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Katie Woolf spoke Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce on Liquor Commissioner hearing in Tennant Creek · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are going to head on down now to Central
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Australia and joining me live on the line from Hospitality
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: NT CEO Alex Bruce.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alex.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. Hello from Funny Elliott.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I was going to say where exactly are you.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: I'm in a little bit of reception this way down.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you what. We put a bit more reception
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: down our main corridor. We couldn't go Astrow.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well there you go.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Well, we're glad that you've got reception right now, Alex. Now,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: as I understand it, yesterday was the first day that
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the Liquor Commission sat in Tenant Creek to talk about
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: some of the different issues and some of the concerns
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: around alcohol.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: That's right, and they ended up concluding it within the day,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: so there won't be any more sitting days. There's twenty
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: one days of time provided to everyone to give written
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: submissions to the Liquor Commission on what they think about
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: the proposal. There was a very large turnout yesterday, which
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: was good to see. You know, like this is an
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: important issue. I think everyone, regardless of their particular position
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: on some of the things that are being proposed, there's
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: broad acknowledgment. We've got to get together, we've got to
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: sit down and make sure we get it right.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: So Alex was, I mean, was there more talk and
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: more discussion about the BDR going into different pubs?
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Look? Look, there was and it was really interesting. And
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: I heard what the leader of the opposition said, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: I think the Ministerry Alcohol Policy on another station this
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: morning was trying to say that this had been recommended
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: just for the three areas by police, and it's not
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: quite the case. The submission that went to the Liquor
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Commission recommended BDR on all on premise throughout the Northern Territory,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: that is pubs, clubs, restaurants from Darwin all right down
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: to the South Australian border.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: So in the Liquor Commission coming to town yesterday, they
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: did hear a lot from local perspectives, not just from
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: the hotels in town, but other community groups and business
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: people that really do want to know why pubs one
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: up here in Eliot that can't and closed at the moment,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: and the two intenant Creek, why are they being targeted
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: this way? And when you look at their cohort of
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: their customers versus some of the other licensed on premises
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: in town with a different cohort of customers. It really
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: has a stark color contrast.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: So Alex, can you just repeat that. So was the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: submission from the Territory Police that every licensed premise have
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a BDR facility or you have that same register.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Look, I think that's their stated position, and yesterday they
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: clarified that given that it was a Barkley region that
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: the Commissioner was looking at, they supported on premise then
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: therefore in all of the Barkley So that's every roadhouse
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: up and down the track, that's Barkley Homestead for all
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: the tourists. What a great welcome front once you've crossed
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: the Queensland border from Cammermel. Welcome to the police state
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of the Northern Territory. But look, all we say is
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: the BDR that's that got presented yesterday's show. Ninety nine
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: point nine percent of people that are going through bottle
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: shops and scanning their licenses and IDs are getting a
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: green screen legal sale. So you can reasonably suppose that
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: that will be the level of compliance with this if
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: it comes into pubs and clubs. So ninety nine point
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: nine percent of this will all have to go through
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: the marign role. And yesterday it was not made clear
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: whether it's at the door with wristbands that name and
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: shame and or deny entry against potentially your civil rights,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: or if it's every transaction and we're about to see
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: the death of you know, shouting your mates around the beers,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: everyone up to the bar, every single license presented for
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: everyone that's going to have a beer and we have
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: to singly scan them. These are all still being worked
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: out on which way they're going to go down here,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: and we just maintain our call. The BDR is wholly
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: and solely controlled by the Minister. The regulations make it
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: clear which liquor licenses it applies to moments of the
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: bottle shops. We don't think it's right to target certain
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: licenses in certain towns. You do open up the risk
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: of why you're targeting those particular customers. And at the
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: end of the day, I just do want to reiterate,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: if we don't live this in the butt now, it
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: is coming to a pub and clubs near you, Alex.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I mean some people listening right now will be thinking
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: to themselves. The alcohol industry does need to make some
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: changes or maybe further changes do need to be implemented
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: in the likes of Tenant Creek or Central Australia, given
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: some of the issues that they have when it comes.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: To alcohol abuse. But from what I'm hearing from.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: You, you know, the thing is here that the industry
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: doesn't have an issue with obviously making sure that that
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: responsible service is happening and that they're trying their best
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: to do the right thing, but they're pretty worried that,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you know, that we're going to see the role out
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: of something that impacts absolutely every location potentially absolutely.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: So yesterday, again, in an average month, you know, there's
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: three three hundred odd BD sale scan and seventeen rejections
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: at the bottle shops in Tenant Creek. So that's the
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: kind of proportion that you're talking about if you roll
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: it out into the on premise locations in that town.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: There was evidence that you know, Goldfield Hotel as an example,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: definitely does have a daytime trade similar to the Tenant
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Creek Hotel, but they also have accommodation and a bistro
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: later on the evening that they open up for their
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: in house guests, and the demographic of their customer almost
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: completely changes and just talking to some of the people
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: that have been going throughout January, the publican has been
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: able to be told we no uncertain terms if this
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: comes in here, but it's not complyingt on the clubs.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: We'll just go to the Memo club up the road.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: We're not going to go through this extra impost when
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: we're not the people that should be targeted. The other
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: interesting thing yesterday was police indicated from a small sample size,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: fifty percent of the secondary supply they believe is coming
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: from interstate or elsewhere, not from the premises in town,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: so we think it's tip of the iceberg stuff. There
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: was testimony that four Leader Cast winds are still being
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: picked up by the rubbish contacts cleaners for the council
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: in the town now. Four Leader Cast coints have not
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: been legally sold in the territory and definitely set up
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: through Australia for a long long time. So we fully
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: support more targeted approaches for secondary supply. We do think that,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: you know, police, they do do a good job. They
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: are stretched very thin right now because of COVID and
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: everything else, and we appreciate that and we're not here
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: to make trouble for them, but we wonder why the
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: knee jerk reaction is to push the BDA on premise
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: and impact ninety nine point nine percent of us.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, certainly something that a lot of people
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: will be talking about, no doubt over the coming days
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and particularly you know, I know that you've said obviously
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: this is intenant Creek at the moment, but the concern
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: from hospitality is that this could be you know, far ranging.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I guess you'd say so, right across the territory potentially,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: and that's a big concern from hospitality right now.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Oh that's it. You look at the role out of
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: the palis which does have strong community support in regional
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: and northern territory. It's still a divisive policy, but it's
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: largely supported and we understand that that's starting in Alice
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Springs and very quickly spread. Let's not get ourselves. The
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: intent here is for BDR in regional Northern Territory on PREMI.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Well, I reckon. We'll be talking more about this throughout
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: the week.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Alex Bruce, Hospitality NTCEEO always appreciate your time.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having a chat with us live from Elliott today.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Katie, thank you