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Speaker 1: We do know that new projection projections, i should say,

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Speaker 1: have revealed that home building levels in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: shaping up to be among the worst ever, sparking calls

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Speaker 1: for a residential construction scheme. Now, Master Builders NT is

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Speaker 1: forecasting that only two hundred and seventy homes are going

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Speaker 1: to be built in the twenty twenty three twenty four

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Speaker 1: financial year. That's a decline of fifty five percent on

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Speaker 1: the previous year. Joining us in the studio to shed

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Speaker 1: some more light on the situation is Master Builders Chief

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Speaker 1: Executive Ben Carter. Good morning to you, Ben O.

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Speaker 2: Katie, how are you going?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really good, Thanks so much for your time this morning. Ben,

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Speaker 1: tell me a little bit more about this forecast for

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Speaker 1: the next year.

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, we've known for about at least eighteen months

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Speaker 3: at housing is a real problem in the territory.

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Speaker 2: Master Builds and other.

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Speaker 3: Industry groups have been calling for an increased apply in

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Speaker 3: housing and the government has been working towards that, and

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Speaker 3: there have been reports such as to Bringing and to

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Speaker 3: Market report which is about increasing the supply of title land. However,

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Speaker 3: despite all of that, our latest forecasts are that the

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Speaker 3: territory housing market is basically, without a heart beat, this

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Speaker 3: is going to be an historic low in terms of

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Speaker 3: housing construction for this year. The dah and Major Business

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Speaker 3: Group's recent report shows that home ownership is also an

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Speaker 3: historic low.

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Speaker 2: And although although there.

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Speaker 3: Is construction of social housing being invested in, that's just

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Speaker 3: a small portion of what the market needs to be.

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Speaker 3: Social housing is not going to solve the problem of

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Speaker 3: private sector housing. Private sector housing is a key indicator

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Speaker 3: of the performance of the economy and what this latest

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Speaker 3: forecar shows is that not only have we got a

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Speaker 3: historically low number of houses being built this year, but

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Speaker 3: that confidence in the territory economy is correspondingly low as

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Speaker 3: well well.

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Speaker 1: And this is the thing, isn't that We did speak

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Speaker 1: to the Dull Major Business Group, I think it was

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Speaker 1: last week about this and we talked a little about

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Speaker 1: about the housing and the news starts and you know,

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Speaker 1: I guess it goes to show you not only that

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Speaker 1: the population increase is sort of not happening, but also

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Speaker 1: that confidence I suppose from people wanting to build in

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Speaker 1: the Northern.

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Speaker 2: Territory absolutely so.

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Speaker 3: Over the last nine months, Master Builders has been calling

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Speaker 3: for supply measures from the government to increase the supplies,

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Speaker 3: i say, of housing and land. But what we're also

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Speaker 3: facing is demand pressure, and that's coming from a combination

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Speaker 3: of factors as well, including it what you just mentioned there,

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Speaker 3: you know, law and order and criminal behavior and any

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Speaker 3: social behavior, which is of course having an impact on

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Speaker 3: people's desire and people's confidence about whether the territory is

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Speaker 3: the place that they would want to be and to

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Speaker 3: build a house, build their home, and that's going to

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Speaker 3: the number of houses that we're building now is just anemic,

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Speaker 3: is way too low, and is going to really undermine

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Speaker 3: people's confidence in the economy and undermine our ability to

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Speaker 3: increase their population. And what's really concerning for us master

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Speaker 3: builders is that it will it will undermine the strength

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Speaker 3: of the economy, and our members need a strong economy

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Speaker 3: for a strong pipeline of work. And it will also

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Speaker 3: this number of this low number of houses will potentially

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Speaker 3: undermine our ability to get the benefits, the long term

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Speaker 3: benefits from the six point two billion dollars which is

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Speaker 3: being invested by the Australian US government in terms of

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Speaker 3: defense infrastructure. We will benefit from that from that money

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Speaker 3: from a capital investment perspective.

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Speaker 2: So people will come and they will build it.

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Speaker 3: But the opportunity, the golden opportunity to build a long

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Speaker 3: term to get the long term benefits from that investment,

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Speaker 3: to have a stronger population, which of course produces a

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Speaker 3: stronger economy that potentially can be undermined unless we boost

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Speaker 3: the supply of housing and boost confidence in the territory

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 1: That's a big saying, hey, that confidence. So the projection

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Speaker 1: is two hundred and seventy homes over the twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: three to twenty four financial year, Ben, how does that

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Speaker 1: compare to other years?

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Speaker 3: Well, previously we've had well, I think it was last

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Speaker 3: year before we had six hundred homes or around that.

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Speaker 3: Of course, the territory of a small place, we don't

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Speaker 3: have thousands of houses being built as there are in

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Speaker 3: other jurisdictions. But two hundred and seventy is, as I said,

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Speaker 3: a fifty five percent full. So we would have come

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Speaker 3: be coming from around six hundred homes last year. Previous

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Speaker 3: years we've had four hundred and five hundred and other

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Speaker 3: times as many as you know, six or seven hundred

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Speaker 3: at peak times. And so the other problem with this

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Speaker 3: projection is that it means that the recovery will be

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Speaker 3: slow in terms of housing, it's really hard to turn

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Speaker 3: around that stuff quickly. But we know that things like

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Speaker 3: really well targeted housing incentives and homeowner home building grants

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Speaker 3: can turn around sentiment turn can turn a demand tat

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Speaker 3: back on. And so that means what we're calling for

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Speaker 3: now is a really work well. Lots to be done

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Speaker 3: to work out what the best grants and seniers should be.

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Speaker 3: But we've seen that they worked previously in a territory

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Speaker 3: with a bill bonus scheme really.

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Speaker 1: Good in the past. Like we've actually been what felt

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Speaker 1: like a bit of a leader in the past with

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Speaker 1: this kind.

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Speaker 3: Of stuff, and we can this is this is a

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Speaker 3: key message to coming out, as you say, of Master

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Speaker 3: builders work but also the day on major business group work,

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Speaker 3: is that we need a territory to be the best place,

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Speaker 3: the best place to be to be to be doing

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Speaker 3: business and the best place to work. And that means

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Speaker 3: it needs to be easy, we need to be and

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Speaker 3: we need to be competitive. We talk a lot about

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Speaker 3: a territory lifestyle, but at the moment there are things

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Speaker 3: which are preventing us, i think, from from and preventing

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Speaker 3: others from down south and overseas from accessing that lifestyle.

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Speaker 3: You know, if you can't come and get a house,

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Speaker 3: if you can't be you know, incentivized to come to

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Speaker 3: the territory, then then that's a real problem. And getting

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Speaker 3: into a home mortgage, it's one of the things that's

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Speaker 3: probably one of the most effective things that will keep

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Speaker 3: people in the territory.

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Speaker 1: People are all like we're talking about two hundred extra police, right,

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Speaker 1: They've got to live somewhere, you know, that kind of

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Speaker 1: thing when you're talking about boosting the workforce in lots

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Speaker 1: of different areas. They need to have somewhere to live.

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Speaker 1: So if there is those different incentives, and I know

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Speaker 1: that they get sort of housing incentives and things, but

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Speaker 1: you know, but on the on the other side of it,

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Speaker 1: if there is incentive for someone to build their home,

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Speaker 1: you know it do it. Like you said, it does

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Speaker 1: keep them here longer term.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 3: And we here all the time in a territory about

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Speaker 3: the concerns about the.

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Speaker 2: Fi FO situation. Well, one of the you know, one

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Speaker 2: of the things we.

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Speaker 3: Have to do here is to be competitive against other

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Speaker 3: states and territories. We know that in our stations and

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Speaker 3: territories they get a lot of benefits. They get fast

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Speaker 3: tracked permanent residency from overseas and the other states and

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Speaker 3: territories have really robust housing incentives that people can get

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Speaker 3: into into a home ownership, and we need to be

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Speaker 3: competitive and making it easy. And as you say, even

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Speaker 3: people from from down south should be seeing the territory

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Speaker 3: as an opportunity, but we need to make it.

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Speaker 1: It used to be that, Hey, you used to really

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Speaker 1: look at the Northern Territory as being a land of opportunity,

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Speaker 1: particularly like if you're a young couple or a young person,

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Speaker 1: young professional or young worker coming to the territory and

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Speaker 1: you'd think, hey, this is my chance to get ahead.

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Speaker 1: But we've lost that a bit over recent years. Been

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Speaker 1: in an ideal world, what kind of incentive incentives would

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Speaker 1: there be on offer in the Northern Territory to try

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Speaker 1: to get people building their first time or their own home.

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Speaker 3: Well, we would have to do the work, and I'm

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Speaker 3: sure others that we're doing the work around this, and

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Speaker 3: we need government and the opposition too, given i we've

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Speaker 3: got an election coming up to be coming up with

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Speaker 3: a really effective plan and around these sorts of questions.

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Speaker 2: However, without going too much detail, you'd need it.

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Speaker 3: To be you know, you don't want to have it

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Speaker 3: in two price caps because you need to make them

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Speaker 3: say that they're not too restrictive. The problem with first

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Speaker 3: home buyers grants, for instance, often is that they are

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Speaker 3: fairly small and also that they are capped to people

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Speaker 3: who probably don't necessarily have the income to build a

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Speaker 3: new home, so that there needs to be higher caps,

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Speaker 3: and there also needs to be not necessarily strict to

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Speaker 3: home to first time.

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Speaker 2: Buyers because there are other people who want to build homes.

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Speaker 3: We all seem to make sure, of course that with

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Speaker 3: medium density considerations, we need to make sure that that

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Speaker 3: there are whatever benefits, So whatever grants or benefits there

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Speaker 3: are need to apply to you know, buying off the

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Speaker 3: plan and to apartments as well. So there's there needs

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Speaker 3: to be an ecosystem, and that's the key point. If

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Speaker 3: you go to other jurisdictions, there's an ecosystem around different

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Speaker 3: incentives and.

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Speaker 2: Grants which would support this this sort of activity.

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Speaker 3: So the message is that it's that sentiment can be

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Speaker 3: turned around, and particularly since we have a strong pipeline

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Speaker 3: work coming from defense and you know in civil construction

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Speaker 3: and also commercial construction at the moment, that's that we

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Speaker 3: should be capitalizing on that to really tag the long

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Speaker 3: term benefits from that sort of investment by boosting our

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Speaker 3: housing supply. And it's got to be private tector housing,

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Speaker 3: because private tector housing is really important for a small

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Speaker 3: cohort of people. But it's got to be it's got

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Speaker 3: to be only part of the mix of housing. Home

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Speaker 3: ownership and practical housing is what we need.

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Speaker 1: Then, before I let you go, just a I guess

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Speaker 1: a quick one. You know, like I've met plenty of

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Speaker 1: the builders around the Northern Territory, plenty of those subcontractors.

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Speaker 1: You know, I've helped to em see your events at

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Speaker 1: different times over the years. It is such a strong industry.

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Speaker 1: But you know, when I hear numbers like this, I

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Speaker 1: really feel for those business owners, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: them are mum and dad businesses or family run businesses.

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Speaker 1: What impact is it going to have if the government

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Speaker 1: doesn't take a close look at this, and what impact

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Speaker 1: is it going to have on some of those wonderful

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Speaker 1: businesses that have operated here for a bloody long time.

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Speaker 3: Okay, you of course, where you're well known to us

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Speaker 3: and we love your msning about EBC Awards, which of

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Speaker 3: course is one of the best and biggest events in

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Speaker 3: the territory. But to answer your question, it's going to

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Speaker 3: have an impact on those mum and dad businesses, but

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Speaker 3: also slightly larger businesses, and it's also going to have

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Speaker 3: an impact on the wider economy. And I would say,

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Speaker 3: I'd say to territories. Of course, many of them are

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Speaker 3: employed in the public sector and they play a really

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Speaker 3: important role, but I want them to be engaged with

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Speaker 3: this too, because if we don't have strong private investment,

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Speaker 3: and we don't have a strong building constructing industry, for instance,

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Speaker 3: which drives private sector investment and confidence, then there's less

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Speaker 3: resources to do things like improve the public sector, to

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Speaker 3: improve health, to improve education, to improve livability and amenity

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Speaker 3: in our.

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Speaker 2: Regional centers and our cities.

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Speaker 3: And so that's why the private sector investment and why

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Speaker 3: a strong building construction industry and a strong housing supply

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Speaker 3: of private sector housing is really important to everyone.

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Speaker 2: It's not just about territory builders, although.

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Speaker 3: It will have an impact on those businesses and we're

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Speaker 3: concerned about that because they are are numbers, but we

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Speaker 3: also our members also derive a strong pipeline from a

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Speaker 3: strong economy, and housing is a really important part of that.

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Speaker 1: It truly is well. Ben Carter, the chief executive of

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Speaker 1: Master Builders here in the Northern Territory, really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this morning. Thanks very much for coming in and

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Speaker 1: having it. Thank you