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Speaker 1: Well, it's hope that more first home buyers in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory are going to be able to get into

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Speaker 1: their first home. With the government passing a bill overnight

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Speaker 1: extending the Homegrown Territory Grant, the fifty thousand dollars grant

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Speaker 1: aimed at helping Territorians to build or buy a new home,

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Speaker 1: will now be available until September thirty next year. Almost

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Speaker 1: three hundred builds, as I understand it, are currently supported

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Speaker 1: under the scheme, with the Government estimating over one hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty million dollars in economic activity as a result.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line is Saliane in US

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Speaker 1: Master Builders CEO. Good morning, Sally Am.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, lovely.

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Speaker 1: To have you on the show now, Sallyan. The Homegrown

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Speaker 1: Territory Grant extended overnight, that's that bill passing. How successful

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Speaker 1: has it been from a master builder's perspective.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's great and it's really helped the

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Speaker 2: residential market here in the Northern Territory. So and you know,

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Speaker 2: with those government settings or the right government things, Katie,

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Speaker 2: it builds an even stronger housing market here for us

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Speaker 2: in the delivery through Master Build or through our members.

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Speaker 1: What kind of uptake have we seen? I know the

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Speaker 1: Government have given us some figures, but what kind of

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Speaker 1: uptake have we seen?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm going on the government figures as well, Katie,

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Speaker 2: and there's been you know, just or nearly three hundred

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Speaker 2: in new builds, which is what we're really concerned about.

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Speaker 2: So and we you know, we hope to see a

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Speaker 2: whole lot more of that, particularly when we've got the

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Speaker 2: housing Accord on the horizon as well. But certainly we're

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Speaker 2: pretty pleased with about three hundred, and we're supporting our

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Speaker 2: members to deliver even more.

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Speaker 1: Now, Sallyanne, I know that building times for new homes

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory have dropped as well. Those latest

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Speaker 1: figures from the ABS showing the average construction times fallen

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Speaker 1: to eight point eight five months. Talk us through it, well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what do you attribute that to?

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Speaker 2: Well, Katie, that's a two point three percent decrease on

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Speaker 2: this last year. But what I think that is it

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Speaker 2: just speaks to the capability, capacity and the resilience of

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Speaker 2: our Northern Territory construction industry. Like there's you know, we've

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Speaker 2: got some of the best builders in Australia working here

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Speaker 2: and there and again I go back to the settings

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Speaker 2: of the government in place allowing first home builders or

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Speaker 2: home buyers rather to build a house. So our bilers

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Speaker 2: are doing a great job to get that done.

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Speaker 1: I know we're not quite back to the pre COVID

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Speaker 1: levels of sort of the seven months build times, but

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Speaker 1: no doubt there's been a big improvement. I mean, what,

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Speaker 1: how are we doing things so much faster pre COVID.

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Speaker 2: Though, well it's well it's still slightly up on pre

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Speaker 2: COVIDE those particular times. But look, I think it speaks

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Speaker 2: again to the resilience of our builders up here. You know,

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Speaker 2: we've got cost pressures, acquired distributions and things like our

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Speaker 2: disruptions rather and things like that. So to be doing

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Speaker 2: it is absolutely amazing and it speaks to what is

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Speaker 2: aailable here in the Northern Territory in our construction industry.

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Speaker 1: From your perspective, you know, how healthy is the industry

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Speaker 1: at the moment?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, this certainly helps you know the residential sector

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Speaker 2: and by no means saying that job is done. Everybody

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Speaker 2: is ecstatic, it's not. These are really good signs and

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Speaker 2: really good indications of where we could be going, and

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Speaker 2: certainly with the continuation of the first home biased grants

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Speaker 2: from the NT government. You know, it'll maintain that consistency,

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Speaker 2: but we do need to make sure that we are

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Speaker 2: supporting our workforce and increasing our workforce as well. So

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Speaker 2: that's probably one of a challenge at the moment that

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Speaker 2: we've got around our skills shortages. We do need to

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Speaker 2: maintain what we've got and increase those. Together with other industries,

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Speaker 2: we will be you know, making a big, big play

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Speaker 2: for skills. Workshops are skill program going into the future,

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Speaker 2: just so we can increase our apprentices and our wider

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Speaker 2: workforce as well.

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Speaker 1: Katie, Yeah, I mean it's it's always a tough one,

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Speaker 1: isn't it, that skill shortage, because just sort of think, okay, well,

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Speaker 1: it's wonderful to be able to attract people here to

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, but it is a fantastic thing as

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Speaker 1: well to grow our own and hopefully have people stay here.

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Speaker 2: Oh one hundred percent, one hundred percent. You know, I

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Speaker 2: think if you have a look at the job figures

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Speaker 2: we had in September, you know, unemployment fell in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, one of the only jurisdictions in Australia where

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Speaker 2: it did so we're down by you know, down to

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Speaker 2: four point two percent, which is well than the Australian average,

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Speaker 2: and you know that was down by point three over percent.

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Speaker 2: So we've got the jobs. We just need to attract people.

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Speaker 2: We need people to come to the Northern Territory. We

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Speaker 2: need people up here working because when we've got people,

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Speaker 2: it's an immediate boost to our economy and that's what

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Speaker 2: we want. We want a stronger economy because when our

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Speaker 2: a strong you know, the economy is strong, the territory strong.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Sallyen, what do you make of the federal government's

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Speaker 1: five percent deposit scheme? I know that we're seeing obviously,

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Speaker 1: we've spoken quite a bit about it over recent weeks.

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Speaker 1: We had a number of experts in the property field,

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Speaker 1: real estate agents, brokers, Northern Territory government even calling for

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Speaker 1: that cap of six hundred thousand dollars to be lifted

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Speaker 1: after rapid home price growth in Darwin. I mean, what's

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Speaker 1: your take on hon it? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Look, you know, in one way, it gets people into

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Speaker 2: home sooner. People haven't, you know, through whatever reason, haven't

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Speaker 2: been able to save enough money, you know, five percent

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Speaker 2: without having to pay that lender's mortgage insurance certainly helps.

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Speaker 2: There is a school of thought that pushes up prices.

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Speaker 2: I think anything that gets our territory builders building faster

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Speaker 2: and more homes is a good thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, spot on, and I know that's what we

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Speaker 1: all want. We all want these thanks to be ticking

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Speaker 1: along and things moving and the economy performing strongly. I

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Speaker 1: think is a good thing for everybody.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred. I think you know, when we're backing

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Speaker 2: our local builders through apprenticeship pathways, our procurement reforms, land releases,

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Speaker 2: things like that, we can list our housing supply, you know, Katie,

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Speaker 2: so that that supports more jobs and it strengthens our economy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Master Builders NT CEO Sally and Innes. Great to

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Speaker 1: speak with you this morning. Thanks so much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you,