Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce for an industry update as the NT prepares to open up

Transcript

Katie spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce for an industry update as the NT prepares to open up · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is just on twenty minutes after nine o'clock and
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a reminder that the week that was coming to you
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: live this morning a little bit later after ten o'clock.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: But we know that these changes to quarantining and testing
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our roadmap forward yesterday, on the face of it,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: seemed like a really good thing, but now as further
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: details starts to flow through, a lot of concerns being raised.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: As you just heard from Daniel Rochford, DCEEO of Tourism
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: in Central Australia and joining me on the line right
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: now is Hospitality and t CEO Alex Bruce.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Alex, Good morning Katie.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Alex. What is your reaction to the changes yesterday?
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, look, it was a step forward for territoriums living
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: in Darwin, Catherine and Alice Springs, but a big jump
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: backwards and kicking the guts to hard working vaccinated territoriums
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: that live outside those three centers. If we can just
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: go and have a look at Nullen Boy for a moment,
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: that township and the closest communities are all that about
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: eighty percent. I think they're about to hit it over
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: if they haven't already. They've been direct flying in and
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: out of cams all year, pretty much as Queensland's being
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: the Green Zoners. You know, they're very connected with their
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: family and friends over in Queensland. A lot of there's
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: thousands of these non Indigenous workers and their families vaccinated.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: They've done the right thing. They got told, you know,
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: do the right thing, get vaccinated, keep working and will
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: work towards giving you a Christmas that was probably not
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: on the table last year. And they've had the rug
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: pulled under them for all their plans. Daniel and Glenn
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: Hinley up here right in what they're saying about the
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: impact in the tourism and hospitality space, and it's twofold
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: for us. It's not just that the tourists won't come
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: because you know, even the Darwin bubble doesn't include Letchfield
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: National Park, let alone Kakadu, Even the Catherine Bubble doesn't
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: include Catherine Gorge. You've knocked off, you know, Lara's out, Airs,
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: Rocks out, King's Canyons out. The list of major draw
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: card destinations for any of the traveling public are pretty
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: much all off limits come the twentieth of December, regardless
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: of vaccination. Status regardless of zero COVID from all the
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: testing of those traveling people. And the second very concerning
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: thing for us, Katie, is we've had a lot of
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: workers that didn't leave for the territory last year. We
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: listened to the government messaging, we all did that, and
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: they're going and they booked plans to go into state
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: to see their family and friends this year. And we're
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: really concerned that, you know, if they're working at some
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: of these locations outside those three cities, the business can't
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: afford for them to then spend fourteen days twiddling their
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: thumbs in Darwin, Catherine or Alis. And so they're wanting
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: to cancel the leave of these essential workers for us
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: and facing some pretty stiff opposition in a tight labor market. Well,
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm going anyway, and I'll get a job
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: down south instead. And so we're just compounding our workforce problems.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: And this does seem to be out of nowhere compared
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: to all the language that was leading up to yesterday.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: It just like it's making me wonder, is there some
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: kind of oversight here?
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, I.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Get that every intention is to ensure that you know,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: our various communities around the Northern Territory that our Indigenous
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: territorians stay safe and.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Don't end up with COVID in those communities.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: But it just seems like it's an oversight or that
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you know that something's gone wrong here, because it seems
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: so unbelievable, Alex, that if you live in a regional
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: part of the Northern Territory that you can't move around.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: We keep talking about learning to live with COVID, shifting
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: from the pandemic to the endemic stage. What was announced
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: yesterday is abundantly clear that they're still pursuing COVID zero
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: in those remote areas. And you know, we're not heartless.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: We understand this is a balancing act and we have
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: been quite appreciative of the balance that has been struck
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: to date. But you know that old superannuation ad. Compare
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: the pair, Just compare two scenarios. Right now, you're an
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: unvaccinated indigenous person living on your homeland. You pretty much
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: have freedom of movement to go everywhere you want to go.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: You probably weren't going overseas. You probably weren't going into
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: state to see family and loved ones. You can come
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: and go from the urban centers as you please. Your livelihood,
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: however you derive it, if it's not from a workplace,
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: was not threatened, if you didn't get vaxed. And then
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: you compare the other person who is a non indigenous,
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: hard working territory that has done everything that the government
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: has asked them to do to this point, and because
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: they've achieved a high vax rate, they're now getting all
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: these extra restrictions based on their life versus the other one.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: And you just wonder, if you're comparing a pair, who's
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: going up the stairs and who's going down.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Alex, what have you been told by you know, some
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: of the roadhouses, some of the different hospitality venues that
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: are in regional and more remote areas of the Northern Territory.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: What are they saying to you this morning?
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: I look, it lit up yesterday and it's continued this morning.
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: There was a lot of shock yesterday. This doesn't seem
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: to be like that the preparatory groundwork had been done.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: This does seem to have come as quite a shock
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: to our industry. And if you want to talk the
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: drive mark and those roadhouses, what we got confirmed yesterday
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: was so just say you're a traveling person, whether you're
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: a returning territory or a caravaner and you're heading up
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: from South Australia. Okay, so you'll get your PCR test
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: in Cooper Pete and you need to cross the border
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: within three days, no dramas. You'll probably get another PCR
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: test in Alice Springs and then you know another one
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: on the sixth day, whether you're in Catherine or Darwin
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: by that stage, and you're allowed to drive up the
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: Cora at all but direct route. You're not allowed to deviate.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: You are allowed to stop in the roadhouses and the
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: wayside ends along the way, including overnight for accommodation. There's
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: no specificity about how quickly you have to make that
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: journey if Darwin was your end destination. But here's the
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: other kicker. As soon as you cross the sant border,
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: every time you leave your vehicle, you have to wear
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: a mask outside Darwin, Catherine, Alice Bubbles. When did a
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: mask mandate creep back in? When there is zero COVID
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: localized risk and all the testing And the other real
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: concern we've had is you've seen the delays out at
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: Marara already or all of those people that are participating
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: in the home quarantining pilots or doing that now till
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: twentieth of December. Are we realistically seriously saying that we
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: can quadruple by a factor of ten the PCR tests
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: and not disrupt everyone's life. The other thing that came
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: out yesterday is if you're seeking a PCR test because
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: it's another state requirement, so you want to travel into
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Essa and see loved ones down there, you can't book
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: through the government system. You have to go to the
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: private ones. We heard yesterday on your show, the super
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: Clinics full till Christmas. These private ones are one hundred
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: and fifty three hundred bucks per person, man, woman and child.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: Why are we doing this, Katie?
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I do not know, Alex. There is way more questions
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: now that have been raised since that announcement was made
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: yesterday than answers. To be honest with you, you know,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: we have been meant to have the Chief Minister on
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the show the last couple of weeks. I've got to
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: tell you my bloody hope he's turning up on Monday.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Because there are so many questions that Territorians need to
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: have answered at this point, and we've got to have
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: some clarity, not only for locals, but also for tourists
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: wanting to travel in and for all of our business
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: operators well right across the board.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Everybody needs these questions answered.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: It's quite unbelievable, absolutely, Katie, and we've absolutely applaud the
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: government if they came out with more clarity that favored
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: a more sensible approach today or in the next coming days.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: We do think some of this stuff does need to
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: be looked at again, and you know, we all are
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: all learning through this so that there's no problem in
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: saying okay, we actually have to put a bit more
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: thought about that and maybe Nullan Boy can be released
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: from its twentieth of December fourth to fourteen day quarantine
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: in Darwin that was announced yesterday. We think some of
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: this is kick let's cook on it a little bit
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: more and see if we can come up with a
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: better outcome that balances everything that needs to be balanced.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: There has to be, there's really got to be.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Alex Bruce, the sea of hospitality here in the Northern Territory.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning and raising some
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: of those concerns for us. We'll talk to you again
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: early next week. I'd say cheers. Katios, Thanks Mipe