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Matt Hepworth spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Everyone is listening to mixed
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: one O four point nine one hundred. Well, we just
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: heard from Greg Island from the Chamber of Commerce that
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: were one of the industry groups calling on the Gunner
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: government to support the opposition's bail amendment bill. We know
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: that didn't happen in Parliament last night. One of the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: other groups that made the same call was Hospitality and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: T joining me on the line there Ceo Alex Bruce,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Morning Alex, Good morning Maddie, Alex. Similar questions. I guess
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to what I just asked Greg from the Chamber. It
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: was a big call obviously from both industry groups to
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: ask the government to support oppositions legislation in Parliament last night.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Why did you go as far as to make that call?
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  Speaker 2: A look, I suppose not dissimilar to Greg. There's just
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: so much frustration out there, particularly in the regional towns
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: and communities, the breakings that are occurring and the youth
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: crime alice springs up right up to Catherine. You know,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the businesses are as affected as others in those communities,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and we do hear some horror stories of you know,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: one individual in Catherine potentially going through the revolving door
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: twenty seven times before bail was finally rejected on the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: twenty eighth time. That's a bit of scuttle, but that's
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: the kind of stuff that we hear from our network,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: and they are just exhausted, honestly, seeing the same offenders,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: whether their youth or adults, come into their businesses, find
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: a new way to break in. They spend money fixing
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: it up, and there's the insurance costs and everything else,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and then they find another way a few weeks later,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: the same people to break in slightly different, you know, so,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: but leaving the politics out of it, you know, it's
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: not our role in any of that, and who's got
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: the better bail reforms, Leave that to the experts. But
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: you know, businesses, the community, we all seem to be
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: saying something similar, which is have a look at some
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: of those bail changes, and it is good that both
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: sides of politics are looking at it for changing in
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: a positive direction.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: It seems like they both want to move in the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: same direction. But they've butted heads on this last night.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Look, I think that's just the nature of the beasts
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: when it comes to politics, and by no means is
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: this an easy, easy issue either, you know, and there
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: is a lot of views out there, and there's been
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: commissions of inquiry and Royal commissions and everything else. So
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: there is always a bit of a juggling act between
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: the longer term and the short term. But I think
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: it is fair to say that if you look at
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the stats and the data and how those regional communities
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: particularly are feeling, we are, in Christ's point, we need
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: to make some short, sharp changes.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I spoke to Greg before from the Chamber and obviously
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: they represent a wide variety of businesses, but alex and
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the Hi hospitality industry, are you guys at greater risk
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: when it comes to crime and break ins given that
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: anecdotally we've heard these are often targeting businesses with alcohol.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, and there's definitely an alcohol component to it.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: But I do want to wave the flag for our guys.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: We often get targeted as the easy fix, which more
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: or less just slap more rules on the place. There
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: is break ins to access alcohol. But when this was
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: all kicking off down in Alis with the youth crime,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: particularly from about September last year, I asked some pointed
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: questions to the police and they were quite honest back
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: and they said that the break ins and the antisocial
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: behavior that was spiking in the town wasn't alcohol related
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: at the time. The kids were just smashing windows left,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: right and center and grabbing candy bars and things, not
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: necessarily alcohol focused at all. With some of the COVID
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: stimulus money drying up, there's probably been some more targeted
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: criminal activity to access alcohol. And that's when our venues
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: then are in the front line and we spend a
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: lot of money. And the government has provided, you know,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: grants for us to fort Knox. Our premises and pubs
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: and clubs can do it to a better degree than
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: the restaurants and cafes that are in the glass buildings
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: that they are around town, or you know, you think
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  Speaker 2: a char and it's in a heritage building that they
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: can't they can't turn that into a bunker. So unfortunately,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: what is it, two or three times a week it
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: gets broken into and smashed windows, you know, three doors
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: down from the watchhouse.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, very true, alex. I want to bring your attention
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: to just something slightly different, still on alcohol. They will
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: report in the nten US this morning by Matt Cunningham.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: The headline reads increases in grog related hospital admissions in
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the top end have cast down on the effectiveness of
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the anti government's alcohol floor price. What did you make
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: of that report.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Today, I've got a top journalism from the other matti.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: What else do you expect? But look, it does align
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: with what we've been told by our operators, the liquor
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: accords that get all the bottle shops around town together,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: all of those different forums that I've been participating in
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: for a few years now. From the first of October
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, the network was advising that they saw a
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: shift away from cask wine increased to white wine, bottled
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: sales and spirits, particularly Bundy rum. I think the COVID
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: money took that trends that was already there and boosted it.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: That it was their pre COVID That's our view.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just finally, Alex, we know job keeper is set
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to end on Sunday. What kind of effect is this
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: going to have on the hospitality industry.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Nationally? Quite devastating, but perversely in a positive way for
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: the territory, hospitality here has recovered better than other parts
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: of the country where they had second and third lockdowns
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: and quite long ones. Down in Melbourne, so there's a
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: lot more hospitality businesses down there that are suffering compared
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: to us up here. It's not all roses. We're still
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: missing international tourists, we're still missing the corporate and business travelers.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: But you know, a lot of our businesses became job
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: keeper in eligible in the last few months because their
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: turnover had been recovering, and you know that's a good thing.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: There was a little bit of back and forth and
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: see or he made some comments following that a Current
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Affairs report on Alice Springs as to what effect that
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: had on some of our hospital tourism businesses. What's that
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: been like from your perspective.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I checked with the accommodation providers down in Alice and
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: the message I got was that they could not see
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: any discernible difference in their forward bookings or cancelation rates
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: or anything. But there was some concern that we've got
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: workforce shortages. I know everyone thinks so well, it's the territory,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: what's new, But they are quite acute across many industries
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: this year because we can't access international or workers as easily.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: And we do think that the crime and the antisocial
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: behavior stuff and the way it's portrayed just makes it
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: that much more difficult for us to, you know, shout
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: out to Southerners, come join us and look at your
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: amazing lifestyle in our springs, which is a truth. But
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: when they're seeing that stuff on National TV, are they
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: really going to throw the towel in in Melbourne and
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: come up?
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough. Alex Brow is the CEO of Hospitality NT.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: We'll have to leave it them mate. Thank you so
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: much for your time this morning.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Cheers Maddie, all the best.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you two