Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has renewed his calls for more police in the city saying crime will get worse with alcohol bans in place

Transcript

Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has renewed his calls for more police in the city saying crime will get worse with alcohol bans in place · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: You can never get me in convat Scarlas to be
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  Speaker 1: quite really. In the ad break chat, don't we gone do?
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  Speaker 2: We did? Talk? Even under water.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly now, Corne you are indeed the Lord Mayor of Darwin.
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  Speaker 1: It's always good to have you on the show. We
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  Speaker 1: have actually got a couple of questions coming through from
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  Speaker 1: our listeners too, from what I can see, so I'll
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  Speaker 1: get to that shortly. But this announcement that was made
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  Speaker 1: by the Chief Minister earlier in the week, the alcohol restrictions,
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  Speaker 1: now they're going. The legislation is going to be introduced
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  Speaker 1: to Parliament on Tuesday next week, is my understanding, and
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  Speaker 1: it is going to mean that there will be restrictions
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  Speaker 1: in place right across the Northern territory. A good move,
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  Speaker 1: do you think.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a very good move.
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  Speaker 3: However, the government has to be very very careful because
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  Speaker 3: by putting restrictions to communities through out the territory, whether
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  Speaker 3: people they actually want and need alcohol because they're alcoholic
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  Speaker 3: going to find their alcohol, that means that it's going
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  Speaker 3: to be an influx of drunks in Tennant Creek, Catherine
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  Speaker 3: in the Ilish Spring itself's got restrictions now, so they're
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  Speaker 3: not going to go there.
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  Speaker 2: But also Darwin, so the gum he has.
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  Speaker 3: To actually put police on the streets be effective again
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  Speaker 3: with two kilometer lows, no even, but they have to
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  Speaker 3: do it. What's the second supply? That's a big, big
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  Speaker 3: problem in Darwin and zero tolerance. People should not be
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  Speaker 3: allowed to smatter windows of shops to get access to
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  Speaker 3: alcohol or break into houses. Just get tough for a
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  Speaker 3: while and things will get better. The reality is we'll
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  Speaker 3: live in a crisis. We have to actually get some
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  Speaker 3: really tough measures that we haven't considered before. And I
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  Speaker 3: have to say people talk about backflip, but the Chief Minister,
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  Speaker 3: well done. I'm glad you did that back backflip. Natasa.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a problem. Yes, we made a mistake, all
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  Speaker 3: of us. We thought things are not going to be
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  Speaker 3: as bad as they became, and you decided, well, stuff it.
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  Speaker 2: We made a mistake. We're going to fix.
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  Speaker 1: It all of there's a lot of anger towards I
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  Speaker 1: think that there hasn't sort of been that acknowledgment. Yes
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  Speaker 1: I made mistakes, and I move on, but you know
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  Speaker 1: they all make mistakes.
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  Speaker 3: We're not perfect. Come on, let's face it. It was
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  Speaker 3: a mistake. She made the back flip, and I don't care.
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  Speaker 3: I've done something in my political life, but only for
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  Speaker 3: the best of the community. Buckflips for the bad things
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  Speaker 3: for the community is bad. But doing something good for
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  Speaker 3: the community, I think is good. You can easy to
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  Speaker 3: throw stones, but again, if you live in glasshouses, don't
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  Speaker 3: throw stones.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking of some of that antisocial behavior that you just
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  Speaker 1: touched on, I know it's something that you and I
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  Speaker 1: have spoken about on so many occasions. But I do
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  Speaker 1: know this local businessman, Sam Weston, who owns the Mad Snake,
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  Speaker 1: he had taken to social media earlier in the week
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  Speaker 1: and we are going to have him on after ten
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  Speaker 1: o'clock to say, you know, he hates doing negative posts,
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  Speaker 1: but Thursday night last week, he watched two people smash
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  Speaker 1: his plants outside the business, snapping all the flowers in anger.
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  Speaker 1: He went on to tell them off and they racially
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  Speaker 1: abused him. He then had a situation where his door
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  Speaker 1: was broken, someone smashing it in. You know, he's also
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  Speaker 1: spoken about people defecating around the place.
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  Speaker 3: Well, most of these things are results of alcohol. Come on,
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  Speaker 3: let's face it. People they say they're angry, No they're not. Angry,
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  Speaker 3: they have bloody drunk okay, and when they're drunk, they're stupid.
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  Speaker 3: And whether they are stupid, there stupid things. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: if I got the community and smashing things around, they're
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  Speaker 3: going to kick me out very quickly. The other thing
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  Speaker 3: is we should not tolerate this kind of behavior. Report
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  Speaker 3: it to the police. Just make sure you report the police.
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  Speaker 3: If you're racially abused, just ignore it, just report to
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  Speaker 3: the police. I already are spoke to my rangers. I
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  Speaker 3: spoke to my people. We're not going to tolerate illegal camping.
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  Speaker 3: We're going to take action. We know who are the
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  Speaker 3: real people. They are homeless and Downwin. We know every
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  Speaker 3: single of them. But the others are not homeless, they're
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  Speaker 3: not disadvananced. They're just drunks.
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  Speaker 2: They come here to drink alcohol.
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  Speaker 1: And do you think has there been an increase or
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  Speaker 1: how have things been going on?
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  Speaker 3: He's been an increase. I mean, you have to be
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  Speaker 3: blind not to realize. There's so many people in Dowwin
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  Speaker 3: and I look at them, I said, where do you stay?
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  Speaker 3: Because they don't stay in the accommodation that's offered because
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  Speaker 3: you're not allowed to drink there. So they will go
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  Speaker 3: and stay in this point. Well, if we find your
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  Speaker 3: things in this point, we'll make sure the police is
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  Speaker 3: with us, or we'll take them away.
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  Speaker 1: Con let's step aside from some of those alcohol issues
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  Speaker 1: for a moment, but not too far away, because I've
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  Speaker 1: got a message here from one of our listeners. Good morning,
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  Speaker 1: my friends. Can you please ask Corn when the bus
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  Speaker 1: stops going to get moved? The crimes unbelievable At the
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  Speaker 1: Darwin City CBD Plaza security guard punched and two operations later,
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  Speaker 1: four windows smashed, two elderly ladies, bag snatched, five destroyed,
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  Speaker 1: five cars destroyed. Please someone help. I don't know when
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  Speaker 1: exactly those incidents happened, but it's well.
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  Speaker 2: Don't know either.
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  Speaker 3: But the bus stops o the responsibility not the territory government,
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  Speaker 3: as is the presence of lack of presure of the police.
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  Speaker 3: All of this is that will not happen if there
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  Speaker 3: was police patrols on the street, not a patrol that
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  Speaker 3: goes around with a flushing golf cart, real police on
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  Speaker 3: the streets. I've been asking for that for a long
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  Speaker 3: long time. I haven't seen a policeman on foot patrols
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  Speaker 3: for a long long.
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  Speaker 2: Time, and now the have you, I bet.
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  Speaker 3: My argument is the government is you're going to put
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  Speaker 3: ban or alcohol in order the territory. How are you
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  Speaker 3: going to address the problem when all these people there
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  Speaker 3: will storm into different urban centers looking for alcohol.
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  Speaker 2: Makes a difficult police on the streets.
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  Speaker 1: That's a difficult thing right now as well is they
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  Speaker 1: keep saying that they've got more money invested into the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory police than ever before, but the police are
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  Speaker 1: at the forefront, they are required the most for.
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  Speaker 3: Police spending all this monern police, I'll be asking questions
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  Speaker 3: where this money are and how who and where are
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  Speaker 3: the policemen that's paid with this money, Because I don't
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  Speaker 3: know how much money are spared.
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  Speaker 2: I don't care. I want to see results on the streets.
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  Speaker 1: Well, con look, I know that our police work incredibly hard.
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  Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not talking about the policeman the police officers all right,
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  Speaker 3: because I've got police officers complaining to me about that.
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  Speaker 3: I've got police officers, not only the people on the
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  Speaker 3: on the floor, but even police rank officers that tell
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  Speaker 3: me that they're really disappointed.
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  Speaker 1: So just going back to that question, So basically with
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  Speaker 1: the with the bus stop, that's not something that the
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  Speaker 1: counts don't say.
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  Speaker 2: On that one. That's territory government, all.
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  Speaker 1: Right, push though to have that moved. Didn't you trying
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  Speaker 1: to actually.
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  Speaker 2: Have it moved.
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  Speaker 1: We have.
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  Speaker 3: I mean we always raised the issues about if you
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  Speaker 3: put that bus stop there, we're going to have problems
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  Speaker 3: like the.
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  Speaker 2: Bus stops near the Woolworths. Now you have to find
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  Speaker 2: a better solution. We've got a situation now that I
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  Speaker 2: will not go shopping in the city in Woolworths because
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  Speaker 2: I can't be bothered.
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  Speaker 1: Which is unbelievable. And I know you said that last week,
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  Speaker 1: but I mean you're the Lord Mayor of Donwin and
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  Speaker 1: you're saying that you.
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  Speaker 3: Cliff to go to Woolworths than actually go in the city.
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  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. It truly is unbelievable.
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  Speaker 3: I'm very sorry if people in the government don't like
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  Speaker 3: what I say, But the reality is you brought it
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  Speaker 3: up in yourself. If you put your foot down in
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  Speaker 3: this mind that there's polition on the streets to make
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  Speaker 3: sure they are apposition on the street, the ref ruff
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  Speaker 3: will go away.
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  Speaker 1: Con let's move along. I know that I had noticed
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  Speaker 1: that there's been some work going on at Perap. What's
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  Speaker 1: going on there is that just beautification.
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  Speaker 3: We are at starting a beautification spending quite a bit
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  Speaker 3: of money there. That's not the only place we're actually
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  Speaker 3: doing beautification at the moment, because I have the idea
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  Speaker 3: of we spend enough money in CBD and we'll continue
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  Speaker 3: to spend mine at the CBD, but we have to
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  Speaker 3: look after the suburbs, so Perap is the.
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  Speaker 2: First one to be done.
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  Speaker 3: Then we've got a nightcliff walk that's going to be
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  Speaker 3: peutified in the nightcliff, rappid click area, putting chairs and
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  Speaker 3: tables and covers, spending half a million dollars to put
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  Speaker 3: new playgrounds or playgrounds up great in how we parkner
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  Speaker 3: car a Bold Park in Aloa Thrond the Park, moil
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  Speaker 3: Killian Park, Gingily eat On Park in Karama and launch
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  Speaker 3: Bonnie Parking Perap and of course this week we're starting
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  Speaker 3: completely due of Goida Road, so.
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  Speaker 2: It's going to spend money there.
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  Speaker 1: The exactly what you're doing real completely.
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  Speaker 2: You remember the gravel, it's gone, it's going to go.
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  Speaker 3: We put water tanks there to water the plants we're
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  Speaker 3: going to put We're going to put new selected plans
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  Speaker 3: there like rain trees, frenchy panies, cycles, Rossie trumpet tree
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  Speaker 3: and undergrowth what you've seen in the daily street.
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  Speaker 2: Something similar happening in Goider.
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  Speaker 1: Road in this stage that would be really nice, I think,
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  Speaker 1: because it has been.
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  Speaker 3: And the other thing is we're spending money now to
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  Speaker 3: put new lighting in Middle Beach to make it safer.
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  Speaker 3: With a new smart poles, we can arrange the level
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  Speaker 3: of lighting depending on the activity that takes place and CCTV.
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  Speaker 3: So you think you're going to be sturbuing in Middle Beach,
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  Speaker 3: be careful because the police will have a very good
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  Speaker 3: view of what you're doing through system.
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  Speaker 2: So when is that being installed, Well, it's happening now.
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  Speaker 3: It's having one million dollars and we decided to that one.
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  Speaker 3: We've got to come up with grant and then by
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  Speaker 3: the end of the year we're going to spend the
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  Speaker 3: first lot of money there.
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  Speaker 1: And is that as a result of some of the
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  Speaker 1: anti social behavior and that we've seen it been.
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  Speaker 3: Do We decided not to wait until it just behavior happens.
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  Speaker 3: We decided to actually do it before it starts happening,
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  Speaker 3: so people will know that that place is monitored, so
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  Speaker 3: they will not do it. If there is police on
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  Speaker 3: the ground, if there is lighting, if there is activity
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  Speaker 3: the river, I is going and that's what I'm asking.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not just blindly says bring ball of the ground
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  Speaker 3: because I like having blue uniforms on the ground. It's
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  Speaker 3: the effect you've got if you say somebody in a.
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  Speaker 1: Blue uniform, well, Combat Scarlus, the Lord Mayor of Darwin,
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  Speaker 1: we better leave it there. Good to speak to you.
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  Speaker 1: As always.
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  Speaker 3: I just want to tell you that I'm not aiming
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  Speaker 3: again for politics, and I'm so strong about addiscsive behavior.
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  Speaker 3: I just support my community. This is what I hear
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  Speaker 3: from the people on the ground. This is what tell
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  Speaker 3: loud and clear to my experience, probably in the government
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  Speaker 3: that they're not doing.
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  Speaker 2: It very well.
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  Speaker 1: I reckon I've defriended you at this point.
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  Speaker 2: Card, I haven't received many Christmas cars this year.
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  Speaker 1: Combat Scarlus, Good to speak with you. Thank you,