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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: retail trade data has shown that retail trade in the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: NT has increased by twelve percent in the twelve months
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: to May, that is compared to the previous year. Joining
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: us on the line to talk further about this, Chamber
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  Speaker 1: of Commerce CEO Greg Ireland. Good morning to you, Greg.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Good morning to another glorious day in the top end.
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  Speaker 1: Came, Well, it's so nice at the moment, isn't it
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: best time of the year.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: It's fantastic, bit breezy, but lovely.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, now we know these latest Bureau of Statistics retail data,
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  Speaker 1: it's shown that retail trade in the territory has gone up. Greg,
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  Speaker 1: how are businesses, How are retail businesses around the top
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  Speaker 1: end and the whole of the territory feeling at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: You look? You're right, Katie, it's certainly very encouraging twelve
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  Speaker 2: percent in twelve months, but I think the majority of
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: that's happened in the last six months, so it's really
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  Speaker 2: been going gangbusters. Yeah, retailers, a number of them that
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I'm talking to experiencing record activity, never had months as
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: big as well. They happening at the moment. Wow, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: the reason lockdown a bit of a bliff on that radar,
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  Speaker 2: but some of those retailers actually enjoyed a bit of
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  Speaker 2: a break.
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  Speaker 1: And Greg, what kind of businesses I guess are sort
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  Speaker 1: of feeling the most positive at this point in time.
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  Speaker 2: Statistically, the biggest gains have come from recreational goods, so
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  Speaker 2: you know, we're getting out and about enjoying ourselves, doing
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  Speaker 2: a bit more fishing and kayaking and so forth, but
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  Speaker 2: also home improvements and homewares. People unable to travel, so
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  Speaker 2: they are investing back into where they spend most of
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  Speaker 2: their time. Pretty logical, I guess, yeah, it is.
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  Speaker 1: And you know I've sort of heard that anecdotally as well,
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  Speaker 1: some people saying, oh, I can't go on holidays, so
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do some stuff to the house and
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to you know, holidays sort of closer to
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  Speaker 1: home and go camping or do different things like that.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, you know, it's definitely showing signs of improving
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  Speaker 2: from a business point of view. I mean, the biggest
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  Speaker 2: single issue that we have in business right now is jobs.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: We have.
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  Speaker 2: The number of job vacancies we've got at the moment
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  Speaker 2: is also at a record high, so that's showing that
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  Speaker 2: there's plenty of activity out there.
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  Speaker 1: How are we going in the employment sector at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Do we have the staff that we sort of need
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  Speaker 1: to be able to keep business running in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: The short answer to that is no, we need more.
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  Speaker 2: We've got the lowest rate of unemployed versus vacancies at
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  Speaker 2: the moment, so you know, again that's an encouraging sign,
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  Speaker 2: very low youth unemployment. So people out there are picking
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  Speaker 2: up those apprenticeships that are being supported by territory government
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  Speaker 2: and the federal government, so that's all great. We've got
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  Speaker 2: the highest average number of hours work in Australia. That
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  Speaker 2: means people are putting in extra time and potentially doing
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  Speaker 2: multiple jobs. So that's a great thing. Increase female participation
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  Speaker 2: and everyone's just screaming out for more. So if you
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  Speaker 2: want a job in the territory, now's the time to
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  Speaker 2: get one.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly is. Hey, just on you know on
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: obviously those restrictions lifting over the weekend at one o'clock
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  Speaker 1: on Friday last week, have we seen much of a
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  Speaker 1: change to all. I guess you'd say four territory businesses
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  Speaker 1: over the weekend, most pretty happy from your perspective.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the reports and feedback that I got was that
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  Speaker 2: places like the waterfront and the dining opportunities there were
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  Speaker 2: just packed as soon as those restrictions were lifted, literally
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  Speaker 2: from one o'clock on Friday. Reports from other restaurants over
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  Speaker 2: the weekend where again people were rushing out to participate.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: So it's certainly been very, very active, and clearly we
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: don't like wearing masks and having to try and deal
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  Speaker 2: with that restriction on our lives.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, now the check in app, that is something though
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  Speaker 1: from what I can gather, which is going to remain
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  Speaker 1: in place. Is that you're understanding too.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think people are getting a lot more
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  Speaker 2: proactive in ensuring that people are using those apps. I
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  Speaker 2: think there's a little compacency there. But what we're seeing
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  Speaker 2: in New to how Wales is really driving a mandate
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  Speaker 2: to have those checking apps be up to date as
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  Speaker 2: much as possible. It certainly speeds up the contact tracing
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  Speaker 2: process and we can see from our experience that's certainly key.
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  Speaker 1: Great just on that with the situation in New South
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  Speaker 1: Wales at the moment, we know that unfortunately it's not
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: great for our friends in New South Wales right now.
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  Speaker 1: What kind of impact is that having on us in
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  Speaker 1: the territory when it comes to business.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we saw the immediate effects of the lockdowns in Victoria,
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  Speaker 2: resulting in instant cancelations for a lot of travel. I
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  Speaker 2: think those cancelations in the majority of being taken up
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  Speaker 2: by other visitors, but it certainly has a very significant
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  Speaker 2: flow on effect.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Hey, we just heard from Crystal who covers our
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  Speaker 1: local news, and she'd said that online spending has been up.
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  Speaker 1: That's what's been reported nationally. Are we seeing much of that?
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  Speaker 1: You know, from your perspective, is that being felt much
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  Speaker 1: by our local retailers at this point in time, or
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  Speaker 1: are we getting enough business from those who live there
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  Speaker 1: that or live here that that online spending isn't really
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  Speaker 1: impacting us too badly.
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  Speaker 2: We certainly felt it during the initial lockdown stages when
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  Speaker 2: people couldn't get out to a retail venue and a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the local retailers weren't set up to support
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  Speaker 2: online shopping. Some of that mix has change. We can
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  Speaker 2: get out and about and we are supporting locals, which
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  Speaker 2: is fantastic. But locally retailers have also stepped up into
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  Speaker 2: some of the online areas, so some of those sales
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  Speaker 2: are occurring locally. It's you were to pin down exactly
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  Speaker 2: how much, but the balance seems about right at the moment.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Hey, just finally, obviously we know that Territory Day is
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  Speaker 1: going to be celebrated later this year August twenty nine.
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  Speaker 1: Have you spoken to many of those fireworks retailers and
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  Speaker 1: businesses that do sell those firecrackers? Have they told you
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  Speaker 1: what kind of impact this is going to have on them?
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  Speaker 1: If any?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't spoken anyone directing myself, Katie. They're sort
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  Speaker 2: of in and out of the territory pretty quickly, but
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  Speaker 2: the feedback that I've I've heard is that they're certainly impacted,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: and you can understand that that delay is going to
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  Speaker 2: certainly hurt them, and I'm not quite sure how we
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  Speaker 2: can get around that, but it'll come eventually, which is
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  Speaker 2: probably the only upside at this point in time.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Chamber of Commerce CEO Greg Ireland, good to speak
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  Speaker 1: with you this morning, mate, Thanks very much for your time.
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  Speaker 2: No problem at all, Katie.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you