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Speaker 1: Now, as we know, the vaccine mandate obviously kicked into place,

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Speaker 1: so territory workers, would you to have to have had

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Speaker 1: that vaccine by April twenty two if you're in a

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Speaker 1: high risk workplace or face a five thousand dollars fine.

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Speaker 1: Now we do know at this point in time it

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Speaker 1: is certainly having a you know, it's having a big impact,

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Speaker 1: I think you'd have to say on some industries, and

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Speaker 1: hospitality is one of those industries. Now joining me on

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Speaker 1: the line is the Milestone Group director and also owner

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Speaker 1: of multiple different venues around the territory. Jason Hannah, good

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Speaker 1: morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katy.

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Speaker 1: How are you yeah, really well mate, Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for your time this morning. Jason, how are those in

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Speaker 1: the hospitality industry feeling at the moment around the vaccine

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Speaker 1: mandate for workers?

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean, we've got our existing workforce who obviously

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Speaker 2: had to comply to maintain their job under the mandate,

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Speaker 2: But as that workforce starts to deplete through natural attrition,

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Speaker 2: you know, we've also got a lot of people out there,

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Speaker 2: a lot of locals who aren't quite sure is the

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Speaker 2: mandate still in play? You know, do they have to

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Speaker 2: have three different vaccines and are they able to work

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Speaker 2: right now? So I'm getting a lot of questions from people,

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Speaker 2: and you know, the question is.

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Speaker 1: Do we still need to Well this is I think

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Speaker 1: the thing that a lot of people are asking at

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Speaker 1: this point in time, because it's just US and Western

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Speaker 1: Australia as I understand it, who've got a mandate in

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Speaker 1: place to be triple vaccinated. I know that in a

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Speaker 1: lot of other states there may be the vaccine mandate

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Speaker 1: if you're talking about you know, sort of nurses, those

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Speaker 1: working in aged care and some of those different areas

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Speaker 1: of work. But when it comes to the hospitality industry,

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are questioning, why do

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Speaker 1: you need to be triple vaxed to serve somebody, but

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Speaker 1: not to go in there and eat still have a drink.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look at you know, let's not take

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Speaker 2: it away from from the you know, the enormous job

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Speaker 2: that the government had at a time of such unknown

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Speaker 2: you know, by by enforcing their mandates in the first place,

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Speaker 2: regardless of how you feel about it, at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day, they did what they had to do.

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Speaker 2: But you know, I think why I'm hoping that we've

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Speaker 2: moved past that now, and and look, maybe it's time

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Speaker 2: for to relook at that data and get back to

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Speaker 2: us and go, well, if if your customers are out

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Speaker 2: there amongst us right now and they're unvaccinated, the world

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Speaker 2: hasn't come to an end, our our hospital system isn't

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Speaker 2: completely overrun, then you know, will will the data show

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Speaker 2: that Actually, no, we don't need it for our industry.

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Speaker 2: You know, our customers aren't aren't being forced to be vaccinated.

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Speaker 2: You know there's there. You know, they're amongst us now rubbing,

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Speaker 2: rubbing shoulders, and look, you know these are these are

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Speaker 2: real people as well. These are people who have also

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Speaker 2: been knocked out by the whole process because of their beliefs.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I mean at some states we're going

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Speaker 2: to come together and help them get past it. And listen,

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Speaker 2: some of them just.

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Speaker 1: Want a job, Jason, when you talk about filling some

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Speaker 1: of those different jobs as well, we know that there's

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Speaker 1: a workforce shortage right around the nation, but certainly for

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Speaker 1: us here in the territory, I've seen at different times

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Speaker 1: some of our wonderful businesses have had to close due

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Speaker 1: to not being able to get workers or being struck

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Speaker 1: by COVID.

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Speaker 3: What kind of impact does it have in that space.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it really, you know, I mean we're

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Speaker 2: on a nice edge, you know, like a business is

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Speaker 2: a living ending to so many moving parts, and you know,

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Speaker 2: the last thing that we actually need is not to

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Speaker 2: be able to just provide those basics of service when

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Speaker 2: right now we can't afford to shut for even one day.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're still behind.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Jason, you know, when it comes to your workforce,

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Speaker 1: I know that you always have a really strong contingent

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Speaker 1: of people that you've got there working for you across

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Speaker 1: your various different restaurants. But how hard is that workforce shortage.

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Speaker 3: At this point?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it is. It's very difficult. You know, I've

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Speaker 2: never seen so many, so many fishing rods in the

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Speaker 2: same ponds. You know. Normally, you get someone introduced themselves

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Speaker 2: on social media or through whatever channels, and a few

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Speaker 2: people would would welcome to dar and say, listen, we've

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Speaker 2: got there's a job here, there's a job there. Right now,

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Speaker 2: these poor buggers are just being pounced upon, you know,

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Speaker 2: and you know it's starting to cause a bit of panic,

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Speaker 2: and you know that's not a good thing. Hospitality is

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Speaker 2: about the smile first, and foremost. And you know, when

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Speaker 2: people are short staffed and they're overworked, or you know,

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Speaker 2: or they're they're dealing with disgruntle customers because they're not

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Speaker 2: being able to provide that level of service that they

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Speaker 2: want to be proud of. You know, it really does

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Speaker 2: put some unwanted pressure. So it is time to have

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Speaker 2: a look at It is time to to you know,

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Speaker 2: have these discussions and look, I'm hoping that we can

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Speaker 2: see a favorable ruling. And there's some plenty of people

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Speaker 2: out there who are just itching to get back to work.

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Speaker 2: They want to feed their family as well, you know,

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Speaker 2: they want to regain some sense of normalcy and some

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Speaker 2: sanity in their life. You know. I mean there's plenty

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Speaker 2: of work out there. There's always been more worthy and

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Speaker 2: take a stick at. Yeah, now now there's a loss.

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Speaker 1: There is and you know town is pumping, Like on

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Speaker 1: the weekend, there was people everywhere. How has it been

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Speaker 1: going for you guys, Have you been quite busy?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been great, it's been great. You know, there's

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Speaker 2: a much different demographic out there. You're not seeing as

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Speaker 2: many of those younger bodies down there at the waterfront

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Speaker 2: taking advantage of the free sunshine and the Wi Fi.

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Speaker 2: But we've got some great customers out there. The hotels

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Speaker 2: are full, the restaurants and full, the tour companies are

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Speaker 2: all full. But you know that's all these businesses are

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Speaker 2: screaming out for spare pair of hands. So anything we

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Speaker 2: can do to give a hand, I think, you know, basically,

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Speaker 2: that's what we should.

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Speaker 1: Be doing, just very quickly to finish off when it

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Speaker 1: does come to that vaccine mandate and when you talk

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Speaker 1: about filling some of those jobs, like, have you had

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Speaker 1: many people approach you for a job, whether they're from

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Speaker 1: you know, living here in the territory or whether they're

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Speaker 1: from interstate who've sort of then found out that they

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Speaker 1: need to be triple vexed and then decided not to

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Speaker 1: you know, to come here.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean I've had plenty of people ask

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Speaker 2: that question. They're not quite sure the mandates still in place.

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Speaker 2: And to be honest, you know, up until just recently,

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Speaker 2: you know, I was questioning are they still in place?

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Speaker 2: You know, there's some people out there that want to

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Speaker 2: make a statement, and you know they're still fairly emotional

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Speaker 2: upset about the whole process. But there's some real genuine

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Speaker 2: people out there and you can hear it in their

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Speaker 2: boys that they just need work. You know, they want

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Speaker 2: to get back to it, They want to they want

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Speaker 2: to feed their families. And you know they know that

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Speaker 2: we've got vacancy there, and you know you can you

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Speaker 2: can hear how their flated they are in their voice

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Speaker 2: when when you say, look, unfortunately, no.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it does make it tough.

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Speaker 1: Well. Milestone Group director and of course owner of some

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Speaker 1: of our favorite restaurants around the territory, Jason Hannah always

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Speaker 1: good to speak with you.

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Speaker 3: I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Bettie, thank you,