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Speaker 1: Let me take you through exactly what the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: government have said in their statement. So basically they've come

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Speaker 1: out this morning and said that the government is going

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Speaker 1: to well. They've released this three year evaluation of the

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Speaker 1: minimum unit price, and so it was designed as part

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Speaker 1: of a suite of alcohol reforms aimed at cutting alcohol

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Speaker 1: related harm and anti social behavior across the Northern Territory. Now,

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Speaker 1: the evaluation acknowledged that it was difficult to solely evaluate

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Speaker 1: the minimum unit price without considering the assistance of other

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Speaker 1: alcohol related reform measures. But the evaluation concluded that the

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Speaker 1: minimum unit price has been effective and recommended keeping it

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Speaker 1: in place. Now, the Northern Territory Government say that the

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Speaker 1: key findings included a reduction in alcohol related harms, a

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Speaker 1: reduction in the supply of low cost alcohol related products

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Speaker 1: or alcohol products like cask wine, and no evidence to

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Speaker 1: suggest that the minimum unit price had any negative effects

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Speaker 1: on industry, tourism, all the Northern Territory economy. Now joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now is that industry. The

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Speaker 1: CEO of Hospitality here in the Northern Territory, Alex Bruce,

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Speaker 1: good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, good morning.

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Speaker 1: Have we gone not too bad? Alex obviously this minimum

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Speaker 1: unit price. Well, the evaluation has been released.

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Speaker 2: What was your reaction, Ah, disappointed, A bit of a

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Speaker 2: lost opportunity. We know that a lot of the information

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Speaker 2: was provided from industry and frontline workers, be they government

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Speaker 2: and non government agencies in the sector, all three different

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Speaker 2: parts of of the space. We're basically saying the same thing.

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Speaker 2: It's had unintended consequences. There's been a shift away from

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Speaker 2: calf wine, but you know, don't pop the champagne cooks

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Speaker 2: on that yet, because we've seen more than that picked

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Speaker 2: up in white wine and spirits, particularly Bundy rum. And

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Speaker 2: you know, people are drinking Bundy rum in public places

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Speaker 2: straight out of the bottle where they used to be

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Speaker 2: on cask wine, and they're getting drunker, earlier, more aggressive,

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Speaker 2: and that's been these three year impacts. So you know,

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Speaker 2: we were hoping that, based on the consultations that we

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Speaker 2: participated in, and based on knowing that that was the

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Speaker 2: front line's view as well from the different sectors involved,

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Speaker 2: that clearer heads would prevail and the government would say,

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Speaker 2: you know what, Riley only ever recommended this as a

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Speaker 2: stop gap measure to a national approach. It's clear the

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Speaker 2: national approach isn't happening. So you know what, we've given

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Speaker 2: it a red hot go, but it's time to ditch it.

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Speaker 1: So Alex, obviously they're not ditching it. In fact, the

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Speaker 1: very opposite. They're keeping it in place and they believe

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Speaker 1: it's a success.

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Speaker 2: There's just cherry picked stats on both sides. You can

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Speaker 2: mount the argument for and against. I defer to your listeners.

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Speaker 2: Look around any street, any town, any city in the

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Speaker 2: territory right now. Has the flaw price helped, has it

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Speaker 2: fixed anything? It's caused more harm than it's worth. That

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Speaker 2: is our strong, clear advice to government. And it's disappointing

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Speaker 2: that they've gone another way because they've handfisted the communications

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Speaker 2: on the stronger futures ending up. Mate.

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Speaker 1: Our tech line has gone absolutely berserk today, like honestly,

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Speaker 1: and I am hard pressed to find out of all

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Speaker 1: the messages that we've received really any that are overly

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Speaker 1: supportive of the minimum unit price. And the majority of

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Speaker 1: people are sort of saying, all you've got to do

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Speaker 1: is go for a bit of a walk around town

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Speaker 1: and see people drinking publicly, see the rubbish that is

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Speaker 1: around the place. The government kept sort of or the

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Speaker 1: chief minister kept referring to the risk based licensing this

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Speaker 1: morning when I interviewed her. I mean, what was your

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Speaker 1: sort of reaction as she was raising that.

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Speaker 2: Y Oh, look they're good at sticking to the script.

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Speaker 2: But that's all it is, Katie Bline. Freddie will tell you,

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Speaker 2: and the crime stats prove it. It's out of control.

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Speaker 2: You know, we had a venue out in Parmerston. A

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Speaker 2: lady was in there with scissors, chasing the staff around.

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Speaker 2: She gets picked up the very next day that same

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Speaker 2: venue observer back out on the streets walking around and

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Speaker 2: I'd heard that she'd done something similar a few days later,

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Speaker 2: and now finally she's taken out of the community. So

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Speaker 2: you know, this is what's going on on a daily basis,

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Speaker 2: and you know here they are trumpeting minimum floor price

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Speaker 2: is an effective strategy and it's just not. That's utter rubbish.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Alex, I know we've had a couple of

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Speaker 1: messages coming through saying, you know, the only people that

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Speaker 1: are benefiting from the change to the floor price is

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Speaker 1: the alcohol industry.

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Speaker 2: What would you say to that? So this is the

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Speaker 2: other problem. We push through excise tax increases every six

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Speaker 2: months through the bottle shops plus on premise the cost

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Speaker 2: of your schooner keeps going up. That's the federal government

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Speaker 2: tax that already covers the space that already does get

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Speaker 2: divvied back up and given to the states to actually

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Speaker 2: do their job keep us all safe. When you look

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Speaker 2: at the flaw price, it largely doesn't impact a lot

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Speaker 2: of products. So the spirits and the wine and the

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Speaker 2: beer that they have shifted to away from the cask

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Speaker 2: wine is not impacted directly by the price. But therefore,

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Speaker 2: if all you've done is taken someone that was drinking

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Speaker 2: thirteen percent alcohol and you're giving them a bottle and

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Speaker 2: they're consuming it at forty percent alcohol, no wonder. We're

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Speaker 2: seeing an explosion of public public anti social attachment and

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Speaker 2: that literally is what this policy does. So for the

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Speaker 2: life of me, I don't know how anyone in the

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Speaker 2: health space can hand on heart says. Taking a cask

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Speaker 2: wine off that vulnerable person and handing them a bottle

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Speaker 2: of Bundy to skull instead is a better measure for

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Speaker 2: the rest of the community to deal with.

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Speaker 1: Now, I know that it's being reported this morning. Obviously

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Speaker 1: the NT and News has had a bit of a

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Speaker 1: more extensive look through the report and they're saying that

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Speaker 1: it's twenty eighteen, there's been a twenty five point eight

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Speaker 1: percent decrease in alcohol related assaults, a thirty seven point

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Speaker 1: six percent decrease in alcohol related hospital admissions in Alice Springs,

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Speaker 1: and a twenty four point two percent decline in Tenant Creek.

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Speaker 1: Across the territory of nineteen point four percent reduction in

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Speaker 1: alcohol related hospital presentations via recorded per capita. I just

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Speaker 1: can't wrap my head around this. If I'm really honest,

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Speaker 1: because people.

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Speaker 2: Will, yeah, I'll lay it out clearly. Hopefully all that

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Speaker 2: data is in from regional areas where the palais are

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Speaker 2: proving to be effective. And even the report says they

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Speaker 2: can't determine what is a pally measure versus a floor

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Speaker 2: price measure. And when they looked at Darwin and Palmerston,

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Speaker 2: where there are no palis and only the floor price,

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Speaker 2: they saw no change. So by all of those towns

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Speaker 2: achieving good numbers, it's affecting the overall territory one. So

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Speaker 2: they're just cherry picking the stats to suit their predetermined narrative.

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Speaker 2: We just think, you know, leave all of the tip

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Speaker 2: for chatting aside. Let's actually scrap the policies that don't

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Speaker 2: work or actually doing more harm in the community than

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Speaker 2: are good, so just sanitize it and whitewashing and move

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Speaker 2: on like there's nothing to see here. You know, we

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Speaker 2: were hoping for a changed approach with the Chief Minister.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty Look, I think it's it's pretty I don't

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Speaker 1: know what the right word of saying, what the right

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Speaker 1: way of saying it, but it's sort of you know,

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Speaker 1: I guess the community is feeling really frustrated upon hearing

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Speaker 1: this today and upon sort of you know, what the

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Speaker 1: government's saying, because what the government is now saying based

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Speaker 1: on you know, the data that they've released and based

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Speaker 1: on what they've released, goes against the community sentiment at

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Speaker 1: this point, Alex, I do want to ask you know,

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Speaker 1: you're talking then about those palis and saying that they

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Speaker 1: are effective. Obviously in some of those regional locations, we

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Speaker 1: had heard from the Police Association earlier in the week

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Speaker 1: about the high volume of refusals. We'd also spoken to

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Speaker 1: the Assistant Commissioner for Regional and Remote Policing based in

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Speaker 1: our springs, Martin Dole, a little bit earlier. There's no

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Speaker 1: doubt that it makes a difference those palis being on

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Speaker 1: the bottle shops. But now that that Stronger Future's legislation

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Speaker 1: has ended, it seems as though there is an enormous

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Speaker 1: amount of people trying to get their hands on alcohol,

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Speaker 1: and potentially what it's doing is, you know, if we

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Speaker 1: don't have enough of those palis, it means that you've

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Speaker 1: got constables and others that are having to step over

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Speaker 1: and do that job. I mean, is it time for

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Speaker 1: some of those some of those different outlets to just

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Speaker 1: have their own security doing that job.

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Speaker 2: And then what will the average reasonable consumer be paying

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Speaker 2: for alcohol in the Northern Territory. Then, like all of

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Speaker 2: these universal approaches come down to the fact that no

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Speaker 2: one wants to actually call out the individual behavior that

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Speaker 2: is inappropriate and keep the targeted sanctions on that kind

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Speaker 2: of behavior. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Look, I don't know where we're going to land with

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Speaker 1: all this. Hey, at the moment, it just seems like

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Speaker 1: the government isn't sort of understanding the way the community's

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Speaker 1: feeling right now with some of these alcohol mishoes.

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Speaker 2: That's it. And Katie, if you talk to a fisho

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Speaker 2: or a caravan or a camper, they want cans if

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Speaker 2: they're beer drinkers, not bottles. And similarly, if they like

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Speaker 2: a nice white wine at the end of the day,

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Speaker 2: they'd prefer it in a cask in their fridge in

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Speaker 2: the caravan, not a bottle. So they're still coming across

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Speaker 2: the country enjoying, hopefully the territory and the first experience

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Speaker 2: they had when they come to one of our bottle

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Speaker 2: shops and get their standard cast wine that will last

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Speaker 2: them a week and it's three times the cost of

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Speaker 2: what they paid in wa or Queensland. They give the

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Speaker 2: poor attendant a gobful. But why are they paying more

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Speaker 2: in the territory? What harm have they done? Why are

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Speaker 2: we doing anything at a government level that targets that?

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Speaker 1: Alex, you know, what is your message for the government today.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's just let's all of sit down, calm down,

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Speaker 2: call time on policies that are proven not to work.

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Speaker 2: We gave it a go, Riley said, do it until

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Speaker 2: they're a federal approach. There's not a federal approach coming.

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Speaker 2: We've got the taxes and the excises that we have

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Speaker 2: that see prices continually go up every six months and

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Speaker 2: the customer up here thinks the excise increase is linked

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Speaker 2: to the floor price when it's not. Let's just ditch

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Speaker 2: the floor price and get a run around the table

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Speaker 2: and work on policies and solutions that we think actually

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Speaker 2: will work well.

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Speaker 1: Alex Bruce, the CEO of hospitality here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: always appreciate your time. Thank you for chatting with me

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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Speaker 2: Cheers Katie or the best.

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Speaker 1: Thank you