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Speaker 1: It is just on a quarter past nine eight nine

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Speaker 1: one four nine, if you'd like to call through now.

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Speaker 1: As we know, Parliament obviously sitting at the moment, and

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Speaker 1: the Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison has revealed the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory government recorded an eyewatering deficit of more than one

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Speaker 1: billion dollars last financial year, but delivering a speech in

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Speaker 1: Parliament last night, the Deputy Chief Minister had said that

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Speaker 1: the one point one to three billion dollar shortfall in

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Speaker 1: the twenty twenty twenty twenty to twenty twenty one financial

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Speaker 1: year was actually less than the gloomy forecast made during

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Speaker 1: the pandemic. Now joining me to speak about this and

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Speaker 1: plenty more is the Opposition leader Lea Fanocchiaro. Good morning

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Speaker 1: to you, Leah.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie and to your listeners. Lea.

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Speaker 1: Obviously the government saying that you know that there is

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Speaker 1: actually a bit of a saving here or maybe not

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Speaker 1: as much deficit as what we'd anticipated, but this was

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Speaker 1: all part of their forecasting. What did you make of

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Speaker 1: that speech so that she'd delivered in Parliament last.

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Speaker 2: Night, Well, I thought it was interesting that Nicole Manison

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Speaker 2: delivered the Chief Minister's speech. I'm not sure whether to

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Speaker 2: read much into that, Katie or not, But in any event,

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Speaker 2: the two biggest takeaways for me coming out of the

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Speaker 2: financial report is that we're still spending eight hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty three million dollars a year more than what the

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Speaker 2: territory brings in. So we're still spending more than what

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Speaker 2: we earn, which is mums and dads and territorians out there.

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Speaker 2: No is completely unsustainable and just not how you run

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Speaker 2: a household or a business. And of course that policy

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Speaker 2: changes resulted in no improved position to our budget. So

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Speaker 2: this has really happened by accident, Katie. It's good fortune

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Speaker 2: rather than good financial management. I'm grateful for it, don't

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Speaker 2: get me wrong. Any improved position to our atrocious budget

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Speaker 2: is good, but it shows the Gunner government aren't being

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Speaker 2: proactive to tackle this issue of hideous debt that they've

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Speaker 2: created over the last five years.

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Speaker 1: Well we know in that space, she said. The final

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Speaker 1: outcome for the twenty twenty to twenty twenty one year

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Speaker 1: is a fiscal balanced deficit of one point one to

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Speaker 1: three billion dollars. It represents an improvement of about seven

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Speaker 1: hundred and forty six million dollars since the revised figure

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Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty one budget and a one point

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Speaker 1: three billion dollar improvement from the original figure in the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty budget from November last year. Yes, there is

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Speaker 1: definitely an improvement, but when you look at it, the

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Speaker 1: numbers are still pretty eyge watering.

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Speaker 2: Oh, they're ridiculous. It's really obscene, Katie. And what's most disappointing,

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Speaker 2: I think, particularly for the construction industry and the so

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Speaker 2: many businesses in the territory that rely on that industry.

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Speaker 2: Of those seven hundred and forty six million dollars in savings,

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Speaker 2: five hundred and eighty nine million dollars of that is

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Speaker 2: just government shuffling the deck chairs around. They've literally kicked

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Speaker 2: construction projects and other projects of that magnitude of nearly

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Speaker 2: six hundred million dollars down the road. So it's really

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Speaker 2: just tricky, you know, budget maneuvers. It's just manipulating the

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Speaker 2: books essentially. But what that actually means, you know, is

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Speaker 2: a government that talks about their favorite chance is jobs, jobs, jobs,

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Speaker 2: but that's six hundred million dollars worth of jobs to

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Speaker 2: locals that's now not going to happen in the coming years.

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Speaker 2: So I think that's a huge blow in an attempt

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Speaker 2: to try and make it look like there's an actual

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Speaker 2: improved budget figure.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Leah, does these numbers, though, give you any

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Speaker 1: confidence or any more confidence set the government sort of

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Speaker 1: managing that budget a bit better?

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Speaker 2: No, because ultimately all they've done is shifted six hundred

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Speaker 2: million dollars in different activities. Their own document shows that

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Speaker 2: policy changes haven't resulted in any improvement to the budget position,

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Speaker 2: and in actual fact, they've hidden the thirty five million

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Speaker 2: dollar don Dale payout and just sort of dress that

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Speaker 2: up as a facilitated legal settlement, which would have been

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Speaker 2: the only thing in the policy changes. Had we not

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Speaker 2: have to pay out that money to youth offenders, that

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Speaker 2: would have seen a slight improvement within government's control. A

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Speaker 2: big takeaway for me was also the fact that we

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Speaker 2: only received one million dollars in extra mining royalty and

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Speaker 2: taxation than what was predicted, and that again just reinforces

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Speaker 2: the fact that we're not supporting our mineral sector like

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Speaker 2: we should be. We don't have the right regulatory and

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Speaker 2: taxation environment to ensure that those big projects and minds

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Speaker 2: are coming online. They create hundreds and thousands of jobs

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Speaker 2: across the territory and the flow and effect from mining

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Speaker 2: is really profound, Katie. It's a big part of our

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Speaker 2: economic story and to only have an additional one million

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Speaker 2: in that pile of royalties from mining shows that again

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Speaker 2: the government is all talk on this issue and no

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Speaker 2: action and it's just not good enough.

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Speaker 1: Well look, I do want to point out that we

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Speaker 1: had certainly put in a request to have the Deputy

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Speaker 1: Chief Fittisten Nicole Madison on the show. Unfortunately that's not possible.

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Speaker 1: We have got that whole speech sent through to us

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Speaker 1: and I will read parts of that out throughout the morning.

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Speaker 1: But let's move along, Leah, because we know that it

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Speaker 1: was a very busy day in Parliament yesterday and things

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Speaker 1: really blew up. I think when the Chief Minister claimed

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Speaker 1: that the Opposition spokesperson for Health Bill Yan attended a

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Speaker 1: rally against mandatory vaccination on the weekend, Lea. Bill provided

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Speaker 1: a personal explanation, but was he actually at that rally?

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Speaker 2: So Bill made a personal statement. He absolutely denied that

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Speaker 2: he'd attended and participated in the rally. He's staying in

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Speaker 2: a hotel in the city, was in the vicinity after

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Speaker 2: heading out to get some supplies for the week. So

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Speaker 2: you know, this is the government just trying to scare Manger,

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Speaker 2: trying to shift focus and trying to incite division in

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Speaker 2: our community. And this type of rhetoric and language we're

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Speaker 2: seeing from the Chief Minister is really upsetting people, Katie.

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Speaker 2: And it's not good enough. It's not good enough for

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Speaker 2: the Gunner government to use a parla as some sort

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Speaker 2: of grand stand to just try and throw as much

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Speaker 2: mud as possible to distract from their own failures. But

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Speaker 2: we're just getting on with the job. You know. They

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Speaker 2: can call us whatever they like, they can do whatever

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Speaker 2: ridiculous stunts they like. At the end of the day,

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Speaker 2: our health care system is in a terrible crisis and

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Speaker 2: we don't have COVID crime is completely and utterly out

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Speaker 2: of it.

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Speaker 1: I'll get I will get to that healthcare crisis in

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Speaker 1: just a moment, But I do just want to ask you,

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Speaker 1: has Billiyan made any comments about being against the vaccine,

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Speaker 1: because I know that that is also something that the

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Speaker 1: government has raised.

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Speaker 2: No, absolutely not. We've said right from the start when

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Speaker 2: they announced the mandated vaccine position. We asked for a briefing.

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Speaker 2: Government refused to give us a briefing for three weeks.

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Speaker 2: When they did, they gave us a half an hour meeting.

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Speaker 2: Now the Deputy Chief Health Officer said that this is

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Speaker 2: the best health advice and we've always said we would

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Speaker 2: support the best health advice and always put the health

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Speaker 2: and safety of territorians first. We've supported the mandatory vaccination position.

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Speaker 2: We've been critical of government for their vaccine rollout which

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Speaker 2: has been too slow, particularly in remote northern parts of

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, but we do support that mandatory vaxed position.

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Speaker 2: We've always been very clear about that and the Government

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Speaker 2: is just trying to stir trouble, all right.

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Speaker 1: So we also know that obviously the Opposition sought to

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Speaker 1: declare that state of the Northern Territories healthcare system a

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Speaker 1: matter of public importance in Parliament yesterday. It does follow

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Speaker 1: on from those four Code yellows being declared at Urdh

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Speaker 1: Royal Darwin Hospital over the past year and that decision

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Speaker 1: to close parts of the emergency beds at the Palmerston

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Speaker 1: Regional Hospital. Leah, what happened yesterday on this matter of

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Speaker 1: public importance, Well, we.

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Speaker 2: Think it's really critical that Territorians, no matter where you live,

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Speaker 2: are supported by a strong health system and of course,

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Speaker 2: we have terrific medical professionals right across the territory working

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Speaker 2: in extremely complicated and difficult environments. Now we haven't said

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Speaker 2: COVID like other jurisdictions have, and yet this year alone,

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Speaker 2: the Royal Darwin Hospital has suffered four Code yellows, which

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Speaker 2: means critical levels of bed block and staffing shortages. So

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Speaker 2: we really felt it was important to highlight to government

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Speaker 2: that it's not okay to be canceling elective surgeries four

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Speaker 2: times this year. It's not okay to have staff shortages

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Speaker 2: in hospitals when our staff is sitting at the Howard

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Speaker 2: Springs quarantine facility. You know, the government took on that

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Speaker 2: quarantine facility knowing they had to find four hundred people

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Speaker 2: from somewhere, and I think that's put tremendous strain on

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Speaker 2: our health system and they should never have thought they

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Speaker 2: were able to take that on and it should be

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Speaker 2: given back to the Commonwealth to run properly like they

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Speaker 2: were doing right from the start. But unfortunately the government

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Speaker 2: just it was just arrogance that we received back. They

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Speaker 2: just continued to talk about the previous Colp government instead

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Speaker 2: of the five years of labor we've had and the

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Speaker 2: seventeen out of the last twenty years has been labor governments,

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Speaker 2: and so our health system is an absolute crisis and

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Speaker 2: all we're getting is political rhetoric from the Gunner government

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Speaker 2: around this somehow being the CLP's fauld it really it

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Speaker 2: begged believe.

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Speaker 1: Now, Leah. Obviously we know at this point in time

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Speaker 1: we've not had to deal with COVID being in our

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Speaker 1: health system. We obviously haven't had that community spread that

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Speaker 1: we've seen in other states and territories and the same

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Speaker 1: level of you know, of COVID in the community. The

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister, Michael Gunner earlier this week obviously announced those

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Speaker 1: plans when it comes to opening the territory up once

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Speaker 1: we reach the eighty percent vaccination rate. Lea, are you

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Speaker 1: satisfied that those plans are the safest way forward or

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Speaker 1: do you think that we need to be a little

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Speaker 1: bit more realistic here and give a definitive date as

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Speaker 1: to exactly when we're going to be opening up.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the reality is because of the way

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Speaker 2: the government have mishandled the vaccine rollout, it's created a

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Speaker 2: huge amounts of uncertainty for government in being able to

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Speaker 2: put a pathway forward. I think whatever decision government come to,

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Speaker 2: it needs to be really articulated. People want certainty. They're

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Speaker 2: happy to work within the rules, but they need to

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Speaker 2: know exactly what the rules are. And with Christmas coming,

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Speaker 2: people are really needing to finalize their plans and make

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Speaker 2: those decisions about are we going away or is mum

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Speaker 2: and dad coming up this year and all of those

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Speaker 2: types of normal conversations we all have as a family,

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Speaker 2: and the Chief Minister himself has family into say so, in.

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Speaker 1: Your opinion, did that plan provide that clarity or not?

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Speaker 2: I think it was very complicated, and when there's complication,

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Speaker 2: it always brings uncertainty. And of course over the last

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Speaker 2: forty eight hours we've kind of had changes or variances

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Speaker 2: in the government's position on that program. So all we're

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Speaker 2: asking is for the government to come out be explicitly

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Speaker 2: clear with territories about what is going to happen over

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Speaker 2: the next couple of months so that people can work

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Speaker 2: within the rules and start to make their plans or

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Speaker 2: not make plans.

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Speaker 1: Lea Finocchio, the opposition leader, good to speak with you

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Speaker 1: this morning. We'll talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 2: Thanks everyone, take care, Thank you,