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Speaker 1: Matt Hepworth of filling in for Katie Wolf this morning.

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Speaker 1: If you want to get in contact you can O

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Speaker 1: four one eight nine five seven three six nine on

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Speaker 1: the text Ligne Well you can call eight nine one

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Speaker 1: O four nine. Well, as we've been talking about all morning,

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Speaker 1: the fallout from the current affair report on crime in

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs continues to talk more about it is Alice

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Speaker 1: Springs Independent MLA. Robin Lanley, Morning.

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Speaker 2: Robin, Good morning, Matt.

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Speaker 1: How are you very well? Thank you? Robin Hey, what

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Speaker 1: was your reaction while watching that report on Monday night?

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Speaker 2: Matt, I thought it was quite reasonable, a fair representation

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Speaker 2: of what is happening in the town. It could have

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Speaker 2: been better, but I thought it was quite fair and reasonable.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it's interesting you said that because a few people,

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Speaker 1: say residents in Alice Springs who are great defenders of

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Speaker 1: the town, like say someone such as yourself, have said

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Speaker 1: in many ways it was unbalanced and biased, and I

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Speaker 1: mean it painted the town in a pretty bad light.

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Speaker 1: But I guess under the circumstances, it was a story

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Speaker 1: that had to be told.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely a desperate plea from a desperate community. Look, it

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Speaker 2: could have been better. There could have been greater representation

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Speaker 2: from the business community and other sectors that possibly don't

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Speaker 2: see the problem as severe as others. But given that

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Speaker 2: it was a ten minute piece produced or shot over

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Speaker 2: one particular weekend, I think I thought it was good

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Speaker 2: the way it included a range of different advocates like

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Speaker 2: Michael Little, Barbara Shaw, the mother of the man who

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Speaker 2: lost his life in October through that car accident involving

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Speaker 2: allegedly involving kids. You know, there was a pretty good

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Speaker 2: cross section of people telling what is undisputedly a very

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Speaker 2: very grim story of what's happening in Alice Springs at

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Speaker 2: the moment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we've been talking about it here in the territory

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Speaker 1: for a long time, but I think it was for many.

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Speaker 1: In fact, around seven hundred thousand people that viewed that

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Speaker 1: program on Monday night, that was probably the first time

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Speaker 1: that they'd even heard of some of these problems in

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs. What kind of effect do you think this

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Speaker 1: is going to have on the town.

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Speaker 2: Now, Well, it's happened before, Matt. We've had national media

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Speaker 2: attention for all the wrong reasons, that being crime several

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Speaker 2: times before during the decades that I've been here. So

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Speaker 2: this is nothing new. But I guess in twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 2: the reason why people extended themselves and asked a Current

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Speaker 2: Affair and other media outlets to come to town and

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Speaker 2: shoot what's happening is because they want change. And this

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Speaker 2: is only in my mind. It is only a message

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Speaker 2: to one group of people, and that is Michael Gunner

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Speaker 2: and his ministers within the Northern Territory government. This is

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Speaker 2: a plea directed to them, please help us. You know,

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Speaker 2: we've done everything. We've been civil, We've you know, as

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Speaker 2: elected members, various people like myself have been jumping up

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Speaker 2: and down. We've been dismissed, we've been ignored, We've written letters,

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Speaker 2: we've ticked all the boxes math and people can see

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Speaker 2: that a man loses his life last year. There's all

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Speaker 2: these horrific incidents and then a Current Affair comes along

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Speaker 2: and says, okay, we're taking it to the national stage

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Speaker 2: because things are not changing. So this is a message

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Speaker 2: to Michael Gunner, please do something different, do something new,

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Speaker 2: and listen to the people that know Alice Springs and

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Speaker 2: have the solution.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned that, Robin, because Katie's spoke to

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister Michael Gunner on Monday about this exact issue.

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Speaker 1: This is what he had to say.

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Speaker 3: We are talking about a situation here that's reached boiling point,

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Speaker 3: particularly in Alice Springs.

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Speaker 4: We are doing a live work in this space. As

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Speaker 4: you know, twenty nine police heading to Alice Springs this month.

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Speaker 4: I'll get you the date for that.

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Speaker 3: Twenty nine police yeap out.

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Speaker 4: Of the current recruit squad. Eleven Police Auxiliary has been

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Speaker 4: trained in ol Springs right now. They graduate on the

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Speaker 4: second of April, not that, and there's eleven Avigionent LIAISONOS

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Speaker 4: has been trained as well for communities around Alice Springs.

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Speaker 3: Is that as a result of the issues that we've

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Speaker 3: got right now, will they be permanently based there or

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Speaker 3: are they there to coincide with Pajama and some of

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Speaker 3: those other major events getting underwe.

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Speaker 4: That that's permanently based.

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Speaker 1: Robin, what would be your response to the chief on

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Speaker 1: those extra police resources.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm extremely cynical of this sort of stuff that

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Speaker 2: comes out of the Chief Minister's mouth. But at least

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Speaker 2: he was talking about crime and Alice Springs and that's good.

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Speaker 2: But what he didn't talk about is the attrition rate.

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Speaker 2: How many police officers have left Central Australia and how

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Speaker 2: many of the are these new recruits replacing those people

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Speaker 2: that have gone. Look, you can talk forever about police numbers,

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Speaker 2: and I have to say all Northern Territory governments, whether

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Speaker 2: they're colp or labor, don't necessarily tell you the absolute truth.

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Speaker 2: So it's gobbledegook to my mind. What people of Alice

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Speaker 2: Springs want to see happen is Michael Gunner coming down

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Speaker 2: with his team. They should have been on the plane

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Speaker 2: on Tuesday morning, all of them, all of them, the

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Speaker 2: nine ministers of the Northern Territory government's cabinet should have

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Speaker 2: been on the plane down here to walk the streets

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Speaker 2: of Alice Springs to talk to the people and gather

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Speaker 2: those people that possibly were on the program on Monday

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Speaker 2: night and talk about other ideas, other solutions, because you know,

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Speaker 2: more of the same is not going to be the solution.

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Speaker 2: We have to start doing things differently. They have to

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Speaker 2: start considering strategies that they've said no to in the past,

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Speaker 2: light changing the bail laws, light perhaps introducing some sort

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Speaker 2: of curfew for children in order to protect them and

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Speaker 2: get them off the streets at night. You can't keep

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Speaker 2: flogging a dead horse, and that's what Gunna is doing.

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Speaker 2: And burying your head in the sand and saying yes,

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Speaker 2: we've got all the strategies in place where we're doing

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Speaker 2: a fine job, is not the response that the people

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Speaker 2: of Alla Springs need.

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Speaker 1: Robin, speaking of bail laws, I believe the COLP will

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Speaker 1: be introducing tougher bail laws into Parliament next week. Will

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Speaker 1: you support that legislation?

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Speaker 2: Look, I'll have a look at it. I haven't been

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Speaker 2: shown what they intend to introduce, but look, if it's

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Speaker 2: how they've been describing what they want to see change,

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Speaker 2: then certainly I would be backing at Look. Last night

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Speaker 2: on a current affair, Matt Mick Gooder, one of the

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Speaker 2: commissioners from the Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection

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Speaker 2: of Children from twenty seventeen. He was on the program

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Speaker 2: and I was very disappointed that Mick Gooder, who gave

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory dozens and dozens of recommendations around the

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Speaker 2: protection of children and the detention of juveniles, didn't have

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Speaker 2: any constructive comments to make around what we do with

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Speaker 2: this unintended consequence of the Royal Commission, and that is

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Speaker 2: the explosion of youth crime in places like Alice Springs

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Speaker 2: over the last eighty months two years. That was a

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Speaker 2: missed opportunity. I think mister Gooda really needs to think

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Speaker 2: about the role of his played in the position that

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Speaker 2: we're in now. We spent a huge amount of money

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Speaker 2: on that Royal Commission, seventy million dollars in total. The

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory Government paid forty three million dollars of that,

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Speaker 2: and what we're left with is a situation that is

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Speaker 2: worse than what we began. Where he said Nick would

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Speaker 2: have said on TV last night there doesn't appear to

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Speaker 2: be any change. Well, he's wrong. There has been a

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Speaker 2: massive change. Things have got a whole lot worse on.

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Speaker 1: That, Robin, I do want to ask. I watched that

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Speaker 1: interview and replayed a bit of audio a short time ago.

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Speaker 1: One of the things he did reference when it comes

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Speaker 1: to change is work that he said he'd done in

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Speaker 1: different areas of Australia, and he flagged Burke and Redfern

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Speaker 1: in New South Wales's two areas where he said that

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Speaker 1: they'd done similar work to this, not at the extent

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Speaker 1: of a Royal commission, but he said that they had

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Speaker 1: seen positive changes in that space. When questioned, he really

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Speaker 1: didn't give an answer as to you know exactly you

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Speaker 1: know what was done there and how it changed. But

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Speaker 1: hearing those comments and making reference that you know, places

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Speaker 1: like Redfern and Burke got better, do you think Alice

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Speaker 1: Springs can one day head in that direction.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't know what he was talking about either.

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Speaker 2: And this is a man that got paid a huge

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Speaker 2: amount of money to SID as one of two commissioners

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Speaker 2: presiding over this Royal Commission, and he did a lot

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Speaker 2: of work presumably constructing carefully constructing these recommendations that will

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Speaker 2: address all sorts of problems around child protection and juvenile

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Speaker 2: detention in the Northern Territory. Now, I think he has

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Speaker 2: a responsibility to if he has some further solutions and

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Speaker 2: possibly tweaks to recommendations, he has a responsibility to come

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Speaker 2: back to us with a little bit more and a

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Speaker 2: few flippant lines on a TV program. I feel really

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Speaker 2: disappointed in him. I wrote to the Prime Minister of

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Speaker 2: Australia twelve months ago asking drawing his attention to the

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Speaker 2: unintended consequences of this Royal Commission, that being youth crime

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Speaker 2: right throughout the Northern territory. Nick Gooder was interviewed at

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Speaker 2: the time and asked to comment on my letter and

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Speaker 2: my assertions around the unintended consequences of the Royal commission

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Speaker 2: he presided over, and he chose to not address the

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Speaker 2: problem twelve months ago. He chose to belittle me publicly.

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Speaker 2: Now get over yourself, Nick Gooda, take some responsibility for

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Speaker 2: the further problems that he has created, to the recommendations

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Speaker 2: he drafted up and help us to find a way forward.

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Speaker 1: Robin Lanley, you're a great advocate for Alice Springs. With

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Speaker 1: some strong words there, we will have to leave it there.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks.

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Speaker 1: That is the Independent Member for Ara Lewin, Robin Lanley