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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, you might recall back in July when the situation
in Alice Springs was flaring up again, the Northern Territory
Police suspended the liquor licenses at two venues. At the time,
we spoke to Alex Bruce from Hospitality NT who had
concerns around those suspensions and some of the comments made.
The managers of one of the pubs had also questioned
the evidence that police had used with their CCTV cameras

(00:23):
showing a different version of events to police. So they
told the Northern Territory News at the time that they'd
troled through their CCTV footage they tried to find evidence
which linked their patrons to an alleged large scale brawl
which police had said took place out the front of
the venue. Now, yesterday the Northern Territory Police issued a
media release correcting and retracting the statements. Hospitality NTCEEO Alex

(00:50):
Bruce joins me on the line. Good morning, Alex, Good
morning Katie.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Alex.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
You had raised concerns with us about this on the
show at the time of the last curfew. Have you
spoken to the managers since that correction was issued?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Not directly, I know the office has been in contact.
We were aware that this retraction or apology was in
the works and we were just waiting for the police
to publish it. But I do want to say Katie,
it's not an isolated one for us, and I think
we've talken about it before. This power continues to get
misused and it's not being used for the intent of

(01:26):
Parliament gave it to the police. So we've written to
both sides, both major parties. We've got their responses back
and both teams have given some public commentary that they
will be looking to review this section of our Act.
We look forward to participating in that.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah. So, Alex, in what way do you feel as
though it's maybe not being used as it's intended, you know,
as it should be.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Okay, So I'll tell you the story as far as
we understand it. Fight. It breaks out at the KFC
in the precinct of the KFC with predominantly kids. It's
spews down to the town Council lawn areas, which is
opposite the two venues predominantly kids. Understand a Territory Families
vehicle is watching this procession as it goes on. The

(02:18):
horrible situation happened in the Todd River subsequent to that,
with those off duty police officers being assaults, and two
days later two of our venues get shut down and
public commentaries made twofold that the people are kicking off
on the council lawn areas were people that have been
in the venues, and also that they've been an ongoing

(02:41):
responsible service of alcohol issues, even though the licensing regulator
had been into the venues the night before and given
them a clean bill of health. So one of the
venues lawyered up, stood up, challenged some of the assertions,
which led to yesterday's correction of what's actually gone on.

(03:03):
So why we say we've got a real problem with
that power is that's the scenario as we understand it
as unfolded. Why the hell are our venues getting named,
shamed and shut down for forty eight hours?

Speaker 1 (03:15):
So what impact did that suspension of the license have
for those venues?

Speaker 3 (03:22):
It often makes national news, Katie, and you know Alice
Springs tragically is in the spotlight for all the wrong
reasons far too often at the moment we saw it,
you know, Philly hot summer February or March seems to
flare up yearly now and if there aren't floods or
fires on the East Coast to worry about, we see

(03:42):
a conger line of interstate media flood into the town
and just start and you know, kids with smartphones just
start magnifying and projecting the real concerns and issues that
that town has, but onto a national stage. And every
time that that has happened, for the recent flare ups,
the police exercised this power and our venues get named

(04:04):
and shames nationally and very strongly linked to they're the
cause of this problem. Well, we've seen a little bit
of ground given yesterday. I'm not going to put words
in polices carefully drafted and scripted mouse, but the claims
that it's all our fold and it's all our fold
all the time are clearly not working. We absolutely appreciate

(04:26):
and love having a strong police presence in and around
our venues. We welcome them, especially down the track through
constantly doing walkthroughs of our venues. We get on really
well at a local level, local police local venues as well.
We should we work through our liquor accords. We look
at this power and we just say, look, they've overshot
the runway continuously on this one. The Liquor Act Review

(04:50):
recommended that was tabled in Parliament last year. The government
nip and tuck this power. We've just got to, you know,
come September, no matter who's empower, let's just get cracking
on that, because Alice, you've had enough of this.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
I know there'll be some people listening this morning saying,
you know, like, are those venues and are all venues
practicing responsible service of alcohol? And you know they obviously
have a part to play as well. I mean, what
do you say to those listening this morning?

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Absolutely, and you know, our cop on the beat as
it is is the Liquor Commission, and the chair of
the Liquor Commission actually resides in Alice Springs, and there
are ways to take our venues or our staff if
we're found to be doing the wrong thing through a
process and penalizes that. It's the structure that's what exists
in every other state, not this cowboy warrior stuff that

(05:40):
once the dost settles, Katie, like what's happened again, what
we get thrown at is proven to be not quite
right where the due process you're shredding the investment certainty
and opportunity for us to grow our venues. We keep
hearing that we want more offerings, diverse offerings, better offerings,
especially Lee and Ella Springs. How are you ever going

(06:02):
to get a bank to finance that where every time
that town's problems are exposed, they come along and shoot
one about venues in the head.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
I want to just play for you some comments that
were made by Minister Kate Worden on the week that
was take a listen.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Got some licensees down there that clearly was selling on
a lot of grog and then putting people out into
the street, and we saw the consequences of that. But
what I'll say about this confuted that dispute away, So
I don't want to have a discussion about that today.
They can dispute all they want, but the police have
the powers, and I've spoken to a number of police
officers and I have to tell you I've seen it myself.

(06:39):
So one of those bars that's being talked about now,
I've seen them pull the shutters down and I've reported
it in order to avoid scrutiny. So you can't see
who they're feeding grog too. That has to change in
our Springs.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's a big call.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
I am telling you a fact what I have seen,
and I have called it in myself. It's a disgrace.
So what we have to have is everybody working together.
We have to have responsible sale of alcohol. We have
to stop people doing these private sales and that's happening
as well, and we're aware of that. So the police
are we giving them the tools to be able to
do something about it.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Alex so a pretty big It was a pretty big
accusation for the minister to make. I mean, I'm sure
you heard it at the time. What do you now
say following on from you know, from the correction yesterday.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well, the police proves that that was the worst performance
since Reagan in the Olympics, Katie.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
So So, I.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Mean, unbelievable. Look what we've got at the moment.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, but do you think that, I mean that does
there need to be a correction then from the minister?

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Well, which one? Because we're dealing with our alcohol policy.
Minister Police Minister Brent Potter, he is one of the
people that has publicly committed to having a look at that.
Following the election, leofanocchiiro is written saying her team's willing
to have a look at it as well, so we're
very preciative of that, the territory family's minister who had

(08:05):
a resource there when the profile was again predominantly kids.
So you see the little two step they do here.
They blame alcohol, they blame adults for an issue that
are predominantly children and young people, Katie, and we're just
getting a bit sick of it.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah. Well, Alex, I really appreciate your time this morning
as always, and I know that you know that you'd
spoken to us at the time as well and raise
the concerns on you know, the day after I think,
or you know, very soon after it had all unfolded.
So appreciate your time as always. And mate, look, I
don't think. I don't know if anything can be much

(08:42):
worse than ray Gun's dance moves at the Olympics are
very very bad.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
That kick you just played was pretty average. Dating zero
out of.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Alex.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Thank you, thanks for your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
We'll talk to you again very soon. Cheers all the
bet Thank you you too.
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