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Speaker 1: Last week during the news we reported on the assault

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Speaker 1: of a hospitality worker out the front of the Maybury

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Speaker 1: after removing a patron from the nightclub. The woman was

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Speaker 1: hit with a bottle and then kicked while she was

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Speaker 1: on the ground. Now that footage has emerged of what

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Speaker 1: is truly a sickening assault, Now joining us on the

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Speaker 1: line is the head of hospitality here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: Kathy Simmons.

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Speaker 2: Get a Kathy Morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Kathy. Firstly, how is this employee from the Maybury?

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Speaker 2: I mean, she's not okay? You know, no one should

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Speaker 2: be facing violence at work and a particularly shocking incident

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Speaker 2: like this. You know, No, she's not okay, and the

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Speaker 2: entire hospitality community is not okay about this. For too long,

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Speaker 2: there's been a bit of a social free pass given

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Speaker 2: to people who you who's alcohol or drugs as an

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Speaker 2: excuse for criminal behavior, and there's been a kind of

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Speaker 2: a risk accepted that if someone who's going out at night,

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Speaker 2: or if they're working at night, they might get hurt.

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Speaker 2: And that has to stop.

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Speaker 1: Kathy. I've got to tell you when I like obviously

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Speaker 1: Kathleen and I report on different bits of news, but

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Speaker 1: when I saw that CCTV CCTV vision, I felt crook

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Speaker 1: in the guts, Like it was absolutely sickening to see,

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Speaker 1: you know, to describe it for our listeners if they

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Speaker 1: have not seen it, I like, this poor employee is

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Speaker 1: obviously asking someone to leave. There's a bit of a

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Speaker 1: scuffle in the background. She then essentially gets glassed allegedly.

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Speaker 1: She appears to me to be unconscious on the ground.

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Speaker 1: Then he comes back with what appears to be head yeah,

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Speaker 1: and has a tomahawk it looks like in his hand.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, that's right. So he's carrying a weapon.

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Speaker 2: He's thrown a glass, used the glass as a weapon,

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Speaker 2: you know, used his He's ticked there. Like this has

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Speaker 2: been like the word shocking keeps coming to mind because

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Speaker 2: I'm just speechless about the level of violence that, you know,

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Speaker 2: I just want to say, like what happened at Maybury

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Speaker 2: was particularly shocking in its level of violence and of

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Speaker 2: course the consequences for the staff member who was attacked.

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Speaker 2: But like the fact that there was aggression towards a

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Speaker 2: hospitality worker is no longer regarded as shocking in itself.

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Speaker 2: It's not unique. Hospitality workers face physical and verbal aggression

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Speaker 2: all too often. This is just a high profile incident

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Speaker 2: that this, you know, it happens far too often. You know.

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Speaker 2: I also want to say that you know, she's she

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Speaker 2: was doing her job. That person was not in Maybury.

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Speaker 2: They were telling him you can't enter. So what has

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Speaker 2: happened here is a grown adult was told no to

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Speaker 2: something that he wanted, and in the course of conducting

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Speaker 2: her job, a staff member has been like, it's just

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Speaker 2: it can't keep happening, Like she's a grown adult and

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Speaker 2: he couldn't be told no about something like this is

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Speaker 2: not you know, this isn't about alcohol. I don't know

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Speaker 2: if he was drunk. I don't know if drugs were involved. Like,

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Speaker 2: this isn't about alcohol. It's not about drugs. It's about

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Speaker 2: a kick here who made a bad choice.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's about behavior, right, Like it's really, really

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Speaker 1: that's bad behavior. I would go so far as to

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Speaker 1: say it's an absolute dogs act, you know, to be

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Speaker 1: to be glassing a woman and then kicking her while

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Speaker 1: she's on the ground, it was horrific. There is no

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Speaker 1: other way to put it. I mean, Kathy like in

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Speaker 1: terms of the injuries that she's sustained, and she liked

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Speaker 1: in my opinion watching that vision, and I'm no medical expert,

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Speaker 1: but she looks lucky, like lucky that she's not seriously

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Speaker 1: seriously injured.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I understand from comments you know, Russell

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Speaker 2: Temple made that you know, she had ten or twelve stitches,

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Speaker 2: and you know she's she's recovery and I don't want

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Speaker 2: to speak for her, you know, and I don't want

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Speaker 2: to breach her privacy in any way as well, but

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Speaker 2: like you know, she's not going to come out of

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Speaker 2: this going like, oh yeah, I've got four hundred percent

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Speaker 2: confidence that I can go to work and be safe

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Speaker 2: at work. And every and again, like every self member

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Speaker 2: in Mitchell Street and beyond is now thinking to themselves,

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Speaker 2: am I going to end up in hospital at the

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Speaker 2: end of the night. And this is not we can't

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Speaker 2: have that, Like we can't. It's it's not acceptable for

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Speaker 2: anyone to face that at work, similar to how healthcare

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Speaker 2: workers as well, you know, parent medics face unprecedential levels

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Speaker 2: of violence and aggression from the people they're trying to help.

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Speaker 2: For in our case that people were trying to serve.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes people were just a little entitled and they need

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Speaker 2: to be told no and you know, if someone is

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Speaker 2: facing that entry to a venue and they're being told no,

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Speaker 2: and they won't pull their heads in, and maybe their

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Speaker 2: mates need to be telling them pull your head in.

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Speaker 1: Tell me, was that the only assault on the weekend,

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Speaker 1: Because I had been told that there was another female

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Speaker 1: hospitality worker that was also seriously injured on the weekend.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure if that is the case.

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Speaker 2: My understanding is that there was another incident earlier in

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Speaker 2: the week and it was a female hospitality worker, but

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Speaker 2: she was off the clock, so she was going from

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Speaker 2: one venue to another venue, having a nice night out

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Speaker 2: as a customer, as a pat. As all territorians, you know,

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Speaker 2: you should be entitled to do exactly another night ruined

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Speaker 2: by someone who can't control themselves.

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Speaker 1: Yep, exactly. Tell me. I mean, we've had female hospitality

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Speaker 1: workers and male hospitality workers get in contact with us

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Speaker 1: and say that they feel that there is an increase

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Speaker 1: in aggression towards them, also an increase in people being armed.

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Speaker 1: From what you are being told by members, is that

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Speaker 1: the case.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, we don't have exact stats on this, but

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Speaker 2: you know, from conversations we've had with police, you know,

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Speaker 2: and you'll have seen it's been reported the crime stats

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Speaker 2: are decreasing, they're hitting in the right direction. But what

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Speaker 2: is of concern is that the level of violence and

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Speaker 2: the severity of harm and the use of weapons, that's

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Speaker 2: what's increasing. And you know, obviously we've seen some completely unprovoked,

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Speaker 2: senseless violence in the last few weeks, and these have

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Speaker 2: been particularly high pro file. But you know, we kind

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Speaker 2: of need to remember that it's a it's broader than

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Speaker 2: just like one incident or two incidents.

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Speaker 1: You know, No, I agree with you. Hey, I understand

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Speaker 1: that there is a go fund me page which has

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Speaker 1: been set up for as I understand it, two women

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Speaker 1: that were assaulted. I'm assuming it's a two that we've

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Speaker 1: just spoken about it, and also to enable female workers

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Speaker 1: to access pepper spray. I mean, there's a bit of

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Speaker 1: discussion at the moment about pepper spray. I mean, the

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Speaker 1: fact is, like, you know, you shouldn't have to arm

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Speaker 1: yourself with it.

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Speaker 2: No, were exactly right, that's right. You know, so Faith

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Speaker 2: Song with amazing DJ her initiative to support her friends

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Speaker 2: and you know, the whole sector here, Like that's fantastic.

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Speaker 2: I think it's fantastic, But like, you know, staff should

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Speaker 2: not have to arm themselves to go to work to

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Speaker 2: be safe at work. It will just lead to serve

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Speaker 2: the escalations like this is not what we want to see.

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Speaker 2: We want to see fuel web in venues, not more

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Speaker 2: like you know this, as you said, this is not

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Speaker 2: about pepper spray. This is not about staff having to

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Speaker 2: arm themselves to feel safe. This guy had already allegedly

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Speaker 2: assaulted other people earlier in the night. He had a weapon, allegedly,

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Speaker 2: but that was on CCTV. You know, filence is not

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Speaker 2: and should never be considered part of the job for

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Speaker 2: hospitality workers, right like this guy was being refused to

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Speaker 2: entry to a venue. They were doing the right scene

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Speaker 2: by their responsible service of alcohol, their licensed responsibilities, their obligations,

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Speaker 2: and as one of their stuff members end up in

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Speaker 2: hospital for it like this is not about pepper spray

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Speaker 2: to an extent, like this isn't about private security or

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Speaker 2: police either, right like police would have done more if

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Speaker 2: they could, would have been there if they could. But

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Speaker 2: with several longer term emergencies occurring asplose to a thousand

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Speaker 2: people evacuated into Darwin like resources are really stretched, right

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Speaker 2: and you wouldn't need to call on the cops if

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Speaker 2: this guy had chosen not to be a dickhead that night.

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Speaker 2: The main that is the main message I think is

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Speaker 2: that we need like less of this spot. It's not

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Speaker 2: about blaming the police. It's not about blaming alcohol, it's

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Speaker 2: not about blaming cops. It's about you pulling your head

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Speaker 2: in when you need to.

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Speaker 1: Make good choices, you know, make better choices. Making the

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Speaker 1: choice to assault a woman in her workplace is not

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Speaker 1: the right one to make. It's so far from it.

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Speaker 1: It makes me really angry. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Like we've seen a renewed focus on domestic violence

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Speaker 2: and you know, reducing violence in the home, but guess

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Speaker 2: like violence on the street is also not acceptable. Violence

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Speaker 2: is never acceptable.

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Speaker 1: So just stop, Kathy Simmons, We're gonna have to leave

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Speaker 1: it there. I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for speaking with us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you