Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Solomon Luke Gosling skirted around questions about whether the NT is in the grip of a crime crisis but did say youth diversion needs an overhaul

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Member for Solomon Luke Gosling skirted around questions about whether the NT is in the grip of a crime crisis but did say youth diversion needs an overhaul · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: One of the concerns that's been raised with us for
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  Speaker 1: quite some time. We've even had different people on the
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  Speaker 1: show being interviewed about the way in which they've been
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  Speaker 1: victims of scams. And then is thousands of territories that
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  Speaker 1: do fall victim to scammers, and the federal government's announced
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  Speaker 1: a range of initiatives to combat cybercrime. Now, Ozzy's lost
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  Speaker 1: more than three billion dollars to scams last year and
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  Speaker 1: the scam losses have increased nearly fivefold since twenty twenty,
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  Speaker 1: with the average loss from a scam around twenty grand. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the Member for Solomon, Luke Gosling, joins me on the
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  Speaker 1: line right now to tell us a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: about what the federal government is doing to try and
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  Speaker 1: put a stop to these scams. Good morning to you, Luke.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you not too bad?
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  Speaker 1: Mate? Thanks so much for your time this morning. I
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  Speaker 1: know it's a busy week with Parliament sitting. Tell me
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  Speaker 1: what's been announced to combat these cyber scams.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having us on, Katie, because I know
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  Speaker 2: a lot of terrortorying, because many have come to my
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  Speaker 2: office after being ripped out of their hard earned cash
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  Speaker 2: by these scammers and it's incredible. But the average loss
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  Speaker 2: around Australia in a scam, whether that be because you're
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  Speaker 2: replied to a bogus text message or email or phone call,
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  Speaker 2: is the average of twenty thousand dollars and it's just
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's just incredible. And three billion dollars in
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  Speaker 2: a year it's been scammed out of Australians through these
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  Speaker 2: dodgy quite sophisticated phone call, text messages, social media accounts,
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  Speaker 2: which is scamming people out of money. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: we're fighting back in that. We've created the National Anti
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  Speaker 2: Scams Center and the idea of that is to bring
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  Speaker 2: cutting edge technology, but importantly to get the telcos, so
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  Speaker 2: the phone companies, the Internet companies, the government and business
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  Speaker 2: all working together, so government and the private sector using
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  Speaker 2: our cutting edge technology to interrupt scams in real time.
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  Speaker 2: As a new scam hit, we're striking back against it
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  Speaker 2: straight away through the National Anti Scam Center. And it
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  Speaker 2: will also obviously be a centralized point within government that
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  Speaker 2: people can go to so Territorians can call in, send
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  Speaker 2: screenshots and whatever information they've got to help combat the
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  Speaker 2: scammers so prevent more people being ripped off.
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  Speaker 1: So do you reckon, Luke? I mean, I think we're
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  Speaker 1: all is we're all hoping that this is going to work.
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  Speaker 1: But these scammers, they seem to just continually find different
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  Speaker 1: ways to get around new technology and get around you
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  Speaker 1: know things when we're trying to sort of make some headway.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, they do. And it's a bit like you know,
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  Speaker 2: the sophisticated cyber attacks. It's an ongoing battle. But what
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  Speaker 2: the National Anti Scam Center do is it's been quite
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  Speaker 2: a disjointed response. So now we're going to be fighting back,
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  Speaker 2: but with a lot more coordination and information sharing so
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  Speaker 2: that when you've got the telcos, the internet companies and
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  Speaker 2: you would have thought this had already be happening, that
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  Speaker 2: it hasn't been well enough. So in real time, we
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  Speaker 2: get that information and hit back and try and stop
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  Speaker 2: the scamming behavior before it rips more money out of
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  Speaker 2: Territorians and out of Australian's pockets. And you know, obviously
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of community interest because so many people,
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  Speaker 2: even people that would think that there's no way I
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  Speaker 2: would ever be caught out by a scam, people have
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  Speaker 2: been caught out and so that three billions probably under
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  Speaker 2: representative because some people wouldn't have put their hand up
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  Speaker 2: and said, hey, I've been scammed and I put my
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  Speaker 2: money here, and then they talk to their bank and
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  Speaker 2: just say in the bank says often says, well, there's
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  Speaker 2: not much we can do now because there's already been
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  Speaker 2: a transfer. Sometimes there is things that the banks can do,
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  Speaker 2: but it's bringing the banks to telcos, the internet companies, government,
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  Speaker 2: private and government together to fight back quicker and harder.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think anything that we can do to try
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  Speaker 1: to stop people from actually, you know, being basically having
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  Speaker 1: their hard earned cash stolen, it needs to be done. Luke,
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  Speaker 1: yesterday in Parliament you spoke about the government support for
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  Speaker 1: small business with funding to help them overcome natural disasters
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  Speaker 1: and build resilience. What is this going to mean for
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we really want to assist small business with the
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  Speaker 2: challenges they face, and fortunately we're in cop the worst
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  Speaker 2: of it in the territory in terms of our economy
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  Speaker 2: beetings shut down during COVID, but at the same time,
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  Speaker 2: the shutdown of big economies in the state had an
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  Speaker 2: effect on us in terms of tourism and our closed borders,
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  Speaker 2: and so forth, but there's also been the effect of
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  Speaker 2: flooding which has really had a big impact on our
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  Speaker 2: supply Chaine. The point is that our small businesses need
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  Speaker 2: more support, and we've announced through the budget support with
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  Speaker 2: energy costs for small business and also obviously the anti
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  Speaker 2: government's got a range of small business assistants, but we
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  Speaker 2: really need to get behind small business than we are
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  Speaker 2: because they've engine growth, they've engine of our economy obviously
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  Speaker 2: been ninety eight percent of businesses as small or medium size,
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  Speaker 2: and we want to do more to assist them.
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  Speaker 1: Look, has there been some changes as well when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to procurement policies for small business and trying to
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  Speaker 1: sort of to help territory businesses.
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  Speaker 2: There really has, Katie, and I think you and I
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  Speaker 2: have spoken over the years about that, from when I
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  Speaker 2: was in opposition, working with master builders and others to
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  Speaker 2: get smaller packages of work when it comes to federal
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  Speaker 2: government work, whether it be defense or otherwise, so that
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  Speaker 2: our local companies can compete and win that work. And
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  Speaker 2: that's been quite successful and it was taken up by
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  Speaker 2: the former government, so it's been a bipartisan approach to
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  Speaker 2: try and get more of the massive spend Commonwealth spend
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  Speaker 2: into the pockets of local business people and we've seen
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  Speaker 2: lots of examples of that, not only in Darwen but
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  Speaker 2: down in Katherine at Tindall as well. But not only that,
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  Speaker 2: Codie is we're looking seriously at making sure that businesses
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  Speaker 2: get paid by government quicker, so really reducing the amount
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  Speaker 2: of time that the quicking up the turnaround of small
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  Speaker 2: businesses and medium businesses being paid by government because that
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  Speaker 2: money is is better obviously in the in the balance
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  Speaker 2: sheets of the of the local businesses rather than government.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a concern for quite some time with
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  Speaker 1: some of those different different you know, jobs that get
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  Speaker 1: underway and for different businesses wanting to take advantage of
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  Speaker 1: wanting to make sure that they win that work, but
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  Speaker 1: also wanting to make sure that they are paid in
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  Speaker 1: a prompt manner. Luke, a couple of messages coming through
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  Speaker 1: just in relation to the interview that I've done with
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  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister last week around the issues of crime.
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  Speaker 1: Do you feel as though there is a crime crisis.
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  Speaker 2: That was a great interview, Katie, and it was great
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  Speaker 2: that the Prime Minister stop by and had a with
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  Speaker 2: you because he's obviously very engaged in assisting where needed.
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  Speaker 2: I think the important point that he made was, you know,
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  Speaker 2: where the Commonwealth, where the Federal government, where we are
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  Speaker 2: requested to provide support by the Anti government, we are
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  Speaker 2: engage in a serious way in doing that. I think
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  Speaker 2: there's more that we can do. I'll just tell you
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  Speaker 2: from my part with the Youth Engagement Hub funding for
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  Speaker 2: the northern suburb. That's one element. But also I'm working
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  Speaker 2: with the Federal Attorney General because if there's one consistent
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  Speaker 2: thing that I've received in terms of feedback from the
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  Speaker 2: community is that we used to have more effective youth
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  Speaker 2: diversion or food camps or whatever you want to call
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  Speaker 2: them out outside of Darwen. People often mentioned wild Man River.
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  Speaker 2: Now that's old infrastructure nowadays. But I'm working with the
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  Speaker 2: Attorney General on assisting the Anti government on establishing outside
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  Speaker 2: of Darwen down the track a suitable facility to provide
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  Speaker 2: early intervention, so mentoring education support, but also getting kids
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  Speaker 2: back on track, getting more support for those diversion options
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  Speaker 2: that the Anti Government need to be looking at.
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  Speaker 1: Look, how soon do you think something like that could
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  Speaker 1: get under way? Because I know that there'll be people
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  Speaker 1: listening going, yeah, you know, it's true, we should have
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  Speaker 1: more and there could be more done in this space.
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  Speaker 1: How quickly do you think it could get underway?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's a good question. The Youth Engagement Hub, we're
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  Speaker 2: needing to establish the Men's shed location out at Marara
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  Speaker 2: in co location with the Scott Palmer Center. When the
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  Speaker 2: Men's sheed moves, then we can knock down the old
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  Speaker 2: kazarin A fire station and get building the youth Engagement
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  Speaker 2: Hub to the northern suburbs. That's one element. But youth
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  Speaker 2: diversion outside of Darwen, there's a great there's a great
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  Speaker 2: facility that I'm looking at and obviously in cooperation with
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  Speaker 2: the NT government, we'll be looking at how we utilize
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  Speaker 2: that with federal government funding support and that's what I'm
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  Speaker 2: working with the Attorney General. There's no funding for that
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  Speaker 2: in this budget, specifically a line item for What there
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  Speaker 2: is is the Justice Reinvestment commitment that our government has
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  Speaker 2: got and there is funding within that, and that's what
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  Speaker 2: I'm talking with the Attorney General about. He's not in
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  Speaker 2: Camber this week, but I'm continuing those conversations with him
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  Speaker 2: and also with the NT government.
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  Speaker 1: You would have seen when I sorry, look, so when
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  Speaker 1: you say Attorney General. Do you mean the federal attorney
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  Speaker 1: general or the Attorney general here in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: No, sorry, the Federal Attorney General here about because he's
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  Speaker 2: very interested in use diversion and the feedback that he
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  Speaker 2: got from territorians when he visited Darwin. Now, obviously he
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  Speaker 2: does that in conjunction with the NT, but there's no
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  Speaker 2: doubt that it is. You know, there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: wise people in our community that have seen a lot
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  Speaker 2: over the decade and the absence of that sort of facility. Now,
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  Speaker 2: I've got to just say to your listeners that the
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  Speaker 2: anti government does have youth diversion programs and what and
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  Speaker 2: where they're working. Well, they're good, but we need to
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  Speaker 2: do more. We need to intervene early. And that does
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  Speaker 2: two things, Kadie. It gets people into a discipline but
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  Speaker 2: supportive environment, but it also keeps them out of Dondale
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  Speaker 2: where frankly they're not going to learn anything but make
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  Speaker 2: connections for getting up to know good outside.
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  Speaker 1: I think there'll be people listening this morning who agree
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  Speaker 1: with you, who think, you know, why don't we have
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  Speaker 1: something like that already? And you know you touched on
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  Speaker 1: the fact that previously there had been places like Wilburn River.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you know there has been examples of
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  Speaker 1: it before. So as I say, I think that people
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  Speaker 1: are going to be listening going this does seem like
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  Speaker 1: a good idea, but they want it to happen fast, and.
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  Speaker 2: I totally appreciate that, and I'll be doing everything with
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  Speaker 2: my colleagues down here in Canberra to further that, but
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  Speaker 2: also working with the NT government when I get home,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm looking forward to doing that on Thursday night
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  Speaker 2: the following week going well, sorry, the following Monday, we're
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  Speaker 2: officially opening the Veterans and First Responder well Beeing Center
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  Speaker 2: that mates for mates running in Stuart Park there. I've
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  Speaker 2: got the Veterans Minister in town on the Monday. Then
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  Speaker 2: we're back in Canberra, but then I'm going with the
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  Speaker 2: Prime Minister to Singapore and be furthering some discussions there,
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  Speaker 2: not only about the defense infrastructure past, but also about
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  Speaker 2: the energy solutions that they're looking for. And I'm very
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  Speaker 2: much looking forward to those discussions. And it is an
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  Speaker 2: example of how seriously our Prime Minute through is taking
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory's role and not only our national security,
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  Speaker 2: about our energy security as well.
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  Speaker 1: Look, bit of a mixed bag this morning on the
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  Speaker 1: tech sign someone messaging through saying Gosling for Chief Minister,
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  Speaker 1: someone else saying Katie, you directly asked the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 1: do you think I mean, you directly asked Luke Gosling
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  Speaker 1: do you think we have a crime crisis? And he's
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  Speaker 1: avoided the answer.
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  Speaker 2: We've got crime in our community and what we all
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  Speaker 2: need is people working on solutions together. He has been
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  Speaker 2: a difficult time for our community, but it's not solved
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  Speaker 2: by people saying pointing at an issue and saying there's
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  Speaker 2: a problem. There's a problem. We all know there's a problem.
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  Speaker 2: What we're on about the solutions and what I'll be
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  Speaker 2: bringing to the table is solutions and it's time. It's time, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I look, I agree. We certainly need to see
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  Speaker 1: some really hard work in this space. It should have
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  Speaker 1: happened yesterday, but it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
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  Speaker 1: Luke Gosling, I always appreciate your time. Thanks so much
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  Speaker 1: for having a chat with me today.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you