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Speaker 1: A lot of discussion obviously about well about this situation

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Speaker 1: with the lockdown in Brisbane and then these hot spots

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Speaker 1: being declared and what it means. And very often we

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Speaker 1: sort of think about the area that it's impacting, i e.

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Speaker 1: Brisbane and those surrounds, and also are the likes of

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Speaker 1: Byron Bay, particularly in the lead up to the East

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Speaker 1: Long weekend, but it's also going to have an impact

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Speaker 1: on us here in the Northern territory. If there were

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Speaker 1: people planning on traveling to the territory from the likes

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Speaker 1: of Brisbane, well they're probably going to cancel those plans,

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Speaker 1: or if they're already here, they're going to be in isolation.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line, Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce,

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Speaker 1: Good morning.

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Speaker 2: Alex, Good morning Katie Alex.

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Speaker 1: How big an impact is this situation in Brisbane going

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Speaker 1: to have on us here in the territory?

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Speaker 3: Simple answer is we don't know yet. Calling around and

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Speaker 3: speaking to some of the accommodation providers around Darwin yesterday

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Speaker 3: and today, Dave get that we were receiving a lot

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Speaker 3: of calls from yesterday from people from Brisbane with booked

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Speaker 3: accommodation only modest to moderate levels of cancelations if they

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Speaker 3: were immediately caught up with with the border changes and

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Speaker 3: the lockdown in Brisbane, but definitely a lot of calls

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Speaker 3: were made to try and reassure people wait and see

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Speaker 3: how the week eventuates, don't cancel your your book. You're

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Speaker 3: booking in a couple of weeks time potentially hopefully things

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Speaker 3: have calmed down over.

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Speaker 4: There by then.

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Speaker 3: So we think more than just the raw numbers that

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Speaker 3: are only small at this stage of cancelations, it's more

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Speaker 3: this just puts the dampner on tourists thinking about wanting

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Speaker 3: to cross domestic borders. It absolutely kills business traveler market

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Speaker 3: again because no one wants to be on the wrong

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Speaker 3: side of one of these border decisions from their family

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Speaker 3: and their loved ones. So the other the other thing

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Speaker 3: to it is, unfortunately we had Health Minister attend our

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Speaker 3: and your Accommodation General Managers conference a couple of weeks

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Speaker 3: ago and talking about the vaccination roll out plan and

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Speaker 3: the target to get to hopefully that eighty percent of

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Speaker 3: all of us vaccinated by the end of the year,

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Speaker 3: and the question was put to, okay, so if we

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Speaker 3: achieve that goal, a hotspots and these border closure are

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Speaker 3: still going to be a thing, and the Minister wasn't.

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Speaker 4: Able to rule it out. So we're just in a bit.

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Speaker 3: Of an environment again where we're lacking that hope. We

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Speaker 3: don't know when these kinds of things can't keep happening

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Speaker 3: for the foreseeable future, and we have to staff up.

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Speaker 4: We're trying to recruit more people right now.

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Speaker 3: As you know, businesses all of the sunk costs and Brisbane,

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Speaker 3: Sydney and Melbourne, if you can wipe them out, you know,

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Speaker 3: the click of a finger, it just sends us back

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Speaker 3: into particularly in that accommodation and the tour guides and

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Speaker 3: the book product space puts us back into the red

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Speaker 3: very quickly. And now we don't get job job seeker support.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, jee's you know, to put it very bluntly, it's

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Speaker 1: been a shit of a week for you guys.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's only tuesdays and then.

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Speaker 3: I feel like it's one step forward, two steps back unfortunately.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean when you talk about that job, the job

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Speaker 1: keeper payment, obviously that's going to have a big impact.

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Speaker 1: We heard yesterday from the Chief Minister there's still two

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Speaker 1: thousand businesses around seven and a half thousand Territorians that

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Speaker 1: were reliant on that job keeper payment. What are business

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Speaker 1: is saying to you at the moment? Firstly, with that

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Speaker 1: job keeper.

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Speaker 3: Look, a lot of our businesses were already healthily supported

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Speaker 3: by locals, I'll put it that way. And if anything,

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Speaker 3: locals have enjoyed going out, you know, are the Chief

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Speaker 3: Minister decreed that everyone should have more takeaway at the

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Speaker 3: height of the lockdowns and get out and about and

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Speaker 3: see your own backyard. And I think Territorians have done that.

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Speaker 3: So a lot of businesses have recovered. Some of them

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Speaker 3: haven't where they are in missing those business travelers and

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Speaker 3: those international tourists. But what today's shown is unfortunately all

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Speaker 3: of the changes just before Christmas and just after well

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Speaker 3: here we are in Easter, twelve months plus on from

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Speaker 3: COVID being a real thing, and we're still seeing the

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Speaker 3: same response for a handful of cases in populations of

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Speaker 3: two million plus.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Alex, do you think that it's time to

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Speaker 1: forget these border lockdowns?

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Speaker 2: Do we need to look at a new approach?

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Speaker 3: Look? I spoke to the Chief Health Office at Hughhegy

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Speaker 3: last night reiterated he still has our unwavering support. Everything

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Speaker 3: first and foremost is viewed through the health lens, and

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Speaker 3: we appreciate and respect that. But the point I made

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Speaker 3: to him last night was it's not an either all.

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Speaker 3: I feel like we've said this before, but it's health

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Speaker 3: and the economy together jointly. And we do believe now

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Speaker 3: that the MTG the government should be looking at at

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Speaker 3: least if they're going to keep making these decisions for

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Speaker 3: the the benefit of the health of all Territorians, then

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Speaker 3: now that job keepers ended, they should come into the

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Speaker 3: space as a bit of an insurer's last resort, you know,

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Speaker 3: how we meant to continue to run these large accommodation

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Speaker 3: houses and some of those tour operators out there with

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Speaker 3: bookings that can just evaporate overnight without some level of

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Speaker 3: government support a commensurate to those decisions that the territory government,

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Speaker 3: not the Commonwealth government are making.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so tough.

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Speaker 1: You know, we all understand the health implications and we

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Speaker 1: understand the enormous juggle that every state and territory is

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Speaker 1: gone in terms of, you know, making sure that we

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Speaker 1: don't end up a COVID hot spot ourselves. But at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, like you said, we're also

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Speaker 1: trying to juggle business and you know as sectors not

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Speaker 1: only hospitality but also aviation and tourism and others you

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Speaker 1: know that have been had an incredibly tough year and

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Speaker 1: a sort of just getting back on their feet, and

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Speaker 1: then something like this happens, I mean just before an

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Speaker 1: easter long weekend.

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Speaker 2: It's tough.

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Speaker 4: Correct Is this.

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Speaker 3: Going to happen the day before Darwin Cup? You know,

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Speaker 3: that's the real question that with the current settings, no

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Speaker 3: one can clearly give us the certainty and the confidence

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Speaker 3: we need.

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Speaker 4: And you know, I'll go back to it.

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Speaker 3: We're trying to staff up, we're trying to.

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Speaker 4: Imploy employ more.

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Speaker 3: We want locals first, but we'll take anyone of skills

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Speaker 3: across Australia to come and work with us. But how

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Speaker 3: do we invest in our businesses right now when we

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Speaker 3: can just lose so much of our market so quickly.

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Speaker 1: Made if something like this were to happen, I mean

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Speaker 1: before the darw And Cup, the dow And Festival, any

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Speaker 1: of our wonderful events that we have during the dry season,

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Speaker 1: what impact.

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Speaker 2: Would it have?

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Speaker 4: Devastating?

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Speaker 3: But you know, a localized outbreak that's sent us under

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Speaker 3: the dourner for three or five days would be more

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Speaker 3: devastating to more businesses and the community.

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Speaker 4: So we understand the juggling that that.

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Speaker 3: We just think, you know, if the health advice is

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Speaker 3: to continue with hotspot declarations and border closures at a

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Speaker 3: territory government level, what level of support can we look

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Speaker 3: to only for those businesses that are really aggrieved you know,

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Speaker 3: not necessarily your suburban pubs that's chugging along with the

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Speaker 3: support of the locals, but your accommodation providers, your tour

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Speaker 3: operators if they're losing mass bookings. Can we find a

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Speaker 3: way to de risk and ultimately ensure us against some

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Speaker 3: of that. We can't go to the market. You can't.

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Speaker 3: It's not like you can get bushfire or blood or

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Speaker 3: cyclone insurance. The private market will not give us pandemic insurance.

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Speaker 4: So we do think the territory government should look at it.

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Speaker 1: So what would that look like, Alex, Just to make

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Speaker 1: it really clear for our listeners, Essentially, you know, what

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Speaker 1: you're wondering is whether the government can actually ensure businesses

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Speaker 1: if they you know, if they've got to go into

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Speaker 1: a lockdown which is called by the government.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, or even just underpin some of their costs. So

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Speaker 3: you know the booking and cancelation police is pre and

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Speaker 3: post COVID look markedly different. So you know, accommodation pretty

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Speaker 3: much you get your refunding full now if you ring

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Speaker 3: up and you're being affected in your close.

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Speaker 4: But there are those that are.

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Speaker 3: Then having to have the discussion where they're not sure

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Speaker 3: about the borders, so they may have booked and they

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Speaker 3: want to cancel. So what support coming forward if these

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Speaker 3: accommodation places particularly keep having to sink money into their

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Speaker 3: businesses trying to recruit skilled and unskilled workers so that

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Speaker 3: we have the capacity we need to fire up the

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Speaker 3: major events and everything else this drive season. If they

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Speaker 3: lose Sydney Overnight or Melbourne, how do we make sure

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Speaker 3: they're still paying the bills?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's certainly an interesting way of looking at

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Speaker 1: things and something, you know, I think we've got to

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Speaker 1: start thinking a bit outside the box here, Hey, Alex,

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Speaker 1: I know there's a bit of other some other stuff

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Speaker 1: happening for the hospitality sector at the moment.

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Speaker 2: We know that we're heading into a long.

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Speaker 1: Weekend and some of those regulations on Good Friday have changed.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, good outcome and sends outcome, and we think both

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Speaker 3: the Chief Minister and Health and Tourism and Hospitality Minister

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Speaker 3: Natasha Files, both officers were involved. It was going down

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Speaker 3: the path where restaurants and pubs and clubs all had

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Speaker 3: to trade as if they were restaurants on the day,

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Speaker 3: a little bit like in the first stage of COVID reopening,

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Speaker 3: and there was a bit of concern from the pubs

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Speaker 3: and clubs. You know, we wanted the ability for people

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Speaker 3: to come in and watch the sports this AFL for

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Speaker 3: the NRL on potentially have a couple of drinks with mates,

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Speaker 3: but they might not necessarily want to have a meal.

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Speaker 4: And so pleasingly late last.

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Speaker 3: Night we got the advice that the government's with us

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Speaker 3: on that one and they've changed the rules pretty quickly.

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Speaker 3: One of those COVID quick announcements that we like to

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Speaker 3: see and hope long after COVID are seeing quick responsive

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Speaker 3: when they're cutting red tape.

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Speaker 1: You know, yeah, for sure, how are we going there

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Speaker 1: with those IDs? Those interstate IDs, you know when it

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Speaker 1: comes to checking them on the BDR. This is something

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Speaker 1: you and I have spoken about on a few occasions.

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Speaker 3: Katie.

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Speaker 4: You've had another whim.

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Speaker 3: I don't know where your chalkboard is that there's many

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Speaker 3: many callied up there.

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Speaker 2: Now, what's happened if they've sort of it?

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Speaker 3: Yes, So Licensing gave us the advice that we're able

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Speaker 3: to tell industry that you can now manually enter in

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Speaker 3: your digital driver's licenses. And this is for the South

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Speaker 3: Austraians and the new South Welshmen that come up. We

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Speaker 3: know that more states across the country are going to

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Speaker 3: do it and you know, ultimately we do advocate and

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Speaker 3: look forward to when territorians get the benefit of digital IDs.

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Speaker 3: This will fundamentally change the way you're already paying with

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Speaker 3: things on your phone or your watch smart Well, once

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Speaker 3: you don't need to take your driver's license around, you'll

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Speaker 3: leave your wallet.

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Speaker 4: In person home a hell of a lot more.

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Speaker 3: So we're going to see that in the next couple

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Speaker 3: of years. So we've just got the outcome we needed

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Speaker 3: to make sure that when we get those tourists bon

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Speaker 3: A Fight up, we can check they're on the not

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Speaker 3: on the BDR and you know, very very little risk

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Speaker 3: that they ever were going to.

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Speaker 4: Be on the video and we can sell them a

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Speaker 4: bottle of wine.

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Speaker 2: Now, well, I.

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Speaker 1: Like to think that they're wins for common sense, Alex.

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Speaker 4: Common sense Katie, there you.

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Speaker 2: Go, so I like to approach life.

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Speaker 1: Alex Bruce, CEO of Hospitality and T Always good to

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Speaker 1: catch up mate.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for your time this morning.

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Speaker 4: Che's Katie.

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Speaker 2: Thank you,