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Speaker 1: I'm pleased to say that joining me in the studio

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Speaker 1: right now is the Mayor of Palmerston, Athena Pasco Bell.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Athena.

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Speaker 2: Great to see you again.

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Speaker 1: Now I know that there's been further community consultation and

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Speaker 1: the City of Palmerston's a step closer to implementing these

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Speaker 1: changes to the animal.

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Speaker 2: By laws in July. What came out of the latest consultation.

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Speaker 4: Look, there were a few minor changes to that draft,

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Speaker 4: so probably the biggest one was by Law thirty eight

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Speaker 4: had livestock. So we've taken the feedback from the community

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Speaker 4: there and that provision's been changed to allow council to

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Speaker 4: set the policy as what people can do with livestock

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Speaker 4: in Palmston.

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Speaker 1: You were telling me about this last time you were in.

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Speaker 1: So does that mean sort of chucks and.

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Speaker 2: That kind of thing or if someone maybe owns them,

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Speaker 2: I don't know.

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Speaker 4: Donkey, yeah, donkeys, horses, cows, pigs, goats, right, So we'll

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Speaker 4: be able to set a policy around whether you can

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Speaker 4: keep them or not. The original draft said one animal

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Speaker 4: per hectare, which was really restricted, and we know we've

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Speaker 4: got Marlow Lagoon's rural residential and parts of Bellamack are

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Speaker 4: as well.

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Speaker 3: So see, some of.

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Speaker 2: Those blocks are relatively big, aren't they.

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Speaker 4: They're relatively big, and people have been keeping livestock so horses, cows,

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Speaker 4: goats without any nuisance to the neighborhoods, So we really

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Speaker 4: didn't see any need to restrict them and force those

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Speaker 4: people out.

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Speaker 3: That's what the rural residential areas are for.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and I.

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Speaker 1: Think people will be happy to hear that, particularly if

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Speaker 1: they've lived on those blocks for quite a long period

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Speaker 1: of time and have been previously able to have those animals.

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Speaker 1: You know, a change like that would be a massive

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Speaker 1: impost on your life and your family.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, we don't want people to feel like

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Speaker 4: they have to move out of their houses because they

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Speaker 4: can't keep their beloved horses or cows.

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Speaker 3: So this will allow us to basically just.

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Speaker 4: Have a policy that says, you know, what you need

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Speaker 4: to do to keep those on your property. The new

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Speaker 4: bylaws will include provision for cats, with all dogs and

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Speaker 4: cats to be registered in microchips. So this is a

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Speaker 4: change with the inclusion of cats. But the feedback was

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Speaker 4: overall positive from the community, and I think people are

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Speaker 4: really looking forward to having strengthened by laws, particularly for

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Speaker 4: things like dog attacks and nuisance animals which just cause

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Speaker 4: a lot of neighborhood grief.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, has there been much movement.

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Speaker 1: I know there've been discussion with convat Scarlets as well

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Speaker 1: about whether the by laws relating to dangerous dogs were

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Speaker 1: sort of going to be uniform across the board, so

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Speaker 1: that I suppose if somebody maybe has a dangerous dog

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Speaker 1: and then they moved to another, you know, another municipality,

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Speaker 1: that they're not just sort of moving that problem dog around.

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Speaker 4: I think it's still going to be a problem because

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Speaker 4: it's only the like you said, the municipalities that have

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Speaker 4: got those provisions, and they might all be slightly different

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Speaker 4: because we have them developed at different times. Our biggest

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Speaker 4: issue those people can move into council areas that are

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Speaker 4: not municipal councils, so Kamali Barkley, and then return with

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Speaker 4: that dangerous dog. So we don't know about the movement

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Speaker 4: of the dog, and there's always a risk that they

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Speaker 4: could be reintroduced into our community, and of course we

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Speaker 4: don't want them being shifted off to remote communities.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. You don't want them to be

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Speaker 2: danger to anyone, I.

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Speaker 1: Do want to ask you. On Tuesday, we spoke to

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Speaker 1: combat Scarlis. Darwin's Lord Mary told us that the council

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Speaker 1: had plans to introduce changes that we're going to see

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Speaker 1: local groups responsible for community gardens footing the bill for

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Speaker 1: public liability insurance and also paying like a peppercorn rent.

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Speaker 1: I guess you'd say a dollar I think it was

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Speaker 1: for the year. How does your council manage these community gardens?

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Speaker 4: We have an agreement in place. We've only got the

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Speaker 4: one community garden at the moment. It recently went out

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Speaker 4: for expressions of interest and we've had steps Group, Palmerston,

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Speaker 4: HPA and Life Without Barriers apply to manage that facility.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you've got to actually go through an application

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Speaker 1: process to manage the facility in the first instance.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and that was a result of the previous community

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Speaker 4: group deciding to wind up. So we thought we'd put

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Speaker 4: it out for expressions of interest to any other community

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Speaker 4: groups who wanted to take over the management of Harvest

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Speaker 4: Corner at Gray. So that group has been awarded that

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Speaker 4: opportunity and council supporting them. So we're giving them twenty

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Speaker 4: thousand dollars over three years to make sure that they

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Speaker 4: can set themselves up because of course they don't have

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Speaker 4: any gardening equipment and other bits and pieces. So yeah, right,

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Speaker 4: we're going to be setting them up.

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Speaker 1: And so then do they have to pay their own

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Speaker 1: public liability insurance and that kind of thing? Well, how

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Speaker 1: will it work in that sense?

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Speaker 4: I'd have to check the details, but generally incorporated associations

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Speaker 4: have to have their own public liability anywayp so that

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Speaker 4: wouldn't change. But we're not charging them for water usage

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Speaker 4: or anything like that. Okay, but I think that's the

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Speaker 4: point of difference between us and Darwin at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, all right, well, maybe have a bit of

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Speaker 1: a closer look into that now, I want to ask.

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Speaker 1: I understand there was a council meeting overnight as well

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Speaker 1: or on two Yeah, howd to go anything that we

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Speaker 1: should know out of that one?

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Speaker 4: There will be some changes to the Archer waste management

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Speaker 4: facility and that will be next month. So we're moving

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Speaker 4: the gatehouse because we want to do a bit of

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Speaker 4: work there to make it more efficient for people to

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Speaker 4: recycle and offload their green waste. There's also a cardboard

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Speaker 4: compactor due to arrive in May and it will be

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Speaker 4: installed during the dry season, so that's if you've been

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Speaker 4: down there. I think there's about ten bins for cardboard,

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Speaker 4: so the cardboard compactor will mean that we can reduce

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Speaker 4: the amount of skip bins there. It's just basically compacts

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Speaker 4: them into a cube and spits it out the other

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Speaker 4: endep so less transport and less bins.

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Speaker 1: Now John's just messaged through and said, has there been

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Speaker 1: any updates from the Palmerston Council regarding by laws around

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Speaker 1: illegal camping? Now I'm assuming that that potentially means, you know,

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Speaker 1: people camping on the side of the road and that

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Speaker 1: kind of thing that we see quite a bit in

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Speaker 1: different areas, not just Palmerston.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we haven't reviewed the pub it places by laws.

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Speaker 4: That's probably what that call is referring to. So not

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Speaker 4: at this stage.

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Speaker 3: We will have a.

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Speaker 4: List coming to council soon regarding which bylaws will be

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Speaker 4: reviewing next.

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Speaker 3: But it's an awfully long process.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon, We do need to look at those

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Speaker 1: by laws when it does come to that illegal camping.

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Speaker 1: I mean I know that for you guys out in

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Speaker 1: Yarawanga and those areas at different times, you do have

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Speaker 1: people sort of camped out.

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Speaker 2: There for quite long periods of time.

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Speaker 1: It seems like it's something that gets raised with us

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Speaker 1: quite a bit actually by business owners in Yarawanga.

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Speaker 4: It's a real contentious issue, I guess because camping's a

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Speaker 4: bit different to just sleeping rough and we don't have

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Speaker 4: any homeless facilities in Palmerston at all, so if people

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Speaker 4: find themselves homeless, there's absolutely nowhere for them to go

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Speaker 4: and get support.

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Speaker 3: In Palmerston.

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Speaker 4: A lot of the time too, people camp on vacant

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Speaker 4: blocks of land which are privately owned and so that

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Speaker 4: is not a council responsibility and fortunately that comes back

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Speaker 4: to the owner to do something about people are basically

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Speaker 4: trespassing on them.

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Speaker 2: And then what do you do.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if you've got a group of people that

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Speaker 1: are sort of there drinking and you know, like you said, homeless,

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Speaker 1: but for you know, for some people, they literally might

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Speaker 1: have come in for a visit from a community and

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Speaker 1: have decided to camp on your block.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 4: So it's basically up to the private landowners just like

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Speaker 4: anyone else. If you find someone on your block of

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Speaker 4: land trespassing, then you've got a right to ask them

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Speaker 4: to move on and look, we do have quite a

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Speaker 4: lot of homeless people in Palmerston and for the most

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Speaker 4: part they don't do anything wrong. We have a lot

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Speaker 4: of them sleeping around the council facilities. They don't cause

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Speaker 4: any harm, they don't break windows, you know, they don't

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Speaker 4: get into fights and that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: It's just occasionally we do get.

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Speaker 4: Some from other areas in the Northern Territory so that

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Speaker 4: they come in yep and cause trouble.

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Speaker 1: Are there any plans then, like, are there any plans

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Speaker 1: I suppose from council's perspective working with government, you said

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Speaker 1: that there's not anywhere for people that are genuinely homeless

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Speaker 1: to stay, and in Palmerston, I mean, are there any

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Speaker 1: plans in that space to try to get some accommodation

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Speaker 1: out there.

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Speaker 4: I do raise it every year or so with the

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Speaker 4: government to see if there's any plans to be put

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Speaker 4: in place. And remember also that we've got the hospital

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Speaker 4: out there as well, so people might be coming in

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Speaker 4: and out of the hospital and have nowhere to go either.

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Speaker 3: So there's a whole big discussion around it.

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Speaker 4: But Council does support the homeless people as much as

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Speaker 4: we can, so they're welcome to use the showers in

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Speaker 4: the rec center to freshen up. We have Orange Skybus

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Speaker 4: come and do washing and allow showers for them in

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Speaker 4: a couple of locations in Palmerston as well. But there's

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Speaker 4: very limited opportunities I guess for council to take on

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Speaker 4: this big issue in Palmerston.

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Speaker 3: It really does need some coordination.

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Speaker 1: Well might be one before the election for those people

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Speaker 1: putting their hand up to run at election.

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Speaker 2: A thin a Pasco Bell, could I just ask very quickly.

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Speaker 2: We know that there is a.

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Speaker 1: Survey underway as I understand it at the moment of

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Speaker 1: local business owners. What are you hoping to get out

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Speaker 1: of that survey?

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Speaker 4: And we're asking businesses in Palmerston to complete this survey

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Speaker 4: just so we can get an understanding of what their

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Speaker 4: requirements are, so that we can build some support around

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Speaker 4: encouraging and developing more business opportunities in Palmerston. This comes

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Speaker 4: under our Local Economic Plan, which I think we launched right.

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Speaker 3: At the start of COVID.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, it's had a bit of a rough start

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Speaker 4: where I'm trying to get it all back on track

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Speaker 4: and encourage business and economic development in Palmerston.

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Speaker 1: I'll be keen to find out what you get out

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Speaker 1: of that survey. It'll be interesting. It's always interesting, I

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Speaker 1: reckon to see sort of what business has come forward

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Speaker 1: with ways that might sort of help them to be

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Speaker 1: able to operate better in a place like Palmerston, or

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Speaker 1: different issues that may or may not be impacting them.

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Speaker 1: I think it's a good thing to do to seek

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Speaker 1: that feedback, and you know, really you want to see

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Speaker 1: more of that from from our different levels of government.

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Speaker 1: I think that level of feedback so you actually can

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Speaker 1: listen to what everyday Territorians are saying.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it is really important for us to get a

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Speaker 4: handle of those businesses now in Palmerston. And surprisingly there's

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Speaker 4: about five thousand businesses listed right obviously not all in

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Speaker 4: our CBD, so they're scattered throughout the municipality and you know,

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Speaker 4: when they're not so visible, it's really it's really good

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Speaker 4: for us to know what we can do to support

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Speaker 4: the smaller businesses that aren't so visible in the community

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Speaker 4: and hopefully encourage them to grow and expand well.

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Speaker 1: Athena Pasco Bell, the Mayor of Palmerston, good to speak

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Speaker 1: with you this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time. Thank you, Thank you