Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NTCOSS CEO Deb Di Natale says the impact of Darwin having the highest cost of living increases of all the capital cities will be devastating

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NTCOSS CEO Deb Di Natale says the impact of Darwin having the highest cost of living increases of all the capital cities will be devastating · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now we know that NT Costs has released it's thirty
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: first cost of living report and the results are probably
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: not a huge surprise to most of us. The data
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  Speaker 1: from December twenty twenty to December twenty twenty one reveals
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  Speaker 1: that Darwin had the highest increase in price movement for
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  Speaker 1: goods and services or Consumer Price Index ie CPI. Now
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  Speaker 1: that is out of all Australian capital cities. Now I
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  Speaker 1: say that it's probably not a surprise. What I mean
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  Speaker 1: is the cost of living going up is probably not
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  Speaker 1: a huge surprise. But to think that we're more expensive
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  Speaker 1: than other capital cities is actually a big surprise.
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  Speaker 2: And joining me in the studio to tell us more.
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  Speaker 1: About this is the CEO of NT Costs, deb Di Natali.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, deb.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in what areas are we seeing some of the biggest
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  Speaker 1: increases when it comes to that cost of living?
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  Speaker 3: Look, probably the biggest take home message in terms of
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  Speaker 3: our cost of living report this year are NT Costs
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  Speaker 3: released is a cost of living report every quarter we've
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  Speaker 3: moved to do two a year is that Territorians are
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  Speaker 3: just doing it tough across the board. So if you
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  Speaker 3: go out to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, those prices
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  Speaker 3: have gone up. If you go out to fill your
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  Speaker 3: car full of petrol, those prices have gone up. And
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  Speaker 3: what you hear people say is, I have really noticed
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  Speaker 3: this in my day to day stuff. So the data
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  Speaker 3: tells us that there is a reason that people are
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  Speaker 3: feeling the pinch, and the reason is that our rents
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  Speaker 3: have gone up. So if you have a look across
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  Speaker 3: the country, our rents have gone up eight percent and
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  Speaker 3: the rest of the country it's gone up zero four percent.
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  Speaker 3: And I think what we always thought was living in
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  Speaker 3: Darwin was pretty affordable, but now what we find is
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  Speaker 3: actually living in Sydney and Melbourne is much more affordable
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  Speaker 3: in terms of the rental increase than it is in Darwin.
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  Speaker 3: And that's a pretty big jump in terms of across
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  Speaker 3: the country.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, when you look at the working class,
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  Speaker 1: so those of us that have jobs that CPI, it's
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  Speaker 1: well above really your wage increases, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely? And I think we've heard a lot in the
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  Speaker 3: media around wage increases and what needs to happen there.
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  Speaker 3: But what we do also know is that the numbers
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  Speaker 3: that we rely on in our report and that CPI
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  Speaker 3: relies on are capital city. So we're looking at places
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  Speaker 3: like Melbourne, we're looking at Sydney, we're looking get Darwin.
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  Speaker 3: But in the northern territory. Those prices are really high
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  Speaker 3: in Darwin. But let's remember that if you live in
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  Speaker 3: rural or remote they're higher still. So people are doing
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  Speaker 3: it really tough in those areas.
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  Speaker 1: And that's, you know, again, that's for those of us
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  Speaker 1: that are working. But then if you look at somebody
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  Speaker 1: who's on a lower income or who is obviously reliant,
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  Speaker 1: you know, on government payments, it's even harder.
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  Speaker 3: I would suspect absolutely, and I'm sure you'll listeners will
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  Speaker 3: be thinking about how is it that people who are
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  Speaker 3: on job seeker are living on forty six dollars a
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  Speaker 3: day and that they're able to pay rent, utilities and
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  Speaker 3: day to day living. And it's even harder, of course
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  Speaker 3: for people who have got children, who are thinking, I've
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  Speaker 3: actually got to try and send the kids to school.
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  Speaker 3: There's extra cost in terms of excursions, there's extra cost
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  Speaker 3: in terms of medication. I'm not quite sure that I
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  Speaker 3: can make ends meet this week.
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  Speaker 1: It's so bloody hard to put it really bluntly, for
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  Speaker 1: so many families. And then you know, if you've got
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  Speaker 1: children that are still in childcare as well, the cost
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  Speaker 1: of child care is incredibly expensive, and it just seems
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  Speaker 1: as though, you know, you go to fill your vehicle up,
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  Speaker 1: the price of petrol is astronomical.
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  Speaker 2: The place that I've probably noticed.
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  Speaker 1: At the most is when you go to do your
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  Speaker 1: food shopping and you know, you're doing the same shopping
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  Speaker 1: that you've been doing for the last couple of years,
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  Speaker 1: but all of a sudden, it's costing you a heck
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  Speaker 1: of a lot more money than what.
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  Speaker 2: It used to do.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, So what kind of things can be done to
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  Speaker 1: really sort of try to ease what is a massive
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  Speaker 1: burden for so many people at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: There's a role for government to play in this, So
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  Speaker 3: both the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory government can work
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  Speaker 3: together in terms of affordable housing, subsidized rental target, affordable
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  Speaker 3: home ownership. And one of the biggest policy positive implementation
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  Speaker 3: that the Commonwealth government could do is to raise the
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  Speaker 3: rate of job seeker. So what we do when we
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  Speaker 3: do that is we generate money into the economy and
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  Speaker 3: we enable people to get out of poverty. Forty six
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  Speaker 3: dollars a day is not enough for people to be
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  Speaker 3: able to live a life where there is dignity. So
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  Speaker 3: the single biggest thing that they could do is raise
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  Speaker 3: the rate, not just ant costs, but every cause around
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  Speaker 3: the country has been campaigning for that for a number
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  Speaker 3: of years now, and some of that, some of the
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  Speaker 3: concession scheme and increasing affordable housing would all go a
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  Speaker 3: long way to making life easier for territorians who are
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  Speaker 3: doing it tough.
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  Speaker 1: Now, what about you know that's obviously on the federal scale,
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  Speaker 1: and then when you look at on the territory scale,
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  Speaker 1: you've spoken about that land release or affordable housing. How
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  Speaker 1: about you know, with those petrol prices, I know that
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  Speaker 1: we've spoken a lots over recent weeks and months about
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  Speaker 1: despite the fuel excise, so the cut to the fuel excise,
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  Speaker 1: and despite the fact that the terminal gate price sort
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  Speaker 1: of ebbs and flows goes up and down, we don't
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  Speaker 1: really see it going down too much either.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, is there more pressure that.
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  Speaker 1: Could be put on some of those petrol companies and
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  Speaker 1: things like that as well?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, there are a number of measures that we could implement,
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  Speaker 3: and some of those would be having government lobby to
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  Speaker 3: those petrol companies to say that for people who are
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  Speaker 3: doing it tough, what measures can you put in place
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  Speaker 3: in terms of running a responsible business to ensure that
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  Speaker 3: people can still afford petrol, getting their car, go to
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  Speaker 3: work everyday day, or drop their kids off to school
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  Speaker 3: every day.
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  Speaker 2: What's going to happen if we don't see some action
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  Speaker 2: in this space.
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  Speaker 3: Well, if we don't see action, we're going to drive
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  Speaker 3: people further into poverty. We know that when you live
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  Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory, you're twelve times more likely to
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  Speaker 3: be homeless than if you live in any other part
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  Speaker 3: of the country. And what we are going to see
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  Speaker 3: are more people sleeping rough and we're going to see
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  Speaker 3: huge pressure on social services. They're already at capacity, but
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  Speaker 3: we will see people trying to access food bank and
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  Speaker 3: trying to access homeless shelters, and that is not a
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  Speaker 3: good place for us to be. So let's think about
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  Speaker 3: this and let's try and implement the policy so that
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  Speaker 3: we can avoid what will be a catastrophe for people
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  Speaker 3: who are living in poverty.
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  Speaker 1: It did say then that some of those support services
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  Speaker 1: are already at capacity. Have you got are there some
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  Speaker 1: examples of how it's going for some of those services
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  Speaker 1: at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we know that food Bank, for example, is saying
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  Speaker 3: to us that have had they have had more people
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  Speaker 3: come through their door than ever before. The demand was
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  Speaker 3: so high. They opened up in Alice Springs and their
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  Speaker 3: warehouse was empty within days. And we have to remember
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  Speaker 3: that food Bank is for a very particular cohort of
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  Speaker 3: Territorians who can't afford to go to woolies. Like we're
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  Speaker 3: here talking about the prices of groceries having gone up
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  Speaker 3: at our local woolies or the local IgA. There are
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  Speaker 3: people that are locked out of that particular grocery list
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  Speaker 3: for let's just say, for the next few years to come,
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  Speaker 3: and the only place that they can access really good
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  Speaker 3: fresh fruit and vege and that they can afford to
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  Speaker 3: do it is at food Bank. Now, food Bank is
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  Speaker 3: already at capacity. So what do we do if we
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  Speaker 3: already have more people that are lining up at the door.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes it really tough.
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  Speaker 1: One of the other things that I always worry about
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  Speaker 1: when you talk about the cost of life here in
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  Speaker 1: the territory and it being so high the present time,
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  Speaker 1: is you know, we're also really trying to fill a
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  Speaker 1: lot of jobs in the Northern Territory. We're trying to
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  Speaker 1: push our workforce, we are trying to grow the territory.
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  Speaker 2: How big an impact.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that this cost of living has then
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  Speaker 1: on trying to fill those workforce shortages and trying to
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  Speaker 1: boost the population.
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  Speaker 3: It has an enormous impact. So you think about when
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  Speaker 3: people actually are employment seekers and they are looking for jobs,
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  Speaker 3: what they need is they need a phone that has
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  Speaker 3: got a phone card that's completely charged so they can
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  Speaker 3: take those calls and organize the interviews. They need to
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  Speaker 3: be able to have money to put petrol in the
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  Speaker 3: car so they can attend their interviews. And if you
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  Speaker 3: are living in poverty, it is absolutely impossible to be
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  Speaker 3: able to put yourself on an equal playing field when
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  Speaker 3: there are jobs advertised.
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  Speaker 1: Well, debrah Dinatali, it's always really interesting to speak to you,
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  Speaker 1: But I think this cost of living report that has
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  Speaker 1: been released it makes for some pretty tough reading, I think.
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  Speaker 2: But as I said at the.
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  Speaker 1: Start, I know it's probably not surprising for a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people listening this morning how high the cost of
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  Speaker 1: living is right now. But to think that we're more
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  Speaker 1: expensive than some of those major capital cities. Is quite unbelievable.
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  Speaker 3: It's a real It is a huge concern and I'm
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  Speaker 3: sure your listeners who are paying rent at certainly feeling
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  Speaker 3: the pinch because the rents have gone up and without
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  Speaker 3: the wage increase. We know that this is why people
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  Speaker 3: are feeling like they're doing it tough, because they are well.
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  Speaker 1: Deborah Tina Tari, the CEO of NT, costs lovely to
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  Speaker 1: speak with you this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time.