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Speaker 1: But joining me on the line to really help us

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Speaker 1: break down this budget and what it means for industries

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory. It's Dave Malone, the chief executive

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Speaker 1: of Master Builders. Good morning to you, Dave.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Katie. I'm coming from an airport

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Speaker 2: round so I apologize if you get in your background.

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Speaker 1: That's all good, Dave. What was your reaction to the budget?

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Speaker 2: Well, what I took away from the budget was that

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Speaker 2: the federal government has decided that growth is the most

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Speaker 2: important thing for Australia right now, and that the best

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Speaker 2: way of getting growth over the medium term is to

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Speaker 2: invest in infrastructure. And the other thing I took away

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Speaker 2: was we've been waiting for a long time for people

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Speaker 2: to realize the potential of the North and I thought

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Speaker 2: in the budget last night that we saw that the

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Speaker 2: Federal governor finally realized that investing in infrastructure in the

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Speaker 2: North will deliver a great dividend for all of Australia.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there does certainly seem to be more of a

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Speaker 1: focus on regional Australia. And I said that to the

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Speaker 1: Finance Minister this morning, Simon Birmingham, and he said as

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Speaker 1: much that to make sure we're growing the regions. From

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Speaker 1: the construction perspective, Dave, is there going to be you know,

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Speaker 1: are we going to see that on flow of work

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Speaker 1: for your sector?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think we will. There's a couple of cavias

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Speaker 2: that I've put in place. You know, I've been around

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Speaker 2: a long time and I know there's a big difference

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Speaker 2: between any announcements and when cash starts to flow, but

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Speaker 2: you know when we're heading towards an election as well,

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Speaker 2: so there's that issue to sit in the background. But

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Speaker 2: this is really medium term work for our industry. It's

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Speaker 2: not today or tomorrow. These projects need to go through

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Speaker 2: the entire process of being designed and approved, taken to

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Speaker 2: market and then you know, people with machinery start work

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Speaker 2: on site. So this has really worked for the medium term.

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Speaker 2: I think it's fantastic quite frankly, and really positive for

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Speaker 2: construction businesses right across the top end and for that matter,

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Speaker 2: the whole of North Australia. So overall, I think, yes,

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Speaker 2: our people are really going to benefit from this, but

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Speaker 2: we won't see it today or tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's still going to be a while away by

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Speaker 1: the look of things, Dave. I guess the other concern

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Speaker 1: always is when we talk about federal money being spent,

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Speaker 1: making sure that contracts go to locals.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and one of the things that's been missed in

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Speaker 2: this budget, in a small announcement that came out I

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Speaker 2: think yesterday morning, was that the federal government's adopting new

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Speaker 2: procume with arrangements to encourage more SMEs to be involved

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Speaker 2: in their procurement right across the board, something that we

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Speaker 2: first negotiated with Defense, as you'd know, you know, three

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Speaker 2: or four years ago, which saw so many local people

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Speaker 2: starting to get work. So I've really got my fingers crossed. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: again meds the cavit of the election, but it seems

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Speaker 2: to me that they understand that they can use the

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Speaker 2: capacity in North Australia to build these projects. And even

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Speaker 2: though that sounds logical to you and I am to

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Speaker 2: everybody who's listening, it's actually a major step for our

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Speaker 2: federal government to see it that way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, So obviously that is something I'm sure that

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Speaker 1: quite a few people miss yesterday. So just sort of

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Speaker 1: break that down for us, Dave. So what it means

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Speaker 1: that those SMEs that there was an announcement that realistically

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Speaker 1: when it comes to some of these projects, they do

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Speaker 1: need to go local.

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Speaker 2: So what they're what the federal government's saying, and you know,

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Speaker 2: the press releases are just press releases, but what they're

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Speaker 2: really saying to everybody is they're putting pressure on the

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Speaker 2: federal bureaucracy to look at the capability and capacity regionally

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Speaker 2: and locally and to design their procurement around that capacity

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Speaker 2: and capability, which is what we've been doing now for

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Speaker 2: a few years in defense. But it will spread much broader,

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Speaker 2: and we assume that those same conditions will go with

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Speaker 2: the cash as the federal government passes that cash through

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Speaker 2: to state governments as well. So you know, we'll wait

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Speaker 2: to see how it all rolls out, but you'd have

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Speaker 2: to say it's a giant tick up front today after

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Speaker 2: the budget.

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Speaker 1: Well, Dave Malone from Master Builders, it is always good

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Speaker 1: to catch up with you. We know you're about to

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Speaker 1: get on a flight, so we appreciate it on this morning.

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Speaker 2: Mate. Thank you, Thank you, Cody, and have a good

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Speaker 2: day than you two