Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis on the new Darwin Waterfront proposal, and the Darwin Bombing 80th anniversary

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Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis on the new Darwin Waterfront proposal, and the Darwin Bombing 80th anniversary · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me live in the studio as he does every
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Wednesday morning. The Lord Mayor of Darwin convat Scalas. Good
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: morning to you.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morn Ict, Good morning listeners. What a beautiful day
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: out there. It reminds me a bit of the drive
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: if you take into consideration the humidity it's on as
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: we can see the sun. Yeah, exactly, that's very true.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: And I hope it will last until Saturday.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, because gon we know the eightieth anniversary of the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: bombing of Darwin commemorations. It's going to be a big
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: day on Saturday down there at the ESPANAB What can
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: we expect?
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  Speaker 2: Big things. We're going to have the Prime Minister here,
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  Speaker 2: the leader of the Opposition, the Governor General, the Abbassador
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: of Japan, the Abbust of tim Or Leicester, ambassadors from
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  Speaker 2: or represents from Canada, England and a number of other nations,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: and of course thousands of people. I hope hopefully the
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: weather will stay like it is today. I've been when
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: it's raining down heavily, but I've been to beautiful days,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: but it's always humid. The guests this year will be
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: a young man of one hundred and one years only
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  Speaker 2: Brian Winspear, who is one of the few survival veterans
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: who was here during the bombing of Darway.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: And of course there would be a lot of descendants
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  Speaker 2: of the civilians and the families they had to leave
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  Speaker 2: Darwin after the bombing. They were evacuated down south and
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  Speaker 2: a lot of their names now at the Civilian World,
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  Speaker 2: which is actually adjacent to the Eternal Flame.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no doubt it's going to be an incredible morning.
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  Speaker 1: And like you said, a lot of dignitaries and no
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  Speaker 1: doubt a lot of Territorians down there to really remember
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  Speaker 1: those lives that were lost.
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  Speaker 2: The presence of so many dignitaries. It's important because certainly
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: would be transmitted throughout Australia yep, so a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people there were finally know that actually Australia was attacked
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: in nineteen forty two. Finally they would know that the
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: bombing took place in Darwin and many other places in
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  Speaker 2: Northern Australia because not many people know about Darwin. A
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: lot of people know about Berjaba, but very few people
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: or not the majority of people know about Darway.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: It always astonishes me the way, like you said, they
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: know a lot about Pearl Harbor, but don't seem to
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  Speaker 1: know much about the bombing of Darwen.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Katie, I was very surprised when I first came
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: to Australia to find out actually I didn't know anything
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: about Darwis I found out later when I came to Darway.
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  Speaker 2: But it was not in the curriculum, the history books.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: How people got to know about what happened in Australia
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  Speaker 2: if it's not in their books when they got to school.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I know a lot about the European history in Second
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: World War because we were taught about it in high school.
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  Speaker 2: It seems here something when missing and Darwin was not
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: mentioned in any of these books.
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  Speaker 1: So con what exactly can people expect on Saturday? What
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: time do things kick off? And what can I expect?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Well, we started on thirty because we have the reenactment
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: about two minutes to ten when in nineteen forty two
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  Speaker 2: the Japanese attacked Darwin for first time, and because there
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: were many many attacks followed after that, what expect the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: reenactment again loud noise, use, the cannons, the machine guns,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: but most importantly remembering what happened here eighty years ago
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  Speaker 2: and that shows a strong message to all Australians that
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  Speaker 2: we are not immune anymore. We're not an isolated island.
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  Speaker 2: If we were attacked in nineteen forty two with that
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  Speaker 2: very old technology, it can happen again. So we should
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  Speaker 2: learn from mistakes of the back of the past not
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  Speaker 2: to be very bit in the future. Despite the war
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: was raging our area, darnwe was illy equipped, not many airplanes,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: not much equipment, very ill trained armed forces. Hopefully that
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: is not happened now because I'm aware that we've got
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Tindo based Darwin, we've got the here Larrakia Patrol Base
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and a very big contingent of defense forces. But we
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: have to be always prepared. You never know what happens
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: in this very unstable world we leave. Just look at
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Ukraine and look at Taiwan.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Corn, I know that there's plenty of other things
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: happening around the place at the moment. But one of
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the big announcements, it was my earlier in the week,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Sam Burke, the general manager of the Darwin Waterfront, had
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: joined us on the show and had actually spoken to
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: us about the proposal that they've got down there for
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the waterfront. It looks absolutely spectacular. Is this something that
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the council is supporting or does it compete with some
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: of your plans.
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  Speaker 2: I was very pleased when Sam invited us to brief
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  Speaker 2: us about the waterfront and I was very proud to
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  Speaker 2: see that something that I started as a minister, now
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  Speaker 2: it's going to the second stage, is going to be
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  Speaker 2: bigger and better. I love the design, I love the concept.
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  Speaker 2: If we're going to compete with other Australian cities as
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: a destination, we have have to have something to offer
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: in the national and national tourists. We supported. We're very
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: very keen, I said to the Chief Minister, we're very
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: very happy to work with them. By looking at it,
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  Speaker 2: I said, where are you going to park all the
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: castle or the people will come? And he said, well
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: that's a good idea. So well it's the right time
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: we're developing our civic center.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Now if we can work together, we can increase the
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  Speaker 2: parking space in the civic center area so people actually
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: pack there and then can have a shuttle bus or
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  Speaker 2: they can work down the waterfront. Ye, it's a really
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  Speaker 2: good idea. The other thing I said, well, you're developing
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the now the waterfront and you need money from the
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  Speaker 2: federal government. We have ready to go the Lame Rock Coast,
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  Speaker 2: which then compliments that area. So instead of having something
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  Speaker 2: very very limited in the current small area, you have
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  Speaker 2: something that actually compliments and you have people that can
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: actually enjoy themselves have a surf in the waterfront area,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: but then they can go and walk and take dinner,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: develop bus exactly. And the funny thing is that I
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: had already the public sector coming to me from in
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: the state saying that I'm very interested to work with
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: the government and the council to put money to develop
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the lamar Roo coasts. At the same time, and you know,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: when you go to federal government says both the state
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: government or the territory government and the council support this project,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: it's more likely to get your money rather than just
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: one group says we want to money.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, look, I think that it sounds that there's
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: plenty happening around the place. Hey, com one of the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: things that I happen meaning to ask you is I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: know that you're on the hunt for a new CEO
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: as well. When does Scott finish up?
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: It's finishing the day after the bombing of Darwin. He
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: is a living town. We've got a neither CEO on
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: ar Simon Saunders, and we already start the process to
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: recruit the new CEO the election. This election committee is
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: in place, recruitment agency had been engaged. From what I'm
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: really pleased to tell you is that the recruitment agency
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: told us the moment it became public there was a
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: vacancy for CEO and Darwin. They had lots and lots
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: of phone calls from high caliber candidates where they said
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: they want to work in an innovative country like Dowain.
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  Speaker 1: Right, so you reckon, they're banging on the door. They're
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: ready to come to the terrace.
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  Speaker 2: Just like it. I'm looking forward to get the right person,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: man or woman for the job. And it's a great job.
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  Speaker 2: It's a great location. You can bring your family and
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: live here, but it is a must no negotiable and
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: no flying flyouts. And of course it gives you an
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: innovative council with a lot of new ideas and big
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: projects to happen in the next few years.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I know, just very quickly
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: those parklets. So that's something that we've seen around Darwin
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: over the dry season, mostly so those smaller areas that
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: have sort of taken up those car park spaces for
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a bit of elfresco dining. Depending on what business you've
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: got around the city, is that something that you're going
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to have again or kick off again?
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Yes we are. We only saw one in front of
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  Speaker 2: the good things.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: The thing is that in other states like Perth, Fremandel
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: in Queensland, there are a lot of parklets. What we
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: did now we went out for expersion of windows for
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: a manufacturer. We want to develop the same design so
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: they don't look hotspot and they will manufacture them and
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: then we list them to the companies and they can
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: list them put in front of the car park their
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: own car park space as long as a parallel car park.
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  Speaker 1: So one in one sposh, because what's gonna happen if
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: one shops not happy or they don't want that spot.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Now it is if a shop is there, let's go
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: to parklet and people come there for our fresco. The
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: shops next to them will benefit the more. They will
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: have more exposure. That's what happens down south. But you're
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: not going to be able to take the spot in
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: front of another shop. Only in front of your shop,
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  Speaker 2: and it has to be nicely designed so we look attractive.
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  Speaker 2: Not the biggest fis.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, contact Scarlus, the Lord Mayor of Dow and
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: we are going to have to leave it there for today.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Always good to catch up with you.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: We'll talk to you next week. You will not next
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: week and a little shop holiday, but certainly i'll be
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: the week after all right.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Sounds good. We'll see you again very soon.