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Speaker 1: Of course, all eyes cross our servos in the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory and we're certainly waking up to that major change

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Speaker 1: at the bowser. With the federal government's fuel excise cut

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Speaker 1: now in effect now the twenty six point three cents

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Speaker 1: perlitter reduction, it's expected to bring some relief. There had

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Speaker 1: been some concern that some of those servos really would

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Speaker 1: not drop as quickly as what we're actually seeing. In fact,

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Speaker 1: quite a large number of them have certainly dropped those

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Speaker 1: prices pretty quickly. But joining us on the line now

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Speaker 1: is nt Chamber of Commerce head for Central Australia, Bradgatis,

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Brad.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie, Good morning listens Brad.

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Speaker 1: The excise cut officially kicks in today. What are you

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Speaker 1: seeing around Central Australia and hearing up here in the

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Speaker 1: top end with those petrol prices.

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Speaker 2: Katie, the best place that everyone should be going is

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Speaker 2: where I'm looking right now, which is my FUELNT dot

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Speaker 2: NT dot gov dot AU. And that was the first

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Speaker 2: place I looked this morning when I got up, and

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Speaker 2: I was very pleased to see some of our servos

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Speaker 2: past those cuts on straight away. And interestingly enough, it's

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Speaker 2: caused a little bit of peer pressure to others to

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Speaker 2: drop their price, and and I've seen even further drops

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Speaker 2: since what I saw first up this morning. So it's yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's an interesting space to be There's definitely more to

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Speaker 2: be done, and I do agree with Treasurer Yen that,

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Speaker 2: you know, we do need to keep an eye on

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Speaker 2: these things. But at the same time, pricing of fuel

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Speaker 2: is really complex, and I just would urge people, you know,

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Speaker 2: please don't have a crack at any of our survey operators.

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Speaker 2: They're you know, they're doing the job and just how

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Speaker 2: how we work out these prices isn't necessarily on them,

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Speaker 2: and just do your homework and go to that my

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Speaker 2: fuel nt website to get the best possible price.

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Speaker 1: Right. Obviously, the government and activated the Price Exploitation Prevention

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Speaker 1: Act as well, you know, to keep retailers in check.

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Speaker 1: How like, from your perspective or from the Chambers perspective,

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Speaker 1: how are some of those retailers, How are some of

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Speaker 1: those businesses feeling about that? Are they pretty open in

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Speaker 1: terms of, you know, the way in which they're setting

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Speaker 1: their prices up.

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Speaker 2: Look, the our retailers have been fairly open with me

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Speaker 2: when i've had those discussions with them. I think the

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Speaker 2: concern that we've got is that each retailer has got

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Speaker 2: a different method of working out their price. You'll see that,

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Speaker 2: you know, there might be someone who's paying on consignment,

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Speaker 2: so basically whatever fuel is in their tent, they haven't

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Speaker 2: paid for until you actually take it out of the pump.

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Speaker 2: Which they're the ones that we would expect to see

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Speaker 2: those savings passed on immediately today, whereas some of the

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Speaker 2: other ones, you know, they're out there and like I said,

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Speaker 2: I think last time I was speaking with you, they're

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Speaker 2: they're having to buy a lot of fuel in one go.

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Speaker 2: You know that it might be sixty thousand liters of

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Speaker 2: fuel that they're purchasing. So they're making, you know, over

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Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars investment to fill up the stentks

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Speaker 2: to make sure things are available for the consumer. And

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Speaker 2: of course, once they're stuck at that price, that's the

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Speaker 2: price that they've got in their tanks. And that's obviously

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Speaker 2: the concern that the federal government was alluding to when

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Speaker 2: they're saying that, you know, we may not see this

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Speaker 2: straight away. And just interestingly, the agriople Seed did say

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Speaker 2: when we last had a cut to the excise, but

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Speaker 2: it actually took up to six weeks in total for

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Speaker 2: them to flow through. So the fact that we're seeing

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Speaker 2: this movement immediately on day one is really pleasing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I get that for some of the

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Speaker 1: you know, for some of the businesses, like we'd spoken

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Speaker 1: to carry Out at Robinson River last week and she

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Speaker 1: was keeping the prices low despite the fact that these

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Speaker 1: prices were soaring, because she'd purchase them, you know, purchase

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Speaker 1: that fuel. They've got to do it, you know, in bulk,

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Speaker 1: and make sure they're super organized because the roads get

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Speaker 1: cut off and all that kind of thing in a

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Speaker 1: remote location. For some of the others, though, the thing

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Speaker 1: that I think annoys people is that, you know, the

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Speaker 1: minute the terminal gate price goes up, they jack it

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Speaker 1: up at the bowser, but then when it comes down,

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Speaker 1: they don't do the same.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the transparency on that isn't isn't great. And I

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Speaker 2: think the easy answer here is it really doesn't pass

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Speaker 2: the pub test, don't it.

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Speaker 1: No, Hey tell me the government. Also, as we just

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Speaker 1: touched on, they've obviously activated the Price Exploitation Prevention Act,

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Speaker 1: so that's hopefully going to help in terms of keeping

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Speaker 1: things really transparent. But from a business perspective, not just

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Speaker 1: when you look at fuel retailers, but businesses right across

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. How significant is this temporary cut going

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Speaker 1: to be and is it going to sort of, you know,

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Speaker 1: to ease the cost pressures that some of our Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory businesses might be having at this point.

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Speaker 2: Look, we're really hopeful. I think that there has been

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Speaker 2: a bit of a lag on what our businesses are

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Speaker 2: doing to passing that on to the consumers, which you know,

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Speaker 2: thankfully that you know, we didn't immediately have businesses putting

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Speaker 2: prices up the second that fuel went through the roofs.

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Speaker 2: So but look, we've definitely had our members reach out

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Speaker 2: to us and query what they need to do with

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Speaker 2: these rising costs, because it's a it's an absolute struggle

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Speaker 2: when you know, all of a sudden, you've got fifty

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Speaker 2: percent more on some of these fuel charges. You know,

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Speaker 2: if you just think of a landscaping business, like these

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Speaker 2: guys are using fuel in their machines. They're driving in

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Speaker 2: and around the suburbs all day every day, so that

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Speaker 2: it's a significant cost to some businesses. And look, we

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Speaker 2: have given some advice out to some of our members

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Speaker 2: with regards to how he is an appropriate way to

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Speaker 2: handle fuel levies that might be then passed on to consumers,

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Speaker 2: and unfortunately, it's just something you need to do. And

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Speaker 2: now I feel that that's a better way of our

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Speaker 2: businesses looking after the consumer because when this price issue

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Speaker 2: resolves itself, I'm being very optimistic there it's going to result,

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Speaker 2: So it's very soon, Katie. It's really easy to then

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Speaker 2: take those fuel levees off as opposed to putting in

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Speaker 2: permanent price increases which are going to affect the consumer

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Speaker 2: long term.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, it must be really tough for some

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Speaker 1: of those businesses, like you said there, If you're a

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Speaker 1: landscaping business, for example, and you're you know, you're driving here,

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Speaker 1: there and everywhere, and you're you know, you're also worried

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Speaker 1: about even things like you know, like fertilizers and those

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Speaker 1: costs coming up, it'd be tough then to be running

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Speaker 1: your business. You know, you might go in with a

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Speaker 1: quote and then all of a sudden that quote sort

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Speaker 1: of you know, blowing out for you. It'd be really

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Speaker 1: tough for a lot of our territory businesses. And I

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Speaker 1: think we're like, we're all trying to be really respectful

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Speaker 1: of one another and understanding that, but it's you know,

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Speaker 1: it's hard as well for a lot of us just

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Speaker 1: trying to manage our household budgets.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and I think it's it's right for everybody to

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Speaker 2: have some sort of understanding that running a small businesses

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Speaker 2: is not easy and that these influences like fuel cross

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Speaker 2: and as you say, even the fertilizers put a big

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Speaker 2: strain on businesses. And it's interesting that you then talk

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Speaker 2: about those fertilizers because you know, there it's probably a

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Speaker 2: bit of an unknown thing that and it's not really

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Speaker 2: being spoken about. But the getting the raw ingredients to

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Speaker 2: the manufacturers and getting that turned into fertilizers is something

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Speaker 2: that I think we experienced that during COVID times, which

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Speaker 2: then had to flow on effects. So I feel that

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Speaker 2: that might be something that we might see into the future.

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Speaker 2: And you know, it opens up yet another concern to

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Speaker 2: consumers because we probably won't see that until you know,

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Speaker 2: potentially even later this year or even next year, as

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Speaker 2: those prices and flows through the through the economy.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting time, you know, to put it mildly, but look,

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Speaker 1: you know I'm always keen to chat with you, Brad

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Speaker 1: and find out how things are going for our businesses.

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Speaker 1: So please keep us in the loop if you know,

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Speaker 1: if there is anything going on that we should be

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Speaker 1: aware of. We appreciate appreciate your time, Katie.

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Speaker 2: The one thing I'd probably love to say is that

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Speaker 2: since we have seen a few sens the leader drop

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Speaker 2: in prices, if people can make sure that they stick

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Speaker 2: to their plans for Easter period, get out there and

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Speaker 2: support our tourism operators all throughout the territory, support local

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Speaker 2: business and let's do what we can do to make

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Speaker 2: sure that we keep the territory moving forward.

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Speaker 1: Really good point, Brad. Have you like from some of

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Speaker 1: our wonderful businesses across the Northern Territory. Have you heard

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Speaker 1: that there's been many cancelations etc. As we lead into Easter?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, the team and TCA are definitely seeing that

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Speaker 2: down here in Tourism Central Australia, and I'm sure Sam

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Speaker 2: seeing the same thing up there in Dahwin. And look,

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Speaker 2: it's it's unfortunate and but you know hopefully that if

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Speaker 2: that's freed up some bookings that other people might now

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Speaker 2: take advantage of. You know, with the tourism markets a

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Speaker 2: very interesting one. We just don't know what people are

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Speaker 2: doing as far as international travel, so maybe the international

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Speaker 2: travel gets put on hold and people do do that

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Speaker 2: do the NT so to speak, which is is what

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Speaker 2: we saw a few years ago during COVID when when

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Speaker 2: things weren't going so well. So you know, if you're

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Speaker 2: if you're looking at holidays somewhere, make sure that NT

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Speaker 2: is on the map.

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Speaker 1: Good plan well, Brad Gatus. Great to catch up with

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Speaker 1: you this morning, Thanks so much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Cheers, Katie, thank you