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Speaker 1: A local issue of quite a big concern, I think

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Speaker 1: to those that do suffer from asthma. We have learned

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Speaker 1: that the Asthma Foundation here in the Northern Territory, a

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Speaker 1: group which has been operating locally for forty years, has

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Speaker 1: had its funding slashed by about eighty percent. Now one

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Speaker 1: in twenty Territorians are affected by asthma, and the organization's CEO,

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Speaker 1: Leanne Elliott Holmes, joins me on the line right now.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Lianne.

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

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time. Lean eighty percent

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Speaker 1: sounds like a significant blow for the organization. How's this happened?

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Speaker 2: Look, Katie, it goes back to twenty seventeen when Asthma

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Speaker 2: Australia decided they'd become a national organization and it was

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Speaker 2: up to the members of each foundation to vote whether

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Speaker 2: they become part of the national organization. At the time,

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Speaker 2: WA Asthma DA and Tasmania, their members were very unsure

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Speaker 2: of the direction that it was going and the allocation

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Speaker 2: of funding, so they elected just to sit back and

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Speaker 2: wait and see what happens. But at that time there

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Speaker 2: was no discussion that you know, we would be seeing

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Speaker 2: a decrease in our federal funding. But since then, because

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Speaker 2: our members decided not to merge, we have seen a

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Speaker 2: significant drop in our funding. And you know, the ASTHMA

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Speaker 2: Australia have an annual Commonwealth budget of two point one

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Speaker 2: million per year and ASTHMA Foundation and t current we

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Speaker 2: only received forty two to cut forty two thousand to

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Speaker 2: cover all of the territory, so this has had a

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Speaker 2: significant impact on our services. We are very lucky that

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Speaker 2: we do receive funding from the Northern Territory government and

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Speaker 2: that funding is allocated to provide the face to face

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Speaker 2: service in Darwin, Parmeerstan and rural and a phone service

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Speaker 2: to the rest of the territory. Why the federal funding

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Speaker 2: that we used to receive that allowed us to get

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Speaker 2: out to these remote areas like Norland, boy Alice, Catherine,

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Speaker 2: Tenant Creek and Aboriginal communities. And since we've had this

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Speaker 2: dropping funding, we've had to pull back from that because

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Speaker 2: we just don't have the funding to do that anymore.

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Speaker 2: We are a very small organization and you know we

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Speaker 2: consist of one full time respiratory educator and two part

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Speaker 2: timers to cover all of the territory.

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Speaker 1: Sali and what are the steps that the ASTHMA Foundation

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Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory can now take. I mean,

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Speaker 1: are you in a situation where you're able to look

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Speaker 1: to get more federal funding or what can you do?

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Speaker 2: Well? For the past four years, behind closed doors, our

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Speaker 2: dedicated board of Management has been in regular chat with

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Speaker 2: the previous federal government and the Health Minister, Greg Hunt,

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Speaker 2: and then we've continued on with our chats to the

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Speaker 2: new government and the Health Department, Federal Health Department as

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Speaker 2: well as Mark Butler. But we just seem to be

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Speaker 2: hitting a roadblock because because the federal government has decided

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Speaker 2: that they will allocate therefore year funding of eight point

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Speaker 2: four million dollars to one organization, which is Asthma Australia

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Speaker 2: and then Asthma Australia. It's up to their discretion how

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Speaker 2: they allocate that funding. And so they have decided that

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Speaker 2: all the territory needs is forty two thousand, so, which

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Speaker 2: you know is ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: What are you going to do? I mean, is there

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Speaker 1: a real risk here that you might not be able

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Speaker 1: to continue operating?

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, for the past four years, you know, we've

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Speaker 2: dealt with COVID and we've had to change how we

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Speaker 2: do a lot of things in our office, but we

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Speaker 2: provide a quality service, we provide geometry. We have a

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Speaker 2: huge referral rate from our GPS, and so we're trying

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Speaker 2: to battle on as best we can. But I thought

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Speaker 2: something's going to have to give. And you know, we've

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Speaker 2: got to the point now where things we've been drawing

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Speaker 2: out our reserves and things are getting quite dire. So

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Speaker 2: we really need to So the Board have decided to

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Speaker 2: make that decision to go public because and that wasn't

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Speaker 2: an easy decision, but to make territorians aware that we

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Speaker 2: are territory, we belong to the territory and we now

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Speaker 2: need the support of Territorians and whether that be letters

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Speaker 2: of support, whether that being members of Parliament, whether that

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Speaker 2: be donations, whether that be corporate sponsorship. But we really

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Speaker 2: are now asking for Territorians to stand up for one

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Speaker 2: of their own. And you know, we've been supporting Territorians

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Speaker 2: for over forty years now. And you know, I think

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Speaker 2: if you would ask many of our clients, they would

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Speaker 2: all say that, you know, they value our service and

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Speaker 2: predominantly we are here for the person with a restistrictive

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Speaker 2: edition living in the Northern Territory and you know, we

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Speaker 2: want to provide the best quality service so they're not

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Speaker 2: at risk. So so we know that you know, in

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Speaker 2: Australia we have one a day die from asthma, and

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Speaker 2: so we want to prevent those depths. We want to

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Speaker 2: prevent those hospitalizations and the way we can do that

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Speaker 2: is by continuing to deliver our quality service.

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Speaker 1: So it's a real call out, I guess Lean to

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Speaker 1: territorians right now that you need some help.

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Speaker 2: It is you know, like even this morning we put

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Speaker 2: some stuff up on our Facebook page and we had

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Speaker 2: one of the fellows who walks at works across the

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Speaker 2: road not ringing our doorvalid eight across this morning to say,

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Speaker 2: we am, what can we do for you? And so

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Speaker 2: that's what we're needing. We're needing support from the territory

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Speaker 2: people so we can continue our service for the next

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Speaker 2: forty years.

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Speaker 1: So leanne you know, if there are people out there

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Speaker 1: listening this morning that are thinking, do you know what

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Speaker 1: the Asthma Foundation of the Northern Territory has helped me

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Speaker 1: at different times and I think it's a crying shame

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Speaker 1: that they don't have that funding. Where can they head

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Speaker 1: to where can they, you know, send those letters of support.

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Speaker 2: They can send them to Asthma NT at asthmaant dot

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Speaker 2: org dot au. They can ring our office on either

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Speaker 2: one eight hundred ASTHMA or eight nine eight one six

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Speaker 2: zero double six, or they can just call past our

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Speaker 2: office at three Nylanders Street per app And you know,

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Speaker 2: it's about us getting back out and delivering those services,

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Speaker 2: particularly to our remote areas. You know, in twenty and

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Speaker 2: twenty one, we had a young Aboriginal woman out in

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Speaker 2: a community guy from asthma, and there are a lot

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Speaker 2: of events leading up to her death, but one of

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Speaker 2: the things that came out was the lack of education

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Speaker 2: both with her, with her family and with the health

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Speaker 2: staff out there, and by us not being able to

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Speaker 2: get out there. We don't want to see this escalate.

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Speaker 2: We don't want to see this happening.

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Speaker 1: Well, Leanne Elliott Holmes, I really appreciate you having a

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Speaker 1: chat with us this morning, and please keep us up

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Speaker 1: to date and let us know how things do progress.

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Speaker 2: Not a problem, Katie. You know you're asking from the

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Speaker 2: federal government is you know, one hundred and fifty thousand

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Speaker 2: out of a two point one million budget.

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Speaker 1: That's all we want, Leanne, I really appreciate you having

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Speaker 1: a chat with me this morning. Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for your time, not

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Speaker 2: A problem, thanks, thank you.