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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, Katie Wolf and three point sixty online at Mix
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: one O four nine dot com.
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  Speaker 2: You well, as I've been saying, it is going to
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  Speaker 2: be an interesting day for the first day of parliament
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: for twenty twenty one. And the Chief Minister and his
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  Speaker 2: Labor team obviously still in denial over this alleged cocaine
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  Speaker 2: sex scandal in broiling their party, as you've just heard
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  Speaker 2: from the Health Minister Natasha Files. Unless there is evidence presented,
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  Speaker 2: then she says, as the Chief Minister said earlier this
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  Speaker 2: morning on the ABC that really it's just.
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  Speaker 3: Internet rumor and innuendo.
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  Speaker 2: Now joining me on the line is the Opposition leader Leafanocchiaro.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Leah, Good.
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  Speaker 1: Morning Katie, and good morning Chield listeness Lea.
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  Speaker 2: Is that all that this is rumor and innuendo from
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  Speaker 2: the internet.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's a convenient line for the Gunna
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  Speaker 1: Labor government to run when they're ducking and hiding from
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  Speaker 1: a very serious issue. As Territorians are aware, a major
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  Speaker 1: new outlet published allegations, serious criminal allegations. I have responded
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  Speaker 1: and called on the Chief Minister and the interest of
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  Speaker 1: integrity of our parliament and of our government to address
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  Speaker 1: the allegations about territory labor, and I'm really not sure
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  Speaker 1: why the Chief Minister is having such a difficult time
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  Speaker 1: addressing these allegations. He has not come out and denied
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  Speaker 1: that members of his team were involved.
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  Speaker 2: He has said that if you've got evidence of any
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  Speaker 2: criminal activity, don't call a press conference, call the police.
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  Speaker 3: Have you called the police?
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  Speaker 1: No, I have not reported this to the police. But
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  Speaker 1: the question is a perfect one for the Chief Minister.
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  Speaker 1: Has he conducted any investigation, has he made any inquiries?
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  Speaker 1: This is about territory labor. This clearly sits at the
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  Speaker 1: feet of the Chief Minister. This is about integrity. We've
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  Speaker 1: had the Labor President herself come out and say the
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister needs to address this issue, and you know
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  Speaker 1: it's it's not good enough for him to bury his
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  Speaker 1: head in the sand on this issue like he does
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  Speaker 1: with crime in our community, like he does with our economy.
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  Speaker 2: Leah, have you got evidence that you're able to show
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  Speaker 2: in Parliament today?
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  Speaker 1: We will be asking the tough questions of the government
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  Speaker 1: in Parliament as we do every sittings. Clearly, issues around crime,
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  Speaker 1: around our economy are all going to feature this week
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  Speaker 1: in Parliament. It's just astonishing that on this issue the
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  Speaker 1: government continues to bury its head in the sand. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't pass the pub test. You know, I made it
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  Speaker 1: crystal clear that this does not relate to my team.
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  Speaker 1: Now the balls and the Chief Minister's caught.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think this, I mean it is a really
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  Speaker 2: difficult one. Like I know that everybody in town's talking
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  Speaker 2: about it. I know that a lot of us have
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  Speaker 2: certainly heard these allegations that have been made. But I
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  Speaker 2: can see the path that the government's taking now, and
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  Speaker 2: it seems as though they're saying, well, if there's not evidence,
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  Speaker 2: then they're not going to do anything about it, and
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  Speaker 2: they're not going to actually answer the questions that you've got.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, how are you going to respond to that?
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's really about how the chief Minister responds. He
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  Speaker 1: is the leader of a party, he is the chief
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  Speaker 1: minister of our great territory. These allegations are being published
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  Speaker 1: in our newspaper, printed in news outlets, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: Anti News published today that they have takes messages that
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  Speaker 1: have verified allegations. The only person who seems to not
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  Speaker 1: understand or have not been looking at this is a
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  Speaker 1: chief Minister himself. So he needs to front up. He's
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  Speaker 1: the person who came out on a platform of open
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  Speaker 1: and transparent government. He's the one who held himself out
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  Speaker 1: to a very high bar of standards in our community,
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  Speaker 1: and he needs to come out and either deny or
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  Speaker 1: explain what's going on.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the Labor Party came out very strongly towards
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  Speaker 2: the Giles government when there was a scandal, you know,
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  Speaker 2: many years ago or quite a few years ago, involving
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  Speaker 2: a LUD video. I mean, realistically, here, if there isn't
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  Speaker 2: evidence that something illegal has happened, is there's still a
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  Speaker 2: moral question if there are lud text messages or lud photos, well.
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  Speaker 1: There are a number of questions, and that's why the
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister has to conduct an investigation. I mean, he
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  Speaker 1: cannot just pretend like this is not happening. He needs
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  Speaker 1: to clear the air one way or the other. If
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  Speaker 1: it's if it's innuendo on the internet, as they like
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  Speaker 1: to say, then come out and say that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: prove that. But to just not make any inquiries, to
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  Speaker 1: not investigate this matter at all, is arrogant. It holds
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  Speaker 1: territories in contempt. It shows complete disregard for the fact
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  Speaker 1: finding of the truth and that's not acceptable when you're
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  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister. Lea.
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  Speaker 2: I have got a text message from a listener. It says, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: can you please ask Leah if the Chief Minister and
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  Speaker 2: Minister Files should resign if evidence does surface.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean that's an excellent question. What kind of
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  Speaker 1: hope do we have if evidence you know, if this
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  Speaker 1: all plays out and it's you know, allegations are proven
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  Speaker 1: and the Chief Minister knew about it, you know, he's
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  Speaker 1: got some serious questions to answer. It's outrageous to bury
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  Speaker 1: your head in the sand, as I keep saying, and
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  Speaker 1: not front up on this issue. He's got to clear
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  Speaker 1: the air. It's put a huge cloud over the territory.
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  Speaker 1: We're going into two weeks of parliamentary sittings during which
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  Speaker 1: time there are critical issues to debate around crime, the
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  Speaker 1: state of our economy, health system, all sorts of other matters,
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  Speaker 1: and instead he's playing politics with an issue that clearly
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  Speaker 1: has questions to answer.
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  Speaker 2: Lea, You're obviously going to be asking questions about this
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  Speaker 2: today though in Parliament.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we will certainly be asking the Government a whole
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  Speaker 1: range of questions. And again, the fact that the Chef
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  Speaker 1: Minister has not come out and denied these criminal, serious
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  Speaker 1: criminal allegations speaks volume.
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  Speaker 2: And so you do think that a full investigation needs
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  Speaker 2: to be conducted by the Chief Minister here to ensure
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  Speaker 2: and you know, to really to show Territorians that there's
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  Speaker 2: nothing untoward.
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  Speaker 1: Gone on, without question, without question, Katie, how can he
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  Speaker 1: continue on and have this hangover the government and their
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  Speaker 1: party without dealing with it properly. You know, Territorians expect
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  Speaker 1: there to be inquiries made, investigations undertaken, and the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister to come forward with something other than hiding behind COVID,
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  Speaker 1: which is his favorite go to strategy because he lacks
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  Speaker 1: leadership and is too arrogant to deal properly with the
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  Speaker 1: concerns of our community.
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  Speaker 3: All right, Lee, let's move along.
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  Speaker 2: You did say that there's certainly going to be a
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  Speaker 2: focused from the opposition on crime. How do you plan
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  Speaker 2: on really trying to ensure that the territory and well
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  Speaker 2: Territorians who have been really plagued by crime that their
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  Speaker 2: voice is this are going to be heard in Parliament
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  Speaker 2: over the next two weeks.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we're certainly going to be asking a lot of
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  Speaker 1: questioning questions in question time over the next couple of
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  Speaker 1: weeks and you know, ensuring that they understand just how
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: catastrophic their bow reform legislation has been. Of course, we've
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  Speaker 1: had the Police Association come out and say it's weak.
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  Speaker 1: We know now through our opposition questioning that fifty percent
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  Speaker 1: of people who were of youth who were arrested last
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  Speaker 1: financial year were on bail at the time they were arrested.
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  Speaker 1: We heard from the Police Commissioner last week that seventy
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  Speaker 1: five percent of use offenders dealt with by Strikeforce Viper
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  Speaker 1: in Alice Springs were repeat offenders. The government is just
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  Speaker 1: just not in touch with the sentiment in the community,
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  Speaker 1: is not in touch with the reality of the statistics.
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  Speaker 1: They continue to just bullishly push through and not look
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  Speaker 1: at what their policies are doing, which are creating victims
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  Speaker 1: right across the territory. It's completely unacceptable. There's clear things
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  Speaker 1: that need to be done. We have been calling for
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  Speaker 1: breach of vowel condition to be brought back as an offense.
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  Speaker 1: We are saying that repeat offenders should not have a
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  Speaker 1: presumption in favor of VOO. If you are a repeat offender,
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  Speaker 1: there should be an escalating scale of consequences territory families
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  Speaker 1: should not be responsible for youth justice. That must go
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  Speaker 1: back to corrections and the list of things we believe
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  Speaker 1: need to happen go on and on and on. But
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  Speaker 1: the only people not coming to the table on this
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  Speaker 1: issue around crime is the Gunna Labor government.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Lefanochiaro, we are going to have to leave it there.
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  Speaker 2: I think we'll be speaking to you again tomorrow anyway,
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  Speaker 2: and your usual Wednesday spots, so we'll.
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  Speaker 3: See how we go. Thank you, thanks for your time.
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  Speaker 2: Day. It is just twenty minutes away from ten o'clock
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  Speaker 2: and that number if you'd like to call through today
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  Speaker 2: eight nine four one one oh four nine.
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  Speaker 3: You can also send us a text message if.
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  Speaker 2: You'd like zero four one eight nine five seven three
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  Speaker 2: six nine And I'm interested to hear from you. What
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  Speaker 2: do you think about this tact that the government's obviously
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  Speaker 2: going down there now calling on the opposition later Leofanocchiario
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  Speaker 2: to provide evidence of allegations that are Territory Labor members
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  Speaker 2: are implicated in the cocaine sex scandal, as claims obviously
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  Speaker 2: continue to dog the party. We do know that yesterday
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  Speaker 2: the President of the Labor Party eron early spoke with
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  Speaker 2: me and said that anything that could impact the integrity
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  Speaker 2: of the party should indeed be looked at and needed
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  Speaker 2: to be addressed.
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  Speaker 3: But as you've heard.
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  Speaker 2: Now this morning, not only from the Chief Minister but
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  Speaker 2: also from the Minister for Health Natasha Files, they are
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  Speaker 2: really saying unless there's evidence, then there's nothing to see here.
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  Speaker 3: It's certainly a very different
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  Speaker 2: Tact, I think, than that that they took when they
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  Speaker 2: are in opposition several years ago when there was a
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  Speaker 2: scandal obviously under the Giles government.