Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Chief Minister Michael Gunner about whether the QANTAS London flight will still require quarantine

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Katie Woolf spoke with Chief Minister Michael Gunner about whether the QANTAS London flight will still require quarantine · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: We know that the Northern Territory government announced that they'd
0:02
Speaker 1: secured this direct Darwin London flight with Quantus. The flights
0:06
Speaker 1: are going to mean that Territorians will be able to
0:08
Speaker 1: join the flights in Darwin and fly non stop to London,
0:12
Speaker 1: with the direct flight scheduled to start on the fourteenth
0:15
Speaker 1: of November and run until at least April twenty twenty two.
0:19
Speaker 1: Now the Chief Minister, Michael Gunner joins me in the
0:21
Speaker 1: studio right now.
0:22
Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Chief.
0:23
Speaker 3: Okay, how you going very well?
0:25
Speaker 2: Now?
0:25
Speaker 1: I tell you this seems like a good announcement direct
0:28
Speaker 1: flights from Darwin to London. But I've been getting messages
0:31
Speaker 1: from listeners saying that they cannot book a direct flight
0:34
Speaker 1: home to Darwin.
0:36
Speaker 2: Is there actually a direct flight back if you travel
0:38
Speaker 2: to London?
0:39
Speaker 3: Yes, there is.
0:40
Speaker 4: I've had some similar feedback and I don't know why
0:43
Speaker 4: double confirm again this morning. That's definitely a return flight,
0:46
Speaker 4: so I'm not sure why there's trouble booking. Maybe there's
0:48
Speaker 4: so much demand at the London end that you have
0:50
Speaker 4: having trouble gain the return flight, so.
0:52
Speaker 3: That might maybe it is well. I can ask later today.
0:55
Speaker 4: About what's going on behind the return flight booking issues,
0:59
Speaker 4: but it's definitely a return.
1:00
Speaker 1: So you don't have to go through Sydney or Melbourne
1:02
Speaker 1: to get home.
1:03
Speaker 4: My understanding is that there'll be London dal On flights.
1:06
Speaker 4: That's half the reason behind what they've done here. So
1:09
Speaker 4: I don't know why people are having trouble booking the
1:11
Speaker 4: London Dalne flight unless it just simply goes to the.
1:13
Speaker 3: Amount of demand.
1:14
Speaker 4: And when I met with Alan Joyce a couple weeks back,
1:17
Speaker 4: he did say there was a lot of pent up
1:19
Speaker 4: demand at both ends, so it may be simply there's
1:22
Speaker 4: a lot of people, probably mainly Australians at the London end,
1:26
Speaker 4: wanting to go on that flight.
1:27
Speaker 1: Now, I know that the big question on everybody's lips
1:29
Speaker 1: at the moment is what is going to happen when
1:31
Speaker 1: it comes to quarantining. We know that right now people
1:34
Speaker 1: traveling from overseas or a hot spot, vaccinated or non
1:38
Speaker 1: vaccinated have to quarantine at Howard Springs for fourteen days.
1:42
Speaker 2: Will passengers now be able.
1:44
Speaker 1: To quarantine at home for seven days if they are
1:46
Speaker 1: double vaccinated with these flights?
1:48
Speaker 4: So I'll take you through what the rules are now,
1:50
Speaker 4: and then what we're trying to move towards so absolutely
1:53
Speaker 4: right now, if you come in from overseas in the territory,
1:55
Speaker 4: it's fourteen days quarantine at c Interfnational Resilience at that moment.
1:59
Speaker 4: That's all repat for lights and booked through the Australian Government.
2:02
Speaker 4: They will obviously be the same for the commercial flights,
2:05
Speaker 4: at least initially. The Australian government's talking about November fourteen
2:10
Speaker 4: being the date that these flights come in. Now, no
2:13
Speaker 4: changes at our end or having to quarantine to a
2:15
Speaker 4: double dose eighty and they stage that's looking like late November, so.
2:20
Speaker 1: You will still have to quarantine at Howard Springs for
2:22
Speaker 1: fourteen days.
2:24
Speaker 4: At double dose eighty in the Northern Territory. So that's
2:27
Speaker 4: obviously the national plan. Stage three or the next trigger
2:31
Speaker 4: three or four happens at double dose eighty. At that
2:33
Speaker 4: point in time, we will absolutely move to domestic home
2:36
Speaker 4: based quarantining. What we want to do obviously is move
2:40
Speaker 4: international to the same footing. I can't say it will
2:42
Speaker 4: be on the same date though they'd be great obviously
2:44
Speaker 4: if it could be, but we want to get domestic
2:46
Speaker 4: home quarantines sorted first and then the international internationals where
2:50
Speaker 4: the greater risk is.
2:51
Speaker 3: So we are looking.
2:52
Speaker 4: At moving to fourteen days home quarantine and.
2:57
Speaker 3: That will be for the international to US can give
2:58
Speaker 3: you a date.
2:58
Speaker 1: On the international Okay, So just to make it really
3:01
Speaker 1: clear for those out there listening this morning who are thinking,
3:03
Speaker 1: I would like to book these flights, I've got family
3:05
Speaker 1: in London. I want to go to the UK to
3:07
Speaker 1: see them, and then I want to be able to
3:09
Speaker 1: come home. You will still at this point in time
3:12
Speaker 1: have to quarantine at Howard Springs for fourteen days.
3:16
Speaker 3: Yep.
3:16
Speaker 4: So the dates probably here are very important for anyone
3:19
Speaker 4: booking a flight. Dates are very important. The Australian government's
3:21
Speaker 4: saying November fourteen for these flights commencing, we won't be
3:24
Speaker 4: at double dose eighty then, so we'll be fourteen days
3:27
Speaker 4: quarantine for everybody coming to the territory at Howard Springs,
3:29
Speaker 4: So that includes domestic. When we go double dose eighty,
3:34
Speaker 4: which we think will be late, no, never, maybe early December,
3:36
Speaker 4: we'll be able to definitely go domestic home based quarantining.
3:39
Speaker 4: We are working on international home based quarantining. I can't
3:42
Speaker 4: guarantee it's the same date, but if you want to
3:46
Speaker 4: have a home based quarantining option for international I play
3:50
Speaker 4: wait a little bit before I booked, but if you're
3:52
Speaker 4: comfortable going back into Howard Springs, then obviously.
3:54
Speaker 3: Do that well.
3:54
Speaker 1: So is this really the coup that we're hoping for
3:57
Speaker 1: when it comes to tourism, because realistically, if you've got
4:00
Speaker 1: people coming from London to the Northern Territory, they're still
4:03
Speaker 1: going to have to go into Howard Springs for fourteen
4:06
Speaker 1: days like they are right now.
4:08
Speaker 4: We have these flights until April next year, so we're
4:11
Speaker 4: obviously going to be making changes to our quarantine system
4:13
Speaker 4: between now and April. We're working around changes happening in
4:17
Speaker 4: early December, so a couple weeks after the flight start.
4:19
Speaker 4: So absolutely during the life of these flights there will
4:21
Speaker 4: be a change in our quarantine arrangement. What I can't
4:23
Speaker 4: give you is the dates for that. I think we'll
4:25
Speaker 4: understand why we're still working to double dose eighty and
4:28
Speaker 4: then we've got to make sure the home quarantining works.
4:31
Speaker 4: If you go back in time to when we went
4:33
Speaker 4: from home based quarantining to Howard Springs, we've made a
4:37
Speaker 4: few changes to a quarantine arrangements. We had a ninety
4:39
Speaker 4: nine percent compliants rate, which is extraordinary, but we set
4:42
Speaker 4: that point in time that one percent.
4:43
Speaker 3: Non compliance was too risky. This is before vaccines.
4:47
Speaker 4: We're now looking obviously to move to a domestic home
4:49
Speaker 4: based quarantining for double vaccinated And the other issue obviously
4:53
Speaker 4: was it was resource intensive back then to how we
4:55
Speaker 4: monitored home based quarantining. Now with the apps having developed
5:00
Speaker 4: both the WA Good to Go app or the South
5:01
Speaker 4: Australian app, between those, we've got access to good to
5:04
Speaker 4: Go now, so we now have a less resource intense
5:07
Speaker 4: model with people being vaccinated. So we're obviously significantly more
5:11
Speaker 4: comfortable at moving to domestic home based quarantining, and same
5:14
Speaker 4: case goes for international when we hit double those eighty, So.
5:17
Speaker 1: From early December is when you're hoping that we'll hit
5:20
Speaker 1: that double dose eighty and that will mean then that
5:22
Speaker 1: territory and who travel over to London and come back,
5:25
Speaker 1: they'll be able to quarantine at home potentially potentially will
5:28
Speaker 1: that still be for fourteen days or will it be
5:30
Speaker 1: seven days?
5:31
Speaker 4: So at the moment we're going for fourteen days. I'll
5:33
Speaker 4: take you through the New halth Wales they've gone from
5:35
Speaker 4: fourteen days to seven. That's because the majority of their
5:39
Speaker 4: people who test positive in their quarantine is in the
5:41
Speaker 4: first seven that they still have people who test positive
5:43
Speaker 4: in their second seven, but they're prepared to take that
5:46
Speaker 4: risk because they've got free moving community transmission in the
5:49
Speaker 4: in this.
5:49
Speaker 3: Wales, so we don't have that honestly.
5:51
Speaker 4: So yeah, that's a guaranteed positive case in the community.
5:54
Speaker 4: If you shorten it In New Half Wales, they don't
5:56
Speaker 4: mind because it's part.
5:57
Speaker 3: Of a bigger problem they've got down there.
6:00
Speaker 4: We don't have any cases, so I can't take on
6:02
Speaker 4: an absolute guarantee a positive case in the community.
6:04
Speaker 1: So then when you talk about it from a tourism perspective,
6:08
Speaker 1: what kind of positive impact is this realistically going to
6:10
Speaker 1: have for us in the territory if people are still
6:13
Speaker 1: having to quarantine at Howard Springs for fourteen days.
6:15
Speaker 4: So I think first of all, we've seen that house
6:19
Speaker 4: springs another turren to anybody. We brought those changes in
6:22
Speaker 4: just recently because of that people seeing him to quite
6:24
Speaker 4: light the idea of spending fourteen days at how Springs.
6:27
Speaker 4: But we are going to be moving, obviously between now
6:28
Speaker 4: and April to a different quarantine footing, so there will
6:31
Speaker 4: be plenty of time here for us to take advantage
6:33
Speaker 4: of this route. In my opinion, I just can't give
6:35
Speaker 4: you the hard dates because based on the evidence and
6:39
Speaker 4: the public health devices as opposed to an artificial But you.
6:41
Speaker 1: Are confident that realistically, by early next year that we're
6:44
Speaker 1: going to wind up in a situation where we will
6:46
Speaker 1: actually be able to have tourists getting off that flight,
6:49
Speaker 1: that direct flight into the community and able to actually
6:52
Speaker 1: see the wonders of the territory.
6:54
Speaker 4: And that's what all working towards for how we do
6:56
Speaker 4: a COVID full stop. So it's not just about these tourists.
6:58
Speaker 4: That's what we're trying to move towards with how we
7:00
Speaker 4: manage COVID, and we're just doing it step by step
7:04
Speaker 4: because the priory is still us be keeping territory and safe.
7:06
Speaker 4: We're managed to keep COVID out of our community now,
7:08
Speaker 4: which is quite incredible. When you look at New Zealand's fallen.
7:10
Speaker 4: You know, New Zealand's now given up on COVID zero.
7:13
Speaker 4: Then there's some position to Victoria, but we're managed to
7:16
Speaker 4: keep it out. We've got everything we can to make
7:18
Speaker 4: sure the territory and stay safe for as many days
7:20
Speaker 4: as possible.
7:21
Speaker 1: But moving forwards from early next year, you are hoping
7:24
Speaker 1: that we're going to get to a point where we
7:26
Speaker 1: will be able to keep this direct flight, and you're
7:29
Speaker 1: going to be trying to work with Quantus to really
7:31
Speaker 1: narrow down the way in which we're doing things. Because
7:34
Speaker 1: I know that we're making these announcements about international travel
7:37
Speaker 1: last week Quantus see Alan Joyce stress that Quantus did
7:40
Speaker 1: not believe that seven days of quarantine was sustainable and
7:44
Speaker 1: hope to see that reduced quite rapidly to seventy two
7:47
Speaker 1: hours then removed entirely.
7:50
Speaker 2: Will you be prepared to head.
7:51
Speaker 1: Down that path by early next year in order to
7:54
Speaker 1: make this sustainable?
7:55
Speaker 3: Yep.
7:55
Speaker 4: So the order of steps here in terms of safety
7:58
Speaker 4: would be going from the Center National Resilience quarantine to
8:01
Speaker 4: home based quarantining. Then there's question whether they look at
8:04
Speaker 4: the length of quarantine or not, which what New Half
8:06
Speaker 4: Wales has done, or you might even skip a step
8:08
Speaker 4: or the next step after that anyway, is a testing
8:10
Speaker 4: regime instead of a quarantine regime. That all depends on
8:13
Speaker 4: the speed of the testing results and the number of
8:16
Speaker 4: the volume people coming through. So that's all down the track.
8:19
Speaker 4: I don't know get we're gone talking about that. We
8:22
Speaker 4: jumped ahead of the home based quarantining, but that is
8:26
Speaker 4: a potential outcome down the track. Is a testing regime,
8:29
Speaker 4: so we've got it. We've got a lot of work
8:30
Speaker 4: do before we get there. So don't people thinking that's
8:32
Speaker 4: going to cerdinly h pop up before the end of
8:33
Speaker 4: the year.
8:33
Speaker 2: Okay.
8:34
Speaker 1: The other thing is, obviously we're talking about the international flight,
8:37
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of Assie is said of wondering
8:39
Speaker 1: right now about being able to travel around the rest
8:41
Speaker 1: of Australia. They might have family in Victoria or New
8:43
Speaker 1: South Wales. What's going to be the situation for them.
8:46
Speaker 1: Are you going to be moving sort of in lockstep
8:48
Speaker 1: with that overseas sort of scenario here where they're going
8:52
Speaker 1: to eventually be able to reduce the number of days
8:54
Speaker 1: that they quarantine.
8:55
Speaker 4: So with the domestic home based quarantining, that obviously will
8:58
Speaker 4: definitely come in early just around them on that double
9:01
Speaker 4: dose eighty.
9:02
Speaker 3: That's we're definitely well on track for that.
9:03
Speaker 4: So you can have the comfort of going into state
9:06
Speaker 4: knowing you about a quarantine at home before Christmas. That's
9:08
Speaker 4: what we're working towards. There's nothing that says that we're
9:10
Speaker 4: not everything says we're.
9:11
Speaker 2: On track for that, but still for fourteen.
9:14
Speaker 3: For fourteen days.
9:15
Speaker 4: At this stage, obviously I keep talking and working with
9:18
Speaker 4: Dot the Haggey and the others about whether length of
9:20
Speaker 4: stay can be looked at. But remember the concent for
9:23
Speaker 4: me is wals are making their change knowing there's a
9:26
Speaker 4: guarantee case in the community in that second week, but
9:28
Speaker 4: they don't mind because they've already got cases in their community.
9:31
Speaker 3: It just takes the bulk of pressure off, all right.
9:34
Speaker 1: This we'd had quite a few messages come through over
9:36
Speaker 1: the course of the weekend really, you know, questioning exactly
9:39
Speaker 1: what the go is with this direct flight to London.
9:42
Speaker 1: I know that there was one person who've messaged and said,
9:44
Speaker 1: at the moment Quantus is offering London to Dubai to
9:47
Speaker 1: Melbourne or Sydney to Darwin or Perth direct flight from London,
9:51
Speaker 1: which they say they're not doing to Melbourne, Sydney or
9:54
Speaker 1: Darwin to Brisbane. It doesn't make sense and it makes
9:58
Speaker 1: the announcement on Friday quite miss leading. Plus there was
10:01
Speaker 1: no mention of the fact that you need to steal
10:03
Speaker 1: quarantine at how it springs for two weeks on return.
10:06
Speaker 2: But just to really clarify.
10:08
Speaker 1: That for our listeners this morning who are wondering at
10:11
Speaker 1: this point in time, that is indeed still the case.
10:15
Speaker 1: But your plan in moving forward is that we will
10:18
Speaker 1: get to a point, hopefully early next year, where you're
10:21
Speaker 1: not having to quarantine for fourteen days at how it springs.
10:24
Speaker 3: That's right.
10:25
Speaker 4: The rules that are in place right now and have
10:26
Speaker 4: it in place for eighteen months, remain in place around
10:28
Speaker 4: quarantine for international that remains the source of greatest risk.
10:32
Speaker 4: We are working towards domestic home based quarantining. I can't
10:35
Speaker 4: give you a date on international home based quarantining, but
10:37
Speaker 4: very keen obviously once we move that domestic to match
10:40
Speaker 4: those two things up, that's probably what I can give
10:42
Speaker 4: you in.
10:42
Speaker 3: The short term.
10:44
Speaker 4: Longer term we will look at both the shortening of
10:47
Speaker 4: the days and the testing regime, but their longer term
10:49
Speaker 4: answers don't do not book on the back of that book,
10:52
Speaker 4: on the back of Center National Resilience in two weeks.
10:56
Speaker 4: That's what is the rules right now. I'm not going
10:58
Speaker 4: to mislead anybody. We are working though towards intentional home
11:01
Speaker 4: based correct.
11:01
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we know the vaccination rates and you've
11:03
Speaker 1: touched on this very heavily, needing to get to the
11:05
Speaker 1: eighty percent vaccination rates, But in some of our communities
11:08
Speaker 1: they are incredibly low those vax rates. Some Central Australian
11:12
Speaker 1: locations are at six percent and eleven percent. Some in
11:16
Speaker 1: the Arnham region we don't actually even know how they're
11:18
Speaker 1: sitting based on the government's on website.
11:21
Speaker 2: Are the community is going to.
11:22
Speaker 1: Be shut out to the rest of the territory when
11:24
Speaker 1: you move down this path of allowing that home quarantine
11:28
Speaker 1: or reducing the level of time that you need to quarantine.
11:30
Speaker 4: So we obviously know the quarantine rate in all of
11:34
Speaker 4: communities that we're running. So the MTG clinics where that's
11:37
Speaker 4: blank on our reporting, that's where it's run by a
11:41
Speaker 4: clinic that's not ours Nambrginal community controlled health clinic. We
11:43
Speaker 4: don't have the individual community data, so we're presuming they
11:46
Speaker 4: are a low VAX community unless we're advised otherwise.
11:49
Speaker 3: We haven't been.
11:50
Speaker 4: So the majority of communities I'm worried about our in
11:52
Speaker 4: Central Australia. If you look at the top end communities,
11:55
Speaker 4: most of them are actually seventy percent eighty percent first stars,
11:57
Speaker 4: the top end communities are actually remarkably good. The ones
12:00
Speaker 4: I most worry about. You and the Moo Ali Kurg,
12:03
Speaker 4: palumpa Es Central Australian communities.
12:06
Speaker 3: I'll give you. I'll give you two stories, you and
12:08
Speaker 3: the move.
12:09
Speaker 4: We have vaccines in the clinics, so vaccines are all
12:12
Speaker 4: that cliques by the way, so business as usual. You
12:13
Speaker 4: can go into any vaccine basically any clink, basically get
12:16
Speaker 4: the vaccine. But I've done six intense visits to you
12:18
Speaker 4: and to move. On top of that, you to moves
12:20
Speaker 4: at twenty percent. So for me, you and the moves
12:23
Speaker 4: moving towards probably I don't want to presume this probably
12:27
Speaker 4: gone towards a community that's saying no to the vaccine.
12:29
Speaker 3: But we're not giving out. Obviously, we'll keep working on that.
12:32
Speaker 4: Elliott has gone in recent times from around twenty percent
12:35
Speaker 4: to thirty five percent, so they're responding to additional trips
12:38
Speaker 4: and different work that we're doing there.
12:39
Speaker 3: So each community is sponding a different rate.
12:41
Speaker 4: Now. For all I know, in a week or two
12:43
Speaker 4: you and the moon might start jumping up that vax
12:45
Speaker 4: rate as well. But we're trying everything here in remote communities.
12:49
Speaker 4: I think it's important that this is not seen as
12:50
Speaker 4: a remote problem or oriviginal problem. No majority of communities
12:53
Speaker 4: actually have got a high vax rate. Some communities don't
12:57
Speaker 4: have a high vax rate, and it's more obvious in
13:00
Speaker 4: the remote community because they're a disacreted identity, Like I
13:02
Speaker 4: don't have the I can't give you some daling figures
13:05
Speaker 4: that makes.
13:05
Speaker 3: Out fru straight.
13:06
Speaker 1: Are we going to do though, if we're like you're
13:08
Speaker 1: talking about eighty percent vaccination rate and that really being
13:11
Speaker 1: like a lynchpin for us in terms of that national travel,
13:14
Speaker 1: also in terms of this international travel, what are we
13:17
Speaker 1: going to do, Like if we've got communities that are
13:19
Speaker 1: still at twenty percent and aren't wanting to get vaccinated.
13:21
Speaker 1: You've said that you've got people going out to those
13:23
Speaker 1: clinics six times, there's vaccine in the fridge.
13:26
Speaker 2: Are you going to lock them out?
13:27
Speaker 4: So, if you remember, the only restriction we're looking at
13:30
Speaker 4: changing at the moment is from centraf national resilience to
13:34
Speaker 4: home based quarantining. We believe the more we look at it,
13:37
Speaker 4: we can comfortably do that double dose eighty no matter
13:39
Speaker 4: what rate the other communities are at, especially because they're
13:43
Speaker 4: doing that when we get there if there's a question
13:46
Speaker 4: of chance better choice, Right, if I get to double
13:48
Speaker 4: dose eighty and you and the moves racing up the charts,
13:51
Speaker 4: and we say, look, if we wait a week, they're
13:52
Speaker 4: going to hit you know, I think people going and
13:53
Speaker 4: stand waiting a week. But if it's chance better choice,
13:56
Speaker 4: if it's looking like community have actively made a choice
13:59
Speaker 4: in the fridge six seven, eight visits out there that
14:02
Speaker 4: they've essentially made a choice, then the questions of the
14:04
Speaker 4: public health measures that we have in place. Potentially we're
14:07
Speaker 4: working on that for late November. I've discussed by a
14:11
Speaker 4: security zones on your show.
14:12
Speaker 2: Yep.
14:13
Speaker 4: I've done a lot of thinking and talking and with
14:15
Speaker 4: others around that. Our concern is that they're resource intensive
14:20
Speaker 4: and all the advice I've had, and this includes an
14:22
Speaker 4: aaginal community child health sector, is the locals know how
14:24
Speaker 4: to get around them. So you put them in place,
14:27
Speaker 4: they're very expensive and they don't actually serve the purpose.
14:30
Speaker 3: People are duck in town and back.
14:32
Speaker 4: So I don't think it'll be I'm not ruling it
14:34
Speaker 4: out still, but I don't think bio security zones are
14:36
Speaker 4: going to be the answer unfortunately here. So we're working
14:38
Speaker 4: with the landcouncil and others about what are the measures
14:40
Speaker 4: that we have got in place. There are someone that
14:42
Speaker 4: we can do with the land councils about you can't
14:44
Speaker 4: visit a community lettul double vaxed or xxy. But it's
14:48
Speaker 4: extremely difficult to think of public health measures that don't
14:51
Speaker 4: cause more harm.
14:53
Speaker 1: Meantime because right now, obviously it seems as though we're
14:56
Speaker 1: really you know, we've reached this point in the community
14:59
Speaker 1: at the moment, we're the large majority, you're choosing to
15:01
Speaker 1: go out and get vaccinated, you know, based on those
15:04
Speaker 1: quantus flights, based on visiting friends and family nationally. Some
15:08
Speaker 1: people haven't seen their family for quite some time. We're
15:11
Speaker 1: you know, we're waiting for all of us to get
15:13
Speaker 1: to eighty percent, which is what you said in the past.
15:16
Speaker 1: If we've got some locations, whether you're talking about a community,
15:19
Speaker 1: whether you're talking about a regional area, that are choosing
15:22
Speaker 1: to not get vaccinated, does the rest of the Northern
15:25
Speaker 1: Territory have to stay shut down?
15:27
Speaker 4: No, So I'm saying at double dose eighty at this stage,
15:31
Speaker 4: we will make that change from quarantining at centrafnational resilience
15:35
Speaker 4: or how it springs or the top facility to home
15:36
Speaker 4: bas quarantine.
15:37
Speaker 3: That's the only change.
15:38
Speaker 1: How are we going to get to that eighty percent
15:39
Speaker 1: if we've got communities, like you've said across the board
15:42
Speaker 1: that we need to get to that eighty percent, So
15:43
Speaker 1: how are we going to do it if, for example,
15:45
Speaker 1: in Darwin we're at eighty percent, but in you and
15:48
Speaker 1: to move the example that you gave earlier, they're still
15:50
Speaker 1: at a very low percentage point.
15:52
Speaker 4: Though the territory hits double dose eighty, that's that's the
15:55
Speaker 4: trigger for the next st Asian National Plan. I said
15:58
Speaker 4: we want to go there evenly if we could. It's
16:00
Speaker 4: now looking like we may not go there evenly because
16:03
Speaker 4: communities have made a choice, in which case it's about
16:06
Speaker 4: what protections be put in place for that community. So
16:09
Speaker 4: we're looking at hitting double dose eighty as a territory
16:12
Speaker 4: late November, early early December. That's what we're working to
16:16
Speaker 4: And at that point in time is now becoming more
16:19
Speaker 4: evident that in all these remote communities.
16:22
Speaker 3: We'll have the vaccine.
16:23
Speaker 4: The fridge who have made multiple visits will have basically
16:26
Speaker 4: given everyone a chance to get to get vaccinated. Now,
16:29
Speaker 4: if that's not the case, if we still feel there's
16:31
Speaker 4: a community where you know, I think this pill understand this.
16:34
Speaker 4: You've got to give everyone a fair chance to get vaccinated.
16:36
Speaker 4: If that remains the case, I think at this stage
16:38
Speaker 4: is looking unlikely. Then maybe a week or two I
16:41
Speaker 4: think people can understand that. But at this stage it's
16:44
Speaker 4: looking like late November, early December everyone had the chance
16:47
Speaker 4: to have gotten vaccinated. We've had the vaccine now since
16:49
Speaker 4: what March this year, plenty of time, We've done intense visits.
16:53
Speaker 4: We've got got it in the fridges. There's bookings available
16:55
Speaker 4: right now. Bring up, make a booking. You can get
16:58
Speaker 4: booked right now.
16:59
Speaker 1: But essentially we are still if we go into state,
17:03
Speaker 1: we're still going to have to do those two weeks
17:05
Speaker 1: of quarantining and home at home, So we are still
17:09
Speaker 1: even if we're double vaxed, we're not going to be
17:11
Speaker 1: opening up as normal. It is going to certainly be
17:14
Speaker 1: a situation where those communities, if they've chosen not to
17:17
Speaker 1: get vaccinated, well, we're just going to have to see
17:18
Speaker 1: what happens.
17:19
Speaker 4: Well, we're working on public health measures for those individual communities.
17:22
Speaker 4: I don't think there be many of them. Are going
17:23
Speaker 4: to want to emphasize this, this non aboriginal thing or
17:25
Speaker 4: a remote thing. Majority of Aboriginal remote communities actually have
17:28
Speaker 4: a very good vax rate. So there's just some communities.
17:31
Speaker 4: Just as there are some people within Darwin who are
17:32
Speaker 4: saying no to the vaccine, there are some communities that
17:35
Speaker 4: looks like are moving towards a no basis as a
17:37
Speaker 4: community or a low vax basis, which, as we've always
17:40
Speaker 4: said all along, people have the right to make this choice.
17:43
Speaker 4: I can't physically grab someone and jad them with the
17:45
Speaker 4: vaccine that they've got to make. The choice to be vaccinated.
17:48
Speaker 4: Is looking like a few communities will be going down
17:50
Speaker 4: that path.
17:50
Speaker 1: All right, let's move along because we know that the
17:52
Speaker 1: health system right now is under enormous stress. The Nurses
17:55
Speaker 1: Union says we need seventy nurses across Royal Darwin and
17:58
Speaker 1: Palmerston Hospital. Our review has been launched into the Palmeston Hospital.
18:03
Speaker 1: Do you have confidence in our health system right now?
18:06
Speaker 3: Yes?
18:06
Speaker 4: I think if I can just put some context in this,
18:09
Speaker 4: what our health people are doing is remarkable. So they're
18:12
Speaker 4: running everything as you would normally would for health demand
18:14
Speaker 4: in the Lawn territory. And on top of that, with
18:16
Speaker 4: the impact of pandemic they're running the quarantine centers, the
18:19
Speaker 4: testing centers, and the vaccination program, which is an immense effort.
18:23
Speaker 3: So it's just a.
18:24
Speaker 4: Huge effort by those people to give you some comfort
18:26
Speaker 4: about what we've done in health since we were elected
18:28
Speaker 4: in twenty sixteen. We started with around six thousand, six
18:31
Speaker 4: hundred people in the health system. It's now eighty two hundred.
18:34
Speaker 4: We've recruited sixteen hundred people over the last five years.
18:37
Speaker 4: The two big drivers of that were the Palmsan Hospital
18:40
Speaker 4: and obviously the pandemic. We've recruited hundreds of people during
18:42
Speaker 4: the pandemic. There's a couple of things happening right now
18:45
Speaker 4: that will give us even more support into the health system.
18:48
Speaker 4: A part of that, sorry, the two thousand people you
18:52
Speaker 4: mentioned earlier, the national program. We're getting fifteen doctors out
18:56
Speaker 4: of that program. We've got forty nurses starting from a
18:59
Speaker 4: domestic group group program. In a couple of weeks, I
19:02
Speaker 4: believe I'll probably get your date for that, and when
19:04
Speaker 4: we go to domestic home based quarantining, we will free
19:07
Speaker 4: up pressure on CenTra National Resilience, and my understanding that's
19:11
Speaker 4: approximately thirty thirty or so nurses in there that get
19:13
Speaker 4: freed up as well. So there's a lot happening in
19:16
Speaker 4: the health space. And obviously we're about to move from
19:18
Speaker 4: this mass vaccination program because we get think eight percent
19:21
Speaker 4: double dose. The vaccination program will start focusing more on
19:25
Speaker 4: the booster shots and that I believe will be a
19:27
Speaker 4: more straightforward program to run as well. So we're going
19:30
Speaker 4: to get through some of the bulk of our issues
19:32
Speaker 4: soon or the pressures soon. But obviously there might be
19:35
Speaker 4: an increase in how we do the testing regime.
19:37
Speaker 3: We'll work on that.
19:38
Speaker 1: Are you concerned though about the way in which right
19:40
Speaker 1: now the Palmerston Hospital is operating. We know that it's
19:43
Speaker 1: very much You know that they're having to obviously juggle
19:46
Speaker 1: rosters and juggle those beads. But you know, right now
19:49
Speaker 1: we've obviously got a situation where at different times there's
19:52
Speaker 1: been eight beads operating in the emergency ward at the
19:54
Speaker 1: Palmerston Hospital for example.
19:56
Speaker 2: To you, is that adequate?
19:58
Speaker 3: I've got two concerns.
20:00
Speaker 4: I've got I am concenter about our health system have
20:02
Speaker 4: been turned all the way through the COVID crisis because
20:05
Speaker 4: of the pressure that gets put on our health people.
20:06
Speaker 4: So been concerned all the way through about how we
20:08
Speaker 4: manage that pressure. I'm also concerned about the national health system.
20:11
Speaker 4: This is now our standing a gender item a national
20:13
Speaker 4: cabinet is health capacity, as I think most territories appreciate.
20:18
Speaker 4: I've got a personal story that goes around this. We
20:21
Speaker 4: often have to go in a state for our health
20:22
Speaker 4: care needs. We're twe hudred and fifty thousand people. We
20:24
Speaker 4: can't run everything we need here. We just physically don't
20:27
Speaker 4: have the capacity to do it in the territory, don't
20:29
Speaker 4: have the volume of cases for people to maintain their
20:31
Speaker 4: skill sets, et cetera. So we're heavily r on other
20:34
Speaker 4: people's health systems. So at that national GENDERATA Meach cabineteting,
20:37
Speaker 4: I'm looking at the other premiers about how they're managing
20:39
Speaker 4: their health systems. They're own a similar pressure to ours,
20:41
Speaker 4: Like all of us are dealing with pandemic plus plus
20:44
Speaker 4: plus you know quarantine centers.
20:45
Speaker 1: Well, the difference is though we actually don't have COVID
20:47
Speaker 1: in our community right now. And that's the big sticking
20:50
Speaker 1: point I think for a lot of Territorians is that
20:52
Speaker 1: they are quite worried. You know, we know that Australia
20:55
Speaker 1: is opening up. We're set to open to international travelers,
20:59
Speaker 1: although they are going to have to quarantine. By the
21:01
Speaker 1: sounds of it, our vaccine rates obviously are quite low
21:04
Speaker 1: in some of those communities. I know that, you know,
21:07
Speaker 1: for many people right now, they feel as though our
21:09
Speaker 1: health systems at crisis point, and they're very concerned that
21:13
Speaker 1: we are not going to be prepared should we end
21:15
Speaker 1: up with COVID in the community.
21:17
Speaker 4: We don't have in the community, but we have got COVID.
21:19
Speaker 4: We've got highly trained professionals dealing with COVID, so the.
21:22
Speaker 1: Pace we do end up with it in the community.
21:25
Speaker 1: I know you've said yourself at a press conference, the
21:27
Speaker 1: number of ventilators we've got that kind of thing are
21:29
Speaker 1: very low.
21:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, I sort of reassure people though, with the beds
21:34
Speaker 4: out at Howard Springs that's actually considered a hospitalization, the
21:37
Speaker 4: level of care that we have at Center Finacial Residence,
21:39
Speaker 4: so we deal have a lot of COVID patients out there,
21:41
Speaker 4: and gain can take a lot of our COVID patients there.
21:43
Speaker 4: The pressure that then goes onto the ICU systems being
21:46
Speaker 4: low out of howd Springs, so we have got the
21:47
Speaker 4: capacity to deal with COVID. There's no such thing as
21:50
Speaker 4: a good outbreak. I've got asked at a press conference,
21:52
Speaker 4: you know what kind of outbreak can we handle? In
21:53
Speaker 4: my opinion, there's no such thing as a good outbreak.
21:55
Speaker 4: There just isn't. We're obviously planning around the ICU beds
21:59
Speaker 4: that we have down analys while we have got surge capacity.
22:03
Speaker 4: I don't want to presume it or plan for it,
22:05
Speaker 4: if that makes sense. I think it's better the plan
22:07
Speaker 4: around our actual existing right now ICU system, and we
22:11
Speaker 4: make a lot of decisions based around making sure there
22:13
Speaker 4: isn't pressure on our health system. So you know, every
22:15
Speaker 4: decision I made for eighteen months might sometimes look like
22:17
Speaker 4: a falling on the tough side of something. It's about
22:19
Speaker 4: making sure we do everything we can to keep COVID
22:21
Speaker 4: out of our community. But we have got the ability
22:24
Speaker 4: to scale up if we're quied. But we're making all
22:27
Speaker 4: other decisions and plans around the existing ICA.
22:29
Speaker 1: Reading between the lines there. I mean, we've had a
22:31
Speaker 1: number of code yellows. Obviously we're in the situation that
22:34
Speaker 1: we're in where we need additional doctors and nurses coming
22:36
Speaker 1: into the Northern Territory. Reading between the lines there, if
22:39
Speaker 1: we wind up in a situation like New South Wales
22:41
Speaker 1: has been through or Victoria has been through, even if
22:43
Speaker 1: it was per capita, we wouldn't.
22:45
Speaker 2: Be able to cype.
22:47
Speaker 4: I don't want to ever say that about our health
22:48
Speaker 4: system who've been quite remarkable.
22:50
Speaker 2: We will so we're calling for obviously help.
22:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we would scale up like New South Wales has,
22:55
Speaker 4: but we have had an amazing capacity to respond, not
22:59
Speaker 4: just during this co emergency over eighteen months now, but
23:01
Speaker 4: even with side clothes and other things. So having said that,
23:04
Speaker 4: we have always relied on other people's health systems full stop,
23:07
Speaker 4: pandemic or not. And this is nature of the size
23:11
Speaker 4: of the territory and that's one reason why we have
23:12
Speaker 4: the National Cabinet formed it and one reason when we
23:14
Speaker 4: have health capacity as a standing item. I'm discussing this
23:17
Speaker 4: regularly the PM and other premier It's about how we
23:19
Speaker 4: manage health nationally.
23:20
Speaker 2: Are you asking for more funding?
23:22
Speaker 3: We always want more funding.
23:23
Speaker 4: So one of the things that got flagged the other
23:24
Speaker 4: day and help all health minsisters you ananimously said it's
23:27
Speaker 4: the minister hunt is that the way the health funding
23:31
Speaker 4: works right now, you pay for the bed that's being
23:33
Speaker 4: used right through ICU and you've got to sorry of COVID.
23:37
Speaker 4: You've got to separate out your your hospital. You put
23:39
Speaker 4: plastic sheets if that's a dirty side the hospital. This
23:41
Speaker 4: is a cleaning soide you make all these changes. You're
23:43
Speaker 4: keeping beds free just in case no one's in that bed,
23:45
Speaker 4: so therefore it's not necessary activity. You're not they funded
23:47
Speaker 4: for that bed, but you'll keep that bed free. The
23:49
Speaker 4: argument is that the way health has currently been funded
23:51
Speaker 4: by the federal government doesn't genuinely recognize the impact of
23:54
Speaker 4: COVID and the step we've taken to plan and prepare
23:57
Speaker 4: for COVID, so always take more funding. But I think
24:00
Speaker 4: what we're all dealing with nationally is that there's a
24:03
Speaker 4: supply problem. Like we've being these two thousand workers in.
24:05
Speaker 4: We've had international border sharp but eighteen months, a supply
24:08
Speaker 4: problem and a demand problem. On top of all the
24:10
Speaker 4: normal health pressures. We've got quarantine centers, testing centers, vaccination clinic.
24:14
Speaker 4: So it's quite incredible what health is doing.
24:17
Speaker 2: We're going to have to move along very quickly.
24:19
Speaker 1: One last topic that I do want to ask you
24:20
Speaker 1: about is our school based constables. We've been in contact
24:23
Speaker 1: with a number of schools who are seriously concerned about
24:25
Speaker 1: the new school based policing model there. Obviously, the constables
24:30
Speaker 1: are going to be out by the look of it,
24:31
Speaker 1: and auxiliaries in. Does this go against your government's promise
24:35
Speaker 1: before the last election to expand the program.
24:37
Speaker 4: No, it's very much abou having school based officers in schools,
24:40
Speaker 4: having that proactive, positive relationship with the school community. Personally,
24:44
Speaker 4: I've always been on the opinion if you've got a
24:46
Speaker 4: highly trained police constable who can do a whole range
24:49
Speaker 4: of things like report to domestic violence, insidence, property crime,
24:53
Speaker 4: deal with a traffic accident if you can, you want
24:55
Speaker 4: them out the streets dealing that the police auxiliaries highly
24:58
Speaker 4: trained as well, can absolutely do what they're required to
25:01
Speaker 4: do in schools was do that those positive relationships be
25:04
Speaker 4: in the classroom, do all that work, but without putting
25:06
Speaker 4: the right people in the right.
25:08
Speaker 2: Areas those schools.
25:09
Speaker 1: So are seriously concerned about this change. They want the
25:11
Speaker 1: constables in the schools and believe that fully fledged constables
25:15
Speaker 1: have a much greater impact on those schools.
25:17
Speaker 2: Do you think that that auxiliary model is.
25:19
Speaker 1: Going to be able to do the same thing.
25:22
Speaker 3: I absolutely think we'll do the same thing.
25:23
Speaker 4: Also, mean more auxiliaries in more schools, so more people
25:26
Speaker 4: in uniform in more territory schools, rale highly trained police,
25:30
Speaker 4: gospels or out dealing of property crime, domestic wile, incesidence,
25:33
Speaker 4: road traffic accidents, et cetera.
25:34
Speaker 3: So I think it's about putting the right people.
25:36
Speaker 2: In the road.
25:36
Speaker 1: Realistically, Though you were very critical of the COLP cutting
25:39
Speaker 1: this program, aren't you just doing the same Well.
25:41
Speaker 3: Hippy scrapped it. There was no one in a school anything.
25:43
Speaker 1: Really, you're totally changing and it's a total rejigging for
25:45
Speaker 1: those schools based on what they'd previously had.
25:47
Speaker 3: I don't accept that. I think it's a police officer
25:50
Speaker 3: in a school.
25:51
Speaker 1: Well, Chief Minister Michael Gunner, we are going to have
25:53
Speaker 1: to leave it there. Thank you very much for your
25:54
Speaker 1: time this morning. No doubt we'll talk again very soon