Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Master Builders NT CEO Dave Malone about his call to get more communication from the Government

Transcript

Katie spoke with Master Builders NT CEO Dave Malone about his call to get more communication from the Government · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're going to head across right now to Master Builders
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: and CEO Dave Malone. Good morning to.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: You, Dave, Morning Katie, Dave.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Have you had any good news this morning, any any
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of those questions from your industry's perspective being answered by
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the department.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: I think at one level they have been. You know,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: there's certainly more information today than what we had yesterday.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: The truth of the matter, though, is, particularly for construction businesses,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: they have a base, but then they're out working all
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: over town and all over communities, and each place potentially
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: is different. So by default we almost end up with
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: a manatory vaccination obligation on all of construction businesses, and
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: that's going to be a challenge for us.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and I know that it's going to be
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: a challenge for a lot of industries. But when you
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: put it like that and talk about the fact that
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: you know that you've got different people who are quite mobile,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: it does make you realize that it's going to be
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a tough one in some circumstances for building and construction.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Talk us through some of the different issues that you
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: really need that clarification on from the Northern Territory government.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Well, what we really wanted the government to do was
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: provide certainty around the issues when people choose not to
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: get vaccinated and where the business can take steps to
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: deal with those particular issues. We could have put more
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: information out from the start, which would have taken heat
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: out of those relationships, and if we'd taken heat out
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: of it, then a lot more people would have worked
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: towards a constructive solution. But where we are now is
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: that a significant part of our industry they've dug in.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: They didn't like the fact that they were being told
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: to do something, and so just as we've seen with
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: a little bit of civil disobedience at the front of
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Parliament House, we're getting something similar from many employees who
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: they're saying to their employer, do what you want, but
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I'm not getting vaccinated.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Right and so how are they going to then manage that?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: That is going to be the sixty four dollars? You know,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: we surveyed our members over the last few days and
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: only fifteen percent have a fully vaccinated business. So you know,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: more than forty five percent of businesses say that they've
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: got more than twenty percent of their employees are unvaccinated
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: right now, And what we should have been doing was
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: taking a heat out of this conversation as much as
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: possible and putting as much information into people's hands. As
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I've been saying many times, businesses don't need to get vaccinated.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: People do. And so we should have been providing information
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: to one hundred thousand people who work in the private
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: sector and saying this is how it's going to work,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: and this is your obligations and these are your rights.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So Dove, just talk us through those numbers again with
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that survey.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So the survey was we went out and said, tell
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: us about your workforce, and and so fifteen percent of
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: those businesses said that they were one hundred percent vaccinated,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: which is great, but forty five percent said that they
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: had more and twenty percent of their workforce who are unvaccinated.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Right now, now, fingers crossed, people move forward and take
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: up the you know, the opportunity to get vaccinated. We
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: all want that to happen, but we're heading towards a
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: real challenge. On twelve November, you spot on.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I mean when you look at that twenty percent, so
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: forty five percent of those businesses saying more than twenty
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: percent of their stuff unvaccinated right now, I mean, if
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: that doesn't improve and we get to that DOE date,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: that's going to be a massive thing for the building
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and construction industry.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: It could be you know, I've got my fingers crossed
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: that the heat comes out of this issue. That you know,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: when people get to settle down a bit, they understand
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: that the vaccination is better for them and that they
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: move forward. But because of the way things unfolded, people
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: have really dug in and we didn't have to do
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: it that way. You know, you look at West Australia
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  Speaker 2: and they've announced the mandatory vaccination obligation as well, but
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: they've set up industry roundtables to work through it and
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: to you to try and provide as much information as
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: possible to people. We didn't do that, and that meant
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: some people took great offense set the way it was done.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Dave, how are things progressing in terms of the industry,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: your industry being able to get a meeting with the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Chief Minister or get a meeting with the government minister
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: in order to really try to get some of this
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: stuff nuted out.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Well, we were one of those organizations that was happy
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: for our delegation to talk with the Chief yep. So
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: you know, Greg, as he mentioned on radio just before,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: he's been leading that charge and we were happy for
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  Speaker 2: that to happen. What we wanted was the ability to interact,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: to identify where the risks were, and to put good
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: quality advice out into the community. Businesses need certainty, and
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: you know, you know, we see the media about wool
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: words and coals making decisions and consist making decisions, but
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: they're very different from Mum and dad contractors who might
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  Speaker 2: you know as well as being the managing director or
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: the carpenter and the plumb or the carpenter and the
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: purchasing officer. They need more help to get across the
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: line on these issues.
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  Speaker 1: And what are some of the worries that you know
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: that some of those businesses are telling you right now?
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: I know that you know. Something that was raised with
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: us earlier in the week was if if somebody comes
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: to work and they've chosen not to be vaccinated, like,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: is it then up to the employer to be calling
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the police? Do we have any clarification on things like that?
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I hope it never happens, but no we don't.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: And if you have a look at the guidance material,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: It says that employers need to familiar familiarize themselves with
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the Work Health Act and the Fair Work Act, and
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: as people have had a look at those acts, they're
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: not the easiest things in the world to get across.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: So we need to provide further support. And even the
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: question and answers that have come out today, you know,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: still leave all that stuff hanging. So that's the issue
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: is we should be thinking about those little businesses and
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: how we can help them. Well.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Oh and even as you and I are talking, you know,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: we've got Joe who's message through and she said, good morning,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Katie listening. She was listening to the chamber and to
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the other peak bodies and saying receiving information from their questions.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Is the information then going to be available to other
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: businesses and employees. Where can we access some of this information.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: It's not as simple as the Health Minister had made
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: it out to be. We need these questions answered urgently.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So you know, I know that there's a lot of
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: people out there that still have a lot of questions
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and they want to make sure that they're doing the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: right thing.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. You know, if you end up in an unfair
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: dismissal case of any kind. It's a pretty expensive thing
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: for a small business, and you might win the case
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, but you've still paid
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: your lawyer a lot of money. And so these firms
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: just don't want to take on those sort of risks.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: They need more certainty. And I'm not saying you can
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: provide absolute certainty to anybody. I mean, life isn't like that.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: But we could have done more than what we did.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: We didn't.
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  Speaker 2: Even when we made the announcement about needing to check
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: people's vaccines, we didn't provide them with a way of
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: recording that information. For example. They all had to work
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: it out for themselves. And just imagine how much easier
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: it would have been for me if there'd been a
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: schedule that they could just use and we just use
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: one template right across the business community for example.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So, Dave, from your perspective as the head of
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  Speaker 1: Master Builders here in the Northern Territory, like where to
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: from here when it comes to you know, to making
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: sure that the industry is informed and that some of
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that information is actually provided by the government.
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  Speaker 2: So we'll do everything in our power to get information
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  Speaker 2: out to the industry, you know, through all the channels
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  Speaker 2: that we have, and I know every other industry group
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  Speaker 2: is doing exactly the same thing, so that covers a
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: large part of the community. I'm hopeful that as we
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: move forward that when the delegation gets to meet with
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  Speaker 2: the Chief, we start to develop some of the tools
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  Speaker 2: and templates that small business can use and we get
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: to the twelfth of November with the best possible result
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: in terms of vaccidented territoriums.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Dave. One of the other questions that I've been asking
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of days, following on from Anastasia
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Palachet obviously the Premiere of Queensland making the announcement that
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: from December seventeen they are indeed going to be allowing
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: people into the state from other parts of Australia. All
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: they'll need is a negative rapid antigen test within the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: seventy two hours before entering. Do we need a date
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: here in the territory to find out exactly when we're
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: going to be moving down this path.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Catie, certainty is always good for business. We must have
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: talked about that many times before, so absolutely, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: I know it's difficult for the authorities. They need to
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: balance a lot of different things. But you know, it's
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: very hard as a business to make decisions going forward
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: if you don't have certainty. And you know these decisions
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: that we've seen from New South Wales, Victoria and now Queensland,
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  Speaker 2: you know they start to give their industry certainty and
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: they get ahead of the game on us.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, spot on. I think we all just need
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: to know exactly where we're going, whether we like the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: answer or not. You do need that certainty. But but yeah,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: it helps when you've got a bit of a date
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: or a bit of a roadmap. Dave Malone, it's always
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: good to catch up with you. We appreciate your time
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Thanks Cotie, thank you.