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Speaker 1: As I've been saying, there's lots happening around the place.

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Speaker 1: There always is, but plenty happening over the last few days,

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Speaker 1: quite a few federal announcements, and yesterday you'll recall on

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Speaker 1: the show we had that big defense spending announced, with

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Speaker 1: the Minister for Defense Industry Pat Conroy joining us now

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Speaker 1: this morning further announcements this time, as I understand it,

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Speaker 1: for Catherine, a forty million dollar estate works upgrade announced,

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Speaker 1: as well as the commissioning of a water treatment plant. Now,

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Speaker 1: the Assistant Minister for Defense and Veterans Affairs, Matt Thistlethwaite

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Speaker 1: joins me on the line. Good morning to your minister.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, thanks for having me on the show.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good to speak to you. Now, Minister, tell us

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Speaker 1: a bit more about what's going on in Catherine.

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Speaker 2: I've just left Wrap Base Kinderling Catherine, where we announced

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Speaker 2: an additional forty one million dollars worth of investment in

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Speaker 2: upgrades to facilities and infrastructure at the base. We're upgrading

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Speaker 2: the fire station there to provide better feel facilities. We're

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Speaker 2: upgrading some of the living accommodation, particularly as we get

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Speaker 2: increasing rotation of troops through during the dry season as

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Speaker 2: part of operations, and we're increasing security and electrical upgrades

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Speaker 2: as well. And that comes on the back of the

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Speaker 2: one and a half billion dollars of investment that we've

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Speaker 2: put into Tinder Airbase to cater for greater sized aircraft,

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Speaker 2: upgrade the runways, the aprons, and the fuel storage facilities.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, so this is new money. This is more

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Speaker 1: than what we'd already heard about over the last few

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Speaker 1: days of the last couple of months.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. These are new investments and they're

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Speaker 2: all aimed at improving the liveability and the experience on

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Speaker 2: the base the troops. And the great thing about these projects, Katie,

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Speaker 2: is that they're done in conjunction with local industry. So

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Speaker 2: this will create about five hundred and fifty jobs in

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Speaker 2: the local community. And I met some of those workers

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Speaker 2: this morning from Indigenous Business DDR, some of those workers

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Speaker 2: who are employed on this job. So it's providing great

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Speaker 2: employment opportunities, skills enhancement opportunities for the local community. It's

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Speaker 2: a wonderful partnership between Defense and local businesses and the

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Speaker 2: Catherine community.

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Speaker 1: And why is it needed, Like, are we expecting to

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Speaker 1: see a greater even more defense personnel based in Catherine.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we are. We're going to see a lot more

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Speaker 2: rotation of troops through for important exercises like Pitched Back

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Speaker 2: and Kakado and Talisman Saber that are fundamental to Australia's

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Speaker 2: involvement in security and peace within our region. And I

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Speaker 2: was in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago where I

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Speaker 2: met Malaysian Defense Force representatives who are looking forward to

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Speaker 2: their first time participating in exercise Talentsent Saber next year.

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Speaker 2: And that's a classic example of the strong relationships that

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Speaker 2: our AEF is building with FEDCE forces in the region.

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Speaker 2: And we're coming together on a regular basis to do

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Speaker 2: training exercises and most of those training exercises involved the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, so the territory is crucial to Australia's capability

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Speaker 2: development into the future.

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Speaker 1: Now, Matt, what's the announcement as well about this water

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Speaker 1: treatment plant. Is that in relation to the PFAS issues

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Speaker 1: you know that we've experienced in Catherine.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. Yesterday I launched the new water

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Speaker 2: treatment plant that will treat the groundwater from the Catherine

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Speaker 2: area as a result of PFAS contamination. We know that

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Speaker 2: that comes from the use of legacy firefighting phones at

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Speaker 2: the base there. And it's a twenty eight million dollar

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Speaker 2: plant that will treat water and reticulated back into the

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Speaker 2: water system for the Katherine community. It can treat twenty

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Speaker 2: thousand liters of water a day and it's a state

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Speaker 2: of the art system that's been commissioned and is cleaning

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Speaker 2: up the legacy contamination issues and making sure that territorians

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Speaker 2: are particularly people in Catherine, have access to clean drinking water.

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Speaker 1: What's the reaction been from the people of Catherine over

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Speaker 1: the last sort of twenty four hours. I've no doubt

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Speaker 1: they'll be pleased that this is happening, probably thinking it's

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Speaker 1: a long time coming.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I love coming to Catherine. I'm really welcomed by

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Speaker 2: the local community. I was joined by a local member

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Speaker 2: of Parliament, so Lenni Yubo, and we met with a

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Speaker 2: number of the contractors that are doing this important work.

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Speaker 2: We met with the local council representatives and of course

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Speaker 2: the ADF personnel that are stationed on the base. It's

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Speaker 2: great to see the Catherine community being so involved in

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Speaker 2: the development of our defense force in that community, and

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Speaker 2: that's something that we wholeheartedly support.

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Speaker 1: Well. Assistant Minister for Defense and Veterans Affairs Matt fis Althwaite. Gee,

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Speaker 1: that's a mouthful, that name, surname. I'm sure you get

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Speaker 1: that all the time. I really appreciate I bet it

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Speaker 1: would have been. Thank you so very much for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning. I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for your time.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,