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Katie Woolf spoke with Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis on the public toilets · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've had quite a lot of people get in contact
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  Speaker 1: with us this morning about the new toilets at cull
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  Speaker 1: And Bay, plenty of you questioning why they have cost
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  Speaker 1: so much money.
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  Speaker 2: Now joining us on the line.
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  Speaker 1: To talk further about this is the Lord Mayor of
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  Speaker 1: Darwin convat Scarlets.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, con.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and of course, like your listeners, I
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  Speaker 3: questioned the cost of the toilet. But the five hundred
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  Speaker 3: thousand dollars today published in the Anti News, it's not
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  Speaker 3: the cost for the toilet only, it's costs for landscaping
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  Speaker 3: and services provided to this area.
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  Speaker 2: So Conn. The toilets aren't gold plated.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, not the gold plate its Actually, as a
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  Speaker 3: matter of fact, the Calm Bay area never had a
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  Speaker 3: public toilet and we had situations and complaints for businessmen
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  Speaker 3: that a lot of people they want to go to
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  Speaker 3: the toilet, they had to rush into the different shops
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  Speaker 3: trying to access their toilets in order to relift themselves.
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  Speaker 3: So there was no public toilet there and we put
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  Speaker 3: one toilet block that's got actually five toilets, three unisex.
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  Speaker 3: One toilet that's got also a table for people to
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  Speaker 3: change their babies. And another one that's accessible to people
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  Speaker 3: with disabilities.
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  Speaker 1: Connor, don't think anybody is questioning the need for the toilet's,
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  Speaker 1: say tulum Buy. I think most of us would embrace
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  Speaker 1: the fact that there is now a public toilet block
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  Speaker 1: at colum Buy. But why has it cost so much Moneytie?
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  Speaker 3: This is what we have to pay to actually get
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  Speaker 3: toilets on the ground. The one and we spoke about
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  Speaker 3: it before, the one we put next to the playground
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  Speaker 3: in the Estlant it cost us two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 3: thousand dollars and that's only two cubicles, because that's what
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  Speaker 3: it costs. And the automatic ones you've probably seen these
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  Speaker 3: metallic ones that we put the automatic loose, they cost
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  Speaker 3: three hundred thousand dollars each to fully install it. The
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  Speaker 3: cost to put this kind of toilets, and because they
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  Speaker 3: have to be done on set the standards and they
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  Speaker 3: have to be accessible to people with disabilities, it's chirocketing.
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  Speaker 3: It's not what we want to pay, and this is
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  Speaker 3: what the market asked us to.
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  Speaker 1: Payess may So the toilets at Columbai and that new
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  Speaker 1: toilet block next to the next to the Esplanade playground
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  Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for both of those.
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  Speaker 3: We actually we actually put four toilet blocks this year
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  Speaker 3: and the cost is one point two million dollars. We
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  Speaker 3: put the Esplan one we just spoke about it. We
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  Speaker 3: put another toilet in a rapid craye fosil that is
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  Speaker 3: one accessible toilet and one abulan toilet. And the Jigly
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  Speaker 3: water gardens with one accessible toilets, to abule and toilets
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  Speaker 3: and changing place, and of course the Calm Bay one
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  Speaker 3: one point two million dollars. This is what it cost
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  Speaker 3: council to provide these facilities for people that when they
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  Speaker 3: need it.
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  Speaker 2: Contat scarlets, holy shit part in the pun.
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  Speaker 3: You can say that one, and I said that one
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  Speaker 3: when I get the bill. But the other option is
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  Speaker 3: not having public toilets, but I think that not acceptable.
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  Speaker 3: But the general public, the public needed toilets. The toilets
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  Speaker 3: have to be built in certain standards, and the toilets
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  Speaker 3: have to be accessible to people with disabilities. All these
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  Speaker 3: one months to quite a bit of money. But again,
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  Speaker 3: what would you do if you go to Calum Bay
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  Speaker 3: with your little child and it needs he or she
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  Speaker 3: needs to go to the toilet. Will you accept my argument,
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  Speaker 3: sorry it was too expensive role within put one yes,
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  Speaker 3: or you actually blame me for lack of toilet.
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  Speaker 2: Now it will look for me.
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  Speaker 1: I think it is very important that we've got public toilets,
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  Speaker 1: so I would never argue that. I'm just absolutely surprised
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  Speaker 1: that how expensive it is to have a public toilet,
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  Speaker 1: even from what you said, you know, those those self
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  Speaker 1: flushing ones. Three hundred thousand dollars, it's an unbelievable amount
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  Speaker 1: of money just to make sure that there are toilet
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  Speaker 1: facilities for people in the Darwin municipality.
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  Speaker 3: You see, you don't put just a brick wall and
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  Speaker 3: as best as roof, it has to be probably done.
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  Speaker 3: It has to be probably tiled with a proper equipment.
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  Speaker 3: And of course if you decide you want to put
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  Speaker 3: the accessible accessibility to people with disabilities, that it piles up. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: this is the cost of doing business in down. This
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  Speaker 3: is the cost of putting public infrastructure in place.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I would assume though that every public sort
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  Speaker 1: of facility, whether it's you know, whether it's government owned
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  Speaker 1: or or you know, whether it's counsel owned. When you
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  Speaker 1: talk about toilets and other locations, that they do need
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  Speaker 1: to obviously have disabled access and access for everybody.
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  Speaker 2: I would assume that you.
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  Speaker 1: Know that is factored in any way to most of
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  Speaker 1: the costs when you do talk about building public assets.
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  Speaker 3: It is. But that's what I'm talking about, because it's
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  Speaker 3: not only just get a toilet. You have to connect
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  Speaker 3: it to services. You have to make provision for safety
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  Speaker 3: and security. You have to make sure that the equipment
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  Speaker 3: you put in they're not going to cause any injury
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  Speaker 3: to a personally, for example, slips and falls off, and
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  Speaker 3: you have to make sure that actually you have to
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  Speaker 3: have proper angle of approach when people using their wheelchairs.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not an architect, but I'll tell you what. When
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  Speaker 3: I see the prices, my eyes water. But at the
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  Speaker 3: same time, my eyes water if I want to go
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  Speaker 3: the toilet and there isn't one around.
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  Speaker 2: They do corn.
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  Speaker 1: So to anybody out there listening who thinks that this
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  Speaker 1: is an outrageous amount of money, what would you say
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  Speaker 1: to them?
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  Speaker 3: Ask the Palmers to city Council and ask other councils
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  Speaker 3: around Australia how much it caused them to actually put
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  Speaker 3: public infrastructure in place. We're not the only ones this
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  Speaker 3: problem is around Australia. It cost every single council an
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  Speaker 3: enormous amount of money to put public infrastructure.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Combat Scarlet, so I appreciate you having a chat
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  Speaker 1: with us this morning. So can I just confirm the
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  Speaker 1: toilet's next to the playground there on the esplanade.
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  Speaker 2: They're now operational.
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  Speaker 3: They are still the final touches required and will be
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  Speaker 3: operational very very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so what are we waiting for? What are the
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  Speaker 1: final touches on that one?
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  Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm not the plumber of the construction,
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  Speaker 3: but we'd never take anything unless we actually satisfy that's
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  Speaker 3: done according to the standards and what we have paid for.
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  Speaker 3: People will check it, find out what complies with the
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  Speaker 3: standards we require and it's functional, and then we'll open it.
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  Speaker 3: It's up. Because I drove past that one this morning.
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  Speaker 3: It's got some red flags around it, and I expect
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  Speaker 3: that one to be finalized very very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Combat Scarlets, good to talk to you this morning.
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  Speaker 1: I always appreciate your time. Thank you for having a
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  Speaker 1: chat with me today.
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  Speaker 3: Just to find to tell you while we're talking, I've
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  Speaker 3: been advised at the toilets now they are opening.
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  Speaker 2: Ones are now eleven go.
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  Speaker 3: You can go.
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  Speaker 2: Good to hear no more watering eyes.
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  Speaker 1: Have a good morning, you two com thank you the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Mayor of dowing their combatskar Cities just ten minutes.
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  Speaker 2: Away from eleven o'clock.
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  Speaker 1: I tell you what, I had no idea that it
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  Speaker 1: costs that much money to build a public toilet, but
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  Speaker 1: there go three hundred thousand for those other self flushing ones. Unbelievable,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it. But I mean the Mayor makes a good point.
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  Speaker 1: If we did have those toilets there, well I would
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  Speaker 1: I'd be having a crack at him about there not
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  Speaker 1: being toilets there, which I have. I've had a go
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  Speaker 1: at him about that next to the Espanade. So we
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  Speaker 1: do need to make sure that we've got toilet facilities around,
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  Speaker 1: and I know that at Culum Bay. It's certainly been
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  Speaker 1: an issue over the years as we've seen Culum Bay develop. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it's always been beautifully developed down there at Culum Bay,
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  Speaker 1: but as we've sort of seen it become a much
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  Speaker 1: more popular place to go and take your family. A
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  Speaker 1: certainly have fish and chips and that kind of thing
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  Speaker 1: on the lawns. You do need to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: you've got those facilities in place,