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Speaker 1: Joining us on the line right now is Dave Malone,

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Executive director of Master Builders. Good morning

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Speaker 1: to you, Dave, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: How are you very well?

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Speaker 1: Well, let's start off with obviously the Excellence in Building

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Speaker 1: and Construction Awards held on the weekend, and gee, you

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Speaker 1: had a record number of entrants and some unbelievably good

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Speaker 1: projects recognized.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. You know, when we looked at this in twenty twenty,

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Speaker 2: we were thinking, my god, how hard will it be

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Speaker 2: to put on a great Excellence night? And then along

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Speaker 2: came what we saw on Saturday night, which was fantastic.

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Speaker 2: It really showcased the very best projects that the Territori's

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Speaker 2: got to offer you, the best companies, and then our

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Speaker 2: rising stars as well, of course you were Our MC

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Speaker 2: did a fantastic job, and the companies like Sun Build

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Speaker 2: and Mactee Designer Constructions and Hali Costs and others scooped

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Speaker 2: some fantastic prizes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they really did. And I always think it's a

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Speaker 1: fantastic event because it's wonderful to hear and see about

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Speaker 1: the construction work which is happening in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: and we know that there's you know, there is quite

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Speaker 1: a bit still despite it being a tough year with COVID.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and I think sometimes we forget how big our

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Speaker 2: industry really is. There's twelve thousand people even in the

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Speaker 2: middle of COVID still work in construction and that they're

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Speaker 2: employed by up to twelve hundred firms. And you know,

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Speaker 2: I think you've heard me say before that we look

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Speaker 2: at it as in every street, in every town there's

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Speaker 2: a family or someone relying on construction for a living.

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Speaker 1: That's exactly right. And you know, from our smaller projects

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Speaker 1: like house extensions and even your home builds to some

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Speaker 1: of the biggest infrastructure projects in the Northern Territory, it

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Speaker 1: just goes to show you really how diverse the industry

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Speaker 1: is as well.

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Speaker 2: I agree. And many of those winners from the weekend

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Speaker 2: they'll go forward now to our national awards and there's

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Speaker 2: about five thousand projects that all line up to pick

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Speaker 2: up a few of the most preeminent awards in Australia,

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Speaker 2: and year in year out, Territorious do really well. We

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Speaker 2: sometimes have a bit of a cringe about what we're

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Speaker 2: capable of, but other people don't see it that way.

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Speaker 2: They know the Territory does well now, Dave.

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Speaker 1: When you talk about just how much is happening in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory at the moment, very often we look

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Speaker 1: at the Fidelity Fund which shows you sort of how

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Speaker 1: many new builds there are, how many extensions there are,

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Speaker 1: and some of that other work that's underway. Now for

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Speaker 1: the last quarter or for four October, we've actually seen

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Speaker 1: quite a good month, haven't we.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And it's actually quite interesting to me that, you know,

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Speaker 2: as we've been coming out of this COVID process, just

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Speaker 2: how the market's responding. And one of the strongest indicators

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Speaker 2: that we've seen so far is the new build market.

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Speaker 2: You know, that's mums and dads trotting down to a

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Speaker 2: display village or talking to a builder and committing to

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Speaker 2: build a new home. And last month in October, forty

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Speaker 2: four family signed contracts to get a new home built.

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Speaker 2: That's just in Dale and Caturing, Tenter Creek and Aalyis

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Speaker 2: So doesn't include the bush work. That's a lot of

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Speaker 2: work for a lot of firms around town.

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Speaker 1: How does that compare two other months throughout the year,

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Speaker 1: or even to last year, well, last.

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Speaker 2: Year, it's a really interesting comparison to be honest that

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Speaker 2: the result we've got in October this year is over

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Speaker 2: one hundred percent higher than the same results we were

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Speaker 2: getting last year. Wow, we did seventy five certificates in

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Speaker 2: October and we did thirty seven in October twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 2: which was a pretty tough time. And I think you

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Speaker 2: and I spoke about that at the time. But you've

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Speaker 2: got to acknowledge as well that you know, in the

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Speaker 2: middle of a crisis, we seem to have convinced people

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Speaker 2: that with low interest rates and all the great incentives,

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Speaker 2: it's time to build.

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Speaker 1: I was going to say, what has changed over the

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Speaker 1: last year, Dave, Is it just that or rather is

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Speaker 1: it the incentives what's really keeping things moving?

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Speaker 2: In that way, you have to think that the incentives

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Speaker 2: are having a huge impact. You know, we've got to

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Speaker 2: build bonus from the territory government, you know, offering significant

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Speaker 2: amounts of money. You've got the Commonworth government through home

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Speaker 2: Builder as well. If you're a new home buyer today,

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Speaker 2: both governments will give you fifty five thousand dollars cash

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Speaker 2: to build your home, and then when you trot off

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Speaker 2: to your bank, they're going to give you an entry

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Speaker 2: level interest rate that starts with it too. I'm old

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Speaker 2: enough to remember when interest rates are seventeen percent. So

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Speaker 2: you put all that together, and I think that's the

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Speaker 2: reason that people have come back into the market.

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Speaker 1: And Dave, you know, we know that there's I guess

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Speaker 1: there has been over the last sort of a couple

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Speaker 1: of years as well, a real push from each level

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Speaker 1: of government to keep the construction industry going because we

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Speaker 1: know that, you know, when the construction industry and housing

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Speaker 1: industry is doing well, that then you've got your builders,

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Speaker 1: you've got your subbies, you've got everybody out there spending

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Speaker 1: money in the community.

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Speaker 2: That's very true. You know, we use some stats to

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Speaker 2: say that, you know, somewhere between sixty and about one

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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty different firms will turn up and be

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Speaker 2: involved in a housing project. As incredible as that might be,

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Speaker 2: you know, from the first plumber who turns up with

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Speaker 2: a back hoe and digs a hole right through to

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Speaker 2: the last person who you know, water's in the grass,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of people who get benefit from that.

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Speaker 2: And then residential construction in particular is really quite interesting

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Speaker 2: about how quickly the money spent there starts to spin

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Speaker 2: through the wider economy as well, and the numbers say

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Speaker 2: that for every one job in construction, there's two outsider

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Speaker 2: construction that are benefiting from that work as well. So

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Speaker 2: I think it's all part of what we're seeing, you know,

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Speaker 2: as we drive around our community right now, there's just

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Speaker 2: a little bit more activity because that money is being spent.

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Speaker 1: Dave. One of the other things that we do get

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Speaker 1: asked about quite a bit, and it came through a

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Speaker 1: little earlier this week as well, was a question wondering

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Speaker 1: if there was any chance or any way that the

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Speaker 1: government could speed up the payments when it comes to

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Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to the trading scheme or

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Speaker 1: the home improvement scheme and the way in which our

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Speaker 1: trades people are being paid right now. Is this something

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Speaker 1: that's being raised with you in the industry sporadically.

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Speaker 2: I think there are some people are who send to

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Speaker 2: be doing fine and others that have, I don't know

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Speaker 2: for what reason, have struggled to be paid. The government

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Speaker 2: has worked really hard to get payment out of the door,

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Speaker 2: and you know, considering the scale of the program, I've

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Speaker 2: always been pretty prepared to cut them some slack. I

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Speaker 2: know it's not easy if people have got a cash

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Speaker 2: flow much longer periods until they get paid, and that

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Speaker 2: shouldn't happen. But at the same time, they're spending one

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Speaker 2: hundred million dollars of taxpayer's money to support activity in

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Speaker 2: our community, and you want some checks and balances in

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Speaker 2: place as well. So it's a bit of a you

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Speaker 2: know six you know, like a beout each way, and

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Speaker 2: in many ways that you're really high hope that no

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Speaker 2: one has to wait. But by and large it hasn't

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Speaker 2: been so bad either.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and I guess this is the thing. There

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Speaker 1: is always going to have to be those checks and

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Speaker 1: balances in place. Like you said, it is taxpayers dollars,

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Speaker 1: so we've got to make sure that things are done properly.

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Speaker 1: And from what I can gather, they have tried at

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Speaker 1: different times to speed things up a bit, but like

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Speaker 1: you said, it's obviously not ideal if there are people

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Speaker 1: that are waiting extended periods of time to receive those payments.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we all know that the trading who comes

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Speaker 2: around and puts the fence up, or you know, does

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Speaker 2: the new kitchen or whatever, more likely than not they'd

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Speaker 2: have to pay for all those materials before they've installed them.

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Speaker 2: So they're already carrying those costs, and then if they've

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Speaker 2: got to wait, you know, another four weeks to get paid,

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Speaker 2: that's a lot of money that you might be carrying

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Speaker 2: by the end of the month. So I really have

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Speaker 2: a lot of sympathy for those people. Yeah, and we

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Speaker 2: really hope they don't struggle too much. It's just that

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Speaker 2: balancing act.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely well, Dave Malone, it is all good to catch

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Speaker 1: up with you. I really appreciate your time this morning

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Speaker 1: and keeping us up to date with what is happening

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Speaker 1: in the construction sector. Master Builders NT Director Executive Director,

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Speaker 1: Dave Malone, thank you for your time.

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Speaker 2: Have a great day, Cattie, you too,