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Speaker 1: Now we know that that Sambar party obviously happened on

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Speaker 1: the weekend, and it seems as though it was a

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Speaker 1: bit of a worry in terms of trying to get

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Speaker 1: people back to dry land, some of those boats looking

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Speaker 1: incredibly overcrowded, the police ending up having to tip out

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Speaker 1: an enormous amount of alcohol. Now joining us on the

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Speaker 1: line is Senior Sergeant Andrew Hawking from the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Water Police. Good morning to you, Andrew.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Talk us through the reports that police sort of started

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Speaker 1: to receive over the weekend.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, sure, I'm not sure when the concerns or

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Speaker 2: members of the public started ringing in, but I know

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Speaker 2: that when we were first notified about the possibility of

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Speaker 2: it becoming dangerous was later in the afternoon, about three o'clock.

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Speaker 2: I spoke to our on call watch commander or the

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Speaker 2: duty watch commander at that point in time, and they

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Speaker 2: said basically that we had General Judy's cruise and also

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Speaker 2: off duty members of emergency services that were watching it

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Speaker 2: escalate from the shore line, and as the tide changed

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Speaker 2: and was coming in, they were growing increasingly concerned that

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Speaker 2: the matter would rapidly develop into a situation that was

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Speaker 2: out of control.

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Speaker 1: Right, So did it sort of from what they were observing,

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Speaker 1: they were quite worried that people weren't going to be

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Speaker 1: able to get on their boats as that water rose.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was just the weight of numbers, Katie.

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Speaker 2: I think as my understanding of the situation is, I suppose,

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Speaker 2: due to the power of social media that during the

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Speaker 2: day there are a number of boats that were ferrying

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Speaker 2: people backwards and forwards from the shoreline, all going one way,

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Speaker 2: basically going back out to the sandbar to enjoy the party.

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Speaker 2: And unfortunately, with a finite number of boats, but a

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Speaker 2: continuing escalation of the population on the sandbar, then at

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Speaker 2: some stage that was going to reach a critical situation

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Speaker 2: as the tide rips in that sandbar goes under very quickly,

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Speaker 2: and may just be a situation where people underestimated the

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Speaker 2: speed that that was going to happen, and it became

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Speaker 2: very obvious as the sandbar started to get swallowed up

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Speaker 2: that was going to turn into a situation of urgency,

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Speaker 2: and it did.

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Speaker 1: And so what happened once the police sort of arrived

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Speaker 1: on the scene, did you have your boats out in

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Speaker 1: the water, and what we're saying unfold.

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Speaker 2: We put a boat on initially after we received that call,

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Speaker 2: so not long after three o'clock we watched the situation develop.

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Speaker 2: Our guys decided it was going to be a situation

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Speaker 2: of necessity to launch the boat, so they put our

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Speaker 2: big boat out straight from Columbay Lock because we were

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Speaker 2: very close. A little while later, sort of only within

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Speaker 2: an hour of that, I received a phone call. The

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Speaker 2: members that I had on board were clearly I could

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Speaker 2: hear it in their voices. They were distressed about how

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Speaker 2: quickly it was escalating. They were reporting boats that were

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Speaker 2: overloaded with ridiculous numbers of people on board, no visible

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Speaker 2: safety gear, boats capsizing, they were pulling people out of

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Speaker 2: the water. They had reports of assaults and fights taking place,

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Speaker 2: and even though they couldn't really specifically focus on anything

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Speaker 2: at that stage other than safety, you know, they requested

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Speaker 2: that I call out additional resources. So I got another

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Speaker 2: crew organized and we had two boats on from then

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Speaker 2: until just before dark, when we finally sort of managed

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Speaker 2: to get everything under control.

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Speaker 1: Wow, So how many police officers are you talking about

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Speaker 1: having to try to, you know, to manage this.

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Speaker 2: There was only four members, one in two different boats,

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Speaker 2: but because of the size of the NY at our

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Speaker 2: largest boat, which is you know, sort of eleven and

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Speaker 2: a half meters, we were able to transfer quite a

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Speaker 2: number of people. We helped pull people out of the water,

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Speaker 2: helped to tow vessels, you know, basically just facilitated the

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Speaker 2: transfer of the numbers that would have made it a

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Speaker 2: situation of urgency, and kept over watch basically of everything

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Speaker 2: else that was going on.

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Speaker 1: Andrew, how many people did you end up having to

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Speaker 1: transfer back to back to the shore o Katie.

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Speaker 2: I'm not one hundred percent sure. In the numbers the

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Speaker 2: members are off duty now, I know they're reported back

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Speaker 2: to the watch commander. There were other boats, small boats,

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Speaker 2: you know, continually running that sort of ferry service backwards

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Speaker 2: and forwards, all sort of hopelessly overloaded or ridiculously overloaded.

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Speaker 2: At that point, Like I say, it was a situation

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Speaker 2: that we were almost sort of unable to police as such.

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Speaker 2: But we're intervening from a safety aspect and not much else.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I guess the large majority probably

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Speaker 1: did the right thing. But then by the sounds of it,

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Speaker 1: there was certainly a number of people who I don't

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Speaker 1: know whether they just not planned it properly or miscalculated

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Speaker 1: or what had happened. But it does sound as though

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Speaker 1: the police had you not been there to help out

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Speaker 1: and collect some of those people, they would have ended

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Speaker 1: up in the water.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And with the speed of that tide,

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Speaker 2: the incoming tide, and I think we had a seven

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Speaker 2: plus meter high tide last night, the water rips through

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Speaker 2: their past the sandbar and down through Emory Point. And

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Speaker 2: if we got to the situation where people had been

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Speaker 2: standing in waste deep water as the sandbar went under,

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Speaker 2: they very rapidly become a line of people going pushing

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Speaker 2: in towards the wharf kind of thing. It's a little

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Speaker 2: bit scary. I don't know whether people appreciate the safety

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Speaker 2: aspects of strong currents, and I don't know nowadays. I

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Speaker 2: don't think I'd like to spend too long paddling around

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Speaker 2: in dar and harbor and deep water.

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Speaker 1: No. Well, and add to that, you know that presumablue

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Speaker 1: people are intoxicated.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, and I imagine that led to a lot

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Speaker 2: of the issue. You know, as the party continued on

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Speaker 2: during the day, a number of people did become heavily intoxicated,

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Speaker 2: to the point where they're not you know, thinking about

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Speaker 2: those safety concerns of putting on life jackets or whatever,

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Speaker 2: you know, we had. I've seen some of the social

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Speaker 2: media photos with small boats, five meter boats with you know,

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Speaker 2: fifteen seventeen people on board, potentially twenty people on board.

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Speaker 2: I've seen the v footage of them just by sheer

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Speaker 2: weight of people just plowing into the water and turning over.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought the same thing.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: You see some of that vision, I know, particularly on

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Speaker 1: the police Facebook page, you know, in the comments section,

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Speaker 1: people are sharing this this vision of boats, you know,

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Speaker 1: seriously with way too many people on there going into

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Speaker 1: the water, and it does seem like it could have

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Speaker 1: potentially turned quite badly, very quickly, if you know, if

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Speaker 1: they weren't able to get out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent correct, I mean, you know, by

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Speaker 2: the look of it, luckily we got away with it

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Speaker 2: this time. The potential for disaster is surrendered. Doesn't be

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Speaker 2: thinking about really, you know, the situation where suddenly people

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Speaker 2: look around and realize that there's a friend of theirs missing,

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Speaker 2: and how do you deal with that in the aftermath?

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Speaker 2: That would have been tragic.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, now, can you talk us through I know that

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Speaker 1: obviously the police ended up tipping out around three hundred

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Speaker 1: liters of alcohol ended up being seized and destroyed. Was

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Speaker 1: that big as it was being sort of consumed somewhere

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Speaker 1: where you weren't able to or weren't supposed to.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm assuming that was as they hit the shoreline

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Speaker 2: with open containers of liquoro. I don't believe the Water

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Speaker 2: Police had anything to do with that part of it.

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Speaker 2: That was a general duties response as people came ashore yep,

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Speaker 2: and they were met by police basically I suppose trying

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Speaker 2: to mitigate any further and escalating issues as that number

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Speaker 2: of people already intoxicated, came into the shoreline.

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Speaker 1: Now, I know the watch commander had said yesterday that

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Speaker 1: the NT Water Police Section are continuing to investigate a

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Speaker 1: number of identified marine offenses. Where is that at, Andrew?

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Speaker 1: Are you looking to potentially charge some people who've done

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Speaker 1: the wrong thing?

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Speaker 2: Well, surely if we can, if we can identify specific

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Speaker 2: individuals on specific vessels and basically track the owners down

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Speaker 2: from the media footage, we will do so, and we'll

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Speaker 2: make all appropriate inquiries and follow up with prosecution if necessary.

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Speaker 1: And are you sort of at that phase today? Looking

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Speaker 1: through some of that vision.

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Speaker 2: And that we haven't started that yet. We'll be starting

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Speaker 2: in the next couple of days. I know we've got

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Speaker 2: some fairly dramatic body worn footage from the members that

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Speaker 2: were working that afternoon, and even with the social media footage,

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Speaker 2: will be gathering that where we can reviewing it, comparing

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Speaker 2: that to details we have CCTV footage from boat ramps

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Speaker 2: and watching those identified vessels pulling out. From that, we

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Speaker 2: can get you know, registration details of vehicles and things

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Speaker 2: and start to that follow up procedure.

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Speaker 1: Andrew, I know that some people listening this morning have

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Speaker 1: sort of been emailing through and messaging through and saying,

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Speaker 1: you know, they're just having a bit of fun. And

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Speaker 1: what would you say, you know, to those that made

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Speaker 1: me feel like this has all sort of been blown

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Speaker 1: up a little bit.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I agree, people are entitled to have fun.

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Speaker 2: The issue is where it starts to put people's lives

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Speaker 2: at risk. And this was a genuine situation where people's

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Speaker 2: lives where at risk. This was a this was a

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Speaker 2: water based base in the grass basically, and the and

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Speaker 2: the venue was going underwater. You know, it's not the

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Speaker 2: marine environment is a hostile It's not a situation where

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Speaker 2: when the venue closes down for the night, you can

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Speaker 2: just walk home. And because of the rate at which

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Speaker 2: it escalated, there was a real danger. I could hear

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Speaker 2: that in the voices of the members that were ringing

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Speaker 2: me and appraising me of what was happening. That's not

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Speaker 2: lost on me. It was a dangerous situation. And you're

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Speaker 2: entitled to enjoy yourself, but not when you're putting people

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Speaker 2: at risk.

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Speaker 1: And Andrew, you know, what is your message for territorians

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Speaker 1: today who attended that party and maybe didn't plan as

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Speaker 1: well as what they should have.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think the ongoing message is always, if

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Speaker 2: you're going to go somewhere, plan how you're going to

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Speaker 2: get home. Make sure that there's enough you know that

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Speaker 2: there are logistics in place, that there's resources in place

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Speaker 2: to get you home safely. If you're questioning whether that's

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Speaker 2: going to happen or not, then perhaps put something in

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Speaker 2: place to make sure you can. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, Andrew, thank you very much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate you having a chat with us, and

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Speaker 1: well done to the Territory police obviously making sure that

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Speaker 1: all of those people that were on the Sambar were

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Speaker 1: able to get back to safety as well, and it

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Speaker 1: does sound as though the police, the water Police had

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Speaker 1: to work pretty hard and pretty quickly to actually be

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Speaker 1: able to ferry people back to Culhum Bay.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks very much, Katie. Look, the guys that were

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Speaker 2: called on duty, the members I called up, they did

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Speaker 2: a fantastic job, but it was sort of there was

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Speaker 2: about a two hour period there where they were frantically

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Speaker 2: working to make sure that people did get back to

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Speaker 2: shore safely. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, Andrew Hawking, the senior sergeant of the water Police,

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you