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Speaker 1: Now from Dave Malone, We're going to be heading across

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Speaker 1: right now to the sea of hospitality here in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Alex Bruce, good morning to you, Alex, yet

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Speaker 1: a Katie, Alex, A busy morning. How did that mandate

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Speaker 1: roll out go on the weekend? From the hospitality perspective.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, similar to Dave's comments, some businesses are reporting that

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Speaker 2: they were fully vaccinated right up through till about seven

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Speaker 2: and a half percent, a little bit more as your

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Speaker 2: head down the track into the rural area. So the

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Speaker 2: vast majority of our sector looks like it's zero to

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Speaker 2: five percent impacted.

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Speaker 1: Is that a surprise for you or is that aroundabout

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Speaker 1: where you thought it would land.

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Speaker 2: Look, we'd spoken about up to eight percent when workers

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Speaker 2: were telling their bosses they weren't going to be going

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Speaker 2: to get the vax. But I suppose as the deadline

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Speaker 2: loomed and you know, they had to make the call

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Speaker 2: that was forced upon them, do they keep paying their

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Speaker 2: bills and keeping the lights on? It had its stated

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Speaker 2: in policy intent, and those people went and got vacked.

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Speaker 1: And Alex, have you seen much in the way of

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Speaker 1: you know, any of the hospitality businesses close or anything

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Speaker 1: like that as a result of the vaccine mandate.

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Speaker 2: Not closing, but definitely hearing owner operators more hours, more

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Speaker 2: hours for the key staff that are vaxed that are

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Speaker 2: still with them, so you know they're just knuckling down

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Speaker 2: trying to get through it. We do already have that

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Speaker 2: workforce shortage that's going to continue into next year until

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Speaker 2: those national and international borders normalized. So that is one

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Speaker 2: message we're hearing. Now. Okay, we've rolled up our sleeves.

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Speaker 2: We did what we should do, and the community and

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Speaker 2: government wanted of us. How quickly can we get these

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Speaker 2: borders moving? Queensland today's moving to home quarantine within twenty

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Speaker 2: four hours, And you think of the size of their state,

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Speaker 2: you wonder why we need twenty eight days to pilot

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Speaker 2: it for one hundred Really, how is thatening to a

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Speaker 2: replication cycle? Just where you should have been? You know,

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Speaker 2: this is nothing new. We've been dealing with this for

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Speaker 2: nineteen months. Why do we just continually face delays compared

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Speaker 2: to other parts of the country.

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Speaker 1: Alex Are we at that point now realistically where this

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Speaker 1: mandate's kicked in, the majority of Territorians have done the

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Speaker 1: right thing and gone and gotten vaccinated. As you've said,

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Speaker 1: there Queensland home quarantine going live in twenty four hours

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Speaker 1: here in the territory, though we are waiting those twenty

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Speaker 1: eight days. Have we reached the point where we really

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Speaker 1: just need to bite the bullet and go do you

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Speaker 1: know what we're opening up?

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Speaker 2: I think we're reaching a tipping point where working territorius,

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Speaker 2: Territorians that have missed their family into state and overseas

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Speaker 2: that have rolled up their sleeve are vaccinated, want their

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Speaker 2: freedom of movement back, and they're questioning why they're getting

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Speaker 2: held back longer when you look across the country and

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Speaker 2: you compare life for.

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Speaker 1: Like Alex just back on the vaccine mandate, and I

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Speaker 1: know that obviously over the weekend and I said the

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Speaker 1: same to Dave Malone, there was conjecture over the fact

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Speaker 1: that it's public servants or refused to get the vaccine,

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Speaker 1: whether they'd be stood down with full pay, whether they'd

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Speaker 1: be stood down without being paid. My understanding is that

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Speaker 1: there is that forty eight hour grace period. How did

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Speaker 1: that make business, the business sector feel, or the hospitality sector,

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Speaker 1: I should say feel, when you guys were scrambling to

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Speaker 1: try to make sure that everybody was vaccinated or certainly

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Speaker 1: making alternative plans.

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Speaker 2: A look, when it started to whip around on Friday days, right,

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Speaker 2: it absolutely went down like a ton of bricks. But

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Speaker 2: I think the government's being clearer in its messaging, and

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Speaker 2: definitely the Chief has we wouldn't have we were told

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Speaker 2: there were no grace periods and all of the necessary

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Speaker 2: legal processes and all the rest of it that the

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Speaker 2: government's putting out. Now, we had to have that completely

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Speaker 2: done in small businesses by Friday, and that's what we've

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Speaker 2: been working hard to achieve. So any grace period that's

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Speaker 2: just one sector. The specific you do wonder as you're

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Speaker 2: sitting on the other side of it, going why are

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Speaker 2: we putting all this work in? But you know, we

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Speaker 2: take the government on good faith they're enforcing the mandate

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Speaker 2: too very quickly. If sectors are getting exempted, the whole

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Speaker 2: mandatory nature of this thing I think will start to

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Speaker 2: fall fall apart.

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Speaker 1: Alex All in all, how would you say you know

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Speaker 1: that the mandate being rollout's sort of been received? Was there?

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Speaker 1: You know, were you expecting it to be a little

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Speaker 1: bit more I guess, you know, a bit more pushback

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Speaker 1: than what there was in the end.

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Speaker 2: Not necessarily, and you know, we do appreciate that people

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Speaker 2: have done this at risk of losing their livelihoods that

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Speaker 2: they otherwise might not have. And that's not to label

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Speaker 2: them anti vaxes or all the rest of it. You know,

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Speaker 2: there's just been so much information from multiple sources, you know,

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Speaker 2: social media and all the rest of it, and not

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Speaker 2: all of it's been particularly helpful in driving up the

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Speaker 2: vax rates up here. Promises to keep the board of

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Speaker 2: closed forever don't help drive the vax rate up here either,

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Speaker 2: especially in the non workforce population. So you know, we've

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Speaker 2: done our bit, we've complied, we support it, We've encouraged

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Speaker 2: everyone to get the vax at the earliest, earliest available opportunity.

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Speaker 2: But going forward, when we get to whatever level that

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Speaker 2: health deems safe up here, that should be similar to

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Speaker 2: the rest of the country. I've got to hasten to add.

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Speaker 2: We need the mandate removed from workforce and employment at

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Speaker 2: laws and policy. You look at New South Wales at

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Speaker 2: the moment they're saying fifteenth to December they're mandate for

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Speaker 2: customers and workers in our industry lists because they're going

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Speaker 2: to be at that ninety five percent level. So at

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Speaker 2: what level do we get this back to back out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good question and one which I reckon we haven't

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Speaker 1: sort of started to have yet at this point. Hey, Alex,

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Speaker 1: before I let you go with those borders, mate, when

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Speaker 1: do you think they need to open? And what do

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Speaker 1: you reckon we need to do. Does the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: really need to push forward with the rest of the country.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, we question why we're being held back. Processes are

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Speaker 2: being tested. I would have thought hopefully that testing was

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Speaker 2: well in trained well before now, like it seems to

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Speaker 2: be in other parts of the country. We need the

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Speaker 2: government to come out and if it's the eighteenth of January,

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Speaker 2: it's the eighteenth of January, remove the asterisk from it.

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Speaker 2: Tell us when we're going to get quarantine free travel,

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Speaker 2: and ideally we'd like it before Christmas.

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Speaker 1: Well, Alex Bruce the sea of hospitality here in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory, Thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Cheers. Katie Autibeth, Thank you,