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Speaker 1: We know. The new Designated Area Migration Agreement has been

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Speaker 1: secured for the Northern Territory. It's aimed to help businesses

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Speaker 1: recruit and retain workers for roles in high demand. It's

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Speaker 1: been expanded from one hundred and thirty five occupations to

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Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty five across industries where there are

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Speaker 1: critical workforce shortages. With the agreement in place now until

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Speaker 1: twenty thirty, The new DAMA allows for up to fifteen

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Speaker 1: hundred approved nominations per year for overseas workers on skilled visas,

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Speaker 1: up from the previous six hundred and twenty five under

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Speaker 1: the last agreement. Now joining me in the studio is

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Speaker 1: Hospitality and To CEO Kathy Simmons. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining me in the studio. Now, Kathy,

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Speaker 1: what does this agreement mean for the industry in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: It's a really fantastic result. This is a really fantastic result.

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Speaker 2: The territory economy really depends on skilled migrants, especially ones

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Speaker 2: that come here and stay here for multiple years like

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Speaker 2: they do under the DAMA.

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Speaker 1: This is really exciting now in terms of our workforce

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Speaker 1: shortages in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: At the moment.

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Speaker 1: How are things going.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's obviously, you know, it's definitely a struggle. We've

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Speaker 2: seen that. You know, population growth here in the territory

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Speaker 2: is flat, Migration here is flat, despite agreements like the

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Speaker 2: DARMA kind of bringing people here. And that's why, you know,

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Speaker 2: everyone really should be over the moon. Everyone who's interested

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Speaker 2: in the territory economy and seeing it improve should be

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Speaker 2: really over the moon that this agreement has so many

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Speaker 2: more visas coming to the territory every year.

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Speaker 1: In a like, I guess in a real practical sense

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Speaker 1: for you know, for some of our hospitality businesses, what

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Speaker 1: has it meant, you know, not knowing exactly what the

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Speaker 1: next DARMA is going to be or when it was

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Speaker 1: the you know, six hundred and six hundred odd, what

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Speaker 1: does it meant for some of those businesses in terms

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Speaker 1: of trying to staff their rosters and make sure they've

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Speaker 1: got enough stuff on board to be able to do

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Speaker 1: the jobs that they need.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's quite a backlog. Think for the

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Speaker 2: departments who process these applications. As soon as applications reopen,

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Speaker 2: which should be the thirty first of March, they'll they'll

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Speaker 2: definitely have a lot of work to start with from

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Speaker 2: the get go. It's really important. We've got a lot

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Speaker 2: of we attracked a lot of cooks, chefs, venue managers

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Speaker 2: to the territory who people who come here to Australia,

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Speaker 2: you know, wanting the Australian lifestyle and then they find it,

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Speaker 2: you know, in spades. Dar and getting people here and

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Speaker 2: keeping them here is really the really key. It's it's

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Speaker 2: been quite a paddic attack for for certainly the hospitality industry,

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Speaker 2: building as well, Construction master Builders has been really strong

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Speaker 2: on this as well. The Chamber of Commerce has had

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Speaker 2: a great role in this as well. Yeah, we've all

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Speaker 2: had a massive panic attack for the last couple of months.

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Speaker 2: But it's it's this is this is an excellent result. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's the way.

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Speaker 1: Is it better than what you had expected that it

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Speaker 1: was going to be in terms of the numbers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean when we saw there was a delay,

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Speaker 2: I think we were kind of hoping we'll just put

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Speaker 2: back what we had before. And you know, as long

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Speaker 2: as we've got something like that's you know, we really

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Speaker 2: need it back through because it really does that the

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Speaker 2: terms of it this agreement, specifically for the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: really encourage you know, people who want to work in

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Speaker 2: Australia to really want to work in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: and like that's what we really need. Yeah, yeah, no,

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Speaker 2: this is this is wildly it's more than twice as

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Speaker 2: many visus as before, from six twenty five a year

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Speaker 2: to fifteen hundred, seventeen sorry, seventy five hundred more skilled

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Speaker 2: migrants in the Northern Territory over the next five years.

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Speaker 2: I think with a really good marketing campaign in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne,

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Speaker 2: working holiday makers who are already here, who could be

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Speaker 2: shown this lifestyle that we've got here in the territory,

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Speaker 2: come here, stay here for two years and get fast

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Speaker 2: tracked to permanent residency and consider living in the territory.

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Speaker 2: This we can fill those seventy five.

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Speaker 1: Because it's always an interesting discussion, I reckon wherever we

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Speaker 1: talk about this kind of thing, people go, why don't

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Speaker 1: we have locals doing the jobs? And you know, why

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Speaker 1: don't we have Ossie's doing those jobs? But the fact is,

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Speaker 1: you know, we actually, like we are reliant on the

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Speaker 1: international workforce in a lot of ways. When it comes

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Speaker 1: to an industry like hospitality, I mean you'd spoken about

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Speaker 1: even the building industry and others, but certainly in hospital

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Speaker 1: and I reckon we saw that enormously throughout COVID, right,

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Speaker 1: Like we went from you know, having plenty of staff

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Speaker 1: to then going, goodness me, We're like, how do we

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Speaker 1: even operate at the moment without those international stuff? So,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think it's always really interesting.

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Speaker 2: One.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure we'd love to have locals be able to

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Speaker 1: fill those jobs, but the fact is we sort of

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Speaker 1: can't rely on it.

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Speaker 2: Well, we just don't have enough locals to fill the jobs.

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Speaker 2: You know, every These are all skilled jobs that we're

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Speaker 2: talking about here as well, and you know CityU runs

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Speaker 2: hospitality courses, certificates and other courses in hospitality and they're

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Speaker 2: all full, you know, in commercial cookery and things like,

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Speaker 2: they're full. There's a lot of demand for that here

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Speaker 2: locally at the training institutes here in the territory. And

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Speaker 2: if we were to attract Australians to fill these jobs,

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Speaker 2: like we'd still have to do the marketing campaign down

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Speaker 2: south to try and get people here. And that's the case,

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Speaker 2: you know, we already do that as well. This is

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Speaker 2: this extra incentive, you know, Australians are here, and they're

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Speaker 2: already here. They're already citizens, are already permanent residents. This

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Speaker 2: is something extra for skilled migrants who wants that Australian

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Speaker 2: lifestyle and we can give it to them.

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Speaker 1: Kathy, what roles most like in most demand at the

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Speaker 1: moment when it comes to hospitality.

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Speaker 2: It's definitely the ones in demand are the ones that

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Speaker 2: combine the qualification with you know, years of experience as

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Speaker 2: a real value. You know, there's no experience like working

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Speaker 2: on the job, so chefs, cooks, venue managers. Yesterday I

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Speaker 2: went and had a bit of a chat to Samula

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Speaker 2: at the who's the executive chef at Double Tree by

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Speaker 2: Hilton and the Hilton Garden Inn, and also Carmen here

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Speaker 2: who is the venue manager down at Wharf One. It's

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Speaker 2: so good to hear their stories and see why they've

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Speaker 2: chosen Darwin. And the consistent thing coming through with other

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Speaker 2: DARMA applicants and visa holders is that they've already chosen

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Speaker 2: Australia and now they've only just learned about Darwin and

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Speaker 2: gone like this is amazing. What did anyone tell me

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Speaker 2: about Darwin? Because it's great to hear.

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Speaker 1: And that's what you want, right like, you want those

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Speaker 1: success stories. You want people that want to stay here,

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Speaker 1: that want to make a life of it and can

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Speaker 1: see the opportunities that we've got in the end, When

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Speaker 1: do you anticipate that we're going to start to see

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Speaker 1: some of those workers flow into the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: I mean, as with any migration, it does take time.

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Speaker 2: So some of them will kind of already be here

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Speaker 2: and it's just a matter of transitioning them to this

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Speaker 2: alternative visa. Some will be down south waiting to see

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Speaker 2: if the darma happens again, and then they'll hopefully they

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Speaker 2: come here soon from like go to Woh's. It can

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Speaker 2: be as short as sort of four to six weeks

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Speaker 2: for an application to be trained, really quick, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: That's really quick by our government standards for sure, for

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Speaker 2: any application. So that's you know, hopefully we start seeing

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Speaker 2: people really quick, you know, for hospitality particularly, we've got

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Speaker 2: the dry season. It's really exciting, really busy, and we

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Speaker 2: really needed to start getting some people in here yesterday.

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Speaker 1: So do you have any idea of exactly how many

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Speaker 1: we need for the Northern Territory right now?

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Speaker 2: It's hard to say because each individual is different, and

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Speaker 2: they kind of choose to come and stay or you

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Speaker 2: choose to come and stay for a bit and then leave.

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Speaker 2: We have a lot not just the hospitality, not just building,

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Speaker 2: and not just migrants. We have a lot of people

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Speaker 2: who choose to come here for a six month job

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Speaker 2: and then stay for the next twenty years. I'm an

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Speaker 2: example of that. I came here for a six month

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Speaker 2: job and three weeks in I was telling people, I'm

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Speaker 2: going to be here for the next twenty years.

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Speaker 1: I reckon, It's like, there is so many people like that.

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Speaker 1: All you've got to do is go for you know,

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Speaker 1: a walk around, have a bit of a chat to people.

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Speaker 1: I think we're all kind of in that situation, right.

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Speaker 1: I did that about twenty two years ago as well.

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Speaker 1: And you're just like, it's a wonderful place. It is

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Speaker 1: such like there's so many opportunities for people. And if

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Speaker 1: you can sell that and people realize once they spend

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Speaker 1: a bit of time here, you know, hopefully they stay.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. And when you talk to people who have

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Speaker 2: chosen the territory as a place to live, you know,

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Speaker 2: I keep saying, Darwin, but you know, all across the

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Speaker 2: territory and you know down the track as well. It's

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Speaker 2: really exciting talking to people and you really kind of

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Speaker 2: cherish the things that you chose about the place as well,

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Speaker 2: or what made you decide to come here or to

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Speaker 2: stay here as well. And you know, there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of you know, it's a busy week, it's Parliament sitting.

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Speaker 2: There's you know, lots of things in the paper, lots

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Speaker 2: of you know, good and bad things, I suppose, But

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Speaker 2: I just want to say this is one of the

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Speaker 2: really good economic like really good story for the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory and this is a really big win for both

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Speaker 2: the federal government and the territory government. Like this is

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Speaker 2: an amazing thing they've agreed today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yesterday, Yeah, all good stuff. Well, Kathy Lovely U

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Speaker 1: speak to you this morning. Thank you very much for

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Speaker 1: joining us in the Student your hospitality. Nt CEO Kathy Simmons,

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Speaker 1: thank you, thank you,