Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Darwin Waterfront General Manager Sam Burke says to get the new redevelopment over the line they're hoping to get $200 million in Federal funding or else bring in private investors

Transcript

Darwin Waterfront General Manager Sam Burke says to get the new redevelopment over the line they're hoping to get $200 million in Federal funding or else bring in private investors · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: But we know the Darwin Waterfront.
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  Speaker 2: They've unveiled plans for their Stage two development proposal and
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  Speaker 2: I tell you what, it looks absolutely amazing. A serve park,
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  Speaker 2: tropical snorkeling lagoon, pools and playgrounds have all been earmarked
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  Speaker 2: under this two hundred million dollar expansion proposal. The project
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  Speaker 2: is pending funding approval but would result in a massive
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  Speaker 2: expansion to this recreational hub. Now joining me in the
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  Speaker 2: studio to tell us a little bit more is the
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  Speaker 2: general manager of the Darwin Waterfront, Sam Burke.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Good o Katie, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Wonderful to talk to you this morning. Mate, this looks
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  Speaker 2: absolutely amazing. Tell us a little bit more about these
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  Speaker 2: plans for Stage two.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're very excited the public are finally getting
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  Speaker 3: to see them. We've been working on them for several years.
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  Speaker 3: This isn't just a concept drawing that we've put out there.
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  Speaker 3: There are years of detailed design that has gone into this. Excitingly,
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  Speaker 3: we're ready to actually go to early contractor involvement this
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  Speaker 3: year if funding is secure, and we believe we'd start
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  Speaker 3: construction this year as well. But it reimagines the waterfront
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  Speaker 3: what We've said, and government, both territory and Commonwealth are
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  Speaker 3: very supportive, is let's not move on to the next thing.
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  Speaker 3: Let's double down. We've got a great precinct tire that's underdeveloped.
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  Speaker 3: Let's build on that and truly create something iconics. So
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  Speaker 3: that's what we're trying.
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  Speaker 1: Where exactly would it be?
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  Speaker 3: So the waterfront is broken up into three parts. Central precinct,
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  Speaker 3: which is the focus of this redevelopment, then Northern and Southern.
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  Speaker 3: Northern is above the convention center right the way round
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  Speaker 3: to basically the beginning of Francis Bay, and Southern is
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  Speaker 3: down towards the old luxury hotel site. So our view
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  Speaker 3: is will redevelop Central using government funding primarily. That will
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  Speaker 3: spur on then private development in both those other precincts.
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  Speaker 3: And we estimate those other precincts as well over a
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  Speaker 3: billion dollars worth of private investments.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, but so two hundred million dollars though, you know,
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  Speaker 2: to kick things off, where are you going to.
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  Speaker 1: Get that funding?
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  Speaker 3: So the two hundred million is the ask of the
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  Speaker 3: Comwells as part of city deal. The project is with them,
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  Speaker 3: along with robust economic feasibility modeling, which we stand strongly behind,
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  Speaker 3: but that two hundred million is a game changer for Darwin.
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  Speaker 3: So that's going to get you an international standard, full
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  Speaker 3: functioning surf park facility. That will also get you what
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  Speaker 3: we think is probably a world first, which is a
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  Speaker 3: full tropical lagoon with corals propagated both naturally and also
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  Speaker 3: using three D printing that you can then harness natural
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  Speaker 3: coral onto and full to the brim of tropical fish
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  Speaker 3: from northern Australia. This is the type of natural marine
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  Speaker 3: activity that exists out there, but only the very rare
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  Speaker 3: few people go and see it because there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of sharks and crocodiles and stingers, so we want to
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  Speaker 3: bring that to people. Then we add on top of
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  Speaker 3: that over four thousand square meters of new swimming pools,
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  Speaker 3: temperature controlled food and beverage outlets around at cocktails in
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  Speaker 3: your hand, new food and beverage facilities, a massive new
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  Speaker 3: playground just to start the precinct officer ex.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds amazing.
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  Speaker 2: I know that there's going to be people listening this
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  Speaker 2: morning though, thinking this is pie in the sky stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Is it actually going to come to fruition?
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  Speaker 3: And I think that's why we've been really careful about
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  Speaker 3: how we've brought this to the public. I think there
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  Speaker 3: have been rumors, well founded rumors for a couple of
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  Speaker 3: years about what we've been planning, but we've only brought
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  Speaker 3: it public once we had that detailed design done. We've
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  Speaker 3: got a detailed business case done, We've got all of
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  Speaker 3: the costings that have been qs'd multiple times to make
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  Speaker 3: sure they're firm. But most importantly, we have the private
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  Speaker 3: sector investors lined up and ready to go with plans
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  Speaker 3: around Bolton. So we see the surf facility that is
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  Speaker 3: fully commercially feasible to be a partnership between us and
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  Speaker 3: a private proponent. And also we have a new hotel
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  Speaker 3: facility adjacent to the convention center that we see being
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  Speaker 3: fully privately funded.
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  Speaker 1: So just let me wrap my head around it.
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  Speaker 2: So obviously there are commercial developers who are keen to
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  Speaker 2: get involved here. They're already coming to the table, But
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  Speaker 2: what we're waiting on is whether the federal government comes
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  Speaker 2: to the table.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we think so the biggest issue for Darwin
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  Speaker 3: and the Northern Territory is population. We see that we
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  Speaker 3: can play a really fundamental role there. There's all these
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  Speaker 3: great projects on the horizon that the Chief Minister spoke
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  Speaker 3: about yesterday. The key to them is we want workers
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  Speaker 3: to come and bring their families. When they look at Darwin,
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  Speaker 3: they're going to Google if they see this iconic development.
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  Speaker 3: It speaks to lifestyle. It speaks to permanent population growth.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the modeling that we're giving to the commoneralth
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  Speaker 3: because that's really important. Growing the North from a population
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  Speaker 3: perspective is key, and we see lifestyle as one of
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  Speaker 3: the key drivers.
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  Speaker 2: Sam, Are you in competition with the Darwin City Council
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  Speaker 2: here because they were sprooking or they were talking about
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  Speaker 2: developing the Lamaru Baths and some other projects as well.
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  Speaker 2: So is everybody in competition here? Is it all going
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  Speaker 2: to work cohesively?
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  Speaker 3: So as a starting point, we see the Waterfront Redevelopment
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  Speaker 3: as benefiting the entire CBD, that's right the way down
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  Speaker 3: to Cullin Bay. We're actively involved in the whole CBD.
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  Speaker 3: When we bring people in, it benefits the CBD. We
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  Speaker 3: also see the development as being a hub and spoke,
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  Speaker 3: So we want to get people to come to Darwin.
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  Speaker 3: Then they'll visit Kakadu, they'll visit Lichfield, even they'll stop
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  Speaker 3: here on the way to Bali. There's an entire market
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  Speaker 3: of surfers who want to warm up before they hit
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  Speaker 3: the open water. So this is a Northern Australian precinct development.
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  Speaker 3: We see it. It feeds into everything in terms of
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  Speaker 3: City of Darwen. We fully brief them on the project.
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  Speaker 3: They're very supportive. The Lord Mayor was very supportive of
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  Speaker 3: our project and we see future developments around the Esplanade
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  Speaker 3: as a natural progression on from ours, which is about
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  Speaker 3: doubling down on something that already works and it's proven
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  Speaker 3: all right.
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  Speaker 2: So where are the discussions at right now with the feeds?
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  Speaker 3: So the Northern Territory Government is taking the lead on
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  Speaker 3: the funding discussions with the Wealth. But as I said,
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  Speaker 3: we've provided them with all our plans all the way through,
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  Speaker 3: so it's been running for at least a year now
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  Speaker 3: in terms of discussions with the Comwealth, and we also
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  Speaker 3: have a detailed business case with them. So we're very
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  Speaker 3: confident that we've provided everything in terms of both the
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  Speaker 3: project and the economic benefits that they would need. And
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  Speaker 3: now we're very grateful to the Territory government for taking
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  Speaker 3: the leads on those negotiations.
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  Speaker 2: What will happen if the federal government doesn't decide to
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  Speaker 2: invest money in this, but you've still got private developers
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  Speaker 2: wanting to get involved.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's what's most exciting. So the macro economic
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  Speaker 3: benefits are clear, and that's why we think we will
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  Speaker 3: get Comwealth's government support. But in any event, for example,
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  Speaker 3: the hotel development adjacent to the convention center, our commercial
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  Speaker 3: advice is that stacks up today even without the redevelopment,
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  Speaker 3: so we're actively pursuing that. The surf park, we have
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  Speaker 3: commercial partners that are already invested in the waterfront, that
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  Speaker 3: already own surf parks around the country, that are very
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  Speaker 3: key on our plans. So what we're trying to say
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  Speaker 3: is this is a real project, This is going places.
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  Speaker 3: We're looking to the FEDS to help and the territory
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  Speaker 3: government is helping us with those discussions. But either way,
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  Speaker 3: we think this stands on its own and we'll be
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  Speaker 3: great for Darwa and we want to see it delivered. Well.
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  Speaker 2: It's going to be very interesting to see where it
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  Speaker 2: all lands. Like I said, right from the get go,
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  Speaker 2: it looks amazing. I think we're all hoping for it,
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  Speaker 2: but time will tell. Now, mate, before I let you go,
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  Speaker 2: we're all involved in this step challenge at the moment
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  Speaker 2: here at Mix one O for and I'm proudly sponsored,
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  Speaker 2: of course by the Waterfront.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, how many steps have you done?
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  Speaker 3: I knew you were going to ask me that I've
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  Speaker 3: been doing some laps and someone told me that I
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  Speaker 3: can convert swimming laps into steps at the exorbitant rate. Look,
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  Speaker 3: we were the Waterfront team was doing really well at
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  Speaker 3: one stage, but it's dropped off and I think it's
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  Speaker 3: because we spend too much time in the office. But
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  Speaker 3: I have to say, I think number one on the
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  Speaker 3: charts is Haley Barber, who works for us, and she
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  Speaker 3: as a machine, so watch out phenomenal.
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  Speaker 2: I went for an eight k run on Sunday and
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  Speaker 2: I saw her out running. I'm pretty sure it was her.
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  Speaker 2: She had a friend riding her bike next to her
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  Speaker 2: as well, and I thought, what an absolute legend.
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  Speaker 3: She's a legend. And I think the great thing about
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  Speaker 3: feb fit it brings people, particularly down to the Waterfront.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a bunch of activations that are bolted onto
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  Speaker 3: I think every single day you can see a calendar
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  Speaker 3: of things to do down there. But it gets people
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  Speaker 3: out and it gets them fit. Hailey is fit anyway,
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  Speaker 3: but she told me she's running an extra one, two
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  Speaker 3: or three k's to knock off some close teams. It
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  Speaker 3: won't be named, but I don't think they're taking it
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  Speaker 3: very well and we're doing our best, but we're not
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  Speaker 3: winning at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Good on everyone that's gotten involved.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a fantastic it's a fantastic thing that happens,
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  Speaker 2: and it's so wonderful to see people out there and
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  Speaker 2: getting active. We've been bullying all the sales stuff and
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  Speaker 2: everybody at the station basically to do it as well, Sam.
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  Speaker 3: So it's a way to do it and I think
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  Speaker 3: they'll be happy for it afterwards.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely good stuff. Thank you very much for your
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  Speaker 2: time this morning. We'll talk to you again, so thanks Katie.