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Speaker 1: We know that communities in the Daily River region are

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Speaker 1: beginning to assess the damage after recent flooding, but for

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Speaker 1: many residents and small tourism operators, well, recovery is only

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Speaker 1: just the beginning. Now, we know that concerns are mounting

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Speaker 1: over prolonged power outages, limited road access, and the lack

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Speaker 1: of targeted disaster support. Now Margaret ray Taylor has been

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Speaker 1: advocating for urgent action to help locals get back on

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Speaker 1: their feet, and we know the Northern Territory government and

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Speaker 1: the federal government this morning also making an announcement in

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Speaker 1: terms of some support. But joining me on the line

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Speaker 1: right now is Margaret ray Taylor. Good morning to you, Margaret.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, thanks for having me on again.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show. Margaret. First off,

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Speaker 1: as those floodwaters received, what are you hearing from residents

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Speaker 1: or you know, what are you guys seeing or finding

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Speaker 1: out as some of those assessors get in there.

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Speaker 2: So we've had a number of business owners able to

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Speaker 2: access their properties in the last sort of week week

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Speaker 2: or two.

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Speaker 1: That's good.

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Speaker 2: And the damage varies depending on the property and where

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Speaker 2: the property is sort of located on the river. But

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Speaker 2: worst case scenario. We've got people who have lost their

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Speaker 2: private residence and their businesses down to some people who

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Speaker 2: have you know, just had some water through, which is

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Speaker 2: you know, does enough damage as it is, but it's

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Speaker 2: you know a lot of sinkholes, meters of mud. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and just you know, some people who have lost their homes.

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Speaker 2: So which is really sad.

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Speaker 1: Oh, that is awful, absolutely awful for them, Margaret, Like,

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Speaker 1: does insurance cover them or for some of them, are

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Speaker 1: they not covered due to you know, to where they're located.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I do want to clarify for some people

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Speaker 2: because you see a lot of commentary on social media

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Speaker 2: about you know, the community or you know this, that

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Speaker 2: and the other. And that's as far as the community

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Speaker 2: of nau goes. That's a conversation that the federal and

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Speaker 2: local government will have with the traditional owners. But I

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Speaker 2: want to point out that ninety nine percent of these

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Speaker 2: tourist parks were well outside the major flood level of

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Speaker 2: fourteen meters. So this flood was sixteen point four meters roughly,

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Speaker 2: which is a record breaking flood. Now, you know, you

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Speaker 2: can be on top of a hill, but if the

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Speaker 2: flood breaks all records, it doesn't matter. How high you are,

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Speaker 2: you know. So everyone has mitigation practices in place sort

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Speaker 2: of to lessen the loss or damage during a flood.

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Speaker 2: But this was a record breaking flood, so these properties

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Speaker 2: normally wouldn't be affected by a major flood. So they

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Speaker 2: want to clarify that for people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I think sometimes people jump on social media,

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Speaker 1: they make comments. You think, hang on a sec. You

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Speaker 1: don't actually know, you know, what the situation is.

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Speaker 2: One hundred percent. They don't read, you know, the information

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Speaker 2: save for the fundraiser. You know, they're not really reading

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Speaker 2: the information they see daily river. So they assume we're

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Speaker 2: talking about the community. But here I'm talking about nine

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Speaker 2: or ten small privately owned businesses, not big four caravan parks,

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Speaker 2: but mum and dad run businesses. Some of them have

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Speaker 2: been there for generations. Unfortunately, when we owned one of

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Speaker 2: those properties, we had insurance for the twenty fifteen sixteen flood,

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Speaker 2: but the premiums were astronomical. Yeah, and we're talking about

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Speaker 2: tens of thousands of dollars. We weren't offered flood insurance

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Speaker 2: after that, and we put a lot of We built

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Speaker 2: a levy bank and did a lot of work to

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Speaker 2: mitigate floods and dammage and loss. Yeah, but most of

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Speaker 2: these places aren't covered by insurance, is the bottom line.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the poor buggers, bloody hell, it's going to be terrible,

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Speaker 1: you know for them, Well, it's going to be tough

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Speaker 1: trying to rebuild it is. Tell me the access along

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Speaker 1: Williana Road that's also been highlighted, what impact is it

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Speaker 1: having on the cleanup and the rebuilding efforts?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's the roads are always an issue in any

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Speaker 2: wet season, never mind a record sort of flood level season.

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Speaker 2: You know, they have to be assessed by logistics and

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Speaker 2: infrastructure to assess that they're okay for weighted traffic, you

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Speaker 2: know what I mean. So if it's a gravel road,

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Speaker 2: the gravel road has to be able to hold the

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Speaker 2: machinery without getting it bogged, you know, So assessing the

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Speaker 2: roads always takes a little bit. In this instance, I

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Speaker 2: think they sent photos through to Kathleen yesterday. Woollly on

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Speaker 2: a road in one section actually has a hole that

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Speaker 2: the road's missing. It's now part of the river.

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Speaker 1: Crazy stuff.

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Speaker 2: That is not going to be equip fit. No unfortunate

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Speaker 2: cerly as members of the public who are driving around

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Speaker 2: that to access fishing land based fishing, and the area

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Speaker 2: still is under emergency declaration, so there are penalties for

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Speaker 2: people accessing the area, and of course the more people

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Speaker 2: using a road, the more damage is done. So the

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Speaker 2: people who need to be there, like the owners and

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Speaker 2: residents that are trying to clean up and rebuild.

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Speaker 1: They're the ones who actually need to be on it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: people wanting to go for a fish.

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Speaker 2: Yeah absolutely, yeah, absolutely, And.

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Speaker 1: Look we all love a fish, I get it, but

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Speaker 1: you know, like just have a think about the people

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Speaker 1: that actually live out there and have businesses out there

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Speaker 1: and the difficulties that they are undergoing at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Margaret tell me the Albanezi and the finocci Aio governments

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Speaker 1: this morning have activated more than twelve point four million dollars,

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Speaker 1: they're saying in support for small businesses and not for

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Speaker 1: profit organizations that have been impacted by the flooding. Have

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Speaker 1: you received much detail about that and what kind of

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Speaker 1: impact is it going to have?

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Speaker 2: Look so, our local member Darren Young for Daily actually

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Speaker 2: emailed me that this morning and I have had a

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Speaker 2: chat with both Ken Davies and Tony Fullock, which has

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Speaker 2: been great. To my knowledge, the financial packages are around

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Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars, which you know, in the bigger picture, Well,

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Speaker 2: at this point, so people who don't have electricity, and

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Speaker 2: no one has electricity, so everyone's running fuel generators. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: if electricity isn't restored quickly, that money is going to

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Speaker 2: be eaten up in fuel, the cost of fuel. But

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Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars is better than nothing. But when you're

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Speaker 2: looking at you've lost your home, so all your white goods,

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Speaker 2: your furniture, you're betting, you know, never mind your business part.

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Speaker 2: Ten thousand dollars doesn't go very far. But in perspective,

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Speaker 2: you know, we aren't the only area that's been affected

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Speaker 2: by flooding and cyclones this wet season, and money's just

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Speaker 2: not an endless supply unfortunately.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, But is there more that you would

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Speaker 1: like to see or is there other kind of support

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Speaker 1: that you'd like to see from either tier of government

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Speaker 1: at this point.

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Speaker 2: Well, we'd like a coordinated sort of approach to what's

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Speaker 2: happening down there. Some people are being told, you know,

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Speaker 2: get your certificate of compliance organized and will put your

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Speaker 2: power back on, and other people are being told you

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Speaker 2: could be without power for some time. I sort of

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Speaker 2: spoke to Ken Davies this morning about that. You know,

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Speaker 2: we need a more coordinated approach so that everyone's getting

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Speaker 2: accurate communication from the government. You know, obviously extra funding

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Speaker 2: would be great, but again, you know money, money's are

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Speaker 2: always an issue, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Margaret, do you know what I love about you?

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Speaker 1: You're so bloody practical. You know, you're not even good there,

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Speaker 1: you know, like you're you guys have so many residents

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Speaker 1: out there, you've been through, you know, such a difficult situation,

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Speaker 1: but you're being so pragmatic about it now. I guess

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Speaker 1: that that probably shows the the absolute toughness and resilience

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Speaker 1: of the residents of the Daily region. And and you know,

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Speaker 1: your proper territory tough. But but gee, you know it's

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Speaker 1: gonna be a tough clean up for you all. It's

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Speaker 1: going to be tough to get back to normal for

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Speaker 1: for all of those businesses. And and you know, I

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Speaker 1: think that anything that we as Territorians can do to

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Speaker 1: try and help you guys down the track, you know,

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Speaker 1: we all sort of want to want to make sure

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Speaker 1: that we can.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And I think as soon as these businesses

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Speaker 2: are in a position to open, you know, bums on

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Speaker 2: seats would be great for everyone. Yeah, I'm sure the

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Speaker 2: barrel will still be there. Yeah, and yeah, they'll be

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Speaker 2: welcoming you know, customers back to their parts as soon

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Speaker 2: as they can, so that support will be really appreciated

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Speaker 2: because I think the interstate tourists are going to be

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Speaker 2: a bit light on this season with the cost of fuel.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon, you're right.

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Speaker 2: So supporting local business is going to be really important

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Speaker 2: this year.

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Speaker 1: Well, Margaret, please keep in contact with us, let us

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Speaker 1: know how things are going, because you know, as I said,

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Speaker 1: people are going to want to support all of the

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Speaker 1: businesses there, so please keep in contact with us. I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate the time that you've given us over the

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Speaker 1: last few weeks under what's been really difficult circumstances for

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Speaker 1: you all.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. Katie really appreciate sort of having the opportunity

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Speaker 2: to bring the attention to what's happening out there for everyone.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, we thank you and Kathleen for your time.

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Speaker 1: Anytime, anytime, Margaret, thank you. We'll talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, take care of you two