Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was - June 10th 2022

Transcript

The Week That Was - June 10th 2022 · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: Well, if you recognize that voice, it is the deputy
0:02
Speaker 1: chief Beniston and Cole Madison in the studio with us
0:05
Speaker 1: this morning.
0:05
Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
0:06
Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie, and I apologize an advance of ice slur.
0:10
Speaker 3: I've been up since two o'clock in the morning with
0:12
Speaker 3: a vomiting child. I love parentings.
0:14
Speaker 2: As long as you don't e spread your germs will
0:16
Speaker 2: be right.
0:17
Speaker 3: Shell.
0:17
Speaker 2: LOOKI gezy I furic. Good morning to you.
0:21
Speaker 4: I Thinkaty was nineteen in the ruler.
0:23
Speaker 5: In my place.
0:24
Speaker 2: So nice this morning?
0:25
Speaker 4: You didn't want to get out of bed?
0:27
Speaker 2: No, I bet they did fit.
0:28
Speaker 4: Stuck to the purchase was so cold. How about the goats,
0:31
Speaker 4: Oh they're still tucked up to.
0:35
Speaker 2: God from the NTUS. Good morning to you.
0:37
Speaker 1: Have you ever experienced such a cool day in Darwin
0:40
Speaker 1: Top not this cold?
0:41
Speaker 5: No?
0:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, Jos, I don't have anything.
0:45
Speaker 1: Marie Claire Boothby, Good morning to you. You and I
0:47
Speaker 1: have whipped out Jacobson were once a year Katie.
0:51
Speaker 7: Good morning everyone, And I was just thinking the same thing.
0:54
Speaker 7: Everyone I hear is like, all okay, and you and I.
0:55
Speaker 8: A rugged up.
0:56
Speaker 1: Well, it always gets cold in this office, so I've
0:58
Speaker 1: got a jacket for every occasion just in case, but
1:01
Speaker 1: I actually needed it this morning to stay warm.
1:04
Speaker 2: That's right now.
1:05
Speaker 1: It's been an interesting week. There's been a bit going on,
1:08
Speaker 1: just very quickly though. To give people a bit of
1:10
Speaker 1: an update, we do know that overnight investigations are underway
1:14
Speaker 1: to determine the cause of a structure fire that's affected
1:16
Speaker 1: too adjoining commercial properties on Bishop Street and Jolly Street
1:20
Speaker 1: in Wilna. The fire was reported to triple zero about
1:23
Speaker 1: seven twenty last night, with firefighters from Darwin, Marra and
1:26
Speaker 1: Berema fire stations responding very soon after. The Assistant Chief
1:31
Speaker 1: Fire Officer, Joshua Fisher has said that when they arrived
1:34
Speaker 1: there were flames will showing from the roof of the
1:37
Speaker 1: premises just arriving will. Those first arriving firefighters gained access
1:41
Speaker 1: and commenced firefighting operations, including the use of an aerial
1:46
Speaker 1: appliance to attack that fire from above. It sounds like
1:49
Speaker 1: it was pretty serious overnight and you know, not something
1:52
Speaker 1: that we see too often, I don't think in the territory.
1:56
Speaker 3: No. I mean over the last sort of fire five years,
2:00
Speaker 3: we have seen a few commercial fires happen from time
2:04
Speaker 3: to time.
2:04
Speaker 5: We see the Asian emporiums coming back up again.
2:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, but a big thanks to the fieries do a
2:10
Speaker 3: great job and fortunately couldn't have got any closer to
2:13
Speaker 3: a fire station than where it started last night and
2:15
Speaker 3: a place where they have their Bronto appliance to go
2:17
Speaker 3: up there and get high and cheat that water down.
2:19
Speaker 8: Absolutely, it must have been devastating for that business.
2:22
Speaker 7: You know, it's been a really tough time anyway, and
2:25
Speaker 7: then of course to have that happen, it's absolutely devastating.
2:29
Speaker 8: My heart goes out to.
2:29
Speaker 1: All of us, no doubt about it. Now, yesterday some
2:33
Speaker 1: good news for business. We know that the Northern Territories
2:35
Speaker 1: work of vaccine mandate is set to come to an end,
2:39
Speaker 1: so obviously the Chief Minister in attached to files making
2:41
Speaker 1: that announcement along with the public Health emergency. It's set
2:46
Speaker 1: to finish on June sixteen. We do know that it
2:49
Speaker 1: does still mean or that recently passed legislation does still
2:52
Speaker 1: mean that the Chief Health Officer has got the power
2:55
Speaker 1: to issue a number of directions, including rules for isolating,
2:58
Speaker 1: mandating masks and all vaccines and reporting test results.
3:02
Speaker 2: But it is certainly welcome.
3:04
Speaker 1: Or news which has been welcomed by the likes of
3:07
Speaker 1: hospitality here in the territory, other businesses as well that
3:11
Speaker 1: are just keen to see some of those workers be
3:13
Speaker 1: able to get back into work.
3:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, a huge day yesterday. We sat in Simpsy and
3:19
Speaker 3: reflected upon over two years, over two hundred and fifty
3:23
Speaker 3: Sempsey meetings, and the journey, the riot at times that
3:27
Speaker 3: we've taken on this pandemic, some of the decisions that
3:30
Speaker 3: you know, as a member of Parliament, I never thought
3:32
Speaker 3: I'd ever have to make. And I just want to
3:36
Speaker 3: thank all the public servants who have done a magnificent job,
3:38
Speaker 3: all the people in the private sector or NGOs. It's
3:41
Speaker 3: been our whole effort by Territorians to get to this
3:44
Speaker 3: point and to think that through this pandemic. At the
3:46
Speaker 3: start of it, I literally was thinking in twenty twenty
3:49
Speaker 3: at times, and I was seeing mass graves, when I've
3:52
Speaker 3: seen convention centers.
3:53
Speaker 5: Converted into hospitals.
3:55
Speaker 3: I've seen people having to say goodbye to their loved
3:57
Speaker 3: ones via icads, that we were in a whole world
4:00
Speaker 3: of strife, particularly with our vulnerable population. But thank you
4:03
Speaker 3: to everybody because of their amazing work. I think we
4:06
Speaker 3: have gotten to the point where we can call off
4:08
Speaker 3: the public health emergency thanks to everybody's amazing work.
4:11
Speaker 1: Estheteritory wild, isn't it When you think about what we've
4:14
Speaker 1: gone through over the last two years.
4:16
Speaker 2: It has been a ride.
4:17
Speaker 1: You know. I was thinking to myself yesterday here at
4:20
Speaker 1: the station that there were you know, there were days
4:22
Speaker 1: where it was literally me and our program director Sarah
4:26
Speaker 1: at work because nobody else was able to come in.
4:28
Speaker 1: Was there was times where businesses were shut you know,
4:31
Speaker 1: for extended periods they didn't know when it was going
4:34
Speaker 1: to end. I've got to say, I think that there
4:36
Speaker 1: will be so many people that it just pleased to
4:38
Speaker 1: see the end of that public health emergency and able
4:42
Speaker 1: to get back to that normality, to get back.
4:46
Speaker 4: To normal operation of their business. I mean, yes, it's
4:49
Speaker 4: obviously hit lots of businesses, including the hospitality, but there's
4:52
Speaker 4: other businesses and I think I've given the example Richmond
4:55
Speaker 4: and roadbuilding people because some of their stuff didn't want
4:58
Speaker 4: to have the vaccination, then they couldn't employ them.
5:00
Speaker 3: Yep.
5:01
Speaker 4: And it meant for I know a lot of businesses
5:03
Speaker 4: that the owners of the businesses have had to go
5:05
Speaker 4: back to use that expression, back on the tools just
5:07
Speaker 4: to fulfill their contracts. And some of these businesses that
5:10
Speaker 4: construct roads, they have government contracts, so they're locked into
5:13
Speaker 4: certain timeframes. Yeah, real hard for them as well. So
5:16
Speaker 4: I know the owners men and women have both gone
5:18
Speaker 4: back on driving the trucks and driving pieces of equipment
5:21
Speaker 4: just to get the jobs done. So now they can
5:23
Speaker 4: take a bit of a breathe because they can now
5:25
Speaker 4: re employ the people if they want to be re employed.
5:27
Speaker 6: And someone was telling me yesterday that the mandate coming
5:31
Speaker 6: into force did come in at a time when demand
5:34
Speaker 6: was starting to rise again. I think we saw six
5:37
Speaker 6: hundred people leave the construction industry because of the mandate
5:40
Speaker 6: at the exact same time that they needed more workers
5:43
Speaker 6: because demand was going through the roof. So I think
5:47
Speaker 6: that there'll be a lot of people out there.
5:48
Speaker 4: Tom Maybe the glenty can come back on why issue,
5:53
Speaker 4: but you do wonder whether it was something to do
5:56
Speaker 4: with the volunteers and the mandate too.
5:58
Speaker 1: Well.
5:59
Speaker 3: I think there will be some welcome relief by different
6:02
Speaker 3: sectors of industry out there to have some more workers available.
6:05
Speaker 5: But I just want to be very clear that there is.
6:07
Speaker 3: A national worker shortage across this nation right now, and
6:11
Speaker 3: with the mandate ending that's still not going to solve
6:13
Speaker 3: those problems. Like eyes wide open, guys, like, seriously, we've
6:16
Speaker 3: got a lot more work to do in that space,
6:17
Speaker 3: and we've started that with the federal.
6:19
Speaker 6: Government, and industry is aware of that that there isn't
6:22
Speaker 6: this won't make up for the shortfall, and that it
6:25
Speaker 6: could take two years to rebuild the workforce, that the
6:29
Speaker 6: number of workers that they need can't be just satisfied
6:33
Speaker 6: by local demand and so they need to wait for
6:35
Speaker 6: international Absolutely cracking again. You know, someone said to me
6:39
Speaker 6: yesterday CDU only puts out ten cooks a year or something,
6:42
Speaker 6: and they need two hundred.
6:43
Speaker 3: In the hospitality industry, feedback from industry, backpackers and just
6:46
Speaker 3: not jumping on the planes are still yet, like they
6:48
Speaker 3: still don't have the confidence to travel globally. So we're
6:51
Speaker 3: looking forward to seeing those younger travelers take off as well.
6:53
Speaker 6: Cost of living crisis is global, so people may not
6:56
Speaker 6: be making that decision.
6:57
Speaker 2: There's a lot of things, a lot.
6:59
Speaker 7: Of things in there that everyone has touched on. But
7:03
Speaker 7: I guess one of the things from some of the
7:04
Speaker 7: businesses that I've been speaking to is that they, of
7:07
Speaker 7: course it's welcomed that this has happened, but there is
7:09
Speaker 7: still a lot of uncertainty because we know those laws
7:13
Speaker 7: that were passed, so the show has unfettered power for
7:15
Speaker 7: the next two years, so it could come back on
7:16
Speaker 7: at any time, and that that's a real uncertainty for
7:19
Speaker 7: a lot of Territorians. We just don't know what's going
7:21
Speaker 7: to happen. And Nicole's right, there is a lot of
7:23
Speaker 7: work to be done. I mean, we still have crisis
7:25
Speaker 7: at the hospital that needs to be dealt with. We
7:27
Speaker 7: can't continue to have those bed blockages and staffing problems
7:29
Speaker 7: there and the five code yellows we've had, and you know,
7:32
Speaker 7: I just we really need the government to have their
7:35
Speaker 7: head down, bum up and really genuinely listening to all
7:38
Speaker 7: Territorians and particular industries who are having these worker shortage,
7:41
Speaker 7: shortages problems to see what can be.
7:43
Speaker 2: Done well that worker shortage.
7:45
Speaker 1: I think that it is like it's something that we've
7:47
Speaker 1: all spoken about for a long period of time, but
7:49
Speaker 1: we have we My understanding is that there is some
7:51
Speaker 1: work happening federally as well to try to bring some
7:54
Speaker 1: workers across.
7:55
Speaker 3: That there's a there's a raft different work happening some
7:58
Speaker 3: on the territory level, some on the federal level. So
8:02
Speaker 3: we've got Paul Kirby who's working around getting more employees in.
8:05
Speaker 3: We've got a three million dollar fund that's looking at
8:07
Speaker 3: new and innovative ways to get more workers in from
8:09
Speaker 3: different sources.
8:10
Speaker 5: We've got a lot of.
8:11
Speaker 3: Training going through, for example, doing specialty courses with tool
8:15
Speaker 3: companies and tool guides through c tou Up and Darwin
8:17
Speaker 3: and also in Central Australia as well as working with
8:20
Speaker 3: the hospo sector.
8:21
Speaker 5: But I met with Don Farrell, the new Minister for Trade.
8:25
Speaker 3: Just this week and tourism, and the message I sent
8:29
Speaker 3: really clearly was that we still need more workers in here.
8:33
Speaker 3: We have to continue with the Pacific Labor Mobility scheme
8:36
Speaker 3: that is really important to the Northern Territory and also
8:39
Speaker 3: getting seasonal agricultural workers into this place. It's really important.
8:42
Speaker 3: But give us more. Yeah, if you give us the spaces.
8:46
Speaker 5: We've got about fourteen hundred spaces every year, give us.
8:49
Speaker 3: More, we will fill them and we will fill them
8:51
Speaker 3: with great people that bring skills, that want to work,
8:54
Speaker 3: that want to be here, that are warmly welcome bay
8:56
Speaker 3: our community.
8:57
Speaker 1: Sing you know, I think what it's shown is over
8:59
Speaker 1: the last couple of years is well is it's great
9:00
Speaker 1: for everybody to say, oh, we've got to employ locals
9:03
Speaker 1: and we want to employs.
9:04
Speaker 5: But that's right.
9:06
Speaker 3: I think we've got a system in Australia now where
9:08
Speaker 3: you know, after being the Agriculture Minister and you sit
9:11
Speaker 3: down and you talk to those companies out there, Australians
9:15
Speaker 3: will simply not take the jobs to pick mangoes, to
9:18
Speaker 3: pick melons, to go do some of that type of
9:21
Speaker 3: manual labor, to work in hotels as clean as they
9:23
Speaker 3: simply will not do it.
9:24
Speaker 5: So we've got to get real.
9:26
Speaker 3: Yes, of course we'd love to employ locals, but if
9:27
Speaker 3: they're not going to put the hand up, or should
9:29
Speaker 3: business suffer And we've got great I've met these amazing
9:33
Speaker 3: people from the Pacific Islands who come over here and
9:35
Speaker 3: when you talk to them about what they're able to
9:38
Speaker 3: do for their families back in their home nation from
9:41
Speaker 3: working here, life changing stories. They buy houses, they build
9:45
Speaker 3: a secure future for their families, and they are brilliant workers.
9:48
Speaker 6: And nationally the unemployment rates three point nine percent. Sorry,
9:52
Speaker 6: there's not many Australians who need you know, they can
9:55
Speaker 6: pick and choose what job they want. And if it's
9:58
Speaker 6: between serving coffees at a cafe and picking mangoes, I'm
10:02
Speaker 6: sure that so many people my age prey picked the cafe.
10:05
Speaker 4: It's just, it's just, and it's It's also like Nicole
10:11
Speaker 4: was saying that a lot of young Australiers, if not
10:13
Speaker 4: so young Australians, don't want to do certain jobs because
10:15
Speaker 4: they see it as somehow beneath them. But no job
10:17
Speaker 4: should be beneath anyone. Everyone in this room has done
10:22
Speaker 4: crack dog kennels of pool and trap every day.
10:26
Speaker 1: You know.
10:26
Speaker 4: It has a job and got paid as a part
10:29
Speaker 4: time university job.
10:31
Speaker 3: You know.
10:31
Speaker 4: So I think maybe somewhere in our in our society
10:35
Speaker 4: or you know, in our cultures, Australians, you know, we've
10:37
Speaker 4: got to get over this mentality of oh I can't,
10:40
Speaker 4: I can't possibly do that, because that's a bit beneath me.
10:42
Speaker 4: Lots of our successful entrepreneurs in this company, in this
10:45
Speaker 4: country started off as what would you call what's what's
10:48
Speaker 4: the person in the newspaper who sweeps the floor particular, Yeah,
10:54
Speaker 4: copy boy, you know, and I think and that's where
10:56
Speaker 4: they that's where a lot of our neighbors, you know,
10:58
Speaker 4: in the Pacific Islanders and even north to us. You know,
11:01
Speaker 4: work is work. I don't have the luxury of a
11:03
Speaker 4: looking at bag. So they work and they work for
11:06
Speaker 4: their whole life, and they look after the whole family.
11:08
Speaker 4: Make sure they work too. And I think that's what
11:10
Speaker 4: we need to start to instill in our young people
11:13
Speaker 4: is there's no job that's too big or too small
11:15
Speaker 4: to do well.
11:16
Speaker 1: We'll take a very short break and when we come back,
11:18
Speaker 1: I am very keen to talk cost of living. That's
11:20
Speaker 1: coming your way right here on Mix one oh four nine.
11:23
Speaker 1: You are listening to the week that was in the
11:25
Speaker 1: studio with us this morning.
11:26
Speaker 2: We've got Maury.
11:27
Speaker 1: Claire Boothby, we have got Thomas Morgan, Kezia Piric and
11:30
Speaker 1: Nicole Madison. Now, one of the other issues that we've
11:33
Speaker 1: spoken about throughout the week, and I've got to tell you,
11:35
Speaker 1: I think it's having a massive impact on so many
11:37
Speaker 1: Territorians at the moment, is the cost of living now
11:40
Speaker 1: NT costs. They release their thirty first cost of Living
11:43
Speaker 1: report and the results are well, probably not a huge
11:46
Speaker 1: surprise to a lot of Territorians in the sense that
11:48
Speaker 1: the cost of living.
11:49
Speaker 2: Is very high.
11:49
Speaker 1: But I guess what is quite surprising is how high
11:53
Speaker 1: we are comparatively.
11:54
Speaker 2: To other states.
11:55
Speaker 1: So the CPI for housing including utilities increase by fifteen
11:59
Speaker 1: point nine percent in Darwin compared to that four percent nationally.
12:03
Speaker 1: Automotive fuel went up forty one point four percent in
12:06
Speaker 1: Darwin compared to thirty two point three percent nationally. Darwin
12:10
Speaker 1: rents rose eight percent compared to zero point four percent nationally.
12:15
Speaker 1: Like I say, I think we all understand the cost
12:18
Speaker 1: of living is high right now.
12:20
Speaker 2: You don't have to go far to sort of see it.
12:22
Speaker 1: But even yeah, that's exactly right, exactly so you haven't
12:28
Speaker 1: have cabbage in your in your burger now at KFC
12:31
Speaker 1: because lettuce prices are too high. Anthony Albany, he weighed in.
12:36
Speaker 1: He reckons the soaring cost of everyday items, and he's
12:39
Speaker 1: called KFC substitution of lettuce for cabbage crazy.
12:45
Speaker 4: Substitute it completely. As I understand, they're going to mix it.
12:49
Speaker 2: You think it a spinach or something else that's worse.
12:51
Speaker 4: Oh, you reckoning to Chinese cabbage?
12:55
Speaker 5: Katie? What what?
12:56
Speaker 4: What concerns me? When you get this high cost of
12:58
Speaker 4: living and people people start to p can choose and
13:00
Speaker 4: one of the things They first start to give up
13:02
Speaker 4: on is insurance because it's because it's something you can't see,
13:07
Speaker 4: you can't see the benefit of it. So they start
13:09
Speaker 4: to give up on house and contents insurance. They also
13:12
Speaker 4: start to give up on medical insurance and any other insurance.
13:16
Speaker 4: Things that intangible, things you can't see. And sometimes I
13:20
Speaker 4: still need, you still need in times of crisis. And
13:23
Speaker 4: that's what you know, we only have to look at
13:24
Speaker 4: the Eastern seaboard. So and sometimes that's that's through no
13:28
Speaker 4: fold of their own. They have to make a choice
13:30
Speaker 4: to feed a family of four children and you know,
13:32
Speaker 4: two working people or whatever, someone they're caring for, an
13:35
Speaker 4: old person. And that's the that's the thing that concerns
13:38
Speaker 4: me is when people start to make choices like that
13:41
Speaker 4: because they don't have any other alternate options to go down,
13:44
Speaker 4: and they start to make choices in the same market,
13:47
Speaker 4: you know, instead of eating out once a week, they
13:48
Speaker 4: might just get takeaway once at everybody, it goes across
13:53
Speaker 4: the board, not only the consumers, but us who they're
13:55
Speaker 4: consume from the businesses well.
13:57
Speaker 2: And you look on top of that as well.
13:58
Speaker 1: We saw the racee rise earlier in the week all side,
14:01
Speaker 1: so that's no doubt having an impact on people. But
14:04
Speaker 1: these petrol prices, hey lok, it's been insane for quite
14:07
Speaker 1: some time, and you wonder what's going to happen when
14:09
Speaker 1: the fuel excise ends. We're going to be paying like
14:12
Speaker 1: two hundred two dollars thirty of bloody later.
14:14
Speaker 6: And Darwin doesn't have the luxury of other big capital
14:18
Speaker 6: cities which have a train system where you can sort of,
14:20
Speaker 6: you know, ditch the car. You have to pay for
14:22
Speaker 6: petrol here if you want to get around quickly and easily.
14:25
Speaker 6: So it's like a lot of people are going to
14:27
Speaker 6: feel a real pinch in their pocket. The A and
14:30
Speaker 6: T has been making noise about whether the prices are
14:34
Speaker 6: fair yep, and I think they even may have referred
14:36
Speaker 6: it to the age of.
14:37
Speaker 7: St they did, and that's recommendations about that, and it
14:41
Speaker 7: is something that the government can actually look at and
14:43
Speaker 7: start to implement.
14:45
Speaker 1: Which a bit earlier in the week we spoke to
14:48
Speaker 1: the opposition leader Leafanokia about this because it is something
14:51
Speaker 1: that we've seen in the past as well as everybody
14:53
Speaker 1: in this room will recall back when the COLP was
14:56
Speaker 1: in power, when Adam Giles was in power, when Pete
14:58
Speaker 1: Davies was in this chair, and the NT News Channel
15:01
Speaker 1: nine and the radio station here at Mix all really
15:04
Speaker 1: pushed to try to bring those petrol prices down. It
15:07
Speaker 1: was a very different scenario. But take a bit of
15:09
Speaker 1: a listen to what Leah had said to us earlier
15:12
Speaker 1: in the week.
15:13
Speaker 9: We know that the A Triple C in a report
15:15
Speaker 9: a few years ago, made some really clever recommendations on
15:18
Speaker 9: how to keep fuel prices down for the long term.
15:21
Speaker 9: And of course the fuel price is something as a
15:24
Speaker 9: territory we've grappled with for a long time, but of
15:26
Speaker 9: course it's through the roof because of world at all prices.
15:28
Speaker 9: But if I was Chief Minister Katie, I would be
15:31
Speaker 9: implementing those recommendations, which includes legislating that the fuel retailers
15:36
Speaker 9: have to disclose their profit margins. The A Triple C
15:39
Speaker 9: said that would be a highly effective way to keep
15:42
Speaker 9: prices down, and of course come up with incentives to
15:46
Speaker 9: make sure that independent fuel retailers can enter and be
15:49
Speaker 9: competitive in the market, because ultimately, the better competition we
15:53
Speaker 9: have when it comes to fuel, the lower those prices
15:56
Speaker 9: are going to be.
15:56
Speaker 1: So that was Leah Finocchiaro on the show a bit
15:59
Speaker 1: earlier in the week. I mean, mana, is that something
16:01
Speaker 1: that we can re look at doing or is that
16:03
Speaker 1: legislation sort of old and out of date.
16:05
Speaker 3: Look, if it was something that was workable, we would
16:07
Speaker 3: have implemented it, So I'll put it that way. So
16:11
Speaker 3: I think we have to also have a look at
16:13
Speaker 3: the last last five years, last five six years, we've
16:16
Speaker 3: seen a lot more fuel retailers also pop up around
16:19
Speaker 3: the place around particularly the Greater Darin region, we have
16:23
Speaker 3: seen more of those come up.
16:25
Speaker 5: But again it's it's it's we need.
16:27
Speaker 3: The bodies like the AH we'll see keeping a close
16:29
Speaker 3: eye on it, particularly when you see big, unexplainable deviations
16:34
Speaker 3: when it comes to that terminal gate fuel price there,
16:36
Speaker 3: and that makes.
16:37
Speaker 1: Me sure speak and down, but it not change at
16:40
Speaker 1: the bowser. We all understand they've got to use the
16:42
Speaker 1: petrol that's in storage. You know that they've already got
16:45
Speaker 1: stored there to begin with. But I think what the
16:47
Speaker 1: frustrating thing is so often for territorians is that the
16:50
Speaker 1: minute it goes.
16:50
Speaker 2: Up, well there you go, it's up at the bowser again.
16:53
Speaker 1: But when it goes down at the terminal gate, you
16:55
Speaker 1: don't see it go down so quickly, and.
16:56
Speaker 3: I'd say that's also an issue we see across the board,
16:59
Speaker 3: across the name. So I think it requires a bigger
17:02
Speaker 3: body of work than beyond the Northern territory. I think
17:05
Speaker 3: this is something we actually need to see a bigger
17:06
Speaker 3: body of work at the federal level.
17:08
Speaker 6: I want to ask about power prices because on the
17:11
Speaker 6: Eastern Seaboard, obviously they have a very different market from
17:14
Speaker 6: the Northern territories.
17:15
Speaker 5: Electricity in a national grid and we're in an island.
17:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, I know. So we're seeing massive increases in the
17:20
Speaker 6: cost of electricity there. I think was eighteen percent or something.
17:23
Speaker 6: In New South Wales yep, I'm not sure what is
17:26
Speaker 6: expliting to go up by five percent here.
17:28
Speaker 3: So our policy is that you know fuel, sorry, that
17:32
Speaker 3: the price of our utilities. We're never going to take
17:35
Speaker 3: the old route that we saw with the CLP, which
17:37
Speaker 3: was putting up you know, massive power price rises by
17:41
Speaker 3: thirty percent we're now.
17:43
Speaker 2: Honestly, if it went off now, people would be like
17:45
Speaker 2: running out.
17:46
Speaker 5: Of the teritorum their knees.
17:47
Speaker 3: So basically that's why we've kept We're keeping power prices
17:53
Speaker 3: at CPI or I think it was a three percent maximum.
17:56
Speaker 5: I just got to get that price, Thomas.
17:58
Speaker 6: So CPI was I think six yeah last year, so.
18:01
Speaker 3: We know we were going to capit at a maximum there.
18:04
Speaker 3: So I just need to get a numb for you.
18:05
Speaker 2: Just get it off lif But there is a bit
18:07
Speaker 2: of an issue at the moment.
18:07
Speaker 1: I suppose, like no matter where you look right around
18:09
Speaker 1: the nation, there's no doubt that the cost of living
18:11
Speaker 1: is high, and there's lots of different factors that play.
18:14
Speaker 1: There's some different levers that can be pulled sort of
18:16
Speaker 1: federally to try to bring down that cost of living
18:18
Speaker 1: to some degree, but here in the Northern Territory there's
18:21
Speaker 1: very few levers that can be pulled.
18:23
Speaker 8: You know.
18:23
Speaker 1: Some of those I guess that people will be thinking
18:25
Speaker 1: about is indeed power prices, also the petrol prices, whether
18:30
Speaker 1: there's any movement there. I don't really know if there's
18:33
Speaker 1: much else that can be done. But we also know
18:36
Speaker 1: that you know that our public servants and look, you know,
18:39
Speaker 1: I would love the private sector to be able to
18:42
Speaker 1: offer a pay increase as well, but that's very very
18:45
Speaker 1: difficult for so many in the private sector, but even
18:47
Speaker 1: for our public servants right now that are still on
18:50
Speaker 1: that wage freeze. I was certainly somebody who thought, well,
18:53
Speaker 1: why should they get a pay rise when the rest
18:55
Speaker 1: of us don't, following COVID, But now you look at
18:57
Speaker 1: it and you think, well, their wages are frozen, whatever
19:00
Speaker 1: period of time it is. Yet the cost of living
19:03
Speaker 1: is going through the roof. If our public servants aren't
19:05
Speaker 1: paid reasonably, certainly comparatively to other states and territories, how
19:09
Speaker 1: on earth are we going to keep them here?
19:11
Speaker 8: This is a symptom.
19:12
Speaker 7: This is a symptom of the last you know, several
19:14
Speaker 7: years of just poor economic mismanagement, and you know, we've
19:18
Speaker 7: seen no major projects come out of the ground. We've
19:20
Speaker 7: got so much work to do in that space, and
19:23
Speaker 7: now we're seeing this and we don't even know what
19:25
Speaker 7: labor are doing in this space. To get the economy
19:27
Speaker 7: going again, to just loosen the rains.
19:30
Speaker 5: Goodness, I'm looking forward. They're responding to this.
19:32
Speaker 7: We need to loosen the rain. It's like every turn
19:35
Speaker 7: a business has it just makes it harder and harder
19:37
Speaker 7: to do business.
19:38
Speaker 5: What have you been doing for the last few years
19:40
Speaker 5: in that house? Have you been listening.
19:43
Speaker 3: A lot of retoric A lot all Seriously, go look,
19:46
Speaker 3: we look a core lithium project that is happening. Look
19:49
Speaker 3: at the Barossa FID, look at the work that has been.
19:53
Speaker 2: Real jobs, deer reckon have been created.
19:55
Speaker 3: Goodness, we've been absolutely cranking it out on the civil
19:58
Speaker 3: contracting side with roads investment, like real new jobs. Yes,
20:03
Speaker 3: these are real jobs that happen here in the Northern Territory.
20:05
Speaker 3: So we've had open data centers. There is a huge
20:09
Speaker 3: amount of work happening in mining exploration.
20:12
Speaker 5: There's a massive work happening in gas exploration.
20:14
Speaker 1: Like you have to admit, a lot of it is
20:16
Speaker 1: very early days. Like a lot of those projects up
20:19
Speaker 1: very early days. They're not sort of not even sun so,
20:23
Speaker 1: like I take the point that you're making. I take
20:25
Speaker 1: the point that both of you are making. I think
20:26
Speaker 1: like at the end of the day, we all want
20:28
Speaker 1: the Northern Territory to succeed, and we certainly want those
20:30
Speaker 1: major projects to get off the ground, you know. But
20:32
Speaker 1: the point that's being made is it's so bloody expensive
20:35
Speaker 1: to live here.
20:36
Speaker 2: But also we actually don't have housing.
20:38
Speaker 3: For people to move some of those table as well,
20:41
Speaker 3: and there is a lot to be excited about in
20:43
Speaker 3: the Northern Territory. But you guys have seen the budget
20:45
Speaker 3: that was just handed down, and we have got housing
20:49
Speaker 3: pressures in the Darwin, Catherine Tennant Creek Alla Springs. That's
20:53
Speaker 3: why we are doing more land release, That's why we're
20:55
Speaker 3: looking at fast tracking more housing supply because you want
20:58
Speaker 3: to make sure it is affordable for people to be
21:00
Speaker 3: able to live here.
21:01
Speaker 5: We saw what happened in impects.
21:03
Speaker 3: We saw that very large cost of living pressures went
21:06
Speaker 3: up quite rapidly, and you've got to make sure that
21:08
Speaker 3: when we all benefit from economic growth, that it is
21:12
Speaker 3: the poorest people that do not get left behind.
21:14
Speaker 6: And housing is a huge issue that you have friends
21:16
Speaker 6: who you know were looking to move homes because their
21:19
Speaker 6: rents too high or whatever. They did a pick search
21:22
Speaker 6: and they could barely find anything, so that it's an
21:24
Speaker 6: issue now.
21:25
Speaker 7: And if they were doing such a good job, like
21:26
Speaker 7: why are we lagging in all economic indicators?
21:29
Speaker 6: Where are the construction Craand again, do you.
21:32
Speaker 5: Actually read economic indicators?
21:33
Speaker 1: We do?
21:34
Speaker 5: We all see.
21:39
Speaker 1: To your own deloite one that came out not too
21:43
Speaker 1: long ago also showed that there.
21:45
Speaker 2: Are areas that were a struggling.
21:46
Speaker 3: So I think that it's one budget peaks and go
21:50
Speaker 3: have a look again and it's very strong.
21:53
Speaker 1: I get that you obviously are feeling excited that these
21:56
Speaker 1: projects are the very a long time now, there's still
22:01
Speaker 1: a way off som some cable is literally for you
22:06
Speaker 1: to say some cable fantastic, there's no job.
22:09
Speaker 2: It's not actually happening.
22:11
Speaker 5: For years, and we're discussions previously where you've.
22:14
Speaker 3: Sitt here going you know, oh my gosh, there are
22:16
Speaker 3: a vacancy is everywhere, and guess what, it's a good
22:18
Speaker 3: sign of economic health when you've got issues with housing pressures.
22:21
Speaker 6: But I don't see the construction of cranes.
22:25
Speaker 8: That's right. There's only one crain in the sky right now, one.
22:27
Speaker 4: I think.
22:28
Speaker 1: But the thing is, I don't actually get the point
22:30
Speaker 1: that you're making them matter because there are there are
22:32
Speaker 1: still vacancy rates, and there are vacancy rates at the moment.
22:35
Speaker 1: Like with the houses, there's not but do you know
22:37
Speaker 1: how bloody expensive it is for people to rent there.
22:40
Speaker 1: You actually need to have that foresight as well in
22:42
Speaker 1: terms of planning for that housing to come online.
22:45
Speaker 2: And that land release.
22:46
Speaker 1: I know that that's happening now, but we've been talking
22:48
Speaker 1: about this for years, Like you just pointed.
22:50
Speaker 3: Out, we've been housing that's been coming out of the ground.
22:53
Speaker 3: There's been further releases that as Marie Claire would know
22:55
Speaker 3: very well. Out in Palmerston, you have got what's happening
22:59
Speaker 3: out at your Head North and Lee Point. We're seeing
23:03
Speaker 3: further development that is happening. We're doing further residential planning.
23:06
Speaker 2: But also.
23:09
Speaker 3: Do you know what you also see when this happens,
23:11
Speaker 3: is that we have got several new developments that do
23:15
Speaker 3: have planning approval unit developments, those residential developments four years ago.
23:21
Speaker 3: We're having issues with banks lending money. We met with
23:23
Speaker 3: the na B Board the other day. We're not going
23:26
Speaker 3: to see those same issues. We're going to see money
23:28
Speaker 3: flowing through to get to those developers and that those
23:30
Speaker 3: projects coming out of the ground.
23:32
Speaker 7: What about the labor of scrapping the first homeowners? I
23:36
Speaker 7: mean that alone is something that should be looked at again.
23:38
Speaker 7: Is it being looked at again?
23:40
Speaker 1: There is about that, But there's always there's always a
23:45
Speaker 1: lag of time delayed.
23:46
Speaker 4: No, no, not a time.
23:47
Speaker 8: There's always a.
23:48
Speaker 4: Lag from when projects talked about to when it actually
23:51
Speaker 4: is developed and operational. And now, my as you know
23:55
Speaker 4: and listeners would know my background in the mining industry,
23:58
Speaker 4: we don't have made world class projects coming online or
24:03
Speaker 4: even think thought about.
24:04
Speaker 3: Now.
24:04
Speaker 4: I don't take anything away from Pull Lithium and their project.
24:06
Speaker 4: That's a ten to thirteen year sus so yeah, very close,
24:11
Speaker 4: I'll get to a refere So I take nothing away
24:14
Speaker 4: from coul Lithium because that is a very nice project
24:16
Speaker 4: for thirteen years and hopefully we'll go on longer than
24:18
Speaker 4: thirteen years. And yes we've got a few resources with
24:21
Speaker 4: their rare earth project outside other springs, but that's being
24:25
Speaker 4: in the pipeline for the best part of twenty years.
24:28
Speaker 1: Now.
24:28
Speaker 4: It's a complicated metallogy that project. You know, it's separating
24:31
Speaker 4: all the rares from each other such that you can
24:34
Speaker 4: get them to the market. Now, that's not only going
24:37
Speaker 4: to the financial investment decision, They've also then got to
24:39
Speaker 4: construct not only the MIND, the processing plant. Now that
24:42
Speaker 4: processing plant will be a big project. That will be
24:45
Speaker 4: a big project, and that's probably one of the few
24:49
Speaker 4: KLG nice project. But when I talk about world class projects,
24:53
Speaker 4: we're talking about a MIND that's going to operate for
24:54
Speaker 4: twenty plus years, and it's got a massive rich deposit
24:58
Speaker 4: like gem Code, like the granite like.
25:04
Speaker 3: Here.
25:04
Speaker 2: A matter of sharing a microphone that's quiet at the moment.
25:09
Speaker 4: We have lost Range and that was a world class
25:11
Speaker 4: deposit that has closed. We've got gem Co that's possibly
25:14
Speaker 4: got about trus years on known reserves they still might find.
25:17
Speaker 4: We've got Macarthurriver and we've got the granites. Show me
25:20
Speaker 4: another world class deposit, world class apart from Arafura that
25:23
Speaker 4: we've got. I think all these nice minds around Pine
25:25
Speaker 4: Creek are great. The Pine Creek Go Syncline is hugely
25:28
Speaker 4: huge potential. Even the iron ore potential projects out the
25:32
Speaker 4: rope Away, they're all great. But we've got to have
25:35
Speaker 4: big minds and big projects which give us downstream processing.
25:39
Speaker 2: So ask as well, what's happened.
25:41
Speaker 4: It takes years, it takes that takes long.
25:44
Speaker 1: I think everyone understands that it is going to take.
25:46
Speaker 1: It will take an awful long time for some of
25:47
Speaker 1: those really large projects. Madam, you able to clear up
25:51
Speaker 1: for us once and for all. What's happening with the
25:53
Speaker 1: praun FA. What's happening with.
25:55
Speaker 3: So clearly they're doing a bit of work. There's been
25:58
Speaker 3: a bit of restructure.
25:59
Speaker 5: In turn.
26:00
Speaker 3: I'm still confident that you will see activity and you
26:03
Speaker 3: will see aquaculture steaming ahead there, but they've had to
26:06
Speaker 3: do a bit of restructuring there at a company level.
26:09
Speaker 2: But there is you're I'm still going to go ahead.
26:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it will, but it's not going to
26:14
Speaker 3: happen clearly immediately.
26:15
Speaker 5: They're doing a bit of restructuring work.
26:17
Speaker 3: I think by the time we get to next year's
26:19
Speaker 3: dry season we'll have a clearer understanding of what the
26:21
Speaker 3: pathway forward.
26:22
Speaker 7: It's been years and I'm making Can I just go
26:23
Speaker 7: back to those building approvals because I've found the Northern
26:26
Speaker 7: Territory government document which talks about an annual change in
26:30
Speaker 7: residential building approvals for Australia it's down thirty four percent,
26:34
Speaker 7: but in the Territory it's down seventy one percent. Like,
26:38
Speaker 7: what is labor doing about that? This is your own report.
26:41
Speaker 3: So again I'd say, Marie Claire, go have a look
26:43
Speaker 3: at how lumpy figures can be in that regard. I
26:45
Speaker 3: don't know what exactly the figures you're looking at if
26:47
Speaker 3: you're looking at monthly, if you're looking at quarterlack looking
26:50
Speaker 3: annually or year or year, but they can be very
26:53
Speaker 3: lumpy in a very small economy like this.
26:55
Speaker 2: But so what do you do then?
26:56
Speaker 1: If you don't sort of trust the figures, and if
26:58
Speaker 1: you don't trust reports, what do you.
26:59
Speaker 8: Look to be the treasurer so you would know this report.
27:02
Speaker 8: I mean it's a Treasury report.
27:04
Speaker 6: Aimed to get away from this lumpiness to spoom bus
27:06
Speaker 6: cycle as well, to try and smooth that out.
27:09
Speaker 8: So they talk about it, but we haven't seen any
27:10
Speaker 8: evidence of that.
27:11
Speaker 6: Actually been coming to pruisient housing approval. Shouldn't you have
27:14
Speaker 6: policies in.
27:14
Speaker 3: Place, Thomas the trying the whole plan of the government
27:18
Speaker 3: about economic diversity implementations. Look at all the new industry
27:24
Speaker 3: that is coming on board, all the different projects that
27:26
Speaker 3: we've got coming on board, but anything.
27:28
Speaker 8: Always don't come and nothing ever comes to fruitionial Look.
27:33
Speaker 1: And if we saw some changes to the mining royalties,
27:36
Speaker 1: that we see more in terms of mining projects get
27:39
Speaker 1: off the ground.
27:40
Speaker 4: Yes, I do that the current system of a hybrid
27:43
Speaker 4: mining royalty, some avalorrem and some based on profit is
27:46
Speaker 4: a disincentive to the industry to come and explore geologically. Yes,
27:51
Speaker 4: we're blessed with all sorts of minerals and lots of them,
27:53
Speaker 4: and potentially there's more out there. We know that. You
27:55
Speaker 4: know the geologists will tell you that every second day
27:57
Speaker 4: if you give them the time. Very strong, but what
28:00
Speaker 4: people need to look at it.
28:02
Speaker 8: Sorry.
28:02
Speaker 4: There is a Fraser Institute report that comes out every
28:05
Speaker 4: year from Canada now the latest report which came out
28:08
Speaker 4: about two months ago. From the last year. They survey
28:10
Speaker 4: people all around the world what's the best place to go?
28:13
Speaker 4: It's not US, it's West Let me finish, it's Western Australia.
28:17
Speaker 4: And why is it West Australia. Not only are they
28:19
Speaker 4: blessed geologically, they have a good structure when it comes
28:22
Speaker 4: to their legislation center. You can get a mine up
28:26
Speaker 4: and running from expiration to an operating mind within about
28:28
Speaker 4: four years. In WA It'll take at least ten in
28:31
Speaker 4: the Northern Techxture four years to approval in the Northern Territory.
28:34
Speaker 3: Which baseally got done within that time. So we do
28:37
Speaker 3: have the Minerals Industry Development Task Force. We have got
28:40
Speaker 3: some nation leading people in the mining sector. We've also
28:46
Speaker 3: got Aboriginal representation to work with the land councils because
28:50
Speaker 3: they'ren important part of development too.
28:52
Speaker 5: We've got some West Australian senior bureaucrats.
28:54
Speaker 3: There is too, because I've made it clear that my
28:57
Speaker 3: vision is that we do have a really highly competitive.
28:59
Speaker 5: In investment.
29:02
Speaker 3: Investment framework and system when it comes to mining, and
29:04
Speaker 3: I'm chasing down w A and so that task for
29:08
Speaker 3: is coming rather its conclusion at the end of the day, just.
29:10
Speaker 1: Before we move along on the on that topic though
29:13
Speaker 1: that you know that I'd raised right at the star,
29:15
Speaker 1: which is that cost of living. Are there different things
29:18
Speaker 1: that we could be doing in the Northern Territory right
29:20
Speaker 1: now to try to you know, to to lower the
29:24
Speaker 1: cost of living for territorians or to at least you know,
29:27
Speaker 1: what can be done in this space, do you think.
29:29
Speaker 6: Well, I was a bit surprised when they released the
29:31
Speaker 6: budget last month and there was nothing in there for
29:35
Speaker 6: the cost of living, considering there was a lot of
29:37
Speaker 6: talk at the time about how bad things were getting.
29:40
Speaker 6: There was in fact, you know, some households were worse
29:43
Speaker 6: off because they took away the solar tariff that that was.
29:47
Speaker 6: It is a bit of a shock, it.
29:48
Speaker 4: Is, and that was a shock to a lot of
29:49
Speaker 4: households and they're still complaining to meet my office. But
29:52
Speaker 4: there's some things that are just going to be out
29:53
Speaker 4: of our control, Katie, out of the government's control. And
29:55
Speaker 4: that's for example, the cost of steel, you know, that
29:58
Speaker 4: is just out of our control. Probably as in Northern Territory.
30:01
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter how much we'd like to have that
30:02
Speaker 4: kind of product more reasonable. It's not and it's not
30:07
Speaker 4: going to get reasonable anytime soon that I've read about
30:10
Speaker 4: son what you're asking, but it's it's a it's a
30:14
Speaker 4: tricky situation for me. It is there's the incentives I
30:17
Speaker 4: think should be directed more at businesses, particularly small medium
30:20
Speaker 4: sized businesses. I'm not sure what, but will hybrid rawty
30:24
Speaker 4: for the expressions is there are lots of.
30:25
Speaker 8: Leavers that can be pulled.
30:26
Speaker 7: And in the fact that Nicole has paid off the
30:28
Speaker 7: aple C recommendations to bring legislation into make fuel prices fair,
30:33
Speaker 7: I mean, that's one thing, It's one tiny little thing
30:36
Speaker 7: that you could do to actually make a big impact
30:38
Speaker 7: on a lot of people, a lot of businesses, a
30:40
Speaker 7: lot of territorians, whether you're in dahen or remotely. And
30:43
Speaker 7: why wouldn't we look at that, Why wouldn't we just
30:45
Speaker 7: go straight into Parliamentary Council and say let's make it happen.
30:49
Speaker 7: And I know Leah during the week said that she
30:51
Speaker 7: was putting out the call to labor to do that,
30:53
Speaker 7: to beat her to the post. And that's exactly what
30:56
Speaker 7: we're doing. We are finding ways so we can bring
30:58
Speaker 7: the cost of living down.
30:59
Speaker 6: For territory incentives of business. Though there is a problem
31:02
Speaker 6: right now that a lot of businesses do want to
31:04
Speaker 6: spend more, they do want to expand they can't find working.
31:08
Speaker 5: It's still.
31:11
Speaker 6: And there are work shortages.
31:13
Speaker 3: I just want to trus is that the cost of
31:15
Speaker 3: living pressures is always something that this government tackles.
31:18
Speaker 5: We put in one hundred and twenty million dollars a
31:20
Speaker 5: year to tackle the price of power.
31:23
Speaker 3: We've got our back to school vouchers, we've got sports vouchers,
31:27
Speaker 3: we've got one of the most generous seniors and concession
31:30
Speaker 3: schemes in the nation.
31:32
Speaker 2: You know, we do speak, you know stuff back to school.
31:36
Speaker 1: It's wonderful, but honestly, you know, when it's costing your
31:39
Speaker 1: bloody three hundred and fifty bucks a week to buy
31:41
Speaker 1: your food, it's tough.
31:42
Speaker 2: You know, like, no matter.
31:43
Speaker 6: How I don't know how back to school.
31:50
Speaker 3: If we took it away, imagine it does have a
31:54
Speaker 3: got to be really careful, hey, that you don't sound
31:56
Speaker 3: condescending to.
31:57
Speaker 2: People out there listening that are really struggling. They're seriously struggling.
32:01
Speaker 5: Completely get it.
32:02
Speaker 3: We hear the stories about what people are paying in
32:04
Speaker 3: rent and some of those rent hikes. You know, my
32:06
Speaker 3: message to the landlords out there too would be, you know,
32:09
Speaker 3: take care of good people that take care of your
32:10
Speaker 3: property because you know you will get that return.
32:13
Speaker 1: All right, it is twenty minutes away from ten o'clock.
32:15
Speaker 1: We're going to take a very short break. You are
32:17
Speaker 1: listening to Mix one oh four nine.
32:19
Speaker 2: It is the week that was.
32:20
Speaker 1: It is the week that was, and we are going
32:23
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more all about lots of
32:25
Speaker 1: different things.
32:25
Speaker 2: But I do want to just raise as well.
32:27
Speaker 1: We know that the Prime Minister was obviously in town
32:30
Speaker 1: earlier in the week for one of those industries well
32:32
Speaker 1: that is off the ground, the space industry. But he
32:36
Speaker 1: also accused the Coalition of deliberately restricting the rights of
32:40
Speaker 1: remote voters after voter turn out in an electro covering
32:45
Speaker 1: some of the most disadvantage parts of Australia dropped to
32:48
Speaker 1: a new low. So we know that the AEC figures
32:50
Speaker 1: showed that just two out of three people in the
32:54
Speaker 1: set of Lingiari, which as we know blankets pretty much
32:57
Speaker 1: everywhere aside from Darwin cast at the federal election. So
33:02
Speaker 1: Albow labeled the figure and outrage and blamed it directly
33:06
Speaker 1: on cuts to commission resources under the former coalition government.
33:11
Speaker 1: I don't know, I mean, I don't know exactly what's
33:13
Speaker 1: happened to you.
33:17
Speaker 6: I know you're going to disagree with me, but well
33:20
Speaker 6: there was there was someone who was talking to me
33:22
Speaker 6: that previously the AEC had like twelve people stationed in
33:25
Speaker 6: dohin full time who worked up, they did vote and
33:29
Speaker 6: the office was cut down. Now that probably has had
33:31
Speaker 6: a huge impact because instead of being out there, but
33:34
Speaker 6: instead of being out there for three years getting people
33:36
Speaker 6: in the electoral role as they turn eighteen or turn
33:38
Speaker 6: sixteen when they can legally, and instead they're just doing
33:42
Speaker 6: it in the lead up to the federal election, last
33:43
Speaker 6: for a few months before.
33:44
Speaker 4: So this is not excuse the pun, this is not
33:47
Speaker 4: rocket science. We have this every anti election, every federal election.
33:51
Speaker 4: The voter turnout and mostly in the rural seats a
33:55
Speaker 4: remote and rule but not exclusively, and it's excuse and it'slingary,
34:00
Speaker 4: which yes, and you know the voter turnout was not
34:03
Speaker 4: as good as what they wanted, But you have to
34:05
Speaker 4: look at underlying causes and underlying reasons. I just look
34:08
Speaker 4: at what I for example, that had massive upheaval. A
34:11
Speaker 4: lot of people had gone bush, gone to homelands, whatever
34:13
Speaker 4: in their family with them, so that vote was probably down,
34:16
Speaker 4: you know, yun the mood might have been down because
34:18
Speaker 4: of the historical aspects associated with that community. So I
34:21
Speaker 4: don't think we should lay the blame at the Astralian
34:23
Speaker 4: Electoral Commission office at all. I think we have to
34:26
Speaker 4: look at it more carefully as to the contributing factors
34:29
Speaker 4: as to why the voter turnout was like even Sulon apparently,
34:32
Speaker 4: you know, which is all urban white sort of people voting.
34:35
Speaker 4: So let's look at what people are voting. Is there
34:37
Speaker 4: disenchantment with the voting system. We know there's disenchantment with
34:40
Speaker 4: the two major parties indicated on what happened down South.
34:43
Speaker 4: So I don't think I agree that it should perhaps
34:46
Speaker 4: be funded better the Electoral Commission, as perhaps the Northern
34:48
Speaker 4: Territory Election Commission should be funded more appropriately. But but
34:53
Speaker 4: I don't think it was fair. I mean, it was
34:55
Speaker 4: a cheap political shot by alban easy and that's that's
34:57
Speaker 4: part of his job. But I think we should look
34:59
Speaker 4: at more seriously if want to really engage with people
35:02
Speaker 4: and getting them to vote, you know, because after all,
35:04
Speaker 4: that's fundamental to our Democrats.
35:11
Speaker 3: So what I would say is that I think the
35:14
Speaker 3: Prime Minister was correct that we do not put enough
35:18
Speaker 3: resources into the Northern Territory when it comes to enrolling
35:22
Speaker 3: people and helping people get out to vote and giving
35:25
Speaker 3: them the time to be able to vote. If you
35:27
Speaker 3: have a look at the example of the daily by
35:29
Speaker 3: election a time where they opened up, so what one
35:32
Speaker 3: of the.
35:33
Speaker 5: Biggest local one of the biggest remote communities we have
35:37
Speaker 5: in the Northern Territory.
35:38
Speaker 3: Rather than cruising in there and doing a couple of
35:40
Speaker 3: hours polling, a one day of polling, they actually gave
35:43
Speaker 3: them five days of polling. I think it was a
35:45
Speaker 3: good voter. They had the best vote to turn out.
35:48
Speaker 3: You know, why should Aboriginal people in remote communities sometimes
35:53
Speaker 3: the size some of the biggest places that we've got
35:56
Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory, we still treat them like a
35:59
Speaker 3: small remote can unity and we don't give people enough
36:02
Speaker 3: of a chance to go vote.
36:03
Speaker 5: And when you're Managretera and what air and places like that.
36:07
Speaker 3: The the the new Prime Minister, I'm hoping we'll go
36:10
Speaker 3: have a serious look at the AEC will look to
36:13
Speaker 3: return resources to the Northern Territory to.
36:15
Speaker 5: Help more Aboriginal people have a voice.
36:18
Speaker 1: Who actually wonder though whether it comes down to people
36:21
Speaker 1: not rocking up to vote because they sort of go.
36:23
Speaker 2: I don't really know that either of these people underestimate.
36:28
Speaker 6: You can the.
36:30
Speaker 3: City can underestimate the work that the AEC does when
36:34
Speaker 3: it comes to enrollment, education, but most importantly opening the
36:37
Speaker 3: bloody boost to give people a chance.
36:39
Speaker 2: To turn up to voteating that didn't happen. Think it
36:46
Speaker 2: is equitable out in.
36:49
Speaker 3: In the remote communities, and I think that, you know,
36:51
Speaker 3: if the federal government is fair thinking about having a
36:53
Speaker 3: look at how they engage Aboriginal people in the Australian democracy.
36:57
Speaker 5: There needs to be more time looked.
36:59
Speaker 10: At this issue, more resources to go to have spent
37:03
Speaker 10: more time in what at the last schedule election, if
37:05
Speaker 10: there wasn't thirty seven houses destroyed and the whole town
37:08
Speaker 10: rioting as well.
37:10
Speaker 6: Though that's we just.
37:12
Speaker 7: Said that what Air is one of the biggest communities
37:14
Speaker 7: we have, So that's the example we use.
37:16
Speaker 1: The really interested as well though, look houses safe.
37:23
Speaker 8: For the ac to go out there, so you're.
37:25
Speaker 5: Really taking a cheap political shot here, Al.
37:30
Speaker 1: I'd be interested to find out then how we go
37:32
Speaker 1: in some of our other remote indigenous communities around the nation,
37:35
Speaker 1: because let's be honest, we're not the only place in
37:37
Speaker 1: the that's exactly right. It is a massive one, yeah,
37:41
Speaker 1: but I'd be interested to see how it was like
37:43
Speaker 1: in the lights of North Queensland and some of those
37:45
Speaker 1: you know, some of those areas in wa as well,
37:48
Speaker 1: whether they have the same volume of resources thrown.
37:50
Speaker 4: At them or at The other aspect is the early voting,
37:54
Speaker 4: like I think the booths are opened two weeks before
37:56
Speaker 4: the actual voting day. I mean, we know that's proven
37:58
Speaker 4: to be really successful and for a variety of reasons.
38:03
Speaker 4: And I think it's because just they want to vote,
38:06
Speaker 4: or they believe they have to vote one or the other,
38:08
Speaker 4: and they don't want to do it on the particular day.
38:10
Speaker 4: Some people embrace all that sort of high drama loco
38:14
Speaker 4: on the next day sometimes, but they still want to vote,
38:18
Speaker 4: and they still believe that that's one of their basic
38:20
Speaker 4: human rights. I think vote in this country. So I
38:23
Speaker 4: think it's it's a whole lot of things are changing
38:26
Speaker 4: in our landscape when it comes to voting and parties.
38:29
Speaker 4: So yes, resourting, yes, more education, yes, better education, et cetera.
38:33
Speaker 4: Perhaps perhaps they need to be opened longer, whatever, But
38:36
Speaker 4: I don't think that. Yeah, I think that the calling
38:39
Speaker 4: it was Morrison's fault because he didn't resource the office
38:41
Speaker 4: was just it was just flippant, you know, and it
38:44
Speaker 4: doesn't help anyone. And like you said, we haven't said
38:47
Speaker 4: it just there. If you're going to be serious about
38:48
Speaker 4: trying to engage with people in the bush wherever they are,
38:51
Speaker 4: and don't forget all our soldiers and sailors and air
38:54
Speaker 4: and air ladies over in various places of the country,
38:56
Speaker 4: make sure their vote gets in. Because one of the
38:58
Speaker 4: federal elections, maybe the last one of the one before that,
39:01
Speaker 4: most didn't even get counted properly in time.
39:04
Speaker 8: And sometimes I don't get counted from the hospitals either.
39:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, well hospitals jail. So it looks they really need.
39:08
Speaker 8: To have a good Sita.
39:10
Speaker 2: You can't blame We'll have a very short break.
39:13
Speaker 1: You are listening to Mix one O four point nine's
39:15
Speaker 1: three sixty. It is the week that was and before
39:17
Speaker 1: we wrap up for the morning, I do want to
39:18
Speaker 1: have a bit of a discussion about a topic that
39:20
Speaker 1: was raised yesterday by a number of our listeners, and
39:23
Speaker 1: it is actually parking out at the hospital now, not
39:26
Speaker 1: just at Royal Darwin Hospital but also at the private
39:30
Speaker 1: hospital as well, and the concerns that people who are
39:33
Speaker 1: quite well going out there, obviously needing to get out
39:37
Speaker 1: there for appointments, not.
39:39
Speaker 2: Being able to get a car park.
39:41
Speaker 1: I really don't know, you know, what the solution is,
39:43
Speaker 1: aside from constructing another car park or or you know,
39:47
Speaker 1: doing something when it comes to parking.
39:49
Speaker 2: But it's tough for people.
39:50
Speaker 1: No one goes there for fun, do they unless having
39:52
Speaker 1: a baby, and even that's not that fun, you know.
39:55
Speaker 3: Memory so stop it. You really feel for people, especially
40:01
Speaker 3: if you're a bit stressed and someone's going through a
40:04
Speaker 3: tough time in hospital. That's why we went about building
40:08
Speaker 3: the new multi story free car park at the hospital there.
40:13
Speaker 3: Prior to that, we'd seen the former CLP government tried
40:15
Speaker 3: to introduce a disastrous paid parking.
40:17
Speaker 5: Scheme and that was we went in and we sorted
40:21
Speaker 5: it out.
40:21
Speaker 3: We built the multi story car park, but we get
40:24
Speaker 3: it if there are further issues.
40:25
Speaker 5: We've got master play that happens the private hospital.
40:27
Speaker 3: I've got to say it's always a real challenge to
40:31
Speaker 3: find a car park there if you're not there at
40:33
Speaker 3: the very start of the day or late in the afternoon,
40:35
Speaker 3: it is challenging.
40:36
Speaker 1: So is there capacity for there to be further like
40:40
Speaker 1: another car park out there.
40:41
Speaker 3: So I haven't got the details of the master plan,
40:44
Speaker 3: but I know our Chief Minister, who is the most
40:47
Speaker 3: passionate health minister you'll ever come across, has been doing
40:50
Speaker 3: a lot of master planning work out there. That car
40:52
Speaker 3: park that we built, the multi story made a big
40:55
Speaker 3: impact that I think we've completed that about four years ago,
40:59
Speaker 3: if my memory serves me right.
41:00
Speaker 5: It's been serving the community world.
41:01
Speaker 3: But clearly the private hospital still has a lot of
41:05
Speaker 3: parking pressures there and something further conversation.
41:09
Speaker 1: Spoke to one of our listeners yesterday. I think it
41:12
Speaker 1: was Andrea who was in a situation. You know, she's
41:15
Speaker 1: out there for cancer treatment and ended up having a
41:17
Speaker 1: park sort of five hundred meters away and not everybody.
41:21
Speaker 1: You know, we all probably understand in this room if
41:24
Speaker 1: you have had a loved one who's gone through that
41:26
Speaker 1: cancer journey that in some cases you can't drive them
41:29
Speaker 1: out there when they've got appointments. Sometimes there's four appointments
41:32
Speaker 1: a week, and you know, if you're juggling a full
41:34
Speaker 1: time job, you can't actually take that loved one to
41:37
Speaker 1: their appointments each and every time, so they're trying to
41:39
Speaker 1: transport themselves, which then if you're having to walk that distance,
41:42
Speaker 1: it can actually have such a monumental impact on you,
41:45
Speaker 1: not just for the day, but it can send.
41:47
Speaker 2: You into a pain crisis if you're not careful physically.
41:50
Speaker 4: And I think the question has to be asked is
41:53
Speaker 4: why do we have so many cars at the hospital,
41:55
Speaker 4: which means we've got a lot of unwell people and
41:58
Speaker 4: or we've got a lot of waiting, a lot of
41:59
Speaker 4: people waiting for treatment well whatever it may be. And
42:02
Speaker 4: don't forget there's the main X ray clinic or whatever
42:04
Speaker 4: you call it. At the private hospital. A lot of
42:06
Speaker 4: people go to the specialist clinics. So we obviously got
42:09
Speaker 4: a lot of it's a healthcare issue rather than a
42:11
Speaker 4: parking issue. But clearly that parking has to be sorted
42:14
Speaker 4: out because or some access you know, some shuttle bus
42:18
Speaker 4: that can move people around.
42:20
Speaker 6: To say could get creative and do a shuttle bus
42:22
Speaker 6: for patients just parking. But you know a shuttle bus
42:26
Speaker 6: with six people inside it that takes six cars out of.
42:29
Speaker 7: The clubs, right, and when people when people their staff
42:31
Speaker 7: shortages out there and those different bed blockages, I mean
42:34
Speaker 7: that delays appointments as well. So cars are in those
42:36
Speaker 7: car parks for a lot longer as well than they
42:38
Speaker 7: need to be. But I do want to say, Katie,
42:41
Speaker 7: and this isn't going to help everybody, but out at Palmerston,
42:43
Speaker 7: the Parmesanowichfield Seniors.
42:45
Speaker 8: Club, they actually have a driver program which.
42:48
Speaker 7: I run through my office, so people can join that
42:51
Speaker 7: club and then they can get transport to and from appointments,
42:55
Speaker 7: so like either at the hospital or elsewhere for a
42:58
Speaker 7: very small costs like it's it's minimal can compared to what.
43:00
Speaker 8: A public trend.
43:01
Speaker 7: Someone takes them in, they take them in and they
43:03
Speaker 7: bring them back again, they wait around for them. It's
43:05
Speaker 7: a really great service and it doesn't get used a
43:07
Speaker 7: lot because it's probably not widely known. And of course
43:10
Speaker 7: there are volunteers that do the driving, and so we're
43:12
Speaker 7: always looking for other volunteers to assist people. But it
43:15
Speaker 7: is a bit like what Tom said, there are other
43:18
Speaker 7: solutions like a shuttle bus or something else, and it
43:21
Speaker 7: just needs to be investigated.
43:23
Speaker 4: To talk to you late about that.
43:24
Speaker 8: Yeah, it a little program people.
43:27
Speaker 4: I remember one couple have to catch buses in it
43:29
Speaker 4: to go to the hospital for various treatment or appointments.
43:32
Speaker 4: It was a whole day by the time they left.
43:34
Speaker 4: Time at HUMPT you do buses, interchange so transports.
43:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, like it just feels it feels to me like
43:40
Speaker 1: it's something that we can try to really sort out
43:43
Speaker 1: as a community, you know, I know that, Like I
43:45
Speaker 1: know that sometimes when it comes to those longer term
43:47
Speaker 1: planning for car parks and things like that, that is
43:50
Speaker 1: something that we want to see in the long run.
43:51
Speaker 2: But are are there other things that can be done.
43:54
Speaker 1: In the short term, because fundamentally, yeah, and fundamentally, none
43:58
Speaker 1: of us want to see a situation where you've got
44:00
Speaker 1: territorians who are unwell, who was sick, who are going
44:02
Speaker 1: through treatment, having to battle something that seems like such
44:05
Speaker 1: a bloody small thing that you know, I hopefully you
44:08
Speaker 1: can get sorted.
44:09
Speaker 3: And let's be clear, no matter where you are in
44:11
Speaker 3: the nation, including the territory, the biggest area of growth
44:15
Speaker 3: that every government is health his health. Health expenditure grows
44:22
Speaker 3: at a far larger rate than anything else, and it's
44:25
Speaker 3: going to continue to.
44:25
Speaker 1: I've got a message from our old mate, Jerry Wood.
44:31
Speaker 1: Jerry said, is the high rise car park used by
44:33
Speaker 1: stuff because it is nearly always full?
44:36
Speaker 6: Well, I had a relative I used to work at
44:39
Speaker 6: the IDH and she used to ride her bike every
44:42
Speaker 6: day because she could find a park. So I don't
44:45
Speaker 6: even think stuff can find a park.
44:47
Speaker 2: Well, that's it. And it's hard for them too.
44:48
Speaker 1: If you're doing a night shift and then if you're
44:50
Speaker 1: trying to walk back to your car, it can get Yeah, she.
44:52
Speaker 6: Did ride home back to I think it was nightcliff
44:55
Speaker 6: at this time in the darks.
44:56
Speaker 1: Yeah. Right.
44:58
Speaker 4: Apart from health being an you never can really budget
45:01
Speaker 4: for it accurately. Is we have an aging population. We
45:03
Speaker 4: know that in territory, so government and private hospital industry
45:07
Speaker 4: will call it. So government industry has to work smarter
45:10
Speaker 4: because we're going to have more old people and when
45:13
Speaker 4: with age you get ailments. You know, that's just the
45:15
Speaker 4: fact of life. So this issue is not going to
45:17
Speaker 4: go away. So it has to be addressed now because
45:20
Speaker 4: another ten years I reckon we'd still be discussing the
45:21
Speaker 4: problem with parking at hospitals.
45:23
Speaker 2: Well that is it for us this morning.
45:25
Speaker 1: For the week that was, Mary Claire Boothby, always great
45:28
Speaker 1: to have you in the studio, Thanks so much for
45:29
Speaker 1: your time.
45:29
Speaker 7: Thanks Katie, and can I just give a quick shout
45:31
Speaker 7: out because the Parmesan Golf Club are hosting variety and
45:34
Speaker 7: tea on Sunday from sometime.
45:36
Speaker 8: It's a family fun day, so get out there and
45:37
Speaker 8: have a.
45:37
Speaker 2: Little fantastic stuff. Tom Morgan from the NT and News,
45:41
Speaker 2: thank you for your time this morning.
45:42
Speaker 6: Thanks Katie, and can I give a shout out to
45:44
Speaker 6: my mum who's listening.
45:45
Speaker 3: All the way from Tom's mom.
45:51
Speaker 2: We'll have to get it so yeah, absolutely easier.
45:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, shout out to one of your favorite fans out
45:56
Speaker 4: there and have.
45:57
Speaker 5: To do Beryl.
46:00
Speaker 2: Hello, what a great name.
46:02
Speaker 4: That was my nana's name, the go Berrel it was
46:04
Speaker 4: her nana's name.
46:04
Speaker 2: Beautifulk you Nicole Madison, thank you.
46:08
Speaker 5: Have a lovely weekend everyone.
46:10
Speaker 2: You too well. Still plenty more coming your.
46:13
Speaker 1: Way this morning after ten o'clock you
46:15
Speaker 2: Are listening to Mix one O four nine