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Speaker 1: So as you would have heard a little earlier, we

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Speaker 1: did catch up with the CEO of Tourism Central Australia,

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Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford, and spoke about the impacts of the most

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Speaker 1: recent lockdowns that we've seen around Australia and what that

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Speaker 1: means for us here in the Northern Territory. Joining us

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Speaker 1: on the line right now, Hospitality NT Chief Executive Alex Bruce.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Alex, Good morning, Katie, welcome back.

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Speaker 1: Oh thanks mate, good to be back now. Alex. I

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Speaker 1: know that you and I have spoken on numerous occasions

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Speaker 1: about the impact of the COVID lockdowns around Australia and

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Speaker 1: what it means for us here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: How are things going at the moment?

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Speaker 2: Yep, pretty quiet week, class week, not much to report

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Speaker 2: while you were off air.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, with South.

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Speaker 2: Australia went into lockdown as well. Unfortunately our fair few

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Speaker 2: stories bubbling locally as well. But look all jokes aside,

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Speaker 2: Daniel's writing hit the nail on the head. That drive

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Speaker 2: market's still quite strong and you know, Territorians when they're

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Speaker 2: out and about for the school halliday saw campsites, chokers

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Speaker 2: up and down the track, but the fly drive market

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Speaker 2: and our hotels, particularly in Darwin Analys Springs are half full.

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Speaker 2: Now when you know this time of year, gearing up

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Speaker 2: to cup Carnival and then Darwin Festival, they should be oversubscribed,

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Speaker 2: The should be out one hundred plus percent occupancy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So what kind of impact is it having in

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Speaker 1: terms of the occupancy rates for our hotels.

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Speaker 2: Look, they've dropped off a cliff unfortunately. And when this

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Speaker 2: all happened a week ago, there was probably still a

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Speaker 2: bit of a false positive and that town looked quite busy. Still,

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Speaker 2: everyone's experiences on the highways and doing weekenders out of

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Speaker 2: the watering holes were reporting the same thing. But what

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Speaker 2: we really see now is that it really starts to

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Speaker 2: bite right across tourism and hospitality the longer the lockdown

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Speaker 2: go on. For Pleasingly though it looks like South Australia

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Speaker 2: and Melbourne come out of it tomorrow. Our recent experience

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Speaker 2: following the Brisbane lockdown was that there was a bit

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Speaker 2: of an immediate boost in bookings coming back once our

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Speaker 2: border restrictions lift. So if it's d Day today and

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Speaker 2: we find out whether South Australia and Melbourne get out

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Speaker 2: of their lockdowns tomorrow. We really need to hear from

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Speaker 2: our government locally on what they're thinking about the border

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Speaker 2: restrictions from that point onwards for those two jurisdictions.

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Speaker 1: So really you think that they need to be discussing

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Speaker 1: that sooner rather than later and letting Territorians know exactly

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Speaker 1: what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Oh look, we absolutely understand they're putting the interests of

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Speaker 2: territorian's health first, foremost and last, and that's appropriate and

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Speaker 2: we don't want them to be running the risk of

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Speaker 2: having more lockdowns in the territory either. So we just

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Speaker 2: wait with baited breath to see how quickly after South

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Speaker 2: Australia and Victorian governments give themselves a green light, how

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Speaker 2: quickly we can look to welcoming those.

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Speaker 1: Markets back to now Alex, I know that obviously the

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Speaker 1: hospitality industry is quite a different one to the tourism industry.

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Speaker 1: But when we caught up with Daniel a little bit earlier,

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Speaker 1: he said that he does think it's time for the

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Speaker 1: territory government and also the federal government to maybe look

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Speaker 1: at more targeted assistance. Take a listen to what he

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Speaker 1: had to say.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it certainly needs some form of financial contribution whether

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Speaker 3: that's it's whether that's in a business hardship grant like

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Speaker 3: the INTG as previously provided, or some form of assistance

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Speaker 3: to keep staff on in a job keeper environment. So

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Speaker 3: you know, it's really just getting some of these businesses

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Speaker 3: to the other side of this problem.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that we need to be looking more

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Speaker 1: closely at this type of thing across the board.

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Speaker 2: Look nationally, yes, we do. The impact on tourism and

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Speaker 2: accommodation across the country felt when large states or large

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Speaker 2: cities going to lockdown, not just those contained in the

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Speaker 2: lockdown areas. So you know, it's all well and good

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Speaker 2: that there's support funding from the FED flowing into New

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Speaker 2: South Wales and particularly Sydney now for those businesses and

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Speaker 2: impacted individuals, but right across the network Daniels right, tour

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Speaker 2: operators and accommodation houses just got hit for six as

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Speaker 2: soon as Sydney and Melbourne were taps were turned off

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Speaker 2: to us include and bearing mind that international boarders are

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Speaker 2: still way off in the Nevan ever, like our market

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Speaker 2: just shrinks exponentially, So these decisions that state governments take

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Speaker 2: in the interests of their local health outbreaks just echo

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Speaker 2: throughout the rest of the country, so we do join

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Speaker 2: the National Core for if not Job Keeper, some level

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Speaker 2: of support for particularly tourism and accommodation industries where possible

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Speaker 2: they can keep that connection between the employer and the

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Speaker 2: employee because we know on the other side of this

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Speaker 2: we will have a workforce shortage, especially while those are

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Speaker 2: international borders are restricted, so we want to try and

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Speaker 2: keep as many people in the territory connected to our

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Speaker 2: businesses as possible.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Alex Bruce Hospitality NT CEO. We always, we always

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time, mate. Thank you very much for having

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Speaker 1: your chat with us today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you