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Speaker 1: Now, as plenty of you will be aware, a petition

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Speaker 1: has been launched on change dot org. It's a class

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Speaker 1: action against the Northern Territory government for lack of action

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Speaker 1: and results in addressing youth crime. Is what the creators

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Speaker 1: have said. And joining me on the line right now

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Speaker 1: is the person behind the petition. Ben Kitsen, Good morning

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Speaker 1: to you.

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Speaker 2: Ben, Good morning. How are we today?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Very well. Now, Ben, you're based in Alice Springs? Is

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Speaker 3: that correct?

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Speaker 2: That is correct?

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Speaker 1: Now?

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Speaker 3: What made you decide to get this petition going?

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Speaker 2: Look, we had obviously that crime spat's not last weekend,

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Speaker 2: but the weekend before. We're twenty five businesses over the weekend. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's not an ass.

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Speaker 4: Of that incident.

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Speaker 2: Its something that appears to be happening more and more frequently,

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Speaker 2: and we go through the endless sleep of something to

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Speaker 2: be happens like what happened on that weekend. The government

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Speaker 2: suddenly makes an appearance, show some interest, disappears and doesn't

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Speaker 2: really want to address the issue, or well they say

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Speaker 2: they do. They do it in their way, but not

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Speaker 2: in a way that makes us victims here feel like

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Speaker 2: we're actually having justice there for us.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Ben, how many people have signed it now.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So at the time before we went on air,

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Speaker 2: we were at eighty four and thirty nine signatures.

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Speaker 1: All right, well, I know that those numbers continue to

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Speaker 1: rise in terms of people signing.

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Speaker 3: What are what are people saying to you?

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Speaker 2: The overall messaging is the same here where we want

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Speaker 2: action yesterday or enough is enough.

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Speaker 4: We've all been victims here and the over ending results

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Speaker 4: from it is you know, somebody needs to be something

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Speaker 4: done about this may well you know I'm not going

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Speaker 4: to sugarcoat it youth offending because that's what it is.

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Speaker 4: And the overall, the overall feedback on receiving back from

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Speaker 4: comments and replies on this petition is generally.

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Speaker 2: On the same vibe, and that enough that the government

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Speaker 2: doesn't want to do anything about it. We've got a

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Speaker 2: revolving door policy where yes, you had we had the

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Speaker 2: commissioner on before, and yes they are getting arrested by

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Speaker 2: the police and the police are doing a fantastic job

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Speaker 2: and I will never one second say otherwise. However, the

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Speaker 2: police are being let down because then these are centers

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Speaker 2: are going to court and they're out by smoker.

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Speaker 1: That's the real sentiment from territories at the moment. It's

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Speaker 1: certainly something that I hear time and time again, Ben,

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Speaker 1: what do you reckon? So with the with the petition, now,

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Speaker 1: obviously by the look of it, about eighty four hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty people have signed. How many are you hoping

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Speaker 1: to get to and what's the plan of action?

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Speaker 4: So we've actually.

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Speaker 2: Already implemented our plan of action in it. So I

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Speaker 2: was obly frank, I was an extremely surprised how many

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Speaker 2: were getting. Look, I was anticipating as soon as we

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Speaker 2: hit twenty five hundred that we'd start getting legally quiet

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Speaker 2: start inquiring legally. We actually already have commenced those inquiries.

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Speaker 2: We commenced them last week. It would have been just

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Speaker 2: before I believe it was just before the Nine Years

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Speaker 2: story was broadcast. And so far I've had feedback from

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Speaker 2: two of those legal organizations for a class action. But

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Speaker 2: at the very the way I'm seeing it, and this

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Speaker 2: is either one we will get a class action against

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Speaker 2: the antique government or to the anti government might wake

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Speaker 2: up to itself and realize that this isn't just constricted

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Speaker 2: tatl Of Springs and Turning Creek. So I've got people

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Speaker 2: signing from Parmesan Darwin Hell, even in the more even

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Speaker 2: in the land areas of the Northern Territory. So this

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Speaker 2: is not just an issue isolated table springs. Obviously being

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Speaker 2: me being an Ale Springs minentile off of you know,

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Speaker 2: that's what I'm exposed to daily, but it's not necessarily

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Speaker 2: just restricted just out of springs. Like if we're going

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Speaker 2: to do is look over to crime stats. In the

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Speaker 2: last year, the territory wide crime stats anti crime against

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Speaker 2: against the person up to sixteen point eleven percent, and

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Speaker 2: that's for the entire NTI you've got in Katherine crime

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Speaker 2: against a person went up to twenty six point in

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Speaker 2: the last year and that was after we had a

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Speaker 2: bizone lockdown in the middle of Cope and Ben.

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Speaker 1: Look, I'm not surprised at the at the support that

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Speaker 1: you've received. I mean, we continuously get calls about crime.

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Speaker 1: It's something that is such a regular topic for us.

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Speaker 1: You know, at different times it flares up more than

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Speaker 1: other times. But I'll tell you what I've really felt

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Speaker 1: for you guys in Alice Springs in recent times. It

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Speaker 1: seems as though it's been a nightmare.

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Speaker 2: It has been an absolute nightmare. Like we've I've been

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Speaker 2: realistically these, you know a permission. Chalk was correct in that,

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Speaker 2: you know, the crime here have always been going on.

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Speaker 2: And but I will say one thing, bet in nineteen

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Speaker 2: ninety five, it's a lot worse than it was in

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five. So my parent, my my father left

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Speaker 2: the NT back in nineteen ninety six when he saw

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Speaker 2: it was getting bad and he wouldn't even dream of

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Speaker 2: coming back here for a visit to see our family.

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Speaker 2: Our family has been here for us generations. So it's

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Speaker 2: it's definitely not a light hard decision to leave our

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Speaker 2: the springs orfill ABNT for that matter. But when you've

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Speaker 2: got this nightmare that's occurring, where we've been on watch

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Speaker 2: and been watching and avoiding town and being a bit

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Speaker 2: careful since you know, since two thousand and six. He's

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Speaker 2: got the way I said, we've been being vigilant since

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Speaker 2: the end of the noughties, and now we've just basically

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Speaker 2: been playing for when am I getting broken into? So

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Speaker 2: we've like, on myself, I'm putting I'm getting prim safe

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Speaker 2: and all that stuff done to still my property. But

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Speaker 2: by the looks of a crime that even just happened

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Speaker 2: last night, that doesn't detur. We had a case here

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Speaker 2: at one of the supermarkets the overnight where they were

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Speaker 2: remrated for a brick walk. How do you stop that? Wow?

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Speaker 2: And even once these people are caught, nothing's going to

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Speaker 2: happen to me, to them. Then, to adds ault to

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Speaker 2: the wound, we had the Chief Minister come up here

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Speaker 2: on I've come down here on Friday and it was

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Speaker 2: like an episode of words Woldo. You know, no one

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Speaker 2: could find him and he was fighting. He's definitely the

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Speaker 2: world hide and Seek champion when it comes down here,

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Speaker 2: and it just is across that message that he doesn't care.

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Speaker 2: He doesn't care, he doesn't give a hoot unless it

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Speaker 2: affects his neighborhood and his own electorate. We won't see

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Speaker 2: anything happening here. It's not just it's Parmerston. We were

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Speaker 2: all suffering here. I think the only thing that looking

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Speaker 2: at the stats, I think the only thing that we

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Speaker 2: beat that Alice Strings was up on competitive rest of

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Speaker 2: the state was property crime went up two point five sixcent.

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Speaker 2: And again this is during COVID lockdown, whereas the rest

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Speaker 2: of it, charity went down. Springs is always going to

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Speaker 2: be unproportionunately high for our population. That's what comes with

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Speaker 2: being the main service hubs of the region. But it

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean that you can just accept that as acceptable

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Speaker 2: and it's not.

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Speaker 3: Now, Ben, what are you going to do?

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Speaker 1: So if the government, you know it doesn't sort of

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Speaker 1: make some changes that the community feels are appropriate, and

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Speaker 1: if they dig their heels in, what are you going

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Speaker 1: to do?

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Speaker 3: Legal wise?

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Speaker 1: I know that you said that you've made some legal

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Speaker 1: in quo worries. What's the plan of attack in that sense?

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Speaker 2: Look, what we would be seeking to do would be

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Speaker 2: financial compensation or the emotional distress that we've been suffering. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: the signatuies for that would be different than what's on

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Speaker 2: the petition because it would affect primarily to it would afect

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Speaker 2: primarily anti residents. But the fact that we are constantly yes,

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Speaker 2: all right, use your insurance. We have to pay for that.

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Speaker 2: And insurance is great, and it's fine when you only

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Speaker 2: have to use it once every seven years, it's not

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Speaker 2: really great at all. That's a period. But when you're

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Speaker 2: using it, say three times in a weekend, that's not feasible,

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Speaker 2: especially when you're looking at sometimes the damage isn't enough

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Speaker 2: to cover excess, but the damage happens, so frequently that

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Speaker 2: it would be an insurance claim over a month if

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Speaker 2: it was done once a month.

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Speaker 1: Ben On that note, you did mention that some of

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Speaker 1: the signatories may not be based in the territory. Are

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Speaker 1: you able to tell like other majority actually from the

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Speaker 1: territory that have signed this petition?

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Speaker 2: Look so far from what I can see, it appears so.

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Speaker 2: But obviously that have come down to me printing it

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Speaker 2: off being a change lot or petition and being a

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Speaker 2: public petition. It is technically said it can be signed

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Speaker 2: from anybody in Australia or anybody worldwide, but it would

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Speaker 2: be a case of going through and manually putting those

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Speaker 2: names down verifying that there actually are legitimate people. Basically,

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Speaker 2: the way I work, the way I'm running off of

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Speaker 2: it is I think that at least at least over

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Speaker 2: fifty percent of the sigaretaries are legitimate from Northern from

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I think even going on and having

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Speaker 1: a look myself, you can see I can see names

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Speaker 1: that are recognizable that are people that I know. And

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that you feel exactly the same.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. No, look I've seen I've seen hips the names

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Speaker 2: down there and I'll see I've got everyone now, I can.

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Speaker 2: I can see colleagues of mind that are up there

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Speaker 2: as as well, and people that have known my whole

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Speaker 2: life as well as family. And some of these family

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Speaker 2: aren't even if somebody's been. We're like, we've got family

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Speaker 2: from out in Utopia, but are signing up.

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Speaker 3: There? You go, Well, Ben, we are going to have

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Speaker 3: to leave it there, mate.

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Speaker 1: Please keep in contact with this, let us know how

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Speaker 1: things are going, and let us know how it all progresses.

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Speaker 1: But we really appreciate your time this morning and having

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Speaker 1: a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Katie, thank you.

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Speaker 3: That's Ben Kitson there.

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Speaker 1: He is the creator of that petition, the class action

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Speaker 1: against the Northern Territory Government, which was created, or they

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Speaker 1: say on that page, for the lack of action and

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Speaker 1: results in addressing youth crime.

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Speaker 3: So really interesting to hear.

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Speaker 1: So more than eight four hundred and forty people have

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Speaker 1: now signed that petition, and he's saying that the majority

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Speaker 1: of those, or certainly more than fifty percent from what

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Speaker 1: he can see, are definitely Territorians.

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Speaker 3: So I'll let you

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Speaker 1: Guys make of that what you will, but I know

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Speaker 1: that it is certainly a topic that gets raised with

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Speaker 1: us very often,