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Speaker 1: We know that yesterday obviously, what we've seen in the

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Speaker 1: CBD at the Woolworth shopping center, well, it caused a

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Speaker 1: lot of distress. I think people were absolutely disgusted to

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Speaker 1: see the behavior that had unfolded the afternoon prior. We'd

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Speaker 1: spoken to witnesses who talked of the horror really of

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Speaker 1: seeing people there with massive knives. But we do know

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Speaker 1: that anti social behavior is having such a big impact

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Speaker 1: on a lot of businesses around the Northern Territory. And

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line to talk further about this

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Speaker 1: is Greg Island, the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce CEO.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Greg.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you today?

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Speaker 1: Not too bad, Greg? There's been a lot of incidents,

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Speaker 1: well a lot of incidents over recent weeks, but certainly

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Speaker 1: this week that shopping center brawl and nudity in the streets.

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Speaker 1: We'd also seen what's been the reaction from this from

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Speaker 1: the business community.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the reaction is continuing along the lines

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Speaker 2: that has four quittes time, Katie. People are I guess

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Speaker 2: getting very very frustrated with some of any social behavior

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Speaker 2: we're seeing. Not only you know are in this behavior.

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Speaker 2: We saw a couple of days ago, but just defecating

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Speaker 2: in the streets and just leaving this and horrible things everywhere.

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Speaker 2: It's been pointed out to me by a number of

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Speaker 2: retailers in the main CBD area and it just continues

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Speaker 2: to erode our quality of life and then their presentation

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Speaker 2: to our magnificent visitors that are here at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I thought to myself yesterday, as that

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Speaker 1: vision was going viral and as everybody in Darwin was

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Speaker 1: talking about what had gone on in the city, I thought,

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Speaker 1: I feel for everybody that was there. I certainly feel

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Speaker 1: for everybody that was working, but I also feel for

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Speaker 1: all of those business operators and owners in our CBD

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Speaker 1: thinking to themselves, you know, we're trying to draw people

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Speaker 1: to the city and stuff like this is continuing to happen.

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Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, you know it's your family and my family

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Speaker 2: could have been in there in that environment and something

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Speaker 2: done toward happens to someone that you love. It's a

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Speaker 2: huge impact. But we don't want people feeling afraid to

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Speaker 2: go to the CBD and engage with our retailers and

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Speaker 2: other businesses in that environment. And it's just terrible. That said,

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Speaker 2: we've got to feel for friends down in Alice Springs

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Speaker 2: and Tender Creek where this is pretty much a daily

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Speaker 2: occurrence and we're seeing it up here for getting to

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Speaker 2: that extreme level. They've been dealing with it for many,

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Speaker 2: many months, and it's pretty bad, that's for sure.

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Speaker 1: Greg. Do you think yesterday was a breaking point? I mean,

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Speaker 1: to have something like that happen all Tuesday afternoon, I

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Speaker 1: should say it was a breaking point to have something

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Speaker 1: like that happen in our capital city, right in the CBD,

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Speaker 1: after what has been a tumultuous time, to say the least,

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Speaker 1: Like you said, Alice Springs, dealing with stuff like this

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Speaker 1: on the daily. We've seen that public drunkenness, public nakedness,

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Speaker 1: all sorts of things. Do you hope that this is

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Speaker 1: a bit of a turning point for us?

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Speaker 2: Well, let's hope so. And what we don't want it

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Speaker 2: to be is part of the normalizing process to say

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Speaker 2: that it's happened before and we'll just continue to tolerate it.

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Speaker 2: So we'll be certainly as active as we can talking

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Speaker 2: with Minister Warden and everyone else that will listen to

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Speaker 2: us about that exact problem that the Chamber has actually

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Speaker 2: appointed a person down in our springs to focus specifically

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Speaker 2: on any social behavior and it's impact on business. So

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Speaker 2: that's a bit of a first for us. So that

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Speaker 2: person's meeting Institute for only a few days now, and

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Speaker 2: we're already seeing quite signed engagement and feedback to the

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Speaker 2: chamber about everyone's concerns in this space. So we'll continue

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Speaker 2: to be as active as we can.

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Speaker 1: Greg. Our business is at breaking point here with this issue, well, the.

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Speaker 2: Breaking point with a couple of issues, Katie, that's certainly

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Speaker 2: one of them. It really is distracting from what should

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Speaker 2: be a very very positive time. There are other challenges

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Speaker 2: workforce and really getting people to participate inside their business

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Speaker 2: to help lift our levels of service and make sure

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Speaker 2: we're maximizing the opportunity. So between workforce shortages and crime

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Speaker 2: and anti social behavior, it's very very frustrating for many

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Speaker 2: many businesses out there.

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Speaker 1: When you talk about that workforce shortage and when you

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Speaker 1: talk about trying to lure people to work in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. What kind of impact does something like happened

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Speaker 1: earlier in the week have.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's very negative, Katie. It's certainly a disincentive for

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Speaker 2: anyone to want to come and work and live in

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Speaker 2: the territory. No one wants to be exposed to that

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Speaker 2: kind of behavior, and it's something that we really do

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Speaker 2: need government and the police to stamp out and get

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Speaker 2: on top of as quickly as possible. You know, we

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Speaker 2: are out there actively trying to attract people. A recent

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Speaker 2: delegation from Darwin City Care Council looks like it's bringing

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Speaker 2: up to fifty workers back into the territory from Indonesia.

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Speaker 2: That's a fantastic outcome, but we don't want those people

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Speaker 2: changing their minds on the basis of something they saw

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Speaker 2: in the news.

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Speaker 1: Greg, Are there any new sort of solutions or actions

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Speaker 1: that are being taken by business owners at the moment

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Speaker 1: When it comes to the anti social behavior side of things, it's.

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Speaker 2: Very very difficult, and we really do strongly encourage business

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Speaker 2: owners not to participate or get involved in the actual

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Speaker 2: issues themselves. We're very thankful that the government has changed

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Speaker 2: the parameters around the secure grants, increased the funding, lowered

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Speaker 2: the percentage that business needs to contribute to get some

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Speaker 2: of these more permanent physical barriers in place. But it

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Speaker 2: would be really nice if the general community and the

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Speaker 2: people involved in this were just respectful of others and

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Speaker 2: didn't carry on in this particular manner. It certainly seems

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Speaker 2: to be an issue that is building momentum rather than

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Speaker 2: in the other way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is the worry I think for everybody.

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Speaker 1: We're sort of not seeing an improvement in this space.

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Speaker 1: If anything, it feels as though it's getting worse after

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Speaker 1: what's happened this week. Do we need more police on

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Speaker 1: the beat from your perspective, it's an interesting question.

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Speaker 2: I'm told reliably by the Minister's office there's more police

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Speaker 2: in Alice and Darwen and perhaps ever has been before.

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Speaker 2: But I'm also hearing that there's quite a number of

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Speaker 2: them that are either on leave or limited duties for

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Speaker 2: mental health reasons and other challenges, So that might translate

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Speaker 2: into less boots on the ground. And boots on the

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Speaker 2: ground is exactly what we need. So we welcome the

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Speaker 2: private security editions that have been made and looking forward

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Speaker 2: to the outcomes of that, because it's really only been

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Speaker 2: in place for a week or two.

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Speaker 1: What do you think about this push from some other

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Speaker 1: industry groups, But also it looks as though it's the

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Speaker 1: opposition as well today to reinstate this for mcgoglaw making

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Speaker 1: it illegal to drink within two kilometers of a licensed premise.

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Speaker 2: Well, we know that alcohol is a significant contribution to

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Speaker 2: a lot of these violence related issues, so therefore potentially

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Speaker 2: limiting access to that has some potential benefits. So I

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Speaker 2: can see the merit behind that. It's a very very

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Speaker 2: broad and complex issue. Know what applies to one group

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Speaker 2: really needs to apply to us all. And if we're

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Speaker 2: prepared to make that as part of a solution at

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Speaker 2: a community level, I think it's worth for sure.

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Speaker 1: Well, Greg Island, the see of the Chamber of Commerce,

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Speaker 1: we really appreciate you having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, You're welcome.

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Speaker 2: Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thanks