Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Planning Action Network convener Nicholas Kirlew

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Katie Woolf spoke with Planning Action Network convener Nicholas Kirlew · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Well, you may have seen over the last few days
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  Speaker 1: some photos appear and talk of a two hundred million
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: dollar luxury five star hotel coming to Darwin, so in
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  Speaker 1: what some have dubbed as a sign of confidence in
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  Speaker 1: Darwin's economic future, this five star hotel and apartment development
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  Speaker 1: is being planned to help position the city as a
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  Speaker 1: leading business and tourist destination. That is what the developers
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  Speaker 1: are saying now. It's a two hundred million dollar development.
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  Speaker 1: It is planned for Little Mindle, which I know some
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  Speaker 1: people are probably feeling a bit concerned about, others maybe
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  Speaker 1: thinking this sounds like a fantastic thing. But joining us
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  Speaker 1: on the line now to talk a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: about it from their perspective is Nicholas Curlew, the Planning
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  Speaker 1: Action Network CONVENA. Good morning to you, Nicholas.
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  Speaker 2: Morning, thank you for having me on. Yeah, great to have.
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  Speaker 1: You on the show. Nicholas. What do you think of
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  Speaker 1: this proposal for this five star hotel at Little Mindle.
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  Speaker 2: It's a tough one. This site, the Little Middle Side
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  Speaker 2: goes back a long way. In two thousand and six,
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  Speaker 2: Deally A. Lorrie, the Minister for Planning and Lands, guaranteed
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  Speaker 2: to protect the foreshore for the community. So the whole
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  Speaker 2: little middle side was public space, and then it was
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  Speaker 2: sold to the casino. And the casino then remember when
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  Speaker 2: they did that expansion on the other side with the
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  Speaker 2: pool and all the new the deal was, they can
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  Speaker 2: build there as long as they leave the front half
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  Speaker 2: of Little Mindle open. And that's why there's that huge
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  Speaker 2: area where they had the dance, you know, the cup
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  Speaker 2: ball and things like that events. Anyway, so we've always
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  Speaker 2: gone on the assumption that what the Labor Party did
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  Speaker 2: then when they were in government was to protect Little
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  Speaker 2: Mindle for the use of the public of the community.
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  Speaker 2: The other concept that we really like is the bowl.
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  Speaker 2: So you've got the botanical gardens, you've got the golf course,
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  Speaker 2: you've got all this beautiful open space, and the casino
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  Speaker 2: is the one thing that sticks out, and that's been
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  Speaker 2: done and we can't change that. But it's a magnificent
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  Speaker 2: gift to the future, this open space so close to
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  Speaker 2: the heart of the city and to see it in
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  Speaker 2: one sweep. Now we've got less than twenty twenty eight
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  Speaker 2: days for the community to get themselves in order. The
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  Speaker 2: Development Consent Authority tends to just to prove these things.
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  Speaker 2: Another point we would make is we know that we're
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  Speaker 2: in government and both the agencies and the politicians there's
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  Speaker 2: a real reluctance to build on the foreshore. Now they
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  Speaker 2: understand that we can't if you give away that asset
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  Speaker 2: that's gone forever. The distance between the road, remember the espanard.
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  Speaker 2: Recently four hundred people were knocking on constore at the
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  Speaker 2: council and they backed away. There's a strong desire to
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  Speaker 2: keep that space. It's traditional Australian esperanade open space park
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  Speaker 2: between the road and the beach.
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  Speaker 1: So Nicholas, I mean some people listening might be thinking, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I love the idea of a beautiful luxury hotel down there.
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  Speaker 1: Others will be really feeling quite worried about it. You
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  Speaker 1: said that there is obviously twenty eight days to make comment.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, what like from your perspective and from the
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  Speaker 1: Planning Action Network's perspective, what's the main concern here? Is
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  Speaker 1: it the fact that you'd rather keep it as that
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  Speaker 1: green space.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we would typically try and hold the government to
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  Speaker 2: the promises that were made before by previous you know,
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  Speaker 2: like we think a resort would be fantastic. There's no
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  Speaker 2: point in turning back the tie. Darn needs something to
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  Speaker 2: trigger longer than three day stays. But look at all
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  Speaker 2: the brown land from Fisherman's War, from the Duck Pond,
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  Speaker 2: all the way up that hill. For two hundred million dollars,
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  Speaker 2: we could build an artificial beach. Or look at Mandora.
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  Speaker 2: What an amazing site for a building. This building, by
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  Speaker 2: the way, we know the architects have never been to
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  Speaker 2: Darli because what they've drawn here just isn't territory. It's
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  Speaker 2: just something totally an anathema to how we leave and
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  Speaker 2: how we are. The rock wall in front of the casino, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: where's the rock wall in front of these stories? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, we will make sure that we'll try and
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  Speaker 1: share some of those photos up on the Mix one
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  Speaker 1: O four nine facebook page as well, so people can
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  Speaker 1: get a bit of a better idea of what the
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  Speaker 1: developer is proposing. Nikki did say that, you know that
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  Speaker 1: when Delia Laurie was the minister, she'd made a commitment
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  Speaker 1: that that area wouldn't be developed. What's changed in those
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  Speaker 1: last few years?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, there's the casino was sold and this block of
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  Speaker 2: land didn't get sold. So I think there's a new Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: SkyCity is a New Zealand company, right, so they now
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  Speaker 2: don't operate a casino and dahn, but they own a
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  Speaker 2: block of land that's worth about six point one million dollars.
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  Speaker 2: They tried to sell it for that about a year
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  Speaker 2: and a half ago. What we feel is happening is
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  Speaker 2: if they put get a development Consent Authority approval on
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  Speaker 2: that block of land, it becomes much worth much more,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the uncertainty is removed, the obligation to respect
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  Speaker 2: community has gone.
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  Speaker 3: They then will be able to trade away that block
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  Speaker 3: of land, will probably then get a totally different hotel
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  Speaker 3: proposal from the new owners of the land.
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  Speaker 2: So that all of that's conjecture. Of course, I have
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  Speaker 2: no understanding. I'm not at any of those tables, but
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  Speaker 2: that's the change. A New Zealand company, who by the way,
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  Speaker 2: made a lot of money out of the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 2: and ran a casino here for many years, have now
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  Speaker 2: walked away and said, well, you know what, those deals
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  Speaker 2: we made or those agreements we made, we're just turning
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  Speaker 2: our back on it, and that we feel let down
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  Speaker 2: by that as well only community.
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  Speaker 1: Nick, I really appreciate you having a chat with us
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  Speaker 1: this morning. Like I say, I know some people will
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  Speaker 1: be in total agreement with you. Others might be feeling
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  Speaker 1: like they'd like to see something happen down there at
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  Speaker 1: Little Mindal, whether it's a hotel or whether it's something else.
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  Speaker 1: But no doubt we'll get plenty of feedback this morning.
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  Speaker 1: But just if you can just remind our listeners as
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  Speaker 1: well if they do want to have their say, there
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  Speaker 1: is still twenty eight days. Where can they head to.
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  Speaker 2: It's a bit less than twenty eight now, okay ye
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  Speaker 2: first of next month, we are having a rally on
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  Speaker 2: Saturday at five pm at Little Mindle so people can
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  Speaker 2: come down there, will help them. You know, their planned website.
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  Speaker 2: I've extracted all of the attachments so people can easily access.
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  Speaker 2: It's one hundred and twenty five megabytes of data. You've
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  Speaker 2: got to read head around the project oil. It's developed.
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  Speaker 2: The NT government have a development site and you go
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  Speaker 2: there and you can download the ZIP file and unpack it.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, get in touch with plan if you've got concerns.
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  Speaker 2: We'll be happy to help in any way we can.
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  Speaker 1: Nicholas Kurlow from the Planning Action Network, thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for having a chat with us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Kedy, thank you