Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce

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

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  Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty
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  Speaker 1: Every One is Listening Mix one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we have been speaking quite extensively about the critical
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  Speaker 2: worker shortage I think you'd say here in the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 2: not only as we've spoken about for several months in
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  Speaker 2: the farming industry, but in hospitality and in tourism. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the territory government over the weekend or late on Friday
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  Speaker 2: announced a two million dollar critical worker support package which
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  Speaker 2: is aimed at attracting hospitality and tourism workers to the
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory in an effort to try and alleviate the
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  Speaker 2: current pressures around that worker shortfall. Joining us on the
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  Speaker 2: line to tell us a little bit more about the situation.
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  Speaker 2: Hospitality NTCEO Alex Bruce, Good morning, Alex.
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  Speaker 3: Good ay, Katie Alex.
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  Speaker 2: This announcement was made late on Friday. Does it go
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  Speaker 2: far enough in your opinion?
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  Speaker 3: Look, first and foremost, we do need to acknowledge that
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  Speaker 3: without international arrivals from COVID safe places for some of
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  Speaker 3: our skilled workers, the whole country's got a workforce crisis
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  Speaker 3: occurring in hospitality. So we'll still work with the territory
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  Speaker 3: government and we've got their support in seeking what we
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  Speaker 3: need to get out of Canberra and we're looking forward
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  Speaker 3: to working more wisdom on that. But outside of fixing that,
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  Speaker 3: both workers and the international students in our sector, then yeah,
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  Speaker 3: this package is very good. It allows us to recruit locally,
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  Speaker 3: train locally as much as possible and also be more
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  Speaker 3: aggressive in targeting interstate workers to come up as well.
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  Speaker 2: So how are we going to get these into state
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  Speaker 2: workers Alex when there's a shortage all around the nation.
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  Speaker 3: Well that's where this package is the best that any
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  Speaker 3: state or territory government has put on the table for
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  Speaker 3: our sector in support packages put on the table in
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  Speaker 3: a lot of other jurisdictions to try and get some
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  Speaker 3: of those seasonal workers in agriculture, the fruit pickers and
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  Speaker 3: all the rest of it. Nomads in Queensland get money
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  Speaker 3: now to drive around just in Queensland and you know,
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  Speaker 3: do farms days and help out in the farms and
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  Speaker 3: all the rest of it. This is the first one
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  Speaker 3: that any government's done for us in our sectors. So
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  Speaker 3: we think there's a great lifestyle up here. We are
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  Speaker 3: a great industry, very approachable local customers, you know, ninety
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  Speaker 3: nine point nine percent of the time are great to
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  Speaker 3: interact with as well. So we think that if this
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  Speaker 3: can help us put people on plane, maybe pick up
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  Speaker 3: some of their accommodation. And we know accommodation in Darwin
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  Speaker 3: is an issue. Your text is right on that one.
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  Speaker 3: But this package is for all of the territory and
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  Speaker 3: a lot of those roadhouses and remote places. Lodging is
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  Speaker 3: part of it. Some of the large hotels around town
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  Speaker 3: in Darwin, I know, you know, for the key workers
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  Speaker 3: that they need, they'll they'll find arrangements to lodge as well.
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  Speaker 2: And so alex essentially if anybody or if somebody was
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  Speaker 2: to move from into state, they'd be able to take
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  Speaker 2: advantage of some of those different incentives.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Glenn from tourism top end, I think he mentioned
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  Speaker 3: this to year before. We did seek that, like job Keeper,
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  Speaker 3: the support to try and attract these workers come through
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  Speaker 3: the businesses. That's the best way, we believe to keep
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  Speaker 3: that connection between the business and the employees. So the
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  Speaker 3: government listened to that, which is very pleasing. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it goes via the business and they can offset costs
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  Speaker 3: to market to transport, potentially some accommodation. I really really
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  Speaker 3: think their teeth in And you know, we should be
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  Speaker 3: trying to when the border with the Hotspots declaration gets lifted,
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  Speaker 3: we should be trying to pick the eyes out of
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  Speaker 3: perf again right now because pubs can only have twenty
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  Speaker 3: people in there.
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  Speaker 2: Again, Hey, I do want to in a moment, I
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  Speaker 2: am going to play a new advertising campaign that you
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  Speaker 2: guys have actually launched. Is well, we'll talk about that
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  Speaker 2: in just a moment, but I do want to ask
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  Speaker 2: you before I get to that. We've had a couple
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  Speaker 2: of people get in contact with us this morning and saying,
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  Speaker 2: you know, if one here from Brett, and it says wondering,
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  Speaker 2: if the hospitality industry is so desperate for workers, then
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  Speaker 2: how come I can't even get a reply with all
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  Speaker 2: the cvs I've put in, even with years of experience
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  Speaker 2: in both hospitality and entertainment. Is it because I'm fifty
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  Speaker 2: six I can run rings around staff a lot? Younger,
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  Speaker 2: says Bresh.
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  Speaker 3: I'm very happy for Brett and anybody else to send
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  Speaker 3: their resumes directly through to our office admin at hospitalityanta
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  Speaker 3: dot com dot au. We are aggressively targeting workers of
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  Speaker 3: all ages. And I don't need to be derogatory, but
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  Speaker 3: great power is part of what we need to achieve
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  Speaker 3: this season especially, and we're targeting as many workers. It
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  Speaker 3: doesn't matter you know, age, color, creed. We will help
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  Speaker 3: you try and find a job. We do need it,
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  Speaker 3: so please admin at hospitality int dot com dot au
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  Speaker 3: breath flicks it through soon.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and I was going to say, we've got
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  Speaker 2: another one here. This one is from a lady who
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  Speaker 2: says she's got two small children, but she's got a
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  Speaker 2: lot of experience. She said that she's not able to
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  Speaker 2: work every night, but she is hoping that she's going
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  Speaker 2: to be able to, you know, to get something on
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  Speaker 2: a part time basis. And she said that at this
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  Speaker 2: point she's sort of been pushed away because she's not
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  Speaker 2: able to be available every single night.
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  Speaker 3: Look, look, it's difficult because you know, think of a
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  Speaker 3: restaurant setting and apart from the breakfast and cafe service,
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  Speaker 3: and if you've got young children with school drop offs
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  Speaker 3: and all the rest of it, that might not be
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  Speaker 3: suitable either. You know, the vast majority of our work
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  Speaker 3: in some of our sex there is in that afternoon,
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  Speaker 3: evening's night work and it is weekends, and it is
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  Speaker 3: public holidays, and it is all those things and all
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  Speaker 3: those times that you often have different priorities, including family life.
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  Speaker 3: So that is unfortunately part of the parcels of our industry.
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  Speaker 3: We are the ones that are open where and everyone
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  Speaker 3: else is off partying, and they're the workers that we
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  Speaker 3: really need. But as I say, flick it through that
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  Speaker 3: there are opportunities. There is day work. It is harder
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  Speaker 3: in our industry to find, just given where all of
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  Speaker 3: our customers come out after work and come into our venues.
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  Speaker 3: But we'll try and see what we can do.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Alex, just very quickly, I know that you'd said
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  Speaker 2: previously to me that you would like to still have
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  Speaker 2: a situation here where we're able to get some of
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  Speaker 2: those international workers here to the Northern Territory. Has there
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  Speaker 2: been much of an update in that space.
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  Speaker 3: Look, there is a lot of work going on and
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory government is working very hard on it.
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  Speaker 3: We're aware. The confirmation that the Todd facility down in
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  Speaker 3: our Springs is going to stick around potentially gives us
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  Speaker 3: a pathway, along with agriculture and international students, for a
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  Speaker 3: quarantining facility capacity down there. We hope to start landing
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  Speaker 3: planes in the near future. We've still got to get
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  Speaker 3: through all the hurdles both at the territory government level
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  Speaker 3: and the Commonwealth level for that. But other jurisdictions, as
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  Speaker 3: we've said previously, have been landing planes from Vanuatu that
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  Speaker 3: have been arriving in Hobart and up and recently Perth.
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  Speaker 3: So they've shown that we can do it and it
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  Speaker 3: might be a situation where central Australian industry are the
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  Speaker 3: first ones to benefit. But we're still trying to work
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  Speaker 3: on capacity in the top end.
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  Speaker 2: But in the meantime you are doing everything you can
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  Speaker 2: to lure people here from interstate. Let's take a listen
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  Speaker 2: to this latest ad campaign. Is it kicking off today?
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  Speaker 3: Alex kicked off over the weekends.
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  Speaker 1: All right, let's take a listen, Hi, Australia. It's getting
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  Speaker 1: busy up north and we need more bartenders, chefs, duty
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  Speaker 1: managers and tour guides who love adventure. We need people
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  Speaker 1: with as much personality as the great Northern Territory, people
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  Speaker 1: who are self motivated, engaging and enjoy a challenge. There's
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  Speaker 1: always plenty happening up here, so forget lockdowns come, experience fun,
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  Speaker 1: opportunity and even a little cheekiness explore different work here
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  Speaker 1: this year.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Alex, how many people are you hoping to recruit
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  Speaker 2: from this campaign?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? As many as possible. But it's something that we
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  Speaker 3: put into market down south. We know that there's a
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  Speaker 3: lot of businesses that are advertising direct positions as well,
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  Speaker 3: so we're just trying to get down there and promote
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  Speaker 3: as much as we can. You know, that great landscape,
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  Speaker 3: that great lifestyle. If you're thinking, you know, you've had
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  Speaker 3: enough of Melbourne and AFL is not your thing, then
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  Speaker 3: there's not much else to look forward to over the
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  Speaker 3: next few miserable months down there. So how about you
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  Speaker 3: do think about ticking this off your bucket list.
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  Speaker 2: I reckon it's a good idea. Let's hope that we
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  Speaker 2: do see an increase in the number of workers coming
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  Speaker 2: to the Northern Territory and let's hope that they stay.
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  Speaker 3: That's it.
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  Speaker 2: Good on you, Alex, always good to catch up. Thanks
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  Speaker 2: so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Cheers Katie all today.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. That is Alex Bruce. There a Hospitality nt
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  Speaker 2: CEO