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Speaker 1: Can we know that yesterday? As part of the twelve

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Speaker 1: point eight million dollar package to lure people from overseas

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Speaker 1: once the international borders open later this month, the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory government has put forward a strong focus on international

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Speaker 1: worker incentives. So there's two point six million dollars on

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Speaker 1: the table to deliver the Working holiday Maker campaign and

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Speaker 1: Tourism and Hospitality turbo charge.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: This includes a marketing campaign to attract around two thousand

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Speaker 1: new tourism and hospitality workers to the NT by April.

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Speaker 1: This is among several other international worker incentives, including migration

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Speaker 1: support and connecting businesses with job seekers. It's something that

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Speaker 1: industry has been talking about for quite some time. And

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Speaker 1: the CEO of Hospitality here in the Northern Territory, Alex Bruce,

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Speaker 1: joins me on the line. Good morning to you, Alex.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Alex. What is the feeling in the hospitality industry about

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Speaker 1: yesterday's announcement.

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Speaker 2: I'll look a fair bit of positive news over the

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Speaker 2: last twenty four or forty eight hours, you know, from

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Speaker 2: Quantus flight through to the packages announced yesterday that will

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Speaker 2: help us both promote international tourism back into the territory

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Speaker 2: but also importantly have the workforce ready to match that.

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Speaker 2: There's even a work hard, play hard, little extra kicker

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Speaker 2: that we can provide hospitality workers that we do recruit

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Speaker 2: up here, which gets them out and about on their

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Speaker 2: days off, further contributing to a bit of a boost

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Speaker 2: into the tourism space. So credit to the government and

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Speaker 2: the agencies that have been working on this. It's safe

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Speaker 2: to say, you know, the crystal ball of COVID. No

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Speaker 2: one really knew what we were going to face last

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Speaker 2: year and we hit our peak seasons in Top End

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Speaker 2: and Central Australia very early on in our strides. A

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Speaker 2: lot of that got ripped out as the East Coast

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Speaker 2: went into lockdowns, but we found as things were gearing

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Speaker 2: up we didn't have the workers to match it last year.

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Speaker 2: So this is a little bit further forward for us.

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Speaker 2: Our typical peak recruitment is March April. Still a lot

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Speaker 2: of uncertainty, I've got to say, and unfortunately there's still

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Speaker 2: a lot of businesses that are employing less people and

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Speaker 2: putting less people on rosters right now. But we are

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Speaker 2: looking at light at the end of that tunnel and

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Speaker 2: hope hopefully matching that has things normalized and customers, both

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Speaker 2: locals and tourists, come back. We have the workforce ready

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Speaker 2: to serve them.

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Speaker 1: Yes, because it's kind of difficult, isn't it. Like until

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Speaker 1: those tourists arrive, and until you've got all of those

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Speaker 1: visitors out and about, and until you've got more people

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Speaker 1: in your pubs and restaurants and cafes, etc. It's hard

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Speaker 1: to sort of put extra people on until you've got

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Speaker 1: the customers coming in.

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Speaker 2: That's it. And a lot of businesses that are holding

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Speaker 2: staff right now and trading in losses, but they want

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Speaker 2: to keep those staff connected to the business because they

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Speaker 2: are hoping that you come to dry season. It is

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Speaker 2: a different kettle of fish we're dealing with, so it

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Speaker 2: is a juggling act. It's tricky. The government did do

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Speaker 2: that hardship package a couple of weeks ago. For us,

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Speaker 2: it wasn't quite what we're after, but better than nothing.

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Speaker 2: And then yesterday's announcements we've got we've got to say,

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Speaker 2: you know, we do appreciate that they are working in

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Speaker 2: the space as best they can.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and obviously this package does have a focus on

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Speaker 1: filling those gaps and meeting the skill shortages in the

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Speaker 1: territories workforce like how engaged have the government been with

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Speaker 1: the likes of organizations like yours in terms of sort

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Speaker 1: of creating that marketing campaign and the best approach needed

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Speaker 1: to try and lure people to the territory.

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Speaker 2: I look the marketing stuff, I think there are we

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Speaker 2: have an abundance of so called experts up there, so

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Speaker 2: I'll leave it to them. But you know, behind the

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Speaker 2: scenes engagement with some of the backpacker joints to help

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Speaker 2: those backpackers that come up place them in our industry

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Speaker 2: and other industries try and keep them for longer. This season,

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Speaker 2: there's been a lot of work behind the scenes from

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Speaker 2: industry in that space and the government department. So that's

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Speaker 2: all very good. And you know, we do have Carl

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Speaker 2: Cox coming back up again. Yep. We are hoping that

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Speaker 2: we can be a bit of a reviable spot again

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Speaker 2: for the backpacker market that had been in decline for

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Speaker 2: many years previous to COVID.

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Speaker 1: Now do you reckon that the idea of attracting two

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Speaker 1: thousand people that's what they said their aim is by April.

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Speaker 1: Is that realistic?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? It is. I'd say there's still confusion and uncertainty

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Speaker 2: on some of the rules in our space and what

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Speaker 2: kind of environment those people would be coming to. So

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Speaker 2: it was good to hear the chief on your show

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Speaker 2: yesterday say that international tourists that were coming in and

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Speaker 2: you know, potentially future workers for us, the double vaccination

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Speaker 2: would be all that's required. But you know, how does

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Speaker 2: that sit with our workforce mandates where to employ them?

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Speaker 2: They might need a third jab. Others have correctly identified, well,

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Speaker 2: what's the discrepancy between locals versus internationals? And does that

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Speaker 2: also mean domestic tourists are similarly only going to need

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Speaker 2: two jabs. So you know, we'd ideally we'd love that

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Speaker 2: third JEB requirement only on aged care and nursing homes

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Speaker 2: and all those vulnerable spaces. Leave that to them. But

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Speaker 2: you know, if a customers coming from Sydney or Bloody

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Speaker 2: Sweden and I'm serving them a beer at the pub,

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Speaker 2: how come the worker has to be triple vaxed but

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Speaker 2: neither of the two customers do. So you know, we

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Speaker 2: would like to get the vax mandate off our workforce

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Speaker 2: as soon as possible. Yeah, and then again, you know

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Speaker 2: we've spoken about this before, Kate, but you know, those

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Speaker 2: that aren't going to get vaxed, aren't going to get vaxed,

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Speaker 2: and we just need to move on and stop denigrating them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was you know, with that triple vax

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Speaker 1: double vax with the international tourist, that was something that

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Speaker 1: you know that we'd all been wondering exactly what was

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Speaker 1: going to happen. And yesterday when he said that, I

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Speaker 1: did ask is that fair then, given the fact that

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Speaker 1: you are expecting workers to be triple vaxed. He didn't

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Speaker 1: seem like he was going to budge in that space.

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Speaker 2: So are we now spending money advertising a international person

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Speaker 2: to come here, to tour here and hopefully to work

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Speaker 2: with us, only for them to turn up and say, sorry,

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Speaker 2: you can't get the job with us.

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Speaker 1: This is where we need that certainty, isn't it. You know,

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Speaker 1: like we've got to have those rules in place. There's

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Speaker 1: it's got to be there, clear in black and white,

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Speaker 1: in those Chief Health Officer directions so that people know

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Speaker 1: exactly what they're in for.

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Speaker 2: That's it. And you know, we thought that we were

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Speaker 2: learning to live with it, or that we should be

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Speaker 2: living with it by now, and we do support the vaccine,

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Speaker 2: we do continue to encourage them will be putting out

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Speaker 2: messages into our workforce going forward now, but you know

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Speaker 2: the actual mandate itself may have been past it's use

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Speaker 2: by day.

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Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, it's always good to catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning. Just very quickly, mate,

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Speaker 1: what do you think of these Quantus flights?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Great news. And if we can get not only

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Speaker 2: tourists but some workers on those planes from London coming in,

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Speaker 2: that'd be fantastic.

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Speaker 1: It really would be. Always appreciate your time, Alex. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for having it out with me this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you