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Speaker 1: But unfortunately the cost of living right now in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory and right around Australia, it is set to

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Speaker 1: be I think one of the biggest issues as the

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Speaker 1: federal budget is handed down next week and we are

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Speaker 1: all waiting to hear whether there are going to be

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Speaker 1: sort of any reprieves I suppose, or any any bonuses

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Speaker 1: whatever they maybe want to call them when it comes

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Speaker 1: to things like petrol and other cost of living expenses.

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Speaker 1: But joining me on the line to tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about how some territorians are coping at

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Speaker 1: the moment. It is the NT cost so NT Council

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Speaker 1: of Social Services here in the Northern Territory, Senior Policy

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Speaker 1: Officer Sarah Hold. Good morning to you, Sarah.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Sarah. We know that the cost of living around the

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Speaker 1: territory at the moment, I would imagine that it's really

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Speaker 1: quite high, particularly when you look at things like the

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Speaker 1: rising cost of petrol.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Katie. We don't have the current CPI data,

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Speaker 2: but when we were looking out of the Gymmer Price

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Speaker 2: Index data, but when we were looking at a last year,

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Speaker 2: we can see that it costs were increasing right across

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Speaker 2: the Northern territory and it's just disproportionately high in places

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Speaker 2: like Darwin in comparison to the rest of the country.

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Speaker 2: But then it's even higher again when you are outside Darwin.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would imagine so, particularly in some of those

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Speaker 1: regional and more remote areas, it would be very high.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. When we were looking at the fuel data for

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Speaker 2: December last year, the average price of unlettered duel in

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Speaker 2: Darwin was then a dollar sixty nine or thereabout, sense Falda,

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Speaker 2: and in Central Australia the average price is two hundred

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Speaker 2: and eighty cents palia. And again it's higher when you

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Speaker 2: go into other you know, into the remote communities and

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Speaker 2: places like can increase et cetera.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you know, we're talking last week as

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Speaker 1: well about not only is it the cost of petrol

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Speaker 1: that's going up or that is you know, is sky

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Speaker 1: high right now, but the impact that that has on

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Speaker 1: things like our food and going out and buying our groceries.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So if the impact of fuel costs isn't just

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Speaker 2: on when you're fueling up at the pump, it impacts

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Speaker 2: as you say, it impacts our growthery and impacts pretty

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Speaker 2: much everything particularly for the Northern Territory where transport costs

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Speaker 2: are so high. It really does it drugs up prices

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Speaker 2: right across the boards.

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Speaker 1: And I also noted in the paper today that it

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Speaker 1: was being reported that Territorians are obviously feeling the heat

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Speaker 1: more than ever. As the effects of two point three

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Speaker 1: are two point three percent July electricity rates rise begins

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Speaker 1: to show. Is this something else that's that's of a

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Speaker 1: concern for you guys right now?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a huge concern. So we know that living

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Speaker 2: in the NT does mean at times living in dangerously

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Speaker 2: hot conditions, and there's some recent data that's come out

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Speaker 2: that show the temperatures in many rental homes are actually

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Speaker 2: frequently above safe limits. And so we know that it's

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Speaker 2: so cooling energy needs right across the NT, but also

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Speaker 2: heating needs for people in Central Australian winter they're really

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Speaker 2: high in the NT and this is primarily because of

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Speaker 2: the quality of building and the ANT is the only

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Speaker 2: place in Australia where we only have five star minimum

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Speaker 2: energy rating for new buildings, whereas everywhere else in Australia

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Speaker 2: it's a minimum of six ster. And there's some places

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Speaker 2: in Australia that are considering moving to seven star ratings.

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Speaker 2: So we really need to see high energy efficiency standards

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Speaker 2: in all new builds, and we need to also look

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Speaker 2: at existing dwellings to see what their needs are and

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Speaker 2: what we can do to improve their energy efficiency.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is tough for a lot of people at

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Speaker 1: the moment as those different different living expenses go up.

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Speaker 1: I know it's really hard. Are you seeing a demand

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Speaker 1: in the need for services and for support around the

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Speaker 1: NT right now?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we definitely know that more people are looking for

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Speaker 2: emergency relief from our members and also just looking to

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Speaker 2: access social supports and things like dealing with increased anxiety

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Speaker 2: and those sorts of stresses as well. So yeah, we're

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Speaker 2: definitely seeing any impact on services.

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Speaker 1: And Sarah, I don't want to preempt anything too early on,

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Speaker 1: but we know that the federal budget is due to

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Speaker 1: be handed down next week. Are there certain things that

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Speaker 1: that NT costs are waiting to see if they are

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Speaker 1: in there to try and help those territories that are

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Speaker 1: going through a tough patch.

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Speaker 2: We don't think it's going to happen, but we would

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Speaker 2: really love to see a simple and better investment from

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Speaker 2: the federal government into easing immediately easing cost of living presses,

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Speaker 2: and we want to see that through lifting income, including

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Speaker 2: substantially increasing the remote area allowance, increasing job seeker UTH allowance,

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Speaker 2: and we also would like to see them improve sorry

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Speaker 2: access to housing and essential services. And APOST is also

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Speaker 2: calling for one thousand dollars per household for emergency energy

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Speaker 2: get relief to reduce any energy payment difficulties made worse

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Speaker 2: by COVID.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so so that one thousand dollars boat. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I don't know what did you call it a debt

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Speaker 1: relief or a relief payment?

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Speaker 2: I guess real? Yeah, yeah, so you look, that's Acos's line,

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Speaker 2: and we think that would be a great idea and

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Speaker 2: that would certainly be applicable to people and the ant

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Speaker 2: as you know, we did see through some of the

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Speaker 2: lockdowns that people their power, their prepayment, the credit ran

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Speaker 2: out and they were left without power. So we do

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Speaker 2: think that this would be a really good way to

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Speaker 2: address those sorts of.

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Speaker 1: Concerns well NT cost Senior policy Officers, Sarah Holder, I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much for

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Speaker 1: having a.

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Speaker 2: Chat with us. Thanks so much for having me on.

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Speaker 1: Thank you