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Speaker 1: Now, just to give you a bit of police news update,

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Speaker 1: we know that the Northern Territory Police have now charged

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Speaker 1: two utes in relation to a crime series that occurred

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Speaker 1: in Palmerston on Wednesday night. So the sixteen and seventeen

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Speaker 1: year old male Youuthes were arrested yesterday by detectives from

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Speaker 1: Strikeforce Trident. The seventeen year old has been charged with

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Speaker 1: three counts of unlawful entry, two of damaging property, two

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Speaker 1: of stealing, one of contravention of an emergency declaration and

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Speaker 1: one breach of suspended sentence. Now he's been remanded to

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Speaker 1: appear in court today. Meanwhile, the sixteen year old was

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Speaker 1: charged with two counts of unlawfully entering a building, two

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Speaker 1: of damage to a property one or sorry, two counts

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Speaker 1: of stealing and one count of contravention of emergency declaration.

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Speaker 1: He's been bailed to appear before the court on Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: the twenty fifth of August. Now, well done to Stripeforce

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Speaker 1: Trident on apprehending those two teenagers. And we heard yesterday

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Speaker 1: from Shelley Lay the impact this time of senseless crime

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Speaker 1: has on our hard working territory and so again well

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Speaker 1: done to those detectives from Strikeforce trident. Now, as I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: there is a stash which has erupted on social media.

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Speaker 1: The Northern Territory Police Association lash the Chief Minister Michael

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Speaker 1: Gunner for using his Facebook page to politicize COVID. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line is the Police Association president

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Speaker 1: Paul McHugh. Good morning to you, Paul.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, kay, Paul.

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Speaker 1: Why did you feel that well, you needed to call

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Speaker 1: out the Chief Minister overnight after he'd posted on his

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Speaker 1: Facebook page well a message about the seat of Daily

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Speaker 1: by election.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously it was disappointing to read that post. I mean,

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Speaker 2: we represent every sworn police officer an auxiliary in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory. You've been out there doing it tough for many,

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Speaker 2: many months, eighty months or more now with COVID, and

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Speaker 2: mister Gunner has chosen to use his post in terms

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Speaker 2: of upcoming by election to politicize that pandemic, and really

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Speaker 2: it was a complete insult to everyone that's actually out

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Speaker 2: there doing that job, out there on the front line.

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Speaker 2: That includes of course our police officers, the health workers

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Speaker 2: and everyone in between. My statement, I stand by the

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Speaker 2: fact that this was completely outrageous to politicize it, and

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Speaker 2: it's almost more disappointing to see that he's responded in

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Speaker 2: the way he has with complete and utter lies. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's very disappointing from our Chief Minister.

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Speaker 1: Well, I will read the Chief Minister's statement which was

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Speaker 1: sent through to me a little bit earlier in just

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Speaker 1: a moment. But Paul, some people listening might say that

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Speaker 1: it's you who's actually politicized this, and that you know

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Speaker 1: that maybe you shouldn't have involved yourself in the argument.

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Speaker 1: Why did you.

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Speaker 2: Choose to I've got no doubt people might have that

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Speaker 2: thought process, but it was mister Gunner who actually posted

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Speaker 2: the initial post. I felt the need to stand up

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Speaker 2: for our members who are out there right now twenty

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Speaker 2: four to seven, protecting our borders, protecting the people from

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Speaker 2: the pandemic. We've had over one hundred of our members

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Speaker 2: tied up on COVID related duties, which is not funded

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Speaker 2: by the Labor government. This is extra duties which is

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Speaker 2: having a huge impact on the frontline capability of our

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Speaker 2: police across the Northern Territory. We know crimes an issue,

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Speaker 2: and mister Gunner decided to make it a political issue

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Speaker 2: by saying that it would be the Territory Labor Government

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Speaker 2: who are out there protecting the people of daily from

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Speaker 2: the COVID pandemic. That is absolute nonsense. I want to

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Speaker 2: be the first to say that mister Gunner has been

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Speaker 2: providing excellent updates on an ongoing basis through his media

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Speaker 2: statements around the COVID update. They've been terrific and I'm

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Speaker 2: sure the public have appreciated it. But to suggest that

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Speaker 2: the people in Labor who are protecting us all from

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Speaker 2: the pandemic is completely insulting to the police officers who

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Speaker 2: have had leave canceled time away from their families. And

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Speaker 2: this is an ongoing pandemic and it should not be

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Speaker 2: politicize the way mister Gunn has done it now.

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Speaker 1: Kate Warden, the Minister for Territory Families, was on the

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Speaker 1: Week that was earlier today and she said that, you know,

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Speaker 1: it is the Chief Minister's right to be able to

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Speaker 1: post on his Facebook page, you know, political political messages, no.

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Speaker 2: Doubt, I'm sure he can. But to actually say that

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Speaker 2: the pandemic is the way we're being saved from the

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Speaker 2: pandemic because of the Labor Party is nonsensical and it's

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Speaker 2: insulting and our job is to represent the police, perhaps

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Speaker 2: he needs to walk through the muster rooms, or perhaps

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Speaker 2: he needs to visit the border location at Queensland at

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Speaker 2: the moment where we've got a rotation down there away

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Speaker 2: from their families who can't get back now because we

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Speaker 2: don't have enough people to replace them. I mean, this

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Speaker 2: is this is the this is the position our members

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Speaker 2: are facing every single day. So for him to come

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Speaker 2: out and say that it's labor protecting us from the

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Speaker 2: pandemic nonsense and rubbish.

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Speaker 1: His office has sent us through a statement morning Paul,

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Speaker 1: and they have said that the association statement is outrageous

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Speaker 1: and that they're flabbergasted that a man claiming to represent

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Speaker 1: the police has again entered the political arena to tell

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Speaker 1: the Chief Minister not to be political for highlighting real

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Speaker 1: comments and positions the COLP of outlined on COVID. In

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Speaker 1: this statement, the Chief Minister says, I will not be

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Speaker 1: bullied or silenced by a union on how we protect

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Speaker 1: Territorians from COVID. He says the COLP made the political

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Speaker 1: decision last year that we should open our borders during

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Speaker 1: Victoria's second wave. He goes on to highlight what the

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Speaker 1: COLP would or wouldn't do. But he then says the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police. He says, I will also call out

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Speaker 1: unions like the Northern Territory Police Association who politicized COVID.

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Speaker 1: He reckons the police associations choosing to support the colp's

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Speaker 1: decision to open our borders and give away our vaxine,

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Speaker 1: and that it's a failure to protect every serving officer

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Speaker 1: and the union should apologize to them. What's your response to.

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Speaker 2: That, Well, that's a complete lie and nowhere have I

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Speaker 2: even mentioned the CLP my statement, nowhere at all. In fact,

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Speaker 2: if the sealp'd made a similar statement, I'd be saying

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Speaker 2: the same thing about that. Nowhere have I said that

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Speaker 2: I support the serveplease decision to open borders and give

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Speaker 2: away vaccines. That is utter nonsense. It's a lie, and

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Speaker 2: it's misleading the community of the Northern Territory and importantly,

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Speaker 2: our hard working sworn members of the police force which

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Speaker 2: we represent. Now crime is one of the most topical

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Speaker 2: political conversations you can talk about. You represent the members

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Speaker 2: who are there to protect us and serve in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory. I'm sorry, but that is a statement. We

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Speaker 2: stand by and the statement from the Chief Minister that

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Speaker 2: we in any way support the SELP on that matter

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Speaker 2: is a complete lie. We have not made that statement anywhere.

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Speaker 2: If we have, he needs to tell us where otherwise

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Speaker 2: he is wrong.

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Speaker 1: Paul, have you spoken to members of the force this morning,

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Speaker 1: following on from this Stow switch has erupted on social

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Speaker 1: media and what are they saying to you?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm pretty upset. We've had several members contact our office.

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Speaker 2: They contacted me late last night giving me phone calls

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Speaker 2: about how discussed they were with that statement. Like I

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Speaker 2: said earlier, our members have been affected dramatically, not just them,

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Speaker 2: their families and every section of the police force significantly

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Speaker 2: because of COVID. As I said earlier, we are continually

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Speaker 2: receiving complaints about the inability to star frosters and it's

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Speaker 2: down to the fact we have over one hundred police

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Speaker 2: tied up on COVID related duties and the supervisors, the sergeants,

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Speaker 2: the watch commanders and the management are doing everything they

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Speaker 2: can to do what the government needs them to do.

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Speaker 2: But it is insulting when you see a Chief Minister

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Speaker 2: say in a political environment about an upcoming election that

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Speaker 2: they are the ones out there saving us from COVID.

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Speaker 2: That is rubbish. It is our hard working frontline officers

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Speaker 2: and other frontline workers who we very much appreciate all

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Speaker 2: that hard work they're doing.

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Speaker 1: So Paul, just to be very clear here, you're not

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Speaker 1: going out on a limb here because you want to

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Speaker 1: support the c ORP. You're going out on a limb

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Speaker 1: here because you actually want to support the officers that

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Speaker 1: the Police Association represents.

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Speaker 2: That is our job, Katie, that is what we're here

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Speaker 2: to do. We are apolitical. We do not support either party.

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Speaker 2: We are here to support the interests of our members,

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Speaker 2: our hardworking one than six hundred plus members who put

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Speaker 2: their life on the line every day for us. They

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Speaker 2: are the ones out there being spat at, kicked at,

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Speaker 2: bidden punched every single day that we are sitting in

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Speaker 2: our desks and doing our job. They're out there on

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Speaker 2: the front line protecting us as all the nurses and

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Speaker 2: the doctors and the health workers and every other frontline worker.

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Speaker 2: And we are fed up with politicization of the hard

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Speaker 2: work that they do for a vote in Parliament. It

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Speaker 2: is rubbish and it needs to stop. Paul.

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Speaker 1: If the Chief Minister is listening this morning, WA's your

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Speaker 1: message for him and.

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Speaker 2: This needs to get on with his jobs, stop misleading

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory community with outlandish statements, and he needs

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Speaker 2: to come out and apologize, walk the floor with the police,

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Speaker 2: look at what they're doing and look at the hard

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Speaker 2: work they do. As I said earlier, his updates for

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Speaker 2: the community being excellent, no issue with that whatsoever, but

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Speaker 2: just for us, just stop for a minute and think

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Speaker 2: about the hard work that they're out there doing every

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Speaker 2: single day to keep us safe. It doesn't happen near

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Speaker 2: enough and it should happen more, and he needs to

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Speaker 2: apologize for that rubbish he's put on Facebook.

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Speaker 1: Well. Police Association President Paul McHugh, I know that you're

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Speaker 1: incredibly busy this morning. I appreciate you taking the time

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Speaker 1: to have a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Good ony, Katie, thank you