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Katie Woolf spoke with Property Council of Australia NT Executive Director Ruth Palmer · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.
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  Speaker 2: You are our eyes and ears in the Territory mixed
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  Speaker 2: one oh four point nine. There are still concerns from
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  Speaker 2: some within the business sector and including the property sector
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  Speaker 2: about the regulatory assault on the private sector. Now joining
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  Speaker 2: us on the line to tell us a little bit more.
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  Speaker 2: Property Council of Australia's Northern Territory Executive Director Ruth Palmer,
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Ruth.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Ruth, I know that you have written an opinion
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  Speaker 2: piece for the paper today and it reads, with the
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  Speaker 2: first quarter of twenty twenty one coming to a close,
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  Speaker 2: questions remain about whether the Northern Territory government's economic target
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  Speaker 2: of creating forty billion dollar forty billion dollar economy by
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  Speaker 2: twenty thirty and its economic and business reform agenda may
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  Speaker 2: have been nothing but an election gambit. Ruth, what are
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  Speaker 2: your concerns at the moment when it comes to you know,
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  Speaker 2: I guess their aim of of getting there by twenty thirty.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Katie. Firstly, it's fantastic to see that Santos has
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  Speaker 1: made an extra commitment to the territory. That's obviously a project,
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  Speaker 1: an extension of a project that has been around for
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  Speaker 1: about twenty years. So good to have that project coming
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  Speaker 1: on board and the extra jobs that that's going to
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  Speaker 1: create for Territorians. But what we need to be very
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  Speaker 1: careful of is that this doesn't become the only project
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  Speaker 1: that the government points towards. And it's the same as
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  Speaker 1: sun Cable. These are large projects because we will then
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  Speaker 1: go back into that boom and bus cycle, because what
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  Speaker 1: we need to avoid is having the cyclical nature that
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  Speaker 1: we've been up and down in, especially after impacts, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, just sort of holding our hats on those
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  Speaker 1: major projects aren't going to help with the economic possibility
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  Speaker 1: of creating that forty billion dollar economy and roots.
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  Speaker 2: That's something that the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission really made
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  Speaker 2: very clear, I think as well in their report, didn't they,
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  Speaker 2: that we've really got to diversify and obviously capitalize on
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  Speaker 2: those resources that we're very much rich in here in
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  Speaker 2: the territory, but we've got to make sure that we're
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  Speaker 2: diversifying the economy and trying to help business right from
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  Speaker 2: those small mum and dad businesses all the way up
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  Speaker 2: to those large multinationals.
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  Speaker 1: That's right, and sure our economy will pick up and
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  Speaker 1: these our projects that will embed a lot of opportunities
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  Speaker 1: for territory in But what it won't do is it
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  Speaker 1: won't change the processes and the structural issues that we
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  Speaker 1: currently have in place that are ineffective and they're not
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  Speaker 1: achieving the outcomes that they should be doing.
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  Speaker 2: Ruth, what are some of the concerns that are being
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  Speaker 2: raised at this point in time when you talk about
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  Speaker 2: some of those issues.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we've always talking about reform, We're always talking
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  Speaker 1: about changes. But to put it pretty simply, and an
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  Speaker 1: example that I can give around around that reform peace.
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  Speaker 1: Regardless of the size or potential impact of a project
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  Speaker 1: to the territory, all projects go through the same process.
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  Speaker 1: So a two story building generally goes through the same
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  Speaker 1: process as a thirty story building, a small bar generally
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  Speaker 1: goes through the same process as a massive nightclub. All
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  Speaker 1: these processes that really are holding up opportunities again for
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  Speaker 1: the medium to the larger businesses trying to do business
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  Speaker 1: here in the territory. So we've got processes around that
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  Speaker 1: no one's ever questioned why we have it, what they
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  Speaker 1: actually do, and does it actually achieve the objective. So
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  Speaker 1: a lot of them that we see are simply there
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  Speaker 1: to create one hundred percent safety net for the biocracy
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  Speaker 1: so that they can say that they've picked every box
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  Speaker 1: and that they're protected in that sense. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: are these actually processes that could be streamlined, especially when
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  Speaker 1: these projects aren't as large as these major projects that
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  Speaker 1: are coming through.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know we speak about this, We said
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  Speaker 2: spoken about it with Drew Wagner from the Minerals Council.
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  Speaker 2: You know, nobody's asking here for you know, for things
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  Speaker 2: to be ignored, certainly not when you're talking about environmental
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  Speaker 2: concerns and the like. But I guess what industry is
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  Speaker 2: asking for at this point and have been for some time,
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  Speaker 2: is for it to be a streamline process and to
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  Speaker 2: make it sort of you know, as I guess, you know,
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  Speaker 2: easy might not be the right word, but to try
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  Speaker 2: and be as helpful as possible to get business here
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  Speaker 2: to the territory. You know, we look at the likes
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  Speaker 2: of WA Western Australia and from what we can gather
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  Speaker 2: and from what we're told, you know, they certainly roll
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  Speaker 2: out the red carpet for different industry and again, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sort of saying that the government needs to
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  Speaker 2: do the same here, but you've got to make it
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  Speaker 2: as easy as possible for people to be able to
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  Speaker 2: actually get things going absolutely, and we have seen recently
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  Speaker 2: that the government is quite willing to introduce, you know,
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  Speaker 2: rapidly legislative amendments, and sometimes it's because they haven't followed
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  Speaker 2: their own legislation correctly.
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  Speaker 1: And that you know, we know they can do it,
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  Speaker 1: We know it can be done, so we need to
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  Speaker 1: look at those process changes. We need to look around
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  Speaker 1: how we can help people do business here in the
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  Speaker 1: territory and how we can get investment here by really
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  Speaker 1: streamlining some really ineffective processes that are holding up approvals
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  Speaker 1: or applications now.
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  Speaker 2: Rus On Monday, I caught up with the Chief Minister,
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  Speaker 2: Michael Gunner and did ask for a bit of an
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  Speaker 2: update on the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: the directive that had been given for the chief executives
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  Speaker 2: of departments to obviously put forward how they would be
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  Speaker 2: doing things differently or how they'd be making sure those
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  Speaker 2: recommendations were implemented. He said that quite a bit of
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  Speaker 2: that work is already underway. Do you feel that that
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  Speaker 2: is the case from your perspective.
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  Speaker 1: So we have a meeting with the NT rebound in
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  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, so we'll be getting a bit
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  Speaker 1: more of an understanding of where they are. Our concern
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  Speaker 1: is around the accountability and those key milestones and whether
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  Speaker 1: they are going to be made public, whether we will
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  Speaker 1: get an opportunity to see what's happening, whether we can
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  Speaker 1: understand who's going to be doing what what department, and
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  Speaker 1: if they are real, there's going to be some real
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  Speaker 1: KPIs around what happens if those targets aren't met. And
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  Speaker 1: I've said this before, if this was a pub, if
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  Speaker 1: it was a private business that had these KPIs put
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  Speaker 1: on them and they didn't meet them, they would be
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  Speaker 1: going bus they'd be losing employees, and they'd be out
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  Speaker 1: of business. So we really need to take this seriously
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  Speaker 1: and run it in the same kind of fashion that
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  Speaker 1: what happens when those KPIs don't get met and those
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  Speaker 1: milestones are achieved, because what we would say is that
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  Speaker 1: it pushes everything back and it slows down that momentum,
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  Speaker 1: and unfortunately it puts people, well, people who want to
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  Speaker 1: invest here. It puts it into jeopardy, and then there's
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  Speaker 1: that uncertainty and there's that real risk around investing here
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  Speaker 1: in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I reckon, you hit the nil on the head there.
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  Speaker 2: We do need to make sure you know, are there APIs,
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  Speaker 2: Are there different sort of measurements that the rollout of
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  Speaker 2: the Turk the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission's recommendations are going
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  Speaker 2: to sort of be trying to reach and are they
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  Speaker 2: going to be public so that territorians have a good
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  Speaker 2: idea as well as to whether we're actually getting to
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  Speaker 2: where we need to be in order to try and
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  Speaker 2: reach that forty billion dollar economy by twenty thirty.
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  Speaker 1: That's right, and again we've said it before. We're all
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  Speaker 1: in this. We all want to see the territory succeed.
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  Speaker 1: We all want to see long term strategic growth outlined
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  Speaker 1: for the territory. But what we can't afford is that
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  Speaker 1: this document is another sit on the shelf document that
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  Speaker 1: has been built over nine to ten months, and the
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  Speaker 1: recommendations or priorities in that document get ignored. We've seen
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  Speaker 1: it before with other other documents that have been released.
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  Speaker 1: So this is one thing that we as the Property
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  Speaker 1: Council will be strongly pushing for We will be constantly
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  Speaker 1: bringing it to the forefront, so we will be on
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  Speaker 1: it with the milestones. The KPIs by producing our report
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  Speaker 1: card of where we feel it's sitting within what we're
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  Speaker 1: hearing or what we're being presented.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Ruth Palmer, it is always good to catch up
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  Speaker 2: with you, of course, the Executive Director of the Property
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  Speaker 2: Council of Australia's Northern Territory Branch, thank you for your
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  Speaker 2: time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Katie, have a safeyaster you two