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Speaker 1: But as we've learned, the Northern Territory Government and Master

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Speaker 1: Builders are going to be partnering to bring six hundred

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Speaker 1: skilled overseas workers into the Northern Territory in the coming

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Speaker 1: months to help drive the construction sector. Now, the governments

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Speaker 1: say that they're also throwing their support behind master Builders

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Speaker 1: Born to Build program, which sets a target of growing

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory construction sector by five thousand workers. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me in the studio to tell us more about

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Speaker 1: this is Ben Carter, the new CEO of Master Builders

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Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory. Good morning to you, Ben.

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Speaker 2: Get okay here you're going yeah, really.

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Speaker 1: Well, great to have you in the studio. Ben House's

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Speaker 1: planned to bring this six hundred skilled workers from overseas

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Speaker 1: going to work.

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Speaker 3: Well, Katie, the first thing to recognize is that we

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Speaker 3: have a chronic shortage of workers here right now, so

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Speaker 3: this is going to hold back projects, put projects at risk.

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Speaker 3: Our members are chronically short of workers. Is a severe

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Speaker 3: shortage of skilled workers, and that's why we're partnering with

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Speaker 3: the NC government to go overseas to try and find

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Speaker 3: some We've matched them. The reason we're going to the

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Speaker 3: Philippines and India is because we've matched them those markets

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Speaker 3: to the skills that we need and our market testing

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Speaker 3: of our members are telling us that's where we need

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Speaker 3: to go.

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Speaker 1: So Ben, with your members, like, how big an impact

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Speaker 1: is that shortage of workers and skill workers having on

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Speaker 1: the industry right now in the territory.

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Speaker 2: Well, at the moment, we're really at capacity.

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Speaker 3: There's a strong pipeline of work right now from the

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Speaker 3: federal government and the territory government. We've just seen in

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Speaker 3: the last federal budget, which is a couple of weeks ago,

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Speaker 3: that there's new infrastructure funding. So there's a strong pipeline

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Speaker 3: of work which is adding even more pressure to the

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Speaker 3: need for workers. So if we don't get some more,

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Speaker 3: if we don't scoop them up, then we're also going

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Speaker 3: to have a problem. And the reality is we're not

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Speaker 3: getting them from down south anymore. There's a shortage of

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Speaker 3: workers nationally and there's just not a market down south

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Speaker 3: we can go and grab them from as we have

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Speaker 3: done in the past up here. So that's why we're

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Speaker 3: looking overseas.

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Speaker 1: Ben, I know whenever I have these discussions. Last week,

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Speaker 1: for example, we're talking to hospitality into about a similar initiative.

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Speaker 1: Whenever we have these discussions, there is always people listening

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Speaker 1: saying why aren't we growing our own or why don't

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Speaker 1: we employ people that are already here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 3: It's a really good point, Katie, and something that we

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Speaker 3: always say in our industries. We're about training locals and

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Speaker 3: creating opportunities for locals, but we.

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Speaker 2: Need to meet the immediate needs as well.

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Speaker 3: So we're partnering with the Anti Government for this overseas

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Speaker 3: recruitment exposed and that's obviously meeting our immediate needs and

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Speaker 3: well done to the Anti Government for having the foresight

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Speaker 3: to support us on that. We're partnering with the Chamber

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Speaker 3: and the Minerals Council, so it's a really strong consortium,

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Speaker 3: the two big industries and the Territory as well as

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Speaker 3: the Chamber combining to deliver that outcome. But Master Builder

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Speaker 3: is Born to Build initiative which the government is trying

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Speaker 3: to support behind on Friday with Minister Kirby. What that's

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Speaker 3: about is about training locals for the medium term as well.

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Speaker 3: So we want to create a situation where we're meeting

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Speaker 3: the immediate needs of our members and construction sector now,

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Speaker 3: but also training locals and creating up and creating opportunities

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Speaker 3: in the near term. And it's really important, Katie, because

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Speaker 3: if you have a strong construction industry, you have a

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Speaker 3: strong territory economy. So it's really important that you addrest

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Speaker 3: those both immediate needs and longer term needs via Born

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Speaker 3: to Build, which has got those initiatives going for it.

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Speaker 3: So we're really encouraged.

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Speaker 1: Ben. How are you going to attract them here to

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, Like, what's the process going to be

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Speaker 1: and how do you sell the territory to them?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's really important.

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Speaker 3: The money that the NT government is funding is to

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Speaker 3: use is about generating interest in those markets. So it's

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Speaker 3: about creating and promoting the opportunities of really strong careers

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Speaker 3: and rewarding careers in the territory and in the construction industry,

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Speaker 3: we're one of the higher paid trades, so there's no

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Speaker 3: issue with that. We're also pursuing employers sponsored visas, not

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Speaker 3: the short term four to five seven type visas. We're

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Speaker 3: after the sort of the longer term family visas, which

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Speaker 3: means they can stay a bit longer and also have

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Speaker 3: a pathway to citizenship and permanent residency at the end.

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Speaker 3: So we're wanting to create communities as well so that

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Speaker 3: we don't have this boom bus shortage going forward. That's

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Speaker 3: what it's really targeted at. And again Born to Build

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Speaker 3: is really about that. It's about creating a sustainable industry

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Speaker 3: and boosting the community.

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Speaker 1: Then six hundred skilled workers in the first instance as

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Speaker 1: part of you know what you're doing right now with

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory government, where on earth are they going

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Speaker 1: to live?

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Speaker 3: Well, we know that that housing is a big problem

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Speaker 3: at the moment in the territory and we're obviously urging

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Speaker 3: the government to release more land.

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Speaker 2: CAD.

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Speaker 3: It's all about land. It's no different from anywhere else

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Speaker 3: in Australia either. It's about land. We need to have

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Speaker 3: tidal land land released by the territory government so that

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Speaker 3: we can build more homes for Territorians right now but

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Speaker 3: also into the future. And again if we don't have

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Speaker 3: that land, it's going to be really hard to have it.

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Speaker 3: To have that create that community going forward, we want

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Speaker 3: to bring families, we want to create counstain construction workforce.

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Speaker 3: We've got a strong pipeline of work coming for the

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Speaker 3: next five years. We hope, and we need we need

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Speaker 3: to be able to house those workers.

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Speaker 2: So it's about land and it's about land release.

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Speaker 1: I mean that land release and obviously building. It is

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Speaker 1: all a bit longer term though. In the first instance,

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming that you need these six hundred skilled workers

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Speaker 1: pretty quickly. So where would they live in the first instance.

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Speaker 3: Well, there is housing. There is some housing available. It's

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Speaker 3: not like there's no there's no housing at all. And

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Speaker 3: it also depends on whereabouts and where those workers are going.

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Speaker 3: So there is there is land and some housing available.

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Speaker 3: But we can if you can release land, we can

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Speaker 3: build very quickly.

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Speaker 1: Do you think the government's releasing that land quickly enough?

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Speaker 3: I think the government's aware of the problem and they're

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Speaker 3: working constructively to try and find solutions, but it can

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Speaker 3: never be quick enough.

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Speaker 1: Well, and you know, look, I know that that housing

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Speaker 1: is something that we sort of hear right across the

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Speaker 1: board from all different industries and people saying that, you know,

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Speaker 1: they'd love to move to the territory, but it's so

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Speaker 1: expensive to find a place, or they can't find a place,

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Speaker 1: or you know, the rental is so high. So I

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Speaker 1: know that it is something that's top of mind. For

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Speaker 1: a lot of territorians at the moment, you know, I

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Speaker 1: let alone people coming from interstate.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: The thing everyone has to realize in the territory, I

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Speaker 3: think is where at the cusp of.

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Speaker 2: A really big opportunity.

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Speaker 3: There's lots of work coming with the federal government and

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Speaker 3: its strategies around defense. The territory and Darwin in particular

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Speaker 3: are in a really good space going forward.

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Speaker 2: But we have to get our ducks in a row.

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Speaker 2: And it's not going to work for us.

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Speaker 3: If we ignore some of these problems or go slow

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Speaker 3: and the government is working. The government is aware of

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Speaker 3: it and they are aware of the vulnerabilities. And I

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Speaker 3: think it's also good opportunity for the government to work

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Speaker 3: with the federal government given that they're aligned, and to

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Speaker 3: resolve some of these problems.

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Speaker 1: Now ben with the workforce, with that six hundred skilled

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Speaker 1: overseas workers, there will be people questioning why is the

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Speaker 1: government paying or why is the government contributing to these

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Speaker 1: shouldn't it be something that businesses pay for themselves.

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Speaker 3: Sure, and businesses are paying k This is not a

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Speaker 3: government holiday for anybody. What this is about is the

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Speaker 3: government is paying some of the costs to promote and

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Speaker 3: to run the exposed overseas, so we were going to India.

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Speaker 3: In the Philippines, the NTG money will be around running

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Speaker 3: the exposed and promoting the exposed and and employing some

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Speaker 3: of the very temporary recruitment staff there who are going

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Speaker 3: to vet the new employees, and employers are paying the rest.

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Speaker 3: So you know, it's tens of thousands of money dollars

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Speaker 3: it will cost to process visas, those sorts of things.

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Speaker 3: That's all been paid to employers and if they want

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Speaker 3: to go, because they have that option to go in person,

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Speaker 3: then they can go. The beauty of this program KDI

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Speaker 3: is that it's an end to end recruitment process, a

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Speaker 3: really innovative pilot project that were with the Minerals Counselor

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Speaker 3: and the Chamber have come up with where basically, we

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Speaker 3: promote to a lot of pre promotion in country, as

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Speaker 3: they say, in those countries, to get to generate the

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Speaker 3: interest by the population. Then we do the pre vetting

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Speaker 3: so that there's not a waste of time where people

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Speaker 3: real skills don't match the real requirements. We've done market

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Speaker 3: testing with our employees so we know the exactly the

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Speaker 3: skills and.

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Speaker 2: Qualifications they require.

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Speaker 3: We've picked those markets because they're strongly aligned with our

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Speaker 3: Australian way of building and skills. And then we help

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Speaker 3: them with processing those visas, which the employers pay for

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Speaker 3: again you know, twenty five thousand up, which is what

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Speaker 3: they would pay anyway. And then we provide support to

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Speaker 3: the employer and employees to settle and have cultural awareness.

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Speaker 3: And we will be pursuing the Freedom Government around helping

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Speaker 3: us to try and speed up the issue of the visas,

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Speaker 3: the backlog.

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Speaker 2: But particularly also we need all of us to get

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Speaker 2: our heads.

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Speaker 3: Around the fact that we need to get out of

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Speaker 3: this boom and bust of five FO type mentality. It's

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Speaker 3: incumbent upon not just not just fireflight workers, but it's

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Speaker 3: incumbent upon territorians to.

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Speaker 2: Get that out of their heads as well.

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Speaker 3: And we need to provide a community and liveability and amenity,

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Speaker 3: and we want to help the federal We want to

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Speaker 3: pursue the Federal government to help us with those family

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Speaker 3: sponsored visas employed sponsored visas rather so that they can

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Speaker 3: come for three or four years and they have a

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Speaker 3: pathway to permanent residency at the end.

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Speaker 1: Well, and look if we can get people to stay

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Speaker 1: here long term. I think that that is, you know,

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Speaker 1: that's the end goal, really, isn't it to make sure

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Speaker 1: that they're contributing to the community, they're part of the community,

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Speaker 1: and they're staying long term. And yeah, you hit the

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Speaker 1: nail on the head there though as well in terms

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Speaker 1: of getting those visas process, because that's been one of

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Speaker 1: the big criticisms, hasn't it How long that takes?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And look at the good thing is the federal

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Speaker 3: government has made some really good moves. They got rid

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Speaker 3: of the system they had during COVID for the skills visas,

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Speaker 3: so they're now scrap that and they're focused now on

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Speaker 3: bringing people and on speeding up those visa requirements.

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Speaker 2: But it's a huge backlog, but they are working on it.

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Speaker 3: But they need to go fast if they can, and

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Speaker 3: again help us to target the right visas to get

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Speaker 3: them here. So we want to get those employees sponsored

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Speaker 3: longer term and with a way that they can bring

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Speaker 3: their family and have that permanent regency pathway because that's

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Speaker 3: what's going to encourage people to come and to stay

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Speaker 3: and contribute.

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Speaker 1: Well. Ben Carter, the CEO of Master Builders here in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, good to catch up with you. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for your time this morning. Thank you