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Speaker 1: There's been a bit of discussion that Rockhampton may be

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Speaker 1: emerging as the barrow moundy capital of Australia. It is

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Speaker 1: thanks to the success of their net free zone in

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Speaker 1: the Fitzroy River. Now, since that establishment of that zone,

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Speaker 1: it's reportedly seen more than five hundred percent increase in

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Speaker 1: trophy sized barrow while anglers are now apparently catching meter

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Speaker 1: plus fish or left, right and center. Now this year

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Speaker 1: is Fitzroy River Barrabash drew hundreds of competitors with two

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Speaker 1: hundred and seventy three fish over one meter landed. Now,

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Speaker 1: obviously this boomin rocky has seen locals here in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory quite concerned that the government is not working

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Speaker 1: quickly enough on gilnets. Now joining me in the studio

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Speaker 1: to talk more about this from Carefish, it is Chris

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Speaker 1: O'Brien and Peter Palitis. Good morning to you both. Good morning,

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Speaker 1: Good to have you in the studio. Now, obviously I've

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Speaker 1: heard a bit of this discussion rock Hampton potentially overtaking

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Speaker 1: and of course we feel concerned, or I certainly feel concerned.

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Speaker 1: You know, we want this crown as the borough capital

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Speaker 1: of Australia, but it's a bit more serious than that,

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Speaker 1: isn't USh.

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Speaker 2: Well, look we're not happy, are we.

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Speaker 1: We don't want to lose the crown.

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Speaker 2: We don't want to lose it. But look, I think

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Speaker 2: we're standing here as Territorians, community members, part of the

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Speaker 2: business community. Again, congratulations to our leaders that have made

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Speaker 2: the decision to take out the gill nets. We're looking

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Speaker 2: at Rockampton booming, visitation, tourism, it's all going to the roof.

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Speaker 2: They took out the nets in twenty fifteen and I

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Speaker 2: think they fumbled onto this and just seeing we've watched

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Speaker 2: it for about three years now and we cannot believe

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Speaker 2: the numbers of fish, big trophy fish that they're catching now.

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Speaker 2: It is absolutely staggering.

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Speaker 1: So give us some perspective, Peter. I mean, like, by

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Speaker 1: the sounds of it, that most recent competition, you're talking

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Speaker 1: more than two hundred and seventy three fish over one meter.

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Speaker 3: Landed two hundred and seventy three fish in two point

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Speaker 3: five days. And give you some perspective. At one of

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Speaker 3: the barrow competitions this year, the Borough Classic, there was

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Speaker 3: over five days in the Northern Church and the Daily

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Speaker 3: River we are caught nine. So that's the difference nine

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Speaker 3: in five days two hundred and seventy three in two

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Speaker 3: point five days. To give you some sort of perspective.

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Speaker 1: What is going on here? Because the Northern Territory, you know,

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Speaker 1: we always we really pride ourselves on being the place

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Speaker 1: that you go to barrowfish. So what is going on?

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Speaker 1: Is it quite simply that's in Queensland they phased out

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Speaker 1: the nets there in the Fitzroy River.

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Speaker 2: I think there's a combination of things. It's incredible to

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Speaker 2: see the way the council, the community, even the schools program,

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Speaker 2: they've all jumped on this and are really promoting and

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Speaker 2: can see the benefits to the economic value, what it's

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Speaker 2: going to do to their city. That's what's staggering. I

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Speaker 2: think we've all, I mean, we all grew up here

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Speaker 2: and we all believed we were the barrow capital of

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Speaker 2: the world. We all believe that. But to watch these

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Speaker 2: guys rise and watch Territorians now consider going over there

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Speaker 2: to fish. What we're asking ourselves? And I guess we're

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Speaker 2: business people and I think what we'd love to do

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Speaker 2: is start a conversation with all the right people at

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Speaker 2: the table, all the stakeholders, and say what's the opportunity

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Speaker 2: we're going to lose if we don't, if we wait

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Speaker 2: till twenty twenty eight or twenty twenty nine. Now we

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Speaker 2: don't see all the bits and pieces, but I think

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Speaker 2: there's going to be an opportunity cost if we don't

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Speaker 2: jump on it.

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Speaker 1: What do you think we will lose? I mean obviously

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Speaker 1: tourism and people heading over there to fish instead.

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Speaker 3: So what we actually did. We got some economists and

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Speaker 3: some other people who actually speak dial up numbers we

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Speaker 3: wanted to. We were trying to send this message for

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Speaker 3: the last fifteen months, and we just felt like we

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Speaker 3: kept on hitting the wrong targets. So we went away

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Speaker 3: and said, okay, why aren't we hitting the right the

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Speaker 3: right volume or the right you know numbers. So we've

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Speaker 3: got some people involved, So look, can you please look

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Speaker 3: at these numbers. Can you look at what's happening over

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Speaker 3: here in the territory? Tell us what it actually means

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Speaker 3: if we do nothing. Now, if we do nothing and

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Speaker 3: we lose just ten percent of visitors, just ten percent

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Speaker 3: of visits, we twenty thousand visitors a year coming to

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Speaker 3: the territory over three years, that'll cost us over sixty

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Speaker 3: six million dollars and five hundred jobs and that's just

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Speaker 3: ten percent of visitors.

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Speaker 1: So that's over the next ten years if we don't

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Speaker 1: act on this three years.

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Speaker 3: So if the government says, you know, and as Christy congratulations,

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Speaker 3: they've said that the nets are going, but if they

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Speaker 3: wait another three years, that's the cost just on visitors.

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Speaker 3: So it's enormous. It's not something we can wait three years.

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Speaker 3: It's got to happen now. And the other thing I

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Speaker 3: want to say, and if I can jump in there,

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Speaker 3: is that we're talking about Rockhampton, but McKay is now online,

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Speaker 3: Kansa is now online, so now you're not just going

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Speaker 3: to be competing with one, you've actually got three. I mean,

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Speaker 3: there's four point two million visitors in Australia who go fishing. Now,

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Speaker 3: if we start losing those people to all these other cities,

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Speaker 3: where do we.

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Speaker 1: End up well. And also the other thing that needs

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Speaker 1: to be taken into account there, I think is from

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Speaker 1: a tourism perspective, it can be quite easy to get

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Speaker 1: to some of those locations within Queensland if you live

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Speaker 1: in Brisbane or if you live in Sydney or wherever

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Speaker 1: you may be, to get to us sometimes it can

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Speaker 1: be a little bit more expensive. So you've got to

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Speaker 1: be more attractive, You've got to have more going for

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Speaker 1: you to be able to get people here to catch

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Speaker 1: a massive barre.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that And probably no fault of anyone's

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Speaker 3: is that maca. Rockhampton started it is about ten years

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Speaker 3: ago in twenty fifteen, and at the time they said,

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Speaker 3: you know what, we actually need to do something to

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Speaker 3: get our economy going, and they put the right people

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Speaker 3: in the right places, had some nice strategies and now

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Speaker 3: you know what, they're actually seeing the results big times.

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Speaker 1: So what do we need to do. How do we

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Speaker 1: get onto this and get onto it fast?

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Speaker 2: Well, firstly, I think if we look at the results

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Speaker 2: of the million dollar fish teak congratulations, wow factor for

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Speaker 2: our economy, Imagine if we had a whole team of strategy.

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Speaker 2: This barrel Monday is a natural resource for us, and

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Speaker 2: I think we've just realized it's the cousin over there

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Speaker 2: and we've not put that much energy into promoting it,

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Speaker 2: growing it, nurturing it. Imagine if we got all the

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Speaker 2: right stakeholders to grow this resource. I think the one

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Speaker 2: thing that we all know about fishing is that we're

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Speaker 2: never out there looking for the smallest fish. And I

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Speaker 2: think that what Peter's saying is absolutely we need to

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Speaker 2: get the right people to look at the opportunity we're

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Speaker 2: going to win, so to speak, as an economy if

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Speaker 2: we can start to nurture this thing called the barrel mundy.

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Speaker 1: And look, I'll be really blunt about it. I've never

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Speaker 1: been much of a fisherman, but I'll tell you what,

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Speaker 1: my son loves it. And I've never seen so much

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Speaker 1: money go into something from a young fellow, so I

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Speaker 1: can only imagine how much you adults spend on it.

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Speaker 3: We would never tell partners, wives never tell you.

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Speaker 1: I know my producer will be definitely shaking her head

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Speaker 1: because her husband spends a lot on fishing. But the

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Speaker 1: point is right, when people then come to the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory and they come here to catch a barrow, they're

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Speaker 1: not keeping all their money in their pockets, are they.

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Speaker 1: They're spending up and that's what we want.

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Speaker 2: One of the big things that has really surprised us

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Speaker 2: is that we normally fish just a season, sort of

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Speaker 2: the runoff. What's going to happen now with the gillnets

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Speaker 2: being removed, We're going to open up our shoulder seas

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Speaker 2: and to potentially an eight month with live technology. Everyone's

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Speaker 2: getting that on their boat, So boats that used to

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Speaker 2: cost five thousand dollars sixty one hundred thousand dollar boats

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Speaker 2: and you can target these fish. I would say, correct

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Speaker 2: me if I'm wrong, But eight months a year.

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Speaker 3: Eight to ten months a year, absolutely, and everyone's doing that.

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Speaker 3: And they're finding fish, you know, on pylon's bridges, rivers,

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Speaker 3: places where no one caught fish before. So locals who

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Speaker 3: probably contribute about sixty nine percent to the fishing economy

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Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory, they're all out starting to do

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Speaker 3: it sort of as you said, Chris, eight months, ten

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Speaker 3: months a year.

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Speaker 2: Now, the thing you got me last night, Kjo' sitting

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Speaker 2: down having tea and the phone. I've got a message

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Speaker 2: and it's a photo of a young girl seventeen years old.

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Speaker 2: Great family here in the territory. They're all fishing the

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Speaker 2: Fitzroy River. They send me the picture. She's got a

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Speaker 2: meter seventeen, her first fish. What's she going to do

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Speaker 2: with all her teenage friends? Is she going to go

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Speaker 2: to Darwin Harbor or is she going to go to

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Speaker 2: the Fitzroy River. That's what. It's got us all fired

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Speaker 2: up a bit and there's a little bit of you know,

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Speaker 2: loot Rocky. We want to piggyback on to what they're

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Speaker 2: doing and this is about our economy and future proofing

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Speaker 2: as and getting a strategy for the next ten, twenty

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Speaker 2: thirty years.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we need to do We've got to be forward

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Speaker 1: thinking in that way. Well, look, thank you both so

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Speaker 1: very much for joining me in the studio this morning

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Speaker 1: from Carefish Peter Palitis and Chris O'Brien, thanks for your.

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Speaker 2: Time, pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Thank you