Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Minister Eva Lawler on how the announcement for underground powerlines in Darwin's suburbs will be rolled out, starting in July

Transcript

Minister Eva Lawler on how the announcement for underground powerlines in Darwin's suburbs will be rolled out, starting in July · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know the Northern Territory government has said that they're
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: going to allocate sixty million dollars over the next six
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: years to install underground power in Darwin suburbs that still
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: have polls and overheadlines. If you live in an older
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: suburb you'll certainly understand, particularly if you're out without power
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: for some time during cyclone markers. Now we know that
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the Essential Services Minister, Ever Lawla, is going to be
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: announcing further details about how the money will be allocated
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory budget. But essentially it will mean
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: that some of those older suburbs work is going to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: get underway. And joining me on the line to tell
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: us a little bit more is the Minister for Essential Services,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Evil Lawla, good morning to you. Good morning Cathy Minister.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: What infrastructure are we talking about with this announcement? Is
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: it is it the lines that go into each and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: every street or is it some of that larger infrastructure
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: in different suburbs.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: So it is the high voltage line. So it's sixty
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: million dollars over six years and this will underground those
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: high voltage things structure. So this is the next stage.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: The first stage obviously worked for the schools. It was
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: obviously important to make sure that our classroom stayed open
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: in the advent of a cyclone or the recovery period.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I just had a big storm. But this funding is
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: for the next stage, which is around the high voltage line.
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  Speaker 2: There will then be subsequent stages with the low voltage
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  Speaker 2: and then finally the customer of property connections.
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  Speaker 1: Minister. I know some people will be questioning just how
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: far it's going to go. I know that when the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: initial sort of announcement was made many years ago, I
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: thought it was about three hundred million that was going
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: to be spent on undergrading the powers.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, so it will be substantial. And this is for
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the first stage KDI, which is sixty million, which will
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: do the high voltage and power and water of its
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: size that will make significant improvements in the system. So
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: it will mean that that we less outages and the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: return to power will be much quicker. So the low
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: voltage so will be the next stages, and then the
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: customer property connection. So the customer ones are literally the
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: ones that go from the power line into behind so
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: you can imagine how complex that is. So there is
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  Speaker 2: still work to be done, but it is a project
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  Speaker 2: that needs to be done in parts, and that's what
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: we're doing. So we'll do the next dage, which is
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: just sixty million dollars.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I know it is going to be a project which
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of people will want to see happen, but
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be massively expensive. How many suburbs is
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: this sixty million going to cover?
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  Speaker 2: So the sixty million dollars will cover all of those
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: high voltage lines, and there are broad range of suburbs,
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  Speaker 2: so it is the older suburbs in the northern the
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Northern Suburbs area, so you know, you're jingly, you're moyle
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Ala coming back to coconut growth peraps as well, So
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: it is those original suburbs I guess of Darwin. But
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the high voltage the work. This sixty million will cover
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: the high voltage lines. So the tender is being prepared
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  Speaker 2: now by Power and Water that will look at the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: profiles of those those lines, so you know, it's looking
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: at evidence such as the duration of the you know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: the outages, the density of the population around that vegetation,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the ground conditions because they've seen that with Saint John.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Saint John's is the last school to be underground out
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  Speaker 2: of those nine, and what they're found is that there
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: is substantial rock in Stuart Park and so that has
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: delayed the work at Saint John. So yeah, there's a
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: lot of work to be done to get the tender ready.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: It will be a nice big civil projects for a
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  Speaker 2: territory company to roll out. But as said, this is
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the next stage, which is the high voltage and it
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: will make a big impact on making sure that our
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: lines are resilient.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Minneso. Which suburbs are going to be first and how's
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: it going to be determined?
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: So as I said, that's the work that parent Water
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: will do through their tender process. So they'll be looking
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: at the data around the duration, how many outages are there,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: what is it, you know, issues around vegetation, the density
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: of those suburbs or those areas. So parent Water do that,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: so it probably makes it a bit fairer. Otherwise I'll
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: have lots of local members, you know, lobbying me very
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  Speaker 2: hard to make sure their suburbs are done. But it
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  Speaker 2: is around those high voltage lines, so it's across all
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  Speaker 2: suburbs the high voltage lines rather than specifically, so you know,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I think it was around two thousand that Nightcliff was done.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: That was a specific suburb. But now the program is
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: looking at looking at another way, which is all the
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: high voltage lines, then the low voltage and then those
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: customer property connections. So it's looking at it from a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: different angle. Rather than going suburb by suburb, it is
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: across all suburbs.
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  Speaker 1: And what's the timeline for Power and Water in terms
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of determining which suburb will go first and how long
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  Speaker 1: each suburb is going to take.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we want works to commence in June. So
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  Speaker 2: this is a budget announcement. So they're doing the work
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: to get the tender underway as soon as possible. We'll
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: get that tender out so that we're in the new
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: financial year we can start to to roll out this project.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: How many years do you reckon it's going to take
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  Speaker 1: before we do actually have all of those suburbs underground?
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  Speaker 1: Because I've worked for Power and Water about twelve years ago,
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  Speaker 1: and I reckon this. You know, we've been talking about
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  Speaker 1: this for so many years. It's so time consuming and
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: it is incredibly hard work.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I mean, you know, I'm a politician, so
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I can be political. But the CLP abandon the program
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: in twenty twelve, so Labor government did have a roll
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: out of that program. It was then abandoned and then
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: after Cycloe Marcus has been reinstated. But it all depends
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: on funding. So you know, our government has committed sixty
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: million dollars and so we're doing it bit by bit.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: But there may be opportunity to get the federal government
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: also to commit from additional funding for this project as well.
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  Speaker 2: And there's been talk around the resilient fund that shange
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Phone's overseen, whether there is access for funding through that
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  Speaker 2: avenue as well. So at this stage it is about
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  Speaker 2: is based on where we can get the fund from
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: the mormn turd. To government point of view, it is
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: expensive and we'll do it bit by bit, but the
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: bank of the buck around doing the high voltage is
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: very positive.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Minister Evil all that we are going to have
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  Speaker 1: to leave it there. Actually, before I let you go,
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  Speaker 1: I understand that there was another announcement this morning as
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: well about Phinislithia miss that yeah.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: So cool on Vickim. They have had their environment management
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: plan approved for their underground mind so they have to
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: put out a media release to the Stock Exchange today.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: So if you have a lithium shares, it might be
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: positive for you, but it was from Wilster to government.
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  Speaker 2: We've done the rigorous work that needed to be done
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: to assess the underground, the proposal for an underground mind
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: at poor Lithium out at the Coxtoninsula there.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: When do you reckon that's all going to get obviously
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: the environmental approval is a major part of that process.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: But when do you reckon that's going to get underway
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  Speaker 1: and be operational.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's lots, there's quite a lot already underway out there.
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  Speaker 2: I know they have a worker's camp being set up.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: They want to have local employed out there. But there's
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: already substantial work that's occurring out there. So this is
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the green light to get moving in a much more
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: quicker way. So really good news is beach jobs the
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: territorians out there and as I said, we know the
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  Speaker 2: demands look him across the Australa, across the world.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Minister for Essential Services, also Environment and plenty of
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  Speaker 1: other portfolios. Evia Laula, we always appreciate your time. Thanks
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: for chatting with me this morning. Thank you Katie, thank
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: you