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Speaker 1: As I'm sure you've heard, a Darwin zoologist and Kroc

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Speaker 1: expert who raped, tortured and killed dozens of dogs and

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Speaker 1: puppies on his rural property has been sentenced to more

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Speaker 1: than ten years in jail now.

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Speaker 2: Adam Britton pleaded guilty to.

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Speaker 1: More than sixty charges of best reality, animal cruelty and

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Speaker 1: possession of child abuse material last year and returned to

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory yesterday for his sentencing.

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Speaker 1: The court heard Britain sourced forty two dogs online from Gumtree,

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Speaker 1: promising owners that they'd go to a good home, but

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Speaker 1: filmed himself doing unthinkable things in a shipping container he

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Speaker 1: called his torture room. He then uploaded the videos on

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Speaker 1: a private messaging service. Britain received a total sentence of

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Speaker 1: ten years and five months imprisonment with a non parole

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Speaker 1: period of six years backdated to April twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: He was also banned from buying and having animals at

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Speaker 1: his property for the rest of his life. Now joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line is the first elected Member of

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Speaker 1: Parliament in Australia for animal Protection, Mark Pearson, who's been

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Speaker 1: closely following the court case Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Mark, Good morning to you.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. I mean,

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Speaker 1: first off, what can you tell us or what were

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Speaker 1: your thoughts following on from the sentencing.

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Speaker 3: Well, the judge obviously himself has been in emotional shock,

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Speaker 3: as he's actually stated to the court, and he's often

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Speaker 3: sent people, the workers, the employees at the court out

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Speaker 3: of the room so they wouldn't have to listen to

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Speaker 3: the details. But Chief Justice has been in a difficult position.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I know there are a lot of people

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Speaker 3: who believe that the sentencing should have been for longer period,

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Speaker 3: but the justice is restricted by a statute which in

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Speaker 3: itself is restricted, and that's the Animal protection legislation. I mean,

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Speaker 3: the strongest legislation he had to turn his mind to

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Speaker 3: with the Child Protection Act and the fact that he

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Speaker 3: had child abuse material with him. But the most egregious

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Speaker 3: and serious offenses were to all those dogs talking to

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Speaker 3: and probably many more animals. But the animal protection legislation

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory is very restricted. So therefore, if you torture

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Speaker 3: an animal to death, then that is a sentence of

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Speaker 3: two years, where in other jurisdictions and world's best practice,

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Speaker 3: you would be looking up to ten years. So the

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Speaker 3: judge was restricted by the very legislation that he had

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Speaker 3: to apply. And also I think the judge wanted to

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Speaker 3: make sure by listening to all of the submissions, to

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Speaker 3: all of the arguments to see whether he has actually

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Speaker 3: does he have any remorse at all, where he found

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Speaker 3: that really he probably is incapable of remorse. So he

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Speaker 3: had to take into account that he doesn't want this

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Speaker 3: to be appealed to the full Supreme Court. Mister Britain's

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Speaker 3: been locked up for two years. The matter has to

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Speaker 3: be dealt with and the judiciary has to deal with it.

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Speaker 3: And now it's up to the government of the Northern

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Speaker 3: Territory with the review of the animal protection legislation in

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Speaker 3: place at this very moment, and probably in part stimulated

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Speaker 3: by the horrors that were committed by the psychopath, but

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Speaker 3: what that has done has been a catalyst to shock

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Speaker 3: the government to realize that the legislation that is under

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Speaker 3: their what not properly reflecting the community expectations of animal

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Speaker 3: protection and must be absolutely reformed and overhauld.

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Speaker 2: Mark, Honestly, I don't know how.

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Speaker 1: Look, I can hardly even read what this person has

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Speaker 1: done to these animals let alone go into reading much

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Speaker 1: of it in depth.

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Speaker 2: It is just horrifying stuff.

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Speaker 1: That review of the legislation sounds like it is absolutely needed.

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Speaker 1: What do you think needs to change in this legislation.

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Speaker 3: Well, first of all, the Act needs to all of

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Speaker 3: the penalties need to be increased. So for example, there

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Speaker 3: is a specific cruelty offense of torturing, and animal torture

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Speaker 3: means over a long period of time, and obviously the

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Speaker 3: perpetrator is enjoying or has no regard at all for

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Speaker 3: the lot the suffering that goes on for a long time,

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Speaker 3: that is torture. Two years imprisonment maximum for a person

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Speaker 3: who does that is not what the average person in

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Speaker 3: the street would say is acceptable. To ten years is

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Speaker 3: the jurisdiction in Queensland and in New South Wales. But

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Speaker 3: the other issue which I've tried to point out to

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Speaker 3: the government up there is that the protection of animals

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Speaker 3: needs to be removed from the portfolio of agriculture, because

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Speaker 3: agriculture is a department to government to apartment which is

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Speaker 3: about looking after in a lot of situations, the companies

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Speaker 3: and the companies and the farming industry and the large

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Speaker 3: corporate farming industries that use animals. So it is not

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Speaker 3: appropriate to have animal protection portfolio in with a department

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Speaker 3: which is about looking after animal agriculture interests. So it

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Speaker 3: needs to be moved to an independent office of Animal wealthy,

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Speaker 3: either under the Premier or a specific minister or a commissioner.

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Speaker 3: And that independence will then satisfy the community that are

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Speaker 3: animals deserving and receiving the same treatment as our children

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Speaker 3: do as the police, you know, the sword and the

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Speaker 3: shield of the police for our children, for all of

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Speaker 3: the vulnerable. Now, one very clear thing is that animals

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Speaker 3: are very vulnerable. And all these walking two dogs were

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Speaker 3: taken in good faith from their owners and taken to

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Speaker 3: a torture chamber. And this has shaken the government to

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Speaker 3: realize we have to do better and make sure that

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Speaker 3: this sort of behavior is captured earlier. Absolutely, we referred

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Speaker 3: to that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I said absolutely.

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Speaker 3: This man is a veterinarian, you know. And one of

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Speaker 3: the main parts of vetery science now is the growing

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Speaker 3: technical knowledge about the capacity of animals to suffer, even

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Speaker 3: emotional suffering, even loss, even Greek you know. So for

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Speaker 3: a mother female dog to be watching her pups being

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Speaker 3: tortured to death over two or three days.

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Speaker 2: He is monstrous and heartbreaking. It's disgusting veterinarians.

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Speaker 3: And also, I mean the fact that this person was

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Speaker 3: not detected before. I think our institutions, universities, just like

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Speaker 3: the Catholic Church, turned a blind eye, didn't recognize what

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Speaker 3: perpetrators will seek an institution to protect their monster conduct

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Speaker 3: from being detected. I think the government needs to turn

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Speaker 3: its mind and set an inquiry into how do people

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Speaker 3: working beside people working with animals, whether it be in

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Speaker 3: a pound for the RSPCA, whether it be in an

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Speaker 3: animal research facility, or whether it be the crocodile intensive

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Speaker 3: farming industry. People should be watching out to see if

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Speaker 3: there are colleagues that are working with them, no matter

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Speaker 3: how many letters after their name, is there something wrong

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Speaker 3: with their nature where they are actually okay about watching

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Speaker 3: suffering of an animal and that is a flag mark

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Speaker 3: to animal cruelty, animal abuse and then onto domestic violence.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Mark, we are going to have to get ready

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Speaker 1: to wrap up. But I do want to ask are

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Speaker 1: greater safeguards needed when it comes to people selling pets,

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Speaker 1: particularly online? Yes?

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Speaker 3: I mean, I mean my view is that you know,

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Speaker 3: if they're selling animals online. They should be clearly registered

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Speaker 3: and traceable, but they need to be like gum Tree,

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Speaker 3: need to be doing a much better vetting system to

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Speaker 3: whoever is buying these animals that they can absolutely prove

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Speaker 3: that they are gained to care for the animals properly.

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Speaker 3: I mean, this guy was very sophisticated, but there needs

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Speaker 3: to be a protective mechanism where whoever's purchasing the animal

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Speaker 3: is giving legitimate information back true information that the animal

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Speaker 3: is animals well being is taken care of now.

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Speaker 1: I know that there were a number of animal rights

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Speaker 1: campaigners at court yesterday as well.

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Speaker 2: What was their key message?

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Speaker 3: Look, I think it's just like the Justice indicated that

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Speaker 3: it's an absolute emotional shock to people who care and

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Speaker 3: love animals so much and understand animals too, as you

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Speaker 3: just said, to even become cognizant of what this man did.

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Speaker 3: So I think that it's absolute frustration that here we

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Speaker 3: have a situation that's developed which clear reflects that all

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Speaker 3: the government of today and the governments before have do

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Speaker 3: not have a proper and a proper watch and a

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Speaker 3: proper a proper wing and shield to protect animals, which

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Speaker 3: the community expects the government to have in place. So

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Speaker 3: their frustration is about the judicial system not representing their

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Speaker 3: concerns about torturing animals and the government that has not

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Speaker 3: really brought up the standards of animal protection in Northern

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Speaker 3: Territory to the world class standard it should be.

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Speaker 1: Mark Pearson, I thank you for your time this morning.

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

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Speaker 1: And it does sound as though those those that legislation

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Speaker 1: does need.

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Speaker 2: To be strengthened.

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Speaker 1: We do not want to be in a situation where

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Speaker 1: something like this is happening again.

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Speaker 2: It blows my mind for all the wrong reasons.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, needs a total reform and the government needs to

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Speaker 3: reflect what the people want out of this crisis which

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Speaker 3: has occurred in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Mark, thank you, thanks so much for your time today.

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Speaker 3: Okay, not a problem. Thank you for your interest.

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Speaker 2: Thanks