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Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce talking vaccine mandates on 360 with Katie Woolf · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Well, joining us on the line right now is the
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  Speaker 1: CEO of Hospitality here in the Northern Territory, Alex Bruce.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Alex.
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  Speaker 2: Good a katie mate.
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  Speaker 1: Firstly, I do want to just ask you, I know,
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  Speaker 1: when you and I spoke last week about the rollout
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  Speaker 1: of these vaccine passports and how they're going to work
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  Speaker 1: in some of our different businesses, have you had much
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  Speaker 1: more feedback over the last week or so as some
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  Speaker 1: of us have gotten a bit more, a bit more
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  Speaker 1: of an understanding of the different rules that are going
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  Speaker 1: to come into play.
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  Speaker 2: The FOO app is actually the Canberra check in app,
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  Speaker 2: and I've been rolled out subsequently up here, over in
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  Speaker 2: Queensland and down in Tazzy. So I've been talking to
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  Speaker 2: our counterparts in the Act. The tech bottoms are working
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  Speaker 2: on it. It's not going to be as clear cut
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  Speaker 2: or as simple as our understanding as what's happening in
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  Speaker 2: New South Wales or South Australia. The difference being that's
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  Speaker 2: in their sa govapp or their New South Wales app,
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  Speaker 2: which already has in it to identify you than khim
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  Speaker 2: to your driver's license, you know, your fishing license? God forbid,
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  Speaker 2: they have those down their boat licenses, all the rest
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  Speaker 2: of it, so the data sharing with ultimately Medicare is
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  Speaker 2: more secure to automatically poured into those two states for
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  Speaker 2: all intensive purposes. Our territory checking app is a dumb app,
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  Speaker 2: use a friendly though. We like it. It's not too cumbersome,
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  Speaker 2: but yeah, there are some privacy and legal issues we
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  Speaker 2: understand that are going on behind the scenes, predominantly between
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  Speaker 2: the federal government and the act government on how to
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  Speaker 2: get that data sharing, you know, from your highly sensitive
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  Speaker 2: personalized medical records into an app that you can right
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  Speaker 2: now punch your name in as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck.
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  Speaker 1: And that's a I think that's a really valid point
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  Speaker 1: because for a lot of us, we're not wanting to
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  Speaker 1: share all of our information. Happy enough to share if
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  Speaker 1: we've been vaccinated, but you don't want everything else out
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  Speaker 1: there and you know wherever it's going to go.
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  Speaker 2: Look not to be too negative about it, because I mean,
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  Speaker 2: the vast majority of people do do the right thing.
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  Speaker 2: We do see in the MANU entry logs though from
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  Speaker 2: time to time people right safe details. So that's probably
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  Speaker 2: happening right now on the checking apps. So you know
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  Speaker 2: there are ways to get around it. But we just
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  Speaker 2: ask everyone that you know, if the government ever mandated
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  Speaker 2: that in in a lockout environment and they were the rules,
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  Speaker 2: please work with us as we work as best we
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  Speaker 2: can through them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Alex, have you had much pushback, you know
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  Speaker 1: from anyone in the industry or any businesses in the
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  Speaker 1: industry at this point in time that are going, well,
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  Speaker 1: hang on a sect. Shouldn't I be allowed to let
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  Speaker 1: anybody into my establishment if I choose.
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  Speaker 2: A Look, there's definitely conversations underway, and it's probably fair
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  Speaker 2: that those are happening right across the community and different
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  Speaker 2: industry groups. You saw the constructions that sector in Melbourne
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  Speaker 2: seem to divide on the issue yesterday. I haven't seen
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  Speaker 2: those signs on display throughout the whole hospitality network in
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  Speaker 2: our membership, but I do appreciate that this is something
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  Speaker 2: that every family and every individual's considering and chewing on
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  Speaker 2: right now. And the other unfortunate thing, Katie is it's
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  Speaker 2: official now we're coming dead last in our vaccination rates
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  Speaker 2: both first job and second job for over seventy year olds.
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  Speaker 2: So we are going to hit a tipping point, we
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  Speaker 2: don't know when where when you've had every opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: be vaccinated and you're refusing to do so, you are
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  Speaker 2: not allowed to hold us back any longer.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the question that I've sort of been
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  Speaker 1: asking myself and mulling on a little bit. I've got
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  Speaker 1: to say, I was talking to a friend of mine
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  Speaker 1: who's in Dubai yesterday and she said that day I
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  Speaker 1: believe reached eighty percent vaccination rate and they've totally opened
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  Speaker 1: back up, you know, they're back to operating as normal
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  Speaker 1: as they ever were and allowed to travel, etc. And
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  Speaker 1: she sort of said that she cannot understand why in
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  Speaker 1: Australia we're treating things so differently. And I know that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that's a discussion that's being had right around
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  Speaker 1: the world in terms of what you do and you
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  Speaker 1: don't don't do. And we do at least have a
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  Speaker 1: fairly clear plan now from our Chief Minister. But it
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  Speaker 1: is a bit of a worry if we get to
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  Speaker 1: a point where not everybody that needs to be vaccinated,
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  Speaker 1: not up to that eighty percent, if we can't get there,
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  Speaker 1: and then how do we sort of continue to operate
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  Speaker 1: or open up if you've got people who just don't
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  Speaker 1: want to get vaccinated. And it is their choice at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the day.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. And you know, eighteen months ago this was
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  Speaker 2: about keeping Granny safe and we got early access to vaccines.
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  Speaker 2: We've got early access to fiver in the territory. We
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  Speaker 2: got fire distributed to aged people higher brackets earlier than
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  Speaker 2: all the other states. How has it come to a
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  Speaker 2: situation when we're coming dead last. It is a race
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  Speaker 2: and that's that needs to be six.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope that now that it's opened up, that
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  Speaker 1: firezo has opened up as well to those over the
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  Speaker 1: age of fifty or sixty. I think it was that it.
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  Speaker 1: You know, they maybe become a little bit more open
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  Speaker 1: to getting vaccinated. But my only time will tell us.
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  Speaker 1: Bose Alex mate talk through how we are going at
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  Speaker 1: the moment in the Northern Territory. When you talk about
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  Speaker 1: those occupancy rates in our hotels, how big an impact
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  Speaker 1: are those lockdown in other states?
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  Speaker 2: Having Look they're the canting, they're sitting at about half
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  Speaker 2: full at the moment, and they had a very strong quarter,
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  Speaker 2: you know, in leading up to the dry you know,
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  Speaker 2: we were calling at the Carl Cox effect, but it
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  Speaker 2: did look like Darwin and the town had its mojo back.
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  Speaker 2: It didn't materialize, unfortunately, as those seemingly endless lockdowns down
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  Speaker 2: south happened. Our border restrictions and then a couple of
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  Speaker 2: our lockdowns, so for many they haven't had that dry
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  Speaker 2: season that they rely on to get through the choie
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  Speaker 2: to wet. The territory government has announced, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: pending tourism of vouches though you know, two hundred dollars
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  Speaker 2: matched and if you jog on more than four hundred
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  Speaker 2: kilometers down the track you can potentially get another two
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  Speaker 2: hundred dollars, so you know they're doing that. The Summer
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  Speaker 2: on Sale campaign announced yesterday forcinated domestic interstates people from
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  Speaker 2: or presumably at this stage, Wa and Queensland. That will help.
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  Speaker 2: Ideally we want to see the borders normalize even further,
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  Speaker 2: but we're guided by the government's plans that are being
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  Speaker 2: shaped by health on that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so what do you reckon about? You know, how
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  Speaker 1: are you feeling at the moment about some of those
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  Speaker 1: initiatives in terms of tourism and trying to get people
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  Speaker 1: back here while you know, while we are still in
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  Speaker 1: some ways locked out from other parts of Australia.
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  Speaker 2: Oh look, the language last week that we would hit
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  Speaker 2: eighty percent by early to mid November. We're seeing it
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  Speaker 2: already wound back a little bit. Unfortunately. The government's website
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  Speaker 2: is clear they want to see eighty to ninety percent
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  Speaker 2: backs rate in all those remote communities. We're looking at
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  Speaker 2: the stats that have been released after a fair bit
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  Speaker 2: of concerted effort for them to release the data. I
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  Speaker 2: think early to mid November, if that's going to be
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  Speaker 2: the threshold, is very very ambitious. But look at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day, looking at another cohort, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Indigenous and non Indigenous Territorians over the age of seventy
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  Speaker 2: they did get earlier access to fier than anywhere else
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  Speaker 2: in the country, and they're now behind all the rest
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  Speaker 2: of the country. So you know, we do want Health
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  Speaker 2: to redouble its efforts all of their partners in that
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  Speaker 2: space because it's our livelihoods and ultimately our freedom that
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  Speaker 2: are being held back.
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  Speaker 1: Now, are you worried, Alex, You know, if we do
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  Speaker 1: get to sort of November December and we're still in
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  Speaker 1: the situation that.
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  Speaker 2: We're in right now, I think the plan announced last
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  Speaker 2: week was a positive step, but did definitely provide more
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  Speaker 2: certainty on where the government was thinking and we very
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  Speaker 2: very very much need to see that put in place
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  Speaker 2: before Christmas, and already we want to start conversations with
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  Speaker 2: the government about the next one or two stages beyond that,
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  Speaker 2: because if you look at that red zone policy, that
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  Speaker 2: could see all of Victoria, all of New South Wales,
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  Speaker 2: all of Queensland as they learned to live with COVID
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  Speaker 2: with high vax rates, red spots denied in to the
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  Speaker 2: territory and that would just be devastating for our peak
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  Speaker 2: dry season next year if we can't get beyond that stage.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know that. Well, even yesterday some people had
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  Speaker 1: sort of been questioning why we're still spending five billion dollars,
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  Speaker 1: you know, on the summer sale when it comes to tourism,
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  Speaker 1: when we are still locked out from other states. But
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  Speaker 1: I would suggest stor I would think that we know
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  Speaker 1: that we still want to try and get people here
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  Speaker 1: from the states that are open to us at this
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  Speaker 1: point in time and try to support not only our
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  Speaker 1: tourism sector, but hospitality, retail. It flows on to so
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  Speaker 1: many different sectors. When we do have tourists here in
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  Speaker 1: the territory, that's it.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, some of our large employers are starting
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  Speaker 2: to ramp down their rostering. So if we can, through
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  Speaker 2: local consumption and those COVID safe Green zones, prop that
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  Speaker 2: demand up a little bit more over the wet season,
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  Speaker 2: you'll have more territoriums floating around enjoying things, the kids
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  Speaker 2: in schools, all the rest of it, the GST, the
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  Speaker 2: ten thousand odd per me and woman and up here.
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  Speaker 2: But you'll also will be in a better situation to
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  Speaker 2: ramp up next year, hopefully for a good dry season,
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  Speaker 2: because we know those workforce shortages across industry sectors aren't
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  Speaker 2: going away.
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  Speaker 1: Well. Alex Bruce, the Hospitality NT CEO, good to talk
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  Speaker 1: with you this morning. I appreciate your time. K Katie,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: thank you