Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says a business delegations will soon head to the UK and Ireland hoping to recruit 100 hospitality workers

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Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says a business delegations will soon head to the UK and Ireland hoping to recruit 100 hospitality workers · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: I do apologize and running so late Alex Bruce the
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: sea of hospitality here in the Northern Territory.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: How are you mate?
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, in a bit of a different start to
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: the year.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: It most certainly has. It's been very busy.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: And before I get into the delegation that's setting off
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Alice Spring's obviously some really strict sort of alcohol bands
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: in place at the moment. From hospitalities perspective, how's it going.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, we were down there last week chatting to
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: our venues and they're part of the community down there.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: They were dealing with the antisocial behavior and the crime
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: and the breakings either at their houses or into their
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: venues after hours to access alcohol. So I think broadly
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: supportive that there's been the attention placed on the issue.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: You know, it didn't suddenly appear overnight. It's a long
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: standing problem that we're still trying to tackle and grapple with.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: But from their perspective talking to them, it seems like,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: you know, they're happy that there has been that spotlight
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: focused on them. It's not just Alice though, we hear
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: that constantly. And yeah, now we've really got to see
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: some hard works done by both the fedral and territory
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: governments to try and do more than just slap band
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: aids on the solution. That's all they've done so far
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: in our space with the dry days and everything else.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: And whether that pushes people to mount either or Cooper
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Seedy or up to Castro or further. You know, there's
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty mil. We better constantly keep an
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: eye on that and make sure it actually is going
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: to try and break the cycle is just tragically unfolding
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: down there, because otherwise, Katie, I feel like we're on
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: a bit of a merry go round and you know,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: at the end of that ninety days, what will we
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: be talking about.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Well, let's hope we're not still bloody talking about the
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: same things. Alex and I think that's, you know, the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: very good point that you're making.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and we are happy that they're looking to change that.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Opt in about singing Parliament this week. We joined the
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: chorus by October last year. Obviously a lot of those
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: other groups were there from earlier on the ground than that.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: It did seem like, you know, the last six months
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: a little bit of a stuff up. Let's just cop
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: it on the chin. Work towards a better outcoming, including
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: supporting some of those communities in town camps to appropriately
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: collectively make decisions that are well regulated and everything else.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Don't just rip the rug out from underneath them. Call
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: anything else race based. You know, that kind of language
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: I don't think is particularly helpful in the space. But
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: you know, let's all continue to work together.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: We've got to try and move forward from here and
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: got to try and make a difference. Now, Alex, I
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: know that a delegation of territory businesses, well territory territorians,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: are aiming to recruise one hundred hospitality workers when you
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: visit the United Kingdom and Island next month in an
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: effort to increase skilled workforce through the Global Worker Attraction Program.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Why is this delegation needed.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty positive. We spoke about it at the
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: back end of last year. Minister Kirby had put out
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: a bit of an expression of interest from different businesses
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: and sectors and industry groups right across all the different industries,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: because you know, everyone's got workforce challenges and you might
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: have warm bodies, but you're lacking some skills in your
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: businesses as a common theme right across. So you know,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: a bunch of the smaller operators in our space got
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: together and loaded a submission. So hat software run involved,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: particularly the department and Migration NTE. There's been a lot
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: of work done from that announcement to today and we
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: start to see some people leaving later in the week
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: for the UK and rolling through over the next three
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: or four weeks. And it is only people that are
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: going over there with the very clear intention to sign
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: people up and bring them back with us. And we've
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: got some good people going along.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: But yeah, setting along, who's heading along?
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Look we've got we've got voyages down at as Rock
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Resort there, We've got some pubs and clubs and restaurants
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: from across Darwin. Hayley who is a bit of an
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: advocate for us. She's the venue manager sorry events manager
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: at Charlie's of Darwin that was sponsored by Darwin Sailing
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Club a couple of years previous. A beautiful girl from Birmingham.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: She's the success story. She's been in the territory for
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: five years and loves it and wants to go back
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: over there and try and tell that positive vision. You know, Yes,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: we except that we have challenges right across the territory,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: but there's also so much that we can be out
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: there promoting to try and fix some of our workforce shortages.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look it's a tough one.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I know that there'll always be those questions or is
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: this just a junkers? I mean, what would you say
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: to anybody that's asking that question this morning, Alex, as
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: we're speaking, Well.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I'm not going on it. The minut is not going
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: on it. It is literally only those businesses and they
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: buy and large are at the smaller end less able.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: You know, we've got large chain grouped multinational footprints in
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: some of our hotel brands. If you think about it,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: they've got quite sophisticated international recruitment pathways. This was about
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: helping smaller territorians get out there, tell their story and
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: put the NT on the map to that target market
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: in the UK and Ireland that you know probably think
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: we're about Bombay and miserable Melbourne and that's about it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hope we can get these additional one hundred
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: hospitality workers. I mean to be great to see and
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I know that they are very much needed. Alex Bruce
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: I am sorry that we don't have more time this morning.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Good to catch up with you. As always, we'll talk
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: to you again soon.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Cheers Katie, Well, thank you you too,