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Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Everyone is listening to mixed

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Speaker 1: one O four point nine one hundred. Well, we just

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Speaker 1: heard from Greg Island from the Chamber of Commerce that

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Speaker 1: were one of the industry groups calling on the Gunner

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Speaker 1: government to support the opposition's bail amendment bill. We know

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Speaker 1: that didn't happen in Parliament last night. One of the

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Speaker 1: other groups that made the same call was Hospitality and

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Speaker 1: T joining me on the line there Ceo Alex Bruce,

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Speaker 1: Morning Alex, Good morning Maddie, Alex. Similar questions. I guess

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Speaker 1: to what I just asked Greg from the Chamber. It

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Speaker 1: was a big call obviously from both industry groups to

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Speaker 1: ask the government to support oppositions legislation in Parliament last night.

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Speaker 1: Why did you go as far as to make that call?

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Speaker 2: A look, I suppose not dissimilar to Greg. There's just

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Speaker 2: so much frustration out there, particularly in the regional towns

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Speaker 2: and communities, the breakings that are occurring and the youth

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Speaker 2: crime alice springs up right up to Catherine. You know,

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Speaker 2: the businesses are as affected as others in those communities,

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Speaker 2: and we do hear some horror stories of you know,

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Speaker 2: one individual in Catherine potentially going through the revolving door

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Speaker 2: twenty seven times before bail was finally rejected on the

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Speaker 2: twenty eighth time. That's a bit of scuttle, but that's

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Speaker 2: the kind of stuff that we hear from our network,

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Speaker 2: and they are just exhausted, honestly, seeing the same offenders,

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Speaker 2: whether their youth or adults, come into their businesses, find

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Speaker 2: a new way to break in. They spend money fixing

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Speaker 2: it up, and there's the insurance costs and everything else,

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Speaker 2: and then they find another way a few weeks later,

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Speaker 2: the same people to break in slightly different, you know, so,

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Speaker 2: but leaving the politics out of it, you know, it's

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Speaker 2: not our role in any of that, and who's got

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Speaker 2: the better bail reforms, Leave that to the experts. But

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Speaker 2: you know, businesses, the community, we all seem to be

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Speaker 2: saying something similar, which is have a look at some

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Speaker 2: of those bail changes, and it is good that both

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Speaker 2: sides of politics are looking at it for changing in

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Speaker 2: a positive direction.

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Speaker 1: It seems like they both want to move in the

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Speaker 1: same direction. But they've butted heads on this last night.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think that's just the nature of the beasts

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Speaker 2: when it comes to politics, and by no means is

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Speaker 2: this an easy, easy issue either, you know, and there

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Speaker 2: is a lot of views out there, and there's been

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Speaker 2: commissions of inquiry and Royal commissions and everything else. So

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Speaker 2: there is always a bit of a juggling act between

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Speaker 2: the longer term and the short term. But I think

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Speaker 2: it is fair to say that if you look at

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Speaker 2: the stats and the data and how those regional communities

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Speaker 2: particularly are feeling, we are, in Christ's point, we need

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Speaker 2: to make some short, sharp changes.

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Speaker 1: I spoke to Greg before from the Chamber and obviously

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Speaker 1: they represent a wide variety of businesses, but alex and

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Speaker 1: the Hi hospitality industry, are you guys at greater risk

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Speaker 1: when it comes to crime and break ins given that

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Speaker 1: anecdotally we've heard these are often targeting businesses with alcohol.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, and there's definitely an alcohol component to it.

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Speaker 2: But I do want to wave the flag for our guys.

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Speaker 2: We often get targeted as the easy fix, which more

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Speaker 2: or less just slap more rules on the place. There

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Speaker 2: is break ins to access alcohol. But when this was

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Speaker 2: all kicking off down in Alis with the youth crime,

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Speaker 2: particularly from about September last year, I asked some pointed

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Speaker 2: questions to the police and they were quite honest back

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Speaker 2: and they said that the break ins and the antisocial

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Speaker 2: behavior that was spiking in the town wasn't alcohol related

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Speaker 2: at the time. The kids were just smashing windows left,

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Speaker 2: right and center and grabbing candy bars and things, not

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Speaker 2: necessarily alcohol focused at all. With some of the COVID

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Speaker 2: stimulus money drying up, there's probably been some more targeted

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Speaker 2: criminal activity to access alcohol. And that's when our venues

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Speaker 2: then are in the front line and we spend a

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Speaker 2: lot of money. And the government has provided, you know,

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Speaker 2: grants for us to fort Knox. Our premises and pubs

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Speaker 2: and clubs can do it to a better degree than

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Speaker 2: the restaurants and cafes that are in the glass buildings

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Speaker 2: that they are around town, or you know, you think

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Speaker 2: a char and it's in a heritage building that they

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Speaker 2: can't they can't turn that into a bunker. So unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: what is it, two or three times a week it

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Speaker 2: gets broken into and smashed windows, you know, three doors

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Speaker 2: down from the watchhouse.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, very true, alex. I want to bring your attention

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Speaker 1: to just something slightly different, still on alcohol. They will

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Speaker 1: report in the nten US this morning by Matt Cunningham.

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Speaker 1: The headline reads increases in grog related hospital admissions in

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Speaker 1: the top end have cast down on the effectiveness of

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Speaker 1: the anti government's alcohol floor price. What did you make

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Speaker 1: of that report.

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Speaker 2: Today, I've got a top journalism from the other matti.

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Speaker 2: What else do you expect? But look, it does align

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Speaker 2: with what we've been told by our operators, the liquor

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Speaker 2: accords that get all the bottle shops around town together,

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Speaker 2: all of those different forums that I've been participating in

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Speaker 2: for a few years now. From the first of October

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Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, the network was advising that they saw a

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Speaker 2: shift away from cask wine increased to white wine, bottled

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Speaker 2: sales and spirits, particularly Bundy rum. I think the COVID

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Speaker 2: money took that trends that was already there and boosted it.

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Speaker 2: That it was their pre COVID That's our view.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, just finally, Alex, we know job keeper is set

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Speaker 1: to end on Sunday. What kind of effect is this

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Speaker 1: going to have on the hospitality industry.

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Speaker 2: Nationally? Quite devastating, but perversely in a positive way for

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Speaker 2: the territory, hospitality here has recovered better than other parts

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Speaker 2: of the country where they had second and third lockdowns

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Speaker 2: and quite long ones. Down in Melbourne, so there's a

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Speaker 2: lot more hospitality businesses down there that are suffering compared

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Speaker 2: to us up here. It's not all roses. We're still

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Speaker 2: missing international tourists, we're still missing the corporate and business travelers.

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Speaker 2: But you know, a lot of our businesses became job

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Speaker 2: keeper in eligible in the last few months because their

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Speaker 2: turnover had been recovering, and you know that's a good thing.

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Speaker 1: There was a little bit of back and forth and

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Speaker 1: see or he made some comments following that a Current

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Speaker 1: Affairs report on Alice Springs as to what effect that

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Speaker 1: had on some of our hospital tourism businesses. What's that

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Speaker 1: been like from your perspective.

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Speaker 2: I checked with the accommodation providers down in Alice and

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Speaker 2: the message I got was that they could not see

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Speaker 2: any discernible difference in their forward bookings or cancelation rates

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Speaker 2: or anything. But there was some concern that we've got

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Speaker 2: workforce shortages. I know everyone thinks so well, it's the territory,

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Speaker 2: what's new, But they are quite acute across many industries

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Speaker 2: this year because we can't access international or workers as easily.

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Speaker 2: And we do think that the crime and the antisocial

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Speaker 2: behavior stuff and the way it's portrayed just makes it

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Speaker 2: that much more difficult for us to, you know, shout

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Speaker 2: out to Southerners, come join us and look at your

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Speaker 2: amazing lifestyle in our springs, which is a truth. But

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Speaker 2: when they're seeing that stuff on National TV, are they

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Speaker 2: really going to throw the towel in in Melbourne and

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Speaker 2: come up?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough. Alex Brow is the CEO of Hospitality NT.

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Speaker 1: We'll have to leave it them mate. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Cheers Maddie, all the best.

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Speaker 1: Thank you two