Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / SDA NT Director Shlock Sharma says retail workers want reassurance from the NT Government that they’ll make it home safely after work

Transcript

SDA NT Director Shlock Sharma says retail workers want reassurance from the NT Government that they’ll make it home safely after work · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now we know the National Retail Association as well as
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  Speaker 1: the Shop Distributed and Allied Employees Association and plenty of
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  Speaker 1: others are really calling for greater protection for workers in
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  Speaker 1: the wake of the tragic bottle shop attack that we've
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  Speaker 1: been speaking about this morning. Now joining me in the
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  Speaker 1: studio from the SDA is the NT director Schlock Sharma.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to your Schlock.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Mace, I know that everybody is absolutely reeling and
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  Speaker 1: incredibly sad following on from what has happened. What would
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  Speaker 1: the SDA like to see happen to ensure the safety
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  Speaker 1: of workers in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, yeah, members needless to say, they're devastated. A
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  Speaker 3: lot of them are angry, a lot of them are anxious.
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  Speaker 3: Members do a lot of work and expose locations and
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  Speaker 3: they have to witness the very worth of territory has
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  Speaker 3: to offer. So a lot of them want to see
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  Speaker 3: action in this space in terms of what you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're going to be asking government to do. Look, we
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  Speaker 3: don't want to see any reactions to this. We want
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  Speaker 3: really we just want the government to take a minute
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  Speaker 3: and just think about, you know, what they're doing and
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  Speaker 3: is what they're doing making the lives of our members safer.
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  Speaker 3: And our members just want the reassurance that the government
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  Speaker 3: is with them and that they have the guarantee that
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  Speaker 3: they can come home safely after a day of work.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that that is a fair enough request
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  Speaker 1: to make. Everybody deserves to be able to go to
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  Speaker 1: work and to come home safely and to not be
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  Speaker 1: in a situation like we have been. Like we've seen
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  Speaker 1: earlier in the week. What are your members contacting you
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  Speaker 1: and saying you to you at this point?
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  Speaker 2: Look, right now, a lot of them are just anxious,
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  Speaker 2: you know.
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  Speaker 3: And there's a lot of parents actually contacting us right
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  Speaker 3: now too that don't want to send their kids to work.
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  Speaker 3: They don't they never want to see another incident like
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  Speaker 3: this ever happen again. And yeah, a lot of people
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  Speaker 3: are concerned for the safety of young workers right now,
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  Speaker 3: just because what we've.
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  Speaker 2: Heard about is it's terrible.
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  Speaker 3: And I just feel for everybody in the hospitality industry
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  Speaker 3: that everyone working bottle shops right now. They're a tight
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  Speaker 3: knit community and it's just it's horrible what they're going through.
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  Speaker 1: They sure are, And Schlock, I know that you and
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  Speaker 1: I have spoken before as well about some of the
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  Speaker 1: difficult and dangerous situations that our retail workers have been
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  Speaker 1: put into. And yet we've been talking a lot about
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  Speaker 1: those that work in licensed venues and also in bottle
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  Speaker 1: shops over the last couple of days. But the fact
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  Speaker 1: is there's a lot of really quite young retail workers
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  Speaker 1: who aren't feeling entirely safe to go to work right now,
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  Speaker 1: are they.
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  Speaker 3: No, You're absolutely right, Katie, they're not feeling safe. And look,
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  Speaker 3: I think another thing we just want to say to
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  Speaker 3: the government is, look, we've been banging on about this
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  Speaker 3: for a very long time. I've lost count of how
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  Speaker 3: many times I've come on here to tell you about
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  Speaker 3: some of the terrible things that are happening in our stores.
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  Speaker 3: Like they just want the reassurance that the governments got
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  Speaker 3: their back. And look, a lot of government members have
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  Speaker 3: contacted the SDA. Their blood's boiling, they've got kids themselves.
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  Speaker 3: We know that they care about our members, but we're
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  Speaker 3: just asking them we'll take a macro look at this,
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  Speaker 3: you know, take a look at everything. You know, is
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  Speaker 3: the government resourcing the regulator enough to protect workers? You know,
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  Speaker 3: take a look at you know, how many times this
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  Speaker 3: particular individual interacted with the criminal justice system, and is
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  Speaker 3: this something that the government could have done better. We're
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  Speaker 3: not calling on them to do something straight away. We
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  Speaker 3: know a knee jerk reaction is the worst possible thing
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  Speaker 3: to do right now. Just take a look, review what
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  Speaker 3: you're doing, be transparent about what you're doing, and just
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  Speaker 3: think about whether or not you're working towards making the
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  Speaker 3: lives of our members safer.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Mate, I think that that's a fair enough call,
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  Speaker 1: and I think that a lot of people would agree.
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  Speaker 1: You know, people do deserve to be.
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  Speaker 2: Able to go to work safely.
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  Speaker 1: They do need to take a look at all those
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  Speaker 1: different touch points and see whether things could be managed
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  Speaker 1: differently and better to ensure that we are not in
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  Speaker 1: a situation. Should light this again, Schlock. I always appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time, Always appreciate you coming into the studio. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much for having your chat with us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie. Thank you for advocacy for our members.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you