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Speaker 1: Right around the Northern Territory. It's been a busy weekend

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Speaker 1: for a lot of different reasons, and unfortunately out of

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs. You may have seen the terrible scenes on

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Speaker 1: the streets of Alice Springs over the weekend. That vision

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Speaker 1: has gone viral. I know that it was shared on

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Speaker 1: various different platforms over the weekend. We'd seen an article

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Speaker 1: in the Australian newspaper yesterday there reporter Liam Mendez happened

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Speaker 1: to be in Alice Springs by the look of things,

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Speaker 1: and had captured some incredible vision of what had unfolded.

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Speaker 1: Incredible for all the wrong reasons. Now joining me on

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Speaker 1: the line is the mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Patterson.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Matt.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Matt. Another terrible weekend. I mean, is this just the normal?

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Speaker 1: Was it worse than what you've seen in the past.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's normal. It's what we would say here is

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Speaker 2: inverted commas of being normal. It's people have become so

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Speaker 2: decent ties to what's going on. It's just the reality now.

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Speaker 2: And I mean we've seen he's speaking about the issues

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Speaker 2: we had out the front of counsel on Saturday night

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Speaker 2: in pizza shop. But I mean there was cold stolen

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Speaker 2: vehicles that went through people's fences. You know, I've spoke

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Speaker 2: to residents in that area that legitimately were fearing for

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Speaker 2: their life when that car was crashing into the fence.

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Speaker 2: So it's absolutely carnage at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Mate, what happened with this car going through the fence?

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Speaker 1: Tell us about that.

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Speaker 2: I was just in a residential areas reports it was

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Speaker 2: a stolen vehicle. They were going, you know, one hundred

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Speaker 2: through the residential area in you know, fifty kilometer an

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Speaker 2: hour speed zone and just lost control and went through

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Speaker 2: a residence fence. And you know, that car. I'm surprised

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Speaker 2: that the people walked away from it. But yeah, look,

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Speaker 2: it's unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: It's utterly unbelievable. Like I said, all the wrong reasons.

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Speaker 1: You know, even that vision along the main street in

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs over the weekend, Like, honestly, I watched that

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Speaker 1: and I actually felt really emotional because you think, to yourself,

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Speaker 1: I cannot believe that this is continuing to happen. You know,

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Speaker 1: I used to work up that straight many many years ago,

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Speaker 1: and I used to be able to walk home safely

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Speaker 1: on my own mat. It doesn't seem like you can

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Speaker 1: do that anymore.

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Speaker 2: Oh no way. I mean, I know, you know, I

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Speaker 2: know grown men who will not go out because they're

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Speaker 2: fearful of what's going on. You know, like it's just

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Speaker 2: there's a flow on effect to everyone else in all

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Speaker 2: of springs about what's happening at the moment. And I've

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Speaker 2: said it to you a thousand times, Katie, that this

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Speaker 2: is happening in Australia in twenty twenty three. It's unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: If this was happening in Melbourne or Sydney, it would

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Speaker 2: have been resolved by now. Continue to get put in

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Speaker 2: the two hard basket. And you know, if they don't

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Speaker 2: start addressing this quickly, it's going to be way too

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Speaker 2: hard to turn around.

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Speaker 1: Mate. I know that the Prime Minister was obviously in

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Speaker 1: Darwin yesterday. Look it was a fleeting visit. Half of

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Speaker 1: us didn't even know that he was here. It was

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Speaker 1: on his way to the coronation of King Charles and

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Speaker 1: making a good announcement out there at the Allen Walker

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Speaker 1: Cancer Center. I think so many of us in the

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Speaker 1: territory have had loved ones go through that Cancer Center.

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Speaker 1: We understand the incredibly important work that they do. There

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Speaker 1: also an announcement around these critical care clinics. But you know,

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Speaker 1: he was asked a question about Alice Springs. In my opinion,

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Speaker 1: there should have been a lot more questions about the

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Speaker 1: issues that we've got right around the place when it

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Speaker 1: comes to crime. But he said that that two hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty million dollars promise for Alice Springs is going

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Speaker 1: towards services for women and children escaping domestic violence. Are

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Speaker 1: you seeing any of that on the ground.

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Speaker 2: I'm not as not as yet, but I mean that

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Speaker 2: does seem with the control. I haven't seen any of

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Speaker 2: that yet, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. But look,

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Speaker 2: I welcome a two hundred and fifty million dollars. It's

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Speaker 2: going to be spending communities around our Springs to increase

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Speaker 2: livability out there because we're getting what's what we're calling

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Speaker 2: urban drift, lots of people coming in. But we're still

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Speaker 2: talking about that's a longer term measure and medium term measures,

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Speaker 2: they're all okay, But it's the short term and the

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Speaker 2: immediate term response that we need here, and that's unfortunately

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Speaker 2: what we've been asking for since, you know, especially since January,

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Speaker 2: but for the last couple of years, we need that

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Speaker 2: immediate response. And look, it's probably Dane, you know, four

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Speaker 2: or five years and it's just getting worse and worse

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Speaker 2: and worse. And I see dar when you're slowly catching

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Speaker 2: up to what we're going through. And if we don't,

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Speaker 2: you know, if we don't address this, as I said,

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Speaker 2: it's going to be very, very difficult to come back.

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Speaker 2: And we still have an amazing amount of community people

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Speaker 2: here that choose to live in our springs and it's great,

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Speaker 2: but it is getting very difficult because we are losing liability.

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Speaker 2: People are scared to go down the street and it's

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Speaker 2: just taking away your right to this human being. And

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Speaker 2: you know, we've still got the amazing people that live here.

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Speaker 2: We had a couple of thousand people down here yesterday

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Speaker 2: for the Bank to our muster, which is fantastic. Community

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Speaker 2: spirit is there, but we're just begging for help from somebody.

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Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. Like, honestly, I don't know how both tiers

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Speaker 1: of government are not treating this like it is, like

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Speaker 1: we're at crisis point. You know, those scenes on the

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Speaker 1: weekend are utterly mortifying Katie.

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Speaker 2: We've called it a crisis. Like we've said, this is

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Speaker 2: an emergency, and I said it to you last time

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Speaker 2: I was on the program, and they need to handle

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Speaker 2: this the same as they did with COVID. There needs

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Speaker 2: to be a press conference every day saying this is

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Speaker 2: what we're doing. This is the numbers that happened last

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Speaker 2: you know, these are the crimes happened last night. This

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Speaker 2: is what we're doing to address it.

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Speaker 1: This is.

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Speaker 2: Urgency in Alice Springs and we just need immediate assistance

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Speaker 2: to address the problem. Because it is an amazing place.

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Speaker 2: It has endless possibilities of what Alice Springs can be.

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Speaker 2: But we can't continue to be on the front page

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Speaker 2: of distrain and not address the root cording the problems

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Speaker 2: that we're facing.

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Speaker 1: Mate. I did. I get got sent by a listener

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Speaker 1: this morning, and I don't know, you know whether it

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Speaker 1: is accurate or not, but basically a Facebook post from

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Speaker 1: one of the are and traditional owners saying that they

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Speaker 1: are kicking off patrols in Alice Springs. That this person

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Speaker 1: is a team leader and founder and they've got about

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Speaker 1: twenty three people working at the moment, and that the

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Speaker 1: reason they'll id the streets. Kids then go to the

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Speaker 1: parents of these kids return to country. They're saying, enough

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Speaker 1: is enough? Are you aware of what's going.

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Speaker 2: On with this? Yeah? So Lua tipperu running that program,

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Speaker 2: and I take my hats off to the CEO, Graham

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Speaker 2: Smith and his team that have got this up and going.

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Speaker 2: I think it's fantastic. So we are seeing the traditional

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Speaker 2: owners are patrolling the street. I think that's an infancy

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Speaker 2: stage and that will grow. So, you know, I think

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Speaker 2: the community will certainly get behind Lula Tipper with the

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Speaker 2: tos ore patrolling and hopefully as a very small part

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Speaker 2: of change is that will assist with it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I really hope so. But there needs to be more.

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Speaker 1: You know, we cannot have a situation where those two

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Speaker 1: tiers of government, the Northern Territory government and the federal government,

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Speaker 1: continue to tiptoe around this issue. Like you very rightly said,

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Speaker 1: if this was happening anywhere else in Australia, people would

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Speaker 1: be screaming out for some change. The people of Alice

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Speaker 1: Springs deserve better, people of the whole of the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory deserve better. We all deserve to feel safe. Matt.

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Speaker 1: Before I let you go, this morning. What is the

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Speaker 1: update on the AFL on the footy in Alice Springs.

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Speaker 1: You and I have spoken on numerous occasions about the

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Speaker 1: Central Australian Football League not happening at Trager Park. What's

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Speaker 1: the situation with the big AFL match at this point?

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Speaker 1: Any update?

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Speaker 2: I know, update as of yet? I mean we That's

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Speaker 2: I've said to you last time that the community foot

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Speaker 2: is an issue between Dallas Springstown Council and AFL and

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Speaker 2: T and the AFL game in July is between the

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Speaker 2: AFL and the Northern Territory Government. So that's really got

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Speaker 2: nothing to do with us. That's a contract between those

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Speaker 2: two organizations. We will continue to work with AFL and

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Speaker 2: T to talk about the town competition that started last week.

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Speaker 2: But look, the AFL game has got nothing to do

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Speaker 2: with us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so how come there was a situation last week

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Speaker 1: where some of those town games couldn't happen at Tiger

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Speaker 1: Park or weren't able to happen at those usual spots.

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Speaker 2: So the Tiger Park, AFL and T bridge their contracts.

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Speaker 2: That will negotiate. We'll continue to negotiate with AFL and T.

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Speaker 2: There are two separate issues around the community football and

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Speaker 2: the breach of Tiger Park. But obviously we have amazing

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Speaker 2: to see what we want people to be able to

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Speaker 2: use them. But we certainly need AFL in two to

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Speaker 2: come to the table and negotiate there as well.

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Speaker 1: And so what they didn't provide the draft or the

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Speaker 1: draw quick enough or something that's right, yes, does that really?

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Speaker 1: Does that constitute them then not being able to have

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Speaker 1: those games? I guess playing Devil's advocate here. I know

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Speaker 1: if I was a parent rocking up with my kids

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Speaker 1: to you, wanting to play their usual games of AFL,

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Speaker 1: I'd be pretty annoyed. If they weren't able to access

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Speaker 1: the fields, then.

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Speaker 2: Well, we went above and beyond to make sure that

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Speaker 2: people could use the other grounds that we have available

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Speaker 2: all Brecked Oval and Jimmy conwell, so they were utilized.

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Speaker 2: We will continue to negotiate with AFL and TE to

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Speaker 2: make sure that some hopefully and we can negotiate in

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Speaker 2: good face the trade. Who is available for the town competition?

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Speaker 1: Well hopefully there's now it comes soon. Matt Patterson, the

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Speaker 1: Mayor of Alice Springs, I always appreciate your time. Thank

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Speaker 1: you very much for having a chat with me this morning.

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Speaker 2: Anytime. Thanks Katie, thank you