Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Road Transport Association CE Louise Bilato spoke to Katie Woolf on 360 about the transport issues currently impacting Territorians

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NT Road Transport Association CE Louise Bilato spoke to Katie Woolf on 360 about the transport issues currently impacting Territorians · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that over the weekend so many of you
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: were in contact to say that you were unable to
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: get your hands on groceries and essentials due to the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: lack of stock on supermarket shelves. Now we know that
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: flooding in South Australia is obviously having a big impact.
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  Speaker 1: And joining me on the line is the chief executive
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  Speaker 1: of the Northern Territory Road Transport Association, Louise Belato. Good
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: morning to.
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  Speaker 2: You, Good morning Katie. Thank you for having me.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us. Louise, What is the
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  Speaker 1: situation right now when it comes to that flooding in
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: South Australia and the impact that it's having on the territory.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Okay, the road at Glen Dambo is still closed. It's
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  Speaker 2: got about four hundred mills of water over it at
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  Speaker 2: the moment. But the test run that they did on Saturday,
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  Speaker 2: they've got a number of concerns about culbts that have
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  Speaker 2: been washed away, so they've maintained their closure and that
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  Speaker 2: could be a number of more days before they've even
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  Speaker 2: got a chance to actually do a full inspection. Fortunately,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the Stewart Highway at Glen Dambo will remain closed the
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  Speaker 2: concern with that is the weather that's coming that could
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  Speaker 2: just exacerbate the situation there. But one of our transport operators,
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  Speaker 2: I've said this in the media already that ABC and
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  Speaker 2: Gilberts they generally run two hundred and ten fridge vans
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  Speaker 2: of foodstocks into the territory every week, and so that's
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  Speaker 2: seventy odd road trains and they also move two hundred
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  Speaker 2: and forty containers of drygoods off the rail. So the
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  Speaker 2: rail being closed means that that drygoods is just stuck
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  Speaker 2: in Adelaide, and they've had to make decisions around prioritizing
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  Speaker 2: freight to come to the territory because they're now doing
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  Speaker 2: the three thousand kilometer round trip going through New South
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  Speaker 2: Wales and Queensland. And the good news was that the
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  Speaker 2: National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has made an emergency power's decision
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  Speaker 2: to allow triple road trains through New South Wales into Queensland,
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  Speaker 2: which is good for us. But the tricky thing is
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  Speaker 2: that parts of the Barkley have been shut at different times.
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  Speaker 2: But we understand that the ABC Gilbert's trucks that did
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  Speaker 2: leave Adelaide on Friday are still expected to get here
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  Speaker 2: late tonight. Or early tomorrow morning, So in spite of
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the road closures, they are in the right place at
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  Speaker 2: the right time. But that just depends on whether there's
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  Speaker 2: any further series weather coming through on the Barkley.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, I'll tell you what firstly, you know, before I
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  Speaker 1: ask you more questions. I want to say the biggest
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  Speaker 1: shout out to those truckies, all of those people right
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  Speaker 1: around Australia who are doing everything that they can to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that you know that they are still able
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  Speaker 1: to transport freight and doing everything they can to try
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  Speaker 1: and get it to the Northern Territory. So if they're
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  Speaker 1: listening in those vehicles this morning, we want to say
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  Speaker 1: a massive, massive thank you to them. Louise, can I
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  Speaker 1: just ask you, said, seventy odd road trains that obviously
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  Speaker 1: come in every week with all of that stock, how
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  Speaker 1: many are we expecting to arrive this week?
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  Speaker 2: Well, depending on the road conditions, maybe a dozen. But
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  Speaker 2: I know that some of the retailers have increased the
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  Speaker 2: number of trucks with foodstocks coming out of Brisbane as well,
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  Speaker 2: So they've normally got some foodstocks coming out of Brisbane.
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  Speaker 2: A lot do come out of Adelaide, but they've re
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  Speaker 2: rooted their demand to bring more out of Brisbane at
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  Speaker 2: the moment to try and assist the you know, the
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: stocks that we need. So there will be potentially another
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  Speaker 2: additional doesn't coming from Queensland. And again, as I say,
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  Speaker 2: just as long as the Barkley stays open, hopefully whatever
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  Speaker 2: happens on the Barkley, if people are stuck, it will
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  Speaker 2: still be relatively short periods, unlike the South Australian which
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  Speaker 2: is closed. But yeah, the other news yesterday was that
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  Speaker 2: the Perth Darwin Run is now shut between Hall's Creek
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  Speaker 2: and Fitzroy Crossing. So we have quite a bit of
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  Speaker 2: our freight also come up through Perth to Darwin. Not
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  Speaker 2: as much obviously perishables, but certainly a whole range of
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  Speaker 2: other freight. Yeah, there's predicted to be a lot of
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  Speaker 2: rain this week there, so that could mean that the
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  Speaker 2: Great Northern Highways closed for longer.
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  Speaker 1: So it does sound as though, I mean, just sort
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  Speaker 1: of looking at those numbers, if we usually have seventy
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  Speaker 1: odd road trains and then we're looking at a dozen
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  Speaker 1: from you know, being rerouted I think you said through
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  Speaker 1: New South Wales, then another dozen coming from Queensland. Correct,
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  Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong, we are still going to be
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  Speaker 1: you know, quite down on what would ordinarily arrive into
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  Speaker 1: the Northern territory.
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  Speaker 2: And that's just food in fridge vans. So part of
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  Speaker 2: the problem is that the supply chain with the trucks
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  Speaker 2: and the equipment now is being thrown out completely because
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  Speaker 2: you know, Darwin to Adelaide line hall is very consistent
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  Speaker 2: and you know that three thousand kometive each way stretches
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  Speaker 2: is able to be done, you know, own a very orderly
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  Speaker 2: fashion coming through New South Wales and Queensland. Means that
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  Speaker 2: there's equipment that's not in Adelaide, you know, to load
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  Speaker 2: at the same time that they normally do, when we
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  Speaker 2: would then expect on a Tuesday night or a Friday
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  Speaker 2: or a Sunday to see freak being delivered to the
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  Speaker 2: supermarket to then go on the shelves. So that's changed
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  Speaker 2: the dynamic completely. So that's an extra four days of
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  Speaker 2: driving time and you've got empty vans here that have
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  Speaker 2: to get back to Adelaide to get billed that are
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  Speaker 2: going to take longer.
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  Speaker 1: Louise, are you expecting like a we're going to reach
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a crisis point here.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we were very concerned yesterday about the the state
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  Speaker 2: of the road and where those trucks that have been,
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  Speaker 2: as you said, doing a phenomenal job to get here
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  Speaker 2: to be able to alleviate the shortage where they were
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  Speaker 2: right now, it's looking okay, but this incredible weather event
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  Speaker 2: that's happening all across the country could really slow things down.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, hopefully this week we will see some small
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  Speaker 2: food on the shelves and will be okay. But it's
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  Speaker 2: very hard to predict where this weather will stop the road.
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  Speaker 1: Well that's exactly right. None of us can really. We
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  Speaker 1: can all try, but we can't predict exactly what's going
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  Speaker 1: to happen with the weather. I guess it does really
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  Speaker 1: demonstrate a bit of a vulnerability for us here in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory and it begs the question, really, do
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  Speaker 1: we need to flood proof the Stuart Highway?
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  Speaker 2: Well that's been my thing. I mean, you never waste
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  Speaker 2: a good crisis, but we do need to look at
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  Speaker 2: those sections of the Stuart Highway between Dwen and Adelaide
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  Speaker 2: that are notoriously bad. I mean, certainly the section at
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  Speaker 2: Glen Danbo hasn't gone down since the eighties to this extent.
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  Speaker 2: But it's well known that the road goes through a
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  Speaker 2: swamp and then nowhere for the water to drain away,
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  Speaker 2: So you know that should be have been a forward
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  Speaker 2: planned to be rectified a long time ago. Two hundred
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  Speaker 2: and forty odd containers that usually get distributed in Darwin
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  Speaker 2: of dry goods into the supermarkets, well that's just sitting
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  Speaker 2: in Adelaide because that hasn't been prioritized as yet by
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  Speaker 2: the road streight industry, simply because the the work being
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  Speaker 2: done at the moment is to get the perishables and
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  Speaker 2: other food stuff up here. But that will need to happen,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, as the road opens again, hopefully that
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  Speaker 2: those dry goods will come north because the rail is
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  Speaker 2: going to take that much longer to repair.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Louise. It does sound like it's a really difficult situation.
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  Speaker 1: I know that everybody in the industry is really doing
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  Speaker 1: everything they can to try to make sure that you
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  Speaker 1: know that we do get those goods here to the
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  Speaker 1: northern Territory. To anybody out there listening this morning, I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: know a lot of territory and listening will be feeling
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  Speaker 1: quite worried. You know, what would you say to them.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think we do need to reassure territory orients
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  Speaker 2: that the road transport industry is doing absolutely everything that
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  Speaker 2: they can and have got you know, additional pieces of
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  Speaker 2: equipment some elsewhere to address this task. And stopping or
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  Speaker 2: being held up at you know, at creeks and river
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  Speaker 2: crossings isn't unusual at this time of year, but it's
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  Speaker 2: just they know the combination of things which have really
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  Speaker 2: put a huge strain on the you know what's in
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  Speaker 2: the shops. But yeah, as I say, everything that is
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  Speaker 2: being that can be done is being done at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: The road transport industry is taking it very very seriously
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  Speaker 2: and is applying all they can to resolve the problem.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I don't think we need to worry about
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  Speaker 2: air right in Darwin right now, but certainly for medical
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  Speaker 2: supplies and things which are you know, critical time requirements,
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  Speaker 2: that's something that you know business as might choose to
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: do is to put things on the air. Certainly the
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: mail is not going to get through as easy if
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  Speaker 2: you've seen the things Land Transport.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Louise Belato, the Northern Territory Transport Association Chief Executive,
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  Speaker 1: I always appreciate your time. It sounds as I we'll
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: probably have another chat throughout the week. Thank you for
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: speaking with us this morning, and like I said, a
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  Speaker 1: big thank you to everybody working in the industry right
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  Speaker 1: now doing their best to try to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: we are able to get all that stock here to
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  Speaker 1: the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: That's Louise Blato there, the Northern Territory Transport Association chief executive.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to take a really quick break and when
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  Speaker 1: we come back we're going to be catching up with
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the Education Union's Adam Lampe