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Speaker 1: We've already got a few people messaging through about these

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Speaker 1: digital licenses. So as we know, the government's now making

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Speaker 1: moves to make it more convenient for Territorians to show

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Speaker 1: their ID by establishing digital identification cards that can be

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Speaker 1: stored on a smartphone. So as part of the budget, Gee,

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Speaker 1: the announcements are coming through thick and fast, aren't they.

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Speaker 1: They're going to be investing twenty million dollars to bring

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Speaker 1: digital driver's licenses to Territorians. With digital drivers' licenses to

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Speaker 1: be nationally recognized and it's a trusted option for Territorians

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Speaker 1: looking to put their wallet away, is what the government said. Now.

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Speaker 1: Joining us on the line right now is Alex Bruce,

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Speaker 1: the CEO of Hospitality here in the Northern Territory. Good

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Speaker 1: morning Alex, Good morning Keith. Alex. You and I have

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Speaker 1: spoken about this on numerous occasions. When are we going

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Speaker 1: to go digital? You know, should we go digital? I

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Speaker 1: think for a lot of people, particularly if you've maybe

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Speaker 1: moved from into state or you've traveled into state recently,

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Speaker 1: you know that most other states are already digital.

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Speaker 2: That's it. You know. South Australia New South Wales has

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Speaker 2: got the ball rolling a few years ago. Queensland went

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Speaker 2: full up the option for it end of last year

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Speaker 2: and at the end of this month's Victorians get that

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Speaker 2: opportunity as well. So we hit it from a couple

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Speaker 2: of different angles and BDR secondary. But you know, the

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Speaker 2: first we started experience and it was that tourists from

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Speaker 2: those states were coming up because you know, you can

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Speaker 2: check in for your plane and get on it. You

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Speaker 2: can have booked your accommodation and some of the accommodation

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Speaker 2: houses you can check in without showing your ID when

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Speaker 2: you arrive. Same with the higher car companies. And so

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Speaker 2: the first some of these tourists were finding out, oh, sorry,

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Speaker 2: we still need you to be carrying your hard copy

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Speaker 2: driver's licenses when they tried to buy a bottle of

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Speaker 2: wine for their balcony. So we did raise that issue

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Speaker 2: a couple of years ago and the government changed the

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Speaker 2: legislation enough that we can manually check those digital driver's

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Speaker 2: licenses from other states. Okay, and that's what we're doing

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Speaker 2: at the moment, but ideally in our bottle shops. But

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Speaker 2: ideally we don't want to have to input people's data.

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Speaker 2: Would like a system that can, you know, like when

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Speaker 2: you're paying over your phone just just just buzz. It

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Speaker 2: saves us time, saves the customer time, and obviously a

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Speaker 2: lot safer as well in case there's any errors in

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Speaker 2: us typing out your name and entering it which will

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Speaker 2: then give a false positive.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so from your perspective, I mean, from the perspective

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Speaker 1: of those working in license venues, whether it's a bottle

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Speaker 1: shop or whether it is inside you know, a parable

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Speaker 1: club or any other license venue, will it be an

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Speaker 1: easier process for people to be able to check IDs

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Speaker 1: and then also scan them when it comes to the BDR.

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Speaker 2: Well, the second part we don't know, and we're ten

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Speaker 2: to just work with the government as they look at

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Speaker 2: the different technology that's available, and we're hoping that unlike

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Speaker 2: in previous iterations industry, you know, we're the biggest user.

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Speaker 2: There's foe hundred and fifty thousand ID scans a month

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Speaker 2: through our BDR system, So that's way more than any

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Speaker 2: roadside stops where police have asked for your ID, or

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Speaker 2: even for our late night ven usually you have to

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Speaker 2: produce ID at the door to gain entry, you know.

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Speaker 2: So we just want to be part of the rollout

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Speaker 2: so that any any kinks in the system can be

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Speaker 2: identified and hopefully rectified. But look, Katie, we've just seen it.

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Speaker 2: There's over six million people in New South Wales that

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Speaker 2: have downloaded their driver's licenses onto their apps. Everyone still

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Speaker 2: gets a hard copy. You can choose whether you want

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Speaker 2: to download it or not. You can choose if you

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Speaker 2: just want to keep the hard copy and operating with

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Speaker 2: all your bank cards. But what we are seeing is

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Speaker 2: more and more customers right across all age groups. They're

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Speaker 2: just heading out and about with their smartphones. They're leaving

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Speaker 2: their their hard copy driver's licenses at home, somewhere safe

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Speaker 2: and secure, probably where they're storing their passport, you know,

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Speaker 2: and it becomes one of those documents for them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, from the perspective of of our takeaway out let's

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Speaker 1: in some of the more dangerous situations that they may

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Speaker 1: be under. I guess if somebody doesn't present their ID,

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Speaker 1: or you know, if there's any issues with their ID,

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Speaker 1: could I mean, could it potentially make things safer if

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Speaker 1: the BDR does marry up properly as well, if they're

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Speaker 1: having to reject someone from a sale. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Look, when it comes to the BDR, we've always said,

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Speaker 2: make it better or get rid of it one of

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Speaker 2: the two options, and in making it better, anything that

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Speaker 2: can make it easier further staff and our customers. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: when we're refusing service to someone in a bottle shop,

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Speaker 2: that's when it can get quite aggressive, and that could

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Speaker 2: be because they're intext because they're underage, because they're scanning

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Speaker 2: read on the BDR and now there's that residential clause

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Speaker 2: that's coming in as well. So our preference is always

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Speaker 2: that the computer is saying no, and we can show

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Speaker 2: that to the customer as to why we're rejecting that

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Speaker 2: sail and try to verbally de escalate out of any

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Speaker 2: potentially dangerous situations. So it will help a little bit there,

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Speaker 2: but the bigger benefit when it comes to crime aunty

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Speaker 2: social behaviors. Already you're seeing people go out and about

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Speaker 2: around Darwin later at night just with their phones. Now,

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Speaker 2: look if they're behind the wheel that they're meant to

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Speaker 2: be carrying their driver's licenses, but they don't. And then,

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Speaker 2: as Minister pot I just suggests, if they then decide

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Speaker 2: they might want to go and buy some takeaway alcohol.

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Speaker 2: It's at that point where they're in the bottleshop and

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Speaker 2: they realize, oh, damn it. I've left my my idea

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Speaker 2: at home, so that'll fix all of that. And then,

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Speaker 2: you know, we have had too many incidences of people

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Speaker 2: getting mugged on the streets. And you can pay wave

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Speaker 2: up to you know, one hundred bucks one hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty bucks off off your cards if they can nab

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Speaker 2: your wallet or your purse and they're just using it

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Speaker 2: to buy junk food at the local servos and stuff

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Speaker 2: because they're hungry or whatever. If you're just carrying your

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Speaker 2: smart device, what's the benefit of getting mugged. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's all behind your thumb print or your eye or

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Speaker 2: your pin code. So there is that personal safety perspective,

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Speaker 2: and we have, as we say, we've seen this rolled

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Speaker 2: out in other states. It is optional. I guess that

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Speaker 2: some people think it's the beginning of the end and

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Speaker 2: everything else. You know, we got an update from the

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Speaker 2: Banking Association last week. Cash is nine percent of all

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Speaker 2: transactions and heading towards four percent in the next few years.

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Speaker 2: So we believe that there should be options for both

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Speaker 2: cash and cashless digital and non digital ID verification. If

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Speaker 2: people have an issue with ID verification, then let's just

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Speaker 2: toss the whole BDR system out on its head.

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Speaker 1: So you reckon. I mean the reality of this is that,

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Speaker 1: you know, for those territories that maybe aren't wanting to

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Speaker 1: go digital, they are still actually they're going to still

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Speaker 1: be able to use like the old fashioned or the

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Speaker 1: what we've currently got. Some won't call it old fashioned,

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Speaker 1: but they're still going to be able to pull out

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Speaker 1: their physical license absolutely.

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Speaker 2: Our understanding is like in all the other states that

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Speaker 2: have done that, everyone goes and gets their driver's license

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Speaker 2: or their proof of age card, gets a physical hard

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Speaker 2: copy card and then you can choose whether you want

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Speaker 2: to download the apps or not. Yeah, but we have

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Speaker 2: seen high uptake in other states where people for convenience,

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Speaker 2: you know, the banks are already all on your phone,

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Speaker 2: if you've got center Link, it's on your phone. If

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Speaker 2: you're interacting with many different government agencies already it's on

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Speaker 2: your phone, with the integrated ticketing and different things. So

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Speaker 2: you know, yeah, for a convenience, some people choose that

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Speaker 2: they just want to operate digitally.

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Speaker 1: Now one of the look what the message that is

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Speaker 1: coming through, one of the messages that continues to come through,

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Speaker 1: And we did sort of touch on this already, but

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Speaker 1: people asking can the digital license be scanned by the

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Speaker 1: BDR and by the sounds of it. That is certainly

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Speaker 1: the plan that it's going to get to that point.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. We'd hate to have a situation and you know,

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Speaker 2: we was kicked around last year where you bring up

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Speaker 2: your digital license on your phone, but then you'd hand

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Speaker 2: your phone over to the attendance like you do your

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Speaker 2: hard copy license and the optically scanned and re entered

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Speaker 2: back into the system for the purpose of the check.

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Speaker 2: We know, you know, they don't need to reinvent the

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Speaker 2: wheel here. There's there's off the shelf technology out there

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Speaker 2: that you know, whether it's a bar code scan or

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Speaker 2: like with our fpop machines, it's that pay way technology

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Speaker 2: and know Visa master Card have that we can just

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Speaker 2: you know, pass your thumbprint double scam, those little dongles

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Speaker 2: that you know every second market store markets has now

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Speaker 2: maybe one of those as an at jumped, and we'll

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Speaker 2: still be able to accept the existing hard copy driver's

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Speaker 2: licenses for those that want to present that instead.

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Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, I know that there's lots of people

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Speaker 1: that are going to be really pleased when this does happen.

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Speaker 1: It's still a wall off though, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Look it is, and we're very happy that it is

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Speaker 2: in this year's budget and they're taking steps to move

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Speaker 2: it forward. We think that opens up opportunities for other

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Speaker 2: policy options around the BDA over time as well. But

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Speaker 2: you know, a small jurisdiction. We showed it during COVID

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Speaker 2: when we rolled out the checking app. I'm glad that's

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Speaker 2: gone by the way, but you know, at the time,

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Speaker 2: the community wanted that we can be quite nimble, given

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Speaker 2: how small our population is, to roll out technology, and

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Speaker 2: unfortunately we have found ourselves towards the back of the

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Speaker 2: pack on this one.

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Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, good to speak with you this morning,

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Speaker 1: and we'll no doubt talk to you again very soon.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for your time, KA all the best. Thank you,