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Speaker 1: Now, another organization that's had its battles during the pandemic

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Speaker 1: is the not for profit voluntary organization, the Isolated Children's

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Speaker 1: Parents Association. Now they ensure that territory families that live remotely,

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Speaker 1: whether they're farmers or fishers or those on cattle stations,

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Speaker 1: have access to quality education, and it is a task

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Speaker 1: that became somewhat more difficult with border closures and COVID

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Speaker 1: exclusion zones. Now joining me on the line this morning,

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Speaker 1: I know that Today actually the ICPA NT State Council

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Speaker 1: is celebrating its fortieth conference in Darwin, Wow.

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Speaker 2: Fortieth conference.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is the icpa's publicity officer,

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Speaker 1: Amanda Murphy. Good morning to you, Amanda.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. How are you? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Really well, thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: What's on the agenda for the conference today?

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Speaker 3: Oh? It is jam packed, Katie. We've kicked off this

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Speaker 3: morning with a few guests. Speaker Peter Stockwell, she's a

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Speaker 3: young girl that's been through the bush out back education scheme.

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Speaker 3: I guess you could call it. She Yeah, she's done

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Speaker 3: this his education. She went on to the boarding school,

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Speaker 3: got the whole room in tears, Katie straight away talking

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Speaker 3: about homesickness and you know the fact of being away

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Speaker 3: from your family just to receive a quality education. And

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Speaker 3: then she went on to to do great things within

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Speaker 3: her university. She studied agriculture.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm her.

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Speaker 3: We've heard from branch branch president. So yeah, it's been

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Speaker 3: a great morning so far. Your tears and I think

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Speaker 3: there you fear more a bit later on.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sure there will be, Amanda.

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Speaker 1: How tough is it, you know for four families that

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Speaker 1: you know you do have to send your kids away

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Speaker 1: for school.

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Speaker 2: That's tough enough, I'm sure.

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Speaker 1: But then when you look at you know the fact

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Speaker 1: that you've gone through this pandemic and in some cases

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Speaker 1: those kids haven't been able to come home.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you look at some it's ongoing to for your kids.

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Speaker 3: As a mother, you want you to have the best

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Speaker 3: opportunity for your children and in the bush that you know,

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Speaker 3: anyone to receive equality education. It is harder as the bush,

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Speaker 3: but you know, you do what you can and with

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Speaker 3: all the with everybody has to face the border closures,

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Speaker 3: but it has been harder in the last two years

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Speaker 3: getting your kids home safely as well. And look those

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Speaker 3: parents that have had their kids not home for holidays.

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Speaker 3: And I think part of the conference, you know, celebrating

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Speaker 3: forty years of the ICPA, is reflecting back that the

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Speaker 3: challenges have changed. You know, when it started forty years ago,

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Speaker 3: though they barely had a face to face meeting, so

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Speaker 3: it was it was you know, the challenges now are

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Speaker 3: getting your kids home for holidays because of the pandemic.

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Speaker 3: So it's a real reflection on how things have has

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Speaker 3: elevated and changed, and there's still some issues that are

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Speaker 3: the same thing. You know, there's still mothers that are

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Speaker 3: getting unpaid teaching their kids in the classrooms and that

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Speaker 3: was happening between happening for years. So yeah, look, we've

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Speaker 3: got life members here that a founding life members of

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Speaker 3: the i c p A, and it's so wonderful to

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Speaker 3: hear their stories and you know, talk about it and

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Speaker 3: how important is to keep.

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Speaker 1: Families in Absolutely, it's so bloody important, you know, particularly

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Speaker 1: like when you're talking about our cattle stations, our resources

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Speaker 1: for the whole rest of Australia. It is so important

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Speaker 1: to have wonderful families like yours in the bush.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's not just you know pastors, you know, we've

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Speaker 3: got police officers. As you said, there's you know, people

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Speaker 3: that live out on islands that are fish farmers or

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Speaker 3: prawn farmers. There's so many people that require to use

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Speaker 3: the disse education distance of school over the air, such

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Speaker 3: as Katrin or Alice Spring and then have to send

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Speaker 3: their kids away to boarding school to receive a quality education.

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Speaker 3: There is also you don't have to. But you know,

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Speaker 3: I've got two kids at boarding school and they are

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Speaker 3: receiving opportunities that I could never give them a home, Katie, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: they can all they can ride a horse, they run

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Speaker 3: around in the yards chasing cows any day of the week.

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Speaker 3: But you know, my eleven year old son has played

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Speaker 3: again in football for first time and he's so you know,

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Speaker 3: it's it's a sacrifice. But at the end of the

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Speaker 3: day that you know, these kids are going to have

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Speaker 3: so many more life experiences to set them up for

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Speaker 3: their for their life and hopefully they'll come back to

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Speaker 3: the territory. They will because it's in their blood and

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Speaker 3: they love it, you know.

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Speaker 2: But they've got to get that education.

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Speaker 3: Hey, yeah, they have to. And to get families to

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Speaker 3: stay in the bush, an organization like ours is very

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Speaker 3: important to make sure that ministers and people in the

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Speaker 3: high end of our government know that there is kids

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Speaker 3: and families out in the bush and we need a

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Speaker 3: hand at the end of the day. And we'll keep

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Speaker 3: advocating and keep going and yeah, but it's just so

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Speaker 3: specially part of part of today.

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Speaker 1: It would be Amanda, are there any issues that are

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Speaker 1: impacting you guys right now that you really are trying

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Speaker 1: to raise that attention for the government on.

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Speaker 3: So we just as our organizacation, we branches bring motion

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Speaker 3: through the Anti State Council and we just passed the motion.

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Speaker 3: In fact, so there is a student assistant scheme for

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Speaker 3: kids that have to board into state. The boarding is

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Speaker 3: for kids within the Northern Territory is limited. There is

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Speaker 3: only two boarding schools in the Northern Territory. So a

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Speaker 3: lot of families tend to send their kids into state Queensland,

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Speaker 3: South Australia, in South Wales, et cetera. And to do that,

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Speaker 3: as you would imagine, is quite a cost and just

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Speaker 3: a travel alone. For example, I live eight hundred and

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Speaker 3: fifty commas from Darwin and that my children have to

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Speaker 3: fly from Darwin out to Queensland. So you know, those

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Speaker 3: costs are ongoing and the allowance that the Norn Territory

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Speaker 3: government give us is quite minimal. It's the system is

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Speaker 3: to apply for the grant is clunky and that has

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Speaker 3: just been expressed by our members to the room, to

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Speaker 3: all the conference delegates, and the motion was passed that

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory Government Department of Education, sorry need to

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Speaker 3: work on this system so that it is easier, you know,

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Speaker 3: to for families to be able to receive the assistance

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Speaker 3: that they require send their kids to boarding school.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think that that's fair enough. It would be

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Speaker 1: incredibly tough. And you know, we need people living in

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Speaker 1: the bush. We need you guys to be doing those

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Speaker 1: jobs that you've pointed out. And for all the exports

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Speaker 1: that we've got that come out of Australia, you know,

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Speaker 1: they're not coming out of our major cities. They are

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Speaker 1: coming out of the bush and our more remote locations.

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Speaker 1: Amanda forty years Gee, whiz, is there going to be

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Speaker 1: a bit of a party for you guys?

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Speaker 3: Oh? We you know, we might well have a bit

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Speaker 3: of a shindy tonight, Katie. No, Look, we've been working

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Speaker 3: on this conference. The Catherine Branch have convened the conference

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Speaker 3: we've been working on it for oh look honestly six months,

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Speaker 3: as anyone that organizes an event like this would know.

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Speaker 3: So tonight we're going to celebrate the fact. And we've got,

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Speaker 3: as I've said, quite a few founding members and life

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Speaker 3: members here today. So it's been you know, we need

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Speaker 3: to celebrate what they have done, what they have put

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Speaker 3: in play for us as future ICPA members to carry

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Speaker 3: on with to continue advocating for equity to access of

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Speaker 3: education in the bush well and.

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Speaker 1: I did just receive a message actually from Keesi Epiric

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Speaker 1: and she said that she's there today and that you know,

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Speaker 1: there isn't enough being delivered properly for remote students through

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Speaker 1: the government. The allowance for going into states is fraught

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Speaker 1: with problems. So I know you've certainly got support there

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Speaker 1: from people who are inside Parliament and I'm sure it

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Speaker 1: will be something that continues to be discussed. But you know,

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Speaker 1: well done to you guys forty years and like you said,

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Speaker 1: it is such an important association. As most people know,

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Speaker 1: I grew up in Mount Isa and we used to

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Speaker 1: very often have the kids you know, from from various locations,

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Speaker 1: various stations, and that near Mount Isa coming too town

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Speaker 1: for different sports carnivals, but then obviously all go away

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Speaker 1: for boarding school as well as we've got a bit older.

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Speaker 1: And I know how important it is to have an

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Speaker 1: association like this one supporting those families.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, Katie. And you know you keep kids in the

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Speaker 3: bush that I'll come back in your blood. For example,

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Speaker 3: I'm you know, I'm a distanced kid, I'm boarding school kids.

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Speaker 3: I'm a kid that went to UNI and Jude and

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Speaker 3: I'm back. I've gone and raising my family in the bush.

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Speaker 3: And I'm pretty sure you know, any any anyone that

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Speaker 3: comes from an industry that they love, they will work

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Speaker 3: their hardest to continue that. And it's just like that

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Speaker 3: in the bush, the beef industry, the farmers that anyone

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Speaker 3: that if you received support to live and work, you

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Speaker 3: will love where you live at the end of the

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Speaker 3: day and you'll come back to it. You just you

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Speaker 3: can't help it part of who you are. And I

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Speaker 3: think I'm I C P A n T. Really will

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Speaker 3: continue as long as you know the passion is there

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Speaker 3: and the government pete listening, then you know we're not

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Speaker 3: going anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Oh good on you guys, And a big congratulations obviously

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Speaker 1: on the fortieth.

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Speaker 2: Conference in Darwin.

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Speaker 1: I tell you what, I enjoy a good shindig with

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Speaker 1: with people from the Bush.

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Speaker 2: I reckon it'll be a good night tonight. Well we'll be, Katie.

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Speaker 3: You better come and you better come, and I.

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Speaker 2: Don't know if I'll be able to handle it. I

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Speaker 2: still got to go to work tomorrow morning. It'll be fine, Amanda.

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Speaker 2: Lovely to talk to you this morning.

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Speaker 1: Have a great night, and again a big congratulations on

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Speaker 1: forty years.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, Thanks for your tom Thank you