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Speaker 1: A local builder has been ordered to pay more than

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Speaker 1: two point five million dollars in compensation to five home

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Speaker 1: buyers after an affordable housing scheme was found to.

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Speaker 2: Be plagued with defects.

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Speaker 1: The NTE Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision is the latest

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Speaker 1: in a long running saga after the homes in Bellomack

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Speaker 1: were built back in twenty and thirteen. Now the ABC

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Speaker 1: is reporting on this one this morning, but it is

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Speaker 1: also a story that I know Matt Cunningham from Sky

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Speaker 1: and News has covered off on extensively. Those who bought

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Speaker 1: the homes from the government backed scheme, well, they started

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Speaker 1: noticing water leaksport drainage and crack tiles, with an engineering

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Speaker 1: assessment finding the properties were not structurally compliant and may

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Speaker 1: not hold up in a cyclone that was back in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. As a result, some of those homes

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Speaker 1: were knocked down. Now the local member Mark Turner joins

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now, get a.

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Speaker 3: Mark, good morningt How are you yeah?

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Speaker 2: Not too bad? Now? Tell me what's your reaction to

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Speaker 2: the tribunal decision.

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Speaker 3: I'm it's mixed, to be honest. I'm pleased that we've

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Speaker 3: got a legal entity that's confirmed what we've been saying

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Speaker 3: all along. But it's disheartening that it took this long

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Speaker 3: to get to this point and it's going to be

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Speaker 3: the difficult question of what next.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, that's exactly right, because I thought that i'd

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Speaker 1: seen vich the developer was saying they were not in

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Speaker 1: a position to be able to, you know, to pay

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Speaker 1: and correct me if I'm wrong. But then you sort

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Speaker 1: of wonder does the government also have a part to

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Speaker 1: play here?

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Speaker 3: Oh? Definitely. You've got these houses were built through an

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Speaker 3: agreement between the Northern Territory Government, the builder, and Bellamack

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Speaker 3: as a corporate entity. But you've got the failings that

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Speaker 3: have occurred from the beginning of the process. You know,

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Speaker 3: these houses were never fit to live it. We've seen

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Speaker 3: the expert evidence and this is would it happen anywhere

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Speaker 3: else in Australia? I can't find any other example of it.

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Speaker 1: Have you spoken to those homeowners impacted since the decision

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Speaker 1: was handed down?

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Speaker 2: What's the reaction?

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Speaker 3: Bang, Oh, you'd be surprised. You know, it's not like

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Speaker 3: it's some sudden victory. They've been banging their head against

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Speaker 3: a brick wall for so long. And the example is

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Speaker 3: when I was talking to the ABC was You've got

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Speaker 3: families that had little children who are now teenagers, who

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Speaker 3: were looking at moving on to their own houses. This

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Speaker 3: is how long this has been going on, and they

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Speaker 3: just feel so let down. You know, this was before

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Speaker 3: I was a local member. I was still living in

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Speaker 3: Catherine when this first started. And they've tried to talk

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Speaker 3: to all sides of politics, tried to talk to the regulator,

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Speaker 3: and whilst you know they're happy that the NTCAT has

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Speaker 3: validated what they've said, it's going to be well, what

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Speaker 3: do they do next. We're coming up to another wet season.

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Speaker 3: Their houses are already springing sort of internal water features.

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Speaker 3: You can see the daylight and they move, shake and

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Speaker 3: move around when they're walking through them.

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Speaker 1: I can't, like, you can't even imagine how they must

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Speaker 1: be feeling. You know, you put your heart and soul

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Speaker 1: into purchasing a home, and I know that this was

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Speaker 1: through the government initiative, and then for this to happen,

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Speaker 1: it would just be soul destroying in a lot of ways.

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Speaker 2: After it's gone on for such a long period of time.

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Speaker 3: Well, they feel trapped because there's nothing that they can do.

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Speaker 3: You know, nobody's going to ensure the houses. Nobody's going

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Speaker 3: to buy the houses. They've got nowhere else to live.

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Speaker 3: And your listeners know this for buying your house is

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Speaker 3: that he's purchased that most people ever make in their life.

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Speaker 3: And these families have just been systematically let down by everybody.

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Speaker 2: Mark what is next?

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Speaker 1: I mean, are they concerned that they're actually that they

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Speaker 1: may not get that compensation?

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Speaker 2: How they feel like.

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Speaker 3: Well, without talking directly to the case, because I know

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Speaker 3: people have indicated they're going to appeal. There's certainly a

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Speaker 3: prevalence in the industry both here and aboard that as

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Speaker 3: soon as people get a ruling made against them, they

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Speaker 3: find litigious ways to avoid actually paying out. So this

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Speaker 3: is what frustrates me that the minister and the government,

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Speaker 3: whenever they do a media release focus on the civil process.

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Speaker 3: They focus on the money, which is great. I get that,

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Speaker 3: you know that's running its course. But the more immediate issue,

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Speaker 3: and this is why I'm bagging my head against Pritball,

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Speaker 3: is the safety one. We know that these houses are dangerous.

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Speaker 3: We've already seen holes appearing in balconies and metal littered

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Speaker 3: all over the floor in the street. I'm not making

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Speaker 3: this up. I've got the video footage and I put

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Speaker 3: it on my Facebook page. All it's going to take

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Speaker 3: is what the engineers put in their extrat evidence. If

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Speaker 3: we have a thunderstorm, downburst, a cyclone, god forbid, another

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Speaker 3: serious quake, what's it going to take that somebody have

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Speaker 3: to die before there's going to be government acted on this.

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Speaker 3: And when they see things like you know what just

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Speaker 3: happened in the city with throb the Department was swift

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Speaker 3: to act. It's well, why would you do that for

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Speaker 3: the top end of town, but families in our electorate

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Speaker 3: just have to sit there for years.

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Speaker 1: Tell me, do you think that it's fair to put

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Speaker 1: the onus on the developer rather than the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: government given that this was a Northern Territory government scheme.

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Speaker 3: I think it's a triparthei issue. You've got if you're

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Speaker 3: going to register as a builder or a developer and

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Speaker 3: you're going to sell good, you've got to protect your consumers.

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Speaker 3: That's why we've got strong consumer laws in Australia so

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Speaker 3: that people don't get ripped off and end in this position. Equally,

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Speaker 3: government has to do its due diligence. You know, we've

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Speaker 3: got an understaff to overwork building advisory services. Whether the

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Speaker 3: staff in there, they'll do the best that they can,

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Speaker 3: but have they got the technical expertise? And the more

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Speaker 3: that this comes out, the more people from industry that

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Speaker 3: come and talk to me and say, we knew this

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Speaker 3: was going to happen, it was just a matter of when.

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Speaker 3: And in a developed country it shouldn't take tragedy or

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Speaker 3: media attention to fix this. You know, no other state

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Speaker 3: or Australia in Australia would get to this stage.

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Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I do just want to

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Speaker 1: ask you about there's been well, the Northern Territory Police

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Speaker 1: Association had had revealed some some stats earlier this week

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Speaker 1: with US about resignations and retirements year to date. This

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Speaker 1: is something that you and I have spoken about on

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Speaker 1: numerous occasions. You've spoken you know, you'd actually spoken about

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Speaker 1: well called for a Royal commission into looking at why

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Speaker 1: our Northern Territory police are leaving in droves. But what

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Speaker 1: we know year to date is that there's been one

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Speaker 1: hundred and twelve resignations, eleven retirements, three dismissals. That takes

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Speaker 1: that total number to one hundred and twenty six. It's

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Speaker 1: not only a concern with the loss of those officers.

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Speaker 1: I know that there's a huge amount being done on recruitment,

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Speaker 1: but it's the loss of that experience, isn't it.

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Speaker 3: Yep, Well, this is what got me kicked out of

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Speaker 3: the Labor Party and it's absolutely bananas the Police Association

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Speaker 3: of trying to do the right thing by their members.

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Speaker 3: But again the same as when I was on the executive,

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Speaker 3: they feel they're banging their head against the Britall and

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Speaker 3: nobody's listening. If you're a police officer over here and

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Speaker 3: you're worried about your job, you've worried about support from

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Speaker 3: the agency, you worried about support from government, and you've

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Speaker 3: got Queensland recruiting with enough vacancies touss follow up the

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Speaker 3: entire and Udan territory police. Why would you stay? And

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Speaker 3: that's the conversation that police and their families are having.

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Speaker 3: And then when you add in the social issues that

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Speaker 3: we're experiencing in the territory, it becomes a self fulfilling

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Speaker 3: prophecy that more police leave, the social issues get worse.

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Speaker 3: Their families don't want to be here, More police leave,

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Speaker 3: and it's going to get worse before it gets better,

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Speaker 3: but most politicians won't tell you that.

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Speaker 2: Mark, do you reckon?

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Speaker 1: This review is going to go far enough? I mean,

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Speaker 1: we've got Vince Kelly heading it up. He is certainly

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Speaker 1: well respected around Australia. Is it going to go far enough?

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Speaker 3: I hope. So. My only worry is that, and I

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Speaker 3: think I put this out at the time. I have

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Speaker 3: the utmost respect for Vince and his colleagues who are

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Speaker 3: doing the review. It's just very difficult to do an

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Speaker 3: independent review of an agency that you've worked in for

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Speaker 3: so long and you're going to have the competing friendship loyalties.

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Speaker 3: And I'd have much rather seen Vince bey a co chair.

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Speaker 3: He definitely needed to be there, but it's that independence

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Speaker 3: that worries me. But I'll hold my reservations until I

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Speaker 3: see the report come out. I certainly know the issues.

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Speaker 3: I've got more cops than I can say to stick

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Speaker 3: out talking to me, and they're hopeful it's just going

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Speaker 3: to be are we going to see the truth or

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Speaker 3: are we going to see another issue? Like when Wolfgang

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Speaker 3: blew the whistle of the Coroner's court and then he

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Speaker 3: had senior police officers on the radio the next day

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Speaker 3: trying to mitigate it. That's what they're worried about.

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Speaker 1: Well, Mark Turner, it's certainly going to be you know,

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Speaker 1: it's something that we do need to get to the

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Speaker 1: bottom of. There is no doubt about that. Thank you

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Speaker 1: as always for your time. Do I call you the

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Speaker 1: independent member for Blaine now?

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I think the current leadership of the Labor Party

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Speaker 3: have made it well and truly clear that they're not

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Speaker 3: overly impressed with me. So unless something changes, I'm quite

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Speaker 3: happy as things are, so.

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Speaker 1: The Independent Member for Blameing Mark turn Up. We appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time, mate. Any decision yet as to whether you're

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Speaker 1: going to run at the next election as an independent?

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Speaker 3: Probably I've said to all the media if my community

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Speaker 3: want me to, I will. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So when will you decide? Like, when will they tell you?

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Speaker 2: Do you reckon?

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Speaker 3: All the feedback at the moment has been do it.

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Speaker 3: So as soon as this settings is done, I'm going

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Speaker 3: to make a big drive in Elamate, Moulden and Woodruff

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Speaker 3: because of the boundary changes, just to make sure that

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Speaker 3: what I'm hearing from people coming in the office is

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Speaker 3: widely reflected. And then once I've canvas the community, if

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Speaker 3: they say yes, go for it, then I'll go for it.

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Speaker 3: But it's for me. It's always been about representing the

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Speaker 3: community I live in.

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Speaker 2: Well, hey, actually one last one before I let you go.

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Speaker 1: There's the rumors of arrife at the moment that there's

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Speaker 1: going to be a cabinet reshuffle within the Labor Party.

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Speaker 2: What are you hearing?

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Speaker 3: Yes, same thing, Ksie. I think the problem is that

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Speaker 3: they know they're on the nose. People are unhappy. I

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Speaker 3: just don't think the cabinet reshuffle is going to fix it.

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Speaker 3: And this seems to reflect the general trend around Australia

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Speaker 3: with the disillusion and both major parties. Until they start

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Speaker 3: listening to us rather than themselves, the numbers are going

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Speaker 3: to go down. But changing the seats on the deck

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Speaker 3: of the Titanic isn't going to fix anything.

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Speaker 1: Well, Mark Turner, the Independent member for Blame, good to

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Speaker 1: speak with you this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for your time, you two, Katie, thank you. Lo