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Speaker 1: And we know that the AFL recently are released its

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen vaccination policy, well it was on Thursday last week.

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Speaker 1: It stipulates that all AFL and afl W players and

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Speaker 1: program staff are going to need to be vaccinated. But

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Speaker 1: how is this going to roll out within world? Different

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Speaker 1: states and territories. Joining me on the line right now

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Speaker 1: is AFL NT Chairman Sean Bowden.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Sean.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, good morning Cody, Sean.

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Speaker 1: How is this going to roll out for us in

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Speaker 1: the territory? Are you going to need players and staff

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Speaker 1: to be double vaxed?

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Speaker 3: Well, look, obviously this is a really important issue for

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Speaker 3: everyone in the football community, you know, right from the players,

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Speaker 3: the staff, spectators, the wider community that watches football and

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Speaker 3: comes to football. This is an issue that's going to

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Speaker 3: be important to us. And we've already had the first

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Speaker 3: direction from a chief medical officer which is going to

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Speaker 3: apply to our staff. As we're a public facing organization,

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Speaker 3: a deals throughout the Northern Territory and we're working out

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Speaker 3: all of the nitty gritty of that at the moment. Now.

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Speaker 3: As to the players and the playing group, that's something

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Speaker 3: that we'll be consulting with the territory the club president's about.

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Speaker 3: We've got a consultation Tony discussion with them, and we

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Speaker 3: need to talk to the players and start to get

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Speaker 3: their feedback and just find out how they think this

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Speaker 3: is going to roll out as well as rather than

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Speaker 3: just sort of dictating to them. It's obviously a very

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Speaker 3: important issue and it's something that sooner or later we're

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Speaker 3: going to have to grapple with pretty pretty clearly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean, as you've said, they're obviously all

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Speaker 1: the AFLNT staff. They are falling under that NT's vaccine

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Speaker 1: mandate which does come into place on November twelve. Has

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Speaker 1: that all been like, has that been sort of received

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Speaker 1: in a fairly positive way?

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Speaker 3: It has really employees and impressed by the way our

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Speaker 3: staff are dealing with it. And obviously there's people that

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Speaker 3: need a little bit of time to think about it.

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Speaker 3: They need to work through the issues themselves, and so far,

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Speaker 3: so good within ifl NT on Pleasure Report.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good news now.

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Speaker 1: And then as you've obviously touched on with the with

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Speaker 1: the players and with those playing groups, it is something

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Speaker 1: that obviously you'll be working through with the different clubs.

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Speaker 1: I would imagine that for some of the coaching staff

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Speaker 1: as well, that they are potentially already falling under that mandate.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is something we'll discuss tonight and I'm not

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Speaker 3: sure where they're quite under the mandate as yet. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: but it's something that's been carefully looked at when the

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Speaker 3: AFL have taken a terrific lead, and they've've done that

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Speaker 3: because they've got a professional competition of professional players and

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Speaker 3: you're more to see they've got three stage as to

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Speaker 3: how they roll out their mandate. So we're sort of

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Speaker 3: probably their third stay. So even though we want to

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Speaker 3: act as quickly as we can, we've got a little

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Speaker 3: bit of time to learn from a the AFL at

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Speaker 3: DOT doing to keep talking to the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 3: and the Chief Medical Officer and keep making sure that

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Speaker 3: we bring our community with us. I think this is

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Speaker 3: really important. We want to bring the community where we

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Speaker 3: want everyone to be vaccinated, Katie, I should be clear

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Speaker 3: about that. We think vaccinations are the safest way for

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Speaker 3: us to protect our community and also to keep the

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Speaker 3: competition going. So that's a fundamental but we think it's

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Speaker 3: really important, particularly with our remote community as well, that

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Speaker 3: education plays a big role, and so we're not just

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Speaker 3: going to rush at this. We're going to make sure

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Speaker 3: we talk to people and we're going to carefully try

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Speaker 3: and put together really grassroots, tactile sort of education program

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Speaker 3: where we can get out in the community and use

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Speaker 3: the great networks that the AFL's got the territory. I mean,

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Speaker 3: I think your listeners appreciate, but we run up and

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Speaker 3: down the highway in east and West and we've got

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Speaker 3: seven or eight Remote Development officers out there in the communities.

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Speaker 3: So we want to try and put something together that

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Speaker 3: has really compliments and builds on the terrific work that's

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Speaker 3: being done by the medical services and the government.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and do you reckon that, you know, the reality

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Speaker 1: of this is obviously AFL here in the territory is

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Speaker 1: such a huge part of life, not just for us

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Speaker 1: in urban areas, but for our remote communities as well.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that you know through the AFL and

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Speaker 1: through some of what you're talking about there, that we

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Speaker 1: may even see in some of those communities a higher

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Speaker 1: vaccine takeup.

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Speaker 3: We want to put our shoulders to the wheel on that.

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Speaker 3: We want to lean into that issue because we know

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Speaker 3: that out in the communities the vaccination take up isn't

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Speaker 3: as strong as it should be, and I like the government,

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Speaker 3: we're conscious that the delta variant of COVID is heading

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Speaker 3: our way. The rest of Australia is opening up and

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Speaker 3: we have to have to be really conscious of that

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Speaker 3: and and not live in a bubble. We have to

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Speaker 3: realize that we're part of Australia and also we have

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Speaker 3: to realize that the remote community is part of the

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory, part of Darwin. I mean, there's an enormous

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Speaker 3: influx in and out of people who live in the remotes,

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Speaker 3: and inevitably, unless we put bubbles around those communities, we're

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Speaker 3: going to be dealing with issues around that as well.

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Speaker 3: So these are big issues we've got to work through

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Speaker 3: at the AFL given the length of the spread of

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Speaker 3: our competition, and I think with the latest data is

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Speaker 3: it's nearly twenty five thousand people participating in AFL across

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory across the year. So it's a lot

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Speaker 3: of people.

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Speaker 1: It certainly is, and Sean, we know that obviously. The

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister have made that most recent announcement this morning

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Speaker 1: sort of talking about the testing regime, and you know what,

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Speaker 1: some Territorians will have to do if they are planning

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Speaker 1: on traveling around Australia. Do you think that any of

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Speaker 1: that is going to have an impact on AFL here

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Speaker 1: in the territory talking I suppose about those remote communities,

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Speaker 1: but also I know that you do have some players

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Speaker 1: coming in from other states for some of those you know,

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Speaker 1: for some of those different grades.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we have to work through that. I haven't got

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Speaker 3: fully across the announcement this morning, but it's a big issue.

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Speaker 3: People coming in and there's a number of people, including

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Speaker 3: the Great Eddy Bets are in quarantine at the moment.

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Speaker 3: We want to play football in the Northern Territory. I

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Speaker 3: love Northern Territory football and we want them here. We

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Speaker 3: want them to come and play. But if we don't

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Speaker 3: have a fully vaccinated playing cohort and we do have

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Speaker 3: COVID in the community, it's hard to say, so see

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Speaker 3: how we will be playing. So we have to start

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Speaker 3: to prepare now for that and find our pathway to

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Speaker 3: the future in effect.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, Sean, just finally, so what really is the

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Speaker 1: first step from your perspective? You know, when you talk

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Speaker 1: about talk about that the vaccine roll out, and I

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Speaker 1: know that you said that you want to make sure

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Speaker 1: that the AFL is speaking with all of those different

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Speaker 1: clubs and liaising with all the clubs.

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Speaker 2: What's the first step from your perspective.

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Speaker 3: To talk to our club presidents, the people who are

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Speaker 3: out there on the front line with our community. We've

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Speaker 3: got a really great relationship with the presidents and we

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Speaker 3: need to listen to them. They're the ones talking to

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Speaker 3: their players, and they're volunteers. Who volunteers is another one

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Speaker 3: cadence in here. There's hundreds of volunteers every week down

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Speaker 3: at the footy helping out. There's umpires, umpires that you know,

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Speaker 3: they're the lifeblood of our game. We can't play without

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Speaker 3: the umpires. So we have to listen to the presidents

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Speaker 3: of stakeholders. I'd also like to hear from the coaches

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Speaker 3: and the captains. They're the leaders out there in the community.

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Speaker 3: So that's probably a second step we need to get

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Speaker 3: out to. So we've got some work to do in

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Speaker 3: the next seven to ten days. I also want to

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Speaker 3: keep talking the Chief Minister and the health leaders, particularly

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Speaker 3: the Aboriginal Medical Services, who've been terrific support and working

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Speaker 3: really well. We're going to talk to them and work

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Speaker 3: at how our cohort and how people who have brand

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Speaker 3: recognition and have respect out and the communities can get

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Speaker 3: out there and help spread the message. So we're getting

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Speaker 3: that message out there. It's really important to get vaccinated.

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Speaker 3: If there are issues, we'll find some of you to

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Speaker 3: talk to it so you can talk it through. But

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Speaker 3: let's get vaccinated. Let's protect ourselves and our family and

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Speaker 3: our friends, and let's keep playing football.

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Speaker 1: Well.

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Speaker 2: Sean Bowden, appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: And it does sound as though the AFL is prepared

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Speaker 1: to take a real lead here and try to get

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Speaker 1: out to those communities. Try to be part of this

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Speaker 1: so that we can make sure that those communities and

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Speaker 1: also all around Darwin that we reach the vaccination rates

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Speaker 1: that we require.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks, Cody. I mean if we can help, we

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Speaker 3: absolutely will and we'll do everything we can to assist.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Shawn. I appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thank you,