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: Mix one four point nine dot com DOTU for all
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  Speaker 1: the latest news and information. Now three sixty with Katie Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone is listening Mix one oh four point nine one hundred.
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  Speaker 2: Let's head across and find out how things went for
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  Speaker 2: our hospitality industry. Hospitality in t CEO Alex Bruce, Good morning.
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  Speaker 3: Good a Katie mate.
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  Speaker 2: How was the weekend for a lot of our hospitality businesses?
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  Speaker 2: Was it trading as normal or was it still pretty difficult?
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  Speaker 4: Look, it wasn't trading as normal, but there was a
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  Speaker 4: good positive murder around the town. You know, the community
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  Speaker 4: and businesses that could could open were just happy and
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  Speaker 4: thankful that they were They were open again and they
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  Speaker 4: could welcome customers back into their premises. The mask compliance
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  Speaker 4: was pretty good across the network. We were taking the
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  Speaker 4: temperature of the police throughout the weekend and they were
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  Speaker 4: reporting that what they saw was quite good as well.
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  Speaker 3: There or were a.
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  Speaker 4: Couple of those unfortunate events that you've already spoken about
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  Speaker 4: the morning, and you know, we understand across the globe
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  Speaker 4: sometimes the wearing of face mask seems to have been
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  Speaker 4: quite a politically charged topic. We just asked the whole
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  Speaker 4: community to respect that Our staff are just doing the
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  Speaker 4: right thing. They're complying with the rules. We want to
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  Speaker 4: get it right this week, so more businesses like gyms
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  Speaker 4: and more of that late night activity can join back
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  Speaker 4: into providing services to the community from this Friday. So
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  Speaker 4: don't take it out on the.
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  Speaker 5: Staff, you know, Alex on that.
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  Speaker 2: You know the Territory police had to charge a woman
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  Speaker 2: after she allegedly refused to wear a mask and then
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  Speaker 2: she spat in the face of a hospitality worker in
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  Speaker 2: the CBD. I mean, you must be pretty ropable when
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  Speaker 2: you hear something like this has happened to a hospitality worker.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Look, the hospitality industry is pretty close, tight knit
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  Speaker 4: up here, probably strengthened over the last fifteen months by
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  Speaker 4: all of the COVID so it ran quite hot on
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  Speaker 4: social media a lot. We're expressing their frustration of this.
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  Speaker 4: We've reached out to the business involved, extending any support
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  Speaker 4: we can to the staff involved. Clearly though, this kind
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  Speaker 4: of behavior is just not on. Let's not lose our heads,
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  Speaker 4: Let's not polarize our community.
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  Speaker 3: On the wearing of masks or not.
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  Speaker 4: We've got it still Friday. Let's just comply and get
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  Speaker 4: on with it.
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  Speaker 2: You know, any idea how that person and indeed that
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  Speaker 2: business is going at this point.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, So look, trade was good in the bistro sense.
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  Speaker 4: You know, you could go and sit down and enjoy
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  Speaker 4: a beer with your mates and take your face mask
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  Speaker 4: off at the table, or take your family and friends
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  Speaker 4: in and have a meal, and same rules applied vertical drinking.
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  Speaker 4: We're still waiting for Friday.
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  Speaker 6: There wasn't as much music and live entertainment around town.
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  Speaker 6: We did heed the call from the police commissioner that
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  Speaker 6: you know, we wanted to be very sensible and staged
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  Speaker 6: in the way we reopened. You know, we didn't want
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  Speaker 6: scenes of the mad out of control Darwin CBD blazed
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  Speaker 6: across National TV on our first step back out. I
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  Speaker 6: think collectively there's been a lot of businesses and their
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  Speaker 6: staff and the public that need to pat on the back.
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  Speaker 6: Today we've achieved that and now we just work towards
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  Speaker 6: Friday to get back to, as you said, good old
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  Speaker 6: fashioned normal.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, well we can only hope.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, just on that hospitality worker who was spat on it,
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  Speaker 2: have you spoken to that person and any idea how
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  Speaker 2: they're going.
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  Speaker 4: We reached out to our member business and just touch
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  Speaker 4: space with the venue manager there and extended our support
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  Speaker 4: that way.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, look, I do hope that they are okay.
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  Speaker 2: I know, like you said, you know, we sort of
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  Speaker 2: don't need to make it a big argument amongst the
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  Speaker 2: community about whether you should or shouldn't wear masks, But
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  Speaker 2: to spit on a hospitality worker while they're doing their job,
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  Speaker 2: in my opinion's pretty bloody disgraceful. So I do hope
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  Speaker 2: that that hospo worker is all right.
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  Speaker 4: That's it. Then we really, you know, whether it's the PARAMIX,
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  Speaker 4: the police, our workers, we're out there trying to enforce
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  Speaker 4: the same rules. Just just just show collow territory in
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  Speaker 4: the respect they duly deserve.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's exactly right.
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  Speaker 2: So hopefully by Friday we're back to normal, Alex just quickly.
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  Speaker 2: How big an impact really has that lockdown had last week?
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  Speaker 2: And do you feel as though the majority of our
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  Speaker 2: businesses are going to be able to hopefully, you know,
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  Speaker 2: sort of bounce back revenue wise over the last two
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  Speaker 2: weeks of school holidays our Look, we.
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  Speaker 4: Hope so, and those that can gear their offering towards
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  Speaker 4: locals again, locals are the champions of our business right now,
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  Speaker 4: particularly because you know, a lot of the country is
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  Speaker 4: still dealing with lockdowns, and our border remains closed to
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  Speaker 4: some of those key markets. So the tourism dollar in
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  Speaker 4: what we were hoping to be, you know, a cracking
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  Speaker 4: month probably is going to be diminished. So where locals
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  Speaker 4: can step up and help assist by having a good
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  Speaker 4: time out so they get the benefit to that's really appreciated.
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  Speaker 4: But yeah, some of our business is unfortunately, like what
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  Speaker 4: Greg alluded to, it's not like the job's just put
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  Speaker 4: on hold that you can pick up the tools a
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  Speaker 4: week later and recover some of that revenue. You've lost
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  Speaker 4: a week of revenue and it's gone, and the next
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  Speaker 4: week's revenue is impacted too. Yeah, we feel particularly for
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  Speaker 4: those businesses geared towards those tourists.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I think we all do, you know, feeling
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  Speaker 2: for anybody when they are impacted in this way.
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  Speaker 5: And also those casual workers.
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  Speaker 2: You know, people who aren't able to you know, to
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  Speaker 2: get to work or weren't able to get to work
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  Speaker 2: for a week.
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  Speaker 5: We know it has such a big impact on them.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you've heard some horrible stories where you know,
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  Speaker 3: a casual that was staying at home has heard the
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  Speaker 3: lockdown rules as they should, not not earning any money,
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  Speaker 3: not getting job seeker or job keeper support this time.
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  Speaker 4: Around, and they get a nice little notice from their
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  Speaker 4: landlord that their rent's going up. You know, it's just
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  Speaker 4: a bit of a kick in the guts when some
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  Speaker 4: of that.
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  Speaker 5: You're here, Yeah, it really is.
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  Speaker 2: Well Alex Bruce, CEO of Hospitality, and so good to
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  Speaker 2: catch up with you.
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  Speaker 5: We'll talk to you again soon. Thank you.