Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Australian Medical Association NT President Dr Robert Parker

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with Australian Medical Association NT President Dr Robert Parker · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We do know the situation in South Australia has meant
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: that South Australia has been.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Declared a hot spot.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: So overnight it's been reported that there was just one
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: new case of the coronavirus and it's been linked to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the outbreak in South Australia, says the Premier, Stephen Marshall.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Authorities ask scrambling to contact, trace and contain this COVID
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: nineteen cluster in Adelaide's northern suburbs, which prompted sweeping new
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: restrictions across the state yesterday. So as I mentioned, this
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: new diagnosis brings the number of confirmed and suspected infections
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: associated with the Parafield cluster to twenty and it has
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: meant that the Northern Territory is no longer letting people
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: from South Australia in. Now joining us on the line
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: right now to talk a little bit more about the
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: situation is the Australian Medical Association's Northern Territory President, Doctor
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Robert Parker.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Dr Parker, morning COVID, Thanks so much for
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: your time.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: We know that the Northern Territory government certainly acted swiftly
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: yesterday morning.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Was it the right move?
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Definitely. Yeah. I mean again we're reminded again how danger
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: is this virus is, particularly with the quick spread and
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: again the potential the super spreaders who have got the
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: bug but don't know they've got it. And again the
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: information coming in from overseas, particularly France at the moment
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: where there's been a further wave and spread just shows
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: you how dangerous but can be and how it can
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: put a very significant Autralian health resources.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no doubt about that.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And I tell you what you know, I no sooner
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: do you think that we're on top of things in
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Australia before something like this happens.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: That's correct. I mean this bug is, as I've said,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: probably the biggest thing to affect the planets in the
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Second World War. It's from one of one potentially upset
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: that in the wet food market at Wuharn to the
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: rest of the planet. It's been a major major challenge.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: And Dr Parker we know that of Obviously, the Chief
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Health Officer and the Government acted very swiftly yesterday with
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: shutting down South Australia or declaring South Australia a hot
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: spot the same morning, though they did announce that by
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: November thirty, we are going to be opening up to
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Victoria or to Melbournians again, how do you feel about that?
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Well, again, the measure is put in place by Premier
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Andrews to beIN Erry very severe, appearal worked and the
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: fear to have contained the bug. But again you know
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: we always, as is proved by outlayer, at the moment,
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: it can suddenly emerge from anywhere, you know. Again, and
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: so it's around and I suppose, but I think I'm
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: not that opposed to opening up waters to Victoria as planned.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Now we've spoken before about contact tracing, and I
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: know that the Northern Territory government is going to implement
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: that contact tracing in QR codes as you and I
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: had spoken about and you'd advocated for not too long ago.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: How important are these.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Different measures going to be as as the Northern Territory
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: does open up more broadly to the rest of Australia.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: Well, we've got we've got to be constantly on our
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: guard with this buck. And so this pointed out recently
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: with Outh Australia. It can just emerge. And so if
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: we've already got measures in place of contact tracing and
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: we do get a further emergence somewhere. We're actually much
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: better prepared. If we know where people have been and
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: potentially it does do ano in the territory, we can
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: then it's much easier to trace people as compared to
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: before where we didn't have a clue who'd been in
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: contact with her.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so true, Dr Parker, how are you feel Are
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: you feeling quite confident at the moment, you know about
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: how the Northern Territory is tracking in terms of once
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: we you know, once we do sort of have travelers
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: from from Melbourne and other locations back in the territory.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: I'm never totally confident coating just because of the nature
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: of this bug. It obviously gets around and can emerge again,
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: So I think, I think to be complacent with this
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: bug is very dangerous, So never confident, to be frank,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: always on the alert, always supporting systems for tracing and
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: for potentially quarantine the people who have been in contact
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: just because of this bug is so effective.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And I know there was a reminder yesterday from the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Chief Health Officer, Doctor Hugh Hegy saying, you know we've
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: got a we can't become complacent. We do need to
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: make sure that we're practicing our social distancing. We've got
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to be washing our hands and really doing all those
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: things that some of us were quite vigilant about in
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the early days.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: But I guess they've kind of fallen off the radar
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: a bit.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Well, that's right. I mean, it is very difficult to
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: be constantly on alert the whole time and it does
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: get boring, and particularly when their bug is evident, you know,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: people tend to lose interest in it, which is probably
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: just the nature of human existence. And yeah, so it's
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: good to have reminders and to be aware. It's very
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: unfortunate what's happened in how Australia, but it is a
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: very poignant reminder of how dangerous this bug is, and
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: I mean other parts of the world are currently We
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: are just so lucky in Australia with the measures that
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: the Australian governments are done, and I suppose there isolation protectors,
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: but as you actually look at elsewhere in the world,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: which is the US and France at the moment, where
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: you know, there's much more uncontrolled spread of the bug.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Just usual ie, what the future might be if we
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: hadn't had those health measures in place.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I do want to ask you as well,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Dr Parker, about the situation where I know that here
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: in the territory we actually travel or we actually have
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: quite a few people travel to Adelaide for medical treatments,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: various different sort of medical treatments. How is that going
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: to be impacted as a result of these changes with
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the ESA hot spot.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Well, I have been seeking information about that. I presume
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: people can go down. The potential that they have to
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: quarantine when they come back. It probably won't interfere with
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: people getting down to Adelaide. They have whatever treatments they need,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: but obviously they'll have to go into quarantine on the
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: way back, which could be again, could actually influence whether
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: people have the treatment on all. I suppose they may
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: decide they don't want the quarantine and therefore may not
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: go for the treatment.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess the hard thing would be I
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I automatically think if you're going, you know, for a
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: certain type of cancer treatment or something, it may be
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: a situation where you think, all right, well I'm just
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: going to stay here.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Well that's right, and you may not get the treatment
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: you need. But unfortunately the quarantines quarantine, and there's the
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: individual benefit of the treatment and there's also the community
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: benefit of the quarantine, and there's always that uneasy balance.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Well, doctor Robert Parker, the president of the Australian Medical
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Association here in the territory. We always enjoy catching up
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: with you. Anything else we should be aware of this morning, Well.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Just the Lequer Commission and concerns about what's happening with
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: the legislation. Of course, yeah, I mean, as a commission'm
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: going to be fairly careful, but I mean it's a
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: real concern where the government has taken what is the
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: level of playing field and has turned it quite markedly
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: upside down. Was where basically if the government doesn't like
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: a decision by the Commission, that can just introduce legislation
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: to overturn it. So it's really affecting the whole basis
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: of the Riley Inquiry and the recommendations from that for
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: a health process with liquor. And it's a real concern
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: if the government said, well we don't like the commissions
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: then will just return it. And you know, it really
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: has a major impact then on on the work the
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Commission does. And I suppose the morale of the commissioners
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: work very hard. They do it because they are it's
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: their input into the community, their contribution to the community.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: And I know that there's a lot of concern a
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Commissions at the moment about this very arbitrary approach by
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: the government and it could basically have a major effect
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: on the work of the Commission, which could then rebound
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: basically on the whole process of liquor in the territories.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Are very concerned at the moment about this issue.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have no doubt that you are, and I
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: know that you're not the only one. We did talk
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: much more extensively about this yesterday morning, and I put
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: a series of questions to the Chief Minister about it.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: We also caught up with the opposition leader Leaf and Chiaro.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Excuse my ignorance, doctor Parker. Are you you're on the commission?
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Are you?
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: I am the commissioner yet, but I mean, and I've
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: had no I've had no involvement with the cases that
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: are currently in the legislation, but I am very aware.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm very impressed by by the work that
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: goes with the Commission, and the work and my fellow
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: commissioners and the input they put into things. There's a
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: lot of work, a lot of material to read, a
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: lot of time that they put in, quite often unpaid
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: into me. It's their contribution. They want to make sure
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: that the community that you know, while alcohol is part
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: of life in the terror people have the right to
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: win an income and whatever from alcohol, that the community
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: also has a benefit from decisions that are made. As
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: I said, a lot of this is unpaid work and
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: it's people because they want to contribute to health in
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: the territory by doing this work.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt about that.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Now. I know that there has been some concern that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: we are going to see potentially some of the commissioners
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: actually step aside or decide not to continue as a
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: result of this changed legislation. I know that Richard Coates
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: had spoken to the ABC last week and had said,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: you know very much that sentiment that some on the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: commission are considering resigning and standing down.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: How are you feeling at this point.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm still going to see. But it's a real
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: concern because again on the level playing field where you
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: where you have all the evidence before you, and you're
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: making reasonable judgments about whether a license order or not
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: go ahead, and you make a decision therefore that there's
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: a communit any problem with that, and therefore there's and
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: the government comes and overrules that really there's no real
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: points the commission in the end, but are given the
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: amount of given the amount of work that the Commission does,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: and I mean these are only a number of very
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: small number of cases. It does a massive amount of
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: work outside that, there's going to be a lot of
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: problems I think in the process of giving license and
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: whatever if the commission dissolves and the commissioners quit. So
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: I think it's a very very arbitrary and very dangerous
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: course that the government's pursuing with this, you know, and
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: it's really upsetting the people who have put a lot
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: of their own time and effort into trying to provide
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: a community benefit through the.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Commission, Doctor Parker, Is that a very real possibility here,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: that you know that the commission dissolves, or that you
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: end up with a number of commissioners who choose to
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: stand down and relinquish those positions.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Well, you have to wonder if all the commissioners leading
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: and they can't find replacements because they can't see any
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: purpose being a commissioner, if the government can just overrule
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: their decisions. You really have to wonder whether the commission
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: can be a functioning entity in the future if the
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: government can arbitrarily just overrule reasonable decisions the commissions, say,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: why do we have to spend so much time making
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: these decisions if they can just be over ruled by
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: the government.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: You have to wonder if you don't mind just giving
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: us a little bit of context, and you know, I
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: feel free to tell me if I'm asking too many questions,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: But how many hours would you sort of you know,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: would you put into being on on the liquor Commission.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Well, generally, before the hearing, you get a large volume.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: You get a large volume of information by the licensee
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: and they're putting arguments about why they want the license.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: You get information from people who may object to the license.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: So you've got to read quite often a very sick
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: folder of quite detailed information before the hearing, and then
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: the hearing will often go for a couple of hours
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: where the licensee and their representatives present information. There may
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: be there may be other people presenting information to the hearing,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: and then you've got to come to a decision. So
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: quite often a hearing maybe six or seven hours at
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: work four hours of reading, two hours of the actual
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: decision making. And these are often quite they're not major
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: decisions like the Dan Murphy when they're often fety minor ones.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: In fairness to the licensees and the community, they're decisions
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: that have to be made. And they said there is
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: a lot of work that often goes into these reasonably
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: minor decisions, but they keep the whole process of licensing
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: going and make sure the licenses licensees have access to
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: a fair hearing as well as the community also putting
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: in information.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what it must make you start to
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: question why the commission was set up if now they've
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: rushed through this legislation to overturn some of those decisions.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Well, the commission was set up for very good reasons.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, you had the Rieley Review with some recommendations
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: about the amount of damage that alcoholis in the Northern Territory.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: I mean the commission was set up up as much
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: of a health process to deal with those significant issues
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: brought up in the right of review. So it was
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: a very good move to have a level playing field
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: where there can be there is a commission to consider
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: issues on a level playing field, and there are significant
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: benchmarks they've got to look at in terms of community
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: damage community benefit. So it was a good idea. But
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: the problem is, of course that this is a very
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: arbitrary and pull very poorly thought out decision by the
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: government which can have a major impact on a much
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: wider issue of alcohol licensing in the Northern Church. And
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: I don't think the government has particularly thought about the implications,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: so that just rushed ahead with this thing, and I
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: really haven't thought about the broader implications. If the Commission
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: suddenly stops to work, stops working, what they may then
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: have to do about keeping the licensing process going and
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: then the potential health problems resulting from that.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Well, doctor Robert Parker, I'll tell you what.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I always appreciate your time, and I really appreciate your insight,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: my pleasure. Thank you.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Good to talk to you as well.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: That is doctor Robert Parker there, the Northern Territory president
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: of the AMA, the Australian Medical Association, but also one
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: of those commissioners on the Liquor Commission. And yeah, as
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: you would have been able to acknowledge or been able
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: to hear there, I actually wasn't aware that he was
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: one of those commissioners, so I found that a really
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: insightful discussion.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Hopefully you did as well.