Property Council of Australia NT Executive Director Ruth Palmer says the Territory should put in a bid to host part of the Commonwealth Games after Victoria pulled out

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we did just speak to the Northern Territories well
Olympian and also Commonwealth Games medalist no over Paris there
who did say, do you know what, maybe we do
need to have a look at whether we can host
the Common Games here in the territory. I'm sure plenty
of you have got opinions on this one. Feel free
to text us or give us a call this morning
if you do want to have a chat. I know
some of you saying, Katie, we can't even host our

(00:22):
fewer games, so how are we going to put on
the Commonwealth Games? And look, I get it, I understand
what you're saying, but I just think it's been all
a bit embarrassing for Australia the situation that we're in
with the Commonwealth Games. Now joining me on the line
right now though, is Ruth Palmer from the Property Council
here in the Northern Territory. She is the executive directed.

(00:43):
Good morning to you, Ruth.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Morning Katie.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Now, Ruth, you reckon that we should actually look at
hosting the Games here in the Northern Territory, or that
at the very least the government should have a look
into it. Oh.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Absolutely, I think we've got an opportunity to be able
to showcase our ally the existing infrastructure. We have already
international facilities here at Marara. We know that they're up
to international standards. We know that we can have the
capability to be able to host a bunch of people there.
So it is something that wouldn't be that extra cost

(01:16):
of actually building new things the infrastructures here. But why
don't we go a step further and even look at
a whole of North Australia gate So you're bringing in
regional areas such as Townsville, can the top end of WA.
You know there are all three regional zones that would
benefit from an injection of also shows the ability to

(01:37):
work together across the states. You know, we know we've
got labor governments pretty much throughout the entirety of Australia.
Why aren't we working together to be able to bring
these games to the top end or at the very
least the Northern Australia.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Actually, I think that that's not a bad idea.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
You actually you go, all right, well, if we've got
the swimming facility here to be able to host the
swimming and the athletics, well let's do those two sports here,
and if we've got to do the soccer in Cans
or if we're you know, if we're looking at at
I don't know, Kannanara for something, or a few different
locations if it's possible. But Noviparis made a really good

(02:14):
point just a couple of minutes ago and said, Katie,
we've got Howard Springs. I know that defense is obviously
utilizing Howard Springs at the moment, but she goes, we've
already got an athletes village.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, and there's one out at Blading Point that can
house about fifteen hundred people as well. Plus there's a
whole stack of accommodation out at Lee Point at the
caravan park and resort there, so there is accommodation options available.
But I think it's important though, that the Federation only
requires two sports to be on the Commonalth program, so

(02:44):
Commoth Games program, which is swimming and athletics. So you
need those two sports locked in to be able to
make the game's bible and for the host to put
it on. So all the other disciplines are up to
the host's decision, so you only need to be like
we could even only do it with swimming and athletics, right,
so you only need those two sports locked in to
be able to actually host the Commonwealth Game. So that's

(03:06):
another big thing as well that I think you know
that that could like obviously, you know, you would love
to put on some other things, and I'm sure you
probably could, you know, if we do bring in having
towns or cans, because we could easily have the athletics
and swimming here. We have the facility, they're already set
to international standards, so you know, this is definitely something

(03:26):
that could be considered. And the cost of the infrastructure,
it's already being done, so you know it's not going
to be that six billion dollar spend. I wouldn't imagine,
you know. And to cover that too, like a PWD
report identified that for every dollar spent by the game
for the host to spend, so every dollar spent by

(03:47):
the host, two is generated along obviously with that infrastructure,
the improvement and all that sort of stuff. So basically
you're getting two dollars to every dollar spent Ruth.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
So I can almost hear the naysayers, come on, wolfee,
we can't even put on the air a fewer games.
Why are we talking about the Commonwealth Games.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Why no, and I one, I totally get that, but
I think it is absolutely worth a discussion. You know,
the Commerce Games is three years away. Let's look at
how we can really build Northern Australia. You know, Darwin
isn't a backyard down. You know, we do have the
facilities right here, We do have the capability, so you know,

(04:28):
it is something that should definitely be looked at in
a feasibility sense. You know, could it be done and
could could we look at just hosting just a couple
of events. I think that is completely doable in the
back and Nova's point. You know the facilities here, we
have Howard Springs. It's the infrastructure that is already in
place to be able to accommodate such an event.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Ruth, We have you heard anything from the from the
government about this since you'd obviously, you know, since you'd
sort of publicly come out and said that they should
investigate it as an option.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah. I had spoken to the Chief's Office yesterday. Obviously
the issue is around cost. We get that and we
know that, but we have said that it could not
be done without Commonwealth support, so we wouldn't be expecting
the NTG to put their hands in their pockets to
pay for it. But when we look at the long
term benefit of what this can inject into the economy,
when we're looking at that two dollars for every one

(05:22):
dollar spend the stimulation into new investment into the territory,
but also putting the territory on the global maps, I
think that's something that needs to be real like that
could be highlighted, you know, imagine being you know, this
Northern territory is now the catalyst for world events, you know,
So I think that's something that needs to be considered.

(05:43):
It would position us in such a very strong and
competitive way and also provide a lot of certainty for
investors who want to come here.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Well, Ruth, we were you to have the Chief Minister
on this morning, I was going to put it to her.
We're hopefully going to have her on the show tomorrow,
so we will ask her more about it. We appreciate
your time this morning. Thank you very much for coming
on the show and having a chat with us.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Thanks Katie, and congratulations on your marathon method on the weekend.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
In can thank you. Lenks is still a bit sore.
Thanks ro