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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is Matt Cunningham

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Speaker 1: from Sky News. Good morning, Matte.

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Speaker 2: Good Akatie.

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Speaker 1: Matt. You've been out to this media event a bit

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Speaker 1: earlier this morning where well, the CLP they scrapped what

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Speaker 1: they've described as Labour's failed fifty percent renewables target by

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Speaker 1: twenty thirty. Mate. I think when this announcement was made,

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Speaker 1: we're all kind of scratching our heads, going, how exactly

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Speaker 1: are we going to get there?

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Speaker 2: Well, I certainly was, Wolfie, and I think if you

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Speaker 2: go back to the very first press conferent in twenty

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Speaker 2: seventeen when it was announce I remember asking whether there

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Speaker 2: were any concerns about the blackouts like we clean in

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Speaker 2: South Australia. They actually scoffed at me. And I think today,

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Speaker 2: you know, you're.

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Speaker 1: Feeling vindicated, Matte.

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Speaker 2: Wows a little bit because I mean, this is just

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Speaker 2: such a dumb policy. I mean it was they literally

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Speaker 2: just plucked two numbers from the air yeah and said,

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Speaker 2: you know, and then and then decided that was going

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Speaker 2: to be their energy policy. And it's proven to be,

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Speaker 2: you know, ridiculously expensive. It's created issues as far as

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Speaker 2: the security of the grid goes. You know, it's just

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Speaker 2: been a fartical situation. They promise and these are their words,

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Speaker 2: not mine, cheaper, greener, renewable energy, and yet it's been

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Speaker 2: anything but cheaper, and we've sort of the cost of

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Speaker 2: it has been masked from us because you know, the

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Speaker 2: government owns power and Water, and so it's been able

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Speaker 2: to cap those power price increases for domestic consumers at

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Speaker 2: least at CPI, but there's been a massive cost to

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Speaker 2: the bottom line of the budget through the Community Service Obligation,

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Speaker 2: which is now sitting at north of one hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty million dollars, and that's the money that the government

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Speaker 2: gives to Power and Water to basically compensate it for

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Speaker 2: the discount it gives to customers for what they pay

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Speaker 2: for their electricity. So, I mean, no one should be

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Speaker 2: surprised that the government has come out today and scraped

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Speaker 2: the target because it was it was it was just dumb,

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Speaker 2: and it was I think the Utility Commission. So don't

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Speaker 2: take my word for it. Take the Independent Utility Commission's

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Speaker 2: words way back in twenty twenty, I think in June

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty, and in it's Electricity Outlook, it's said that

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Speaker 2: you know, achieving that this target was unrealistic, if not impossible.

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Speaker 2: That's the Independent Utility Commissions, Yeah, back in twenty twenty,

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Speaker 2: and they said to attempt it would be you know,

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Speaker 2: complex and expensive. Belief it was the sole this idea

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Speaker 2: that it was all going to be cheaper and it

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Speaker 2: was all marvelous and yeah, but.

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Speaker 1: Even for us, you know, in the Northern Territory, we've

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Speaker 1: seen you know, that blackout in Alice Springs that it

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Speaker 1: occurred when there was a huge cloud. You know, we

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Speaker 1: all if those of us that are the.

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Speaker 2: Cloud will be it wasn't the cloud, Well, wasn't that,

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Speaker 2: yeah exactly.

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Speaker 1: But we've even seen you know, if you go back further,

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Speaker 1: and of course I'll never forget it because I worked

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Speaker 1: for the for the Central Services Minister at the time,

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Speaker 1: Rob Knight, we've had some you know, terrible situations. For example,

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Speaker 1: the substation at Casarina blowing up all those years ago

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Speaker 1: because a lot of their infrastructure had not been maintained.

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Speaker 2: Right, so we remember, I still remember Andrew McCready tell

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Speaker 2: you by generator.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like that. There's been a lot that's

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Speaker 1: gone on. So then when you look at you know,

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Speaker 1: this this target of twenty thirty being you know, fifty

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Speaker 1: percent renewables, Like it's good to have goals, but make

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Speaker 1: them realistic ones.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and exactly. And they had I mean, what

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Speaker 2: sort of you know, who did they consult with before

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Speaker 2: they came up with the idea, Because if they had

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Speaker 2: consulted with anyone within even anyone within power and water

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Speaker 2: who knew anything about electricity generation, they would have told

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Speaker 2: them they were nuts. And we've ended up with these

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Speaker 2: three white elephant solar farms that are still not you know,

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Speaker 2: providing all of the power that they're producing into the

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Speaker 2: grid and all of these other issues. And the thing

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Speaker 2: that the previous government was never upfront about was the cost. Right,

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Speaker 2: So today we're told that the cost of achieving this,

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Speaker 2: if it had been attempted, was going to be five

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Speaker 2: billion dollars, right, And the new government says that's that's

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Speaker 2: information that's come from the Department. Now, the previous government

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Speaker 2: would have had the same information. In fact, they commissioned

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Speaker 2: a report back in around twenty twenty into this very issue,

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Speaker 2: and when we tried to get that report under freedom

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Speaker 2: of information, they've lacked out one hundred and sixteen to

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Speaker 2: one hundred and eighteen pages. The only thing they would

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Speaker 2: reveal was the front and back cover in our government

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Speaker 2: that promise to restore integrity and government and then open

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Speaker 2: and transparent. Now, I'm not necessarily confident that the new

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Speaker 2: MAK is going to be any better, but at least

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Speaker 2: when you get a new government, they're transparent about the

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Speaker 2: previous government. So at least now we've got an answer

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Speaker 2: about you know what it all was going to cost,

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Speaker 2: which is five billion dollars, which is insane absolutely Madden. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and I think the previous I think the previous you know,

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Speaker 2: under Dave Tolner, who is the Minister Responsible, I think

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Speaker 2: they booked at this idea all along because of that cost.

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Speaker 2: And I think at the time the cost that they

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Speaker 2: were sort of looking at was around one point five

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Speaker 2: billion dollars. Yes, but obviously, you know, things get more

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Speaker 2: expensive and we've had a lot of five billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of money.

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Speaker 1: So Matt, what have they you know, what what did

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Speaker 1: the government say today?

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Speaker 2: Then?

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Speaker 1: You know, the new government, I guess you'd say, or

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Speaker 1: they've been in for a while now, But what did

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Speaker 1: gered Mayley have to say today in terms of you know,

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Speaker 1: their plans and you know, ensuring that we do have reliability,

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Speaker 1: reasonable costs and making sure that you know that we

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Speaker 1: do indeed have power.

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Speaker 2: Well, he said, we're getting power I think from Central

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Speaker 2: Petroleum's gas at the moment, he said, because the other

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Speaker 2: issue we've got is that is that Black Tips has

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Speaker 2: effectively run dry. And so he said that E and

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Speaker 2: I is drilling new wells a black Tip to try

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Speaker 2: to find us more gas, but we're essentially also relying

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Speaker 2: on gas from Impacts and Santos to keep the lights on,

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Speaker 2: and who knows how much we're paying for that gas.

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Speaker 2: And we've also signed up for these deals that we're

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Speaker 2: done under Evil Lawler and the previous labor government with

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Speaker 2: Tambora and an empire for gas from the Beterloo for

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Speaker 2: domestic supply even when it becomes available. But you know,

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Speaker 2: it's a situation that's pretty fraught at the moment, and

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Speaker 2: obviously we're in desperate need of getting those new gas

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Speaker 2: supplies on board to keep the power running. And of

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Speaker 2: course that's having an impact. You know, the renewables plan

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Speaker 2: has had a massive impact on costs, and the fact

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Speaker 2: that we've seen the black Tip field run dry is

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Speaker 2: having an impact on costs as well, because there was

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Speaker 2: clearly not the planning done for a backup gas supply

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Speaker 2: if that feel ran dry with what has happened, and

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Speaker 2: so what it looks like is going I mean the

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Speaker 2: impact for the consumer, Katie, I think it's going to

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Speaker 2: be higher power prices. So Jared Mayley said today that

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Speaker 2: there would be a three percent cap this year. So

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Speaker 2: for the past five years power price increases have been

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Speaker 2: cap CPI, which the government has been able to do

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Speaker 2: because it just takes the bottom line hits itself because

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Speaker 2: power and water is owned by the government. So he

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Speaker 2: says that it's going to be capped three percent this year,

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Speaker 2: but he says that it will be reviewed after that.

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Speaker 2: Now you would have to think and he actually said

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Speaker 2: it could come down. I'm not sure what you need

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Speaker 2: to in which that is possible. So if it's reviewed

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Speaker 2: after this year, you would have to say that there's

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Speaker 2: every chance that power prices for consumers here in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, domestic consumers who've been shielded from this, are

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Speaker 2: going to go up, and they're going to go up significantly,

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Speaker 2: which then I think means that we're going to have

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Speaker 2: an election campaign for twenty twenty eight, you will have

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Speaker 2: the Labor Party coming out and absolutely hammering the cl

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Speaker 2: people putting up power prices, even if they might be

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Speaker 2: partly at least responsible for the fact that they've gone

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Speaker 2: that the cost of tower's gone up the birthplace, Yeah, correctly.

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Speaker 1: If I'm wrong that. But didn't this happen as well

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Speaker 1: when you know, I could have this mixed up, But

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Speaker 1: didn't this happen when either was it Terry Mills or

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Speaker 1: Paul Henderson was the leader?

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Speaker 2: Terry Mills, that's right, Jerry Mills put yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Terry did not end well in terms of style.

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Speaker 2: Prices, like putting power prices up, you know, is a

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Speaker 2: dangerous game for a Northern Territory government. So you know,

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Speaker 2: it'll be interesting to see how that all plays out.

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Speaker 2: Because people were apoplectic in twenty twelve when the government

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Speaker 2: of the day said it was going to put power

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Speaker 2: prices up, and you know, I can't imagine they're going

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Speaker 2: to receive that information too well now either.

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Speaker 1: No, we we'll certainly keep a very very close eye

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Speaker 1: on things, Matt hopefully will we hopefully see you for

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Speaker 1: the week that wells tomorrow morning. Are we expecting this

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Speaker 1: federal election to get called. What's going on?

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Speaker 2: Every report I've seen in the last hour has said

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Speaker 2: that the Prime Minister is going to call the election

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Speaker 2: tomorrow will be in which case you won't see me.

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Speaker 1: We will arrange around you. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: and the last twenty four hours I suppose here in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory have been interesting, with the Treasurer and

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Speaker 1: the Member for Solomon really you know, having a crack

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Speaker 1: at each other about about the federal budget and the

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Speaker 1: lack of you know, new money in that federal budget.

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Speaker 1: We spoke to the to the Member for Solomon a

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Speaker 1: little while ago and sort of I tried to get

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Speaker 1: some answers about whether there was money for new projects

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Speaker 1: in there, but it was not forthcoming.

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Speaker 2: I'm surprised that at the strategy around that the federal

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Speaker 2: government because it doesn't appear to be I mean, I

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Speaker 2: reckon Solomon and Lingiar are going to be two really

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Speaker 2: interesting seats at the election. So yeah, I mean, there's

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Speaker 2: always a good argument for the federal government that we

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Speaker 2: give so much GST to the Northern Territory relative to

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Speaker 2: everywhere else, that's you know, it's a bit rich for

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Speaker 2: them to be asking for anything, but they didn't appear

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Speaker 2: to be a lot, certainly infrastructure wise in the federal

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Speaker 2: government for the Northern Territory apart from that two hundred

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Speaker 2: million for the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Katherine. So

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Speaker 2: it's going to be an interesting election, I reckon, and

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Speaker 2: two seats in the NT that could well be in play.

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Speaker 2: So I expect to see a fair few federal policies

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Speaker 2: up here between now on Thailand, that's for sure, I reckon.

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Speaker 1: So well, Matt, we might see you in the morning,

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Speaker 1: we might not. As always, thanks for your time, mate,

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Speaker 1: Thank you