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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 Mix
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  Speaker 1: one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 2: Over the weekend a big announcement allowing foreign students to
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: work unlimited hours. Previously, as we know, those on student
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: visas could only work a maximum of forty hours a fortnight. However,
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  Speaker 2: the Immigration Minister Alex Hawk, on the weekend said that
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  Speaker 2: those temporary visa holders could now receive an exemption for
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  Speaker 2: tourism and hospitality roles. Now, Alex Bruce joins me on
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  Speaker 2: the line. Here is indeed the CEO of Hospitality NT.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alex.
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  Speaker 1: Good a Katie, Alex.
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  Speaker 2: How big an impact do you think this announcement is
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  Speaker 2: going to have on those industries? Well, currently struggling to
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  Speaker 2: fill some of these jobs.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, look, quite a large one. There are a lot
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  Speaker 1: of international students working in hospitality and tourism businesses right
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  Speaker 1: across the country right now.
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  Speaker 2: So do you have any idea sort of how many
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  Speaker 2: students we're talking?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So in the Northern Territory there's just under five
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  Speaker 1: thousand international students enrolling courses up here, predominantly in the
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  Speaker 1: top end not so many in Central Australia right now,
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  Speaker 1: and this assists them as much as it does us.
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  Speaker 1: We've been having meetings with some of the education providers
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  Speaker 1: around town and the sad story was a lot of
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  Speaker 1: those international students are from India and where Mum and
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  Speaker 1: Dad Bank were going to be able to support and
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  Speaker 1: help them through their time here and studies here. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of that's being interrupted right now because of unfortunately
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  Speaker 1: how bad the situation is in India. So they want
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  Speaker 1: to work, they want to continue their studies. The education
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  Speaker 1: providers want them to work more as well. They were
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  Speaker 1: putting on soup kitchens up at CDU pretty much and
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  Speaker 1: helping these people feed themselves because twenty hours a week
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  Speaker 1: in some of these businesses, it's really tough going to
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  Speaker 1: to feed clothes, pay your rent, all the rest of us.
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  Speaker 1: So this gives them a bit more flexibility to work
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  Speaker 1: with us and we think that'll really go a long
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  Speaker 1: way in addressing some of those workforce shortages that we've
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  Speaker 1: spoken about before.
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  Speaker 2: And how is it going to help really, you know,
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  Speaker 2: industries like yours, but also the likes of tourism. I
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  Speaker 2: know you and I have spoken on so many occasions
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  Speaker 2: about the serious worker shortage that we're facing, particularly as
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: the dry season is now upon us.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: That's it. Winter is coming very good for papers from
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  Speaker 1: so I loved it at the beginning of May. And
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  Speaker 1: it's true that we know the Cooper Peds as chokers.
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  Speaker 1: We know that Alice's chockers. They're on their way up
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  Speaker 1: as we speak, you know. And you see that vibrancy
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  Speaker 1: around Darwin as well. Now, look, the good thing for
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  Speaker 1: us was this was identified nationally, but we had the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity through Sam McMahon but also the opposition. We've had
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  Speaker 1: a lot of federal politicians up in town in the
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  Speaker 1: last two weeks and we very much took a team
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: approach on this one. Nt Government was supportive of our position.
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  Speaker 1: Michael Bridge, chair of Jurism NTEE, me and Glenn Daniel
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  Speaker 1: down Tourism Central Australia and our operators. This was the
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  Speaker 1: number one issue, the only issue that we've been communicating
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  Speaker 1: with both sides of Camber's Parliament on and very pleasing
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  Speaker 1: to see such a quick turnaround and announcement over the weekend.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and Alex, as you said, though there are
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  Speaker 2: some other things that you've been sort of liaising with
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  Speaker 2: all tears of government about as well. I know that
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  Speaker 2: you and I have spoken before. I've also spoken to
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  Speaker 2: the CEO of NT Farmers about the possibility of using
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  Speaker 2: bladon Point to quarantine some workers coming across from some
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  Speaker 2: of those safe countries. It doesn't look like that's going
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  Speaker 2: to happen, or it's sort of the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 2: had said that you know that it's going to be
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  Speaker 2: an expensive exercise and that realistically industry would be covering
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  Speaker 2: that bill. I mean, does that mean that that idea
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  Speaker 2: is sort of dead in the water at these points.
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  Speaker 1: No, I wouldn't say dead in the water. It's challenging.
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  Speaker 1: And if we look first and foremost locals, and there's
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  Speaker 1: that fifteen hundred dollars incentive to get locals that are
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  Speaker 1: unemployees working in our industry, or for interstate people to
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  Speaker 1: come up to offset some of their travel costs or
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  Speaker 1: just push it through to them as a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a cash bonus for joining us for a couple of
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  Speaker 1: months work. And then we look at the trainees and
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  Speaker 1: the apprentices and we're working with government to place those
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  Speaker 1: and then you know, this comes in and we can
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  Speaker 1: use our international students a little bit more where they
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  Speaker 1: want to work a bit more as well. We know
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  Speaker 1: we're going to continue to be impacted until international borders resume.
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  Speaker 1: We're now hearing today that that's often the never never
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  Speaker 1: enter the back end next year, So it is critically
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  Speaker 1: important that you know at this stage it won't add
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  Speaker 1: that much to this dry season, but we need to
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  Speaker 1: get some runs on the board, landing some planes. They
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  Speaker 1: quarantine overseas, they get back needed, they come here and
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  Speaker 1: they quarantine again. So it's a long process to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that everyone's safe. We need to crack the egg
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  Speaker 1: this year because otherwise we're going to be severely impacted
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  Speaker 1: next dry season as well.
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  Speaker 2: Mate, how in terms of this dry season for a start,
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  Speaker 2: like when you talk about that worker shortfall, I know
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  Speaker 2: that this was good news over the weekend, but are
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  Speaker 2: you still going to be short or do you think
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  Speaker 2: that you're sort of going to get there?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, look, a lot of our operators and their staff
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  Speaker 1: they're already telling me, you know, we'll do what we do.
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  Speaker 1: We just put our head down, bum up and get
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  Speaker 1: through it. But there is things you know in the
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  Speaker 1: paper today a discussion about how Dale and Cup weekendidate.
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  Speaker 1: We are to find accommodation that's still available, and that
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  Speaker 1: is very much true. But if we can get more
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  Speaker 1: of our particularly skilled workforce shortages fixed, potentially we can
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  Speaker 1: bring more capacity online as well. So you know, it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be a COVID affected year for us, it's
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  Speaker 1: still very positive. We know that the domestic market of
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  Speaker 1: travelers is larger than we've seen in the territory for
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  Speaker 1: many years, So it's how best can we capitalize on that,
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  Speaker 1: get as much money into people's back pockets and through
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  Speaker 1: the local economy, you know. So it's more the opportunity
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  Speaker 1: is still there for us to maximize and at this stage,
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  Speaker 1: as good as everything is, we're working towards it. But
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  Speaker 1: I can't say it's mission accomplished.
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  Speaker 2: Just on that. With the hotels that I know that
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  Speaker 2: there's quite a few of them obviously that are now
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  Speaker 2: back open and running, but quite a few of them
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  Speaker 2: are still operating at reduced occupancy, aren't they?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, they are, And it's a challenging one and it's
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  Speaker 1: commercial confidential material as well, so I have to be
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  Speaker 1: a bit careful and they always don't want to be
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  Speaker 1: to public about what's going on. But Look, the reality
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  Speaker 1: is there are still rooms offline in dal and there
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: are definitely rooms offline in Alice Springs. And that's not
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  Speaker 1: at all the criticism of those greater than my members.
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  Speaker 1: It's just the reality of lacking some of those housekeeper
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  Speaker 1: staff positions, those cooks and chefs skilled positions. But you
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  Speaker 1: know they're working very hard. They know the key weekends.
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  Speaker 1: There has been a bit of an inter intrastate, intra
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  Speaker 1: territory transport where workers from Darwin helped go down with
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  Speaker 1: Alice as I understand for Cup weekend departure Mour and
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  Speaker 1: hopefully we can see some of that reverse flow towards
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  Speaker 1: Darwin Cup weekend and Darwin Festival back up here. So
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  Speaker 1: we're going through everything we can and te major events
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  Speaker 1: has been very good in that regard, showing us where
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  Speaker 1: their key surges are of interstate ticket holders and things
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  Speaker 1: like that. So we're trying to match it as an
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  Speaker 1: industry as best we can. But I would still ask
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  Speaker 1: people to bear with us when they see a busy
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  Speaker 1: reception or breakfast buffet.
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  Speaker 2: Well. Alex Bruce, the CEO of Hospitality here in the
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory, always good to catch up with you, mate,
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  Speaker 2: I really appreciate your time this morning
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  Speaker 1: Kiers Katie, thank you