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Katie Woolf spoke with Minister for Small Business Paul Kirby · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line right now is the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Minister for Small Business, Paul Kirby. Good morning to you, curbs.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you a big day yesterday? Mate?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, very big day yesterday. I am tired. I've had
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  Speaker 1: three coffees, but I'm pushing on.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, it took a long long time to get
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  Speaker 2: Laila out of bed this morning, even she was tired.
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  Speaker 1: Well and well done to you and your little girl
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  Speaker 1: obviously walking and taking part in run with dad yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: It was a great morning and great to see you
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  Speaker 1: and the Chief Minister and plenty of others there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a really nice morning. It's like it's
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  Speaker 2: a bit of a treat for them. It's a bit
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  Speaker 2: of a something different to get them out of bed
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  Speaker 2: while it's you know, it's pretty much still dark and
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  Speaker 2: get down there and get organized and get on the run.
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  Speaker 2: She had a little bit of cereal while we're walking around,
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  Speaker 2: so to help pass the time. Yeah. Look, there's some
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  Speaker 2: serious messages behind it. Everybody's got a Cancas stories to tell,
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  Speaker 2: or most families have these days, and a very good
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  Speaker 2: reminder while we're having a bit of fun to take
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  Speaker 2: it seriously because it does hurt people.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on and I couldn't agree more. Now, now, Minister,
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  Speaker 1: we know that that there was an announcement made over
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  Speaker 1: the weekend three point three million dollar package of targeted
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  Speaker 1: business training and support programs. It's all aimed at supporting
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  Speaker 1: businesses who have been doing it tough during those COVID
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  Speaker 1: lockdowns and also the closure of interstate boarders. Firstly, can
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  Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit about what you know,
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  Speaker 1: what these programs include and who might be keen to
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  Speaker 1: take part.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly, Katie, and I guess this is moving into
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  Speaker 2: the more traditional business support rather than those short term
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  Speaker 2: grabs and grants that we've had to do to try
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  Speaker 2: and support businesses as we can around, you know, whether
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  Speaker 2: it's financial fitness, whether it's the actual business fitness, to
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  Speaker 2: make sure it's running as best as it possibly can be,
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that the people have the opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: get into acceleration programs or growth program So there's, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: as you mentioned, a really good range of training and
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  Speaker 2: support with a little bit of stimulus tied in there
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  Speaker 2: to really help. This might be for businesses that have
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  Speaker 2: done it really tough. It might be businesses that have
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  Speaker 2: held on okay, but want to now take the next step.
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  Speaker 2: There might be some opportunities that have opened up as
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  Speaker 2: they have right across the territory and the nation, but
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  Speaker 2: people want a bit more specialized training to work out
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  Speaker 2: how they can be more efficient, more practical. As businesses
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  Speaker 2: evolve over the next couple of years.
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  Speaker 1: And when are they going to roll out and how
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  Speaker 1: can people sort of find out a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: about them, I suppose.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly some of them have already started. One of
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  Speaker 2: the immediate business acceleration programs has opened up already and
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  Speaker 2: the rest will follow suit fairly quickly. All of the
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  Speaker 2: infok to you'll be on that NT Industry Business Support
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  Speaker 2: web page, so more than happy to flick that through
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  Speaker 2: so that so that you can put that up on
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  Speaker 2: your page as well, so people know exactly how to
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  Speaker 2: get straight to it. We did an event last week
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  Speaker 2: out at Trojan talking with Michael and his team out there.
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  Speaker 2: They have done quite well through the business support packages
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  Speaker 2: and home improvement schemes and things like that, and he's
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  Speaker 2: now at a level where he can sustain his business.
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  Speaker 2: He wants to do it a bit better and a
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  Speaker 2: bit smarter and push forward a bit so they're the
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  Speaker 2: sort of businesses that can get some real advantage out
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  Speaker 2: of programs like this and clubs.
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  Speaker 1: We have been talking a bit more this morning as well.
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  Speaker 1: We caught up with Alex Bruce a little while ago
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  Speaker 1: and it's something that we've discussed even last week as well.
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  Speaker 1: You know, moving forward, I suppose in the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: and right around Australia at the moment, the impact that
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  Speaker 1: COVID's having, both with those into state lockdowns and also
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  Speaker 1: with lockdowns which we've not had as much to deal
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  Speaker 1: with here in the territory, but we certainly still have
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  Speaker 1: had a couple moving forward and looking at when we're
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  Speaker 1: going to open up that vaccination rate getting to eighty percent,
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  Speaker 1: And from what I'm hearing across the board from some
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  Speaker 1: of our industry, from some of our industries is what
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  Speaker 1: they're really after right now is a bit of a
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  Speaker 1: plan I guess from the federal government and also the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory government, so they know what needs to happen
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  Speaker 1: in terms of moving forward. Is that something that you
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  Speaker 1: guys are working on at the moment, like how we
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  Speaker 1: get there?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly, we work closely with the industry and we
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  Speaker 2: did after that first short, sharp lockdown, and some of
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  Speaker 2: the things that we did in the second lockdown were different. Again,
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  Speaker 2: some of the packages that we put together after that
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  Speaker 2: lockdown just a week or so ago, some of those
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  Speaker 2: tourism packages that we put out that didn't necessarily mean
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  Speaker 2: you had to be affected by the territory lockdown. It
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  Speaker 2: was more for people that had lost a lot of
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  Speaker 2: business out of in the state, people not being able
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  Speaker 2: to come here in some packages that were specifically designed
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  Speaker 2: for people that had lost conferences and those sorts of
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  Speaker 2: things as well. So we're constantly working with industry and
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  Speaker 2: talking about how things might look as we go forward.
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  Speaker 2: Certainly like people are concentrating or talking about, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we've got to get to seventy percent, we've got to
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  Speaker 2: get to eighty percent, and then it's all okay, But
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's really it's not going to be dire,
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  Speaker 2: but it's going to be a different set of circumstance.
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  Speaker 2: Different businesses or want to approach things different way ways.
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  Speaker 2: There'll be different health criteria that still have to be
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  Speaker 2: taken into place. So, yeah, it's certainly still a complex
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  Speaker 2: issue that will be working through for quite some time.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, we'll always be talking with industry about how
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  Speaker 2: that's going to best play out, how we keep businesses
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  Speaker 2: open and keep people safe as well. Katie, are you.
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  Speaker 1: Worried about those vaccination rates in the territory right now?
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  Speaker 1: Sort of when you do look at moving forward and
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  Speaker 1: how high they need to be and and you know,
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  Speaker 1: and the impact that it has on business.
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  Speaker 2: Well, certainly the impact that it has on business is
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  Speaker 2: something that we're all aware of. And you hear Dr
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  Speaker 2: Hegey when he talks about different closed down that we've
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  Speaker 2: either had to do or or looking forward into the future,
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  Speaker 2: you certainly hear that in his messaging that he's very
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  Speaker 2: very aware the economic impacts are tightly linked to the
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  Speaker 2: health impacts across the territory. But I think territories because
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  Speaker 2: we are such a small, close knit community and we're
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  Speaker 2: now seeing some of the devastating effects through country New
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  Speaker 2: South Wales that we have done a pretty good job
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  Speaker 2: of putting our hand up and getting as many people
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  Speaker 2: vaccinated as we can. We know that that will continue
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  Speaker 2: into the future if we can continue to get access
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  Speaker 2: to the vaccines. But yeah, we'll certainly be working closely
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  Speaker 2: with health and developing more tightly aligned processes and programs going.
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  Speaker 1: Forward, do I reckon we need to look at possible
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  Speaker 1: incentives in an effort to try to get people vaccinated.
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  Speaker 1: We've spoken to Alex a bit earlier about it maybe
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  Speaker 1: not being so much of a stick approach where it's
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  Speaker 1: like not allowing people into certain locations if they haven't
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  Speaker 1: been vaccinated, but going more with the incentives.
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  Speaker 2: It's really interesting, isn't it. Some businesses, some industries have
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  Speaker 2: had to for you know, whether it's through the age
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  Speaker 2: or the health industries, and you understand that there'll be
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  Speaker 2: some businesses that would like to dictate, you know, that
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  Speaker 2: you can't come in unless you're unless you've been vaccinated.
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  Speaker 2: Whether we're going to be at a stage in the
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  Speaker 2: near future of having to incentivize, that's something that will
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  Speaker 2: continue to look at that. At the moment, the take
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  Speaker 2: up from people has been really, really good across the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Will just certainly encourage people to continue getting the jabs
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  Speaker 2: in the arms and keeping themselves, but not just themselves,
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  Speaker 2: their family and their communities really really safe.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I guess some of those remote communities aren't actually
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  Speaker 1: very good. They're looking, you know, the rates are pretty low,
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  Speaker 1: and then if we're trying to open up the whole
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  Speaker 1: of the territory. When we get to eighty percent, we
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  Speaker 1: may be waiting for an awfully long time if we
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  Speaker 1: don't see those rates actually get higher in some of
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  Speaker 1: those locations.
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  Speaker 2: If I know that some location and some particularly remote
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  Speaker 2: areas and communities have had significant or real or perceived
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  Speaker 2: concerns about not wanting to get vaccinateate, and that's completely
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  Speaker 2: there right. I've even heard, like through the New South
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  Speaker 2: Wales example, some of those remote communities that just didn't
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  Speaker 2: like we get access to information so readily in the
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  Speaker 2: larger centers and they hadn't had access to information in
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  Speaker 2: some of those smaller communities. So there's wasn't so much
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  Speaker 2: about saying no, we don't want to. There's the same
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  Speaker 2: we want to catch up on the information about why
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  Speaker 2: it's important, what's available to us, how and when we
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  Speaker 2: need to do it, and then hopefully most of those
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  Speaker 2: as we get around and get those opportunities back out
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  Speaker 2: to community so they'll hopefully take those opportunities up.
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  Speaker 1: Katie, we're running very fast out of time, but I
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  Speaker 1: do want to ask a minister finally. This morning, the
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  Speaker 1: CLP is calling on the government to come clean over
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: wreck fishing spending. The Shadow Minister for Recreational Fishing, Jered
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  Speaker 1: Maylee reckons it's ridiculous the government spent less than half
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  Speaker 1: of the fifty million dollars promised in twenty sixteen for
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  Speaker 1: recreational fishing, including upgrades to the daily river boat ramp.
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  Speaker 1: Can I ask how much has been spent of that
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  Speaker 1: five year fifty million dollar rec fishing futures program.
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  Speaker 2: It's a bit rich coming from the COLP. They built
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  Speaker 2: one boat ramp very belatedly on the way out when
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  Speaker 2: they were last in government. We're going to spend more
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  Speaker 2: money fixing that than they did originally trying to trying
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  Speaker 2: to do it up because they've made that big a
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  Speaker 2: mess of it. But we've spent over seventeen and a
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  Speaker 2: half million dollars. We've put artificial reefs in, We've had
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  Speaker 2: those reck fishing grant programs at Kuraborbie Corrobberie, Billibong Road,
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  Speaker 2: it's been fixed up. Shady Camp Boat Ramp, Middle Arm
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  Speaker 2: and Dinah Beach boat ramps have all had significant upgrades
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  Speaker 2: to them. We worn't really closely with the reck Fishery
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  Speaker 2: Advisory Committee who wanted points Stewart done up next. So
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  Speaker 2: we've got nearly fourteen million dollars allocated to Point Stewart
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  Speaker 2: and daily river Boat Ramp upgrades. Interesting, like the daily
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  Speaker 2: river Boat Ram upgrade, the tender went out for our
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: and construction workers. Are that tapped at the moment our
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  Speaker 2: businesses with all the works going on, particularly down in
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  Speaker 2: that area, Katherine, we can't we couldn't get people to
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  Speaker 2: take that tender up. So we can put money on
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  Speaker 2: the table if we would love every job to be
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: done straight away, but if Jerah doesn't understand that you
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: have to program these works out over a period of
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: time and then you have to have the contractors available
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: to do the work. So we've put the money out,
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  Speaker 2: the contractors haven't been able to pick up that daily one.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: We'll break that down into a smaller programmer works through
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  Speaker 2: next dri Seas and hopefully now to get that body
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: of work done up. But yeah, we certainly will still
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: continue to invest in our wreck fishing infrastructure.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: We are going to have to leave it their Minister
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  Speaker 1: for Small Business and also Recreational Fishing. Paul Kirby, appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thanks very much for coming on.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie, well done again yet thank you,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: thank you,