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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: Last week, you may recall, we spoke to the new

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Speaker 2: owners of Casarina Square, Sentinel Group about their expansion in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory and also about the issues that they've

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Speaker 2: experienced when it comes to crime and anti social behavior.

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Speaker 2: One of the issues flagged was the trespass legislation preventing

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Speaker 2: them from banning people from the center. It is now

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Speaker 2: being reported by the NT News today that the government's

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Speaker 2: checking if business owners can permanently ban troublemakers from their

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Speaker 2: premises if they have already been evicted from that site.

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Speaker 2: Now joining me on the line to talk a little

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Speaker 2: bit more about this is the CEO of Sentinel Property Group,

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Speaker 2: Warren Ebert. Good morning to you, Warren.

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Speaker 1: Good morning Katie. Warren, you flagged not moving up today

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Speaker 1: on the radio that often you might.

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Speaker 2: You might just about have to now, Warren, you did

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Speaker 2: flag this last week. I know that currently you're not

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Speaker 2: actually able to ban people from the center. Why is

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Speaker 2: that or what have you been told?

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Speaker 1: Katie? I want to preface this by saying that I'm

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Speaker 1: only going and what I'm told, and that's what I've

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Speaker 1: been told by security people. So I don't know, I

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Speaker 1: don't know the reason behind it. I think people normally

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Speaker 1: try to do let's call it the softly softly approach

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Speaker 1: on things first to see if that works, and then

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Speaker 1: if it doesn't, then then you have to get a

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Speaker 1: little bit harsher. And I think with the new Chief

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Speaker 1: Minister coming in, as she made in her initial statement,

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Speaker 1: one of her focuses was going to be on law

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Speaker 1: and order. And I did happen to meet with the

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister last Wednesday, and she was quite keen to

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Speaker 1: hear from businesses and issues they're having. And as we know,

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Speaker 1: everyone should be able to go about the day to

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Speaker 1: day in peace and quiet.

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Speaker 2: Well what difference would it make from your perspective if

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Speaker 2: you were actually able to ban people who'd either cause

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Speaker 2: trouble or broken the law inside the center, Well, you won't.

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Speaker 1: Get repeat offenders, that's the idea of it, Katie and I, Well,

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Speaker 1: we can't preempt things. We'll have to see how far

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Speaker 1: it goes. But I think even the trouble makers very

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Speaker 1: rarely are they are they by themselves. They're usually with

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Speaker 1: with with the group. And if one person is barred

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Speaker 1: and has to sit outside twiddling their thumbs or whatever

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Speaker 1: they're going to do, and the friends can come in

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Speaker 1: in the center. Hopefully that will that will get them

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Speaker 1: to rethink it. We then have to be mindful they're

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Speaker 1: sitting out by outside by themselves, are they going to

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Speaker 1: get into more trouble. So I'm pretty sure that this

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Speaker 1: just won't be a matter of banning them from particular premises,

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Speaker 1: and that's not that's just not cut Casarina, that that's

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Speaker 1: from anywhere. But you do need something else for them

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Speaker 1: to do. And I know that the Chief Minister, the

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Speaker 1: territory government, that the police and a number of other

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Speaker 1: groups up there are keen to see if we can

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Speaker 1: get something back going in the in the Casarina area

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Speaker 1: to to give you something to do to hopefully thought patterns.

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Speaker 2: It seems quite unbelievable, really, you know that a business

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Speaker 2: can be in a situation that if somebody comes in

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Speaker 2: causes trouble that they're not able to be banned. You know,

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Speaker 2: it seems like a no brainer that if they come

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Speaker 2: in and cause trouble that you should actually be able

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Speaker 2: to ban them from the center.

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Speaker 1: Things don't always work with logic, Cadia. I've just come

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Speaker 1: back from the United States and we're over there for

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Speaker 1: a shopping center conference. We didn't manage to drop into

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Speaker 1: Graceland on while we're there, and so we've seen the

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Speaker 1: movie in a couple of nights, So get along and

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Speaker 1: say that. But in California they actually have a law

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Speaker 1: that if you steal something under nine hundred dollars, you

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Speaker 1: can't be prosecuted. So as crazy as that is, you know,

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Speaker 1: our laws are certainly bad when you can't ban them

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Speaker 1: for doing the wrong thing, but it's not as bad

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Speaker 1: as some areas. And I suppose we try to do

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Speaker 1: the softly softly approach, and yes, you're all allowed to

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Speaker 1: ban them and talk to them and get them to

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Speaker 1: see that they've done their own thing and that they

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Speaker 1: would mend their ways. But I think that that is

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Speaker 1: that has been tried and it doesn't work, and it

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Speaker 1: is well, it's not only for the business owners a

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Speaker 1: Casuarinas Square. We spend millions every millions on security. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: compared with with with shopping centers we have in other states,

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Speaker 1: it's like three or four times as much. So it's

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Speaker 1: horrific cost for us. It then costs more for the

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Speaker 1: tenants in outgoings. It creates problems. You know, I've heard

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Speaker 1: of people up there who have drawn money out of

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Speaker 1: the out of the ATMs, and then they've had the

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Speaker 1: money stolen of them. So it's a it's pretty horrendous,

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Speaker 1: and it is, but it is fantastic that the Chief

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Speaker 1: Minister sees this as an issue and he's going to

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Speaker 1: work with businesses, you know. It's it's fantastic to see Wlarren.

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Speaker 2: I guess the big question is how would it be policed.

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Speaker 2: Would it be a situation where you've then got your

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Speaker 2: security guards, you know, having to keep an eye on

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Speaker 2: who is potentially banned from the center and telling them

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Speaker 2: or turning them away if they rock up.

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Speaker 1: Katie. Again, I can't preempt to legislation, but you certainly

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Speaker 1: if you're going to ban someone, you would have to

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Speaker 1: identify exactly who they are. You'd have to get some

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Speaker 1: ID for at the very least photograph them, because you

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Speaker 1: can't say later on you are banned before and it's

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Speaker 1: the wrong person, because because you gonna end up in

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Speaker 1: all sorts of stripes. So it will cause a problem

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Speaker 1: for security. But we've got to start somewhere. As we've

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Speaker 1: discussed a couple of times, if this was easy, it

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Speaker 1: would have been fixed before and it hasn't. But we've

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Speaker 1: got to start and hopefully there can be some education

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Speaker 1: for the youth that they do start to understand that

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Speaker 1: it's not the right thing, even for them. If they're

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Speaker 1: going to get banned and they can't come into whether

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Speaker 1: it's Casina Square or somewhere else, it's going to make

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Speaker 1: their life are a bit more difficult. So yes, it'll

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Speaker 1: be another another exercise for our security staff and will

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Speaker 1: cause problems when you're you're banning. But you know, as

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Speaker 1: it's been shown that there really is, there's no other alternative.

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Speaker 1: We've tried everything else and that hasn't worked. So next

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Speaker 1: is banning them and then we'll see where it goes

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Speaker 1: from there. From there, Yeah, you've got to keep working

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Speaker 1: at it, Katie.

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Speaker 2: Which is absolutely no, absolutely Warren. Before I let you go,

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Speaker 2: I had read last week. I think it was that

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Speaker 2: that Sentinel Property Group was looking at the possibility of

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Speaker 2: purchasing the Darwin Port.

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Speaker 1: Is that correct? Why wouldn't we want to buy it, Katie? Well,

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Speaker 1: we love the Northern Territory, we love Darwin. There's just

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Speaker 1: such an enormous decade ahead and much longer than that. Yes,

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Speaker 1: we'd love to buy anything up there that makes sense,

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Speaker 1: and I think that the currently right or wrong. I

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Speaker 1: think the port isn't working as well as it should

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Speaker 1: because of the bad press, and I'm not blaming the

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Speaker 1: current owners, but it is difficult for major national international

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Speaker 1: companies to work with the current ownership. I would imagine

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Speaker 1: there's some pressure from from governments, particularly given what we

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Speaker 1: read in the press. It's you know, it's got to

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Speaker 1: Federal Parliament. Well maybe there all the time. So if

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Speaker 1: they could find a way out of it and make

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Speaker 1: a profit, that that may very well make sense for them.

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Speaker 1: And we have now I suppose, pushing towards a billion

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Speaker 1: dollars of investments from Mackay North, and we have I know,

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Speaker 1: I said more than that because we've got about six

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Speaker 1: hundred million in the Northern Territory, so we would love

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Speaker 1: to have that and expand our industrial footprint up there.

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Speaker 1: So I guess we made an approach to the owners

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Speaker 1: going on for twelve months ago and made a couple

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Speaker 1: of offers in writing, which which they rejected. But that

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean that we don't we don't keep trying. I

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Speaker 1: think for the for the benefit of Northern Territory, Daalen

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Speaker 1: and all of Australia, that it may certainly work better

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Speaker 1: equals in the hands of another group, and whether that's

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Speaker 1: Sentinel or some other group, we'll we'll keep working at

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Speaker 1: it well.

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Speaker 2: I'll be interested to hear how that progresses.

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Speaker 1: Warren.

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Speaker 2: Great to talk to you again this morning. We really

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Speaker 2: appreciate you coming on the show.

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Speaker 1: Terrific. Thanks Katie. We don't own a radio station, you'd neither,

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Speaker 1: so might be something up there to look about.

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Speaker 2: We just got brought out by ARN, so maybe not us.

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Speaker 2: Good on you, Warren, Thank you