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Katie Woolf spoke with Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf thanks to Joyce Main Darwin
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  Speaker 1: Homes owned Stuart Highway Berrimer.
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  Speaker 2: Last night, Territory Labour made the decision to keep Mark
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  Speaker 2: Turner in the Labor Party. They issued a statement last
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  Speaker 2: night saying the Member for Blaine's conduct has been disappointing
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  Speaker 2: and based on his actions, he'll be warned that behavior
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  Speaker 2: like this in the future will not be tolerated, noting
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  Speaker 2: serious sanctions already imposed by the Parliamentary Wing. They went
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  Speaker 2: on to say that should further information come to light
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  Speaker 2: about the Member for Blaine's conduct, the Administrative Committee of
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  Speaker 2: the party may consider further action which may result in expulsion.
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  Speaker 2: Now as we know, he was obviously ejected from the
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  Speaker 2: Labor caucus just a few weeks ago. The Chief Minister,
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  Speaker 2: Michael Gunner had actually written to the Labor Party asking
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  Speaker 2: them to consider expelling mister Turner from the party, but
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  Speaker 2: it seems as though they've done the total opposite. Now
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  Speaker 2: joining me on the line to talk more about this
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  Speaker 2: is the Opposition leader Leofanocchiaro.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Lea, Good morning Katie, and to your listeners, Lea, what.
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  Speaker 2: Was your reaction upon hearing that Labour would keep Mark
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  Speaker 2: Turner in the party.
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  Speaker 1: I was gobsmat Katie. I mean, what a weak decision
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  Speaker 1: from the Labor Party followed by weak decisions from Michael Gunner.
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  Speaker 1: I think this sends a really bad message to Territorians
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  Speaker 1: about the standard that the Labor Party keep and the
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  Speaker 1: standard that they tolerate. I mean, if the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 1: himself and his caucus colleagues have said they can't trust
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  Speaker 1: the Member for Blaine and that he has been dishonest,
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  Speaker 1: then why should the people of Blaine have to suffer
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  Speaker 1: continuing to have this person as their member of Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's something that I'm sort of struggling to get
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  Speaker 2: my head around at this point, is that the Chief
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  Speaker 2: Minister has said that he has said that you know
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  Speaker 2: that the Member for Blaine had not been honest with him. Now,
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  Speaker 2: I know that some people out there listening will be thinking, well,
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  Speaker 2: this is more of a moral issue, you know, than
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  Speaker 2: one of parliamentary ethics. But at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 2: the Chief Minister also said on this show, you know
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  Speaker 2: that he sat down with Mark Turner, he wrote that
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  Speaker 2: speech with him, and then when it came time to
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  Speaker 2: get up and basically be brutally honest. He wasn't.
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  Speaker 1: That's exactly right. This has been scandalous, unparliamentary behavior by
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  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister's own standard that he said when he
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  Speaker 1: was the Opposition leader, he said that things like this
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  Speaker 1: fundamentally breached community standard, it was unforgivable and that the
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  Speaker 1: person needed to resign. And so what we see is
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  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister being a hypocrite. He is happy to
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  Speaker 1: come out and say that there's a profound lack of
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  Speaker 1: trust between the Member for Blaine and the caucus, that
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  Speaker 1: the Member for Blaine has been dishonest, and even boot
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  Speaker 1: the Member for Blaine out of their party room, but
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  Speaker 1: has still not said that the Member for Blaine should resign.
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  Speaker 1: And of course now the Labor Party have arguably been
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  Speaker 1: even weaker on this issue than Michael Gunner has, which really,
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  Speaker 1: quite frankly, is completely astonishing and to me, Katie, it
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  Speaker 1: shows that Young Labour seemed to be calling the shots here.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, of course they put out that ridiculous letter
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  Speaker 1: a few weeks ago calling for someone to help them
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  Speaker 1: find Michael Gunner's spine and saying that the Member for
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  Speaker 1: Blaine should remain, and here we go, he remains a
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  Speaker 1: member of Labor and a member of Parliament Lea.
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  Speaker 2: We did obviously put in a request to speak to
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  Speaker 2: the President of the Labor Party early and we are
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  Speaker 2: hoping that at some point we'll be able to. But
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  Speaker 2: do you think that this exemplifies that the party is
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  Speaker 2: divided on this issue.
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  Speaker 1: I think the party must be terribly divided on this issue.
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  Speaker 1: You've got their parliamentary leader, the Chief Minister of the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory, saying well, you should look at removing him.
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  Speaker 1: You've then got the eron Or herself, the President of
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  Speaker 1: the Labor Party herself when the scandal first broke, came
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  Speaker 1: out and said that anything that impacts the integrity of
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  Speaker 1: the party needs to be dealt with. And then you've
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  Speaker 1: got this kind of statement that comes out and says
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  Speaker 1: words like, you know, behavior like this in the future
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  Speaker 1: will not be tolerated. Well, why is it being tolerated now?
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  Speaker 1: This is a member of parliament held to very high
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  Speaker 1: community standards and the people of Blaine, and I've been
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  Speaker 1: talking to a lot of people from Blaine, Katie who
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  Speaker 1: are just furious that someone liked the member for Blaine
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  Speaker 1: can continue to sit there and represent them when clearly
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  Speaker 1: he's fundamentally breached their trust, breached the trust of the
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister, breached the trust of his team.
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  Speaker 2: Leah, I want to ask. We know that anybody that's
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  Speaker 2: been in the Northern Territory for a while will remember
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  Speaker 2: that when the COLP was in power, there was a
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  Speaker 2: scandal relating to the former Member for Blaine. Did you
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  Speaker 2: guys end up booting that person out of the party.
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  Speaker 1: So that person stepped down, They ended up responding very
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  Speaker 1: quickly to the community concerns around the behavior. And that's
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  Speaker 1: exactly what the Member for Blaine should have done. But
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  Speaker 1: instead he's buried his head in the sand in a true,
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  Speaker 1: tried and tested labor tactic. He's not been called on
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  Speaker 1: to resign by the Chief Minister or his team, despite
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  Speaker 1: the fact that during this gi or ministers of this
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  Speaker 1: government backgrounded media saying that the Member for Blaine's position
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  Speaker 1: in Parliament was untenable. And now you've got the party
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  Speaker 1: itself effectively endorsing the behavior by not providing any sanctions
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  Speaker 1: or getting rid of him all these weeks later. And
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  Speaker 1: the people who stuff are other people of Blane, Katie,
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  Speaker 1: and that's who I really feel sorry for, because ultimately
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  Speaker 1: they're now left with a member of Parliament who even
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  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister can't trust.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I guess that's the other point to take into
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  Speaker 2: account here. You know, if he were to be booted
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  Speaker 2: from the party, he would essentially be sitting as an independent, unless,
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  Speaker 2: of course, like you said, he made a decision himself
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  Speaker 2: to step down from the role, which doesn't look as
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  Speaker 2: though it's going to happen. So really wouldn't that be
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  Speaker 2: worse for the people of his electorate if he were
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  Speaker 2: just start to stay in the role as an independent?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think the Labor Party has got to think
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  Speaker 1: about their integrity on this issue. As was first stated
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  Speaker 1: at the start of this scandal, I mean, to effectively
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  Speaker 1: support this behavior by issuing some sort of warning is
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  Speaker 1: really not good enough. It doesn't pass that community standard. Tense,
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  Speaker 1: and the Member for Blaine himself has a lot of
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  Speaker 1: reflecting to do, and I certainly hope if he is
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  Speaker 1: continuing on that he's out in the electorate and hearing
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  Speaker 1: directly from the very same people who are bailing me up, Katie,
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  Speaker 1: because they are so so angry about this. It's just
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  Speaker 1: not right. The whole thing has been handled appallingly from
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  Speaker 1: start to finish, and I certainly hope that the Labor
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  Speaker 1: Party of the Chief Minister and the Member for Blaine
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  Speaker 1: come to their sensors on this issue, because how can
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  Speaker 1: you have someone sitting in Parliament who has lost the
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  Speaker 1: trust of their party room, of the Chief Minister, who
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  Speaker 1: has been accused of being dishonest, for having a profound
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  Speaker 1: lack of trust, and yet the people of Blaine have
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  Speaker 1: to endure that member of Parliament for the next three years.
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  Speaker 2: Leah, what would you say to those people listening who
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  Speaker 2: are thinking to themselves, isn't this just a private issue?
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  Speaker 2: Shouldn't we just leave Mark Turner to sort these issues
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  Speaker 2: within his family himself.
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  Speaker 1: This is not a private issue. We as members of
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  Speaker 1: Parliament are held to a very high parliamentary standard around integrity,
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  Speaker 1: around our conduct. The Member for Blaine himself is the
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  Speaker 1: person who put himself out during the election campaign on
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  Speaker 1: a platform of family values, on a religious platform, on
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  Speaker 1: a platform as being the hero cop. And now we've
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  Speaker 1: seen these events unfold and he has to take a
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  Speaker 1: really good hard look at himself. The people for in
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  Speaker 1: Blaine elected him based on the platform he ran on,
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  Speaker 1: and clearly there are huge question marks over those issues.
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  Speaker 2: So, Leah, you think he needs to stand down from
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  Speaker 2: that position and there needs to be a by election.
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  Speaker 1: Without question. And if the member for Blaine thinks he's
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  Speaker 1: the best person to continue to represent the people for Blaine,
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  Speaker 1: then he can throw his hat in the ring and
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  Speaker 1: run again. But let the people of Blaine decide.
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  Speaker 2: Sounds like you're challenging him to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, someone's got to because the Chief Minister is not,
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  Speaker 1: his caucus isn't, and the Labor Party isn't. But Katie,
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  Speaker 1: I will always fight for what is right and what
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  Speaker 1: territories are talking to us about. And they think that
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  Speaker 1: this is such a sad, ridiculous sequence of events that
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  Speaker 1: have taken place, and that buring your head in the
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  Speaker 1: sand on this one is just not going to cut it.
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  Speaker 2: Leah Finocchio, Opposition Leader. We always appreciate your time. Thanks
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  Speaker 2: so much for talking with us this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. Take care,