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Katie Woof spoke with Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf thanks to Joyce Main Dowin
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Homes on Stuart Highway, Beerrima.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: If you're listening to the show yesterday you would have
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: heard us catch up with bushfires and Sir Andrew Turner
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: around Territory day.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to what he had to say.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: I've got a.
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: Personal view, Katie, and that is that there are other
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: parts of the year that might be better suited to it.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: The fire danger period, which was declared last week and
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: goes for about four or five months, dictates that you
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: require a permit to burn it any time during that period.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: My view is that's what you're doing when you're light
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: a fire work is potentially starting a fire.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: When would be a better time.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: A month ago would have been quite suitable, and probably
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: November a strong drying wind tend to go away. It
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: doesn't need to be in the pouring rain. It could
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: well be just the shoulder season to the dry season.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: It's a big decision quite often see the ramification the
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: impact on our volunteer crews and our resources in the
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: days afterwards when people do unfortunately irresponse.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: So it's a tough one and I guess that this
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: discussion around fireworks and when we should be able to
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: let them offit sort of it comes up fairly often.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: We know that Territory Day had to be postponed as
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: a result of the lockdown, but should we be looking
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: at moving the date that we're allowed to let off firecrackers.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Joining us on the line right now is the Lord
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Mayor of Darwin convat Scarlas.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Corn, Good morning Katie. Yes, everybody talks about
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: the fire crackers and I can understand the concerns of
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: the fire services. We have fires usually, but my concern
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: with Darwes City Council is damage to our infrastructure, especially
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: you know, safe clothes, cricket pitches and everything else and
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: the amount of rubbish we have to pick up the
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: day after.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, So for the council, I mean, do you
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: reckon we need to be changing the data or do
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: you reckon we need to be banning the use of
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: personal fireworks?
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Well regarding change of the day, doesn't matter if you
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: change a day or not, the same amount of rubbish
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: will be there the day after. Because some people are
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: very very good to take their rabbits with them. Others
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: that can't care list they just drop them there and
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: somebody else will pick them up.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: And that's always the worry, isn't it. Connor.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, so taking that into account, what do you think, Look,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: do you reckon we need to what do you think
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: we need to do it?
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  Speaker 3: It's very controversial, I mean wise, we take something out
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: of the people as long as the people do it responsibly.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: By the same time, if people don't do it responsible,
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: the government has the ability to find them, or the
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: government can actually allow them in certain areas, only not
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: everywhere throughout the city. We've got a situation where we
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: allow fireworks in the middle bitch, and that goes really
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: really well, no problems at all, and probably it's a
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: model we can replicate somewhere else.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So some restrictions you reckon all some locational changes, you.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Know, it's always some idiots ruin it for everybody. And
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: unfortunately with the fireworks, we already heard fireworks going off
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: at night. And of course I can understand the pet owners.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: How upset can they be because a lot of dogs
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: they're getting really really we during the fire cracking.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Night they do. It makes it hard, you know, the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: dogs do go berserk.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I used to sort of think, oh, no, I'm not
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: a big fan of crack and height, but now that
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: my kids are a little bit older, they absolutely love it.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: And I'm very aware that.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of Territorians absolutely love Territory
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Day in terms of being able to let off those crackers.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Others not so much.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I guess it's a tough one, but it always creates
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: plenty of discussion in the community.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: We all love our territory, but we don't have to
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: it to burn it down to sew it.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Con.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I want to move along and just talk about about COVID.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: We know that that lockdown last week had a big
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: impact in a lot of ways. Is Counsel back to
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: normal operations.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: We are back to normal. Our labraries are open, our
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: swimming pools are open. We still have to comply with
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: restrictions like wearing masks within our offices if we can't
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: be one and a half meter away from other people.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: The only thing that's been impacted is actually our school
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: holiday activities, only part of it, like the story time,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: the rime time and baby booked, because you can't deliver
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: these services when you wearing masks. So we encourage everybody
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: who wants to hear story time to go by Facebook
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: to our services and you can actually switch in on,
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: switch on your computer and join the activities. But all
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: the other holiday activities continue to be to be done
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: properly considering the requirements and the restrictions righto.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: So everything else is still underway. But some of those
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: school holiday things, it's I mean, it is hard. I
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: guess a lot of different locations. Are a lot of
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: different places around the top end who did have school
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: holiday programs and events planned have had to change the
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: way that they're doing things.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: I have to say. On Saturday morning, I went to
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: all of my libraries here in town. I was started
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: from Casina, went to Coroama, went Tonight Cliff and down
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: to the city center. The libraries were full of people
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: other borrowing books, boring DVDs, doing something. So there's still
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: a lot of things to do. Even if you can't
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: do everything wearing your mask, keeping social distancing, there are
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: plenty that the council can offer you. Council is open
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: for business and will provide all the services as normal
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: under the restruction hi Con.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: One of the other things that is set to well,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: it's being reviewed as I understand it. At this point
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: in time, it's the Palmerston are those boundary changes, So
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: not just for Palmerston. I know that there's also the
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: boundary changes in the Lichfield area as well. It doesn't
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: impact the Down City Council in any way and the
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: boundaries of the Down City.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: Council well do Owen City Council and City Council are
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: not happy with the process because there was no process.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: We will promise an open, transparent process and competitive process
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: to actually allocate the Northwest to one of the three
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: local governments. Unfortunately, the government decided to talk only to
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Palmerston and progress this discussion with Palmerston that despite the
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: fact that people had not been asked about it, there
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: was no public consultation. I understand the developer of North
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Kreest was very keen for Darwin to actually take over.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: They even made an offer to the City of Darwin
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: for a block of land to start a depot there.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: The City of Darwin and I understand that Lichfield is
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: right into the government expressing there the appointment and their
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: concern and they're asking for a proper process and open,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: a transparent process to take place before a decision is made. Look,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: we haven't got any problem given to Palmerston. But our
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: problem is the lack of process. If you promise that
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: you're going to be a process, you have to follow it.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: You cannot just keep quiet and then announced out of
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  Speaker 3: the blue the particular piece of land will go to
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: a particular council. Even if it went to Lichfield, we
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: will have exactly the same argument. And I think if
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: it came to Darwin, I think it would be very
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: very proper for a process to be followed. Lack of
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: process creates problems for the process as you promised, and
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: everybody will be there.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: So where is this all lash at this point in time?
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  Speaker 2: And when is the decision expected to be made on
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: those boundaries?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the problem we've got as local government in general
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: here the territory is decisions are made without consultation with
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: the local government, and always it tends out to be
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: a bad decision. We've seen it in other areas and
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: I think we'll see it again. Decisions looks like it's
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: already been made. But how can you make a decision
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: when you promise one thing and deliver them?
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: So what do you mean?
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  Speaker 2: So how do you mean that it looks like it's
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: already been made as they already have. They already come
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: out and said that it is definitely happening.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: My understanding is that the government has decided that the
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: North Press will go to Palmerston, and as to you, before,
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  Speaker 3: the local residents had not been consulted. People were There
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: was a believer campaign door knocking in the north West
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: area and a lot of people express surprise why they're
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: going to Palmerston. They would love to stay with this
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: of Darwin. Some of them said they bought land there
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: because under the understanding they will be part of the
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: city of Darwin. To be again, it's not the outcome,
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: it's the process all the lack of it that concerned
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  Speaker 3: the local government.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Con Who does this fall under which minister's portfolio?
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: I believe it's the Minister for Infrastructure. But again it's
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: not the minister's fault. This is the government decision. You
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: can't blame one minister orly. It has to be a
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: government decision. Now there are too many ministers involved, so
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to name any minister in particular. What
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: I'm saying is, as a Lord Mayor of Darwin, guys,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: do the process properly, follow the process they will be
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: quite happy with the outcome. Pan do it properly and
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: open and transparent.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Well, no, I was more asking because we might see
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: if we can get somebody on about it, So a
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: little bit later in the week and see what we
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: can sassy out. But Conn, we are going to have
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: to leave it there. Good to catch up with you
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: this morning. Thanks so much for your time.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Talk to you later, Katie.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: That's convat Scolars there, the Lord Mayor of Darwin, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: it's probably timely for us to try and have the
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Infrastructure Minister Evil all Aer on the show anyway. I'm
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: keen to find out what the plans are from the
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: government in terms of the waterfront develop ment as well.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Down there where we were expecting Lambridge to build the
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: luxury hotel. We know that that's no longer going ahead,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: so we might see if we can get the Minister
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: for Infrastructure on the show a bit later in the
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: week to talk about those few issues.