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Speaker 1: Well, you may have seen in the Northern Territory News

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Speaker 1: today a report there by Alex Tracy that says, well,

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Speaker 1: from Marara resident Steve, a twenty year resident of the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory, the business he owns and operates alongside his wife, Well,

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Speaker 1: it couldn't be better. However, they have well witnessed what

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Speaker 1: can only be described as a terrible situation, an elongated

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Speaker 1: male on female bashing outside their office, which meant that

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Speaker 1: his wife was trapped inside along with another employee. He

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Speaker 1: joins me on the line right now one it services

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Speaker 1: Steve Roberts.

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Speaker 2: Get a Steve, good morning KP. Thanks having me, Yes,

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Speaker 2: thank you.

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Speaker 3: So much for your time this morning. Steve. When did

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Speaker 3: this incident happen?

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Speaker 2: It was last Thursday evening six pm.

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Speaker 1: Tell me exactly what your wife witnessed and what occurred.

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Speaker 2: I didn't actually find out about it until live phone

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Speaker 2: and to see where she was because I was expecting

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Speaker 2: to go home a little bit late. But she called

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Speaker 2: me and said something could happened at the office and

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Speaker 2: by the time she got home she was in tears.

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Speaker 2: And because of the building that we're in, we have

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Speaker 2: lots of CCTV on the outside so we review the

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Speaker 2: footage and saw just what they've been through. Because we

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Speaker 2: also have cameras on the inside, so I was able

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Speaker 2: to see them watching the footage at the time as

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Speaker 2: it was happening. So it was quite shocking to see

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Speaker 2: it from both perspectives and not being here to do

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Speaker 2: anything about it. I'm just glad that one of my

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Speaker 2: staff members was here to help my wife during that time.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you must have been beside yourself, what with

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Speaker 1: worry for your wife and also for the other staff

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Speaker 1: member as what sounds like a horrific incident happened outside.

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Speaker 2: Definitely, yeah, and we as an employer, we have an

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Speaker 2: obligation to protect our staff and we have a great

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Speaker 2: team and we want to make sure they're safe. Course,

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Speaker 2: but we can't be here all the time, and we

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Speaker 2: can't be watching that CCTV all the time. And to

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Speaker 2: think that this was happening that was completely out of

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Speaker 2: our control outside of business hours, only just outside of

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Speaker 2: business hours, and do you think it was happening right

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Speaker 2: on our doorsteps. But we've come to expect it in

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Speaker 2: this area. We've had we had the incident with a

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Speaker 2: lady that was held at NiFe point, not so long

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Speaker 2: ago that was in the same area, only probably thirty

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Speaker 2: meters from where this happened. And as a result of that,

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Speaker 2: a police a mobile police camera was install It's been

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Speaker 2: here for weeks and then Friday morning last week the

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Speaker 2: camera was taken away. So I don't know if it

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Speaker 2: was a response to the to the event that happened

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Speaker 2: that the previous evening or something else. But now we

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Speaker 2: don't have any CCTV except our own here, and the

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Speaker 2: fact that the police weren't able to attend is worrying

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Speaker 2: as well. I mean, to us, it's a very shocking event,

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Speaker 2: and people who don't see it every day, it was

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Speaker 2: very confronting. But I'm sure the police have got this

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Speaker 2: to deal with many times over, so we don't. We're

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Speaker 2: not criticizing the police and not turning off because it

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Speaker 2: was all it was all done and finished within twenty minutes.

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Speaker 2: There'll be no point in coming here after that. But

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Speaker 2: to them, it's the advice, or to my to my

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Speaker 2: wife and the staff were the advice was don't go outside,

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Speaker 2: which was quite upsetting as well because they wanted to

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Speaker 2: go out and help. He appear to be in trouble.

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Speaker 2: But what confuses even more is that you can see

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Speaker 2: on the footage or right at the end, the couple

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Speaker 2: walked off together. Even though to me there was an

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Speaker 2: opportunity for her to get away from him, it just

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Speaker 2: seemed so strange that she would just sort of walk

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Speaker 2: off arm in arm in the same direction. Don't understand

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Speaker 2: that outcome.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I suppose that for many of us,

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Speaker 1: some of these really serious, well what appeared to be

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Speaker 1: domestic violence incidents may be quite so we may not

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Speaker 1: understand what that all means and may not understand if

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Speaker 1: there's some kind of you know, cohersive control or something

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Speaker 1: going on in that instance too. But it seems and

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Speaker 1: it sounds like what was witnessed and what happened was

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Speaker 1: nothing short of tragic.

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Speaker 3: Terrible.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and very from my staff who even ones who

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Speaker 2: weren't here at the time, to know that this was

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Speaker 2: happening right outside was really upsetting for them. And we

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Speaker 2: do have to be careful that the article said in

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Speaker 2: the Antineus we have to be careful leaving the office. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: even if it's around six pm, this wasn't dark, it

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Speaker 2: wasn't night time, and not that that's acceptable to happen

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Speaker 2: at night, right, I think that happened in broad daylight,

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Speaker 2: and it only it took one person after twenty minutes

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Speaker 2: or so, one person very brave to go and challenge

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Speaker 2: this person, and then other people joined in. But I'm

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Speaker 2: sure those people were very reluctant to get involved in

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Speaker 2: a violent altercation, but also for fear of probably being

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Speaker 2: either injured or held accountable for their own actions afterwards.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, Now talk me through from your perspective. Now, what

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Speaker 1: has had to change for you guys in the workplace

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Speaker 1: in terms of you know, really doing your best to

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Speaker 1: try to make sure that staff are kept safe.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have that as much as possible, not

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Speaker 2: allowed to be in the office alone past six pm.

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Speaker 2: We very shockingly and disappointingly have a golf club by

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Speaker 2: the front door just in case there is a circumstance

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Speaker 2: where somebody is being attacked again and rightly instructions of

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Speaker 2: my staff is don't get involved, don't go outside, don't

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Speaker 2: put yourself in danger. But if someone is being harmed outside,

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, has a bunch of good people,

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Speaker 2: as my team asked, going to feel compelled to go

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Speaker 2: out and help. And we don't want to go out

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Speaker 2: empty handed. So we have that, but we also have

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Speaker 2: when people are leaving the office the CCTV screens. We've

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Speaker 2: got over twenty cameras around the building and they have

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Speaker 2: to view those cameras and make sure there's nobody in

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Speaker 2: the street before they can go out. Asked. Our staff

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Speaker 2: have their own vehicles parked here as well as some

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Speaker 2: of our work vehicles, and we've had them damaged by

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Speaker 2: the kids just throwing rocks for no other reason. They've

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Speaker 2: smashed windows, damaged the cars. Two of our work vehicles

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Speaker 2: have been damaged, and it's just throwing rocks and then

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Speaker 2: carrying on down the street. And if you go out

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Speaker 2: and confront them, double the amount of people come back

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Speaker 2: a short while later and it gets worse. So you

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Speaker 2: just have to sit there and watch it happen.

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Speaker 1: Isn't Isn't that just appalling? Honestly, like that, we're all

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Speaker 1: living through this garbage behavior.

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Speaker 2: It is terrible and we see it all the time.

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Speaker 2: Because of where the building is, there's a thoroughfare through

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Speaker 2: to the one mile Camp and so it's quite common

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Speaker 2: for a taxi to pull up and people climb out

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Speaker 2: with partners to be a bag device and disappear over

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Speaker 2: the hill. And we can almost guarantee that we're going

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Speaker 2: to have problems that afternoon. And every time we hear

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Speaker 2: raised voices going past the office outside, everybody stands up

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Speaker 2: to the window to see what's going on, making sure

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Speaker 2: their vehicle or a person isn't being injured. So it's

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Speaker 2: very disruptive, and this area seems particularly bad, and I

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Speaker 2: think it does come down to that thoroughfare as you can.

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Speaker 1: Steve, I know you've lived here for twenty years from

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Speaker 1: what I can read, and it sounds as though you

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Speaker 1: and your family, you know, I love the place that

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory has been over that twenty years. But

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Speaker 1: I mean, what kind of conversations are you having now

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Speaker 1: as a family unit as a result of some of

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Speaker 1: what you are experiencing.

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Speaker 2: Well, the obvious conversation is how long are we going

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Speaker 2: to stay here? Or we're realistic that trouble, whether's people,

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Speaker 2: there's trouble. You can't move somewhere and expect there to

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Speaker 2: be zero crime. While we have that conversation, we've got

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Speaker 2: no intention of leaving. We love the territory, or our

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Speaker 2: family is here, grew up here, she's born and bred territorium.

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Speaker 2: My kids this is all they've known. So we've got

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Speaker 2: no intention of leaving, but you can't help have that conversation.

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Speaker 2: But being in business in the territory, there are so

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Speaker 2: many you see, so many good things, so much opportunity

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Speaker 2: in the territory is still got so much growing left

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Speaker 2: to do, and we want to be part of that.

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Speaker 2: And having just bought the business down and Alice Springs

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Speaker 2: and been down there and talk to some of the

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Speaker 2: or getting to know the staff and the area, I mean,

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs is a beautiful little town and the same

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Speaker 2: as Darwin. If you take away that obvious level of trouble,

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Speaker 2: you're left with a really quite stunning place to live.

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Speaker 2: And that's what we keep having to remember is that

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Speaker 2: behind the obvious failing of what's going on there is

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Speaker 2: definitely a really great place to live. And as an industry,

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Speaker 2: the ICT industry, we're trying our best to attract skilled

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Speaker 2: people to the territory. But if you google Darwin, Alice

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Speaker 2: Springs or the Northern Territory, the first thing that pops

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Speaker 2: up is trouble, and so it's really hard to convince

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Speaker 2: people to come here and work. Hilly skilled people is

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Speaker 2: high paying, skilled positions when they look at this the

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Speaker 2: evidence of the first evidence they find online is that

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Speaker 2: it's a danger place to live and you can't coax

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Speaker 2: people away from the likes of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane to

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Speaker 2: kind of live somewhere where trouble is so obvious.

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Speaker 1: Your spot on like it is hindering us really badly

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Speaker 1: at the moment in more ways than one, you know,

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Speaker 1: and the most fundamental way is that we don't want

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Speaker 1: to experience a level of crime and violence that we

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Speaker 1: are seeing on our streets.

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Speaker 3: I mean, in this situation you've just spoken about it.

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Speaker 1: It's in the daylight hour six pm in the evening,

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Speaker 1: where people are out exercising. You should not have to

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Speaker 1: worry about this kind of thing happening at the level

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Speaker 1: that it is, and you know, at the regularity that

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Speaker 1: it is. And I think that that's the biggest concern

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Speaker 1: as you touched on, you know, we all know that

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Speaker 1: we're never going to get rid of all crime, but

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Speaker 1: the you know, the amount that we're experiencing at the

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Speaker 1: moment is just not on that's right.

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Speaker 2: It's everywhere. I mean, my wife won't go out exercising

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Speaker 2: by herself. We'll go down to nightclip. As a family

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Speaker 2: where we are in Marara, we've got lots of places

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Speaker 2: where we can go out and exercise around the Marara Oval,

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Speaker 2: but we just don't do it because we've we've heard

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Speaker 2: of people being attacked in broad daylight. Are they running,

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Speaker 2: particularly females running, where people to jump out the bushes

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Speaker 2: and have a go at them. And so when when

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Speaker 2: you hear things like that, you obviously don't go out

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Speaker 2: in that position. So it's a beautiful area that we

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Speaker 2: live around, that the golf course area, but I think

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Speaker 2: that we can't use it because of a small amount

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Speaker 2: of people who are doing the wrong thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, look, Steve, if something's got to change, I mean

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Speaker 1: I feel exactly the same as you guys do. My

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Speaker 1: husband's born and bred in the Northern Territory. Our little

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Speaker 1: family loves this place. We want it to be, you know,

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Speaker 1: to live up to its potential and be what it

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Speaker 1: once was as well. You know, we're not asking to

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Speaker 1: be the same as any other different city around Australia

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Speaker 1: or around the world. We want to stay ourselves, but

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Speaker 1: we want to get this crime under control.

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Speaker 2: We just want to where we live exactly.

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Speaker 3: That is spot on.

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Speaker 1: Well, Steve I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank

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Speaker 1: you very much for having your chat with us. All

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Speaker 1: the best to you guys, and please pass on our

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Speaker 1: thoughts to your wife and also to the other employee

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Speaker 1: that were there witnessing this terrible incident, and I really

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Speaker 1: hope that the police were able to follow it up.

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Speaker 2: Well do all right?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you,