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Speaker 1: Hello, Katie Wolf and three point sixty online at Mix

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Speaker 1: one O four nine dot COMU.

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister Scott Morrison is going to jet into the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory today. He's going to be unveiling a well

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Speaker 2: seven hundred and forty seven million dollar spend on defense.

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Speaker 2: So it has been revealed that four of the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory's ADF training sites are going to be overhauled, with

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Speaker 2: the bradshaw Field Training Area to be upgraded to include

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Speaker 2: urban operations training facilities over the next five years and

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Speaker 2: given an extended runway. The NT News is reporting that

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Speaker 2: the expansion is going to allow a significant increase in

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Speaker 2: Australia's military force capabilities and provide greater opportunity for cooperation

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Speaker 2: with the US.

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Speaker 1: We know as well that well.

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Speaker 2: The Prime Minister is saying that it's going to mean

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Speaker 2: jobs for Territorians and joining us on the line to

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Speaker 2: talk further about things from that aspect. Master Builders NT

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Speaker 2: CEO Dave Malone, Good morning to you, Dave.

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Speaker 1: How are you very well?

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Speaker 2: What was your reaction upon hearing that the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: is set to have a seven hundred and forty seven

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Speaker 2: million dollar cash splash on defense.

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Speaker 3: Well, Katie, you know, you and I have been talking

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Speaker 3: about defense for a while, and so this is just

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Speaker 3: the next installment. Now, what we're seeing is the things

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Speaker 3: we talked about for a few years are becoming very,

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Speaker 3: very real. And it's Prime Minister flying into town today

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Speaker 3: to announce seven hundred and forty seven million dollars with

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Speaker 3: a wordth of more works is good news for the

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Speaker 3: territory and it's good news for all those people that

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Speaker 3: will work on those jobs over the next three to

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Speaker 3: five years.

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Speaker 2: And Dave, I had wondered that I had sort of

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Speaker 2: wondered whether it is brand new money or whether it

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Speaker 2: is money that had already been earmarked for the territory.

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Speaker 2: But as you've pointed out, it is that next step

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Speaker 2: in terms of it actually being delivered.

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Speaker 3: Earmark is the right thing. You know, we have an

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Speaker 3: eight billion dollar program, but there's a lot of work

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Speaker 3: to turn that announcement into a set of plan for

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Speaker 3: manding people to physically do the work. What we've seen

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Speaker 3: with those field training areas is the design work pretty

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Speaker 3: much completed and it will go through for public approval

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Speaker 3: at through Federal Parliament in the next few months, and

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Speaker 3: then we'll see physical works happening. So it's a really

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Speaker 3: important stage in that project, and it just shows how

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Speaker 3: important defense is for everybody in the territory.

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Speaker 2: Dave, talk us through what this is going to mean

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Speaker 2: for our local will, for locals that work in the

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Speaker 2: building and construction industry.

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Speaker 3: Well, Katie, you know, some years ago Master Builders looked

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Speaker 3: at this program and said it's one of the best

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Speaker 3: opportunities that our community can have and definitely what our

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Speaker 3: industry can have over the next decade post impacts. And

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Speaker 3: so we sat down with Defense and with various federal

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Speaker 3: politicians and really worked hard on finding a procureent model,

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Speaker 3: a way of getting this work done that would maximize

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Speaker 3: the use of locals. And that's pretty much what we

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Speaker 3: see now. Defense now has a program where they issue

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Speaker 3: a really large contract to one contractor manage the project

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Speaker 3: for them, and then they let a lot of the

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Speaker 3: workout of what's called works packages, and that brings in

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Speaker 3: other contractors and subcontractors and suppliers and pretty much says,

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Speaker 3: if you're in a supply chain in the territory, you've

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Speaker 3: got a pretty good chance of doing defense work.

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Speaker 2: And Dave, what is the process in terms of making

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Speaker 2: sure that I guess you'd call them. You know from

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Speaker 2: the second tier down that it is locals that are

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Speaker 2: doing this work.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it's a really good question. It's something that

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Speaker 3: we try and push really hard. All this work runs

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Speaker 3: through the ICN, the Industry Capability Network. The big contractors

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Speaker 3: I just talked about, they take their packages to the ICN.

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Speaker 3: All those packages are put up on their system. Local

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Speaker 3: firms get to put their expressions of interest in and

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Speaker 3: people will be shortlisted from that and then they get

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Speaker 3: the opportunity tender. So every firm wanting to be in

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Speaker 3: this space needs to get in contact with the ICN

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Speaker 3: as soon as they can update their records as they've

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Speaker 3: already got one, or make sure they put a new

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Speaker 3: record in if they've introduced new capacity.

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Speaker 2: Now it's it's obviously you know it is going to

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Speaker 2: be great if we've got our local contractors completing this work.

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Speaker 1: But how soon do you think that it's all going

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Speaker 1: to get under way?

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Speaker 3: Daves, Well, it's already underway in many ways. If you

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Speaker 3: go to Tindall, for example, you'll see five or six

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Speaker 3: projects all being done by local firms. They're already to

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Speaker 3: get a Larakia Kuna Warra plenty of work. Last time

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Speaker 3: I heard there were three hundred people working out there.

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Speaker 3: There's a couple of hundred million dollars worth of work

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Speaker 3: happening at raft Bay Stalin. This work that we're talking

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Speaker 3: about is probably in the third or fourth quarter of

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Speaker 3: the year. Defense is a big deal now, and you know,

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Speaker 3: coming out of COVID, when everybody's worried about, you know,

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Speaker 3: where will the next opportunities come. The timing around this

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Speaker 3: defense work is just absolutely you know, for our future success.

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Speaker 3: I know it sounds like a glib line, but we

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Speaker 3: really need to fence to keep compan money into the town.

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Speaker 1: How many jobs are we talking.

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Speaker 3: That's a really good question. There is no doubt that

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Speaker 3: when we add all those projects together, we're talking about

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Speaker 3: thousands of jobs.

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Speaker 1: So a couple thousand maybe at least.

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Speaker 3: At least that's only the direct jobs. That only counts

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Speaker 3: to people who are pouring concrete, laying blocks, you know,

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Speaker 3: putting roof trusses up, or finishing the buildings, or doing

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Speaker 3: the civil works to build pavements and new runway extensions

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Speaker 3: be the direct jobs. But then usually with construction, for

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Speaker 3: every one direct job that we have, there's almost two

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Speaker 3: indirect jobs in the wider community. So you know, we're

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Speaker 3: talking about you know, thousands directly and many thousands indirectly

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 2: And how important is it as well, Dave, that you

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Speaker 2: know this work is not just happening on one of

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Speaker 2: these sites, but it is actually in various locations in

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Speaker 2: terms of engaging different contractors, very.

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Speaker 3: Much so, very much so that not only is it

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Speaker 3: regionally based, so you know, it's right across the top end,

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Speaker 3: but it's also different work. So you know, all contractors

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Speaker 3: specialize in their own particular area. And basically, if you

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Speaker 3: can think about a job, it's going to happen somewhere

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Speaker 3: on a defense base over the next few years. And

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Speaker 3: that's why the opportunities are so broad. It's why we've

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Speaker 3: talked so long and hard about this stuff. It really

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Speaker 3: is the situation where you know, if you have a

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Speaker 3: look at Impacts, it was a really great project but

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Speaker 3: had a narrower set of skills. This is a great

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Speaker 3: set of projects with a real breadth of demand for skills.

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Speaker 2: When you talk, you know, when you're sort of making

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Speaker 2: that comparison, Dave, do you think that you know, realistically

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Speaker 2: this this defense spend is going to be more beneficial

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Speaker 2: to our local contractors than what the likes of thet

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Speaker 2: Impacts project was.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think Impacts was great. I know that some

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Speaker 3: people have got their views, but I think it was

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Speaker 3: really important for the growth of the territory. The good

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Speaker 3: thing about this work that we're talking about now is

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Speaker 3: it's coming at a time when private demand isn't at

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Speaker 3: its strongest, and so it's filling the gap in the market.

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Speaker 3: So we'll be able to handle it. There's no question

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Speaker 3: at all. We have great contractors, people with great skills,

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Speaker 3: and the volume that's coming through is manageable for our industry,

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Speaker 3: so it's not going to create those huge bubbles of

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Speaker 3: concern around prices and labor shortages and people losing staff.

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Speaker 3: It's going to be manageable for our economy.

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Speaker 2: Well. Master Builders NT CEO Dave Malone always good to

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Speaker 2: catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Cotie. Good to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.