Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition tourism spokesperson Marie Claire Boothby says tourism operators in Alice Springs have been let down by the NT Government with visitation down due to crime

Transcript

Opposition tourism spokesperson Marie Claire Boothby says tourism operators in Alice Springs have been let down by the NT Government with visitation down due to crime · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: As I mentioned, we know that the Quantus boss, Alan Joyce,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: was in town last week and according to the Northern
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Terror Train News revealed top end flights had returned to
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  Speaker 1: pre COVID levels, but Alice Springs was lagging because of
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  Speaker 1: the crime crisis. Now joining me on the line is
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  Speaker 1: the Shadow Tourism spokesperson Mary Claire Boothby. Good morning to you, Mary.
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  Speaker 2: Claire, Good morning Katie, and to your.
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  Speaker 1: Listeners, thanks so much for your time this morning. Now
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  Speaker 1: Mary Claire, the CEO of Quantus, well, he said that
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  Speaker 1: crime has had an impact in Central Australia. What did
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  Speaker 1: you make of the comments.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, Katie, I couldn't believe it when I read this
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  Speaker 2: late Friday afternoon. And the thing is, Alan Joyce is
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  Speaker 2: absolutely correct. Crime has had a massive impact on tourism
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  Speaker 2: in Alice Springs. But this is on the back of
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  Speaker 2: Natasha Fhiles and the Tourism Minister Nicle Madison who spent
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  Speaker 2: two weeks in estimates telling us that crime is not
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  Speaker 2: a major concern. Well, clearly it is.
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  Speaker 3: That.
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  Speaker 2: I am also absolutely appalled that mister Joyce would blame
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  Speaker 2: our tourism businesses like he has said they need to
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  Speaker 2: do the hard yards to get tourists back here, and
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  Speaker 2: I just do not buy that. I actually waited all
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  Speaker 2: weekend to hear files or Madison come out and defend
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  Speaker 2: our tourism businesses. It certainly did not happen. And I
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  Speaker 2: think it didn't happen because they're just not leaders, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like they don't stand up and fight for the territory.
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  Speaker 2: It's just like they don't have the guts to do that.
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  Speaker 1: It seems like they're a bit scared. They're a bit
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  Speaker 1: scared to call into line the quantus CEO. But the
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  Speaker 1: fact is as well that when they've sort of denied
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  Speaker 1: that crime is having a massive impact, it makes it
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  Speaker 1: harder to then be able to pull him up on
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  Speaker 1: his comments. But I do just want to play for
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  Speaker 1: our listeners a little bit of an interaction that it
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  Speaker 1: occurred in budget estimates the week before last. This is well,
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  Speaker 1: this is both the Tourism Minister and also Robin Lamley
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  Speaker 1: the audio with thanks to nine newst and take a listen.
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  Speaker 2: The majority where we're hearing that those pressures are coming
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  Speaker 2: from interest rate rises, you know, trying to pay the bills.
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  Speaker 3: You're minimizing something that is really quite concerning and bad.
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  Speaker 3: The correlation between crime and the slump and tourism chances.
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  Speaker 1: Everything I can to these jobs and grow the economy
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  Speaker 1: in our springs.
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  Speaker 3: And is what you did when you're a police minister
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  Speaker 3: and you're doing it, So there you go.
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  Speaker 1: That is just part of the interaction that had occurred
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  Speaker 1: throughout budget estimates. Mary Claire, there is no doubt that
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  Speaker 1: crime has had an impact in Alice Springs. But is
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  Speaker 1: it time that those tourism operators stepped up and started
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  Speaker 1: to say, well, things are turning around.
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  Speaker 2: We can't keep blaming our churism businesses for this. They
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  Speaker 2: have been through hell and back. These are our family
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  Speaker 2: businesses who are doing the absolute best they can, but
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  Speaker 2: they can't provide that awesome tourism experience that we know
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  Speaker 2: they have. They literally are the best products in Australia
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  Speaker 2: if there are not people there to provide those two
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  Speaker 2: and they have absolutely been let down by the government
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  Speaker 2: who continues to bat away the concerns of crime. What
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  Speaker 2: those businesses need is for someone to have the guts
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  Speaker 2: to stand up to these corporates instead of just pandering
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  Speaker 2: to them, and actually do something about the crime. It
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  Speaker 2: is unbelievable. I was at a function on Thursday night
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  Speaker 2: where Alan Joyce and his board were all at It
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  Speaker 2: was their first board meeting in Darwin in over one
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  Speaker 2: hundred years apparently, and while Natasha Files and Nicole Madison
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  Speaker 2: were standing for photos, I actually fronted Alan Joyce and
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  Speaker 2: I reminded him that the NTE in the name Quantus
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  Speaker 2: stands for the Northern Territory and I urged him to
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  Speaker 2: really take a good look at this because we can't
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  Speaker 2: just be left behind. And when you've got the Chief Minister,
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  Speaker 2: who is supposed to be our leader and backing territorians,
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  Speaker 2: supporting for them, fighting for them, just standing by and
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  Speaker 2: saying nothing, it is absolutely appalling.
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  Speaker 1: Marie Claire, what do you think needs to happen here?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, the fact is he's made those comments. He
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  Speaker 1: is the see of Quantas, So I don't know whether
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  Speaker 1: they're going to put on extra flights or whether they're
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  Speaker 1: going to make any kind of any kind of changes
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  Speaker 1: to try to look after territorians. I feel as though
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  Speaker 1: that is something that the government does need to step
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  Speaker 1: up and push for. But what do you think needs
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  Speaker 1: to happen here?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely the government needs to they need to do go
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  Speaker 2: back to the basics. They need to tackle law in order,
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  Speaker 2: which will then rebuild our reputation. If there is a
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  Speaker 2: demand for flights into Alice Springs, then of course the
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  Speaker 2: flight carriers will come into line with that. Its basic economics.
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  Speaker 2: But that's not what we're seeing. We're not seeing the
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  Speaker 2: Chief Minister fight for the territories in this regard. They
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  Speaker 2: literally just letting it go by the wayside, not coming
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  Speaker 2: out and speaking against those comments. And I think it's
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  Speaker 2: because they know they are true, and they're not speaking
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  Speaker 2: up for territories, businesses and the tourism operators that have
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  Speaker 2: been on their knees for years now. We need to
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  Speaker 2: rebuild our reputation back. We need to get people back here,
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  Speaker 2: but the only way we can do that as a
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  Speaker 2: starting point is to tackle the law and order issues
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  Speaker 2: that we have.
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  Speaker 1: Is there more that we could be doing as well, though,
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  Speaker 1: to try to entice other airlines into the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: to try and push that, you know, competitiveness up so
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  Speaker 1: we can at least get a flight somewhere for a
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  Speaker 1: reasonable cost.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, and we know that Rex and Bonsa would
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  Speaker 2: be interested in sitting down and having those conversations. When
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  Speaker 2: I asked the Tourism Minister this during estimates, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when was the last time we spoke to them. She
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  Speaker 2: could tell me that she'd had conversations before, but she
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  Speaker 2: couldn't remember the date in which she last spoke to them,
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  Speaker 2: which tells me that they're not fighting boldly for the territory.
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  Speaker 2: They're not going out and actually having these deep conversations
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  Speaker 2: with these airlines. I asked him she'd spoken to the
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  Speaker 2: Prime Minister since the agripal C report was handed down.
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  Speaker 2: She laughed at me about that, saying, oh, look, you've
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  Speaker 2: got more important things to do. Now, hang on a minute.
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  Speaker 2: This is our opportunity to be absolutely doing everything we can.
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  Speaker 2: She said it into that little clip you play, that
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  Speaker 2: she would do everything she can, and she is absolutely not.
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  Speaker 2: Her and Natasha Files are standing by idly while Territorians
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  Speaker 2: continue to.
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  Speaker 1: Stop on Marik Claire, I want to move along to
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  Speaker 1: another topic that I know has already started to fire
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  Speaker 1: up a lot of our listeners. This morning, the ABC
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  Speaker 1: on the Weekend reporting that two Northern Territory government MLA's
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  Speaker 1: charge taxpayers more than three thousand dollars in private interstate
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  Speaker 1: travel this year thanks to a fuel card entitlement. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the fuel disclosure records show that backbench MLA Duran Young
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  Speaker 1: spent more than seven thousand dollars in fuel purchases over
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  Speaker 1: a four month period from December twenty twenty two. Of this,
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  Speaker 1: more than two thy five hundred was spent on private
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  Speaker 1: travel in New South Wales and Queensland, tabbing up fuel
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  Speaker 1: spends in the towns of Ballina, Yamba, Nooser, long Reach,
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  Speaker 1: Mount iSER and camer Wheel Now according to the ABC,
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  Speaker 1: the records also show that the Northern Territories Attorney General
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  Speaker 1: Chancey Paike racked up more than seven hundred dollars in
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  Speaker 1: fuel costs on private travel driving between Adelaide and the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory between Boxing Day twenty twenty two that was
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  Speaker 1: in and January seven, twenty twenty three. Marie Claire, does
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  Speaker 1: this pass the pub test?
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  Speaker 2: Not at all, Katie. I mean we are absolutely calling
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  Speaker 2: on those labor MLAs to pay back those funds. And
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  Speaker 2: I really think this goes to their character when making
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  Speaker 2: these choices. I mean, you receive allowances as an elected
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  Speaker 2: member and in this case they choose to have a
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  Speaker 2: government vehicle with a fuel card and then they chose
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  Speaker 2: to use that fuel card for an interstate holiday. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: even if it says that, or it doesn't say that
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  Speaker 2: you can't do that, it doesn't mean that they should,
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  Speaker 2: and it doesn't mean that it's right. I mean, those
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  Speaker 2: amounts that you talked about in those places that they
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  Speaker 2: spent the mat, imagine if they'd spent them in Central
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  Speaker 2: Australia or in the top end where we do have
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  Speaker 2: tourism businesses that are struggling. For me, this just goes
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  Speaker 2: to show the lack of care that these guys have
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  Speaker 2: when they're spending taxpayers money on themselves to its life.
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  Speaker 1: So you reckon they need to pay it back. You
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  Speaker 1: reckon they need to actually pay this money back.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. And then in the questions during estimates, it
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  Speaker 2: was revealed that the speaker made his own assessment without
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  Speaker 2: getting any advice, and then after that a determination was
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  Speaker 2: made and he didn't communicate that to all MLAs. The
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  Speaker 2: only communicated to the two that were in question here.
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  Speaker 2: To me, that just makes no sense. I mean again,
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  Speaker 2: this is like the labor mantra. They're happy to spend
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  Speaker 2: taxpayers money on whatever they like, and they're also hiding
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  Speaker 2: every time it comes to scrutiny when they feel the heat.
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  Speaker 1: I mean my understanding though, is that there is an
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  Speaker 1: independent tribunal that obviously sets the rules when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to you know, when it comes to vehicles and the
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  Speaker 1: ways in which they can be used, those government vehicles
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  Speaker 1: or those you know MLA vehicles. So is the CLP
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  Speaker 1: prepared to write to the tribunal saying that you think
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  Speaker 1: that there needs to be changes here.
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  Speaker 2: Well, but the tribunal is very independent and each member
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  Speaker 2: of Parliament and other stakeholders get to put forward submissions
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  Speaker 2: as to what they would like to see going forward
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  Speaker 2: whenever they do their reviews. So the thing is that
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  Speaker 2: my understanding is that they used to have a very
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  Speaker 2: strict definition of what fuel cards could be used on
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  Speaker 2: and that was all changed. So the thing is, even
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  Speaker 2: if it says that they even if it doesn't say
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  Speaker 2: that you can't do something specifically, it doesn't mean that
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  Speaker 2: that's the right thing to do. I mean, elected members
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  Speaker 2: are there to represent their community and they have plenty
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  Speaker 2: of benefits that allow them to do that. And so
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  Speaker 2: when you get a fueld card and then you go
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  Speaker 2: and choose to spend over and above what you would
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  Speaker 2: normally use your field card on, when you're traveling around
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  Speaker 2: your community. It just doesn't sit right with people.
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  Speaker 1: Well it doesn't.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, they just go and spend at willy nilly
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  Speaker 2: without any care in the world. I mean, and that's
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  Speaker 2: how territorions feel about everything that they spend their money on. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: there's definitely lots of commentary around the wasteful spending. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: this just points to that. Again.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Marie Claire Boosby, we really appreciate your time. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much for having a chat to us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, and thank you