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Speaker 1: You.

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Speaker 2: Now, yesterday we heard that there is a new hotel

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Speaker 2: planned for Darwin. I guess it's been on the agenda

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Speaker 2: for quite some time, but getting further detail about it.

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Speaker 2: It is going to be at the Darwin Waterfront and

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Speaker 2: it's reached a key milestone with a development agreement signed

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Speaker 2: with the Northern Territory Government. Now CEL Australia is going

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Speaker 2: to develop and operate the Darwin Convention Center hotel, which

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Speaker 2: is part of the master plan to overhaul the waterfront.

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Speaker 2: The Northern Territory Government, as we understand, have gifted the

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Speaker 2: company the land and is spending up to six million

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Speaker 2: dollars on headworks for the project. Now joining us in

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Speaker 2: the studio to tell us a little bit more about

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Speaker 2: the whole situation. Well, the Darwin Waterfront Corporation Deputy CEO

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Speaker 2: Sam Burg, Good morning to you, Katy, and we have

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Speaker 2: also got CEL Australia's Jonathan Lee. Good morning to you, Jonathan.

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Speaker 2: Lovely to have you both in the studio. Now, firstly, Sam,

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Speaker 2: where exactly is the hotel going to be?

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Speaker 1: We're very excited, Katie. So if you picture the Convention

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Speaker 1: Center and our sea wall that I know you probably

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Speaker 1: jog wrong past where they intersect at the back. There

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Speaker 1: is a small car park there. That site is the

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Speaker 1: hotel site, so it's about right. It's about two and

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Speaker 1: a half thousand square meters and the hotel site itself

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Speaker 1: is about two thousand square meters of that. But it's

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Speaker 1: perfect in terms of it's directly connected to the convention

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Speaker 1: center with amazing views out over the harbor and back

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Speaker 1: across to the city.

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Speaker 2: It's a beautiful sposh actually, and I had i'd sort

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Speaker 2: of envisaged that it was more around the other side

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Speaker 2: where the Italian Festival, for example, happens, but not there.

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Speaker 1: So that's our future development land. So that's part of

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Speaker 1: the broader waterfront master plan. But when we did the

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Speaker 1: market assessment, when we spoke to the convention center operators,

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Speaker 1: when we brought in CBRE, the clear message to us

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Speaker 1: was you need a good quality hotel attached to the

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Speaker 1: convention center because delegates want to be able to move

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Speaker 1: backwards and forwards, and new breakout spaces and additional facilities

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Speaker 1: are needed. And this is part of our sort of

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Speaker 1: triflet Katie of the Larache Cultural Center, This new momentous

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Speaker 1: hotel and our amazing convention center which is going to

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Speaker 1: redefine how we pitch ourselves into the market for business events.

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Speaker 2: And it is such a popular convention center. I mean

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Speaker 2: we have huge conventions there very often. Even this week

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Speaker 2: I was talking to the Preventative Health crew that were

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Speaker 2: down there for their conference. I believe a little earlier

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Speaker 2: in the week. There is literally things happening all the time.

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Speaker 1: It was great to take Gallant, Jonathan and the team

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Speaker 1: through the convention center with a big convention. As you said,

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Speaker 1: that's going on. It's very busy, particularly in the dry season.

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Speaker 1: All of our efforts are about stretching that season, bringing

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Speaker 1: more events into it more often, and the hotel being

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Speaker 1: there will really help drive that.

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Speaker 3: So this is great.

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Speaker 2: So Jonathan from CEL Australia's perspective, what made this side

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Speaker 2: attractive and what made it an area where you're keen

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Speaker 2: to do business?

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Speaker 3: Well, you look at it where the convention center is

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Speaker 3: located by the waterfront and it's beautiful. Today we had

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Speaker 3: Richard take us to Welcome to the Country and working up.

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Speaker 3: It was very early, so excuse the bags on theo,

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Speaker 3: but it's surreal. It's serene, it's very peaceful and you

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Speaker 3: could see the potential that the waterfront has to give

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Speaker 3: in that So we believe that there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: potential endowment, especially in the waterfront, and that's why we're

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Speaker 3: willing to make this investment.

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Speaker 2: And in terms of you know, how it's all going

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Speaker 2: to look or or what we might expect at that side,

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Speaker 2: have you got much of an idea at this point?

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Speaker 3: We don't really have a design as yet of the exterior,

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Speaker 3: but we do have a rough idea of what the

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Speaker 3: interior is going to alight. So we have about two

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Speaker 3: hundred and thirty six rooms. We plan to have media rooms, gym,

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Speaker 3: and we also plan to have a beach club on

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Speaker 3: the ground floor with a swimming pool and also a

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Speaker 3: rooftop bar on top with flexible meeting spaces as well.

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Speaker 3: I think for this one, we've also tried to design

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Speaker 3: it for not just for overseas and inter state, guess,

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Speaker 3: but also for the locals. We want locals to stay

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Speaker 3: there for citations or just to go therefore by and

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Speaker 3: enjoy the scenery from the riffs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh absolutely. And you know, I guess it goes

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Speaker 2: without saying, doesn't it. When you invest in a place

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Speaker 2: like the territory, you want territories to be part of it,

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Speaker 2: and you want us all to want to go there.

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Speaker 2: How much do you think it's going to cost or

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Speaker 2: do you have an idea?

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Speaker 3: Well, about one hundred million. So it is a very

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Speaker 3: significant investment for us. But the support that the government's

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Speaker 3: obviously been giving us and the belief that and the

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Speaker 3: potential of the Darbin Waterfront gives us that belief that

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Speaker 3: it will be a successful investment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So, and the government did say earlier in the

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Speaker 2: week that that land has been that it has been

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Speaker 2: gifted to the company and I believe there's going to

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Speaker 2: be about six million dollars spent on headworks for the project.

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Speaker 2: Is that correct?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So what we did the eo I went out

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Speaker 1: to the market, the land was offered as part of

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Speaker 1: developers expressing interest in building a hotel. The Chief Ministry, yes,

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Speaker 1: Stay made it clear. It's about six million dollars land

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Speaker 1: and infrastructure combined value. And the infrastructure is simply connecting

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Speaker 1: the site with sufficient sewerage, power and water for its requirements.

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Speaker 1: So we're leveraging one hundred million dollar investment from CEL

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Speaker 1: out of about six million dollars including land value. So

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Speaker 1: that's great and there's a long history we need these hotels,

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Speaker 1: and there's a long history of government doing what it

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Speaker 1: needs to do to support their development because hotel rooms

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Speaker 1: drive huge economic benefit. We know each business event delegate

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Speaker 1: is worth about three thousand dollars to the territory economy.

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Speaker 1: So this is all about just driving that business more

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Speaker 1: and more.

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Speaker 2: And Johnson, is this the first time that CEO's done

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Speaker 2: business in the NT and how are you feeling about us?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is our first one and we're very, very

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Speaker 3: excited and not very fortunate to be a presented of

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Speaker 3: this opportunity, and hopefully this is one of many opportunities

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Speaker 3: that we look at the NY.

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Speaker 2: And am I correct? Is it correct? I'm sure I

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Speaker 2: read that you're the company's headquarters are in Singapore. So

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Speaker 2: what does make Darwin attractive for the company.

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Speaker 3: Tourism is a huge factor, proximity as well. I think

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Speaker 3: it's an up and coming place and I think a

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Speaker 3: lot of these people are trying to look for an experience.

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Speaker 3: So I think when we're designing our hotel, the experience

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Speaker 3: is a huge part of the DNA of our hotel

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Speaker 3: and we want to deser that to I guess the.

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Speaker 2: World one of the big questions I know that people

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Speaker 2: listening this morning I want to know the answer to

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Speaker 2: as well, is will you employ locals? And when going

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Speaker 2: through that construction phase as well? Is it the desire

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Speaker 2: of the of the company to use local contractors?

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Speaker 3: Of course, I think that's a huge benefit. I mean,

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Speaker 3: we're always trying to use local consultants, even our structural

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Speaker 3: engineers and service engineers and qss we're currently employing locally

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Speaker 3: in Darwin and we always want the local knowledge that

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Speaker 3: we have here. So we've already talked to three or

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Speaker 3: four builders. I think there's only four builders in Daan,

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Speaker 3: So we've talked to all of them already and we

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Speaker 3: continue to have discussions with them.

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Speaker 2: At that I suppose that that real commercial kind of level. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: at that really high level Tier one Sam. In terms

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Speaker 2: of the jigsaw puzzle, I guess that is the waterfront

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Speaker 2: development and some of the continued efforts that you'd like

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Speaker 2: to see around the place. For me, how big a

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Speaker 2: step is this for the waterfront in terms of trying

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Speaker 2: to sort of get there even with you know the

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Speaker 2: luxury you know, additional pool and things like that that

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Speaker 2: we've spoken about before.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So this is the exciting first step in our

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Speaker 1: master plan. The master plan ultimately seeks to redefine the waterfront,

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Speaker 1: increasing its seasonality. So that's the surf park, that's the

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Speaker 1: tropical snorkeling Lagoon, that's the new temperature control pools and restaurants.

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Speaker 1: This vote of confidence from CEL and this hotel along

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Speaker 1: with Larrychie Cultural Center, is the first step, and we're

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Speaker 1: working very hard on the additional steps. Because this is

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Speaker 1: a big project. It's going to take time. But the

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Speaker 1: confidence that's expressed by the private sector through these massive

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Speaker 1: investments are what's going to drive additional private and government

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Speaker 1: investment in our precinc.

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Speaker 2: All right, when are we expecting that construction to start, Jonathan, subject.

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Speaker 3: To DA So we're pushing the government very very hard.

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Speaker 3: But first half of next year.

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Speaker 2: First half of next year, and then how soon do

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Speaker 2: you anticipate it's going to be operational.

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Speaker 3: Twenty four to thirty months, but if you go with

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Speaker 3: some builders, thirty months. But we'll try and reduce that

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Speaker 3: as quickly as possible. We want to open as soon

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Speaker 3: as possible.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, you want to get those rooms operating. You

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Speaker 2: want to have some cash coming in, I would assume

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Speaker 2: and be able to you know, to service the community.

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Speaker 2: Look lovely to speak to you both this morning. I

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Speaker 2: appreciate you both coming in and having a chat. Sam Burke,

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Speaker 2: thank you for your time this morning, and of course

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Speaker 2: Jonathan Lee, thanks so much for your time this morning