Dr LIM - 2000-10-17
My question relates to the railway line, as we heard early this morning. It also relates to how the Leader of the Opposition has been consistently negative about this issue; how she has distorted the truth about the benefits of the railway to the Northern Territory.
Can the Minister for Industries and Business and the Minister for Regional Development advise the House on how government is working to ensure Territory businesses can gain the maximum advantages out of the $1.2bn Alice Springs railway?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the member for his question, and I am pleased to take the opportunity to update the House and Territorians on the progress the Northern Territory government is making in assisting businesses so that they can maximise opportunities from this great project.
From the outset I applaud all the other government agencies that have been involved including non-government agencies, the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce and Industry, NTISO, the TCA; there has been a great co-ordinated effort over the past couple of years in ensuring that Territory businesses maximise those opportunities that are about to happen.
The work done also by the AustralAsia Railway Corporation over a number of years is certainly well recognised in this House and they have done a great deal of work in an unrelenting manner to ensure total involvement by Territory businesses.
The Department of Industries and Business has had an integral lead role in ensuring Territory businesses are prepared and one of the things obviously that you find with the project is that NT businesses are hungry for information and it has been part of our role that the Department of Industries and Business assist in facilitating that information with workshops, seminars, forums, all kinds of things including the show circuit, to ensure that we are rail-ready. As recently as 3, 4 and 5 October, members of my department along with Transport and Works conducted a series of forums up and down the track - Tennant, Alice, Katherine - giving out the latest information to those business communities on the railway project. All those meetings were very, very well attended.
The Northern Territory government has also worked with the consortium team to present firsthand information from the consortium itself to businesses and community forums up and down the track. The information I should say, that is being sought is not just about what contracts will be on offer but also what needs to be done by businesses in preparing to tender for those contracts. Information such as occupational health and safety, quality assurance, industrial relations, surety of delivery, time management plans, all of those kinds of things and not the least of which obviously comes down to price at the end of the day. We have put in place a number of mechanisms which provide Territory businesses with opportunities to have a look at their own business to prepare themselves better.
Contained within the rail contract the local industry and Aboriginal participation plan requires the consortium to consult with all sectors of the Northern Territory and ISO has a very big involvement in that and they have been working closely with the consortium to ensure that that is carried out. Obviously, businesses have to be registered with ISO and to ensure that ISO is well prepared, some time ago my department topped up their funding to enable them to do more intensive work as far as the railway goes to assisting businesses.
We have allowed additional funds to ISO so that there is an officer of ISO along with one of our officers in the design area office in Adelaide to ensure that we know how the contracts have been packaged. There will also be an officer from ISO established in Darwin in Adrail’s office up here and that is working very, very well. We have already seen contracts flow from the railway as you know, some mapping contracts and so on. Some survey contracts were issued a little while back and they have come from the capability statements that those companies have done. That is one of the other areas we have been working on with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in assisting businesses in developing their own capability plans so that they are well prepared to present those to the consortium at the right time, developing company profiles and so on.
So, we have been very much involved with the business community over quite some period now along with all of those industry associations. I thank them for their cooperation in this and there will be ongoing seminars to ensure that Territorians can maximise the opportunities that come from this fantastic project, the like of which we have never seen before.
Can the Minister for Industries and Business and the Minister for Regional Development advise the House on how government is working to ensure Territory businesses can gain the maximum advantages out of the $1.2bn Alice Springs railway?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the member for his question, and I am pleased to take the opportunity to update the House and Territorians on the progress the Northern Territory government is making in assisting businesses so that they can maximise opportunities from this great project.
From the outset I applaud all the other government agencies that have been involved including non-government agencies, the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce and Industry, NTISO, the TCA; there has been a great co-ordinated effort over the past couple of years in ensuring that Territory businesses maximise those opportunities that are about to happen.
The work done also by the AustralAsia Railway Corporation over a number of years is certainly well recognised in this House and they have done a great deal of work in an unrelenting manner to ensure total involvement by Territory businesses.
The Department of Industries and Business has had an integral lead role in ensuring Territory businesses are prepared and one of the things obviously that you find with the project is that NT businesses are hungry for information and it has been part of our role that the Department of Industries and Business assist in facilitating that information with workshops, seminars, forums, all kinds of things including the show circuit, to ensure that we are rail-ready. As recently as 3, 4 and 5 October, members of my department along with Transport and Works conducted a series of forums up and down the track - Tennant, Alice, Katherine - giving out the latest information to those business communities on the railway project. All those meetings were very, very well attended.
The Northern Territory government has also worked with the consortium team to present firsthand information from the consortium itself to businesses and community forums up and down the track. The information I should say, that is being sought is not just about what contracts will be on offer but also what needs to be done by businesses in preparing to tender for those contracts. Information such as occupational health and safety, quality assurance, industrial relations, surety of delivery, time management plans, all of those kinds of things and not the least of which obviously comes down to price at the end of the day. We have put in place a number of mechanisms which provide Territory businesses with opportunities to have a look at their own business to prepare themselves better.
Contained within the rail contract the local industry and Aboriginal participation plan requires the consortium to consult with all sectors of the Northern Territory and ISO has a very big involvement in that and they have been working closely with the consortium to ensure that that is carried out. Obviously, businesses have to be registered with ISO and to ensure that ISO is well prepared, some time ago my department topped up their funding to enable them to do more intensive work as far as the railway goes to assisting businesses.
We have allowed additional funds to ISO so that there is an officer of ISO along with one of our officers in the design area office in Adelaide to ensure that we know how the contracts have been packaged. There will also be an officer from ISO established in Darwin in Adrail’s office up here and that is working very, very well. We have already seen contracts flow from the railway as you know, some mapping contracts and so on. Some survey contracts were issued a little while back and they have come from the capability statements that those companies have done. That is one of the other areas we have been working on with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in assisting businesses in developing their own capability plans so that they are well prepared to present those to the consortium at the right time, developing company profiles and so on.
So, we have been very much involved with the business community over quite some period now along with all of those industry associations. I thank them for their cooperation in this and there will be ongoing seminars to ensure that Territorians can maximise the opportunities that come from this fantastic project, the like of which we have never seen before.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016