Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford is urging the NT Government to invest more money in tourism in the region to rebuild its reputation following the extensive coverage of crime

Transcript

Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford is urging the NT Government to invest more money in tourism in the region to rebuild its reputation following the extensive coverage of crime · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: One of the other areas that we know we've spoken
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  Speaker 1: a lot about in recent months is tourism, particularly in
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  Speaker 1: Central Australia, and we know that Tourism Central Australia's well
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  Speaker 1: leading body is calling for the Northern Territory and federal
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  Speaker 1: governments to really treat the tourism recovery with the same
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  Speaker 1: urgency that they are alcohol crime and social issues. Tourism
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  Speaker 1: Central Australia's CEO Daniel Rochford joins me on the line
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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Daniel, Morning Katie, and morning to you listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Great to have you on the show. Daniel. Firstly, how
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  Speaker 1: are things going at the moment in Central Australia when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to tourism after what's been really a horrendous
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  Speaker 1: few weeks and longer.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's very delicate at the moment Katie. To
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  Speaker 2: be fair, you know, we lost last week the Junior
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  Speaker 2: Motocross Championship. Yesterday we lost another event, major of another
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  Speaker 2: major event in May, so we're just getting you know,
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  Speaker 2: you know, these bad news come through, which is again
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  Speaker 2: just another kick in the guts for the tourism industry.
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  Speaker 2: My members are basically.
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  Speaker 1: What's the one that you lost? In May.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a Caravan camper Van Association national meet
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  Speaker 2: up in May, so that was three hundred camper vans
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  Speaker 2: coming to Alice Springs and we that would have seen
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  Speaker 2: millions injected in our local economy which won't be there now.
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  Speaker 1: Oh mate, I'm really sorry to hear that that. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: that sucks. There's no other way of putting it. And
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  Speaker 1: that has a huge like, it has a huge impact.
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  Speaker 2: Oh look, yeah, absolutely, And look, you know we're prepared
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  Speaker 2: for more, to be fair, Katie, given the bad publicity
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  Speaker 2: that has besieged our town and you know, it is
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  Speaker 2: what it is, and you know people are to have
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  Speaker 2: some concerns about coming to Alic Springs because of that
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  Speaker 2: publicity and the downstream consequence of that will be the
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  Speaker 2: tourism and that certainly one of the reasons why we've
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  Speaker 2: been calling for the fact that you know, there is
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  Speaker 2: support that is needed for the sector and the region.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we have come off the last two years,
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  Speaker 2: as we've talked about many times about the challenges Central
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  Speaker 2: Australia's face during the COVID pandemic and then we've gone
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  Speaker 2: heads first into this crime crisis and you know, we
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  Speaker 2: as an industry. We're just getting our body blow after
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  Speaker 2: body blow, and you know we just need, you know,
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  Speaker 2: certainly calling upon the government to get behind the region
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  Speaker 2: and get behind the sector.
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  Speaker 1: What do you reckon they need to do here, Daniel, Oh, look, I.
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  Speaker 2: Think it's few things, and certainly we're sitting down with
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  Speaker 2: our minister this afternoon just to talk through a few
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  Speaker 2: of these. But we need to get back confidence, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: and a lot of that confidence can be generated from
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  Speaker 2: some of the major projects that the government have already announced.
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  Speaker 2: Rather than just talking about them, we actually need to
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  Speaker 2: get shovels in the ground. Nothing is stronger than building
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  Speaker 2: business confidence and major activity. You know, we've been talking
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  Speaker 2: about the National Aboriginal Art Gallery that are at Cunder
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  Speaker 2: Mountain Bikeway, the Marining Loop prode. All of these are money.
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  Speaker 2: All of these projects have got committed money. So we
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  Speaker 2: actually need to just get shovels in the ground, and
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  Speaker 2: that certainly would be a huge boost for our industry.
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  Speaker 2: There's no doubt that we need some support to recover
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  Speaker 2: our brand and to get the message out that you know,
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  Speaker 2: we are you know, we are to war zone. But
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  Speaker 2: you know we you know, we need to start rebuilding
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  Speaker 2: and reconstructing marketing brand. We need to do much more
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  Speaker 2: work from a workforce perspective, and there also needs to
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  Speaker 2: be a lot of work done on building our events sector.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, we have a major meeting of our
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  Speaker 2: events events organizers today, but you know their message to
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  Speaker 2: me has been, you know, they need help as well.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's been just to a drain of volunteers
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  Speaker 2: in our town and as people have left. Alice Springs
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  Speaker 2: and I had a meeting with one of our major
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  Speaker 2: iconic events yesterday and that committee was saying to me,
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  Speaker 2: they just don't know how to put on this year's event.
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  Speaker 2: So you know that's you know, that's the situation that
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  Speaker 2: we find and you know, we really urged the government
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  Speaker 2: to back the region. And you know we we have
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  Speaker 2: Dora or door B and A is we just do
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  Speaker 2: the same thing that we've been doing in hope for
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  Speaker 2: a different results or door bs, we take the ball
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  Speaker 2: by the horn and that's what we need. Our government
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  Speaker 2: at both the federal and territory level. Let's take the
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  Speaker 2: bill by the horn and let the reconstruction process our
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  Speaker 2: gender pursue.
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  Speaker 1: Well, they have to, you know, like it has to
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  Speaker 1: change things that have to change that Central Australia has
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  Speaker 1: been a tourism hub for so many years. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you were screaming out at the end of last year
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  Speaker 1: that we're in national crisis when it came to the
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  Speaker 1: situation with crime and Daniel, it felt as though it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't until we got embarrassed on a national scale scale
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  Speaker 1: that you know that the both tiers of government decided, oh,
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  Speaker 1: hang on a sec we are going to need to
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  Speaker 1: take some really serious steps here. But now you know,
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  Speaker 1: not only do things have to change in terms of
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  Speaker 1: what's currently happening in Central Australia with crime, but we
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  Speaker 1: do like it needs to be rebuilt.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, it's we were broken and you know
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  Speaker 2: the support that's been recently announced is really warmly welcome,
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  Speaker 2: and you know there's a lot of desire to overcome
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  Speaker 2: at the issues that we're facing. And you know, I
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  Speaker 2: sit around the Social Order Response Council table and I'm
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  Speaker 2: really impressed by Darrell Anderson. I think we've got the
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  Speaker 2: best person that we can possibly have in that regional
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  Speaker 2: controller's role and we need to back her and get
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  Speaker 2: behind her. And now she's got some money behind her
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  Speaker 2: from the Government's to it and you know, we need
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  Speaker 2: to do all we can to try and overcome many
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  Speaker 2: at the causal issues. But parallel to that, and you
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  Speaker 2: know often in this debate it's all been talking about
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  Speaker 2: alcohol and many of the social factors, but a critical
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  Speaker 2: part of that is the economic picture, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: we need to be talking about and really supercharging indigenous
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  Speaker 2: economic empowerment in our region. You know, we should be
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  Speaker 2: talking about how do we you know, one of the
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  Speaker 2: things that was announded last week was a major overhaul
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  Speaker 2: of the CDP programs. Ye now they're fake jobs. Really,
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  Speaker 2: what we should be talking about is getting and encouraging
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  Speaker 2: greater Indigenous entrepreneurship, getting Indigenous owned businesses. And that's where
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  Speaker 2: the tourism industry plays such a critical role because we
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  Speaker 2: have a huge potential to be a powerhouse in indigenous.
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  Speaker 1: Jurasy Ye, Daniel, are you meeting We know that the
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  Speaker 1: whole Labor Caucus is meant to be down there today
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  Speaker 1: for their caucus meeting. Are you going to be meeting
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  Speaker 1: with any of the ministers. Are you meeting with anybody
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that these concerns are heard. Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, we'll certainly be putting our front foot forward. Look
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  Speaker 2: you know, we always have a pretty you know, we
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  Speaker 2: work very constructively with the normal territory government and you
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  Speaker 2: know they you know, will feel like we've danced this
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  Speaker 2: dance before, Katie. But you know there's certainly, you know,
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  Speaker 2: hopefully we need to get on a road to recovery
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  Speaker 2: here and that's going to be a simple message is
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  Speaker 2: you know, we can't be just talking around, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and the government just released the Indigenous Tourism Program, which
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  Speaker 2: is a funding program for ten to thirty thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 2: That's just not going to cut it. You know, that's
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  Speaker 2: the death you know, we're just going to That's an
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  Speaker 2: example of just doing the same as proved before and
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  Speaker 2: expecting a different result. We need to supercharge the Central
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  Speaker 2: Australian tourism economy and that's going to need a huge
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  Speaker 2: amount of resources, most of which is already committed. But
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  Speaker 2: we're going to need the desire and inclination for the
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  Speaker 2: government to roll up their sleeves and get some of
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  Speaker 2: these projects that we've been much talked about to fruition.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Daniel Rochford, the CEO of Central Australian Tourism, Mate,
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  Speaker 1: please keep in contact with us, let us know how
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  Speaker 1: things are tracking along. We always appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 2: Thank I appreciate it. Thanks, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: No worries at all. We'll talk soon.