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Katie Woolf spoke with Master Builders NT CEO Dave Malone · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I think it's safe to say that well, various industries
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: have been calling for a bit of a plan from
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory government when it comes to our COVID
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  Speaker 1: lockdowns and once we reach the eighty percent vaccination rate. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I've got to say I was fairly surprised when I
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  Speaker 1: spoke to the Chief Minister just a little while ago
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  Speaker 1: and he confirmed that the reality is that not a
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  Speaker 1: lot is going to change once we do reach that
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  Speaker 1: eighty percent vaccination rate, aside from the fact that we
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  Speaker 1: will be able to quarantine from home if we do
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  Speaker 1: indeed go to a hot spot. Now, if you missed, well,
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  Speaker 1: if you miss that interview earlier this morning, take a
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  Speaker 1: listen to what the Chief Minister had to say.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: The only jurisdictions that have gone to this lockout phase
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  Speaker 3: to borrow that phrase, Victoria and arguably Neit have Wales.
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  Speaker 3: They're doing it not to get to COVID zero. They're
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  Speaker 3: doing it to manage the growth of coronavirus. We want
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  Speaker 3: to be clear here, A lockout might be a scenario
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  Speaker 3: where we have community transmission non territory and we can't
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  Speaker 3: get it back to zero. That's why a lockdown probably
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  Speaker 3: remains the best most effective method.
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  Speaker 1: So what exactly is going to change here?
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  Speaker 3: Well, territory is head of the nation, so we unlike
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  Speaker 3: the rest of the country, we have no restrictions here.
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  Speaker 1: But so what's like once we get to eighty percent vaccination? Right,
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  Speaker 1: what exactly is going to change? Is it just going
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  Speaker 1: to be that you you can maybe quarantine from home? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: how much is that going to cost? I know that
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  Speaker 1: you have said that. It is something that's even if
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  Speaker 1: you're quarantining from home territory, it's going to have to
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  Speaker 1: pay that bill themselves, mate.
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  Speaker 3: I said, we may charge them for the compliance checks.
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  Speaker 3: So obviously you can't charge them with staying at their
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  Speaker 3: own house, but obviously it costs money do compliance in
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  Speaker 3: and around some staying at their own home for quarantine,
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  Speaker 3: we may charge that. That's not the decision that we've made,
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  Speaker 3: so obviously we're working that through.
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  Speaker 1: So how much is that going to cost? If you
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  Speaker 1: are going to have to charge for a compliance check?
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  Speaker 1: Surely that's something that you've been looking at.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, but it depends on the method of compliance you choose.
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  Speaker 3: So I haven't got a figure for you, ye, because
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  Speaker 3: obviously depends on the mixture between the app so we've
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  Speaker 3: got access to the West Australian app good to go
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  Speaker 3: and the measure sorry, the mixture of in person compliance
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  Speaker 3: checking by police or others. So it's just working that through.
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  Speaker 1: I've got to tell you, I think that it's probably
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  Speaker 1: going to be quite disappointing for a number of industries
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  Speaker 1: to hear that. I know that certainly. Well, I would
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  Speaker 1: suspect the tourism and hospitality sector had been opening or
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  Speaker 1: had been hoping that once we reached that eighty percent
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  Speaker 1: vaccination rate that there'd be a little bit more of
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  Speaker 1: a plan. And well, one of the industries who's been
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  Speaker 1: very firm on wanting there to be a greater plan
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  Speaker 1: is the Master Builders. Dave Malone joins me on the
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  Speaker 1: line right now. Good morning to you, Dave.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: How are you not too bad? Dave. I've got to
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  Speaker 1: tell you, I think that this morning it's probably a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a surprise to everybody hearing from the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister that not a great deal is actually going to
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  Speaker 1: change and we hit that eighty percent vaccination rate. Aside
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  Speaker 1: from the fact that we will be able to quarantine
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  Speaker 1: from home, but we don't know how much it's going
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  Speaker 1: to cost.
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  Speaker 2: Well, well, I think you know, we've been talking about
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  Speaker 2: the new normal for some time. It's probably a mistake
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  Speaker 2: to have normal in that term, to be honest, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: that's the truth is, we're moving into a new world.
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  Speaker 2: No matter what. People definitely need to get vaccinated. Can
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  Speaker 2: I just say that on air to this morning? Everybody
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  Speaker 2: go out and get your vaccination. But the truth of
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  Speaker 2: the matter is we're going to be living with COVID
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  Speaker 2: for a while, and that's why we were talking about
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  Speaker 2: the need to have doing business in a COVID world
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  Speaker 2: plan to the territory as well.
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  Speaker 1: And Dave, that's certainly something that we'd ask the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister about this morning. You know, if we've got industries
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  Speaker 1: like yours that the workforce is vaccinated, could we still
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  Speaker 1: have a situation where you guys are able to work
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  Speaker 1: even if we do go into a lockdown And the
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  Speaker 1: answers no.
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  Speaker 2: That's a bit surprising to me because I think we've
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  Speaker 2: done very well on the territory in terms of having
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  Speaker 2: reasonably short lockdowns, but there's no guarantee that future lockdowns
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  Speaker 2: will be the same thing. And obviously we're going to
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  Speaker 2: need to protect people from the ravages of the virus,
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  Speaker 2: but we're going to need to keep businesses operating in
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  Speaker 2: our economy operating as well. There's a one hundred thousand
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  Speaker 2: people in the Northern Territory who have a job in
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  Speaker 2: the private sector and more than ten thousand businesses that
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  Speaker 2: operate in that sector as well. They need some certainty
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  Speaker 2: about what they can do going forward. Otherwise I'm not
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  Speaker 2: quite sure what people will decide about their future and
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  Speaker 2: the territory.
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  Speaker 1: Dave, what exactly do you think that we need to
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  Speaker 1: be looking at doing here in the Northern Territory when
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  Speaker 1: we talk about future lockdowns and when we talk about
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  Speaker 1: the way in which we're managing things once we get
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  Speaker 1: to that eighty percent vax rate.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Katie, we said that when the territory needed are
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  Speaker 2: doing business with COVID plan and we put forward some
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  Speaker 2: ideas in the newspaper about what they could look like.
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  Speaker 2: But really simply, you know, people should find out about
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  Speaker 2: the COVID lockdown on their smartphone, and the smartphone should
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  Speaker 2: have links to all the information that we need. We
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  Speaker 2: should have a plan for each industry sector because each
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  Speaker 2: sector is different and people need to know ahead of
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  Speaker 2: time what impact a lockdown will have on them. Businesses
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  Speaker 2: need online tools so they can actually work out in
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  Speaker 2: the usually whether they can stay open or they need
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  Speaker 2: to close. We also need to know ahead of time
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  Speaker 2: what support there might be for businesses, otherwise they'll plan
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  Speaker 2: for the worst and hope for the best. And then
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  Speaker 2: we need to make sure that if we say, for example,
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  Speaker 2: shut Darling down, how do we keep our critical supply
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  Speaker 2: chains open to the rest of the regions as well.
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  Speaker 2: So that was our suggestion for the start of a
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  Speaker 2: five point plan for doing business in COVID.
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  Speaker 1: Dave, are you concerned that the government doesn't seem to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, to think that there needs to be a
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  Speaker 1: five point plan or that things need to drastically change.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think the government's been focused on the health challenge,
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  Speaker 2: to be honest, and you know, that's completely understandable. How
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  Speaker 2: else do we get everybody through then to get them
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  Speaker 2: vaccinated and protected? But I think there's been less than
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  Speaker 2: full effort put around how do we do business when
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  Speaker 2: the next lockdowns come? And you know, some people say, well,
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  Speaker 2: once we get vaccinated, we'll get past lockdowns, but that's
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  Speaker 2: not the international experience, and so I think we're stuck
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  Speaker 2: with COVID, whether we like it or not.
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  Speaker 1: Dave, I know that, as you just touched on before,
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  Speaker 1: and you'd obviously spoken about in the paper as well
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  Speaker 1: over the course of the weekend, talking about that system
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  Speaker 1: where you know, people are alerted to the to lockdown
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  Speaker 1: and to those different bits of health advice. I guess
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  Speaker 1: similar to what we see in a cyclone. Again, doesn't
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  Speaker 1: seem like it's something that the government's going to look
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  Speaker 1: to do here. It sort of feels as though, you know,
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  Speaker 1: they are trying to stay in line with what's happening nationally,
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  Speaker 1: but that they're not overly open to changing things to
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  Speaker 1: try to help business.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's why we're raising issues with you, and you
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  Speaker 2: know why we've had the articles on the newspaper as well.
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  Speaker 2: I think we're going to take the community with us
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  Speaker 2: on this. You know, I do respect the work that
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  Speaker 2: everybody's done around protecting the community from COVID. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you can't be critical of that government's by and large,
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  Speaker 2: they've made good decisions. I just think that they're a
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  Speaker 2: little blind at the moment to the impact of lockdowns
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  Speaker 2: on business and on the individual who you know, who
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  Speaker 2: earn a living out by working in those businesses as well.
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  Speaker 2: As I said, it's one hundred thousand workers in the
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  Speaker 2: private sector and the nt who need some certainty, as
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  Speaker 2: well as the ten thousand business owners.
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  Speaker 1: As well, Dave. Just to put this into perspective, I
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  Speaker 1: guess for some of our listeners who maybe don't actually
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  Speaker 1: work in the private sector and certainly don't work in
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  Speaker 1: the construction and building sector. How much money was lost
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  Speaker 1: over that last lockdown period, Kadie.
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  Speaker 2: Our estimate was about thirty million dollars worth of construction
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  Speaker 2: turnover was lost just for our particular sector. You know, well,
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  Speaker 2: I've been doing workshops for the last couple of months
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  Speaker 2: with our members, the various different groups that make up
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  Speaker 2: the Master Builders membership, and you know, you sit down
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  Speaker 2: and talk to people, and employers have told me they
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  Speaker 2: put fifty people off out of one business that was
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  Speaker 2: the entire workforce. Other people have mentioned that they had
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  Speaker 2: to sell other properties to be able to pay the
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  Speaker 2: wages for people during those lockdowns. They're real for people,
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  Speaker 2: they're real for businesses, they're real for families. And thirty
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  Speaker 2: million it's just a number that rolls off the tongue,
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  Speaker 2: but it actually breaks down to families in every street
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  Speaker 2: right across the community.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Dave, you know, it's going to be really tough,
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  Speaker 1: I think for so many people. I know that there's
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  Speaker 1: not only that uncertainty obviously for business, but as you
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  Speaker 1: touched on a little bit earlier as well, for a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people sort of looking to travel away maybe
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  Speaker 1: at Christmas time, and their longevity in terms of living
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory. I mean, we all know we
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  Speaker 1: live in the best place, there's no doubt about that.
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  Speaker 1: But sometimes it can be really hard if you're far
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  Speaker 1: away from your family and you feel as though there's
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  Speaker 1: not going to sort of be some change in this
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  Speaker 1: space over an unforseeable future.
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  Speaker 2: You know, people, I think except that we live in
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  Speaker 2: uncertain times. So I think that doubles down on the
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  Speaker 2: obligation on all of us to come forward with as
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  Speaker 2: much certainty as we can and allow people to be
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  Speaker 2: able to make plans and to make a decision about,
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  Speaker 2: you know, how they're personally going to respond to these challenges.
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  Speaker 2: As things keep moving, it becomes harder and harder and
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  Speaker 2: harder for people to make firm decisions. And I think
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  Speaker 2: that is really playing out, you know, in things like
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  Speaker 2: people's mental health. For example, we've done some survey work
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  Speaker 2: nationally and you can see it in the survey work
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  Speaker 2: as well that this uncertainty is really starting to bear
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  Speaker 2: down on the community.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. You know, we've received a lot
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  Speaker 1: of messages over the course of the weekend people sort
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  Speaker 1: of worry wondering exactly how it's all going to look
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  Speaker 1: at Christmas time. And I know we're still a while away,
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  Speaker 1: but I really think the point that you've made over
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  Speaker 1: the weekend, and that we've heard, you know, last week
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  Speaker 1: as well from Alex Bruce and Jarvis Ryan and yourself,
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  Speaker 1: that we need to have a bit of a firmer
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  Speaker 1: plan for people just so that they're able to feel
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more comfortable, I guess in terms of
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  Speaker 1: moving into Christmas and wondering whether they're going to stay
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  Speaker 1: here longer term after Christmas, and.
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  Speaker 2: People want to know that they've got to job to on,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and businesses want businesses want to know that
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  Speaker 2: if there is a crisis coming, but there's some support
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  Speaker 2: there for them as well. I don't think it's too
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  Speaker 2: much to ask.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Dave Malone, as always, I really appreciate your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning. Thank you so very much for coming on
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  Speaker 1: airon having a chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Cotie, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: That is Dave Malone there, the chief executive of the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Master Builders here in the Northern Territory.