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Speaker 1: So we're gonna head on over and catch up with

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Speaker 1: Alex Spruce right now from hospitality into Good morning to you, Alex,

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you apparently so mate, I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: what's going on. We've all lost the plot a little

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Speaker 1: bit today, Alex. I'm trying trying my best to regain.

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Speaker 2: Composion yesterday, and.

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Speaker 3: I reckon it might be now. Alex.

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Speaker 1: We know that while we may be feeling a bit

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Speaker 1: chaotic yesterday due to that power outage well in Alice Spring.

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Speaker 1: She'd have to say that by the sounds of it

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Speaker 1: from Robin Lamley earlier this morning, she says, it's been

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Speaker 1: an absolute mauzle when you talk about the way in

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Speaker 1: which the evacuees or they're not evacuees, but the way

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Speaker 1: in which the people who were traveling from Alice Springs,

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Speaker 1: South Australia to Alice Springs have been dealt with.

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Speaker 3: There has been.

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Speaker 1: Discussion, obviously from the Health Minister saying that there was

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Speaker 1: some hotels that reneged on the agreement that they would

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Speaker 1: take some of those some of those people that needed

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Speaker 1: to go into quarantine.

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Speaker 3: From your perspective, has that been the case?

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Speaker 2: Simply put, I'd say no, I don't think that's a

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Speaker 2: fair representation. I've spent the last twenty four hours talking

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Speaker 2: with the operators down in Alice to try and get

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Speaker 2: a sense of what went wrong and where and why

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Speaker 2: and who and in all of these situations, you know,

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Speaker 2: very quickly, Unfortunately it can descend into don't look at me,

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Speaker 2: point finger over there in some of the agency lands.

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Speaker 2: But anyway, I'd just cut through all of that and

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Speaker 2: say I spoke to the Police Commissioner last night and

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Speaker 2: the Health Minister's office. There is broad support to sit

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Speaker 2: down and make sure we do do better going forward.

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Speaker 2: We don't think that there were a conversations that we

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Speaker 2: had and then literally tumbleweeds for the last three months

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Speaker 2: until forty eight hours ago. Okay, we're ready to go.

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Speaker 2: Can we go now please? That's probably not the best

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Speaker 2: way to deal with any surge capacity requirements were this

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Speaker 2: event to happen again. So cop it on the chin. Collectively,

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Speaker 2: we'll look to work together with the government as we

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Speaker 2: have and the language that we found we called out

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Speaker 2: yesterday if we weren't particularly comfortable with what we do

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Speaker 2: think is more of an aberration than what the strong

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Speaker 2: level of engagement within getting from health and police has

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Speaker 2: been up until.

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Speaker 1: Now well, and I would imagine Alex that you know,

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Speaker 1: for some of these businesses, they may have been concerned

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Speaker 1: about taking you know, some of these territorians and having

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Speaker 1: them quarantine there if they weren't as prepared as they'd

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Speaker 1: like to be.

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Speaker 2: My understanding there was no contracts signed that said, Okay,

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Speaker 2: this will be the way the government notifies when they're

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Speaker 2: going to come into your venue. This is what the

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Speaker 2: venue is expected to achieve. This is then your plans

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Speaker 2: for what the staffing would look like, because bearing in mind,

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Speaker 2: you don't want the same housekeeper trolley going from your

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Speaker 2: normal guest areas to the COVID quarantining areas and back again.

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Speaker 2: This is the ppe that will be on site for

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Speaker 2: all of that. So my understanding, as far as I've

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Speaker 2: been able to tease it out, is that there were

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Speaker 2: conversations and there may even have been some email chains

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Speaker 2: floating around, particularly the day that you know, the facility

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Speaker 2: down there and the surge capacity in the town that

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Speaker 2: was properly stood up was overrun that we don't think

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Speaker 2: of the fair assessment to say that there were deals

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Speaker 2: for NEGGED when ultimately the decisions in those businesses, to

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Speaker 2: protect their other guests, to protect their staff, those staff, family,

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Speaker 2: the community of Alice Springs. You know, we want to

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Speaker 2: do it well, we want to do it right. We

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Speaker 2: all learned the lesson again from Adelaide. Unfortunately, if this

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Speaker 2: goes wrong, it can have massive costs and impediments on

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Speaker 2: the whole unity. So let's make sure we've got the

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Speaker 2: protocols where we need them to be.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that was actually what I thought when i'd sort

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Speaker 1: of you know, when I had heard about it yesterday,

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Speaker 1: and the first I heard was with the minister Kate Warden.

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Speaker 3: Take a listen to what she'd said to us yesterday

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Speaker 3: on air.

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Speaker 4: The Aurora is one of the other locations and Ross Street,

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Speaker 4: they were both in our contingency plans. I know that

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Speaker 4: there were two others, Katie, that had agreed but at

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Speaker 4: the last moment changed their minds, which was very disappointing.

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Speaker 1: So I guess, you know, for me, when I heard that,

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Speaker 1: I thought to myself, full unless you kind of had it.

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Speaker 1: And I know we're talking COVID here, so it's really

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Speaker 1: hard for people to get advanced notice as to whether

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Speaker 1: they're going to need to house people in their facilities.

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Speaker 1: But you know, for me, I thought about it and

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Speaker 1: thought if I was a business who was concerned that

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Speaker 1: I maybe wasn't as prepared as I'd like to be,

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Speaker 1: my immediate reaction would be making sure that my staff

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Speaker 1: was safe and that anybody else who was staying in

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Speaker 1: my facility was safe as well.

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Speaker 2: That's it want to one of the properties that is

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Speaker 2: being alluded to, But we're not really keen on participating

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Speaker 2: in any scapegoating or name or shame ceremony. My understanding

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Speaker 2: is at time of full lockdown was the last time

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Speaker 2: they had a discussion, and in the event, if we

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Speaker 2: needed more capacity, could we come talk to you. That

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Speaker 2: in no way is an ironclad agreement, But leaving that aside,

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Speaker 2: I would have thought you'd want protocols there are a

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Speaker 2: lot more robust than that, so that health does get

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Speaker 2: the certainty it needs about what capacity is out there,

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Speaker 2: what are the triggerable events when it can be turned on,

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Speaker 2: and those businesses can entirely incorporate that into all of

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Speaker 2: their staffing and management profiles as well to keep us

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Speaker 2: all safe. And that's the outcome that we're after here.

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Speaker 1: And so our hospitality businesses and also the government now

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Speaker 1: working towards making sure that there are those adequate plans

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Speaker 1: in place.

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Speaker 2: Look, I had really positive engagement with the Police Commissioner

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Speaker 2: last night and the Health Minister's office, and that is

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Speaker 2: not uncommon. There has always been a strong level of dialogue,

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Speaker 2: especially since we went through the reopenings and you know,

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Speaker 2: being able to pour some of the first beers in

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Speaker 2: the country again and all the excitement around that. So

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Speaker 2: that's why we would say that we don't think the

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Speaker 2: last day has been particularly helpful in the language from

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Speaker 2: some of the government representatives, but overall we do acknowledge

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Speaker 2: that we've had strong engagement as an industry and that's

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Speaker 2: why we were probably a little bit surprised yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Alex, talking of surprises, let's have a bit of a

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Speaker 1: discussion about the power out each that did happen yesterday.

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Speaker 1: What's been the reaction from hospitality businesses around the top end?

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Speaker 3: How badly would they impact it.

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Speaker 2: So the city barber understands still maintained power, which was good.

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Speaker 2: Some of the accommodation facilities in town were affected, others weren't.

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Speaker 2: So anyone that's still had the air cons and the

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Speaker 2: cold beers pouring probably did a little bit better last

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Speaker 2: night than they otherwise would have. Ye, Fanny Day had

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Speaker 2: power the whole time. I'm aware that the clubs down

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Speaker 2: there were fielding calls pretty much immediately from the power

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Speaker 2: out it are you still on excellent? You know you

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Speaker 2: can't cook at home, so I'm going to get out.

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Speaker 2: So it was very split. Bottle shops as far out

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Speaker 2: as Palmerston were refusing sales and turning people away because

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Speaker 2: the BDR system went down alongside a lot of the

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Speaker 2: POTS systems. I swung path perhap cabinet at one point

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Speaker 2: and it was completely dark and they couldn't open their tills,

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Speaker 2: so there wasn't much trade and activity going on there.

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Speaker 2: So I suppose we're just comfortable that the power did

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Speaker 2: come on, or happy that the power came on as

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Speaker 2: quickly as it did and we're not still dealing with

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Speaker 2: a dark day today.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, that is for sure.

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Speaker 1: We are glad that the power is back on eve

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Speaker 1: And it sounds like it was quite a varied sort

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Speaker 1: of situation with the hospitality industry.

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Speaker 2: Correct.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Alex Bruce see of Hospitality NT. We always

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time, mate, Thanks so much for having your

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Speaker 1: chat with us.

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Speaker 3: Thank you