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Speaker 1: Are you planning to travel into state over the Christmas

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Speaker 1: break or have you booked those flights and they were

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Speaker 1: at an eyewatering price. Well, the Northern Territory News is

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Speaker 1: reporting that travelers from Darwin are being slugged eyewatering fairs

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Speaker 1: by the major airlines to fly into state to capital cities,

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Speaker 1: and tarmac upgrades are part of the issue by the

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Speaker 1: sounds of it. But according to a report in the paper,

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Speaker 1: flight search engine webjet showed that one way late booking

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Speaker 1: fares out of Darwin to all capital cities were at

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Speaker 1: a minimum around one thousand dollar mark, with the largest

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Speaker 1: single fair one way flight from Darwin to Adelaide I

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Speaker 1: believe it was more than three thousand dollars. Now joining

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Speaker 1: us in the studio to talk more about the situation

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Speaker 1: is aviation expert Bruce Dale. Good morning to you, Bruce.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.

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Speaker 1: It's lovely to have you in the studio. As always, now,

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Speaker 1: Christmas always seems to be an expensive time to fly,

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Speaker 1: but are we looking at even more exorbitant prices at

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Speaker 1: the moment?

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Speaker 2: So I think we've got two shoes to unpack here.

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Speaker 2: I think the first is the current very high fares

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Speaker 2: which are linked to the runway works, and then we

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Speaker 2: will get to Christmas. So at the moment, I did

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Speaker 2: see that fair that the Northern Anti News is looking at.

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Speaker 2: That was a business class fair to Adelaide via Sydney,

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Speaker 2: so you were paying for multiple flight sectors there. But still,

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Speaker 2: if you need to get down to Adelaide in a hurry,

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Speaker 2: you see something like that and you go, oh my goodness,

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Speaker 2: can I travel? Yeah, it's very difficult. So what's happening

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Speaker 2: with the runway works is the runway works go has

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Speaker 2: actually resulted in a temporary shortening of the available runway

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Speaker 2: that the aircraft have to use. So they can land okay,

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Speaker 2: but when it comes to taking off, they are faced

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Speaker 2: with the challenges that to take off in the distance,

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Speaker 2: the aircraft needs to be lighter, and the only way

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Speaker 2: you lighten an aircraft is by reducing the number of

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Speaker 2: seats that are available for sale.

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Speaker 1: So less people on those flights.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and some of the flights are actually selling out,

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Speaker 2: so all that will be left is the I meant

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Speaker 2: business class fares because the economy class allocation has gone.

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Speaker 2: I did do some modeling at the airport with this

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Speaker 2: in some situations, airlines might have to block up to

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Speaker 2: one third of the seats on the flight, so it

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Speaker 2: is a significant cut to the available seats going out.

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Speaker 1: Holy moly, So it does have a huge, huge impact.

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Speaker 1: And why is it that? I mean, well, I guess

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Speaker 1: it makes sense, doesn't it. You've got to have less

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Speaker 1: bodies on that flight to be able to make the

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Speaker 1: plane lighter. If it's got less runway, does it have

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Speaker 1: an impact? So that's when it's it's heading out. Does

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Speaker 1: it have an impact when it's landing less?

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Speaker 2: So it takes less runway to actually land and sort

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Speaker 2: of put the brakes on, so landing's always shorter and

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Speaker 2: take off And so.

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Speaker 1: How long are we anticipating that these works are going

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Speaker 1: to have that impact? Because I know that they'd sort

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Speaker 1: of said that they were doing work for a certain

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Speaker 1: period of time. Then I thought it was going to

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Speaker 1: stop for a while as well over the wet season.

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Speaker 1: So will that have an impact in terms of those prices?

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Speaker 2: The Wrath have on their website that the runway works

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Speaker 2: are due to the current phase. One of my works

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Speaker 2: is due to cleanly end on the thirtieth of November. Coincidentally,

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Speaker 2: that's when Bonn's is arriving, so you can see that

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Speaker 2: ye into a fact. You know, low cost eline can

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Speaker 2: take all the passengers out, it will be pausing over

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Speaker 2: the wet season. You'll need to get confirmation from the

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Speaker 2: raft or the airport about what the plan is for

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Speaker 2: next year. But it is highly likely that they've done

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Speaker 2: the east end of the runway, they'll need to do

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Speaker 2: a similar thing on the west end of the runway.

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Speaker 2: So there could be some impacts similar to what we've

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Speaker 2: got at the moment next year.

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Speaker 1: Next year, yeah, okay, And so that's part of the

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Speaker 1: issue now. But then do we always see those flights

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Speaker 1: go a bit more expensive via Christmas? Like do the

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Speaker 1: airlines get greedy or what happens?

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Speaker 2: It's the o case of supply and demand. Fares always

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Speaker 2: go expensive at Christmas, no matter where you are. Wherever

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Speaker 2: I've lived, everybody's complained about the airfares at Christmas, even

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Speaker 2: Father Christmas when he's trying to fly around the world.

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Speaker 2: But what we are seeing. I had a look at

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Speaker 2: fares like between Sydney and Darwin and then Bali and

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Speaker 2: Darwin Smiths. So from if you're flying south to Sydney,

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Speaker 2: the average fair in the week before Christmas is now

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Speaker 2: sitting about six hundred and seventy dollars one way because

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Speaker 2: people have booked in advance. But if you're coming up

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Speaker 2: from Sydney, it's only two hundred and fifty dollars. Barley

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Speaker 2: was even more extreme. The flights are absolutely choker. You

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Speaker 2: can't get a seat for under one thousand dollars. You're

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Speaker 2: literally buying one of the last seats available on the aircraft.

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Speaker 2: But if you were Indonesian wanted to come to Darwin

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Speaker 2: for holiday, the average fair is ninety nine dollars, So

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Speaker 2: coming back here is jape. Yeah, that's because the fair,

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Speaker 2: the flight's coming back almost empty. And the old rule

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Speaker 2: about flight club is you've got to pay for every

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Speaker 2: empty seat or every highly discounted eat. So that's the

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Speaker 2: challenge of the airlines face. It's like, how do we

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Speaker 2: actually get enough revenue to cover our costs. Is some

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Speaker 2: flights are going to be absolutely choker, and some flights

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Speaker 2: are actually going to be a little bit emptier. But

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Speaker 2: the good news is if you are looking for a

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Speaker 2: cheap holiday in the very near future. I had a

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Speaker 2: lot at Barley Flights this coming week. You can get

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Speaker 2: it returned Barley Flight for under five hundred dollars. So

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Speaker 2: although there are expensive parts of the network, there's still

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Speaker 2: some great opportunities out there. You might need to think, Okay,

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Speaker 2: this year, I won't visit the mother in law in Sydney.

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Speaker 2: I might have to slum it in Bali instead.

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Speaker 1: Which plenty of people will probably be okay with. Now,

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Speaker 1: are there different things that we can do to try

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Speaker 1: and avoid those high prices?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think if you can be flexible with your

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Speaker 2: life plans, can you actually if you can avoid traveling

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Speaker 2: at Christmas time, like the fares to Sydney dropped to

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Speaker 2: under two hundred dollars, you know, in the first week

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Speaker 2: of January. I know that's not possible for everyone, but

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Speaker 2: sometimes if you can be flexible, I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: if the fares are cheaper coming into Darwin, maybe invite

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Speaker 2: the family up here. But the key thing is book

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Speaker 2: in advance, you know, think of their affairs like an

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Speaker 2: auction that they're going to be auctioning off the seats,

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Speaker 2: So earlier you are in the auction process, the cheaper

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Speaker 2: the price will be. If you leave it to the

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Speaker 2: end hoping that the price and an auction is going

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Speaker 2: to drop it's not going to happen.

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Speaker 1: I'll see on one of those idiots, on one of

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Speaker 1: those people that it's like, oh, maybe I won't book

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Speaker 1: it now, maybe the flight prices will change a little bit,

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Speaker 1: and then it never does.

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Speaker 2: Book in advance, yes, normally most people plan the holidays

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Speaker 2: about three months in advance, so if you start booking

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Speaker 2: before three months, you've probably lost your opportunity for cheap fairs.

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Speaker 2: But also shop around. Use I would say fair scraper

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Speaker 2: websites which will show you good idea my recommendations. Have

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Speaker 2: a look at those. But where if a possible book

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Speaker 2: with the airline direct it's a lot easier if things

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Speaker 2: do happen rather than like canetary. And also maybe consider

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Speaker 2: something like if you're going to Brisbane, you've got the

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Speaker 2: option of bondser which might offer some cheaper, cheaper fairs

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Speaker 2: if you go into southeast Queensland and travel.

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Speaker 1: Down, Yeah, and then you can just catch the train

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Speaker 1: you know, from the Gold Coast to Brizee or whatever

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Speaker 1: you need to do.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely good advice.

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Speaker 1: Now, Bruce, before I let you go, you are sporting

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Speaker 1: a pink mustache at the moment because it was all

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Speaker 1: for breastcats. A fundraiser, wasn't it?

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Speaker 2: It is? It is? I know it's November, but this

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Speaker 2: is the anniversary of someone who is particularly close. She

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Speaker 2: was an aviation worker. Unfortunately she is no longer with us,

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Speaker 2: and women actually have a twenty Women who work in

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Speaker 2: aviation have a twenty five percent higher risk of Brand's

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Speaker 2: cancer than the general population. It's because if they're flying,

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Speaker 2: its altitude exposure shit with spetual chemicals. So this was

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Speaker 2: a two step process. First of all, I tried it myself.

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Speaker 2: My moe just ended up going ginger and I dyed

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Speaker 2: the skin pink, so I looked like a bad case

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Speaker 2: of pash rash. So I had to get some professional help.

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Speaker 2: And it was a wonderful team bat it friends in Yarawanga.

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Speaker 2: I turned up on an ounce, They laughed at me,

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Speaker 2: bleached me and then turned me pink.

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Speaker 1: So wonderful, wonderful, And that fundraiser was towards the end

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Speaker 1: of last week, wasn't it?

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Speaker 2: Did you raise a bit of money at the moment?

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Speaker 2: I raised about six hundred dollars from the Ladies Lunch

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Speaker 2: at the Melbourne Cartel. But I'm doing it for the

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Speaker 2: whole month, so I do have a link out there.

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Speaker 1: Oh good on you. Wonderful stuff. And you know, I

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Speaker 1: think it's something that is so important. We've spoken about

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Speaker 1: non numerous times on the show, that risk of breast

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Speaker 1: cancer and making sure that you do go and get checked.

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Speaker 1: And I'm all about the men's health as well well.

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Speaker 1: You blokes need to go and get checked as well.

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Speaker 1: We've just got to look after ourselves and if you

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Speaker 1: don't do it for yourself, do it for your family

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Speaker 1: and those around you that care. Yes, it is always

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Speaker 1: great to have you in the studio. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie