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Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As you've heard in recent weeks that discussion that we've
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: been having about those vaccine rates and when Australia is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: actually going to open up, well, they're well and truly underway.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: We've spoken a lot about it and most agree that
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: we need a really clear plan, I think, to get
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: those rates up and ensure that people are fully vaccinated. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as we know, the hospitality industry takes a hit every
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: time a lockdown happens or a border to a key
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  Speaker 1: market closers and the industry is strongly encouraging all workers
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and customers to get vaccinated as quickly as possible. Now
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  Speaker 1: joining me on the line is the CEO of Hospitality NT,
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  Speaker 1: Alex Bruce.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, Alex, goody, Katie. Well done with the run with
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  Speaker 2: dad yesterday?
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  Speaker 1: Oh thank you? Yes, busy morning. I've had three coffees
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  Speaker 1: already this morning, just making sure that I've woken up.
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  Speaker 2: So that was good with great?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah we are Yeah, it was good fun, no doubt
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  Speaker 1: about it, Alex. I know that there's been so much
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  Speaker 1: debate around the place about whether we should be allowing
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  Speaker 1: different people, if they've had their vaccine, to go into
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  Speaker 1: different venues, you know, gyms, flights, that kind of thing.
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  Speaker 1: But I noted on the weekend are you written opinion
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  Speaker 1: piece for the paper? Well, you sort of question more
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  Speaker 1: whether it's a matter of not so much the stick
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  Speaker 1: approach in terms of not allowing people to do things
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  Speaker 1: if they haven't been vaccinated, but maybe going down that
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  Speaker 1: carrot approach where we offer incentives.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, And you know, governments at both levels have
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  Speaker 2: a range of incentives to shape people's behavior for a
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: whole range of our public goods. So you know, when
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  Speaker 2: you think of COVID and the impact it has on tourism,
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  Speaker 2: hospitality and lockdowns, construction sectors, you know, the full works
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  Speaker 2: and the community themselves, why wouldn't we be looking at
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  Speaker 2: incentivizing if that's going to help us get to that
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  Speaker 2: safe level sooner.
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  Speaker 1: What kind of incentives do you reckon would work? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I know that you know that people have sort of
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  Speaker 1: seen it at different times, so maybe it needs to
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  Speaker 1: be a financial incentive. But what do you think would
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  Speaker 1: kind of be something that could work.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I look, we know everyone's bit cash strap, so there's
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  Speaker 2: incentives that are already ongoing. I'll just pose the question.
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  Speaker 2: I'll leave it to others, and look, we're looking forward
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  Speaker 2: to the time when the only time we're talking, Katie
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: is about how cold the beers are and how well
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  Speaker 2: cooked the schnitzels are. But there just is not enough
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  Speaker 2: leadership or certainty coming out of either level of government
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  Speaker 2: for our industry, for territories that have been double vaxed,
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  Speaker 2: wanting to know if they can see their loved ones
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  Speaker 2: this Christmas. So that's why we are out in the
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  Speaker 2: space a little bit more than we otherwise. Would be
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  Speaker 2: the back to school vouchers. I put that one on
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  Speaker 2: the table. They're administered by the schools. The schools already
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  Speaker 2: have all the personal information, you know, mum and dad,
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  Speaker 2: the emergency contacts, what the name, date of birth, or
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  Speaker 2: everything of the children. So they already safely and securely
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  Speaker 2: managed that data. Would it be that much more to
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: come out now to incentivize anyone that is still a
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  Speaker 2: little bit vaccine hesitant to say, well, if you want
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  Speaker 2: those back to school vouchers for your kids term one
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  Speaker 2: of next year, you've got to be double vaccinated.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and do you know what we already do that?
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  Speaker 1: I guess with some of the other vaccination programs in
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  Speaker 1: childcare centers. You know there's a lot of those childcare
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  Speaker 1: centers I remember from where my kids were quite small.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't so much I suppose about that carrot approach,
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  Speaker 1: but it was probably more the stick where it was like,
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  Speaker 1: if your kids aren't vaccinated, you're actually not going to
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  Speaker 1: get you know, some of those childcare rebates and things
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  Speaker 1: that most Ausi's religible for.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. Childcare subsidies and family assistance payments are linked
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  Speaker 2: to child vaccination rates. Isn't that much of a step
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  Speaker 2: to look at some of those for parental vaccination rates.
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  Speaker 2: We do share the concerns from the teachers and education unions.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we might have a mass evacuation of educators
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  Speaker 2: and they might not return if we can't allow them
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  Speaker 2: to post Christmas even though they've been double vaccinated. So
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  Speaker 2: the other thing we put on the table, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we met with all of our accommodation houses last week.
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  Speaker 2: They're getting incredible pressure nationally and internationally to cast their
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  Speaker 2: mind forward for the next twelve months. It's actually becoming
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  Speaker 2: easier for their counterparts down South to project what and
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  Speaker 2: forecast what's going on, and we ultimately just don't think
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  Speaker 2: it's good enough that we're still hearing are. We're looking
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  Speaker 2: at some numbers. We're carrying a zero and divided by five,
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  Speaker 2: and we'll get back to you. Like you know, this
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  Speaker 2: is eighteen months on and if anything, the uncertainty is
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  Speaker 2: getting worse and more prolonged.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I know that some people listening
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  Speaker 1: right now Alex might be thinking, well, why is business
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  Speaker 1: sort of getting involved in this debate? You know, shouldn't
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  Speaker 1: it come down to Well, I don't know whether it
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  Speaker 1: should be the Education Department or health or whoever to determine,
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  Speaker 1: you know, whether kids should get or whether their families
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  Speaker 1: should get those rebates, or whether they should get those
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  Speaker 1: back to school vouchers. But I guess you know, what
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  Speaker 1: you and others in business are calling for at the
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  Speaker 1: moment is just like a really clear plan.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. And I'm not, you know, clear that we
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  Speaker 2: support everyone in the health space. Quheggy in his frontline
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  Speaker 2: work is the police that have been on the board
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  Speaker 2: is doing an incredible job. You know, we accept that
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  Speaker 2: they're doing a lot of work. They're doing a lot
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  Speaker 2: of work to try and get those remote vaccination rates up.
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  Speaker 2: It's devastating to hear some communities as low as four percent.
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  Speaker 2: If that's what nine months of very hard work has
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  Speaker 2: got us. We're a long long way away from some
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  Speaker 2: of these well we don't even know what the end
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  Speaker 2: end targets are. So look nothing against all those hard
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  Speaker 2: working public servants and frontline workers out there, but there
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  Speaker 2: is an absolute vacuum in leadership telling us where we're
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  Speaker 2: all going.
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  Speaker 1: So, Alex, what do you reckon needs to happen here,
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  Speaker 1: like over the next couple of weeks? And we all
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  Speaker 1: understand that it's not going to sort of happen, you know,
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  Speaker 1: today or maybe not even tomorrow, but over the next
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  Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Do you think that we need that
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  Speaker 1: really clear plan from both tiers of government saying Okay,
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  Speaker 1: if you haven't been vaccinated, these are the different ways
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  Speaker 1: that you know the or these are the different things
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that you might not be able to receive any longer.
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  Speaker 1: Or if you are vaccinated, you know you're going to
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  Speaker 1: still be eligible for X, Y and Z.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, our little office here is one hundred percent vaccinated,
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  Speaker 2: I know, all my extend the family, or one hundred
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  Speaker 2: percent vaccinated. As an industry, we support the National Plan
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  Speaker 2: and if the Chief Minister is going to deviate from
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  Speaker 2: the National Plan, he needs to articulate very clearly what
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: those deviations are yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And like you said, I think that it all
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  Speaker 1: comes down to that clarity. It gives people an idea
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  Speaker 1: then of exactly where they need to go, exactly what
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  Speaker 1: we need to be doing as a territory to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that we're at the standard that we need to be.
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  Speaker 1: But even you know, talking about if you are double vaxed,
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  Speaker 1: well do you maybe not have to go into quarantine
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  Speaker 1: if you do travel into state and you come back
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  Speaker 1: to the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Things like that, correct, then you could plan your interstate
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  Speaker 2: travel to see loved one the Christmas time knowing that
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  Speaker 2: you could come back and just coppy test on the
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  Speaker 2: border or isolate at home until your test result had
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: come back within three days something like that. That would
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  Speaker 2: provide a lot more certainty in the community and our business. Well,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the rest of the year is will be
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  Speaker 2: what it will be. We're very much already looking at
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  Speaker 2: next year, next dry season. It wasn't that something dry
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  Speaker 2: season we were hoping for this year. What will next
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  Speaker 2: dry season look like for us? And we just need
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  Speaker 2: some of these tea thresholds to be announced and mainly
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  Speaker 2: and then we have to stick to them.
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  Speaker 1: Alex, What are people in your industry sort of saying
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  Speaker 1: at the moment when it comes to looking at these
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  Speaker 1: different levers which could be pulled.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, Look you're seeing from down south Sydney Melbourne, an
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  Speaker 2: acceptance from the community, government and industry down there that
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  Speaker 2: showing vaccination status to allow businesses to reopen and allow
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: community to go to their favorite restaurant or pub or gym.
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  Speaker 2: That's the way they're going. So there are questions up
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  Speaker 2: here already for us of well, will that ultimately be
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  Speaker 2: part of our future when border closures are ruled out
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  Speaker 2: going forward, when the localized lockdowns of major urban centers
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  Speaker 2: are ruled out locally, when we've got our vax rates
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  Speaker 2: to the point where we've learned to live with COVID
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  Speaker 2: nowhere in the world of they maintained zero. We leave
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  Speaker 2: the hermit kingdom of Western Australia to itself. But the
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  Speaker 2: rest of us are going to have to accept, with
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  Speaker 2: the right vaccination rates and health protocols, how to normalize
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  Speaker 2: and live with this and stop attending it'st this big
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  Speaker 2: scary monster under the bed all the time.
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  Speaker 1: I do just want to ask, what was the reaction
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  Speaker 1: from you and also from others in the industry last
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  Speaker 1: week when we did sort of learn how low those
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  Speaker 1: vaccination rates are in some parts of the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: particularly following on from those comments made by the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister on the show earlier in the week that we
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  Speaker 1: would need to be at eighty percent to cross the
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  Speaker 1: board to open up.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. And we heard the same messaging on your
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  Speaker 2: sister's station Hot one hundred, and they went further and said,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's Grandma is over seventy, it's the Greek community,
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  Speaker 2: it's every single remote community. All have to be eight
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  Speaker 2: of cent or maybe not even eighty percent, maybe higher,
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  Speaker 2: we don't know, and we'll get back to you looking
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  Speaker 2: at therefore, then the rates that they have been achieved
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  Speaker 2: with a lot of phenomenal hard work by a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people. There's a huge gap between that, and we
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  Speaker 2: would much prefer to see something more aligned with the
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  Speaker 2: national plan that says set the number for the territory,
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  Speaker 2: whatever that is, leave that to their health experts. Beyond that,
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  Speaker 2: rule out border closures, localized lockdowns, if remote vulnerable communities
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  Speaker 2: remain at really low vaccination statuses, and the sewer tests
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  Speaker 2: in Darwin analys start to show that you know, something
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  Speaker 2: is circulating up here, but our hospital is not overrun.
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  Speaker 2: Our ICEU is not a run lockdown those remote areas,
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  Speaker 2: rather than continually kicking us in the local community.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, the sea of hospitality here in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory always good to catch up with you. Actually,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: do you want to ask you? Just very quickly. It's
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: looking like those changes to the BDR are going to
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: come into play fairly soon, aren't they.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we understand as a software update on the way
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: which will improve but not fix the problem with the
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: new driver's licenses right, not always scanning, so that's good.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: We also hear that there might be some hardware upgrades
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: in the pipeline as well. We as an industry have
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: had zero consultation with the government on either of those,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: and ever since those newse driver's licenses were rolled out
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  Speaker 2: last year that the consultation has been pretty poor. I've
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: got to say it is disappointing. You know that it's
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: publicly available stats, but in June of this year over
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: half a million BDR scans only zero point zero nine
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  Speaker 2: percent of them are failed red screen events. But in
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: any event, that shows you how many times our industry
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: are using the system. So for the architects to be
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: fiddling with it again would much prefer the community and
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: the businesses tasked to use it were brought in and
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: along for that journey.
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  Speaker 1: So there's been no further consultation with you guys at
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  Speaker 1: this point, despite the fact that obviously any changes are
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: going to have an.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Impact correct and more for the broader community. You know,
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  Speaker 2: when are we going to get digital drivers' licenses up here?
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  Speaker 2: Already they're rolled out in South Australia and New South Wales.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: We understand every state will go that way in the
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  Speaker 2: next five years. So if we're thinking about a hardware
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: upgrade for the territorians get the benefit of those digital
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: drivers licenses, I think you and I've spoken about this before,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: but you know what those jurisdiction the seeing is when
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: people get out and about they leaving their driver's license
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: at home. Now they're treating it like passport, you keep
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: it somewhere safe and they're just taking their smartphones out
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: and about if they want. When do we get that
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  Speaker 2: benefit up here and before we spend any more taxpayers
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: money upgrading a system does that upgrade envisage this kind
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: of future? And if not, well let's have that discussion
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: of the community. BDR is marginally effective at best. How
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: much money are we going to continue to throw at it?
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, good questions, I reckon, Alex, and we might
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: try and have a bit more of a discussion about that.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: We've got the Minister for Small Business on the show
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  Speaker 1: a little later today and we will try and discuss
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: that a little bit further and see what we can
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: find out.
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  Speaker 2: That's O, Kadie and look post COVID, looking forward to
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: just just talking to you about cold beers and delicious snitzeles.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I know mate, doesn't seem like it's going to happen
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: for a while though. Always good to catch up, Alex.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Thank you.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: That's hospitality and two CEO there, Alex Bruce