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Speaker 1: So we have had a couple of people called through

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Speaker 1: to say that a live catleg sports ship apparently caught

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Speaker 1: fire off Darwin and almost collided with a gas tanker.

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Speaker 1: Now we're told that the cattle still remain on the ship,

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Speaker 1: with efforts underway to now offload them. Joining us on

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Speaker 1: the line to explain what has happened? Do you see

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Speaker 1: NT Cattleman's Association CEO Will Evans, Good morning to you, Will.

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

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Speaker 1: Well what exactly has gone on?

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Speaker 3: Well, earlier in the week said Wednesday evening, there is

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Speaker 3: a vessel departing from Darwin. Unfortunately a fire in the

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Speaker 3: engine room. The fire was contained and the fire has

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Speaker 3: gone out. Obviously the engine the vessels lost power. So

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Speaker 3: we're going to tow the vessel back in, unload the cattle,

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Speaker 3: put them onto another boat, and hopefully that they both

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Speaker 3: departs as soon as possible.

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Speaker 1: Is there any truth to that person calling saying that

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Speaker 1: it nearly collided with the gas tanker.

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Speaker 3: That's news to Mekdie, but I wouldn't be privy to

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Speaker 3: that information. But the most important thing is the cattle

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Speaker 3: are safe, the people are safe, the fire is out.

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Speaker 3: It's just a mechanical issue now, so we're just going

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Speaker 3: to go through a process of addressing it, getting the

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Speaker 3: cattle back onto another vessel, and getting them ovid into

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Speaker 3: nature as certain as possible.

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Speaker 1: How many cattle we're on board or still are on.

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Speaker 3: Board, well, so we've got about three thousand, six hundred

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Speaker 3: on there. We should be able to move most of

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Speaker 3: them onto another vessel and then we'll have to address

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Speaker 3: the next part of the challenge, which is getting the

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Speaker 3: rest of them onto another boat as well. So a

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Speaker 3: little bit tricky, a little bit of schedule that we're

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Speaker 3: going through now, but exporters are very competent of these things.

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Speaker 2: We've got a lot of faith.

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Speaker 3: We've been talking directly with them and the Anti Life

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Speaker 3: Export Association. It's just a really good process we've got

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Speaker 3: to go through now. But yeah, cattle is safe, people

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Speaker 3: are safe, vessel is safe.

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Speaker 2: It just doesn't have an engine at the minute.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how big was the fire?

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Speaker 2: Not huge, but it's enough to compromise it. Obviously, safety

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Speaker 2: is the most important thing on most vessels.

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Speaker 3: So the decision was made to not run anywhere with it.

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Speaker 3: Bring the vessel back, get the cattle off, get the

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Speaker 3: crew off, get them onto another vessel and see them

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Speaker 3: get them back on the water as soon as possible.

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Speaker 1: And so is the process Now are you sort of

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Speaker 1: waiting for another vessel to become available to be able

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Speaker 1: to get those cattle onto or what's the situation?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of people not getting a lot of

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Speaker 3: sleep at the moment. We're just trying to These are

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Speaker 3: all the challenges that we've got. So we do have

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Speaker 3: other vessels in the vicinity, but it takes time to

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Speaker 3: bring them here.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of food on board, there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of water on board.

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Speaker 3: All of the uhillary powers still working, so we can

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Speaker 3: leave the cattle there for as long as it's safe.

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Speaker 2: But obviously priority.

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Speaker 3: At the moment is get everything moving and make sure

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Speaker 3: that everyone's looked after and protected.

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Speaker 1: So where were they heading to?

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Speaker 2: To Indonesia?

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Speaker 1: Indonesia, and so now I guess like how far off

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Speaker 1: or when do you reckon? You're going to be able

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Speaker 1: to get them on that other ship and be able

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Speaker 1: to get them transported.

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Speaker 3: As soon as possible ideally speaking, So there's obviously a

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Speaker 3: number of regultary steps that we need to go through

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Speaker 3: with Amswer. It is very much a player in this

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Speaker 3: that's Australia Maritime Safety Authority, Department of Agriculture is involved

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Speaker 3: as well, the territory governments involved as well. It's just

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Speaker 3: working together to come up with the best solution and

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Speaker 3: try to get the cattle back out there as soon

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Speaker 3: as possible.

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Speaker 1: I know you've said the people on board and also

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Speaker 1: the cattle on board were all safe. But with that

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Speaker 1: fire in the engine room, I mean we were there

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Speaker 1: actually staff in there at the time.

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Speaker 2: No, so happily there wasn't.

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Speaker 3: And the way these things work is the engine room

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Speaker 3: gets compartmentalized and then to put the fire out.

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Speaker 2: So the fire was out pretty quickly obviously, though.

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Speaker 3: You can't rush these sorts of things, and you're not

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Speaker 3: going to risk it on a journey to Indonesia.

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Speaker 2: You're going to always err on the side of safety.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but contained to that one area by the sounds of.

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Speaker 2: It, Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to have

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Speaker 1: a quick chat with us this morning. Will thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for letting us know what the situation was.

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Speaker 2: Not a problem. Thanks for having me on tap.

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Speaker 1: Thank you