Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Civil Contractors Federation of the Northern Territory CEO Tom Harris says in a positive, the Federal budget spend on larger projects gives smaller contractors the opportunity to be involved

Transcript

Civil Contractors Federation of the Northern Territory CEO Tom Harris says in a positive, the Federal budget spend on larger projects gives smaller contractors the opportunity to be involved · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we have been taking a closer look at the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: federal budget that was handed down overnight, what it means
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: for the Northern.
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  Speaker 2: Territory, the wins, the losses.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And joining me on the line right now is Civil
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Contractors Federation of the Northern Territory CEO Tom Harris.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Tom.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, morning Katie. How are you?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Really well, great to have you on the show.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: And it looks as though there is going to be
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  Speaker 1: a massive infrastructure spend for the Northern Territory. What was
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  Speaker 1: your take because I would imagine that this means a
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  Speaker 1: lot of work for territories in your sector.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a big budget, a lot of positives
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  Speaker 3: in the budget last night, and to be honest, there
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  Speaker 3: has been for a number of years now. I mean
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  Speaker 3: we're really both territory and federal budgets of trying to
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  Speaker 3: increase their infrastructure spending inclusive of roads, bridge infrastructure, other
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  Speaker 3: community infrastructure. So look, this is just a continuation of that.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: There's not only the funding positives, there's also a number
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  Speaker 3: of other Obviously, the fuel exous was a positive. It's
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  Speaker 3: on a short term, but it's a welcome relief to
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  Speaker 3: contractors that are having to wear significant cost increases in
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  Speaker 3: their project delivery at the moment, so that that's welcome.
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  Speaker 3: There's also been we'll wait and see the detail a
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  Speaker 3: little bit later in the year, but some changes to
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  Speaker 3: the Commonwealth the procurement rules. That's a de bundling of
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  Speaker 3: some larger major projects, so that I guess there's more
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  Speaker 3: opportunities for smaller contractors to be involved, So that's a positive.
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  Speaker 3: There's obviously trying to look at migration. It's all very well.
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  Speaker 3: I've always funding in all these projects, but if you
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  Speaker 3: don't have people, and that's a major issue for US.
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  Speaker 3: Migration numbers have been dropping dramatically over COVID, so there's
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  Speaker 3: some some positives there to try and increase get the
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  Speaker 3: migration numbers back up a bit. And yeah, there's been
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  Speaker 3: a continuation of I guess if some positives in the
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  Speaker 3: training and skills upgrade area as well for businesses being
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  Speaker 3: able to claim for those sort of costs or increased
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  Speaker 3: benefits in relation to training. So there's a number of
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  Speaker 3: not only the raw numbers which are very positive, there's
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  Speaker 3: also a lot of other smaller items in the budget
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  Speaker 3: that I think are going to be very very positive for.
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  Speaker 2: US well, that is good to hear.
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  Speaker 1: And look, I suppose some people out there listening may
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  Speaker 1: be thinking, what exactly is the civil Contractors Federation. But
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  Speaker 1: when you talk about those really big projects and our roads,
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  Speaker 1: our rail, you guys are front and center in that space,
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  Speaker 1: aren't you.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely? I mean that is a lot of people. Look
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  Speaker 3: at the road. Now, I understand civil contractors are involved
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  Speaker 3: in road construction, but yet it's rail. As we said, ports, airports,
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  Speaker 3: large telecommunications or gas pipelines, all that sort of infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: is all civil construction. Subdivisions prior to housing developments going
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  Speaker 3: in are all civil. You knows, a lot of the
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  Speaker 3: remote indigenous housing programs they will require areas to be
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  Speaker 3: opened up and subdivisions developed. The the area's industrial subdivisions,
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  Speaker 3: they all require civil operations. So yeah, there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of civil activity. And a lot of the other infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: projects that were announced. So there's the port infrastructure that
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  Speaker 3: took about newport infrastructure. A lot of that will be
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  Speaker 3: potentially civil. I mean, I know these are not items
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  Speaker 3: that are happening tomorrow. Of course, there's a lot of
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  Speaker 3: planning and a lot of processes to go, but there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of work there. The four
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  Speaker 3: hundred and forty million that was announced for the logistics
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  Speaker 3: facilities Catherine Tennant Creek and Alis, that'll be vast majority
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  Speaker 3: that'll be civil. There's the work with the Darwin water
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  Speaker 3: supply in relation to the Darwen River. You know, we're
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: bringing the Mountain Dam back on service. There'll be a
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  Speaker 3: lot of civil construction involved in those projects. So it's
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  Speaker 3: a yeah, it's a significant, significant flow of work over
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  Speaker 3: the next five to ten years.
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  Speaker 1: Yet it certainly sounds like Tom talkers through with these
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  Speaker 1: one point five billion dollars for the what's your understanding
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  Speaker 1: of this? So I did ask Simon Birmingham, the Minister,
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  Speaker 1: a bit earlier this morning, and he said it is
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  Speaker 1: for new infrastructure for the port.
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  Speaker 2: What's your understanding of it?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's all I've read in the in the budget
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  Speaker 3: of papers was it does relate to It doesn't talk
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  Speaker 3: about you up down and port upgrades. It's more newport infrastructure,
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  Speaker 3: inclusive of dredging and other related works for the for
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  Speaker 3: the channel. So to me it looks like it's a
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  Speaker 3: new newport development. But realistically, yeah, I don't know any
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  Speaker 3: more details than what's been what's been listed and if
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  Speaker 3: the Minister couldn't give you a good answer, it's probably
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  Speaker 3: I won't be able to do it.
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  Speaker 1: We'll wait and no doubt they'll be further detail come through.
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  Speaker 1: Tom talk us through as well. Though.
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  Speaker 2: When you know, when you.
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  Speaker 1: See such a phenomenal amount of money being flagged two
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  Speaker 1: point six billion dollars to be spent on infrastructure projects
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  Speaker 1: across the Northern Territory over the coming years, how you know,
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  Speaker 1: how do we make sure that this workflows to local
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  Speaker 1: contractors as well as much as possible.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, that's about the packaging, and I think there is
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  Speaker 3: a lot of work to be done. You know, it's
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  Speaker 3: about good planning is critical to any construction project, and
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  Speaker 3: this is the same. And you want to also be
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  Speaker 3: planning for, you know, your local benefit outcomes and community
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  Speaker 3: outcomes at the start when you're doing your procurement work.
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  Speaker 3: So i'd hope there's going to be a lot of
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  Speaker 3: work done and I know there will be by the
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  Speaker 3: sitting in the Northern Territory government in the areas that
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  Speaker 3: they will be delivering on a lot of this funding
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  Speaker 3: to be able to make sure that there is a
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  Speaker 3: good local content. But it is critical we make sure
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  Speaker 3: that and we fight for that local content because it
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  Speaker 3: can be very easy for some of these very large
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  Speaker 3: projects just to move and go to an interstate Tier
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  Speaker 3: one contractor and believe that they'll solve all your problems.
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  Speaker 3: But that doesn't occur. There's still the labor issues. You
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  Speaker 3: still have people coming into a market that is very
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  Speaker 3: tight relational labor where we're not the only place in
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  Speaker 3: Australia with the infrastructure in a large amount of infrastructure.
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  Speaker 3: It's a highly competitive marketplace. The marketplace there is a
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  Speaker 3: limited number of labor resources, so it is highly competitive,
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  Speaker 3: so we kind of have You've got to be very
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  Speaker 3: careful with the balance of that, and I would hope
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  Speaker 3: the government do look very carefully at the way they
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  Speaker 3: procure for these projects to ensure that they're broken up
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  Speaker 3: and packaged accordingly where our mid, our mid and larger
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  Speaker 3: or small mid and larger local contractors have a fair
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  Speaker 3: crack at the projects and I'm sure they will.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely well, Tom, from your perspective, a positive budget
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  Speaker 1: for the Northern Territory all in all.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, very positive. Just needs a lot of good quality planning,
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  Speaker 3: really a lot of effort in that upfront design and
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  Speaker 3: the procurement process, but look looking very positive as other
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  Speaker 3: budgets have. Our sector will be the challenges will be
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  Speaker 3: managing the as I said, even labor components and cost
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  Speaker 3: of supply, those sort of issues, but it's just great
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: to have. At least you've got the opportunity for work
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  Speaker 3: and that's a massive positive for the local industry.
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  Speaker 1: And we are going to catch up in a couple
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  Speaker 1: of minutes time as well with the Infrastructure Commissioner Louise McCormack,
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  Speaker 1: so no doubt she'll be able to let us know
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: as well about some of that planning, and like you've
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  Speaker 1: spoken about there, the workforce too. Tom Harris, the Civil
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  Speaker 1: Contractors Federation of the Northern Territory CEO, really good to
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  Speaker 1: talk to you this morning.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: No thanks, Coatie, thank you