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Katie Woolf spoke with Fusion Fireworks owner Luke Caridi leading up to Cracker Night · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And there's been quite a bit of discussion about the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: change of date when it comes to Territory Day and
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: letting off fireworks. But one of the people we've not
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  Speaker 1: heard from is fireworks retailer, and joining us on the
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  Speaker 1: line right now is the owner of Fusion Fireworks.
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  Speaker 2: Luke Kariti, Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Luke, Good morning Katie. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, really well, Thank you so much for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Luke.
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  Speaker 1: You and I spoke a few weeks back when we
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  Speaker 1: found out that Territory Day was going to be postponed.
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  Speaker 2: At that stage, we didn't know what date it was
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  Speaker 2: going to be.
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  Speaker 1: How the plan's going from your perspective in terms of
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  Speaker 1: still selling fireworks on August twenty nine.
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, we're all ready to go. It's been quite
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  Speaker 3: difficult because we've had shops that we've had to remain
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  Speaker 3: set up for seven weeks. We've got product that's been
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  Speaker 3: in the warehouse, some packs, we've got one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: fifty ton of fireworks where we've had to maintain twenty
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  Speaker 3: four hour security. I had to fly back to New
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  Speaker 3: South Wales YEP for family commandments, and now I've had
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  Speaker 3: to fly back to Northern territory and I'm currently doing
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  Speaker 3: my fourteen days quarantine at Howard's Rings, so it's been very,
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  Speaker 3: very difficult to make sure it still goes ahead. From Alan, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And Louke, what do you make of and have you well,
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  Speaker 1: have you really heard much of the discussion about August
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  Speaker 1: twenty nine and the concerns from our volunteer firefighters and
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  Speaker 1: others about the fire risk and the possibility that a
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  Speaker 1: fireban could indeed be declared on that date.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I've heard, I've heard about it, and is it
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  Speaker 3: proorly from an outside of Katie yep, and not from
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  Speaker 3: a profit point of view from my from my from
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  Speaker 3: people might think I've got an agenda here because I
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  Speaker 3: profit from it. Yeah, but I've already I've lost a
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  Speaker 3: lot of money too. But I can understand their concern.
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  Speaker 3: But it's already been four weeks now, and it's like,
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  Speaker 3: I really like where government's passing the bat into the
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  Speaker 3: fieries and it's like, Okay, they're not working or consulting together.
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  Speaker 3: I would say, from my point of view, I understand
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  Speaker 3: the concern in those regional areas one hundred percent, but
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  Speaker 3: there's been no education that I've heard, like cut down
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  Speaker 3: grass around your house, wet the ground down, minimize the risk.
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  Speaker 3: But hey, if the risk is too great, why instead
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  Speaker 3: of waiting till the day and confusing everyone, Well, why
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  Speaker 3: don't they say regional areas from you know, company do
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  Speaker 3: or how it springs onwards? It's too risky because there's
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  Speaker 3: no different risks. Sure if you're if you're a resume
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  Speaker 3: in short pass or Perrap or Milner buying and letting
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  Speaker 3: off fire if the risk is no different all year round.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, I guess the different areas of concerns.
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  Speaker 1: The difficulty is going be though I suppose Luke is
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  Speaker 1: is you know, obviously the fire is consult with the
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  Speaker 1: Bureau of Meteorology in the days prior, and for example,
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  Speaker 1: last week we had on Thursday and Friday there was
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  Speaker 1: a full fireban in place and it included you know,
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  Speaker 1: Darwin and surrounds all the way down the track as well.
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  Speaker 2: So I wonder what that would mean for.
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  Speaker 1: You guys as retailers if we get to two or
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  Speaker 1: three days out or you know, even a week out
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  Speaker 1: and you find out that there's going to be a
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  Speaker 1: full fireban in place and that fireworks aren't going to
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  Speaker 1: be allowed.
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  Speaker 2: What kind of impact that would have.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, it virtually sort of close to wipe us out
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  Speaker 3: because you know, we we we've lost a lot of
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  Speaker 3: money to day and then that would just mean it'd
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  Speaker 3: be like pack it up and stow it away, you know,
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  Speaker 3: until next year. And you know, this could have been avoided.
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  Speaker 3: We would have we would have thought that this would
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  Speaker 3: have been thought out with the different apartments involved.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, has been Look has there been any consultation
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  Speaker 1: with like with the fireworks retailers in terms of you know,
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  Speaker 1: some of those some of those possibilities. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: don't want to scare you or I don't want to
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  Speaker 1: scare the retailers.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, like that, there hasn't been any any whatsoever,
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  Speaker 3: And just just from a risk point of view, like
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  Speaker 3: we understand the risk, but it's like educating people with
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  Speaker 3: the risk. Like if you're gonna, for instance, just hypothetically,
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  Speaker 3: say you live in Stewart Park, you're gonna let off
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  Speaker 3: fireworks on your front yard, well, wet the ground down,
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  Speaker 3: so it's a bit moist. If you've got any long grass,
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  Speaker 3: chop it down. You've got to educate people with the risk.
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  Speaker 3: But you can't have people I understand you can't have
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  Speaker 3: people lightning fireworks next door to two hundreds of thousands
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  Speaker 3: of hextres of bushland. Understand that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we.
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  Speaker 3: Need to try and come to a solution. Now, make
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  Speaker 3: it and try and make a call rather than two
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  Speaker 3: days out, because there's already there's already thirty kind of
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  Speaker 3: fireworks out in rural communities ready to go. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we've got fifty kind of fireworks down in Alice Spring yep.
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  Speaker 3: And I know Alice Springs hasmo will Risks down there
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  Speaker 3: from a feedback I've been getting there. So Look, it's
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  Speaker 3: scary from my point of view because I've phrown back
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  Speaker 3: up here. I'm currently in quarantine and and you know,
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  Speaker 3: to hear it in the media, Yeah, that's alarming.
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  Speaker 1: Look, if you could, I mean, if if anyone from
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  Speaker 1: government is listening right now, and if you could kind
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  Speaker 1: of you know, say one thing to them, what what
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  Speaker 1: would you say in terms of, you know, the risk
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  Speaker 1: that you that you guys are currently on taking, in
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  Speaker 1: terms of well the financial risk of it. As you said,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you've had you've had different retail outlets rent
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  Speaker 1: it out for seven weeks. You've got one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty ton of fireworks obviously in storage. You've been having
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  Speaker 1: to keep that I would imagine, you know, safe and
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  Speaker 1: making sure that it stays safe. What is your message
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  Speaker 1: for government today when you sort of think about the
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  Speaker 1: risk then of a potential fireban.
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  Speaker 3: My main message would be, let's try your night and
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  Speaker 3: control and come up with a sensible plan of attack.
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  Speaker 3: We've still got two and a half weeks out, that's
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  Speaker 3: already been four weeks gone. Do we start talking to
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  Speaker 3: the fires and do they start putting suburbs where like
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  Speaker 3: green zones and we put red zones in place until
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: two days out they might open up those red zones.
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  Speaker 3: Time messages, Let's work together and let's find a solution.
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  Speaker 1: Luke, it's always good to talk to you. I really
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. I hope it's all going okay.
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  Speaker 1: In quarantine, I got.
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  Speaker 3: To say one thing I will say. I've read in
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  Speaker 3: the media that the food is now called in quarantine.
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  Speaker 3: I can assure anyone and everyone I'm as precious as
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  Speaker 3: they come. I've stayed in a lot of good hotels
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  Speaker 3: and the food in here is second to none.
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  Speaker 2: Oh good to heat.
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  Speaker 3: Is doing a very good job.
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  Speaker 1: Oh good to hear Luke mate, I really appreciate you
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  Speaker 1: having a chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: We will talk to you again soon.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Let us know if the government does contact you for
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  Speaker 1: any consultational or if you hear anything.
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  Speaker 2: Keep us up to date, nories. Have a great day
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: you too, Thanks Luke.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: That's Luke Karedi there, the owner of Fusion Fireworks. What
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  Speaker 1: do you think of his idea that you know, maybe
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  Speaker 1: there are certain areas that are safe zones and some
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  Speaker 1: of those other areas that we are quite concerned about,
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  Speaker 1: i e. The rural area and where there is you know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: where there are vacant blocks, there areas where you're not
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  Speaker 1: actually able to let the fireworks off. I guess the
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  Speaker 1: only concern that I would have with that is wondering
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  Speaker 1: how we're going to police it, how we're going to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that people are only letting them off in
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  Speaker 1: those green zones. There are a lot of you jumping
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  Speaker 1: online to have your say on the Mixed one oh
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  Speaker 1: four nine facebook page.