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Speaker 1: Dave Malone from Master Builders here in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Get a Dave Katie. How are you? Yeah, really well, Dave.

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Speaker 1: Obviously the budget handed down overnight, the federal budget and

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Speaker 1: it has been dubbed as a budget for jobs and

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Speaker 1: keeping Aussie's employed. What was your take?

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Speaker 2: That's a good question, you know, because I think I

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Speaker 2: can do different takes just depending on where I stand.

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Speaker 2: You know, in terms of Australia. There's no doubt at

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Speaker 2: all that it's a really solid budget and you would

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Speaker 2: give the Treasurer nine out of ten. You know. I

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Speaker 2: think they've plumped for cash and lots of it and

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Speaker 2: they're putting it out in the community and that's a

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Speaker 2: very positive thing I think for you know, the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: I think it's still a good budget. There's certainly, you know,

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Speaker 2: lots of opportunity there. I just would have liked to

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Speaker 2: have seen more investment by governments in projects.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess this is the thing that's been really

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Speaker 1: kind of different about this budget to what we would

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Speaker 1: ordinarily see. You know, generally, for me sitting down watching

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Speaker 1: the budget like the nerd that I am, I would

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Speaker 1: be keeping a real eye out for exactly what projects

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Speaker 1: are touted for the Northern territory. But this year it

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Speaker 1: was so different in the sense that it's been more

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Speaker 1: about tax breaks. It's been more about different incentives to

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Speaker 1: try to get people to employ younger Rossies. There's been

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Speaker 1: various other incentives and ounced, but those larger projects and

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Speaker 1: infrastructure spending. It's really not sort of been the way

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Speaker 1: that the budget's made up this time round.

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Speaker 2: It's definitely not a traditional recessionary budget. They very much

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Speaker 2: plump for cash and you can understand why they think

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Speaker 2: a vaccine will come through. That's their plan A. They're

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Speaker 2: putting their money on black and saying, well, if you

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Speaker 2: put cash in now, once the vaccine comes through, the

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Speaker 2: economy will start to really rebound. The traditional way of

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Speaker 2: doing things is to invest to put the right infrastructure

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Speaker 2: in place so that you support the next wave of growth.

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Speaker 2: There's something wrong with investing in cash, by the way,

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Speaker 2: and completely support the tax cuts and so forth. But

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Speaker 2: they just adopted a very different models what we've seen before.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess it's a difficult one for us

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Speaker 1: to kind of wrap our heads around in some ways. Dave.

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Speaker 1: You know, when you talk about infrastructure spending in projects

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Speaker 1: for the territory. What would you have liked to have

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Speaker 1: seen in the budget this year?

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Speaker 2: At one level, I don't know what the governments, you know,

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Speaker 2: both the territory government and the federal government have been

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Speaker 2: working on. So I assume that there's a list somewhere

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Speaker 2: and a greed list of projects that they would have

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Speaker 2: wanted to put together for us. You know, if you

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Speaker 2: just think off the top of your head, you know

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Speaker 2: there's the waterfront Stage two, you could you know, the

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Speaker 2: projects the Council wants to do around the foreshore, building

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Speaker 2: roads between Jabaru and Gove, you know, turning Gove into

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Speaker 2: a regional hub, fast tracking Kakadu. They are all things

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Speaker 2: that you would see fitting into that category of a

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Speaker 2: pipeline of infrastructure projects, and we just didn't see those

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Speaker 2: last night.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that we're going to see any of

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Speaker 1: those sort of a bit further down the track maybe?

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't really know when. Do you think though,

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Speaker 1: that we're going to see sort of other announcements further

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Speaker 1: down the track, maybe even from the from the territory government.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I mean, like you, you know, all

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Speaker 2: I've got to go on is what I see on

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Speaker 2: TV and you know what I hear in them in

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Speaker 2: the broader media. But there is no doubt that at

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Speaker 2: some point or other, we have to continue to invest

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Speaker 2: in this country and it will just be you know,

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Speaker 2: that balance between pumping for cash or you know, going

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Speaker 2: for projects. We think that one of the key things

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Speaker 2: that was missed last night though, was any incentive to

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Speaker 2: encourage private investors to bring their projects forward. You know,

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Speaker 2: we talked yesterday about the hotel, for example, down and

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Speaker 2: Dayln's waterfront. Yep, you know what do those people need

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Speaker 2: to make that project happen now rather than five years time.

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Speaker 2: We didn't see that. It's something we're going to have

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Speaker 2: to push for, I think. And there's another budget interestingly

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Speaker 2: enough in May, so it's not too far away.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I mean, I think that's a really interesting

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Speaker 1: point as well in some that you know I hadn't

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Speaker 1: sort of thought of, but incentives to bring private investment forward.

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Speaker 1: You know, again, it would really you would hope that

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Speaker 1: you know that it also gives those some of those

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Speaker 1: private investors the opportunity to employ people and keep people

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Speaker 1: in jobs.

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Speaker 2: That's the key, Like you can have all the intentities

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Speaker 2: in the world to employ people, and I have no

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Speaker 2: problems whatsoever with any of that. But if those business

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Speaker 2: owners and managers can't see a pipeline of opportunity, they're

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Speaker 2: not going to take people on and they're not going

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Speaker 2: to hang on to people. So that's the circular thing

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Speaker 2: about the economy. It all spins around. So the government's

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Speaker 2: very much plumped on putting cash in the community's pockets.

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Speaker 2: Pretty good. I'm pretty grateful for a tax cut as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but I think if you want people to employ, they

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Speaker 2: want to see a pipeline of work.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon that's a really good point, you know,

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Speaker 1: because like you said, especially you know, for some of

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Speaker 1: our different different well industries such as construction, if you

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Speaker 1: don't have that pipeline, it's very hard to really go

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Speaker 1: out and employ someone, even if there is an incentive

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Speaker 1: of two hundred dollars a fortnite or whatever to employ them.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it's a very cut throat industry. Construction in particular,

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Speaker 2: people run very lean and they were always there on

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Speaker 2: the side of course when it comes to taking people on.

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Speaker 2: So you know, I have my fingers crossed that we

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Speaker 2: all get our tax cuts, we all run off and

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Speaker 2: spend a bit of that money in the community and

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Speaker 2: that starts to build momentum and that encourages people to invest.

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Speaker 2: So it's not all doom and gloom by any means.

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Speaker 2: I mean, how can it be doom and gloom when

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Speaker 2: the government's spending two hundred and thirteen billion dollars, which

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Speaker 2: is I think four or five mbns and five or

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Speaker 2: six defense budgets. It's an enormous amount of money, but

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Speaker 2: we just would have liked to seen a bit more

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Speaker 2: balancing at that all.

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Speaker 1: Well, Dave Malone from Master Builders here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: It's always good to talk, do you. Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for giving us that perspective that I hadn't thought of

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Speaker 1: earlier today No Drammers Cudy, Thanks mate,