Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hospitality NT's Alex Bruce is not in favour of Kon Vatskalis' suggestion to restrict alcohol sale hours in Darwin

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Hospitality NT's Alex Bruce is not in favour of Kon Vatskalis' suggestion to restrict alcohol sale hours in Darwin · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A little bit earlier on the show, we caught up
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: with Convat Scaralus, the Lord Mayor of Darwin, and he
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: made these comments about bottle shop restrictions.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Take a listen, we have to address the issue of
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: secretary supply and let's have a look seriously about the
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: sale of alcohol. Do we have to have take away
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: alcohol salt ten o'clock in the morning, Why can we
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: actually bring it back? Let's save lunch time, give another
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: two hours break to our people, or.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So you reckon? We need to change the hours.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: When I get Darwin nineteen ninety three, you couldn't buy
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: alcohol before twelve o'clock and the take a will closed
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: eight o'clock at night. It was later we start creeping
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: and when ten pm closing time and then ten am
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: opening time.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: So what hourse do you reckon?
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: It should be allowed to be so.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Twelve mid days ten pm, that would be quite reaserable.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: So there you go. That was the Lord Mayor of Darwin,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Convat Scarlets on the show a bit earlier this morning.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is Hospitality
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Into CEO Alex Bruce. Good morning to you, Alex.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, Alex.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I wasn't planning on having you on the show this morning.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: But when we haven't planning on beating on.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: You never know how your day is going to roll out. Mate,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: What did you make of the Lord Mayor's comments a
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: bit earlier?
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Oh? Look, our phones lit up with members concerned that
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: once again without dealing with the underlying issues. Let's call
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: a spade a spade here. You can see the problems
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: that are plaguing our streets in our city at the moment.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: We need the focus there. We appreciate that we have
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: a role to play. We met with the police last night,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: particularly about late night activity and some more stuff that
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: we can do to support what they're doing. Positively, they
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: said that their resources are coming back online. Yeah, they
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: themselves acknowledge that. You know, with our obsession on focusing
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: on COVID my words, not theirs, everything else slipped. So
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: you know, we're back dealing in this post COVID world
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: with the real issues. There are way too many itinerants
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: allowed in and around town. No one's been controlling them,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: and we really need to ramp up the repatriations back
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: to the community. Everyone's in the city, licensees and you know, customers,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: people walking around their daily life kind of people that
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: live in there have just had a gap full.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Alex is the hospitality and you know, the industry that
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: sells alcohol, particularly take away alcohol, doing enough to make
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: sure that, you know, like doing enough in this space
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: because I know that there'll be people out there listening
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: who feel as though maybe you're.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Not so then doesn't that question get slipped on its
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: head and say, does this mean the BDR is an
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: abject failure? Does this mean the minimum flaw price is
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: causing more harm than it was ever intended to fix
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: because it has shifted a vulnerable cohort of drinkers from
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: cask wine to unregulated Bundy rum. We've been giving this
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: advice to the government for a couple of years now.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: We are aware that the Darwin, Casarina and Palmerston police
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: commands were stripped there since Christmas, you know, as low
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: as ten percent strength. Pleasingly, it's all coming back online now.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: Pleasingly they're now talking about reopening that closed watchhouse that
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: has been closed pretty much for the last two years,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: which you know, even Paul mckew from the Police Association
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: shows that that's a one and a half hour trip
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: on average for the limited resources that are available. So
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: we're willing to work respectfully with them. We are willing
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: to do our part, but it's just a bit of
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: a cheap shot. We feel like we're the chopped liver
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: that's been thrown out in front of the bus again.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: You know, they were doing that to us in the
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: tail end of COVID. There are some serious issues. That's
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: got more to do with the resourcing of the frontline.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Very respectful of the role that the frontline police are doing,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: they've just been absolutely stretched, incredibly thin. That's where the
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: government needs to focus and pleasingly they're telling us they're
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: on to it.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Now, what do you think I mean this discussion and
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: these comments by the mayor in terms of opening bottle
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: shops later at midday. I mean, I guess you know,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: you're in the you're in the hospitality industry, so you're
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: probably not the right person to ask whether it's going
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to work. But I know that you guys are out there.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: You know you can see what's going on. Would it
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: make any difference?
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Tenant Creek has three hours of trade a day for
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: six days of the week. Ask them what they think
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: about whether the town's been tied it up Alice Springs, Catherine,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: the bottle shops both got pushed back many many hours.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Your text was right and even in and around Darwin
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: talking to the services that engage with that vulnerable cohort,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: they're finding them with ice cold alcohol well before ten
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning. So that is a legal secondary supply.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Whoever's doing it should absolutely be targeted. Throw the book
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: at them. We don't believe it is any of the industry,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: but you know, we'll never stand in front of bad behavior.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: But we just look at all of that and we
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: look we know that in Catherine, you know, with the
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: later bottle shop openings ours, it hasn't fixed the underlying issue.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: We're not talking about the underlying issue when we just
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: look at yet further supply side restrictions.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Now, what do you think or what do you make
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of the calls by the opposition leader leofanoki Aro for
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: there to be a review into things like the BDR
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and also the floor price to see if they're working.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: The floor price reviews you is underway right now and
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: we've provided a submission that we do believe it is
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: causing more harm than good and you know, we probably
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: understand that no one really knew what its impact would be,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: but it has also had, you know, the unintended consequence
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: that everybody thinks that applies to their products and that
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: there's more money going through the tills when the margins
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: are exactly the same they ever were, and you know
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: there is no super profit. So no, we don't support
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: the flaw price. We think it's got to go. We
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: tell the government continually with the BDR, make it better
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: or get rid of it, but siddling around the edges
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: with ideas and thought bubbles and let's change the rules
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: yet again. For an industry that more than most have
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: copped rule changes ad nauseum for the last two years,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: we've had a gupfull. We're sick of it.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Hey, Alex, Before I let you go, we know over
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the weekend and you know, we sort of touched on
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: this at the start of the interview with the increased
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: police presence that's going to be kicking in from tomorrow
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: around the CBD and Perrap. But we know that on
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the weekend there was a brawl. I believe it was
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: on Mitchell Street. Somebody had a knife. There was also
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: a woman who allegedly kicked a police officer in the head.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: You must be disappointed when you hear things like this happening.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Yes, and again we feel for the police, We feel
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: for our security guards, We feel for the operation of
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: those venues that are often the targets and the punching
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: bags in all of this stuff. We appreciate that there
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: is a role to play. And we were meeting with
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: the police yesterday to see what more could be done
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: in that late night space, particularly with one venue that
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: come to the table and very positively suggested some more
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: actions that they could do that the police thought would
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: be a good idea, so that school getting implemented in
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: time for this weekend. No one should be coming to
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: town and thinking it's time to play up, doesn't matter
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: where they come from in the territory. But the point
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: I did reiterate with the police yesterday is we'll definitely
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: focus on that. Don't use that as a guide or
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: the itinerant horrible behavior that's going on in plain sight
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: that doesn't seem to be under control.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, the CEO of Hospitality here in the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory, we'll leave it there. I hope you have
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: a good Easter, and no doubt we'll to again very soon.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Hopefully our hospitality industry has a busy easter.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: That's it. I'm speaking to the accommodation providers yesterday. It
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: seems like it is quite full. It's quite full out
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: in Kakado this whole season. So anyone's listening, plan and
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: book and book ahead. That's definitely the tip. So yeah,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: everyone have a great easter and let's just let's just
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: calm down on the incessant rule changes for a while.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Alex, thank you as always for having a chat with
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: us this morning. Like I said, we weren't planning on
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: talking to you today, so we appreciate your time.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Jim Katie all the best.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you,