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Speaker 1: But yesterday we did hear that there is going to

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Speaker 1: be an investment of eighty six point four million dollars

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Speaker 1: in the tourism and events sector over the next twelve months.

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Speaker 1: There will be an extra fourteen point two million dollars.

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Speaker 1: It's been earmarked for tourism and marketing and advertising, including

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Speaker 1: one point three million dollars to attract and retain workers

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Speaker 1: for the tourism industry and two million dollars to open

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Speaker 1: a third round of grants programs supporting roadhouse developments. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line is the CEO of Tourism

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Speaker 1: Central Australia, Daniel Rochford. Good morning to you, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie, good morning to your listeners, and a happy

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Speaker 2: budget date.

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Speaker 1: I've been saying that all morning. Nobody else seems to.

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Speaker 3: Be that excited about it.

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Speaker 1: Daniel, but will wait and see. Yeah, now, mate, House,

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Speaker 1: the industry reacted to yesterday's budget announcement.

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Speaker 2: Look, the news of increase funding for tourism, marketing and

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Speaker 2: support is all is warmly welcomed. We're very excited by

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Speaker 2: this obviously, as you know, we're coming off the back

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Speaker 2: of two years of disastrous period for our industry, so

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Speaker 2: we need our government more than ever now to be

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Speaker 2: investing in our sector, to be rolling up the sleeves

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Speaker 2: and getting the message out there of coming to the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory and encouraging our visitors to do that. So

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Speaker 2: that's warmly received. But you've touched on one of the

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Speaker 2: key points, which is around attracting stuff. That's our biggest

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Speaker 2: issue at the moment. We've gone from one issue to another.

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Speaker 2: We've got a massive skill shortage in our sector right

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Speaker 2: across the Northern Territory. Members are saying to me almost

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Speaker 2: daily that they're really just cannot get staff and we

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Speaker 2: really need government now to really focus their attention on

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Speaker 2: that issue.

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Speaker 1: How difficult is it right now to fill various jobs,

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Speaker 1: particularly in Central Australia.

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Speaker 2: It's diabolical and operators are just exacerbated of being able

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Speaker 2: to fix the issues. So, you know, we need to

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Speaker 2: do some unique initiatives and you know the government's already

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Speaker 2: done that through the work that they're doing to encourage

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Speaker 2: working holiday makers. But you know, programs like what South

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Speaker 2: Australia has done with the ten pound palm. We also

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Speaker 2: need to look at trying to encourage the Gray Army

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Speaker 2: to come to the Northern territory. You know, Tasmania has

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Speaker 2: done a great job in the last few weeks and

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Speaker 2: months to encourage pensioners and retirees to come to Tasmania

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Speaker 2: to work. These are things that we just need to

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Speaker 2: do collectively to try and fix the issue, because there

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Speaker 2: is no one single answer when it comes to labor shortages.

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Speaker 2: But what it is is a critical issue because one

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Speaker 2: of the things the Chief Minister will talk about it,

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Speaker 2: I'm sure during the budget is the economic recovery of

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory. If we don't have labor, if we

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Speaker 2: don't have the supply side dealt with, we're not going

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Speaker 2: to see that money roll through into the territory. And

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Speaker 2: this is a big issue for not just the tourism

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Speaker 2: sector but also our farmers and other sectors who are

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Speaker 2: crying out for labor at this time.

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Speaker 1: That is such an important point, and you know, it's

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Speaker 1: one I think which gets lost a little bit is

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Speaker 1: that we're talking about growing the economy. We're talking about

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Speaker 1: doing various different things to boost the population, but right

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Speaker 1: now we're not even able to fill the jobs that

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Speaker 1: we've got. Yeah, look, this.

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Speaker 2: Is as low hanging fruit as economic development comes. You know,

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Speaker 2: I've said publicly I think we need it up to

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Speaker 2: a thousand employees here in Central Australia. I haven't tested

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Speaker 2: that figure recently, but you know it's probably not too

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Speaker 2: far away from that still. So you know, if you

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Speaker 2: had five hundred to one thousand people come into the

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Speaker 2: Central Australian economy, this is a huge boost. That's a mine. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: equivalent to a mind Katie. So you know, this is

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Speaker 2: a huge opportunity for us to be and really critical

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Speaker 2: for us to be proactive. The government's done a great

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Speaker 2: job keeping a safe during the pandemic, but now the

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Speaker 2: responsibilities to industry to build back that economic recovery for

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Speaker 2: the territory in we're going to need support from our

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Speaker 2: government to overcome some of these supply issues and worker

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Speaker 2: we're getting access to workers is our number one And.

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Speaker 1: Daniel, when you talk about I mean when we look

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Speaker 1: at that budget that was announced yesterday, or the tourism

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Speaker 1: spend that was announced yesterday a little bit more closely so,

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Speaker 1: one point three million dollars allocated to attracting and retaining

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Speaker 1: the tourism workforce. Is that enough money?

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Speaker 2: No? I don't think so. I think Look it's great

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Speaker 2: and it's warmly welcome. We've been saying talking about this

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Speaker 2: for some months now and I think that's one disappointment

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Speaker 2: I have with this budget already is that I think

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Speaker 2: there needs to be more money invested in worker attraction.

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Speaker 2: You know, we need you know, we need access. And

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Speaker 2: it's not just the tourism industry, as I said, the

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Speaker 2: agricultural sectors in the same boat. We need support and

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Speaker 2: we need active money here to be competitive. Everyone's got

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Speaker 2: labor shortages right across the country. I've just come back

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Speaker 2: from for a holiday in the UK and signed up

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Speaker 2: everywhere saying, you know, we need workers. It's not just

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Speaker 2: a Central Australian or a Northern territory issue. We're in

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Speaker 2: a global marketplace here trying to get staff. So we

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Speaker 2: need more than ever support from our government to roll

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Speaker 2: up the slaves and be as proactive as we can.

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Speaker 2: And as I said earlier, there's not just one answer

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Speaker 2: to this problem. We've got to do multiple things now

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Speaker 2: to try and alleviate the issue.

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Speaker 1: Well, and you said before that you know it's a

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Speaker 1: diabolical situation around the territory at the moment, or particularly

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Speaker 1: for you guys in Central Australia. When it comes to

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Speaker 1: filling some of these jobs and that we've got to

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Speaker 1: be looking at some different initiatives. I know that the

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Speaker 1: Tourist Minister had said yesterday on the show that there

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Speaker 1: are some initiatives. I can't remember if it's the Workstay

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Speaker 1: play or exactly what the initiatives were, but you know

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Speaker 1: what exactly are we sort of enticing people to come

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Speaker 1: to the territory with.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the critical issue is that you know

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Speaker 2: where you know, other jurisdictions are really rolling up the sleeve.

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Speaker 2: We do have a good initiative on a couple of

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Speaker 2: good initiatives on the table at the moment, and getos

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Speaker 2: to the government for that support, you know, encouraging working

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Speaker 2: holiday because to come here and the government's putting on

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Speaker 2: table some travel credits to injure the allow them to

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Speaker 2: enjoy their stay in the Northern territory. But when you

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Speaker 2: compare that to say.

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Speaker 3: The initiative that's been put forward by the South Australian

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Speaker 3: government of the ten pound air travel, you know we're

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Speaker 3: going to we're going to have some challenge there because

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Speaker 3: people are going to probably most likely choose South Australia.

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Speaker 2: Over the North.

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Speaker 1: So what exactly are they doing, INSI Daniel, what are

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Speaker 1: they doing in South Australia.

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Speaker 3: So they put on.

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Speaker 2: The table essentially, you know, the old ten pound palm

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Speaker 2: strategy that was rolled out in the nineteen fifties. They're

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Speaker 2: essentially subsidizing air travel to South Australia and it's costing

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Speaker 2: the person in the UK ten pounds to come to

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Speaker 2: Adelaide to work. The initiative there to encourage two hundred

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Speaker 2: workers to work in the tourism industry to get them

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Speaker 2: into South Australia.

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Speaker 1: You think, why aren't we doing something like that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, especially considering that we've got the Quanti slight so

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Speaker 2: albeit for much longer, you know, we've probably missed an

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Speaker 2: opportunity there. But that said, you know, there's still opportunities

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Speaker 2: to be more proactive in this space. And at the

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Speaker 2: end of the day, the government's doing a lot of

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Speaker 2: work on this and we welcome that, but I think

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Speaker 2: there needs to be more needs needs to be more

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Speaker 2: done in this area because we're not alleviating the issue

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Speaker 2: and the issue is still.

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Speaker 1: Were ever present well, and the point that you make

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Speaker 1: as well about you know, the volume of workers coming

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Speaker 1: into the Northern Territory to fill that critical workforce shortage.

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Speaker 1: The numbers that you're talking, like you said, when you're

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Speaker 1: comparing it to a major project, it's a huge number

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Speaker 1: of people that we actually need to come and do

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Speaker 1: these jobs. And then if they're spending their money here,

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Speaker 1: they're living here, they're part of the Northern Territory, it

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Speaker 1: can hopefully only be a good thing.

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Speaker 2: Well, to quote the Deputy Chief Minister, this is jobs, jobs, jobs,

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Speaker 2: and you know we've got jobs, jobs, jobs galore in

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Speaker 2: the tourism and hospitality sector in the Northern Territory. And

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Speaker 2: as I said, if that was a mine, the government

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Speaker 2: would be rolling out the red carpet and looking at

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Speaker 2: greater levels of incentives and support. But you know, we

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Speaker 2: do need our support from our government at this time.

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Speaker 2: This is a huge opportunity for us to really drive

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory economy and I think we all agree

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Speaker 2: as we come out of the pandemic, we want to

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Speaker 2: see our economy fire and we do have to overcome

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Speaker 2: some of the supply side issues and if we can

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Speaker 2: work together, you know, I think we'll certainly see what

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Speaker 2: some of those projections that the Chief Minister's talking about

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Speaker 2: in his budget today.

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Speaker 1: Come to fruition well, Daniel, before I let you go,

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Speaker 1: one point nine million dollars to support the implementation of

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Speaker 1: the nt Bridge Tourism strategy. Is this going to benefit

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Speaker 1: the Central Australia region in some way?

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Speaker 2: Oh very much so. And again curtos to the government

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Speaker 2: for putting the money on the table. You know, there's

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Speaker 2: a variety of different initiatives that they're working with the

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Speaker 2: regional tourism organizations already on which is great and you know,

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Speaker 2: especially as we start to see international tourism or rebound,

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Speaker 2: to be able to showcase our indigenous tourism experiences is

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Speaker 2: absolutely critical. So it is very important money at this time,

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Speaker 2: as is the marketing funds. It is about competitive space

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Speaker 2: out there. There's every jurisdiction around the world is putting

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Speaker 2: their best foot forward and we need more, now more

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Speaker 2: than ever, our support from Tourism Northern Territory to do

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Speaker 2: the same and this extra funding allows them.

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Speaker 3: To do that.

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Speaker 1: Well, Daniel Rochford, the CEO of Tourism Central Australia, it's

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Speaker 1: always good to catch up with you. Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for your time today.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie che Thank you