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Speaker 1: Now we've just spoken to the Treasurer of the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: Bill Yan, but we know the Northern Territory Police Association

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Speaker 1: have released the findings of their latest member survey regarding

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Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five Consent Agreement, which it says will

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Speaker 1: be a key factor in the territory's ability to retain

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Speaker 1: officers or lose them to other jurisdictions. The survey found

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Speaker 1: that ninety five percent of respondents believe there aren't enough

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Speaker 1: officers to manage workloads effectively, while eighty one percent said

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Speaker 1: they've worked unpaid over time every fortnight. The Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Police Association President Nathan Finn joins me on the line.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Finny.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning to listeners.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Finny,

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Speaker 1: talk us through some of the well some of their

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Speaker 1: key findings.

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Speaker 2: A number of key findings they're not obviously unknown to us.

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Speaker 2: We've seen this time and time again being reported to us.

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Speaker 2: But the please is at all time power right across

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Speaker 2: Australia and other jurisdiction to responded by offering their police

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Speaker 2: forces the highest increases they've ever seen, and we're asking

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Speaker 2: for the same sort of similar subs situation here in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory to reward our hard work in police

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Speaker 2: officers that got there every day and implement the government's

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Speaker 2: policies to make sure how to stay and secure in

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: So we have just spoken to the Treasurer about some

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Speaker 1: of the financial difficulties that the Northern Territory government's going

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Speaker 1: through at the moment. So I might talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about that in the moment, but just talk

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Speaker 1: us through the main challenges that are impacting our members.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we know that you know that the overtime

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Speaker 1: is obviously having a huge impact. What else have they seen.

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Speaker 2: The resources and working infrastructure, et cetera at remote stations.

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Speaker 2: We haven't seen upgrades to these facilities for some time.

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Speaker 2: Some of the over fifty years old Katie and the

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Speaker 2: conditions that their members are working in aren't exactly attracting

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Speaker 2: their members to these remote communities. The under resourcing in

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Speaker 2: Darwen in our frontline response across the Northern Charity, not

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Speaker 2: alone dah On, but Alice Springs Catherine as well are

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Speaker 2: seeing those pressures being placed on their front line members.

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Speaker 2: But to an an except the level and unfortunately, when

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Speaker 2: you can police in Bondi Beach for a better pay

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Speaker 2: in better conditions, and why would you bother coming to

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory. And the government needs to understand that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a tough juggle we've got right now, Finny

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Speaker 1: in terms of the respondent saying that they've considered leaving

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police Force, Like, how many are we

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Speaker 1: talking saying that they've seriously considered leaving the Northern Territory Force.

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Speaker 2: So the survey results come back and said sixty eight

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Speaker 2: percent of our response have considered leaving the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: for another police force in the last fielve months. That

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Speaker 2: is a huge number. That's up to a third of

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Speaker 2: our police force that's being reported and who responded to

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Speaker 2: our survey. That's a huge number, Katie. If we even

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Speaker 2: lost a third of that, we lost one hundred members

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Speaker 2: on top of what we've already lost. We've been a

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Speaker 2: dire situation. We're already seeing members struggling as day to

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Speaker 2: day operations for day to day reports and demands on

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Speaker 2: our front line, and we couldn't accept it to lose

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Speaker 2: any more. We're in a crossis situation. We've seen that

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Speaker 2: right across.

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Speaker 1: Now in terms of of the salaries and how they

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Speaker 1: do compare to other jurisdictions, like how out of whack are.

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Speaker 2: We were rated at about four or five out of

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Speaker 2: the whole of the states and territories at the moment,

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Speaker 2: so in middle of the pack. But again we've seen

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Speaker 2: huge offers being offered by the New South Wales Police

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Speaker 2: Force that have been signed off for a four year

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Speaker 2: deal with up to forty two percent of increase on

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Speaker 2: their salary over that period of time. And unfortunately we've

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Speaker 2: had a lot of members inquiring those jurisdictions and given

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Speaker 2: the short numbers that they have, we're looking at vacancies

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Speaker 2: within the New South Wales Police of nineteen hundred members

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Speaker 2: that could actually take our whole police force into their

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Speaker 2: vacancies and this is the same through Queensland Victoria as well.

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Speaker 1: Now, as I mentioned before, it's going to be a

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Speaker 1: tough juggle at the moment because I think it'd be

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Speaker 1: hard pressed to find anybody in the Northern Territory that

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Speaker 1: doesn't value the work that our Northern Territory police do.

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Speaker 1: But we've just been hearing obviously from the government that

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Speaker 1: we are. You know, we're in record levels of debt,

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Speaker 1: So the Northern Territory Police Association's pay rise push, I

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Speaker 1: guess comes at a time where the government sort of

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Speaker 1: shining a light on the territory's significant debt levels and

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Speaker 1: these budget blowouts and absence of operating costs being factored

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Speaker 1: into projects which it inherited from the previous government. I mean,

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Speaker 1: some might be questioning how the government can afford a

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Speaker 1: paywise pay rise for our Northern Territory police and.

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Speaker 2: I asked the government can they afford not to? That's

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Speaker 2: that's the question of ask. If they haven't got crime

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Speaker 2: and violence in control within the Northern Territory, no one's

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Speaker 2: going to invest in Northern Territory. No one's going to

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Speaker 2: come there and live, no one's going to come there

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Speaker 2: and work. So if we don't get this under control,

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Speaker 2: the territory will just continue to go backwards. We're seeing

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Speaker 2: in vast improvements in legislation changes being made by this government.

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Speaker 2: The support for police has been at a huge increase

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Speaker 2: since our previous government and we want to see one

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Speaker 2: of the continue that to make sure our members are

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Speaker 2: supported with the best possible wage and conditions of employment.

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Speaker 2: In the Northern Territory, we have one of the hardest

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Speaker 2: jurisdictions to police skating. I don't need to explain that

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Speaker 2: to you or if your listeners, but it's so complex

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Speaker 2: and yeah, frustrating to our members that they can have

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Speaker 2: a better life on the Eastern Stage for a better

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Speaker 2: pay and better workload conditions. It's not acceptable.

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Speaker 1: So Finny, when do negotiations begin and what really is

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Speaker 1: the association after?

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Speaker 2: We want a fair deal for our members, that our

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Speaker 2: members are dedicated to serve Kadie and we're committed to

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Speaker 2: retain those experienced members and that we've been on to

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Speaker 2: that for a long time. We need to retain our

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Speaker 2: experience members since to make sure that we're doing the

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Speaker 2: best pospible job we can do for the community and

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Speaker 2: also for the government, we need to make sure that

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Speaker 2: we're supportive, they feel supportive and they're supported in the

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Speaker 2: workplace to do the best possible job.

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Speaker 1: And so negotiations getting underway asap.

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Speaker 2: The negotiations commenced on Monday in Darwen. I'm currently in

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Speaker 2: Parliament House in Canberra today with the meetings with the

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister, Attorney General and also the Opposition leader today

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Speaker 2: to advocate for our police force here on the national

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Speaker 2: level as well, and so from national initiatives through the

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Speaker 2: Police Federation of Australia.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Is there much detail that you can go

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Speaker 1: into with that, Finny or not really at this stage, not.

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Speaker 2: Really this though, we're just about to start these discussions today.

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Speaker 2: So are in Canberra today just at Parliament House. Arrived

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Speaker 2: recently and I'm going to go through a few topics

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Speaker 2: that nationally both represent the Police Federation of Australia. The

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Speaker 2: issue that we have with over seven thousand members of

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Speaker 2: the police forces we've lost over the last a couple

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Speaker 2: of years. For in seven thousand member deficit, when we're

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Speaker 2: only talking about seventeen hundred members that we've got in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Police Force, that's a huge number of

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Speaker 2: vacancies right across Australia and the other jurisdiction quite rightfully,

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Speaker 2: are trying to poach Northern Territory members because of our experience,

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Speaker 2: because of our diversity that we do. It's because of

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Speaker 2: the conditions we work in. They're trying to offer us

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Speaker 2: a better conditions and pay salary to make sure they

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Speaker 2: move across.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon more could be done as well to

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Speaker 1: try and sort of entice young people to join the

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Speaker 1: police force right around Australia.

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Speaker 2: Definitely, this could be a lot more. It's unfortunately it's

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Speaker 2: a come a career that's very scrutinizing by all means.

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Speaker 2: I don't disagree with us being scrutinized, but we're quite

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Speaker 2: heavily over scrutinizing the public messaging and that sort of

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Speaker 2: stuff that comes out. We occasionally get it wrong and

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Speaker 2: we identify when we do get it wrong, and we're

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Speaker 2: human beings like the rest of them, in a volatile

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Speaker 2: situation and deal with complex issues on a daily basis.

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Speaker 2: But we need to make sure that we're also recruiting

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Speaker 2: those younger people into the career as a profession, but

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Speaker 2: it's not seen as a profession, are seen as a career.

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Speaker 2: We're losing our members on average at about the seven

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Speaker 2: year mark within the Northern Church and Police Force, and

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Speaker 2: this is nationally wide as well. The superinnovation benefits aren't

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Speaker 2: as good as what they used to be. We don't

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Speaker 2: have the Commonwealth Superannuation scheme like some of the jurisdictions

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Speaker 2: do have across Australia, so we're seeing it others have

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Speaker 2: chosen profession for a number of people for a number

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Speaker 2: of reasons.

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Speaker 1: Finny, to anybody listening this morning, that's you know, that's

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Speaker 1: maybe thinking to themselves, Oh, the Northern Territory Police are

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Speaker 1: being a bit greedy here, you know, in terms of

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Speaker 1: wanting a pay rise when we're at record levels of debt.

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Speaker 1: What would you say to them?

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Speaker 2: Back to them too, if you think that, join up

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Speaker 2: and see what we do. I can guarantee you that

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Speaker 2: majority of people couldn't handle what we do on a

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Speaker 2: daily basis or put up with the pressures that are

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Speaker 2: being placed on us. Our members are struggling. They're going

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Speaker 2: to do the best possible job they possibly can and

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Speaker 2: we need that support from the government.

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Speaker 1: Well. Northern Territory Police Association President Nathan Finn, good to

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Speaker 1: chat with you this morning, mate. All the best in

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Speaker 1: those discussions in Canberra.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Chaddie, and yeah, good morning to listeners.

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Speaker 1: Have good day you too, Thanks mate,