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Katie Woolf spoke with Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie will thanks to Joyce Main, Darwin
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Homes and Stuart Highway.
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  Speaker 2: Beromar joining us live in the studio is the Lord
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  Speaker 2: Mayor of Darwin convat Scarlets Good morning, Colin.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning.
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  Speaker 3: And the dry seasons here and they even started with
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  Speaker 3: a big antsac day on Sunday, thousands of people attending
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  Speaker 3: the cenotaph, the dawn service and of course.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of people came to the Parado. It was fantastic.
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  Speaker 3: Well down Darwin people, let's our support to our defense
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  Speaker 3: forces and let's get together again.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, some people says, well, what about the social distancing.
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  Speaker 3: Well, considering we didn't have any community transmission lifetown in
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  Speaker 3: Perth and we've got a very good system in impacts,
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  Speaker 3: I think we're pretty safe up here. But we have
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  Speaker 3: to be vigilant.
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  Speaker 1: We have to be.
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  Speaker 2: Careful, absolutely we do, and we've been talking about that
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  Speaker 2: throughout the morning in terms of the Howard Springs quarantine
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  Speaker 2: facility and the increasing numbers that we've got out there.
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  Speaker 2: But con I do want to speak to you about
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  Speaker 2: there has been a lot of discussion over the last
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  Speaker 2: week or so nationally about deals with China, and I
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  Speaker 2: know that the one Belt, one Road initiative with the
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  Speaker 2: Victorian government has been overturned. As I understand it now.
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  Speaker 2: I know that the Darwin City Council does have a
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  Speaker 2: sister Cities deal with China, don't you.
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  Speaker 3: We had one since nineteen eighty three and we still
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  Speaker 3: have that one.
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  Speaker 1: I know the whole broog about China.
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  Speaker 3: The federal government pass legislation a year ago that requests
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  Speaker 3: everybody who deals with China to submit all the dealing
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  Speaker 3: with China to assess them. That includes university, that includes
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  Speaker 3: local government, that's the low state government. Well, I'm very
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  Speaker 3: pleased to tell you that we submit all our plans
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  Speaker 3: to defeat for assessment. And the fight went through and
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  Speaker 3: came back and says there's no problem with the City
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  Speaker 3: of Darwin and your relationship with the sister city in China,
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  Speaker 3: And of course there isn't because we're dealing with local government,
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  Speaker 3: not with government.
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  Speaker 2: It did say, all your plans, how many are the
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  Speaker 2: how many are they?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we've got seven sister cities, We've got a High Court,
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  Speaker 3: we've got calumnars, we've got Anchorage, got Amelicapitive co Deially,
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  Speaker 3: we're quite a few cities that we're dealing with and
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  Speaker 3: in most cases actually we get a lot of benefits.
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  Speaker 3: For example, with the sister city with Calumners, we managed
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  Speaker 3: to have an agreement between CDU and the University of
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  Speaker 3: the g and they accommodate all the students they're learning
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  Speaker 3: to Creek and they take them out they go to Greece.
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  Speaker 3: Well they used to because with COVID nobody goes anywhere.
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  Speaker 3: Same thing applies with High Court, the University of hainand
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  Speaker 3: you have an agreement with CDU, and we've seen express
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  Speaker 3: expressed interest in the past for a further relationship with
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  Speaker 3: regards to economy and see food expert from Darwin to China.
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  Speaker 2: So is there any other I mean, aside from those
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  Speaker 2: sister cities deals, is there anything else that de Fat
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  Speaker 2: needed to look at now?
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  Speaker 3: Just what we do with China the way we're doing it.
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  Speaker 3: And I said to you, we're dealing with the local government.
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  Speaker 3: We're not dealing with the state or provincial or the
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  Speaker 3: central government. So our conducts are limited and our dealings
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  Speaker 3: are very.
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  Speaker 2: Lim So you're confident that realistically there's not going to
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  Speaker 2: be a situation here where anything's overturned by the federal government.
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  Speaker 2: That the Darwin City Council.
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  Speaker 3: Is there was one that we have done it by
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  Speaker 3: now we'll get the response from them that everything was
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  Speaker 3: fine and nothing to worry about.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm very very happy about it.
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  Speaker 2: Con let's move along because there is quite a bit
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  Speaker 2: to cover off on. I want to go to this
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  Speaker 2: story on the front page of the paper lane Way
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  Speaker 2: lifestyle plans for El Fresco Cafe in City Loading Bay.
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  Speaker 2: It looks phenomenal these artist impressions. What are we going
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  Speaker 2: to say here.
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  Speaker 3: I'm very pleased that some of the people out there
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  Speaker 3: they're prepared to do what I've been calling for a
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  Speaker 3: long time. We actually remodified the lane. Waste get out
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  Speaker 3: and do something with them. This is the first proposal
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  Speaker 3: to put a little bar on the side of the
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  Speaker 3: Austin Lane next to the Ruby restaurant on the other side.
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  Speaker 3: And that's a brilliant idea, especially for after hours and
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  Speaker 3: the weekends.
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  Speaker 1: And we've got.
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  Speaker 3: The other side of the road another lane extension that
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  Speaker 3: is ready to be a util I hope the restaurants
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  Speaker 3: and I want the restaurants there in that area to
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  Speaker 3: come out, put tables and chairs and do it. We
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  Speaker 3: had some applications already from one particular two restaurants there,
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  Speaker 3: and I'm hopeful that actually finally people in that when
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  Speaker 3: we have the opportunity to sit outside rather than air
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  Speaker 3: conditioned environment.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it looks fantastic and it certainly brings
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  Speaker 2: the city to life seeing it activated in that way.
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  Speaker 3: We've got the best environment in Australia, especially this time
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  Speaker 3: of the year. Tourists would come out and I would
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  Speaker 3: like to sit outside to see a beautiful harbor, a
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  Speaker 3: beautiful city lifestyle, and the council has been really, really
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  Speaker 3: innovative in its approach. I'll be prepared to close Knake
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  Speaker 3: Street Friday and Saturday if the restaurants they want.
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  Speaker 1: To put the.
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  Speaker 3: Tables on the whole road between Smith Street and Kavernor
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  Speaker 3: Street where we've got restaurants.
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  Speaker 1: And put table and chairs out Friday night and Saturday night.
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  Speaker 1: There's not much traffic there. Why would don't you tilize
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  Speaker 1: for something that's.
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  Speaker 2: Something you'd like to see from great success.
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  Speaker 1: We did it before in one two occasions.
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  Speaker 3: We can do it again. Any thing we need is
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  Speaker 3: people to come to us. Is we're going to do it.
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  Speaker 3: Let's work together.
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  Speaker 2: Con speaking of activating the City. I know that the
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  Speaker 2: Indian Straight Food Event is kicking off this weekend.
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  Speaker 3: It's actually on the first of first of Man of
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  Speaker 3: May and just before Greek Christ. That's really fantastic in Darwin.
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  Speaker 3: The second of May, you've got Greek Christ. First of May,
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  Speaker 3: you've got the Indian Busy more busy weekend, and it's
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  Speaker 3: going to get even busier. We're going to have a
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  Speaker 3: lot of other events happening, and one after the other
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  Speaker 3: is happening and that's really really good. And we are
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  Speaker 3: going to have the City Band performing once again, and
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  Speaker 3: also the Army Band performing once again. You mentioned the
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  Speaker 3: Study Festival, and of course we've got the Saberies Festival
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  Speaker 3: at Nightcliff on the seventh and.
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  Speaker 1: Eighth of May. And it's a long weekend this weekend.
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  Speaker 2: I love a good long weekend. Hey, con I do
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  Speaker 2: want to ask you as well, just quickly, a Nightcliff
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  Speaker 2: tree planting. How many trees are being planted in Nightcliff.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we planted two one hundred and twenty six new
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  Speaker 3: trees on the foreshore to provide when the growth will
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  Speaker 3: provides some said to the people. Nightclif Foreshore is one
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  Speaker 3: of the places that everybody gots.
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  Speaker 1: The people love it there.
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  Speaker 3: They sit out there and enjoying themselves. And of course
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  Speaker 3: talking about trees. We've got a lot of works happening
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  Speaker 3: now at the intersection of Smith Street and Curch Street
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  Speaker 3: to do work to protect that big Banyan tree on
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  Speaker 3: the corner. So we extend the footpath to go around it,
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  Speaker 3: so we don't touch the tree, but we may convenient
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  Speaker 3: and safe for people to.
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  Speaker 1: Cross the road.
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  Speaker 2: I coned something else that I noticed on the weekend,
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  Speaker 2: and it's something you and I have spoken about on
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  Speaker 2: several occasions. Down a bit for a bit longer ago,
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  Speaker 2: is at East Point, you know where I'd said, how
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  Speaker 2: come there is a pedestrian crossing for the kids to
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  Speaker 2: get across the road near the playground there. I noticed
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  Speaker 2: that there's a lot of work going on there.
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  Speaker 1: What's happening, Well, you and many other mothers ask for it. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: safe crossing, and you're.
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  Speaker 3: Getting on one cucually responding to what you have to
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  Speaker 3: say for the same reason, because there's safety of our citizens,
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  Speaker 3: especially the youngsters at the Sparamount. I know I had
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  Speaker 3: a bit of complain, Oh why did you put these
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  Speaker 3: barriers there? Guys, we're putting a crossing, safe crossing for
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  Speaker 3: children and mothers and other people. They're using the car
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  Speaker 3: pack and of course they have to cross to go
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  Speaker 3: to the playground. Yep, this is what we're doing. And
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  Speaker 3: after that we didn't have any more complaints. But I'm
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  Speaker 3: very pleased to say that the council is actually doing
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  Speaker 3: a tremendous work. And not only that, but we decided
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  Speaker 3: if people don't know about council, we're going to tell
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  Speaker 3: them about it. So this Sunday we were in Casurina
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  Speaker 3: and we met quite a few people that came. Some
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: of them had some complaints. Others want to know what
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  Speaker 3: we're doing. We told them what we're doing. We give
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  Speaker 3: some information and this Saturday we're going to be in
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  Speaker 3: Nightcliff and we're going to be there from first May
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  Speaker 3: from ten am to one pm. And on the fifteenth
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  Speaker 3: of May we're going to be at the Galleria. So
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  Speaker 3: this weekend and in two weekends the Galleria. If you
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  Speaker 3: got anything you want to tell us me, myself and
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  Speaker 3: other oldermen will be there coming talk to us.
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  Speaker 2: Convat Scarlet's good to catch up with you. Thank you
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  Speaker 2: so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: I have a good morning you too.