Crown chief seeks workers to return to the office, saying a lack of vibrancy is turning off tourists

Crown CEO Ciaran Carruthers says Australia’s capital cities are significantly quieter now Thursday to Tuesday, following the mass retreat of CBD office workers.

Crown Resorts chief executive Ciaran Carruthers has called for more workers to return to the office to help Australia’s CBDs survive the cost of living crisis and economic slowdown.

Mr Carruthers has also backed the federal government’s moves to lift skilled migration, saying more overseas workers would help the casino group bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.

But he warned that spiralling rents needed to be tackled, saying it presented a “triple barrier” for foreign workers choosing Australia in a globally competitive labour market.

Crown is Victoria’s biggest single site employer, taking up most of Melbourne CBD’s eastern flank. The company also opened a $2.2bn VIP casino and resort at Barangaroo in Sydney last August and has extensive operations in Perth. Overall it employs 23,500 staff.

Mr Carruthers has joined a growing number of chief executives – including NAB’s Ross McEwan – who want workers to return to their offices in order to revitalise CBDs, which in turn would help lift consumer and business confidence.

“We are still behind where we were pre-pandemic and part of that is the CBD hasn’t returned to full vibrancy as yet. Work from home has certainly given us a challenge,” Mr Carruthers said, ahead of speaking at Sky News and The Australian’s Economic Outlook forum in Sydney on Friday.

Crown employs 23,500 across all of its facilities. Picture: AFP

“From Thursday afternoon through to Tuesday the city’s significantly quieter and I think that’s also having an impact on both domestic and international tourism. The city is just not as vibrant as many of our tourists have expected.”

Mr Carruthers started at Crown last year after Blackstone’s $8.9bn takeover of the company which was formerly backed by James Packer.

Australia’s economy has slowed to just 0.2 per cent in the March quarter following the RBA’s most aggressive series of interest rate increases in 30 years.

For Crown the stakes are high. Blackstone president Jon Gray declared on Thursday that the casino and hotel operator would be one of the best in the world, and that New York-based Blackstone planned a major spending spree across Crown’s ageing Melbourne site.

Mr Carruthers said he has noticed many businesses are closed when he walks around the CBD on Saturday afternoons.

“Their (business owners’) belief is the customers aren’t there – and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because customers won’t go there because they believe businesses are closed,” he said.

“There needs to be that coming together and realisation that we need to fire up businesses and the CBD across the weekend, bring people back to work across the weekend, those Fridays and Mondays, and bring the cities back to life again, which is what our international and interstate tourists are expecting.”

Further hampering the ability of Crown – which has faced three inquiries in three states over its suitability to hold a casino licence after a string of historical scandals – to rebound from the pandemic, is access to hospitality staff.

Mr Carruthers supports the federal government’s push to lift skilled migration. The Albanese government’s second budget handed down last month forecast that more than 700,000 people would move to Australia by the end of next year in a “one-off” boom as the nation caught up from the pandemic.

Doorman Vincenzo Iaconis with Crown Resorts chief executive Ciaran Carruthers. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Mr Carruthers said Crown needed hospitality staff across the spectrum – from those working in food halls to fine dining.

“That is a challenge in terms of bringing in some of that overseas skilled labour. The immigration processes are reasonably lengthy, about nine months, and many of these people are in demand from countries around the region and world,” he said.

“We know the government is working on a review and my understanding of the government’s position is they want to make it an easier path for someone to move to Australia.”

But the cost of living presents another big hurdle. Budget papers confirm rental demand has increased sharply in part because of an influx of new tenants who have moved here following the reopening of Australia’s international borders.

Treasury officials have noted Australia’s rental market is currently very tight. National vacancy rates are at near record lows of about 1 per cent and advertised rents are growing at more than 10 per cent as of last month.

“It’s a further challenge when you’re trying to bring in somebody who is in demand, has the necessary skills, when they’re up against a difficult immigration process and move into a country with a growing and already high cost of living,” Mr Carruthers said.

“With the combination of a rental crisis it becomes somewhat of a triple barrier to bring in the necessary people to get us where we want to be with regards to experience levels and standards at the properties.”