Remarks, Darwin Tourism Industry Morning Tea - Darwin, NT
29 April 2021
PRIME MINISTER: It’s great to be here and to Sam, it is great to be here with Senator McMahon, Senator for the Northern Territory in our Coalition team, the CLP. It’s great to be here with the Northern Territory tourism family, a family I'm not a stranger to. I was here working with friends in tourism long before I went into politics and back to the days of Tony Mayell and others around here many, many years ago. Some of you, I’m sure, remember.
What I've always admired about the Northern Territory tourism industry is its passion. The seasons, they come, they go, the weather comes and goes, there are shocks, there are issues, of course, like we’ve all had to deal with, but particularly here in remote parts of the country with COVID.
But what has always sustained this sector is everyone absolutely just loves what they do. They're incredibly passionate about it. They're purposeful about it. So many who have come to the Territory to establish businesses in the Territory have done so because that has been their life’s dream, that has been their vision, where they want to be and what they want to do. Particularly around ATE and things like that when I was working at Tourism Australia. The Territorian crew were the most passionate, I think, and the most out there, which always would attract attention from the international buyers and all that sort of things, which is exactly what you want.
Because as you know in the tourism industry, you're providing your services in one of the most amazing parts of the world. But you know that what makes the difference is how you do it and that is when personality and the vibrancy and passion of what you and your staff do. That's where the experience of it comes from. It takes place in just an awesome setting but when your visitors leave, what they take away as you know is what you’ve imparted from person to person, personality and character, passion for the place, and particularly when it comes to respect for Indigenous communities and the timeless land which we have the great blessing to live in, and we acknowledge those custodians, as you do. We do that when we speak as Members of Parliament, I do it as Prime Minister, acknowledging those elders past, present and future. You do it every day in how you run your tourism businesses here in the Northern Territory. You acknowledge that history, that culture, how it is just completely enmeshed in the experience of being in the Territory and I know you appreciate the wonder and spirituality of that as much as your visitors do and that’s what comes across, I think, in why people have such memorable experiences when they do come to the territory.
But there's no doubt, it's been a tough year, one of your toughest, and standing here last year which I was unable to do because we couldn’t come to the Territory and what you were facing I know that there would have been great anxiety. I know that JobKeeper made a big difference here in the Territory. I know the many other supports that the Government put in through cashflow assistance and the many other measures that we put in place. That kept the industry whole, kept it intact, kept people together and kept businesses being able to tick over. It kept the programming, the scheduling and the skills that are all necessary. It kept them all together.
Because the time was going to come and has already arrived, certainly from a domestic point of view when those visitors were going to come back. And what was very important to me and to Josh and to Michael McCormack and Sam and the whole team was that you would be in a position to capitalise when it happened and that when the business started coming back it would need six months to ramp up again, to go and get staff back to try and get lease premises again, get your capital and all the rest of it. We wanted to make sure that that could all remain in place so when the time did come, when people would be travelling again, you’d be able to get back on your feet quite quickly.
And so in graduating from JobKeeper, now seeing the visitation coming through. Just listening to about what occupancies are, bookings are strong going forward, the half price tickets that have seen those 800,000 tickets put out into the marketplace. These have been going extremely well. Over 50,000 I’m aware of directly coming into the Northern Territory. And I was so pleased when I saw that because this is where we wanted it to work in particular. I mean, a long way from a lot of places and it is not a two hour drive from Sydney. Like many places, if you’re going up to the Hunter or down to the South Coast or if you’re down in Melbourne, heading out into the wonderful surrounds there or driving out in the countryside, or in Queensland heading up the Sunshine Coast. In more remote parts of the country for tourism operators, far North Queensland, tropical North Queensland, over at Birubi, parts of Tasmania, it is a lot harder. So the flight access is absolutely critical.
It takes me back to the, I mean, the idea that idea that came from something, many of you might know Ron Murray. Ron has been a friend of mine from my tourism days and I remember when Ron was at Tourism Australia, he said the one thing you’ve got to do, mate, is make sure that air access is good and it’s cheap. If people can get on that plane and come to Australia, then they’ll come, because that is often the barrier. And so that was the thinking that went behind the idea that if we could just get these cheaper flights into the market, that would unleash the pickup that was there and we’d particularly be able to get people into the more remote parts of the country. When often is the case the international side of the business is a much bigger proportion of the business.
So I’ve been pleased to hear today how you’ve been able to absorb that. Now, you’ve got a different set of problems. Problems you’d prefer not to have but much better than the problems we wouldn’t want to have ie no tourists. And so the challenge now is workforce. Backpacker workforce is particularly important in the regional parts of the country, in remote parts of the country and that is certainly the case in the Northern Territory. It’s not just a matter for the hospitality sector, although it is a big issue for the hospitality sector. During the course of the last 24 hours, not surprisingly, when with Sam what we’ve been hearing is that’s true in construction, it’s true in the horticultural sector, in the ag sector, in the fisheries sector. It is a big challenge and the workforce challenge we have right across the country, but particularly more acute here.
So I’ll take a lot of that feedback I’ve had on that. Some great suggestions too, you always get practical suggestions in the Territory and direct ones. They don’t miss. They don’t miss, and nor should they. And so I think that’s been really good, Sam, to get that very candid feedback, positive and appreciative of the support the Commonwealth Government has provided but also, OK, we got through that bit, now we’ve got to get through this bit and that means getting staff in, getting people with skills to come and do this work, how are we going to achieve that. All Territorians want to keep the Territory safe from COVID, they don’t want to see COVID becoming present here in the Territory, like anywhere else in the country. And in Australia, that is one of our big positions and that is that we’re living life here like few countries in the world. Everyone has played a huge role in that.
Let me finish on that point. I want to just thank you. I want to thank all Territorians for that. Yesterday I had the opportunity along with Sam and the Chief Minister to go out and thank all of those workers out at the Howard Springs facility. They have done an amazing job in enabling us to bring Australians home but also protecting the Territory in the way that they’ve done it. Zero breaches, (inaudible), they’ve done a great job out there. But I want to thank Territorians and I want to thank the hospitality industry for just holding it together and that took a lot of character, it took a lot of passion and it took a lot of belief for you just to hold it together and push through what was those very, very difficult months. Now, now you can see much more light and I’m really pleased to see a few smiles on some faces today. But the odd furrowed brow when it comes to getting staff and all of those next challenges which we’ll work together on solving that problem too, just like we worked together on dealing with the other issues.
So thank you all very much for what you’ve been able to achieve for the Territory, for the country and I know that increasingly Australians will be making their way up here to have what is arguably one of the most unique experiences you can get in Australia or anywhere in the world. I say that from my background in the sector. The north of Australia is just unimaginable to so many, particularly from the south, and they should take that opportunity to come and do it whenever they can and particularly in the school holidays coming up, you’ll have to book. It’s pretty chocka up here. But I’m sure they’ll be able to find room one way or another. OK, thanks very much, great to talk to you.
