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Speaker 1: The Property Council of Australia's Northern Territory Division is calling

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Speaker 1: on all political parties to commit to a comprehensive overhaul

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Speaker 1: of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics, or as

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Speaker 1: we know a DIPPLE, as a re elected pledge ahead

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Speaker 1: of the crucial twenty four election. Now, Ruth Palmer, the

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Speaker 1: Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia's Northern Territory Division,

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Speaker 1: joins me in the studio.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to your Ruth. Good morning Katie, thanks for

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Speaker 2: having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good to see you now, Ruth. Why is the

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Speaker 1: Property Council making this call? Yeah, thanks Katie.

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Speaker 3: We've been speaking to our members and obviously hearing from

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Speaker 3: the broader community just around some you know, the time frames, delays,

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Speaker 3: approvals just being really slow and when we're at a

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Speaker 3: time when we're trying to encourage investment we want people

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Speaker 3: to want to invest into the Northern Territory, but also

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Speaker 3: around getting housing out of the ground as well and our.

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Speaker 2: Commercial commercial properties.

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Speaker 3: We're just finding that people are having some issues around

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Speaker 3: the regulatory process but also time frames and approvals. So

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Speaker 3: you know, we've seen and instead of sort of going

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Speaker 3: to both parties with fifty different election commitments. We felt

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Speaker 3: that a lot of the things we had were sort

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Speaker 3: of tying back to the department, So we thought, you know,

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Speaker 3: it's best to look at that overall approach, and we

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Speaker 3: believe that, you know, going into diple and having a

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Speaker 3: look at how we can overhaul that in a way

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Speaker 3: where we're sort of like putting sole focus into more

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Speaker 3: departments would actually work quite well in getting those time

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Speaker 3: frame slashed, but also getting those approvals through quickly.

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Speaker 1: Even earlier this week, we actually had the Sea of

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Speaker 1: the Binjari Aboriginal Community on the show, or Aboriginal Corporation

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Speaker 1: on the show, raising concerns that they're at risk of

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Speaker 1: falling over due to unpaid invoices and what they have

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Speaker 1: said were continual delays caused by dipple bureaucracy and inefficiencies.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the department say that, in line with the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Government's payment policy, that the Department of Infrastructure,

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Speaker 1: Planning and Logistics are committed to paying all invoices under

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Speaker 1: a million dollars within twenty days of receiving the invoice

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Speaker 1: unless there's a.

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Speaker 2: Dispute over the account.

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Speaker 1: But after we did that, interview, we had a handful

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Speaker 1: of other people will sort of ring through and go, yeah, look,

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Speaker 1: we face delays as well when we do work with DIPPLE,

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Speaker 1: and and it's always a tough one because you you know,

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Speaker 1: you don't I'm not like you don't want to be

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Speaker 1: criticizing public servants or anything like that, but you've sort

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Speaker 1: of got to ask yourself, well, where is the breakdown,

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Speaker 1: why is this happening, and why does it seem to

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Speaker 1: be something that you know that's more than just a

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Speaker 1: handful of people are concerned about.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, and it's definitely not at fault of

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Speaker 3: any of the public servants.

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Speaker 2: There's just this complex system that dipples made up of.

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Speaker 2: So you know, people have their.

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Speaker 3: Sole functions in that role, and you know, once something's

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Speaker 3: done in a particular part, it would go to the

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Speaker 3: next person, then the next person, then the next person.

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Speaker 2: So there may be a situation where there's.

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Speaker 3: A bunch of different approval processes that one piece needs

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Speaker 3: to go through. So you know, we think that like

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Speaker 3: we've put forward a framework that we believe could work,

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Speaker 3: you know, and the need for that, you know, you've

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Speaker 3: got to reduce complexity, confusion, accelerate decision making, enhance the efficiency,

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Speaker 3: you know, really getting improving that accountability and you know

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Speaker 3: then then that's going to overall boost investment opportunities in

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Speaker 3: the territory. But you know, we've got we've got people

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Speaker 3: here that you know, they've they're coming to us saying,

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Speaker 3: you know, I just you know time frames or you know,

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Speaker 3: waiting years for approvals to come through, and you know,

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Speaker 3: we need to slash that because we need to make

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Speaker 3: sure that the territory is growing, we need to make

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Speaker 3: sure we're open for investment opportunities, but that that we

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Speaker 3: have a system that works. You know, we used to

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Speaker 3: be the best in the country for our for our adapts,

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Speaker 3: our development approvals process, and you know at the moment

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Speaker 3: when you hear on the ground that you know that

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Speaker 3: that has slowed down.

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Speaker 2: We believe, we think that there.

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Speaker 3: Needs to be this this over arching like this overhaul

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Speaker 3: and sort of get back to where how you know,

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Speaker 3: getting back.

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Speaker 2: To sort of sole focused departments.

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Speaker 3: So you know, DIPPLE is massive with transport logistics infrastructure,

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Speaker 3: so breaking them down and having sole ministerial responsibility but

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Speaker 3: also sol departments dedicated to that portfolio, we believe will

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Speaker 3: streamline processes and make it more efficient.

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Speaker 2: It's hard, isn't it? Like in the Northern terrora trend.

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Speaker 1: I guess it probably happens around the nation as well,

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Speaker 1: but you're sort of you know, public servants are obviously

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Speaker 1: there to do just that, to serve the public, but

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Speaker 1: sometimes it feels as though bureaucracy takes hold. And that's

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Speaker 1: not any individual's fault, but that is the situation where

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Speaker 1: you know, a whole department. I guess sometimes I feel

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Speaker 1: like it could be forgotten that you know that the

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Speaker 1: job is to try and make sure that those approvals

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Speaker 1: are sped up and that things do get moving, not

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Speaker 1: to stop things from happening.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, we feel that Dipple Weird is

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Speaker 3: quite under resource because there because it is such a

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Speaker 3: massive department and there's so many cogs in that department.

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Speaker 3: So we believe that that under resourcing is leading to

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Speaker 3: the sort of slower decision making. You know, we're seeing

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Speaker 3: the delays on those the approvals process. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 3: we've spoken about it before. You know, we're trying to

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Speaker 3: get these eleven thy five hundred homes up, but the

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Speaker 3: latest ABS reports, you know, we've dropped seventy one percent

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Speaker 3: in the last ten over ten years, and just in

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Speaker 3: the last five years it's plummeted, you know, another fifty

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Speaker 3: two percent. So when we're talking about eleven thousand, five

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Speaker 3: hundred homes, we want to be speeding up the land

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Speaker 3: that's already ready to go. We know that there's you know,

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Speaker 3: we talk about urban Infield, there is so much land

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Speaker 3: ready to go. Headworks are done that can be switched on,

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Speaker 3: you know, but it's that approvals process that just seemed

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Speaker 3: to be taking that time. And you know, there's people

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Speaker 3: can build, There are people here that can build, and

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Speaker 3: the land is ready. You know, we don't need to

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Speaker 3: be sort of opening up new land just yet. Sort

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Speaker 3: of in the in Darwin especially Catherine allis, yes, for sure.

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Speaker 3: But around the top end there is there's already passes

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Speaker 3: of land that are ready to go.

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Speaker 1: So it's approval and there's no suggestion here that you

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Speaker 1: know that people are trying to sort of you know,

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Speaker 1: speed through the processes and do anything dodgy.

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Speaker 2: No, no, not at all.

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Speaker 3: It's just about being able to slash those time framed.

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Speaker 3: When we're talking about getting eleven thousand and five hundred

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Speaker 3: homes up as part of the commitment, but also around

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Speaker 3: the federal government's commitment as well and looking at the

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Speaker 3: housing accord or it's just getting that through quickly to

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Speaker 3: be able to get that happening. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 3: waiting eighteen months or two years is just too long

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Speaker 3: to be able to get the housing out of the

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Speaker 3: ground well.

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Speaker 1: And we also need it, like it's not only in

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Speaker 1: terms of housing for you know, for all the different

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Speaker 1: sort of tears, like whether you're talking about sort of

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Speaker 1: public housing, whether you're talking about housing for those lower

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Speaker 1: income or lower to middle income owners, or you know,

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Speaker 1: or housing for others within the community as in you know,

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Speaker 1: people who want to buy their own homes and that

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But also even your student accommodation and stuff.

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Speaker 1: We've spoken about that before and that need for student

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Speaker 1: accommodation and you know housing for critical workers to Yeah.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 3: So we've spoken about key workers and student accommodation and

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Speaker 3: where there are blocks around the CBD that can absolutely

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Speaker 3: have that happen. We have taken Minister about and on

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Speaker 3: a drive around the CBD to look at vacant blocks

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Speaker 3: and so this is where we talk about urban infield.

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Speaker 2: Before we have that like that sprawl don't. We want

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Speaker 2: to reduce the sprawl.

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Speaker 3: We want to make sure we keep our activity centers

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Speaker 3: activated and that's filling up the pockets of vacant space.

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Speaker 3: So there's plenty of vacant space around. You can see

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Speaker 3: it when you actually focus in on it and have

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Speaker 3: a look. There is so much vacant space that can

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Speaker 3: be purposed first before we really start that urban sprawl mentality,

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Speaker 3: because if you start drawing away from existing activity centers,

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Speaker 3: then your businesses suffer, your retail suffers, you really lose

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Speaker 3: the activation.

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Speaker 2: And again, if you're building.

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Speaker 3: Up activity centers, then you're effectively reducing the risk of

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Speaker 3: any social behavior as well. So when you've got activity happening,

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Speaker 3: it will it will sort of clean up clean up

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Speaker 3: that any social behavior that's happening. So we want to

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Speaker 3: make sure that we've got precincts that are appropriate for

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Speaker 3: where they are.

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Speaker 1: Whereas last time you were on the show, you actually

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Speaker 1: spoke to us about crime and anti social behavior. I

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Speaker 1: believe that you had a survey going through for members

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Speaker 1: and also non members.

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Speaker 2: Was it ye ony businesses?

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Speaker 3: So we have closed that survey now and we had

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Speaker 3: over two hundred responses, which was great. So we've been

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Speaker 3: able to go back to the data from last year

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Speaker 3: and draw the comparisons into this year's data, and that's

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Speaker 3: something that I will.

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Speaker 2: Be releasing next week.

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Speaker 3: I'm visiting Alice Springs, so I'm going down to talk

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Speaker 3: to my members and obviously talk to some key stakeholders

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Speaker 3: down there, and you want to give them a little

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Speaker 3: bit of an idea of what's happening in Alice Springs

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Speaker 3: around that sort of that sentiment that's come through. But

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Speaker 3: it was pretty alarming. It's pretty shocking the data that's

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Speaker 3: come out, especially the kind of behaviors that people have witnessed,

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Speaker 3: which we've spoken about before, but alarmingly just the stats

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Speaker 3: around sort of what's not changed. And yeah, so that

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Speaker 3: would definitely be on full release next week. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: definitely keen to get down to Alice Springs next next week.

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Speaker 3: So it'd be very good to get down and just

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Speaker 3: speak to people and just let them know that property

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Speaker 3: Counsel is here and you know, we are backing everybody

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Speaker 3: and we're supporting wherever we can.

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Speaker 1: Well, we'll certainly try to get you back on the

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Speaker 1: show next week. Hey, with this call in terms of

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Speaker 1: DIPPLE and streamlining things is it something. It's obviously something

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Speaker 1: that you've raised with both the government and also the

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Speaker 1: opposition I'm assuming the Independents and Greens as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I've had conversations with Minister Bowden a couple

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Speaker 3: of times. So I've also given this to the Chief's

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Speaker 3: office as well. It's also gone to the Leader of

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Speaker 3: the Opposition's office, so hopefully we can sort of see

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Speaker 3: something like we might not get what we've proposed. We

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Speaker 3: did propose some separate ministry, so a Minister for Housing,

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Speaker 3: a Minister for Regulation, Minister for Lands Planning Environment which

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Speaker 3: used to be Minister for Roads and Transport, and then

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Speaker 3: obviously a Minister for Infrastructure because you know, infrastructure covers everything,

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Speaker 3: so it's not just sort of housing or you know,

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Speaker 3: like infrastructures massive and you know, when you're looking at

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Speaker 3: a cross of territory.

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Speaker 2: It's a huge portfolio on its own.

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Speaker 3: So we believe breaking this up is just going to

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Speaker 3: allow the departments to focus solely on their roles and

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Speaker 3: responsibilities within that remit.

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Speaker 1: Well, Ruth Palmer, it's always good to catch up with you.

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

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Speaker 1: a lot, Katie, Thank you