Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Hospitality NT CEO about staff numbers as the vaccine mandate kicks in

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Katie spoke with Hospitality NT CEO about staff numbers as the vaccine mandate kicks in · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now from Dave Malone, We're going to be heading across
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: right now to the sea of hospitality here in the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Alex Bruce, good morning to you, Alex, yet
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a Katie, Alex, A busy morning. How did that mandate
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: roll out go on the weekend? From the hospitality perspective.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, similar to Dave's comments, some businesses are reporting that
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  Speaker 2: they were fully vaccinated right up through till about seven
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: and a half percent, a little bit more as your
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: head down the track into the rural area. So the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: vast majority of our sector looks like it's zero to
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  Speaker 2: five percent impacted.
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  Speaker 1: Is that a surprise for you or is that aroundabout
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: where you thought it would land.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Look, we'd spoken about up to eight percent when workers
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: were telling their bosses they weren't going to be going
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  Speaker 2: to get the vax. But I suppose as the deadline
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  Speaker 2: loomed and you know, they had to make the call
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: that was forced upon them, do they keep paying their
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: bills and keeping the lights on? It had its stated
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: in policy intent, and those people went and got vacked.
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  Speaker 1: And Alex, have you seen much in the way of
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  Speaker 1: you know, any of the hospitality businesses close or anything
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  Speaker 1: like that as a result of the vaccine mandate.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Not closing, but definitely hearing owner operators more hours, more
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  Speaker 2: hours for the key staff that are vaxed that are
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  Speaker 2: still with them, so you know they're just knuckling down
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: trying to get through it. We do already have that
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: workforce shortage that's going to continue into next year until
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  Speaker 2: those national and international borders normalized. So that is one
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  Speaker 2: message we're hearing. Now. Okay, we've rolled up our sleeves.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: We did what we should do, and the community and
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  Speaker 2: government wanted of us. How quickly can we get these
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  Speaker 2: borders moving? Queensland today's moving to home quarantine within twenty
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: four hours, And you think of the size of their state,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: you wonder why we need twenty eight days to pilot
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  Speaker 2: it for one hundred Really, how is thatening to a
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  Speaker 2: replication cycle? Just where you should have been? You know,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: this is nothing new. We've been dealing with this for
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  Speaker 2: nineteen months. Why do we just continually face delays compared
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to other parts of the country.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Alex Are we at that point now realistically where this
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  Speaker 1: mandate's kicked in, the majority of Territorians have done the
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  Speaker 1: right thing and gone and gotten vaccinated. As you've said,
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  Speaker 1: there Queensland home quarantine going live in twenty four hours
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  Speaker 1: here in the territory, though we are waiting those twenty
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  Speaker 1: eight days. Have we reached the point where we really
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  Speaker 1: just need to bite the bullet and go do you
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  Speaker 1: know what we're opening up?
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  Speaker 2: I think we're reaching a tipping point where working territorius,
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  Speaker 2: Territorians that have missed their family into state and overseas
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  Speaker 2: that have rolled up their sleeve are vaccinated, want their
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: freedom of movement back, and they're questioning why they're getting
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: held back longer when you look across the country and
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  Speaker 2: you compare life for.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Like Alex just back on the vaccine mandate, and I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: know that obviously over the weekend and I said the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: same to Dave Malone, there was conjecture over the fact
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  Speaker 1: that it's public servants or refused to get the vaccine,
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  Speaker 1: whether they'd be stood down with full pay, whether they'd
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: be stood down without being paid. My understanding is that
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  Speaker 1: there is that forty eight hour grace period. How did
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  Speaker 1: that make business, the business sector feel, or the hospitality sector,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I should say feel, when you guys were scrambling to
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: try to make sure that everybody was vaccinated or certainly
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: making alternative plans.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: A look, when it started to whip around on Friday days, right,
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  Speaker 2: it absolutely went down like a ton of bricks. But
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  Speaker 2: I think the government's being clearer in its messaging, and
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  Speaker 2: definitely the Chief has we wouldn't have we were told
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  Speaker 2: there were no grace periods and all of the necessary
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: legal processes and all the rest of it that the
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  Speaker 2: government's putting out. Now, we had to have that completely
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  Speaker 2: done in small businesses by Friday, and that's what we've
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  Speaker 2: been working hard to achieve. So any grace period that's
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  Speaker 2: just one sector. The specific you do wonder as you're
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: sitting on the other side of it, going why are
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: we putting all this work in? But you know, we
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  Speaker 2: take the government on good faith they're enforcing the mandate
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  Speaker 2: too very quickly. If sectors are getting exempted, the whole
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  Speaker 2: mandatory nature of this thing I think will start to
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  Speaker 2: fall fall apart.
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  Speaker 1: Alex All in all, how would you say you know
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  Speaker 1: that the mandate being rollout's sort of been received? Was there?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: You know, were you expecting it to be a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more I guess, you know, a bit more pushback
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: than what there was in the end.
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  Speaker 2: Not necessarily, and you know, we do appreciate that people
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  Speaker 2: have done this at risk of losing their livelihoods that
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  Speaker 2: they otherwise might not have. And that's not to label
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  Speaker 2: them anti vaxes or all the rest of it. You know,
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  Speaker 2: there's just been so much information from multiple sources, you know,
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  Speaker 2: social media and all the rest of it, and not
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  Speaker 2: all of it's been particularly helpful in driving up the
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  Speaker 2: vax rates up here. Promises to keep the board of
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  Speaker 2: closed forever don't help drive the vax rate up here either,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: especially in the non workforce population. So you know, we've
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  Speaker 2: done our bit, we've complied, we support it, We've encouraged
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  Speaker 2: everyone to get the vax at the earliest, earliest available opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: But going forward, when we get to whatever level that
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  Speaker 2: health deems safe up here, that should be similar to
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the country. I've got to hasten to add.
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  Speaker 2: We need the mandate removed from workforce and employment at
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  Speaker 2: laws and policy. You look at New South Wales at
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  Speaker 2: the moment they're saying fifteenth to December they're mandate for
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: customers and workers in our industry lists because they're going
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  Speaker 2: to be at that ninety five percent level. So at
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  Speaker 2: what level do we get this back to back out.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good question and one which I reckon we haven't
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  Speaker 1: sort of started to have yet at this point. Hey, Alex,
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  Speaker 1: before I let you go with those borders, mate, when
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  Speaker 1: do you think they need to open? And what do
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  Speaker 1: you reckon we need to do. Does the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: really need to push forward with the rest of the country.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, we question why we're being held back. Processes are
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: being tested. I would have thought hopefully that testing was
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  Speaker 2: well in trained well before now, like it seems to
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  Speaker 2: be in other parts of the country. We need the
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  Speaker 2: government to come out and if it's the eighteenth of January,
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  Speaker 2: it's the eighteenth of January, remove the asterisk from it.
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  Speaker 2: Tell us when we're going to get quarantine free travel,
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  Speaker 2: and ideally we'd like it before Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce the sea of hospitality here in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory, Thanks so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Cheers. Katie Autibeth, Thank you,