The security of patrons at Australia’s thousands of bars and nightclubs — one of its major tourist drawcards —has been called into question after the death on January 19 of Australian international cricket player and commentator David Hookes.
Hookes (48) died as a result of injuries received in an altercation with a bouncer outside a Melbourne bar. His death has sparked calls for a toughening of laws regulating security practices at entertainment venues across Australia.
Australians spend $A1 in every $A5 on entertainment such as bars, restaurants and nightclubs. And last year 4,7-million tourists consumed around $A12-billion — much of that in bars, restaurants and nightclubs.
The bar and nightclub market is particularly attractive to backpacker tourists in Australia. Research released last year by the Australian Tourism Commission revealed that four in 10 backpackers — who make up 10% of Australia’s annual tourism intake — will spend more than $A10 000 in Australia. Backpackers enjoy the relatively cheap price of alcohol in Australia compared with Europe and the United States and the fact that many backpacker hostels are in areas where there is a preponderance of bars and nightclubs.
In fact, the bar in which the Hookes’s “incident” took place is in the heart of a backpacker hostel district in Melbourne.
Hookes’s death has revealed that security at bars and nightclubs across Australia is plagued by poorly trained crowd-control staff, inadequate screening of employees working in the security industry and the lack of a national strategy to tackle the issue.
One of Australia’s leading experts in the security industry, Dr Tim Prenzler of Queensland’s Griffith University, said that bouncers at nightclubs and bars in Australia are unlikely to be effective in “keeping the peace”. Dr Prenzler pointed to research from the Australian Institute of Criminology that has found that of the 33% of men and 25% of women in Australia who were victims of alcohol-related violence each year, nearly one third had experienced a physical or verbal assault outside of their home. Many of these assaults are occurring in bars and clubs.
In Australia, it is state governments that regulate the hotel and clubs industries and the security industry.
Even the security industry’s national spokesperson, Terry Murphy, last week called for national uniformity and consistency in areas such as training and screening of personnel entering the industry.
The pressure is now mounting on Australia’s federal government to hold an inquiry into bars’ and nightclubs’ security and the Attorney General, Philip Ruddock, has not yet ruled one out, after a call from Australian Democrats Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja for one last week.
Meanwhile, the Australian Tourism Commission continues to promote Australia as a “backpackers heaven” and a “must see” place where tourists can enjoy breathtaking scenery, friendly and high-class service and sample some of the world’s freshest and finest in food and wine.
But Hookes’s death has revealed that for those tourists who want to spend their money in bars and nightclubs, security is now an issue.