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Speaker 1: Well, as we know, yesterday the Northern Territory government committed

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Speaker 1: thirty two million dollars in its two point two billion

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Speaker 1: dollar health budget for new health care facilities. It's going

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Speaker 1: to deliver a one hundred and twenty bit aged care

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Speaker 1: facility in Palmerston. So essentially that work's going to begin

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Speaker 1: with a ten million dollar investment to service the land

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Speaker 1: in the Palmerston Regional Health Precinct for that new facility

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Speaker 1: and two million dollars to provide for the design of

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Speaker 1: the facility. It's amongst a number of other announcements made,

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Speaker 1: including a new twenty million dollar health center for Boro Lula.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line is the Health Minister,

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Speaker 1: Selena Ubo. Good morning to your minister.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, Good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now, first off, can you talk us through the funding

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Speaker 1: for these facilities. It sort of looks like it's three

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Speaker 1: big announcements amongst one.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, Katie. It's quite exciting. Obviously, the country

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Speaker 2: has experienced pressures in health for particularly in the aftermath

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Speaker 2: of COVID, so some good news stories for us here

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Speaker 2: in the territory. We know age care is a big

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Speaker 2: pressure on the rest of the country as well, and

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Speaker 2: we're seeing that here in the Northern Territory. So it's

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Speaker 2: so exciting to be able to announce that ten million

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Speaker 2: dollars of the land servicing for the Palmestan Regional Health Precinct,

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Speaker 2: so it's going to be And also on top of that, Katie,

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Speaker 2: we've got the two million dollars for the design of

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Speaker 2: a new age care facility, so having it purpose built

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Speaker 2: and to relieve that pressure on the wards that the

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Speaker 2: Palmeston Regional Hospital will make a huge difference to our

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Speaker 2: patients and the families who are missing their loved ones

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Speaker 2: who are in that care well.

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Speaker 1: And we know very often in the past and we've

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Speaker 1: spoken about the cod Yellows and the demands on Royal

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Speaker 1: Darwin and also Palmerston Hospital that very sadly unfortunately, we

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Speaker 1: have got a number of older patients and patients with

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Speaker 1: dementia that is sort of being forced to stay at

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Speaker 1: Royal Darwin Hospital for example, because there isn't somewhere that's

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Speaker 1: more appropriate for them.

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Speaker 2: Yes, o, Katie, we've got some high needs age care

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Speaker 2: patients who, as you've said, who are in our hospital,

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Speaker 2: so we'd love to see them in some more facilities

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Speaker 2: that are actually purpose built for those high needs, that

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Speaker 2: can deliver the services of therapeutic care that they need

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Speaker 2: and that they deserve. And to create also that space

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Speaker 2: of you know, more of a homelike experience as opposed

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Speaker 2: to you know, the hospital experience, which unfortunately, we have

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Speaker 2: many long long term age care residents who because of

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Speaker 2: exactly that, there's nothing that necessarily meets that specific need,

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Speaker 2: those high needs. So this will be a way to

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Speaker 2: be able to alleviate that pressure, but to create that

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Speaker 2: more sense of home in what you would what you

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Speaker 2: would want and expect as an age care facility as

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Speaker 2: opposed to a hospital ward for some of our older

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Speaker 2: territorians who do need that special care.

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Speaker 1: So what kind of timeline are we looking at for

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Speaker 1: this one hundred and twenty bait aged care facility.

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, the age care funding is actually a responsibility

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Speaker 2: for the Commonwealth government. So what we've done is we

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Speaker 2: want to be basically, you know, hear the term shovel ready,

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Speaker 2: So we want to be ready for that particular project

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Speaker 2: to have that one hundred and twenty bed age care facility,

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Speaker 2: to be able to get things started as soon as

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Speaker 2: we possibly can. So having the land servicing, which is

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Speaker 2: a huge amount of work, which is why we've got

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Speaker 2: that ten million dollars allocated in this upcoming budget. So

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Speaker 2: getting all of the land servicing done, that's your power,

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Speaker 2: that's your water, your electricity, all of that done, so

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Speaker 2: then we can have that design of scopes, the extra

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Speaker 2: two million dollars to have the multipurpose and the purpose

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Speaker 2: built facility and then look at the funding for the

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Speaker 2: actual building. So that's what we want to do. We

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Speaker 2: want to go to the fens and say, look, this

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Speaker 2: is our own money, we're putting it in. We really

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Speaker 2: need to have this facility here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 2: particularly in the top end. Because of the numbers, we

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Speaker 2: now need to have that as a priority project of

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Speaker 2: the Commonwealth budget as well.

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Speaker 1: What happens if they don't come to the party.

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Speaker 2: Well, we've been very successful in advocating for some projects

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Speaker 2: in the Northern Territory that really create the opportunities for

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Speaker 2: not just economic development, but that's social benefit as well.

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Speaker 2: So we think we've got because of the Commonwealth funding

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Speaker 2: around age care. We think that this will really put

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Speaker 2: us in good stead to get basically a project up

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Speaker 2: and running as soon as the Commonwealth can put their

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Speaker 2: money in as well. I mean it's a bit of

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Speaker 2: a gamble though, right, well it's going to happen, Katie.

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Speaker 2: So I mean you mentioned are you sorry the question

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Speaker 2: was around time frames? I can't give you that of course. Ye.

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Speaker 2: This just shows that we're being proactive. We're not sitting

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Speaker 2: on our backside and waiting around thinking, oh, we'll wait

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Speaker 2: for the Commonwealth to come and save us. This is

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Speaker 2: something we want to show we're proactive. We know territories

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Speaker 2: need this, we know our hospitals need this. We know

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Speaker 2: that those staff who are doing that great job in

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Speaker 2: our hospitals really want to see those patients cared for

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Speaker 2: in a facility that is purpose built and created for

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Speaker 2: those senior Territorians.

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Speaker 1: Now, I understand in the past though expressions of interest

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Speaker 1: for an age care have been unsuccessful. Why was that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it has been, Katie, And it's because of what

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Speaker 2: I have been understanding during this portfolio is that it's

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Speaker 2: looking at what the financial viability is for, for example,

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Speaker 2: a private provider. We know we've got some really awesome

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Speaker 2: providers here in the Northern Territory who deliver great care

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Speaker 2: and service in the age care sector. But having a

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Speaker 2: new facility also comes with obviously operational costs, staffing cost

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Speaker 2: So having a facility that is a larger scale like

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Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty makes it more financially viable. So

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Speaker 2: having small yeah, so having smaller bed size of capacity

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Speaker 2: becomes a little bit more niche and it doesn't necessarily

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Speaker 2: offset the costs, but that provider may get from the

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Speaker 2: FEDS to run that age care facility. So having a

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Speaker 2: larger facility that is financially viable means that we could

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Speaker 2: get a possibly a national provider as well as seeing

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Speaker 2: what other anti local providers may tender.

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Speaker 1: Now Judas has message through. She said, good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: I thought this funding was offered years ago.

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Speaker 2: The project and the minus standing Katie, is the project

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Speaker 2: and the idea was offered, but we didn't put the money,

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Speaker 2: the actual cash against the project. So this is the

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Speaker 2: cash against the project to get those headworks in to

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Speaker 2: make sure that the project can be up and running.

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Speaker 2: The two in for the scope and design means that

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Speaker 2: we can have that plan ready to go. As I mentioned,

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Speaker 2: you know the term shovel.

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Speaker 1: Ready, but we don't really have a year or a

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Speaker 1: date of when exactly it's going to actually get started.

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Speaker 2: No, not in the headworks will start, yes, as soon

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Speaker 2: as this money goes through for the end of this

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Speaker 2: financial so the beginning of the next financial year. But

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Speaker 2: in terms of the build of the facility, that would

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Speaker 2: all have to come after the scope and design work,

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Speaker 2: which is that two million dollars that we put towards

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Speaker 2: the project.

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Speaker 1: Now, it's not the only thing that was announced. We

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Speaker 1: know that there was also also a couple of other

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Speaker 1: things well, I believe for boril Lauler as well. Wasn't

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Speaker 1: there a healthcare facility for boro Lula, Yes, Katie.

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Speaker 2: If anyone has been out to borrow Lula and or

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Speaker 2: holidayed in that beautiful pocket of the Northern Territory, king

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Speaker 2: Ash Bay, if you've been out there borol Lula, you know,

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Speaker 2: a pretty good sized town in the Northern Territory, but

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Speaker 2: a very old, outdated and underresourced facility in terms of

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Speaker 2: the clinic that's out there at borol Lulla. So the

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Speaker 2: twenty million dollars towards the new Borolula clinic is going

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Speaker 2: to be fantastic news, not just for boro Lulla township,

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Speaker 2: but people in the region, people visiting in that region,

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Speaker 2: and then having multipurpose parts of the design, like a

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Speaker 2: new renal center built into the new design. At the

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Speaker 2: moment it's a separate annex to the Boro Lulla site.

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Speaker 2: So very old, outdated and definitely outgrown the needs in

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Speaker 2: that region. So this is great news for Boro Lula

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Speaker 2: in the region.

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Speaker 1: Minister. Before I let you go this morning, I know

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Speaker 1: you'll press for time, and we were running a little

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Speaker 1: bit late. But it is being reported by the ABC

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Speaker 1: Online today that Tonguan Geer Council Aboriginal Corporation has been

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Speaker 1: criticized for a range of alleged governance issues. Its chief executive,

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Speaker 1: Walter Show, has remained silent and has declined to meet

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Speaker 1: with local government and other stakeholders. The Northern Territory Chief

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Speaker 1: Minister says both the Northern Territory and federal governments must

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Speaker 1: take responsibility for holding them accountable for the thirty million

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Speaker 1: dollars that they receive in annual funding. To me, it

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Speaker 1: seems unbelievable that, according to this report, an organization which

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Speaker 1: employs about three hundred people hasn't released an annual report

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Speaker 1: since twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, I not across any of those details, but

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Speaker 2: I know that we've worked very closer at Tunganjeer around

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Speaker 2: the upgrades of the new houses that are being built

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Speaker 2: in the seventeen town camps of Alice Springs and Tonguanjier

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Speaker 2: is the governing body for that, So that's something that

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Speaker 2: I'll be following very closely. But that it's news to me,

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Speaker 2: and I'm not across that detail of why they haven't

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Speaker 2: released an annual report.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, we'll try and follow it up because

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Speaker 1: I think for a lot of people listening, they would

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Speaker 1: be thinking to themselves, every organization that receives either federal

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Speaker 1: or Northern Territory funding should be really providing that detail

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Speaker 1: because it's taxpayers dollars, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's taxpayers dollars. And it also shows you know,

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Speaker 2: what is it that the service is providing for territorians

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Speaker 2: who reach out and rely on that service that Tongue

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Speaker 2: and You provide. So it's very important to have that accountability.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it most certainly is. Well, look, we will talk

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Speaker 1: further about this throughout this morning. Always appreciate your time,

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Speaker 1: Minister for Health, selena Ubo, thank you.

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Speaker 2: Likewise, thank you, Katie, thank you