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Katie Woolf spoke with Deputy Opposition Leader Gerard Maley · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me live in the studio right now is the
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  Speaker 1: Deputy Opposition leader Jared Maylee.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Jared, we've been talking this morning about the expensive
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: toilet block down at Cullhum Bay, but that's obviously a
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  Speaker 1: council issue. I know that there's been plenty of people
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  Speaker 1: questioning when exactly this playground that's due to be constructed
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  Speaker 1: at Miley Point it's going to be complete, and exactly
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  Speaker 1: how much it's going to cost now. It sparked my
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  Speaker 1: interest a couple of weeks ago, or last week, i
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  Speaker 1: should say, when we found out there'd been a seven
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  Speaker 1: million dollar blowout to the underground car park at Parliament
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  Speaker 1: House due to a spestos and I thought to myself, gee, wheez,
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  Speaker 1: how much is it going to cost us now to
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  Speaker 1: get building at Miley Point when we know that there'd
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  Speaker 1: been an asbestos issue. The NT News have come out
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  Speaker 1: today with a good report, a really good story by
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  Speaker 1: Natasha Emic saying that the Northern Territory government's already spent
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  Speaker 1: two point seven million, sorry most of it's two point
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  Speaker 1: seven million dollar budget to build that playground, despite the
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  Speaker 1: constructions still looking quite desolate shared how much is it
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  Speaker 1: going to cost?
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  Speaker 2: Who would know? We just don't know how this could
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  Speaker 2: be another white elephant. They spent a lot of money.
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  Speaker 2: Remember this was a design and construct contract, so I'm
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  Speaker 2: wondering what were the terms of references? At the very
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  Speaker 2: beginning was their support planning by the minister. So these
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  Speaker 2: people have just started building the next minute, they've got
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  Speaker 2: variation after variation, and I asked some questions and estimate
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  Speaker 2: about this, and the Minister didn't know what was going
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  Speaker 2: on and couldn't tell me what the variations were and
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  Speaker 2: took one of those questions on notice. So they're going
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  Speaker 2: to get back to me about that, because from my understanding,
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  Speaker 2: is a two point four million dollar contract to design
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  Speaker 2: and construct by DTA contractors.
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  Speaker 3: They've already varied it by.
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  Speaker 2: About one point one million for asbestos. But you can't
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  Speaker 2: tell me that the government didn't know there was going
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  Speaker 2: to be a specialist an area to start with. Well,
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  Speaker 2: so why wasn't that in the terms of references to
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  Speaker 2: deal with the start with? Because as we all know,
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  Speaker 2: the contract gets awarded and the variations come on top
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  Speaker 2: of it, and the variation after very and that's just
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  Speaker 2: a waste of government money of taxpayers money, Jared, do
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  Speaker 2: you think that.
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  Speaker 1: This actually raises a bigger issue here when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to tendering within the Northern Territory government, like with those
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  Speaker 1: tenders going out that they're not maybe taking into account
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  Speaker 1: some of those variations and how much they can blow out.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think that's exactly what happened at the underground
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  Speaker 2: or above ground car park. That tender was released before
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  Speaker 2: the design was done. So how do you really go
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  Speaker 2: and quote a tend who hasn't been designed proper yet.
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  Speaker 3: It's like building a shed at home.
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  Speaker 2: You wouldn't get a bider to come and build the
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  Speaker 2: shed and then go I want some doors now, I
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  Speaker 2: want a verana on the front because, as we all know,
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  Speaker 2: those variations that get expensive because you have to change
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  Speaker 2: the plan to get those things involved. And it's just
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  Speaker 2: it's taxpayers money being wasted again and again.
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  Speaker 3: Does the government really.
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  Speaker 1: Need to look at doing things a little bit differently?
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  Speaker 1: You know the way that they do this tendering, Do
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  Speaker 1: they need to change it some wash?
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  Speaker 2: They definitely need to change it. They have blown out
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  Speaker 2: the budget in the last four and a half years,
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  Speaker 2: gone from one point eight billion up to eight point four.
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  Speaker 2: We know COVID hit this year, we know we're going
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  Speaker 2: to have a a decrease in revenue. Something needs to
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  Speaker 2: change and we can't just keep wasting taxpayers money because
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  Speaker 2: that's what it is remembered, this is our money. Our
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  Speaker 2: tax may be being spent by the government on projects
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  Speaker 2: which is get varied and varied, and we end up
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  Speaker 2: with a yes, a playground, but how much is it.
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  Speaker 3: Going to cost?
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  Speaker 1: Well, and that's the big concern. And look, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think the playground there is a good idea.
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  Speaker 3: How do I I think it's a great idea.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you do wonder just how much the espestocial
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  Speaker 1: removal and everything's going to going to cost in the end.
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  Speaker 1: And much like the situation at Parliament House, I would
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  Speaker 1: have thought that there would have been some surveying done
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  Speaker 1: prior to find out just how deep that is spestos
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  Speaker 1: went and just how big an issue it was going
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  Speaker 1: to be before the work started.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that all goes back to the terms of references
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  Speaker 2: in the contractor design and construct, and when you're designing
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  Speaker 2: and constructing the playground, that needs to be taken into account.
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  Speaker 2: So this just really shows a poor planning on behalf
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  Speaker 2: of the government, because like I said earlier, they knew
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  Speaker 2: that if that's what it was going to be there,
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  Speaker 2: it should have been undealt with at the very beginning.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of variation in the end, which increased the cost,
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  Speaker 2: because as the newspaper pointed out, there seems all the
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  Speaker 2: money's spent and there's a picture of it. At the moment,
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  Speaker 2: it's just a dirt.
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  Speaker 1: And obviously it's going to take some time until it's completed,
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  Speaker 1: you know, twenty twenty one.
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  Speaker 3: You know, how.
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  Speaker 1: Do we change things so that this doesn't continue to happen.
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  Speaker 1: I know that it's easy for us to say, obviously
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  Speaker 1: you're inn opposition, not just a social commentator, but how
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  Speaker 1: do we sort of make some changes here to ensure
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  Speaker 1: that taxpayers aren't going to be left further out of
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  Speaker 1: pocket than what they think they're going to be.
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  Speaker 2: Right at the same suggest needs to be further oversight
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  Speaker 2: from the government in the very beginning, because the planning
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  Speaker 2: of these producces need to be done correctly. So the
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  Speaker 2: terms and conditions when they go out to the contract,
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  Speaker 2: they're done and the variations have kept to a bare minimum.
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  Speaker 2: And I understand there's always going to be some variations
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  Speaker 2: because I come across some resource or a power line
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  Speaker 2: or a phone line that's in the wrong spot, and
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  Speaker 2: I accept that for sure, but this particular one one
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  Speaker 2: point one million dollar for asbestos.
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  Speaker 3: We knew it was going to be there, So why
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  Speaker 3: wasn't that at the beginning?
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  Speaker 2: And that could have been soaked into the cost of
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  Speaker 2: the actual designing, constructing the set of like I said earlier,
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  Speaker 2: added on the back of it, more variations, more taxpos
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  Speaker 2: money wasted.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it makes me think, you know, how do
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  Speaker 1: we do things in the private sector, because I know
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  Speaker 1: if there was a blowout like that in the private sector,
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  Speaker 1: you'd be seriously questioning, you.
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  Speaker 2: Know why what you do is like any quote, if
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  Speaker 2: someone comes around and build you a new toilet and
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  Speaker 2: they quote you for three thousand dollars, then give you
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  Speaker 2: bill a five thousand dollars, you say, well, there's a quote.
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  Speaker 2: He's your three thousand dollars, thanks for coming, of course,
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  Speaker 2: And that's what happened in the private industry. But in
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  Speaker 2: the government it seems to be variation after variation, and
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  Speaker 2: the variations aren't something which may come out of the
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  Speaker 2: blue there before and then you was going to happen,
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  Speaker 2: so why not deal with it at the beginning to
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  Speaker 2: reduce costed?
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  Speaker 1: Did you ask? And look, I don't know whether you did,
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  Speaker 1: but did you ask during the estimates process? You know,
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  Speaker 1: when you talk about the infrastructure spend as a whole,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose, and then you talk about those variations. Do
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  Speaker 1: we have any idea how much that's cost us over
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  Speaker 1: the last financial year with the different projects that we've
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  Speaker 1: sort of had, you know, up and running.
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  Speaker 2: Well in relation to the playground, and I asked specific
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  Speaker 2: questions about that and the minutes of timely there was
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  Speaker 2: a two point four million dollars design and construct and
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  Speaker 2: then I asked her was any variations since she said
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  Speaker 2: there was one point one million? And then I asked
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  Speaker 2: her what are there in other vary agents? And she
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  Speaker 2: couldn't answer that.
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  Speaker 1: I'd be really interested to know, yeah, and I'd be
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  Speaker 1: really interested to know with you the various projects that
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  Speaker 1: are happening around the place. Obviously we've spoken about the
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  Speaker 1: seven million dollars differentiation at the car park at Parliament House.
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  Speaker 1: Then we're talking about Miley Point.
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  Speaker 2: And we could also bring up the bus stop as well.
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  Speaker 2: There's another four hundred and thirty two thousand dollars of
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  Speaker 2: a bus stop that'd be moved and brought back, and
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  Speaker 2: that was that bus stop was there again the terminal references.
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  Speaker 2: What was going to do with the bus stop at
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  Speaker 2: the very beginning, it wasn't done correctly?
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  Speaker 3: How do you get moved? How do you get brought back?
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  Speaker 3: Four hundred and thirty.
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  Speaker 2: Two thousand dollars of taxpayers money wasted?
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  Speaker 1: Well, and you just, I mean, you do just wonder,
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  Speaker 1: Like obviously we all accept and like you said, right
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  Speaker 1: from the get go, we all accept that there's going
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  Speaker 1: to be variations. We all understand that's you know, particularly
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  Speaker 1: people listening right now who work in the construction sector,
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  Speaker 1: they would better than you and I I'm sure, but
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  Speaker 1: I just reckon it'd be really interesting to see sort
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  Speaker 1: of how much change there was in that space in
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  Speaker 1: the infrastructure spend, to see whether you know how many
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  Speaker 1: millions of dollars have actually have actually gone to different
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  Speaker 1: variations on various projects and.
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  Speaker 2: They're the only ones that we know about, and maybe
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  Speaker 2: all the other contracts and variations out there, it just
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  Speaker 2: must be such a high amount that it almost be
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  Speaker 2: embarrassing to find out.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what, always something that's you know,
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  Speaker 1: always something happening around the place and always interesting to
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  Speaker 1: look at, but you know, maybe a little more interesting
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  Speaker 1: if it wasn't taxpayers money.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly right.
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  Speaker 2: It's easy to spend money, and it's even easier to
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  Speaker 2: spend other people's money, but when you earn it yourself,
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  Speaker 2: you always keep it in your pocket just a little
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  Speaker 2: bit deeper because it's your money and you don't want
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  Speaker 2: to get a wasted Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Jerreed Maylee, the deputy opposition leader, Hey, just very quickly,
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  Speaker 1: I know that you've been out delivering We know, well
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  Speaker 1: Jerry would he he was always out delivering his news
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  Speaker 1: that here's no doubt about that. I understand you've been
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: trying to deliver your and we've been told by a
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  Speaker 1: couple of people that they've seen you riding around on
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  Speaker 1: a scooter. What's going on?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's right.
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  Speaker 2: This week I've been out delivering Nelson Notes issue too,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm going to try and do it every quarter
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  Speaker 2: depending on the weather.
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  Speaker 3: And it's a bit raining out there at the moment, but.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I've got two and I've got three little steps
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  Speaker 2: through fifty cc scooters and I put a helmet on
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  Speaker 2: a long sleeve shirt and some lotion. I'm out zooming
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  Speaker 2: around Howard Springs and going to a house by house
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  Speaker 2: and putting a Nelson notes in each people's driveway.
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  Speaker 1: What's been the reaction from people?
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  Speaker 3: Have they been wondering who you are?
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I think they have because I think because of the
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: increased crime in the area. I notified the police in
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  Speaker 2: toyl was going to do it to make sure they
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: got any complaints. But people have been pulling up on
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: the side right ask me what I'm doing and make
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  Speaker 2: sure I'm not casing the joint. And I tell them
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  Speaker 2: who I am and show them my Nelson notes and
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  Speaker 2: everyone happy and I give it Nelson them out of
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  Speaker 2: the way they go. So but a lot of friendly
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: dogs out there, must admit, Oh are they all friendly?
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  Speaker 3: Well some of them.
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  Speaker 2: Some gates get missed because they go up to them
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  Speaker 2: and the dogs come barking. So it's just too dangerous.
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  Speaker 2: So we just moved to the next house.
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  Speaker 1: Oh well, good luck, good luck with getting all of
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  Speaker 1: those delivered. Thanks for coming in this morning. We appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you, thank you.