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

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello, Katie Wolvan three point sixty online at mixed one
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: O four nine dot com.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: It is twelve minutes away from eleven o'clock and joining
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  Speaker 2: us live on the line is Hospitality Int CEO Alex Bruce.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Alex.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katy.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Alex, I.
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  Speaker 2: Understand that there is a new campaign which is kicked
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  Speaker 2: off aimed at really trying to get workers to the
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  Speaker 2: territory to work in the hospitality industry.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we're doing a couple of things twofold. Firstly, we
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  Speaker 3: want as many Territorians as possible in our businesses. That
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  Speaker 3: always is our preference, and so we're doing something locally
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: encouraging people to think about picking up a second job
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  Speaker 3: in our industry. You know, we do have ours available,
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  Speaker 3: meaning that you can still be studying or still be
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  Speaker 3: doing full time job elsewhere, and you know, come along
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  Speaker 3: help us out, get a bit of cash, enjoy a
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  Speaker 3: great and great working environment as well, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: save up for your next adventure or whatever you want
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  Speaker 3: to do.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think it's a fantastic idea.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, if we're able to get more Territorians in
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  Speaker 2: those second jobs obviously be a good thing. Means that
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  Speaker 2: money gets spent here in the territory as well. But
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  Speaker 2: then I suppose if we can't fill all of those
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  Speaker 2: jobs with locals, where do we look to.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's it. That's our second prong, targeting into
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  Speaker 3: state as strongly as possible, especially all though the miserable
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  Speaker 3: wet cold areas. I shouldn't say that too much with
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: some of the water down in Sydney right now. I
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  Speaker 3: suppose you know, they're heading into their unwelcoming months of
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  Speaker 3: the year. We're about to hit hit our strides up here,
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  Speaker 3: so we're wanting to pickyback Tourism Australia has done a
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  Speaker 3: pretty good campaign for the last six months across the country.
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  Speaker 3: The holiday here this year. You may have seen some
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  Speaker 3: of the imagery, you know, it was on social media, TV, radios, print.
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  Speaker 3: We've wanted to pick up off the back of that
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  Speaker 3: and run a bit of a work here this year,
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  Speaker 3: very similar imagery promoting all the great things you can
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  Speaker 3: come up here and experience on your day off or two.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, don't just come up for a holiday.
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  Speaker 3: How about you come up for a working holiday.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, and that's the thing that will be wonderful
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  Speaker 2: if we're able to do that, like, how many positions
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  Speaker 2: are we needing to fill at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: I look, we did a survey in the back end
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  Speaker 3: of last year and over fifty percent of all of
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  Speaker 3: our businesses that responded have shortages and had increasing shortages
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: ramping right up until about April when we hit the
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  Speaker 3: key acute shortages for us. And you know that makes
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: sense when you think about by about April, you're wanting
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  Speaker 3: your teams absolutely in your businesses on the ground running
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  Speaker 3: as we kick off. What forward bookings are telling us
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  Speaker 3: is going to be a good dry season for the
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: domestic travelers at least.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and you know, I guess we want to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that we're as busy as possible. We want
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  Speaker 2: to make sure there's as many people visiting as possible.
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  Speaker 2: But some of our different different bas businesses will be
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: certainly hoping they've got the staff to be able to
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  Speaker 2: cover us.
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  Speaker 3: That's it. And we are still COVID affected in that regard.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we're not getting the working holiday makers coming through,
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  Speaker 3: we're not getting the backpackers, we're not getting the skilled
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  Speaker 3: migrants coming from into international places. At the moment, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we hope that with vaccines rolling out across the globe,
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  Speaker 3: we can start to look at that, certainly by the
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  Speaker 3: end of this year, but for this key dry season,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's almost like those old Army posters from
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  Speaker 3: yesteryear Hospitality MT Needs you, Yeah, come join us yep.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and look we're all hoping that they do, no
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  Speaker 2: doubt about that. How are we going though, in terms
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  Speaker 2: of I mean, do you feel from a hospitality sort
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  Speaker 2: of perspective? And I know that this is something we've
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  Speaker 2: spoken about over the last couple of weeks or so,
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  Speaker 2: you know, following on from that vision that we saw
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  Speaker 2: on a current affair and some of the issues that
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  Speaker 2: we do have when it comes to crime and anti
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  Speaker 2: social behavior, do you think that that has an impact
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  Speaker 2: in terms of trying to get people to move into
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  Speaker 2: state to work here, look.
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  Speaker 3: Sadly, unfortunately unfortunately, Yes, we do. And we heard that
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  Speaker 3: from some of our accommodation providers down in Alice Springs
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  Speaker 3: last week off the back of all of that airing
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  Speaker 3: where they may have lost a couple of interstate workers
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  Speaker 3: that they've been talking to quite closely on relocating and
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  Speaker 3: joining the Alice Springs community. A couple of them did
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  Speaker 3: pull out and cite the antisocial behavior and crime issues
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  Speaker 3: in the town as one of the reasons why they
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  Speaker 3: decided not to relocate. So we do think it does
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  Speaker 3: put a dampner, especially in Alice An Tennant Creek and
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  Speaker 3: the Barkley, And it's just so unfortunate because, you know,
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  Speaker 3: at the other end of it, we got this briefing
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  Speaker 3: recently that showed compared to every other capital city, our accommodation,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's not all roses, but it's doing significantly
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  Speaker 3: better than the other capital cities. Our forward bookings are
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  Speaker 3: looking better, our food and beverages, the restaurants, cafes, you know,
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  Speaker 3: if they don't get their workforce shortages sort it out,
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  Speaker 3: they'll actually, unfortunately still keep throttling their businesses for the
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  Speaker 3: day trade. And it's not because there isn't a demand
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  Speaker 3: from the customer. It's just we're missing the workers. So
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  Speaker 3: in all of that, we absolutely agree. You know, the
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  Speaker 3: crime issues that the community is crying out about, it
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  Speaker 3: is real, it is substantial, but it is just so
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  Speaker 3: disappointing because we've got this such an other wonderful story
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  Speaker 3: to chide forward with up here.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the really tough thing.
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  Speaker 2: You know, even for us on air, we find that
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  Speaker 2: daily that you want to be talking about all the
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  Speaker 2: positive stuff, but you know, fundamentally we've got to try
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  Speaker 2: and sort out these these other issues as well. And
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  Speaker 2: so I can totally understand then how all of our
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  Speaker 2: industries are feeling the same way.
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  Speaker 3: That's it. And I was listening to your program this
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  Speaker 3: morning where you're speaking to the police and their views,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, we're out there very publicly acknowledging our
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: appreciation of them and the health workers for keeping us
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  Speaker 3: all safe over the last twelve months. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: any talk where we're just going to get out the
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: rule book and start rewriting laws on takeaway alcohol again
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  Speaker 3: when we've tried that for decades, and when you prohibit
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  Speaker 3: large parts of the territory, that's why we get the
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  Speaker 3: itinerant problems up here. I don't know if there's a
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  Speaker 3: connection then to further restrict our businesses up here. And
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  Speaker 3: what image would that be to our tourists when they
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  Speaker 3: land on the plane. Yeah at Darwin, So you know,
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  Speaker 3: we agree that there should be an absolute rethink versus
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  Speaker 3: just getting out the tired old drums and banging them
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  Speaker 3: again to be honest.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think I guess we as a community
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  Speaker 2: kind of all need to get together to do that,
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  Speaker 2: but it feels like it's something we've been doing for
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  Speaker 2: some time, Alex.
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  Speaker 1: So it's really hard, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: It's one step forward, two steps back. Unfortunately, we participate
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: with all the different relevant stakeholders in the discussion. We
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: think there are things that could be changed which industry
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  Speaker 3: would support, that would really assist the front line responders
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  Speaker 3: and hopefully over time address some of the underlying social problems.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, we don't ever see them getting advanced.
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  Speaker 3: We we just continually see a rush to the rule book.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, I do want to ask you.
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  Speaker 2: We know that it is pretty much a year on
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  Speaker 2: from you know, from well the day that Scomo had
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  Speaker 2: said tomorrow midday all pubs, gyms, etc.
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  Speaker 1: Had to close.
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  Speaker 2: We know that it was meant to be for six
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  Speaker 2: months for Darwin, it did only end up those eight weeks.
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  Speaker 2: As we've sort of touched on, you know, how how
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  Speaker 2: are you guys and how is the industry feeling following
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  Speaker 2: on from really what's been a year of ups and downs.
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  Speaker 3: That's it. It's been every emotion under the sun thrown
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  Speaker 3: in and you know, when not dissimilar from the rest
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  Speaker 3: of the community in that regard, Like if you do
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  Speaker 3: just remember to a year ago, they were changing the
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  Speaker 3: rules every twenty four to forty eight hours. Two days
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  Speaker 3: before our business has got announced that they would be closing,
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  Speaker 3: we had all the trade's in redesigning the venues, putting
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: in partitions because you could have one hundred people in
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  Speaker 3: each partitioned area, and the government had provided some support
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  Speaker 3: for that, so you know, but by the time we
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  Speaker 3: finally got shot on TV on the Sunday night, it
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  Speaker 3: was just so much information, so quickly fast forwarding through
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  Speaker 3: the reopening and all the relevant stages and the continual
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  Speaker 3: rewrite of the Chief Health Officers directions and the hotspot
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  Speaker 3: declarations as they've changed. You know, it's a year that
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  Speaker 3: you wouldn't wish on anyone. And yet at the same time,
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  Speaker 3: you know, honestly, if we look around the country, we
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't want to be anywhere else other them in the territory.
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  Speaker 1: It is very true.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Alex Bruce, it's always good to catch up with
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  Speaker 2: your mate, CEO of Hospitality NT.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again in the very near futures
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Katie, Thanks, thank you,