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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is the Opposition

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Speaker 1: spokesperson for Health, Bill Yan.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Katie. How are you not too bad?

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Speaker 3: Bill?

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Speaker 2: I tell you what.

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Speaker 1: We have received so many messages, so many people concerned

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Speaker 1: over the course of the weekend and on Friday last week,

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Speaker 1: after the announcement by the Chief Minister on Thursday about

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Speaker 1: these changes when it comes to our borders come December

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Speaker 1: twenty Bill, there is a lot of confusion at the moment.

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Speaker 2: What are people saying to you.

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Speaker 3: I've had calls from Thursday afternoon right through today today.

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Speaker 3: I'm actually out in the remote community at Santa Tarusian immnute.

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Speaker 3: We got into the community to thirsting out of people's

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Speaker 3: mouth what's going on with these border changes. There is

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Speaker 3: a lot of confusion. And I heard Sarah earlier in

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Speaker 3: the radio. I spoke to Sarah late last week talking

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Speaker 3: to a lot of partials there. Absolutely devastated because everyone

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Speaker 3: was planning on the chiefiness to gay about three weeks

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Speaker 3: ago and everyone was pretty happy with that advice and

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Speaker 3: to come out on Thursday, and the change over the

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Speaker 3: drop of a hat so close to Christmas has just

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Speaker 3: thrown everybody in the turmoil and the partials have been

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Speaker 3: speaking to her saying, well, their kids are at boarding school.

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Speaker 3: They held them, hold them there based on the advice

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Speaker 3: they got three weeks ago. And now they're going to

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Speaker 3: come back from boarding school and can't come home. So

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Speaker 3: they're either going to spend Christmas alone in town they

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Speaker 3: can't be out with their families, or the family's got

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Speaker 3: to walk off the stations and come and spend that

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Speaker 3: two weeks with them in all Springs or whether it

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Speaker 3: be dar On to Catherine, it just it makes no sense.

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Speaker 1: Well, and Bill, you know that's obviously, like we've just

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Speaker 1: discussed talking about it from the partialist perspective and the concerns.

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Speaker 2: That they've got.

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Speaker 1: Then when you talk about our essential workers, well, I'm

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Speaker 1: just not too sure what is going to happen with

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Speaker 1: some of those essential workers, some of those that work

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Speaker 1: in the health sector, our police officers, and indeed our teachers.

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Speaker 1: If they were planning on going home, going to visit

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Speaker 1: family over the Christmas break, they come back, they've got

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Speaker 1: to do fourteen days then here in Darwen, Alice Springs

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Speaker 1: or Catherine before they can actually go back into one

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Speaker 1: of those remote areas.

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Speaker 3: Well, there's talk I've heard and I was speaking to

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Speaker 3: the principal of the school out here this morning. They're

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Speaker 3: saying that the Education Department particularly that they're classes of

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Speaker 3: central workers, so it's possible, and they're still trying to

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Speaker 3: work out the details that those people could return from

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Speaker 3: holidays and come back on the communities. But there's also

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Speaker 3: then the perception within the communities. And talk to the

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Speaker 3: people here at Sana Fresa today, they're pretty upset because

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Speaker 3: they've done the right thing, they've wined up and they've

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Speaker 3: got vaccinated. They've got one of the highest vaccination rates

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Speaker 3: in the Southern Region for their community. But they can't

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Speaker 3: go away and then come back to their community. They've

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Speaker 3: got to stay in Alice Springs there and they're asking

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Speaker 3: that question, well, why do we go and do all

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Speaker 3: this sort of stuff, What benefit is it for us? Now?

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Speaker 3: It doesn't make any sense. Is just it's of course,

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Speaker 3: apart from it's killed tourism here in Central Australia. Now,

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Speaker 3: anyone coming across the board has going to stay in

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Speaker 3: Central Australia. So like Lara King's Canyon and those smaller

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Speaker 3: resorts just outside of town like an only rely on

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Speaker 3: local content. Now anyone crossing our boarders is not allowed

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Speaker 3: to go around there and.

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Speaker 2: It's going to be devastating.

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Speaker 1: I mean the Health Minister confirming on the show a

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Speaker 1: bit earlier this morning. That's the reality is that you

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Speaker 1: know that we need to wait or in some of

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Speaker 1: those communities, we're going to need to wait until till

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Speaker 1: all of those children aged between five and eleven are

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Speaker 1: able to get vaccinated.

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Speaker 2: That's not actually.

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Speaker 1: Able to happen until January tenth. So how long are

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Speaker 1: we going to be waiting? Like our tourism sector is

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Speaker 1: already on its.

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Speaker 3: Knees well, and that's the thing. And this has been

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Speaker 3: going on for months and months and months, Katie, and

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Speaker 3: it's really really quite sad. Is this mixed messaging and

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Speaker 3: this policy on the fly from the government. It's really

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Speaker 3: really hurting our tourism sector. I said, this lightest run

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Speaker 3: hurts partials, hurts families. So many people were planning to aol,

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Speaker 3: to go away or be bring family up to our

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Speaker 3: springs and now that's sort of that's thrown that out.

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Speaker 3: We know what my son was planning to come over,

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Speaker 3: but because we weren't going to be in a high

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Speaker 3: VAX area, he can't come to the territory. Now he's

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Speaker 3: got to stay at home in West Australia. It's affecting

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Speaker 3: a lot of people across the board and they need

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Speaker 3: to get the messaging clear. They need to start, They

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Speaker 3: need to sit down and think about what they're going

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Speaker 3: to do before they just jump out in the media

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Speaker 3: and blurt it out without any planning to sit behind him,

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Speaker 3: because it's really really affecting.

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Speaker 1: Territory in there, Phil Obviously, the other side of this

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Speaker 1: is that they say that it's all about making sure

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Speaker 1: that they protect the vulnerable. I mean, we know that

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Speaker 1: our elective surgery wait times, for example, at the hospital

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Speaker 1: well and truly delayed.

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Speaker 2: We know that the hospital just up.

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Speaker 1: Here in Darwin alone has obviously had those four code

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Speaker 1: yellows throughout the year.

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure the health system there is also under stress.

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Speaker 1: I mean, is the reality here that they actually have

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Speaker 1: to do this because our health system can't code.

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Speaker 3: Well, we've been saying that for months and months that

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Speaker 3: our health system's been in crisis, Katie, and we've known

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Speaker 3: that we're going to be seeing COVID in our communities

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Speaker 3: and we're sitting back asking questions of what have the

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Speaker 3: government done to protect territories and to bolster our health sector.

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Speaker 3: Now we've been saying that they need to give the

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Speaker 3: Center for National Resiliens back to the FEDS, bring our

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Speaker 3: staff back into our critical care areas, within our hospitals

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Speaker 3: and our primary health areas. We need to look after

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Speaker 3: territoryans first. So if we see a major COVID our

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Speaker 3: break here and the territory. I shuddered to think what's

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Speaker 3: going to happen, Katy, because I don't think our health

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Speaker 3: system is ready to deal with it. They can put

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Speaker 3: all sorts of measures in place. I suppose to try

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Speaker 3: and slow things down, but COVID is already in our communities.

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Speaker 3: We need to start thinking about how we can best

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Speaker 3: manage our health sector.

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Speaker 1: Bill, do we need to maybe look back at doing

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Speaker 1: something like the biosecurity signs again.

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Speaker 3: Well, some of the land councils and the communities have

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Speaker 3: done that themselves, have actually closed their communities down. So

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Speaker 3: we don't want people coming in here. We want to

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Speaker 3: protect the people in our communities. And I think that's

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Speaker 3: a good move from those communities and from those land councils.

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Speaker 3: It shows the ownership and some self determination by those communities.

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Speaker 3: I think that's a great move that the biosecurity areas

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Speaker 3: can only be enacted by the federal government. And I

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Speaker 3: do note that the teritory government went to the federal

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Speaker 3: government to do that at Robinson River just recently. Do

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Speaker 3: they need to start thinking about that more. Go to

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Speaker 3: the federal government say hey, these are what these are

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Speaker 3: the things that we need to do to protect those communage,

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Speaker 3: or those communities get together with their own land councils

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Speaker 3: and put in their own measures to protect themselves.

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Speaker 1: Well, Billyan, it's certainly going to be a very interesting week.

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Speaker 1: I know there are so many territorians concerned at this

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Speaker 1: point in time, so many tourism operators are in contact

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Speaker 1: with us with their concerns. It's look, I really hope

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Speaker 1: that there are able to be some changes made in

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Speaker 1: this space. I don't think there's any harm in the

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Speaker 1: government saying, do you know what, We've had a second

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Speaker 1: look and we're going to tweak these few things to

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Speaker 1: try to make things a little bit better for the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory in this space.

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Speaker 3: I think you're right, Katy, it needs to be a

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Speaker 3: little bit of common sense flight here. It's really simple.

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Speaker 3: I said to blurt out a policy or procedure when

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Speaker 3: you're sitting in Darwin, but you've got to stop and

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Speaker 3: think how that affects our remote bridge, the people in

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Speaker 3: the bush who, as Sarah Cook said earlier, I've been

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Speaker 3: doing the right thing. I've been sticking to the left

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Speaker 3: of the law, working with government to make things happen.

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Speaker 3: Only to the training aside at the I suppose at

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Speaker 3: the last minute leading into Christmas, everybody needs a bit

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Speaker 3: of a rest, Everyone needs a bit of a break.

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Speaker 3: Everyone's been doing it really tough this year and now

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Speaker 3: it said it's like that some of the communities and

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Speaker 3: the partials, and certainly our tourism sector have been prevariably

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Speaker 3: trained under the.

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Speaker 1: Gunner bus Well Bill Yan, the opposition health spokesperson, we

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: We'll have to leave it there. We'll talk to you

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Speaker 2: again very soon.

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Speaker 3: Kank you