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Speaker 1: Well, we have been taking a closer look at the

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Speaker 1: federal budget that was handed down overnight, what it means

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Speaker 1: for the Northern.

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Speaker 2: Territory, the wins, the losses.

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Speaker 1: And joining me on the line right now is Civil

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Speaker 1: Contractors Federation of the Northern Territory CEO Tom Harris.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Tom.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, morning Katie. How are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Really well, great to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: And it looks as though there is going to be

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Speaker 1: a massive infrastructure spend for the Northern Territory. What was

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Speaker 1: your take because I would imagine that this means a

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Speaker 1: lot of work for territories in your sector.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a big budget, a lot of positives

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Speaker 3: in the budget last night, and to be honest, there

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Speaker 3: has been for a number of years now. I mean

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Speaker 3: we're really both territory and federal budgets of trying to

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Speaker 3: increase their infrastructure spending inclusive of roads, bridge infrastructure, other

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Speaker 3: community infrastructure. So look, this is just a continuation of that.

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Speaker 3: There's not only the funding positives, there's also a number

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Speaker 3: of other Obviously, the fuel exous was a positive. It's

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Speaker 3: on a short term, but it's a welcome relief to

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Speaker 3: contractors that are having to wear significant cost increases in

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Speaker 3: their project delivery at the moment, so that that's welcome.

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Speaker 3: There's also been we'll wait and see the detail a

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Speaker 3: little bit later in the year, but some changes to

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Speaker 3: the Commonwealth the procurement rules. That's a de bundling of

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Speaker 3: some larger major projects, so that I guess there's more

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Speaker 3: opportunities for smaller contractors to be involved, So that's a positive.

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Speaker 3: There's obviously trying to look at migration. It's all very well.

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Speaker 3: I've always funding in all these projects, but if you

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Speaker 3: don't have people, and that's a major issue for US.

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Speaker 3: Migration numbers have been dropping dramatically over COVID, so there's

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Speaker 3: some some positives there to try and increase get the

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Speaker 3: migration numbers back up a bit. And yeah, there's been

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Speaker 3: a continuation of I guess if some positives in the

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Speaker 3: training and skills upgrade area as well for businesses being

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Speaker 3: able to claim for those sort of costs or increased

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Speaker 3: benefits in relation to training. So there's a number of

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Speaker 3: not only the raw numbers which are very positive, there's

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Speaker 3: also a lot of other smaller items in the budget

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Speaker 3: that I think are going to be very very positive for.

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Speaker 2: US well, that is good to hear.

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Speaker 1: And look, I suppose some people out there listening may

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Speaker 1: be thinking, what exactly is the civil Contractors Federation. But

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Speaker 1: when you talk about those really big projects and our roads,

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Speaker 1: our rail, you guys are front and center in that space,

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Speaker 1: aren't you.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely? I mean that is a lot of people. Look

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Speaker 3: at the road. Now, I understand civil contractors are involved

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Speaker 3: in road construction, but yet it's rail. As we said, ports, airports,

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Speaker 3: large telecommunications or gas pipelines, all that sort of infrastructure

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Speaker 3: is all civil construction. Subdivisions prior to housing developments going

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Speaker 3: in are all civil. You knows, a lot of the

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Speaker 3: remote indigenous housing programs they will require areas to be

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Speaker 3: opened up and subdivisions developed. The the area's industrial subdivisions,

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Speaker 3: they all require civil operations. So yeah, there's a lot

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Speaker 3: of civil activity. And a lot of the other infrastructure

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Speaker 3: projects that were announced. So there's the port infrastructure that

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Speaker 3: took about newport infrastructure. A lot of that will be

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Speaker 3: potentially civil. I mean, I know these are not items

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Speaker 3: that are happening tomorrow. Of course, there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: planning and a lot of processes to go, but there's

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Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of work there. The four

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Speaker 3: hundred and forty million that was announced for the logistics

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Speaker 3: facilities Catherine Tennant Creek and Alis, that'll be vast majority

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Speaker 3: that'll be civil. There's the work with the Darwin water

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Speaker 3: supply in relation to the Darwen River. You know, we're

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Speaker 3: bringing the Mountain Dam back on service. There'll be a

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Speaker 3: lot of civil construction involved in those projects. So it's

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Speaker 3: a yeah, it's a significant, significant flow of work over

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Speaker 3: the next five to ten years.

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Speaker 1: Yet it certainly sounds like Tom talkers through with these

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Speaker 1: one point five billion dollars for the what's your understanding

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Speaker 1: of this? So I did ask Simon Birmingham, the Minister,

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Speaker 1: a bit earlier this morning, and he said it is

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Speaker 1: for new infrastructure for the port.

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Speaker 2: What's your understanding of it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's all I've read in the in the budget

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Speaker 3: of papers was it does relate to It doesn't talk

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Speaker 3: about you up down and port upgrades. It's more newport infrastructure,

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Speaker 3: inclusive of dredging and other related works for the for

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Speaker 3: the channel. So to me it looks like it's a

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Speaker 3: new newport development. But realistically, yeah, I don't know any

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Speaker 3: more details than what's been what's been listed and if

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Speaker 3: the Minister couldn't give you a good answer, it's probably

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Speaker 3: I won't be able to do it.

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Speaker 1: We'll wait and no doubt they'll be further detail come through.

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Speaker 1: Tom talk us through as well. Though.

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Speaker 2: When you know, when you.

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Speaker 1: See such a phenomenal amount of money being flagged two

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Speaker 1: point six billion dollars to be spent on infrastructure projects

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Speaker 1: across the Northern Territory over the coming years, how you know,

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Speaker 1: how do we make sure that this workflows to local

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Speaker 1: contractors as well as much as possible.

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Speaker 3: Oh, that's about the packaging, and I think there is

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Speaker 3: a lot of work to be done. You know, it's

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Speaker 3: about good planning is critical to any construction project, and

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Speaker 3: this is the same. And you want to also be

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Speaker 3: planning for, you know, your local benefit outcomes and community

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Speaker 3: outcomes at the start when you're doing your procurement work.

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Speaker 3: So i'd hope there's going to be a lot of

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Speaker 3: work done and I know there will be by the

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Speaker 3: sitting in the Northern Territory government in the areas that

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Speaker 3: they will be delivering on a lot of this funding

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Speaker 3: to be able to make sure that there is a

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Speaker 3: good local content. But it is critical we make sure

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Speaker 3: that and we fight for that local content because it

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Speaker 3: can be very easy for some of these very large

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Speaker 3: projects just to move and go to an interstate Tier

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Speaker 3: one contractor and believe that they'll solve all your problems.

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Speaker 3: But that doesn't occur. There's still the labor issues. You

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Speaker 3: still have people coming into a market that is very

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Speaker 3: tight relational labor where we're not the only place in

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Speaker 3: Australia with the infrastructure in a large amount of infrastructure.

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Speaker 3: It's a highly competitive marketplace. The marketplace there is a

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Speaker 3: limited number of labor resources, so it is highly competitive,

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Speaker 3: so we kind of have You've got to be very

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Speaker 3: careful with the balance of that, and I would hope

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Speaker 3: the government do look very carefully at the way they

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Speaker 3: procure for these projects to ensure that they're broken up

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Speaker 3: and packaged accordingly where our mid, our mid and larger

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Speaker 3: or small mid and larger local contractors have a fair

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Speaker 3: crack at the projects and I'm sure they will.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely well, Tom, from your perspective, a positive budget

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Speaker 1: for the Northern Territory all in all.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, very positive. Just needs a lot of good quality planning,

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Speaker 3: really a lot of effort in that upfront design and

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Speaker 3: the procurement process, but look looking very positive as other

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Speaker 3: budgets have. Our sector will be the challenges will be

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Speaker 3: managing the as I said, even labor components and cost

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Speaker 3: of supply, those sort of issues, but it's just great

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Speaker 3: to have. At least you've got the opportunity for work

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Speaker 3: and that's a massive positive for the local industry.

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Speaker 1: And we are going to catch up in a couple

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Speaker 1: of minutes time as well with the Infrastructure Commissioner Louise McCormack,

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Speaker 1: so no doubt she'll be able to let us know

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Speaker 1: as well about some of that planning, and like you've

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Speaker 1: spoken about there, the workforce too. Tom Harris, the Civil

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Speaker 1: Contractors Federation of the Northern Territory CEO, really good to

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Speaker 1: talk to you this morning.

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Speaker 3: No thanks, Coatie, thank you