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Katie Woolf spoke with Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Is the text line number.
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  Speaker 2: And now, look, I think it's all fine and good
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: for a political stash or political point scoring. I suppose
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  Speaker 2: there is always going to happen when you talk about
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  Speaker 2: different situations around the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: But one thing I.
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  Speaker 2: Do know right now is that there are a number
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  Speaker 2: of industries and a number of businesses that are truly
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  Speaker 2: hurting during this situation that we're going through right around Australia,
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  Speaker 2: with this pandemic and with these lockdowns.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the industries that.
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  Speaker 2: We have heard from throughout the week is the tourism sector.
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  Speaker 2: And joining me on the line again is the Tourism
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  Speaker 2: Central Australia CEO, Daniel Rochford. And good morning to you, Daniel.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners again Daniel.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I wanted to get you on again this morning
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  Speaker 2: because we know that the federal government and the Territory
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  Speaker 2: government have announced a new twelve point five million dollar
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  Speaker 2: package for territory businesses impacted by COVID nineteen restriction. Obviously
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  Speaker 2: follows on from the Commonwealth declaring Greater Darwin and Catherine
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  Speaker 2: as hotspots, and additional financial support is going to be
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  Speaker 2: available to businesses and organizations who are reliant on interstate
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  Speaker 2: and international visitation. But Daniel, from what I can gather,
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't include Central Australia at this point.
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  Speaker 3: Is that your understanding, No, Katie, I'm we're certainly picking
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  Speaker 3: up that it.
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  Speaker 4: Does include Central Australia and in particular and in.
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  Speaker 3: Particular the hardship funding support you know, as we've spoken
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  Speaker 3: about on many times and we can only but thank
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  Speaker 3: you also for your leadership on this.
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  Speaker 4: We've been advocating.
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  Speaker 5: For support, really targeted support, especially to the tour operators,
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  Speaker 5: the event specialists who have been doing absolutely tough and
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  Speaker 5: they've fallen through the cracks of the various rounds vouchersm
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  Speaker 5: you know, they are really on their knees and support
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  Speaker 5: like this has been absolutely critically needed.
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  Speaker 2: Well, mate, I'm so glad to hear that you know
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  Speaker 2: that some support is on the way. What can our
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  Speaker 2: what can our tourism businesses around the territory expect as
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  Speaker 2: part of this funding from your understanding, look.
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  Speaker 3: From my understanding, and we're just still getting information to hand,
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  Speaker 3: so I guess the.
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  Speaker 4: Devil will be in the detail.
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  Speaker 3: But look, any support is will always be warmly welcomed
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  Speaker 3: by our industry. We've been advocating for this and with
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  Speaker 3: our colleagues that tourism top in for some weeks and
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  Speaker 3: months now and to have this response come through as
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  Speaker 3: welcome news and we can only but thank the federal
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  Speaker 3: and territory governments for listening to those concerns. What it
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  Speaker 3: will mean is a real difference for small and medium
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  Speaker 3: sized businesses who have been doing an absolutely tough and
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  Speaker 3: you know we're hearing day in, day out, you know,
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  Speaker 3: business owners struggling to put food on.
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  Speaker 4: The table because it's that bad.
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  Speaker 3: And you know we've seen mothballing and closing, closing of businesses.
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  Speaker 4: So this is welcome news.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I'm really glad to hear that, you know that
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  Speaker 2: there is some support on the way. I know that
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  Speaker 2: under the co funded scheme, businesses are going to be
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  Speaker 2: able to access payments between five thousand and thirty thousand,
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  Speaker 2: I understand, depending on their annual turnover, which must be
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  Speaker 2: less than ten million. So some of those eligible businesses
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  Speaker 2: must be able to demonstrate a thirty percent decrease in
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  Speaker 2: turnover compared to the same period for twenty nineteen as
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  Speaker 2: a result of the lockdown. I'm assuming Daniel that for
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  Speaker 2: some of those tourism operators in Central Australia, demonstrating that
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  Speaker 2: is not going to be difficult at all.
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  Speaker 4: Nope, Yeah, people answer to that question, Katie. In fact,
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  Speaker 4: we could probably demonstrate that a little bit lower. We
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  Speaker 4: could probably bring the bar down a little bit lower.
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  Speaker 4: It's certainly been a challenge for our industry and as
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  Speaker 4: I said yes yesterday, you know, in Yolara Airport in
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  Speaker 4: the last two and a half weeks we was only
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  Speaker 4: just seen two planes come in, So you know, you know,
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  Speaker 4: we are on our either the sector and you know
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  Speaker 4: we've been saying it from day one that you know,
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  Speaker 4: we're appreciative of their government's keeping us safe, but there's
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  Speaker 4: been downstream consequences and that's been the smashing of the tourism,
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  Speaker 4: hospitality and event sectors.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, now, is there any update from what you can gather?
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  Speaker 2: And I know, again we spoke about this yesterday and
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  Speaker 2: we've touched on it before, but with these tourism vouchers,
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  Speaker 2: I know that they really didn't sort of assist Central
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  Speaker 2: Australian tourism as much as we'd probably hoped that they would.
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  Speaker 2: Are you anticipating that there's going to sort of be
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  Speaker 2: any change in this space, Daniel, or or that you know,
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  Speaker 2: maybe I don't know, maybe there'd be an increase in
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  Speaker 2: you know, in the eligibility or what we could receive
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  Speaker 2: if say you wanted to travel from the top End
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  Speaker 2: to Central Australia in an effort to try and support
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  Speaker 2: our tourism sector in Central Australia.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think one of the challenges we have in
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory, Kadie, is that unlike other states which
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  Speaker 3: have big intra state populations, we just don't have that
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  Speaker 3: here in the Northern Territory. And I guess the challenge
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  Speaker 3: with got is how do we encourage territorians to get
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  Speaker 3: around the state. So the more options that we can
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  Speaker 3: put on the table, the more opportunities to look at
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  Speaker 3: strengthening the case to come down to the Central Australian
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  Speaker 3: region and also the Barkley.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we would certainly warmly welcome and we're certainly
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  Speaker 4: looking in anticipation of what might change with that program
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  Speaker 4: moving forward.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we'll all be keeping an ear and an
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  Speaker 1: eye out.
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  Speaker 2: And Daniel, I tell you what I know, I'd like
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  Speaker 2: to come and visit Central Australia sooner rather than later.
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  Speaker 2: I'm sure that there is a lot of territorians who
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  Speaker 2: feel the same. So let's hope that maybe in that
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  Speaker 2: next round, you know, there's a bit more of an
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  Speaker 2: incentive provided to try and get more of us going
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  Speaker 2: a little bit further than what we ordinarily would.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that sounds like a plan, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: And as always, the best way any territory and can
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  Speaker 3: help the tourism hospitality sector, whether Darwin or Central Australia
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  Speaker 3: or the Barkley go out for the weekend, go and
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  Speaker 3: stay at a property, go go to a restaurant and
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  Speaker 3: support our brothers and sisters and the tourism, hospitality and
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  Speaker 3: events sectors.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a very good call. I reckon there.
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  Speaker 2: Daniel Rochford, the CEO of Tourism Central Australia, really appreciate
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  Speaker 2: your time and appreciate you coming on a couple of
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  Speaker 2: times this week. Mate.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks Kay, much appreciated.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: It is just on half past ten and gee, I
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  Speaker 2: am glad to hear that there is some support for
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  Speaker 2: our tourism sector.
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  Speaker 1: As we've heard throughout the week.
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  Speaker 2: We know that a lot of our tourism operators are
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  Speaker 2: really doing it very tough and as we heard today
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  Speaker 2: and yesterday from Daniel, really tough going for them in
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  Speaker 2: Central Australia