Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Darwin hospitality operator Jason Hanna reacts to whether the NT is past needing a vaccine mandate for workers

Transcript

Darwin hospitality operator Jason Hanna reacts to whether the NT is past needing a vaccine mandate for workers · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, as we know, the vaccine mandate obviously kicked into place,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: so territory workers, would you to have to have had
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: that vaccine by April twenty two if you're in a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: high risk workplace or face a five thousand dollars fine.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Now we do know at this point in time it
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: is certainly having a you know, it's having a big impact,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I think you'd have to say on some industries, and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: hospitality is one of those industries. Now joining me on
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the line is the Milestone Group director and also owner
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of multiple different venues around the territory. Jason Hannah, good
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: morning to you.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katy.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: How are you yeah, really well mate, Thanks so much
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: for your time this morning. Jason, how are those in
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the hospitality industry feeling at the moment around the vaccine
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: mandate for workers?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Look, I mean, we've got our existing workforce who obviously
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: had to comply to maintain their job under the mandate,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: But as that workforce starts to deplete through natural attrition,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: you know, we've also got a lot of people out there,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: a lot of locals who aren't quite sure is the
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: mandate still in play? You know, do they have to
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: have three different vaccines and are they able to work
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: right now? So I'm getting a lot of questions from people,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: and you know, the question is.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Do we still need to Well this is I think
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the thing that a lot of people are asking at
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: this point in time, because it's just US and Western
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Australia as I understand it, who've got a mandate in
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: place to be triple vaccinated. I know that in a
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: lot of other states there may be the vaccine mandate
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: if you're talking about you know, sort of nurses, those
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: working in aged care and some of those different areas
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: of work. But when it comes to the hospitality industry,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are questioning, why do
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: you need to be triple vaxed to serve somebody, but
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: not to go in there and eat still have a drink.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look at you know, let's not take
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: it away from from the you know, the enormous job
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: that the government had at a time of such unknown
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: you know, by by enforcing their mandates in the first place,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: regardless of how you feel about it, at the end
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: of the day, they did what they had to do.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: But you know, I think why I'm hoping that we've
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: moved past that now, and and look, maybe it's time
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: for to relook at that data and get back to
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: us and go, well, if if your customers are out
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: there amongst us right now and they're unvaccinated, the world
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: hasn't come to an end, our our hospital system isn't
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: completely overrun, then you know, will will the data show
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: that Actually, no, we don't need it for our industry.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: You know, our customers aren't aren't being forced to be vaccinated.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: You know there's there. You know, they're amongst us now rubbing,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: rubbing shoulders, and look, you know these are these are
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: real people as well. These are people who have also
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: been knocked out by the whole process because of their beliefs.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And you know, I mean at some states we're going
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: to come together and help them get past it. And listen,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: some of them just.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Want a job, Jason, when you talk about filling some
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: of those different jobs as well, we know that there's
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a workforce shortage right around the nation, but certainly for
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: us here in the territory, I've seen at different times
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: some of our wonderful businesses have had to close due
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to not being able to get workers or being struck
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: by COVID.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: What kind of impact does it have in that space.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it really, you know, I mean we're
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: on a nice edge, you know, like a business is
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: a living ending to so many moving parts, and you know,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: the last thing that we actually need is not to
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: be able to just provide those basics of service when
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: right now we can't afford to shut for even one day.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: You know, we're still behind.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Jason, you know, when it comes to your workforce,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I know that you always have a really strong contingent
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: of people that you've got there working for you across
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: your various different restaurants. But how hard is that workforce shortage.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: At this point?
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it is. It's very difficult. You know, I've
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: never seen so many, so many fishing rods in the
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: same ponds. You know. Normally, you get someone introduced themselves
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: on social media or through whatever channels, and a few
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: people would would welcome to dar and say, listen, we've
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: got there's a job here, there's a job there. Right now,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: these poor buggers are just being pounced upon, you know,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: and you know it's starting to cause a bit of panic,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: and you know that's not a good thing. Hospitality is
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: about the smile first, and foremost. And you know, when
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: people are short staffed and they're overworked, or you know,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: or they're they're dealing with disgruntle customers because they're not
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: being able to provide that level of service that they
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: want to be proud of. You know, it really does
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: put some unwanted pressure. So it is time to have
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: a look at It is time to to you know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: have these discussions and look, I'm hoping that we can
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: see a favorable ruling. And there's some plenty of people
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: out there who are just itching to get back to work.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: They want to feed their family as well, you know,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: they want to regain some sense of normalcy and some
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: sanity in their life. You know. I mean there's plenty
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: of work out there. There's always been more worthy and
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: take a stick at. Yeah, now now there's a loss.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: There is and you know town is pumping, Like on
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the weekend, there was people everywhere. How has it been
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: going for you guys, Have you been quite busy?
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been great, it's been great. You know, there's
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: a much different demographic out there. You're not seeing as
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: many of those younger bodies down there at the waterfront
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: taking advantage of the free sunshine and the Wi Fi.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: But we've got some great customers out there. The hotels
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: are full, the restaurants and full, the tour companies are
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: all full. But you know that's all these businesses are
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: screaming out for spare pair of hands. So anything we
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: can do to give a hand, I think, you know, basically,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: that's what we should.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Be doing, just very quickly to finish off when it
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: does come to that vaccine mandate and when you talk
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: about filling some of those jobs, like, have you had
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: many people approach you for a job, whether they're from
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: you know, living here in the territory or whether they're
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: from interstate who've sort of then found out that they
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: need to be triple vexed and then decided not to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: you know, to come here.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean I've had plenty of people ask
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: that question. They're not quite sure the mandates still in place.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: And to be honest, you know, up until just recently,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: you know, I was questioning are they still in place?
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: You know, there's some people out there that want to
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: make a statement, and you know they're still fairly emotional
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: upset about the whole process. But there's some real genuine
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: people out there and you can hear it in their
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: boys that they just need work. You know, they want
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: to get back to it, They want to they want
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: to feed their families. And you know they know that
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: we've got vacancy there, and you know you can you
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: can hear how their flated they are in their voice
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: when when you say, look, unfortunately, no.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it does make it tough.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Well. Milestone Group director and of course owner of some
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: of our favorite restaurants around the territory, Jason Hannah always
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: good to speak with you.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: I really appreciate your time this morning.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Thanks Bettie, thank you,