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Speaker 1: So we're going to take a bit of a change

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Speaker 1: of pace. We know the Northern Territory Property Council has

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Speaker 1: expressed fears that the Northern Territory could lose population once

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Speaker 1: it reopens to the rest of the nation. It does

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Speaker 1: follow on, obviously from the latest release of the COMSEXT

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Speaker 1: State of the State report. And joining me on the

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Speaker 1: line is the executive director of the Property Council here

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory, Ruth Palmer. Good morning, Ruth, Good morning, Katie. Ruth.

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Speaker 1: There were some positive signs in that latest State of

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Speaker 1: the State report, but in some areas we're still seriously lagging.

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Speaker 1: What are your concerns following on from the release of

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Speaker 1: the latest comseck report.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie. That's right. So again, you know we've seen

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Speaker 2: consecutive negative borders from that Comsext report. It's a report

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Speaker 2: that we need to take seriously. These reports are done

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Speaker 2: by experts in their fields. It's not something that you know,

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Speaker 2: we can just simply brush off as being a nonsense report,

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Speaker 2: which we've heard from the government this week. So you know,

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Speaker 2: these are facts and figures that are coming out that

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Speaker 2: are published. While we are seeing population numbers there is

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Speaker 2: the rest of the spending that is down. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we're at a real risk at this moment where our

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Speaker 2: population will change when when New South Wales, Victoria and

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Speaker 2: Quenland really open up and get their workers happening again,

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Speaker 2: get the streets bustling again, we will lose those people.

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Speaker 2: We know that those rental demands have peaked, but we're

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Speaker 2: at a real risk of seeing those going back to

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Speaker 2: that boom and bus cycle when the population starts to

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Speaker 2: open up and move around again.

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Speaker 1: It's certainly something that we heard even just a little

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Speaker 1: bit earlier this morning from Daniel Rochford in Central Australia

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Speaker 1: talking about the fact that you know that once we

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Speaker 1: do actually open up and once we kind of are

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Speaker 1: operational again, I suppose you might say that it is

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Speaker 1: actually making sure that we've got the workforce here in

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Speaker 1: the territory.

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Speaker 2: That's right, And you know, these are things that we've

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Speaker 2: been talking about for the last couple of years when

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Speaker 2: COVID started. We can't get into this false forth feeling

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Speaker 2: that everything's going to be okay or that everybody's going

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Speaker 2: to stay here, because a lot of people that are

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Speaker 2: here at the moment are still work from home from

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Speaker 2: Sydney or Victoria. So we don't actually have the jobs

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Speaker 2: here for them. We're not creating new opportunities for them,

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Speaker 2: but we're also not creating the lifestyle or the liveability

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Speaker 2: or the affordability for people to want to be here.

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Speaker 1: And Rothie and I have spoken on numerous occasions about

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Speaker 1: this and about the real need to plan for that

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Speaker 1: population growth and around you know some of what you

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Speaker 1: could describe as a lack of planning in recent years,

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Speaker 1: and we know that. Then there's been that discussion since

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Speaker 1: obviously COVID impact that impacted the territory where some have

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Speaker 1: been saying we've got COVID refugees moving to the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, obviously you guys are concerned, the Property

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Speaker 1: Council is concerned that we're going to see an exodus

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Speaker 1: of people from the territory. Is that mainly because you

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Speaker 1: feel as though there's not enough jobs in different industries

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Speaker 1: or why do you feel as though that's going to happen?

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Speaker 2: Multi factor of things, Katie. There's a lot of reasons

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Speaker 2: as to why people would leave, but there's also reasons

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Speaker 2: as to why people would come. We also don't have

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Speaker 2: the appropriate infrastructure to be able to support our huge,

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Speaker 2: massive population. We need to be looking at the crime

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Speaker 2: and anty social behavior. We need to be looking at

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Speaker 2: the liveability, the housing affordability, healthcare, schools. All those things

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Speaker 2: make a difference to why people who want to come

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Speaker 2: to this territory. Not only that, but there's obviously the

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Speaker 2: economic leaders as well. So what are the policies that

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Speaker 2: will bring here and what are the jobs and opportunities

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Speaker 2: that will get people to want to not only come

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Speaker 2: here initially, but to be able to stay. So that

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Speaker 2: long term population is what we need to be able

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Speaker 2: to grow the territory strategically, but to really get out

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Speaker 2: of that boom and bus cycle which we see which

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Speaker 2: affects a lot of territory in who are trying to

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Speaker 2: look at rentals or who are trying to get into

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Speaker 2: the housing market. It also really makes an impact to

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Speaker 2: our commercial market. We're looking at businesses wanting to say,

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Speaker 2: we've only this week that we're seeing another territory business

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Speaker 2: closed down because of the issues with COVID. So we

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Speaker 2: need to be creating that long term sustainable future for

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Speaker 2: the territory, which all starts with that population base.

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Speaker 1: Now Roath Obviously, yesterday we heard the government sort of

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Speaker 1: announce their further plans around the borders, but also in

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Speaker 1: terms of home quarantine. What did you make of it

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Speaker 1: from the Property Council's perspective, Well, we're.

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Speaker 2: Obviously supportive of the people being vaccinated. We do encourage

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Speaker 2: people to get out and get vaccinated. We've obviously had

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Speaker 2: concerns around the lack of clarity or consultation that's gone

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Speaker 2: with that. Luckily we are meeting with the Chief Minister

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Speaker 2: this week, which is would but we do need to

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Speaker 2: have some consistency around messaging. We need to get away

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Speaker 2: from this sort of fear factor or the misleading information

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Speaker 2: that gets spread. We all need to be on the

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Speaker 2: same path. We all need to be able to work

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Speaker 2: together to be able to get the territories back on track.

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Speaker 2: And unfortunately over the last few weeks there has been

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Speaker 2: a we will disconnect between industry and the government. So

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Speaker 2: it's really hard to send positive messages out to the

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Speaker 2: community when they're just not filtering through correctly from the

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Speaker 2: government point And.

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Speaker 1: Ruth Wei did also here yesterday on the show. I

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Speaker 1: did ask the Chief Minister about these plans that they've

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Speaker 1: got that obviously there's going to be some fairly significant

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Speaker 1: changes come into play when it comes to government tenders

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Speaker 1: and also the awarding of contracts, and he said that

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Speaker 1: the workforce in some of these instances is going to

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Speaker 1: need to be will in fact, in all of them.

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Speaker 1: If you're going for a government contract or a tender,

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Speaker 1: is going to need to be one hundred percent vaccinated

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Speaker 1: from a property perspective. Is that going to have any

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Speaker 1: kind of impact on your industry.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean, we have a lot of members that

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Speaker 2: are in the construction industry that are doing a lot

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Speaker 2: of tenders, engineering tenders, So that's something that's going to

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Speaker 2: have to be managed very closely and appropriately. Our concern

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Speaker 2: with the mandates that have come down is the extra

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Speaker 2: owners that it does put on business. So this is

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Speaker 2: something that we have been trying to avoid. The extra

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Speaker 2: pressure that goes on business around you know, keeping people's

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Speaker 2: private details, how that is going to be monitored, how

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Speaker 2: you can track and test every single person that comes

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Speaker 2: into your construction company. This is something that we are

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Speaker 2: requesting clarity on, but also to be able to provide

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Speaker 2: answers to the people who are going to be that

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Speaker 2: frontline in those frontline roles. Where they will be responsible

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Speaker 2: for their staff and their tenders. So that's where that

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Speaker 2: consistency really needs to come through, so these messages can

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Speaker 2: get out and this is what we've been calling for.

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Speaker 2: It's all well and good to have the mandates, but

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Speaker 2: there is a lot of questions still around those gray

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Speaker 2: areas of how it's managed and also what owners extra

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Speaker 2: that this puts on businesses, especially the smaller businesses as well.

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Speaker 2: You know, they may not have the resources to track

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Speaker 2: this sort of this sort of stuff, but also they

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Speaker 2: may not have the knowledge to know how to use

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Speaker 2: the most up to date technology or software that could

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Speaker 2: possibly hold this information.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there does still seem to be quite a bit

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Speaker 1: to work through. Ruth Palmer, we always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks a much, Katie, thank you