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Speaker 1: All eyes have been on the top end when it

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Speaker 1: comes to flooding. But yesterday in Alice Springs, as I

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Speaker 1: mentioned in the opener, two people had to be rescued

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Speaker 1: after they attempted to cross floodwaters along Larapinta Drive near

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs. Now joining us on the line is the

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Speaker 1: member for Ara Lun. She's also the Speaker of the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territories Legislative Assembly, so she is in Darwin at

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Speaker 1: the moment. Robin Lamley, good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Good morning to you, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Robin. Lovely to have you on the show as always.

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Speaker 1: And look, we've been all very worried about the wet

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Speaker 1: weather and the flooding up here in the top end,

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Speaker 1: but there's a bit going on in Alice as well.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we had a significant rise in the Todd River

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Speaker 2: yesterday which obviously caught a few people off guard who

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Speaker 2: made some pretty bad decisions about moving into that fast flowing,

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Speaker 2: treacherous water. But look, in the scheme of things, Katie,

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Speaker 2: the problems up here are vastly more serious than what

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Speaker 2: they are down in Alice. We've just had another drenching

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Speaker 2: as quick as the river rises in Alice Springs that it

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Speaker 2: reduces again, So we're okay, we're doing fine. My concern

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Speaker 2: is more for the top enders, the people out at

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Speaker 2: the daily and Darwin River and Catherine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been pretty bad, and you know, now we're

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Speaker 1: all keeping an eye on this cyclone. Cyclone NoREL to

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Speaker 1: see exactly.

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Speaker 2: My mother in law's name.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say, is that a good

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Speaker 1: or a bad omen Robin.

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Speaker 2: I love Norell, my mother in law, but he was

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Speaker 2: the force to be reckoned with two at times as

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Speaker 2: am I as am I.

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Speaker 1: Well, look, hopefully, hopefully Norell doesn't cause too many problems

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Speaker 1: for the Northern territory. But what we're all worried about.

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Speaker 1: You know, usually at the start of the wet season,

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Speaker 1: we're all a bit like, oh, we're hoping for a

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Speaker 1: good wet season. But now I've reached the point were

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Speaker 1: we're all hoping that you know, that this doesn't bring

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Speaker 1: more havoc to the top end of the territory.

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Speaker 2: I think we're better off assuming that it will at

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Speaker 2: this stage, Katie. In Parliament yesterday there was a lot

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Speaker 2: of talk. There was a very amicable debate about preparing

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Speaker 2: for disasters and how important it is and the Chief

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Speaker 2: Minister concerned that already there is preparations underway for this cyclone,

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Speaker 2: so this is really serious what we're looking at potentially

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Speaker 2: coming across from Queensland. And she talked about the local

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Speaker 2: committee disaster committees already meeting and planning and making sure

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Speaker 2: that all the things are in place, the food, the access,

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Speaker 2: the transport, things. Just so much happens obviously behind the

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Speaker 2: scenes that we're not aware of that. The Chief Minister

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Speaker 2: was very confident that everything that could be planned will

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Speaker 2: be planned in.

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Speaker 1: Preparation, which I think it needs to buy Bone Norrell, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's exactly right, It certainly needs to be and we're

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Speaker 1: going to catch up with the Northern Regional Controller and

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Speaker 1: also with the Emergency Services after ten o'clock to talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit more about what we all need to

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Speaker 1: do to make sure that we are prepared. Robin in

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs at the moment, well, we know right across

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory now code yellow is called at all

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Speaker 1: of our hospitals. Our health system obviously really under a

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Speaker 1: lord of pressure as we've got people traveling in to

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Speaker 1: our major town centers, some of them being evacuated to

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Speaker 1: different areas as well, But how are things tracking as

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Speaker 1: far as you know at the Alice Springs Hospital with

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Speaker 1: that code yellow.

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Speaker 2: Look, as far as I'm aware, the code yellow is

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Speaker 2: still in place. We very rarely have a code yellow

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Speaker 2: or any code put in place in Alice Springs, so

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Speaker 2: this is unusual. But when I reflected on it yesterday,

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Speaker 2: I thought, the whole of the Northern Territory, all the

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Speaker 2: services are under enormous strain. We are all under pressure.

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Speaker 2: And the best thing I can say as a local

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Speaker 2: member of parliament is let's just be patient. Let's just

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Speaker 2: be really understanding and kind about this. We don't want

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Speaker 2: to put make people more distressed than what they already are.

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Speaker 2: People who need care will get care, There's no doubt

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Speaker 2: about it, and it's not a time for us to

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Speaker 2: create more stress by becoming political about it. I just

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Speaker 2: think at times like this, which you know, I don't

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Speaker 2: remember any time in history that over the last thirty

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Speaker 2: years that I've been in in the territory, that we've

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Speaker 2: had such extensive disaster. So let's just take a deep

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Speaker 2: breath and be patient and be kind and let these

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Speaker 2: people in the front line do the best that they can.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Robin. Yesterday, we know the Northern Territory government announced

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Speaker 1: that one hundred million dollar recovery fund. I know you've

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Speaker 1: pre viously called for flood mitigation works in Alice Springs

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Speaker 1: and the surrounds. Do you hope that some of that

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Speaker 1: funding is going to go towards the Red Center?

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Speaker 2: Of course I do, but I'm also very much aware

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Speaker 2: that there's a big queue. There's a massive queue, and

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Speaker 2: looking at Catherine. Joe Hersey, the Member for Catherine, was

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Speaker 2: talking last night in Parliament about how the levee in

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Speaker 2: Catherine could have been higher, was apparently promised to be

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Speaker 2: extended or built up years ago and it's just never happened.

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Speaker 2: Flood mitigation always is put on the back burner because

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Speaker 2: it's too hard and it's too expensive. So in an

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Speaker 2: ideal world, I'd like some of that money to go

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Speaker 2: to Alice Springs, of course, but I'm also acutely realistic

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Speaker 2: about this, and I doubt whether any of it will

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Speaker 2: go on flat mitigation. I think it will go to

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Speaker 2: crisis manage and disaster reparations trying to fix all the

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Speaker 2: broken roads they must. There probably is not a single

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Speaker 2: road in the Northern Territory that doesn't require significant repair

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Speaker 2: after the flood events that we've seen, so this is

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Speaker 2: not going to go for one hundred million dollars is

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Speaker 2: a drop in the ocean when it comes to this

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Speaker 2: sort of stuff and flood mitigation, I mean, won't even

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Speaker 2: touch the side.

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Speaker 1: So I'd thought the same yesterday. I thought, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's a good announcement and a sensible announcement, but one

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Speaker 1: hundred million bucks isn't going to get as far, especially

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Speaker 1: when you look at our roads and the damage that

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Speaker 1: we've got at this point.

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Speaker 2: Exactly a few years back, Albanezi gave Central Australia two

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Speaker 2: hundred million dollars to address safety and crime problems throughout

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Speaker 2: Central Australia and to this day people don't know really

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Speaker 2: where it went, but it went and it went very

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Speaker 2: very quickly. So it will be the same story with this.

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Speaker 2: One hundred million dollars seems very generous on the surface,

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Speaker 2: and it is to some extent, given that it's coming

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Speaker 2: directly from the Northern Territory government coffers, not the federal

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Speaker 2: government coffers that it will not go far. So we

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Speaker 2: have to be realistic and there are people in great

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Speaker 2: need out there, and we need to be fair and

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Speaker 2: reasonable about where it goes first.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. Hey, Robin quick one, how are the

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Speaker 1: petrol prices in Alice Springs at the moment. I know

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Speaker 1: you're in Darwin right now, but I tell you what

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Speaker 1: we are Coppernech and the terminal gate price just keeps

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Speaker 1: going up. So I wonder what it's like for our

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Speaker 1: our friends in Central Australia at the moment.

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Speaker 2: I think we can safely say three dollars. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm looking at a few three dollars Alita, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I'm just looking on the my fuel lap and you

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Speaker 1: are spot on. There is locations in central Australia at

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Speaker 1: the moment that are at the three dollar ma. I

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Speaker 1: mean that's yeah, like two dollars ninety five for your diesel.

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Speaker 1: And I would imagine that we are going to as

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Speaker 1: that terminal gate price goes up. Unfortunately, we're going to

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Speaker 1: see the prices go up because it doesn't ever seem

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Speaker 1: as though they drop them down when the terminal gate

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Speaker 1: price goes down, but the minute they go up, they're

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Speaker 1: hiking them up at the bowser.

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Speaker 2: And it's across the country. And despite the fact that

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Speaker 2: we can all complain and the Treasurer, the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: Treasurer was talking about riding to whoever in Parliament yesterday.

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Speaker 2: This is out of our control. We are just going

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Speaker 2: to be subjected to these astronomical and hideous prices of

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Speaker 2: fuel for as long as this war continues. I've been

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Speaker 2: up here in Darwin for the last ten days and

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Speaker 2: I filled up about two weeks ago and it was

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Speaker 2: just under two dollars a liter for diesel. So this

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Speaker 2: has gone up by thirty three percent and pretty much

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Speaker 2: in the last two two and a half weeks. It's crazy, it.

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Speaker 1: Is, It is absolute lutely crazy. Will Robin thank you

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Speaker 1: as always for your time. Anything we should know about

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Speaker 1: happening in Parliament over the next couple of days.

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Speaker 2: Look, there's there's always a lot on. There's a lot

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Speaker 2: of new bills being introduced. This morning there's seven new introductions,

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Speaker 2: so they're preparing for our next sittings, which is in May. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: look tune in, see what takes you fancy. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's there's two full days ahead of us. General business

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Speaker 2: this afternoon is run by the opposition and the crossbenches.

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Speaker 2: That's usually quite interesting, giving a different perspective. Not just

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Speaker 2: the government's perspective. So yeah, I know I'm being general,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, there's there's a few things might be interesting.

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Speaker 1: There always is, Will Robin. Always great to catch up

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Speaker 1: with you. We'll talk to you again next week.

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Speaker 2: Many thanks, thanks you, thanks so much