Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Minister for Recreational Fishing Paul Kirby about projects being funded under the Recreational Fishing Grants Scheme.

Transcript

Katie spoke with Minister for Recreational Fishing Paul Kirby about projects being funded under the Recreational Fishing Grants Scheme. · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So we know that seven territory base not for profit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: organizations have been granted funding for ten projects under a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: recreational fishing grant scheme. Now joining me on the line
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: is the Minister for Recreational Fishing, Paul Kirby. Good morning
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to you.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you going? Yeah, very well.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Now Minister, we know that this scheme and obviously funds
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: projects which lead to new recreational fishing opportunities. Is this
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: through infrastructure or experiences? How exactly does it work?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: So it comes out of.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: That fifty million dollar recfishing fund that we put out
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: a number of years ago. It's something that we have
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: done and happy to commit to as many years as
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: we possibly can. Is over three hundred thousand dollars and
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: it goes into either the Amateur Fisherman's Peak, Body Fan
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: or it goes directly into the Darwin, Parmesan Katherine Game
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: fishing clubs. They all put applications forward around the junior
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: clinics and different programs that they would like to run
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: and we're more than happy to sign them off.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Forgets kids either on boats or down at the water
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: having some fun, or it gets like.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: With one of the big programs. We've got the Palmerston
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Lakes to help improve the water quality so that.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: When we put barer in and I've got a better
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: chance of surviving. And it just gets kids wedding a
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: line and having fun and learning about the recreation on
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the fun side of going fishing.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Well, I think everyone in the territory loves the spot
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: of fishing, no doubt about that. How fast are these
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: programs sort of going to come into effect.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Well, some of them, like our repetitive programs, like what
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: the fishing clubs run. So the last year we were
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: too Laylor down to the Barrow Classic, the Junior Barow Classic,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: and part of that is teeming up with different local
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: supplies to offer the kids a Roden Real combo pack.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: But when they turn down there there was about one
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: hundred Rodden Real packs that we gave in conjunction with Craigs.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: It was a great initiative and that'll happen again this year.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: And also like one's like the Parmesan Game Fishing Club,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: they do a wonderful day it's called the Buddy but
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: it's the kids special needs that wouldn't traditionally get the
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: chance to get out on the water, and also people
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: donate their time and their boats and skipper and take
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: kids out that wouldn't normally get the chants and if
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: they get out and catch a fish that they are
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: absolutely ecstatic. Even if so don't catch a fish, they've
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: had a great day out on the water. So they're
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: really some great community based initiatives.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they look that way. I mean, like you said,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: there are the Parmesan Game Fishing Club, the Darwin Game
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Fishing Club and the Catherine Game Fishing Club, so they
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: have those junior fishing clinics and kids fun days, and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I think that that is a really good idea because
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: not everybody in the territory has a boat. Everybody wants
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to have one, but not everybody has one, and it
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: is really important that the kids are still able to
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: sort of get out there and fish.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Certainly. And there is actually a land based fishing book
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: that a fan have received some funding to go in
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: to reprint that out, so that for people like us
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: that want to take the kids fishing every now and
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: again but might not have a boat, there's a really
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: good put that explains where you can easily go in
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: your vicinity and where you've got the best chances of
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: catching something, so that will be a big help for
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: people traditionally get out fishing and all these initiatives with
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: this bit of funding means that it's free for the kids,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: so it makes it a great opportunity for the kids
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: to get out and enjoy finishing.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Now, Minister, we just caught up with Daniel Rochford, the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: CEO of Tourism Central Australia, and he spoke about about
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the government, the territory government and also the federal government
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: well relaunching or reaching an agreement. I guess you'd say
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: to fund the second round of the Tourism Survival Fund
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: and also the Visitation Reliant Support Program, with payments under
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: both those programs set to triple. I mean, this is
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: absolutely essential for some of our tourism operators right now,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: isn't it.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, certainly.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Look, we've tried to put some really good packages together
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: for all businesses across the territory. Because everybody is suffered
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: through COVID. Tourism have suffered harder than a lot or
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: harder than most in a lot of areas. We know
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: that the vouchers in the top end have had a
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: really good effect. They haven't had as much an effect
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: in the Southern region, and we know that they did
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: lose a lot of capacity and a lot of visitation
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: and through Melbourne and Sydney locking down. So how the
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: is their traditional quiet time to repurpose or revamp some
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: of that funding, to give them an opportunity to access
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: some of that will just hopefully help people get through
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: this quiet time over the very hot summer period down there,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: and hopefully they'll be able to rebound again into where
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: next year. Look at a relentless advocacy is for his
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: industry and yeah, we've been really happy to help.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look he's looking forward obviously and really hoping
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: that they're able to rebound and rebound strong. One of
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: the concerns that he's raised, and I know that it's
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: been something that is on the agenda. I would think
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: of the Northern Territory government at the moment, is that
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: staff shortage that they are anticipating comes sort of March April.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I know that Tourism Central Australia probably aren't the only
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: ones there, certainly are other industries who are concerned about
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that staff shortage, But is there some work underway to
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: try to fill some of those jobs. You know, not
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: only I guess in tourism, but also some of those
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: hospitality jobs as well.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, as you meant, Katie, is probably not just some
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: other industries. It's just about every industry that we talked to.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: We've heard about hot demiling, some of those places not
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: being able to open, even in the top end as
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: long as they were white too, because they just need
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: to give their staff arrest. That was conversations that we
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: had as recently as yesterday down in ten and Creep.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Sometimes when you're in a smallscendi, you think, you know,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: it's just us that are suffering here, but trying to
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: explain to people that it's something we're working on across
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: the board. We've got more trainees and apprentices in the
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: Norton Territory now than we ever had before, and with
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: things like the work Stay play and how we repurposed
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: and redesigned that. It's like when we needed to get
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: some people down to the hotels in our springs, we
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: got those overseas workers in to help out with the
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: mango industry. Like that, Sometimes there's leaders you can pull,
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: but you can help out with. We certainly know that
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: there's going to be some complexities next year when everybody's
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: looking at for labor and will continue to help out
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: as much as we possibly can, but hopefully these reallocations
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: of this fund help people get through to be able
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: to be in a position where they can rebound next year.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: And so then when you do talk about the works play,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: for example, is there any plans you know from early
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: next year to change things or maybe make it even
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: more appealing for people to move to the Northern Territory
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: to work, whether they are from interstate or even trying to,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you know, to bring some some of those you know,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: some of those people from overseas that we ordinarily would
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: have filling some of those bar jobs, hospitality jobs, tourism jobs.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: We'll be interesting one with this new strain of virus,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: how quickly that's spreading overseas at the moment, what effect
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: that has for international travel. We've seen just recently some
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: students start to return to other states in the last
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: few days. And obviously international students are a big part
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: of the labor market in the top end as well
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: as Central Australia. So we'll certainly keep an eye on that.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Will certainly be.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Sitting really early in the new year and going through
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: all of that allocations, and we'll be trying to leave
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: as much as we possibly can. I know that we
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: had around five hundred applications for that works day play initiative,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: and like I've said to people in the top end,
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: we would have loved to have had thousands.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: But if you said at the start of the.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Dry season it was going to be an extra five
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: hundred people to plug into those industries that were really short,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: then people would have been reasonably happy with that. And
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: we'll certainly be looking at doing everything we can to
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: help into next year as well.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Hey, a very quick question from one of our listeners.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Can you please ask Kirby how repairs at the East
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: arm boat ramp are going, as it was stated a
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: couple of months ago that they'd be completed by mid December.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good question.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: I haven't had an update on that in the last
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: week or so, so we will look into that. I
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: know they were waiting on some equipment to come from
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: in the state, and as we know, some of those
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: supply chains have taken a bit longer now than they
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: used to, so I we'll check into that and I'll
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: get straight back to you so we can answer that
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: for people, Katie, that would be awesome.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Well, Paul Kirby, the Minister for Recreational Fishing, also for
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: small business. Appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: for chatting with us.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Thanks very much, Katie.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you