Up to $500m in major NT projects could go ahead ‘with Government help’: Darwin Major Business Group

THE Darwin Major Business Group has between $330 million and $500 million worth of NT projects that, with the right Government incentive, would get the projects over the line, it says

An artist’s impression of the proposed Dan Murphy's business development. Picture: Supplied

THE Darwin Major Business Group has between $330 million and $500 million worth of projects that, with the right reduction in red tape or incentive, would get the projects over the line, its chair Ian Kew says.

Mr Kew said the Darwin Major Business Group, which alongside the Chamber of Commerce NT, Master Builders NT, the NT Cattlemen’s Association and the Minerals Council Australia has called for an Economic Recovery Commission, does not have a lot of confidence in the Territory Government’s major projects process.

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“There are projects that the Territory Government is out there touting about that we have had little to do with, but a lot of them have been out there for a very long time,” he said.

“So what can we do to stimulate those projects?”

He said while the Darwin Major Business Group understands the sugar hit the NT Government’s Home Improvement Scheme can provide to the community, its business members have got very little out of the Territory Government’s support packages.

“We have some members that haven’t missed a beat during this crisis, but we have other members that are hurting really badly,” he said.

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“We have members like the Mindil Casino Resort that are shut and have not earned a dollar in eight weeks.

“However, we would say if the NT Government had provided $100 million to our members and industry then we would have leveraged it up by another $900 million,” he said.

“A 10 per cent cash grant to a project makes a huge difference to its economic viability and we would have generated $1 billion worth of long-term activity that would have had an ongoing, lasting, positive effect.

“The idea of the tradie scheme was to get immediate cash into the economy, but that’s not happening the way it was first intended.

“Our members think there are some real issues around tenancy relief for landlords that are doing it tough.

Mr Kew said the Darwin Major Business Group sees a big need for business and government to work together and has warned against an Economic Recovery Commission being put together merely for tokenism.

“If the Government tries this it will not cut it,” he said.

“This cannot be a consultation forum, it needs to be a body with real teeth to be able to get the economy going together for a finite period of time.”