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

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Every One is listening Mix one oh four point nine. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we've certainly seen those COVID hot spots and the borders
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: having an impact on businesses in various different ways. But
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  Speaker 1: I think we're all hoping that this Easter long weekend
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  Speaker 1: is going to be well, a big one for our
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  Speaker 1: local businesses. Joining us on the line to talk more
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  Speaker 1: is the Chamber of Commerce CEO Greg Island.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning Katie, Greg.
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  Speaker 1: How are our businesses feeling ahead of our Easter long weekend?
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  Speaker 2: Look? Everything, and I think everybody is looking forward to
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  Speaker 2: break this easter, but many of our retailers and certainly
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  Speaker 2: our hospitality people are going to be played out making
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  Speaker 2: sure that we're all kept fed and watered.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well we're all looking forward to to that. But
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  Speaker 1: like you said, it's going to be a busy weekend,
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  Speaker 1: well hopefully for all of our local businesses. And I
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  Speaker 1: guess you know, we are all hoping that it's a
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  Speaker 1: busy one because it's been a tough year for everybody.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're going to see similar conditions to
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  Speaker 2: what we saw at Christmas, Katie, with the majority of
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  Speaker 2: people not traveling into state for Easter, so that local
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  Speaker 2: visitation and activity will be pretty strong.
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  Speaker 1: I think now, how are most of our territory businesses
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  Speaker 1: feeling after well, following on from job Keeper that cut
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  Speaker 1: off on Sunday, have you had much feedback from businesses
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  Speaker 1: thus far? I know when we spoke to the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister on Monday, he said it was around two thousand
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory businesses as of the start of March that
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  Speaker 1: were on job Keeper.
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  Speaker 2: Still yeah, my statistics are slightly different to that, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: About twelve hundred and eighty people were on job Keeper
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  Speaker 2: for the last quarter of the process, so that means
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  Speaker 2: that a lot of those are losing the wall lost
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  Speaker 2: that support at this point in time. But what we've
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  Speaker 2: seen is businesses that have been transitioning into the dry season,
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  Speaker 2: so we are seeing activity increasing and that will certainly
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  Speaker 2: help offset those support losses and other businesses whilst suddenly
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  Speaker 2: aware of that, are closing and then having to put
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  Speaker 2: stuff off. We are seeing that there's a strong demand
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  Speaker 2: for people, particularly in the hospitality sector, so I would
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  Speaker 2: be very hopeful that those people will transition straight into
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  Speaker 2: other employment.
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  Speaker 1: Great, are there any business or any sort of sectors
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  Speaker 1: you know that have been quite hard hit or are
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  Speaker 1: most sort of traveling along Okay, you know, not as
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  Speaker 1: busy as usual, but okay at this point, Yeah, I.
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  Speaker 2: Think that does fit the majority of businesses out there, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: transitioning into what they hope to be a very strong
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  Speaker 2: domestic travel season. But there are impacts around international tourism
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  Speaker 2: that just can't be fixed at the moment, and those
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  Speaker 2: are the ones that are hurting them most.
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  Speaker 1: There have been a couple of good announcements this week.
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  Speaker 1: I know that Santos obviously made their big announcement earlier
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  Speaker 1: in the week. We also saw on the front page
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  Speaker 1: of the paper yea es today's some cable they're continuing
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  Speaker 1: their plans rolling out. Does that give the business sector
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  Speaker 1: around the territory a bit of buoyancy, a bit of positivity?
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  Speaker 2: It certainly helps, Katie. We had a number of conversations
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  Speaker 2: yesterday about the fact that people are hopeful that this
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  Speaker 2: is opening the floodgates to some of these investment decisions,
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  Speaker 2: and hopefully other investors see the confidence of Santos and
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  Speaker 2: follow their lead. But you know, if we can get
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  Speaker 2: two or three of those projects, what that'll do is
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  Speaker 2: give us some continuity, give us a decade of consistent
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  Speaker 2: work rather than having these massive peaks and then followed
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  Speaker 2: by the bus cycle that we've seen in the past.
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  Speaker 1: And Greg, one of the great things that you guys
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  Speaker 1: do each year is your business Confidence Survey. Now I
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  Speaker 1: understand that opened a little bit earlier this week.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great, Katie. It's a little bit later than usual.
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  Speaker 2: Christmas was a bit problematic for us all on a
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  Speaker 2: number of levels, so we held it over a little
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  Speaker 2: bit longer. But our Business Confidence Survey is now open
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  Speaker 2: and we certainly want to hear from every business out
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  Speaker 2: there in the territory. We're really focusing on understanding what
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  Speaker 2: they think the future is going to hold from their
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  Speaker 2: revenue perspectives and also their future workforce challenges, because we
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  Speaker 2: think we're going to see a significant shortage of skilled
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  Speaker 2: workers in the territory on the back of a lot
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  Speaker 2: of these project announcements.
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  Speaker 1: What kind of questions do you ask in that survey?
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  Speaker 1: And I guess ultimately you know what is the aim
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  Speaker 1: of us.
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  Speaker 2: Look from an aim perspective, it's really to arm us
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  Speaker 2: with information to have meaningful conversations with government and other
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  Speaker 2: people around the business sector and their feelings and their
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  Speaker 2: expectations in the future. We're trying to find out how
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  Speaker 2: they performed during twenty twenty, what were their results looking like,
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  Speaker 2: how did they go from a staffing perspective, are they
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  Speaker 2: confident about the future, and what are their greatest concerns.
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  Speaker 2: There's a heap of questions in that process, but we're
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  Speaker 2: really try to gather data so that we can adequately
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  Speaker 2: represent business when we're having those detailed conversations.
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  Speaker 1: Greg, how long has the survey opened for and how
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  Speaker 1: many businesses are you hoping to take part?
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  Speaker 2: The survey's open until the end of April, so the
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  Speaker 2: Friday the thirtieth is when it will close. Historically, we've
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  Speaker 2: been seeing numbers of five or six hundred businesses responding
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  Speaker 2: to our survey, which is by far the largest sample
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  Speaker 2: data in the Northern Territory and this type of survey.
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  Speaker 2: So we're hoping to repeat that and we'll be out
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  Speaker 2: there asking everybody to participate and give us their feedback.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Greg, if there are any businesses listening this morning
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  Speaker 1: who are keen to take part in that survey, where
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  Speaker 1: can they go to.
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  Speaker 2: If they go to the chamber website, there's a link
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  Speaker 2: to the survey on that website, so that's chamberint dot
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  Speaker 2: com dot au.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it is always good to catch up with you, Greg,
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  Speaker 1: the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for
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  Speaker 1: your time today.
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  Speaker 2: No worries, It okay. Do you have a great LISTA
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  Speaker 2: you
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  Speaker 1: Too, mate, Thank you