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Speaker 1: If you've driven past the Winnelli shops recently or tried

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Speaker 1: to go in. Well, there's certainly a bit of work

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Speaker 1: which has been happening outside the Winnelly shops for ages

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Speaker 1: now as far as I understand it, now, it's wreaking

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Speaker 1: havoc for local businesses there. And one of those business

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Speaker 1: owners joins me on the line. His name is Wayne Morris.

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Speaker 1: He's the owner of the Winnelly supermarket get awayne Oh,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Wayne,

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Speaker 1: tell us a bit about the work that's been happening

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Speaker 1: outside the shop the shopping center there.

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Speaker 2: I think you're being a little bit nice calling at work.

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Speaker 1: It's been full on, hasn't it.

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Speaker 2: Well, So it's been going on for about six This

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Speaker 2: is the seventh month now and it's just been absolutely well.

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Speaker 2: It's destroyed lots of our business like it's some of

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Speaker 2: us are down forty to forty five sent over the

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Speaker 2: first four months of the project, they had us completely

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Speaker 2: blocked off.

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Speaker 1: So mate, what exactly, like, what work are they actually

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Speaker 1: doing there and why on earth is it taking so long?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'll take you back to the start, right you can.

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Speaker 2: So we started I followed this project from the moment

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Speaker 2: they put the gate up to the moment to today.

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Speaker 2: I've made a video every day and I've taken four

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Speaker 2: days of the project along the line. The entire length

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Speaker 2: of this project. Anybody can read the entire project that

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Speaker 2: winds up dot substack dot com. So basically what happened

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Speaker 2: was when they were working down the end of the right,

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Speaker 2: we could see the work and then these guys come

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Speaker 2: in and handed me a sheet and said, we're going

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Speaker 2: to be working at the intersection. We're widening the raid

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Speaker 2: for the rat base. Ye I said, okay, And then

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Speaker 2: they said we're going to come back and we're going

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Speaker 2: to give you more information. Then they come back, they

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Speaker 2: handed me a sheet within of the change traffic conditions,

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Speaker 2: and the sheet basically said we're cutting off your entry

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Speaker 2: and everybody coming from when Ally or Parmeerston have to

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Speaker 2: go down the back of when Allie up the hill

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Speaker 2: and come back around into the shopping center. And I

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Speaker 2: told the guy, I said, that's going to destroy our business.

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Speaker 2: And they both stared at me like just stared like

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Speaker 2: you know so what Anyway, I said to him, I said,

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Speaker 2: if you hurt our business, I'm going to give it

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Speaker 2: to you blokes, And again they stared at me and

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Speaker 2: they went like, don't threaten us, and I went okay.

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Speaker 2: So as soon as the gate went up in the meeting,

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Speaker 2: I said, are you going to work seven days? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: twenty four hours a day to finish that part of

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Speaker 2: the thing. Doesn't disrupt our business very much? And they

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Speaker 2: told me it's not in the scope of the project.

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Speaker 2: We didn't know a coate with sources to do that.

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Speaker 1: Story right, Like, this annoys me. It's not the first

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Speaker 1: project that this has happened on. There's been others that

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Speaker 1: have been run around the city as well, where you're

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Speaker 1: spot on like they're not then working outside business hours.

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Speaker 1: So what that means for the business is it takes

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Speaker 1: absolutely forever to get anything done.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, these guys and what happened right was they

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Speaker 2: were doing free roads at the same time, including our entry,

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Speaker 2: and they had there's a road about a kimeter away

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Speaker 2: where on some times there'd be a week on end

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Speaker 2: where not a single thing was being done on the

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Speaker 2: entry of the shopping center. Wow, but they had every person,

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Speaker 2: every road worker. They couldn't fit any more road workers

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Speaker 2: down the other end right anyway, So I started giving

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Speaker 2: it to them. From day one, I was writing to

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Speaker 2: the first off, I wrote to the CEO in Ireland,

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Speaker 2: then I wrote to the managing director in Australia. Then

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Speaker 2: I wrote to the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, the

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Speaker 2: Chief Minister, and every single politician. And then all of

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Speaker 2: a sudden, these blakes started to speed up the access repairs. Right,

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Speaker 2: it wasn't sped up a lot. But fast forward six

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Speaker 2: months now they told me that they didn't have the

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Speaker 2: resources for them to do that within a reasonable amount

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Speaker 2: of time. A part, they dug a huge hole at

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Speaker 2: the back of the shopping center. It would have been

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Speaker 2: two stories deep. Right in the middle of the wet

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Speaker 2: season that rose. That huge hole kept filling up with

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Speaker 2: water on the least recent range, and they paid trucks

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Speaker 2: to do twenty four hours, seven days a week to

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Speaker 2: suck the war out up the water.

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Speaker 1: Right how expensive would that be?

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Speaker 2: And they had a guy sitting in the car watching

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Speaker 2: them suck the water out and drive out.

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, waye You've got to tell me, mate,

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Speaker 1: don't I don't have a huge amount of time, So

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Speaker 1: I just want to get a couple of nuts and

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Speaker 1: bolts from here. Who is like what department is managing

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Speaker 1: this job? Is it a Northern Territory government job or

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Speaker 1: is it a federal government job.

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Speaker 2: It's the Defense Department and lengo' rourke is managing it.

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Speaker 2: And it is one hundred and sixty million dollar contract.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that is a huge amount of money. Now, what

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Speaker 1: how long have they told you that this is going

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Speaker 1: to take.

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Speaker 2: Well, they told me to be finished in March. That's

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Speaker 2: when they were going to open up the access to

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Speaker 2: the supermarket. We only had one road in and the

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Speaker 2: roads were so badly managed that nobody could actually find

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Speaker 2: the Thank God for our regular customers, right, they work

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Speaker 2: their way through the things to get in. Now. I

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Speaker 2: want to think O your customers. Without them, we wouldn't

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Speaker 2: be here today. Because the raid works was so badly managed.

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Speaker 2: People couldn't even walk from the post office to the

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Speaker 2: shopping center. They couldn't get off the butt. There was

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Speaker 2: no way. There was no we'd actually get people. We

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Speaker 2: could stand there and watch them staring at the shopping center,

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Speaker 2: or they couldn't get through the raid work.

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Speaker 1: It's beyond a bloody joke by the sounds of her.

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Speaker 1: Tell me in terms of I know you mentioned this

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Speaker 1: earlier but for our listeners to understand, and also, you know,

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Speaker 1: for us to make sure that we pass this information

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Speaker 1: on to those in authority, how like how big a

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Speaker 1: hit has his hat on your business and the other

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Speaker 1: businesses there.

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Speaker 2: Oh, you don't have to pass it on the powers

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Speaker 2: of authority. I've passed it on power authority. And every

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Speaker 2: single one of them sent back a letter that was

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Speaker 2: generic which said this I was planned by experts. Everybody

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Speaker 2: was consulted. They're working as fast as they can. I

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Speaker 2: recorded the entire thing from the day they started, and

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Speaker 2: by when they say that they planned it right, it

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Speaker 2: is how bad that they planned it. They put they

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Speaker 2: put the fens up. Nobody could get into the shopping center. Anyway.

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Speaker 2: I was driving to work and they had every single

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Speaker 2: sign out there saying access cloth closed, wrap base this way.

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Speaker 2: There was not a single sign pointing to the shopping

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Speaker 2: center for about a week. Yeah, anyway, I stopped and

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Speaker 2: took a video. The only sign that pointed the shopping

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Speaker 2: center had a huge sign in front of it, like

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Speaker 2: trying sign that said wrap based roadworks. Wanne.

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Speaker 1: It'd be absolutely infuri infuriating for you guys. Mate, We're

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Speaker 1: gonna have to we are going to have to wrap up.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you having a chat to us. To all

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Speaker 1: those locals that are out there listening this morning, they

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Speaker 1: can still come and access your business. Is it any

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Speaker 1: easier for them to be able to get there at

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Speaker 1: the moment.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's nearly. They've nearly fixed the start of the project. Right,

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Speaker 2: They've nearly fixed the entry to the shopping center, so

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Speaker 2: it's nearly finished.

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Speaker 1: Well good, I'm pleased to hear that. Look, it sounds

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Speaker 1: like you're rattling pages as it is. You know, I

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Speaker 1: hope that that we're able to you're able to get

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Speaker 1: this well, yeah.

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Speaker 2: Right, I knew how to complain, But what about these

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Speaker 2: guys in Dula City? Right, the only way you can

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Speaker 2: get your money back is to go to court. There

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Speaker 2: is no or you go to the administrative tribunal. But

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Speaker 2: it's okay. Our losses were way over the twenty five percent,

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Speaker 2: so we're going to pay a lawyer. But there's no

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Speaker 2: mechanism for small business to fight this. Right, those guys

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Speaker 2: in the city, they should be walking out every day

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Speaker 2: with a video camera and recording those people so that

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Speaker 2: when the government goes, well, how come this has cost

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Speaker 2: forty million dollars over budget. They can go back and

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Speaker 2: look at the videos and they can so go to

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Speaker 2: the company that did it and say, hey, you ripped

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Speaker 2: us off. And when that road starts pulling up out

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Speaker 2: of the ground for rain in the next year, right,

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Speaker 2: they're going to be able to look at my pictures

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Speaker 2: and see the mistakes of these guys made lay in

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Speaker 2: that road.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, Wayne, Good on you that you've done that.

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Speaker 1: And I agree with you. I think if the others,

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Speaker 1: you know, some of them, I think they worry as well.

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Speaker 1: Look they you know, they want to rattle some cages.

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Speaker 1: They want to do something to try and help themselves,

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Speaker 1: but they're not sure what to do. So I think,

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Speaker 1: good on you that you've stayed right on top of it.

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Speaker 2: Exactly what to do. It's called give it to the man,

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Speaker 2: and it's fire buck exact steps. I took the blows

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Speaker 2: and get that right. I write a book.

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Speaker 1: Can they come and buy it from your business? It's oh,

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Speaker 1: good on them, well, mate, going up to.

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Speaker 2: The newsletter and in the book, if they need a hand,

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Speaker 2: I'll tell them how to do.

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Speaker 1: I love it, Wayne. We're gonna I'm gonna have to run.

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Speaker 1: I've got another interview I've got to get to I

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Good on you. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for having a chat with me. Thank you