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Speaker 1: Well as we know.

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs obviously entering its first night of a lockdown overnight,

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Speaker 2: and joining us live on the line is the mayor

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Speaker 2: of Alice Springs, Matt Patterson.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Matt, Good morning Katie. Thanks for having me, Thanks.

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Speaker 2: For joining us, mate. How did things go overnight?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think it was better. The industrial area

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Speaker 3: did get hit that. We're still waiting on a few

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Speaker 3: reports about that. But yeah, look it's better in the CBD,

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Speaker 3: but you know, it's still not perfect. But we've seen

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Speaker 3: this last time that the curfew was implemented. The first night,

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Speaker 3: first and second nights were a bit heavy and then

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Speaker 3: it's sort of called off from there.

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Speaker 2: So, like, how are people feeling in terms of you know,

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Speaker 2: this this declaration being called. The commission is not sort

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Speaker 2: of wanting to call it a curfew, but it seems

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Speaker 2: like it's a curfew.

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Speaker 1: How is the public feeling about it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think people are okay with the declaration it's

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Speaker 3: been called. I think we're just all fed up with

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Speaker 3: the with the way that we've got here. You know,

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Speaker 3: it's just a reactive nature and it's not the criticism

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Speaker 3: of the police or the Police Commissioner it's just the

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Speaker 3: reactiveness of having to implement the curfew, and it would

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Speaker 3: be really nice not to have it because the ten

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Speaker 3: weeks since the previous curfew it's actually been much better.

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Speaker 3: So ultimately pretty frustrating that, you know, we'll have to

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Speaker 3: get through it as well always do.

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Speaker 1: So what needs to happen?

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Speaker 2: I mean, you and I have spoken on so many

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Speaker 2: occasions about these two hundred and fifteen million dollars you know,

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Speaker 2: was announced by the Prime Minister. Is any of that

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Speaker 2: hitting the ground, like you're seeing any of this long

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Speaker 2: term change that you want to see?

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Speaker 3: Well, not yet. I mean the two fifty was meant

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Speaker 3: to be a bit of a slow burn, and I

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Speaker 3: can appreciate that. It's the bush and Ola Springs has

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Speaker 3: been neglected for a little while. The forty eight point

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Speaker 3: eight was the immediate money and that was regards to

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Speaker 3: safe house as domestic violence funding an extra place. So

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Speaker 3: that's probably a question for the Chief and the Police Commissioner.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, we need to obviously speed up

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Speaker 3: the longer term changes because we've going to continue to

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Speaker 3: face this without addressing those longer term issues. Quicker Matt.

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Speaker 2: Even last night, you know, the police said have been

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Speaker 2: a pretty good night, pretty quiet night, but we know

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Speaker 2: there was three cars stolen as well.

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Speaker 1: I mean, is this just a new normal?

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Speaker 3: I mean this has been our normal for a couple

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Speaker 3: of years, Katie, be honest. I mean I remember speaking

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Speaker 3: to you when I was first elected talking about this,

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Speaker 3: so that was two and a half years ago. I mean,

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Speaker 3: this is you know, this hasn't just happened overnight. Then

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Speaker 3: there's been a long push to get people to listen.

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Speaker 3: And you know, credit where credits due. With the chief

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Speaker 3: and the new police minister, they've made some changes where

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Speaker 3: the police commissioner can call it. But you know, as

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Speaker 3: I said, it's that reactive space. You know, we don't

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Speaker 3: want to we don't expect it to be perfect that

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Speaker 3: you know it was saying to quiet night with three

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Speaker 3: cards stole and it does make you one, doesn't it?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Mate, what do you make of or you know, what

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Speaker 2: do you I'm not sure whether you've you know, whether

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Speaker 2: you've sort of had much discussion about it, but what

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Speaker 2: do you make of these of the restrictions as well,

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Speaker 2: or the announcement that the two licensed venues have obviously

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Speaker 2: they're not going to be able to operate or they've

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Speaker 2: suffered suspensions at this point in time, what do you

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Speaker 2: make of that announcement by the Northern Territory Police.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think if if if businesses do something wrong

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Speaker 3: under the legislation, they're allowed to be shut down, that

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Speaker 3: you know, there are both mom and dad businesses that

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Speaker 3: haven't actually done anything wrong. In this case, it was

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Speaker 3: a spill over on the council lawns and then happened

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Speaker 3: what it's happened that had taken them a few days

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Speaker 3: to shut down. I mean, I just find it. I

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Speaker 3: find it unbelievable that this is where we're going to.

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Speaker 3: I mean, people can drink responsibly. You know, this is

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Speaker 3: again the whole community that's getting let down by decisions

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Speaker 3: on the run. And we hold alcohol you know, we

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Speaker 3: want to hold alcohol venues accountable, but we don't want

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Speaker 3: to hold the organizations that are accountable, that are meant

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Speaker 3: to be looking up with the people out on the street.

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Speaker 3: You know why we why do no one calling them out? Wise?

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Speaker 3: You know why we're just shutting down alcohol places so

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Speaker 3: you know, if they do something wrong, they deserve to

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Speaker 3: be shut down. In this instant, my understanding is neither

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Speaker 3: of them have done something wrong. They're just collateral in

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Speaker 3: the decision making, which I don't think his strong frailer Springs.

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Speaker 3: It's certainly not strong to business and it's going to

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Speaker 3: get harder and harder to live and work in our

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Speaker 3: Springs with those decisions.

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Speaker 2: Without putting words in the police commissioner's mouth, he had

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Speaker 2: said to us earlier this morning that you know that

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Speaker 2: it was around that responsible service of alcohol and that

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Speaker 2: was the reason why these suspensions had been enacted.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, and as you know, my understanding is that

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Speaker 3: there's a spill over onto the council lords on Saturday

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Speaker 3: night and that's when the assault took place from there.

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Speaker 3: So you know, if it was a irresponsible service, was

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Speaker 3: it taken a couple of days. I've seen police are

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Speaker 3: quicker than that before, But look at it is what

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Speaker 3: it is. You know, I just find that they've both

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Speaker 3: been put in collateral from this and it's just an

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Speaker 3: unfortunate episode of events. But you know, it is deep

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Speaker 3: within alcohol, like we've you know, at least we're talking

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Speaker 3: about alcohol problems now, but it is deeded in that

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Speaker 3: and we're not talking about the organizations it should be

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Speaker 3: holding should be held to account as well.

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Speaker 2: So which organizations do you think at this point really

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Speaker 2: do need to be called out, like who isn't doing

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Speaker 2: what they are meant to be doing in this space.

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Speaker 3: Well, there's thirty four organizations in Ala Springs, Katie with

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Speaker 3: the population of twenty eight thousand that are funded to

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Speaker 3: deliver youth services. So I reckon we can start at

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Speaker 3: the top and work down from those thirty four. We'll

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Speaker 3: find out pretty quickly which ones aren't carrying their weight.

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Speaker 3: You know it, it's hard to believe that we've got

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Speaker 3: that many service providers in our springs and we still

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Speaker 3: have people falling through the gaps. We're still having summertime,

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Speaker 3: you know, multiple multiple groups of children out on the street.

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Speaker 2: It is unbelievable when you think about it like that,

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Speaker 2: thirty four organizations funded for youth services and then you've

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Speaker 2: still got kids out on the street. I mean, from

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Speaker 2: what we're hearing, and please correct me if I'm wrong,

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Speaker 2: but from some of the discussions that we've had, we've

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Speaker 2: been getting told it's adults on the street as well.

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Speaker 2: There's people visiting that were there in Alice Springs for

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Speaker 2: the show. I mean, what do you make of those claims?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? No, I fully agree with those. I mean, I

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Speaker 3: think we had ten thousand through the show on Friday,

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Speaker 3: eight thousand on Saturday, and so obviously we knew that

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Speaker 3: we were going to have visitors. It was just about

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Speaker 3: you know, operations remping things up. You know, we don't

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Speaker 3: have adequate overflow housing for people coming in from community,

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Speaker 3: so I think that's something that needs to be addressed

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Speaker 3: long term. Bring everyone in from our communities, taken to

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Speaker 3: shows or events in our springs and then let them

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Speaker 3: send for themselves either here and we see the flow

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Speaker 3: on what happens we go down into a lockdown, So

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Speaker 3: you know it is you know, I just think we

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Speaker 3: need to get better at planning to avoid this in future,

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Speaker 3: because we can't continue every time something goes wrong have

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Speaker 3: a snap lockdown or a snap declaration. Because you know,

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Speaker 3: I've feed on national media today, I'll be on there

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Speaker 3: tonight again. You know, it's not the it's not the

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Speaker 3: hit that the reputation of Alice Springs needs. It's a

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Speaker 3: really hard enough as it is doing business and recruiting people,

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Speaker 3: and it's just another hit in our sides to be

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Speaker 3: perfectly think.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well this is the thing right like it is

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Speaker 2: once again We're all over the national media and absolutely

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Speaker 2: understand why. You know, the fact is what's going on

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Speaker 2: and like having a curfew on a you know, on

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Speaker 2: a place like Alice Springs over a seventy two hour period,

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Speaker 2: it is absolutely worth making national headlines.

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Speaker 1: But it is it's not good for us.

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Speaker 2: It's not good for the Northern Territory when it comes

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Speaker 2: to our reputation and trying to rebuild things.

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Speaker 1: When it comes to tourism, oh.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And you know obviously you know tourism market to

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Speaker 3: the cop through COVID and then coming out of it.

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Speaker 3: We're a national media and it's just a flow on

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Speaker 3: again and again, and you know it's Alice Springs is

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Speaker 3: an incredible place. You know, I was in Campbell last

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Speaker 3: week for the Local Government Association conference and Alice Springs

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Speaker 3: won a national Award of Community Cohesion for multicultural night market.

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Speaker 3: We run a council, so you know, we do things

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Speaker 3: well when we're there. It is just about celebrating those

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Speaker 3: things and that's the part that we need to get

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Speaker 3: out to the media across the country.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Matt Patterson, I'd rather be talking.

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Speaker 3: About that, Katie then courrises in crime.

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Speaker 2: I can tell you, well, this is the thing, right

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Speaker 2: we'd all rather be talking about the good stuff in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory than the bs that we're dealing with.

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Speaker 2: But the fact is we don't have a handle on

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Speaker 2: everything right now.

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Speaker 1: And and you know.

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Speaker 2: The fact that our second largest town in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 2: that is Alice Springs, has been forced into a seventy

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Speaker 2: two hour lockdown.

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Speaker 1: It's it's it beggars belief, it does.

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Speaker 3: And you know, as I said, we've just got to

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Speaker 3: get to the next eventy two hours. I'm sure, you know,

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Speaker 3: I'm sure it'll be extended, but we'll just have to

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Speaker 3: wait and see, you know what happens. And you know,

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Speaker 3: it's on the tip of everyone's tongue, like you know it.

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Speaker 3: It is the topic of conversation that every Sunday bar,

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Speaker 3: if you every time you go to the pub. It

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Speaker 3: really is exhausting. You know, it's not it's not we're

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Speaker 3: not people aren't talking about the footy anymore or what

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Speaker 3: they're saying on the TV or X y Z. It's

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Speaker 3: just about crime or who got broken into And you know,

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Speaker 3: it's mentally draining for everyone. And then you're affected in

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Speaker 3: different ways. And yeah, it certainly takes tole and we're

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Speaker 3: saying that with long term residents leave and one green

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Speaker 3: of passions elsewhere.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like, I totally agree before I let you go,

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Speaker 2: So you do reckon that it's probably going to be extended.

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Speaker 3: If I was a betting man, I'd say yes. But

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Speaker 3: we'll wait and see. I mean, I think things will

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Speaker 3: come down in the next couple of days if history

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Speaker 3: is what history is anything to go by, and then

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Speaker 3: it'll be extended again. I mean, the last curf you

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Speaker 3: worked and people around the country were very critical of it.

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Speaker 3: It worked, so we just need to you know again,

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Speaker 3: it was a very good circuit break, and I think

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Speaker 3: that the time for this one to be extended will

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Speaker 3: work for the community, for everyone to dis catch their breath.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, Matt Patterson, the mayor of Alice Springs, appreciate your

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Speaker 2: time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having a chat with us. Thanks,

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Speaker 1: thank you,