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Speaker 1: We know that Alice Springs is certainly not the only

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Speaker 1: location that's grappling with issues of crime and anti social behavior,

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Speaker 1: and owners of the Reserve Pub, just a stone's throwaway

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Speaker 1: from Parliament House, have told a media that they're being

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Speaker 1: broken into about once a month on average. Now, the

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Speaker 1: man at the Helm, Brad Morgan, packed up his family

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Speaker 1: and left Alla Springs back in twenty ten when crime

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Speaker 1: and anti social behavior flared up, but he's feeling a

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Speaker 1: strong sense of deja vous here in Darwin by the

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Speaker 1: look of things now. Dixon Hospitality Group Managing Director Brad

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Speaker 1: Morgan joins me on the line. Good morning Brad Money Katie.

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Speaker 2: How are you yeah, really.

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Speaker 1: Good, thanks for joining me this morning. Hey, what are

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Speaker 1: you dealing with at the Reserve when it comes to

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Speaker 1: crime and anti social behavior?

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Speaker 2: In a field of crime cats, you said we the

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Speaker 2: breakings are about once a week. Now, that's the prostrating

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Speaker 2: part for us because of the additional cost that as

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Speaker 2: for running a business in already trying time. So and

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Speaker 2: there are examples of that venue being broken into several

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Speaker 2: times on the same evening. When you add the cost

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Speaker 2: of that to repair all that broken broken windows and

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Speaker 2: whatever else. Needs to be fixed into the business. It

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Speaker 2: adds those additional costs that really aren't factored into running

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Speaker 2: a business like that.

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Speaker 1: No, And like on paper, you would think that that

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Speaker 1: location would be fabulous. You know, you're between the waterfront

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Speaker 1: and the CBD. You'd think when you've got tourists in town,

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Speaker 1: when you've got events like the dow and festival on,

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Speaker 1: you know it's going to be busy. You've got people

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Speaker 1: all around the place. But I mean, has that been

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Speaker 1: the case or are you sort of finding at the

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Speaker 1: moment that with the anti social behavior, you know, the

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Speaker 1: tourists maybe aren't sort of walking around as freely is

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Speaker 1: what you'd.

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Speaker 2: Expect, Absolutely correct. I talked to tourists regularly daily. How

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Speaker 2: you that might know have another venue at at barm

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Speaker 2: and Midway at so we talk at tourists a lot

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Speaker 2: come from the caravan park and down the road and

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Speaker 2: come to the pub to socialize and the reserves similarly,

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Speaker 2: and I hear stories on a daily basis from tourists

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Speaker 2: how surprise they are about the amount of any social

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Speaker 2: behavior they see in the streets in the CBD on

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Speaker 2: the highway, you know, and they tell people and obviously

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Speaker 2: that has an impact on tourist numbers, and we've seen that.

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Speaker 2: I can draw an example when we compare the start

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Speaker 2: of May, traditionally is our busy period of gray season,

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Speaker 2: our first month of May, or the month of May

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Speaker 2: was comparable to a typical month in January, which is

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Speaker 2: traditionally our slowest spirit of the year season. Tourist numbers

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Speaker 2: I can tell being on the cold face significantly down

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Speaker 2: in previous years.

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Speaker 1: Now, I understand that you guys have done quite a

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Speaker 1: bit really to try to deal with some of the

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Speaker 1: issues that you've got. There. Is it a case where

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Speaker 1: you've actually got the alcohol and stuff been put away

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Speaker 1: even overnight, so that you know it's not sort of

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Speaker 1: easily visible for people to be able to break in

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Speaker 1: and steal it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, that's one of the basic things we've done,

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Speaker 2: is to take away that temptation of people looking through

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Speaker 2: glass windows and seeing a bottle of something. So we

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Speaker 2: lock all of the alcohol away every night and bring

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Speaker 2: it out the next day. You know, it's a time cost,

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Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, we're doing whatever

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Speaker 2: we can to deture that sort of behavior because because

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Speaker 2: of those additional costs and inconvenience to the business. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's not just that's the crime. The anti social behavior

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Speaker 2: is coming in taking food of people's plates, humbugging for money,

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Speaker 2: drunken behavior, assaulting staff. It's our staff shouldn't have to

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Speaker 2: come to work. They come to work to work. They

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Speaker 2: should have to come to work to be confronted with

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Speaker 2: that sort of behavior. It's typically lafetime as it is

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Speaker 2: to attract staff without having to face that. And our location,

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Speaker 2: You're right, you would think it's ideal. Our issue is

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Speaker 2: it's just there in the corner from the transit station,

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Speaker 2: a transit center where you know, a lot large volumes

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Speaker 2: of people get off that bus and walk past our

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Speaker 2: venues the first one they see, and they try to

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Speaker 2: come in intoxicated and refused to leave. We get in

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Speaker 2: conversational behavior. It's just never ending.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it just like I would imagine that it's making

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Speaker 1: things quite difficult really to do business in a lot

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Speaker 1: of different ways. You know, even when you look at

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Speaker 1: those insurance premiums and things like that, then if you

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Speaker 1: do suffer breaking.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, that's right. Definitely part of it really that

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Speaker 2: additional costs. As I've said, no one wants additional cost

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Speaker 2: when revenue is tight anyway, so that's you're right, it's frustrating.

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Speaker 2: But as I've said before to many people, it's the

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Speaker 2: emotional strain and mental health issues. This creates the staff

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Speaker 2: and management and ourselves just to run a business. And

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Speaker 2: as you said, an event, what we're trying to do

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Speaker 2: is offer people good times, fun times, and instead we're

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Speaker 2: almost security guards, moving stuff, removing and really behavior on

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Speaker 2: a daily basis.

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Speaker 1: In terms of, you know, the financial cost of forking

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Speaker 1: out on repairs and loss of stock and that kind

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Speaker 1: of thing, like, are you able to quantify that or

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Speaker 1: is it sort of two difficult to tell.

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Speaker 2: A little bit, Katie. Look on that occasion where I

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Speaker 2: said we broke through three times, that was about twelve

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars to repair that glass. And we've had to

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Speaker 2: do that, as I said, on a regular occasion. So

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Speaker 2: you know, while that doesn't sound a lot of money,

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Speaker 2: when we're struggling as it is, it almost makes trade prohibitive.

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Speaker 2: We consider closing on Sundays and Mondays because trades doesn't

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Speaker 2: justify it. But at the moment, you know, we pushed

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Speaker 2: through the wet season, hopefully come out in the dry

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Speaker 2: season as we typically do, but the dry season has

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Speaker 2: been very, very poor to date, so I'm not too

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Speaker 2: sure where we're going to see the increase from. But

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Speaker 2: it's going to be a tough dry season, and then

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Speaker 2: that's going to make the wet season even tougher.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when you, I mean, can you talk about the

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Speaker 1: fact that you'd left Alice Springs back in twenty teen?

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Speaker 1: You know, things were I don't know what things are

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Speaker 1: like in Alice at that point in time, but are

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Speaker 1: you sort of surprised at the decline here?

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Speaker 2: Look, I am so I didn't think it happened. And

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Speaker 2: let me just clear that up. I didn't flee Ala

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Speaker 2: Springs any means, and I must say that the story

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Speaker 2: that was run was stretching the truth. We didn't flee

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Speaker 2: our springs to come to Darwen. I was after the

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Speaker 2: job opportunity to come here. That said, things were starting

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Speaker 2: to happen in Alice Springs where we didn't feel comfortable

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Speaker 2: with our family and so on. I didn't think the

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Speaker 2: same thing would happen to Darlen. I was told by

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Speaker 2: many people have been matter of time, and unfortunately they

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Speaker 2: were proven to be true. So yes, I can see

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Speaker 2: a lot of comparisons between what was happening in our

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Speaker 2: springs or what's happening in our springs now, so what's

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Speaker 2: happening in Darwen right now as well.

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Speaker 1: It's a real shame some of the stuff that you

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Speaker 1: know that people are having to deal with. And like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what the answers are, but the

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Speaker 1: way that we're going at the moment, it can't continue

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Speaker 1: down this pass. I mean, you know, for you, what

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Speaker 1: are you feeling as it needs to happen from a

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Speaker 1: business perspective, Yeah, that's a tough decision.

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Speaker 2: This is a it's a tough problem. I don't have

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Speaker 2: the answers, but I have the frustrations. Look, I concur

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Speaker 2: with a lot of people that are saying that penilies

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Speaker 2: need to be more severe for juvenile offenders because at

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Speaker 2: the moment it doesn't seem to be a deterrent for

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Speaker 2: this sort of behavior. The kids, some are as young

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Speaker 2: as ten, eleven, twelve. We're breaking into our venue, stealing alcohol,

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Speaker 2: passing it on to whoever it might be, and there's

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Speaker 2: no there's no punishment. Punishment that don't seem to be

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Speaker 2: a prey to The punishment is the problem. And I'll

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Speaker 2: come back the next day and do it again for

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Speaker 2: the police. So we we register every time we have

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Speaker 2: a break in or something happened, so the police are aware,

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Speaker 2: but I just don't know that they've got the resource

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Speaker 2: to deal with it. And some of the conversations we've

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Speaker 2: had with the police that have attended just to add

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Speaker 2: to our frustrations because you know, they've got more important

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Speaker 2: things we're doing than dealing with this sort of this

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Speaker 2: sort of stuff, so what it may be trivial to them,

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Speaker 2: but it's just a big issue for small business owners

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Speaker 2: and the CBD and Katie, I'm sure you spoke to

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Speaker 2: a lot of business owners and the CD and let

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Speaker 2: you know how it's up. It is and years stories

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Speaker 2: of people making that decision that they don't want to continue.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, it is tough. It's tough going

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Speaker 1: right now, and we've got to see some kind of change.

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Speaker 1: We all want to get back to the point where

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the great stuff happening in the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory rather than talking about the issues of crime and

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Speaker 1: the concerns that we've got. Brad Morgan, I really appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thanks very much for having a

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Speaker 1: chat with me, thank you,