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Speaker 1: We now know that nominations have closed and ballot positions

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Speaker 1: have been confirmed for the Nightcliff by election on March seven.

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Speaker 2: It's going to be a four person race with Labour's Ed.

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Speaker 1: Smelt, Greens candidate Suki Doris Walker, the COLPS angin Podell,

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Speaker 1: and Independent Phil Scott.

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Speaker 2: Now joining us on the line.

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Speaker 1: Well, we know that this by election was of course

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Speaker 1: triggered when the Greens member Kat McNamara resigned suddenly for

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Speaker 1: health reasons. But joining us on the line to tell

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Speaker 1: us a little bit more about the process now is

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner Kirsten Kelly.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Commissioner.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, lovely to have.

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Speaker 1: You on the show now, Commissioner. The ballot positions were

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Speaker 1: drawn yesterday. Can you talk me through the positions as

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Speaker 1: they were drawn?

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Speaker 3: So the Anti Electric Commission website has details of the

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Speaker 3: candidates in the order that they were drawn. So what

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Speaker 3: that means through electors in Nightcliff is that early voting

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Speaker 3: will start from Monday next week. So the candidates have

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Speaker 3: been declared and the balllet paper order has now been

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Speaker 3: confirmed and that information's on the website, including information that

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Speaker 3: the candidates have given permission to publish on the website,

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Speaker 3: and that might be a Facebook address or contact detail

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Speaker 3: should electors want any information about their candidacy.

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Speaker 1: All right, so they'll be able to find all that

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Speaker 1: on there. I'll take our listeners through it then a

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Speaker 1: little bit later this morning. So when can people start

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Speaker 1: that early voting and when are they able to do.

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Speaker 2: So or where?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely? Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Postal votes are open now

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Speaker 3: for those people who can't physically attend early voting or

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Speaker 3: election day voting center. So starting at eight o'clock on Monday,

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Speaker 3: early voting commences. The early voting center is in the

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Speaker 3: Nightcliff Commercial Precinct, which is sixty nine Progress Drive for

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Speaker 3: those who've been around all it's the old ten Pin

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Speaker 3: bowling area. Is the site for the early voting center.

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Speaker 3: On election day, which is the seventh of March, the

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Speaker 3: Nightcliffe High School will be the election day voting center.

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Speaker 3: All right.

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Speaker 1: Now, I know that you're going to be wanting to

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Speaker 1: get as many people in there to vote as possible.

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Speaker 1: How are you sort of making sure that people do

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Speaker 1: know that they need to get out there.

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Speaker 2: And vote for the by election?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so. Given that there was a resignation from

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Speaker 3: the position and the rip was issued on the twelfth

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Speaker 3: of February. It's quite quick. So what we have been

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Speaker 3: doing is increasing our communications with electors. So where electors

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Speaker 3: in the division of Nightcliff have their mobile phone details

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Speaker 3: or their email details registered on their electoral role, we'll

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Speaker 3: be sending more regular information to them. We are doing

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Speaker 3: a letterbox drop for residents who live in that area,

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Speaker 3: letting them know that what their voting options are. We

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Speaker 3: are doing notices in the newspapers, certainly encouraging people to

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Speaker 3: follow us on the Anti Electric Commission Facebook web page

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Speaker 3: site because we'll be updating information there and the Anti

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Speaker 3: Electric Commission website is the trusted source to get information

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Speaker 3: about this election. And I've certainly seen many many core

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Speaker 3: flutes up already, so hopefully the electors in Nightcliffe, part

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Speaker 3: of Coconut Grove and Rapid Cree well aware of their

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Speaker 3: responsibility to participate.

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Speaker 1: Look, I don't even live in Nightcliff and I've driven

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Speaker 1: through there and there's posters everywhere, So I think you'd

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Speaker 1: have to be living under a rock to not realize

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Speaker 1: that there's a by election on in Nightcliff at the moment.

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Speaker 3: And there's absolutely two weeks of early voting opportunity, and

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Speaker 3: not just on business days. There will be a Saturday,

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Speaker 3: the twenty eighth, for the Saturday before election day, you

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Speaker 3: can vote from eight to three. So there's plenty of

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Speaker 3: options to participate in this.

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Speaker 1: Election now on actual election day as well, March seven.

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Speaker 1: I know that a lot of people like to get

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Speaker 1: out there and vote on that by election day. Will

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Speaker 1: they be able to do that at the school or

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Speaker 1: will there be sort of more options available on that day?

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Speaker 3: So there will only be one election day voting center

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Speaker 3: during the early voting period, and that's the nights off

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Speaker 3: commercial precinct and non election day. There is one election

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Speaker 3: day voting center and that's the Nightcliffe High School gimnasium.

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Speaker 1: Yep, there go all right, Well, we will make sure

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Speaker 1: that we continue to keep people up to date with

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Speaker 1: that info. There's been a few questions, and I know

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Speaker 1: that we spoke about this last time that you're on

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Speaker 1: about the cost of a by election when it comes

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Speaker 1: to a by election like the one for Nightcliff. But

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Speaker 1: we've had a lot of listeners getting in contact saying Katie,

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Speaker 1: what happens if you know if ed smelto is also

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Speaker 1: on council ends up winning and there's a council by election.

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Speaker 1: Are you able to tell us you know the costs

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Speaker 1: in terms of those by elections and whether they differ

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Speaker 1: for a local government one and a Northern Territory government one.

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Speaker 3: So the costs don't generally differ because it's the same

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Speaker 3: delivery of service. So there's the same requirements to make

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Speaker 3: statutory publications, the same requirement to use certain technologies and

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Speaker 3: engage election staff, so they are quite consistent. One thing

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Speaker 3: that we do do is publish our election reports online

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Speaker 3: which includes the cost of elections. So that's a good

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Speaker 3: place for people to go if they are interested in

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Speaker 3: seeing what elections costs and the breakdown of costs by

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Speaker 3: sort of categories. It's a good place to get that information.

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Speaker 3: But there are costs to elections and they do include

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Speaker 3: in the most part that's the employee and technology costs

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Speaker 3: to deliver the elections, as well as the logistics and

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Speaker 3: materials needed.

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Speaker 2: And what is the ballpark figure?

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Speaker 3: Look, I can only refer to what we've published in

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Speaker 3: the past, So for the twenty twenty two Fanny Bay election,

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Speaker 3: it was around one hundred. For the Fanny Bay by

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Speaker 3: election around one hundred and fifty thousand, So that was

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Speaker 3: four years ago. So we certainly had indexes and prices,

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Speaker 3: wage growth and things like that, so I don't imagine

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Speaker 3: that it would be less than that, But that's just

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Speaker 3: an indicative figure as well.

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Speaker 1: No, No, that's fair enough. I do want to ask

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Speaker 1: as well, Commissioner. I know that earlier in the week

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Electoral Commission completed an internal review into

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Speaker 1: the campaign donation that return lodgment by candidate Peter Stiles

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Speaker 1: associated with the twenty twenty five local government elections. Now,

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Speaker 1: the internal review was conducted by the Manager of Financial

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Speaker 1: Disclosure and Compliance, finding no evidence to substantiate the claim

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Speaker 1: that he'd made that the return was received by the

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Speaker 1: NTC prior to the twenty seventh of January this year.

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Speaker 1: Can you walk us through how that conclusion was reached.

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Speaker 3: So there was a number of actions or activities taken

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Speaker 3: to support that internal review, which included looking at internal

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Speaker 3: systems records to confirm no earlier receipt of a date,

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Speaker 3: review of correspondence that had come through discussions with candidates

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Speaker 3: and campaign managers and interviews with anti electoral officer staff

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Speaker 3: that were in the office on that day just to

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Speaker 3: confirm whether there was any documents received and things like that.

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Speaker 3: So that was the basis of the internal review, which

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Speaker 3: found that there was no evidence to suggest that that

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Speaker 3: some return was received earlier than that, and we certainly

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Speaker 3: worked through that period with candidate styles and the campaign

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Speaker 3: manager to share and exchange information to come to that conclusion.

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Speaker 3: But I will say there was also no information to

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Speaker 3: suggest that it was a deliberate intention not to comply

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Speaker 3: with the provisions, and that's why the Anti Electoral Commission

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Speaker 3: isn't taking the matter any further.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like I know that that had been what had

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Speaker 1: been described as well in the press release that was

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Speaker 1: issued and said that you know, a constructive compliance approach

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Speaker 1: will be taken.

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Speaker 2: Now, I mean, is that sort of an us in.

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Speaker 3: The first instance, where it's the first time that the

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Speaker 3: campaign disclosure of provisions have been in effect for a

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Speaker 3: local government election since I are introduced in July twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty two, so they've been in effect for by elections

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Speaker 3: and we haven't seen any returns been submitted. But this

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Speaker 3: is a large periodic election event, so there was a

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Speaker 3: lot of work to support compliance and so it's important

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Speaker 3: that when something's new that we do focus on raising

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Speaker 3: awareness and educating. Now that there is an awareness of

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Speaker 3: the requirements. In the future, we'd be certainly looking at

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Speaker 3: any matters that are inconsistent and the approach may take

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Speaker 3: in the future. But on the circumstances and the information,

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Speaker 3: there's no suggestion that there was a deliberate intention. And

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Speaker 3: as soon as candidate Styles was aware, made aware, and

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Speaker 3: I appreciate that was through the media that that return

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Speaker 3: wasn't there. The response was received from twenty seventh, then

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Speaker 3: published on the thirtieth.

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Speaker 1: Look, many would be listening this morning saying, well, you know,

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Speaker 1: he's an experienced politician, this isn't his first rodeo.

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Speaker 2: How did they you know, not know?

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Speaker 1: Like, well, you know, how did how did he not

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Speaker 1: know that he hadn't returned it?

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Speaker 3: Well, that would be a matter. And my understanding from

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Speaker 3: what I've heard in the public domain is that that

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Speaker 3: mister Styles's position is that he believed that he did

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Speaker 3: return it. So that's that's a matter for mister Styles.

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Speaker 3: That it's important and as mentioned in the media release,

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Speaker 3: that that there's confidence in the electoral process and how

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Speaker 3: administrative practices and through that internal review, we were able

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Speaker 3: to confirm that there was no evidence that that return

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Speaker 3: was submitted earlier. That return is now published in the

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Speaker 3: in the domain for people to have a look at,

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Speaker 3: and that's important and continuing to support candidates in future

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Speaker 3: elections to comply those obligations is really important for us.

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Speaker 1: I mean, is there a process from the Electoral Commission's

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Speaker 1: side of things as well? If somebody were to hand

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Speaker 1: deliver something, is there a process where you guys make

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Speaker 1: you know, make a formal note.

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Speaker 3: Of it so when we receive it. So we've got

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Speaker 3: a very small office as you can appreciate, so the

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Speaker 3: documentation gets received and directed to the person who's responsible

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Speaker 3: for it and in of its correspondents, it needs to

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Speaker 3: be copied and returned to the person lodging it that

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Speaker 3: that happens.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner Kirsten Kelly, really

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. And if anybody's after some

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Speaker 1: further information on the Nightcliff by election, they can jump

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Speaker 1: online and they'll be able to find it on there.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, please stat to date on the Anti Electoral Commission

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Speaker 3: website or reach out to our office if you've got

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Speaker 3: any questions.

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Speaker 1: Perfect. Thank you so much. Thanks for your time this morning,

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Speaker 1: no trouble, thank you,