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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining us on the line is Master Builders CEO Dave Malone.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Dave.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Good o, Katie.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: How are you very well?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I apologize that we've been running late and had to reschedule.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time this morning.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Oh I know, dramas. I'm happy to get on mate.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: How are you guys going. I know that obviously this
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: lockdown has a big impact, as we said with tourism
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a bit earlier, on a lot of different industries, but
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: it has an impact on our construction industry as well, doesn't.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: It absolutely, Katie. You know, seventy five percent of all
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: the construction activity in the NT happens in the top end,
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: and so there's literally thousands of people without work and
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: hundreds and hundreds of businesses which are just sitting idol
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: right now. It's costing our industry a lot of money. Dave.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: You sent out a bit of a survey yesterday to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: your members, really asking them how big an impact this
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: is having.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: What did they say?
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Actually, what's really interesting that we went out only lunchtime yesterday,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: so it's just twenty four hours since we first went out,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: and you know, eighty percent of the firms have told
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: us that they've already made changes to their workforce, whether
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: that's they've stood people down, they've redeployed people, or they've
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: made their people take whatever available leave they've currently got.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: So that's eighty percent reacting within the first twenty four
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: hours to the lockdown.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: So eighty percent.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: How many businesses or how many you know, how many
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: firms would that be, do you think.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a bit of a guest to work out
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: how many firms are in our industry because many people
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: are just mum and dad doing small construction works. But
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: there's about thirteen hundred businesses in the territory. Seventy five
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: percent of those are in the top end, so you're
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: probably talking about one thousand firms who have taken some
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: steps to change their workforce within twenty four hours of
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: the lockdown. And it's completely understandable. You can't do construction
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: from home like you can for many other for space
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: tasks like you and I are doing. The truth of
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: the matter is they've got nothing else but to put
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: people off.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Well, and I.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Know we've already had had listeners call through wanting to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: know what support are our builders and those in construction getting.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Is there anything available to them.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: At the moment.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Well, my understanding is that the only thing that's available
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: right now is the one thousand dollars payment to businesses.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: And you should never complain when government is stepping in
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: and trying to support people. But we asked that question
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: during our survey. We said do you think this is
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: adequate or not? And sixty four percent of people said no.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: So it's not landing that well with industry. I know
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: government has been working behind the scenes to look at
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: a more sort of steps approach to support, but it
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: hasn't reached industry yet. And that's probably part of the
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: point with this lockdown is that we just don't seem
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: to be ahead of the curve on this stuff.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dave On that we're their one thousand dollars, like
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: you know, is correct me if I'm wrong?
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: But is that?
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Like so, if you are a business, right so you employee,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know, four different blokes in your business, is
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars all that you're eligible for this period
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: of time during the lockdown?
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Absolutely? And I was talking to a guy yesterday. He
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: was telling me during the last lockdown he applied it
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: to one thousand dollars and he was very grateful for it,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: but he had sixteen people that he put off, and
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: so we split that one thousand dollars amongst the sixteen people.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: They got sixty five bucks each out of it. So
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: it doesn't really make a difference when people have mortgages,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: when they've got you know, the family responsibilities or I
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: just you need to live. It's a difficult situation for people.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: It is such a tough situation.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And we all get that, you know, we've got to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: make sure that the community stays safe and that we
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: all stay healthy.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: We don't want to see this thing spread.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: But gee, I mean that actually puts it into real
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: perspective that you know, if you've got sixteen people working
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: for you, one thousand dollars is not even going to
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: touch the sides over three days.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And you know, we're eighteen months into this pandemic now,
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: and you know, our view very much is that you
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: can't push back against their health situation. We fully understand
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: how hard it is for government to manage these health
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: challenges and emergencies, but we should be ahead of the
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: curve now. We shouldn't be finding out about lockdowns by
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: having to watch a media conference, for example, because I
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: can tell you none of my guys sitting on site
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: or working on site are watching TV. They're busily building buildings. Yep.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: They should be able to find out about it in
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: other ways. And we shouldn't have to keep watching media
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: conferences to find out what happens, and we shouldn't have
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: to wait for a media conference tomorrow to find out
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: what the reopening arrangements might be. So we've just got
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: to get ahead of the curve we do.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: And I think your spot on there, you know, there
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  Speaker 1: needs to be some really sort of formal messaging for
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: businesses and four different industry so that they know exactly
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: what is going on firstly, but then also so that
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: they know what support is available to them. Now you've
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: touched on there, you know what the plan is going
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to be in terms of opening up for tomorrow, Like
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: how soon would your industry need to be made aware
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: whether we are or are not opening up at midday tomorrow.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Well, if you're an employer right now and you're uncertain
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: about whether tomorrow opens or not that the companies can
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: open tomorrow, you're pretty much stuck with only one solution,
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: and that is to hold off until Friday. You can
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: bring in a few office stuff, but you're not going
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: to go on site until you can be absolutely certain
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: that you can start work.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah wow, Now what about people that work for themselves
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: like you know, I know that we do. I'm assuming
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: that we do have some soul sort of you know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: tradees that work for themselves and subby themselves out.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: What's it like for them during this period.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Well, they go from hero to zero in one press conference,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: so they go from being able to work to not.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: And you know those people, they're not large, large construction businesses.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: They're just basically working for a wage and a bit more.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: So they go to zero. And that's why, you know,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: when we talk about the consequences for this, we completely
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: understand the health challenges. But you know, I'm looking around
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: the country and our industry is open in other parts
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: of Australia and we've got to be We've got to
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: find a nuance way that takes risk out of what
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: people do, but at the same time allows people to
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: earn income.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is so tough.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: And I tell you know, over the last couple of days,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: me sitting in here interviewing different industries, speaking to different
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: people like yourself. You know, I realized that I'm so
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: bloody lucky to be able to go to work and
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: be able to continue to do my job and continue
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: to get paid. And honestly, I feel, I really feel
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: for all of the Territorians out there listening this morning
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: as they were yesterday, who are wondering exactly when this
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: is all going to end, who don't have a wage
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: coming in businesses who've been forced to close, and we
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: all get the reason why. But I think that, you know,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you make some really good points, Dave, in the sense
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that we've got to sort of, you know, we've got
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: to be able to find a way, you know, I
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: guess to keep everybody safe, but maybe not end up
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: in a lockdown for three days for absolutely everybody based
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: on one positive case.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: I agree with you, Katie. I just think that we've
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: got to get ahead of the curve. You know, if
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: you're a business person and you want to work out
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: whether you can even be open or not, there's no
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: tool that you can go online to and put the
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: information in and get an answer back on whether you
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: can or not. You've got to read a four or
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: five page document prepared by a parliamentary draftsmen to work
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: out whether you can work or not. It's just we
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: haven't got ahead of the curve. We haven't made it
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: easy for people to comply, and we haven't got to
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: the point, in my view, where we can continue to
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: do many functions because they're very, very low risk, and
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: we concentrate on the areas where risk is greatest.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 3: I accept their health. People will tell me I don't
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: know what I'm talking about, and they'll tell me that
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: help is the only issue at this time.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 3: I just don't think that's completely the case.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is so tough, Dave. I know that.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: You know, like you said, we all get it in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: terms of the health of the health ramifications here, and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: we all want to make sure that everybody stays safe.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: But as you said, you know, if there is a
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: way that we can do that and also make sure
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: that all the information is there and really readily available
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: to our different industries as well, so that everybody knows
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: exactly what they're dealing with.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: If we're going to reopen tomorrow, O Kadie, which is
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: you know, I've got my fingers crossed for that, then
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: wouldn't it be fantastic to find out about that today
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: so that all those businesses can prepare and provide the
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: greatest opportunity for people to go back to work tomorrow.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Dave, we still don't even know what time
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: that press conference is happening, so I don't know how
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: likely that is to happen.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Well, don't even get me started on that. Dave Malone,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: good to chat with you.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: As always, I really appreciate your time this morning.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: That is Dave Malone there from Master Builders here in
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory.