Shocking survey results have shown Territory business owners have spent more than 1-million-dollars on repairs linked to crime and anti-social behaviour.
The Property Council of Australia’s latest survey has collected 462 responses, revealing 95 percent of business owners have seen an increase in crime in the last 6 to 12 months.
The survey also highlights the crime many businesses are putting up with have left owners feeling heartbroken and disturbed.
NT Executive Director Ruth Palmer says the rise of anti-social behaviour is discouraging people from running businesses in the NT.
“We had 70 percent of people saying that it has deterred them from further investing into their property and from the possibility of acquiring new property,” she says.
“73 percent said that the behaviour has commercially impacted their businesses.”
A further 15 per cent of participants that took part in the survey had been broken into 11 times, and Ms Palmer says they’re left questioning what the next step should be.
“With the repairs and the damages that they constantly have to be paying for it’s just something that Territorian’s shouldn’t need to be doing,” she says.
“They’re at the point now where they don’t know what more they can do.”
