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Speaker 1: Well, we are certainly breaking down the budget today, both budgets.

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Speaker 1: We've had a Northern Territory budget delivered yesterday and of

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Speaker 1: course the federal budget delivered overnight. Both the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister and indeed the Federal Treasurer joining us on

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Speaker 1: the show earlier this morning to talk us through some

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Speaker 1: of the details. But look, joining me in the studio

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Speaker 1: right now from Mt. Shelter, we have got the Head

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Speaker 1: of Operations, Annie Taylor. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Annie, good morning, thanks for having me in lovely.

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Speaker 1: To have you on the show. And of course the CEO,

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Speaker 1: Peter McMillan, Good morning to Youattie. How are you? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Really well, Now, before we get into that budget breakdown, Peter,

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Speaker 1: I understand there's been a bit of good breaking news.

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Speaker 3: Has Katie. I mean, this is marvelous, it really is.

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Speaker 3: And I mean, you know, on the program before we've

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Speaker 3: spoken about the funding that we get for home this

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Speaker 3: is here in our Northern Territory and how we've been

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Speaker 3: getting around nineteen million dollars or one percent of the

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Speaker 3: one point six billion dollars, and just how inadequate that's been.

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Speaker 3: So we've been calling for funding based on need for

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Speaker 3: many years now as had members from from the sector,

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Speaker 3: and I'm really delighted to say that we've received a

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Speaker 3: sevenfold increase in the amount of funding for homelessness. Wow,

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Speaker 3: seven times the amount we were getting so before. Specifically

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Speaker 3: for the homeless sector, the figures around five point nine million,

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Speaker 3: six million. In this budget, it's been increased to forty

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Speaker 3: two point eight million dollars, which is going to make

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's music to areas. We could not be

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Speaker 3: happier in terms of the fact that you know, we've

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Speaker 3: been advocating alongside a Northern Territory government now for some

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Speaker 3: time around funding being based on need under this new

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Speaker 3: National Partnership Agreement, and people have been listening and acting

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Speaker 3: decisively so that now we can actually make some inroads

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Speaker 3: into the really important aspect of supporting all those people,

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Speaker 3: giving them a services they need to help get their

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Speaker 3: lives back on track.

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Speaker 1: I mean, to go from five point nine million to

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Speaker 1: forty odd million dollars is an astronomical increase. So is

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Speaker 1: that that's federal funding.

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Speaker 3: That's federal funding, and I mean that's in addition to

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Speaker 3: what the territory government's in, which is more than the

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Speaker 3: money it's been getting from the Commonwealth. I think, you know,

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Speaker 3: it's been such an important milestone that we've been trying

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Speaker 3: to achieve that the principle at all Australians need to

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Speaker 3: have equal access to a house and to a home

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Speaker 3: and to the services that are going to get them

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Speaker 3: either back to country or get them the clothing or

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Speaker 3: the shelter that they need, financial assistance, you name it.

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Speaker 3: Our sector is very small up here. They do an

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Speaker 3: amazing job. It's not really well understood the hurdles are

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Speaker 3: up against. But this will now be a massive investment

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Speaker 3: in the people that are doing that work. It allows

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Speaker 3: us to establish programs that we simply don't have in

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Speaker 3: the territory and across more regions. So now we've really

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Speaker 3: got a really great problem to have and how are

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Speaker 3: we going to make sure we spend that money wisely

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Speaker 3: and get the best value for money. But it's wonderful news.

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Speaker 3: I can't emphasize that enough.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of I mean operationally, how is that

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Speaker 1: going to roll out and what could it potentially mean?

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Speaker 2: Annie, Well, you know, it's really good news and it

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Speaker 2: could mean all sorts of things. We'd like to see

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Speaker 2: some of that money focused on preventing homelessness from happening.

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Speaker 2: In the first place, we have such high rates of

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Speaker 2: homelessness here. We've got one in twenty five people in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory are seeking assistance from homelessness services every year.

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Speaker 2: So if we can prevent that from happening, how fantastic.

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Speaker 2: But it will also be for things like outreach for

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Speaker 2: people who are sleeping rough in and around Darwin and

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Speaker 2: other urban centers of the Northern Territory. It could be

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Speaker 2: used for crisis accommodation to get people off the streets

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Speaker 2: if it's if it's you know, particularly wet weather or

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Speaker 2: cold weather, if you're down further south. So there's a

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Speaker 2: number of ways that that funding could be used. And

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Speaker 2: what we're wanting to see now is the sector and

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Speaker 2: t Shelter, the government come together to really plan how

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Speaker 2: we can best allocate and spend that money so it's

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Speaker 2: used in the best way that it can be and

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Speaker 2: so that we actually get the best results we can

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Speaker 2: for the people who really need it the most.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and we know that homelessness has such a

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Speaker 1: huge impact in so many different ways right around the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory as well. So if there are that we

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Speaker 1: can try and prevent that in the first instance, it

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Speaker 1: would surely be a good thing. Now, talk us through

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Speaker 1: in terms of the Northern Territory and federal budgets being delivered,

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Speaker 1: what are we expecting to see when it comes to

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Speaker 1: dealing with the issues of homelessness.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's also really great from the federal government. We've

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Speaker 2: seen some money being portioned off specifically for people for

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Speaker 2: women and children largely who are escaping domestic and family violence.

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Speaker 2: So that's one billion dollars total. The Northern Territory is

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Speaker 2: going to get twenty five million of that, and that's

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Speaker 2: really important here in the NT where we've got fifty

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Speaker 2: six percent of people who access homelessness services who are

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Speaker 2: doing so due to domestic family violence. So if we

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Speaker 2: can support those people, that's fabulous. Also, some of that

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Speaker 2: money can be used for young people. Young people under

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Speaker 2: twenty five are almost fifty percent of the anti's homeless population.

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Speaker 2: So how great would it be if we can prevent

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Speaker 2: homelessness from happening at all amongst that cohort and really

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Speaker 2: support them to get adequate accommodation.

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Speaker 1: When you talk about domestic violence as well, and you

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Speaker 1: know the issue that we've got with some women and

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Speaker 1: children not having places to go when they are suffering

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Speaker 1: from domestic violence. I mean, like, how serious is it

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Speaker 1: that we do increase the volume of housing or crisis

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Speaker 1: shelter that we've got for them.

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Speaker 2: It's incredibly important women and children who are accessing domestic

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Speaker 2: family violence refugees need somewhere to go afterwards. And what

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Speaker 2: we're hearing from a lot of our member organizations and

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Speaker 2: our other stakeholders and the domestic family violence sector and

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Speaker 2: the NT is that women are cycling in and out

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Speaker 2: of these crisis accommodation facilities because there's nowhere for them

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Speaker 2: to go afterwards. And that's particularly in the case in

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Speaker 2: the case in places like Tenet, Greek would be obviously

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Speaker 2: a very small urban center and there's no transitional accommodational

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Speaker 2: medium term accommodation to support those people coming out of

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Speaker 2: the crisis refuge down there.

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Speaker 1: Sure, whether we've got this level of detail at the moment,

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Speaker 1: but have we got a bit of a breakdown in

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Speaker 1: terms of both of the budgets, what it means in

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Speaker 1: terms of social housing and also for some of those

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Speaker 1: homelessness services, or are there any kind of any locations

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Speaker 1: that have already been in marked for accommodation or anything

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Speaker 1: like that.

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Speaker 3: Well, what we know, Katie's a lot of the big

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Speaker 3: ticket items have been announced before the budget, and I

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Speaker 3: think we you know, we sometimes come into budget night

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Speaker 3: and look for more stuff, and sometimes we can be

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Speaker 3: a little bit disappointed if we don't see more things

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Speaker 3: in there. We should always recognize what's already been agreed to,

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Speaker 3: and I think the key one of the key things

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Speaker 3: is the funding for remote original housing, that new partnership agreement.

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Speaker 3: That's going to be very, very significant. The work needs

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Speaker 3: to continue. You know, we're still going to around half

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Speaker 3: of the houses in remote communities are severely overcrowded, and

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Speaker 3: we know that around I think is around eighty eight

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Speaker 3: percent of our homelessness is overcrowning. So a lot of

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Speaker 3: work needs to be done there, and we should give

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Speaker 3: both governments cutos for getting on with that work. We

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Speaker 3: know there will also be some extra increase in common

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Speaker 3: Wealth and assistance another ten percent increase, taking up to

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Speaker 3: twenty five percent increase over the last two years, which

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Speaker 3: while we'd like to see more for struggling renters, that's

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Speaker 3: still a big, a big improvement, and there's a lot

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Speaker 3: happening behind the scenes from announcements we've talked about before

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Speaker 3: with the Housing Australia Future Fund and the Social Housing

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Speaker 3: Program that will see more affordable and social housing built

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Speaker 3: as well as well as more housing generally. And what

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Speaker 3: this budget is a really a continuation of is state

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Speaker 3: and territory governments right across Australia trying to get our

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Speaker 3: tradees and our builders back to the business of building

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Speaker 3: new houses which are desperate to need. And we've spoken

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Speaker 3: about this before just with a growing economy, how we

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Speaker 3: need more housing. We need more housing not only for

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Speaker 3: people that are really doing it tough online incomes, but

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Speaker 3: also for key workers and to support a growing population.

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Speaker 3: So there's a lot of commitments in the budget around infrastructure,

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Speaker 3: for building new housing developments, for releasing land, and importantly

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Speaker 3: for really land that's well located and close to the

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Speaker 3: CBD so that we can have keyworkers close to where

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Speaker 3: the jobs are.

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Speaker 1: It does seem as though you know that there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of positives from the budgets for the sector.

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Speaker 1: I mean, are there any areas where we've fallen a

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Speaker 1: bit short or do you feel as though we're doing

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Speaker 1: all right.

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Speaker 2: Well in terms of specific projects. There are some things

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Speaker 2: that we asked for in the Northern Territory budget as

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Speaker 2: part of our pre budget submission. I mentioned transitional accommodation

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Speaker 2: for women and children in Tenet Creek that would have

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Speaker 2: been great to see. Also more accommodation for young people,

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Speaker 2: similar programs to the Youth for Your model, which is

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Speaker 2: the model of youth accommodation that exists in every other

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Speaker 2: Australian jurisdiction, but we don't have one here in the

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Speaker 2: territory because simply we haven't been able to fund it.

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Speaker 2: So having this increase in funding will allow us to

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Speaker 2: look at some of those really innovative and successful programs

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Speaker 2: like the Youth Foryer program and get that built well.

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Speaker 1: Look Obi Vera interested to have a catch up and

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Speaker 1: find out how you know how things are progressing once

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Speaker 1: that money starts to flow through as well. Wonderful to

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Speaker 1: have you both in the studio this morning. I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. Into Shelter's Head of Operations Annie Taylor and

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Speaker 1: CEO Peter McMillan, thank you both so much for your.

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Speaker 2: Time, Thanks for having us.

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Speaker 1: Thank you