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Speaker 1: Now, as you've heard this morning, the Chief Minister Natasha

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Speaker 1: Files and the Minister for Police and Territory Families and

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Speaker 1: also Fire and Emergency Services Kate Warden, have just finished

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Speaker 1: at that press conference at Parliament House where they have

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Speaker 1: announced Michael Murphy is the next Northern Territory Police Commissioner

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Speaker 1: and CEO of Fire and Emergency Services, and the Minister

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Speaker 1: for Police and Territory Families joins me in the studio

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Speaker 1: right now, Kate Warden, Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 3: Great to be with you, Minister, Thanks so much for

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Speaker 3: your time.

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Speaker 1: Now, why was Michael Murphy the successful person for the job.

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Speaker 4: Well, he has had a twenty six years career in policing.

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Speaker 4: As it was pointed out to us by the media

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Speaker 4: who did some obviously some good diligence this morning and

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Speaker 4: has pointed out to him as well by some of

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Speaker 4: the troops, that he has been at every level of

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Speaker 4: the organization. He's come up through the ranks, he has

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Speaker 4: worked importantly in remote areas and over time he has

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Speaker 4: being in this really senior operational role, He's got a

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Speaker 4: wealth of experience. He's already started to even though he's

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Speaker 4: been in that job and the you know, holding the

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Speaker 4: space if you're like for a while now, he's already

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Speaker 4: done some of the big reforms and he's kept those moving,

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Speaker 4: particularly in the air of well being of police. You know,

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Speaker 4: he's proved himself and I've absolutely enjoyed working with him

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Speaker 4: and I think, you know, we've got good things ahead together.

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Speaker 2: He's a really good person and a good leader.

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Speaker 3: By large.

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Speaker 1: A lot of positive feedback following on from that announcement

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Speaker 1: earlier this morning. A lot of people really very pleased

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Speaker 1: actually to hear that he is the next Northern Territory Katie.

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Speaker 4: I can tell you as we walked out the room,

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Speaker 4: that man's phone was running hot and the text messages

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Speaker 4: that were coming through, and I said to him, you know,

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Speaker 4: that's a real indication he won't Mandy sharing. You know,

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Speaker 4: he had text message after text message of congratulations. I

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Speaker 4: think he has absolutely learned earned this position, and I

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Speaker 4: think he'll serve the territory well, but he'll also lead

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Speaker 4: his members well.

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Speaker 1: And I think that that is so incredibly important because

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Speaker 1: the morale of the Northern Territory Police Force over recent years,

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Speaker 1: as has well been documented, has been low. And I'll

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Speaker 1: get into that a little bit more in a moment.

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Speaker 1: But what are you hoping to see happen with the

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Speaker 1: police force with the announcement of Michael Murphy as the commissioner.

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Speaker 2: So we've already started that work.

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Speaker 4: He's already showed around the well being of police and

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Speaker 4: he's got a real focus on that. I know that

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Speaker 4: he is really looking for where efficiencies can be made

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Speaker 4: so we can have more police out on the front line.

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Speaker 4: And there's a number of things that we'll work through together.

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Speaker 4: But of course today we also announced the review kicking

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Speaker 4: off with Vince Kelly leading that and a lot of

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Speaker 4: your listeners will remember Vince Kelly. He was a strong

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Speaker 4: head of the Northern Territory Police Association for a while,

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Speaker 4: but very importantly he was a career police officer as well.

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Speaker 2: So I think what will.

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Speaker 4: Happen is these things in tandem. You know, I know

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Speaker 4: that Commissioner Murphy. We say that today, we're not saying

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Speaker 4: acting it's Commissioner Murphy. We'll have the opportunity to help

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Speaker 4: and assist that review and make sure that it reflects

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Speaker 4: and I really look forward. This is the beginning of

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Speaker 4: a journey and he will be the person at the

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Speaker 4: end that we will work with to implement the recommendation.

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Speaker 4: So there's a you know, the timing's perfect for today well.

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Speaker 1: And obviously the Annual Police Association Conference was held last Friday.

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Speaker 1: The president, Nathan Finn had said that we are stretched

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Speaker 1: beyond breaking point. They were his words. He says that

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Speaker 1: we do need an additional two hundred police. So as

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Speaker 1: you've just touched on, obviously the announcement of this review,

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Speaker 1: as I understand, it's going to kick off on September one,

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Speaker 1: and Vince Kelly going to head that review up.

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Speaker 3: What's it going to focus on?

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Speaker 1: Is it really going to focus on those police numbers

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Speaker 1: and resourcing and making sure that our police are adequately resourced.

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Speaker 4: So we've been talking to the NTPA and Nathan for

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Speaker 4: a little bit now about what they'd like to see

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Speaker 4: particularly in there. He is keen to make sure that

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Speaker 4: we've got the review of organizational structure, but also that

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Speaker 4: it looks at workflow and we've incorporated that into the

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Speaker 4: terms of reference, which are public. I can leave you

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Speaker 4: a copy today, perfect Katie, if you'd like those.

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Speaker 2: I did bring them with me today.

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Speaker 4: But also making sure that around fatigue management that's looked at,

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Speaker 4: so They were the very specific requests that Nathan had

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Speaker 4: made and we have incorporated those. But we're going to

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Speaker 4: look at staffing structures and the operations, particularly employee well

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Speaker 4: being and fatigue management along with minimum staffing levels.

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Speaker 2: We're going to look at relook at remote and.

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Speaker 4: Regional policing and make sure that that model is fit

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Speaker 4: for purpose and that we're able to properly resource that.

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Speaker 4: That's good timing because we're talking to the federal government

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Speaker 4: around that bigger or the agreement that we have with

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Speaker 4: their Mentiray we call it they are Remote Area Investment discussion,

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Speaker 4: so that's good timing around that. Here'll also be a

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Speaker 4: bit of a focus on culture leadership practices, diversity and inclusion,

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Speaker 4: and a lot of that work's already started, so it

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Speaker 4: will be good to look at that and the review

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Speaker 4: of general orders.

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Speaker 2: So there's a lot of components.

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Speaker 4: Is a number of other smaller things that will be involved,

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Speaker 4: but we will be The Chief Minister was very clear

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Speaker 4: this morning and I totally agreed with this position, is

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Speaker 4: that as we go along, we'll hear from the review

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Speaker 4: reviewer from Vince regularly and if there are things that

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Speaker 4: we can explore and fix along the way before the

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Speaker 4: recommendations come down early next year. Then we will fix

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Speaker 4: those things as we go.

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Speaker 3: And is that going to be made public?

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Speaker 1: So you're actually going to keep that absolutely take us

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Speaker 1: along for the journey.

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Speaker 4: So we may not make it public as we go,

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Speaker 4: but we will definitely be publishing the final report and

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Speaker 4: we will definitely be taking on the recommendations.

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Speaker 1: Okay, there's going to be a lot of people listening

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Speaker 1: right now who are saying, why did the government have

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Speaker 1: to be dragged to this review?

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Speaker 3: Kicking and screaming.

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Speaker 2: I don't believe that we've been dragged to it. I

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Speaker 2: think it's timely.

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Speaker 4: I think your commissioner coming for there has been a

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Speaker 4: lot of calls for it.

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Speaker 2: But as you know, Katie, you can't just go ahead.

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Speaker 4: We've had to very carefully make sure we've got the

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Speaker 4: right person to do the review. I've been on the

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Speaker 4: public record as saying, you know, at least for the

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Speaker 4: last six months that we are working towards a review,

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Speaker 4: and but you have to do it properly, and it

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Speaker 4: takes resources to do it.

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Speaker 2: Look, you don't you just don't walk down the streets.

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Speaker 2: Excuse me? Can you come on?

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Speaker 1: This is the suggesting that been a long time that

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Speaker 1: the police force has been under stressed and.

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Speaker 2: I think amount to change.

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Speaker 1: I think that's been the biggest call from the association,

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Speaker 1: right from when Paul Mchew was still in there, is

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Speaker 1: that they wanted this review to happen. They wanted the

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Speaker 1: government to understand how their resourcing was working or not working,

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Speaker 1: and at a time when.

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Speaker 3: The Northern Territory has been suffering through crime.

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Speaker 4: Look, I need to be very clear that NTPA is

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Speaker 4: a union that represents its members, the three of them

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Speaker 4: last week at the conference, that we're not going to

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Speaker 4: agree on everything, but we have agreed that a review.

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Speaker 2: That was probably time for a review, but we have

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Speaker 2: to go.

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Speaker 4: Through very carefully and you'll see when I leave you

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Speaker 4: the terms of reference that we've very carefully thought out

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Speaker 4: and worked with people about what's incorporated, including taking on

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Speaker 4: what Nathan was suggesting for the NTPA. So I mean,

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Speaker 4: I heard him make statements last week that he knew

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Speaker 4: nothing about the review. That was very disingenuous because he

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Speaker 4: knew that we were working towards it.

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Speaker 3: So he's not telling the truth.

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Speaker 4: Well, he said he said publicly that he was not

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Speaker 4: he wasn't aware of any of the details.

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Speaker 2: Of the review.

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Speaker 4: We had been speaking, so he was absolutely he was

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Speaker 4: aware of some of the details of the review.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I am. You know, I'm not going to

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Speaker 2: get into it, he said.

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Speaker 4: She said, but sort of, just well I have does

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Speaker 4: the NTPA have a position as the union they represent

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Speaker 4: their members? They have.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're never going to agree on everything I've had.

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Speaker 1: You've got you've had surveys where the police have been

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Speaker 1: saying that morale is at an all time low. And

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Speaker 1: I will say that that was under a former Those

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Speaker 1: surveys were done under the former Northern Territory Police competing.

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Speaker 4: But you've got to see that we have put three

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Speaker 4: million dollars a year every year into well being and

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Speaker 4: I've been out.

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Speaker 2: To the launch of that.

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Speaker 3: Do you reckon it's not working so well.

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Speaker 2: You've got to give these things some time.

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Speaker 4: And the three million dollars every year came down on

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Speaker 4: the first of July this year. The police didn't wait around.

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Speaker 4: That had started already. We'd already got the chaplains back

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Speaker 4: and recruited. We'd already made massive changes to HR going

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Speaker 4: back into the organization. So a lot of things had

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Speaker 4: happened before the first of July, so to say we'd

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Speaker 4: been doing nothing was not true. But with the new money,

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Speaker 4: they've been able to do a whole heap of new

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Speaker 4: programs and make sure that serving members get the services

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Speaker 4: that they need to be effective in their jobs, but

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Speaker 4: also that when they leave the service, they continue to

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Speaker 4: get supported.

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Speaker 2: So we've done all of that.

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Speaker 3: I think that's incredibly important.

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Speaker 1: Now, Minister, do you believe that the number two hundred

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Speaker 1: is accurate?

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Speaker 4: So the commissioner outlines more hundred short I should clarify, yes.

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Speaker 4: So the Commissioner outlined this morning when we were doing

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Speaker 4: the media that that number is a cumulative number of

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Speaker 4: essentially officers that are currently on leave, some of those

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Speaker 4: on sick leave and some of them on different forms

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Speaker 4: of leave. And now I think they're quite right if

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Speaker 4: we can get all of those members re engaged in

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Speaker 4: a return to work program for people who you know,

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Speaker 4: there's people that are genuinely unwell that we need to

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Speaker 4: support and make sure that if they do want to

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Speaker 4: come back and they do their fit fit for the job,

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Speaker 4: then we need to get them back in.

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Speaker 2: We've recognized that.

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Speaker 4: But this is what the review's all about. The review

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Speaker 4: is saying, Okay, how many do we need. Do we

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Speaker 4: need a police officer sitting there doing all that paperwork?

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Speaker 4: Do we need a police officer in that role at

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Speaker 4: the front counter.

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Speaker 2: And that's what this.

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Speaker 4: Review will give us, will show us where we can

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Speaker 4: make efficiencies. So it's much broader than just saying we

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Speaker 4: need two hundred more coppers.

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Speaker 2: And I think.

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Speaker 4: Nathan has recognized that, and we've been working towards what

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Speaker 4: that looks like. And it's a comprehensive terms of reference

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Speaker 4: and it will be a comprehensive review.

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Speaker 1: I'm pleased to hear that the review is happening on

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Speaker 1: please to hear that it's going to be comprehensive, and

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Speaker 1: also that Vince Kelly is going to be undertaking that,

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Speaker 1: andicularly the fact that it is actually going to be

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Speaker 1: made public. I think that that's really important for Territorians

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Speaker 1: to know exactly what's going on, where we might be

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Speaker 1: falling short, where we might need additional resources. I do

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Speaker 1: want to say, though, I think from the outside looking in,

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Speaker 1: for a lot of Territorians, they do feel like there's

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Speaker 1: not enough police or that things are not working the

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Speaker 1: way in which they should be, based on the level

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Speaker 1: of crime.

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Speaker 3: That we're seeing in the Northern.

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Speaker 1: Territory right now and for a long time there certainly

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Speaker 1: under the former Chief Minister as well, it felt as

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Speaker 1: though we'll be in gas lit. It felt like the

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Speaker 1: community was screaming out saying we've got an issue with

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Speaker 1: crime and that the government was refusing to listen.

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Speaker 2: I take you change back, Katie, and there is a

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Speaker 2: change of foot. There's been a change of foot for

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Speaker 2: the last you know, twelve months.

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Speaker 4: I've been very very focused on number one well being,

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Speaker 4: making sure I got the money and the budget. I

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Speaker 4: fought hard to get that three million dollars out of

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Speaker 4: the budget this year.

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Speaker 2: It's a tight budget.

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Speaker 4: You'll see that there wasn't a massive spend by government

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Speaker 4: this financial year. Making sure that we we've got a

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Speaker 4: new police station going in at Pepperminarti and making sure

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Speaker 4: that we're supporting our police officers. That's what we've done

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Speaker 4: and this is just the start of a bigger journey.

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Speaker 4: There have been points in time if you look back historically,

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Speaker 4: which I've been doing, looking at previous reviews and you know,

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Speaker 4: remember the O'Sullivan review. I've spoken to former Chief Minister

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Speaker 4: Paul Henderson to make sure that We're not misstepping because

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Speaker 4: I think that they did a very good job of

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Speaker 4: making sure that that review worked. So learning lessons along

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Speaker 4: the way, and we are very very focused on making

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Speaker 4: this a very functional police force, a police but also

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Speaker 4: a police force that people want to join and also

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Speaker 4: stay in. I mean, the most important part for me

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Speaker 4: now is to make sure that we can stay in.

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Speaker 4: One of the jobs that the Commissioner has done is

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Speaker 4: he has rung around and trying to get police officers

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Speaker 4: back and well last week we did see a number

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Speaker 4: of police officers returning to the Northern Territory, but we

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Speaker 4: also saw nine fully fledged police officers join our police

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Speaker 4: force from into State. So there's some pleasing signs. And

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Speaker 4: can I say, this is a slow bit of work.

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Speaker 4: You can't just suddenly magic up two hundred police officers.

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Speaker 2: But I'm really keen.

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Speaker 4: To make sure that we've fully explored how many police

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Speaker 4: officers we can get back to work and really support

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Speaker 4: them to, you know, do the job that they love.

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Speaker 1: Minister, do you hope that a bit of a dark

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Speaker 1: cloud has been lifted off the police force?

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Speaker 2: Well, I believe it has.

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Speaker 4: I did say that at last sittings, and I think

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Speaker 4: the appointment of Michael Murphy. You know the reception that

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Speaker 4: he's having now around.

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Speaker 2: He knows that. You know, we've talked about it.

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Speaker 4: This is where the rubber hits the road, and we

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Speaker 4: are working really really hard together to get a change,

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Speaker 4: and you know, we are working really hard with.

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Speaker 2: The Police Association as well.

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Speaker 4: I'd say, you know, Nathan has advocated strongly with us,

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Speaker 4: and we've listened to him and his members and we're all,

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Speaker 4: I believe, stepping forward together.

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Speaker 1: Minister, can I ask there's a couple of things that

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Speaker 1: I do still want to go into. We spoke to

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Speaker 1: Samara Lavity, the mother of Decklund, just a little while ago.

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Speaker 1: She wants the government to She's said to us this

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Speaker 1: morning that her understanding is that the government is going

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Speaker 1: to debate the petition that with twenty six thousand people

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Speaker 1: have now signed, that it's going to be debated on

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Speaker 1: Tuesday morning. All that happened for more than sixteen minutes.

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Speaker 4: My understanding is that they're decisions of caucus. So I

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Speaker 4: need to be not just not cautious, but I don't

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Speaker 4: want to say something and then everybody go, oh, you

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Speaker 4: shouldn't have said that, because we haven't agreed on it.

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Speaker 4: These are so they're standing orders, and the standing orders

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Speaker 4: are if you like the rules of this school counsel,

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Speaker 4: if I can make that enough year so that because

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Speaker 4: I heard someone talking about standing orders the other day

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Speaker 4: and I thought, oh, people won't understand.

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Speaker 2: But that's just the rules of how we have a meeting.

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Speaker 3: So I've been broken before, have been.

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Speaker 4: Broken before, and we know that this is something that

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Speaker 4: territories want us to discuss in the Parliament at length,

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Speaker 4: and we have agreed that on Tuesday that the debate

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Speaker 4: will be brought forward because so essentially it could have

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Speaker 4: been done any day, but we are bringing it forward

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Speaker 4: to being a matter of priority on the agenda.

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Speaker 3: For Tuesday for longer than sixteen minutes.

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Speaker 2: That's my understanding.

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Speaker 3: So hope your understanding is that it's going to.

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Speaker 4: Debate speakers, So this is why I don't want to

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Speaker 4: preempt this. So with every debate you are going to speak, and.

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Speaker 3: You're going to speak.

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Speaker 1: I want to be sure that what has been the

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Speaker 1: biggest issue for them when it comes to crime, that

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Speaker 1: it's going to get the debate that it does.

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Speaker 4: So Katie, I will be talking about this on the

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Speaker 4: floor of Parliament on Tuesday morning. In my role, we

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Speaker 4: may have other members of our team that would like

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Speaker 4: to talk on it. In fact, I know we've got

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Speaker 4: members of our team that want to, you know, have

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Speaker 4: a contribution to this discussion on Tuesday, and we.

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Speaker 3: Will at decision and the Independent talk.

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Speaker 4: For the Opposition and Independence about who wants to speak.

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Speaker 4: They will have to make up their mind themselves.

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Speaker 1: But the government determines whether the debate happens for sixteen

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Speaker 1: minutes or longer. I mean, I know that they're the

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Speaker 1: standing orders and I know that they're the rules, but

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Speaker 1: they can change so they can be.

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Speaker 4: Tranentially, my understanding is that we will have a fullsome debate.

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Speaker 3: For you personally, do you think there should be that

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Speaker 3: fullsome debate?

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Speaker 4: Well, I want an opportunity to make a contribution myself

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Speaker 4: and lay things out, so you know that will be

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Speaker 4: a discussion at our next caucus meeting we or often caucus, well,

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Speaker 4: we always caucus coming into Parliament on a number of occasions.

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Speaker 2: It's not just once. And this is a topic that's

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Speaker 2: being discussed at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Do you acknowledge that for a lot of Territorians right now,

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Speaker 1: crime is the biggest issue on their agenda.

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Speaker 4: Can I say to you, Katie, if you tune into

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Speaker 4: sittings and I know a number of people, do we

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Speaker 4: talk about crime at every city sometimes extends knowledge.

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Speaker 3: That it is the biggest issue for a lot of

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Speaker 3: territorians right now, for a lot of territories.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Katie.

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Speaker 4: I've said that repeatedly when I've been on your show.

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Speaker 4: You know, crime is an issue for people, but community

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Speaker 4: safety and the perception of community safety is.

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Speaker 2: Also very important.

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Speaker 3: So we need to make prescription.

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Speaker 4: No.

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Speaker 2: I didn't say that, Katie, you need to stop that.

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Speaker 3: No. No, but you said, you know you've said those words,

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Speaker 3: not me.

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Speaker 4: No. So some people get frightened because they feel that

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Speaker 4: they've read a lot of things in the media. Other

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Speaker 4: people have had personal experiences. I've had my own experiences

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Speaker 4: with crime. I have seen crimes being committed in my

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Speaker 4: local shopping center. I've seen crimes commit on my local streets.

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Speaker 4: But I have also know that when I dawknock, which

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Speaker 4: I do regularly and talk to people about, you know,

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Speaker 4: they'll say, you know, I'm really worried, and I'll say, well,

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Speaker 4: what was your experience, and they'll say, oh, well, no,

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Speaker 4: I did see that. I can see it on my

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Speaker 4: community page. So I think people, you know, we are

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Speaker 4: very connected as a community now and I think that's

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Speaker 4: a fabulous thing. I think we can see what's going on,

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Speaker 4: and I see regular traffic on media sites around you know,

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Speaker 4: perhaps something like the WALLAGI site.

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Speaker 2: People will put on there. Look, people are trying to

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Speaker 2: get in.

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Speaker 4: My gate tonight, and I think that can make people

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Speaker 4: more alarmed.

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Speaker 2: Well, of course, someone in your game course, and I've

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Speaker 2: said this repeatedly.

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Speaker 4: Under a liberal government, I had my home broken into

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Speaker 4: and I also watched somebody breaking into the house opposite

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Speaker 4: that was walking past, and I called the police and

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Speaker 4: we had a good response. So what my job is

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Speaker 4: to do as Police Minister is to make sure that

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Speaker 4: our police are well resourced to respond to the levels

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Speaker 4: of crime that are happening. And I can tell you

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Speaker 4: our guys are rest rate, They are fantastic.

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Speaker 2: They are a police force of excellence and they do

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Speaker 2: their job very very well.

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Speaker 3: Just going back to that debate very quickly.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I am hoping at some stage to speak

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Speaker 1: to about some of the issues with territory families and

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Speaker 1: some of the other things we've been discussing, but we're

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Speaker 1: not going to get time this morning. Unfortunately, I can

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Speaker 1: invite me back last week absolutely, but the Opposition is

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Speaker 1: obviously going to move that motion for the petition to

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Speaker 1: be the first order of business for Parliament next week,

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Speaker 1: So for those standing orders to be suspended.

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Speaker 3: Will the government support that?

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Speaker 2: So I can't prevent what will happen in there.

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Speaker 4: I know that it is our intention, and I don't

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Speaker 4: know the mechanics of how that will work, but it

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Speaker 4: is our intention that it will come on first thing

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Speaker 4: order of Business on Tuesday morning.

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Speaker 2: I can tell you that exclusively.

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Speaker 1: And it's your intention that it goes for longer than

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Speaker 1: sixteen minutes.

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Speaker 4: I will be contributing as extensively as I can to

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Speaker 4: that debate.

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Speaker 3: Kate Worden.

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Speaker 1: That is unfortunately all we've got time for this morning.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate your time. Thank you very much for coming in.

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Speaker 2: Always a pleasure.

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Speaker 3: Thank you,