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Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the territory mixed
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: one oh four point.
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  Speaker 2: Nine And Peter has sent us an email as well,
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  Speaker 2: and it says Hi, Katie Woolley's Nightcliff also has a
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: security guard checking in and making sure that everybody is
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: doing the right thing and signing in as well. The
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  Speaker 2: security guard is handing out masks and all check in
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  Speaker 2: staff are very helpful, says Peter.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: That's really good to hear, and I think that, really, I.
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  Speaker 2: Hope that that is the case everywhere at this point
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  Speaker 2: in time, making sure that everyone's checking in and that
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  Speaker 2: they do have masks if you're going into the supermarket.
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  Speaker 2: Now joining us on the line right now is Alex Bruce,
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  Speaker 2: the CEO of Hospitality in t Good morning to you, Alex.
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  Speaker 1: Alex. We know that well alcohol restrictions.
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  Speaker 2: From what I can gather, there was a directive I
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  Speaker 2: think a little bit earlier in the week for licensees
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  Speaker 2: as a result of the COVID situation that it was
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: determined pose additional license conditions for all takeaway liquor out
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  Speaker 2: let's in Darwin, Palmerston and the Litchfield areas.
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  Speaker 1: What exactly did this mean?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this happened at the height of the lockdown last
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: year as well. Police had made a request to Licensing
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Liquor Licensing to bring it back and so they issued
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  Speaker 3: a notice on Sunday effective when the bottle shops opened
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  Speaker 3: from Monday this week for the next seven days. But
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  Speaker 3: basically it's that one where in addition to scanning the BDR,
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  Speaker 3: you have to have a look at the forms of
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  Speaker 3: ID most of them have a residential address. Not all
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: of them, but the ones that do. If the residential
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  Speaker 3: address is within the proximity or the region it's not
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  Speaker 3: really clearly defined, then you're right. But if it's somewhere
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  Speaker 3: more remote, you then have to ask that customer where
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: they're planning on consuming the alcohol. So it's very much
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: targeted at trying to limit alcohol from people in and
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  Speaker 3: around Darwen that might not be long term residences Darwin
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  Speaker 3: and very much try to restrict any public consumption of
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: alcohol in public places when you know no one's meant
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  Speaker 3: to be in those areas right now.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that that is fair enough. I
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: know that am.
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  Speaker 2: Since John Patterson was on the show yesterday and questioned
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: if alcohol outlets or those takeaway outlets needed to be
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: open for the hours that they are at the moment,
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  Speaker 2: or if some of those hours should be restricted and
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: some of the products being served should be restricted. What
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  Speaker 2: do you make of those comments?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, generally unhelpful? Like how good is it when we're
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: at our lowest points and people just like to have
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  Speaker 3: a free for all? And it had policy explosions. You know,
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  Speaker 3: the local cops in ours tried it on yesterday and
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  Speaker 3: they wanted to shut the bottle shops yesterday afternoon, so
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  Speaker 3: you know, like these kinds of things. Thankfully sanity prevailed
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  Speaker 3: with licensing and the higher higher ups in police. Can
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  Speaker 3: you imagine sending our springs or three day lockdown and
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: immediately closing the bottle shops down there? Why would they
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  Speaker 3: be treated second class citizens compared to us up here
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  Speaker 3: in Darwin?
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  Speaker 2: You know what ended up happening yesterday because I saw
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  Speaker 2: that there were lines like right down the road for
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  Speaker 2: some of those bottle shops.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, look there was, But it wasn't anything like
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  Speaker 3: what Darwin experienced on Sunday, because, as you'd remember, on Sunday,
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  Speaker 3: the bottle shops attached to the grocery stores are closed,
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  Speaker 3: so you know the rush on the woolies and cold
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  Speaker 3: supermarkets on Saturday, the bottle shops attached to the pubs
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  Speaker 3: and also the petrol stations around around Darwin was quite
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: a cute, and that not all of the footprint was open.
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  Speaker 3: Whereas you know down in Alice yesterday, Yes, there was
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  Speaker 3: a rush for fuel. People are rushing out to buy
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: a field and then put the car on the driveway
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  Speaker 3: for the next three days, is what it is, I suppose.
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  Speaker 3: And the woolies and there was a bit of an uptick,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: but by four o'clock it had dropped right off. The
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  Speaker 3: bottle shops only open at two o'clock. Down there, they
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  Speaker 3: had a similar thing. We okay, we're going in a lockdown, quickly,
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  Speaker 3: go by what we need and then bunk it down
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  Speaker 3: for the next three days and comply with what they're
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  Speaker 3: being asked to do by the health authority. So already
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  Speaker 3: by Monday up here trade was back to normal levels.
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  Speaker 3: We understand it. That'll be the likely outcome when the
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  Speaker 3: bottle shops open in ALUs from two o'clock this afternoon too.
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  Speaker 3: So there was that initial Sunday rush that happened in
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  Speaker 3: Alice a bit yesterday as well, but with all their
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  Speaker 3: bottle shops opened, it was more dispersed, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: it was pretty much a ghost pound from about five
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  Speaker 3: o'clock onwards, as I understand it, in the supermarkets and
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  Speaker 3: everywhere else. Everyone down there is bunkering down like we've
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  Speaker 3: had to.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, now, Alex, we know that that lockdown is due
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  Speaker 2: to lift for us up here in the Top End
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  Speaker 2: or darwn in the Greater Greater Darwin region one pm
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  Speaker 2: tomorrow anticipating the Chief Minister Michael Gunner to be out
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  Speaker 2: in around an hour. Eleven thirty is what we've been
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  Speaker 2: told is when he will give his next update. Are
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  Speaker 2: you hopeful obviously that that lockdown is going to lift
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  Speaker 2: and do our businesses, our hospitality, tourism etc. Need a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of notice or are you able to turn
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  Speaker 2: it on pretty quickly?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: You bang on, Katie. We've made representations to the government
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  Speaker 3: that you know, ideally we'd like twenty four hours notice
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  Speaker 3: or more if they can give it to us. Think
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  Speaker 3: about the rosters, think about the local food produce. We've
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  Speaker 3: got to get from the providors again to stock back
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  Speaker 3: up some of the venues that have been trading takeaway
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  Speaker 3: maybe won't have those same issues, but yeah, no two
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  Speaker 3: businesses are the same. But if we could ideally know
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  Speaker 3: by today's press conference what the plan is for one
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  Speaker 3: o'clock Friday, on one o'clock tomorrow, hopefully you know, that
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  Speaker 3: would really go someway. It'd be quite difficult for us.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: If there's a I will see what happens in the
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: numbers that roll through overnight and we'll let you know
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: in the morning. That really starts to make it hard
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  Speaker 3: for us to open with any reopening tomorrow afternoon.
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  Speaker 2: And realistically for business, is it a sooner rather than
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  Speaker 2: later scenario in terms of how soon you do want
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  Speaker 2: to open?
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  Speaker 3: Look, yes it is. There's also some concern and thought
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: from the business perspective about what reopening looks like. Do
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  Speaker 3: we go back to as we were on Saturday? Definitely
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: making sure the check in the sanitizing, all the signages
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: in place. Are there additional restrictions and conditions and capacity
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: constraints that come into our space, They really do start
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  Speaker 3: to attack the overall profitability and at the tight end
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  Speaker 3: make many of our businesses unviable. So then if that
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: is the case, well, how long will that stage last.
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  Speaker 3: None of these questions have been teased out with us yet,
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  Speaker 3: so we're hoping that none of that is sprung on
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  Speaker 3: us in a couple of hours time, because there hasn't
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: been that much engagement with business on it.
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  Speaker 2: To be honest, well, Hospitality and t CEO Alex S. Bruce,
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  Speaker 2: we'll wait and see exactly how to all fairs. Happy
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Territory Day to you mate. Hopefully we're able to celebrate
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  Speaker 2: again soon.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: That's it, and that was one that we did hear
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  Speaker 3: from down the track, especially before Alice unfortunately got it
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: bad news yesterday. It is a territory day for all
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  Speaker 3: territory and I'm not sure you can shift it just
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  Speaker 3: because Darwin's under the dinner. Yes.
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  Speaker 2: I had wondered that, you know, when the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 2: made that announcement, I thought, geez, you wouldn't be real
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  Speaker 2: happy if you're in Alice or any other part of
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  Speaker 2: the territory.
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  Speaker 3: No, anyway, increaks happy at the moment, I'll tell you what.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Catherine, they must be doing pretty well in Catherine.
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  Speaker 3: They are they.
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  Speaker 2: Alex Bruce will talk to you again very soon.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you for your time this morning. The thank you