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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line is Daniel Rochford, the CEO

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Speaker 1: of Tourism Central Australia. Good morning to you, Daniel, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning Kaye, and good morning from Steamy Darwin.

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Speaker 3: I'm up in your territory.

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Speaker 1: You are. You've been here for the Browlgers and we'll

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Speaker 1: get to that shortly because I understand that Tourism Central Australia,

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Speaker 1: a lot of Central Australian businesses have done very well.

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Speaker 1: So we'll find out more about that, Daniel shortly. But

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Speaker 1: over the weekend and last week, of course, it seems

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Speaker 1: as though crime has become an issue once again for

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Speaker 1: the people of Alice Springs. How are things going from

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Speaker 1: your perspective?

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Speaker 2: Look, I echo much of Robin's comments on the show

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Speaker 2: just a few minutes ago. You know, there is concern

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Speaker 2: about the future of the summer. Look, we're certainly hearing

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Speaker 2: from the government that they have got plans in place.

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Speaker 2: That said, the crime that is happening in the last

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Speaker 2: few weeks, certainly concerning the trend I'm seeing is that

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Speaker 2: over the course of this year a lot of the

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Speaker 2: businesses cuddainly improve their security and I'm noticing a lot

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Speaker 2: more home invasions in the last few weeks. That's certainly

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Speaker 2: going to be a really troubling trend if that continues.

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Speaker 1: It certainly is. And I mean, at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, Daniel, we started this year with Alice Springs

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Speaker 1: in a crisis situation, like surely we should not be

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Speaker 1: in a situation where we're ending it that way.

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Speaker 3: Let's hope not.

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Speaker 2: And obviously the impact that I had had on the

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Speaker 2: tourism industry has been catastrophic this year and certainly had

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Speaker 2: had a real play in our.

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Speaker 3: Decrease in visitation. We're hopeful that the new.

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Speaker 2: Police Minister, who is obviously going to be analysis week,

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Speaker 2: is going to take the ball by the horns and

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Speaker 2: really start to put in place what needs to happen.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, there is certainly a lot of anxiousness amongst

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Speaker 2: my members.

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Speaker 1: I bet there is, particularly you know when we see

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Speaker 1: over the weekend the ABC in Central Australia reporting that

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Speaker 1: a group of tourists say that they're never going to

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Speaker 1: return to Alice Springs after a trip to Ularu ended

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Speaker 1: in a brawl between their driver and a pedestrian and

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Speaker 1: an hour's long wait on the side of the road. Now,

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Speaker 1: from what I can gather. This footage shows that the

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Speaker 1: tour bus driver was in an altercation with a man

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Speaker 1: who entered the bus when the group was returning from

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Speaker 1: a day trip to Ularu at about seven o'clock on

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Speaker 1: November six, when that bus driver stopped to assist a

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Speaker 1: car that had pulled over with its hazard lights flashing. Daniel,

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Speaker 1: what do you know of this incident?

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Speaker 2: Look, I can only really go on what I've heard,

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Speaker 2: both in the media but certainly from the operator.

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Speaker 3: I also know personally the driver.

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Speaker 2: I he's one of Central Australia's leading and experienced tool

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Speaker 2: guides and you know, I certainly am very concerned about

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Speaker 2: this situation and obviously feel for the visitors, but also

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Speaker 2: the the bus driver. No person should be subjected to

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Speaker 2: violence in their workplace, and you know we've seen that

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Speaker 2: here and Dhwen in the recent months, and you know,

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Speaker 2: we're very lucky that this situation isn't worse than it is.

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Speaker 2: And obviously it is obviously a concerning situation, but it

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Speaker 2: could have been much worse, not only for the bus

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Speaker 2: driver all the passengers, but.

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Speaker 4: Also the people that the bus driver stopped to support,

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Speaker 4: and he did see an unaltercation occurring, he did the

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Speaker 4: appropriate thing to put all the.

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Speaker 2: Bus over to try and lend assistance to de escalate

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Speaker 2: the issue that was at hand, but he was confronted

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Speaker 2: by an intoxicated individual and that's where it went from

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Speaker 2: bad to worse unfortunately.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds that way, and Daniel, you know, I

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Speaker 1: don't know exactly what's going on. I'm just reading it

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Speaker 1: from the ABC Central Australia, and you know, it seems

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Speaker 1: like it's a terrible situation for that tour operated to

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Speaker 1: be confronted with. I know that people on that bus

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Speaker 1: have now told the ABC that they were concerned for

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Speaker 1: their safety because they're worried that the driver may have

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Speaker 1: been can cast. I mean, the fact is here he's

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Speaker 1: had to pull up, from what I can gather, because

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Speaker 1: there's someone intoxicated stopping the bus, standing on the road

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Speaker 1: to stop the bus indeed.

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Speaker 2: And you know, you can't train to these things, Katie,

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Speaker 2: you know, it is really one of those difficult situations

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Speaker 2: and I feel for everyone involved, you know, the two people,

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Speaker 2: and you know when the bus driver was got out

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Speaker 2: and de escalated that two other people of the actual

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Speaker 2: car were able to flee away, leaving just the bus.

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Speaker 2: Bus driver passengers and the intoxicated individuals.

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Speaker 3: So look, you know, he you.

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Speaker 2: Know, gave ferry to that person to the nearest wayside

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Speaker 2: in and then was able to get the passengers to

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Speaker 2: the next wayside in where another rival was brought in.

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Speaker 3: So you know, it is a very remote part of the.

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory and obviously the duty of care for passengers

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Speaker 2: must come first, and you know that was very much

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Speaker 2: the case.

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Speaker 1: Is there going to be any kind of looking too

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Speaker 1: sort of you know, whether he's acted appropriately or do

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Speaker 1: you feel as though he has?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think no one will really get to know

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Speaker 2: what actually happened on that day apart.

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Speaker 3: From the people that were there.

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Speaker 2: Certainly from what I understand, the company has reached out

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Speaker 2: to the Norman Territory of Police and also NT workspace,

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Speaker 2: which is an appropriate thing, and there's any investigations. I

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Speaker 2: know the company is also doing an internal investigation in

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Speaker 2: terms of policies and procedures.

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Speaker 1: Does it frustrate you then, that, as you've said, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're talking about a very experienced tour operator by the

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Speaker 1: sounds of it. Does it frustrate you that he and

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Speaker 1: that tour you know, and that tour group have been

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Speaker 1: put in this situation where their reputations are in jeopardy

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Speaker 1: as a result of you know, somebody being intoxicated and

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Speaker 1: forcing themselves on that bus.

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Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, and just go to the many issues that

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Speaker 2: you and I have talked about for a long time now, Katie.

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Speaker 2: You know we've had situations where rocks have been pelted.

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Speaker 3: At tool buses full of tourists.

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Speaker 2: You know this is you know, you always call Alis

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Speaker 2: Springs a tourist town and it has a rich history

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Speaker 2: of being a tourist town. But it is very much

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Speaker 2: at risk if we cannot get the crime and antisocial

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Speaker 2: behavior issues in check. And that's why we absolutely urge

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory government and federal government to throw the

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Speaker 2: kitchen think at this.

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Speaker 3: Especially over the summer.

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Speaker 2: If we have a repeat of what we had at

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Speaker 2: the start of this year, it will be diabolically challenging

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Speaker 2: for our industry to rebound.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you must be concerned the you know, of

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Speaker 1: the impact that incidents like these are having on tourism.

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Speaker 1: Once again, you know we're going to end up well,

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Speaker 1: You're going to find that we're in a situation where

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Speaker 1: where tourism in Central Australia and Central Australia is making

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Speaker 1: headlines for all the wrong reasons.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and that's that's the challenge that we've been

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Speaker 2: finding ourselves for feels like ages now that we're just

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Speaker 2: constantly in this cycle of things get you know, we

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Speaker 2: jump up and down and guess what, we're jumping up

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Speaker 2: and down again.

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Speaker 3: Pre summer.

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Speaker 2: Government responds and then it's softens, and then it.

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Speaker 3: Gets bounds back up again.

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Speaker 2: We're constantly dancing a dance on a dance floor that

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Speaker 2: we don't want to be on.

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Speaker 1: Now, before I let you go and look, I know

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Speaker 1: that we go from you know, from from a very

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Speaker 1: negative situation too well a very positive one. I understand

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Speaker 1: that Tourism Central Australia and some of those tourism operators,

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Speaker 1: despite some of the issues that they've really been facing

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Speaker 1: over the last year and longer. You and I have

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Speaker 1: been talking about these issues for quite some time, they

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Speaker 1: have absolutely excelled at the Brolger Awards.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're really really excited for all the Central Australian

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Speaker 2: operators and all the operators who've won to Brogla this year.

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Speaker 3: But the Central Australia, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, has been a challenging year and you know we've

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Speaker 2: we've been hit down a few times, but we get

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Speaker 2: back up again and make sure our visitors have the

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Speaker 2: best possible experience and the.

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Speaker 3: Quality of the candidates this year.

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Speaker 2: That sort of shone through and I think around forty

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Speaker 2: percent of all the Brolger Awards have flown down to

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Speaker 2: Central Australia this year, so you know, with some of

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Speaker 2: our new experiences like Jerry weru Art, Tours of Australia

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Speaker 2: and the Loose Goes on trek larapinter all of these

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Speaker 2: guys getting getting gongs this year and going to the

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Speaker 2: national Awards. And a little one to shout out is

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Speaker 2: my team at Tourism Central Australia who got Best Visitor

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Speaker 2: Information Center and a real credit to them, you know,

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Speaker 2: we you know, as you know Katie, we were broken

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Speaker 2: into twenty one times in one month in January and

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Speaker 2: my starts have had to deal with physical assaults and

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Speaker 2: a lot of issues as you've reported, to be able

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Speaker 2: to get up every day and make sure that we

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Speaker 2: give our visit as the best possible experience.

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Speaker 3: As a credit to the professionalism.

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Speaker 1: Of my team, it truly is and the spirit of

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory hey, and the wonderful people in the

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Speaker 1: territory that you know, despite some of these really serious

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Speaker 1: issues that we're dealing with, that they continue to do

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Speaker 1: a bloody great job.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it was an awesome night down. Credit off

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Speaker 2: to Tourism NTEE in the Northern Territory government for everything

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Speaker 2: they did there. I think, you know, it is easy

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Speaker 2: for us to focus on the negative, but there is

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Speaker 2: a lot of positives there to grab a hold on to.

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Speaker 1: Well, Daniel Rochford, it is always it's good to catch

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Speaker 1: up with you. I wish we didn't still have to

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Speaker 1: talk about some of the you know, the terrible situations

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Speaker 1: that are going on in Central Australia. Again, you know,

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Speaker 1: I really hope that we're able to get a grasp

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Speaker 1: on things. I can't imagine how much you guys in

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs are hoping that we're able to get a

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Speaker 1: grasp on these issues because unfortunately, they are having an

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Speaker 1: impact in a lot of ways. So let's you know,

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Speaker 1: I hope that the government comes forward with some big

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Speaker 1: plans and and some real action this week.

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Speaker 3: We've got everything crossed and yeah, let's hope.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, Daniel, thanks so much for your time. This morning.

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Speaker 1: Much appreciated.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you,