Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with AFLNT Chair Sean Bowden about the AFL's vaccine mandate coming to the Territory

Transcript

Katie spoke with AFLNT Chair Sean Bowden about the AFL's vaccine mandate coming to the Territory · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And we know that the AFL recently are released its
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: COVID nineteen vaccination policy, well it was on Thursday last week.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It stipulates that all AFL and afl W players and
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  Speaker 1: program staff are going to need to be vaccinated. But
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  Speaker 1: how is this going to roll out within world? Different
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  Speaker 1: states and territories. Joining me on the line right now
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  Speaker 1: is AFL NT Chairman Sean Bowden.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Sean.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, good morning Cody, Sean.
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  Speaker 1: How is this going to roll out for us in
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  Speaker 1: the territory? Are you going to need players and staff
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  Speaker 1: to be double vaxed?
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, obviously this is a really important issue for
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  Speaker 3: everyone in the football community, you know, right from the players,
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  Speaker 3: the staff, spectators, the wider community that watches football and
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  Speaker 3: comes to football. This is an issue that's going to
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  Speaker 3: be important to us. And we've already had the first
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  Speaker 3: direction from a chief medical officer which is going to
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  Speaker 3: apply to our staff. As we're a public facing organization,
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  Speaker 3: a deals throughout the Northern Territory and we're working out
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  Speaker 3: all of the nitty gritty of that at the moment. Now.
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  Speaker 3: As to the players and the playing group, that's something
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  Speaker 3: that we'll be consulting with the territory the club president's about.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a consultation Tony discussion with them, and we
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  Speaker 3: need to talk to the players and start to get
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  Speaker 3: their feedback and just find out how they think this
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  Speaker 3: is going to roll out as well as rather than
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  Speaker 3: just sort of dictating to them. It's obviously a very
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  Speaker 3: important issue and it's something that sooner or later we're
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  Speaker 3: going to have to grapple with pretty pretty clearly.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean, as you've said, they're obviously all
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  Speaker 1: the AFLNT staff. They are falling under that NT's vaccine
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  Speaker 1: mandate which does come into place on November twelve. Has
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  Speaker 1: that all been like, has that been sort of received
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  Speaker 1: in a fairly positive way?
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  Speaker 3: It has really employees and impressed by the way our
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  Speaker 3: staff are dealing with it. And obviously there's people that
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  Speaker 3: need a little bit of time to think about it.
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  Speaker 3: They need to work through the issues themselves, and so far,
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  Speaker 3: so good within ifl NT on Pleasure Report.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good news now.
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  Speaker 1: And then as you've obviously touched on with the with
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  Speaker 1: the players and with those playing groups, it is something
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  Speaker 1: that obviously you'll be working through with the different clubs.
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  Speaker 1: I would imagine that for some of the coaching staff
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  Speaker 1: as well, that they are potentially already falling under that mandate.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is something we'll discuss tonight and I'm not
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  Speaker 3: sure where they're quite under the mandate as yet. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: but it's something that's been carefully looked at when the
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  Speaker 3: AFL have taken a terrific lead, and they've've done that
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  Speaker 3: because they've got a professional competition of professional players and
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  Speaker 3: you're more to see they've got three stage as to
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  Speaker 3: how they roll out their mandate. So we're sort of
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  Speaker 3: probably their third stay. So even though we want to
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  Speaker 3: act as quickly as we can, we've got a little
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  Speaker 3: bit of time to learn from a the AFL at
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  Speaker 3: DOT doing to keep talking to the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 3: and the Chief Medical Officer and keep making sure that
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  Speaker 3: we bring our community with us. I think this is
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  Speaker 3: really important. We want to bring the community where we
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  Speaker 3: want everyone to be vaccinated, Katie, I should be clear
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  Speaker 3: about that. We think vaccinations are the safest way for
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  Speaker 3: us to protect our community and also to keep the
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  Speaker 3: competition going. So that's a fundamental but we think it's
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  Speaker 3: really important, particularly with our remote community as well, that
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  Speaker 3: education plays a big role, and so we're not just
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  Speaker 3: going to rush at this. We're going to make sure
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  Speaker 3: we talk to people and we're going to carefully try
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  Speaker 3: and put together really grassroots, tactile sort of education program
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  Speaker 3: where we can get out in the community and use
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  Speaker 3: the great networks that the AFL's got the territory. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: I think your listeners appreciate, but we run up and
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  Speaker 3: down the highway in east and West and we've got
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  Speaker 3: seven or eight Remote Development officers out there in the communities.
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  Speaker 3: So we want to try and put something together that
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  Speaker 3: has really compliments and builds on the terrific work that's
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  Speaker 3: being done by the medical services and the government.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and do you reckon that, you know, the reality
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  Speaker 1: of this is obviously AFL here in the territory is
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  Speaker 1: such a huge part of life, not just for us
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  Speaker 1: in urban areas, but for our remote communities as well.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that you know through the AFL and
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  Speaker 1: through some of what you're talking about there, that we
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  Speaker 1: may even see in some of those communities a higher
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  Speaker 1: vaccine takeup.
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  Speaker 3: We want to put our shoulders to the wheel on that.
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  Speaker 3: We want to lean into that issue because we know
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  Speaker 3: that out in the communities the vaccination take up isn't
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  Speaker 3: as strong as it should be, and I like the government,
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  Speaker 3: we're conscious that the delta variant of COVID is heading
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  Speaker 3: our way. The rest of Australia is opening up and
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  Speaker 3: we have to have to be really conscious of that
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  Speaker 3: and and not live in a bubble. We have to
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  Speaker 3: realize that we're part of Australia and also we have
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  Speaker 3: to realize that the remote community is part of the
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  Speaker 3: Northern Territory, part of Darwin. I mean, there's an enormous
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  Speaker 3: influx in and out of people who live in the remotes,
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  Speaker 3: and inevitably, unless we put bubbles around those communities, we're
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  Speaker 3: going to be dealing with issues around that as well.
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  Speaker 3: So these are big issues we've got to work through
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  Speaker 3: at the AFL given the length of the spread of
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  Speaker 3: our competition, and I think with the latest data is
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  Speaker 3: it's nearly twenty five thousand people participating in AFL across
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory across the year. So it's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people.
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  Speaker 1: It certainly is, and Sean, we know that obviously. The
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister have made that most recent announcement this morning
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  Speaker 1: sort of talking about the testing regime, and you know what,
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  Speaker 1: some Territorians will have to do if they are planning
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  Speaker 1: on traveling around Australia. Do you think that any of
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  Speaker 1: that is going to have an impact on AFL here
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  Speaker 1: in the territory talking I suppose about those remote communities,
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  Speaker 1: but also I know that you do have some players
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  Speaker 1: coming in from other states for some of those you know,
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  Speaker 1: for some of those different grades.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we have to work through that. I haven't got
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  Speaker 3: fully across the announcement this morning, but it's a big issue.
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  Speaker 3: People coming in and there's a number of people, including
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  Speaker 3: the Great Eddy Bets are in quarantine at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: We want to play football in the Northern Territory. I
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  Speaker 3: love Northern Territory football and we want them here. We
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  Speaker 3: want them to come and play. But if we don't
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  Speaker 3: have a fully vaccinated playing cohort and we do have
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  Speaker 3: COVID in the community, it's hard to say, so see
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  Speaker 3: how we will be playing. So we have to start
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  Speaker 3: to prepare now for that and find our pathway to
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  Speaker 3: the future in effect.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, Sean, just finally, so what really is the
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  Speaker 1: first step from your perspective? You know, when you talk
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  Speaker 1: about talk about that the vaccine roll out, and I
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  Speaker 1: know that you said that you want to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that the AFL is speaking with all of those different
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  Speaker 1: clubs and liaising with all the clubs.
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  Speaker 2: What's the first step from your perspective.
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  Speaker 3: To talk to our club presidents, the people who are
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  Speaker 3: out there on the front line with our community. We've
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  Speaker 3: got a really great relationship with the presidents and we
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  Speaker 3: need to listen to them. They're the ones talking to
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  Speaker 3: their players, and they're volunteers. Who volunteers is another one
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  Speaker 3: cadence in here. There's hundreds of volunteers every week down
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  Speaker 3: at the footy helping out. There's umpires, umpires that you know,
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  Speaker 3: they're the lifeblood of our game. We can't play without
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  Speaker 3: the umpires. So we have to listen to the presidents
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  Speaker 3: of stakeholders. I'd also like to hear from the coaches
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  Speaker 3: and the captains. They're the leaders out there in the community.
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  Speaker 3: So that's probably a second step we need to get
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  Speaker 3: out to. So we've got some work to do in
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  Speaker 3: the next seven to ten days. I also want to
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  Speaker 3: keep talking the Chief Minister and the health leaders, particularly
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  Speaker 3: the Aboriginal Medical Services, who've been terrific support and working
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  Speaker 3: really well. We're going to talk to them and work
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  Speaker 3: at how our cohort and how people who have brand
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  Speaker 3: recognition and have respect out and the communities can get
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  Speaker 3: out there and help spread the message. So we're getting
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  Speaker 3: that message out there. It's really important to get vaccinated.
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  Speaker 3: If there are issues, we'll find some of you to
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  Speaker 3: talk to it so you can talk it through. But
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  Speaker 3: let's get vaccinated. Let's protect ourselves and our family and
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  Speaker 3: our friends, and let's keep playing football.
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  Speaker 1: Well.
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  Speaker 2: Sean Bowden, appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: And it does sound as though the AFL is prepared
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  Speaker 1: to take a real lead here and try to get
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  Speaker 1: out to those communities. Try to be part of this
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  Speaker 1: so that we can make sure that those communities and
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  Speaker 1: also all around Darwin that we reach the vaccination rates
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  Speaker 1: that we require.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks, Cody. I mean if we can help, we
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  Speaker 3: absolutely will and we'll do everything we can to assist.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Shawn. I appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you,