Tennant Creek publicans claim their businesses are being made scapegoat for town’s sly grog issue
Two Barkly publicans claim NT Police responded to a “busy” night of violence, featuring 29 call-outs, by knocking back half of their takeaway clients the next day instead of addressing the real issue: sly grog in the town.
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Two Red Centre publicans say their bottle shop bottom lines are bearing the brunt of the town’s social issues, alleging the vast majority of their customers were turned away by police in response to a wild night on the beat where cops responded to 29 incidents.
Tennant Creek was down two bottle shops on Saturday, October 19, with Goldfields Hotel general manager Jason Grove and Tennant Creek Hotel licensee Jon Jenkins deciding to shut up shop after each being open for only an hour-and-a-half.
The pair alleged to this masthead the reason they closed early was because police weren’t allowing customers into their bottle shops – with “80 per cent” of Mr Grove’s customers turned away, he claimed.
“They were knocking back client after client after client,” Mr Grove said.
Mr Jenkins questioned whether police were “going for a record on knock-backs” after “50 per cent” of his customers were turned away.
With bottle shops in Tennant Creek reduced to trading three hours from Monday to Saturday – and customers limited to one purchase only – Mr Jenkins said the restrictions on his business made him “want to chuck your hands up and there and say this is just not worth doing”.
In a statement, NT Police said Tennant Creek police were kept “busy” the night prior, Friday, October 17, as they responded to 16 domestic violence call-outs and 13 general disturbances.
However, police denied there was an “official declaration” for its Barkly officers to limit the sale of takeaway alcohol in response.
“Police members are deployed routinely to point of sale intervention duties at all takeaway outlets to ensure compliance and maintain public safety,” police said.
“NT Police became aware that the licensees of two takeaway outlets made the decision to close their takeaway liquor outlets early. One other takeaway outlet in the area remained open for its full trading period.”
But Mr Jenkins believes the cops went for the low-hanging fruit instead of targeting the real culprit: sly grog.
“I feel for the coppers, the job they have, but you can’t destroy other people’s business to make their life easy, and that’s what they’re doing,” Mr Jenkins said.
“It’s becoming ridiculous.”
Mr Grove said the empty bottles littering the streets of Tennant Creek – such as four litre cask wine and bottles of port – are not for sale at his bottle shop.
“The black market – it’s across the Territory, and no one seems to care about it,” he said.
Alcohol Policy Minister and Barkly MLA Steven Edgington said he would “continue to work with my cabinet colleagues and key stakeholders on improving community safety and alcohol laws in the Barkly region”.
“Our new nuisance public drinking powers will allow police to intervene earlier to ensure we stop this scourge in public places where alcohol is prohibited,” he said.
“We want to reduce the harm being caused by alcohol in our community and enforce a higher community standard”.
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Originally published as Tennant Creek publicans claim their businesses are being made scapegoat for town’s sly grog issue
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