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Speaker 1: Well throughout last year you would have heard my next

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Speaker 1: guest on the show. On numerous occasions, we'd spoken about

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Speaker 1: rocks being thrown at tour buses as they headed into

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs. We've spoken about the former chair of Central

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Speaker 1: Australian Tourism being assaulted in the car park outside of supermarket.

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Speaker 1: There's been so many occasions where we have spoken to

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Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford and talked about the absolute need for change

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Speaker 1: when it came to crime, anti social behavior, alcohol issues

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Speaker 1: in the town and the impact that it's having on tourism.

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Speaker 1: And joining me on the line right now is the

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Speaker 1: CEO of Central Australian Tourism, Daniel Rochford. Good morning to you. Daniel.

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Speaker 2: Hey Kadian, good one to you.

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Speaker 1: Listen, Daniel, you and I, like I've just said, have

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Speaker 1: spoken on so many occasions about the urgent need for

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Speaker 1: really serious action in Alice Springs, and over the last

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks it has reached the poor point of

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Speaker 1: becoming a national embarrassment, to the point where the Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister's obviously flown in yesterday and made some pretty sweeping

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Speaker 1: announcements with the Chief Minister. Do you think they go

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Speaker 1: far enough.

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Speaker 2: Katie, I'm heartbroken, Like yesterday's announcement was just so underwhelming,

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Speaker 2: to say the least. I'm heartbroken for my town. I'm

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Speaker 2: heartbroken for the kids and all the victims of the

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Speaker 2: crime that we've had to endure over the last few years.

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Speaker 2: What we needed yesterday was our leaders from both the

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Speaker 2: federal and territory governments to make a clear statement of

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Speaker 2: this is how we're going to fix this issue. What

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Speaker 2: we got was just one piece of the puzzle. And

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Speaker 2: this is such a complex and fix the crime crisis

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Speaker 2: that we have here. This is not just about olcohol.

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Speaker 2: It's about so much more than that. And I'm just

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Speaker 2: sit to death of politicians coming into my town asking

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Speaker 2: for community led solutions when we time after time say

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Speaker 2: this is what you should be doing, but not being

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Speaker 2: listened to. And you and I have talked about this

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Speaker 2: so many times. The simple thing that we ask is

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Speaker 2: more resources. That's not just more resources for police preventative

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Speaker 2: policing on the streets. That's more resources to wrap care

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Speaker 2: around these kids, to put more resources out into bush

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Speaker 2: community so we see more less people come into our springs.

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Speaker 2: But what we got yesterday was just one piece of

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Speaker 2: the puzzle. And if you think this is going to

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Speaker 2: fix the problem, just look at Tenant Creek. Tenant Creek

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Speaker 2: have these restrictions that were put in place yesterday, and

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Speaker 2: every day you get home invasions, you get crime that's

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Speaker 2: besieging that community. And if the government's both the federal

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Speaker 2: and territory government, think what they announced yesterday is going

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Speaker 2: to fix the problem, I don't know. I'm sorry, Katie,

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Speaker 2: I just I'm sorry to sound like I am, but

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Speaker 2: I am just feeling like the violin player on the Titanicum.

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Speaker 1: Mate, you sound exasperated, and Daniel, to be honest, I

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Speaker 1: can one hundred percent understand why you're feeling that way,

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Speaker 1: and I'm not surprised. You know, when you're grappling with

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Speaker 1: the issues that are being grappled within Ela Springs right now,

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Speaker 1: and you're then, on the other hand, trying to promote

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Speaker 1: the Red Center as a tourism destination, you're fighting the

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Speaker 1: unwinnable battle.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that is and look, I'm as ever, very

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Speaker 2: aware that this national exposure is hurting our industry immeasurably.

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Speaker 2: And look, I guess I have to play the pragmatic

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Speaker 2: card that if we don't fix that this issue, it's

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Speaker 2: going to hurt our industry and more so. So we

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Speaker 2: do have to fix the causal issues and then deal

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Speaker 2: with the branding problems. But we are certainly getting cancelation

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Speaker 2: after cancelation. We are getting phone call all morning lighting

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Speaker 2: up saying, you know, from potential tourists coming to our

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Speaker 2: town saying is it safe to come there? So you

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Speaker 2: know we are dealing with that. But I guess I

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Speaker 2: just want to bring it back to the core issue

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Speaker 2: if we've got to solve this problem, and what we

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Speaker 2: can't have is what we've had time after time is

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Speaker 2: politicians flying into our spring announcing one piece of the puzzle.

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Speaker 2: We need the kitchen sink thrown at this and we

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Speaker 2: need it now.

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Speaker 1: Kaye and Daniel. You've been saying that for some time,

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Speaker 1: and let's be honest, there's not been an improvement. If anything,

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Speaker 1: there's been a decline. So you know what you have

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Speaker 1: been saying over the last few months has been correct.

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Speaker 1: It's been correct to want that urgency. Now just tell me,

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Speaker 1: and I know you're not wanting to dwell on the negatives,

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Speaker 1: but how many cancelations would you say that you have

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Speaker 1: had in the last twenty four hours or so.

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Speaker 2: Look, our phones haven't stopped.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Wow.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm hearing significant cancelations of conferences and yeah,

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Speaker 2: and this is not just an issue of impacting our springs.

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Speaker 2: That's all something impacting U LaRue. You know I'm hearing

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Speaker 2: and that's occurring down in the Lassida as well. So yeah, look,

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Speaker 2: you know, when you have such wide exposure to the issues,

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Speaker 2: you're always going to have that occur. And you know,

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Speaker 2: but ultimately, and I bring it back to the point is,

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Speaker 2: you know, we do have to bring it back to

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Speaker 2: the dealing with the with the causal issues. And if

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Speaker 2: we don't fix the crime, you know, our industries are

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Speaker 2: going to suffer, you know, the long term pain of

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Speaker 2: a decline. If we can get on top of this,

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Speaker 2: deal with the branding, then we can get the spinnaker

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Speaker 2: back up. But we've got to deal with the primary

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Speaker 2: and cause all issues.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so true. You know, if you're able to

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Speaker 1: get on top of it, then you're able to start

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Speaker 1: to you know, get those building blocks in place to

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Speaker 1: rebuild and to rebuild tourism. But while the issue continues

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Speaker 1: to burn on, there's not you know, there's you can't

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Speaker 1: you can't. You're in sort of this, you know, this

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Speaker 1: holding pattern.

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Speaker 2: I honestly don't know what more I can do. And look,

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Speaker 2: I'm almost feeling apologetic to the people of our springs.

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Speaker 2: I'm a community leader here. I sit on the social

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Speaker 2: order response and I just cannot get this through to

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Speaker 2: our governments that we need more resources and we need

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Speaker 2: the kitchen think thrown at this. I know, we just

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Speaker 2: sit to death of politicians flying into town just giving

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Speaker 2: one piece of a puzzle. And until such time we

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Speaker 2: throw the kitchen think at this, we will not fix

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Speaker 2: the problem. And I'm sorry to sound negative, but it

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Speaker 2: is just the state that we live in here. And

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Speaker 2: you've heard all this morning of the six situations. To

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Speaker 2: give your listeners as understanding, you know, today's the twenty

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Speaker 2: four is that we've been broken in fifteen times just

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Speaker 2: since January one. We had three major incidences just yesterday

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Speaker 2: in our visitor information center. So this is an issue

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Speaker 2: that is not going away until governments take it to

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Speaker 2: another level. We are not going to address this issue.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you, and Daniel, please don't apologize,

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Speaker 1: because you know you've been trying for months and months

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Speaker 1: to really get this point across and to let the

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Speaker 1: government every you know, both tiers of government, both locally

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Speaker 1: and federally, make them aware of the impact that this

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Speaker 1: is having on tourism. So, you know, I don't apologize.

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Speaker 1: I think that you guys need to continue to speak out.

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Speaker 1: And while it is really difficult right now that it

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Speaker 1: is on that national scale and it's obviously having a

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Speaker 1: negative impact towards tourism, I really hope you know that

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Speaker 1: this is the wake up call that is required and

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Speaker 1: that we are finally going to see something change.

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Speaker 2: Well, the thing about it, Katie, and look, the single

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Speaker 2: biggest thing that the government can do right here, right now.

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Speaker 2: I'm not too I get a chance to listen to

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Speaker 2: your interview with the Chief this morning, but on ABC

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Speaker 2: Radio in Alice, the Chief said that she was going

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Speaker 2: to be writing to Jamie Chalker to ask for a

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Speaker 2: statement of the resources that we saw in early December.

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Speaker 2: That's just not good enough, Katie. We need the Chief

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Speaker 2: Minister and her police commissioner to stand up this morning

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Speaker 2: to say this will happen and give assurances to the

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Speaker 2: local community that the preventative policing is put in place. Now.

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Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of people who have views

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Speaker 2: about extra boots on the ground. But what I saw

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Speaker 2: in early December was with the prominence that the Operation

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Speaker 2: Drina had was that those police officers were preventing crime

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Speaker 2: before crime was occurring. That's what we need. We need

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Speaker 2: to stabilize the streets of Alice Springs. And I said

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Speaker 2: last year and I reiterate it today to you and

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Speaker 2: to your listeners, the government of of the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: just does not have control of this town until such

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Speaker 2: time they put those significant resources in place to make

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Speaker 2: sure these streets are stabilized. We are just losing this battle.

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Speaker 1: Before I let you go, Daniel, we did speak to

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Speaker 1: Steve Sheer from thrifty a little bit earlier this morning.

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Speaker 1: He said that you know that the negativity on social media,

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Speaker 1: in terms of being shared sort of on the caravanning

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Speaker 1: pages and the drive tourism pages is having a massive

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Speaker 1: impact on Central Australia right now. You know from what

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Speaker 1: you've told me this morning, there's been hundreds of cancelations already.

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Speaker 1: But I'm assuming that you know that this is really hurting.

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Speaker 1: This is hurting tourism severely.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're getting cancelations from America, from England from Germany

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Speaker 2: well so. And the damage to our industry after what

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Speaker 2: has been the most challenging crisis that we had to

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Speaker 2: face under COVID, this is COVID was nothing compared to this.

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Speaker 2: This is destroying the tourism industry of Central Australia.

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Speaker 1: Oh, Daniel, you know, I said it all through last year,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I can't believe we're having to start

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Speaker 1: this year in exactly the same way. And I feel

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Speaker 1: for you guys. Honestly, it's heartbreaking to hear what's happening

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Speaker 1: in Alice Springs. And you know, all that I can

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Speaker 1: say is that we will continue to keep the pressure

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Speaker 1: on because something's got to change.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And look, you know, I know all we

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Speaker 2: need is to for our governments to come together and

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Speaker 2: not just pick one thing, but focus all their attention

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Speaker 2: at this and you know, throw the kitchen think at it,

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Speaker 2: because until they have, until such time they do that,

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Speaker 2: we are just going to live day in, day out.

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Speaker 2: I woke up at one am thinking my house was

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Speaker 2: being broken into last night. You know, we live with

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Speaker 2: that day in, day out, night in, night out, until

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Speaker 2: such time that our streets are stabilized. You know, we

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Speaker 2: are not going to be able to rest easy. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford, the CEO of Tourism Central Australia. As always,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate your time, no doubt we'll be speaking again

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Speaker 1: in the coming days. Thanks Katie, thank you,