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Speaker 1: We know that rail freight is now able to move

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Speaker 1: into Darwin after a horizon made repairs to a stretch

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Speaker 1: of the rail line that was extensively damaged between Catherine

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Speaker 1: and Tenant Creek, but main roads are still cut and

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Speaker 1: damaged from the Northern Territory to the West Australian border

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Speaker 1: following heavy rain and flooding from that monsoon and tropical

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Speaker 1: low Joining us in the studio for an update on

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Speaker 1: the situation though, is the Infrastructure Minister Joel Bowden. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Joel, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: It's a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Now tell us which highways remain closed following the recent

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Speaker 1: severe flooding.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so, of course everyone knows there's been flooding and

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Speaker 3: as you saw yesterday you might have been taking your

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Speaker 3: kids to school. There was a terrential now, law I

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Speaker 3: was at Milner Primary School visiting the local school and

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Speaker 3: it was just crazy and out of control. But let

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Speaker 3: me give you a quick update. Obviously the Stuart Highways

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Speaker 3: open but still with caution. There's a lot of water

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Speaker 3: around Barkley Highway caution. We have got a couple that

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Speaker 3: are closed. The Daily River Roads closed large man who's closed.

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Speaker 3: The Tantamite is actually impassible, so the water went that

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Speaker 3: way out west, so it's impossible.

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Speaker 2: The Victoria Highways closed.

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Speaker 3: From the buntin In to Wa border, so out west,

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Speaker 3: but the Bunty Highway is open, but it's only for

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Speaker 3: a maximum of seven axle vehicles and weight restrictions apply.

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Speaker 3: And the Buccanans closed seventy kilometers west of top Spring.

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Speaker 3: So there's still a lot of water around, especially out

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Speaker 3: west and the Vic River you reach its peak in history.

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Speaker 3: I think it got to twenty four meters, which just

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Speaker 3: means there's an avalanche of water through our system and

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Speaker 3: through our road system, our rail system.

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Speaker 2: As you said, the rails back up, which is great.

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Speaker 2: That's I think earlier than we expected. So road rail up.

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Speaker 3: And down the territory is up and going again. But

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Speaker 3: out west a lot of our roads are still being

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Speaker 3: impacted like they were here locally yesterday with that terrentium.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I mean, like we all understand that this

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Speaker 1: time of the year it does get really difficult with

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Speaker 1: all that wet weather and what we're experiencing or what

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Speaker 1: we've seen experienced across the border in Queensland as well

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Speaker 1: as still wreaking some havoc, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: It is that cyclone curialy that came in.

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Speaker 3: I think it hit a couple of days ago, and

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Speaker 3: this is the second event that Queensland have had just

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Speaker 3: in the last few weeks. So they are they're really

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Speaker 3: getting hit hard and we're getting some of those byproducts

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Speaker 3: you might say where the systems are around, and it's

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Speaker 3: really it's really part of our environment now where we're

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Speaker 3: seeing changes in theroment, heavier rainfall, more often weather events.

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Speaker 1: Now, Minister, we did get a message from Ben yesterday.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to know any chance you can try and

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Speaker 1: gain some information on access to Kannannara via Timber Creek.

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Speaker 1: It's very hard to understand how long it's going to

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Speaker 1: be down and we're looking at pushing stock.

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Speaker 3: What I'll do is take that on notice, might get

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Speaker 3: his number and then we can get back to him,

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Speaker 3: because I don't want to say something on radio that's

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Speaker 3: also someone's stranded.

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Speaker 2: What we'll do is we'll get his numb and we

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Speaker 2: can get in contact absolutely now.

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Speaker 1: Any other areas of concern or any other areas that

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Speaker 1: are cut off at the moment that are a bit

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Speaker 1: of a concern, not.

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Speaker 2: To my knowledge. Obviously, the rain and the weather systems

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Speaker 2: are still moving around.

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Speaker 3: So it's a watch and watch and sea, a wait

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Speaker 3: and see, ye leeze anyone who's driving, anyone who's having

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Speaker 3: to proceed with caution, even here in dawhen you stay

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Speaker 3: you know, I was driving to school in the morning,

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Speaker 3: Just go a bit slower, put your lights on, take

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Speaker 3: your time.

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Speaker 2: Arriving ten minutes late is okay.

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Speaker 3: When there's a weather event, you'd rather be ten minutes

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Speaker 3: late than have an accident.

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Speaker 1: Or some particularly around the schools and that kind of

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Speaker 1: thing as well. Absolutely, Hey, what impact is it having

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Speaker 1: on freight at the moment? We know that we I

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Speaker 1: mean we could see it just a couple of weeks

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Speaker 1: ago or a week ago when you walked into the

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Speaker 1: supermarket you could see that the shelves were bare in

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Speaker 1: some instances. Are things getting back on track though, now

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Speaker 1: with that rail line reopening here.

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Speaker 3: A fantastic job by all the workers or the frontline

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Speaker 3: workers who've got the Stuart Highway back up running really

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Speaker 3: really quickly. People are just creatures of habit. We knew

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Speaker 3: that there was a flood, We knew, we heard that

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Speaker 3: the roads might have been cut off and everyone went

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Speaker 3: to the supermarket and stocked up.

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Speaker 2: I was actually there on the Friday after work.

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Speaker 3: It was about six thirty and the lady who was

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Speaker 3: serving me, she said, oh my god, it's so busy

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Speaker 3: and I said, oh, what do you think.

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Speaker 2: She said, oh, it's the floods. Of course, like she knew,

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Speaker 2: and everyone was talking about it. I did see a

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Speaker 2: guy walking.

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Speaker 3: Out with a massive pack of toilet paper and I said, well,

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Speaker 3: he's here for one thing.

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Speaker 2: It's a docking's toilet.

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Speaker 3: It was within two or three days that the shells

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Speaker 3: were restocked and we saw the trucks coming back up.

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Speaker 3: The rail freight got transferred onto the trucks. They had

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Speaker 3: to go slowly. There was a stretch of road just

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Speaker 3: let's call it, just south of Daily Waters that have

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Speaker 3: been damaged, so they were pulled.

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Speaker 2: Through there for safety. The shells are restocked. I was

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Speaker 2: just back at the supermarket last night.

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Speaker 3: It looks normal, It looked calm, and I think everything's

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Speaker 3: back under control. We will see the rail come back

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Speaker 3: online and they'll change the distribution of f There'll probably

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Speaker 3: be less trucks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's good.

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Speaker 3: Thanks to Arizon and thanks to all the teams you've

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Speaker 3: got there, because I saw some pictures and it was

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Speaker 3: severely damaged.

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Speaker 2: So to do that work in two weeks is a

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Speaker 2: phenomenal effort.

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Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about the damage, but to the roads.

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Speaker 1: You know, how extensive is some of that damage? And

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Speaker 1: when's the work going to get away get underway when

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the highways.

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Speaker 3: First off, yeah, it's always happening, So this is this

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Speaker 3: is a always evolving, changing program, just depending on the

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Speaker 3: weather systems. That stretched just south of Daily Waters was

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Speaker 3: being repaired and upgraded. I've driven that road a couple

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Speaker 3: of times this year and there's been a detour through

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Speaker 3: that area that unfortunately wasn't sealed before the downpour and

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Speaker 3: so it got some extra damage.

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Speaker 2: They'll repair that.

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Speaker 3: I think we've spent one hundred and fifty million since

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty one, and on the Stuart Highway we've got

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Speaker 3: another two hundred plus million in the program, which is

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Speaker 3: what we'll spend in the future.

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Speaker 2: And it's just a rolling program.

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Speaker 1: So is there any work that needs to happen quite

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Speaker 1: immediately though in terms of the flood damage that's.

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Speaker 2: Happened, we have to do the immediate repairs.

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Speaker 3: Yes, and then as you loicated the weather events, we

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Speaker 3: only can get a good you know, look at it

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Speaker 3: for maybe six or seven months of the year. So

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Speaker 3: they'll be planning now, they'll be making sure any repairs

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Speaker 3: that need to be done are done, and then they'll

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Speaker 3: be planning the program and they have to work at

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Speaker 3: a high efficiency during that say, six or seven months.

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Speaker 2: Of the year to get it all done.

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Speaker 3: And we're even seeing you know, south further south Al

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Speaker 3: Springs Tenant Creek where the weather systems are coming through

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Speaker 3: and damaging the road. So it's a really big program

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Speaker 3: and it's a really tight fit in those six or

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Speaker 3: seven months of the year that they can get the

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Speaker 3: work done.

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Speaker 1: And so do I mean, do we need to be

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Speaker 1: looking at things any differently in terms of the fact

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Speaker 1: that we you know, we do actually see some of

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Speaker 1: these roads flood every year, and I know we can't

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Speaker 1: control the weather, but is there any way that we

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Speaker 1: can look at things differently when it comes to infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And so you know, raising the level of the road,

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Speaker 3: I mean even the houses out in Pigeonhole, and large

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Speaker 3: amounto the new houses that were built out, they were

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Speaker 3: raised up on some higher pads. Thinking about where all

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Speaker 3: the electricity points were. They're higher in the wall so

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Speaker 3: that those flooding events happen. Just like the roads, they

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Speaker 3: need to be raised up a bit higher. But there's

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Speaker 3: a huge issue south of the territory border. And I

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Speaker 3: drove it this year on the way down to Adelaide,

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Speaker 3: you know, through Pimber and around Lake Heart and that

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Speaker 3: area where that is like where the water pools in Australia.

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Speaker 2: You know, there's probably going to be a.

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Speaker 3: Big pull of water in Lake Air upcoming because of

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Speaker 3: the amount of water that's come down.

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Speaker 2: So Lake Air lake hard all through there and there.

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Speaker 3: Is one stretch that actually goes through the salt lake

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Speaker 3: there and that's where it got cut off two years ago.

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Speaker 2: So we have to look for innovative ideas.

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Speaker 3: We have to look for new efficiency and we have

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Speaker 3: to look for options that mean that we can have

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Speaker 3: surety in our rail surety in our roads, and that

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Speaker 3: means freight.

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Speaker 1: Quick one have the flood water's gone down much in

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Speaker 1: Timber Creek or how things looking around the air.

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Speaker 3: They've dropped, but they're still high. And again, as I said,

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Speaker 3: proceed with caution, please just be careful. Proceed with caution

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Speaker 3: and don't take any unnecessary risks.

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Speaker 1: Now, the issue that caused a lot of concern yesterday morning, Yes,

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Speaker 1: we had a massive downpour, but potholes on Tiger Brennan

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Speaker 1: caused a number of cars to wind up damage.

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Speaker 2: What was the situation, Yeah, so just.

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Speaker 3: A few meters past the overpass there near Barham A Road,

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Speaker 3: a pothole emerge. Unfortunately it emerged, couldn't be seen because

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Speaker 3: of the amount of water on the road. And I

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Speaker 3: think there's ten or more cars that have sustained flat

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Speaker 3: tire from that or some type of damage and they've

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Speaker 3: had to pull over. And what a pain in the ass,

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Speaker 3: you know, torrential downpour, you hit a pothole and you

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Speaker 3: have to pull over. It was cordoned off and then

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Speaker 3: the Dipple team got down there and fixed it already.

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Speaker 3: But just on my way here, Katie, there's still potholes

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Speaker 3: in the roads around this morning, and there's potholes in

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Speaker 3: the road, so again, be careful. I did see a

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Speaker 3: team just down in lud Miller on the way here

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Speaker 3: who are fixing another area on the road that needs

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Speaker 3: to be fixed. They'll be working feverishly now, but please

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Speaker 3: proceed with and we're really really.

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Speaker 2: Appreciative of the work that the team did to fix it.

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Speaker 3: But we're apologetic because a big pothole on a major

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Speaker 3: road is a real pain.

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Speaker 2: They ask for people well, and it can be incredibly dangerous.

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Speaker 1: So who sort of takes responsibility now, I suppose for

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Speaker 1: the damage to those vehicles.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll work through that. I'll have to get some

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Speaker 3: further advice. That's probably a legal question. But at the

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Speaker 3: same time, I know that AA and T were there

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Speaker 3: of service. I've heard anecdotes of friends coming out to

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Speaker 3: help other friends who weren't able to get to work

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Speaker 3: or weren't able to get their tires fixed quickly because

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Speaker 3: AA and T were so busy.

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Speaker 2: So thank you to everyone who did that, who you know,

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Speaker 2: chipped in, because what a pain.

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Speaker 1: Back it would be an absolute time. That's exactly right.

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Speaker 1: But so no word I suppose at this stage or

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Speaker 1: nobody's contacted the government saying, hey, you guys need to

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Speaker 1: pay for my damaged car.

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Speaker 3: We're going to look into that, and of course we

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Speaker 3: don't know the extent of the damage at this point

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Speaker 3: in time. That the reports have been flat tires, but

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Speaker 3: you know, with let's say ten or more cars pulled over.

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Speaker 1: You never know.

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Speaker 3: If it was a small lower to the ground car,

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Speaker 3: maybe there might be some damage.

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Speaker 2: We'll look into that.

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Speaker 1: But those potholes aren't now fixed, and I guess steople

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Speaker 1: working around the clock really to try and make sure

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Speaker 1: that they're rectifying lots of different areas of road that

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Speaker 1: have been damaged because of that extensive wet weather.

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Speaker 3: Yep, they'll be working around the clock. It looks like

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Speaker 3: there's not going to be too much rain this morning,

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Speaker 3: you know. I checked the radar now religiously it's that

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Speaker 3: time of the year, so that's a good opportunity, but

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Speaker 3: we never know, right the weather forecast is generally now

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Speaker 3: at the moment there's going to be storms in the afternoon,

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Speaker 3: so the team will work when they can.

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Speaker 2: They'll get the repairs done where they can. I think

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Speaker 2: they'll target the.

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Speaker 3: Most impactful areas, so any pothole that's big and deep

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Speaker 3: and dangerous, they'll be on to it.

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Speaker 2: So that's the plan at the moment. Now, I want

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Speaker 2: to just switch to tourism.

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Speaker 1: We've been contacted by business owners in the Darwin Mall

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Speaker 1: saying that cruise ship passengers are being warned by their

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Speaker 1: captain to not venture into the city because nothing's open

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Speaker 1: and it's not safe.

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Speaker 2: Are you aware of this? No, not aware of it, Kadian.

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Speaker 3: And just before Christmas, I toured one of the cruise

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Speaker 3: ships that was in town and unberknownst to me was

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Speaker 3: that not only are they passengers disembarked, but also the crew.

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Speaker 3: So this Tuesday coming there'll be another cruise ship in town.

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Speaker 3: There's about two and a half Foulsand passengers who will

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Speaker 3: be asked to disembark, but there'll also be a large

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Speaker 3: number of crew.

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Speaker 2: You know, there'll be five hundred dollars.

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Speaker 1: You worried that they're being told that our city is

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Speaker 1: not a safe place or that it's not inviting.

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Speaker 2: That's not the information that we've got.

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Speaker 3: And again when we were touring the cruise ship, there

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Speaker 3: were a few people who stayed back.

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Speaker 2: Some people have got mobility issues.

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Speaker 3: There are a couple of people who are just taking

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Speaker 3: the opportunity have some downtime by themselves. The information we've

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Speaker 3: got is that cruise ships are telling their passengers to

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Speaker 3: disimbank and also the crew members to disembark. So hopefully

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Speaker 3: on Tuesday there's a three thousand people throughout Darwin. I

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Speaker 3: think their cruise ship arrives about six thirty in the morning,

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Speaker 3: so by mid the Smith Street Mall should be bustling.

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Speaker 1: Because I have got an email from one business owner

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Speaker 1: who said, I just wanted to voice my concerns regarding

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Speaker 1: the feedback being given to people on cruise ships from

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Speaker 1: their captain. I've got a retail shop in the mall

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Speaker 1: and have had so for many years. I must point

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Speaker 1: out this is certainly not the first time I've heard this,

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Speaker 1: but they are being told don't bother going into the

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Speaker 1: city because nothing's opened and you're not safe. And this

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Speaker 1: retailer says, really, how can we be taken seriously? Just

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Speaker 1: have a look at the place. Our beautiful Darwin is

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Speaker 1: being allowed.

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Speaker 2: To be destroyed.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it is a worry if people are being

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Speaker 1: told there's nothing to see and that it's not a

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Speaker 1: safe environment. And that's not the only like, that's not

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Speaker 1: the only contact that we had. That was from one

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Speaker 1: business owner. We also had a lady that works in

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Speaker 1: the city callers yesterday. She said that she'd spoken to

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Speaker 1: two women who were off the cruise ship and they

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Speaker 1: had ventured out. They had ventured into the CBD and

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Speaker 1: gone to Woolworths, but they had told her that they

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Speaker 1: were told of very similar story.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie.

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Speaker 3: Over the next twelve months, we're going to have one

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Speaker 3: hundred cruise ships in town and that's going to be

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Speaker 3: over sixty thousand passengers. A lot of these people who

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Speaker 3: are taking cruise ships are high wealth individuals, and I

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Speaker 3: know from the feedback directory back when we toured the ship,

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Speaker 3: there were passengers taking helicopter flights to Kaikadou. They were

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Speaker 3: going out to some of our more prominent areas. So

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Speaker 3: there's a crew that can travel quickly on helicopters, or

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Speaker 3: they can you know, they can go and do sight

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Speaker 3: seeing troops, high wealth individuals. There's a large number who

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Speaker 3: are going to go through our city. Hopefully what that

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Speaker 3: means and if they're arriving early in the morning the

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Speaker 3: mall is bustling. That those retailers are getting more and

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Speaker 3: more customers and making more and more money, which means

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Speaker 3: we'll see some of the shops open up for longer

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Speaker 3: often new way.

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Speaker 1: I guess what I'm getting at is what's the government

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Speaker 1: doing to make sure it's a safe and inviting place.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we're working with our retailers.

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Speaker 3: I think what you can see in the mall and

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Speaker 3: around the city is an opportunity that if we can

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Speaker 3: grow this cruise ship industry, if we can get them

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Speaker 3: in at the right times and six thirty am landing

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Speaker 3: means are going to be getting off, they're going to

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Speaker 3: be going up.

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Speaker 2: That can all help retailers.

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Speaker 1: You know. Suppose we can also see is that there

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Speaker 1: is you know, like that there's people who are intoxicated,

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Speaker 1: and that there's behavior going on in the city that

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Speaker 1: you don't actually want tourists to have to encounter or

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Speaker 1: to you know, to be gyeldat, or to see somebody

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Speaker 1: getting in a fight. And that's what people are concerned about,

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Speaker 1: particularly those retailers and particularly locals who are very much

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Speaker 1: reliant on that tourism dollar. And I would suspect that you,

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Speaker 1: as a tourism minister, are also concerned about that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And we're working with retails.

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Speaker 3: We're also working with the cruise ships about the timing

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Speaker 3: of when they arrive so that we can alleviate some

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Speaker 3: of those issues. We're also trying to foster businesses so

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Speaker 3: that they can continue to grow. There are a few

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Speaker 3: vacant shops in them that we all know. That's because

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Speaker 3: what we would like is to see more offerings in

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Speaker 3: them all. We'd like to see more offerings around town

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Speaker 3: so that we can grow business, we can grow business confidence,

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Speaker 3: we can have more people in there.

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Speaker 1: Because you concern though, as a tourism minister that people

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Speaker 1: are going to get off that cruise ship and think, goodness, may.

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Speaker 2: Well what's going on.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's something that we need to address and we

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Speaker 3: are doing that, but it's also something that we need

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Speaker 3: to think about and plan those cruise ships arrivals, the timings,

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Speaker 3: and then the tourism operators who go down and we've

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Speaker 3: got a wealth of opportunities just in the Darwin area

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Speaker 3: for let's say two and a half thousand people to see.

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Speaker 2: You don't have to get on a helicopter to go

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Speaker 2: and see something great now, Yeah, absolutely, we just have

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Speaker 2: to get.

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Speaker 3: Those operators and we're working closely with the tourism operators,

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Speaker 3: tourism top end around making sure we've got those offerings

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Speaker 3: ready for the people who are coming on.

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Speaker 1: The part of it is the retailers, of course, but

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Speaker 1: a huge part of it is the government making sure

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Speaker 1: that Darwin and the Northern Territories a safe place to

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Speaker 1: be and I mean we've already suffered reputational dammage in

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Speaker 1: Alla Springs, so we've got to make sure that we

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Speaker 1: get on top of this. I mean, nobody wants to

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Speaker 1: be in a situation here in the territory. We're not thriving.

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Speaker 1: We want things to be on the up, you know.

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Speaker 1: We want tourists coming here and telling their friends to

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Speaker 1: come back.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, and we need to tell a really good story.

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Speaker 3: The other part we need is those who come here

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Speaker 3: to be advocates for the Northern Territory. A Cruz passenger

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Speaker 3: hopefully can go back to their origin and tell a

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Speaker 3: good story about their troop and factor in something that

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Speaker 3: they can remember from the Northern Territory that was fantastic.

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Speaker 2: We want to get advocates well.

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Speaker 1: Joel A. Bouden, the Minister for various portfolios Tourism, infrastructure

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Speaker 1: and plenty of other things, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Really appreciate it. Thanks Codie, Thank you