could trespasser laws be the answer to Casuarina Square's antisocial behaviour issues? Sentinel Property Group CEO Warren Ebert says it would curb repeat offenders · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: Last week, you may recall, we spoke to the new
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: owners of Casarina Square, Sentinel Group about their expansion in
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory and also about the issues that they've
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: experienced when it comes to crime and anti social behavior.
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  Speaker 2: One of the issues flagged was the trespass legislation preventing
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  Speaker 2: them from banning people from the center. It is now
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  Speaker 2: being reported by the NT News today that the government's
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  Speaker 2: checking if business owners can permanently ban troublemakers from their
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  Speaker 2: premises if they have already been evicted from that site.
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  Speaker 2: Now joining me on the line to talk a little
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  Speaker 2: bit more about this is the CEO of Sentinel Property Group,
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  Speaker 2: Warren Ebert. Good morning to you, Warren.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning Katie. Warren, you flagged not moving up today
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  Speaker 1: on the radio that often you might.
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  Speaker 2: You might just about have to now, Warren, you did
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  Speaker 2: flag this last week. I know that currently you're not
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  Speaker 2: actually able to ban people from the center. Why is
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  Speaker 2: that or what have you been told?
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  Speaker 1: Katie? I want to preface this by saying that I'm
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  Speaker 1: only going and what I'm told, and that's what I've
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  Speaker 1: been told by security people. So I don't know, I
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  Speaker 1: don't know the reason behind it. I think people normally
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  Speaker 1: try to do let's call it the softly softly approach
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  Speaker 1: on things first to see if that works, and then
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  Speaker 1: if it doesn't, then then you have to get a
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  Speaker 1: little bit harsher. And I think with the new Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister coming in, as she made in her initial statement,
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  Speaker 1: one of her focuses was going to be on law
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  Speaker 1: and order. And I did happen to meet with the
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister last Wednesday, and she was quite keen to
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  Speaker 1: hear from businesses and issues they're having. And as we know,
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  Speaker 1: everyone should be able to go about the day to
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  Speaker 1: day in peace and quiet.
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  Speaker 2: Well what difference would it make from your perspective if
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  Speaker 2: you were actually able to ban people who'd either cause
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  Speaker 2: trouble or broken the law inside the center, Well, you won't.
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  Speaker 1: Get repeat offenders, that's the idea of it, Katie and I, Well,
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  Speaker 1: we can't preempt things. We'll have to see how far
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  Speaker 1: it goes. But I think even the trouble makers very
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  Speaker 1: rarely are they are they by themselves. They're usually with
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  Speaker 1: with with the group. And if one person is barred
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  Speaker 1: and has to sit outside twiddling their thumbs or whatever
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  Speaker 1: they're going to do, and the friends can come in
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  Speaker 1: in the center. Hopefully that will that will get them
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  Speaker 1: to rethink it. We then have to be mindful they're
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  Speaker 1: sitting out by outside by themselves, are they going to
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  Speaker 1: get into more trouble. So I'm pretty sure that this
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  Speaker 1: just won't be a matter of banning them from particular premises,
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  Speaker 1: and that's not that's just not cut Casarina, that that's
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  Speaker 1: from anywhere. But you do need something else for them
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  Speaker 1: to do. And I know that the Chief Minister, the
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  Speaker 1: territory government, that the police and a number of other
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  Speaker 1: groups up there are keen to see if we can
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  Speaker 1: get something back going in the in the Casarina area
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  Speaker 1: to to give you something to do to hopefully thought patterns.
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  Speaker 2: It seems quite unbelievable, really, you know that a business
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  Speaker 2: can be in a situation that if somebody comes in
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  Speaker 2: causes trouble that they're not able to be banned. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it seems like a no brainer that if they come
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  Speaker 2: in and cause trouble that you should actually be able
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  Speaker 2: to ban them from the center.
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  Speaker 1: Things don't always work with logic, Cadia. I've just come
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  Speaker 1: back from the United States and we're over there for
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  Speaker 1: a shopping center conference. We didn't manage to drop into
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  Speaker 1: Graceland on while we're there, and so we've seen the
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  Speaker 1: movie in a couple of nights, So get along and
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  Speaker 1: say that. But in California they actually have a law
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  Speaker 1: that if you steal something under nine hundred dollars, you
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  Speaker 1: can't be prosecuted. So as crazy as that is, you know,
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  Speaker 1: our laws are certainly bad when you can't ban them
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  Speaker 1: for doing the wrong thing, but it's not as bad
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  Speaker 1: as some areas. And I suppose we try to do
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  Speaker 1: the softly softly approach, and yes, you're all allowed to
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  Speaker 1: ban them and talk to them and get them to
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  Speaker 1: see that they've done their own thing and that they
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  Speaker 1: would mend their ways. But I think that that is
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  Speaker 1: that has been tried and it doesn't work, and it
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  Speaker 1: is well, it's not only for the business owners a
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  Speaker 1: Casuarinas Square. We spend millions every millions on security. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: compared with with with shopping centers we have in other states,
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  Speaker 1: it's like three or four times as much. So it's
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  Speaker 1: horrific cost for us. It then costs more for the
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  Speaker 1: tenants in outgoings. It creates problems. You know, I've heard
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  Speaker 1: of people up there who have drawn money out of
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  Speaker 1: the out of the ATMs, and then they've had the
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  Speaker 1: money stolen of them. So it's a it's pretty horrendous,
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  Speaker 1: and it is, but it is fantastic that the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister sees this as an issue and he's going to
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  Speaker 1: work with businesses, you know. It's it's fantastic to see Wlarren.
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  Speaker 2: I guess the big question is how would it be policed.
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  Speaker 2: Would it be a situation where you've then got your
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  Speaker 2: security guards, you know, having to keep an eye on
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  Speaker 2: who is potentially banned from the center and telling them
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  Speaker 2: or turning them away if they rock up.
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  Speaker 1: Katie. Again, I can't preempt to legislation, but you certainly
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  Speaker 1: if you're going to ban someone, you would have to
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  Speaker 1: identify exactly who they are. You'd have to get some
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  Speaker 1: ID for at the very least photograph them, because you
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  Speaker 1: can't say later on you are banned before and it's
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  Speaker 1: the wrong person, because because you gonna end up in
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of stripes. So it will cause a problem
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  Speaker 1: for security. But we've got to start somewhere. As we've
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  Speaker 1: discussed a couple of times, if this was easy, it
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  Speaker 1: would have been fixed before and it hasn't. But we've
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  Speaker 1: got to start and hopefully there can be some education
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  Speaker 1: for the youth that they do start to understand that
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  Speaker 1: it's not the right thing, even for them. If they're
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  Speaker 1: going to get banned and they can't come into whether
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  Speaker 1: it's Casina Square or somewhere else, it's going to make
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  Speaker 1: their life are a bit more difficult. So yes, it'll
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  Speaker 1: be another another exercise for our security staff and will
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  Speaker 1: cause problems when you're you're banning. But you know, as
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  Speaker 1: it's been shown that there really is, there's no other alternative.
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  Speaker 1: We've tried everything else and that hasn't worked. So next
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  Speaker 1: is banning them and then we'll see where it goes
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  Speaker 1: from there. From there, Yeah, you've got to keep working
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  Speaker 1: at it, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: Which is absolutely no, absolutely Warren. Before I let you go,
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  Speaker 2: I had read last week. I think it was that
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  Speaker 2: that Sentinel Property Group was looking at the possibility of
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  Speaker 2: purchasing the Darwin Port.
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  Speaker 1: Is that correct? Why wouldn't we want to buy it, Katie? Well,
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  Speaker 1: we love the Northern Territory, we love Darwin. There's just
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  Speaker 1: such an enormous decade ahead and much longer than that. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: we'd love to buy anything up there that makes sense,
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  Speaker 1: and I think that the currently right or wrong. I
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  Speaker 1: think the port isn't working as well as it should
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  Speaker 1: because of the bad press, and I'm not blaming the
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  Speaker 1: current owners, but it is difficult for major national international
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  Speaker 1: companies to work with the current ownership. I would imagine
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  Speaker 1: there's some pressure from from governments, particularly given what we
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  Speaker 1: read in the press. It's you know, it's got to
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  Speaker 1: Federal Parliament. Well maybe there all the time. So if
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  Speaker 1: they could find a way out of it and make
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  Speaker 1: a profit, that that may very well make sense for them.
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  Speaker 1: And we have now I suppose, pushing towards a billion
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  Speaker 1: dollars of investments from Mackay North, and we have I know,
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  Speaker 1: I said more than that because we've got about six
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  Speaker 1: hundred million in the Northern Territory, so we would love
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  Speaker 1: to have that and expand our industrial footprint up there.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess we made an approach to the owners
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  Speaker 1: going on for twelve months ago and made a couple
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  Speaker 1: of offers in writing, which which they rejected. But that
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that we don't we don't keep trying. I
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  Speaker 1: think for the for the benefit of Northern Territory, Daalen
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  Speaker 1: and all of Australia, that it may certainly work better
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  Speaker 1: equals in the hands of another group, and whether that's
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  Speaker 1: Sentinel or some other group, we'll we'll keep working at
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  Speaker 1: it well.
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  Speaker 2: I'll be interested to hear how that progresses.
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  Speaker 1: Warren.
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  Speaker 2: Great to talk to you again this morning. We really
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  Speaker 2: appreciate you coming on the show.
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  Speaker 1: Terrific. Thanks Katie. We don't own a radio station, you'd neither,
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  Speaker 1: so might be something up there to look about.
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  Speaker 2: We just got brought out by ARN, so maybe not us.
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  Speaker 2: Good on you, Warren, Thank you