Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis about the Poinciana trees and Darwin's e-scooters

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Katie spoke with Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis about the Poinciana trees and Darwin's e-scooters · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is just eleven minutes away from ten o'clock.
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  Speaker 2: And joining me live in the studio right now is
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  Speaker 2: the Lord Mayor of Darwin convat Scarlas.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning conn, Good morning Katie. And so only twenty
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: four days to Christmass.
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  Speaker 2: Who the first of December is the Darwin City Council
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  Speaker 2: getting festive?
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  Speaker 3: Have you seen the lights in the mall? And of
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  Speaker 3: course if you come on Friday you can be there
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  Speaker 3: when we actually like the Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: Lves so doing that this week.
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  Speaker 3: This Friday is starting four thirty by the Christmas lights.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not very happy to press the button again at
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  Speaker 3: seven point thirty to our big, beautiful, gigantic, all new
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  Speaker 3: Christmas tree on top of them all.
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  Speaker 1: All fantastic stuff.
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  Speaker 2: And is there still like is there still the opportunity
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  Speaker 2: for families to go into the mall?
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  Speaker 1: Is there center Square? Things like that.
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  Speaker 3: We want you to come to the mall and want
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  Speaker 3: you to come and look at the Christmas tree. And
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  Speaker 3: there is a Santus Village in the Westland Arcade and
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  Speaker 3: all the Christmas is happening in Darwin. It's not happy Holidays,
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  Speaker 3: it's merry Christmas.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I always enjoy Christmas and the festive season. I
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  Speaker 2: think it's great for us for the family to get
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  Speaker 2: out and about and see all those nice lights around
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  Speaker 2: the places.
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  Speaker 3: Were getting around and a barked with the current situation,
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  Speaker 3: borders close here.
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  Speaker 1: And there and everywhere. Go into the city and check everything.
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  Speaker 3: City. Yes, if you want to go to Western Australia
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  Speaker 3: is a bit of a problem.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not toot.
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  Speaker 2: I'm more talking about getting out and about and seeing Darwin,
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  Speaker 2: going into the city and the Christmas tray and also.
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  Speaker 3: We're asking all the business now to decorate their widows
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  Speaker 3: at the display, so we're going to have a lot
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  Speaker 3: of things happening in Christmas here and yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Good stuff. Well that is nice to hear.
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  Speaker 2: And it is a beautiful time of the year, especially
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  Speaker 2: if we get a bit of rain and things.
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  Speaker 1: Cool down a little bit last Saturday. Yes, so Friday
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  Speaker 1: night though, you're going to be lighting.
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  Speaker 3: Up rain on Friday night?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, fair enough? What time does that kick off on
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  Speaker 1: Friday night?
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  Speaker 3: For third the and the lights will have turned out,
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  Speaker 3: will be turned on on seven thirty.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, good stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I know that there's always plenty happening when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to the council, but I understand that there's been
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  Speaker 2: some cleaning up and having a bit of a look
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  Speaker 2: at the storm water drains.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely before the real wet starts, we actually had a
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  Speaker 3: program to look at our stormwater drains. We use a
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  Speaker 3: mobile CCTV. We putativity through the drains, especially in the
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  Speaker 3: older suburbs because that's the ones that've been there for
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  Speaker 3: more than fifty years, and we find quite a few
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  Speaker 3: problems like drains had moved, had collapsed. But the interesting
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  Speaker 3: thing also we found a lot of things in the drains,
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  Speaker 3: concrete rubble, we found bicycle helmets, we found really being leads.
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  Speaker 3: We found street signs and a.
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  Speaker 1: Pistol what do you mean again, a real.
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  Speaker 3: Pistol, which we said we gave to the police. So
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  Speaker 3: people obviously don't think they don't like things, so they
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  Speaker 3: don't want things, or they want to hide things, just
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  Speaker 3: chuck it down the drain.
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  Speaker 2: Anybody well love the history is then adult.
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  Speaker 3: We gave to the police and the police can follow
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  Speaker 3: it up. Now. We have also found wildlife, a lot
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  Speaker 3: of bats and cuts. We haven't found any crocodile yet,
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  Speaker 3: but live no live alive as well, which you can
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  Speaker 3: see actually looking at the CISSITV in the screen. You
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  Speaker 3: can see this pair of eyes looking at you. It's
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  Speaker 3: a black cut goodness. Yes, so the drains are a
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  Speaker 3: popular place for animal life to visit.
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  Speaker 2: Any big concern so corn in terms of you'd spoken
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  Speaker 2: about some of them that had collapsed, like in different areas.
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  Speaker 2: Is that a worry when you talk about that storm
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  Speaker 2: water surge and when you do talk about some of
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  Speaker 2: the flooding that we see over the west.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's the reason why we're doing this investigation to
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  Speaker 3: find out if the drains are in good condition so
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  Speaker 3: they can actually channel the water from the suburbs down
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  Speaker 3: to the sea. We completed the first runch of the program,
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  Speaker 3: which Finny Beijing, Gilliper Up, Rabbit Creek, and Steward Park.
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  Speaker 3: We allocate two million dollars for the investigation and will
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  Speaker 3: continue to the new suburbs. The new suburbs usually are
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  Speaker 3: pretty good because they just put them down like five
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  Speaker 3: ten years ago. It's the old suburb Nightclif Rapid Creek
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  Speaker 3: and the others. They've been there for quite a while.
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  Speaker 3: We've got sometimes earth tremors. Earth tends to move, pipes
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  Speaker 3: tend to move others because they have a vehicle drove
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  Speaker 3: on top of it, so we actually look at them
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  Speaker 3: to clean them up with the high pressure jets and
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  Speaker 3: even remove them physically or removing the whole section that's collapsed.
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  Speaker 3: So make sure that we don't have any flooding due
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  Speaker 3: to the wedgshee.
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  Speaker 2: And so is all of that work now complete or
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  Speaker 2: is that still happening at the first branch.
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  Speaker 3: Has the older suburbs now will continue to the near.
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  Speaker 2: Suburbs Okay now coin One of the other things that
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  Speaker 2: does get spoken about quite a bit is those e scooters.
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  Speaker 2: I know that there's plenty of people certainly within this right.
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  Speaker 1: Them or we all love them.
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  Speaker 2: Well, a lot of the announcers actually here at the
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  Speaker 2: radio stations utilize those e scooters often. Was there a
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  Speaker 2: review undertaken and where is that at at the moment?
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  Speaker 1: With the trial and with the review.
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  Speaker 3: The trial began in Genera in twenty two, twenty twenty,
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  Speaker 3: and continue past twenty two. As you said, some people
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  Speaker 3: love them, some people hate them, and a lot of
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  Speaker 3: comments I get is because the very silent people don't
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  Speaker 3: know them and they're sharing the path with other pedestrians.
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  Speaker 3: So we're looking what's happened in other states. I understand
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  Speaker 3: Brisbane has banned the use of scooters between eight pm
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  Speaker 3: and five am Friday and Saturday because a lot of
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  Speaker 3: people go out get into the drinks and those stupid things.
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  Speaker 3: So we'll be looking at that one too. We're working
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  Speaker 3: closely with Neuron. One thing I've got a problem and
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  Speaker 3: I agree with it. They're very quiet. When I go
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  Speaker 3: for a walk around town with my wife in the afternoons,
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  Speaker 3: they're coming behind us and unless there's something there to
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  Speaker 3: make noise, you can't hear them. So I might talk
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  Speaker 3: to do Neuron to actually install a device that creates
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  Speaker 3: a noise when the scooters are operated, so you can
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  Speaker 3: hear them when they come. But the interesting thing is
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  Speaker 3: the number of two million travels have been undertaken in
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  Speaker 3: the past year and a half with more than eighty
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  Speaker 3: thousand users. That means there are a lot of people
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  Speaker 3: that like them and they use them. And also we've
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  Speaker 3: seen a thirty percent reduction in the use of vehicles
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  Speaker 3: in the CBD area. People for a short distance they
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  Speaker 3: use a scooter, then they use their car, which is
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  Speaker 3: really good. But again, one thing I say up there
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  Speaker 3: is don't be full. Don't drink and drive or drink
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  Speaker 3: ride wear your helmet and respect people they they use
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  Speaker 3: the same path with you. It's not your path, it's
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  Speaker 3: pedestrian path. You're allowed to use it as a courtesy.
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  Speaker 2: Has the council done much obviously, you know this review
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  Speaker 2: or these trials taking place for quite some time. Has
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  Speaker 2: there been much work done in terms of making sure
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  Speaker 2: that some of those footpaths and things where there has
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  Speaker 2: been uneven surfaces or some of those different corners which
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  Speaker 2: have been a concerned Has there been much work done
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  Speaker 2: in terms of rectifying any of those worries.
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  Speaker 3: We do all of them according to the Australian standards. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: now they have to actually ride the scooters in the
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  Speaker 3: footpath and they have to follow the instructions and the footpath.
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  Speaker 3: We cannot just go over the standards because some people
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  Speaker 3: want to use them exclusive for scooters. But what we
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  Speaker 3: find out is now a lot of people buying their
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  Speaker 3: own scooters. We've got a lot of private schools. We've
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  Speaker 3: got even a guy who's got a unicycle. You can
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  Speaker 3: see him spinning around the road, which I don't think
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  Speaker 3: is legal, but anyway, I let the police deal with it.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, what about has there been much in terms of
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  Speaker 2: reporting like the number of injuries there are as well
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  Speaker 2: with those e scooters.
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  Speaker 3: My suspicion is most of the injuries are not reported.
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  Speaker 3: There's light injuries because some form of alcohol is involved.
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  Speaker 3: The serious ones there finished in the hostel. I understand
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  Speaker 3: the government's concerned about the injuries, and I understand the
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  Speaker 3: government's writing now to Neuron asking them to contribute towards
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  Speaker 3: the cost of repair. Yeah, right of people, because the
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  Speaker 3: scooters are not a register like a car. When you're
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  Speaker 3: read your car, you actually pay for a third part
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  Speaker 3: insurance about injured. The scooters are not yet. But I
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  Speaker 3: want to see what will come out of this debate
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  Speaker 3: between the government and the company.
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  Speaker 2: So the government has is either in the process of
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  Speaker 2: or is going to be writing to Neuron to ask
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  Speaker 2: them to pay additional like an additional fee.
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  Speaker 3: That's my understanding.
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  Speaker 1: Do we know how much?
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  Speaker 3: I have no idea.
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  Speaker 1: Would that be then passed on to the consumer?
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  Speaker 3: No? Where should it? I mean the other an easy
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  Speaker 3: option is actually all the school to be registered. So
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  Speaker 3: if a company pays a registration, if you for the scudders,
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  Speaker 3: But again they have to sort out the legislation. What
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  Speaker 3: other scooters are there? Things you add in a footbath,
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  Speaker 3: or if they become like a vehicle can be written,
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  Speaker 3: you can write them in the road.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Con, Before I let you go, we're going to
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  Speaker 2: be catching up with Sam Western, the owner of the
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  Speaker 2: Mad Snake, a little bit later after ten o'clock.
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  Speaker 1: He's a Darwin veteran.
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  Speaker 2: He's called for calm in the paper today after a
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  Speaker 2: social media post caused a stir among anti vax anti
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  Speaker 2: mandate protesters.
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  Speaker 1: So he basically asked for.
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  Speaker 2: The anti mandate protesters to leave the last post for
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  Speaker 2: the military and not to use the senotaph when they
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  Speaker 2: are out there marching. Con, what are your thoughts on
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  Speaker 2: the protesters utilizing the senotaph on the weekend last weekend?
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  Speaker 3: I absolutely agree with your collup. I think the senatorph
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  Speaker 3: is a senator for a special purposes only, and the
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  Speaker 3: last post would be actually played on certain circumstances. With
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  Speaker 3: this is a match. You have the right to protest,
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  Speaker 3: your right to express your opinion, you have no right
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  Speaker 3: to secreate the cenotaph, and you have no right to
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  Speaker 3: actually use the last post for your purpose. I mean
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  Speaker 3: by doing that one what who else is going to
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  Speaker 3: do it? Soccer rally Rugby Raley and fl Raley is
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  Speaker 3: something that actually has nothing to do with a senataph
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  Speaker 3: or anything. I think there's certain places that have to
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  Speaker 3: be respected and I leave it to that well.
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  Speaker 2: Contat Scarlets, the Lord Mayor of Darwin. Always good to
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  Speaker 2: catch up with you. Thanks so much for day you too,