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Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local

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Speaker 1: political landscape, Kay Wolf has it covered on three sixty.

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Speaker 2: Every one is listening Mixed one oh four point.

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Speaker 3: Nine joining me on the line right now from Tourism

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Speaker 3: Central Australia, the CEO Daniel Rochford.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Daniel, Good morning Katie, and good morning to

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Speaker 1: your listeners, and hello from the Golden heart of Territory

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Speaker 1: in ten Creek.

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Speaker 2: Oh inten this morning. How's the weather?

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Speaker 1: Indeed, I am?

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Speaker 2: Is it warm?

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Speaker 1: Yes, it's an absolutely warm day here. So I've already

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Speaker 1: hit the forty degree.

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Speaker 3: No, not even eleven o'clock and you're already at forty

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Speaker 3: I'm not surprised.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Now mate.

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Speaker 3: What was your reaction to the to the fee increase

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Speaker 3: for our parks. I know that it's it's sort of

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Speaker 3: been in the pipeline for a while. How did you

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Speaker 3: react this morning when you saw the amounts?

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Speaker 1: Well, we're pleased that it's finally at in the public

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Speaker 1: and we're you know, obviously Tourism Central Australian tourism top

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Speaker 1: ends have been talking about this for some time in

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Speaker 1: terms of making sure that the voice of tourism has

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Speaker 1: been heard and I'm very pleased to say, Katie that

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Speaker 1: some of the concerns of the tourism industry had around

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Speaker 1: these fees have certainly been listened to. Look, I appreciate

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Speaker 1: the frustrations and change is never easy, but look, I

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Speaker 1: think at the end of the day, other jurisdictions have

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Speaker 1: done this. I haven't had a phone call from a

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Speaker 1: tourism operator in Central Australia to say, well is going

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Speaker 1: to come crashing down because of it. I think the

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Speaker 1: most important thing, and the real elephant in the room

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Speaker 1: on this issue, is making sure that their fees raised,

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Speaker 1: how this process reinjected back into our national parks, both

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Speaker 1: through infrastructure and through services, and supporting our national parks

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Speaker 1: and growing them for the future. And that's certainly true

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Speaker 1: the perspective of a really important part of this puzzle.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you, and that's certainly what I'm

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Speaker 3: hearing quite loudly and clearly. That's why I guess I

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Speaker 3: was a little bit surprised when we found out how

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Speaker 3: expensive it's going to be to get this new website

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Speaker 3: up and running. The tenders out at the moment between

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Speaker 3: just under three million dollars and just under five million dollars.

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Speaker 3: I did ask the Minister for Parks this morning in

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Speaker 3: the initial stages, is that revenue that's raised going to

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Speaker 3: have to actually go back into covering the costs of

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Speaker 3: this new booking system, and she said that it would

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Speaker 3: need to. I mean, Daniel, is that a concern to

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Speaker 3: you or is it just part and parcel of the

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Speaker 3: implementation of these fees.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's certainly the first I've heard of that, Katie,

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Speaker 1: and it's come from the Minister. Obviously it's got to

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Speaker 1: be true. Look, certainly the feedback I got from Parts

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Speaker 1: of the Wildlife of the new revenue new raised out

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Speaker 1: of parks fees and the multi day walk fees will

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Speaker 1: be reinjected back into the national Parts and Wildlife budgets.

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Speaker 1: Certainly we had a frustration around frustration certainly a piece

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Speaker 1: of feedback two parts of my life about the booking

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Speaker 1: engine that they're proposing. You know, we have we're very

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Speaker 1: fortunate in the Northern Territory where all the four accredited

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Speaker 1: visitor Information centers in the territory use the same booking

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Speaker 1: system in the infocenters. And we've certainly been making the

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Speaker 1: argument to Parts and Wildlife that this new booking system

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Speaker 1: needs to integrate seamlessly with the existing systems in the

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Speaker 1: information centers. As you know, many of our visitors come

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Speaker 1: to the info centers for support and we need that

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Speaker 1: to be as seamless as possible.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, you know, we don't want to make

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Speaker 3: these changes and then it becomes incredibly difficult to be

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Speaker 3: able to book anything.

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Speaker 2: We've got to make sure it's nice and simple, Daniel, when.

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Speaker 1: You're to actually at the level of the investment.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Daniel, when you talk about you know, you'd

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Speaker 3: said to us last time we spoke about this that

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Speaker 3: obviously the concern as well was you know, sometimes tour

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Speaker 3: bookings and some of those longer term bookings have made

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Speaker 3: you know, eighteen months.

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Speaker 2: Out, is that still a worry or has.

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Speaker 3: The government tried their best to sort of adhere to

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Speaker 3: those concerns that you'd raised a little while back.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, I'd have to say the government has listened

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Speaker 1: to the voice of tourism on this issue and we

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Speaker 1: have been given a very clear commitment that no commercial

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Speaker 1: fees will be introduced anytime soon over the next eighteen months,

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Speaker 1: and they will be deferring that to twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: So We certainly welcome that, and I know many of

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Speaker 1: our industry were very concerned about having to insulate this

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Speaker 1: fee increase into their revenue streams in the short term.

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Speaker 1: So that's certainly very positive news for the tourism industry

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Speaker 1: and warmly welcomed.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, I'm glad to hear.

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Speaker 3: I am glad that you know that that consultation did

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Speaker 3: actually take place in the eventually, because you know, it

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Speaker 3: is so important that we have the industry along for

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Speaker 3: the journey and making sure that you guys aren't going

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Speaker 3: to be heavily impacted, particularly when you talk about the

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Speaker 3: impact that you've already got, you know, with COVID.

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Speaker 1: Oh very much, Okatie. I think certainly we've heard that

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Speaker 1: there's definitely a guarantee on the table that they fees

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Speaker 1: won't be implemented. Commercial fees won't be implemented until twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two. We did get a commitment that the fees

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Speaker 1: rays will go into the Parks and Wildlife budget, and

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Speaker 1: I think there needs to be some transparency there on

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Speaker 1: what that looks like. And that's still a piece that

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Speaker 1: I'm still unsure about in terms of what these new

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Speaker 1: fees will go towards and I think that's an important

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Speaker 1: question to ask and that last piece around that integration

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Speaker 1: of the new booking engine is still a critical piece,

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Speaker 1: is still to be worked through with parts in my life.

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Speaker 2: Well, always good to catch up with you, Daniel.

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Speaker 3: I really appreciate your time today and say get ay

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Speaker 3: to everyone in Tenant.

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Speaker 1: For us definitely well, thanks very much, thank you.

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Speaker 3: That is Tourism Central Australia's CEO, Daniel Rochford their live

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Speaker 3: from Tenant Creek