Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition health spokesperson Bill Yan calls for COVID testing centres to be reopened across the NT

Transcript

Opposition health spokesperson Bill Yan calls for COVID testing centres to be reopened across the NT · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: We know that Parliament continues to sit this week. But
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  Speaker 1: joining me on the line right now is Bill Yan.
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  Speaker 1: He's the Opposition spokesperson for Health. Good morning to you, Bill, Good.
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  Speaker 2: Morning Katie, good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Bill, we know that those COVID numbers are on
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  Speaker 1: the rise at the moment, and I understand that you
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  Speaker 1: would like to see one of the testing facilities reopened.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, if you look at the men of COVID
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  Speaker 2: case we're seeing increasing with the bafour and BA five variants,
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  Speaker 2: I think it probably would be prudent, particularly up here
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  Speaker 2: in the top end, to open up one of those
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  Speaker 2: testing centers again so people can get access to appropriate testing.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes now with the closing of these centers here and
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  Speaker 2: certainly in Central Australia and across the territory, it's very
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  Speaker 2: very hard now to access rapid engine tests. People are
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  Speaker 2: probably not accessing those sets. People could be sick and
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  Speaker 2: being out in our community and spreading COVID further. So
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  Speaker 2: I think it's probably good idea to get one of
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  Speaker 2: those testing facilities back open again for the people who
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  Speaker 2: are top in so they can get in there and
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  Speaker 2: get tested easily. And also, of course if they need
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  Speaker 2: to pick up rapid engine tests.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, it makes it a bit easier I suppose,
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  Speaker 1: for people to get their hands on a test if required,
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  Speaker 1: and we know as well build it. There is obviously
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  Speaker 1: that additional strain then on our hospitals with people ending
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  Speaker 1: up in hospital with COVID.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's right. If you look at what we
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  Speaker 2: had yesday, four hundred and seventy on a four hundred
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  Speaker 2: and ninety one new cases yesterday, that's starting to increase
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  Speaker 2: their levels that we've seen back in I think late
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  Speaker 2: November early December last year, and of course we ramped
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  Speaker 2: up to those thousand plus cases a day, those numbers
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  Speaker 2: increasing quite a bit, and of course we've got seventy
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  Speaker 2: six in hospital as of yesterday and one in ICU.
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  Speaker 2: So health systems under pressure that had been under pressure
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  Speaker 2: for ages. This increase in COVID cases is just putting
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  Speaker 2: further pressure on our hospitals and on our health workers.
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  Speaker 2: So anything that we can do to help those people
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  Speaker 2: out and those health teams out certainly needs to be considered.
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  Speaker 1: Bill. One of the other big issues that we're grappling
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  Speaker 1: with at the moment is anti social behavior and crime.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's the whole of the Northern Territory and
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  Speaker 1: half of Australia saw that vision from Woolworth CBD as
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  Speaker 1: that was shared around the place yesterday. Mate, I know
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  Speaker 1: that the colp and our calling for this two kilometer
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  Speaker 1: rule to be reinstated.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look that vision from Woolly's here in the Darwin
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  Speaker 2: CBD the other day was absolutely frightening, Katie. And sadly
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  Speaker 2: we see it all too often. And we've seen watering
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  Speaker 2: back of our alcohol laws by the Labor government now
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  Speaker 2: since way back in twenty nineteen, and they quietly got
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  Speaker 2: rid of the whole two kilometer law just back before
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  Speaker 2: Christmas of two and nine of twenty twenty, and that
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  Speaker 2: took away a lot of power that the police had
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  Speaker 2: to deal with people consuming alcohol in and around those
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  Speaker 2: takeaway alcohol outlet's all other pubs and clubs. Now, the
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  Speaker 2: police lost a lot of those powers. Bringing that two
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  Speaker 2: kilometer back bring some of those powers back to police
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  Speaker 2: to actually take some action, because at the moment, all
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  Speaker 2: I can do if they possibly find someone is tip
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  Speaker 2: growd out and they can't do anything else. Bringing these
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  Speaker 2: laws back gives police some powers to actually take some action,
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  Speaker 2: actually do something and maybe do something about this anti
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  Speaker 2: social behavior we're seeing on our streets and in and
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  Speaker 2: around the CBD of not just Darwin Palms and Casurina,
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  Speaker 2: but Catherine Tanner Creek and Eli Spluth.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we did catch up with the Chamber of Commerce
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  Speaker 1: just a bit earlier this morning, and the CEO of
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  Speaker 1: the Chamber did say, yeah, you know, while it was
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  Speaker 1: terrible what we've seen in Darwin CBD this week, this
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  Speaker 1: is the type of thing that they're dealing with very
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  Speaker 1: regularly in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 2: We've been having these issues for quite some time in
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  Speaker 2: our springs, Katie, and the police can only do so much.
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  Speaker 2: The police at the end of the day are reactionary
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  Speaker 2: in most respects, and the people in our springs are scared.
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  Speaker 2: They're scared to go to the CBD during the day.
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  Speaker 2: Now we're seeing all these violent offending and of course
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  Speaker 2: thefts are harassment of people in broad daylight. We need
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  Speaker 2: to take some action and we need to give the
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  Speaker 2: police some power to actually do something about what we're
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  Speaker 2: seeing on our streets and in and around our central
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  Speaker 2: business districts because this stuff can't keep going on. At
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  Speaker 2: the moment. The criminals are winning, people are staying at home,
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  Speaker 2: they're not going out, they're shopping online, they're not accessing
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  Speaker 2: our shops and our businesses because of the crime and
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  Speaker 2: violent behavior we're seeing. And to me, that just says
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  Speaker 2: the criminals and the crooks are winning and the rest
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  Speaker 2: of us, the general public, the residents of our communities,
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  Speaker 2: are losing.
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  Speaker 1: Bill, Do you reckon that the reinstatement of these two
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  Speaker 1: kilometer rule of the licensed premises? Do you think that
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  Speaker 1: it's just going to see the anti social behavior issues
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  Speaker 1: that we've got sort of shifted a little bit further
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  Speaker 1: out of town.
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  Speaker 2: No, I don't think so, Katie. When you look at
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  Speaker 2: when the two kilometer law was in place quite some
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  Speaker 2: time ago, it actually provided I suppose, some restrictions on
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  Speaker 2: that consumption of alcohol in and around the CBDs, and
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  Speaker 2: we didn't see it. And I don't think we've seen
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  Speaker 2: the issues back then that we're seeing now and now
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  Speaker 2: with this free for all of consuming alcohol pretty well anywhere,
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  Speaker 2: we've seen that increase in anti social behavior and violence
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  Speaker 2: in and around our liquor outlets. You've only got to
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  Speaker 2: look at the crime stats from say, two thousand and
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  Speaker 2: nineteen until today. The level of violence offending the level
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  Speaker 2: of crime has continued to increase since that time. Let's
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  Speaker 2: bring it back. If it makes a difference, great, If
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't, all right, let's rethink it and let's do
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  Speaker 2: something else. But I believe in the COLP believes that
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  Speaker 2: bringing the two kilometer law back in will have a
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  Speaker 2: marked effect on some of the anti social behavior that
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  Speaker 2: we're seeing.
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  Speaker 1: Bell Yam. We know that yesterday Michael Gunner obviously stood
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  Speaker 1: down from the seat of Fanny Bay. Is this by
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  Speaker 1: election going to be a test of Leo Finocchiaro's leadership
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  Speaker 1: of the COLP.
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  Speaker 2: Leader is an absolutely great leader. I can say first
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  Speaker 2: and foremost, Katie, we're going to be out there fighting
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  Speaker 2: the fight for the COLP in Fanny Bay. It's quite
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  Speaker 2: interesting that when Michael stood down as the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 2: a few months ago, he said there wasn't going to
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  Speaker 2: be a by election, and here we are two months
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  Speaker 2: after that and we've got a buy election. We're going
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  Speaker 2: to be working very very hard, of course, with our
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  Speaker 2: candidate in the seat of Fanny Bay. I have no
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  Speaker 2: doubt later we're going to be out there doing exactly
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  Speaker 2: the same thing too. But I'm pretty confident that the
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  Speaker 2: CELP is going to extremely well and come away with
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  Speaker 2: a win in the Fanny Bay Biolet.
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  Speaker 1: Any idea who are you going to run?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I don't particularly know at this stage. If I
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  Speaker 2: had u kde i'll tell you that. Actually for myself,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. Look, it's a decision for the party.
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  Speaker 2: That's the way that the COEALP works. The actual party
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  Speaker 2: and the management committee will make the decision of course
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  Speaker 2: on that candidate. By election was only called yesterday, so
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  Speaker 2: we don't have a candidate ready to roll out labor
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  Speaker 2: possibly does. I think they've probably known this has been
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  Speaker 2: coming for a little while and probably got themselves ready.
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  Speaker 2: But well, we now need to get our candidate, get
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  Speaker 2: them prepped and get them out in front of the
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  Speaker 2: people of Anny Bay and yeah, let's get the fight downe.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you've got till August twenty is the date that
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  Speaker 1: I've been told Bill yet, and so we'll see who
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  Speaker 1: both parties decide to run. It's certainly going to be
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  Speaker 1: very interesting. Bill Yan, the opposition spokesperson for Health and
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  Speaker 1: also the member for Namajira. We appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you you too.