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Speaker 1: Back in May last year, I was contacted by a

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Speaker 1: Perrap Residence resident, i should say, with serious concerns about

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Speaker 1: boundary fencing at the family daycare center. It was reported

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Speaker 1: to the City of Darwin Council and the local MLA

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Speaker 1: to take action to ensure the safety of young children.

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Speaker 1: But I am told to this day that still nothing

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Speaker 1: has happened.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: The person who'd raised that with me was Mark Rhodes,

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Speaker 1: and he joins me on the line.

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Speaker 2: Get a Mark, Hey Katie, how are you going mate?

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time. Now, remind us

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Speaker 1: of the situation with the fence at the daycare for

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Speaker 1: those who maybe didn't hear what had gone on.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so four years ago we purchased a property at

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Speaker 2: twenty Stokes Street and noticed that the fence was in

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Speaker 2: bad condition. That's four years ago. It was reported to

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Speaker 2: the body court, which was Elite Strata at the time,

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Speaker 2: and Elite Strata said that they would work with the

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Speaker 2: Darwin City Council and get the fence replaced. And we

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Speaker 2: went along those roads to a long, more, more more

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Speaker 2: months past and nothing happened. And then we finally came

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Speaker 2: to a conclusion that we would all put in and

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Speaker 2: we would get the fifty percent paid, which the owners

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Speaker 2: have to pay, and then the council have to pay

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Speaker 2: their part. We're still waiting.

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Speaker 1: Oh you're joking.

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Speaker 2: So the fence, I'll let everyone know what the fence

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Speaker 2: is like. So it's your normal good neighbor fence. The

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Speaker 2: whole bottom is rusted and the kids can actually crawl through,

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Speaker 2: and people have spas in their backyards in those little

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Speaker 2: apartment complexes and a kid could drown. Also, the fences

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Speaker 2: are only like up to up to my chest, so

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Speaker 2: I can actually see across from our property into the

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Speaker 2: childcare center. Not that that's a problem, but safety of

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Speaker 2: children should always be number one. And so where it's

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Speaker 2: at now is Elite Strata has now passed the buck

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Speaker 2: over to North Management, who is our new body corp.

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Speaker 2: And North Management is now still pushing with the Dark

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Speaker 2: City Council to get something done, and it's still not

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Speaker 2: being done.

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Speaker 1: It's how long Igo, did you contact the City of Darwin?

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Speaker 1: It was like it was ages ago, because I remember

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Speaker 1: I asked con about it as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that was over over eighteen months ago.

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Speaker 1: And what are they saying, Like, what are they saying

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Speaker 1: now to the North Management.

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Speaker 2: Well, North Management and the council are in. All we

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Speaker 2: get is emails say, I say, where's the fat and

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Speaker 2: North Management right back. We're waiting for Darwin City Council

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Speaker 2: to respond. And that's all we ever get now, plus

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Speaker 2: plus we've paid. We've already paid as owners, so our

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Speaker 2: money has already paid it sitting somewhere, sitting with the

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Speaker 2: strata who are probably getting getting interest on our money.

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Speaker 2: And there's been no offense.

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Speaker 1: Mate. Do you know how much it was going to cost?

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Speaker 2: So it's I think it's twenty grand and we've paid.

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Speaker 2: We've paid our half. They haven't paid their half, so

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Speaker 2: it's not an expensive thing, but it is. It is

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Speaker 2: needed for that childcare center.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any idea or any insight as to

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Speaker 1: why they're now not acting. I mean, the fact is

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Speaker 1: you guys are stopped up. I'm assuming that they did

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Speaker 1: they agree to paying that.

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Speaker 2: Half as far as I know, yes, they agreed, and

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Speaker 2: then there was a hiccup in the design of the

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Speaker 2: fence with Trojan. They were just going to replace it

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Speaker 2: like for like, and but the issue with the property

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Speaker 2: is our properties are higher than the daycare, so it

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Speaker 2: requires a retaining wall. To lift that fence higher and

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Speaker 2: stop the soil from obviously rotting the new fence. So

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Speaker 2: I think where it is now is they're humming and

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Speaker 2: hiring about putting the best of brick footings to raise it,

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Speaker 2: and that that's just taking even longer.

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness me.

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Speaker 2: I mean luck had a big cyclone this year or

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Speaker 2: strong winds because the fence would fall down. And I

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Speaker 2: mean I've been wondering why the fence hasn't fall down

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Speaker 2: because it's just hanging, you know, but it's just not right.

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Speaker 2: Little kids should not be able to see into people's

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Speaker 2: backyards throw toys over into your backyard. And also, you know,

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Speaker 2: the daycare center staff may turn their back one day

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Speaker 2: and one of the children might have crawled through and

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Speaker 2: fallen into a SPoD well, and you.

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Speaker 1: Know, like Heaven forbid something like that happening. You know,

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Speaker 1: even at the moment in the Northern Territory. I mean

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Speaker 1: there's been a lot of a lot of concerns raised

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Speaker 1: this week alone about you know, different things happening happening

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Speaker 1: at childcare centers, and you know, the last thing can

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Speaker 1: like the last thing anybody wants is something like that

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Speaker 1: to happen I mean to me, this like to me,

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Speaker 1: the screams like bureaucratic process holding things up.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely and it's just ridiculous. Just put a fence up

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Speaker 2: to keep the kids safe, basically, that's all everyone is

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Speaker 2: asking and it's just not happening.

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Speaker 1: Katie Mark, We're going to put this. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: make sure that we put this into our run sheet

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Speaker 1: for next week so that we cannot forget to ask

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Speaker 1: convat Scarlets the Lord Mayor about it. This has got

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Speaker 1: to get sorted to me, like, it just seems unbelievable

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Speaker 1: that it's not sorted yet for the sake of let's

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Speaker 1: say ten grand.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's not. It's not big money. You know, the

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Speaker 2: council can do what they want all around town. But

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Speaker 2: we're just trying to keep kids safe, that's all. You know.

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Speaker 2: It's come to the point where we're the owners of

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Speaker 2: one of the one of the villas where we're like, well,

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Speaker 2: we might just pull our part out and put a

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Speaker 2: new fence up just to make sure the kids are safe. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's where that's where it's at. And send the bills

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Speaker 2: onto the council and to the body corp.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean yeah, but fundamentally, the children's safety is

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Speaker 1: absolutely the main priority here. Mate. Let us make sure

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Speaker 1: that we follow this up. Yeah, we will. We will

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Speaker 1: make sure that we follow this up with the council.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. And also one more thing where

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Speaker 2: we're over in our Turkey Creek in Western Australia at

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Speaker 2: a roadhouse and we stream your show every day just

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Speaker 2: to make it feel like.

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Speaker 1: We're love that.

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Speaker 2: I love that.

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Speaker 1: That is so cool. Oh, thank you so much. I

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Speaker 1: love I love that made I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: No worry, thank you, thank you.

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Speaker 1: No worries. Talk to you soon, see you Mark