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Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf thanks to Joyce Main Darwin

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Speaker 1: Homes on Stuart Highwayberromote. It is just seventeen minutes away

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Speaker 1: from ten o'clock. Quite a few of you getting in

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Speaker 1: contact on the text line this morning around the budget.

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Speaker 1: You're also able to send us an email if you'd

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Speaker 1: like to three sixty at Mixed one oh four nine

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Speaker 1: dot com dot au and our email is brought to

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Speaker 1: you by Kearra's nt. I've got a message here, it

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Speaker 1: says Katie. At some point in time someone has to

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Speaker 1: say enough is enough. There has to be a cutoff.

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Speaker 1: Surely another one here. Twenty two thousand public servants with

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Speaker 1: no pay rise for four years and inflation rising means

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Speaker 1: salaries will go backwards. That's twenty two thousand guaranteed votes

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Speaker 1: not going to labor next election. That's why I say

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Speaker 1: I'm calling it early. I don't reckon there's going to

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Speaker 1: be a four year pay freeze. I've got one here

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Speaker 1: from Mark Intewee. It says, Hi, Katie has mister Gunner

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Speaker 1: got a modern day Hans Christian Anderson as his speechwriter

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Speaker 1: a main advisor. Sure sounds like to me after listening

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Speaker 1: to his budget speech yesterday, says his Mark in twee

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Speaker 1: and well, let's get a bit of a breakdown. I'm

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Speaker 1: really keen to actually get a bit of a breakdown

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Speaker 1: of the budget from some of our industry leaders to

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Speaker 1: find out their reaction and the wins and losses for

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Speaker 1: different industries and joining me on the line. First up

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

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Greg.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you today?

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Speaker 1: Very well? Greg? Firstly, what was your reaction to yesterday's budget?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think we need to make no mistake. The

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Speaker 2: budget is still in deficit and we are still going

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Speaker 2: backwards at what we have seen is a lesser rated

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Speaker 2: not some was originally forecast. So that is the upside

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Speaker 2: of things that there is some more revenue coming in

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Speaker 2: the door, but we are still on a down trajectory.

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Speaker 1: What were the positives for your industry out of yesterday's budget.

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Speaker 2: I think the majority of consistency in the infrastructure budget.

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Speaker 2: I think it's critical that the territory builds infrastructure that

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Speaker 2: enables business activities and encourages private investment. It's going to

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Speaker 2: be those major projects that can be the real shift

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Speaker 2: in the curve that we've got at the moment, So

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Speaker 2: the one point six million dollars in infrastructure spend is

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Speaker 2: important to maintain. We've also seen additional three hundred and

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Speaker 2: eighty million in infrastructure over the forward estimate, so that's

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Speaker 2: good spending. And probably importantly for the territory businesses, the

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Speaker 2: additional one hundred and twenty million that's gone into the

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Speaker 2: Local Jobs Fund over the next two years. That all

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Speaker 2: be important enabling support revenue.

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Speaker 1: And no doubt those tourism vouchers as well, and that

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Speaker 1: spend into tourism is going to have a positive impact

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Speaker 1: more broad ranging, I would hope.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll let Alex talk about some of those things,

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Speaker 2: but I think it's very important that business gets to

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Speaker 2: extend it's seasons, so we know they're going to be

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Speaker 2: flat out during the dry but into that shoulder season

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Speaker 2: and more importantly into the wet season. If the locals

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Speaker 2: can be encouraged to support local business, and that's perfect.

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Speaker 1: Greg, are there any areas where the budget fell short

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Speaker 1: for your industry?

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Speaker 2: We were always like more from territory budgets, but we

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Speaker 2: have to really understand that. You know that spending does

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Speaker 2: need to be rained in so from our perspective, we

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Speaker 2: want to see very much a focus on increasing participation rates.

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Speaker 2: So we've got to get more people off watching their

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Speaker 2: TVs for the day and getting out and participating in

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Speaker 2: the general workforce. We've really got to see more indigenous engagement.

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Speaker 2: From an economic perspective, those are things that I think

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Speaker 2: we need to focus more on.

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Speaker 1: And did you feel that the budget really went anywhere

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Speaker 1: near those issues.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it was ever going to set the

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Speaker 2: world alike, Katie, and some of those issues would be

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Speaker 2: argued to be a federal concern, but ultimately we've got

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Speaker 2: to get people in jobs and get our skill sets

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Speaker 2: up to make sure that we've got the workforce for

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Speaker 2: the future.

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Speaker 1: So all in all, Greg Island, the Chamber of Commerce CEO,

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Speaker 1: would you say that the budget goes far enough?

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Speaker 2: The budget? I think it has done its job in

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Speaker 2: the short term. It needs to be part of a

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Speaker 2: stepping stone to a broader improvement, particularly through those major

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Speaker 2: projects that are sitting there in line. We know that

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Speaker 2: there's something like thirty five or forty significant projects, and

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Speaker 2: even just two or three of those are going to

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Speaker 2: change some of the narrative around our finances in the future,

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Speaker 2: so it's important that we keep a focus on that.

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Speaker 2: We do like the Investment Commissioner. We do like the

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Speaker 2: Major Projects Commissioner as well as the Infrastructure Commissioner. We

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Speaker 2: also appreciate the changes to the CEO structures and how

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Speaker 2: they operate in their budgets well.

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Speaker 1: Chamber of Commerce CEO Greg Ireland, thank you very much

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Speaker 1: for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: You're welcome, Katie