Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says it's clear with the new CHO directions that the Vax Pass has become an anti-alcohol measure

Transcript

Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce says it's clear with the new CHO directions that the Vax Pass has become an anti-alcohol measure · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And we know that there has been quite a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of conjecture. I think you'd have to say, following on
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: from that interview that we've done. Yesterday, just after ten o'clock,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: we had the opposition's health spokesperson on the show, Bill Yan,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and we talked about these change instead of coming to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: play when it comes to the Chief Health Officer direction.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: So you're no longer if you're unvaccinated.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: You can now go into some of those larger events
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: over five hundred people and also different sporting events. You
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: no longer need to show your vax status. But if
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you want to get yourself a beer, you're not allowed
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to do that. If you want to have a pie,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: well that's okay, you can go and get one of those.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: You're not going to have to show that you're vaccinated
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: for that. Unfortunately, though, what we are seeing is you
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: do still need to be vaccinated to go into a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: licensed premises. Now, this is something that we've been speaking
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: about for a little while now. And joining me on
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the line is the CEO of Hospitality here in the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory, Alex Bruce.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alex, Good morning Katie. Alex.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Earlier in the week, you were pretty frustrated by this situation.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: How are you feeling today?
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, look, we had that very respectful meeting with the
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Chief Health Officer and your deputy on Monday where we
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: put to them that we're feeling like we're getting targeted.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: This is an anti alcohol measure, you know, the vaccine path,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: the vax path has turned into a license to drink.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: And they pushed back and said that wasn't the case
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: the whole time they were drafting a carve out that
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: makes it absolutely linked to just the sale of a beer.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: You know, the Shadow Minister's right. The absurdity of it.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: You can be in a crowded too stadium watching the footy,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: you can go buy a pie. But somehow if you
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: grabbed a grape and all the mid strengths can you're
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: suddenly the arch enemy and you're super high risk and
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: you're a super spreader or something. It's just out of garbage, Katie.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: What if they sort of said to you in this space, Alex,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: is there you know, is there a medical reason behind
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: it in terms of you know, in terms of why
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: those that are licensed venues at this point are still
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: having to go through this process.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Katie, we share the concerns that there haven't been enough
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: published in writing analysis on any of these measures the
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: whole time, throughout you know, and the whole Oh well
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: we do daily press conferences. Well, whoopee, that's that's something different,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: you know, And since January I've been speaking to you
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: about it at least that you know, we know that
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: transmission occurs right across society, right across activities. Health do
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: tell us that you know, Omicron was a game changer
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: versus Delta, both in terms of happily not not as deadly,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: but also it spreads through workplaces, it spreads and schools,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: it spreads everywhere. And yes, across the world we've seen
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: focused on you know, high intensity dance club nightclub activity
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: where people whether they're drinking or not, there in crossed
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: proximity to people not in their bubbles. To use a
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: previous term, you know, and that and that is a
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: case of transmission. But to flatly ignore the cry since January,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: what is the difference in a licensed cafe versus our
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: licensed cafe when you're sitting in an outdoor our fresco
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: table having a coffee for half an hour. This obsession
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: with alcohol is very laid bare now and we've been
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: doing a survey all week and the responses that we're
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: getting from our members, they just had a gutful of this.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: If this is an alcohol measure, call it for what
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: it is.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Alex, What have those responses been to that survey? Talk
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: us through what you've asked and where that survey's at.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: We've been engaging on the two year bill that's before
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Parliament and due to be debated and past next sitting.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: We did catch up with the Health Minister this week
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: and we do respect that they will need to continue
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: to have the opportunity to do for As you know,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: no one can crystal ball what the next two years
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: look like, but all the data is showing that, you know,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: they're no more waves, there's ripples. Let's talk about ripples.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about how you've had two years to plan
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: for your hospital situation. Beyond the point. This is not
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: a hospitality issue. This is a hospital issue, and just
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: get out of everybody's life and leave us alone. And
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: that's the kind of our commentary that's coming back very
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: loud and clearly. You know, we've got survey responses now
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: over eighty of our businesses. They represent you know, twenty
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: eight hundred workers. We did everything. We played by the
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: rules for the last two years. You keep changing the rules.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: You're now threatening to do that for the next two years,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: and it's making a lot of people unsettled.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: So over eighty of your businesses have so far being
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: back to you, more than two thousand members, and they
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: are really saying, please let us get on with things.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Katie. I mean, what's left of the rules. There's
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: that many holes in them. We've had the Police Minister
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: break break the rules the first day out of COVID
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: quarantine and not going to find. We've had the Chief
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Minister break the rules three days before the indoor mass
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: mandate was lifted and not going to find. I just
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: wonder how it would be at all possible for them
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: to find anybody for breaking the chow rules now when
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: they're not enforcing it themselves, and we know, you know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: and your listeners would be aware. Not all venues are
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: doing this, not all instances. When it's happening, you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: particularly if it's busy and there's multiple entrances, you can
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: understand when we're getting more and more pushback from our
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: customers not to do it. They don't want to do it.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: We can't be any clearer with the government. They're holding
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: on too tight. There is no health finance behind this
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: and it just needs to go, and it should have
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: gone when they lifted it off. You know, Peter Garrett
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: coming to town and having two and a half thousand
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: people on Saturday night down at the Downy Gardens.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, look, I just think it's such a you know,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: it's such a difficult situation right now where there's so
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: much confusion from people in the sense that you know,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: like I've spoken about through the week, and we spoke
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: about it earlier during the week that was you know,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: if you can go into a venue where there is
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a large number of people, or you know, a sporting
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: event where there's a large number of people, you can
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: go and buy a pie, but you can't go and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: get a beer. I just sort of I think there's
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of people questioning right now why some of
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: these decisions are being made. And I can understand the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: frustration from the hospitality sector when right now you're having
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: to follow a set of rules that others aren't.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Katie, you can be COVID positive, but send your little
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: kid off to school to pay it forward to the
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: next family. Quantus has changed it's online check in system
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: and it's removed the questions that you would to fall
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: foul of. So you can jump on a plane and
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: I'm aware that people were doing this even yesterday, COVID
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: positive and they're on the plane. You can take your
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: mask off on that plane and eat and drink, including
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: you know, horrible alcohol. You know this now no longer
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: makes any sense for our roadhouses down the track or
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: our venues when people fly into the only place where
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: we're having a conversation about vaccination status. And you know,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: with regard the booster rate being of fifty five percent,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: well good, but it's got nothing to do with the
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: vax path because it's only ever checks the two ticks,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: the two vacs. So you know, like this whole Oh,
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: we've got to keep it there because it's going to help. No,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: it's not, how Alex.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you are incredibly frustrated, and I can
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: understand because it sounds like your members are incredibly frustrated
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: at this point.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Look, what do you want to see happen here?
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Do you want there to be a time frame in
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: terms of how much longer are you going to have
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: to be checking people's vax status.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: It's got to go now, Katie. We don't want to
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: see a situation where they go, oh okay, we're going
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: to just do it on the nightclubs now, because the
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: science really is that it's that kind of activity that's
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: a bit more high risk. Bully to that. You've let
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: everybody else go, You let the gym go, you let
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: the unvaxxed construction workers start building at CDU. Again, we
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: put that to the show when he nodded, he knows
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: there's no compliance, there's no enforcement going on, so hospitality
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: just needs to be let go to.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, we appreciate your time as always. Well,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: we'll wait and see exactly what decision is made and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: when we're going to get an outcome to this situation,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: because yeah, I do feel for.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: The hospitality industry right now.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I know even you know, when we had the week
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: that was Matt Cunningham saying, you know I went for lunch,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: You've got people behind bars trying to check vaccination status.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I think we all understood it.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: You know, when we were trying to get those vaccination
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: rates up and before.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Omicron had really run through the community.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: But right now, when there's so many other things that
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: you're allowed to do, there's just so many people questioning
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: why we're still checking the vaccination status of people when
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: they go into a license venue.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: That's it, Katie, and I'll say it again. You know,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: the vax path has become a license to drink our territorians.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Are we comfortable, sat Alex Bruce. We always appreciate your time.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for speaking with me today.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Katie, thank you