AACS CEO, Jeff Rogut, on radio 3AW supporting our industry against crime

HEIDI MURPHY:                    A lot – a lot – has been said about crime, and particularly African crime, of late, here on this radio station, in the pages of newspapers right round the country, TV screens and, of course, it’s been all over various platforms of social media. There’s a lot of wildly varying opinions: it’s a crisis; it’s not a crisis; we’re living in fear; nah, there’s nothing to be afraid of; no one’s going out for dinner; no, no one’s cowering under their sheets at home. Which is it? You tell me, which is it, 96 900 693 13 13 32.
Yesterday afternoon the chief commissioner held his first media conference after returning from sick leave. Graham Ashton stood shoulder-to-shoulder with about a dozen African community leaders and announced that a special taskforce is being set up to tell police about emerging hot spots and issues in the African community. And Graham Ashton stood at that media conference and declared there is no African gangs crisis. He said that he doesn’t think anyone is sitting at home cowering with the sheets over their heads. And he declared it is utter garbage that Victoria is not a safe place to live.
Well, one man suggests it might be time to give the chief commissioner a reality check. And he’s got a challenge to issue along those lines. Jeff Rogut is the chief executive officer of the Australasian Association of Convenient Stores, and he joins me on the line now. Good morning, Jeff.
JEFF ROGUT:                         Good morning, Heidi. Good to be with you.
HEIDI MURPHY:                    Good to speak with you. What was your reaction to the chief commissioner’s comments yesterday?
JEFF ROGUT:                         Look, I was really concerned with it, Heidi, because this is not a new issue; it’s one that we have been discussing with the police for a number of years, and indeed the Government. And let me say right up front; we have enormous respect for the work that the police do and we certainly value what they do. But it was really interesting when looking at a website of one of the major daily papers yesterday, there were two articles. The first article said: top cop slams gang fears. And immediately underneath that was: gangs rob Melbourne servos. And that is the reality; gangs are robbing Melbourne servos on, if not a daily basis, at least a weekly basis. And …
HEIDI MURPHY:                    [Interrupts] Yeah, during the show yesterday we learned about four service station robberies, two involving African gangs, and there’s been some CCTV footage of that around. Those two robberies took place within a couple of- within a few minutes of each other, actually, in a short distance away. They were possibly connected; the men were armed with knives, hammers, crowbars. Separately to that we had a tip that a third and then a fourth robberies had taken place, one at Lysterfield, and one at Nunawading. So, all up that was four in one night that we know of. How unusual is that?
JEFF ROGUT:                         It’s not unusual at all. And yet, the statistics that we see and we get through our members – and even through some of the police statistics – that is common. And whether it’s African gangs or any other criminal activity, it is just unacceptable that in Melbourne and in Australia, people go to work – and these are the people that work in these stores, they’re there 24 hours serving the community – and can’t be guaranteed that they’re going to go home safe at night. It is just unacceptable and there needs to be greater deterrents from government, from the judiciary, and giving police more powers to do what they should be doing with these people.
HEIDI MURPHY:                    I think we all know that’s the solution to it. But we know it, we discuss it. Why isn’t it happening, Jeff?
JEFF ROGUT:                         I just don’t think there’s the courage of government to do it. Now, let me say – giving the Opposition credit and I guess it’s easier to talk from opposition – but the Opposition came out very strongly with us in media last year and have given the commitment to our industry as an example that if they win office, petrol theft – which cost our industry about $60 million a year – will be declared a crime. We can not get the Government to recognise the fact that petrol theft is a crime and should be declared a crime and there needs to be deterrents and penalties in place. There’s a very simple solution to one problem that could be fixed for our industry, and it sends a strong message to these criminals that it just won’t be tolerated. The will power just does not seem to be there.
HEIDI MURPHY:                    Do you believe the Chief when he says it’s garbage to suggest Victoria is not a safe place to live?
JEFF ROGUT:                         No we don’t, and if you talk to the people in the streets, it may be fine in the inner suburbs, but go out to the outer suburbs, where these gangs have been rampant. Talk to the people that have been invaded in their homes, talk to the jewellery people that have had their stores robbed and ransacked, talk to our members that have had these violent attempts at robberies on them, and very quickly you’ll see the true side of what’s happening in Melbourne. The garbage story from the Commissioner, to me, is just spin. As I say, I value what the- work the police do. I respect Commissioner Ashton, but that comment I think was uncalled for yesterday, particularly where in the same medium, as you just outlined, four service stations were robbed by the very gangs he says do not exist. And we just cannot accept that.
HEIDI MURPHY:                    Jeff, you’ve got a challenge you want to issue to the Chief Commissioner, what is that?
JEFF ROGUT:                         Look, it’s not as much as a challenge, it’s a reality check, and I suggest to the Commissioner to go unarmed, as our members do, work in any service station in these hotspots in Melbourne, between 10 o’clock at night and 5 o’clock in the morning, as a sole operator, and see how safe one feels.
Our people feel incredibly threatened and that shouldn’t be the case. The vast majority of people do the right thing. They fill up, they come into the store, pay for their goods, buy other things and leave. But with the current state of gang activity, our people are feeling very, very vulnerable and very unsafe. Our members have spent an enormous amount on security measures. They’ve put in bollards, they’ve strengthened glass, they have other alarm mechanisms in their stores. But still, when you’re attacked by four, five or six of these people, you are very vulnerable. Now I suggest that, and I’d offer the Commissioner, we’d be very happy to set it up for him, to spend an evening in one of these stores without any armaments at all, with just a counter between him and the customers – or these violent thugs – and see how safe he feels. He will not feel safe in that environment at all.
HEIDI MURPHY:                    Now, you say- I think it’s an excellent idea, I think it’s certainly one way to see what it’s really like out on the streets. You want Graham Ashton out there. What about some politicians, would it be worthwhile getting some politicians out there to experience the same thing?
JEFF ROGUT:                         Absolutely. It’s an open invitation and we’re very happy to make contact with him to set it up. And not to be there at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, when it’s people going about their legitimate business buying lunch or whatever. But come there at night – 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock; 2 o’clock in the morning, 4 o’clock in the morning – that’s when the reality hits home about what these gangs are doing and how vulnerable the people are that work in these stores. A legitimate day’s work.
HEIDI MURPHY:                    How likely, Jeff, do you think it might be that your invitation is accepted by anyone?
JEFF ROGUT:                         Look, I think there are members of the police, I’m not sure of the Commissioner’s schedule, whether he’d be willing too, but certainly a number of members of police do visit the site and they are out and about, and it would be good to do it on a very formal basis, so that they could actually measure and see what actually happens in these stores. The same goes out to the politicians, both the Government and Opposition, we’d be very happy to host them in any number of stores in any part of Melbourne that they wish to be.
HEIDI MURPHY:                    Alright, Jeff, I think you might have to assure them of their safety and I don’t know that you can assure them of their safety.
JEFF ROGUT:                         [Laughs] No.
HEIDI MURPHY:                    No. Alright, Jeff, thank you so much for your time this morning. Really appreciate it. Jeff Rogut, there, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores.
What do you think? Is that where we’re at now – we need to put our Chief Commissioner behind the counter of a convenience store, politicians behind the counter of a convenience store, a service station, in the middle of the night? No security, no weapons on them. Put them out there exactly as a normal servo worker would be in the middle of the night – is that what it’s going to take?