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Speaker 1: But joining me on the line is the Deputy Opposition

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Speaker 1: Leader and Shadow Minister for National Resilience, Jared Mayley.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now Jared. Yesterday we spoke to the Health Minister Natasha

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Speaker 1: Files about the number out there at Howard Springs and

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Speaker 1: there's certainly quite a few quarantining out there, but locals

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Speaker 1: continue to raise concerns about the changes to testing and

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Speaker 1: to PPE. Jared, the center, as I understand, correct me

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Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, is in your electorate. What are people

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Speaker 1: telling you?

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Speaker 2: Yes, okay, the center is in my electure. It's only

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Speaker 2: about a couple of kilometers from the Howard Springs Phillage

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Speaker 2: Center and probably a couple of komeitters from Parmesan, so

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Speaker 2: it is in a pretty dent area and there's lots

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Speaker 2: of people going around Howard Springs and Parmesan as you know.

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Speaker 2: But what we're concerned about is these changes that have

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Speaker 2: been brought by the NT government when NT Health are

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Speaker 2: taken over with the change the testing, the change the PPE.

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Speaker 2: And I had a continuing come and see me about

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Speaker 2: his wife working there and having to not get other jobs.

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Speaker 2: Yet we hear that the directors based in the grass.

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Speaker 2: So it's just really got to make sure that this

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Speaker 2: COVID nineteen we know is in that center and we

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Speaker 2: know what will happen if it comes out into the community,

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Speaker 2: will be in a world of hurt. This year is

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Speaker 2: looking for a great tourist season, a good drive with

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Speaker 2: all these people coming up from in the state or

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Speaker 2: the caravans on the road. If there's some sort of

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Speaker 2: lockdown in the Northern Territory, not only the effect of

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Speaker 2: that lockdown for that five or six days wherever it

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Speaker 2: might be, but the flow on effect will be catastrophic

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Speaker 2: because people will be uncertain and they won't come to Darlin.

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Speaker 2: It won't come to the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: And Jared, I know that, as I mentioned before, we

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Speaker 1: are going to get the latest Chief Healthless Officer directions

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Speaker 1: from the Melbourne situation in just a little while with

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Speaker 1: Matt Hepworth. But are you more concerned at this point

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Speaker 1: in time you know that we could potentially see somebody

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Speaker 1: get on a plane from Melbourne and you know that

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Speaker 1: we could see a spread of COVID in that way,

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Speaker 1: or are you more concerned that really, if something is

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Speaker 1: going to get out into the community, that it's going

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Speaker 1: to come from the Howard Springs facility.

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Speaker 2: Well, if it gets out, because the facility is now

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Speaker 2: one it's run by anti Health where it was where

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Speaker 2: os Matt we're running the quarantine, the international stuff which

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Speaker 2: we know the gold standard, and our INNT Health we're

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Speaker 2: just running the local stuff and anti Health have taken

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Speaker 2: over the whole facility. But we know from history that

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Speaker 2: these outbreaks that happened down south from security, from cleaners,

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Speaker 2: from people working there. So if that virus breaks out

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Speaker 2: of how it springs, because we know it's there and

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of people coming in now, I think

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Speaker 2: you said there are seven hundred odd people. We're not

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Speaker 2: even sure how many of these staff out of the

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Speaker 2: four hundred have been recruited yet. I can only imagine

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Speaker 2: that all the OSMA staff would have come over that

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Speaker 2: would have been their first wave of recruitment, and how

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Speaker 2: much people have got now, So are they really keeping

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Speaker 2: territory and safe with these changes to procedure. We know

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Speaker 2: that the testing is different, the PPE is different, and

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Speaker 2: the health offic who goes out to base in the grass.

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Speaker 1: Well, and look, I think it's a hard one because

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Speaker 1: you know, with the with the health officer, you know,

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Speaker 1: going out there with the person in charge of that facility,

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Speaker 1: going to you know, to base in the grass afterwards.

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Speaker 1: Surely there's nothing sort of stopping her from being able

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Speaker 1: to do that, NASA Health Minister said yesterday she was

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Speaker 1: wearing full ppe. But you touched on the fact that

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Speaker 1: this has been raised with you by one of your constituents.

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Speaker 1: We did have a message come through yesterday as well

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Speaker 1: from a listener on a similar, you know, on exactly

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Speaker 1: similar sort of situation where this person had said that

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Speaker 1: he's got a family member that works out at the

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Speaker 1: Howard Springs facility. When she got that job, they had

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Speaker 1: to sign a form to say that this would be

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Speaker 1: their only job. At the same time, she did have

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Speaker 1: a part time job that she had to give up.

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Speaker 1: So this person had questioned, then, how you can have

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Speaker 1: that person who's in charge, Die Stevens, who is in

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Speaker 1: charge of the facility, you know, having two jobs or

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Speaker 1: working in two different locations, when other workers out there

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Speaker 1: are apparently not able to do the same.

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Speaker 2: Well, it can't be one rule for somewhere one rule

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Speaker 2: for others. It easy right across the board. And if

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure who the listener was, but the person

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Speaker 2: who come and saw me was told, you know, don't

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Speaker 2: go to functions. And this person told me that they

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Speaker 2: didn't go to a child's birthday because of that fact

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Speaker 2: that they said, look, don't go because you're working in

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Speaker 2: an area. So this person was making sure that they

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Speaker 2: following the rules. And year we hear dice evens is

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Speaker 2: out a base in the grass. Just imagine if she

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Speaker 2: had a positive test and how many close contacts they

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Speaker 2: would have had to been tracing if that would have occurred.

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Speaker 1: Jared, do you know if in the case of the constituent,

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Speaker 1: do you know if that was something that you know,

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Speaker 1: did they sign that document recently or was that something

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Speaker 1: that was signed off when Ozmat was in charge.

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Speaker 2: No, from my understanding, it was they were working was

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Speaker 2: Matt When nt Health took over, they signed a new

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Speaker 2: contract for NTY.

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Speaker 1: Health And was it the same situation where you're not

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Speaker 1: able to have a second job.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's what that I believe.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, goodness, may well, it's definitely something that that is

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Speaker 1: worth taking a closer look at. I mean, should this

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Speaker 1: be the case. Do you think that people that work

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Speaker 1: out there should be allowed to have a second job,

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Speaker 1: or do you think it's fair enough that they don't.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a catch twenty two situation. It's a really

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Speaker 2: important decision to make because what we don't want is

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Speaker 2: COVID breaking out into the community, and we know that

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Speaker 2: the breakouts in the state have been through these workers,

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Speaker 2: the security cleaners and people working. So it's I think

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Speaker 2: it's a real balance for me personally. If I had

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Speaker 2: to make that decision, I'd be really getting some health

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Speaker 2: advice from the experts, and then I'd be testing that

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Speaker 2: advice as well, not just saying that's what you told me.

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Speaker 2: If I'm going to li on it, we need to

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Speaker 2: go away and do some peer reviews and look into it,

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Speaker 2: because it is a million dollar question essentially, because you

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Speaker 2: can't have COVID breaking out, but you also people need

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Speaker 2: to be able to afford to live, all right, Jared.

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Speaker 1: I do want to move along and talk about the

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Speaker 1: issue of Mick Dodson. It's been reported today in the

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Speaker 1: paper that he's yet to formally resign from his job,

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Speaker 1: despite the Chief Minister writing to Profess Dodson on Friday

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Speaker 1: to inform him that he'd lost his confidence. Jared, does

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Speaker 1: the professor need to stand aside or does he need

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Speaker 1: to stand down altogether.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't know the facts or the allegations, but

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Speaker 2: the Chief Minister needs to show some leadership. If he

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Speaker 2: says that he's lost trust, he needs to enforce that

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Speaker 2: and make mister Dowson resign.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if we don't all know the detail, though,

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Speaker 1: is that fair?

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Speaker 2: Well, mister the Chief Minister does. He knows the detail,

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Speaker 2: and he's seen the detail and made a decision to

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Speaker 2: write to him asay you've lost the confidence. So whatever

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Speaker 2: is in the detail, the Chief Minister knows, and I

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Speaker 2: accept that should be confidential and that doesn't need to

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Speaker 2: be out into the public. But if that information was

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Speaker 2: bad enough to make the Chief Minister write to him

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Speaker 2: and say you've lost my trust, he needs them to

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Speaker 2: show the leadership and follow up on that.

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Speaker 1: Correspondent Jared, just moving along. We spoke to the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory Police Association yesterday about the increase that we've seen

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Speaker 1: on police assaults. Now, this is something that has been

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Speaker 1: reported in recent days. The number of assaults has gone

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Speaker 1: up over the last year or so in various locations,

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs being one of the more serious situations in

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Speaker 1: terms of those police assaults. Take a listen to what

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Speaker 1: the Police Association president Paul McHugh had to say on

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Speaker 1: the show yesterday.

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Speaker 3: I mean, obviously there's the deterrent factor of course in

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Speaker 3: terms of sentencing, which you know we've made submissions onto

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Speaker 3: the government back in November of last year around making

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Speaker 3: sure people are getting an actual term of imprisonment when

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Speaker 3: they're undertaking these cowardly assaults and not just a slap

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Speaker 3: on the wrist and walking out the court. I think

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Speaker 3: there's a real conversation to be had there because our

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Speaker 3: members are fed up. We're going to work and coming

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Speaker 3: home with injuries.

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Speaker 1: Paul, you said there that those submissions were put forward

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Speaker 1: in November last year. Where is that inquiry or where

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Speaker 1: is all of that at at this point?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we made a submission through to the Law Reform

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Speaker 3: Committee around it was to do with mandatory sentencing and

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Speaker 3: community based sentencing options, and we obviously met with that

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Speaker 3: Law Reform Committee in March of this year to make

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Speaker 3: fair verbal submissions in relation to what we would like

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Speaker 3: to see and we yet to hear back two or

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Speaker 3: three months down the track as to where that's at.

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Speaker 3: And obviously people are frightened when you talk about tangentcin

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Speaker 3: and making sure people go to prison, but let's not

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Speaker 3: forget we're talking about our frontline workers and the people

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Speaker 3: we need to protect.

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Speaker 1: Jared. Should the penalties be increased? What do you think

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Speaker 1: needs to happen here?

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Speaker 2: Well, no one deserves to be assaulted at work, and

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Speaker 2: especially when your job is to keep the community safe.

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Speaker 2: So being a souldier, whether you're a police officer or

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Speaker 2: a security guard or just working in the shop is unacceptable.

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Speaker 2: And what needs to happen is the government need to

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Speaker 2: again show some leadership and make the stronger terrent because

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Speaker 2: people need to be able to go to work, especially

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Speaker 2: the police and the ambos and the paramedics. They're our

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Speaker 2: frontline people. They're putting their lives on hold and helping

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Speaker 2: out kiving our community safe, and they just don't deserve

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Speaker 2: to be assaultier. They just needed whatever it needs to

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Speaker 2: be done to fixate to make sure that they go

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Speaker 2: to work and protect the community.

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Speaker 1: Should it be mandatory imprisonment if somebody does assult to

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Speaker 1: frontline worker.

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Speaker 2: Well, again I think we need to make it strong

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Speaker 2: to terrent, and it can't just be a slap on

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Speaker 2: the risk. And there's all sorts of different levels of

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Speaker 2: mandatary settencing, so you need to look at what level

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Speaker 2: we're talking about. But I certainly agree with Formque that

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Speaker 2: we need to be strong to Terrent and they're not

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Speaker 2: just a slap on the risk, and that's including mandatory imprisonment.

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Speaker 2: I agree with that well.

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Speaker 1: Jeremy Lee, the Deputy Opposition leader, good to speak with

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Speaker 1: you this morning. We really appreciate your time. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: coming on

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Speaker 2: No problem, thank thanks to you.