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Katie Woolf spoke with Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Everyone is listening to Mixed
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: one or four point nine one.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: And as you've heard throughout the morning, we've certainly been
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: discussing this at length because there seems to be some
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  Speaker 2: real confusion at this point in time as to exactly
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: what locations are included when it comes to these half
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: priced flights, especially when you talk about the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: We knew very clearly yesterday or late last night that
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  Speaker 2: Central Australia i e. The lass At a region, so
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Alice Springs and also all Laru were included on that list.
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  Speaker 2: But take a listen to the Tourism Minister, the Federal
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  Speaker 2: Tourism Minister Dantean on the show a bit earlier today.
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  Speaker 2: They're airs Rock and Alice Springs are included on that list.
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  Speaker 2: Our understanding is that Darwin isn't at this stage.
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  Speaker 1: Is that correct?
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  Speaker 3: No, Darwin is one of the locations that we we've
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  Speaker 3: also identified and so it will be a beneficiary as well.
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  Speaker 3: So the Northern Territory is very well covered by this package,
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  Speaker 3: all right, So.
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  Speaker 2: We will actually be able to get those half priced
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  Speaker 2: flights to Darwa.
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  Speaker 3: There will be half price flights that will be available
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  Speaker 3: to go to Alice Springs as Rock and to Darwen.
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  Speaker 2: Darwin wasn't on that list that has come through to us,
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  Speaker 2: but by the sounds of it, what you're saying is
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  Speaker 2: that people will be able to travel to Darwin.
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  Speaker 3: There is and if you go on to the Department
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  Speaker 3: of Transite Transport website you will see that that Darwin
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  Speaker 3: is listed. So it says where the TANS program, which
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  Speaker 3: is the Travel Assistance Program will reduce the cost of
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  Speaker 3: flying to the following initial regions Adelaide, Broom, Darwin, Great
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  Speaker 3: Ocean Road, Hobart, et cetera.
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  Speaker 4: So it's there.
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  Speaker 3: On the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications website.
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  Speaker 3: What we gave initially was a list of the desk
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  Speaker 3: nations as examples. Yeah, but quite clearly Darwin is part
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  Speaker 3: of them. So you've done well in the NT.
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  Speaker 1: So there you go.
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  Speaker 2: So we know that one area which is definitely going
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  Speaker 2: to well, hopefully this is going to help is Central Australia.
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  Speaker 2: Joining us on the line right now from Tourism Central
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  Speaker 2: Australia CEO Daniel Rochford.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Daniel, good.
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  Speaker 4: Morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Daniel list.
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  Speaker 2: Still seems to be a bit of confusion about these locations,
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  Speaker 2: and you've just heard the Tourism Minister there. I tried
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  Speaker 2: my best to make it as clear as possible.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, Look, you can only ask as many times you did.
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  Speaker 5: The Minister was pretty clear with his response suddenly in
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  Speaker 5: the correspondence that I received this morning that Darwin is
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  Speaker 5: certainly there on the list in terms of flights to
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  Speaker 5: Cans and flights to Broom, but.
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  Speaker 4: Beyond that, I'm not seeing that. But you heard it
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  Speaker 4: directly from the source.
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  Speaker 1: Yea, let's hope it's correct.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: You know, we do know that there's certainly going to
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  Speaker 2: be an opportunity for other assies to travel to Central Australia.
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  Speaker 2: That's certainly very clear. Alice Springs and Aula Arue Daniel,
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  Speaker 2: what's been your reaction this morning to this announcement.
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  Speaker 4: Look, it's great news for our industry cading. You and
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  Speaker 4: I have spoken many times about the challenges we've faced
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  Speaker 4: over the last twelve months. We are one of the
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  Speaker 4: most international dependent tourism destinations in the country and our
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  Speaker 4: operators have been doing extremely tough to be able to
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  Speaker 4: have this incentive in place for both Alice Springs and
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  Speaker 4: Lara is going to be a massive boost to get
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  Speaker 4: bums on seats and bums on beds. Now, the challenge
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  Speaker 4: is to make sure that we stand out from the crowd.
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  Speaker 4: You know, other destinations are getting this theme incentive, so
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  Speaker 4: we need to make sure that we're pitching the Red
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  Speaker 4: Center and making sure that people have us on their
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  Speaker 4: bucket list items to do.
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  Speaker 2: That's going to be the real telling point here, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: We've really got to be able to market ourselves.
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  Speaker 4: Well, very much so we are in some respects and
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  Speaker 4: I think through this with a glass half full. We're
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  Speaker 4: not a beach destination. We are something different. Were that
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  Speaker 4: international holiday you just can't do And many of our
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  Speaker 4: experiences are just something very different to the likes of
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  Speaker 4: the Cans and the with Sundays and the Gold Coast.
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  Speaker 4: So we're certainly going to pitch ourselves as Tourism Northern
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  Speaker 4: Territory have recently done with their recent brand launch at
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  Speaker 4: somewhere very different, and I think we can easily do that.
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  Speaker 2: Daniel, Do you have any concerns about the frequency of
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  Speaker 2: flights and making sure that they really are going to
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  Speaker 2: be reasonably priced.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Look, I think that is certainly a concern for
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  Speaker 4: the industry. One of the challenges that we've had recently,
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  Speaker 4: CADI is a lot of our flight through our of
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  Speaker 4: the springs have been trained with flights then onto Darwin,
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  Speaker 4: so we've seen a massive constraint of capacity coming into
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  Speaker 4: our springs. So we've been seeing situations where twenty passengers
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  Speaker 4: are flying into our springs, they get off and then
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  Speaker 4: twenty passengers get on and al us to go on
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  Speaker 4: too Darwin with the plane completely full, and unfortunately we
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  Speaker 4: don't have that capacity because of the Darwin passengers on
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  Speaker 4: that plane. So hopefully what this announcement we'll see is
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  Speaker 4: more point to point flight so we start to see
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  Speaker 4: that capacity grow.
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  Speaker 1: Daniel, is it going to be enough?
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  Speaker 2: Do you think to keep the struggling tourism and aviation
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  Speaker 2: industries going.
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  Speaker 4: Look, I certainly shared many of the concerns from our
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: national peak bodies today that these support programs are really
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  Speaker 4: warmly welcomed. But for those businesses who are at the
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  Speaker 4: Cliff base who are facing the gauntlet of having to
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  Speaker 4: sack their staff because they just physically don't have the money,
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  Speaker 4: or who are seriously considering about the operation of their
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  Speaker 4: whole business, there's not a lot of support there for
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  Speaker 4: those businesses doing it at the extreme, and one of
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  Speaker 4: the things I was hopeful to see today was some
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  Speaker 4: announcements around supporting those businesses. There are not that many
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  Speaker 4: out there, and there could have quite easily been a
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  Speaker 4: targeted strategy to support those businesses who are doing it
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  Speaker 4: absolutely as bad as we've been saying, and who really
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  Speaker 4: won't bounce back until we see the international borders reopen.
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  Speaker 2: Now we know that that obviously with job Keeper. In
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  Speaker 2: recent days, the opposition, the labor oppositions ramped up at
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: schools for the government to extend the job Keeper program.
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  Speaker 1: You know, from your perspective, is that required.
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  Speaker 4: Look, there is no doubt there are operators there, and
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  Speaker 4: I've had fielded a number of calls from some of
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  Speaker 4: our members even this morning saying that without level of
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  Speaker 4: some form of ongoing support, they're going to have to
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: let some of their staff go. And you know, many
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  Speaker 4: businesses who are at that cliff space, they're not wanting
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  Speaker 4: to rack up more debt the with the uncertainty that
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  Speaker 4: they're still out there, with the borders still closed and
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  Speaker 4: potential hotspots still coming out. So where you know, I'm
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  Speaker 4: very worried about a number of those businesses who are
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  Speaker 4: very much at the cliff space. But that said, you know,
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  Speaker 4: with the glass half full again, you know, with this
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  Speaker 4: intentive in place, with the half priced airfares into Yolara
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  Speaker 4: and Aura Springs, that's going to be a real game changer.
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  Speaker 4: And my only hope is that our industry can see
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  Speaker 4: that as the light at the end of the tunnel
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  Speaker 4: and give them some hope to see this through.
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  Speaker 2: Daniel, can I just address what many might see as
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: a bit of an elephant in the room, and that
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  Speaker 2: is some of the real concerns that we've had in
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  Speaker 2: Central Australia and here in the top end around crime.
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  Speaker 2: Are you worried that you know that people are going
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: to see that as an issue before they travel to
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  Speaker 2: Central Australia. O.
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  Speaker 4: Look, crime is an issue besets in many regional communities
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  Speaker 4: right across our country, and you know, I see reports
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  Speaker 4: coming out of Far North Queensland and cans and in
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  Speaker 4: South Australia very similar to the challenges that we're facing.
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  Speaker 4: I'd have to say in recent weeks that this issue
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  Speaker 4: has certainly settled down compared to where we have seen
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  Speaker 4: the issues that we have based in recent months here
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  Speaker 4: in our springs, so you know, hats off to all
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  Speaker 4: those who had some hand in doing it. That issue
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  Speaker 4: is not gone, it's still at an ever present issue,
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  Speaker 4: but certainly look, I think most people who want to
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  Speaker 4: come to Central Australia will very much get in their
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  Speaker 4: car or get on one of these half priced airfares
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  Speaker 4: and come and visit the region.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Daniel Rochford, it's always great to catch up with
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  Speaker 2: you mate. I really appreciate your time this morning and
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  Speaker 2: no doubt we'll talk again in the near future.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks Katie, much appreciated.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: So that is Daniel Rochford there, who is of course
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  Speaker 2: the Tourism Central Australia CEO.