Drunks Rule in Alice Springs

Shadow Minister for Central Australia, Matt Conlan, has heard some disturbing accounts about the affects of increasing anti-social behaviour on the employees of retail businesses in Alice Springs.

"After meeting with a number of retailers this morning, I'm really concerned that check-out staff are bearing the brunt of increasingly abusive and threatening behaviour,” says Matt Conlan.

"It's unacceptable that teenagers just doing their jobs are being regularly abused and threatened by adult drunks.

"This type of behaviour is making it much more difficult for small shop owners to recruit and retain staff.

"I'm told some parents have withdrawn their children for part-time jobs because of the threats and abuse they endured at work.

"I'm not surprised that is the outcome, I'd also think twice about letting children of mine work in such conditions.

"Some businesses are now considering closing earlier than they currently do to minimise the impact of this type of behaviour on their staff.

"That's a terrible outcome for the town with shop owner's profits cut, staff's pay reduced and shopping convenience for everyone else diminished.

"It's a disturbing illustration of the ripple effect of crime and anti-social behaviour throughout the community.

"I know I sound like a broken record but one of the real problems here is a lack of police to effectively respond when shop staff are being threatened and abused.

"Even if one is lucky enough to get through on the 131444 police number (and that's rare) the chances of a police patrol arriving in a timely manner are slim.

"We are losing our town whilst the Labor Government loses the battle against drunks – give us the necessary police numbers.”

2008-04-24