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Speaker 1: Now as you may or may not be aware, but

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Speaker 1: in some very sobering information I think for everybody around

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Speaker 1: the territory. Eighty three women have been killed in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory since two thousand at the hands of domestic violence,

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Speaker 1: and the question is being asked, how many more have

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Speaker 1: to die before we see leadership and commitment from our

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Speaker 1: government to end violence against.

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Speaker 2: Women and children.

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Speaker 1: They're the calls from family and domestic violence workers, advocates

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Speaker 1: and supporters who came together earlier this week for a

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Speaker 1: day of action in an effort to highlight the severe

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Speaker 1: underresourcing of services right across the Northern Territory. Now joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line is domestic violence advocate Rachel uber Gangt,

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Speaker 1: and she is indeed the domestic violence advocate. Like I

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Speaker 1: said at the Regional manager and Regional manager of the YWCA,

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Speaker 1: good morning to you, Rachel.

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Speaker 3: Good morning and good mining to listeners.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Rachel.

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Speaker 2: The Day of Act was earlier this week.

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Speaker 1: Talk us through how it went and what was the aim.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so the day of action was Tuesday. I would

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Speaker 3: say that it went very very well. We had days

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Speaker 3: of action occurring all over the Northern Territory, so not

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Speaker 3: just Darwin, and I think for me, what I saw,

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Speaker 3: having worked in the community sector in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 3: for over twenty years, was a coming together and a

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Speaker 3: coordination across services and organizations that I've not seen before,

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Speaker 3: so that was really significant. We came together, we decided

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Speaker 3: that we needed to be more active about the issues

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Speaker 3: in the sector and we developed three arcs of government,

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Speaker 3: which we know we put out on the day.

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Speaker 2: Can you talk us through what those three asks are?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely I can. So the first ask is that

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Speaker 3: the funding for the sector is listed to one hundred

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Speaker 3: and eighty million dollars over five years. For what came

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Speaker 3: out of this year's budget for the sector was twenty

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Speaker 3: million over two So we're saying twenty million over two

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Speaker 3: years is not enough. We're calling for one hundred and

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Speaker 3: eighty over five years. We've called the second call is

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Speaker 3: for a domestic family sexual violence peak body that is

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Speaker 3: inclusive of people who have lived experience. And I guess

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Speaker 3: you know one thing I would say there is there

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Speaker 3: are lots of peak organizations in the Northern Territory. We

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Speaker 3: have a peak organization for recreational fishing and I think

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Speaker 3: if the Northern Territory can support a peak for recreational fishing,

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Speaker 3: then we should be able to support a peak organization

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Speaker 3: for domestic family sexual violence too. That was the second ask,

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Speaker 3: and the third ask was that fifty percent of all

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Speaker 3: new housing that comes to the Northern Territory from the

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Speaker 3: Housing Australia Future Fund is dedicated to victim survivors.

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Speaker 2: Urgent?

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Speaker 1: Is that need for housing for victim survivors?

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Speaker 3: Oh? Look, it's just so urgent. And I think the

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Speaker 3: problem around housing is now very well publicized. You're getting

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Speaker 3: a lot of attention across Australia and in Northern Territory.

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Speaker 3: Their rate of homelessness in the Northern Territory is twelve

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Speaker 3: times the national average. So if you hear people from

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Speaker 3: the Eastern Seaboard and down south talking about how terrible

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Speaker 3: their homelessness problem is, for them, just to remember that

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Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory it's twelve times the national race.

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Speaker 3: That makes it very urgent.

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Speaker 1: It certainly does. And you know, we speak about housing

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Speaker 1: quite a bit on the show. We quite often catch

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Speaker 1: up with Peter McMillan from NT Shelter and you don't

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Speaker 1: have to look too hard I don't think to realize

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Speaker 1: just how urgent that need is. But then when you

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Speaker 1: talk about victims of domestic violence and how urgent that

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Speaker 1: need would be if you are trying to escape a

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Speaker 1: dangerous situation, Rachel, have we got places for people to

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Speaker 1: go right now? And do we have enough bids? By

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Speaker 1: the sounds of it, we're not even close.

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Speaker 3: Well, the fact is it's, you know, yes to two

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Speaker 3: of those things. Yes we have places to go, and

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Speaker 3: yes we are in need of more places because there's

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Speaker 3: not enough. So everyday services across the Northern Territory are

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Speaker 3: channing families away. It's horrible. It's terrible. We absolutely don't

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Speaker 3: want to be doing this at all. In terms of

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Speaker 3: like when I reflect on our own data from the

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Speaker 3: wider b UCA from the previous FINANCHI year twenty twenty

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Speaker 3: two to twenty twenty three, there were two hundred and

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Speaker 3: ninety one unassisted people that we were not able to help.

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Speaker 3: Now we're just one small service. So when you piece

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Speaker 3: that together across all of the services across the whole

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Speaker 3: of the Northern Territory, you start to see a picture

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Speaker 3: which is pretty concerning, and we need we need to

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Speaker 3: together to turn this around Rachel.

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Speaker 1: We hear so often about the needs based funding model

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Speaker 1: and it being needed here in the Northern Territory when

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Speaker 1: it comes to domestic violence, and it's something we even

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Speaker 1: hear from the Minister responsible for domestic violence.

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Speaker 2: Is it the federal government that we're waiting on here?

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Speaker 2: What is the situation?

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Speaker 3: So we absolutely need needs based funding and will continue

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Speaker 3: to work together with Minister Warden here in the Northern

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Speaker 3: Territory to provide the evidence so we can win that

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Speaker 3: needs based funding because I mean, I guess the situation

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Speaker 3: that we're at now, we're so behind, Our catch up

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Speaker 3: is so great that if funding continues to be allocated

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Speaker 3: in the same way, we're not going to be able

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Speaker 3: to do that catch up. We're just not going to

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Speaker 3: get there. So that's why the needs based funding is

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Speaker 3: so important. But we do think that there's some things

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Speaker 3: that the Northern Territory government can do true without you know,

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Speaker 3: the needs based funding. We see that there's a fantastic

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Speaker 3: opportunity for the Northern Territory government, you know, particularly to

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Speaker 3: move on our call for the Peak body. We think

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Speaker 3: that that can happen without needs based funding. And as

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Speaker 3: I said that other ask I mentioned the fifty percent

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Speaker 3: of housing for victim survivors. We think that that can

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Speaker 3: be moved on now too, So I guess definitely we

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Speaker 3: need the needs based funding, but we're also calling on

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Speaker 3: more from the Northern Territory government.

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Speaker 2: Well, how would that peak body work? Exactly?

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Speaker 3: Well, it would be I mean, what's really useful about

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Speaker 3: a peak body if they pull all of the all

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Speaker 3: of the services together to synthesize the issues, analyze the problem,

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Speaker 3: and then put the information up to governments. So where

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Speaker 3: you don't have a peak body, you've got well two things,

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Speaker 3: You've got all of those individual organizing organizations approaching the

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Speaker 3: government individually. So that's actually quite time and resource intensive

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Speaker 3: government because instead of talking to a one peak body,

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Speaker 3: they might be talking to fifteen individual organizations. So that's

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Speaker 3: really important. But the other thing is having a peak

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Speaker 3: body was really effective at bringing the sector together so

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Speaker 3: that we can all get on the same page and

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Speaker 3: be really clear about what we want. Because you know,

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Speaker 3: organizations like the YWCA, we are doing our day to

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Speaker 3: day work pulling the sector together and getting things organized

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Speaker 3: and aligning our arts and that sort of thing is

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Speaker 3: really really hard and it's not going to happen in

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Speaker 3: an effective way. So peak bodies are really really important.

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Speaker 3: And you would notice, just reflecting on the last week,

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Speaker 3: how much you hear from you know, what's going on

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Speaker 3: with Burrow Mundy fishing and recreational fishes. As I'm listening

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Speaker 3: to that voice really strongly, I'm thinking, gosh, that's just

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Speaker 3: what we need for domestic family sexual vice. We need

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Speaker 3: that voice. We need an organization to pull together.

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Speaker 1: And so in terms of where things are out now,

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Speaker 1: and look, I know that the day of action was

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Speaker 1: only on Tuesday, so it is only a couple of

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Speaker 1: days ago. But what was the reaction from the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory government and how do you sort of you know,

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Speaker 1: how do you push things ahead now to get this happening.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, really good question. Well I would acknowledge that Minister

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Speaker 3: Warden and Minister Pate were at the action in Alice Springs,

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Speaker 3: so we know that they heard what was said there.

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Speaker 3: In terms of you know, what formal steps might be

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Speaker 3: going or occurring after Tuesday, I don't know that yet. Yep,

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Speaker 3: it was only Tuesday. Well, you know, we'll have to

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Speaker 3: catch up and have a talk and figure out what

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Speaker 3: that is. But I think from my perspective in the sector.

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Speaker 3: We will keep working on this now that we have

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Speaker 3: become aware of the ask from the expert group, the

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Speaker 3: EKRO in the Northern Territory government. Now that we're aware

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Speaker 3: that that EKRO assessed the need of one hundred and

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Speaker 3: eighty million dollars over five years, and we only know

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Speaker 3: that because of the coronial inquirers that are taking place.

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Speaker 3: But we know that now and we just can't not

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Speaker 3: act on that. It's too important. We just have to

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Speaker 3: keep advocating for the funding that we know the second needs.

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Speaker 3: Otherwise that eighty three figure, the figure of eighty three

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Speaker 3: women who have died since the year two thousand, that

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Speaker 3: will increase.

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Speaker 1: And it can't. We cannot have a situation where that

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Speaker 1: goes up. There has to be some serious action here

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Speaker 1: and I know that you guys at work in the

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Speaker 1: sector know that better than anybody.

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Speaker 2: Rachel, I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: I'll be very keen to keep in contact with you

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Speaker 1: and just sort of get some updates as you get

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Speaker 1: those updates and make our listeners aware if you're open

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Speaker 1: to that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I'd love to stay in touch and I

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Speaker 3: think you know. Thank you for the opportunity, and thank

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Speaker 3: you to the listeners for listening in. And I would

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Speaker 3: say to listeners, if this is something that you really

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Speaker 3: care about, if you want to see the way funding

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Speaker 3: is distributed change to prioritize its issue, please raise it

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Speaker 3: with your local member, talk to them at the markets

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Speaker 3: and the MANEMA, give them a call, let them know

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Speaker 3: that this is something that you really care about.

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Speaker 1: Rachel, thank you so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Keen, thank you