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Speaker 1: We know that after a few weeks of unrest in

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Speaker 1: Daily River, it's understood that things have now settled down

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Speaker 1: to some degree in Naiyu, with government ministers, police and

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Speaker 1: department representatives flying in for talks with community leaders.

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Speaker 2: Eight people have been arrested over.

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Speaker 1: Large a large disturbance, with five adults charged and three

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Speaker 1: youths to be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act

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Speaker 1: after Holmes was set alight and residents were displaced. Now

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Speaker 1: the local school, Saint Francis Xavier Catholic College, had been

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Speaker 1: closed to ensure the safety of staff and students. The

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Speaker 1: Director of Catholic Education, Paul Greaves, joins me on the line.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Paul.

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Speaker 3: I'll good it, Katie.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Paul. How

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Speaker 2: are things going at Naiyu at the moment?

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Speaker 3: Look, thanks for this opportunity to give a bit of

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Speaker 3: an update about the school. It's important we had this

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Speaker 3: chance to communicate and the interest is there in how

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Speaker 3: the school's going, because look, it's a very special or

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Speaker 3: placed down the beautiful little location, wonderful staff at the school.

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Speaker 3: We did have for the first time this whole semester.

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Speaker 3: Despite the unrest that has been occurring. We've remained open

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Speaker 3: all this semester, every single day, and we did have

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Speaker 3: to make a decision based on concerns over the weekend.

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Speaker 3: And it's not just the principal making a decision. We

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Speaker 3: worked with police, community people within our office here to

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Speaker 3: risk assess and say, right, you know, what's the best

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Speaker 3: thing right now to keep people safe from that community.

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Speaker 3: And decision was made to close the school on Monday

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Speaker 3: and Tuesday, knowing that that very significant meeting was happening

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Speaker 3: on Tuesday, and obviously we want people to be available

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Speaker 3: and be able to attend that. And then after after

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Speaker 3: the meeting on the Wednesday, we needed to see that

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Speaker 3: things were beginning to settle before we could make the

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Speaker 3: court return. So we had people the school open again

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Speaker 3: yesterday and we're remaining open from now on. Is our intent.

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Speaker 3: It is very, very reluctantly. We would you even dream

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Speaker 3: of closing the school. Kids meet and education.

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Speaker 1: We're there to provide it absolutely, and you know, I

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Speaker 1: know that teachers want to be able to do that

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Speaker 1: as well, want to be able to remain open. But

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Speaker 1: sometimes you know these things are out of your control,

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Speaker 1: and you know to some degree, what were the teachers

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Speaker 1: saying to you throughout this week, how are they feeling

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Speaker 1: at this point?

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Speaker 3: Look, I had I actually was visited the school week

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Speaker 3: before last, and I sat with teachers and listened to

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Speaker 3: what their experience of the community was. And look the

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Speaker 3: disappointment that people had that you know, these things were occurring,

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Speaker 3: that they know that it's, as I said, a beautiful

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Speaker 3: place down there, and this isn't normal for the community

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Speaker 3: at all, and you know, and it's up to the

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Speaker 3: community to be working through how that's going to get

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Speaker 3: resolved and dealt with. The school's not that's not the

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Speaker 3: school's business. Our business is to keep is open. But

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Speaker 3: it's fair to say that the staff were saying, Look,

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Speaker 3: it's really tough when you don't sleep all night because

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Speaker 3: there's stuff happening and they need to be aware of

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Speaker 3: you know, you know this this, you know what's happening

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Speaker 3: within the community, and it's pretty tough when you got

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Speaker 3: to come to school and work, or for kids to

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Speaker 3: come to school and learn. When people met up all night,

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Speaker 3: you know, and that's a safety in itself, isn't it.

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Speaker 3: That that stress of you know, of having a coat

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Speaker 3: with that anxiety is around it, you know, so that

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Speaker 3: looks the schools, but then setting you know, we're a

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Speaker 3: safe place. We want to be somewhere where during the day, staff, kids,

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Speaker 3: families know that it's a safe place within the community.

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Speaker 3: And that's been our mantra the whole way through it.

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Speaker 3: You know, if there's anything happening in the community, believe

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Speaker 3: at the gate we get into the school, this is

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Speaker 3: where educating. It's a safe place.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the way. That's the way it has to.

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Speaker 3: Remain sometimes absolutely, you know, you want it.

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Speaker 1: To be a situation where kids are still able to

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Speaker 1: go to school no matter what I mean, did any

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Speaker 1: arrangements have to be made at any point to try

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Speaker 1: and keep the kids learning when they weren't able to

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Speaker 1: head to school.

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Speaker 3: Look, we've actually had a fairly big impact of the

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Speaker 3: unrest on attendance at the school, and I think everyone

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Speaker 3: would understand and be aware of that coming to and

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Speaker 3: from school. That's something that you know where parents and

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Speaker 3: families would be aware they need to keep things safe

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Speaker 3: there for their kids. And you know, some families have

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Speaker 3: chosen just temporarily while things are beginning to settle, and

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Speaker 3: I'm grateful that, as you said in the introduction, that

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Speaker 3: they're beginning to that they have had some time out

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Speaker 3: of community and make on somewhere else to be for

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Speaker 3: a little bit of time. That's all stuff that parents

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Speaker 3: make decisions around looking after their kids. So but the

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Speaker 3: reality is that it has had an impact on the

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Speaker 3: attendance school and you know, we are like yet on Wednesday,

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Speaker 3: for example, when you know, the school might have been

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Speaker 3: close to students, but staff were there and we were

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Speaker 3: preparing learning packs in the eventuality that we did have

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Speaker 3: to remain closed for longer and if at some point

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Speaker 3: in the future we did have to again, well we've

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Speaker 3: got some learning packs there set to go to help distribute.

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Speaker 3: You know that there's issues then have been able to

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Speaker 3: move around the community to distribute them because of you know,

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Speaker 3: the I guess the unrest that's there that you know,

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Speaker 3: as I said, we're hopeful that's all settling. And I'm

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Speaker 3: grateful that, you know, people from the community have come

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Speaker 3: together with others to talk about these matters. And I know,

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Speaker 3: for example that one of the initiatives that came out

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Speaker 3: of Tuesday's meeting was education. I said, we want to

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Speaker 3: keep the school open. We recognize the impacts having we

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Speaker 3: need to find ways to make sure that that occurs,

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Speaker 3: so that I was very grateful that. I thought it's

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Speaker 3: very appropriate, and I thought, you know that that's the

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Speaker 3: sort of thing you want to hear from those communities.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you know, education is the key to so

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Speaker 1: many different things and is so very important for our youngsters.

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Speaker 1: So I'm really pleased to hear that the school has

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Speaker 1: been able to get back open and hopefully remains as

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Speaker 1: uninterrupted as possible.

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Speaker 3: It's a big, big priority for us. And as I said,

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Speaker 3: these were the first days this whole semester. They're worse

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Speaker 3: some days earlier in this year where there were some

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Speaker 3: similar concerns around unrest. And I'll be out front about that,

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Speaker 3: but you know, I think all up due to unrest,

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Speaker 3: it's of five or six days or something the whole year,

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Speaker 3: you know, but that's you know, that's something we hope

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Speaker 3: becomes less and less and said, I'm very grateful for

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Speaker 3: the efforts of the community, and that's that's with them.

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Speaker 3: We'll keep the school going, and I'm grateful the communities

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Speaker 3: addressing the things that need addressing there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely well.

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Speaker 1: Catholic Education int Director Paul Greaves, who really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this morning, No.

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Speaker 3: Worries, Thanks Katie, thank you give people an update.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, Thanks so much,