Tonight on Close Up ` No. (GRUNTS) I told you ` get out. The men at the centre of this viral-video violence join us live. These idiots were just flying through, trying to, you know, disrupt things. And I wanted to just... It was a reaction. It looks like it was a massive overreaction, if you ask me. Plus, the Kiwi Masters graduate fed up with trying to find a job ` why he's pointing the blame at racist bosses. Due to the live nature of Close Up, captions for some items may be incomplete. ONE News captions by Desney Thorogood and John Ling. Close Up captions by June Yeow and Richard Edmunds. Tonight, bad behaviour by adults. Video footage of Auckland artist Craig Platt charging into a young skater then hitting a adult in the throat who took him to task has gone viral and led to an online hate campaign. It occurred at a skating contest in Auckland ` one already being investigated by Auckland mayor Len Brown after organisers of the event let kids tag the park with spray paint. But it's the violence on show on what should have been a family day out that's really grabbed the attention. Take a look at this. No. (GRUNTS) I told you ` get out. Get out. We've got a contest going on here. <BLEEP>. We've got a contest going on here, buddy. Get out. I would not try it on. This is a skate park. Get out. You want security to come? No, no, no, no. Just don't touch kids. No, just` Listen to me. Get out. You're not taking over the skate park I helped design. OK. You are going down, mate. Mate, he cut` No, he's a little kid. He's a little kid. No, this skating competition should not be on. It should be over. It is over. Hey, mate, go back to your own country, man. Do not touch little kids ever! Joining me now are the other players in all of this ` Leighton Dyer ` you saw him in the video getting hit in the neck after remonstrating with Craig Platt about the bullying; also Shay Ataria, a pro skater; and the man who organised yesterday's event, William 'Doc' Murdoch. But one person is missing ` Craig Platt ` the man in the brown shirt. He says he was there was a judge, had his own 11-year-old with him, and that the contest for skaters as young as 6 was constantly disrupted by teenage skaters cutting in. He told Mark Crysell he warned them, but it carried on. These boys kept coming through. I told them three or four times ` 'Don't do it. It's dangerous.' So when he came flying down, I could see there was all these young kids over what's called the rock garden. It's a gap. And so I just lunged towards him and put my shoulder in to stop him doing it. I was just trying to` I didn't hit him. I didn't want to, you know, hurt the kid. I wanted to stop it happening. But you completely wiped him off his skateboard. Yeah, I've seen the footage, and that's exactly` yeah, that's exactly what happened, you know? Were you angry at that stage? > Um, I was frustrated and angry, yeah. I mean, these kids just wouldn't listen. They were just going nuts. Do you get angry normally like that? > Not like that, no. No. Because when you look at the video, it looks very aggressive. It looks like you've... It looks like assault. I know. I know. I've seen the video. And when I saw the video, I wasn't impressed myself, you know? Um,... I didn't think about it. It just happened, you know? It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I knew there was all these little` the 6-year-olds, they couldn't` they were standing down the bottom. And one of them actually bowled one of the little kids when he went through on one run. And that's why I told him to stop, you know? After that, they still kept doing it ` after that incident ` and the security guards had to physically stand either side of them to stop them doing it. You also pushed a man in the throat. Yes. Correct. No, no, no. Don't touch kids. Get out! Why did you do that? (SIGHS) Probably not the best thing to do, to be honest. But he came right at me. And this guy came and started inflaming everything, you know, and I just... I just lunged at him and shoved him out of the way to get him out of the way. I wanted him to get out of there, you know? Wrong thing to do, I know. Would you be surprised if you didn't face a charge of assault for what you did? I don't know, mate. I honestly... don't know. I... Have you spoken to the police? > Yes, I have. What did they say to you? > Um,... (SIGHS) they said there could be a charge faced, you know, if there was an assault charge. But there was all sorts of different things, and we never really got into it. I just wanted` I actually went to the police to... to talk to them today; to explain what had happened and let them know. Would you like to apologise to those people who you pushed and shoved? I apologised to the boys on the day, and they just told me where to go, so I left it there. I went up to them later, and I said, 'Look, I'm sorry for what happened.' I-I had no chance to apologise to Leighton. Um,... I probably would apologise to him, but he was the one that really... annoyed me, you know? You feel they went there to make trouble? That's what other people are saying. On the face of it,... > Yep. ...when you look at that video,... > Yep. ...you look like a bully. > Yes. Correct. Are you a bully? People who know me, who see me in that skate park every weekend, know I'm not a bully. It looks like you. I know, mate. I've seen the footage, you know? Um... When you look at it...? > Oh... The thing is I didn't think. I just wanted to stop 'em, because I knew there was kids in danger; there was kids behind me that... These idiots were just flying through, trying to, you know, disrupt things. I wanted to just... It was a reaction. It looks like a massive overreaction, if you ask me. But he didn't get hurt. I didn't hit him. I just wanted to stop him, you know? So, joining me now, Leighton Dyer and Shay Ataria, and the man who organised yesterday's event, William 'Doc' Murdoch. Leighton Dyer, you heard Craig saying you provoke the situation. that's ludicrous. He's trying to get away with it. I think it's disgusting. no one defends violence against anyone. You weren't there when the incident occurred. one of the young guys was pushed around and they showed me the video. That guy is tiny. William, that guy was a judge. He was part of your crew. I don't think Mr Platt's actions was cool. I don't think that. Security got involved because they were a lot of people at the park at that time who wanted to grab this man's throat. I said please call the police. accusations are the two people got assaulted. The mayor says this can't happen again. did you give spray cans to 10-year-olds? No, I did not. Some older guys grab the paint and started painting. my producers said you told them today that you gave the spray cans to the young guys. what you told my producer today was not right? I take full responsibility for the graffiti. I'm not making excuses for what happened. who gave you the right to graffiti a skate park? do you resent this William Murdoch having a competition there? the central issue here is Len Brown is up in arms. he should be up in arms. I was assaulted at Victoria Park myself. I called the police. A going to call the police over the assault? I don't care about me. I care about that little young lad. we are agreeing, but you seem to want me to disagree. Well, what do you think? Your views are always welcome. You can go to our website or email us at closeup@tvnz.co.nz And we're on Facebook too - facebook.com/closeup Coming up ` the Kiwi master's graduate fed up with trying to find a job. Why he's pointing the blame at racist bosses. You need to know these new rules. This is rule change number two. When you're turning right from the bottom of a T-intersection with no signs or signals, you must now give way to right-turning vehicles at the top of the T. Think ` Let's see that again. Top of the T goes before me. Yik Kun Heng says he'd have more chance getting a job if his name was John because NZ employers are racist. And he's got more than a 170 unsuccessful job applications to back his claim. Yik is a Nzer, been here for 22 years, so it's not a language issue. He earned a master's degree in political science, so he's not afraid of hard work. What he believes is holding him back is racism. Is this an ugly face of job hunting in NZ today? Matt Chisholm with Yik's story. For a while there, I did get a little bit depressed. Yik Kun Heng is livid. Who would not be gutted? Who wouldn't be livid? The 28-year-old says he's being discriminated against because of the colour of his skin and the name on his birth certificate. Kiwis still have a lot to learn about personal race relations. The Malaysian-born Kiwi has applied for 175 jobs after graduating from the University of Auckland with a Political Science degree in 2007. My bachelor's, my honours and my master's ` first-class. Five years of hard work? Five years. Five years. Very proud of it. But he's had just three interviews. What sort of feedback are you getting? So if I'm lucky to get any, usually a generic response saying 'your application has been unsuccessful.' I had hoped that when I graduated I'd have a role as an analyst; whether that was a policy analyst or a business analyst. Are you a good candidate? I do believe so. I came into the workforce with previous work experience in hospitality. I was a tutor at the University of Auckland. I mean, I did the typical Kiwi thing ` you know, I had after-school jobs. While Yik's been unsuccessful, he says his classmates with English-sounding names have all secured good jobs. They're all scattered across various departments with local and` local government and national government. Do you think employers are seeing your name and simply pushing you to the side? Uh, I would say so. I mean, I'd be interested to see anyone else who's had an experience of clocking over 100 job applications. It's been suggested by your career advisor that you change your name to an English-sounding one just to land an interview. Would you do that? (CHUCKLES) Would I do that? No, because if we actually look at performance and professionalism, one of the key things that they always say is know exactly who you are, so how can I be honest with my employers and the colleagues that I'd be working with if I solely adopted an English name just to secure an interview? Seven months after graduating, Yik found basic work at a telco. I do a lot of the back-end administrative support. But he's continued to spend the last three years searching for that career job. It's disheartening, and it's really sad. Do you think NZ employers are missing out on top talent because of racial prejudices? I think they are. I think there are plenty of amazing, talented individuals who have this energy and this drive and this buzz to want to contribute to NZ's business growth, domestically and internationally, but they're not being considered. Fed up, in May, Yik plans to leave the country he's called home for 22 years. Go back to Asia and see what I can achieve there. When you're abroad, what will you tell people about NZ? I would tell them that NZ is an amazing country. But in terms of the employment side, they have to be really prepared to make the tough decisions on how much they're willing to give up on; how much they're willing to sell because of because of the racism. Joining me now is Professor of Sociology Paul Spoonley from Massey University, and Shawn Tam, who set up his own immigration consultancy, having faced problems finding work himself. so this is not new to you? no, it's not. I have a background in law, and I faced similar challenges. Paul, this is par for the course? I'm afraid so. There are some good employers out there, But there are many cases where they will be turned down. if you being kind, the employers have got some concerns, particularly around English language schools. does this apply to other ethnicities as well? it also happens to Indian migrants, who speak English but with an accent. applicants who do adopt an Anglicised name do have an advantage. we are airbrushing the racism? there is an element of airbrushing employers should not be doing the Paul Henry test. They should be looking at the skills they can bring. if this is the mindset, how do they change it? many employers are really resistant to change. The workforce is increasingly made up of immigrants. Is it ignorance or racism? It's �a bit of both. if people are having difficulties looking for jobs, are they going to move into silos? it shouldn't be like that. The thing about the new generations is that the coming through, but excellent skills and backgrounds, and are going to be very good employees in the future. people will see anyone who is different as 'not part of the big picture'. well, birds of a feather flock together. Employers need to look beyond the local workforce. they need to see the need for diversity and employ more diverse workforce. just before we go, what is his best chance of getting a job? he should probably just move. It's unfortunate. And an online discussion is taking place on our Facebook page. You can join in. The question people are posting on is 'are NZ employers racist?' Join the online discussion right now. Go to facebook.com/closeup to have your say. And Facebook's not the only way you can let us know what you think. Go to our website, or email us at closeup@tvnz.co.nz We'll have all of your feedback after the break. And an online discussion is taking place on our Facebook page. You can join in. Time for your feedback now. Here's what you've had to say. Mark writes,... Selena says,... Kimberley: And, on the issue of racism in the job market, Dale emailed in with this: Pat says,... That's NZ Close Up. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012