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Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.

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Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the Territory Mix

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Speaker 1: one oh four point nine.

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Speaker 2: Over the weekend a big announcement allowing foreign students to

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Speaker 2: work unlimited hours. Previously, as we know, those on student

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Speaker 2: visas could only work a maximum of forty hours a fortnight. However,

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Speaker 2: the Immigration Minister Alex Hawk, on the weekend said that

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Speaker 2: those temporary visa holders could now receive an exemption for

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Speaker 2: tourism and hospitality roles. Now, Alex Bruce joins me on

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Speaker 2: the line. Here is indeed the CEO of Hospitality NT.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alex.

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Speaker 1: Good a Katie, Alex.

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Speaker 2: How big an impact do you think this announcement is

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Speaker 2: going to have on those industries? Well, currently struggling to

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Speaker 2: fill some of these jobs.

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Speaker 1: Oh, look, quite a large one. There are a lot

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Speaker 1: of international students working in hospitality and tourism businesses right

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Speaker 1: across the country right now.

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Speaker 2: So do you have any idea sort of how many

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Speaker 2: students we're talking?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So in the Northern Territory there's just under five

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Speaker 1: thousand international students enrolling courses up here, predominantly in the

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Speaker 1: top end not so many in Central Australia right now,

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Speaker 1: and this assists them as much as it does us.

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Speaker 1: We've been having meetings with some of the education providers

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Speaker 1: around town and the sad story was a lot of

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Speaker 1: those international students are from India and where Mum and

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Speaker 1: Dad Bank were going to be able to support and

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Speaker 1: help them through their time here and studies here. A

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Speaker 1: lot of that's being interrupted right now because of unfortunately

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Speaker 1: how bad the situation is in India. So they want

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Speaker 1: to work, they want to continue their studies. The education

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Speaker 1: providers want them to work more as well. They were

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Speaker 1: putting on soup kitchens up at CDU pretty much and

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Speaker 1: helping these people feed themselves because twenty hours a week

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Speaker 1: in some of these businesses, it's really tough going to

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Speaker 1: to feed clothes, pay your rent, all the rest of us.

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Speaker 1: So this gives them a bit more flexibility to work

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Speaker 1: with us and we think that'll really go a long

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Speaker 1: way in addressing some of those workforce shortages that we've

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Speaker 1: spoken about before.

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Speaker 2: And how is it going to help really, you know,

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Speaker 2: industries like yours, but also the likes of tourism. I

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Speaker 2: know you and I have spoken on so many occasions

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Speaker 2: about the serious worker shortage that we're facing, particularly as

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Speaker 2: the dry season is now upon us.

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Speaker 1: That's it. Winter is coming very good for papers from

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Speaker 1: so I loved it at the beginning of May. And

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Speaker 1: it's true that we know the Cooper Peds as chokers.

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Speaker 1: We know that Alice's chockers. They're on their way up

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Speaker 1: as we speak, you know. And you see that vibrancy

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Speaker 1: around Darwin as well. Now, look, the good thing for

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Speaker 1: us was this was identified nationally, but we had the

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Speaker 1: opportunity through Sam McMahon but also the opposition. We've had

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Speaker 1: a lot of federal politicians up in town in the

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Speaker 1: last two weeks and we very much took a team

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Speaker 1: approach on this one. Nt Government was supportive of our position.

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Speaker 1: Michael Bridge, chair of Jurism NTEE, me and Glenn Daniel

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Speaker 1: down Tourism Central Australia and our operators. This was the

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Speaker 1: number one issue, the only issue that we've been communicating

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Speaker 1: with both sides of Camber's Parliament on and very pleasing

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Speaker 1: to see such a quick turnaround and announcement over the weekend.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and Alex, as you said, though there are

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Speaker 2: some other things that you've been sort of liaising with

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Speaker 2: all tears of government about as well. I know that

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Speaker 2: you and I have spoken before. I've also spoken to

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Speaker 2: the CEO of NT Farmers about the possibility of using

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Speaker 2: bladon Point to quarantine some workers coming across from some

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Speaker 2: of those safe countries. It doesn't look like that's going

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Speaker 2: to happen, or it's sort of the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 2: had said that you know that it's going to be

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Speaker 2: an expensive exercise and that realistically industry would be covering

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Speaker 2: that bill. I mean, does that mean that that idea

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Speaker 2: is sort of dead in the water at these points.

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Speaker 1: No, I wouldn't say dead in the water. It's challenging.

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Speaker 1: And if we look first and foremost locals, and there's

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Speaker 1: that fifteen hundred dollars incentive to get locals that are

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Speaker 1: unemployees working in our industry, or for interstate people to

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Speaker 1: come up to offset some of their travel costs or

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Speaker 1: just push it through to them as a bit of

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Speaker 1: a cash bonus for joining us for a couple of

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Speaker 1: months work. And then we look at the trainees and

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Speaker 1: the apprentices and we're working with government to place those

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Speaker 1: and then you know, this comes in and we can

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Speaker 1: use our international students a little bit more where they

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Speaker 1: want to work a bit more as well. We know

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Speaker 1: we're going to continue to be impacted until international borders resume.

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Speaker 1: We're now hearing today that that's often the never never

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Speaker 1: enter the back end next year, So it is critically

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Speaker 1: important that you know at this stage it won't add

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Speaker 1: that much to this dry season, but we need to

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Speaker 1: get some runs on the board, landing some planes. They

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Speaker 1: quarantine overseas, they get back needed, they come here and

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Speaker 1: they quarantine again. So it's a long process to make

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Speaker 1: sure that everyone's safe. We need to crack the egg

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Speaker 1: this year because otherwise we're going to be severely impacted

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Speaker 1: next dry season as well.

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Speaker 2: Mate, how in terms of this dry season for a start,

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Speaker 2: like when you talk about that worker shortfall, I know

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Speaker 2: that this was good news over the weekend, but are

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Speaker 2: you still going to be short or do you think

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Speaker 2: that you're sort of going to get there?

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Speaker 1: Oh, look, a lot of our operators and their staff

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Speaker 1: they're already telling me, you know, we'll do what we do.

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Speaker 1: We just put our head down, bum up and get

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Speaker 1: through it. But there is things you know in the

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Speaker 1: paper today a discussion about how Dale and Cup weekendidate.

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Speaker 1: We are to find accommodation that's still available, and that

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Speaker 1: is very much true. But if we can get more

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Speaker 1: of our particularly skilled workforce shortages fixed, potentially we can

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Speaker 1: bring more capacity online as well. So you know, it's

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Speaker 1: going to be a COVID affected year for us, it's

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Speaker 1: still very positive. We know that the domestic market of

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Speaker 1: travelers is larger than we've seen in the territory for

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Speaker 1: many years, So it's how best can we capitalize on that,

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Speaker 1: get as much money into people's back pockets and through

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Speaker 1: the local economy, you know. So it's more the opportunity

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Speaker 1: is still there for us to maximize and at this stage,

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Speaker 1: as good as everything is, we're working towards it. But

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Speaker 1: I can't say it's mission accomplished.

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Speaker 2: Just on that. With the hotels that I know that

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Speaker 2: there's quite a few of them obviously that are now

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Speaker 2: back open and running, but quite a few of them

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Speaker 2: are still operating at reduced occupancy, aren't they?

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Speaker 1: Yes, they are, And it's a challenging one and it's

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Speaker 1: commercial confidential material as well, so I have to be

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Speaker 1: a bit careful and they always don't want to be

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Speaker 1: to public about what's going on. But Look, the reality

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Speaker 1: is there are still rooms offline in dal and there

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Speaker 1: are definitely rooms offline in Alice Springs. And that's not

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Speaker 1: at all the criticism of those greater than my members.

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Speaker 1: It's just the reality of lacking some of those housekeeper

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Speaker 1: staff positions, those cooks and chefs skilled positions. But you

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Speaker 1: know they're working very hard. They know the key weekends.

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Speaker 1: There has been a bit of an inter intrastate, intra

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Speaker 1: territory transport where workers from Darwin helped go down with

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Speaker 1: Alice as I understand for Cup weekend departure Mour and

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Speaker 1: hopefully we can see some of that reverse flow towards

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Speaker 1: Darwin Cup weekend and Darwin Festival back up here. So

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Speaker 1: we're going through everything we can and te major events

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Speaker 1: has been very good in that regard, showing us where

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Speaker 1: their key surges are of interstate ticket holders and things

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Speaker 1: like that. So we're trying to match it as an

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Speaker 1: industry as best we can. But I would still ask

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Speaker 1: people to bear with us when they see a busy

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Speaker 1: reception or breakfast buffet.

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Speaker 2: Well. Alex Bruce, the CEO of Hospitality here in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, always good to catch up with you, mate,

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Speaker 2: I really appreciate your time this morning

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Speaker 1: Kiers Katie, thank you