Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hospitality NT urging the Northern Territory government to reinstate nighttime
security patrols in Darwin, CBD. After well, it looks as
though they've been wound back in June. Now the patrols
by Territory Protective Services now stop at eight pm on weekdays,
seven pm on Saturdays and go from ten am until
(00:21):
two pm on the weekends, as I understand it. That's
according to a report by the ABC. Now joining us
on the show is the CEO of Hospitality here in
the Northern Territory, Kathy Simmons. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Good morning Katie.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah? Really good, lovely to have you on the show. Kathy,
tell me what's the situation here with this security and
what appears to be a rollback.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
The decision was made to roll back those patrols after
seven pm on weekdays and at different times on weekends
as well.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It might be eight pm on weekdays.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I beg your pardon, and I'm told that that's in
line with you seasonality. There's fewer callouts after those times,
and you know it's taxpayers money, so I understand that.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But there's fewer callouts at those times. Because there's fewer
businesses open.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, and so what I mean, what are businesses saying
to you in terms of that rollback of security or
even the if you want to call it rescheduling of time.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Well, it's really noticeable that the patrols are no longer there,
that TPS isn't there at night to talk to people
who are usually around the city at night and maintaining
those relationships and reducing those number of incidents before they
even happened. They were doing a really good job and
that's why they weren't noticeable.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, you did see the blue shirts.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Around, but you didn't notice the underlying duties that they
had that what they were doing was really calming the
city down.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And it's definitely absolutely noticeable at night.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
What are some of the businesses saying to you in
terms of some of the behavior that they are dealing
with and that they're having to continue.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, I mean our hotel, my hotel members, the accommodation members.
So they don't have crowd controllers, they don't have private security.
I think it'd be a pretty poor look for Darwin particularly,
you know, it's a capital city if you start having
private security at the door of a hotel when you
turn up, you start to think, okay, this Beirut, like,
(02:21):
what the hell is going on? So not something that
we want to give our visitors when they arrive. But
what is happening in our hotels is that people will
walk in off the street, kind of set up camp
in the foyer, make a bit of a nuisance of themselves,
start humbugging guests. It's really it's quite confronting for people
(02:42):
who aren't used to the sort of any social behavior
that sadly Territorians are kind of used to.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
We are very used to it now, I guess. You know,
in an ideal world, if something like that happens, you
call the police and they come out immediately and help
out it that business. But we live in a world
where our police are really bloody busy. So when those
businesses then make that call to the Northern Territory Police,
are they able to get someone out there.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
No, that's right, No, they don't. The police don't come,
and I'm sure it's not because they don't want to come.
Of course they want to come, but there's higher level
incidents that they are responding to. There's so much going
on that the police need to be responding to. And
that's the gap that TPS services in this space.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Were really responding to.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I don't want to say that they only had one job,
but they kind of only had one job, and that
was to keep the peace.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
In this part of town.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
And there are other similar services, similar patrols in other
parts of town.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
There's one Palmston, there's.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
One in the northern suburbs as well, and they are
there for businesses that are open late or you know,
whoever it might be, to respond to those calls.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And in the city that's just not happening at now.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, I mean that was going to be something that
I asked, is this just a situation for us in
the city, because we also know that like perhaps for example,
you know Nightcliff, there's venues out there where some of
there may be licensed venues, so they may have their
own private security. But are you you know, are you
hearing that these issues in some of those areas as
well where the TPS have been operating.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
No, I haven't heard as many issues from those other areas.
The Northern Suburbs seem to keep having the same level
of service that they've had, and Palmerston as well, that's
my understanding. If any of my members are listening and
they want to raise concerns, you know, you need to
call me. But that's It's the really acute issue now
is the city and I think if there are people
(04:31):
going out for a meal or for a nice night out,
I'd be interested to see if they've noticed it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Too, Kathy.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
The government says that patrol scheduling changes in response to
spikes in anti social behavior is you know, is the
reason why there might be some changes. They've also pointed
to the fact that the City of Darwin made the
decision under the former mayor to cut that funding contribution
last year. I mean, what do you say to that, Oh.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's definitely a I believe it was definitely an idea
that the previous council had come up with to support
the city in this way and the inner city in
this way, and it was a great idea then. And
I don't understand why council would have chosen to cut
the services. No doubt, it's a money thing. But the
(05:19):
NTG at the time stepped in to continue those services
and ensure there was that service coverage for these lower
level incidents that really are so every day that you know, again,
territories hardly see them, but it's important to.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Keep addressing them.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It really is important, and it's very important for my
members that people can kind of go out and have
a good time, and that's locals and visitors. And just
in response to the seasonality, Okay, we've had a wonderful
dry season, nice extensive dry season, and you know, visitors
are actually still here. It's been quite quite a good
dry season, and they seem they'll still be here for
maybe another week or two and then then we'll start
(05:57):
seeing everything quiet.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Off in terms of visitors.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
But this is also the time when things ramp up
from an antisocial behavior perspective.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
This is when we need the nighttime services back.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And so what is your message this morning? First off,
for the Northern Territory Government. What needs to happen here?
Would you like to see those services ramped back up?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
By the sounds of it, My call is for both
Counsel and the NTG to talk to each other and
to us about this and to bring back those services absolutely.
You know, I think that there is a space here
for Counsel to contribute as well. It was their policy
to start with, and i'd love to see it come back,
and I've written to the new Lord Mayor about this.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, look, I think it is it's you know, on
everybody issue, right. We all need to make sure that
the Northern Territory, our CBD, our capital City of the
Northern Territory, and it's CBD is inviting for everybody to
be here and that we don't have antisocial behavior right
there on our streets that we've become accustomed to now.
(06:59):
I know the time when the Council pulled back that funding,
Convat Scalas had joined me in the studio and had said,
you know, the reason for it was because he felt
that it was the job of the Northern Territory Police,
that the police needed to be doing their job, and
if they were doing the job that they've been given
record funding to do, that that private security wouldn't be needed.
I had argued that, you know, we weren't quite there yet.
(07:22):
We still need to boost those police numbers and if
we do get to the point, you know where we
can have some of the you know, some of the
anti social patrols that we maybe used to see back
in the day with our on horseback on the segues,
you know out and about now CBD, then maybe you know,
we could get rid of the private security, but.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I don't think we're quite there. Yes, that's right. It's
about visibility.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And you know, as you say, we don't have the
police numbers up to where we where we want them
to be. And you can throw another billion dollars at
the same number of police officers that we have right
now and they still won't be able to address every crime.
So until we have that, let's get the private security
back in to address these laws level issues. Have that
visibility that the police numbers that we have can't quite cover.
(08:05):
And then yeah, and then the problem addresses itself a
little bit more. That's the thing, right, Like we had
this service before, now we don't have it at this time,
and the incidents are ramping up.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Let's keep the momentum going. Bring back the services at night, Kathy.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Before I let you go, we're a few days in
now to the luxA Festival. How are things going? According
to the hospitality workers, everybody working in hospitality across the
Northern Territory, but well up here in Darwin where we
love our luxA.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Everyone talks a big game about the weather in the
dry season. But honestly, October is my favorite time of
the year. I love the luxA Festival and I was
just at copy stop this morning. Yep, probably a little
bit too early on a workday to be having a LUSA,
although I'm not afraid of a breakfast lucks so as well.
But I did get their lucks of cookies smash they are.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I tried those the other day and they're quite delicious.
A bit different.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, Well, they had a luxA muffin last year and
they bring that back occasionally as well, but that is.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
The luxA muffin is my favorite. But I love a
good lux up Kathy. I've been pushing for it for
the last few days and I'm gonna continue my push.
Why do we not have a luxA bib and how.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Do we get on? I completely agree.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I think I think there is a revenue measure to
be established here. Lux of Festival organizers, come on, make
a bib, branded bib, change it.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Every year. People are by people collected.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Look, I do the old you know, do it myself
tissues like into my show myself. But we need a
bi We need a proper bib.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Absolutely, I think this is a great idea. Yeah, I'm
expecting a station kickback here.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
From the concepts or now.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Look. I'm happy for whoever wants to run public service.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
The idea is a public service. It is make a
golden one for you.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Okay, be good to catch up with you this morning.
We'll catch up with your very soon. Thank you, Thanks
so much,
Hospitality NT urging the Northern Territory government to reinstate nighttime
security patrols in Darwin, CBD. After well, it looks as
though they've been wound back in June. Now the patrols
by Territory Protective Services now stop at eight pm on weekdays,
seven pm on Saturdays and go from ten am until
(00:21):
two pm on the weekends, as I understand it. That's
according to a report by the ABC. Now joining us
on the show is the CEO of Hospitality here in
the Northern Territory, Kathy Simmons. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Good morning Katie.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah? Really good, lovely to have you on the show. Kathy,
tell me what's the situation here with this security and
what appears to be a rollback.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
The decision was made to roll back those patrols after
seven pm on weekdays and at different times on weekends
as well.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It might be eight pm on weekdays.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I beg your pardon, and I'm told that that's in
line with you seasonality. There's fewer callouts after those times,
and you know it's taxpayers money, so I understand that.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But there's fewer callouts at those times. Because there's fewer
businesses open.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, and so what I mean, what are businesses saying
to you in terms of that rollback of security or
even the if you want to call it rescheduling of time.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Well, it's really noticeable that the patrols are no longer there,
that TPS isn't there at night to talk to people
who are usually around the city at night and maintaining
those relationships and reducing those number of incidents before they
even happened. They were doing a really good job and
that's why they weren't noticeable.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, you did see the blue shirts.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Around, but you didn't notice the underlying duties that they
had that what they were doing was really calming the
city down.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And it's definitely absolutely noticeable at night.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
What are some of the businesses saying to you in
terms of some of the behavior that they are dealing
with and that they're having to continue.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, I mean our hotel, my hotel members, the accommodation members.
So they don't have crowd controllers, they don't have private security.
I think it'd be a pretty poor look for Darwin particularly,
you know, it's a capital city if you start having
private security at the door of a hotel when you
turn up, you start to think, okay, this Beirut, like,
(02:21):
what the hell is going on? So not something that
we want to give our visitors when they arrive. But
what is happening in our hotels is that people will
walk in off the street, kind of set up camp
in the foyer, make a bit of a nuisance of themselves,
start humbugging guests. It's really it's quite confronting for people
(02:42):
who aren't used to the sort of any social behavior
that sadly Territorians are kind of used to.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
We are very used to it now, I guess. You know,
in an ideal world, if something like that happens, you
call the police and they come out immediately and help
out it that business. But we live in a world
where our police are really bloody busy. So when those
businesses then make that call to the Northern Territory Police,
are they able to get someone out there.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
No, that's right, No, they don't. The police don't come,
and I'm sure it's not because they don't want to come.
Of course they want to come, but there's higher level
incidents that they are responding to. There's so much going
on that the police need to be responding to. And
that's the gap that TPS services in this space.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Were really responding to.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I don't want to say that they only had one job,
but they kind of only had one job, and that
was to keep the peace.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
In this part of town.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
And there are other similar services, similar patrols in other
parts of town.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
There's one Palmston, there's.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
One in the northern suburbs as well, and they are
there for businesses that are open late or you know,
whoever it might be, to respond to those calls.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And in the city that's just not happening at now.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, I mean that was going to be something that
I asked, is this just a situation for us in
the city, because we also know that like perhaps for example,
you know Nightcliff, there's venues out there where some of
there may be licensed venues, so they may have their
own private security. But are you you know, are you
hearing that these issues in some of those areas as
well where the TPS have been operating.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
No, I haven't heard as many issues from those other areas.
The Northern Suburbs seem to keep having the same level
of service that they've had, and Palmerston as well, that's
my understanding. If any of my members are listening and
they want to raise concerns, you know, you need to
call me. But that's It's the really acute issue now
is the city and I think if there are people
(04:31):
going out for a meal or for a nice night out,
I'd be interested to see if they've noticed it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Too, Kathy.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
The government says that patrol scheduling changes in response to
spikes in anti social behavior is you know, is the
reason why there might be some changes. They've also pointed
to the fact that the City of Darwin made the
decision under the former mayor to cut that funding contribution
last year. I mean, what do you say to that, Oh.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's definitely a I believe it was definitely an idea
that the previous council had come up with to support
the city in this way and the inner city in
this way, and it was a great idea then. And
I don't understand why council would have chosen to cut
the services. No doubt, it's a money thing. But the
(05:19):
NTG at the time stepped in to continue those services
and ensure there was that service coverage for these lower
level incidents that really are so every day that you know, again,
territories hardly see them, but it's important to.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Keep addressing them.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It really is important, and it's very important for my
members that people can kind of go out and have
a good time, and that's locals and visitors. And just
in response to the seasonality, Okay, we've had a wonderful
dry season, nice extensive dry season, and you know, visitors
are actually still here. It's been quite quite a good
dry season, and they seem they'll still be here for
maybe another week or two and then then we'll start
(05:57):
seeing everything quiet.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Off in terms of visitors.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
But this is also the time when things ramp up
from an antisocial behavior perspective.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
This is when we need the nighttime services back.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And so what is your message this morning? First off,
for the Northern Territory Government. What needs to happen here?
Would you like to see those services ramped back up?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
By the sounds of it, My call is for both
Counsel and the NTG to talk to each other and
to us about this and to bring back those services absolutely.
You know, I think that there is a space here
for Counsel to contribute as well. It was their policy
to start with, and i'd love to see it come back,
and I've written to the new Lord Mayor about this.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, look, I think it is it's you know, on
everybody issue, right. We all need to make sure that
the Northern Territory, our CBD, our capital City of the
Northern Territory, and it's CBD is inviting for everybody to
be here and that we don't have antisocial behavior right
there on our streets that we've become accustomed to now.
(06:59):
I know the time when the Council pulled back that funding,
Convat Scalas had joined me in the studio and had said,
you know, the reason for it was because he felt
that it was the job of the Northern Territory Police,
that the police needed to be doing their job, and
if they were doing the job that they've been given
record funding to do, that that private security wouldn't be needed.
I had argued that, you know, we weren't quite there yet.
(07:22):
We still need to boost those police numbers and if
we do get to the point, you know where we
can have some of the you know, some of the
anti social patrols that we maybe used to see back
in the day with our on horseback on the segues,
you know out and about now CBD, then maybe you know,
we could get rid of the private security, but.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I don't think we're quite there. Yes, that's right. It's
about visibility.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And you know, as you say, we don't have the
police numbers up to where we where we want them
to be. And you can throw another billion dollars at
the same number of police officers that we have right
now and they still won't be able to address every crime.
So until we have that, let's get the private security
back in to address these laws level issues. Have that
visibility that the police numbers that we have can't quite cover.
(08:05):
And then yeah, and then the problem addresses itself a
little bit more. That's the thing, right, Like we had
this service before, now we don't have it at this time,
and the incidents are ramping up.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Let's keep the momentum going. Bring back the services at night, Kathy.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Before I let you go, we're a few days in
now to the luxA Festival. How are things going? According
to the hospitality workers, everybody working in hospitality across the
Northern Territory, but well up here in Darwin where we
love our luxA.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Everyone talks a big game about the weather in the
dry season. But honestly, October is my favorite time of
the year. I love the luxA Festival and I was
just at copy stop this morning. Yep, probably a little
bit too early on a workday to be having a LUSA,
although I'm not afraid of a breakfast lucks so as well.
But I did get their lucks of cookies smash they are.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I tried those the other day and they're quite delicious.
A bit different.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, Well, they had a luxA muffin last year and
they bring that back occasionally as well, but that is.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
The luxA muffin is my favorite. But I love a
good lux up Kathy. I've been pushing for it for
the last few days and I'm gonna continue my push.
Why do we not have a luxA bib and how.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Do we get on? I completely agree.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I think I think there is a revenue measure to
be established here. Lux of Festival organizers, come on, make
a bib, branded bib, change it.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Every year. People are by people collected.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Look, I do the old you know, do it myself
tissues like into my show myself. But we need a
bi We need a proper bib.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Absolutely, I think this is a great idea. Yeah, I'm
expecting a station kickback here.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
From the concepts or now.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Look. I'm happy for whoever wants to run public service.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
The idea is a public service. It is make a
golden one for you.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Okay, be good to catch up with you this morning.
We'll catch up with your very soon. Thank you, Thanks
so much,
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