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Speaker 1: Let's take a bit of a change of pace and

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Speaker 1: talk more well still about the COVID situation, but about

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Speaker 1: the impact that it is having on our building and

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Speaker 1: construction industry. Now we know that the snap lockdown announced

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Speaker 1: by the Chief Minister on Sunday, well, Master Builders say

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Speaker 1: it introduced a new world for the building and construction

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Speaker 1: industry in the Greater Darwin region. Throughout the pandemic. To date,

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Speaker 1: the industry had been classed as an essential service and

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Speaker 1: it does remain the case for the rest of the country.

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Speaker 1: But on this occasion they didn't enable our construction and

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Speaker 1: building industry to continue to work. They weren't deemed essential. Now,

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Speaker 1: the Master Builders conducted a survey this week to find

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Speaker 1: out just how big an impact it has had on

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Speaker 1: the industry. And joining me on the line right now

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Speaker 1: is Master Builders Int. CEO Dave Malone. Good morning to you, Dave.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you too, Katie.

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Speaker 1: How are you not too bad? Dave? Talk us through

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Speaker 1: the results of this survey. As I understand it, six

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Speaker 1: percent were forced to stand people down.

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Speaker 2: Is that right? That's absolutely right, And we were just

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Speaker 2: keen to know, since we'd never been locked down before,

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Speaker 2: what sort of impact it would have on our industry.

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Speaker 2: That's the only way that we can then sit down

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Speaker 2: with government and have a conversation about how do you

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Speaker 2: deal with that? And we went out on Tuesday night

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Speaker 2: and we closed off by lunchtime on Thursday, so a

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Speaker 2: really really short time window. But the feedback was overwhelmingly

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Speaker 2: that sixty seven percent of firms and stood people down.

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Speaker 2: Another fourteen percent eiderstood people down and redeployed staft are

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Speaker 2: the tasks. So the industry has reacted as you would expect.

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Speaker 2: I suppose that you can't do construction work from home.

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Speaker 2: You've got to go on site somewhere to do it.

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Speaker 2: And with no work around, companies were left with no

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Speaker 2: choice but to put their people off.

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Speaker 1: And just to delve a bit further into some of

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Speaker 1: those numbers, so forty six well, firstly, how many businesses

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Speaker 1: or how many took part in this survey days?

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Speaker 2: So I was a snap survey, so we only go

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Speaker 2: people thirty six hours, but we got one hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty responses in a period about thirty six hours in

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Speaker 2: the middle of a COVID lockdown. So we actually think

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Speaker 2: that's a really strong response from businesses that were spread

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Speaker 2: right across the industry, so it wasn't just one sector,

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Speaker 2: you know, whether it was residential or commercial, civil, the

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Speaker 2: R and M sector, and professional services, they all came

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Speaker 2: back very quickly.

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Speaker 1: And large, by the sounds of it, large and beyond

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Speaker 1: it sort of. It does sound as though this lockdown

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Speaker 1: has had a big impact on our construction industry, which

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Speaker 1: you would anticipate given the fact that you've not been

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Speaker 1: able to work.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and you know, it affects both workers and their

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Speaker 2: employers as well. And we asked employers, for example, you know,

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Speaker 2: if the lockdown was to continue today, and remember we

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Speaker 2: were asking this from Tuesday night, so we had no

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Speaker 2: idea where we were going at that particular point, and

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Speaker 2: we still don't know, I suppose today, but fifty one

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Speaker 2: percent of the firm said they are very worried about

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Speaker 2: an extended lockdown in terms of their viability, and a

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Speaker 2: sizable proportion of people also said they were concerned about

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Speaker 2: their viability that they actually didn't know where they'd make

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Speaker 2: it if the lockdown continued past today.

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Speaker 1: Goodness may so what you know, what are you guys

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Speaker 1: hoping for today? Obviously hoping that that lockdown is lifted

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Speaker 1: and that you'll be able to get back to work.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's the key to it. You know that we're

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Speaker 2: not the only industry where when there's a lockdown you

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Speaker 2: just stop work. But you know, our industry is really

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Speaker 2: well Katie that people use their leave for example, in

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Speaker 2: between projects. It's you know, you've got discrete projects today

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Speaker 2: and then nothing for a couple of days, so you

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Speaker 2: use your leave and then you move on to the

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Speaker 2: next project. So you know the claim that some people

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Speaker 2: make that people should just use their leave to carry

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Speaker 2: them through this lockdown, well, it's just not a practical

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Speaker 2: option for many many construction workers, they pretty much live

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Speaker 2: from project to project, and a lockdown like we're seeing

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Speaker 2: now hurts them a great deal. And I think that's

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Speaker 2: one of the reasons why when you look around the

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Speaker 2: rest of the country you still see construction operating.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, you know, I think that everybody is

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Speaker 1: waiting to hear exactly what happens. In about forty minutes

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Speaker 1: is when we're anticipating that we're going to find out more,

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Speaker 1: I suppose, but gee, I hope that we're able to

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Speaker 1: at least see some of you know, some kind of

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Speaker 1: way forward. I suppose that's A big thing at this

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Speaker 1: point is that communication and making sure that industry knows

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Speaker 1: what's next.

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Speaker 2: The key thing for us is that the entire industry

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Speaker 2: is part of the community, and we understand the reason

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Speaker 2: that the health officials would take the steps that they take.

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Speaker 2: You know, we all want to be in a situation

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Speaker 2: where we can live as free from COVID as we can,

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Speaker 2: but you can be more nuanced and how you respond

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Speaker 2: to things. Our industry runs on very sophisticated safety plans,

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Speaker 2: for example, so COVID's been part and parcel of those

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Speaker 2: plans for a year and a half now. So I

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Speaker 2: don't think we have to use the sledge hammer to

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Speaker 2: shut entire industries down. We need to move very much.

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Speaker 2: If we're going to continue lockdowns like this, it's got

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Speaker 2: to be risk based and where people can manage those risks,

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Speaker 2: then we should be able to continue the economic activity

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Speaker 2: in the community.

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Speaker 1: Now, Dave, if we do get the go ahead at

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Speaker 1: one o'clock today or at eleven o'clock, if we get

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Speaker 1: told that things are able to open back up by

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Speaker 1: one o'clock and the lockdown is lifting, how quickly can

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Speaker 1: the construction and building sector get moving.

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Speaker 2: As quickly as they can find out. There is no

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Speaker 2: doubt that people are absolutely itching to go, and if

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Speaker 2: we can get the message out straight away, then you'd

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Speaker 2: probably see people on site by late this afternoon without

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Speaker 2: a doubt. Yeah, it's just a question of getting the

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Speaker 2: message out. I mean we're talking, you know, more than

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Speaker 2: a thousand firms and eight and a half thousand workers

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Speaker 2: in the greata Dal area. We can get the message

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Speaker 2: out quickly, but I'll just take a little time.

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Speaker 1: Well, Dave Malone, a Master Builders CEO. Always good to

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Speaker 1: speak with you. I appreciate your time today.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, good to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.