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Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio right now is the CEO

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Speaker 1: of the City of Darwin, Simone Saunders. Good morning to

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Speaker 1: you morning, Katie. Thanks so much for your time this morning, Simone.

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Speaker 1: Before we get into the other issues or the other

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Speaker 1: things that have been raised to this by our listeners,

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Speaker 1: where are things that with the heritage listing of the Esperanade.

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Speaker 1: You and I have spoken about this before. I've certainly

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Speaker 1: spoken to the Lord Mayor convat Scarlets about it. That

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Speaker 1: application went in last year and I know that it's

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Speaker 1: something that the councilor said you did not want to happen.

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Speaker 2: Where is it at?

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Speaker 3: Yes, So there was a heritage of provisional heritage listing

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Speaker 3: done early in twenty twenty three and a City of

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Speaker 3: Darwin actually took legal action in relation to that listing

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Speaker 3: and our concern, the City of Dowin's concern was in

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Speaker 3: relation to the rigor and how the NTG was actually

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Speaker 3: applying its own legislation in the process to get to

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Speaker 3: that provisional listing. So we applied to Supreme Court in

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Speaker 3: May of last year and we were granted a stay

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Speaker 3: which remains in place at the moment. So hearing also

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Speaker 3: took place in November last year, and we'll get an

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Speaker 3: outcome at some stage in twenty twenty four on that.

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Speaker 3: But as it is at the moment, there's a stay

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Speaker 3: in place in relation to that provisional listing.

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Speaker 1: So what does that mean for our listeners that stay

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Speaker 1: being in place. I'm assuming that it means that, you know,

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Speaker 1: it can't be heritage listed, it can't sort of have

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Speaker 1: any major change at this point.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, correct, So what it means is that it does

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Speaker 3: sit in limbo to a certain extent at this particular

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Speaker 3: point in time, and it does affect because it goes

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Speaker 3: down as far as Doctor's Gully, So some of the

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Speaker 3: activities potentially in Doctor's Gully for people that own businesses

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Speaker 3: in there, could be affected. But what it doesn't mean

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Speaker 3: and what NTG has advised, so for events that still happen,

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Speaker 3: we still apply to the NTG to have events, for

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Speaker 3: instance glenty and things like that, so things can still

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Speaker 3: take place, but we can't. There's no change or infrastructure

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Speaker 3: that could take place at this particular point in time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, it seemed a bit odd to me that

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Speaker 1: we heritage list the whole Esplanade and it does sort

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Speaker 1: of It does make me wonder whether it's going to

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Speaker 1: you know, to stop people from being able to do

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Speaker 1: various things down there. If it is indeed heritage listed,

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Speaker 1: what's the council's take on that.

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Speaker 3: Look, Council hasn't actually put in a formal submission I

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Speaker 3: guess in relation to it because it does sit within

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Speaker 3: that stay but heritage listings, you know, four heritage values,

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Speaker 3: so you know some of the comments about you know,

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Speaker 3: protecting and preserving green space. We've got a lot of

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Speaker 3: green space in Darwin, but is a heritage listing for

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Speaker 3: heritage value? The way we go about that and we

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Speaker 3: do look at where the I guess the boundaries stop

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Speaker 3: and finish it. It's mainly over ntg land and as

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Speaker 3: the Lord Mayor have spoken about before, some of the

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Speaker 3: significant sites that move into the waterfront are within the

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Speaker 3: heritage listing. So there's definitely some questions from City of

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Speaker 3: Darwin's perspective.

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Speaker 1: Well, look, no doubt we'll hear more about it as

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Speaker 1: things do sort of progress. How long does that stay

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Speaker 1: stay in place?

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Speaker 3: So the November hearing, we'll get a decision sometime in

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, so we'll come out, Yeah, it's old stage.

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Speaker 2: Well, we'll keep an eye on that. Hey, how are

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Speaker 2: things going with Lake Alexan And.

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Speaker 3: At the moment, unfortunately the rain continues to keep Plake

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Speaker 3: Alexander close. So with the significant volume of rain that

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Speaker 3: we've had, the bacterial levels stay too high for people

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Speaker 3: to swim and use Lake Alexander. The Council is looking

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Speaker 3: on a daily basis. We test the water and as

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Speaker 3: soon as we can get it open up again, we will.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I know it's certainly making a full triathlon a

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Speaker 1: bit more different difficult for the triathlon club not being

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Speaker 1: able to actually swim, but nobody wants to get in

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Speaker 1: there if there's sort of you know, if there is

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Speaker 1: any potential harm to people.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's purely the bacterial levels. Yeah, for swimming

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Speaker 3: on at the recommended levels.

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Speaker 1: Well, again, we'll keep an eye on that. Now, clean

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Speaker 1: up Australia day. It's happening? Is it this weekend? Isn't

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Speaker 1: it all this? It's later on the it's later on

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Speaker 1: the weekend. We spoke to McDonald's yesterday and they've got

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Speaker 1: a heap of staff getting involved in it. I know

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Speaker 1: that the Council always does plenty of work to try

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Speaker 1: to keep those big open spaces nice and clean. But

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Speaker 1: it's always a great day to get people out there

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Speaker 1: and to get them involved in cleaning up the community.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, and we have lots of teams and citydale and

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Speaker 3: staff involved in that activity.

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Speaker 4: And yet it's a great, great initiative.

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Speaker 1: Something that was raised with us last week a bit

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Speaker 1: of a listener question was around parking now. One of

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Speaker 1: our listeners said that they went they were in the

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Speaker 1: city for work, they paid for their parking on the

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Speaker 1: parking app, they got back about eight minutes after their

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Speaker 1: parking had expired and were unfortunately already hit with a

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Speaker 1: parking fine.

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Speaker 2: Is there any kind of grace period?

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Speaker 4: No, there's no grace period under our bylaws.

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Speaker 3: So if it is a two hour parking, you've gone

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Speaker 3: over that time period, or your parking has expired, and

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Speaker 3: a parking arranger comes along at that particular point in time,

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Speaker 3: then a fringement will be issued.

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Speaker 1: I mean, should there be should there be a bit

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Speaker 1: of a grace period for people if they know just

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Speaker 1: cannot get back in time.

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Speaker 2: For some reason.

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Speaker 3: I guess that's on the pace day app. It warns

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Speaker 3: you that your parking parking is about to expire, and

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Speaker 3: I think you know that the time limits are set

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Speaker 3: for the time li.

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Speaker 1: Do you find, Look, is the council issuing a lot

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Speaker 1: of parking fines at the moment.

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Speaker 3: No, Look, our rangers do the same patrols that they've

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Speaker 3: done for the past period of time, so the infringements

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Speaker 3: are other usual numbers that the council would issue.

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Speaker 1: Now, just moving through some of the other issues that

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Speaker 1: have been raised with us by some of our listeners.

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Speaker 1: Graffiti on the old generator building at East Point. I

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Speaker 1: believe that it has hopefully been been cleaned up already.

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Speaker 3: I'm not sure about that particular site, but it's definitely

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Speaker 3: on the radar and graffiti for both the Northern Territory

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Speaker 3: Government and City of Darwin is absolutely on the focus.

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Speaker 3: We've had discussions with the Chief Minister about it and

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Speaker 3: looking to, you know, to get a joint program back

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Speaker 3: in place, because challenge with graffetti sometimes is it's between

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Speaker 3: NTG Road and lands and City of Darwin Road and land.

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Speaker 3: So we really need to work together on a graffiti

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Speaker 3: program in that regard.

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Speaker 1: And so where are things at like currently, is it

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Speaker 1: just kind of whoever's area it is has to then

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Speaker 1: clean it up and does that maybe lay things or no. No.

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Speaker 3: Generally it will be City of Darwin actually delivering the

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Speaker 3: cleanup and it will be a joint funded initiative. And

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Speaker 3: we're just the previous program that was in place is

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Speaker 3: now completed, so we need to get a new program

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Speaker 3: in place in conjunction and get a list of sites

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Speaker 3: to move forward.

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Speaker 1: Now, if you have just joined us, we are talking

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Speaker 1: to the CEO of City of Darw and Simone Saunders.

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Speaker 2: Simone any sort of.

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Speaker 1: Major project upgrades or updates I should say at this

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Speaker 1: point in time that we should be aware of. I

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Speaker 1: know things are certainly well and truly underway. When it

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Speaker 1: comes to the Casuarina swimming pool. Corn has spoken to

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Speaker 1: us about that last week. Any other major areas though.

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Speaker 3: We're going to have some work starting in Coveranar Street

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Speaker 3: which will be great to see. So it's predominantly greening

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Speaker 3: along the medium street strip in Cavanarh Street. And the

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Speaker 3: other thing is that the corner of Covenar and Nukie

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Speaker 3: there's some challenges with the turning lane there and where

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Speaker 3: the water the water actually sits, so that we e

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Speaker 3: rectification of that to improve that turning lane there and

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Speaker 3: also start to look at you know, the streetscape there,

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Speaker 3: and make sure we've got enough space and provisioning with

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Speaker 3: our Center medium for any sort of future parkleots or

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Speaker 3: by clans as well, So they're not going in yet,

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Speaker 3: but making sure that we've sort of I guess considered

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Speaker 3: more broadly what the city might look look.

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Speaker 4: Like when the university opens as well.

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Speaker 1: So along Kavanagh Street, it's so not including the shade structure.

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Speaker 3: No, the shade structure belongs to the Northern Territory Government.

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Speaker 3: It's not City of Darwin, you know we're talking. It's

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Speaker 3: from basically from the Australia Post Office down to the

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Speaker 3: corner of Knukie. Definitely not. There's been numerous discussions. It's

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Speaker 3: not something we're looking to take.

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Speaker 1: Fair enough to stick to greeting those other spaces. Some

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Speaker 1: own international women's states obviously happening on Fridays.

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Speaker 2: The Council got much lined up for it.

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Speaker 3: So we've got an International Women's Day walk happening this Saturday,

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Speaker 3: So if anybody's interested, please come along in Purple eight

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Speaker 3: thirty meeting place at the Civic Center in the for

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Speaker 3: and that we walk around the city and then coming

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Speaker 3: back coming back to Civic Park with some market stores

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Speaker 3: and really encourage people to participate.

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Speaker 1: And I think I've got a bit excited with those dates. Actually,

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Speaker 1: I believe International Women's Days next week, but obviously the

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Speaker 1: March is this weekend.

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Speaker 4: Correct, the actual date is the eighth of March. However,

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Speaker 4: the Saturday is the day for the International Women's Day March.

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Speaker 2: You know, a wonderful thing to get involved in. There

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Speaker 2: is no doubt about that. Hey, before I.

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Speaker 1: Let you go, I know that there's some street food

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Speaker 1: vendor well you're seeking You've definitely got those COIs in place,

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Speaker 1: the expressions of interest in place for street food vendors whereabouts.

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Speaker 4: So this is across all of the municipalities.

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Speaker 3: So depending where you'd like to so put the application

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Speaker 3: in it maybe Nightcliff at maybe East Point or on

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Speaker 3: our foreshores, and encourage people to put their applications in

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Speaker 3: for the upcoming season.

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Speaker 1: There's always fantastic like at Nightcliff there, you know, when

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Speaker 1: you go and have dinner, there's some beautiful street food

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Speaker 1: vendors there.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a wonderful thing. It'd be great to see.

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Speaker 1: It's sort of a little bit more prevalent around around

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Speaker 1: the top end.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think one of the things there's been

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Speaker 3: some changes recently in some of the guidelines that we've

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Speaker 3: got around and the offerings around the permits for street food.

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Speaker 3: So what it means is that if you're thinking of

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Speaker 3: starting up a street food business or van, there's options

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Speaker 3: for a monthly permit to have a look and see

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Speaker 3: how you go, which we haven't had before. So hopefully

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Speaker 3: get additional people people to be able to participate.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good idea, letting them have a bit

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Speaker 1: of a trial, I suppose, and see how it goes.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well some own Saunders, CEO of the City of Darwin,

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Speaker 1: good to speak with you this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time.

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Speaker 4: Thanks Kate,