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Speaker 1: Now, we talk a lot about crime on this show.

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Speaker 2: Anybody who's been listening for a while would know that

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Speaker 2: we seem to be talking about it all the time,

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Speaker 2: because unfortunately, is an issue that's plaguing us from well

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Speaker 2: from out in the remote and rural areas to right

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Speaker 2: here in our capital of Darwin. But in Catherine, we

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Speaker 2: know that they have also been experiencing some really serious issues,

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Speaker 2: and residents in Catherine have been circulating a petition calling

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Speaker 2: for tougher action on youth crime. It is set to

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Speaker 2: be tabled in Parliament this week. The petition's calling for

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Speaker 2: a curfew for kids under twelve at nighttime and for

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Speaker 2: shops to refuse service to children during school hours if

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Speaker 2: they're not accompanied by an adult. Now, the man who

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Speaker 2: started that petition joins me on the line right now.

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Speaker 2: He is a local painter and his name is John Irvine.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, John.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, here are you going?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Really good? Thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Another problem, why did you decide to start the petition?

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Speaker 3: Well, basically the same as most people in the Ordnaria,

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Speaker 3: I suppose was born out of frustration of the lack

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Speaker 3: of anything actually going on and a lot of as

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Speaker 3: we call it, blah blah blah and no action. So

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Speaker 3: there was a group of us decided to meet at

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Speaker 3: the coffee club and Catherine on a particular Sunday at

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Speaker 3: three o'clock, which is also helped by the lady who

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Speaker 3: owns a coffee club because she's had a windows broken

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Speaker 3: and all sorts of stuff numerous times which she can't

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Speaker 3: afford the insurance to fix them anymore. It's not that ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: And we basically had a meet and greet of people

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Speaker 3: who didn't even know each other from a barosoke really

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Speaker 3: and mutted out some ideas for a petition to the

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Speaker 3: government to try and get something changed.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, Good on you, guys.

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Speaker 3: The main theme of our conversation always came back to

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Speaker 3: two points. They were more relevant than anything else, and

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Speaker 3: a lot of it was to do with like, these

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Speaker 3: are children, children that are running our streets at night time,

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Speaker 3: and people were saying, oh, it's because they're not saved

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Speaker 3: at home. Well that excuse is gone. I mean they

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Speaker 3: aren't saving only some of them. Ask some of them are,

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Speaker 3: some of them are just board. But the main thing

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Speaker 3: is these little kids. We're going to try and do

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Speaker 3: something to protect these little kids from themselves. To be

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Speaker 3: honest with you, I mean, we've got to the point

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Speaker 3: now where there's people in this town who are in

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Speaker 3: the sixties and seventies they're too scared to leave their

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Speaker 3: house because the kids are on the streets at night.

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Speaker 1: And that is just not fair, John, What that is?

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Speaker 3: How did it ever happen? How did it happen?

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Speaker 1: Exactly?

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Speaker 3: Got like that? I mean, so you know, our government

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Speaker 3: and there was them, and they've got experts and things.

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Speaker 3: We don't. They say that your criminal responsibility, age clinal responsibility,

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Speaker 3: I believe is going to com ten to twelve soon

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Speaker 3: and then or here that they might be talking about

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Speaker 3: fourteen as well. Ridiculous. Now, okay, if these children aren't

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Speaker 3: and can't be held responsible, and obviously a lot of

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Speaker 3: them they don't know what they're doing because they're just kids.

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Speaker 3: They're just kids. They don't know what they're doing, then

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Speaker 3: the government should have some responsibility to make sure these

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Speaker 3: children aren't out on the streets that one, two, three,

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Speaker 3: four in the morning being encouraged to commit crime by

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Speaker 3: elder children who know that these kids can't be charged.

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Speaker 1: It's just not on.

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Speaker 3: Realistically, so yeah, and a lot of it, a lot

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Speaker 3: of us down to. Part of our petition was non

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Speaker 3: attendance of children at school be dealt with immediately by

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Speaker 3: engagement officers appointed to the schools, as the truancy is

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Speaker 3: under daily scrutiny and non attenders without responsible excuses and

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Speaker 3: illness are collected and brought to the schools every day. Now,

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Speaker 3: everything as we know, and it's been been constant to

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Speaker 3: us for ages that a child's most informative years in

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Speaker 3: between the age of one and six that determines how

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Speaker 3: they're going to go as adults nine times out of ten. Now,

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Speaker 3: if we can't get it basically right to get to

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Speaker 3: his children to go to school and stay in school,

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Speaker 3: then we're doing something massively wrong. I mean, as human race,

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Speaker 3: we can make a card right without around, without anybody

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Speaker 3: steering it, but we can't get little kids to go

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Speaker 3: to school.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unbelievable, and it's you know, like it's a

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Speaker 2: terrible start for them if they're not at school. And

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Speaker 2: this is where I can't understand it. You know, I've

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Speaker 2: got kids that at that age, and.

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Speaker 3: I've got a seven year old school.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the same school the school.

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Speaker 3: Is a place where at the moment she goes to

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Speaker 3: meet and meet her friends and play with her She

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Speaker 3: doesn't even understand she's actually been educated exactly.

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Speaker 1: It's actually fun for him, it's a lot of fun. John.

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Speaker 1: Can you tell me, mate, how many signatures have you

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Speaker 1: got so far?

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Speaker 3: Well, look, we only had a limited time before Parliament

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Speaker 3: finished this happening. After we got the petition together and

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Speaker 3: had a meeting and went over and made adjustments, and

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Speaker 3: so I started dropping it off on I think it

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Speaker 3: was not last Wednesday around the shops and the businesses,

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Speaker 3: and I'm a big thank you too to the castle

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Speaker 3: and businesses that accepted this petition on their on the account,

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Speaker 3: thank you very much. And then so that was the

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Speaker 3: Wednesday around all over town out of the low industry where

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Speaker 3: everywhere I could go. And then on Thursday last week

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Speaker 3: I picked them up. So within a six day period,

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Speaker 3: basically we've managed to go I think it's nine hundred

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Speaker 3: and ninety five signatures, yeah, right, which is around about

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Speaker 3: ten percent of the town.

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Speaker 1: That's pretty good, going.

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Speaker 3: Population of about ten thousand down here. Yeah, yeah, I

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Speaker 3: mean people people love this town, they really do. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: why they shouldn't, But This is a fantastic little community.

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Speaker 3: We don't normally have a lot of trouble, but in

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Speaker 3: the last twelve months or so, it's just got out

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Speaker 3: of hand.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know what you're really saying, I think

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Speaker 2: what a lot of people around the Northern Territory are

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Speaker 2: saying that we actually all.

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Speaker 1: Love living here. We just want to feel safe.

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Speaker 2: We want oldies to be able to go out.

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Speaker 1: I don't mean that in a derogatory way. I mean

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Speaker 1: it in a caring way.

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Speaker 2: We want our seniors to be able to go out

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Speaker 2: to do their shopping, but also to feel safe in

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Speaker 2: their own homes and to not be worried about what's

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Speaker 2: going on.

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Speaker 3: I'm hearing it, and from the comments of the oldies,

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I'm sixty four this year. I'm

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Speaker 3: not a spring chicken, and these things and it's affecting people.

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Speaker 3: As you said on my local painting contractor in town,

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Speaker 3: we're otherwise known as a brother of the brush. Now

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Speaker 3: I'm I'm quoting jobs for a lot of people. I

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Speaker 3: don't like running this TOWNDWN are really done, so I

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Speaker 3: don't like putting it down at all in any shape

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Speaker 3: or form. But I mean, you've got to be honest

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Speaker 3: with the facts and the government needs to listen to this,

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Speaker 3: not just for Catherine, the whole of the MT. I'm

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Speaker 3: quoting a lot of jobs for people who are not

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Speaker 3: just thinking about leaving Catherine. The want the house is

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Speaker 3: painted het them on the market. They're not just going

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Speaker 3: to be leaving Castin, They're leaving the MT. Yeah, you know.

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Speaker 3: And some people say, well, Northern Watia's crime, Northern Queen's down, the.

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Speaker 1: Crime went to this degree. I'm going there, Well, but

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Speaker 1: do you know what, John, do you know what? It

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Speaker 1: annoys me?

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Speaker 2: It actually annoys me when people say that because a

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Speaker 2: lot of my family live in Cans right, a lot

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Speaker 2: of them live in far North Queensland, in Tully, They're

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Speaker 2: in other locations, Mossman, all around North Queensland. Yes there

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Speaker 2: is crime, but there is not the level of anti

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Speaker 2: social behavior, public drunkenness and just outright bad behavior that

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Speaker 2: we've got. So to me, I'm sick of I'm sick

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Speaker 2: of our politicians using that as an excuse because it is.

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Speaker 1: It's it's not good enough.

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Speaker 2: Nobody cares what's going on in those other locations.

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Speaker 1: We care what's happening here, and we want it sorted.

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Speaker 3: Well, well, well, Katie, as I was just saying, I've

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Speaker 3: got a seven year old daughter. Yeah, not too long ago.

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Speaker 3: A couple of weeks ago, she had fifty dollars was

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Speaker 3: given to her by one of our aunties, Sir. She

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Speaker 3: would go and buy herself a little toy in a

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Speaker 3: present the local Oasis shopping center. Here, Yeah, there's a

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Speaker 3: cave came the now we got there. This is a

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Speaker 3: It was a Friday after me. Now you're parking at

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Speaker 3: the bank of the shop. Were going in the back round.

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Speaker 3: There's a taxi rank there. My daughter, by the time

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Speaker 3: we got out of that car and got to that

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Speaker 3: shopping center, was too scared to go into that shopping

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Speaker 3: center and buy herself a Barbie doll and a little

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Speaker 3: little toy set that she wanted because of the drunken

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Speaker 3: antisocial behavior that was going on outside that khub door.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not fair.

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Speaker 3: Now you tell me that something is not wrong.

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Speaker 1: That's right.

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Speaker 3: A little seven year old kid is too scared to

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Speaker 3: go and buy yourself a Barbie doll.

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Speaker 2: John is spot on, mate, Yeah, absolutely, spot on mate.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to get on. I'm just running out

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Speaker 1: of time.

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Speaker 2: But I do want to ask you very quickly before

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Speaker 2: we wrap up. When is it you're understanding that the

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Speaker 2: petition is going to be presented to Parliament this week.

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Speaker 3: Yes, we've put this Joe Hersey, who is our local

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Speaker 3: semium down. He has been fantastic with advising us on

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Speaker 3: what on how to go about doing a petition because

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Speaker 3: none of us knew, we didn't have a clue. And

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Speaker 3: also she's going to be tabling it for us hopefully

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Speaker 3: this week.

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Speaker 1: Mate, Please let us know what you hear.

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Speaker 2: I'll be keeping an ear on Parliament as well, but

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Speaker 2: please let us know what you're here and John please

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Speaker 2: keep in contact with us as well and let us

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Speaker 2: know how things are tracking in Catherine. We always you know,

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Speaker 2: we've got plenty of people that listen to the show there,

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Speaker 2: I know, but I'm always keen to make sure that

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Speaker 2: we know what's going on right around the territory.

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Speaker 3: And also, Katie, well i'm here. I'd love to have

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Speaker 3: all the people that are listening to the show. Thank

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Speaker 3: you very much people from Catherine who took the time

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Speaker 3: and the effort to read this petition it was actually

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Speaker 3: quite long and put your name to it. I mean

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Speaker 3: that just shows the quality of people that we have

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Speaker 3: in this town. Yeah, you care about this town. Thank

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Speaker 3: you people of Catherine and in the shop and the

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Speaker 3: business owners who actually were happy enough to have that

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Speaker 3: petition on their front counter.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you're spot on.

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Speaker 3: Thanks to these people.

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Speaker 1: Thank you spot on, John.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Mate,

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Speaker 2: all the best. We'll talk to you soon.

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Speaker 3: Okay, no problem, thank you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah,