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Speaker 1: We know that the Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi and the

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Speaker 1: Greens where they finally come to a deal on the

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Speaker 1: government's Housing Australia Future Fund. The striking of the deal

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Speaker 1: does mean that it's going to remove a double disillusion

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Speaker 1: trigger and means that legislation is now going to be

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Speaker 1: able to pass the Senate. So after pledging an extra

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Speaker 1: two billion dollars for housing in the wake of the

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Speaker 1: legislation battle, the Prime Minister has provided another one billion

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Speaker 1: dollars for housing this year. Joining me on the show

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Speaker 1: is Peter McMillan, the CEO of NT Shelter. Good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Peter, Katie.

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Speaker 1: How are you? Yeah, really good, Great to have you

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Speaker 1: in the studio as always, Peter. What's this going to

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Speaker 1: mean when it comes to housing and the housing situation

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Speaker 1: for us here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually a pretty historic day, Katie. I was

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Speaker 2: just coming in the car listening to the radio then

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Speaker 2: and the bills being passed by the Senate referred back

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Speaker 2: to the lower House which will go through And so

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Speaker 2: essentially what the federal government took to the election was

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Speaker 2: building a whole lot of social and affordable houses and

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Speaker 2: other initiatives around helping first time owners and other whole

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Speaker 2: range of other measures have now got through. The numbers

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Speaker 2: are quite significant for us. So what's happened now with

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Speaker 2: this deal with the Greens is that the numbers have

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Speaker 2: enabled the government to pass the legislation. It's now a reality,

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Speaker 2: it will happen, and there are a number of things

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Speaker 2: that we know with confidence are going to happen, and

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Speaker 2: things are a bit more ambitious. So it's quite a

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Speaker 2: big program in a nutshell in terms of housing if

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Speaker 2: we look at what we know is coming over the

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Speaker 2: next five years. There's commitments with all state and territory

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Speaker 2: governments now to get on with the job of building

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Speaker 2: more social and affordable housing housing for key workers. Around

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Speaker 2: fifteen hundred homes by estimation for the Northern Territory across

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Speaker 2: our urban centers. That'll be across three different programs. Some

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Speaker 2: of it will be like public housing or social housing,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of it will be affordable housing as well.

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Speaker 2: Each state and territory government also have ambitious targets over

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Speaker 2: the five years across Australia build one point two million homes.

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Speaker 2: Some of that will be standard market housing for sale

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Speaker 2: or for rent. There'll be a whole lot of different

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Speaker 2: types of housing, so we've got to work through what

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Speaker 2: the composition of that is and where it will be.

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Speaker 2: So there's a lot of work to be done. But

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Speaker 2: really this could come at a better time for us, seriously,

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Speaker 2: when we're talking about growing our population towards a three

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand population and territory wilities projects that Goverment wants

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Speaker 2: to bring online, which about getting people to d NT. Finally,

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Speaker 2: now we can start doing some serious planning, rolling up

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Speaker 2: the sleeves, getting people who do this stuff for a living,

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Speaker 2: getting them together. And I'll maybe talk a little bit

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Speaker 2: more about this notion of the alliance.

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Speaker 1: I'll ask you about that in just a sec because,

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Speaker 1: first off, so you said fifteen hundred houses, but that

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Speaker 1: is that on top of the eleven thousand that the

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister had spoken to us about a little while back,

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Speaker 1: Because I know that they'd sort of spoken about this

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Speaker 1: pretty ambitious target. I guess you'd say, of eleven thousand

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Speaker 1: homes over five years. Does that sort of change those

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Speaker 1: numbers or do you think it solidifies things?

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Speaker 2: I think all that's part of the numbers when you

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Speaker 2: look at all the different initiatives. So what we know

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Speaker 2: is coming under the Housing Australia Future Fund, the Social

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Speaker 2: Housing Accelerator, and what's locked in for the first five

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Speaker 2: years of the accord that our mass comes to around

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Speaker 2: eleven five hundred and twenty homes, so we're in the

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Speaker 2: same sort of ballpark. And of that amount, we know

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Speaker 2: around fifteen hundred is going to be for people who

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Speaker 2: are on lower incomes or on moderate incomes, who aren't

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Speaker 2: able to make market rent payments for example, or unable

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Speaker 2: to buy a home at the moment. So there's that's great,

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Speaker 2: that's what we need. And that number of fifteen hundred,

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Speaker 2: just to give your listeners some perspective, We've got around

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Speaker 2: five and a half thousand people on waiting lists at

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Speaker 2: the moment, so fifteen one hundred is a big, big chunk, right,

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Speaker 2: that's going.

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Speaker 1: To make a bigger Yeah, it does make a big difference.

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Speaker 1: And I think you know, I used to work for

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Speaker 1: the Housing Minister Rob Night many many years ago, and

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Speaker 1: even you know, you looked at those those numbers back

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Speaker 1: then and unfortunately, and I'm talking fifteen years ago, things

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Speaker 1: have not really gotten much better, have they? You know?

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Speaker 1: Over time?

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Speaker 2: No, unfortunately, over the last twenty years, we've knocked down

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Speaker 2: about twenty seven percent of our public housing stock. So

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Speaker 2: to wait this have grown. What what we really need

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Speaker 2: to do now is this is really exciting news we

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Speaker 2: are having housing coming, but it's now really important. The

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Speaker 2: balls are now court up here in Northern Territory and

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Speaker 2: we've been calling for a plan for a long time

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Speaker 2: for this exact thing to happen. We've now got the

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Speaker 2: plan pretty much coming from camera for all the states

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Speaker 2: and territories, so we've all got to get on with

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Speaker 2: it and make it work.

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Speaker 1: How do we make it work? Peter? Because this is

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Speaker 1: a big thing. It's sort of it is about you know,

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Speaker 1: it's about groups like yourself, but it's also about making

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Speaker 1: sure that we've got the builder to be able to

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Speaker 1: actually build the homes, and that the Northern Territory is

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Speaker 1: sort of able to work together to make this happen,

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Speaker 1: because I know when we've tried in previous years in

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Speaker 1: remote communities for example, it's been really hard.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, spot on. You know, we can't afford to

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Speaker 2: drop the ball on this. And I just want to

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Speaker 2: mention that the Anti Property Council has taken the initiative

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Speaker 2: to right to the Chief Minister asking for the establishment

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Speaker 2: of a housing Alliance which will consist of representatives from

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Speaker 2: property interests, from organizations like the UDIA, the HIA Property Council,

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Speaker 2: master builders ourselves, the Community Housing Industry Association, Local Government Association,

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Speaker 2: and architects a whole an NT government as well, because

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you one seeing if the Anti government cannot

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Speaker 2: do this on its own, there is absolutely no way

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Speaker 2: they can do something of this scale. And because it's

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Speaker 2: not just about social housing, it's about affordable key worker

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Speaker 2: housing and housing as well, So it's a whole it's

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Speaker 2: a whole cross section of interests need to get together

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Speaker 2: and work through how are we going to get this

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Speaker 2: done right? And that means also we need to take

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Speaker 2: the population along with us. We need to take communities.

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Speaker 2: A lot of years we need to be talking about

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Speaker 2: how are we going to roll out housing at this

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Speaker 2: sort of scale across our communities in a way that's

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Speaker 2: done well, in a way that has good community cohesion.

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Speaker 2: We don't want to get this wrong. We cannot afford

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Speaker 2: to get this wrong, and we need to learn from

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Speaker 2: the lessons of the past in how we've managed, especially

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Speaker 2: tendencies that haven't been working well making sure we get

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Speaker 2: that right.

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Speaker 1: Well, because we actually have to get it right. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's not just it's not just about the affordable and

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Speaker 1: social housing and also you know, those that need public housing,

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Speaker 1: and like you've said, the key workers. But it also

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Speaker 1: I would hope and correct me if I'm wrong, that

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Speaker 1: it will hopefully mean that for some of our younger

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Speaker 1: generation as well, that it means that some of those

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Speaker 1: homes potentially are freed up so they can actually trin

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Speaker 1: into the market.

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Speaker 2: We've absolutely got this opportunity to do all of that.

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Speaker 2: And what we will also want, you know, is to

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Speaker 2: have our communities with amenities in them, you know, with infrastructure,

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Speaker 2: with with you know, with parks, with retail, with access

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Speaker 2: to public transport. You know, we don't want these to

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Speaker 2: be like little communities out in wooport that aren't connected

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Speaker 2: to the services that people need. We want these to

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Speaker 2: be communities that are well established, well designed, and well planned.

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Speaker 1: So, Peter, from your perspective, from Mt. Shellter's perspective, like,

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Speaker 1: what's the next step, because you know, sometimes we hear

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Speaker 1: these numbers, particularly things like eleven thousand houses, and people go, oh,

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Speaker 1: we're never going to be able to do that. But

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Speaker 1: it sounds like, you know, across the territory right now,

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Speaker 1: you've got numerous different groups who are actually wanting to

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Speaker 1: come together to make sure it can happen. So what's

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Speaker 1: the next steps from Mt Shellter's perspective.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I don't think there's any option other than

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Speaker 2: the Chief Minister agreeing to setting up whether it's a

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Speaker 2: ministerial task force it reports back to her, or is

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Speaker 2: some other group that is sanctioned in some way by government,

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Speaker 2: it has government representation, industry representation, those groups I was

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Speaker 2: talking about before, to make sure we work through what

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Speaker 2: we need for a meach of our own perspectives.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: The good thing about this is that I think when

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Speaker 2: we've got an ambitious target, it's like an Olympic Games.

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Speaker 2: If you're getting ready for something like that, you've got

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Speaker 2: to get everybody together, working on the opportunity, working through

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Speaker 2: the points of difference as well, you know, and trying

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Speaker 2: to come to come to some good compromises. Because at

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Speaker 2: the moment we've got these, we've got ambition across Australia

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Speaker 2: to address this, but we really need to work at

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Speaker 2: the nuts and bolts now and get the people in

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Speaker 2: the room who could actually solve some of these problems,

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Speaker 2: and most importantly from government. I'm talking directly to government here.

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Speaker 2: Make sure that people from various agencies like Treasury and

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Speaker 2: infrastructure and housing are talking to each other and make

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Speaker 2: sure we get the design right, make sure we get

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Speaker 2: the location and the land release, get it all synchronized.

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Speaker 2: It's a time for us now to be at our best.

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Speaker 1: Oh, we've got to get it right as well. We

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Speaker 1: do not want to have massive blowouts to costs and

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Speaker 1: they're not being able to deliver the number of homes

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Speaker 1: we're actually we're wanting. Because you know, we've seen that

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Speaker 1: at different times, not only here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: but even in New Zealand. You know, I know that

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Speaker 1: the former Prime Minister had made massive promises when it

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Speaker 1: came to building additional homes for people that were either

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Speaker 1: you know, in a situation where they were homeless or

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Speaker 1: trying to get into the housing market and didn't get there.

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Speaker 1: So it's so important.

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Speaker 2: I think that's absolutely right and we can learn from

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Speaker 2: those lessons. It's great to have a vision and great

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Speaker 2: to have ambition, but we need to get people boots

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Speaker 2: on the ground together saying well, what do we need

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Speaker 2: to do to make this work?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, totally well. Peter McMillan from Mt. Shelter the CEO,

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Speaker 1: it's always wonderful to catch up with you. Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much for your time. As always, thanks, thank you,