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Speaker 1: Now. Yesterday, the COLPS vice president, Jed Hanson not only

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Speaker 1: resigned from the Country Country Liberal Party, but he also

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Speaker 1: expressed his plans to run for the seat of Solomon

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Speaker 1: as an independent. He said that he didn't have much

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Speaker 1: faith in the colp's pre selected candidate to run for

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Speaker 1: the seat, and he joins me in the studio right now.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Jed. Morning, Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning. Now, Jed, why did you quit

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Speaker 1: the Country Liberal Party?

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Speaker 2: Well, as I was saying to you before, the reality

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Speaker 2: was I felt that when I joined the party, the

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Speaker 2: party had core intrinsic values such as small government, low taxes,

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Speaker 2: the rights of individual freedoms, small business, so on and

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Speaker 2: so forth. And I think somewhere along the line, I

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Speaker 2: think that those values have been lost, and what happened

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Speaker 2: was recently I feel like the party.

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Speaker 3: Itself has moved off them.

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Speaker 2: And for me personally, I still stick to those values individualism,

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Speaker 2: small business, tax low taxation, and I just couldn't. I

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Speaker 2: couldn't see the the tree.

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Speaker 3: Through the forest.

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Speaker 2: I just I couldn't agree with the party platform that

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Speaker 2: had moved off it.

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Speaker 1: It's a big call to quit the CLP. And then

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Speaker 1: decide that you're going to run against the person that's

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Speaker 1: been pre selected for the CLP, particularly presumably when you

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Speaker 1: were well you were the vice president when she was

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Speaker 1: pre selected.

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Speaker 3: No, I wasn't. Actually I joined them.

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Speaker 2: I joined the management team in October and she'd been

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Speaker 2: pre selected back in June. So I came on board

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Speaker 2: after she'd already been pre selected. But it's not me

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Speaker 2: running against Temam Farm. It's me running against the incumbent,

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Speaker 2: which is Love Gosling.

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Speaker 1: So this season't sort of a decision that you've made

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Speaker 1: in an effort to split the Conservative vote. No.

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Speaker 2: I think when I look at the ineffectiveness of the incumbent,

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Speaker 2: which is mister Gosling, I don't think he's done much

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Speaker 2: in his position of the last in the last term.

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Speaker 2: I don't think the other candidates, even from the CLP,

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Speaker 2: are going to do the job that they that is

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Speaker 2: respectful to the territorians.

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Speaker 3: I just don't see it.

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Speaker 1: Did you put your hand up for pre selection for

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Speaker 1: the seed of solvment for the Seal Peak. No, so

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Speaker 1: it wasn't something that you wanted to do previously.

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Speaker 2: No. I've always been focused on local territory issues. Local

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Speaker 2: territory politics. But when you're looking at a lot of

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Speaker 2: the malfeasance and wrongdoing that's happening at the territory level,

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Speaker 2: at the local level, one of the roles of a

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Speaker 2: federal member is to form select committees or committees in

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Speaker 2: general to investigate wrongdoing. One of the wrongdoings is like

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Speaker 2: misspending of money. If you've got issues like the turf club,

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Speaker 2: which was improperly handled. When you've got money like the

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Speaker 2: water bottling fiasco that happened many years ago, the money

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Speaker 2: that went from the sale of TiO into Infrastructure Development

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Speaker 2: fund and that just sort of disappeared. Those are wrong

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Speaker 2: doings by the government, mishandling of money, and the only

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Speaker 2: way to see accountability is by having a select committee

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Speaker 2: investigate those problems.

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Speaker 1: And so do you feel as though the CLP hasn't

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Speaker 1: tried to have like a select committee to be able

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Speaker 1: to do those things, or I'm just trying to put

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Speaker 1: those two issues together.

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Speaker 3: I think that's I think the CLP has attempted to.

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Speaker 2: But when you've got the incumbent who is labor, and

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Speaker 2: then you've got the local government which is labor and

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Speaker 2: the Iyekak being rather ineffective, it's sort of like a

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Speaker 2: whole group of ineffective parties. And then you've got like

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Speaker 2: you go back a couple of years and you look

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Speaker 2: at the John Langolant report. He spoke about the malfeasans,

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Speaker 2: he spoke about the misspendings. It's just been a whole

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Speaker 2: series of unfortunate events and people in the wrong position

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Speaker 2: doing the wrong thing.

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Speaker 1: I guess what I'm trying to ask, so is what

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Speaker 1: has that got to do with you quitting the COLP.

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Speaker 2: I Well, for me, it was, as I said, it

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Speaker 2: goes back to those values. I felt that the CLP

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Speaker 2: had moved off their core values. And this is also

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Speaker 2: surrounding the demandate. It was basically, you don't get to

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Speaker 2: surrender values for political expediency.

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Speaker 1: And so is it those other issues or is it

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Speaker 1: the mandate they make you?

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Speaker 3: Really mandate was one.

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Speaker 2: But then at the Central Council, which happened at the

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Speaker 2: end of February, there was a lot of leaking to

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Speaker 2: the media. Now it's a confidential meeting where debate happens

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Speaker 2: with party members in regards to platform and policy and direction,

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Speaker 2: and what was happening was that inside that it was

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Speaker 2: like having it might as well invited the NT News

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Speaker 2: and the ABC to sit in the room with us

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Speaker 2: to see what was going on.

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Speaker 1: So, what do you reckon was happening? Like people obviously

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Speaker 1: members of that Central Council meeting were just leaking straight

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Speaker 1: away to the media.

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Speaker 3: Were there were votes that were happening on the floor.

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Speaker 2: And these are sort of privileged votes, confidential votes that

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Speaker 2: secret but essentially confidential balloting.

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Speaker 3: Whereby you're not supposed to know who is voting.

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Speaker 2: And or the actual total counts because they're confidential. And

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Speaker 2: then I was reading it in the NT News whilst

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Speaker 2: I was sitting in the room, So that sort of

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Speaker 2: speaks to me that there's an immeasurable amount of lack

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Speaker 2: or lack of trust, and there's also a lack of

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Speaker 2: respect because what we're seeing is that the party is

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Speaker 2: not standing up beside their own members and they're a

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Speaker 2: maligning character and it's not good.

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Speaker 1: So, Jed, do you think I mean, has the COLP

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Speaker 1: got an issue here in terms of the management side

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Speaker 1: of things?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think that's sort of indicative because Jamie and

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Speaker 2: Ronnie stepped aside only after being re elected as president

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Speaker 2: in October.

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Speaker 3: There were issues, there were.

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Speaker 2: Concerns in regards to the Solomon candidate, there were votes

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Speaker 2: that were happening. So essentially how it works as a

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Speaker 2: platform as a framework, positions are put forward, motions are

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Speaker 2: put forward, and they're voted on, and then what we

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Speaker 2: were seeing was that they were getting rolled back shortly

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Speaker 2: thereafter they were happening because things weren't working the way

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Speaker 2: they wanted to.

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Speaker 3: And it was just it was bizarre.

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Speaker 2: I've never in seventeen years and the party, I've never

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Speaker 2: seen the party act so disorganized or I've never seen

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Speaker 2: it before.

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Speaker 1: And I guess there'll be some people listening thinking to themselves.

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Speaker 1: So you know, you were the vice president as well

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Speaker 1: at the time from October until now, If you're really

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Speaker 1: worried about the way in which those things were being managed,

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Speaker 1: wasn't that partly you know, up to you as well

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Speaker 1: to manage Well.

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Speaker 2: The thing is when you have those management meetings, those

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Speaker 2: at the higher up to manage the direction of the party,

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Speaker 2: you'd speak to all the party members. You're trying to

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Speaker 2: get a sort of some sort of consensus on how

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Speaker 2: we're going to do it. And then what was happening

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Speaker 2: was then it would open up to discussion.

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Speaker 3: And then.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes you'd have a person invited on, or we'd have

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Speaker 2: a parliamentarian come in and that hijacket and it would

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Speaker 2: basically go off on a tangent, and substantive changes that

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Speaker 2: we were trying to get done were basically being pushed aside.

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Speaker 2: And you sit there as one person in the management

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Speaker 2: team of fifteen and you sit there going, well, hold on,

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Speaker 2: the President was agreeing with me in a phone conversation

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Speaker 2: before the meeting took place, and then in the management

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Speaker 2: meeting he has gone against me.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like there is just correct me if I'm wrong,

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Speaker 1: But you know, a lot of internal rumblings.

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Speaker 2: It's I think what it comes down to is when

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Speaker 2: you've got to because the way that party is structured

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Speaker 2: is that you've got the party itself and then you've

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Speaker 2: got the parliamentary ring. Now the parliamentary ring doesn't necessarily

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Speaker 2: they're the arms and legs of the party. So the

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Speaker 2: party votes on policy and platform and the parliamentarians enact it. Now,

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Speaker 2: when the when the party is basically pushed around by

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Speaker 2: the parliamentarians, the party becomes less effective.

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Speaker 1: Look, I guess so again some people listening will be

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Speaker 1: thinking to themselves, well, I didn't elect the party. I

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Speaker 1: elected those parliamentarians and if they're not listening to the

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Speaker 1: views of territorians, if they're only listening to the party,

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Speaker 1: then are they doing their jobs well?

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Speaker 2: When it comes to party and parliamentarians, there is a

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Speaker 2: connection of communication. And what happens is if you've got

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Speaker 2: all it takes is a few bad people in a

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Speaker 2: party to disrupt the workings of the machine, and that

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Speaker 2: doesn't it doesn't take much to put a party off

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Speaker 2: the rails.

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Speaker 3: And that's that's what I was seeing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so Jed was the was this situation with

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Speaker 1: Tina McFarlane being pre selected and then there were rumblings

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Speaker 1: back in December last year. I remember making phone calls

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Speaker 1: about this. There were rumblings that the party was trying

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Speaker 1: to drop her back in December. Has that been a

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Speaker 1: catalyst here?

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Speaker 2: That was part of it because the how it was

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Speaker 2: was that we were talking to third party providers that

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Speaker 2: were supposed to be working on that campaign and they

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Speaker 2: were telling us, they were feeding us information saying that

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Speaker 2: she was not working with them. She would walk into

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Speaker 2: a meeting saying I know everything and then walk out,

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Speaker 2: which is not good because these are longstanding relationships. We

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Speaker 2: had with providers, and then we were talking to businesses,

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Speaker 2: and businesses were saying, well, she's not talking, she's not

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Speaker 2: coming to us and talking to us, so there's no

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Speaker 2: connectivity there. There was a massive disconnect, and we were

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Speaker 2: talking to other people and they were saying that she's

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Speaker 2: not there, she's not present, and we just felt that

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Speaker 2: six months of her campaign, we just felt that she

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Speaker 2: wasn't being effective and the party wanted to.

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Speaker 1: Move on, and so why didn't they.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's a good question because I'm pretty sure I

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Speaker 2: was at those meetings and the votes were essentially unanimous

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Speaker 2: to move on, and then they didn't.

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Speaker 3: The president backed out and they changed direction.

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Speaker 2: Now, it could be the fact that it sort of

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Speaker 2: shook shook the candidate and basically made sure that she

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Speaker 2: got back on track and she started sort of doing

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Speaker 2: what she was supposed to be doing.

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Speaker 3: That could have been the case, but at that point

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Speaker 3: I just felt so.

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Speaker 2: Disenchanted, disenchanted with the party at that point because I

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Speaker 2: felt like we were saying things and then saying we're

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Speaker 2: going to act on this, and then back paddling wasn't happening.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't happening.

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Speaker 1: Jed, we are going to have to get ready to

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Speaker 1: wrap up, but talk us through very quickly why you've

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Speaker 1: now decided to put your hand up for the seat

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Speaker 1: of Solomon.

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Speaker 2: Well, basically, I think I think Territorians have an apple

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Speaker 2: tight to see substantive change. Jackie Lambie was on Q

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Speaker 2: and A last night and she was saying that twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two is an opportune time to see independence change

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Speaker 2: the political landscape of Australia for the better because essentially

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Speaker 2: we could be looking at a hung parliament and I

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Speaker 2: think if you vote an independent in what they can

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Speaker 2: do is they can do two things. They can make

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Speaker 2: sure that the government of the day is accountable for

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Speaker 2: their wrongdoings or misspendings, or things like putting their political

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Speaker 2: finger on criminal investigations. I'm talking about the Rock case here.

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Speaker 2: That's one thing, and the other thing is to make

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Speaker 2: sure that the voter is actually represented it at federal Parliament,

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Speaker 2: to make sure that substantive changes money being spent in

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Speaker 2: the territory actually has an effect. And I don't think

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Speaker 2: you're going to get that with a big party because

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Speaker 2: the big party is just going to do what big

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Speaker 2: parties do and it just gets all lost in.

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Speaker 3: The noise well, Jed, no doubt.

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Speaker 1: We'll have you back on before the election happens. We

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Speaker 1: will have all of the candidates on as that elections

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Speaker 1: called and find out a little bit more about everyone.

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Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for coming in.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,