Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Shadow Minister for Health Bill Yan says the new CHO direction around visiting venues unvaccinated but not being able to visit the bar beggars belief

Transcript

Shadow Minister for Health Bill Yan says the new CHO direction around visiting venues unvaccinated but not being able to visit the bar beggars belief · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As I mentioned a bit earlier this morning, we understand
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: that there has been some changes to the chow directions
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: for those who are unvaccinated. Now we're trying our best
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to get the details, as this all happened pretty quietly
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: without fanfare, and earlier in the week we asked about
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the vaccine passport and about those rules in licensed premises.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to what the Chief Minister, Michael Gunner
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: had said earlier in the week.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Mine's standing here. I might have to go double check
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: the tent. So I thought this had happened, Maybe it's
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: about to happen. The Chow has said that the vax
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: pass will apply at the bar, not at the front
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: good door, so you'd have to check every patron.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So that was whether you know people should still be
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: showing those vaccine passports in licensed venues. This is what
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Alex Bruce had to say after that interview. There is
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: going to be a change in this space where it
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: will no longer be required when you're walking in the door,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: but having to check the vaccine status at the bar.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Did you hear that and have you had any update
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: on that.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: We've just come from a meeting with the Chief help
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: off for doctor Hugh.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Heegy and his deputy, doctor Charles Paine.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: They definitely didn't indicate anything of that nature.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So that was when I'd asked about whether the vaccine
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: passport was due to well, whether.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: It was due to be removed and no longer needed.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Now I'm on the website at the moment, I'm on
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the website which shows the chose directions and directions five
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and six do not apply in relation to a person
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: entering a place, business or premises, or beginning an activity
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: or service listed in the schedule that is used for
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: exercise or for sport, if the person is a participating
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: in sport or exercise or observing sport, and b not
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: purchasing liquor for consumption. So this is you no longer
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: have to show your vaccine passport if you're going in
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: to watch sport or play sport, but if you're purchasing
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: alcohol you still do.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: I mean, it all sounds a bit ridiculous.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: So I've got to now essentially, like I've just said,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: these rules have changed. Now. Joining me on the line
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: is Bill Yan, the opposition spokesperson for Health. Good morning
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to you, Bill, Good morning to you, Bill.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Yes, good morning Katie, how are you.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: Very well now?
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Bill?
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: What do you know of these changes?
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Well, the first that we heard about it was that
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: sneaky release last night. There's no fanfare. It was sort
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: of boarding on the quiet and on face Valu. It's
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: what a joke to say that you can go to
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: a sporting venue and watch sport but you can't go
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: to the bar. Really flies in the face of everything
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: that's happening with other licensed venues, certainly across the territory.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: We've been raising this for some time now. I know
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: that Alex Bruce has also been raising it, the fact
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: that yes, now you can go into a sporting venue
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: which is effectively licensed, but you can't go and buy
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: be here. But you can go and buy a pie.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: What's the difference here? Like, if I'm sitting next to
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: someone who's unvaccinated having a pie, am I more or
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: less likely to catch COVID? But maybe more likely if
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: they're having a beer? It doesn't make a lot of sense.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense really at all. But the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: other thing, then, Bill, is what's to stop your mate
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: who you're sitting with, going and buying you a beer
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: from the bar? And are you allowed to be sitting
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: down and drinking it, whether you're vaccinated or unvaccinated. Like,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: it's all utterly confusing if you ask me.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Well, that is the million dollar question, isn't it?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: So?
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: What happens if I go to the footy with a
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: mate and I'm vaccinated, he's not, And I buy two
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: beers and I come back and sit down and oh gee,
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I gave him a beer? What's going to happen to me?
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Am I going to get fine? Am I going to
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: be facing penalties for giving an unvaccinated person here at
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: a sporting venue?
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: It beggars believed.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: He's real change, really big a belief. And that's why
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: it's so important to get that regular reporting from the chair,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: because I'll tell you what I really and not just me.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of territories want to see the
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: health advice behind these changes.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: Well, I will ask you.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I do want to get to that legislation that you
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: guys introduced in just a moment, but before we get there,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you, why do you think that
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: these changes and rules all seem to impact license venues
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: or those serving alcohol.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: I really don't know, and it just doesn't make much sense.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: And I've spoken about this at length, and I've spoken
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: about it publicly. So if you go into a cafe
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: that's got a license for breakfast, well you actually allowed
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: to go in there, although the Chief Minister may have
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: pre empted the advice that came out yesterday saying that
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: well you probably can, but you just can't go to
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: the bar. But you go to cafe next door which
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: doesn't have a license, and you're okay, where's the parity,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Where's where is the advice? It says that one is
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: a higher risk than the other. Also, and that's what
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: businesses are asking.
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: And then also though Bill add to that, well why
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: are we then making those staff be triple vaccinated?
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Exactly?
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: It's and I'm not, you know, like I'm vaccinated.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's honestly, it's very confusing at this point,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and I reckon, if you're somebody who's unvaccinated, you must
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: be feeling like a bloody lepard right now and wondering
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: what you are and aren't allowed to do.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Well, the government came out quite strongly when they said
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: that unvaccinated people are allowed to come into the territory.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: But there's all these cabage you're not allowed to go
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: to a license venue now to go to supporting me,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: you know, a lad, to go to a concert. You
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: can't do all these things. And this was the reassurance
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: that they gave territories that they were keeping us safe
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: by keeping unvaccinated people away from these events and venues. Now,
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden, we've got footy coming up, and
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: lord geez, we want crowds at the footy that we
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: might not get them if we don't allow the unvaccinated.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: So we'll quickly change the rules and we'll let our
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: vaccinated into these venues now. But yeah, you can't buy
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: a beer. Yeah, line up by pie, But you can't
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: line up and get a beer because you may be
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: at a higher risk of catching or giving COVID to
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: someone because you're getting a beer. As really big is belief.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just don't get it.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: And we did put in a request earlier in the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: week to try and get the Chief Health Officer on
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the show to be able to ask some of these questions,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: but to no avail. At this point, Bill, I do
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: want to ask you. I know that this week you
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: were due to introduce this legislation around more regular reporting
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: for the chow to Parliament, did that get up?
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Well, our legislation has been introduced, Katie, so that will
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: come up in the May sittings. It sits on the
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: notice paper now for a month. But the government have
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: been quite vocal and adamant that they're not going to
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: support our bill and that regular reporting from the show
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: back to Parliament and then of course allowing the public
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: to see that through open and transparent reporting that comes
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: out in hands up. So they've been quite clear about
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: it publicly that they're not going to support our changes.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: They say that coming out in the press conference is
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: enough that provides enough detail to the public and everybody else.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: There's some major changes. Yesterday came. We didn't see a
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: press conference, we didn't see the press getting to ask
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: the Health Minister or the Chief Health Officer about why
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: they made these changes. And of course we've been asking
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: for briefing on the government's legislation around the changes to
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: the Health officer's power and we've finally got a briefing
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: this Friday, but we only get half an hour thirty
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: minutes to try and dig through all the detail, which
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: is that the changes, these major changes are happening to
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: the Public Health Emergency Act, and we get a grand
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: total of thirty minutes to try and find out what's
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: going on. It's virginally there impossible for us to really
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: dig in deep enough to those changes because of thirty
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: minutes the government effictively shut us down, get up and
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: try us out.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: It makes it really hard. And look, it's hard to
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: argue with you. You know, it's hard to sort of to
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: you know, to say hang on, you're being unfair or anything. Bill,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: at this point when I think that you're really raising
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: questions that so many territorians have got right now, so
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I can understand your frustration, Bill, I.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: Do want to ask before I let you go.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I spoke earlier on the show this morning about the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: debacle that was questioned time yesterday. Now, I know that
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: you're not able to reflect on the chair the speaker,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: but can I ask you without getting you into trouble?
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: Are you frustrated at the moment?
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Very much? Okay, that we're trying to ask questions that
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Territorians want to know the answers to. There's a lot
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: of things happening in the territory at the moment, and
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of things that government need to answer
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: for and stand up and own up to. So for
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: the government to shut down actual questions and be quite
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: I suppose to use a phrase that the Healthy Miness
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: used to be quite cute about how they use the
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: standing orders to decide what they like in a question
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: or not in a question, is really really making it
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: difficult for us to ask the questions that people want
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: to know the answers to. So, Bill, do you we're
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: going to play. We're going to have to play the game.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: So I'm just going to have to change how we
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: go about it, that's the thing.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: There is obviously rules in place for a reason. But
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: do you feel as though you know right across the board?
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: And I guess I could say the same to you guys,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure the government would say the same to you.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: But do you feel as though the spirit of Parliament
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: is really being diminished at the moment?
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: I think so. Look, the Westminster system that we work
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: under is quite robust and allow us for robust debate,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: robust question It's evident that the government doesn't want to
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: answer questions, and we certainly see that question Tom. We
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: asked very straightforward, simple, quick and they dance around and
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: won't provide answers to us, and of course, at the
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: end of the day, territories, and that's been ongoing since
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: I've been here. I just love one day to actually
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: ask a question of government and get a straight answer.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: I reckon I'd fall out of my chair if it
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: ever happened, but I could live in hope. I'm the eternal.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Optimist, absolutely so, Bill Yan, the Opposition spokesperson for Health.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Always appreciate your time, mate, particularly on such a busy day.
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Jeez.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Can you have a great day you too,