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Speaker 1: So through the election there were plenty of commitments made

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Speaker 1: by both parties, but one commitment which is CLP made

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Speaker 1: was one to cut payroll tax. Now it was a

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Speaker 1: promise which drew criticism from the Labor Party but support

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Speaker 1: from the business industry. And joining me in the studio

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Speaker 1: is Greg Island, the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and it's great to be in Purson

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Speaker 2: for each other.

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Speaker 1: Could you seeing you in this studo? I haven't seen

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Speaker 1: you for ages. Good to have you on the show. Now,

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Speaker 1: tell me in terms of that change of government, what's

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Speaker 1: the reaction been from the business community.

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Speaker 2: I think both in the business community and the community

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Speaker 2: more broadly. You know, there's been a real appetite for

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Speaker 2: some change, and I think that's been evidenced by the outcome.

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Speaker 2: The new incoming governments certainly got a mandate to move

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Speaker 2: forward with some of the items that they've been talking about.

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Speaker 2: And I think we can see this such a strong

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Speaker 2: focus on the crime and any social behavior, which was

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Speaker 2: the corner zone of the reason behind the changing government.

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Speaker 1: I think we'll find Yeah, I agree with you. I

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Speaker 1: think that a lot of people really were quite fed

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Speaker 1: up with the state of some of the issues that

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Speaker 1: we're seeing with crime. But luck something that I found

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Speaker 1: really interesting and enjoyed watching was when Sky News did

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Speaker 1: their debate with the Chamber in the leading and talking

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Speaker 1: a little bit more about some of the industry concerns

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Speaker 1: around getting things going in the Northern Territory with the

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Speaker 1: economy as well. I mean, what are some of those

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Speaker 1: key things that you are hoping the incoming government sort

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Speaker 1: of does focus on when it comes to the economy

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Speaker 1: and getting things moving.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, that was a fantastic event, certainly for us

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Speaker 2: from a national branding perspective, was a great opportunity, and

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Speaker 2: what we did want to focus on was the economics

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Speaker 2: of the territory. There's been plenty of conversation around the

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Speaker 2: crime issue, and putting that to one side, we really

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Speaker 2: did want to focus on getting things going. And I

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Speaker 2: guess question number one was around private sector investment. How

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Speaker 2: an incoming government really stimulate that that enables government to

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Speaker 2: stop spending money on stimulus active vities and spend it

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Speaker 2: on infrastructure and more social based activities. That for us

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Speaker 2: is very much a key and we can see that

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Speaker 2: with projects like the be Toloo which is going to

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Speaker 2: create some income for the territory government, both in royalties

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Speaker 2: but also in more general activity around the community. So

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Speaker 2: there's some strategies that they can work on there. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: we also touched on red tape and getting around approval

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Speaker 2: processes and how they can be drastically reduced in time.

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Speaker 2: Anecdotally we hear that the territories are much harder place

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Speaker 2: to do business than it is in Queensland and Western Australia.

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Speaker 2: So why is that and how can we fix it?

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Speaker 2: Those are some key issues and obviously payroll tax was

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Speaker 2: firmly on our list, as it has been for decades.

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Speaker 1: For quite some time, and it was an interesting one

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Speaker 1: right in the leading because the former government was sort

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Speaker 1: of saying, oh, it's only got a benefits major companies,

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Speaker 1: really big business like Woolworts and Coals and sort of

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Speaker 1: rattled off a few But what is the situation with

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Speaker 1: the payroll tax? I mean from discussions that you and

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Speaker 1: I had had prior to the election, I got the

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Speaker 1: sense that it was going to be a benefit to

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Speaker 1: a lot of territory businesses.

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Speaker 2: It is one of those areas that we feel that

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Speaker 2: at tax on employment is at taxed that disincentivize investment

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Speaker 2: in business, so we understand there's a place for it,

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Speaker 2: and one of the key reasons and when you look

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Speaker 2: back historically and index what CPI has done over the

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Speaker 2: period of time since it was last adjusted, it should

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Speaker 2: have been cpied up from one point five to two

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Speaker 2: million dollars. Anyway, we asked for additional five hundred thousand

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Speaker 2: on top of that to give it a bit of

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Speaker 2: headroom for the next few years. So for us, that

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Speaker 2: was pretty logical. You know that there are claims that

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Speaker 2: that fifty five thousand dollars, which is an increase of

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Speaker 2: a million at five point five percent, will be applying

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Speaker 2: applicable to every business, and that is absolutely true. But

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Speaker 2: what we're going to see is that fifty five thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars that many businesses are paying well part thereof reinvested

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Speaker 2: back into their business. It's about ability to recruit, more

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Speaker 2: about the ability to improve your capability and capacity to deliver.

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Speaker 2: We know that these projects are coming, we are going

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Speaker 2: to see considerably increase in activity. We need to be

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Speaker 2: ready for that, and the support industry around the projects

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Speaker 2: needs to be ready for that. So we thought that

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Speaker 2: was a great opportunity for those businesses to reinvest, and

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Speaker 2: whilst there will be some savings at the larger end

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Speaker 2: of town, we're also going to see much more project

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Speaker 2: activity and then it's by naturally going to reinvigorate that

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Speaker 2: payroll tax income anyway. So I'd be surprised if there's

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Speaker 2: any substantial loss in revenue, but there's a much bigger

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Speaker 2: ability for small business to invest.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, so it should actually realistically do what is

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Speaker 1: intended I suppose of what they're hoping, and that is

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Speaker 1: that reinvestment and to get things taken along.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and we certainly welcomed the non inclusion of

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Speaker 2: trainees and apprentices in that calculation as well. That's a

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Speaker 2: significant invest incentive for business to train more local people.

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Speaker 1: Hey, what do you think about this? I think it's

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Speaker 1: I think they've dubbed it the territory coordinator role. Is

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Speaker 1: there any word on who's going to be doing that

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Speaker 1: or any idea how it's going to look.

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Speaker 2: We are very much watching this space on that one.

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Speaker 2: And territory government previous government has made a significant investment

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Speaker 2: in investment territory and that has been doing significant amounts

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Speaker 2: of work and really heavily engaged in encouraging investment outside

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Speaker 2: of the territory into the territory. So we want to

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Speaker 2: see that continue. We have no issue with it being

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Speaker 2: segmented off and giving some additional responsibility or capability to

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Speaker 2: make that happen. But we're certainly very interested to see

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Speaker 2: how that's going to play out. We think it's going

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Speaker 2: to follow a similar model to Queensland and perhaps Western Australia.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and has that worked okay there from what you've.

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Speaker 2: Seen to our knowledge, it's been okay. One of our

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Speaker 2: biggest challenges is taking investment opportunities away from Queensland and

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Speaker 2: Western Australia. So Mom would argue they're probably doing it

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Speaker 2: better than us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I will. It is something we'll keep an

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Speaker 1: eye on. I guess we're all waiting to see sort

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Speaker 1: of who takes on those portfolios next week and that

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff too. So it's going to be, you know,

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Speaker 1: even going to be interesting in terms of major projects,

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Speaker 1: in terms of business and just industry more general. Who

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Speaker 1: takes on those roles and what kind of tact they take.

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Speaker 2: Look, absolutely, we're kind of sort of twiddling our thumbs, yeah, waiting,

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Speaker 2: I'm waiting for those things to occur so that we

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Speaker 2: can really start those conversations again, because what we're doing

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Speaker 2: is we're resetting our relationships with government. Whilst we know

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Speaker 2: the people as individuals, we don't necessarily know them in

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Speaker 2: that context, and they don't know us in the roles

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Speaker 2: that we've been playing today. So we've really got a

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Speaker 2: forge o's relationships. I think it's going to stay within

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Speaker 2: the core group because there is quite a few new faces.

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Speaker 2: I think there will also be some exceptions to that.

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Speaker 2: So it's going to make some interesting reading when it

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Speaker 2: is announced.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well it certainly will. Hey, I spoke yesterday to

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Speaker 1: the Charles Darwin University Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman. The City

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Speaker 1: Camp is really just about ready to you know, to open,

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Speaker 1: but the number of international students it's still not exactly

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Speaker 1: where he'd hoped it would be at this point in time.

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Speaker 1: The federal government releasing those details and saying that there's

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Speaker 1: going to be twenty two hundred commencements for next year,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what do you think it means for the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Because we were really I mean, we're so

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Speaker 1: hopeful about that City Campus and about really having a

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Speaker 1: huge impact in terms of getting the city really moving.

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Speaker 1: What do you make of those changes to the number

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Speaker 1: of international students.

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Speaker 2: It's a bit of a mixed bag, Katie. It's actually

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Speaker 2: a larger number than what we were allocated with, so

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Speaker 2: that's a positive. It's not as much as we wanted,

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Speaker 2: but we've got to start somewhere, and we know that

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Speaker 2: there's submissions from anti government around migration strategies, including skill

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Speaker 2: migration and international students that he is asking for more,

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Speaker 2: and that process is still underway, so I don't think

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Speaker 2: that's a fixed in stone outcome either and can be

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Speaker 2: manipulate over time at a federal government level. And we

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Speaker 2: know there's an election coming up there as well, so

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Speaker 2: you know there's a further opportunity sort of inside the

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Speaker 2: next twelve months. But I think it's important to recognize

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Speaker 2: that this is also accumulative total, so that twenty two

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Speaker 2: hundred is per auntum. A lot of these courses take

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Speaker 2: more than one year, so when you get a student,

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Speaker 2: you've got them for two, three, multiple years, and you're

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Speaker 2: building on that all the time. So I think getting

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Speaker 2: to their target of short term target of six thousand

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Speaker 2: is achievable, and getting to their longer term target of

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Speaker 2: ten might require some further assistance from the federal government,

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Speaker 2: but we've got a little bit of time up our

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Speaker 2: sleeves to do so. The important part there is is

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Speaker 2: student accommodation in how we get these people accommodated to

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Speaker 2: support the university in the campus in the city, and

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Speaker 2: that's going to have such an enabling opportunity for the

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Speaker 2: community in general with having workforce and having consumers in

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Speaker 2: those markets in town which we've blacked for a while.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely be good, be really good to see the place

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Speaker 1: bustling if we're able to get it that way. It

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Speaker 1: looks good down there, though it does not.

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Speaker 2: It looks fantastic. I haven't seen insight yet, but I'm

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Speaker 2: hearing very very good things. I know that the Chamber

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Speaker 2: will be hosting business at sunset event therefore their opening,

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Speaker 2: and we're just waiting for the timing, so we're very

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Speaker 2: much looking forward to that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, our good stuff for Greg Island, d C of

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Speaker 1: the Chamber of Commerce. Always good to catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us in the studio this morning.

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Speaker 2: You're welcome