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Speaker 1: The absolutely terrible news that we know. Over the weekend

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Speaker 1: a thirty six year old woman lost her life after

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Speaker 1: allegedly being murdered and raped by a man known to

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Speaker 1: her in Coconut Growth. Now the forty three year old

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Speaker 1: is due to front court today and has been charged

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Speaker 1: with breaching a domestic violence order. It's once again brought

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Speaker 1: the scourge of domestic violence to the forefront in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: And joining me on the.

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Speaker 1: Line right now is Rachel uber Gang from the YWCA.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you. Rachel, Good morning, Katie, thank you

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Speaker 2: so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Firstly, can I get a bit of a better understanding

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Speaker 1: for our listeners as well about what services the YWCA

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Speaker 1: does provide.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, Katie. We provide a range of services that

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Speaker 3: support people who are experiencing homelessness and domestic and family violence.

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Speaker 3: So that ranges from case management support and count to

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Speaker 3: transitional housing, safe housing, casey house youth refuge for fifteen

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Speaker 3: to eighteen year olds. And we can also, through a

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Speaker 3: program called Keeping Women Safe in their Homes, provide security

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Speaker 3: upgrades for women and children who need that additional security

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Speaker 3: at their own home.

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Speaker 2: And Rachel, you know, I guess.

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Speaker 1: Look, there's so much to unpack really from the incident

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Speaker 1: on the weekend, and there has been now sort of

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Speaker 1: a lot of discussion about about the unit complex in

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Speaker 1: which the victim was staying and whether it was safe. Look,

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Speaker 1: I mean, firstly, what was your reaction to what it

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Speaker 1: occurred on the weekend?

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Speaker 3: Okay, you're so right, there's so much to unpack. It's

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Speaker 3: pretty overwhelming. Again because the loss of yet another woman

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Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory, it's beyond sad. It's quite hard

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Speaker 3: to find the words to talk about it sometimes even,

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Speaker 3: but we must be talking about it because we must

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Speaker 3: create the change and find the support within the community

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Speaker 3: for this to shift. Look, at the core of this

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Speaker 3: is absolutely a domestic family and sexual violence. We know

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Speaker 3: as well that we have a housing crisis in the

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory. There simply is not enough safe and secure

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Speaker 3: housing for the people in the Northern Territory. We have

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Speaker 3: thirty percent less social housing now than we did twenty

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Speaker 3: years ago, so housing is definitely a problem. But this

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Speaker 3: woman lost her life, it seems, because of domestic family

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Speaker 3: and sexual violence. So we've got a lot of work

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Speaker 3: to do in that area to turn this around. We

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Speaker 3: need to be working at the prevention end, we need

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Speaker 3: to be working at the early interventions in the early

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Speaker 3: intervention side, and we absolutely have to maintain the crisis

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Speaker 3: response services as well. So we need support across the spectrum.

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Speaker 3: It's not one thing, it's a range of things that

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Speaker 3: need to happen. We know what we need to do.

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Speaker 3: The expert group referred to as ECRO released a report

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Speaker 3: it's called a Mapping Report that's now more than twelve

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Speaker 3: months old. The work is there. We know what we

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Speaker 3: need to do. We just need the resources to get

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Speaker 3: on with it.

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Speaker 1: And Rachel again, we talk so much about those resources,

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Speaker 1: and you know, our federal police sort of saying the

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Speaker 1: right things, I guess in the sense that you know,

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Speaker 1: even when the federal budget was handed down that there's

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Speaker 1: more money going into domestic violence. But for us here

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory, it does really seem as though

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Speaker 1: it needs to be that needs based funding model.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, Katie, we need a game changer here and not

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Speaker 3: looking for a small increasing funding. A small increasing funding

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Speaker 3: is going to leave us pretty much where we are

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Speaker 3: right now. It's also very clear that the Antique government

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Speaker 3: is working extremely hard on this and is really fighting

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Speaker 3: for the Northern Territory to have the kind of injection

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Speaker 3: of funds that it needs. But I think we have

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Speaker 3: to be much louder and we have to be much

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Speaker 3: clearer about this. I think the government. What really stood

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Speaker 3: out to me, especially during COVID, is the government has

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Speaker 3: access to resources and they can unleash them when they

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Speaker 3: know that they really need to. So I think the

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Speaker 3: community's got to get behind this. We all need to

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Speaker 3: be talking about this and contacting a local member. It

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Speaker 3: doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned, it does not

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Speaker 3: matter if they're with the CEOP or they're a labor

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Speaker 3: or they're a candidate for the upcoming election as an independent.

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Speaker 3: We all need to be telling our people in positions

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Speaker 3: of power that this matters to us and we have

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Speaker 3: to see an increasing resources if we're going to shift it.

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Speaker 3: So I think if we speak loudly enough together we

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Speaker 3: can turn this around. But we really have to be

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Speaker 3: doing that together.

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Speaker 2: Something has to change.

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Speaker 1: I mean the rates of domestic violence that we are

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Speaker 1: seeing in the Northern Territory and rachel, the loss of life,

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Speaker 1: the loss of women is it is heart wrenching to

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Speaker 1: think that this is happening, and you know, no disrespect

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Speaker 1: to other states in any way, and any life lost

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Speaker 1: is to domestic violence is absolutely a life that should

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Speaker 1: not be lost. But the rate at which this is

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Speaker 1: happening in the Northern Territory is so high, and it

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Speaker 1: feels sometimes like the rest of the country are ignoring us.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I hear you there, Katie. Women in the Northern

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Speaker 3: Territory are seven times more likely to be murdered than

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Speaker 3: in any other jurisdiction, and I think the attention is

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Speaker 3: not the same for women who are murdered, especially original

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Speaker 3: women who are murdered in the Northern Territory as they

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Speaker 3: are across the country. And that's really, really hard. We've

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Speaker 3: got to talk about that. It's not acceptable. I just

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Speaker 3: also want to make the point absolutely I do not

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Speaker 3: want to detract at all from the loss of life.

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Speaker 3: It is. It is horrendous, and as I said earlier,

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Speaker 3: it's beyond words. But I also just want to talk

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Speaker 3: about the women fear and shame and pain every day

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Speaker 3: because they are experiencing domestic and family violence as they

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Speaker 3: live their life. So when they go to work, if

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Speaker 3: they're going to work, they might be receiving text messages

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Speaker 3: and harassment all day the children. I'm aware of children

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Speaker 3: who witness horrific violence in the morning before they go

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Speaker 3: to school. Can you imagine what that's like from this

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Speaker 3: before age child to have witnessed a terrible act of

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Speaker 3: violence against their mother at breakfast time and then be

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Speaker 3: sitting in their mass for English class. That I mean,

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Speaker 3: it's not okay. So the loss of life is appalling.

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Speaker 3: That it's not only the loss of life. There's so

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Speaker 3: many other people living with this that we have to

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Speaker 3: turn out to Yeah.

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Speaker 1: You're absolutely spot on, Rachel. I seem to just have

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Speaker 1: a little bit of an issue with your phone there.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully it has rectified itself. But I do want to ask.

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Speaker 1: We know, you know, we know that the domestic violence

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Speaker 1: orders are one way that people are dealt with. Do

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Speaker 1: you think that they go far enough? Are they the

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Speaker 1: step in the right direction?

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Speaker 3: Domestic violence orders are only one piece of a puzzle.

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Speaker 3: They're essentially we have to have them, but they are

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Speaker 3: only one piece. We need the whole suite of services

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Speaker 3: and responses. We need a strong police response, we need

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Speaker 3: safe and secure housing, we need the counseling support, we

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Speaker 3: need to be able to respond to the children. So

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Speaker 3: it's you know, it's a complex web of needs and

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Speaker 3: that's one really critical piece of the public for sure.

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Speaker 1: Now I know that the Chief Minister had flagged yesterday

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Speaker 1: demolishing the public housing block at Litchfield Court and replacing

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Speaker 1: it with social and affordable housing. But you and I

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Speaker 1: have just discussed the fact that there is already a

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Speaker 1: shortage of housing.

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Speaker 2: Is that the right thing to do here?

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Speaker 3: Well, the first question that comes to my mind, Katie

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Speaker 3: is if we knock those units down, where will those

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Speaker 3: people go? Where will they go? Whose house will they

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Speaker 3: live in? Then whose couch, whose flaw, what car? What

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Speaker 3: will happen? So I think we've got to be really

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Speaker 3: careful about talking. We've got to be really careful wh

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Speaker 3: we talk about knocking down people's homes without another option.

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Speaker 3: So I think from my mind, the focus needs to

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Speaker 3: be on the excellent new investments that are coming to

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory from the federal government with additional investment

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Speaker 3: from the Northern Territory government. There's a lot of investment

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Speaker 3: coming to build new housing. We have to be focused

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Speaker 3: on that and making sure that we deliver that really

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Speaker 3: well and we plan that really well. What might happen

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Speaker 3: to Lichfield Court. I think that that's a conversation for

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Speaker 3: a little bit down the track. Yes, I don't think

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Speaker 3: it's which we are talking about people's homes. If people

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Speaker 3: are listening and they live, they're living there or next

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Speaker 3: door to there, you know, it might be worried. That

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Speaker 3: might be worrying for them. They might be thinking, oh

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Speaker 3: my goodness, am I going to lose my home? You know,

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Speaker 3: in the next six months. Even though there's issues there,

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Speaker 3: we're still talking about people's home. So let's keep our

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Speaker 3: eye on the development of new housing before we demolish

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Speaker 3: what we have now.

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Speaker 1: Well why wc A Regional Manager for the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: Rachel uber Gang, I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having a chat with us.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you,