Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with NT Chamber of Commerce CEO Greg Ireland

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Katie Woolf spoke with NT Chamber of Commerce CEO Greg Ireland · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf on Mixed one oh four
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  Speaker 1: point nine thanks to Joyce main Darwin. Joining me on
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  Speaker 1: the line right now is the Chamber of Commerce CEO
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  Speaker 1: Greg Island. Good morning to you, Greg.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you today?
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  Speaker 1: You really well? Hey, Greg? We just caught up a
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  Speaker 1: little while ago with NT Airports. Rob Porter joined us
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  Speaker 1: on the show. He's the general manager of operations and
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  Speaker 1: said that for the month of May, we're anticipating through
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  Speaker 1: Darwin one hundred and seventy eight thousand passengers. Next month
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  Speaker 1: going up to around two hundred and thirty thousand, and
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  Speaker 1: we're expecting or they are expecting to be at ninety
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  Speaker 1: seven percent capacity by July. Pretty good news, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: It's certainly fantastic, Katie. We've been expecting those numbers with
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  Speaker 2: quantus increasing white frequencies as well as the size of
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  Speaker 2: aircraft in the future, we're expecting it to go over
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  Speaker 2: one hundred and one hundred percent after that.
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  Speaker 1: And Greg, what are businesses telling you? Are they feeling?
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  Speaker 1: So things are going quite well when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to people visiting the territory
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  Speaker 1: and the number of visitors we're seeing around the place.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think we're all experiencing that, Katie. If
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  Speaker 2: you're out and about the street, you're seeing a lot
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  Speaker 2: of activity, hotel rooms, of chokkers, you can't get a
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  Speaker 2: car higher, and you're just seeing all of that activity
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  Speaker 2: with people attending based on the grass and the upcoming
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  Speaker 2: the apes and other functions that are happening. It's going
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  Speaker 2: to be great.
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  Speaker 1: And we know that that worker shortage has been an
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  Speaker 1: issue that I've spoken to hospitality and also spoken to
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  Speaker 1: Tourism Top End and Tourism Central Australia about on numerous occasions.
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  Speaker 1: Seven thousand was the number that had been touted a
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  Speaker 1: little while back. How are things going when we talk
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  Speaker 1: about that worker shortage from your perspective, Greg.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're still struggling to get the volume of workers
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  Speaker 2: that we need to meet those targets, and some of
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  Speaker 2: the capacity reaching that we're seeing thatcommodation space is not
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  Speaker 2: so much because all the rooms are full just because
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  Speaker 2: of the capacity to service them. So we need more workers.
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  Speaker 2: And the adjustments to the international student visa requirements was
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  Speaker 2: certainly a step in the right direction, and we'd also
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  Speaker 2: like to see that go further and see some of
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  Speaker 2: the great nomads that are visiting us to be able
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  Speaker 2: to work without impacting on their pensions. So that'll be
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  Speaker 2: a good avenue to follow up on as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that changing the taxing system is something that I
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  Speaker 1: reckon would go a long way in terms of helping greg.
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  Speaker 1: What areas like, what industries are finding it toughest at
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  Speaker 1: the moment. Is it hospitality and tourism or does it
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  Speaker 1: go a bit further than that.
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  Speaker 2: It's very widespread, Katie, in terms of immediacy. The hospitality
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  Speaker 2: and tourism sectors are struggling and they just need people
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  Speaker 2: to help out with front of house and waiting and
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  Speaker 2: cooking and all those sorts of things. But general industry
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  Speaker 2: is really struggling with skilled labor as well. That's the
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  Speaker 2: perennial territory problem. When we get busy, we need more
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  Speaker 2: workers than trying to find qualified people is pretty difficult.
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  Speaker 2: So especially when there's a national competitive environment around all
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  Speaker 2: the infrastructure builds that are going to be happening over
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  Speaker 2: the next few years.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I've even been told, you know that in
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  Speaker 1: retail and airdressing, some of those beauty industries, various industries
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  Speaker 1: that they're sort of really struggling and trying their best
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  Speaker 1: to think outside the box in terms of filling jobs.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. One of the things that we've got to
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  Speaker 2: do is really target our homegrown opportunities for employment. So
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  Speaker 2: getting our kids into trade school, into those type of
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  Speaker 2: learning environments where we retain them for the longer term
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  Speaker 2: is important as well.
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  Speaker 1: Now. I know that there has been a proposal that
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  Speaker 1: was put forward on a on a federal scale to
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  Speaker 1: the federal government about vaccinated Aussies potentially being allowed to
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  Speaker 1: travel to medium risk countries and not have to quarantine
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  Speaker 1: on return. It's under a new plan which had been
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  Speaker 1: sprouted by well by a couple of different industries. But
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has warned that
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  Speaker 1: billions of dollars are being lost in international tourism, education
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  Speaker 1: and other export industries as the hard boarders remain in place.
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  Speaker 1: I know that the acting Chief Executive, Jenny Lambert from
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Chamber of Commerce had told nine News that
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  Speaker 1: we already we've already got quarantine free travel with New Zealand,
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  Speaker 1: so it's looking at ways that we could maybe extend
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  Speaker 1: that travel free travel to other countries which are only
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  Speaker 1: a medium risk, Greg, do you reckon that this is
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  Speaker 1: something that we realistically need to be looking at.
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  Speaker 2: Well. A time is certainly going to come, Katie. We
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  Speaker 2: know that Australia trading with other nations derived significant economic
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  Speaker 2: benefit as well as the social impacts of being able
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  Speaker 2: to see family and friends from overseas. It is an
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  Speaker 2: area that we're going to need to consider in the future.
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  Speaker 2: The vaccination programs roll out within Australia and we become
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  Speaker 2: less of a risk of being infected by either traveling
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  Speaker 2: overseas or by business coming in here that are potential exposure.
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  Speaker 2: I guess the margin for safety increases all the time.
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  Speaker 2: So as that naturally occurs not only in the Australian
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  Speaker 2: immunization process but those of overseas, that risk factors in
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  Speaker 2: the profile is going to reduce over time. So the
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  Speaker 2: Chamber is certainly recommending that we plan for that activity
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  Speaker 2: and start to get opportunities to bring foreign workers in
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  Speaker 2: or provide exporter and trade going out.
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  Speaker 1: So by the sounds of things, it's not something that
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  Speaker 1: you want happening immediately. It's more something that as the
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  Speaker 1: vaccine roll out continues on and as things become hopefully
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  Speaker 1: a bit safer. It's something that you'd like to see
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  Speaker 1: at that point.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, everything that the Chamber is recommending is based on
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  Speaker 2: the health advice that's appropriate for the risks. So we
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  Speaker 2: certainly understand that the vaccinations as we move from minimum
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  Speaker 2: people vaccinated into the majority of people vaccinated, that that
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  Speaker 2: risk profile will reduce accordingly.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that bringing workers in from other countries
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  Speaker 1: as well is something that a lot of industries are
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  Speaker 1: sort of trying to look at at this point in time.
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  Speaker 1: In Tea, farmers have spoken to us on several occasions
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  Speaker 1: about this, Is there something that we could be doing
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  Speaker 1: a bit differently do you think in the territory in
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  Speaker 1: order to do that.
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  Speaker 2: Certainly there's opportunities In Tea farmers are working hard at
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  Speaker 2: getting quarantine options through other locations other than how It springs,
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  Speaker 2: because obviously it's fairly highly occupied with returning Australians at
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  Speaker 2: this point in time. There's also options to quarantine on location. However,
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  Speaker 2: that proves difficult sometimes with general workers who can't just
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  Speaker 2: be isolated a lot of farm or so forth. But
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  Speaker 2: there has to be a way, particularly through immunization and
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  Speaker 2: getting those sort of COVID passports up and happening over
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  Speaker 2: time that these people can effectively join us quarantine and
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  Speaker 2: then join the workforce because we're crying out for those skills,
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  Speaker 2: particularly in the more industrial trade.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. We caught up with convat Scaralis, the Lord Mayor, yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: and he said that they'd actually been contacted by some
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  Speaker 1: representatives in Dempasa about the potential of maybe bringing workers
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  Speaker 1: across from Indonesia, the likes of Ballei, where we know
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  Speaker 1: that Ballei's doing it really tough at this point in
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  Speaker 1: time with no tourist trade, you know, a very much
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  Speaker 1: a tourist town, and he'd sort of, you know, he'd
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  Speaker 1: said that that's something that they'll be looking at down
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  Speaker 1: the track. They're expecting a formal request or something formal
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  Speaker 1: to come across. But you know, is that something that
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  Speaker 1: we could potentially be looking at bringing some workers across
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  Speaker 1: from somewhere like Ballei to fill the jobs that we
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  Speaker 1: can't fill and you know, to hopefully help people who
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  Speaker 1: are struggling work wise at the moment over there.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's absolutely a possibility, Katie. We're seeing as
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  Speaker 2: a very fluid environment from what we're seeing happening in
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  Speaker 2: Victoria today, through what happened in Pig a week ago
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  Speaker 2: to what's happening in Bali right now. It's a matter
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  Speaker 2: of assessing the medical side of the risk and then
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  Speaker 2: reducing it through the vaccinations and the quarantine program. So
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  Speaker 2: as long as we can do it safely, those are
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  Speaker 2: the skill sets we absolutely need.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and your spot on it does come down to
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  Speaker 1: that safety side of things, making sure that territories and
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  Speaker 1: audit risk greg anything else going on that we should
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  Speaker 1: be aware of.
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  Speaker 2: Well, then this heat's happening, Katie. Your life seems to
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  Speaker 2: just back to back meetings at the moment, which is
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  Speaker 2: all very encouraging. And we've seen that in today's NT
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  Speaker 2: news about some of the economic figures in unemployment reducing markedly,
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  Speaker 2: and that's a sign that everybody that is keen to
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  Speaker 2: get a job is being snapped up.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon, well, the only people not working at
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  Speaker 1: the moment, So I don't know, if you want a job,
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  Speaker 1: it does seem as though they're there for the taking.
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  Speaker 1: I know that's easier said than done sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And we'd encourage anyone that's looking for those
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  Speaker 2: opportunities to be prepared to be as flexible as possible
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  Speaker 2: and get back into the work environment. It'll do everyone
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  Speaker 2: good well.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Ireland, the Chamber of Commerce CEO, good to speak
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  Speaker 1: with you this morning. Thanks so much for your time.
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  Speaker 2: No problem at all, Katie, thank you.