Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce welcomes the new "Work Hard, Play Hard" incentive to get new workers to the NT for the tourism and hospitality sectors

Transcript

Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce welcomes the new "Work Hard, Play Hard" incentive to get new workers to the NT for the tourism and hospitality sectors · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Can we know that the Northern Territory government has put
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: aside two point six million dollars into a new initiative
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: called Work Hard, Play Hard. It's aimed to attract tourism
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and hospitality workers to the territory through offering this work perks.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: I guess you'd call them a.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Bit of an incentive in the form of a five
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars NT travel code which can be redeemed at
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Visitor Center.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Apparently, so joining us on.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: The line to tell us a little bit more about
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: how this is going to work.
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  Speaker 2: Hopefully he's got a better idea.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: It is the hospitality CEO, Alex Bruce.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alex, Good morning Kati mate. How
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: exactly is this going to work?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? Look, credit to the government and industry partners on
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: this one. They've partnered with job Shack. That's an organization
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  Speaker 3: that's linked to the youth Shack. Yeah, yep, Phil in
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  Speaker 3: the city. And so everyone in the hospitality and tourism
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  Speaker 3: industry is crying out for workers. You know, we've this
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: last year. We're going to be a disrupted until you
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  Speaker 3: know a few years from now when we really get
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  Speaker 3: the international pipelines back, so you know it's the right time.
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  Speaker 3: I've got a lot of members already indicating that they've
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  Speaker 3: got vacancies that they're trying to feel now ahead of
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  Speaker 3: what we're hoping will be a bumper dry season for us.
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  Speaker 3: So any operators can just go to the job shacknt
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  Speaker 3: dot com dot au and load their jobs and if
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  Speaker 3: any of the working holiday makers and this has been
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: promoted into the backpack of hostels and throughout that market
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  Speaker 3: in Darwin for people already that are up here and
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  Speaker 3: one that are in the country and thinking of traveling
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  Speaker 3: up International students are also eligible. If they then secure
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: a job and work it for two months with us
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  Speaker 3: through that portal, they get a five hundred dollars voucher
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  Speaker 3: similar to those territory tours of vouchers that people got
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  Speaker 3: in the past, and they can use that to book
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  Speaker 3: you know, tours, attractions, accommodation. We think it's quite competitive,
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  Speaker 3: quite positive. You know, we definitely do believe that, you know,
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  Speaker 3: you can be working in a hot, sweaty kitchen anywhere,
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  Speaker 3: or you can be on a housekeeper keeping Dolly car anywhere,
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  Speaker 3: and it's what the territory can offer on your day off.
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  Speaker 3: That is a bit of a selling point for us.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it might certainly is.
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  Speaker 1: So do we have any idea of what these you know, like,
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  Speaker 1: where we can actually spend these vouchers, where people are
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  Speaker 1: going to be able to to you know, to actually
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  Speaker 1: spend them.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, So it's similar to what the locals got the
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  Speaker 3: benefit of with those territory tourism vouchers. Your book through
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  Speaker 3: Tourism top End or Tourism Central Australia or the Catherine
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  Speaker 3: Information Center and there'll be packages of different accommodation and
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  Speaker 3: attractions and tours that you can do. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: five hundred dollars is quite generous. And already the site
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: went live yesterday, that job shack site, and already there's
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: over fifty different kinds of jobs, multiple vacancies posted on there.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we've got travel agent house, peep's chefs, receptionist,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: bartender's weight staff and then stuff gardener's bruce. The list
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  Speaker 3: goes on. So you know, there's never been a bit
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  Speaker 3: of time to come come join us and work in
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: our industry. And if you're a working holidaymaker or an
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  Speaker 3: international tourist to get that work perk as a bit
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  Speaker 3: of an added bonus.
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  Speaker 2: Alex before I let you go this morning.
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  Speaker 1: How are our hospitality industry feeling as those masks have
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: been lifted off?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, Look, it changes the vibe of the place, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 3: You're walking around and you're seeing smiling faces. You know,
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  Speaker 3: the staff are just so happy to be taking them off. Look,
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  Speaker 3: you see the odd person with a mask be at
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  Speaker 3: a customer or an employee, and you know that's absolutely
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: feign inappropriate and we welcome and we welcome that. So
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: but you know, for the vast majority of us, it's
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: like the temperature territory. They knew what was going to
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: go on because they've dialed up the humidity the last
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: few days haven't made so it's been great to get
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: about without the mask. It has.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: It's certainly been good to take those masks of Hey, mate,
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  Speaker 1: we've been talking a lot in the last week or
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  Speaker 1: so about some of the you know, alcohol on the
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  Speaker 1: streets that we've been seeing people in from various communities
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  Speaker 1: and public drunkenness. How with our takeaway outlets, how are
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  Speaker 1: they going at this point in time? Is there a
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  Speaker 1: concern you know, has there been a concern from them
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  Speaker 1: that there are people trying to access alcohol, who shouldn't be.
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  Speaker 3: Ill? Look, Katie, honestly, I think the BDR is marginal
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  Speaker 3: at best, and our advice to government has always been
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  Speaker 3: make it better or get rid of it. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: we've got a bit of a halfway house there and
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  Speaker 3: it just doesn't seem to be heading the mark at
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  Speaker 3: the moment. But would definitely welcome the ability to sit
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: down with government and flesh it out further. And you
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  Speaker 3: know we've been we've been giving them that advice for years.
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  Speaker 3: Your touched on it with your interview with the minister. Yea.
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  Speaker 3: They really need to get a move on with some
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  Speaker 3: of those community clubs out in remote areas and involve
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  Speaker 3: importantly the urban community. We shouldn't be so elective about
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: who gets to say about where alcohol should or shouldn't
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  Speaker 3: be too much. I don't think we need to learn
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  Speaker 3: to live with it again like we did previously. That
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  Speaker 3: Stronger Futures legislations expiring first of July. So how come
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  Speaker 3: we don't have more than just Barunga. Why don't we
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  Speaker 3: have six or seven ready to go? We know that
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  Speaker 3: people are displaced from their kin and their community, and
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  Speaker 3: a lot of the support services on country and unfortunately
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  Speaker 3: they come into the large urban centers and we have
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  Speaker 3: to live with the consequences of that.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Are you finding are we finding at the moment with
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  Speaker 1: our hospitality industries that they are being targeted in terms
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of break ins for alcohol?
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  Speaker 3: Well, look they are, but you're seeing use that may
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: not necessarily be consuming that alcohol themselves, but on selling
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  Speaker 3: it to the older itinerant population. So you know, we
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  Speaker 3: do have the strictest supply side rules in the country
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  Speaker 3: and focusing on that alone clearly just doesn't work. You know,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: you hear Alice Springs is an unfortunately in a better
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: position when it comes to crime. So everyone likes the
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: palis the police on the bottle shops. It's a very
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  Speaker 3: expensive policy for the government to roll out and yet
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  Speaker 3: you know it's not all roses. So we really need
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: to go back to looking at the demand side stuff,
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  Speaker 3: the harm minimization stuff. There are billions of dollars that
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: come in from Cambra to deal with a lot of
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  Speaker 3: this stuff. And you know, after a decade of stronger
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  Speaker 3: futures and billions of dollars, can those people that have
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: worked on it with the best of intentions hand on
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  Speaker 3: hard actually say they shifted the needle, you know, but
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  Speaker 3: instead we just keep obsessing about more supply side restrictions
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  Speaker 3: and it's just it's not right and it's not fixing things.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Katie Well, Alex Bruce, we are going to have to
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  Speaker 1: leave it there, the See of Hospitality here in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Cheers all of that.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Thank you,