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Speaker 1: Now we know that it's been pretty wet and windy

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Speaker 1: over the last few days. Seems to have calmed down

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Speaker 1: slightly today and that low had been tracking across the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. But that system, certainly it has seen quite

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Speaker 1: a bit of rain falling across the top end and

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Speaker 1: also in the middle of the Northern Territory, as is

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Speaker 1: usually the way. It's causing some logistical headaches for our truckies. Now,

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Speaker 1: the head of the NT Road Transport Association, Louise Belato,

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Speaker 1: joins me on the line. Good morning, Louise, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Katie. Good to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good to speak with you. And Louise, we always

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Speaker 1: seem to catch up at this time of the year,

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Speaker 1: and I guess that's because the weather gets a bit

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Speaker 1: wild and it causes some havoc for us with our

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Speaker 1: roads and logistics, doesn't I.

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Speaker 2: It certainly does. And we've got about one hundred and

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Speaker 2: ninety five roads. If you look at the road reports

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Speaker 2: and the NT either closed, impassable or with caution at

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Speaker 2: the moment, obviously certainly present of our road remains unsealed. Katie,

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Speaker 2: So yeah, unexpected.

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Speaker 1: No, it's not unexpected, but nonetheless I'm sure, it causes

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Speaker 1: some headaches for those trying to transport our goods across

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory and from interstate. How are things striking

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Speaker 1: at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Loise, Yeah, so we will see some freight disruptions. Quite

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Speaker 2: a few of our companies have already got trucks parked

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Speaker 2: up rather than parked on the side of the road,

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Speaker 2: which is good because from a logistics point of view,

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Speaker 2: the last thing you want is truck is stuck on

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Speaker 2: the side of the road. But they're very aware of

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Speaker 2: the rain that's moving into Central Australia because obviously it

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Speaker 2: doesn't take much for those roads to close very quickly. Again,

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Speaker 2: that's just the way it is, Katie. A lot of

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Speaker 2: our unsealed roads really are not fit for purpose. They're

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Speaker 2: at least a meter below ground level because they've been

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Speaker 2: graded so often, and they turned into rivers pretty quickly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would it'd be like it would be difficult

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Speaker 1: going at this time of the year. And it does

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Speaker 1: sort of point to the fact that we need real

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Speaker 1: investment into that road infrastructure. And it's something that I

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Speaker 1: know you've been talking about for a number of years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you've nailed it. We can't afford to ignore the

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Speaker 2: importance of road infrastructure in the Northern Territory. We've always

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Speaker 2: said we've come from a very low base and I

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Speaker 2: know that other parts of Australia are slowing down their

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Speaker 2: infrastructure spend and the Northern Territory certainly spent less on

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Speaker 2: new road construction last year, but we can ill afford

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Speaker 2: to do that. It never saves money in the long

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Speaker 2: run if you don't construct put bitchmen on a road network,

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Speaker 2: from productivity to the costs of roads to the damage

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Speaker 2: everyone pays and the freight prices is higher.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Louise, at this point in time, are they like,

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Speaker 1: how are we going? I know you'd said that there

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Speaker 1: are one hundred and ninety five roads that are either closed,

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Speaker 1: impassable or they have water on them. How are we

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Speaker 1: going when it comes to those networks, like any of

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Speaker 1: those those closures set to sort of become more disruptive

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Speaker 1: over the days and weeks if we get more wet weather.

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Speaker 2: Oh, without a doubt. I mean obviously our big three

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Speaker 2: the Stuart Highway in the Berkley and the Big Highway

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Speaker 2: where our main freight routes are main freight moves, but

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Speaker 2: and the Big Highway had a closure for about three days,

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Speaker 2: you know, earlier this week and at the end of

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Speaker 2: last week. So there's more rain. Obviously the Barkley will

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Speaker 2: probably shut. I mean, we've got quite a few sections

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Speaker 2: of the Stuart Highway that are underwater and with caution

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Speaker 2: at the moment. But depending on where this rain down

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Speaker 2: the center goes, that could close even temporarily. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's not unexpected, but it is impactful. And Katie, the

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Speaker 2: point that I did want to raise with you is well,

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Speaker 2: the europe Meteorology close the radar and Tenant Creek and

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Speaker 2: the radar in Windham has been closed for three months.

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Speaker 2: So that's Windham, Kaminara and Tasmania has two radars the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory. We've got one in Go and we've got

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Speaker 2: three across eighteen hundred kilometers from top to bottom of

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Speaker 2: the Northern territory. That's problematic.

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Speaker 1: It's going to be a bloody disaster for the truck.

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Speaker 1: He's trying to work out whether it's going to rain

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Speaker 1: or not.

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Speaker 2: Exactly exactly two days ago it was raining in La

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Speaker 2: Jamanu and the Bureau Meteorology website said it wasn't windy.

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Speaker 2: Dot Com plug for whoever they are was highlighting what

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Speaker 2: the rainfall was across those roads. And it's frustrating because

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Speaker 2: I've said many times truckies look at the bomb website

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Speaker 2: more than farmers do, and we need to have a

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Speaker 2: reliable system that is working, a reliable website that is

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Speaker 2: giving accurate information, and you can't not have that when

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Speaker 2: you've got seventy percent of your road networks unsealed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. I'm assuming that you know that

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Speaker 1: you've probably tried to contact the Bureau of Meteorology or

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Speaker 1: the powers that be. Have they given you any response?

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Speaker 2: Actually, funny you should say that I did get a

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Speaker 2: reply from them yesterday afternoon, because I did right to clarify,

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Speaker 2: to seek clarification as to when that Cana Windham radar

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Speaker 2: was going to be operational and to see what breadth

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Speaker 2: it actually covers. So I've got to confirm a time

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Speaker 2: to speak with them to get clarification, but so to

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Speaker 2: explain how important this is to industry but also to

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Speaker 2: Australia's productivity, that they are a critical piece in the

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Speaker 2: puzzle and we need to be able to rely on

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Speaker 2: that information.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think that's spot on and I think that

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Speaker 1: that's a fair ask when you're talking about you know,

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Speaker 1: the Bureau of Meteorology for all Australians exactly.

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Speaker 2: The other thing is that we really need the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory government's maintenance contractors to do the work that they

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Speaker 2: are obviously paid to do prior to the wet season.

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Speaker 2: So we've got you know, countless thousands of table drained

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Speaker 2: spoon drains on our unsealed road networks, but just need

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Speaker 2: to be cleaned out so that some of those roads

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Speaker 2: that are so low can actually have run off. And

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Speaker 2: there's lots of reasons given for why that can't happen,

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Speaker 2: you know, in terms of land ownership, but it's essential

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Speaker 2: to be able to have unsealed roads open for longer

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Speaker 2: by doing something as simple as that. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, especially so what you're saying is that the contracts

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Speaker 1: are awarded, there's people that are all these contractors who

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Speaker 1: are meant to be doing it, is there?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely there are, yeah, I mean from regularly grading roads. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but also as I said, cleaning out the drains that

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Speaker 2: allow the drains to be operational in the wed season

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Speaker 2: because they get called up with you know, dirt and

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Speaker 2: when they're graded during the dry season. They just need

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Speaker 2: to be opened up so that that can be they

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Speaker 2: can be doing their job that they're both in designed

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Speaker 2: to do. Yeah, that's not rocket science. That's just a request.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems pretty well and it all sort of

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Speaker 1: seems pretty common sense as well, to be honest. You know, Louise,

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Speaker 1: while i've got you this morning, somebody's just messaged through.

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Speaker 1: I think it's Nick from Road Trains of Australia saying, Hi, Katie,

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Speaker 1: are you able to ask skilouees about the rock throwing

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Speaker 1: in towns? Last night? I had a truck rocked while

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Speaker 1: going through Catherine, causing a few thousand dollars damage. He said,

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Speaker 1: this has got to stop.

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Speaker 2: I didn't know about that incident, Nick, and I'm sorry

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Speaker 2: I didn't know. But obviously previously when we've had that happen,

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Speaker 2: the empty police in Catherine have been fairly quick to

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Speaker 2: respond and were helpful. If they're on the on the

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Speaker 2: Catherine River Bridge then they were certainly responding very quickly

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Speaker 2: last time. But I mean that's disappointing because you again,

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Speaker 2: all our road transport operators are doing is trying to

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Speaker 2: make a delivery and keep the lights on so it's

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Speaker 2: in everyone's best interest for that not to happen. They're

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Speaker 2: not hurting anyone by being on the road, exactly.

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Speaker 1: No, exactly. Well, look, we'll get in contact with the

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Speaker 1: polices well to see if they're aware of it and

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Speaker 1: see what work they're doing to try and try and

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Speaker 1: help them getting through.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, because the point we made previously was

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Speaker 2: if a truck loses control over whilst they're they're transporting

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Speaker 2: over the bridge because a rock has hit them in

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Speaker 2: the windscreen and they can't see you or they react.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you can't sathom what a what a crisis

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Speaker 2: like that would look like if a road train goes

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Speaker 2: over the bridge, which is it's just too terrifying to

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Speaker 2: think about. So yes, yeah, but risk management is about

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Speaker 2: putting control measures in place to prevent that sort of

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Speaker 2: thing happening because after the fact, it's all too it's

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Speaker 2: all too late, the horse has bolted.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. Well, Louise Blato, I really appreciate

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Speaker 1: you having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: We might catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: We'll see how things are going over the next few

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Speaker 1: days and weeks. I guess, as you know, as we're

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Speaker 1: the continues on and get a bit of an update

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Speaker 1: from you as that time progresses. But yeah, we're like,

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Speaker 1: we'll also see who we might I'm assuming, you know,

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Speaker 1: just in relation to the Bureau of Meteorology, I know

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Speaker 1: that you've obviously you know, had that response from them today.

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Speaker 1: We're usually catch up with the meteorologists. They're obviously not

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Speaker 1: the right ones for me to ask, but we'll see

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Speaker 1: whether we can find out, you know, what the go

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Speaker 1: is with these rain radars as well, and you know,

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Speaker 1: and what work's going to happen to try to ensure

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Speaker 1: that that they're actually luck that we've you know, that

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Speaker 1: they're working first off, and so that people are able

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Speaker 1: to rely on that exactly.

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Speaker 2: And Katie, not only you know the communities, but I

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Speaker 2: mean again think for the future in terms of the

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Speaker 2: defense requirement. Defense will require very current and they obviously

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Speaker 2: they have their own systems, but that's important for the

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Speaker 2: logistics providers who are supporting defense contracts to be able

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Speaker 2: to deliver things will happen in the wet season as

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Speaker 2: well as in the dry season. So yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 2: is that infrastructure sufficient to meet the needs of Northern Australia.

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Speaker 2: Probably not.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, very good points. Louise always appreciate your time. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for.

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Speaker 2: Having your time with me and thanks for having me

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Speaker 2: on K.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you,