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Speaker 1: You may or may not have heard about this with

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Speaker 1: the with the tree house there at the Botanic Gardens. Now,

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Speaker 1: we spoke about this a little while back and the

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Speaker 1: member for Fanny Bay, Lori Zeo, was taken to social

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Speaker 1: media after speaking with students at the Larachia Primary School

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Speaker 1: about their concerns regarding that treehouse at Darwin's Botanic Gardens.

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Speaker 1: So the treehouse had been fenced off and not usable

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Speaker 1: for about six months. If you're somebody who frequents the

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Speaker 1: area or who goes there with your kids, you've probably

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Speaker 1: noticed and well kids started to wonder what was going on,

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Speaker 1: and so they started a petition over fears that it

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Speaker 1: was going to be demolished. The local member, Lourie Zeo

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Speaker 1: has stepped in to try and help them. She joins

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now, Good morning to you, Lourie.

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Speaker 2: Hi Katie, how are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Really good, great to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: Now why is that tree house fenced off? Or why

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Speaker 1: has it been fenced off?

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Speaker 2: So I think in early August, late July, early August,

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Speaker 2: the assessors went in and did a bit of a

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Speaker 2: safety inspection on the treehouse. So after some concerns were

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Speaker 2: raised and they found that there were a few safety concerns,

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Speaker 2: so they've kind of fenced it off and made sure

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Speaker 2: that it was safe and nobody could do anything. And

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Speaker 2: they hadn't quite come up with a plan with what

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Speaker 2: they were going to do, so it kind of sat

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Speaker 2: fenced off for quite a while.

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Speaker 1: So fenced off. I know, we had parents get in

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Speaker 1: contact with us, We had people get in contact with us,

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Speaker 1: going Katie, what is the go with the treehouse? I

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Speaker 1: couldn't quite get an answer, and I know that the

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Speaker 1: kids were pretty annoyed about the fact that it had

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Speaker 1: been fenced off because they love that treehouse. So a

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Speaker 1: group of students actually started a bit of a petition.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well it was I've been contact by a couple

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Speaker 2: of members of the community and they had a chat

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Speaker 2: to me about their concerns with it and making sure

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Speaker 2: that I knew that it was a very important part

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Speaker 2: of infrastructure in the Potanical Gardens. And then I got

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Speaker 2: a letter from the Larachie Primary School. There's a one

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Speaker 2: of the teachers there, Aaron Medham. She's an amazing teacher.

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Speaker 2: She has got a group of kids called the Botanical

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Speaker 2: Gardens Explorers and they travel into the Botanic gardens and

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Speaker 2: they do, you know, lots of different assignments and stuff

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Speaker 2: and work in the botanic gardens. And they'd obviously noticed

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Speaker 2: that the treehouse was fenced off and they'd started and

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Speaker 2: watched it for a little while. So they wrote to

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Speaker 2: me and sort of said, Hey, I want to invite

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Speaker 2: you to the school. Can we come in and have

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Speaker 2: a chat about it. I went in about three or

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Speaker 2: four weeks ago and had to chat to these kids

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Speaker 2: who all had drawings and plans of grand ideas of

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Speaker 2: what they thought the playground could look like. How to

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Speaker 2: chat to them. They were really concerned because they wanted

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Speaker 2: to see the playground stay, the treehouse stay as it

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Speaker 2: was loved. They loved the old school kind of feel

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Speaker 2: of it. They liked that it was adventurous and not

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Speaker 2: all kind of new and flash. So they were really

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Speaker 2: concerned that it was going to either be destroyed and

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Speaker 2: brought down or it was going to be completely replaced

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Speaker 2: with a new, fancy treehouse, and they didn't want to

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Speaker 2: see that happen. So I wrote to I obviously had

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Speaker 2: a few conversations that I said with people in the

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Speaker 2: community as well, so I wrote to the Minister for

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Speaker 2: Parks and Wildlife Mary Claire Bloothby and had a chat

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Speaker 2: to her about it, and she did what she could

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Speaker 2: do on her side of things, and Parks and Wildlife

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Speaker 2: worked with the Department of Infrastructure and Planning and they've

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Speaker 2: come up with a bit of a plan. So the

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Speaker 2: tender's going out hopefully, it's contract it out in January

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Speaker 2: or February next year, and the works will start in

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Speaker 2: about March, and the playground will be completed in hopefully

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Speaker 2: but by the time of the middle of the school

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Speaker 2: year holidays in June next year.

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Speaker 1: Oh how good. I love it when this common sense prevails.

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Speaker 1: And I can certainly attest that Aeron Mesham is an

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Speaker 1: absolute legendary teacher. She taught one of my children as well,

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Speaker 1: so I'm not surprised that she's you know that she's

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Speaker 1: helping the kids to make sure that their voices were

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Speaker 1: heard as well. I think that that's such an important

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Speaker 1: thing to do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, she's an amazing teacher. I had her teacher one

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Speaker 2: of my children as well when they were young, so

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Speaker 2: absolutely amazing teacher. Really really advocates for the kids and

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Speaker 2: lets them them lead the way as well. So amazing.

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Speaker 1: And so what's been the reaction from the kids, Laurie,

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Speaker 1: have you had the opportunity, you know, to hear what

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Speaker 1: they've had to say upon finding out that you know,

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Speaker 1: this is the outcome.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're amazed. I met them at the tent gardens

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Speaker 2: and presented them with a bit of a letter that

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Speaker 2: gave them an overview of what the plan was, and

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Speaker 2: I said to them, I'm really sort of sad to

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Speaker 2: tell them that it was going to take a little

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Speaker 2: bit of time and it wouldn't been until June next year.

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Speaker 2: But they were absolutely ecstatic. They didn't mind that it

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Speaker 2: would take a little bit of time to get it right.

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Speaker 2: They were really happy that they got the outcome that

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Speaker 2: they wanted and they can't wait to the middle of

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Speaker 2: a school year holidays next year to go and use

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Speaker 2: the new new It's not going to be new, but

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Speaker 2: it will be fixed. It'll be ready to be safe

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Speaker 2: for the kids to play on again.

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Speaker 1: And what a wonderful thing for those kids to actually

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Speaker 1: learn as well, you know that their voice matters, and

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Speaker 1: that you know, advocating in this way in a really

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Speaker 1: positive give way through their school and and through their

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Speaker 1: actions to you, that it's that it's made a difference.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely a bit of a lesson in advocacy there, I think, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: those kids are absolutely excited and Aaron met him. I

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Speaker 2: think she did more excited than anybody that the process

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Speaker 2: that she implemented work. So it's awesome, really good good

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Speaker 2: to have a good news story today.

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Speaker 1: It is. It is really good to have a good

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Speaker 1: news story today, Laurie Zeo. I loved this when I

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Speaker 1: saw it on your on your social media page yesterday,

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Speaker 1: I thought, I've got to get you on to have

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Speaker 1: a chat and find out. I'm going to have to

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Speaker 1: catch up with those kids as well at some point,

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Speaker 1: I reckon, I love what they've done.

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Speaker 2: Good on them, very amazing. They would love to come

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Speaker 2: on your show, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon they would. Oh, Laurie, great to speak

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Speaker 1: with you this morning. Thank you so much, and good

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Speaker 1: on you for listening to those.

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Speaker 2: Children, no worries at all. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Thank you Christmas you too, Thanks so much,