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Speaker 1: Now, normally we'd catch up with Darwin's Lord Mayor on

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Speaker 1: a Tuesday, but he is traveling, so the CEO, Simone

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Speaker 1: Saunders joins me in the studio. Good boarding some own morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time. Now there's a

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Speaker 1: bit to cover off, but I want to ask you

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Speaker 1: first off. On Friday, we spoke to a Parap resident

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Speaker 1: who's joined us on the show on a number of occasions,

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Speaker 1: raising some concerns about the safety of kids the Perrap

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Speaker 1: Family Childcare Center due to the boundary fencing. Now, Mark

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Speaker 1: Rhodes said that residents have been well, they've stumped up

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Speaker 1: their side of the funds to their Body Corporate to

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Speaker 1: get their portion of the fence fixed, but they've been

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Speaker 1: waiting on the City of Darwin's contribution, they say, for

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Speaker 1: eighteen months. Now, what do you know of this and

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Speaker 1: why has that fence still not been fixed?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So there is an issue with the fence that

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Speaker 2: sits at the back of the childcare center and the

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Speaker 2: challenge with that fence is that one side has a

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Speaker 2: significant drop, so it's not a level fence and the

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Speaker 2: team has been working with the Body Corp To pay

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Speaker 2: for half that fence. So City of Darwin would pay

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Speaker 2: for half that fence in the Body Corp. So my

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Speaker 2: understanding is from the listener the other day that they've

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Speaker 2: obviously put theirs in through the levees. What has happened

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Speaker 2: recently is there's been a change in Body Corp. So

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Speaker 2: what was initially considered the works that need to be

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Speaker 2: done to rectify the fence has now potentially expanded where

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Speaker 2: the Body Corp is seeking for City of Darwin to

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Speaker 2: build trenches and retaining walls and get heavy equipment and

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Speaker 2: machinery at the cost of Darwin. So therefore the initial

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Speaker 2: quote just to build a fence of twenty thousand dollars,

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Speaker 2: which was all agreed between the parties, is potentially expanded

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Speaker 2: to a lot larger amount. So for City of Darwin

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Speaker 2: we have to make sure that we're paying using rate

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Speaker 2: payers money as we can and we can't pay for

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Speaker 2: private property. But the teams have been in contact with

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Speaker 2: the Body Corp in the last four weeks. I've got emails,

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Speaker 2: so there's absolutely discussions going on. There was a meeting

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Speaker 2: out there in late February with the childcare Center, the

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Speaker 2: Body Corp and Trojan Fencing who's looking to do this work.

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Speaker 2: Our teams will be meeting in the upcoming weeks to

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Speaker 2: work out how do we actually do this.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you reckon, how far off do you reckon

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Speaker 1: it is from getting it sorted.

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Speaker 2: It'll depend on what the body corep is seeking. So

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Speaker 2: if there's a significant amount of work that would be

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Speaker 2: at the rate payers expense that might not be able

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Speaker 2: to be provided by City of Dune. We can't go

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Speaker 2: on too private property and build retaining laws. However, we

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Speaker 2: need to make sure that we get a longer term

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Speaker 2: fix in place, and the teams will have a look

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Speaker 2: at that. The other challenge there is heavy equipment to

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Speaker 2: do trenching and stuff, which the expectation is at city

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Speaker 2: have done will do that, whether we can get the

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Speaker 2: right equipment in to do.

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Speaker 3: That as well.

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Speaker 2: So the projects probably expand a little bit, but we

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Speaker 2: will find an outcome that works absolutely as soon as

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Speaker 2: possible for the childcare center and for the body of

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Speaker 2: how I was.

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Speaker 1: Going to say, I mean, is it a danger to

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Speaker 1: children in the childcare center at this point?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's not ideal with they're not being a fence

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Speaker 2: that's secure. So absolutely what that resident is saying is

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Speaker 2: it's something that needs to be addressed, but putting up

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Speaker 2: alike for like fence, this twenty thousand dollars that's been

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Speaker 2: allocated probably is not the best long term so given

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Speaker 2: that there's trenching and potential retaining walls that are being

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Speaker 2: requested to as part of that project.

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Speaker 1: All right, So there is going to be a meeting

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Speaker 1: soon about this and hopefully an outcome quickly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we need to get it resolved quickly, and that

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Speaker 2: will depend on exactly what works parties can do and

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Speaker 2: what equipment we can get in there, and it will

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Speaker 2: take a little bit more engineering design and our team

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Speaker 2: operations team is absolutely onto it with the Body Corp

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Speaker 2: and the childcare center.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, we will certainly keep an ear out

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Speaker 1: and hopefully find out some more over the coming weeks

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Speaker 1: as we catch up with either yourself or the Lord mayor.

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Speaker 1: Now it does seem like just the other day we're

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Speaker 1: talking about Bundilla Beach or Bundilla revitalization being complete and

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Speaker 1: unfortunately now the dog parks had to be closed for

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Speaker 1: ground surface work. What's happened there?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's two areas in the dog park down there.

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Speaker 2: There's the little dog side and then there's the larger

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Speaker 2: rambunctious dog side, and so it's the larger dog dog side.

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Speaker 2: What's happened is that we've had a leak in some

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Speaker 2: of the irrigation there that's caused a bit of pulling.

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Speaker 2: But also with this heavy rain, it's also caused some

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Speaker 2: instability of a tree that sits within that dog park.

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Speaker 2: The arboras have had a look and it's and it

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Speaker 2: needs to be removed because it could be a potential hazard.

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Speaker 3: Is it a big one?

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Speaker 2: It's quite a large tree that could cause an issue,

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Speaker 2: So that the team will remove that tree, they'll fix

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Speaker 2: the irrigation and then that side of the park will

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Speaker 2: be back open and that's going to happen very soon

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Speaker 2: and looking for it to be open early April ago.

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Speaker 1: What type of tree is it? Is it a big

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Speaker 1: Africa and mahogany or.

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Speaker 2: No, I know it's not that large and I'm not

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Speaker 2: quite sure exactly what tree, but but enough that it

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Speaker 2: could be dangerous if it did for when somebody was

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Speaker 2: using that park.

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Speaker 1: So the work around this is sort of aggravated. It

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Speaker 1: all made it unstable.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's probably to this late rain that we're having.

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Speaker 2: We had a significant rain last week, and it is

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Speaker 2: and it is causing the ground but it's definitely the

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Speaker 2: irrigation did have a leak and cause the fighting, which

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Speaker 2: is also created and stability.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so what date are you expecting it to reopen.

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Speaker 2: It's going to open early in April. I believe it

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Speaker 2: is the fourth, but I'll come back to you with

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Speaker 2: a confirmed date.

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Speaker 3: No worries.

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Speaker 1: Now, I do want to ask, we know, like Alexander

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Speaker 1: was obviously closed last week due to elevated bacteria levels,

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Speaker 1: is there an update on that?

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Speaker 2: Look, we really need to wait generally, and I'm again

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Speaker 2: the team will keep doing testing, but when we see

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Speaker 2: this rain continuing, the sediment that goes into the water

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Speaker 2: will generally have those elevated bacterial levels. So we'll just

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Speaker 2: wait and then hopefully, you know, in a couple of weeks,

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Speaker 2: if they're rainer bates, it'll be back open.

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Speaker 1: So it might stay closed until I mean we're in

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Speaker 1: like we've officially been declared them onsoon now I believe

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Speaker 1: by the Bureau of Meteorology, So it might be that

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Speaker 1: it's closed for a couple of.

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Speaker 3: Weeks or for a week or so.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, potentially, Hey, just before I let go, I know

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Speaker 1: there's some climate change grants or some grants in that space.

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Speaker 1: Tell me what they are and who can potentially apply.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So every year we have our rounds of the

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Speaker 2: environment and climate change grants.

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Speaker 3: They'll be opening on.

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Speaker 2: Tuesday, the first of April and they'll be closing on

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Speaker 2: the seventeenth of May, and we really encourage anybody. This

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Speaker 2: could be research, business, any community organizations, schools, or we

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Speaker 2: often get great applications from schools and we're looking for

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Speaker 2: anything that delivers positive and measurable environmental outcomes for the community.

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Speaker 2: We're seeking innovative ideas from the community and things that

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Speaker 2: will improve sustainability in the environmental sphere. So it could

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Speaker 2: be recycling, it could be gardens, it could be a

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Speaker 2: whole raft of things.

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Speaker 1: Where can people go for some further detail, Just to

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Speaker 1: the website.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the City of Darwen website on our Smarty grants

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Speaker 2: is the best place to get all that information.

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Speaker 1: Samone Saunders. Obviously, federal budget being handed down tonight, are

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Speaker 1: you expecting anything in it for the City of Darwin.

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Speaker 3: We're hoping for some stuff. We did.

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Speaker 2: We did have the Yeah, the federal opposition put some

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Speaker 2: money towards the gardens oval the other day, so Lisa

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Speaker 2: Bayless came out with that, Look, we're really seeking any

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Speaker 2: support in that community infrastructure and that livability infrastructure, the

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Speaker 2: social infrastructure which really sits in the remit for City

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Speaker 2: of Darwin. We can get that funding and I'm happy

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Speaker 2: to say this City of Darwin is really really good

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Speaker 2: on delivering those projects, making sure that we come in

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Speaker 2: on budget and we get them on time. So any

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Speaker 2: of that funding, yeah, will be for that social infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: We'd love to see it in Darwin.

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Speaker 1: All right, we'll be keeping a very close eye on things.

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Speaker 1: Simone Saunda, CEO of the City of Darwin, good to

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Speaker 1: speak with you this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thanks, thank you,