Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce is one of the happiest men in the NT after the Chief Minister's news the vaccine mandate will be lifted

Transcript

Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce is one of the happiest men in the NT after the Chief Minister's news the vaccine mandate will be lifted · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But we have just heard this news obviously from the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Chief Minister, Natasha Files. Hopefully going to have a very
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: quick chat with her after ten, but joining me on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the line right now Alex Bruce, the CEO of Hospitality
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and good morning Alex.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Kay. Happy scrap day.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Happy scrap day, that's what you've dubbed it, mate is Look.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: We're already getting calls into our office, text messages, emails.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: This is spreading very quickly through our industry and there's
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of relieved business owners and operators out there.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: How big an impact has this vaccine mandate had for hospitality?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, look, it is one of the things that's impacting
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: the workforce shortage. You only have to go around town
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: you can see, you know, restaurants are close during the day,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: even though there's enough tourists that would otherwise want to.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Be in there.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: We are impacted this year. It is what it is.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: This will assist and it was one of the impacts
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: on our workforce problems that our membership work very strong on.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: They just wanted it gone. You know, we're down to
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: what is that fourteen people with COVID in hospital when
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: there was like one hundred and forty in there with
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: the flu. So we've seen this lifted across the country.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: It was time and it was right that the MT
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: came on board as well. And look, to be honest,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: credit to the new Chief Minister. We are seeing her
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: put her mark on this government and we couldn't be
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: happier with the balanced approach that's being achieved now.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess it was one of those things with
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the vaccine mandate as well, where once all of the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: other states had sort of lifted it, it made it tough.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I would suspect, you know, if you had travelers coming
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: from overseas or even from interstate that were maybe looking
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: at taking jobs in the hospitality sector, they would have
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: been going, well, hang on a sec. You don't have
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to be triple vaxed in Queensland. How come I have
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to be to work behind a bar in the Northern Territory.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: That's it, Kadian And it had come to the point
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: where you could come and enjoy one of our venues
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: for many hours, responsibly always of course, but you couldn't
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: come on outside of the bar and help pour the
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: beers when we're crying out for able bodied workers right now.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: So that was the main issue that just you know,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: it didn't really make sense to a lot of our members,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: and we were advocating that position into the government quite strongly,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: quite publicly, and credit to your efforts. You know, this
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: is an issue that many other parts of the country
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: and the world have just moved on from. You know,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: it's like that Disney and Canto movie we don't talk
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: about real. Yeah, Like, we've just got to put it
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: behind us, move forward. We're on the rebuild now. We
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: want to contribute more to the territory's economy. We want
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: our services and customer experiences to be bigger and better.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So you know, this was one impediment. Now we just
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: need to sink our teeth into it and get the
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: job done.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Mate. Anybody listening right now who doesn't have a child
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that's like under the age of twelve is going to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: be thinking, what was Alex Bruce just singing? But for
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: those of you, how does it don't know? It is
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: a Disney movie. The lyrics from a Disney movie. Alex,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: good on you for giving it a crack on air.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I like it, mate, A good day for you guys
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: all in all, you reckon.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I look absolutely and we did listen to the press conference,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister just made them. You know what we
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: do eco the sentiments. This has been a long time
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: coming and it is off the back of the work
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: of many many Territorians in the health space and others.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: This issue was divisive and some of the language at
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the time denigrating people for their opinions and views on
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: this issue. We were never supportive of that, and we're
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: vocal on your show at the time. We very much
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: appreciate that, you know, we're able to have respectful conversations
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: with our staff and you know at the time customers
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: as well when that was the requirement. We're not about
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: anything that divides people based on their views on this
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: But yes, just so looking forward to putting all this
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: behind us and never talking about it again.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, thank you very much for having a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: chat with us this morning, and we are hoping that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: we're going to be able to have a brief chat
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to the Chief Minister in a few minutes time. But yeah,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I reckon that there's going to be a lot of
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: people in the territory, you know, for those that you
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: know that have had concerns around the vaccine that are
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: going to be pleased that this announcement has been made today.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: That's it, yeah, Alex Bruce. Always good to catch up
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: with you. Always good to hear you sing live on
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the radio as well.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I enjoy that
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Mate, Well done, thank you,