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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We just heard from the Chief Minister Michael Gunner a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: little while ago that the Apple Store isn't ready yet
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: with the QR code. You're able to obviously get your
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: QR code app and get the app on Android, but
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: not on an Apple phone yet, so it does seem
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: like a bit of a stuff up. The Chief Minister
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: said that the government's done everything that they can do
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to try to get that happening as quickly as possible.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, obviously businesses are going to be using
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: some good old fashioned pen and paper now. There's lots
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of other messages coming through on the text line and.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Keep them coming.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: We always enjoy reading those out zero four one eighth nine,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: five seven, three six nine, but on the QR codes well.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Joining us right now on the line. Hospitality NT CEO
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Alex Bruce, Good morning, Alex, Good morning Katy Alex. From
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: my understanding, quite well, the majority of businesses are pretty
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: well ready to go with the QR cod card QR.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Code changes today. But what are you hearing?
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Are you so a few emails and calls into the
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: office this morning, just when people similarly to your listeners
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: couldn't find it on the Apple Store as far as
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: i'm a where most of the venues have been contacted
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: that they needed to be the gyms, the swimming pools,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: our restaurants, pub clubs over the last few days and
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: they've got their QR signs printed out ready to go.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: You might see today some of them will use it
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: with only Google customers being able to complete that. And
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: alongside it, the government's actually provided a written register that
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: will be getting printed out and put up everywhere for
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: people to manually enter enter until the Apple Store comes
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: good or alternatively, people like Snapper Rocks as the example,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: they've been on a different QR system for over a week.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: They'll probably keep that in place until this thing's resolved
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: over the next couple of days.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it seems like a bit of a
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: stuff up so the Apple Store, well for the Apple
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: app to not be ready to go, given the fact
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: that those QR codes are meant to be implemented today.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: On this we do have a bit of sympathy for
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: the government because it was about a month ago, you know,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: that they went public and said that they were looking
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: at enforcing contact tracing effective today. They didn't have an
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: app ready and they indicated would be unlikely to move
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: it along that quickly for today's date. We were part
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: of the advocacy behind the scenes, asking for them, if
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: at all possible, to try and push the timeframes. We
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: didn't want to see too much investment in other systems
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: for a week or two then for a government app
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: to be made available. We actually thought it was better
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: for customers in terms of their privacy and their data
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: and not having to enter multiple multiple times you name
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: a number everywhere. So they did that and I know
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: that they were pulling out. You know, everything had to
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: go right for today to work, but if it's a
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: day or two later, you know, we've got this for
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: twelve months. It's not too big in the scheme of
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: things from our.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Perspective, and you can always use your pen and paper
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: if needed, can't they that's it.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: And that will be part of the system anyway for
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: people that don't want to give their details. And it
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: was interesting. One of the pubs was trialing just another
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: system last week and they will be coming onto the
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: government one when it's ready, but just to gauge what
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: the customers were like out Palmerston Way, and the reality
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: of it was people with smartphones weren't confident with that
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: system where the data wasn't being retained directly by government
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: and they were actually choosing the notepad and pen.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: All right, there you go.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: So some people are a little bit worried, even though
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of us share probably more information on our
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Facebook pages.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Google Maps knows where we are at all times.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a bit of irony there, but I understand
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: people's concerns obviously with their with their security, totally get it.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So so on a whole ALEXA are most businesses feeling
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: fairly comfortable and confident today, I think.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: So we're just as customers in the public to bear
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: with us. If you find a place that you think
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: should be part of the system and they're not, please
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: just go up and talk to them. You know, some
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: some people's email contact details from six months ago when
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: they first submitted their COVID plans, that person may have
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: moved on that business might not have been given all
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: the information than they needed to over the past three days.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: So you know, let's just all get used to this
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: over this next week or so. And and doctor Hugh
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Heggy has been pretty good as well. He said that
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: you know, environmental health will be out and about educating
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: businesses and the public. They're not they're not going to
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: be out there with the big stick.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that realistically we've all got to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: work together here, particularly when we know that we are
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: opening up effectively to all of Australia today.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: There's no declared hotspots.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: You saw that beautiful photo in the paper where it
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: looked like Ronnie was enjoying more than just retail therapy.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: She can now be joined by milburnion.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Well, that's it.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: There will be plenty of people traveling to the territory,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: no doubt. Hey, Alex, I want to ask you about
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the changes to public holidays now. We know that on
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Friday it was announced that there'd be changes to public holidays,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister declaring that Saturday, the twenty sixth of
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: December would now be a public holiday. So under current legislation,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: if Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, that public holidays
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: actually observed on the following Monday, and there's no official
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: public holiday on the Saturday. So essentially what this change
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: means is that there's now two public holidays for Boxing Day.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: That's my understanding.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: What's your take and what's been the response from businesses.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Look, we appreciate you know, hands up, who wants an
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: extra holiday. You'll get very popular support for that. But
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: this doesn't impact any of the salaried permanent workers, be
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: it the public or private sectors. It really does hit
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: and hurt hospitality sector. We weren't provided the opportunity to
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: give any submissions on this one. Did seemed to be
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: a done deal, cooked up somewhere and just implemented at
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: a convenient take out the trash Friday. But look, the
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: reality is for our sector, it's got some perverse impact.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Sticularly in that restaurant cafe space. If you've got owner operators,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: this means they largely can't afford staff on the day,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: so either they will be in their businesses again behind
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: the till on the tools, or they just taking another
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: day to close. And those in the restaurant cafe space
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: that are open customers will probably find a bit more
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: like another day of menu surcharges. By the time you
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: move to the pub's clubs, the accommodation hotels, you know,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: they're largely would open and remain open throughout that period,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: So this is just another hit for them to absorb.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, It's a really tough one.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I thought about this on Friday, and I've got to
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: say that during the week that was it was realistically
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the first set a lot of us were hearing about it,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and also for a lot of business people who listened
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to the show, it was the first time that they
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: were hearing that this public holiday had been declared. And
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you know, you initially think to yourself, well, good, if
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I was working in retail, or if I was working,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: you know, as a casual employee, it would be wonderful
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to get paid those penalty rates.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: But then you go, how is this actually going.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: To impact businesses who've already had an incredibly tough year.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And what you'll find in our industry at least is,
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: you know, we had some of the highest wage cut
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: rates across the world, and it does impact you know,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: you're seeing some of the viability of restaurant networks down
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: South challenged over the last few years, well before COVID.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: So with that owner operator, with their permanent staff, it
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: means another day for them working away from their families
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: and friends. And if anything, less casual employed, a casual
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: also misses out on the opportunity.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: To work then when you talk about it from a
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: financial perspective, for those businesses that are still going to
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: have to, you know, to pay their casual employees penalty rates,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: how much could this be costing.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Them for the day.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: For some of the larger places, it would be multiple
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: thousands of dollars, But it's more when you look at
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: some of those more small micro businesses at our tourism
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: hospitality end of the network, they were already looking at,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: you know, between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day now
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: eight days, there's only two days of normal rates in there.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: So with this change, it's probably solidified a decision that
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: some of them may have been considering anyway on when
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: to close and for how long.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the tough part.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce from Hospitality Int CEO of Hospitality NT
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: always good to catch up with you. I really appreciate
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thanks Alex,