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Speaker 1: Because joining me on the line right now from AFANT,

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Speaker 1: the Amateur Fishermen's Association here in the Northern Territory, David Chieravolo,

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, David.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, David.

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Speaker 1: The AGM, the Annual General Meeting, as I understand, is happening.

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Speaker 2: Is it tonight, Yes, it is. It's tonight. Registrations are

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Speaker 2: from quarter past five for a six o'clock start, and

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Speaker 2: that's at the Travel Lodge Resort Darwin on Kavanagh Street.

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Speaker 2: So everybody's welcome to attend if they are interested in

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Speaker 2: recreational fishing, we'd love to have them along.

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Speaker 1: And you usually get quite a large crowd there, don't you.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, look, it certainly varies with the issues of

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Speaker 2: the day, and I think increasingly people are obviously getting

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Speaker 2: more and more of their information online and from social media.

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Speaker 2: But we're excited this year to be inviting our regional representatives,

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Speaker 2: our club delegates and regional members to attend online and

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Speaker 2: of course our dar and people will be there in

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Speaker 2: the room and if you're not a member, you're still

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Speaker 2: welcome to attend. We've got some really hot issues being covered,

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Speaker 2: ranging from cotton fishing access and also the management and

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Speaker 2: research of some of our key fisheries.

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Speaker 1: Now this cotton situation, it's something that's been raised. A

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Speaker 1: couple of listeners have been in contact with us already

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Speaker 1: this morning and have asked why is failing recreational fishes

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Speaker 1: and allowing this cotton project to go through.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I think it's quite clear that there's always

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Speaker 2: a challenge to communicate the work that's being done. And

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Speaker 2: earlier this year we were invited by the government to

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Speaker 2: work with them and to help advise them on developing

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Speaker 2: a new surface water harvest strategy. So people talk about cotton,

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Speaker 2: and of course, whilst cotton is I guess the face

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Speaker 2: of it, the real issue we're talking about here is

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Speaker 2: water and at the moment, under the government's current policy,

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Speaker 2: up to twenty percent of floodwaters could be harvested at

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Speaker 2: any time, and that's based on what they call a

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Speaker 2: precautionary principle. Now we actually think that that is miles

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Speaker 2: too high when it comes to floodwaters because to be

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Speaker 2: able to collect such an amount of floodwater, you're talking

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Speaker 2: about a lot of infrastructure, dams, levees, we is all

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Speaker 2: that kind of thing. Now we secured a commitment from

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Speaker 2: the government at the last election not to dam any

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Speaker 2: free flowing rivers in the Northern Territory, and that's of

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Speaker 2: course an important start, but a lot of water could

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Speaker 2: still be harvested on flood plains and from other tributaries

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Speaker 2: or valleys and gullies, and it's really important that we

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Speaker 2: do have good regulations in place. And as I said,

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Speaker 2: that twenty percent starting point, which right now is already

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Speaker 2: the current place, it's not about it's not about backing

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Speaker 2: in anything. It's actually at the moment that's the rules

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Speaker 2: that are in place. We think that that's set way

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Speaker 2: too high. We've been providing that advice to government and

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Speaker 2: they'll be coming out with a policy on that we

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Speaker 2: believe early next year, which will then go out for

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Speaker 2: public consultation. So it's certainly not the case that we

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Speaker 2: haven't been active in this space. We've been very active

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Speaker 2: in this space, doing a lot of work dotting the eyes,

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Speaker 2: crossing the ses and engaging with a lot of the

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Speaker 2: other agencies. And tonight, as people will see, we've got

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Speaker 2: I guess a few sides of the story. So we'll

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Speaker 2: have the CEO of NT Farmers, Paul Burke. They're talking

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Speaker 2: about cotton industry plans, and we'll also have presentations from

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Speaker 2: CDU on some of the impacts that can happen from

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Speaker 2: extracting surface water.

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Speaker 1: And will our recreational fishes then have the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: have their voices heard if they are really concerned about this.

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Speaker 2: Oh, look absolutely, and we've been engaged with lots of

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Speaker 2: fishes on this already. Of course, people are members of

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Speaker 2: first always get the opportunity to ask your question. If

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Speaker 2: we've got more time, there's time for questions from the

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Speaker 2: public as well. But the next step, of course, will

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Speaker 2: be to see what the government draft policy is and

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Speaker 2: that's the real opportunity to look at and assess whether

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Speaker 2: it's gone far enough to protect the environment or not.

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Speaker 2: And let's be really clear here and and fishing in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory, we're not talking about sustainability. We are

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Speaker 2: talking about abundance. The Northern Territory is famous for its abundance,

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Speaker 2: not for being managed down to some drip fed sustainable level,

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Speaker 2: but being at a level that is naturally abundant. And

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Speaker 2: that is what we're aiming for. That is our pass

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Speaker 2: mark and nothing less. So look, no one make any

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Speaker 2: mistake that for us, it's all about ensuring that we

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Speaker 2: have that natural abundance that the territory is so famous for.

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Speaker 1: All right, now, I know that you're also going to

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Speaker 1: have the Minister for Recreational Fishing, Paul Kirby. He's going

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Speaker 1: to be there to provide a bit of an update

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Speaker 1: on the government's fifty million dollar Recreational Fishing Future Fund,

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Speaker 1: and also he's going to be announcing some key funding

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Speaker 1: commitments apparently on some of those projects for twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: What are you hoping for, David.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, the fifty million dollar announce and the course

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Speaker 2: was a big deal when it was first made back

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Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen, and we really do need to see

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Speaker 2: the delivery of that in full. Obviously, we've seen some

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Speaker 2: big announcements this year around Point Stuart, but we know

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Speaker 2: that there are improvements that need to be made to

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Speaker 2: the Dundee Beach boat ramp. We know that the tendor

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Speaker 2: was passed in for the daily River upgrades that we

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Speaker 2: were expecting to see this year, and we're hoping for

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Speaker 2: a new jetty in Darwin as well. So there are

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Speaker 2: some really big ticket items that we really hope to

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Speaker 2: see some announcements on. Of course that's the minister's prerogative,

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Speaker 2: but our fingers are crossed for some important announcements tonight

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Speaker 2: because there is really that expectation that the government will

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Speaker 2: follow through on its promises.

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Speaker 1: Well, David Girovolo from FANT, you'll have to keep us

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Speaker 1: up to date and let us know how tonight goes.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, thank you