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Katie Woolf spoke with Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And joining me live in the studio right now is
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  Speaker 1: the Lord Mayor of Darwin. Conbat Scarlet's good morning to ukon.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning Kate, and what a beautiful day.
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  Speaker 3: It is a bit humid, but hey it's sunny and
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  Speaker 3: everybody in down especially the tourists, love it.
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  Speaker 4: They do.
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  Speaker 2: That.
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  Speaker 4: Humidity though, is certainly creeping back in unfortunately con there
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: is funny to cover off on. But I do want
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: to know.
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  Speaker 1: Tonight's the last council meeting, isn't it before the elections.
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  Speaker 3: This is the last council meeting before we go to
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  Speaker 3: kretakem out on the fourth or fifth of August. This
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  Speaker 3: is the four years of the council that we just
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  Speaker 3: had and I have to say that it was a
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  Speaker 3: great council.
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  Speaker 2: As a council, we achieved a lot.
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  Speaker 3: If you look around town you will see a totally
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  Speaker 3: different Darwin that you will see four years ago. And
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  Speaker 3: not only the trees, but also the infrastructure of the playgrounds,
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  Speaker 3: the lights at the ovals. The previous council could make
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  Speaker 3: up its mind for four years. Remember the saga with
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  Speaker 3: Easter with the garden oval lock.
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  Speaker 4: It was yeah, there was. It took a long time.
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  Speaker 2: The novel is there.
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  Speaker 3: But we've got the Baggot, and we've got the Maluk
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  Speaker 3: and we've got the Nightcliffe one. So from nothing we
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  Speaker 3: went to four. And suddenly one of the interesting things
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  Speaker 3: is that we paid a lot of attention to the suburbs.
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  Speaker 3: I visit the other day moil shopping center that now
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  Speaker 3: the work you're finished, it is totally unrecognizable, beautiful, beautiful gardens.
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  Speaker 3: The Wargaman again was a gravel pit. Now it's a
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  Speaker 3: bloody oasis, which is really really good.
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  Speaker 2: Not forget.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the thing you're going on about in Lake Alexander
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  Speaker 3: that's been finished and been a complex.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I am glad that that has happened.
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  Speaker 1: And I have no doubt Corn that you will have
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  Speaker 1: an election pitch coming everybody's way in the coming weeks.
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  Speaker 1: And I do want to ask you about a couple
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  Speaker 1: of other issues that continue to bubble along.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 1: One of those is definitely the day that has been
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  Speaker 1: decided for letting off fireworks. Now, last time you and
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  Speaker 1: I spoke, we spoke about this and discussed this and
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  Speaker 1: discuss the concerns about the rubbish and that kind of
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  Speaker 1: thing that's always a concern.
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  Speaker 4: But the fire danger since and your veris to the Council.
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  Speaker 3: The smallest to the government, the smallest issue collected very
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: quickly and collected themselves.
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  Speaker 2: The data I think is a big issue.
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  Speaker 3: Now we rote to the government, will receive a reply
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  Speaker 3: from the Chief minusic who says no, he sticks to
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  Speaker 3: his gun.
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  Speaker 2: And it's going to be the twenty ninth of August.
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  Speaker 3: Since then, other people came up very very vocal, let's
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  Speaker 3: feel so our council came again and said, chiplice change it.
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  Speaker 3: It's a fire danger. I think the day is not right. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: I understand the Chief Minister wants to celebrate Freedom Day.
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  Speaker 3: That's fantastic. But my prediction is most likely we have
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  Speaker 3: a fire band, complete fire band, and then I could
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  Speaker 3: be fire work.
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  Speaker 1: So com do you think that the Chief Minister just
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  Speaker 1: actually needs to take a step back here.
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  Speaker 4: And go do you know what, no fireworks this year?
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  Speaker 3: Well he does have to actually say no farwer this year.
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  Speaker 3: You can just say we can do it later this
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  Speaker 3: year when they we have more wet conditions, or let's
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  Speaker 3: this year put a ban on it and will start
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  Speaker 3: again next year.
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  Speaker 4: So change the die.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it's very simple. I don't know why he's
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  Speaker 3: not changed the date. But it's the Chief Minister. Here's decision,
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  Speaker 3: and if something goes wrong then he's nobody else to
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  Speaker 3: blame but himself.
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  Speaker 1: So it's it's you, the Palmerston Council and Literfield Council.
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  Speaker 3: Now I don't know about the palmers about. It comes
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  Speaker 3: with the fire, the volunteer fire brigade. Everybody who's actually
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  Speaker 3: dealing with fires knows somebody and says, please do something.
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  Speaker 2: The other option I said before is just limited working.
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  Speaker 2: You do it. You can do it in middle Bitch,
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  Speaker 2: you can do it in fred.
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  Speaker 3: Pass, so in areas where it can actually control it
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  Speaker 3: and you have equipment ready and something goes wrong, and
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  Speaker 3: tell people who don't wait for it next year.
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  Speaker 2: This year is it's a strange situation. Look what's happening
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  Speaker 2: around us. Let's hold back, but I don't know. We
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  Speaker 2: express our opinion loud and clear.
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  Speaker 4: And what did he say?
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  Speaker 2: Twenty nine is the date?
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  Speaker 4: So just came back and said that's the day. No discussion.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, Well, there's a lot of people very concerned about this,
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  Speaker 1: So I just I'll be really interested to see how
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  Speaker 1: it goes well. Interested probably isn't the right word, because
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  Speaker 1: if we end up with, you know, with a terrible
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  Speaker 1: situation where there's more fires around the place.
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  Speaker 4: It's not going to be interesting. It's going to be
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  Speaker 4: pretty bloody frightening.
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  Speaker 3: I don't want to say I told you so. The
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  Speaker 3: best thing to do is let's rethink it. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: sometimes you get and you can make a tough decision,
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  Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, people says, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: will the right decision.
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  Speaker 2: Let's see what happened.
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  Speaker 4: Corn.
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  Speaker 1: Another thing I'm keen to ask you about is we
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  Speaker 1: know the Chief Minister came out yesterday and said the
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  Speaker 1: plans around the way for the biggest parade that Darwin's
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  Speaker 1: ever seen. Those two hundred Olympic athletes are going to
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  Speaker 1: be quarantined at Howard Springs and are going to be
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  Speaker 1: given a ticket type parade or a hero's return. It's
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  Speaker 1: been dubbed and this is something that you, as the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Mayor and the City of Darwin supports.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 3: I might not agree in everything with the Chief Minister,
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  Speaker 3: but this is something I totally agree and I totally
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  Speaker 3: support it.
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  Speaker 2: It would be a great idea.
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  Speaker 3: It would be the first sea that I can have
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  Speaker 3: a ticket parade for our Libyans. Let's not forget some
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  Speaker 3: of them the swimmers trained in our parap pools. So
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  Speaker 3: Chief Minister, if you're listening, please go ahead with it,
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  Speaker 3: and You've got my full support. I'll be there with
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  Speaker 3: you and other territories cheering our Libyans when they come
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  Speaker 3: and they finish the quarantine after fourteen days in our
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  Speaker 3: Howard Springs.
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  Speaker 2: It is a great idea, go ahead with who would.
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  Speaker 4: Pay for it? Who futs the bill?
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  Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure that one of the governments would pay
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  Speaker 3: for it for it. But again, at the end of
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  Speaker 3: the day, is is this important thing or actually these
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  Speaker 3: people actually dedicate their time, their effort and their work
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  Speaker 3: to make us proud as Australians. These guys are in
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  Speaker 3: very different circumstances now in Tokyo in the middle of
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  Speaker 3: the pandemic, you know, doing their bit for Australia, and
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  Speaker 3: I'm so proud for them doing it there watching them.
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  Speaker 3: Doesn't matter if you can first or second or third,
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  Speaker 3: the fat that you managed to be in the Olybic Games,
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  Speaker 3: it's very important you a week first.
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  Speaker 1: I really hope that it does happen. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: a great idea. Hopefully we have some of those medal
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  Speaker 1: winning athletes as well, quarantining it how it springs, because
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  Speaker 1: we don't know yet which ones.
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  Speaker 3: Will be called the rest of Australia. We're watching that
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  Speaker 3: way with no restriction, not lockdown. Doing a ticket parade
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  Speaker 3: for our a Libyans. You can't buy this publicity, doesn't
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  Speaker 3: matter how much money you can spend.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Conbat scarluts, we better leave it. They're always good
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  Speaker 1: to catch up with you, thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for the short of today.
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  Speaker 3: But one thing I want to say is you're going
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  Speaker 3: to see me next week again because we've got more
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  Speaker 3: news coming up.
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  Speaker 2: Even if we're in care take it, but things happen
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  Speaker 2: in that we just have to keep it do not
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  Speaker 2: shut down.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, we just have to keep it non.
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  Speaker 2: Campaign absolutely absolutely, Thank you.
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  Speaker 4: Con good to catch up with every day, you too,