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Speaker 1: There really is a lot happening around the place, so

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Speaker 1: let's get into it. And joining me on the line

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Speaker 1: right now is the independent member for our lun Robin Lambley.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Robin.

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Speaker 2: Hi there, Katie, Robin.

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Speaker 1: Happy new Year to you as well. It's great to

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Speaker 1: have you on the show for the first time this year. Now, Robin,

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Speaker 1: did you attend that meeting last night?

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Speaker 2: I did, and it was fantastic. It was an amazing turnout.

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Speaker 2: It was a great display of unity and force from

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Speaker 2: the Alice Springs community. It was really great. It was

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Speaker 2: short and sharp and yeah, it was powerful. I was

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Speaker 2: so proud to be a part of it. Robin.

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Speaker 1: We are going to be catching up with Garth the

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Speaker 1: organizer in a couple of minutes, but tell me how

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Speaker 1: many people do you Reckon attended these reports between sort

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Speaker 1: of one and a half thousand right up potentially to

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Speaker 1: three thousand people.

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Speaker 2: Well, as I left, I happened to overhear one of

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Speaker 2: the people that were helping organize it say that they

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Speaker 2: got up to two thousand. Two hundred people checked in inside,

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Speaker 2: but there were hundreds outside, So at least two and

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Speaker 2: a half thousand. Some people are saying two thousand, eight hundred.

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Speaker 2: But it was a huge crowd. I've never been to

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Speaker 2: a meeting with that many people in Alice Springs. It

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Speaker 2: really really exceeded expectations. Was fantastic, Robin.

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Speaker 1: What were people saying? I mean, it seems to me

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Speaker 1: like people have absolutely had enough. They have for really

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Speaker 1: some time now. But what were they saying?

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Speaker 2: Well, not a lot of people spoke. It was mainly

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Speaker 2: Garths and a few other people spoke briefly, but mainly

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Speaker 2: Garth ran the show. But for me, it was just

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Speaker 2: about people being there together. Everyone was so respectful. Most

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Speaker 2: people just shut up and listen. There were a few

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Speaker 2: people yelling across from where I was sitting. I'm not

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Speaker 2: sure what they are on about. Everyone was clearly on

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Speaker 2: the same page. We've had enough. We stand here in

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Speaker 2: solidarity in support of Gath and what he is trying

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Speaker 2: to do.

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Speaker 1: Robin, what are your thoughts on the class action that's

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Speaker 1: been proposed against the Northern Territory government.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm no great advocate of litigation and these sort

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Speaker 2: of class actions really because I think that they can

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Speaker 2: take up a lot of time and money and big

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Speaker 2: chunks of your life. But I think the way Garth

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Speaker 2: described it yesterday was that it's not so much about

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Speaker 2: the money, it's about giving the Northern Territory government a

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Speaker 2: very clear message that they have failed us, that they

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Speaker 2: have neglected us, and that we as a group are

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Speaker 2: going to stand up and let them know about that.

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Speaker 2: So there was some anger around that. Of course, people

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Speaker 2: are very very angry and disappointed in Alice Springs. But

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Speaker 2: you know the thing is we're all we've all been

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Speaker 2: dammaed this over a long period of time. We're all

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Speaker 2: sol destroyed by this ongoing and deteriorating crisis. And I

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Speaker 2: think that's what the Chief Minister and other ministers don't

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Speaker 2: fully appreciate. They've got the words, but they don't back

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Speaker 2: it up with actions and good policies. I just heard

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Speaker 2: of your introduction there and you know calling on the

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Speaker 2: police to step up. Well, from our perspective in our springs,

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Speaker 2: the Chief Minister needs to step up, not the police.

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Speaker 2: They've been stepping up for years, months or month, month

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Speaker 2: or month year on year for forever. They don't let

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Speaker 2: us down. It's the bad policies and legislation of this

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Speaker 2: government and the lack of real interest and care. I

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Speaker 2: mean the Chief Minister is so quick, she's very clever,

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Speaker 2: she's a great operator politically, but she has, without a

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Speaker 2: shadow of a doubt, failed to protect the peace full

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Speaker 2: of Alice Springs. She's failed in her duty of care.

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Speaker 2: And this business of a plever site that she wants

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Speaker 2: to conduct on the town camp to somehow back up

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Speaker 2: her terrible decision to open up grog to those those

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Speaker 2: camps is just a prank. It's a political prank which

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Speaker 2: I reject one hundred percent.

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Speaker 1: Well, and Robin, the really interesting thing that I think

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Speaker 1: we've got happening at the moment, Well, not interesting, that's

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Speaker 1: not the right word, because it's much more serious than that.

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Speaker 1: But we're in a situation at the moment, you know

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Speaker 1: where you've got two and a half thousand business operators

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Speaker 1: and locals and you know, concerned Alice Springs residents at

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Speaker 1: a public meeting last night who are utterly fed up,

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Speaker 1: to put it mildly meeting last night. You've then got

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Speaker 1: the Chief Minister on the show with me yesterday, you know,

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Speaker 1: saying that they want this ballot to happen to determine

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Speaker 1: whether town camp should be able to have alcohol or not.

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Speaker 1: You know, yet the town continues to suffer and the

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Speaker 1: town continues to go through these very serious issues. But

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Speaker 1: I put to the Chief Minister yesterday as well, what

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Speaker 1: happens if the vote is yes, like, let's go through it.

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Speaker 1: And what happens that you know that the town camps,

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Speaker 1: that the residents they're do indeed go through this vote

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Speaker 1: and the answer is yes, they want to keep having alcohol.

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Speaker 1: What then do the people of Alice Springs like, do

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Speaker 1: you just continue down the path that you're currently on?

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Speaker 2: Well, we do and almost certainly. I mean, the Chief

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Speaker 2: Minister is a smart woman. She wouldn't have put this

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Speaker 2: up if she didn't have every confidence that that vote

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Speaker 2: would get up in her favor. This is about her

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Speaker 2: being vindicated, her being told by everyone that she's done

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Speaker 2: the wrong thing. Apart from Tongue Indira Council that manage

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Speaker 2: and service and represent the town campus, they're the only

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Speaker 2: Aboriginal organization that I know of that support what she's done.

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Speaker 2: So there and they're very closely and heavily connected to

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Labor Party. So what you've got here

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Speaker 2: is politics that it's there. She's got a chief Labor

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Speaker 2: Chief Minister knowing full well that she's got the support

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Speaker 2: of the Labor Tongue in Dura Council, Labor Aligne Tongue

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Speaker 2: in Dura Council, and they will pull it off. They

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Speaker 2: will make sure that all the town campers rock up

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Speaker 2: and vote exactly how they're told to. I mean, I've

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Speaker 2: been involved in many, many elections in Alice Springs. You

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Speaker 2: see Labor align people driving buses, picking up people from

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Speaker 2: town camps, dropping them at the polling booth, walking them

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Speaker 2: in and pretty much telling them how to vote. That's

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Speaker 2: how things operate on the town camps of Alice Springs.

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Speaker 2: So the Chief Minister knows this. And these are allegations,

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Speaker 2: they've never been proven. That You talk to anyone who's

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Speaker 2: been around elections in Alice Springs for any length of time,

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Speaker 2: and yet they'll tell you that they see it, they

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Speaker 2: watch it. We all know it happens. So the Chief

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Speaker 2: Minister knows that if she puts up this clever site,

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Speaker 2: it will get up. I note that Ansen had come

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Speaker 2: out and said, look, in principle, they support a clever side,

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Speaker 2: but they also talked about making sure that it's fair

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Speaker 2: and that there's no intimidation. They know that these people

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Speaker 2: are intimidated. They know that you're talking about the most powerless,

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Speaker 2: disempowered people in Alice Springs. These people live in substandard

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Speaker 2: conditions and they're struggling to just get up and function

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Speaker 2: every day. Violence, even before the grog bands were lifted,

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Speaker 2: was out of controlled, domestic violences, out of control, child

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Speaker 2: abuse and neglect, out of control on the town camp.

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Speaker 2: They open the rivers of grog in July and it's

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Speaker 2: even worse. So you know, you've got a chief Minister

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Speaker 2: who is choosing politics over the welfare and the best

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Speaker 2: interests of the people that live on those town camps.

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Speaker 2: And it's all about a few people that live on

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Speaker 2: those town camps who want to sit on the veranda

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Speaker 2: and have a beer every afternoon. Well, I'm sorry, I

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Speaker 2: just don't buy that You've made a bad decision, Chief Minister.

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Speaker 2: Own it and just turn it around. Well, take the

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Speaker 2: advice of every Aboriginal leader across the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Robin, we are fast running out of time. But I

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Speaker 1: want to ask you, if you know, if you could

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Speaker 1: do just a few things for Alice Springs right now

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Speaker 1: to try and turn things around. If you could, you know,

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Speaker 1: say to the Chief minister right now. These things would

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Speaker 1: you know would make a difference. What would they be.

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Speaker 2: I would implement a curfew for children tonight. I would

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Speaker 2: identify all the children on the street if they can't

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Speaker 2: go home because of the threat or the danger of

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Speaker 2: child abuse or neglect, we would look after them, Number one.

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Speaker 2: I would do that tonight, and there's the legislation, everything's

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Speaker 2: in place. I would I would stop alcohol being consumed

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Speaker 2: on the town camps because we know that that's the

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Speaker 2: epicenter of all the most of the violence and crime

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Speaker 2: and dysfunction. Most of the kids that are on the

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Speaker 2: street come from the town camps and that was proven

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one when they did a review of

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Speaker 2: the now defunct youth hub. So I put in a

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Speaker 2: curfew tonight, and I'd put in alcohol restrictions on the

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Speaker 2: town camps and.

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Speaker 1: You reckon that that would have a big impact quickly.

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Speaker 2: Yes, immediate. You know, during COVID we had three weeks

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Speaker 2: of shut down. The place was shut down, we had

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Speaker 2: a curfew put in place. It took about a week

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Speaker 2: for Aboriginal people, particularly from the communities, to work out

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Speaker 2: what was going on. And then the streets of Alice

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Speaker 2: Springs were peaceful. Crime plummeted. It was just the greatest

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Speaker 2: example of how a curfew could work. But in the

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Speaker 2: first place, get these kids off the street. They are

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Speaker 2: being abused, they are being neglected, There's no doubt about it.

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Speaker 2: Let's make the children a priority, and then let's work

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Speaker 2: on addressing the alcohol related assaults and abuse that seemed

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Speaker 2: to center on the town camps of Alice Springs.

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Speaker 1: Robin, do you reckon that we'd need any additional police assistance,

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Speaker 1: you know, from the AFP or anybody else at this

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Speaker 1: point if you did those two things.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes I do. And that's what I was hoping

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Speaker 2: would come out of the visits by the Prime Minister

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Speaker 2: to Alice Springs last Wednesday. I was hanging on the

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Speaker 2: edge of my seat. I actually believed that he would

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Speaker 2: have done something like I've just described. I actually had

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Speaker 2: fooled myself, convinced myself that the Prime Minister would be

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Speaker 2: able to see through the political nonsense that the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory Labor government would have served him up. But no,

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Speaker 2: that didn't happen. Marion Scrimjaw, however, the Member for Lingiari,

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Speaker 2: the Labor Member for Lingiari, She's not fooled for a minute.

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Speaker 2: She knows what's going on in those Tan camps. She

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Speaker 2: knows that women and children are living in fear, and

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Speaker 2: that's fear has escalated over the last six months since

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Speaker 2: they've opened up Grok. So I hold a bit of

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Speaker 2: hope that with Marion in the picture. But look, you

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Speaker 2: know I missed opportunity last Wednesday and to see the

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister enjoying himself at the tennis. You know, it's galling.

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Speaker 2: It's really a hard pill to swallow. You know, what

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Speaker 2: they've been implemented will have some impact, that it will

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Speaker 2: be very limited.

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Speaker 1: Well, Robin Lamley, we are going to leave it there.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning. But Robin, I've

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Speaker 1: got to say before I let you go. You know,

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Speaker 1: last year in Parliament, every single time you got the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to stand up and ask a question, it was

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Speaker 1: about crime in Alice Springs. You have done your level

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Speaker 1: best to stand up for your community, despite the fact

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Speaker 1: that at different times you'd been told you were talking

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Speaker 1: the territory down and other garbage. You've really done your

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Speaker 1: best to try and hold them to account. And for that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I admire and I think good on you.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, I'll continue to do my best.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Robin Lamley, thanks for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again soon