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Speaker 1: Now we know the NT government is hoping to entice

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Speaker 1: more airlines to service the Northern Territory, increasing competition and

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Speaker 1: reducing the price of airfares by launching an aviation attraction scheme.

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Speaker 1: It's committed ten million dollars to be matched dollar for

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Speaker 1: dollar by applicants and could go towards reducing landing fees

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Speaker 1: according to the Tourism Minister. One of the airlines joins

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now. It is Bonds, a

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Speaker 1: CEO Tim Jordan. Good morning to you, Tim, Good morning now, Tim,

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Speaker 1: what's your reaction to the scheme which was announced by

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory government a couple of days ago.

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Speaker 2: It's certainly a very positive step forward. Like all of

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Speaker 2: these things, the devil, if you like, is in the detail.

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Speaker 2: But it appears to be a very positive step forward.

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Speaker 1: And so what do we know about the detail at

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Speaker 1: this point in time, Tim? Is there still a lot

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Speaker 1: of questions to sort of ask.

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Speaker 2: We've got a few questions in just in terms of

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Speaker 2: the format and you know what what is required by whom, when,

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Speaker 2: when and those sorts of things. So the good news

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Speaker 2: is that we we and the the airport and Northern

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Speaker 2: territory government will be meeting in the coming days just

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Speaker 2: to essentially discuss that and to answer some of those

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Speaker 2: questions and then we'll we'll know a lot more about it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, So you are do to to meet with

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Speaker 1: them in the coming days and hopefully look at the

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Speaker 1: potential of operating in the territory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, we you know, we we are about unserved

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Speaker 2: markets or underserved markets. That's you know, that's who we

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Speaker 2: are all about. We've been doing that very successfully here

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Speaker 2: in Queensland and the New South Wales Victoria. But you know,

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Speaker 2: we we need, we need and want to do that

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Speaker 2: elsewhere and most certainly including the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: How have the regional services been going for you in

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Speaker 1: those other states?

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Speaker 2: We have grown the low cost carrier number of low

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Speaker 2: cost carrier routes in Australia. We have grown them by

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Speaker 2: approximately one third in the last six months. So we

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Speaker 2: launched twenty five new routes twenty seven in total, twenty

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Speaker 2: five of them not flown by other airlines. I'm really

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Speaker 2: really pleased to say that thanks to the fantastic support

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Speaker 2: that we've received, we are maintaining twenty of those. So

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Speaker 2: we are pulling out five of them, partly to improve

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Speaker 2: our operational reliability, but also partly because of the financials

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Speaker 2: involved with those five. But the really and unfortunately, sometimes

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Speaker 2: you know, people like to report on negative news rather

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Speaker 2: than positive news. The positive news is that twenty of

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Speaker 2: the twenty five are sticking and we have grown the

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Speaker 2: low cost carrier market in Australia in six months by

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Speaker 2: one third.

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Speaker 1: It is pretty phenomenal, you know, when you look at

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Speaker 1: the fact that you have got all of these different

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Speaker 1: routes that weren't sort of operating previously and enabling Assie's

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Speaker 1: to travel around Australia, particularly regional Australia, where I think

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Speaker 1: that you know, to put it very bluntly, we cop

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Speaker 1: it quite often. You know, it's really difficult for us

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Speaker 1: to when you live in regional Australia to sometimes catch

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Speaker 1: flights to other locations for a reasonable amount of money,

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Speaker 1: and that is something that Bonds seems to be doing

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Speaker 1: really quite well in regional parts of Australia, particularly from

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Speaker 1: what I can gather in Queensland. But you touched on

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Speaker 1: the fact that you know that five of those services

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Speaker 1: aren't going to continue. What are the reasons in some

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Speaker 1: cases that they're not continuing.

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Speaker 2: It's really we're flying very large aircraft. For you know,

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Speaker 2: it's no secret that we're flying one hundred and eighty

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Speaker 2: six seats, which is large aircraft, normally the largest aircraft

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Speaker 2: to fly into and out of some of these locations,

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Speaker 2: and with the best will in the world and with

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Speaker 2: the you know, with great support, sometimes the market just

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Speaker 2: doesn't stick late enough for that to make the services viable.

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Speaker 2: The really encouraging thing is that of the twenty five

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Speaker 2: twenty five routes new routes not flown by anybody, twenty

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Speaker 2: of them are sticking. Twenty of them are working, and

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Speaker 2: in fact, some of them are working so well that

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Speaker 2: we're actually adding service and that is absolutely fantastic and

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Speaker 2: it actually shows and proves that what we're doing is

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Speaker 2: resonating very importantly with people all over the country. And

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Speaker 2: as you say, regional centers have often been overlooked and

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Speaker 2: we don't think that's right. We're also resonating with people

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Speaker 2: in large capital cities. Even down in Melbourne. We've launched

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Speaker 2: seven markets which are not flown by the big guys,

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Speaker 2: and that's going incredibly well for us too.

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Speaker 1: So Tim, when you look at a place like the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Do you think that it could work for Bonser.

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Speaker 1: I mean we are talking about much longer distances I

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Speaker 1: guess than what you might be flying, say, you know,

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Speaker 1: from can to Townsville or Cans to Brisbane or whatever location.

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Speaker 1: We are talking about quite large distances I guess in

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Speaker 1: and out of the territory or even intra could at

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Speaker 1: work for Bonza.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, the rest of the world shows us that

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Speaker 2: it does work, it can work. You know, Australia used

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Speaker 2: to be the only country in the largest fifteen domestic

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Speaker 2: aviation markets without an independent low cost carrier. That is

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Speaker 2: no longer the case, and certainly longer markets can be

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Speaker 2: part of what we offer. What we do need is

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Speaker 2: to be able to offer the pricing to customers one

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Speaker 2: that they want and two at the level which allows

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Speaker 2: us to stimulate the market. It's no good us coming

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Speaker 2: into the market and offering the same pricing levels as

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Speaker 2: the other guys. We've got to come in with lower

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Speaker 2: pricing and stimulate the market. This is about market growth.

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Speaker 2: Whether that's going home to see family more often or

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Speaker 2: getting to explore this wonderful big backyard. Well, we've all

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Speaker 2: got to experience.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you've been told by the politicians and you know,

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Speaker 1: by the airport everybody else, but Territorians we're literally screaming

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Speaker 1: out for a service like this. You know, we find

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Speaker 1: it so difficult flying in and out of the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory in so many ways, but even flying you know,

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Speaker 1: from places like Darwin to Ularu to Alice Springs, it

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Speaker 1: can be so difficult for us. How real is this

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Speaker 1: possibility for the Northern Territory from your perspective right now,

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Speaker 1: for Bonza to potentially launch here.

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Speaker 2: Very importantly, We hear you and we are listening because

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Speaker 2: we are part of you. I myself live in regional

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Speaker 2: Australia and we get we get how important this is,

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Speaker 2: so we're with you on this. What we just need

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Speaker 2: are the right settings from a costing perspective to make

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Speaker 2: sure that we can offer the low fares that people want. Now,

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Speaker 2: the really encouraging thing that has happened this week is

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Speaker 2: the aviation attraction scheme is a great step assuming that

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Speaker 2: the detail doesn't lead us down down the wrong path.

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Speaker 2: But assuming that that isn't the case, then this is

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Speaker 2: a really positive step forward and hopefully it culminates in

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Speaker 2: delivering us delivering what territorians would really like, which is

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Speaker 2: more choice and much low affairs.

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Speaker 1: Tim what might that devil in the detail be that

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Speaker 1: would would prevent you from entering the market?

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Speaker 2: Uh, you know, too much red tape, you know, making

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Speaker 2: making some of the hurdles just you know, too complex

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Speaker 2: or too hard, which ends up tripping us up. Or

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Speaker 2: you know, you know, unfortunately some schemes which are which

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Speaker 2: are there to help, end up having so much red

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Speaker 2: tape around them that they get a little bit too complex.

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Speaker 2: So hopefully that's not the case. We will certainly certainly

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Speaker 2: hope that that isn't the case. But let's see most

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Speaker 2: importantly that this has now been put out there, and

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Speaker 2: we will be working with the airports involved and the

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Speaker 2: territory government to try and make sure that everybody gets

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Speaker 2: what everybody desperately needs, which is, as I say, that's

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Speaker 2: more choice and much low affairs.

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Speaker 1: Before I let you go, what kind of lead time

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Speaker 1: would be expected really before any new service is launched, Like,

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Speaker 1: let's say everything you know goes really well, whether it's

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Speaker 1: you or whether it's another airline. What kind of lead

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Speaker 1: time is sort of required when you're looking at a

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Speaker 1: launching an airline in a new state.

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Speaker 2: Realistically it is several months, so it's not a case

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Speaker 2: of weeks, it is several months, so you know, most

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Speaker 2: likely three, four or five months is probably the fastest.

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Speaker 2: The reason being is clearly there's lots of training that

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Speaker 2: needs to be done in terms of making sure that

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Speaker 2: the appropriate ground handling partners are in place, they're sufficiently

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Speaker 2: trained and signed off, and of course there is also

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Speaker 2: a window in which you have to sell seats, which

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Speaker 2: for the longer markets is normally two to three months

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Speaker 2: ideally in advance. So several months is the shortest time

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Speaker 2: period involved as and when and if we're able to

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Speaker 2: make everything add up well.

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Speaker 1: Tim Jordan, the CEO of bondser it's great to speak

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Speaker 1: with you this morning. I really appreciate you taking the

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Speaker 1: time to have a chat to us here in the territory.

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Speaker 2: Absolute pleasure and hopefully look forward to seeing you.

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Speaker 1: So sounds like a plan. Thank you,