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Speaker 1: But as we know, there was indeed the terrible crash

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Speaker 1: on Friday in Pine Creek. It has sent shockwaves through

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Speaker 1: the Northern territory. The police commissioner yesterday revealing on the

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Speaker 1: show the cars believed to have had a family inside.

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Speaker 1: Four kids in that car, believed to be from the

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Speaker 1: Big Rivers region. The Member for Catherine, Joe Hersey, joins

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now. Good morning to you, Joe.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning listeners. Joe. Yeah, Katie,

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Speaker 2: that was tragic on the weekend, It really was. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: How are people in Catherine feeling following on from that

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Speaker 1: news and the revelation yesterday from the police commissioner that

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Speaker 1: it is believed that four kids were in that vehicle

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Speaker 1: and they're from the Big Rivers region.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that is. My heart goes out to everyone involved

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Speaker 2: with that, the first responders, you know, the truck drivers

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Speaker 2: that tried to assist. It was just horrific. When I

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Speaker 2: heard of it on Friday night late and perhapsual. In fact,

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Speaker 2: my son was coming from Darwin's. I made sure I

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Speaker 2: rang him to see if he was not caught up

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Speaker 2: in it. And you know, as someone who just has

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Speaker 2: a child on the road. You think the worst and

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Speaker 2: you hope that it's not them, but for some poor family,

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Speaker 2: you know, it really is terrible and just tragic. Coatie. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I think everyone in the community feels like that too.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't matter who they are. Any death is a death,

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Speaker 2: you know, too soon, especially when you hear these children involved.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, terrible, That is so true, Joe. There is

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Speaker 1: a lot to cover off this morning, and the Infrastructure

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Speaker 1: Planning and Logistics Minister Evil Lawla announced yesterday that seventeen

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Speaker 1: Transit Safety officers had completed their CATSIIC and spray training,

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Speaker 1: with another five new recruits due to be deployed with

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Speaker 1: with the less lethal weapons, well or less lethal tools

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Speaker 1: I should say by the end of the month now.

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Speaker 1: Minister Lawla said as of Monday that those tsos would

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Speaker 1: be able to use the tools against commuters and it's

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Speaker 1: a method of last resort if confronted with anti social

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Speaker 1: or violent behavior. Joe, from your perspective, is this a

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Speaker 1: good move?

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Speaker 2: Well, Katie, I think it's you know, we support measures

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Speaker 2: to keep people safe, but there are concerns around that

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Speaker 2: OC spray being used in confined spaces areas like a

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Speaker 2: bus and the fact that it was reported that you know,

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Speaker 2: that's a that's a weapon. Even this morning that was

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Speaker 2: I was listening to that and thinking, well, that's going

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Speaker 2: to confuse people. Yeah, And I think also we just

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Speaker 2: have to be careful about the other people that are

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Speaker 2: on those buses that you know, they don't you know,

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Speaker 2: get targeted with this. And I understand it's a gel,

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Speaker 2: so it's more streamlined as to where it's going to go,

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Speaker 2: but we absolutely need to make sure that it's not

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Speaker 2: using the way that that impacts in us by standards.

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Speaker 1: Well, and people are really quite worried about the safety

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Speaker 1: of our bus drivers, not only you know, and I

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Speaker 1: know they're not the only ones on the bus, but

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Speaker 1: bus drivers and indeed passengers. I've had so many stories

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Speaker 1: told to me about different incidents that have gone on

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Speaker 1: on our buses. So I agree with you there are

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Speaker 1: concerns there or you want to make sure that you

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Speaker 1: know that other people on that bus are not subjected

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Speaker 1: to the capsicum spray should something go on. But the

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Speaker 1: reality here is that we've got bad behavior on the

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Speaker 1: buses and there needs to be tools in place so

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Speaker 1: that we can stop it.

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Speaker 2: That's right, Katie, And obviously living in Catherine. I don't

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Speaker 2: actually know anybody that gets on a bus in darn,

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Speaker 2: but I've certainly heard people talking, you know, when you've

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Speaker 2: spoken to people that actually get on the bus or

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Speaker 2: the people that a text in or whatever. And the

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Speaker 2: behavior that happens on the buses is totally unacceptable and

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Speaker 2: the bus drivers should absolutely not have to put up

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Speaker 2: with that, and something needs to happen. And you know,

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Speaker 2: from a seal P point of view, we want to

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Speaker 2: see as stronger things happen to people that do the

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Speaker 2: wrong thing. It's not acceptable. You shouldn't you should be

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Speaker 2: able to ride on a bus and go to work

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Speaker 2: and be safe.

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Speaker 1: Now, Joe, we know as well as part of the

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Speaker 1: I guess you'd say the suite of measures whether you

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Speaker 1: agree with them or not, that the Northern Territory government's

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Speaker 1: announced over recent months is the knife crime strategy and

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Speaker 1: a couple of those wanding operations have now happened, one

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Speaker 1: of which was in Catherine last week or the I

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Speaker 1: was sort of the weekend before last. From your perspective,

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Speaker 1: has there been much talk about that operation that had

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Speaker 1: occurred and how'd that go from the local member perspective?

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Speaker 2: Yes, So, Katie, that knife wandering thing happened when I

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Speaker 2: think I actually spoke to you when I was away

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Speaker 2: at my parents' sixtieth wedding anniversary. That's the weekend that

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Speaker 2: it happened here in Catherine. But I haven't actually heard

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Speaker 2: anyone talk about it, and I'm interested to catch up

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Speaker 2: with the police and find out more about it. But

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Speaker 2: I certainly again support anything that's going to help the

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Speaker 2: police out here. You know that after things that you

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Speaker 2: know the level of unaccountability, whether it be through education,

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Speaker 2: housing families, then police get to the point and then

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Speaker 2: they're dealing with an issue. I think in that nice

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Speaker 2: wanding there was only one person caught with scissors. But

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Speaker 2: I think what I'd like to see is able to

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Speaker 2: use the ones all the time, not just over a

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Speaker 2: twelve hour period, kind of like you know, a blitch.

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Speaker 2: They should be able to use it all the time.

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Speaker 1: Now, Joe, just on some of the some of the

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Speaker 1: incidents that have been unfolding in Catherine last week. I

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Speaker 1: read through the crime statistics and they are indeed, will

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Speaker 1: they compare the first of the eighth, twenty twenty one

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Speaker 1: to the thirty first of the seventh, twenty twenty two

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Speaker 1: year on you with the first of the eighth, twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two up until the thirty first of the seventh,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. So they're the latest crime stats. And

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Speaker 1: as we were reading through those on Friday, I got

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Speaker 1: to Catherine and I've got to tell you, I was

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Speaker 1: pretty shocked. Assaults have gone up. Yeah, assaults up fifty

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Speaker 1: five point five nine percent, Domestic violence up fifty seven percent,

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Speaker 1: alcohol related assault up forty seven point five three percent,

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Speaker 1: sexual assault eighty five percent, house breakings one hundred and

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Speaker 1: eleven point five one percent, commercial break ins forty four

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Speaker 1: point seven three percent, motor vehicle theft seventy six point

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Speaker 1: two seven and property damage sixty one point one five percent. Joe,

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Speaker 1: were these stats are surprised to you?

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Speaker 2: H it is. It has been going up each and

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Speaker 2: every time the stats come out, Katie, and it is

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Speaker 2: extremely concerning. And there's been a lot of light shone

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Speaker 2: on Alis three. That's been a lot of light shone

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Speaker 2: on Darwin and as a community, as I constantly say,

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Speaker 2: we have an amazing community and these that are totally unacceptable.

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Speaker 2: But what's more concerning, Katie, is that since labor came

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Speaker 2: in seven years ago, robbery has gone up six hundred

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Speaker 2: and sixty six percent. This is over a seven year period.

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Speaker 2: The total assaults have gone up one hundred and forty

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Speaker 2: three percent, house breakings have gone up two hundred and

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Speaker 2: eighty seven percent, and commercial breakings over three hundred percent.

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Speaker 2: So that's in the last seven years that we have

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Speaker 2: had labor in in the territory and they have been

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Speaker 2: in for eighteen of the last twenty two years. And

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Speaker 2: you know, on a broad issue than that, this is

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Speaker 2: impacting people in our community. Just on the weekend, numerous

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Speaker 2: people contact me about businesses that had been broken into.

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Speaker 2: A friend of mine had a crowbar through one of

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Speaker 2: their work use at the back of their business. My

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Speaker 2: husband's business was broken into. Numerous business is in the

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Speaker 2: Crawford Street area broken into. Just while I've waited for

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Speaker 2: you this morning, someone sent me a photo of someone

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Speaker 2: who broke into allegedly businesses in another area. That was

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Speaker 2: the same person that did one on Sunday. Wow, totally unacceptable, Katie.

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Speaker 2: The amount of crime that he's going on. The person

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Speaker 2: this morning that I got a photo of is not

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Speaker 2: a miner. But just last night, I'm doing some work

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Speaker 2: at home and young Ethan who's got the cinema here

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Speaker 2: in town, sends me a video of two youths smashed

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Speaker 2: his window at the cinema. This is a young guy

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Speaker 2: that he's doing an amazing job keeping our cinema open

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Speaker 2: and just is really working hard at it. But had

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Speaker 2: Rocks throated him, so he had a cut face. Lucky

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Speaker 2: it didn't go in his eye. He's got a broken window.

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Speaker 1: What you know was since last night, did you say.

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Speaker 2: Joe, No, he did, I see when did this happen?

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Speaker 2: Even and it was last week, I think, you said

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Speaker 2: to me. But he just sent me the video last

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Speaker 2: night of when it of when it had happened.

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Speaker 1: But so it's it's it's incredibly yeah, and it's reached

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Speaker 1: the point where it's so incredibly frustrating for people, and

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Speaker 1: it's something that we're just hearing about so often that

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Speaker 1: the shock of it has worn off, you know, like

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Speaker 1: even when you're telling us that story, then yeah, and

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Speaker 1: it's no longer sort of shocking because it's stuff that's

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Speaker 1: happening all the time. But it's it's just not good enough.

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Speaker 1: I know that even with those crime stats, you know,

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Speaker 1: they're sort of almost a bit late in terms of

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Speaker 1: of once they've come out. You know, all of that

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Speaker 1: of all of those events have already happened. So how

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Speaker 1: are things in terms of like a greater police presence,

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Speaker 1: Because I know that the police were trying to focus

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Speaker 1: on Catherine for a while there there.

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Speaker 2: Has been a bit of a you know, they have

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Speaker 2: a bit of a focus for a short amount of time.

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Speaker 2: But what we actually need and the police do an

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Speaker 2: amazing job, and we have some great Aboriginal police and

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Speaker 2: I've seen them walking up and down the street, but

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Speaker 2: people would like to see that more often. And the

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Speaker 2: fact is, Katie, that can't happen more often because they're

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Speaker 2: being dragged out to crime and antisocial behavior, domestic violence

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Speaker 2: that's going on. They have to support also right across

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Speaker 2: the Big Rivers region. So you know, for example, there

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Speaker 2: was incidents that in a community over the weekend. I

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Speaker 2: dare say police were taken out to that Friday, the

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Speaker 2: tragic accident. You know, police do an amazing job. That

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Speaker 2: is not the problem. There's a lot of early intervention

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Speaker 2: and prevention that should be happening before it gets to

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Speaker 2: the very point the end of the police and and

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Speaker 2: people in Catherine have had an absolute gutful and I know.

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Speaker 2: After I spoke to you last time, I continued to

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Speaker 2: listen and and someone I know rang in and said, well,

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Speaker 2: what's the local member doing. Well, I can tell you, Katie,

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Speaker 2: each and every day I get up fighting for a

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Speaker 2: better Catherine and a better territory and I will not

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Speaker 2: stop doing that. And that's what my role is in

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Speaker 2: the community here. In opposition, all you can do is

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Speaker 2: cool it out and hold government to account. So each

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Speaker 2: and every day that is exactly what I do in

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Speaker 2: my community.

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Speaker 1: Jo, I am going to have to leave it there.

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Speaker 1: We've got a lot to cover this morning. In fact,

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Speaker 1: one that you might be interested in. We've got ladies

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Speaker 1: who are pregnant from up here in Darwin having to

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Speaker 1: travel to Catherine to actually get these scans.

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Speaker 2: And I'm staggered. But you know, I can tell you

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Speaker 2: that used to happen years ago as well, that people

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Speaker 2: would come down here. And I know that our hospital

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Speaker 2: is absolutely fantastic. I always say to people, why are

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Speaker 2: you going to have a baby elsewhere? We have a

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Speaker 2: great maternity section here, We've got imaging that happens here,

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Speaker 2: and clearly it's a whole lot easier to get in.

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Speaker 2: But that is a expand that we have almost ten

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Speaker 2: billion dollar dead and the money can't be spent on

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Speaker 2: things like health, can't be spent on things like education

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Speaker 2: because of the mismanagement of the government.

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Speaker 1: Well, Joe, Katie, we always appreciate your time. Yeah, but

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Speaker 1: continue listening, and to all of those out there, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you're in your car, in your workplace this morning,

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Speaker 1: stick around because we are going to be having a

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Speaker 1: very interesting discussion about pregnant Territorians not being able to

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Speaker 1: get in for those scans. So, Joe, thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for the chat this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, and thanks listeners.

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Speaker 1: Thank you