PUBLICAN FIGHTS COP SHUTDOWN
FOI reveals why Tennant Creek pub was shut for 48 hours
A WOMAN throwing hot chips at a security guard was one of 11 incidents which led to police shutting down the Tennant Creek Hotel last year, according to documents released through Freedom of Information laws.
NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw used his “emergency powers” to shut the pub on August 8.
At the time, police said there had been 11 separate incidents in 21 days at or near the venue which required a police response.
The pub’s owner, Jordan Jenkins, said his venue was being unfairly blamed as the source of all the town’s troubles.
Mr Jenkins lodged a Freedom of Information request with police for details of the 11 incidents which led to the forced closure.
Only one of the incidents – in which a man with an outstanding warrant assaulted a police officer as police tried to take him into custody – resulted in an immediate arrest.
In several of the incidents used to justify the forced closure, police were called to the pub by hotel staff themselves after they refused service to a minor or denied entry to drunks attempting to enter the pub.
Other incidents involved a couple arguing outside the pub, and several instances in which police moved people on without making arrests.
Mr Jenkins said the shutdown had incurred “significant costs and reputational damage” to his business.
In the days following the shutdown, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the closure sent a message to retailers doing “the wrong thing”.
The then federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, Nigel Scullion, said Mr Jenkins’s hotel had “led to some of the misery” of Tennant Creek.
Mr Jenkins said the legislation handed police an “unfathomably broad scope of reasons” to close any venue.
“Our business was targeted as the source of all the town’s troubles – all without hearing, right of reply or testing of any evidence,” he said.
“Our first-hand experience is an example of why continuing to allow this power to remain unchecked will continue to deprive licensees of natural justice, right to a fair hearing and due process.”
The Sunday Territorian has approached NT Police for comment.