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Speaker 1: We are going to head on down now to Central

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Speaker 1: Australia and joining me live on the line from Hospitality

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Speaker 1: NT CEO Alex Bruce.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alex.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. Hello from Funny Elliott.

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Speaker 2: I was going to say where exactly are you.

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Speaker 3: I'm in a little bit of reception this way down.

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Speaker 3: I'll tell you what. We put a bit more reception

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Speaker 3: down our main corridor. We couldn't go Astrow.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well there you go.

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Speaker 1: Well, we're glad that you've got reception right now, Alex. Now,

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Speaker 1: as I understand it, yesterday was the first day that

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Speaker 1: the Liquor Commission sat in Tenant Creek to talk about

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Speaker 1: some of the different issues and some of the concerns

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Speaker 1: around alcohol.

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Speaker 3: That's right, and they ended up concluding it within the day,

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Speaker 3: so there won't be any more sitting days. There's twenty

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Speaker 3: one days of time provided to everyone to give written

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Speaker 3: submissions to the Liquor Commission on what they think about

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Speaker 3: the proposal. There was a very large turnout yesterday, which

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Speaker 3: was good to see. You know, like this is an

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Speaker 3: important issue. I think everyone, regardless of their particular position

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Speaker 3: on some of the things that are being proposed, there's

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Speaker 3: broad acknowledgment. We've got to get together, we've got to

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Speaker 3: sit down and make sure we get it right.

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Speaker 1: So Alex was, I mean, was there more talk and

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Speaker 1: more discussion about the BDR going into different pubs?

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Speaker 3: Look? Look, there was and it was really interesting. And

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Speaker 3: I heard what the leader of the opposition said, and

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Speaker 3: I think the Ministerry Alcohol Policy on another station this

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Speaker 3: morning was trying to say that this had been recommended

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Speaker 3: just for the three areas by police, and it's not

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Speaker 3: quite the case. The submission that went to the Liquor

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Speaker 3: Commission recommended BDR on all on premise throughout the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 3: that is pubs, clubs, restaurants from Darwin all right down

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Speaker 3: to the South Australian border.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 3: So in the Liquor Commission coming to town yesterday, they

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Speaker 3: did hear a lot from local perspectives, not just from

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Speaker 3: the hotels in town, but other community groups and business

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Speaker 3: people that really do want to know why pubs one

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Speaker 3: up here in Eliot that can't and closed at the moment,

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Speaker 3: and the two intenant Creek, why are they being targeted

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Speaker 3: this way? And when you look at their cohort of

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Speaker 3: their customers versus some of the other licensed on premises

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Speaker 3: in town with a different cohort of customers. It really

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Speaker 3: has a stark color contrast.

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Speaker 1: So Alex, can you just repeat that. So was the

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Speaker 1: submission from the Territory Police that every licensed premise have

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Speaker 1: a BDR facility or you have that same register.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think that's their stated position, and yesterday they

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Speaker 3: clarified that given that it was a Barkley region that

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Speaker 3: the Commissioner was looking at, they supported on premise then

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Speaker 3: therefore in all of the Barkley So that's every roadhouse

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Speaker 3: up and down the track, that's Barkley Homestead for all

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Speaker 3: the tourists. What a great welcome front once you've crossed

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Speaker 3: the Queensland border from Cammermel. Welcome to the police state

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Speaker 3: of the Northern Territory. But look, all we say is

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Speaker 3: the BDR that's that got presented yesterday's show. Ninety nine

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Speaker 3: point nine percent of people that are going through bottle

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Speaker 3: shops and scanning their licenses and IDs are getting a

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Speaker 3: green screen legal sale. So you can reasonably suppose that

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Speaker 3: that will be the level of compliance with this if

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Speaker 3: it comes into pubs and clubs. So ninety nine point

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Speaker 3: nine percent of this will all have to go through

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Speaker 3: the marign role. And yesterday it was not made clear

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Speaker 3: whether it's at the door with wristbands that name and

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Speaker 3: shame and or deny entry against potentially your civil rights,

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Speaker 3: or if it's every transaction and we're about to see

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Speaker 3: the death of you know, shouting your mates around the beers,

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Speaker 3: everyone up to the bar, every single license presented for

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Speaker 3: everyone that's going to have a beer and we have

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Speaker 3: to singly scan them. These are all still being worked

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Speaker 3: out on which way they're going to go down here,

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Speaker 3: and we just maintain our call. The BDR is wholly

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Speaker 3: and solely controlled by the Minister. The regulations make it

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Speaker 3: clear which liquor licenses it applies to moments of the

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Speaker 3: bottle shops. We don't think it's right to target certain

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Speaker 3: licenses in certain towns. You do open up the risk

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Speaker 3: of why you're targeting those particular customers. And at the

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Speaker 3: end of the day, I just do want to reiterate,

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Speaker 3: if we don't live this in the butt now, it

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Speaker 3: is coming to a pub and clubs near you, Alex.

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Speaker 1: I mean some people listening right now will be thinking

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Speaker 1: to themselves. The alcohol industry does need to make some

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Speaker 1: changes or maybe further changes do need to be implemented

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Speaker 1: in the likes of Tenant Creek or Central Australia, given

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Speaker 1: some of the issues that they have when it comes.

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Speaker 2: To alcohol abuse. But from what I'm hearing from.

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Speaker 1: You, you know, the thing is here that the industry

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Speaker 1: doesn't have an issue with obviously making sure that that

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Speaker 1: responsible service is happening and that they're trying their best

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Speaker 1: to do the right thing, but they're pretty worried that,

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Speaker 1: you know, that we're going to see the role out

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Speaker 1: of something that impacts absolutely every location potentially absolutely.

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Speaker 3: So yesterday, again, in an average month, you know, there's

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Speaker 3: three three hundred odd BD sale scan and seventeen rejections

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Speaker 3: at the bottle shops in Tenant Creek. So that's the

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Speaker 3: kind of proportion that you're talking about if you roll

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Speaker 3: it out into the on premise locations in that town.

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Speaker 3: There was evidence that you know, Goldfield Hotel as an example,

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Speaker 3: definitely does have a daytime trade similar to the Tenant

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Speaker 3: Creek Hotel, but they also have accommodation and a bistro

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Speaker 3: later on the evening that they open up for their

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Speaker 3: in house guests, and the demographic of their customer almost

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Speaker 3: completely changes and just talking to some of the people

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Speaker 3: that have been going throughout January, the publican has been

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Speaker 3: able to be told we no uncertain terms if this

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Speaker 3: comes in here, but it's not complyingt on the clubs.

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Speaker 3: We'll just go to the Memo club up the road.

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Speaker 3: We're not going to go through this extra impost when

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Speaker 3: we're not the people that should be targeted. The other

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Speaker 3: interesting thing yesterday was police indicated from a small sample size,

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Speaker 3: fifty percent of the secondary supply they believe is coming

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Speaker 3: from interstate or elsewhere, not from the premises in town,

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Speaker 3: so we think it's tip of the iceberg stuff. There

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Speaker 3: was testimony that four Leader Cast winds are still being

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Speaker 3: picked up by the rubbish contacts cleaners for the council

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Speaker 3: in the town now. Four Leader Cast coints have not

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Speaker 3: been legally sold in the territory and definitely set up

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Speaker 3: through Australia for a long long time. So we fully

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Speaker 3: support more targeted approaches for secondary supply. We do think that,

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Speaker 3: you know, police, they do do a good job. They

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Speaker 3: are stretched very thin right now because of COVID and

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Speaker 3: everything else, and we appreciate that and we're not here

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Speaker 3: to make trouble for them, but we wonder why the

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Speaker 3: knee jerk reaction is to push the BDA on premise

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Speaker 3: and impact ninety nine point nine percent of us.

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Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce, certainly something that a lot of people

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Speaker 1: will be talking about, no doubt over the coming days

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Speaker 1: and particularly you know, I know that you've said obviously

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Speaker 1: this is intenant Creek at the moment, but the concern

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Speaker 1: from hospitality is that this could be you know, far ranging.

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Speaker 1: I guess you'd say so, right across the territory potentially,

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Speaker 1: and that's a big concern from hospitality right now.

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Speaker 3: Oh that's it. You look at the role out of

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Speaker 3: the palis which does have strong community support in regional

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Speaker 3: and northern territory. It's still a divisive policy, but it's

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Speaker 3: largely supported and we understand that that's starting in Alice

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Speaker 3: Springs and very quickly spread. Let's not get ourselves. The

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Speaker 3: intent here is for BDR in regional Northern Territory on PREMI.

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Speaker 2: Well, I reckon. We'll be talking more about this throughout

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Speaker 2: the week.

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Speaker 1: Alex Bruce, Hospitality NTCEEO always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having a chat with us live from Elliott today.

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Speaker 3: Katie, thank you