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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the territory mixed
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 2: Now, we were just talking tourism when we catch when
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  Speaker 2: we caught up with Kakadoo tourism spokesperson Peter Hook. Now
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  Speaker 2: taking that a step further, joining us on the line
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  Speaker 2: right now to talk hospitality is Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce,
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alex.
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  Speaker 3: Good Katie, Alex.
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  Speaker 2: I was down at the waterfront yesterday for the supercars
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  Speaker 2: and I tell you what it was pumping. There seems
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  Speaker 2: to be so many tourists in town.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely. I took a quick tour down there yesterday and
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  Speaker 3: apart from the amazing cars and some of the stars
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  Speaker 3: and crews down there, Tony Island was in full swing
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  Speaker 3: out at Spokeshille wharfs there that that carousel thing I
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  Speaker 3: think is cracking.
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  Speaker 2: Wasn't referred to, is that yet?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? You know, it can take a bit of a
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  Speaker 3: queue up at the list to get down to the
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  Speaker 3: water funding you walk from the city, So a nice
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  Speaker 3: zipline down to Coney Island might be next on the agenda.
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  Speaker 2: That would be awesome. How good would that be to
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  Speaker 2: have a zipline?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely anyway, I think big at the waterfront are going
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  Speaker 3: well and the restaurants yesterday were cranking. You could tell
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  Speaker 3: that they were tourists that had come up to enjoy,
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  Speaker 3: you know, us at our finest time in the weather.
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  Speaker 3: A great event, a great three days planned for the supercars,
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  Speaker 3: and I'm really keen on the nitros tonight. They'll be sensational.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's just nice to see people from other
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  Speaker 3: parts of the country up here and enjoying what we
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  Speaker 3: get to enjoy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. And I know that you and
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  Speaker 2: I have spoken before about the hot spot declarations and
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  Speaker 2: the impact that that can have. We just heard from
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  Speaker 2: Kakadu Tourism about the hot spot declaration obviously for Melbourne
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  Speaker 2: and the fact that they saw twenty thousand dollars in
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  Speaker 2: bookings canceled within twenty four hours. There's no doubt that
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  Speaker 2: we are still you know, that kind of thing just
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  Speaker 2: makes you realize that we're certainly still dealing with COVID
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  Speaker 2: and the impacts of it, and these hot spots do
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  Speaker 2: have a real impact when it comes to tourism and hospitality.
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  Speaker 3: That's it. But hat foster Peter and his team quite positively,
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  Speaker 3: and I know that this is a lot of the
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  Speaker 3: accommodation members right across the territory. They have been able
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  Speaker 3: to resell some of the rooms that were canceled, but
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  Speaker 3: this weekend was booked solid, booked out. You couldn't get
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  Speaker 3: any accommodation a month ago. You can still find rooms now,
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  Speaker 3: so it hasn't all been reallocated. The most concerning thing
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  Speaker 3: for us was we were hoping to see Melbourne reopened
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  Speaker 3: and re welcoming, welcome to the territory by now health
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  Speaker 3: and Hugh Hegy, who is a world gold champion, needs
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  Speaker 3: to make the decisions he does that we were a
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  Speaker 3: bit concerned. He himself came out of the how it
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: brings Gulag and started saying, we've got to go back
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  Speaker 3: to the future and do fourteen days of zero cases
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  Speaker 3: before we'll reopen the border. You know, it's Melbourne's they
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  Speaker 3: start their school holidays this weekend, so it really like
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  Speaker 3: what we said a couple of weeks ago when this
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  Speaker 3: all started. It's manageable. We'll get through it. Peter and
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  Speaker 3: all the other accommodation guys, they'll just make it work.
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  Speaker 3: But the longer this goes on, and now it's chomping
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  Speaker 3: into our peak school holiday dry season for Melbourne, and yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we baited breath. Everyone's looking at Sydney and hoping that
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  Speaker 3: it doesn't go the same way.
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly right. We are all keeping a very close
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  Speaker 2: eye on Sydney at the moment, particularly when you look
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  Speaker 2: at the fact that we've got the supercars this weekend
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  Speaker 2: and then we just go full steam ahead with wonderful
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  Speaker 2: events throughout the dry.
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  Speaker 3: That's it. And you know we in industry aren't alone,
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  Speaker 3: and it's across industries and it's across the community. We
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  Speaker 3: don't feel like twelve months into this we've got any
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  Speaker 3: better at outlining what the metrics are, what the trigger
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  Speaker 3: points are. We still can't play along. For business is critical.
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  Speaker 3: It gives us a certainty to plan what we're doing.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, you look around the world versus Australia
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  Speaker 3: and say Australia is doing pretty good. You look at
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  Speaker 3: the territory versus the rest of Australia and you say
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  Speaker 3: we're doing pretty good. And I absolutely accept both of
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  Speaker 3: those things and we understand it. But I do hear
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  Speaker 3: in our industry people's ass backing their heads. When are
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  Speaker 3: they going to give us the metrics and the road
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  Speaker 3: maps like they do with almost every other government policy
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  Speaker 3: that can really fundamentally impact our businesses. They don't just say, oh,
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  Speaker 3: we'll let you know what we're thinking the day we're
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  Speaker 3: going to announce it. I don't know how twelve months
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  Speaker 3: on we haven't sharpened that up a bit, to be.
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  Speaker 2: Honest, Now, Alex, how are things going when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to the workforce shortage for you guys currently? Has there
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  Speaker 2: been much movement in this space?
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  Speaker 3: I keep saying handfuls at a time that we are
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  Speaker 3: getting workers from interstate. They've got that fifteen hundred dollars
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  Speaker 3: on the table, and I know that some grants have
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  Speaker 3: been applied for, so you know, we're getting more workers
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  Speaker 3: than we had unemployed people territori ins also get assistance
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  Speaker 3: in training or that cash bonus to come and join us.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm aware that a few venues have picked up
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  Speaker 3: a few more workers that way. So we're hoping to
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  Speaker 3: see more kiwis as well. We are running stuff over there.
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  Speaker 3: Particularly when the borders did get lifted with New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: we actually saw a drop of the kiwis that do
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  Speaker 3: work in our industry because they've been locked in Australia
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  Speaker 3: unable to see their family and friends all of last year.
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  Speaker 3: So they actually all large chunk of them left and
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  Speaker 3: they weren't all replaced with new ones. So we've just
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  Speaker 3: got to keep working on it. Paul at NT Farmers,
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  Speaker 3: you know, whether it's Blade and Point or giving some
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  Speaker 3: access into Howard Springs, the government's well aware of it
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  Speaker 3: at both levels. There is goodwill to look at agriculture,
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  Speaker 3: aged care, hospitality and tourism, international students and see how
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  Speaker 3: we can all have a bit of a team NT approach.
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  Speaker 3: I know Luke Gosling and Sam McMahon are both very
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  Speaker 3: strong on that. So we've identified the issues, we just
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  Speaker 3: need to work on getting the outcomes now.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got got to work something out. Mean, it's
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  Speaker 2: having such an impact broadly across the Northern Territory, so
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  Speaker 2: we've got to work something out. Alex, I do want
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  Speaker 2: to ask, last time we caught up, you told us
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  Speaker 2: that there was well that it was free to update
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  Speaker 2: your Responsible Service of Alcohol your ARESA. Have you had
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  Speaker 2: many people review THEIRS or renewer.
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  Speaker 1: Overwhelming absolutely overwhelmingly so This is important for us. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we've been shouting out to locals saying you've been great customers,
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  Speaker 1: consider dusting off that old nineteen ninety nine RSA and
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  Speaker 1: jumping on the other side of the bar and helping
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  Speaker 1: us out.
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  Speaker 3: And we are getting connections yesterday, so we've we launched
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  Speaker 3: that two weeks ago and yesterday I handed out the
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  Speaker 3: thousand certificate to a territory and Camilla down at the
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  Speaker 3: Darwin Sailing Club who had updated at RSA, she's got
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  Speaker 3: two jobs. She's started doing part time bar down there.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's brilliant, that's awesome.
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  Speaker 2: And what does it mean really for the industry to
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  Speaker 2: have those thousand more people with their RSAs it obviously
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  Speaker 2: will meaning that you're sort of you broaden your horizons
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  Speaker 2: in terms of those who can enter the workforce and
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  Speaker 2: work in hospitality.
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  Speaker 3: That's it. And there were a lot of people. This
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  Speaker 3: is a new initiative that we needed. Everyone that's got
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  Speaker 3: an RSA more than three years old needs to do
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  Speaker 3: the local refresher So a lot of these people are
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  Speaker 3: hard working already in our industry. But it's just a
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  Speaker 3: good opportunity for us in government to say, look, these
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  Speaker 3: are the territory specific things we've got to keep an
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  Speaker 3: eye on up here. It's all been done in collaboration
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  Speaker 3: with Licensing MT and Natasha Philes. They've been very pragmatic.
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  Speaker 3: We went in and asked for a free option for
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  Speaker 3: us and for our workers and for it to be online.
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  Speaker 3: And I can see that people at Curtain Springs, timber
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  Speaker 3: Creek right across the territory in the last two weeks
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  Speaker 3: have jumped on and updated to make sure we're doing
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  Speaker 3: the right thing and serving responsibly.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that is good to hear, Alex Bros. Anything else
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  Speaker 2: we should be aware of at the moment when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to the hospitality industry.
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  Speaker 3: No, it's good, it could be better and all other
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  Speaker 3: are on Sydney and we do want to see when
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  Speaker 3: Melbourne lifts.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well we'll all be keeping a very close eye
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  Speaker 2: on that. Good on you, Alex, Hope you have a
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: lovely weekend mate
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  Speaker 3: GK do you thank you