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Speaker 1: Now, on Tuesday, I spoke to Senior Sergeant Meecham King

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Speaker 1: about a counter terrorism exercise that was going to be

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Speaker 1: conducted in the Darwin CBD by the Territory Response Group. Well,

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Speaker 1: it actually took place last night at our old studios

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Speaker 1: on Pirie Street, giving the unit a unique opportunity to

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Speaker 1: practice an assault on a building to rescue hostages. And

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Speaker 1: we'll Senior Sergeant Meecham King joins me in the studio

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Speaker 1: right now. Good morning to you again, Meeta. Very well, Now,

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Speaker 1: before I sort of introduce our other guests, we might

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Speaker 1: just play a little bit of audio of some of

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Speaker 1: what went down last night. Let's have a bit of

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Speaker 1: a listen. We're having some.

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Speaker 2: You know, have you recognized that voice that was Crystal

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Speaker 2: streaming out that?

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Speaker 1: My name's Anthony Alban Easy and Crystal joins us in

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Speaker 1: this studio as well, because meet them. Not only did

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Speaker 1: you use our old studios, but also a lot of

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Speaker 1: our staff were actually involved as hostages.

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Speaker 3: Last night when the building came up. I was we

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Speaker 3: were very lucky that Mike, your general manager, and Adam

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Speaker 3: from Adam and Construction basically said do you want to

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Speaker 3: use it for training? I said, yep, and I said,

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Speaker 3: and Mike was asking me, what do you do. We'll

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Speaker 3: get some hostages, We'll get some old players. Said, oh,

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Speaker 3: my Staf, would mind can play along it? Bring me along?

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Speaker 3: And so then we had about seventeen eighteen of your

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Speaker 3: staff in last night.

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Speaker 4: It was awesome.

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Speaker 1: How did Crystal go being Anthony Albany?

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Speaker 4: Oh?

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Speaker 3: It was good that they were all standing around and

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Speaker 3: they were getting a little bit nervous when I started

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Speaker 3: handing out the ear protection eye protection. Then they started

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Speaker 3: getting cocky. Then we put them the spot and then

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Speaker 3: started getting closer. We were getting very nervous and quiet,

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Speaker 3: and I'm not sure what I've got myself into here. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: but they did well. They all did really really well.

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Speaker 1: So well Crystal, How real was it like? What was

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Speaker 1: it like having to pretend to be the minister in

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Speaker 1: a scenario like that?

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Speaker 4: Oh, look, it's pretty scary to be honest, Like you're

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Speaker 4: couting in the corner after you know this, we've been

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Speaker 4: people are taking hostage. We're doing a debate with Peter

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Speaker 4: Darston aka JACKX from Hot one hundred. Yeah, then the

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Speaker 4: lights all went off and yeah, it all got underway.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean the thing is you wouldn't ordinarily

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Speaker 1: get the opportunity right to sort of use an old

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Speaker 1: building like that, but also use an old building that's

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Speaker 1: former radio studios where you can put a scenario like

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Speaker 1: that into operation.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so they really fit really well for the scenario.

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Speaker 3: Obviously we built the scenario around the building and having

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Speaker 3: a lot of air debate, which you've done numerous times

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Speaker 3: and people around the country. It's sort of fit the

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Speaker 3: place and having the studios in a hard to get

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Speaker 3: place of the building. So once they made entry using

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Speaker 3: explosives on the doors, they're do had to work their

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Speaker 3: way through the building to find with the VIPs were

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Speaker 3: hidden away with the terrace around them, so extremely challenging.

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Speaker 3: But it worked really really well, and I think that

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Speaker 3: was probably one of the best ex as we've done

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Speaker 3: probably about ten years, I think, especially in the CBD

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Speaker 3: as well. We don't often get it. Chan has to

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Speaker 3: come in most of the buildings and you so they

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Speaker 3: had to go through all the training aspects and the

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Speaker 3: planning aspects of how we could do.

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Speaker 1: That well and Chrystal I spoke to our general manager

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Speaker 1: Mike Harvey downstairs a little earlier this morning. He said

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Speaker 1: he was a hostage. He he was like it was real.

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Speaker 1: It was very real.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, like you know, the noise, the dust, lots

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Speaker 4: of loud bangs. Mike was injured in the role play.

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Speaker 4: You know, a couple of bandages on people, having their hostages,

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Speaker 4: having their clothes you know, ripped off, they had wounds,

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Speaker 4: bullet marks. Yeah, it was pretty intense. It was very realistic.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and as it needs to be right because

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Speaker 1: our Territory Response Group essentially have to be there when

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Speaker 1: things go really really bad.

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Speaker 3: That's great. Yeah, Like I said, were response before counter

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Speaker 3: terrors and high risk operations in the territory, and with

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Speaker 3: a situation like that, we can't really bring Saint John's

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Speaker 3: other medical people into get safe. So in that scenario,

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Speaker 3: we had a couple of medical personnel come in to

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Speaker 3: put when the boys come in and they clear and

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Speaker 3: made it say then they had to start getting straight

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Speaker 3: into the life saving first day before we could get

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Speaker 3: our notional people to come in and when we came

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Speaker 3: across to them.

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Speaker 1: So now, tell me what's been the feedback from you know,

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Speaker 1: like not only from the TRG, but some of the

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Speaker 1: different teams that were involved.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been very positive. We've got a sergeant course

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Speaker 3: runn at the moment of the college and I was

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Speaker 3: instructed that yesterday they came out as the police four

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Speaker 3: commanders and we had the watch command and the two

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Speaker 3: judis super coming out as well, so they got exposed

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Speaker 3: to the calls and how it went the handover post incident,

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Speaker 3: so it was good for that sort of thing. We

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Speaker 3: had our general duties helping with the roadblocks, just with

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Speaker 3: the dogs in mount units they got to see it.

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Speaker 3: We water police came put the drown ups. We got

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Speaker 3: some footage so they got to see some of the aspects.

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Speaker 3: So it's a bit of an interactive with the whole

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Speaker 3: the police force because we'll need obviously a lot of

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Speaker 3: other units were sisters in a big job like this.

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Speaker 1: That's really good, Meacham. What did the neighbors think? Did

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Speaker 1: they know what was going on?

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Speaker 3: We did a door knock and we obviously the radio

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Speaker 3: stuff and the social media and we let it drops.

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Speaker 3: But there was a lot of lights off and the

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Speaker 3: banks went off. There's a lot of lights came on

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Speaker 3: and people come out of the back and he's having

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Speaker 3: a bit of a look and a lady was getting

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Speaker 3: someone Uncle Sam's. We had a place that's they're saying,

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Speaker 3: what's going on? Took off?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was good, a good thing to do, now

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Speaker 1: tell me I know that. And you've sort of touched

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Speaker 1: on this as well. The unders like the TRG really

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Speaker 1: doesn't have access to condemned buildings very often. So how

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Speaker 1: important is it to be able to conduct that kind

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Speaker 1: of training.

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Speaker 3: It's essential, absolutely essential. Or you can train as much

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Speaker 3: as we can the venues we use, and we use

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Speaker 3: the fence facilities as well, but to get a place

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Speaker 3: where only the safety officers had seen the building to

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Speaker 3: make sure the training was good. None of the teams

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Speaker 3: had seen it. So then to come in and see

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Speaker 3: a building they've never seen before and clear it the

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Speaker 3: way they did last night, it was pretty outstanding.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, I guess territories can be rest assured

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Speaker 1: that that should something you know, really terrible like that happened. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: our police have done that training and.

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Speaker 3: We always said the other day we send teams across

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Speaker 3: Australia for multi exercises and training and the empty hole

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Speaker 3: design against the bigger states with their their stuff. So

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Speaker 3: we Yeah, a good bunch of blokes, good bunch of training,

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Speaker 3: felt very safe.

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Speaker 4: They came in, identified who I was, was escorted into

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Speaker 4: another room with Jaspeter. You know we waited there. One

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Speaker 4: stage we had four officers in their communicating. Yeah, they

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Speaker 4: cleared the building, got us out safely into the armored vehicle.

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Speaker 1: Who won the debate?

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Speaker 3: Crystal?

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Speaker 4: Of course I'm the Prime Minister, County.

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Speaker 1: Of course I did. Our listeners might not like that

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Speaker 1: that you were playing the prime minister.

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Speaker 3: A bit of fun, a bit of training.

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Speaker 1: Now tell me before I let you go meet your

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Speaker 1: what states the old building in it's.

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Speaker 3: A bit of state to disrepair? Obviously they were breaking

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Speaker 3: bits and pieces of all good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Well on pleased that that the building, the old building

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Speaker 1: was put to good use. Meecham King, Senior Sergeant of

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Speaker 1: course with the Territory Response Group. Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for your time. Thanks