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Speaker 1: Is the text line number.

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Speaker 2: And now, look, I think it's all fine and good

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Speaker 2: for a political stash or political point scoring. I suppose

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Speaker 2: there is always going to happen when you talk about

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Speaker 2: different situations around the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: But one thing I.

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Speaker 2: Do know right now is that there are a number

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Speaker 2: of industries and a number of businesses that are truly

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Speaker 2: hurting during this situation that we're going through right around Australia,

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Speaker 2: with this pandemic and with these lockdowns.

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Speaker 1: And one of the industries that.

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Speaker 2: We have heard from throughout the week is the tourism sector.

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Speaker 2: And joining me on the line again is the Tourism

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Speaker 2: Central Australia CEO, Daniel Rochford. And good morning to you, Daniel.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners again Daniel.

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Speaker 2: Look, I wanted to get you on again this morning

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Speaker 2: because we know that the federal government and the Territory

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Speaker 2: government have announced a new twelve point five million dollar

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Speaker 2: package for territory businesses impacted by COVID nineteen restriction. Obviously

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Speaker 2: follows on from the Commonwealth declaring Greater Darwin and Catherine

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Speaker 2: as hotspots, and additional financial support is going to be

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Speaker 2: available to businesses and organizations who are reliant on interstate

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Speaker 2: and international visitation. But Daniel, from what I can gather,

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Speaker 2: it doesn't include Central Australia at this point.

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Speaker 3: Is that your understanding, No, Katie, I'm we're certainly picking

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Speaker 3: up that it.

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Speaker 4: Does include Central Australia and in particular and in.

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Speaker 3: Particular the hardship funding support you know, as we've spoken

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Speaker 3: about on many times and we can only but thank

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Speaker 3: you also for your leadership on this.

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Speaker 4: We've been advocating.

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Speaker 5: For support, really targeted support, especially to the tour operators,

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Speaker 5: the event specialists who have been doing absolutely tough and

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Speaker 5: they've fallen through the cracks of the various rounds vouchersm

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Speaker 5: you know, they are really on their knees and support

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Speaker 5: like this has been absolutely critically needed.

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Speaker 2: Well, mate, I'm so glad to hear that you know

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Speaker 2: that some support is on the way. What can our

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Speaker 2: what can our tourism businesses around the territory expect as

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Speaker 2: part of this funding from your understanding, look.

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Speaker 3: From my understanding, and we're just still getting information to hand,

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Speaker 3: so I guess the.

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Speaker 4: Devil will be in the detail.

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Speaker 3: But look, any support is will always be warmly welcomed

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Speaker 3: by our industry. We've been advocating for this and with

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Speaker 3: our colleagues that tourism top in for some weeks and

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Speaker 3: months now and to have this response come through as

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Speaker 3: welcome news and we can only but thank the federal

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Speaker 3: and territory governments for listening to those concerns. What it

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Speaker 3: will mean is a real difference for small and medium

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Speaker 3: sized businesses who have been doing an absolutely tough and

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Speaker 3: you know we're hearing day in, day out, you know,

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Speaker 3: business owners struggling to put food on.

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Speaker 4: The table because it's that bad.

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Speaker 3: And you know we've seen mothballing and closing, closing of businesses.

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Speaker 4: So this is welcome news.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'm really glad to hear that, you know that

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Speaker 2: there is some support on the way. I know that

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Speaker 2: under the co funded scheme, businesses are going to be

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Speaker 2: able to access payments between five thousand and thirty thousand,

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Speaker 2: I understand, depending on their annual turnover, which must be

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Speaker 2: less than ten million. So some of those eligible businesses

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Speaker 2: must be able to demonstrate a thirty percent decrease in

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Speaker 2: turnover compared to the same period for twenty nineteen as

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Speaker 2: a result of the lockdown. I'm assuming Daniel that for

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Speaker 2: some of those tourism operators in Central Australia, demonstrating that

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Speaker 2: is not going to be difficult at all.

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Speaker 4: Nope, Yeah, people answer to that question, Katie. In fact,

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Speaker 4: we could probably demonstrate that a little bit lower. We

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Speaker 4: could probably bring the bar down a little bit lower.

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Speaker 4: It's certainly been a challenge for our industry and as

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Speaker 4: I said yes yesterday, you know, in Yolara Airport in

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Speaker 4: the last two and a half weeks we was only

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Speaker 4: just seen two planes come in, So you know, you know,

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Speaker 4: we are on our either the sector and you know

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Speaker 4: we've been saying it from day one that you know,

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Speaker 4: we're appreciative of their government's keeping us safe, but there's

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Speaker 4: been downstream consequences and that's been the smashing of the tourism,

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Speaker 4: hospitality and event sectors.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, now, is there any update from what you can gather?

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Speaker 2: And I know, again we spoke about this yesterday and

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Speaker 2: we've touched on it before, but with these tourism vouchers,

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Speaker 2: I know that they really didn't sort of assist Central

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Speaker 2: Australian tourism as much as we'd probably hoped that they would.

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Speaker 2: Are you anticipating that there's going to sort of be

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Speaker 2: any change in this space, Daniel, or or that you know,

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Speaker 2: maybe I don't know, maybe there'd be an increase in

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Speaker 2: you know, in the eligibility or what we could receive

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Speaker 2: if say you wanted to travel from the top End

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Speaker 2: to Central Australia in an effort to try and support

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Speaker 2: our tourism sector in Central Australia.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think one of the challenges we have in

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory, Kadie, is that unlike other states which

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Speaker 3: have big intra state populations, we just don't have that

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Speaker 3: here in the Northern Territory. And I guess the challenge

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Speaker 3: with got is how do we encourage territorians to get

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Speaker 3: around the state. So the more options that we can

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Speaker 3: put on the table, the more opportunities to look at

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Speaker 3: strengthening the case to come down to the Central Australian

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Speaker 3: region and also the Barkley.

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Speaker 4: You know, we would certainly warmly welcome and we're certainly

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Speaker 4: looking in anticipation of what might change with that program

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Speaker 4: moving forward.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we'll all be keeping an ear and an

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Speaker 1: eye out.

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Speaker 2: And Daniel, I tell you what I know, I'd like

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Speaker 2: to come and visit Central Australia sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure that there is a lot of territorians who

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Speaker 2: feel the same. So let's hope that maybe in that

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Speaker 2: next round, you know, there's a bit more of an

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Speaker 2: incentive provided to try and get more of us going

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Speaker 2: a little bit further than what we ordinarily would.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that sounds like a plan, Katie.

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Speaker 3: And as always, the best way any territory and can

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Speaker 3: help the tourism hospitality sector, whether Darwin or Central Australia

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Speaker 3: or the Barkley go out for the weekend, go and

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Speaker 3: stay at a property, go go to a restaurant and

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Speaker 3: support our brothers and sisters and the tourism, hospitality and

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Speaker 3: events sectors.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a very good call. I reckon there.

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Speaker 2: Daniel Rochford, the CEO of Tourism Central Australia, really appreciate

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Speaker 2: your time and appreciate you coming on a couple of

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Speaker 2: times this week. Mate.

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Speaker 4: Thanks Kay, much appreciated.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: It is just on half past ten and gee, I

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Speaker 2: am glad to hear that there is some support for

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Speaker 2: our tourism sector.

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Speaker 1: As we've heard throughout the week.

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Speaker 2: We know that a lot of our tourism operators are

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Speaker 2: really doing it very tough and as we heard today

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Speaker 2: and yesterday from Daniel, really tough going for them in

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Speaker 2: Central Australia