Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And joining us live in the studio is the Lord
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Mayor of Darwin conbat Scarlets.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Good morning Coln, Good morning Katie. And looks like Christmas
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: is going to be a very interesting affair this.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Year, isn't it. You know, we know that we've got
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: an additional hot spot with South Australia. Now it's looking
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: like Melbourne will be open though it looks like it.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: But again, we have got a vaccine, so you only
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: get another person or two or three persons to be
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: sick with coronavirus and then we're back in the spot
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: where we're about six months ago. We have to be
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: very very careful. And I heard the Chief Health Officert
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: today say we become complacent. I think we have. And
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: just driving around down Friday night at the different bargs,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: you can see what's happening. I think we are complacant.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: So guys, take all of disinfected again, clean your hands,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: rub it around and keep your distance because the last
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: thing we need is to have this one here and down. Yes,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: we're lucky until now and we've done the right thing,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: but one mistake can ruin everything.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well we are going to talk more about it.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: We're going to catch up with the Australian Medical Soation
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit later this morning, Con, I've got a
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: message here from one of our listeners, get Ikiti. When
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Con comes on this morning, could you please ask him
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: now that the unimproved capital value of my property has
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: decreased by twenty five thousand dollars, will my rights decrease? Accordingly,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: says that tech stuff.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well, I'd love to because I will be benefiting two.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: But the reality is the uniprove capital values can go
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: up and down. Don't remember anybody ringing saying, oh my
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: any proof capital value went out by one hundred and
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars. Can you please increase my rates? Because
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: the antipro capital value does not erect related to the rates.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: The rates are actually the fast ere of all of
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: us pay for the service provided by council. Yes, sometimes
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: then proof capital value will go down. However, I haven't
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: seen any of our contracts, for example, to remove rubbish
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: or maintain parks going down. They keep going up. We
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: have to find this money. The only option is with COVID,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: we kept the rates zero, increase nothing at all. Nobody
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: paid any extra. The only way to do the same
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: thing is to cut services. Now, if you don't like
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: your libraries or your parks mode every four weeks, or
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: a childcare center subsidy, or the parks having lights, please
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: let me know and we'll consider it. Their rags will
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: it's zero until the end of the financial year. Then
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: when the new budget comes we reconsider it. We don't
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: want to make My intention is actually not to rely
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: heavily on rags to finance the council. If we can
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: find a way to utilize the property, we've got to
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: make money in order to keep the raids cupped somewhere,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: that would be the idea. But until that happened, rates
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: we have to either increase moderately or if there is
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: a COVID situation again, council has to consider what we'll do.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Con One of the other questions that was put to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: me was actually someone got in contact with us here
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: at the station last week was about the trees on
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Kavanagh Straight, So the ones outside you know where the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: stonehouses and a few of those thereas that there. Apparently
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: some of those trees have been removed.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Yes they have, and they they were removed because they
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: were actually about to die or fall down. Unfortunately, the
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: trees when we're planted at the time, we're not planned
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: it properly. Putting a tree and covered with bitchumen, that's
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: nothing for the roots of the system. It cooks them.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: And because they were cooked, these trees will not grow.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Look at the trees in Garamilla one year now, how
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: beautiful they look. And this tree has been there for
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: thirty years and they do nothing, nothing at all. We
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: have to actually make sure that the trees, and we
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: have done that. The trees will plant. Now they're plant properly,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: so they're not cooked by the bitchmen and they keep growing.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: So will they be replaced?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: They be replaced. That's the next plant we're doing. Look
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: at the other side of Cabanas Street, how beautiful the
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: trees look, how quickly they grow. This one they're struggling.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: How many did you have to remove?
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: We actually removed about four and there are another four
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: to be removed. But it's actually the space between the
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Nake Street and the post office. But they will be
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: replaced with trees that we plant it properly, so we
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: avoid the same mistakes when we dug out.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: That's what's rights with me is because apparently there's some
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: type of little bird that actually they goes in there?
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Will they then go to the new trees.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Wildlife is very versatile. They will find another tree to
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: perch very very quickly. The other thing, of course is
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: we'll put the right trees and they keep growing, will
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: attract worldwidelife in the m trees.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: All right, con quite a few or quite a bit
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: has happened since the last time we spoke, and I
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: understand that the Darwin community are going to be the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: beneficiaries of a new public art project in Bisentennial Park.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: The dream of my life. We are I mean, we
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: did with the murals and everybody loves them, but we
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: need more than the murals. The only public art I
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: can see at the moment is the statue of Stuart
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: in them all and that's it, whim seeing anything else.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: So what we're doing now with partner with the Larrakia people,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: we want to develop a public sculpture that Bystandia Park
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: to represent the Larrakia people of the Darwin So we
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: release a tender. My dream is actually to start with
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: that and then depict all the social history of Darwin.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: We know we came to have the Chinese came here
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: to build a railway and go to the the gold mines.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Why we don't have this there? We had Indonesian people
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: coming here, Why would they have this there? Where the Greeks,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: the kid the team is why we don't have in
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: the lark in the Pasidenta Park a series of statues
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: of these people that actually contributes completely to.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: The I reckon we get made a few mite Because
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: we're so multicultural in the North.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: We can do it. We can do it. They don't
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: have to be massive. We can actually can see other
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: places a serious I mean twenty statues lined up and
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: each of them represent facts of lives in that particular city.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: We can do it here, and we will start doing it,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: and we can do public art and other places, not
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: only the the Larochie sculpture.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: When can we expect? When is that? When are you
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: hoping to get have that sort of im place we want?
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: We're going out for tender. We're going to release a
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: tender and we'll see what people come up with, and
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: then we'll make a decisions which one will pick up.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: The moment you pick up something, it's very quick to
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: develop it. It's just going through the decided to make
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: something like that and then putting out the ten.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Well conbat scaluts. It's always good to catch up anything
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: else we should know about very quickly.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Well, if you had a chance to look at an
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: annual report, which as we released last week, that was
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: a great reading because it shows everything we did to
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: keep the raids capped at zero percent increase, to employ
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the Green Army, the money we sped to actually bail
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: out the city through the COVID nineteen. The other thing
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: that's actually very very proud of Kate is council now
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: has the very first reconciliation action plan. All these years
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: living in a multicultural city, as you said, with a
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: big population being of a digitous origin, we never had
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: an a reconciliation plan. Now we do one, and I
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: thank very much everybody from the council who countriveted the
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: creation of this one and also reach a Figil. He
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: came to the launch and he performed the first ever
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: salt water ceremony in Lake Alexander, which thirty years and
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: now I've never seen it before. It was absolutely fantastic
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: and it shows how well we can work together with
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: our indigenous people and how well we can learn from them,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: and how well can work to make this place a
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: beautiful place and a better place.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Absolutely combat scarlets, Lord Mayor of Darwin. Good to catch
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: up with you.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: And when you leave, now just drive down Smith Street.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: We just finished the.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Beautific knocking off. Now I've got to stie on.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Two mid die that's okay. Mid Days is a better
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: than light is better.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Good on. You can't thank you