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Speaker 1: We know that yesterday.

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Speaker 2: There were varied opinions yesterday as that vision had emerged

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Speaker 2: to protesters following the Chief Minister setting up amateur social

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Speaker 2: media opportunities as they protested fracking. Well, the Chief Minister

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Speaker 2: was attempting to run the west Max Monster on the weekend. Now,

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Speaker 2: the Chief Minister joins me in the studio right now,

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.

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Speaker 2: Now, Chief Minister, you seem pretty shaken by that incident

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Speaker 2: from the vision that I've seen. Do you feel it

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Speaker 2: was appropriate for those protesters to follow you around the

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Speaker 2: course while you took part in that event.

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Speaker 4: No, Katie, harassment is never okay, And I felt really

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Speaker 4: terrible for the event organizers. They put on such a

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Speaker 4: professional event. There was other competitors that were impacted. And

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Speaker 4: I think, Katie, I make myself really accessible. I love

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Speaker 4: being a part of the community. I love attending community events.

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Speaker 4: I chose in my own time to train for that event.

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Speaker 4: I absolutely get I'm the Chief Minister. I'm always on Judy,

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Speaker 4: but I just think it went too far and it

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Speaker 4: was harassment.

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Speaker 2: Look, I can see that it is still something that

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Speaker 2: has affected you, and I think the part that I

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Speaker 2: didn't like about it is I understand that if they

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Speaker 2: are at the finish line and wanted to protest, I

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Speaker 2: think that that's fair game. You know, that is something

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Speaker 2: that they're well and truly entitled to do. But what

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Speaker 2: people may not sort of understand about the West Max

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Speaker 2: Monster is that you're quite often in different areas totally

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Speaker 2: on your own. It's not like a normal fun run

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Speaker 2: where there are other people around you. So to then

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Speaker 2: feel as I will actually be getting followed, I just

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Speaker 2: sort of crossed the line. And I know that when

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Speaker 2: you're in the public eye, you have to be prepared

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Speaker 2: that not everybody's going to agree with what you do.

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Speaker 2: They're going to be angry at you at different times,

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Speaker 2: but there is a time and a place, Katie.

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Speaker 3: I take that. I make myself very accessible.

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Speaker 4: I don't mind people stopping me when I'm out and

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Speaker 4: about in the community, and I can then direct them best,

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Speaker 4: you know how, we can try and help them with

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Speaker 4: their concern or for me to hear their feedback. But

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Speaker 4: on the West Max you have no phone range, you

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Speaker 4: are going up and down hills, you are on a trail,

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Speaker 4: and I just think it was inappropriate and I was

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Speaker 4: you know, felt terrible that it took away from the event.

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Speaker 4: It was unsportsmanlike and I think quite frankly unterritorian.

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Speaker 2: Look. I know that there are a lot of concerns

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Speaker 2: this morning still when you talk about crime, so I

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Speaker 2: want to move along to that because that is something

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Speaker 2: that a lot of people are very worried about. And

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Speaker 2: there was an attack on a cab driver in broad

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Speaker 2: daylight on Temple Terrace on Monday, was just after midday.

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Speaker 2: This driver Will had a knife thrown at him, shattering

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Speaker 2: the window of that taxi. The attack and others have

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Speaker 2: left industry members feeling very worried about their safety. Blue

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Speaker 2: taxis Helen Patchoor saying to nine News Darwin last night

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Speaker 2: that they feel like no one's there to protect drivers

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Speaker 2: and no one's looking out for them, that it is

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Speaker 2: not safe at work. What is the government doing to

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Speaker 2: keep people like Dave, that victim safe.

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Speaker 4: Katie, And that was a terrible incident, and we're doing

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Speaker 4: everything we can to make sure that we keep our

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Speaker 4: community safe. And we're working right across government, not just

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Speaker 4: you know, waiting for the police. We're trying to stop

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Speaker 4: the behaviors before they happen. We're working on that knife strategy.

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Speaker 4: I think having a strategy is really important, making sure

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Speaker 4: that we have a whole of government response to stamp

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Speaker 4: out knife crime in our community with involvement from police, education,

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Speaker 4: mental health and others.

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Speaker 2: Now on that, the Acting Police Commissioner last week flag

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Speaker 2: those changes when it comes to knife crime. We know

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Speaker 2: that officers have been sent into state to look at

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Speaker 2: what Queensland are doing.

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Speaker 1: When can we expect to.

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Speaker 2: Actually see some movement on that because I think a

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Speaker 2: lot of people feeling right now that the government's looking

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Speaker 2: at a lot of things or reviewing different things, but

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Speaker 2: not actually taking the action that's needed.

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Speaker 4: No, Katie, I get that sense of urgency, and so

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Speaker 4: we're looking at around the knife crime and what changes

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Speaker 4: were made in Queensland and what we would do here

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Speaker 4: in the territory because that's quite specifics around precincts, but

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Speaker 4: I think it is certainly in the feedback I've had

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Speaker 4: from our police is that they feel it may be

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Speaker 4: something useful in the territory. The second part, Katie, is

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Speaker 4: that Bow review and that work is happening with a

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Speaker 4: sense of urgency. We've got Parliament at the end of July,

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Speaker 4: which I know is still some weeks away, but I'm

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Speaker 4: hoping that that work can start to give us some information,

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Speaker 4: start to wrap up so that if we did need

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Speaker 4: to make legislative changes, we could potentially. We've got July

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Speaker 4: and August sittings very close together, so there's a real

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Speaker 4: sense of urgency from us.

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Speaker 2: So end of July, hopefully we're going to see some

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Speaker 2: legislative changes when it comes to that review into bail laws.

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Speaker 4: So Katie, we're doing a full review into the bail

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Speaker 4: weapons offenses, And for me, I think that that end

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Speaker 4: of July sittings is a timeframe if we need to

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Speaker 4: make those changes, and the review will showcase to us.

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Speaker 2: I mean, surely what has happened over recent months does

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Speaker 2: demonstrate to you that we need to make some changes.

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Speaker 2: Like I know that you are somebody who is out

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Speaker 2: there that cares about the community, Like surely from what

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Speaker 2: you are seeing, based on the terrible, terrible situations that

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Speaker 2: we are seeing, particularly with knife crime, that you feel

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Speaker 2: this needs to happen sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 4: I just want to make it clear to the listeners, Katie,

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Speaker 4: in terms of bail, both police and the courts cannot

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Speaker 4: issue bail, so there's absolutely protections there right now, but

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Speaker 4: it's looking into these intricacies around the presumption and around

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Speaker 4: which offenses and which types of behavior. So we have

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Speaker 4: strong laws already, but if we need to do more,

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Speaker 4: we will.

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Speaker 2: So what specifically do you think there could be some

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Speaker 2: strengthening on.

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Speaker 4: So, Katie, when you look at the offenses around weapons,

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Speaker 4: you've got controlled prohibited, and so it's looking at where

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Speaker 4: the different classifications set and also making sure that we

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Speaker 4: don't inadvertently make changes because unfortunately, people that perpetrate these

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Speaker 4: crimes can use any type of objects, So we need

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Speaker 4: to make sure that it's practical. And that's where I

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Speaker 4: come back to that point that police and the courts,

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Speaker 4: if they feel someone is a danger to the community,

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Speaker 4: they cannot issue bail.

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Speaker 2: I mean there are situations though we're in a lot

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Speaker 2: of normal people's eyes, there are people that are out

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Speaker 2: on bail that simply shouldn't be, Like, it doesn't meet

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Speaker 2: the public's expectations.

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Speaker 1: So how do you measure up the.

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Speaker 2: Changes the review that you're looking into to make sure

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Speaker 2: that it actually meets the expectations of the community, because

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Speaker 2: people are pretty broken.

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Speaker 4: I think Katie, that police absolutely work extremely hard. They

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Speaker 4: understand the community's expectation and.

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Speaker 2: We're giving them more resourcing that and it really irks

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Speaker 2: me actually when the government says that, you know, the

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Speaker 2: block that go you fall back on that because everybody

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Speaker 2: knows the police are working very hard.

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Speaker 1: No one's disputing that.

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Speaker 2: What they're wondering is if they have got all of

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Speaker 2: the measures and all of the tools in their belt

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Speaker 2: that they need to do their jobs. But also the

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Speaker 2: offenders that shouldn't be out on bail aren't let out

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Speaker 2: on bail by the courts.

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Speaker 4: And Katie, sorry, that was the point that I was

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Speaker 4: getting to. For me, it's about making sure that police

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Speaker 4: have all the tools to do their job. And in

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Speaker 4: the budget there was significant money in there for justice,

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Speaker 4: domestic and family violence. We know that that sadly is

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Speaker 4: a large part of this, but making sure there's the

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Speaker 4: money there for corrections to make sure that people are

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Speaker 4: in prison, they're being held on remand but they're also

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Speaker 4: going through the programs so that they don't just come

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Speaker 4: back out and continue the same behaviors which make our

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Speaker 4: community unsafe.

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Speaker 2: All right, So just to go back to that reviewing

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Speaker 2: to the bar laws, you are hoping that it will

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Speaker 2: be complete and that by the July the end of

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Speaker 2: July sittings that if there needs to be legislative changes,

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Speaker 2: that's when they'll be introduced.

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Speaker 4: Katie, correct, it's not something that's going to drag on

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Speaker 4: to the end of the year. We absolutely get that

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Speaker 4: sense of urgency from the community.

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Speaker 2: Now let me ask you about that the knife You

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Speaker 2: know the different measures, then with the knife crime, how

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Speaker 2: soon can we expect some changes there?

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Speaker 4: So in terms of knife crime, this is something we've

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Speaker 4: seen as an emerging issue around the world and different jurisdictions,

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Speaker 4: different cities have taken a knife crime strategy and so

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Speaker 4: it's looking at a number of factors. So the Attorney

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Speaker 4: General is undertaking that work. So that's separate to the

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Speaker 4: bail review.

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Speaker 2: But would it be something because when I spoke to

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Speaker 2: the Acting Police Commissioner last week he had said that

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Speaker 2: body of work is happening, but there may need to

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Speaker 2: be legislative changes.

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Speaker 3: So Katie, there's two parts to that.

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Speaker 4: There's a knife crime strategy work, but there's also Queensland

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Speaker 4: have made changes and Northern Territory police have been across

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Speaker 4: to Queensland meeting with counterparts looking at those changes that

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Speaker 4: they made. Around preventing knife crime and so we're also

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Speaker 4: looking into that and that's quite down.

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Speaker 1: The path that work. What's the timeframe.

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Speaker 4: I'd have to get advice from police on that, Katie,

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Speaker 4: But that work is around precincts and so you'd have

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Speaker 4: an area, so the Darwin CBD, for example, the Casarina

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Speaker 4: Bus Interchange Square area, maybe the Palmerston CBD. So it's

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Speaker 4: focusing on a precinct where you do see higher rates

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Speaker 4: of this type of behavior and how we can support

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Speaker 4: police to give them the tools to stop the behaviors

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Speaker 4: before it ends up being a crime committed.

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Speaker 2: Now, yesterday on the show, the Member for Solomon, Luke Gosling,

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Speaker 2: said he wants to see more done when it comes

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Speaker 2: to youth diversion.

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Speaker 1: He said that people are.

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Speaker 2: Asking him why we don't have somewhere like Wildman River

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Speaker 2: and he's having discussions with the Federal Attorney General about

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Speaker 2: something like this. Has he had discussions with you about

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Speaker 2: this and are we going to see some additional youth

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Speaker 2: diversion facilities?

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Speaker 4: So, Katie, we have been talking to the Commonwealth, including

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Speaker 4: Luke Gosling, the Member for Solomon.

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Speaker 3: We've got the Barkley Youth.

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Speaker 4: Work camp, and that's a facility that we've been building

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Speaker 4: down in the Barkley. So it is a facility where

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Speaker 4: young people will be held, but they can participate in

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Speaker 4: meaningful activities and be out there repaying back to the community.

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Speaker 4: So that facility, I anticipate will open in the next

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Speaker 4: couple of months. I'd have to get you a specific timeframe.

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Speaker 4: So that's something that provides that. Obviously, we're building a

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Speaker 4: new Dondale Youth detention facility. Obviously we've got a range

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Speaker 4: of diversion programs with different providers, but that's a physical

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Speaker 4: facility that young people can either be held on remand

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Speaker 4: or be sent to.

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Speaker 2: I took from the discussion with Luke Goslin yesterday that

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Speaker 2: he's talking about something additional, so he's talking about something

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Speaker 2: up here in the top end.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely open to more locations, Katie. And when you look

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Speaker 4: at the diversion programs that we've got that can be

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Speaker 4: the court ordered diversion or police diversion, we do have

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Speaker 4: a number of providers that utilize different facilities and we'd

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Speaker 4: be very open to more.

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Speaker 2: Are you still planning to raise the age of criminal responsibility?

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Speaker 2: Because I know that that's something that gets usked all

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Speaker 2: the time. And are those programs actually in place to

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Speaker 2: support that happening, because again a lot of people are

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Speaker 2: feeling like they can't see it.

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Speaker 4: The programs have to be in place before we can

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Speaker 4: make that change, Katie. We are working towards that, and

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Speaker 4: this is around making sure because what we see as

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Speaker 4: young people are charged with the courts, it goes through

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Speaker 4: the process of police getting all the evidence and it

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Speaker 4: gets to court and they're found to be dollar incapac

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Speaker 4: so not having a cognitive understanding of what has happened,

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Speaker 4: and it gets thrown out. We want to make sure

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Speaker 4: that young people, if they commit an offense, that they

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Speaker 4: understand the consequences of their behavior immediately.

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Speaker 2: Now another question that I've got obviously, this twenty thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars relocation announced by the acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy

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Speaker 2: last week.

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Speaker 1: How's that going to be funded?

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Speaker 4: So, Katie, we're really focused on retention. We've got amazing

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Speaker 4: police officers. We want to retain them. We want to

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Speaker 4: make sure that we've got a professional, flexible EBA and

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Speaker 4: workforce that supports them. We also want to get back

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Speaker 4: some offices that we may have recently had leave the

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Speaker 4: force and we want to attract people to the territory

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Speaker 4: and so the commissioner has the ability, the acting commissioner

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Speaker 4: to provide, you know, making sure that he can help

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Speaker 4: people relocate and provide some cash bonuses to get them here.

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Speaker 4: So he's got that ability, So current or new funding, Katie,

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Speaker 4: there was new funding for police in the budget, but

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Speaker 4: my understanding is he currently has that ability and there's

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Speaker 4: funding there.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so not needing additional funding from the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: government at this point.

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Speaker 4: If we need to provide police with more funding because

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Speaker 4: they are recruiting more police officers and retaining more police officers,

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Speaker 4: we will do that.

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Speaker 3: But he's got that power within his existing budget.

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Speaker 2: Now where are things that with the recruitment of a

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Speaker 2: new police commissioner, So.

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Speaker 4: Katie, I think it's not far off from being advertised.

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Speaker 4: It'll go through an independent recruitment process.

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Speaker 2: And so when do you anticipate that we will know

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Speaker 2: who the police commission is going to be like by

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Speaker 2: the end of the year or sooner.

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Speaker 4: I would hope sooner, Katie. I think it's important that

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Speaker 4: we do provide that certainty for our police force.

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Speaker 3: But as I said, it'll go through an independent recruitment process.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: A massive issue that we spoke about last week is

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Speaker 2: school counselors. There's been moves to have a more which

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Speaker 2: sees those really important school counselors covering a number of

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Speaker 2: different schools sort of roving I guess you might say,

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Speaker 2: moved out of locations like Casuarina Senior College. It's a

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Speaker 2: real concern for the students. They actually came on the

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Speaker 2: show last week a couple of them and spoke to

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Speaker 2: me and spoke about the concerns that they've got, as

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Speaker 2: did nt Cogzo.

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Speaker 1: And I've got to tell you we had.

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Speaker 2: A lot of parents in contact with us saying Katie,

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Speaker 2: those school counselor jobs are so incredibly important. You know

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Speaker 2: that they have helped out enormously with their children. So

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Speaker 2: where are we moving to with this? Has the department

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Speaker 2: made a wrong step?

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Speaker 4: So, Katie, as a former teacher, I've seen firsthand how

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Speaker 4: a school counselor based in a school can support young

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Speaker 4: people and a really important role. So the Minister for

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Speaker 4: Education is watching this very closely. I think part of

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Speaker 4: the issues there's a national shortage of qualified professionals to

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Speaker 4: support the mental health of young people, and that's a

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Speaker 4: separate issue that's being addressed. What the Department have done

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Speaker 4: is that trying to make sure that more young people

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Speaker 4: have access to these counselors. But Katie, we are watching

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Speaker 4: this very closely because it has to work for our schools,

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Speaker 4: our young people, and their families. The concern that I've

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Speaker 4: got is that we're going, Okay, we want more young

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Speaker 4: people to have access to the school counselors, but there's

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Speaker 4: not actually enough of them.

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Speaker 1: So what we're doing is making it a.

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Speaker 2: Half assed job for one of a better word, where

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Speaker 2: you've sort of got one school counselor trying to cover

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Speaker 2: too many schools to be able to af ford your

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Speaker 2: relationship with students.

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Speaker 4: So, Katie, my understanding is some schools have got counselors

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Speaker 4: themselves that because schools have additional budget that they can

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Speaker 4: utilize to different things. Other schools have got well being programs,

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Speaker 4: and so making sure that we're broadly providing that mental

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Speaker 4: health support and then those young people that do need

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Speaker 4: to see a qualified counselor that those counselors are available

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Speaker 4: to them whilst they're recruiting more people to the position.

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Speaker 2: So are these changes definitely going to go ahead or

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Speaker 2: do you realistically think that you know that there does

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Speaker 2: need to be some further discussion here to make sure

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Speaker 2: the model actually suits our kids, to ensure that our

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Speaker 2: kids well being is paramount.

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Speaker 3: Correct, Katie.

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Speaker 4: And the Department, as I understand, is undertaking ongoing consultations,

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Speaker 4: so they are trying to recruit so that we've got

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Speaker 4: more resources, but they do need to listen to those

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Speaker 4: schools and the parents and the young people themselves. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean thirty odd school counselors for one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty schools I think we've got around the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: To me, it just does not seem enough. Katie.

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Speaker 4: I think that it's around making sure that there is

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Speaker 4: well being and mental health support programs across all of

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Speaker 4: our schools, and then we also have school counselors coming

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Speaker 4: in that's an important role. So it's making sure that

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Speaker 4: there's a range of resources to support young people. It's

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Speaker 4: not easy being a teenager.

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Speaker 2: Now I want to move on because this situation involving

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Speaker 2: Colleen Guinn, it's an interesting one and in a report

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Speaker 2: by Matt Cunningham from Sky News, it was reported that

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Speaker 2: police said the whole job is gone, but kept investigating

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Speaker 2: her for over sixteen months after now four to ten dives,

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Speaker 2: cased her home, tapped her phone, bugged her office all

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Speaker 2: over an employment matter.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any idea how much that cost?

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Speaker 3: Katie?

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Speaker 4: Any questions in relationship that would have to be directed

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Speaker 4: to police? I mean, do you think that it's appropriate, Katie?

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Speaker 4: I'm very restricted in what I can say. Miss Gwen

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Speaker 4: is a public servant, she's on a period of leave

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Speaker 4: of absence to consider her next steps, and there's an

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Speaker 4: acting Children's commissioner, But questions around that matter should be

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Speaker 4: directed to police.

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Speaker 2: I mean, why do you think, though police were putting

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Speaker 2: so much effort into this when we know across the

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Speaker 2: board we have got so much, so many issues with crime.

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Speaker 2: It seems as though it is a you know, if

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Speaker 2: it's been a mass amount of work and we've you know,

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Speaker 2: then got situations where different other crimes are going uninvestigated.

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Speaker 4: Katie, it is from a few years ago, but that

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Speaker 4: would be questions better place to police.

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Speaker 1: From your perspective. Do you think it's appropriate though, Katie?

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Speaker 4: I need to be very careful with my comments here,

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Speaker 4: as Miss Gwen is a public servant. Who is on

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Speaker 4: a leave of absence and Lease would be able to

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Speaker 4: answer those questions.

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Speaker 2: What is going to be the situation then with the

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Speaker 2: Children's Commissioner role.

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Speaker 4: So she's taking that extended leave of absence to consider

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Speaker 4: her next steps.

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Speaker 3: And as I said, there's an acting commissioner.

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Speaker 1: But so she could step back into that role.

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Speaker 4: So Katie, that would be questions for her and the

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Speaker 4: relevant agency.

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Speaker 1: Would you be happy enough to welcome her back though.

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Speaker 4: Katie, I think that she's taking the time to consider

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Speaker 4: her steps and we need to support her with that.

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Speaker 1: All right, I want to ask you.

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Speaker 2: I believe that there's going to be a funding announcement

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Speaker 2: shortly this morning around the KNAFE, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund.

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Speaker 2: What can we expect or are you able to give

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Speaker 2: us any detail at this point?

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Speaker 4: Katie always liked to give you a little bit of

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Speaker 4: breaking news. But we're working with the Commwalth government. So

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Speaker 4: the North Australia Infrastructure Fund will contribute up to fifty

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Speaker 4: million dollars through the Territory Infrastructure Loans and the Antique

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Speaker 4: government through our Local Jobs Fund, is going to put

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Speaker 4: in over sixteen million dollars for two years. So local

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Speaker 4: businesses can apply for these loans to help them. And

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Speaker 4: this is around getting these unique projects Katie off the

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Speaker 4: ground jobs for Territorians. And so they might not be

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Speaker 4: able to get a loan through a bank or normal

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Speaker 4: lending practices because it is innovative, it's different, it might

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Speaker 4: have a higher risk where this provides them without ability

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Speaker 4: to get quite a contribution so that we can see

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Speaker 4: these projects come off the ground in the territory.

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Speaker 1: All right, I think we're all.

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Speaker 2: Looking forward to and certainly hoping some of those further

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Speaker 2: projects do get off the ground. Chief Medicinatasha Files will

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Speaker 2: leave it there, thank you, Take care,