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Speaker 1: It is just on twenty minutes after nine o'clock and

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Speaker 1: a reminder that the week that was coming to you

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Speaker 1: live this morning a little bit later after ten o'clock.

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Speaker 1: But we know that these changes to quarantining and testing

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Speaker 1: and our roadmap forward yesterday, on the face of it,

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Speaker 1: seemed like a really good thing, but now as further

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Speaker 1: details starts to flow through, a lot of concerns being raised.

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Speaker 1: As you just heard from Daniel Rochford, DCEEO of Tourism

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Speaker 1: in Central Australia and joining me on the line right

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Speaker 1: now is Hospitality and t CEO Alex Bruce.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Alex, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: Alex. What is your reaction to the changes yesterday?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, look, it was a step forward for territoriums living

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Speaker 4: in Darwin, Catherine and Alice Springs, but a big jump

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Speaker 4: backwards and kicking the guts to hard working vaccinated territoriums

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Speaker 4: that live outside those three centers. If we can just

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Speaker 4: go and have a look at Nullen Boy for a moment,

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Speaker 4: that township and the closest communities are all that about

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Speaker 4: eighty percent. I think they're about to hit it over

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Speaker 4: if they haven't already. They've been direct flying in and

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Speaker 4: out of cams all year, pretty much as Queensland's being

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Speaker 4: the Green Zoners. You know, they're very connected with their

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Speaker 4: family and friends over in Queensland. A lot of there's

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Speaker 4: thousands of these non Indigenous workers and their families vaccinated.

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Speaker 4: They've done the right thing. They got told, you know,

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Speaker 4: do the right thing, get vaccinated, keep working and will

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Speaker 4: work towards giving you a Christmas that was probably not

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Speaker 4: on the table last year. And they've had the rug

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Speaker 4: pulled under them for all their plans. Daniel and Glenn

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Speaker 4: Hinley up here right in what they're saying about the

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Speaker 4: impact in the tourism and hospitality space, and it's twofold

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Speaker 4: for us. It's not just that the tourists won't come

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Speaker 4: because you know, even the Darwin bubble doesn't include Letchfield

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Speaker 4: National Park, let alone Kakadu, Even the Catherine Bubble doesn't

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Speaker 4: include Catherine Gorge. You've knocked off, you know, Lara's out, Airs,

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Speaker 4: Rocks out, King's Canyons out. The list of major draw

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Speaker 4: card destinations for any of the traveling public are pretty

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Speaker 4: much all off limits come the twentieth of December, regardless

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Speaker 4: of vaccination. Status regardless of zero COVID from all the

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Speaker 4: testing of those traveling people. And the second very concerning

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Speaker 4: thing for us, Katie, is we've had a lot of

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Speaker 4: workers that didn't leave for the territory last year. We

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Speaker 4: listened to the government messaging, we all did that, and

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Speaker 4: they're going and they booked plans to go into state

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Speaker 4: to see their family and friends this year. And we're

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Speaker 4: really concerned that, you know, if they're working at some

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Speaker 4: of these locations outside those three cities, the business can't

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Speaker 4: afford for them to then spend fourteen days twiddling their

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Speaker 4: thumbs in Darwin, Catherine or Alis. And so they're wanting

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Speaker 4: to cancel the leave of these essential workers for us

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Speaker 4: and facing some pretty stiff opposition in a tight labor market. Well,

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Speaker 4: you know, I'm going anyway, and I'll get a job

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Speaker 4: down south instead. And so we're just compounding our workforce problems.

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Speaker 4: And this does seem to be out of nowhere compared

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Speaker 4: to all the language that was leading up to yesterday.

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Speaker 1: It just like it's making me wonder, is there some

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Speaker 1: kind of oversight here?

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Speaker 2: I mean, I.

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Speaker 1: Get that every intention is to ensure that you know,

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Speaker 1: our various communities around the Northern Territory that our Indigenous

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Speaker 1: territorians stay safe and.

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Speaker 2: Don't end up with COVID in those communities.

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Speaker 1: But it just seems like it's an oversight or that

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Speaker 1: you know that something's gone wrong here, because it seems

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Speaker 1: so unbelievable, Alex, that if you live in a regional

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Speaker 1: part of the Northern Territory that you can't move around.

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Speaker 4: We keep talking about learning to live with COVID, shifting

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Speaker 4: from the pandemic to the endemic stage. What was announced

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Speaker 4: yesterday is abundantly clear that they're still pursuing COVID zero

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Speaker 4: in those remote areas. And you know, we're not heartless.

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Speaker 4: We understand this is a balancing act and we have

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Speaker 4: been quite appreciative of the balance that has been struck

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Speaker 4: to date. But you know that old superannuation ad. Compare

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Speaker 4: the pair, Just compare two scenarios. Right now, you're an

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Speaker 4: unvaccinated indigenous person living on your homeland. You pretty much

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Speaker 4: have freedom of movement to go everywhere you want to go.

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Speaker 4: You probably weren't going overseas. You probably weren't going into

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Speaker 4: state to see family and loved ones. You can come

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Speaker 4: and go from the urban centers as you please. Your livelihood,

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Speaker 4: however you derive it, if it's not from a workplace,

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Speaker 4: was not threatened, if you didn't get vaxed. And then

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Speaker 4: you compare the other person who is a non indigenous,

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Speaker 4: hard working territory that has done everything that the government

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Speaker 4: has asked them to do to this point, and because

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Speaker 4: they've achieved a high vax rate, they're now getting all

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Speaker 4: these extra restrictions based on their life versus the other one.

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Speaker 4: And you just wonder, if you're comparing a pair, who's

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Speaker 4: going up the stairs and who's going down.

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Speaker 1: Alex, what have you been told by you know, some

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Speaker 1: of the roadhouses, some of the different hospitality venues that

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Speaker 1: are in regional and more remote areas of the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: What are they saying to you this morning?

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Speaker 4: I look, it lit up yesterday and it's continued this morning.

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Speaker 4: There was a lot of shock yesterday. This doesn't seem

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Speaker 4: to be like that the preparatory groundwork had been done.

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Speaker 4: This does seem to have come as quite a shock

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Speaker 4: to our industry. And if you want to talk the

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Speaker 4: drive mark and those roadhouses, what we got confirmed yesterday

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Speaker 4: was so just say you're a traveling person, whether you're

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Speaker 4: a returning territory or a caravaner and you're heading up

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Speaker 4: from South Australia. Okay, so you'll get your PCR test

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Speaker 4: in Cooper Pete and you need to cross the border

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Speaker 4: within three days, no dramas. You'll probably get another PCR

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Speaker 4: test in Alice Springs and then you know another one

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Speaker 4: on the sixth day, whether you're in Catherine or Darwin

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Speaker 4: by that stage, and you're allowed to drive up the

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Speaker 4: Cora at all but direct route. You're not allowed to deviate.

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Speaker 4: You are allowed to stop in the roadhouses and the

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Speaker 4: wayside ends along the way, including overnight for accommodation. There's

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Speaker 4: no specificity about how quickly you have to make that

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Speaker 4: journey if Darwin was your end destination. But here's the

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Speaker 4: other kicker. As soon as you cross the sant border,

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Speaker 4: every time you leave your vehicle, you have to wear

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Speaker 4: a mask outside Darwin, Catherine, Alice Bubbles. When did a

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Speaker 4: mask mandate creep back in? When there is zero COVID

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Speaker 4: localized risk and all the testing And the other real

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Speaker 4: concern we've had is you've seen the delays out at

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Speaker 4: Marara already or all of those people that are participating

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Speaker 4: in the home quarantining pilots or doing that now till

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Speaker 4: twentieth of December. Are we realistically seriously saying that we

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Speaker 4: can quadruple by a factor of ten the PCR tests

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Speaker 4: and not disrupt everyone's life. The other thing that came

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Speaker 4: out yesterday is if you're seeking a PCR test because

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Speaker 4: it's another state requirement, so you want to travel into

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Speaker 4: Essa and see loved ones down there, you can't book

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Speaker 4: through the government system. You have to go to the

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Speaker 4: private ones. We heard yesterday on your show, the super

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Speaker 4: Clinics full till Christmas. These private ones are one hundred

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Speaker 4: and fifty three hundred bucks per person, man, woman and child.

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Speaker 4: Why are we doing this, Katie?

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Speaker 1: I do not know, Alex. There is way more questions

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Speaker 1: now that have been raised since that announcement was made

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Speaker 1: yesterday than answers. To be honest with you, you know,

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Speaker 1: we have been meant to have the Chief Minister on

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Speaker 1: the show the last couple of weeks. I've got to

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Speaker 1: tell you my bloody hope he's turning up on Monday.

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Speaker 1: Because there are so many questions that Territorians need to

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Speaker 1: have answered at this point, and we've got to have

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Speaker 1: some clarity, not only for locals, but also for tourists

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Speaker 1: wanting to travel in and for all of our business

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Speaker 1: operators well right across the board.

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Speaker 2: Everybody needs these questions answered.

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Speaker 3: It's quite unbelievable, absolutely, Katie, and we've absolutely applaud the

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Speaker 3: government if they came out with more clarity that favored

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Speaker 3: a more sensible approach today or in the next coming days.

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Speaker 4: We do think some of this stuff does need to

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Speaker 4: be looked at again, and you know, we all are

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Speaker 4: all learning through this so that there's no problem in

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Speaker 4: saying okay, we actually have to put a bit more

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Speaker 4: thought about that and maybe Nullan Boy can be released

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Speaker 4: from its twentieth of December fourth to fourteen day quarantine

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Speaker 4: in Darwin that was announced yesterday. We think some of

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Speaker 4: this is kick let's cook on it a little bit

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Speaker 4: more and see if we can come up with a

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Speaker 4: better outcome that balances everything that needs to be balanced.

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Speaker 2: There has to be, there's really got to be.

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Speaker 1: Alex Bruce, the sea of hospitality here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning and raising some

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Speaker 1: of those concerns for us. We'll talk to you again

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Speaker 1: early next week. I'd say cheers. Katios, Thanks Mipe