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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is Jessica McCluskey. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Jess, Hi Katie.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show. Jess, you'd been

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Speaker 1: planning to have baby number two at Darwin Private Hospital.

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Speaker 1: How do you feel knowing that you're no longer going

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Speaker 1: to be able to do that?

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Speaker 2: If you could name all of the negative emotions that

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Speaker 2: you should possibly feel, I reckon, I've been through all

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Speaker 2: of them at this point.

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Speaker 1: So talk me through your journey so far. You're twenty

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Speaker 1: five weeks pregnant, so obviously you miss that cut off

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Speaker 1: date by a few weeks I'm assuming.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for the last admission will be on the thirtieth

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Speaker 2: of May, so the end of this month, and I'm

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Speaker 2: due in mid August, so hopefully if the NT government

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Speaker 2: pulls their finger out, be able to take advantage of

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Speaker 2: the options that are supposed to be available. Yeah, but

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Speaker 2: at this stage it's looking like just the public birth

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Speaker 2: and that's about it.

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Speaker 1: Now, what are you being told by your private health

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Speaker 1: insurer at the moment? Because the Northern Territory government had

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Speaker 1: announced a few weeks back this luxury post natal maternity retreat,

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Speaker 1: it seems like that may now be up in the air.

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Speaker 1: Based on some comments to the Northern Territory News yesterday

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Speaker 1: by the head of the AMA, doctor Robert Parker, there's

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Speaker 1: also this returning Home Sooner package, like what are you

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Speaker 1: being told right now?

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Speaker 2: Well, from my health insurer, not a lot. They sent

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Speaker 2: out a letter I think it was back in February

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Speaker 2: or March. It might have been an email actually, just

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Speaker 2: stating that they were working with the antique government to

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Speaker 2: find alternative solutions. But yeah, but it's been a bit

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Speaker 2: radio silence from them as well. Most of the information

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Speaker 2: we're getting from other mums who were finding out information themselves,

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Speaker 2: or from our obstetrician or from our healthcare teams. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: we aren't really getting any information directly from the government,

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Speaker 2: even people asking for it, you know, sending emails, calling

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Speaker 2: I think people even saying they go into the local members'

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Speaker 2: offices try getting any information.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well we are look, we are due to

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Speaker 1: have the Health Minister on tomorrow, so I want to

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Speaker 1: try and get to the bottom of exactly what is

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Speaker 1: going to be available for expectant Territory mums. But Jess,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what are the biggest concerns for you at

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Speaker 1: the moment, you know, while you are twenty five weeks

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Speaker 1: pregnant and having this uncertainty.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, obviously not knowing what's going to happen, hearing

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Speaker 2: about the unsafe sort of birth happening at at the

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Speaker 2: public hospital. I know that she wasn't able to confirm

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Speaker 2: just now about the two hospital corridor births that happened

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Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago. But I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: the biggest concern is that we've got anti government saying

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Speaker 2: that everything's safe, everything's fine, nothing to see here, and

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Speaker 2: yet we're still hearing about these things. And it isn't

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Speaker 2: just like like you've just mentioned. It isn't just about

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Speaker 2: the birth. It's about women not being able to receive

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Speaker 2: any kind of care in the lead up to their

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Speaker 2: births as well. I'm very fortunate that I'm still going

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Speaker 2: to have my private obstetrition to see me through till

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Speaker 2: till the birth. But I saw a comment yesterday on

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Speaker 2: a news article where a poor month said that she's

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Speaker 2: in her last month of pregnancy, due to give birth

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Speaker 2: next week, and she hasn't been able to get an

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Speaker 2: appointment with a midwife or an obstetrician because they're too full.

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Speaker 2: So she's in her last week where she needs to

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Speaker 2: have you know, probably weekly or at least two weekly,

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Speaker 2: you know, and she can't get an appointment.

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Speaker 1: And that's here in the Northern Territory. That's as a

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Speaker 1: result of what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's what's happening right now. I mean, that's not

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Speaker 2: even with the impact of the private patients coming over,

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Speaker 2: and like Cap just mentioned, even with as chief or fees,

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Speaker 2: even with the midwife coming over, that they still won't

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Speaker 2: have enough staff. They'll need to have more obstetricians than

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Speaker 2: we're hearing that we're losing one of our private obstetricians

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Speaker 2: and the other one we're not sure what she's what

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Speaker 2: decision she's going to make. So we're losing people, we're

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Speaker 2: not gaining them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, which again is a real worry. Now, tell me, Jess,

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Speaker 1: I understand that you had a specific plan in mind

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Speaker 1: before you even feel pregnant. This is your second bub.

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming that you maybe wanted to go down a

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Speaker 1: similar path to what you know, what you did with

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Speaker 1: your first.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, so the first time round, we were underscibed,

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Speaker 2: is what we wanted to do. We got to twenty

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Speaker 2: weeks through the public hospital, and we just weren't getting

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Speaker 2: you know, weren't able to see the same the same

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Speaker 2: provider that we were seeing, different people, getting different information

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Speaker 2: at every appointment, and ultimately, I just wanted to have

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Speaker 2: that continuity of care. So yeah, we switched to private.

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Speaker 2: I was lucky to get a late referral because you know,

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Speaker 2: it's hard to get into them, and and loved the experience.

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Speaker 2: And then, you know, this time around, we were really excited.

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Speaker 2: We knew what we were going to do. We talked

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Speaker 2: about it before we even started trying for this baby,

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Speaker 2: and then we got our referral to the private hospital,

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Speaker 2: met with my obstetrician, and maybe a week or two later,

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Speaker 2: the closure was announced. So everything sort of thrown into turmoil.

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Speaker 1: So what is your plan now?

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Speaker 2: We're still sort of trying to decide what to do.

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Speaker 2: We we have we had us, say, decided that we

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Speaker 2: were going to stay at the private hospital with the

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Speaker 2: private obstetrician. I should stay and deliver a public birth,

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Speaker 2: but we're not really sure just now whether we are

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Speaker 2: going to continue that option. Just with the announcement of

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Speaker 2: those four way births, I think if we continue to

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Speaker 2: hear that we will probably make the last minute decision

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Speaker 2: to go into state because yeah, I honestly I don't

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Speaker 2: have any interest in I've been through labor once and

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Speaker 2: I don't want to do that.

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Speaker 1: No fair enough, and do you know what it comes

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Speaker 1: down to having choices? And I get you know, I

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Speaker 1: know some people listening might be thinking, oh, you know,

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Speaker 1: women in Publa, New Guinea or other places you know

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Speaker 1: have babies in fields, and I get that. I totally

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Speaker 1: understand that. But we are women living in a capital

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Speaker 1: city of Australia. You've paid your private health insurance, you

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Speaker 1: want to have that option, and you've actually paid to

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Speaker 1: have that option. So the fact that it's being taken away,

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Speaker 1: I know is upsetting, incredibly upsetting to expectant mums, but

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Speaker 1: also to women looking at having children and planning to

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Speaker 1: have children.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it is. It's quite frustrating.

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Speaker 1: Tell me what I mean, what is your message for

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory government this morning.

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Speaker 2: I think when we listen to the Chief Minister speak yesterday,

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Speaker 2: she made it very clear and the Health Minister has

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Speaker 2: also made it clear that nobody's requested any federal funding

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Speaker 2: to assist m The Chief Minister said that a federal

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Speaker 2: government funding request is a band aid solution, So I

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Speaker 2: guess I ask instead, are the anti government just going

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Speaker 2: to let us lead? Are we not coming up with

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Speaker 2: any other alternatives? And look, I know we have some

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Speaker 2: alternatives on the table, but we're hearing that half of

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Speaker 2: those options were getting you know, different advice. But we're

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Speaker 2: hearing that those options are coming off the table going

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Speaker 2: on the table. You know, we're not really sure what's happening,

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Speaker 2: and we just want to know why why are we

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Speaker 2: not asking for this funding and why are we not

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Speaker 2: trying to use that to implement the alternative care options?

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Speaker 2: Or why did we not try and use the funds

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Speaker 2: to support Healscope through a period of time while the

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Speaker 2: proper alternative arrangements were put in place.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think that they're all very reasonable questions. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it is something that the federal member Luke Gosling had

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Speaker 1: said yesterday as well, that there hasn't been a request

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Speaker 1: from the Northern Territory government. So look, I as I said,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be catching up with the Health Minister tomorrow,

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Speaker 1: so we will certainly put that to him. Jess, I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate you having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 1: Please keep me keep us updated as to how things

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Speaker 1: are going as well, and if you do get any

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Speaker 1: sort of information from the government, because I know that

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Speaker 1: other women that listen to the show, if they're not

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Speaker 1: getting that information, I'd like to at least be able

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Speaker 1: to try my best to keep them up to date

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Speaker 1: with what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katy. And also when you're having a chat to

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Speaker 2: the Health Minister, I'd be really interested to know whether

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Speaker 2: the decision to not ask for the funds had anything

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Speaker 2: to do with the upcoming election.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, somebody else has just sent me some information on that,

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Speaker 1: so I will talk further about that this morning, and

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Speaker 1: we will we will certainly ask the Health Minister, Steve

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Speaker 1: Edgington about that. Jessica McCluskey, I really appreciate your time

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Speaker 1: this morning. Thanks so much for joining me on the show.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you,