Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Senator Sam McMahon about her taxpayers trip to Townsville

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Katie Woolf spoke with Senator Sam McMahon about her taxpayers trip to Townsville · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: The ABC was this morning reporting well that one of
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  Speaker 1: our federal representatives, Senator Sam McMahon, had taken a trip
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  Speaker 1: to Townsville, supporting an LMP candidate during last year's Queensland election.
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  Speaker 2: Now, the ABC reported that.
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  Speaker 1: The total cost of the taxpayer funded flights was one
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  Speaker 1: and ninety dollars, while the senator paid for her accommodation
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  Speaker 1: and also food and other transport out of her own pocket.
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  Speaker 1: She says she was there to attend official meetings, and
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  Speaker 1: the Senator joins me on the line right now, Senator
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  Speaker 1: Sam McMahon, good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, hey, good, good morning Katie, and congratulations to by
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  Speaker 3: the way.
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  Speaker 2: Oh thank you, Senator. I appreciate it. Are you still
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  Speaker 2: in Darwin at the moment?
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  Speaker 3: I am at the moment. Yeah, yeah, bucketing down outside,
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  Speaker 3: it's lovely.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, whereabouts you? I was going to ask you how's
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  Speaker 2: the weather?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well out here at Jingle it's absolutely bucketing down now.
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  Speaker 3: It was fantastic And I hope I can take some
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  Speaker 3: down to Catherine with me later today. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I reckon they'd be happy with that as well.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Senator, let's get to this story that's been reported
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  Speaker 1: on this morning by the ABC that you took a
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  Speaker 1: trip to Townsville to support LMP candidates during last year's
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  Speaker 1: Queensland election. Senator, Was that the only reason that you
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  Speaker 1: went on this trip to Townsville?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Okadie, I haven't actually seen the story myself, but
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  Speaker 3: what they're talking about. No, No, The purpose of the
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  Speaker 3: trip to Townsville was to do with ASYL three point zero,
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  Speaker 3: so that that is the introduction of the new standards
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  Speaker 3: for live cattle transport and export, which I had been
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  Speaker 3: working on for a couple of weeks. I've had quite
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  Speaker 3: a few meetings with the Northern Territory Cattleman's Association and
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory Livestock Exporters Association with regard to these
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  Speaker 3: new standards coming in which would have had dramatic impacts
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  Speaker 3: on territory cattle producers. So that was the primary purpose
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  Speaker 3: of the trip to town.
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  Speaker 1: Did you help Queensland politicians to campaign while you were there?
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  Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure I didn't help. I called in and
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  Speaker 3: might have eaten some of their democracy sausages, but I
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't really say I helped.
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  Speaker 2: Know how much did the trip cost?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think that the flights were around thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Now, plenty of people would be asking, you know, was
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  Speaker 1: that money appropriately spent?
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  Speaker 2: Is it something that you're planning to pay back?
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  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Look, Katie, the fact is that the trip was, as
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  Speaker 3: I said, primarily to do with ACEL three for zero
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  Speaker 3: being introduced and getting changes that were desperately needed to
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  Speaker 3: that for Northern Territory livestock producers and exporters. So I
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  Speaker 3: mean that was the primary purpose of the trip. And
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  Speaker 3: given that the NT Livestock Exporters Association have estimated that
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  Speaker 3: the changes that I was able to bring about to
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  Speaker 3: these new standards have saved Northern exporters and producers around
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  Speaker 3: forty to fifty million dollars a year. So I mean,
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  Speaker 3: if if it was a work trip and everything was
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  Speaker 3: paid for by the taxpayers, I think you'd have to
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  Speaker 3: say that, you know, one thousand dollars to save forty
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  Speaker 3: to fifty million per annum would definitely be money well spent.
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  Speaker 3: But the fact of the matter was between booking their flights,
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  Speaker 3: and there's often a very large gap between when you
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  Speaker 3: formulate a trip, the book your flights, then actually make
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  Speaker 3: the trip, then go to to put in your your
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  Speaker 3: claim to IPIA, which is the regulatory body. There can
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  Speaker 3: be there can be months that can be up to
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  Speaker 3: a six month gap between sort of initially booking it
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  Speaker 3: and then making the claim. Now, I made the decision
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  Speaker 3: that because it was a very small trip, and because
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  Speaker 3: I knew I had a couple of big trips coming
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  Speaker 3: up that would involve into state travel and my my
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  Speaker 3: I think I'm limited to like three trips per autum.
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  Speaker 3: I decided to not use this particular one, which is
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  Speaker 3: quite a common thing to do to change the purpose
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  Speaker 3: of your trip or the timing of your trip or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: And I had put in well before Christmas to to
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  Speaker 3: IPIA a request to say, I want to change this
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  Speaker 3: to my own personal trip and not claim anything. And
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  Speaker 3: I hadn't claimed any travel allowance or anything else.
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  Speaker 1: So to cut a long story short, you will be
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  Speaker 1: paying for it yourself.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Look, I paid for everything myself except for
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  Speaker 3: the flights, which, as I said, I booked through the
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  Speaker 3: government travel agency in advance of the trip, and I've
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  Speaker 3: ages ago requested to have that converted to my own
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  Speaker 3: personal account and to pay that myself rather than claim
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  Speaker 3: it as a trip. Because I've got several trips well,
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  Speaker 3: a couple of trips coming up to Cocus and Christmas Islands,
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  Speaker 3: which at the moment, because of travel restrictions, does require
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  Speaker 3: at least sort of two to three days stopover to
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  Speaker 3: even get there. So knowing that I have to do that,
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  Speaker 3: I wanted to save that limited interstate travel that I
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  Speaker 3: do get.
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  Speaker 1: So, Senator, do you feel in this instance that you've
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  Speaker 1: done anything wrong by this trip to Townsville or do
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  Speaker 1: you feel that it was you know that it was
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  Speaker 1: well within your rights and well within your realm to be.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, not nothing wrong whatsoever. I mean, firstly, it's
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  Speaker 3: a personal trip. I'm paying, I have paid and then
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  Speaker 3: paid for it by myself, So as a personal trip, no,
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  Speaker 3: I've come perfectly entitled to do that. If I had
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  Speaker 3: decided to claim a travel allowance and that sort of
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  Speaker 3: thing and claim it as a work trip, then yes,
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  Speaker 3: I'm perfectly entitled to do that. And as I said,
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  Speaker 3: it was principally a work trip to do with live export.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, because of that that small trip, I've
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  Speaker 3: been able to save territory producers and the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: industry forty to fifty million dollars a year. So I
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  Speaker 3: would consider that fairly worthwhile.
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  Speaker 2: Senator, let's move along.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you know, there's a bit of speculation
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  Speaker 1: at the moment about when the federal election is going
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  Speaker 1: to happen. Some people, you know, wondering whether it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be a bit later this year. I'm sure you're
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  Speaker 1: not going to tell us this morning when the election,
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  Speaker 1: the federal election is going to be called, but can
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  Speaker 1: we expect a few more visits from some of our
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  Speaker 1: federal ministers.
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  Speaker 2: I know you've already had the Deputy PM here. Yeah, well, Katie, he.
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  Speaker 3: Was actually the acting Prime Minister when he was here
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  Speaker 3: just over a week and a half ago, so we
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  Speaker 3: actually had the Prime Minister of Australia at the time
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  Speaker 3: come to Darwin and Tennant Creek, which was quite exciting.
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  Speaker 3: It was a great, great visit and some great announcements
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  Speaker 3: road funding something I absolutely love is road infrastructure, and
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  Speaker 3: we had some good announcements around that, so that was good. Look,
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  Speaker 3: obviously the timing of the federal election is up to PM,
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  Speaker 3: but there certainly is some indications and speculations that it
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  Speaker 3: will be later this year, and yes, I'm certain expecting
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  Speaker 3: a lot more ministerial visits. We had Minister Fletcher here
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  Speaker 3: a couple of days ago. Yep. Communication and arts so
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  Speaker 3: and yes, I know. I talk with Minister David little
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  Speaker 3: Proud very frequently and he is keen as mustard to
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  Speaker 3: get up here. He will, he will get up here
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  Speaker 3: as soon as he can.
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  Speaker 1: Senator, can I just ask you on a much lighter note,
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  Speaker 1: we think that Senator little Proud looks a lot like
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  Speaker 1: our news director Maddie Hepworth. So if you're able to
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  Speaker 1: bring him into the studio, I reckon they need a
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  Speaker 1: photo together.
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  Speaker 3: I will absolutely. I reckon you're right too. Actually, I
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  Speaker 3: will absolutely bring the Minister into the studio and the yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we can have a photo.
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  Speaker 1: We'll certainly ask him about political issues, but they definitely
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  Speaker 1: need a photo together.
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  Speaker 2: Senator, we are going to have to leave it there.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on this morning and speaking with
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  Speaker 1: us about that the Queensland trip and giving us a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more.
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  Speaker 2: We'll catch up with you again very soon. When are
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  Speaker 2: you back in Canberra?
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  Speaker 3: Head that down this coming Sunday, Katie. So yeah, it's
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  Speaker 3: all full on, all right, Well.
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  Speaker 1: Let us know if there's anything happening in Canberra as
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  Speaker 1: well that we should be aware of. As always, I
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time, no worries.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely we'll do and thank you.
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  Speaker 2: And again congratulations, thank you, Thanks senator. We'll talk to
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  Speaker 2: you again very soon.