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Speaker 1: We're going to do is we try and to get

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Speaker 1: the group back into the city and that's a little

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Speaker 1: harder to do. But maybe this man can help us

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Speaker 1: because there is an initiative to get Sydney siders to

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Speaker 1: hop on a train get back into the CBD and

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Speaker 1: I've got the business to South Wales. Executive director David

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Speaker 1: on the phone, Hello David, how are you morning?

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Speaker 2: Good morning, felt a bit damp this morning.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we're trying to get hold of you too.

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Speaker 1: On the phone. It kept cutting out. We didn't think

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Speaker 1: we were going to get hold of you there.

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Speaker 2: No I feel I had to swap phones. I'm now right.

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Speaker 1: Good to talk to you. So I got to tell

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Speaker 1: you I lived in Melbourne a few years ago, and

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Speaker 1: there used to be a joke in Melbourne that, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you went out, unless you were an astronaut, you'd

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Speaker 1: be in trouble because there was no atmosphere. You know,

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Speaker 1: you could walk down the main street in Melbourne and

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Speaker 1: see nothing. Sydney, on the other hand, was thriving. We

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Speaker 1: now have the complete opposite. I was in Melbourne about

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Speaker 1: two months ago and I walked around the city on

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Speaker 1: a Saturday night and the city was just pumping. You

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Speaker 1: could feel the atmosphere. You could really, you know, get

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Speaker 1: a sense of the vibe going on, which was a

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Speaker 1: complete opposite which was happening in Sydney. The idea now

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Speaker 1: is to try and revitalize the CBD. But how are

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Speaker 1: we going to go about that?

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Speaker 2: Well, I might to start with a bit of bad

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Speaker 2: news and a bit of good.

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Speaker 3: News, and some of that might be a bit of misbusting,

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Speaker 3: I think, Phil. Obviously, the bad news is kind of

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Speaker 3: times are tough out there at the moment right people are.

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Speaker 2: Doing it tough.

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Speaker 3: Times have change, are tough, and in times of change,

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Speaker 3: you always have kind of you know, losing cities and

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Speaker 3: winning cities, losing businesses and winning winning businesses. You know,

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Speaker 3: we know that the working from offices kind of has changed.

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Speaker 3: Not everyone's back every day, and we know that retail

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Speaker 3: is struggling, retail struggling worldwide. Interest rates are high, people

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Speaker 3: are not spending so much on things that they don't

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Speaker 3: need to spend on.

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Speaker 2: And the other thing around Sydney so structurally is we

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Speaker 2: don't have enough affordable.

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Speaker 3: Houses in the middle of our city like Melbourne does.

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Speaker 3: But look, here's the good news, Phil, Sydney's actually roaring back.

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Speaker 3: We know we've got the best CBD on us, yeah,

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Speaker 3: and then we've got the most you know, we know

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Speaker 3: we've got vibrant and safe city, but numbers, numbers are

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Speaker 3: actually upfill and not down.

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Speaker 1: Oh okay, so but but I mean, how do you

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Speaker 1: compare it. I know you've given me the reasons why,

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Speaker 1: and I know COVID has art to do with it,

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Speaker 1: and rents have to do a lot to do with

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Speaker 1: it as well. But you know, people say they come

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Speaker 1: from overseas into the city and sometimes, like on a

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Speaker 1: Sunday night, According to the story at news dot com

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Speaker 1: dot are you overseas visitors couldn't find a pub that

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Speaker 1: was opened past ten o'clock in.

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Speaker 3: A center Phil I'd say, you know, to don't believe

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Speaker 3: everything you read in the newspapers. Look the lockout laws

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Speaker 3: or a long distant memory. For Sydney, that was something

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Speaker 3: that we quite rightly were pretty unhappy with for a

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Speaker 3: long time, but years.

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Speaker 2: Ago they were appealed. If you look at if you

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Speaker 2: look at Sydney, the.

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Speaker 3: York, Clarence and Kent Street areas just won a global

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Speaker 3: award for safe nightlife.

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Speaker 2: The Purple Flag award. People are back.

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Speaker 3: If you look at the weekend and the evening traffic

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Speaker 3: in the city, it's actually higher than it was previous

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Speaker 3: to COVID. So look, I get the story. I sympathize

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Speaker 3: with people who'd like, you know, it to be a

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Speaker 3: lot fuzzier, but Sydney is actually doing pretty well on

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Speaker 3: a global scale, and it's doing pretty well on an

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Speaker 3: national scale as well. It still is the number one

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Speaker 3: tourist city in Australia.

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Speaker 1: Look, I believe you, and absolutely we have the most

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Speaker 1: incredible attractions of the city being one of the finest

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Speaker 1: cities in the world, you know, and that's not sort

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Speaker 1: of being jingoistic or anything like that, but you really

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Speaker 1: can notice and we have the capacity as well to

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Speaker 1: have people coming into the city because we did that

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Speaker 1: with a Vivid festival and it was packed. But you know, really,

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Speaker 1: there really are, though, David, noticeable differences in the city

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Speaker 1: on a Saturday night in Sydney as opposed to Melbourne.

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Speaker 1: And that's I guess the reason why you've got the

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Speaker 1: initiative to try and get people to come back into

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Speaker 1: the CBD.

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Speaker 3: Oh you look, look, we welcome any initiatives like that, Phil,

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Speaker 3: regardless of sentiments or the actual data.

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Speaker 2: The more the merria.

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Speaker 3: As they say, yeah, last easter, not this one, but

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Speaker 3: the one before the New South Wales government trial a

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Speaker 3: few days of free public transport to get people moving around.

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Speaker 3: And what that actually did is it brought families back

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Speaker 3: to the city. It brought older people, it brought family

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Speaker 3: groups that brought younger people back into the CBD. And look,

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Speaker 3: any initiative like that, whether it's a special entertainment district

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Speaker 3: or whether it's an initiative to get people off their

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Speaker 3: couches and back into our streets, it's got to be

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Speaker 3: a good.

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Speaker 2: Thing, I hear.

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Speaker 1: And therein lies the rub too though, David, as somebody

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Speaker 1: that lives on the North side, the problem we have

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Speaker 1: as well, and a lot of the times on the

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Speaker 1: weekend is track work, so you've got replacement buses getting

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Speaker 1: you into the city as opposed to being able to

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Speaker 1: get the trains as well. That's something else that I

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Speaker 1: think is a major factor for people trying to get

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Speaker 1: into the CBD on the weekend.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think that might be a little bit of

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Speaker 3: muscle memory there filled from the past where nine till

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Speaker 3: five Monday to Friday was when you got the weight

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Speaker 3: of traffic. Let's let's maybe vote with our vote with

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Speaker 3: our with our train tickets and get the maintenance planners

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Speaker 3: to realize that they can't possibly do the tracks when

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Speaker 3: it's most busy because we're all traveling into the CBD.

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Speaker 1: And the same thing happened at the Vivid Festival recently,

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Speaker 1: you know, the trains that was impossible to get in

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Speaker 1: in some cases because there was track work being done,

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Speaker 1: or you couldn't get to Circular Key station and things

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Speaker 1: like that. That became a major problem as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look again, I mean, I hate to be the

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Speaker 3: harbinger of all good news, but we do have one

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Speaker 3: of the most modern metro systems in the world about

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Speaker 3: to open that will whisk you in and out every

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Speaker 3: few minutes. It doesn't even take a driver, so you

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Speaker 3: won't have any sickys there. And look, I think I

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Speaker 3: think we all agree, we all agree with what you're saying.

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Speaker 3: I think that is really essential that people do move

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Speaker 3: into the CBD. It's essential that we look at the

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Speaker 3: weekends and the evenings as being a real opportunity time

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Speaker 3: for our city to shine and transport needs about that.

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Speaker 1: In totally I agree with you and the is I'm behind.

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Speaker 1: This is I'm hoping to run as the next mayor

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Speaker 1: once I get over this disc jockey thing. Well, thank

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Speaker 1: you very much. I will replace Mayor Clover and I

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Speaker 1: shall be known as Mayor Crimson and Clover. So I've

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Speaker 1: got the whole plan worked out, you know, David, it's

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Speaker 1: a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time. Let's

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Speaker 1: get people back into the CBD.

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Speaker 2: My friend, wonderful message. Thanks well,