Unwanted groping part of ‘student culture’ in city bars

Wednesday, 24 July 2024

A Wellington bar on the city’s notorious entertainment strip has been described as a “cesspit of creepy old men” who can’t keep their hands to themselves.

The bar, which The Post has made the decision not to name, is one of several Courtenay Place watering holes to feature prominently in a survey of students at Victoria University of Wellington.

It paints a grim picture of club safety in the city, with numerous respondents telling of instances of groping and unwanted advances.

Over 75% of the 140-plus respondents said they had felt unsafe in at least one of Wellington’s nightclub venues.

Phoebe Robertson,editor of student magazine Salient, which did the survey, said the results were disappointing but not surprising.

“It’s well known that ‘student culture’ includes the understanding that town is unsafe for many students. It’s also evident they don’t feel comfortable or protected by the venue or police to report these assaults.”

While the survey was small, in no way scientific or “the be all and end all”, she hoped it would be a starting point for further action and research.

Carried out in June, it comes three years after another online survey found similarly disturbing results.

That survey – by the Wellington Alliance Against Sexual Violence – received more than 2600 responses in 48 hours. Of the respondents, 90% experienced harm in the central city, with 61% reporting it was sexual in nature.

It led to a rally against sexual violence and became integral in the development of the $7.7m Pōneke Promise ‒ a community-driven partnership working to make central Wellington safe and the council’s Sexual Violence Prevention roadmap and action plan.

The plan notes around 94% of sexual violence remained unreported due to ongoing shame, stigma, and systemic barriers to reporting.

Robertson, who had worked extensively in the hospitality sector, said bar owners needed to take responsibility for the environment they created and actively work on promoting safety and support for students.

“This could involve hiring more security staff, but it could also mean believing patrons the first time they say someone is making them feel uncomfortable, rather than waiting to see what happens.

“Ultimately, if bars run solely for profit, what incentive do they have to kick out a patron spending a lot of money at the bar, but [who is] also making women uncomfortable?”

She acknowledged the work the council and others, including police, were doing with bar owners to improve safety, but believed the issue wasn’t being taken seriously enough, given harassment and worse was still occurring regularly.

In Wellington about 30% of harm happens within the Pōneke Promise area, with a majority of victims/survivors being females between the ages of 15-24.

Inspector Dean Silvester, Wellington Area Commander, said police had heard the community’s concerns around safety in the city and were committed to addressing them.

Because incidents involving violence and harm were more likely when alcohol was a contributing factor, extra police were deployed at nights and on weekends when it was expected more people would be in town.

“Police work with Wellington Free Ambulance paramedics to carry out combined public safety patrols in the central city on Friday and Saturday nights to ensure the safety and care of people enjoying a night out in town.”

Mayor Tory Whanau said while long-term changes wouldn’t happen overnight the council was committed to improving safety in the city centre through a reinvigorated city safety plan and strategic leadership group, the City Centre Precinct Plan and the Golden Mile project, all of which would “make the CBD a more friendly and attractive space”.

Alongside that the council had introduced initiatives such as the Safer Venues programme, which upskilled bar staff on how to recognise, prevent and respond to instances of sexual harassment on licensed premises and the funding of Take 10, a late-night “safe zone”, as part of the Sexual Violence prevention action plan.

The 2024-34 long-term plan also increased social grants for safety initiatives in the CBD by $500,000 a year.

Bar owner Greig Wilson was sceptical about the survey, noting the small number of respondents. Bar owners had “never done so much” to keep patrons safe and incidents of harassment had “fallen of the face of the Earth” since the introduction of an identity scanning system, he said.

“Past 10pm we’re scanning everyone’s ID at the door. If we have any problems with them we can search for their face on camera, match them up with their ID and ban them just like that. And not only banned from our premises but from all the other bars as well.”

They said

“At many of these clubs it’s an unspoken experience for a lot of young women that they get groped or hit on quite aggressively.’

“****** was a cess pit of old creepy men that couldn’t keep their hands to themselves.”

“I was groped in all of these places. There are also lots of creepy predatoryish guys in these places.”

“At nearly all of these,I have been groped, or had pervasive sexual comments about my appearance or body.”

“Men that can’t take no for an answer and then start to get hostile.”

“I feel like sometimes it less about what happens in the clubs and more about what happens when you’re bouncing between them, especially if you’re walking alone to go meet with your mates.”