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Speaker 1: Joining me live on the line right now is well

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Speaker 1: Ruth Palmer. She's from the Property Council. She's the chief

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Speaker 1: executive of the Property Council here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Ruth.

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Speaker 2: Oh, good morning Katie. I didn't have a top tip

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Speaker 2: for your cubby and core rain tree.

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Speaker 1: I know well, Struth, stop tips were very effective in

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Speaker 1: many other ways, but no, you couldn't do anything to

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Speaker 1: say about I don't.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, Ruthie. How did you fare in the cyclone?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, A couple of trees down and a broken fence,

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Speaker 2: so yeah, I just got to repair that now. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: other than that, we're pretty good because we're in Palmerston,

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Speaker 2: so you know we've got the bonus of the underground power. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I like the others in the Northern suburbs, well that's it.

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Speaker 3: And like even for me this morning, we're still without power.

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Speaker 3: I know I'm not alone.

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Speaker 1: There's about four nine hundred and ninety nine other people

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Speaker 1: I think without power. So those of us without power

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Speaker 1: are probably scratching our heads, going, well are we going

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Speaker 1: to look at under grounding the power?

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Speaker 3: I guess the problem is we've got no bloody money.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and So this is the thing, Katie. There's funds

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Speaker 2: out there available, there's the North Australian Infrastructure Facility. We

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Speaker 2: can urge the Northern Territory government to push the Feds

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Speaker 2: in making this an Infrastructure Australia priority. I mean, this

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Speaker 2: is critical infrastructure that needs to come in. We know

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Speaker 2: we live in an area where we are bone to

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Speaker 2: cyclone activity, but not only that, even through the wet

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Speaker 2: season we see these blackouts. So we really would hope

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Speaker 2: that Northern Territory government can start really talking to the

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Speaker 2: Federal government about the importance of making sure we have

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Speaker 2: that essential enabling infrastructure. If it's a couple one hundred

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Speaker 2: million for that long term benefit, but also out of

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Speaker 2: the back pocket of Territorians losing food in their freezers,

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Speaker 2: you know, trying to go to work, trying to get

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Speaker 2: kids to school when there's no power, I mean, the

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Speaker 2: cost of businesses and like the household just goes up

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Speaker 2: each time, the cost of the cleanup as well, and

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Speaker 2: how water going out all the time, Like surely that'll

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Speaker 2: adds up as well.

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Speaker 1: So raise from your perspective, do you reckon that there

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Speaker 1: is you know that there's potential here that we could

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Speaker 1: actually be getting some federal funding excuse me, federal funding

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Speaker 1: to underground these power lines or at least try to

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Speaker 1: get the job started again.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know there is those other funding bodies

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Speaker 2: as well, like the KNAFE and Infrastructure of Australia. Know

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Speaker 2: this whole developed the North. You know, it's all about

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Speaker 2: Northern Australia and let's develop the North. But you know

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Speaker 2: the purpose of that seems to not be relevant when

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Speaker 2: it comes to our critical infrastructure, like I don't you

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Speaker 2: know the duwn like northern suburbs absolutely needs to have

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Speaker 2: that underground power. And yes, it is going to be costly,

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Speaker 2: might be you know, in the hundreds of millions, but

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Speaker 2: it's something that should be a priority project because every

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Speaker 2: single time, like some people lost power before the storm

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Speaker 2: actually even really hit yea. So but the cost afterwards,

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Speaker 2: year on year or month on month, all adds up

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Speaker 2: to probably the same amount as it would cost for

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Speaker 2: a month off of undergrounding. So you know, it is

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Speaker 2: something that we need to really be pushing and I

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Speaker 2: would really hope that after this, like we're in the

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Speaker 2: first month of the cyclone season, we've still got like

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Speaker 2: a six months ahead, so you know, it's looking like

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Speaker 2: we probably would get more given how early this one

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Speaker 2: has come. So you know, we're really going to start

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Speaker 2: those conversations, and we have to get an authern territory

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Speaker 2: government to be talking to the federal government around the

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Speaker 2: importance of the nt our economic opportunities, you know, this

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Speaker 2: whole resilience piece, but also you know, support cost of

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Speaker 2: living crisis, supporting the people who put food in their

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Speaker 2: freezers and their fridges and have had to throw it

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Speaker 2: all out, like so, you know, this is it's hurting everybody,

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Speaker 2: and you know businesses have suffered as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I wonder as well.

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Speaker 1: Obviously they announced those those payments that some people will

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Speaker 1: be eligible that six hundred dollars. I wonder how many

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Speaker 1: people sort of put that toward, like what they'll put

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Speaker 1: that awards, you know, on a personal, personal sort of basis,

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Speaker 1: and whether it will be able to help them to

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Speaker 1: recover some of the goods that they may indeed have lost.

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Speaker 1: I guess that's a whole separate conversation, but you would

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Speaker 1: think that that costs a heck of a lot of

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Speaker 1: money for everybody to actually receive those emergency payments too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And you know I would encourage every territory

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Speaker 2: and who has been affected to go out and get

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Speaker 2: truckling because it is something then you can now fill

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Speaker 2: your fridge and freezers back up. But again, you know

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Speaker 2: we sort of go, well, when's the next one. People

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Speaker 2: might be a little bit hesitant to be filling their

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Speaker 2: freezers up now, so you go, you know, it's just

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Speaker 2: one of those things that you've got to look at

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Speaker 2: what the benefit is for the long term. But also

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Speaker 2: you know the realistic nature of it is that people

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Speaker 2: are suffering, and especially people with medical conditions or people

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Speaker 2: if they're you know, like the accessibility issues, or if

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Speaker 2: they're in units. You know, these are real people going

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Speaker 2: through these real scenarios and you know we really need

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Speaker 2: to get behind and support that roath.

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Speaker 1: Obviously, we've got a situation where you know where you're

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Speaker 1: calling on the Northern Territory government to speak to the

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Speaker 1: feeds about it. Is it something that you will also

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Speaker 1: be writing to the federal government about.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's definitely something that I can speak with

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Speaker 2: my national team on. I mean, we've gone through and

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Speaker 2: trying to put get priority bridges through Infrastructure Australia before,

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Speaker 2: you know, we need to make sure that every industry

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Speaker 2: group is pushing for this, so it's you need to

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Speaker 2: have everyone backing it. Like if you've only got a

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Speaker 2: couple of submissions, it's probably not going to fly. So

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Speaker 2: we need to make sure that everybody's on board. Industry

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Speaker 2: is working with Northern Territory government, we're all putting in

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Speaker 2: the same message and then sending that really strong that

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Speaker 2: this has to be a priority. You know, our roads

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Speaker 2: and our infrastructure. You know that these are critical to

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Speaker 2: the lifeblood of how the territory needs to operate. You know,

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Speaker 2: we're not We're not just you know, this backyard little town.

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Speaker 2: We're the capital city and we need to be able

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Speaker 2: to demonstrate that we have that resilience to be able

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Speaker 2: to keep our economy going and you know, keeping people

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Speaker 2: in ployed, but also helping you know, it's a population

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Speaker 2: growth piece as well, you know, the retention rate keeping

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Speaker 2: people here. We need to be able to provide them

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Speaker 2: with quality services and the infrastructure to keep them safe,

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Speaker 2: but also to keep them connected.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, Ruth Palmer, it is good to speak to you

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Speaker 1: this morning. Really appreciate your time. Thanks for having a

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Speaker 1: chat with us. And I think they need to come

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Speaker 1: up with some more tips for you know, I wanted

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Speaker 1: to save Tubby.

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Speaker 2: No power Yeah, exactly. Start writing your list out of

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Speaker 2: my own podcast exactly.

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Speaker 3: You'll start your power breath on.

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Speaker 2: Hope you get your power back.

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Speaker 3: On soon, Katie, so do I.

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Speaker 1: Ruthie, thank you, thanks so much, thank you,