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Speaker 1: You've probably heard some of that discussion, but if you haven't,

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Speaker 1: what we now know is that the transit safety officers

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Speaker 1: they're going to be scrapped with people in those roles

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Speaker 1: transitioning to the new stream of police dedicated to tackling

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Speaker 1: anti social behavior. So the new public safety well, the

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Speaker 1: police public safety officers, they're going to focus on buses,

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Speaker 1: public housing, shopping centers, bottle shops, events and other public areas.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is the

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Speaker 1: anti Regional Secretary of the CPSU.

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Speaker 2: I'll just take you across to that right now.

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Speaker 1: It is, indeed, David Vilagas. Good morning to you, David.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: Lovely to have you on the show now. David. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: the discussion about the.

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Speaker 1: New ppsos has been an interesting one. People certainly hoping

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Speaker 1: that they're going to have a positive impact, But what's

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Speaker 1: the union's take.

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Speaker 3: Well, Katie, I think part of the problem here is that,

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Speaker 3: you know, we've had to scramble because this is another

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Speaker 3: example of policy by press release. Our members only found

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Speaker 3: out at the same time as everybody else. There was

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Speaker 3: no consultation beforehand, no indication that this is coming anytime soon,

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Speaker 3: and we've only been contacted by the government to start

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Speaker 3: consultation over the next couple of weeks. In fact, I

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Speaker 3: only found out in the middle of bargaining. I was

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Speaker 3: bargaining for the general NTPs agreement for fourteen dozen workers

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Speaker 3: when somebody received the ping on their phone saying that

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Speaker 3: there was a media release about this. So we've had

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Speaker 3: to reach out to our members to find out what

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Speaker 3: information they've received as well.

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Speaker 1: Wow, so your members didn't even know and presumably you

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Speaker 1: guys represent like the housing officers and others.

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Speaker 3: That's right. So we represent the public housing safety, the faisos,

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Speaker 3: public housing safety officers, and the trans and safety officers.

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Speaker 3: So you know, we've been dealing with them extensively over

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Speaker 3: the years around their work, health safety concerns, around staffing concerns.

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Speaker 3: We've been pushing with both labor and now the Salt

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Speaker 3: government the need to increase their numbers. Transit safety. We

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Speaker 3: have a situation at the moment, which has been ongoing

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Speaker 3: for many years now, where they supplement security at bus

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Speaker 3: stops with Wilson's private Wilson Security, but their first point

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Speaker 3: of contact would call when there's an issue around public

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Speaker 3: order is our members and We've been saying for years,

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Speaker 3: like you're spending as much money on Wilson Security for

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Speaker 3: somebody to just call our members to do the job,

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Speaker 3: why not spend that money on the transit safety. So

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Speaker 3: I guess the point I'm trying to make is this

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Speaker 3: is being touted as trying to address the broader public

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Speaker 3: order issues that we're experiencing. We're all experiencing. But you know,

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Speaker 3: we still have the same staffing is ses and they're

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Speaker 3: just shifting. They're basically going to be doing the same job,

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Speaker 3: just round a different hat, right, And that's part of

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Speaker 3: the problem as well.

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Speaker 1: So in terms of what your members are saying as well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, are they are they concerned or are they

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Speaker 1: how are they feeling about these proposed changes, or have

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Speaker 1: they not really had any time to even process it.

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Speaker 3: There's definitely an element of that. There's definitely an element

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Speaker 3: of that. There's also been quite a number that have

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Speaker 3: I mean, these are small groups, by the way, Katie,

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Speaker 3: So transit safety, there's twenty four FTE for the entirety

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Speaker 3: of the Darwin Palmerson area, and they're not all on

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Speaker 3: the ground at any given time. They swap shifts, right,

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Speaker 3: and public housing safety. There's only about thirty five in

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Speaker 3: total for the entirety of an Orthern territory, So you know,

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Speaker 3: we're talking really small numbers here, but I've already had

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Speaker 3: you know, up to half of officers saying we don't

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Speaker 3: want this. We're really concerned about this, right, like, we

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Speaker 3: don't want to be police officers. They've already given them

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Speaker 3: a lot of extra powers with no further yeah leave

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Speaker 3: barking too one side for a second, but with no

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Speaker 3: extra compensation anything at all. Now we're going to be

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Speaker 3: moving into this other space. We don't know what the

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Speaker 3: entitlements will be, but we also don't know what the

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Speaker 3: training will be and the extra responsibility of potentially carrying

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Speaker 3: guns when we already know you know how significant you

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Speaker 3: know the pressure is around that. Yeah, the public too,

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Speaker 3: So yeah.

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Speaker 1: In terms of that, you know, the discussion about them

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Speaker 1: being you know, carrying guns, being armed, like, are they

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Speaker 1: quite worried or apprehensive about that?

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Speaker 3: Well, again, like it there is still an element of shock,

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Speaker 3: but there is absolutely there is absolutely apprehension about that

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Speaker 3: amongst the cohort. Absolutely, So talk.

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Speaker 2: Me through as well.

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Speaker 1: The obviously the government had seen when they made this

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Speaker 1: announcement in that pressure le yes today that there is

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Speaker 1: is going to be or there will be a grandfathering.

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Speaker 2: Of those roles.

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Speaker 1: If those people don't want to move into the new

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Speaker 1: pps O role, do you anticipate that you may have

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Speaker 1: some of the transit offices and also the public housing

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Speaker 1: ones decide to do that.

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Speaker 3: Yes, based on the current feedback I'm receiving yes, which,

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Speaker 3: again when we're looking at how small the numbers are,

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Speaker 3: kind of defeats the purpose right of what they're trying

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Speaker 3: to achieve. So if, for example, early indications prove correct

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Speaker 3: for the whole whole cohort, if half of them are saying, no,

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Speaker 3: I don't want to do this, I want to be

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Speaker 3: a grandfather, then you know that leaves what twenty fifteen

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Speaker 3: people in total that will then move in and start

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Speaker 3: wearing police U informs and doing exactly the same work.

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Speaker 2: So we're too from here.

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Speaker 1: From the cpshu's perspective in terms of moving forward, you know,

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Speaker 1: it sounds like there's still quite a way to go

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Speaker 1: in terms of these discussions.

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Speaker 3: Even yes, absolutely, like this is extremely early stages. But

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Speaker 3: you know, it was obviously important that the public be

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Speaker 3: aware of this. But we're still trying to arrange a

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Speaker 3: meeting with the Commission for Public Employment and the Chief

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Speaker 3: Executive officers, hopefully within the next fortnight, so we'll have

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Speaker 3: more information at that point. And then we need to

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Speaker 3: help those members who want to be grandfathers to maintain

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Speaker 3: those roles as well. So we're looking at at a

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Speaker 3: fairly long process. I mean from some of the members,

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Speaker 3: they've indicated this would take up to a year. Like

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Speaker 3: with all the processes that will be involved in this,

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Speaker 3: this could take a very long time. So that's helpful

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Speaker 3: in terms of trying to ensure that everything works out

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Speaker 3: well for our members, but in terms of addressing the

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Speaker 3: serious public order now it will take some time. But

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Speaker 3: again the jury is still out because we're still just

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Speaker 3: talking about shifting the same more cohort that we've been

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Speaker 3: asking for more staff into another space to do exactly

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Speaker 3: the same thing.

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Speaker 1: So from your perspective, David, I mean, is there any

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Speaker 1: positives to what they have announced?

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Speaker 3: More based on the information that I have at the moment,

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Speaker 3: I can't see it. We still need to have that information,

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Speaker 3: We still need to have those meetings with the SEE

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Speaker 3: to find out exactly what will change. But again, it

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Speaker 3: just like we already have precedent around this under the

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Speaker 3: previous government, where they were being given extra powers and

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Speaker 3: extra responsibilities over a period of about two years. It

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Speaker 3: came with the caps of can spray, then it came

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Speaker 3: with the arrest powers of public housing and so on

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Speaker 3: and so forth. But they were trying to introduce, i

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Speaker 3: should say, so you know, but again, like they the

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Speaker 3: the extra powers obviously always comes with you know, as

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Speaker 3: chart as this sounds, with extra responsibilities, and you know,

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Speaker 3: there's a lot of scrutiny about using those so there's

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Speaker 3: a lot of reluctance to even engage in those powers,

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Speaker 3: engage using those powers because of the heightened level of

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Speaker 3: scrutiny anyway, So like that, that's that's you know, there's

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Speaker 3: there's a lot of moving pieces here, and it's moving

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Speaker 3: very very quickly in terms of you know, just being

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Speaker 3: just being made away aware of this yesterday morning. So

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Speaker 3: hopefully within the next two weeks we'll have more information

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Speaker 3: to start looking at the how to at the very

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Speaker 3: least ensure that our members are you know, are looked

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Speaker 3: after in the process.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, look, we may indeed catch up with you

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Speaker 1: again in the next couple of weeks David, but really

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Speaker 1: interesting some further food for thought there. So I appreciate

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Speaker 1: you taking the time to have a chat.

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Speaker 2: With us this morning. No dramastakes, thank you, Thanks so much,