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Speaker 1: Let's talk budget. I know that there is a big

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Speaker 1: infrastructure spend which we've seen for the Northern territory, but

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Speaker 1: how are things looking for territorians more generally? Joining me

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Speaker 1: on the line is deb Di Natalie, who is the

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Speaker 1: NT Costs CEO. Good morning to you, Deb.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katy, and good morning to your listening deb.

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Speaker 1: What was your reaction to the federal budget last night?

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Speaker 2: Possibly, like a number of people, a mixed reaction. Really

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Speaker 2: pleased to see the increase in the paid parental leave

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Speaker 2: and those changes because that improves flexibility for families, but

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Speaker 2: incredibly disappointed for a number of Territorians who are doing

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Speaker 2: it really tough. And we all know the cost of

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Speaker 2: living pressures and I've just heard you talking about the

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Speaker 2: fuel prices and nothing to alleviate people who are already

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Speaker 2: struggling to make ends meet.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the thing, isn't it. Deb. It's so

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Speaker 1: tough for a lot of people right now in these

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Speaker 1: petrol price says. I know that it doesn't seem like

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Speaker 1: a big thing to some people out there listening, but

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Speaker 1: you know, if you can only afford to put fifty

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Speaker 1: dollars worth of petrol in your car every week, and

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Speaker 1: then the prices go up as astronomically as they have.

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Speaker 1: It's not only the cost that your hip pocket to

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Speaker 1: fill your car up, but it's also the cost of

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Speaker 1: everything else going up in turn.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that can often happen unfortunately in

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Speaker 2: a federal budget, is that the Northern territory gets overlooked.

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Speaker 2: And a really good example is the CPI increased nationally.

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Speaker 2: If you have a look at we always say that

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Speaker 2: living in Melbourne and living in Sydney's really expensive. Well,

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Speaker 2: the CPI in Melbourne is two point five percent and

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Speaker 2: in Darwin it's gone up six percent. Also, rents, people

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Speaker 2: are the rent have gone up astronomically here. So the

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Speaker 2: national CPI on a rent is zero point four percent,

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Speaker 2: but in Darwin it's eight percent. And we had a

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Speaker 2: look at the last quarter in terms of twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: and your average car loan repayment was one hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty nine dollars and in the most recent quarter of

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one it was one hundred and sixty nine dollars.

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Speaker 2: So you think of a family who's trying to pay

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Speaker 2: off their car that's gone up from one hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty nine dollars to one hundred and sixty nine dollars.

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Speaker 2: You think of a family whose rent has gone up

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Speaker 2: and the fuel prices on top of that, you are

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Speaker 2: going to push these families into poverty and into financial

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Speaker 2: stress without question.

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Speaker 1: Wow. And you know, I think quite often, you know,

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Speaker 1: we may be we understand that it's tough for people,

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Speaker 1: but to hear it like that, particularly when you talk

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Speaker 1: about CPI and how it is in other states and

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Speaker 1: then compare it to Darwin and then you look at

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Speaker 1: the cost of living, it is it's tough going for

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Speaker 1: a lot of people right now.

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Speaker 2: It's tough going. And we also have the highest poverty

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Speaker 2: rates compared to any other day fiction in the country.

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Speaker 2: And the other thing that we have is we have

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Speaker 2: more job seekers than anybody else. So we've got twenty

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Speaker 2: three thousand job seekers in the Northern Territory and they

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Speaker 2: haven't seen a single dollar increase. So we're expecting twenty

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Speaker 2: three thousand territorians to live on not even forty six

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Speaker 2: dollars a day. So this is why we have the

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Speaker 2: social issues that we do. And at ant cost, we

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Speaker 2: would say a really good budget is a budget where

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Speaker 2: nobody is left behind.

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Speaker 1: Deep we know that there has been obviously some sweetness,

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Speaker 1: and you'd always expect to see that before a federal election.

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Speaker 1: Included in those they have obviously cut the fuel excise.

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Speaker 1: We also know I think it's a four hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty dollars cost of living tax of set from your perspective, though,

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Speaker 1: does that really go far enough for our low to

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Speaker 1: middle income earners and you know, those that are really struggling.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think it will be a short term fix,

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Speaker 2: and I think it'll make a number of people across

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Speaker 2: the country feel like there has been some movement. But

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Speaker 2: in real terms, this is not a long term solution

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Speaker 2: to people who are doing it tough. And you heard

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Speaker 2: those prices that I mentioned in terms of you've got

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Speaker 2: car loan payments, you've got your rents that have gone up,

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Speaker 2: and you've got CPI that's higher than any other jurisdiction

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Speaker 2: in the country. A two hundred and fifty dollars cut

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Speaker 2: is just not going to get you to a place

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Speaker 2: of financial sustainability. So the answer to that is a

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Speaker 2: short no, it's not enough, and it's certainly not going

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Speaker 2: to help the lower income earners.

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Speaker 1: If you did speak about those changes to paid parental leave.

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Speaker 1: Were there any other wins from your perspective.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I think people who are really interested in roads

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Speaker 2: would say there's been a win for the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: We've got a really big budget in terms of roads

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Speaker 2: and infrastructure. But from our point of view, we would

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Speaker 2: say that that is absolutely essential and we think that

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Speaker 2: they do need to be good roads and we do

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Speaker 2: need good infrastructure here in the MT. But you have

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Speaker 2: to think about the community sector that is assisting vulnerable

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Speaker 2: people on the front line every day, a sector of

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Speaker 2: more than twenty thousand territory workers that brings in more

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Speaker 2: money than mining, and we haven't seen a single incentive

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Speaker 2: for any of those, So for our industry, I would

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Speaker 2: say it's been a massive loss.

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Speaker 1: Well, deb Di, Natalie, I always think it's incredibly important

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Speaker 1: for us to hear from a number of different sectors

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Speaker 1: so that we can get a good understanding about you know,

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Speaker 1: where we've hit the mark, where we've missed the mark,

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Speaker 1: and how you know how everybody's feeling on the morning

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Speaker 1: after the budget. It's always a mixed bag, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: And absolutely is and I always appreciate your Katie reaching

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Speaker 2: out to us to hear the perspective from the community sector.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we always appreciate you joining us on the show.

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Speaker 1: Dev thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: No worries. Have a great day you two.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.