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Speaker 1: Yesterday, we know the release of the May twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: three building approvals and lending data. It's shown to welcome

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Speaker 1: uplift nationally in higher density home building approvals, but Master

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Speaker 1: Builders Australia have warned of the need for sustained recovery

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Speaker 1: and cautioned against unnecessary government induced cost pressures. Now, Master

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Speaker 1: Builders Australia's Chief economists had said that the higher density

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Speaker 1: home building approvals jump by fifty nine point four percent

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Speaker 1: during May, recording their strongest monthly total since the end

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Speaker 1: of last year. But how are things tracking here in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory and how are things tracking ahead of

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Speaker 1: what is dubbed to be another day of intrast rates rising.

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Speaker 1: Joining us in the studio right now is the CEO

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Speaker 1: of Master Builders here in the Northern Territory, Ben Carter.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Ben, Katie. How are you not too bad?

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Speaker 1: Great to see you now. Ben. How are things going

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Speaker 1: in the territory at the moment?

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Speaker 2: Well, they're going okay, Katie. I mean we're not going

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Speaker 2: to say they going terribly. But to tack onto first

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Speaker 2: of all, the interest rate issue. First, it's important to

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Speaker 2: remember that the role of the Reserve Bank is to

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Speaker 2: tackle inflation, and I want everyone to remember that inflation

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Speaker 2: is the killer that we've got to get ourselves on

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Speaker 2: top of, because that's a capacity killer, it's a household

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Speaker 2: budget killer. And while interest rates really bite and cause

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Speaker 2: people real problems, we've got to remember that inflation is

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Speaker 2: the key issue. Having said that, though it's totally appropriate,

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Speaker 2: given that we've had a number of interest rate rises

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Speaker 2: over the last few quarters, that it would be really

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Speaker 2: appropriate too for the Reserve Bank to sit back a

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Speaker 2: little bit this time and see what the impact is

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Speaker 2: of its previous rate rises, because it takes a number

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Speaker 2: of months for interest rate rises to cycle through the

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Speaker 2: economy to have an impact. So it'd be really good

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Speaker 2: to see them do that because we don't want to

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Speaker 2: lose economic growth too much, because for our industry, for

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Speaker 2: all the tradees and builders and subcontractors out there, they

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Speaker 2: need economic growth. That's the thing that really drives their

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Speaker 2: well being in the wider economy for everyone. If every

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Speaker 2: one dollar in the economy spent on building, it's three

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Speaker 2: dollars for the wider economy. And there needs to be

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Speaker 2: a strong building industry for the bet for the beat.

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Speaker 2: It's for sorry for to be a strong economy. So

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Speaker 2: that's really important. In terms of building approvals. In terms

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Speaker 2: of apartment units nationally, they were up, but they're up

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Speaker 2: from a low base, and it's important to remember that

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of monthly volatility around building approvals in

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Speaker 2: the territory. You know, multi uit developments aren't aren't cycling up,

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Speaker 2: and that's something that we do want to see, you know,

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Speaker 2: we do want to see an improvement in It's going

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Speaker 2: to be important to help us to get on top

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Speaker 2: of the rental crisis up here. You've got a really

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Speaker 2: unfortunate situation. We're at the moment where you know, for

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Speaker 2: you can be paying five hundred dollars a week to

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Speaker 2: render house and you could pretty much buy that house

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Speaker 2: for less than you could rent it in terms of repayments.

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Speaker 2: So we've gone for people, it is absolutely charch going.

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Speaker 1: Ben talk us through. I mean, how are we looking

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Speaker 1: in terms of you know, new builds and approvals in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're going we're going. Okay, you're a bit flat

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Speaker 2: at the moment, and that will that needs to we

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Speaker 2: need to pick that up, and we will that. We

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Speaker 2: have seen a little bit of a plateau towards the

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Speaker 2: end of last year. We've seen it pick up a

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Speaker 2: little bit in recent months, but then we need to

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Speaker 2: maintain that and it's really important that we continue to

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Speaker 2: to tackle issues and underpin that. For instance, there's you know,

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Speaker 2: the government's doing things around stamp duty exemptions for for

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Speaker 2: people who are buying house and land packages. There's measures

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Speaker 2: that they're implementing around that. A really important initiative yesterday

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Speaker 2: while I remember, was the Howard Springs Defense Accommodation Hub

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Speaker 2: that the government announced for the federal government. It's really

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Speaker 2: really encouraging to see the territory government working with the

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Speaker 2: federal government closely to assist us as a territory to

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Speaker 2: really capitalize on the to dollars that are being spent

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Speaker 2: by the freederal government or by also by the American government.

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Speaker 2: The American government and the American Defense Establishment are really

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Speaker 2: aware of the territory as being where national security is

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Speaker 2: going to be orientated now following the release of the

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Speaker 2: Strategic Review, and so it's a really good initial initiative

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Speaker 2: that the territory government did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it does seem like a good move, and I

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Speaker 1: know that we've had sort of some interesting feedback. I

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Speaker 1: think it's a from accommodation providers and others who live

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Speaker 1: out in the area who will maybe sort of questioning

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Speaker 1: some of that consultation. But I do just want to

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Speaker 1: go back to, you know, to when we talk about

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Speaker 1: those the new builds and the level of approvals for

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Speaker 1: the Northern territory, I mean the release of that MAY

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Speaker 1: data nationally. Did we see the release of May data

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Speaker 1: here in the territory? And what are we looking like?

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Speaker 1: You know, when you talk about new builds and.

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Speaker 2: Approvals, relatively speaking, we're low. We're lower than down south.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but how many do we know?

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Speaker 2: We do know well, So in terms of home leaning,

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Speaker 2: we're up a little bit. Yep, so mortgage leaning up

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Speaker 2: a little bit. Again, that's a lot of monthly volatility,

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Speaker 2: so I've got to be careful about how we assess that.

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Speaker 2: And in terms of proval there's a little bit of

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Speaker 2: an uptick again, but we've got to be that's again

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Speaker 2: a monthly figure that comes off a low base, So

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Speaker 2: I don't want to hype it up too much.

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Speaker 1: No. I guess what I'm sort of wondering and what

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Speaker 1: I suppose I'm getting to is, you know, we talk

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Speaker 1: a lot in the in the territory at the moment

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Speaker 1: about you know, student accommodation, about the need for more homes.

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Speaker 1: We spoke, I guess a couple of weeks ago the

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Speaker 1: federal government had now some additional funding for the likes

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Speaker 1: of social housing. I know that it's you know, they're

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Speaker 1: all different kinds of homes being built, but are we

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Speaker 1: seeing a bit of movement you know when it comes

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Speaker 1: to new homes, because there is a real sort of

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Speaker 1: you know, there is a real gap at the moment

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Speaker 1: in terms of not enough places for territory.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and look we're not seeing anywhere near enough of that.

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Speaker 2: So while it's been small uptick and again against monthly volatility,

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Speaker 2: we're not seeing anything like the number of new housing

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Speaker 2: that we need in a territory. So there's opportunities for

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Speaker 2: the federal government to work with us, sorry for the

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Speaker 2: territory government to work with the federal government around the

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Speaker 2: housing accord to see more social housing. But what's really

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Speaker 2: needed is an integrated plan. So we need more social housing,

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Speaker 2: there's no question about that. That can't all be remote housing.

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Speaker 2: It also needs to be social housing in Darwin and

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Speaker 2: other centers. Can't all be remote and I know there's

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Speaker 2: a strong episode on remote, but it can't be all

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Speaker 2: remote housing. There's people who live in Darwin as well

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Speaker 2: who need that support, and there also needs to be

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Speaker 2: support for to keep the dream of homology alive. There

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Speaker 2: needs to be an appropriate mix of housing. People can't

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Speaker 2: just be renting for life. There are people who need

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Speaker 2: that support, but most other people want to own their

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Speaker 2: own home and there needs to be an appropriate mix

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Speaker 2: of housing. And again we come back to the same

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Speaker 2: old perennial argument that we need to have more entry

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Speaker 2: level hose and we need more land that's shove already

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Speaker 2: land released for that.

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Speaker 1: Have we got that right now?

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Speaker 2: Where there is land that is in the hands of

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Speaker 2: some developers that that is moving, there's other land that's

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Speaker 2: been released by the government that's nowhere near ready to go.

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Speaker 2: You can't as a consumer go and buy a block today,

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Speaker 2: So West, when I talk about shovel ready land, we're

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Speaker 2: talking about land that you can actually go and buy

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Speaker 2: and build, and a builder can actually go and buy

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Speaker 2: it and sell it to you, and you can go

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Speaker 2: and buy as a consumer and start digging, digging into

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Speaker 2: your foundation. That's there's not enough nearly of that and

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Speaker 2: so that needs to increase and there we can be

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Speaker 2: some more transparency around that.

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Speaker 1: Then do we need I mean, do there need to

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Speaker 1: be sort of more incentives to try and get first

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Speaker 1: home buyers back into the market and things like that

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Speaker 1: here in the territory At this.

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Speaker 2: Point, our view is that there should be. However, it's

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Speaker 2: very difficult to talk to governments about about those incentives

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Speaker 2: following COVID because there was so much incentives that came

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Speaker 2: out of COVID that people are a bit wary about that. Nevertheless,

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Speaker 2: the reality is in the territories and needs to be

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Speaker 2: those incentives for first home buyers because they're the people

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Speaker 2: who are who are locked out by the deposit gap

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Speaker 2: in particular, so the banks aren't getting any what's the word,

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Speaker 2: any any more ready to lend than they have been.

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Speaker 2: So we need to have these sistance for the first

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Speaker 2: home buyers and for lower income earners to get into

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Speaker 2: the housing market. And we're not talking about you know,

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Speaker 2: houses with three car ports and seven on suites. We're

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Speaker 2: talking about entry level housing that people get into. Because

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Speaker 2: when we get more entry level housing, then that we'll

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Speaker 2: get more people onto the into home ownership, and we

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Speaker 2: know that home ownership is the thing that lifts people

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Speaker 2: out of out of poverty and also you know, builds

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Speaker 2: their family resilience and their mental health security and builds

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Speaker 2: wealth for their family. And then they go and build

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Speaker 2: a new house after that, and then their children can

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Speaker 2: afford to stay in Darwen and realize the opportunities and

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Speaker 2: build the economy. And we know we need a bigger

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Speaker 2: Darwin because we're going to have it a bear at

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Speaker 2: de Fence Hub. We're and need to have be a

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Speaker 2: bigger economy.

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Speaker 1: Ben, we are going to have to wrap up. I

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Speaker 1: just want to ask you very quickly before I let

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Speaker 1: you go. Obviously, the SAVO we are going to find

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Speaker 1: out about these interest rates. You know, how big an

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Speaker 1: impact are the higher interest rates having on you know,

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Speaker 1: on members of Master Builders.

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Speaker 2: Of course they're having an impact on our members because

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Speaker 2: particularly in the housings. Well, first of all, let's let's

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Speaker 2: go back a step quickly about inflation. The building instruction

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Speaker 2: industry has been the canarity down a coal mine in

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Speaker 2: terms of filling you impacts of inflation for months. We're

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Speaker 2: at least six months ahead of the Australian economy and

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Speaker 2: the rest of the economy on that front. So we

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Speaker 2: understand our members really understand the impact of inflation, but

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Speaker 2: interest rates really by it too, and it means that

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Speaker 2: people are less likely to buy new houses and build

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Speaker 2: new houses and those things. So we don't like theny

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Speaker 2: interest rate rises, and we'd like to see them be

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Speaker 2: the reserve banks sit back and take a look at

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Speaker 2: the impact of their previous rate rises. But we also

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Speaker 2: understand that inflation has got to get out of control. Well.

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Speaker 1: Ben Carter, the CEO of Master Build here in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Good to catch up with you today. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for your time.