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Speaker 1: Now I'm sure that you've seen the news.

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Speaker 2: Look, I've got to say I think it's been pretty

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Speaker 2: embarrassing for Australia, with the Victorian Premier Dan Andrews confirming

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Speaker 2: that the state's no longer going to host the Commonwealth

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Speaker 2: Games in twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Now he reckons the decision was made due to.

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Speaker 2: The costs of that blowout of up to seven billion

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Speaker 2: dollars for the twelve day event from an earlier estimate

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Speaker 2: of two point six billion dollars. Now many people are questioning,

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Speaker 2: here's mode of delivery for the Games, choosing to have

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Speaker 2: several events in regional Victoria rather than hosting them in

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Speaker 2: the already established facilities in the capital state. Now in

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Speaker 2: the capital, I should say, of the state. So it

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Speaker 2: is news that's well and truly shocked, I think, and

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Speaker 2: disappointed the sporting world. Now joining me in the studio

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Speaker 2: is the Northern Territories Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold medalist

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Speaker 2: noverpairis Good morning to you Nov.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie Nova.

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Speaker 1: What was your reaction when you heard about this?

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Speaker 3: One of disbelief and yeah, quite shocked.

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Speaker 4: Phone was just running hot yesterday and then I had

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Speaker 4: a number of text messages about the commic girls. Oh

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Speaker 4: my god, I need to get on Twitter and find

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Speaker 4: out what's going on. And then saw Dan Andrews the

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Speaker 4: way he sort of tried to articulate the reason why

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Speaker 4: via Twitter, and I was like, Oh my god, that's

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Speaker 4: just crazy to think we're only two and a half

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Speaker 4: years out from it. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Now, from an athlete's perspective, what kind of impact does

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Speaker 2: that have in terms of your preparation. You know a

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Speaker 2: lot of these athletes would not only be preparing for

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Speaker 2: the Commonwealth Games, but they'd be then looking at the

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Speaker 2: World Championships, the Olympics, other things.

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Speaker 1: So what kind of impact does it have in terms

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Speaker 1: of that.

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Speaker 3: Prep It definitely has a huge impact.

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Speaker 4: And I know myself, like having represent Austray for thirteen

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Speaker 4: years is nothing greater than having to run at a

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Speaker 4: major championships and tournament on your home country.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's just the inspiration, it's giving back to

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Speaker 3: the community.

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Speaker 4: It's that little Australian girl a boy sitting there in

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Speaker 4: the stands and saying, oh my god, I want to

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Speaker 4: be like them. And the amount of people that I've

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Speaker 4: spoken to over the years came and watched we run

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Speaker 4: at the Sydney Olympics with.

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Speaker 3: You know, like of Kathy Freeman's, Patrick Johnson, you name it.

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Speaker 4: So I sort of feel and just looking at the

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Speaker 4: press releases that have come forward from all the sports

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Speaker 4: extremely disappointed because it does affect their preparation. But not

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Speaker 4: only that, but the opportunity to give back and to

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Speaker 4: you know, participate at the highest level in your own country.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's the thing.

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Speaker 2: It's such a big thing for the country, not only

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Speaker 2: in terms of sport, but in terms of everything that

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Speaker 2: it kind of brings in our pride in our nation.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: And I guess too the fact that you know, in

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Speaker 4: country towns in particular, the amount of sporting champions that

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Speaker 4: have come out and it's an opportunity to bring sports

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Speaker 4: at the highest level to our regional So when Victoria

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Speaker 4: Dan Andrews last year or whenever it was, put his

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Speaker 4: hand up and said yes, we'll take this on, you know,

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Speaker 4: the sixth regional towns like, oh my god, this is fabulous,

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Speaker 4: and so they went away about their merry way. And

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Speaker 4: I guess he took it on the advisor. Looking at

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Speaker 4: the last two Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and also up

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Speaker 4: in the Gold Coast, where the costs were below two

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Speaker 4: billion dollars. And now you know, and I'm still very

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Speaker 4: connected this morning, Katie, and you're Nilsen politics. But I

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Speaker 4: guess where he was coming from as well. The expectations

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Speaker 4: those regional towns was that you had to have the

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Speaker 4: same level of security. So when you go to the

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Speaker 4: Olympic Games or most major championships, all the security everything's

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Speaker 4: in the one spot. But then you had to sort

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Speaker 4: of put the same costings and the same level of

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Speaker 4: you know, expectations and all the places.

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Speaker 3: So what I guess what I heard you saying before.

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Speaker 3: It's the embarrassment.

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Speaker 4: You know, we've put a hand up and all of

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Speaker 4: a sudden, what does that look like going forward? If

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Speaker 4: we say we want a bid for something, Oh well,

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Speaker 4: Australia's pulled out before, and it's not just a Victorian thing,

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Speaker 4: it's a whole of Australia thing.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's the way that other countries would be looking

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Speaker 2: at us.

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Speaker 1: Right now, wouldn't they.

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Speaker 2: They wouldn't be going off the Victorian premiere and Victoria's

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Speaker 2: decided not to do this, they'd be going Australia has

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Speaker 2: pulled out of the Commonwealth Games.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, it's not like you said, it's Australia's pulled

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Speaker 4: out of the Commonwealth Games. And I guess from a

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Speaker 4: perspective like I can understand, you know, times are tough.

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Speaker 3: We're talking about recession.

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Speaker 4: People are just struggling to put food on the table, electricity,

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Speaker 4: you name it.

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Speaker 3: This is that's the harsh reality.

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Speaker 4: And not everyone loves sports, but majority of Australians do

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Speaker 4: love sports.

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Speaker 3: But I guess, you know.

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Speaker 4: We shouldn't have taken it on without doing the homework

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Speaker 4: to begin with.

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Speaker 2: That's what I reckon. Don't over promise and underdeliver. Do

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Speaker 2: it the other way around, you know, under promise and

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Speaker 2: over deliver.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was just it's it's been it has.

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Speaker 2: I think it's been embarrassing and it's come across that

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Speaker 2: way when you sort of look through some of the

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Speaker 2: commentary from athletes, you know, saying we can't believe that

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Speaker 2: this isn't going ahead.

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Speaker 1: Do you think there's other options here?

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Speaker 4: Look, I think there are potentially other options. It's just

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Speaker 4: interesting to see Perth the mayor put his hand up

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Speaker 4: and then the premier knock that one on the head.

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Speaker 4: Other states have said no, but I sort of feel.

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Speaker 3: It's such a big part of sports in this country.

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Speaker 3: The Commonwealth Games.

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Speaker 4: It's obviously, you know, very different to the Olympics, you know,

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Speaker 4: and even in my understanding of the Olympics, it's around

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Speaker 4: four billion dollars to put on the Olympics when there's

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Speaker 4: you know, two hundred countries. So I don't know, you know,

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Speaker 4: you hear the head of the Commonwealth Games, Cheap CEO

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Speaker 4: come out and saying, well, we'll never given the opportunity

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Speaker 4: to look at alternatives. It was just at the ninth

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Speaker 4: hour this is happening, too bad, so said, it's not

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Speaker 4: going to go. So I guess from that perspective it's

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Speaker 4: really disappointing that no one could because at.

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Speaker 3: The end, we're all Australians.

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Speaker 4: We all need to come together and work out the

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Speaker 4: betterment of reputation, the betterment of athletes, the better of

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Speaker 4: you know, what we can do better to pride ourselves

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Speaker 4: that we are a sporting nation and let alone Victoria

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Speaker 4: being our sporting capital. So yeah, all these scenes are

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Speaker 4: in the mix and it'll be interesting to see what's

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Speaker 4: going to unfold.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I think a lot.

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Speaker 4: Of people are demanding answers to the questions that have

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Speaker 4: been put forward.

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Speaker 2: Now, what do you reckon about the property councilor come

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Speaker 2: out and said, you know, maybe the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 2: needs to at least look into whether we could be

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Speaker 2: an option.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that's a possibility.

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Speaker 3: It's interesting. We've got Howard Springs.

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Speaker 4: That's right, we can house more than half thousand athletes.

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Speaker 3: Say why not?

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Speaker 4: Because that's the thing if you look at the Sydney

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Speaker 4: Olympics the aftermath the athletes village became residential property, and

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Speaker 4: you know, we've got facilities. Why not why can't we

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Speaker 4: You know, whether it's a reduced amount of sports, I

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Speaker 4: don't know, because I think that was the other thing

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Speaker 4: is the conversations where more sports needed to be added

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Speaker 4: and the more sports that needed wanted to be added,

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Speaker 4: or that was the pie in the sky dream.

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Speaker 3: It costs me more.

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Speaker 4: So I think maybe that's something that you can look

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Speaker 4: at because you know, over if you look at the

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Speaker 4: history of the Commonwealth Games, there's about the same five

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Speaker 4: or six countries that are sort of always putting the hand.

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Speaker 3: Up to t hoosis. But they're the sports.

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Speaker 4: Loving countries that you know, one athletes who's competing is

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Speaker 4: another little kid's dream for the next ten years. So

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Speaker 4: you know, with nine years looming for the the Brisbane

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Speaker 4: Olympic Games, this is something that certainly.

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Speaker 3: Would have been inspirational to our future generation.

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Speaker 1: Really would have been. Now, what do you think that

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Speaker 1: it means as well?

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Speaker 2: Do you think that there's going to be an impact

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Speaker 2: for the Northern territories? You know, I like for the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory in terms of any of our young territorians

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Speaker 2: or even Territorians right now that are at that level.

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Speaker 4: Oh look, absolutely funny enough, I was part of the

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Speaker 4: austron Olympic Committee with the Olympic Unleashed program up here

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Speaker 4: yesterday and we spoke to a number of future Territorians

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Speaker 4: who have dreams and aspiration in the high performance area.

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Speaker 4: So absolutely, you know, there's a saying as you can't

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Speaker 4: be what you can't see, but also having that touch contact,

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Speaker 4: you know. I remember I was all of thirteen years

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Speaker 4: old when I met Glennis Nunn when she came here

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Speaker 4: after the nineteen eighty four Olympics and I held that

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Speaker 4: Olympic gold medal. I said, oh, I want one of

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Speaker 4: these one day. So you know, when you can touch

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Speaker 4: and feel and look up to people and it's not

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Speaker 4: just the athletes to say, I mean, to win, to

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Speaker 4: go and represent your country is a big thing, but

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Speaker 4: to understand that athletes journey, you know, when it's the administration,

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Speaker 4: there's a lot of people up here in the nothern

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Speaker 4: territory that have aspirations of coaching this administration or being

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Speaker 4: a volunteers. So many touch points around this, so you know,

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Speaker 4: it certainly is it's a big loss to the Australian community.

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Speaker 4: I understand the cost of living and pressures, but yeah,

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Speaker 4: it's I really feel for the you know, for Australians,

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Speaker 4: the sporting community and those regional towns who are now

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Speaker 4: miss out on you being able to showcase their communities.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well so you reckon the Northern Territory, Mays. Should

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Speaker 2: we just have a look into it?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely everything on the table.

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Speaker 2: I know that people will be out there saying, oh,

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Speaker 2: look we can't afford it, and you know we are

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Speaker 2: broken and all the rest of it, and I get that,

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Speaker 2: but I like, I'm a big believer in sport and

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Speaker 2: what it can do for young people, what it can

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Speaker 2: do for a country as well, and I just think

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Speaker 2: it's really disappointing that we as Australians have now. You know,

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Speaker 2: we're so well known for our sport and our love

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Speaker 2: of sport and everything to do with sport. For us

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Speaker 2: to now be the country that has given up the

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth Games, it is embarrassing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess too.

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Speaker 4: If you look at the World Cup now you know

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Speaker 4: it's tonight or tomorrow. The Matilda's they expecting ninety thousand

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Speaker 4: at their game is phenomenal. So if people say we're

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Speaker 4: not a sports loving country, they check yourself dead wrong