1
00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:03,960
Speaker 1: Well, it is just thirteen minutes away from ten o'clock

2
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:05,800
Speaker 1: that number. If you've got something on your mind that

3
00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:08,000
Speaker 1: you reckon, we need to know about eight nine four

4
00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:10,280
Speaker 1: one one O four nine. I know plenty of people

5
00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:13,280
Speaker 1: have been in contact with us, certainly in recent days

6
00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:17,360
Speaker 1: this morning as well and in recent weeks about the

7
00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,040
Speaker 1: Christmas holidays and wondering just how things are going to

8
00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:22,000
Speaker 1: work when it comes to those Christmas.

9
00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:23,840
Speaker 2: Holidays and whether they'll be able to travel.

10
00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,560
Speaker 1: Now we did get that insight, well, I guess about

11
00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:30,160
Speaker 1: a week ago, a bit over a week ago when

12
00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,880
Speaker 1: we learned that yes, we would be able to travel

13
00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,400
Speaker 1: at Christmas time, we would see the territory introduce that

14
00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:40,240
Speaker 1: rapid antigen testing for all vaccinated arrivals into the Northern

15
00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:44,239
Speaker 1: Territory from December twenty and it meant that changes to

16
00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:49,919
Speaker 1: quarantine would obviously come into play. So excuse me, so

17
00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:52,680
Speaker 1: has this made any difference and are we seeing sort

18
00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:55,760
Speaker 1: of any more bookings? Well, joining us on the line

19
00:00:55,960 --> 00:01:00,760
Speaker 1: from Central Australia, the CEO of Tourism Central Australia, Daniel Rochford.

20
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:02,280
Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Daniel.

21
00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:05,000
Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.

22
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:07,720
Speaker 1: Daniel, as I mentioned there about a week and a

23
00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,240
Speaker 1: half ago, I guess it was the Northern Territory government

24
00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,960
Speaker 1: announced that there would be those changes to quarantining from

25
00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:16,120
Speaker 1: well around about now.

26
00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:17,600
Speaker 2: I guess, or a little while ago.

27
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:22,680
Speaker 1: But when it comes to fully vaccinated travelers coming into

28
00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:27,360
Speaker 1: the territory, from December twenty they'd introduced the rapid antigen

29
00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:31,440
Speaker 1: testing for all fully vaccinated arrivals and if they were

30
00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:35,080
Speaker 1: traveling from red zones, well there would be some other

31
00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:39,520
Speaker 1: changes i e. Some home quarantine requirements they would be ending.

32
00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:43,319
Speaker 1: Though before Christmas, Daniel, has this had much of an

33
00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:46,360
Speaker 1: impact from your perspective a week and a half on

34
00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,520
Speaker 1: when it comes to bookings in Central Australia.

35
00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,760
Speaker 3: Look, we haven't seen a huge uptake in bookings, Katie,

36
00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,480
Speaker 3: but certainly there's some cautious optimism from the decision that

37
00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,160
Speaker 3: the Chief Minister and the Government's made on this front.

38
00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:02,240
Speaker 3: And just to get give you some clarity in terms

39
00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:06,520
Speaker 3: of some positivity is that we've seen already jets move

40
00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:09,760
Speaker 3: from two flights a week into Yulara, which is the

41
00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,200
Speaker 3: only flights that that airport is getting at the moment,

42
00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:17,200
Speaker 3: to seven from December twentieth, so that's certainly a green

43
00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:20,520
Speaker 3: bud of optimism, but it's of course well short of

44
00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:24,040
Speaker 3: the forty plus flights that we used to have pro

45
00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,200
Speaker 3: the pandemic into Ulara Airport.

46
00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:27,680
Speaker 2: Yeah.

47
00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:30,040
Speaker 1: Right, so a bit of an increase, but two to

48
00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:34,560
Speaker 1: seven comparatively to forty. Did you say that you'd usually

49
00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:36,040
Speaker 1: see on any normal.

50
00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:40,600
Speaker 3: Weg Yeah, And so look, I guess the message there

51
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,200
Speaker 3: is is a long road ahead until we get back

52
00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:46,000
Speaker 3: to some degree of normality, but at least it's pointing

53
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:49,080
Speaker 3: in the right direction. But certainly, the feedback I'm getting

54
00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:51,600
Speaker 3: from most of our our Springs operators is there's not

55
00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:56,000
Speaker 3: suddenly a huge upturn in visitation from December twentieth, but

56
00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:59,239
Speaker 3: it does put a little bit of a spring in

57
00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,800
Speaker 3: their step. I hope that we're now starting to see,

58
00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:05,160
Speaker 3: albeit a dim light at the end of the tunnel,

59
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,680
Speaker 3: and I think operators are now starting to get their

60
00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,240
Speaker 3: heads in the frame of how they start to reopen

61
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,400
Speaker 3: into twenty twenty two and start to look forward to

62
00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:19,040
Speaker 3: what will hopefully be touch Wood a good season ahead

63
00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:19,600
Speaker 3: for us.

64
00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:22,280
Speaker 1: It is such a difficult situation, and you and I

65
00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,640
Speaker 1: have spoken on numerous occasions about the real hardship that

66
00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:29,680
Speaker 1: a lot of our tourism operators are experiencing in Central Australia,

67
00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:31,160
Speaker 1: and I know that you've said there.

68
00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,080
Speaker 2: While there are those sort of buds.

69
00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,120
Speaker 1: Of optimism and that is a good thing, or it's

70
00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:39,680
Speaker 1: pointing in the right direction, there's still quite a way

71
00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:45,440
Speaker 1: to go. The Minister for Business, Paul Kirby, joined us

72
00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:47,600
Speaker 1: on the show on the Week that was on Friday

73
00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,120
Speaker 1: morning and said that they were the government was looking

74
00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,520
Speaker 1: at doing some further work with our tourism operators in

75
00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,040
Speaker 1: Central Australia because they knew that you were experiencing tough times.

76
00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:00,400
Speaker 2: Has there been much development in that.

77
00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,480
Speaker 3: No, but we are hearing that there may be something

78
00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:09,080
Speaker 3: on the horizon which is good news. But look at

79
00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:12,000
Speaker 3: the end of the day, as much as I do

80
00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:14,960
Speaker 3: paint that there is a green butd of optimism, it's

81
00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:19,720
Speaker 3: pretty bad and you know we on it. So almost

82
00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:23,159
Speaker 3: on a daily basis, we're hearing businesses deciding to either

83
00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,760
Speaker 3: hire an eighth chap down or really roll back in operation.

84
00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,760
Speaker 3: So almost two thirds of our businesses have made some

85
00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:34,320
Speaker 3: form of decision to scale back in some safe or

86
00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:36,719
Speaker 3: form over the summer period. This of course is the

87
00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:40,320
Speaker 3: time we would normally see international visitors come to Central Australia,

88
00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:43,760
Speaker 3: and of course with the national border still essentially chat,

89
00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:47,080
Speaker 3: you know that's not going to happen again, so it's

90
00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:51,920
Speaker 3: pretty die still. But I guess with the announcement of

91
00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,880
Speaker 3: the Chief Minister made and you know, with quarantine free

92
00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:58,479
Speaker 3: travel opening up from the twentieth, hopefully we'll start to

93
00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:02,279
Speaker 3: see that's come back. And I guess the optimism that

94
00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:06,320
Speaker 3: we're hearing from our operators is from March next year,

95
00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:09,840
Speaker 3: bookings look good. But the challenge, Katie is we need

96
00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,480
Speaker 3: to get our operators from today to March next year,

97
00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:16,119
Speaker 3: and the challenge is that we've just for not seen

98
00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,920
Speaker 3: the bookings between now and March.

99
00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,479
Speaker 1: Now, Daniel, what about when it comes to staffing those

100
00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:27,200
Speaker 1: different operations. I know that we do rely quite heavily

101
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,880
Speaker 1: on interstate and also international staff members in the tourism sector.

102
00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:34,120
Speaker 2: How are things going?

103
00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:35,919
Speaker 1: And do you expect that there's going to be a

104
00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:38,360
Speaker 1: bit of a change over the Christmas break as those

105
00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:43,760
Speaker 1: as those borders open, of people maybe leaving the territory.

106
00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:48,039
Speaker 3: Yes, and look that I spoke to our annual General

107
00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:52,200
Speaker 3: Meeting of TCA last week on this topic. In my opinion,

108
00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:55,440
Speaker 3: and it's pretty obvious and pretty clear to everyone is

109
00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:58,440
Speaker 3: there is a tsunami just about to hit us. On

110
00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:02,920
Speaker 3: the other side of this is labor shortages. We have

111
00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:07,120
Speaker 3: just cast survey out to our members. We need just

112
00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:11,560
Speaker 3: in Central Australia and just in tourism in Central Australia.

113
00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:15,560
Speaker 3: We need a thousand staff between right here when we're

114
00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,560
Speaker 3: talking to March next year, and I just don't know

115
00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,280
Speaker 3: how we're going to do that, Katie. I know many

116
00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:23,240
Speaker 3: of our operators are now starting to talk about the

117
00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,960
Speaker 3: specific labor program, which is great, but we're going to

118
00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,960
Speaker 3: need intensive government support here. We're going to have to

119
00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:34,200
Speaker 3: open and pick up rocks and see what's underneath them,

120
00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:39,320
Speaker 3: to look at innovative strategies to try and encourage people

121
00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:40,719
Speaker 3: to come to the North Territory.

122
00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:43,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, that sounds like it's going to be really tough,

123
00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:47,920
Speaker 1: going a thousand stuff from now until March. I don't

124
00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:49,920
Speaker 1: know exactly how are you going to do that unless

125
00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:52,359
Speaker 1: you do bring unless you do look at maybe bringing

126
00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:55,039
Speaker 1: people from overseas as well.

127
00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:57,200
Speaker 3: Look, well, I think we need to be innovative, and

128
00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:01,120
Speaker 3: I guess I cast the net out to our operators

129
00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:04,039
Speaker 3: to say come to us with ideas and strategies with

130
00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:06,000
Speaker 3: how we might be able to do this. Do we

131
00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:10,400
Speaker 3: need to look at specifically chartering some flights from places

132
00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:14,400
Speaker 3: like the UK or India to encourage people to come

133
00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:17,320
Speaker 3: out us to the northern territory. Do we need to

134
00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:19,800
Speaker 3: do more in the Pacific labor front. Do we need

135
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:23,880
Speaker 3: to supercharge the Workstay Play program that was put forward

136
00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:26,440
Speaker 3: by the government at the start of this year which

137
00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:31,880
Speaker 3: provided fifteen hundred dollars to businesses for support about encouraging staff.

138
00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:34,240
Speaker 3: Do we need to supercharge that. All of these are

139
00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:39,200
Speaker 3: great ideas, but the thing I've understood with our labor

140
00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:42,200
Speaker 3: shortages issue is as easy you put your head down

141
00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,720
Speaker 3: this rabbit hole. There is no one solution. We have

142
00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:47,720
Speaker 3: to do multiple things to try and fix the problem.

143
00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:50,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, Daniel, I do want to ask you as well.

144
00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:54,080
Speaker 1: We know obviously that there is this new strain of COVID,

145
00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:57,360
Speaker 1: the OMRA con strain. We've got a case out there

146
00:07:57,400 --> 00:07:59,600
Speaker 1: at Howard Springs. The Health Minister set on the show

147
00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,520
Speaker 1: short time ago that there is no risk to the

148
00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,400
Speaker 1: general public when it comes to this case. She also

149
00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:09,080
Speaker 1: said at this point that there is no plans to

150
00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:11,520
Speaker 1: change the way that we are opening up.

151
00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,920
Speaker 2: Come December twenty. Is it a concern to you.

152
00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:16,480
Speaker 1: Do you think that we are going to sort of

153
00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:19,040
Speaker 1: see any hiccups with this new strain.

154
00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:25,080
Speaker 3: The one thing I've got to understand working and living

155
00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:28,520
Speaker 3: through this pandemic, Katie, is once you're strapped into the

156
00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:31,960
Speaker 3: roller coaster, you never know what the next day holds.

157
00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,280
Speaker 3: The reality is that this we could find ourselves back

158
00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:39,800
Speaker 3: to square one and things being rolled back. I'm ever

159
00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:43,719
Speaker 3: so hopeful that's not the case. And calm heads need

160
00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:46,520
Speaker 3: to prevail at this time and we need to look

161
00:08:46,520 --> 00:08:48,880
Speaker 3: at the facts and look at the science, and I'm

162
00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,360
Speaker 3: sure our governments are doing that. But let's keep a

163
00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:57,920
Speaker 3: calm head. Let's look to a positive future. But if

164
00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:02,560
Speaker 3: things do move sideways, we just need to roll with

165
00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:05,800
Speaker 3: them as we have rolled through all other decisions that

166
00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:08,400
Speaker 3: have had and you know, we just need to take

167
00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:10,040
Speaker 3: this day by day well.

168
00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:14,720
Speaker 1: Tourism Central Australia CEO, Daniel Rochford, I always appreciate your time.

169
00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:16,760
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having a chat with us today.

170
00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:18,960
Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, thank you