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Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local

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Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty

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Speaker 1: Every One is Listening Mix one oh four point nine.

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Speaker 2: Well, we have been speaking quite extensively about the critical

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Speaker 2: worker shortage I think you'd say here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 2: not only as we've spoken about for several months in

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Speaker 2: the farming industry, but in hospitality and in tourism. Now,

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Speaker 2: the territory government over the weekend or late on Friday

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Speaker 2: announced a two million dollar critical worker support package which

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Speaker 2: is aimed at attracting hospitality and tourism workers to the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory in an effort to try and alleviate the

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Speaker 2: current pressures around that worker shortfall. Joining us on the

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Speaker 2: line to tell us a little bit more about the situation.

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Speaker 2: Hospitality NTCEO Alex Bruce, Good morning, Alex.

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Speaker 3: Good ay, Katie Alex.

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Speaker 2: This announcement was made late on Friday. Does it go

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Speaker 2: far enough in your opinion?

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Speaker 3: Look, first and foremost, we do need to acknowledge that

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Speaker 3: without international arrivals from COVID safe places for some of

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Speaker 3: our skilled workers, the whole country's got a workforce crisis

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Speaker 3: occurring in hospitality. So we'll still work with the territory

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Speaker 3: government and we've got their support in seeking what we

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Speaker 3: need to get out of Canberra and we're looking forward

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Speaker 3: to working more wisdom on that. But outside of fixing that,

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Speaker 3: both workers and the international students in our sector, then yeah,

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Speaker 3: this package is very good. It allows us to recruit locally,

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Speaker 3: train locally as much as possible and also be more

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Speaker 3: aggressive in targeting interstate workers to come up as well.

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Speaker 2: So how are we going to get these into state

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Speaker 2: workers Alex when there's a shortage all around the nation.

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Speaker 3: Well that's where this package is the best that any

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Speaker 3: state or territory government has put on the table for

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Speaker 3: our sector in support packages put on the table in

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Speaker 3: a lot of other jurisdictions to try and get some

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Speaker 3: of those seasonal workers in agriculture, the fruit pickers and

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Speaker 3: all the rest of it. Nomads in Queensland get money

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Speaker 3: now to drive around just in Queensland and you know,

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Speaker 3: do farms days and help out in the farms and

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Speaker 3: all the rest of it. This is the first one

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Speaker 3: that any government's done for us in our sectors. So

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Speaker 3: we think there's a great lifestyle up here. We are

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Speaker 3: a great industry, very approachable local customers, you know, ninety

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Speaker 3: nine point nine percent of the time are great to

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Speaker 3: interact with as well. So we think that if this

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Speaker 3: can help us put people on plane, maybe pick up

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Speaker 3: some of their accommodation. And we know accommodation in Darwin

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Speaker 3: is an issue. Your text is right on that one.

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Speaker 3: But this package is for all of the territory and

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Speaker 3: a lot of those roadhouses and remote places. Lodging is

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Speaker 3: part of it. Some of the large hotels around town

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Speaker 3: in Darwin, I know, you know, for the key workers

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Speaker 3: that they need, they'll they'll find arrangements to lodge as well.

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Speaker 2: And so alex essentially if anybody or if somebody was

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Speaker 2: to move from into state, they'd be able to take

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Speaker 2: advantage of some of those different incentives.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Glenn from tourism top end, I think he mentioned

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Speaker 3: this to year before. We did seek that, like job Keeper,

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Speaker 3: the support to try and attract these workers come through

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Speaker 3: the businesses. That's the best way, we believe to keep

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Speaker 3: that connection between the business and the employees. So the

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Speaker 3: government listened to that, which is very pleasing. So, yeah,

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Speaker 3: it goes via the business and they can offset costs

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Speaker 3: to market to transport, potentially some accommodation. I really really

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Speaker 3: think their teeth in And you know, we should be

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Speaker 3: trying to when the border with the Hotspots declaration gets lifted,

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Speaker 3: we should be trying to pick the eyes out of

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Speaker 3: perf again right now because pubs can only have twenty

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Speaker 3: people in there.

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Speaker 2: Again, Hey, I do want to in a moment, I

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Speaker 2: am going to play a new advertising campaign that you

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Speaker 2: guys have actually launched. Is well, we'll talk about that

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Speaker 2: in just a moment, but I do want to ask

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Speaker 2: you before I get to that. We've had a couple

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Speaker 2: of people get in contact with us this morning and saying,

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Speaker 2: you know, if one here from Brett, and it says wondering,

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Speaker 2: if the hospitality industry is so desperate for workers, then

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Speaker 2: how come I can't even get a reply with all

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Speaker 2: the cvs I've put in, even with years of experience

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Speaker 2: in both hospitality and entertainment. Is it because I'm fifty

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Speaker 2: six I can run rings around staff a lot? Younger,

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Speaker 2: says Bresh.

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Speaker 3: I'm very happy for Brett and anybody else to send

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Speaker 3: their resumes directly through to our office admin at hospitalityanta

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Speaker 3: dot com dot au. We are aggressively targeting workers of

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Speaker 3: all ages. And I don't need to be derogatory, but

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Speaker 3: great power is part of what we need to achieve

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Speaker 3: this season especially, and we're targeting as many workers. It

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Speaker 3: doesn't matter you know, age, color, creed. We will help

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Speaker 3: you try and find a job. We do need it,

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Speaker 3: so please admin at hospitality int dot com dot au

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Speaker 3: breath flicks it through soon.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and I was going to say, we've got

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Speaker 2: another one here. This one is from a lady who

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Speaker 2: says she's got two small children, but she's got a

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Speaker 2: lot of experience. She said that she's not able to

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Speaker 2: work every night, but she is hoping that she's going

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Speaker 2: to be able to, you know, to get something on

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Speaker 2: a part time basis. And she said that at this

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Speaker 2: point she's sort of been pushed away because she's not

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Speaker 2: able to be available every single night.

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Speaker 3: Look, look, it's difficult because you know, think of a

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Speaker 3: restaurant setting and apart from the breakfast and cafe service,

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Speaker 3: and if you've got young children with school drop offs

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Speaker 3: and all the rest of it, that might not be

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Speaker 3: suitable either. You know, the vast majority of our work

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Speaker 3: in some of our sex there is in that afternoon,

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Speaker 3: evening's night work and it is weekends, and it is

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Speaker 3: public holidays, and it is all those things and all

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Speaker 3: those times that you often have different priorities, including family life.

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Speaker 3: So that is unfortunately part of the parcels of our industry.

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Speaker 3: We are the ones that are open where and everyone

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Speaker 3: else is off partying, and they're the workers that we

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Speaker 3: really need. But as I say, flick it through that

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Speaker 3: there are opportunities. There is day work. It is harder

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Speaker 3: in our industry to find, just given where all of

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Speaker 3: our customers come out after work and come into our venues.

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Speaker 3: But we'll try and see what we can do.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Alex, just very quickly, I know that you'd said

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Speaker 2: previously to me that you would like to still have

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Speaker 2: a situation here where we're able to get some of

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Speaker 2: those international workers here to the Northern Territory. Has there

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Speaker 2: been much of an update in that space.

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Speaker 3: Look, there is a lot of work going on and

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory government is working very hard on it.

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Speaker 3: We're aware. The confirmation that the Todd facility down in

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Speaker 3: our Springs is going to stick around potentially gives us

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Speaker 3: a pathway, along with agriculture and international students, for a

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Speaker 3: quarantining facility capacity down there. We hope to start landing

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Speaker 3: planes in the near future. We've still got to get

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Speaker 3: through all the hurdles both at the territory government level

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Speaker 3: and the Commonwealth level for that. But other jurisdictions, as

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Speaker 3: we've said previously, have been landing planes from Vanuatu that

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Speaker 3: have been arriving in Hobart and up and recently Perth.

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Speaker 3: So they've shown that we can do it and it

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Speaker 3: might be a situation where central Australian industry are the

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Speaker 3: first ones to benefit. But we're still trying to work

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Speaker 3: on capacity in the top end.

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Speaker 2: But in the meantime you are doing everything you can

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Speaker 2: to lure people here from interstate. Let's take a listen

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Speaker 2: to this latest ad campaign. Is it kicking off today?

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Speaker 3: Alex kicked off over the weekends.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's take a listen, Hi, Australia. It's getting

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Speaker 1: busy up north and we need more bartenders, chefs, duty

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Speaker 1: managers and tour guides who love adventure. We need people

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Speaker 1: with as much personality as the great Northern Territory, people

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Speaker 1: who are self motivated, engaging and enjoy a challenge. There's

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Speaker 1: always plenty happening up here, so forget lockdowns come, experience fun,

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Speaker 1: opportunity and even a little cheekiness explore different work here

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Speaker 1: this year.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Alex, how many people are you hoping to recruit

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Speaker 2: from this campaign?

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Speaker 3: Oh? As many as possible. But it's something that we

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Speaker 3: put into market down south. We know that there's a

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Speaker 3: lot of businesses that are advertising direct positions as well,

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Speaker 3: so we're just trying to get down there and promote

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Speaker 3: as much as we can. You know, that great landscape,

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Speaker 3: that great lifestyle. If you're thinking, you know, you've had

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Speaker 3: enough of Melbourne and AFL is not your thing, then

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Speaker 3: there's not much else to look forward to over the

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Speaker 3: next few miserable months down there. So how about you

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Speaker 3: do think about ticking this off your bucket list.

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Speaker 2: I reckon it's a good idea. Let's hope that we

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Speaker 2: do see an increase in the number of workers coming

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Speaker 2: to the Northern Territory and let's hope that they stay.

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Speaker 3: That's it.

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Speaker 2: Good on you, Alex, always good to catch up. Thanks

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Speaker 2: so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: Cheers Katie all today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. That is Alex Bruce. There a Hospitality nt

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Speaker 2: CEO