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Speaker 1: There are some concerns among taxi operators and passengers with

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Speaker 1: disabilities that the Northern Territory government could remove the high

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Speaker 1: Occupancy tariff at the end of the month. Now, if

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Speaker 1: you like me, you're probably wondering what exactly that means,

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Speaker 1: but it is understood that that tariff, well, it impacts

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Speaker 1: high occupancy vehicles from six am until six pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: with Tariff four in place from six pm till six

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Speaker 1: am on weekends and public holidays. Now, the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: News and run a story on this a couple of

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Speaker 1: days ago, and they were reporting that some drivers have

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Speaker 1: been misusing the tariffs and we're threatening to remove seats

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Speaker 1: in minibuses in response to them being scrapped. So we're

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Speaker 1: going to try and find out a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about this situation. The Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics,

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Speaker 1: Joel Bowden, has said that no final decisions have been

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Speaker 1: made regarding the high Occupancy tariff and continues by saying

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Speaker 1: our foremost priority is to ensure that any choices we

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Speaker 1: make do not detrimentally affect businesses or hinder people's access

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Speaker 1: to taxi services. But look joining us on the line

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Speaker 1: to tell us a little bit more about the situation.

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Speaker 1: Is disability advocate, former and Senior Australian of the Year.

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Speaker 1: The name is Robin Burridge. Good morning to you, Robin.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show. Robin tell us great. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I know it has been a while, hasn't it. Now

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Speaker 1: tell me, Robin, what are you hearing with regards to

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Speaker 1: these proposed changes to the tariffs.

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Speaker 2: Well, the taxi industry are currently being a bit naughty.

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Speaker 2: They're using the issue of providing services for people with disabilities.

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Speaker 2: The tariffs only affect the taxi industry. They're talking about

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Speaker 2: multi higher where they go and pick up people at

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Speaker 2: airports and shopping centers. It does not affect currently people

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Speaker 2: in wheelchairs. Right as I said, they're being a bit

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Speaker 2: naughty about that. I'm not sure and yes I'm aware

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Speaker 2: of what the government are proposed. Well, we're talking about them.

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Speaker 2: They haven't made any decisions yet, but at the moment

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Speaker 2: the tariffs do not affect people in wheelchairs. Our big

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Speaker 2: problem is that they have over sixty two wheelchair taxis

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Speaker 2: throughout the therapy, most of them here in Darwen. Some

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Speaker 2: forty or fifty in Darwin, and people in wheelchairs are

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Speaker 2: still not being picked up. Drivers they want to do

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Speaker 2: multi higher they don't want to do multi purpose taxis.

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Speaker 2: They want to pick up people in wheelchairs. They want

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Speaker 2: to go to airports and shopping centers. Now, in saying

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Speaker 2: that there are some drivers that are very happy to

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Speaker 2: pick up people in wheelchairs, be very clear about that,

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Speaker 2: and they also they don't want to get what is

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Speaker 2: called the lift incentives. There's a certain category of when

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Speaker 2: you pick up people in wheelchairs that the driver gets

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Speaker 2: an extra twenty dollars per trip, acknowledging that by the

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Speaker 2: time they secure the wheelchair and put seat belts on,

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Speaker 2: it takes extra time so supposedly, or they do get

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Speaker 2: twenty dollars supposedly if they've done that, but they get

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Speaker 2: that regardless of whether they've secured the whelchairs. One of

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Speaker 2: the problems is they're not securing wheelchairs and there's all

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Speaker 2: sorts of accidents occurring.

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Speaker 1: Goodness mane Well, that sounds like it could be a

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Speaker 1: dangerous situation. So Robin, from your perspective.

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Speaker 2: I've been in that situation where my wheelchair wasn't secured

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Speaker 2: and my feet got caught under the seat in front,

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Speaker 2: and I don't I put in an official complaint. I'm

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Speaker 2: not sure what happened about it. I heard nothing more

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Speaker 2: about it.

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Speaker 1: Goodness, Mabe, that would be how long ago was that, Robin.

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Speaker 2: That was back in September eating.

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Speaker 1: And you've not heard anything back following on from that happening.

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Speaker 2: And the same incident happened to another person who's now

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Speaker 2: left the charity living in Vietnam, Liz Reed, who used

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Speaker 2: to work for Youth Works, she had the same thing happened,

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Speaker 2: and she was and she got the taxi driver. He

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Speaker 2: pulled up suddenly and he hadn't secured her work and

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Speaker 2: her feet got stuck under the seat. In France, she

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Speaker 2: told the driver to pull up, and he had to

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Speaker 2: pull up, and she got out of the taxi and

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Speaker 2: she said to him, please call another taxi. Now there

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Speaker 2: are incredible incidents. Is happening like that. We've got one

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Speaker 2: particular vehicle that is not suitable and that's the vehicle

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Speaker 2: it's causing that particular problem that is not suitable for

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Speaker 2: people in wheelchairs, And so Robin, what are.

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Speaker 1: The authorities saying to you? I mean, the thing is

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Speaker 1: these kind of things should obviously be followed up.

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Speaker 2: You would expect, Katie, as you know, this problem with

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Speaker 2: taxis has been going on since the early agies. We

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Speaker 2: have not solved the problem of taxis and we've had

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Speaker 2: what DIPPLE do as soon as they get a number

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Speaker 2: of issues, they say, oh, well, you know, we'll have

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Speaker 2: a review or we'll have an investigation, but nothing ever

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Speaker 2: comes of reviews. We've had review after review review. My

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Speaker 2: recommendation would be that what we have to do currently,

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Speaker 2: we have to set up an independent territory task force,

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Speaker 2: not one out of DIPPLE, because they obviously don't know

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Speaker 2: how to fix these problems. They've had a lot of

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Speaker 2: time to do something about it, so we need to

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Speaker 2: set up an independent task force. And my recommendation would

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Speaker 2: be that it's shared by the End of Discrimination Commissioner,

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Speaker 2: because the commission know the rules and regulations, they understand

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Speaker 2: about people with disabilities, and they are independent, and I

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Speaker 2: believe that they should report back. They should do an

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Speaker 2: independent review and report back to Minister our Pits Advisory Committee.

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Speaker 2: And this should all happen before the election obviously, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: because if this isn't sorted out by August, I will

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Speaker 2: make this a big election issue.

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Speaker 1: When Robin, you know, I'll be happy to have you

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Speaker 1: on about that any time of the day.

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Speaker 2: I'll be talking to the minister's advisor next week about

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Speaker 2: all this. And I have subsequently talked to Nari and

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Speaker 2: her advisor and they are absolutely wonderful. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: know I'm probably a bit biased, but Nari is the

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Speaker 2: most amazing minister and she's got so many portfolios, portfolios,

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Speaker 2: it's unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: So she's been obviously very helpful towards you with some

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Speaker 1: of these issues she has.

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Speaker 2: And she's got her finger on the pulse for all

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Speaker 2: of this. So I'll be talking to her about this

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Speaker 2: next week, yep, and or certainly to her advisor. I'm

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Speaker 2: happy to come back on the show. I'll be asking

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Speaker 2: her about the tariffs.

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Speaker 1: I'd really I'd be really keen to find out, Robin,

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Speaker 1: because by the sounds of it from you've said to

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Speaker 1: me this morning, you know, the tariffs, they might be

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Speaker 1: an issue, but they're not a huge issue for you.

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Speaker 1: It's more some of those safety concerns and well.

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Speaker 2: The lift incentive scheme when the driver gets twenty dollars

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Speaker 2: once you run out of lifts in lift incentives, then

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Speaker 2: the drivers get to know. Yeah, they don't want to

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Speaker 2: pick you up. That's the other thing that this is

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Speaker 2: so tough idea that they're talking about driver training. I'm

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Speaker 2: supposed to be introducing if we're supposed to be introducing

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Speaker 2: driver training now. But they're suggesting that the operators provide

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Speaker 2: the training, but that will be done on an individual basis.

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Speaker 2: The department should be providing the driver training so that

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Speaker 2: everybody is trained the same way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Robert, they.

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Speaker 2: Got the individual operators doing it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Robin. I always appreciate your time because I think

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Speaker 1: what you do so often as well is bring to

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Speaker 1: light issues that you know, a lot of us aren't

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Speaker 1: aware of. You know, if you're not in a wheelchair

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Speaker 1: and you're not trying to get into a taxi, you're

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Speaker 1: just not aware of these issues. So I really appreciate

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Speaker 1: you raising them with us.

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Speaker 2: The other two important things are if people can't get taxis,

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Speaker 2: people in wheelchairs can't get taxis, they can't get to

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Speaker 2: doctor's importness. And if they don't get to those they

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Speaker 2: might have been waiting months to see a specialist. And

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Speaker 2: if they can't get to it, if they miss an

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Speaker 2: appointment because the taxi hasn't picked them up. Then they

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Speaker 2: go to the bottom of the queue. And then the

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Speaker 2: other thing is there's no point in people working. People

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Speaker 2: with disabilities and they want to work, but if they

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Speaker 2: have to pay for taxis that takes all their wages.

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Speaker 2: The transport is one of the most important things for

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Speaker 2: people with disabilities, and yet we're not fossing on it.

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Speaker 2: I think it's great what the Chief Minister is doing

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Speaker 2: in relation to our use down in our springs. But

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Speaker 2: when she was Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, we talked

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Speaker 2: to her over and over and over again and nothing happened.

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Speaker 2: Yet with what she's dealing with now, I mean, I

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Speaker 2: know it's much more serious. She's saying bring it on. Well,

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Speaker 2: I wish you would have brought this issue on about

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Speaker 2: taxis years ago, and we were talking to her way

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Speaker 2: back then and doing something positive about it because there

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Speaker 2: is a solution. Yeah, what the government are planning at

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Speaker 2: the moment. Tariffs had nothing to do with the current

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Speaker 2: solution as far as people with disabilities are concerned.

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Speaker 1: Well, Robin, can you let me know how you go

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Speaker 1: next week? Can you get back in contact with us,

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Speaker 1: let us know how you going. We'll be keen to have.

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Speaker 2: You back on an exclusive indiview.

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Speaker 1: We love talking to you, Robin.

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Speaker 2: Do you know that I had the pleasure of meeting

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Speaker 2: your mom? Oh?

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Speaker 1: Did you?

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Speaker 2: She's a beautiful, beautiful person, so I know where you are.

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Speaker 2: You are so nice as well. Oh, thank you, Robert,

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Speaker 2: beautiful beautiful lady.

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Speaker 1: I know that mum will appreciate that, So thank you, Robin.

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Speaker 1: I always enjoy our chats, and we'll talk to you

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Speaker 1: again next week.

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Speaker 2: I'm meeting next Wednesday, I think it is, so I'll

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Speaker 2: be in touch, love and we'll set up a follow

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Speaker 2: up interview.

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Speaker 1: You are a legend. Thank you, Robin.

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Speaker 2: As always, it's not about parrots. About the taxis being

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Speaker 2: used for multi purpose higher rather than special purpose being

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Speaker 2: used a special purpose.

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Speaker 1: Tax Robin, thank you so much for your time. As always, Thanks,

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Speaker 1: thank you, Thanks so much.