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Speaker 1: Well. The Darwin Major Business Group has released its second

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Speaker 1: independent report analyzing economic challenges and opportunities in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: The twenty twenty five Over the Horizons Opportunities Report examines

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Speaker 1: the territories progress in achieving economic growth over the past

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Speaker 1: twelve months and also highlights the critical role that major

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Speaker 1: private sector investment plays in growing the Northern Territory's economy.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is Steve Margetik, the

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Speaker 1: chair of the Darwin Major Business Group. Good morning to you, Steve.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now Steve, why was the report commissioned, Katie?

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Speaker 2: Or Two years ago we started working through what we

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Speaker 2: thought was required to get the territory's economy back on track,

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Speaker 2: which led to us commissioning aec group out of Townsville

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Speaker 2: to prepare an analysis of how the territories economy was

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Speaker 2: performing against other states and like jurisdictions to get a

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Speaker 2: better feel for how we were going and potentially then

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Speaker 2: what needed to be done. That resulted in the in

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Speaker 2: oral Report being launched last year, and we've since provided

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Speaker 2: an updated report which we launched on Friday. Now.

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Speaker 1: In terms of what the report had found, what did

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Speaker 1: it show when it comes to really trying to grow

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Speaker 1: the economy and get things moving.

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Speaker 2: Well, it shows that certainly over the last seven eight years,

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Speaker 2: the territory government to public sector debt has been used

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Speaker 2: as the primary means of keeping the territory economy going.

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Speaker 2: And you know, there were a number of reasons for that,

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Speaker 2: but there were a significant amount of investment put into

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Speaker 2: more social type programs, social infrastructure and the life which

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Speaker 2: hasn't necessarily resulted in an increase in the level of

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Speaker 2: economic growth economic activity. Territories traditionally had about if for

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Speaker 2: every twenty five million of public sector investment, there's been

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Speaker 2: private sector investment probably two point nine times that. It's

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Speaker 2: been significantly less than that over the last seven or

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Speaker 2: eight years and that's primarily where the gap has been created,

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Speaker 2: and that's why the territory's debt now has got to

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Speaker 2: the level it has.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, So obviously we've got the government investing in

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Speaker 1: different things in the Northern Territory, or the spending I

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Speaker 1: suppose is potentially a better word for it, but we're

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Speaker 1: not seeing that same spend when it comes to the

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Speaker 1: private sector at this point in time. I mean, does

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Speaker 1: that come down to that lack of confidence in the

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Speaker 1: end at the.

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Speaker 2: Moment partly, and I think we've we have seen an

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Speaker 2: uptick in private sector investment in the last twelve months

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Speaker 2: that hasn't hasn't returned to what we would consider to

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Speaker 2: be normal levels yet. But that combined with what has

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Speaker 2: to be a reduction in public sector expenditure, means that

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Speaker 2: the economy comes under a feverit of pressure and that

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Speaker 2: makes it even more difficult than to be able to

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Speaker 2: service debt. Put really simply, Katie, to be able to

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Speaker 2: service the level of debt the territory has got at

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Speaker 2: the moment, it can really only come from private sector

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Speaker 2: investment and economic activity, and that's the responsibility of all

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Speaker 2: of us. It's not just government, it's government, business, the

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Speaker 2: community in general. This is a it's a bit like

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Speaker 2: balancing the household budget in some ways. You've got to

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Speaker 2: ensure that the things you're investing in and in that

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Speaker 2: economic or economic enabling infrastructure is an investment that the

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Speaker 2: territory can make. It has to be able to generate

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Speaker 2: revenue back to treasury and grow the economy for us

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Speaker 2: to be able to pay our way. And it's that

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Speaker 2: sort of simple lens that the report enables people to

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Speaker 2: look at how the economy is perform warning having said that,

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Speaker 2: there is some positive steps in over the last twelve

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Speaker 2: months that we've seen and that's to be expected in

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Speaker 2: a way. I think the government's recent economic report was

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Speaker 2: a was definitely a step in the right direction and

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Speaker 2: interestingly released just a few days prior to dmg's report.

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Speaker 2: The fairly close alignment between the two, which I think

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Speaker 2: indicates the inevitability of the past we've got to take

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Speaker 2: to restore our financial balance.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so, Steve, I mean from the report that the

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Speaker 1: Dull and Major Business Group has commissioned, what do we

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Speaker 1: need to get cracking within the Northern Territory to help

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Speaker 1: to see that turnaround.

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Speaker 2: It's the sixty four dollar question, Katie, and really it's

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Speaker 2: about now transitioning to having an unwavering focus on growth.

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Speaker 2: And sometimes when people hear that, they think, well, it's

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Speaker 2: growth for growth SA and it's you're back back anything.

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Speaker 2: But that's certainly not the case. We would advocate and

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Speaker 2: certainly do advocate that projects that fit the profile pass

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Speaker 2: the legislative criteria that the territories established should receive a

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Speaker 2: full backing of government. Industry and the community to ensure

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Speaker 2: that those projects get up. That's the unwavying focus on

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Speaker 2: growth that we talk about now. It's you know, when

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Speaker 2: you look back over the last few years, there's been

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Speaker 2: a number of really high profile examples where that has

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Speaker 2: not occurred in spite of projects meeting the benchmark criteria

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Speaker 2: that that's mandated for them to meet. So they've met that,

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Speaker 2: they try and proceed and then there's a range of

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Speaker 2: blockages or issues put in front of them that erodes

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Speaker 2: investor confidence at a huge rate. And that's one of

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Speaker 2: the key things we have to get over.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, What are some of those major projects would

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Speaker 1: you say that have unfortunately seen that investor confidence dip

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Speaker 1: when you know they've had to jump over hurdles and

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Speaker 1: it's become a bit too difficult.

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Speaker 2: Well, we've had a project down at the waterfront at

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Speaker 2: the hotel that it was put out in an expression

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Speaker 2: of interest and a tender process that hasn't moved forward

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Speaker 2: and it would have been very timely had that gone forward.

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Speaker 2: I think there are you know, Barossa suffered a huge

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Speaker 2: financial impost with the delay that was imposed on through

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Speaker 2: the claims they were effectively made up and that's very

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Speaker 2: very difficult for the private sector and private secrety investment

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Speaker 2: risk capital to be able to sit back and say, Okay,

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Speaker 2: that's an environment we can understand and have sufficient certainty

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Speaker 2: that we can proceed with it. I think it's important

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Speaker 2: that listeners understand investment capital isn't necessarily patient capital. When

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Speaker 2: people apply to or apply their resources to try and

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Speaker 2: convert an economic opportunity or grow a project in a region,

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Speaker 2: they commit everything to do that, and there's a time's

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Speaker 2: very very important with that. So approval time frames absolutely critical.

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Speaker 2: They're a thing that the territory government can do something about,

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Speaker 2: and certainly the focus to date with the new government

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Speaker 2: be reduced and we think that is absolutely critical. Secondly,

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Speaker 2: so that there also needs to be I guess more

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Speaker 2: appreciation than understanding from the broader community that these projects,

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Speaker 2: whilst people may think they don't relate directly to them,

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Speaker 2: they actually do because it's this investment that provides the

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Speaker 2: revenue back to government for it to be able to

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Speaker 2: afford schools, hospitals, other social programs and the like.

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Speaker 1: So Steve, when you look at the report, I mean,

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Speaker 1: what is going to happen with that report? I know

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Speaker 1: obviously I was at IMC to lunch on Friday. You've

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Speaker 1: presented this to the government and the opposition. What was

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Speaker 1: their feedback and what happens with that report now?

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Speaker 2: Well, as I mentioned earlier, there's been reasonably close alignment

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Speaker 2: between the government and the business community having I just

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Speaker 2: want to reinforce aac's report is a absolute one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent independent report and the data is publicly available data,

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Speaker 2: so it's an analysis of what it is, not what

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Speaker 2: people think it might be or could be. The steps

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Speaker 2: forward for now are to ensure that whatever whatever legislative

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Speaker 2: or regulatory challenge that's put before private sector investment, we

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Speaker 2: change our attitude to lean in to try and address

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Speaker 2: those challenges as opposed to applying additional essentially applying additional

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Speaker 2: process for projects to have to work through or developments

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Speaker 2: they have to go through before they can be approved. Now,

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Speaker 2: a lot of cases that can take one two years

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Speaker 2: off the timeframe. Getting momentum in economic growth is imperative.

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Speaker 2: You get one or two up, they drive a couple

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Speaker 2: more starts to move forward. Small businesses then start to

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Speaker 2: employ additional people. Just to provide an example to people,

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Speaker 2: if we've got about six thousand businesses in the territory.

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Speaker 2: Ess needs in the territory that employ that aren't own

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Speaker 2: operators necessarily employ less than twenty people. If twenty percent

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Speaker 2: of those employ one extra person a year over a

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Speaker 2: ten year period, would have twelve thousand additional private sector jobs.

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Speaker 2: Now those jobs service demand which is created by that

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Speaker 2: private sector investment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that would obviously have a massively positive impact in

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Speaker 1: terms of growing the population and indeed the economy. Steve,

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Speaker 1: before I let you go this morning, just a quick

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Speaker 1: one and I'm not too sure whether the Darwa Major

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Speaker 1: Business Group does have a view on this, but there's

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Speaker 1: certainly been a law of discussion over the last twenty

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Speaker 1: four hours about a potential stadium for Darwin. Is that

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Speaker 1: something that the Darwa Major Business Group has got a

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Speaker 1: view on at this point.

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Speaker 2: Well, we would be supportive of it, certainly. I think

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Speaker 2: towns was an excellent example. The stadium in Townsville ended

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Speaker 2: up getting the green light, but that's after many years

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Speaker 2: of a concerted campaign to get it up. Now that

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Speaker 2: campaign in the territory has been going a few years now,

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Speaker 2: we think it is part of the DNA of what

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Speaker 2: a city such as Darwin should have and Northern Australia

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Speaker 2: should have for how and where is something that needs

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Speaker 2: to be worked through and appreciate. With what was published recently,

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Speaker 2: there's some very worthwhile options think identified in there for

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Speaker 2: this to proceed, but certainly d MBG would be supportive

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Speaker 2: of a stadium. Getting the funding right for it is

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Speaker 2: obviously the challenge and that's something that isn't unusual for

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Speaker 2: bigger projects like that, but it would help drive economic

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Speaker 2: growth in the context of providing more of a positive

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Speaker 2: spotlight on what's occurring here, plus getting the profile increase

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Speaker 2: in liveability off the back of the events that these

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Speaker 2: stadiums are able to host. It just changes the profile

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Speaker 2: of what regional cities and being a capital city in

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Speaker 2: that respect. Absolutely need well done.

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Speaker 1: Major Business Groups Chair Steve MARGETI great to speak with

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Speaker 1: you this morning. I really appreciate your time pleasure Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you