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

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  Speaker 1: It is just fifteen minutes away from ten o'clock. And
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  Speaker 1: joining me live in the studio right now is the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Mayor of Darwin convat scar Let's get Icon.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, and I have to tell you that we
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  Speaker 2: gave one three hundred trees last Friday in Wogaman when
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  Speaker 2: two hundred people ten up in the middle of the day,
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  Speaker 2: no words about the heat or the sun, and they
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  Speaker 2: were there to collect the free trees.
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  Speaker 3: One three hundred trees, and we are.
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  Speaker 2: About to give another nearly ten thousand trees in the
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  Speaker 2: next four or five outings.
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  Speaker 4: We do because we.
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  Speaker 2: Decided if we're going to do it, let's do it big.
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  Speaker 2: We were going to give three thousand and due to
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  Speaker 2: the big demand, we said, now we buy more and
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  Speaker 2: we'll do it. We found a lot of trees and
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  Speaker 2: in total we give more than about twelve thousand trees altogether.
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  Speaker 2: And if you missed out because we didn't give trees
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  Speaker 2: out in tiwe we are going to come back and
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  Speaker 2: give trees. Just keep tuning up with our website and
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  Speaker 2: see where we're going to be next and come along
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  Speaker 2: and collect your trees.
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  Speaker 1: So how come the council has decided to sort of
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  Speaker 1: go on this campaign giving the trees a why.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I can tell you a secret.
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  Speaker 2: It's much cheaper for council to let the people plant
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  Speaker 2: their own trees and council plant it.
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  Speaker 4: But it's not that.
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  Speaker 2: It's actually we are committed to grin the city and
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  Speaker 2: call the city down by putting more trees on the
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  Speaker 2: ground in verges, in backyards and parks. We're doing exactly
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  Speaker 2: that when other cities are struggling to form to buy
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  Speaker 2: trees and plants, like Melbourne and Adelaide. We have already
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  Speaker 2: planted in the past two or three years more than
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  Speaker 2: fourteen thousand trees, plus another twelve thousand trees going down,
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  Speaker 2: plus the two thousands of trees we're going to plant
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  Speaker 2: the next four years. Our city is getting different and
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  Speaker 2: different all the time.
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  Speaker 3: Where's the where are the plans at?
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  Speaker 1: All? The questions out when it came to the Pontiana,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the flying trees a bit of a special
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  Speaker 1: place for them.
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  Speaker 2: It's an interesting one because following the spat had with
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  Speaker 2: the media, a lot of people came out in support
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  Speaker 2: of planting Pointciana trees. This argument about it's a weed.
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  Speaker 2: It was not only head by Miss Burns where she
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  Speaker 2: came on the media says, well, it's not really weird
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  Speaker 2: because he's exporting thousands of points in Western Australia.
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  Speaker 4: Because councils in West Australia planning.
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  Speaker 2: Points sianas sow coming one side of the board considered
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  Speaker 2: to be a weed on the other side of the boarder,
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  Speaker 2: they're planning thousands of So it has to do with
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  Speaker 2: petial preference. And let's put it bluntly. The late mister Burn,
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  Speaker 2: who was very well known in down circus about his
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  Speaker 2: nursery and his botanical expertise, he told me clearly that
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  Speaker 2: some people they are not going to change their mind.
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  Speaker 2: They want natives, natives, natives, but the reality is a lot.
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  Speaker 4: Of the trees in Dowen they're not natives. They came
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  Speaker 4: from somewhere else.
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  Speaker 3: So where are you going to do us?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we actually reconvene the committee with three years now
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  Speaker 2: we had the committee. They told us what to plant
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  Speaker 2: and the mandate for the committee was to tell us
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  Speaker 2: what plan to plan, what trees to plant to withstand
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  Speaker 2: the cyclone.
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  Speaker 4: They did really good job there and are really really
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  Speaker 4: thankful for that.
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  Speaker 2: But we're going to go back and say, okay, we
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  Speaker 2: planned all these stars on trees.
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  Speaker 4: Can we do better?
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  Speaker 2: A lot of trees now still young, but we need
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  Speaker 2: flowers and what can we actually put here? And actually
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  Speaker 2: we can give some color to the city. And at
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  Speaker 2: the same time we stand cyclones. We're going to get
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  Speaker 2: some expertise now from the botanical gardens and other people
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  Speaker 2: and certainly people actually they're not read very very well
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  Speaker 2: and have a committed to an assessment.
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  Speaker 4: You have to do an evaluation.
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  Speaker 2: You can't just say, oh, five years ago we said
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  Speaker 2: that we'll continue that forever and ever, let's do an evaluation.
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  Speaker 4: See how we did.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, from trades, let's move along to the casual in
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  Speaker 1: a pool. This is something that keeps getting rise with me.
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  Speaker 1: When is that work going to start?
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  Speaker 4: Well, we have.
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  Speaker 2: Received a number of tenders. Now this is going to
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  Speaker 2: be it's currently with the property auditor. They're going through
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  Speaker 2: the whole tender process and really really with find fine
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  Speaker 2: to come to find out and stacks up financially. We
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  Speaker 2: have actually consulted the community. We have put in the
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  Speaker 2: tender what we really want with regard to the sage
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  Speaker 2: of the pools, training pools, lanes and everything else. So
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  Speaker 2: when we actually delivered the pool. We deliver what the
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  Speaker 2: community wants, not what the engineers want. So we're in
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  Speaker 2: the process. You have to remember it's twenty five million dollars.
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  Speaker 2: They're not my money, they're the public's money. We have
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  Speaker 2: to be very careful how they spend and we want
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  Speaker 2: to get value for money.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you what.
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  Speaker 1: I was at the swimming caunival there on the weekend
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  Speaker 1: and there definitely needs to be some work down there
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  Speaker 1: on that pool.
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  Speaker 3: I know that it's going.
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  Speaker 1: To be a total revamp. Did you end up getting
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  Speaker 1: funding from the federal government as well?
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  Speaker 2: We missed up in the first round, but I spoke
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  Speaker 2: to Sarat McMahon, I spoke to Luc Goslin and the others,
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  Speaker 2: and we'll be writing to them asking to consider it
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  Speaker 2: other as election promise or the second round.
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  Speaker 3: Will you still be able to afford to do it
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  Speaker 3: if you don't get us?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, we can or we can, but why should we
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  Speaker 2: spend our money. We can get some money from federal government.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody else does well as soon. The City of Darwin doesn't.
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  Speaker 2: City of Parmers don't got money for their pool. Rue
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  Speaker 2: we get money for our pool if we can save
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  Speaker 2: some money there we can spend somewhere else for the
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  Speaker 2: community and the.
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  Speaker 1: Like with the swimming club and the water polo and
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  Speaker 1: the different clubs that use it, have they been consulted
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  Speaker 1: with to make sure that it's going to fit their
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  Speaker 1: needs as well, because they're there every day.
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  Speaker 4: We've been talking to them for the past year and
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  Speaker 4: a half. We had all the advice.
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  Speaker 2: We incorporated what they wanted to our design, and this
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  Speaker 2: is what we go out and says, we want this,
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  Speaker 2: and they have to have this and this and this
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  Speaker 2: and this, this pull, this are training pull, so many
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  Speaker 2: lanes and everything else. Otherwise the attenders don't know what
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  Speaker 2: we actually do it for. So we have to provide
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  Speaker 2: all this information.
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  Speaker 1: So it is going to have like the you know,
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  Speaker 1: the actual ten lines, and it's going to be deep
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  Speaker 1: enough that they'll be able to have some accountables.
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  Speaker 4: And absolutely we want something that actually can be used.
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  Speaker 2: We don't want something that looks good but nobody can
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  Speaker 2: use it because does comply with the standards. And let's
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  Speaker 2: make clear, we don't make it because swimming pools are
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  Speaker 2: fifties a short. We do it because at the moment
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  Speaker 2: it's a it's a money pit. We have to maintain,
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  Speaker 2: and we have to spend money, we have to get
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  Speaker 2: new equipment. None of that complies with modern standards. The
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  Speaker 2: chlorination facility is archaic, should be in a museum. All
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  Speaker 2: the fittings are really have to be read fixed. It
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  Speaker 2: costs salt. That's money to maint every year. It's like
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  Speaker 2: buying a car and spending ten thousand dollars a year.
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  Speaker 4: Go and buy a new one. You pay up front
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  Speaker 4: and then you've got a car that works.
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  Speaker 1: So with the money, though, if you're not able to
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  Speaker 1: get the federal government funding, will you be able to
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  Speaker 1: do it on the same scale as what you're hoping to.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, the councilor is in very very good financial safe.
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  Speaker 2: We've got money, we've got reserves, we're very prudent how
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  Speaker 2: we spend the money.
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  Speaker 4: I locate the money.
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  Speaker 2: And also we can actually utilize our reserves to get
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  Speaker 2: an officert account so we can borrow some money and
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  Speaker 2: we pay no interest on that one. So we can
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  Speaker 2: do that one because we've got the financial capability to
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  Speaker 2: do it well.
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  Speaker 1: And look, the reason I ask is because I know
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  Speaker 1: that there's a lot of chattering around the place at
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  Speaker 1: the moment about the Casuarina Pool and a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people concerned that maybe the council is not going to
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  Speaker 1: be able to afford to do it, or not going
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  Speaker 1: to be able to do it at the same budget.
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  Speaker 4: Initially the budget, it's in the budget, it's in this
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  Speaker 4: year's budget.
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  Speaker 2: If we could afford to do it, we will not
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  Speaker 2: be putting in the budget we said we.
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  Speaker 1: Did that budget include the federal government funding forecasting with
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  Speaker 1: the federal govern.
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  Speaker 4: We have people put real money. We don't put what
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  Speaker 4: we might get.
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  Speaker 2: Like you make your monthly budgesses and I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: win a lot next week, Well it might not happen,
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  Speaker 2: so don't.
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  Speaker 4: Incorporate it now.
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  Speaker 1: Con I also know that the Darwin City councilor has
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  Speaker 1: recently launched a new portal called your Darwin.
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  Speaker 3: What is this exactly?
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  Speaker 2: If you want to know how the council is using
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  Speaker 2: your money as a ratepayer or the money we received
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  Speaker 2: from the government, go and have a look at your
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  Speaker 2: Darwin portal that tells you everything about council functions, how
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  Speaker 2: where we spend money, how many those we register, how
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  Speaker 2: many cats we register, how many park we've got For
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  Speaker 2: your information, We've got two hundred and twenty parks that
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  Speaker 2: exclude the sporting venues and playgrounds and open spaces. Parks
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  Speaker 2: is four and a half million square meters in Doarwin,
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  Speaker 2: one of the biggest cities in parks in the area.
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  Speaker 2: You can find this information as part of the Open
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  Speaker 2: Darwin open government platform. And we want you to know
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  Speaker 2: exactly what we're doing, because if you don't know, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people go out and make them our own
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: conspiracy theories. You can't make a conspiracy theory because it's
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: here in black and white. Actually it's in color with
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  Speaker 2: a lot of photographs and pie charts and everything.
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  Speaker 1: I've got an email here from Peter and it says,
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  Speaker 1: good on your corn plant, the points the honers. Sure
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  Speaker 1: they came from overseas, but then so did a lot
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  Speaker 1: of Darwin's population. And we pride ourselves on our multicultural society.
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  Speaker 1: So let's pride ourselves on all sorts of diversity.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you, Peter.
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  Speaker 2: Let me let your in mind that tamarin trees came
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  Speaker 2: from somewhere else, Francie pants came from somewhere else. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: when cis came from somewhere else, We've got golden kens
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  Speaker 2: came from somewhere else. If you look at Darwin Yachsterday,
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  Speaker 2: you'll find a lot of plans that came from somewhere
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  Speaker 2: else and adapted very well in Darwin. And if you
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  Speaker 2: use it carefully, they don't become weeds, because what is
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  Speaker 2: a weed?
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  Speaker 4: Something you don't look after someone.
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  Speaker 1: Else's message through and said, council's very focused on planting
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  Speaker 1: trees and giving them all the way. But what happens
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  Speaker 1: in the wet season if a heap of them are
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  Speaker 1: pulled out of the ground, is that money wasted?
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  Speaker 4: Why they will pull the trees out?
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  Speaker 3: You know they fall over?
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  Speaker 2: Well, no, because that's why we're planting trees that actually
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  Speaker 2: can withstand their weight decision, can anchor themselves very well.
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  Speaker 2: That's why we had the committee to tell us what
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  Speaker 2: kind of treasure we should use, and we have used
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  Speaker 2: exactly the treas recommended by the committee.
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  Speaker 1: Well, contact Scaralus, the Lord Mayor of Dalla. That's just
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  Speaker 1: about it for us this morning.
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  Speaker 3: It's always good to catch up with you middle of
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  Speaker 3: the week. Hey, middle of the week.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again very soon.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 4: Good morning,