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Speaker 1: There is always so much on the agenda in here

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Speaker 1: and last week you'll recall we spoke to the Chief

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Speaker 1: Minister about the housing announcement made by the Prime Minister

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Speaker 1: Anthony Albanesi. Australia is set to build one point two

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Speaker 1: million new homes in the space of five years as

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Speaker 1: part of a new plan agreed to it national Cabinet

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Speaker 1: aimed at tackling the nation's housing crisis.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: The Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi said that increasing that supply

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Speaker 1: was the key to addressing the housing and rental crisis,

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Speaker 1: adding that the Commonwealth has committed three billion dollars in

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Speaker 1: incentivized payments for states and territories that build more than

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Speaker 1: their allocated share of homes. So it seems like a

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Speaker 1: great initiative and we did ask the Chief Minister, Natasha

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Speaker 1: Fhiles about this on the show last week. She gave

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Speaker 1: us a bit of a background in terms of how

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Speaker 1: many homes they're hoping to build.

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Speaker 3: Take a listen from the.

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Speaker 4: Northern Territory perspective. We're focused on ensuring land release for

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Speaker 4: new homes to be built, as well as going back

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Speaker 4: and looking at where we can and in fill with homes.

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Speaker 4: Our numbers is ambitious. We're hoping to build eleven thousand

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Speaker 4: homes over five years. That is a stretch target, but

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Speaker 4: we absolutely need to make sure we have homes for

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Speaker 4: territorians now and people that we want to become territory.

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Speaker 1: So that was the Chief Minister on the show towards

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Speaker 1: the end of last week. Now joining me on the

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Speaker 1: show right now is the HIAS Executive Director of the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory, Lewis Espinoza.

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Speaker 3: Good morning to you, Lewis.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 3: Lovely to have you in the studio.

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Speaker 1: Now, can you tell me we just heard from the

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister how many homes they are hoping to build

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Speaker 1: over that five year period.

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Speaker 3: How many do we currently build?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's very hard up here.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, but normally we're looking at around a thousand homes

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Speaker 5: per on a good year.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Obviously in the last three years that has fluctuated. During

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Speaker 5: the impacts period there was around two thousand homes built

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Speaker 5: or around that area and so you know, and that

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Speaker 5: really kept the industry quite busy at that time and

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Speaker 5: then on a yearly basis, Yeah, everyone will be kept busy.

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Speaker 1: And I guess that's what we hope, you know, we

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Speaker 1: do want the building industry busy, and we do want

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Speaker 1: those additional homes.

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Speaker 3: I guess the big question we've.

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Speaker 1: Sort of had over the last couple of days is

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Speaker 1: was the industry consulted on this figure? And do we

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Speaker 1: have the workforce to be able to do us.

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Speaker 5: Consultation? No, well, I can't remember any consultation as far

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Speaker 5: as that's concerned. All we know is that industry has

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Speaker 5: gone through a hard time in the last few years.

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Speaker 5: And even though we welcome this sort of news because

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Speaker 5: we do need housing gently, we're still I think it's

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Speaker 5: an ambitious number to reach.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems that way, particularly when you talk about

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Speaker 1: those those former figures, you know, a thousand homes, around

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Speaker 1: one thousand homes a year.

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Speaker 3: And then when we were in that real boom.

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Speaker 1: Of the Impacts construction phase two thousand and we had

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Speaker 1: a really sort of bolstered.

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Speaker 3: Workforce at that point too, didn't.

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Speaker 5: We were sure that there was migration happening at the time.

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Speaker 5: I remember our borders had opened to a lot of

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Speaker 5: Orish backpackers in English and so on, and obviously people

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Speaker 5: from down south because things weren't that good down south,

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Speaker 5: so they moved up. Now we are heading to maybe

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Speaker 5: another perfect storm if every jurisdiction decides to build the

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Speaker 5: million homes and everyone will be busy. And you know,

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Speaker 5: I hate to say it, Bert Darwin has always struggled

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Speaker 5: in attracting the people up here.

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Speaker 1: And the other part of it is, I guess it's

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Speaker 1: almost like a chicken and an egg kind of scenario

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Speaker 1: where we're going, well, we want to build these additional homes,

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Speaker 1: but we need the workforce to build them, and then

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Speaker 1: they're going to need somewhere to live, aren't they if

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Speaker 1: they come here?

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Speaker 2: And that's what I'll keep on saying.

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Speaker 5: I've had a couple of meetings with the Minister for Planning,

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Speaker 5: Yeah evel l and a vorce that concern that we

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Speaker 5: cannot be assuring that we're going to deliver this much

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Speaker 5: construction when we haven't got the workforce.

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Speaker 3: So talk me through. You know, when you look at

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Speaker 3: that and.

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Speaker 1: You sort of look at that workforce and you look

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Speaker 1: at these numbers, because obviously it's really good to have

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Speaker 1: a target, right and we all do want to see

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Speaker 1: additional homes built, but how will we build the workforce

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Speaker 1: to be able to actually deliver on the eleven thousand homes?

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Speaker 3: Over five years. Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Look, government has once again looked at migration and people

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Speaker 5: are coming in. Whether they're coming in for their construction

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Speaker 5: sector or not remains to be seen. At the moment,

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Speaker 5: our current workforce is busy with remote community housing and

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Speaker 5: that will continue probably for another year, which probably would

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Speaker 5: for right on time when this twenty twenty four announcement

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Speaker 5: was made. I don't know how we're going to manage

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Speaker 5: that when that happens. I mean, HIA are also an

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Speaker 5: RTA registered training organization and we are full of apprentices

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Speaker 5: in carpentry, so we're trying to put those through as

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Speaker 5: fast as we can. But you know those guys won't

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Speaker 5: be ready for another two three years.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the hard part, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: You want to grow your own, You want to make

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Speaker 1: sure that we've got we've got our own workforce to

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Speaker 1: be able to build homes and to get industry moving.

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Speaker 3: But based on that time frame that we've got, it

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Speaker 3: might not be possible.

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Speaker 5: That's correct. I mean, on the first to acknowledge that

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Speaker 5: we need to grow our own. But when I say that,

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Speaker 5: that's with the NT in mind, and I think countrywide

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Speaker 5: we need to grow our own. We need to get

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Speaker 5: those kids off their bumps that are doing nothing.

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Speaker 2: And enrolling in a trade.

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Speaker 5: Or vacational education. You know, you've got one tier years

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Speaker 5: your out of there. It's just not rocket science. But

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Speaker 5: we need to do something about it otherwise, Yeah, we'll

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Speaker 5: keep on having this problem over and over again.

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Speaker 1: Now, Lewis tell us because you know, when you look

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Speaker 1: at an announcement like this, and when you look at

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Speaker 1: numbers like this, very often you need the support of

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory government as well to be able to

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Speaker 1: make it happen and to be able to sort of

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Speaker 1: to make an environment where it is as seamless as

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Speaker 1: possible to build such a high volume of homes. Does

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Speaker 1: an althern Territory government currently have the framework right to

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Speaker 1: do this?

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Speaker 5: I would like to believe that they have, because otherwise

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Speaker 5: we're going to be in serious problems impacts. For instance,

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Speaker 5: we knew what was going to happen with housing. Yes,

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Speaker 5: we did build a lot of houses, but under pressure

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Speaker 5: you no, let's get ready for when that boom happens.

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Speaker 5: Let's have some stock behind us where we can say, yep,

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Speaker 5: that's where that land is ready to go. Let's do

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Speaker 5: it at the moment Holtz looks like the only place

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Speaker 5: that's going to be released, and I think one is

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Speaker 5: on the table as well, but that might not happen

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Speaker 5: for another four or five years. Holt will happen hopefully

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Speaker 5: by the end of twenty four yep.

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Speaker 2: Will that be too late? I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the other part of it, isn't it

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Speaker 1: making sure we've actually got land and it's ready to go.

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Speaker 2: Yep. And that's the problem that Australia wide is suffering.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, and everyone wants to live in the city and

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Speaker 5: we understand that, but it's not possible unless we go

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Speaker 5: up with so.

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Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to it, yep.

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Speaker 5: But we need to get the people that get paid

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Speaker 5: to do this job to come up with the answers.

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Speaker 1: Well, Lewis Espinosa, the chief executive of HIA are the

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Speaker 1: Housing Industry of Australia here in the Northern Territory. We

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time. Thank you very much for coming

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Speaker 1: in this morning and having a chat with us.