Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was (17 Sep 2021)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Three sixties, the week that was the most listened to
- 0:03Speaker 1: hour in Territory radio.
- 0:05Speaker 2: The Territory Leaders break down this week's big issues.
- 0:09Speaker 3: Well, good morning and welcome to the show. What a
- 0:12Speaker 3: show we've got lined up for you this morning.
- 0:14Speaker 1: Of course, it is the.
- 0:15Speaker 3: Camp Quality Radio Auction back for twenty twenty one and
- 0:19Speaker 3: we are raising money, hoping to raise up to fifty
- 0:22Speaker 3: thousand dollars today with all these funds raised going towards
- 0:25Speaker 3: Camp Quality, who give kids facing cancer the chance to.
- 0:28Speaker 1: Be kids again.
- 0:29Speaker 3: So this morning, throughout the show, obviously we've got the
- 0:32Speaker 3: week that was happening, but we are still going to
- 0:35Speaker 3: be raising money for Camp Quality, and in the studio
- 0:37Speaker 3: with us this morning, we have got the Deputy Opposition Leader,
- 0:40Speaker 3: Jared Mayley.
- 0:41Speaker 4: Good morning, Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.
- 0:43Speaker 3: We've got Kesier Puick, the independent member for Goider. Good
- 0:47Speaker 3: morning to you, Kezier.
- 0:48Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning to all the rural people listening.
- 0:50Speaker 3: And we've got Natasha Files, the Minister for Health, Good
- 0:53Speaker 3: morning to.
- 0:53Speaker 1: You, Good morning.
- 0:54Speaker 5: Keizier and I are sharing a microphone, so if I'm
- 0:56Speaker 5: unusually quiet, good listeners, we.
- 0:58Speaker 3: Do think that Matt Cunningham is is on his way,
- 1:01Speaker 3: so he shouldn't be too far off.
- 1:02Speaker 1: It's coffee in his micro waiting for him.
- 1:04Speaker 3: But let's get into the issues of the week, because
- 1:07Speaker 3: I tell you what, it's been an incredibly busy week
- 1:10Speaker 3: and I want to kick off with the COVID plan. Obviously,
- 1:13Speaker 3: we found out earlier in the week the Chief Minister
- 1:16Speaker 3: Michael Gunner outlining this COVID plan and moving forward.
- 1:19Speaker 1: The big critical part.
- 1:20Speaker 3: Though, is making sure that we get to that eighty
- 1:22Speaker 3: percent vaccination rate. There is still some gray areas for
- 1:26Speaker 3: some people. What is going to define a lockdown and
- 1:29Speaker 3: what is going to define a lockout?
- 1:31Speaker 1: Filesy, are you able to sort of shed a bit
- 1:33Speaker 1: of light.
- 1:33Speaker 5: So, Katie, as we move through the pandemic and more
- 1:37Speaker 5: Territorians get vaccinated, and I'd like to congratulate Territorians, they're
- 1:40Speaker 5: doing a great job in getting vaccinated. I was out
- 1:43Speaker 5: at one of our schools earlier this week. Our young
- 1:45Speaker 5: people are embracing the vaccine. I was in Central Australia
- 1:48Speaker 5: and you know, people are really trying to understand the
- 1:51Speaker 5: importance of the vaccine. There is some hesitancy in pockets
- 1:54Speaker 5: of the community, but we are seeing people come across
- 1:57Speaker 5: and be vaccinated. So this plan provides as we go forward,
- 2:01Speaker 5: a roadmap for us so that territories can understand what's
- 2:04Speaker 5: at stake around those vaccination rates. In terms of a
- 2:08Speaker 5: lockdown as opposed to a lockout, we'll continue to follow
- 2:11Speaker 5: the clinical advice, Katie. A lockdown may be needed if
- 2:14Speaker 5: we were to see a large number of cases and
- 2:16Speaker 5: we had unknown transmission. You know, you may see a short,
- 2:19Speaker 5: sharp lockdown in that type of situation. A lockout potentially
- 2:25Speaker 5: would be if we've got individuals who won't get vaccinated,
- 2:29Speaker 5: they may be locked out from certain activities, or we
- 2:32Speaker 5: potentially could have situations where some of our small remote communities,
- 2:37Speaker 5: potentially for their safety, they may choose to sort of
- 2:40Speaker 5: lock down that community and not have people come or go.
- 2:42Speaker 5: But there is risk with that because we have very
- 2:45Speaker 5: porous borders. There's a lot of roads, you know, people
- 2:48Speaker 5: do no backways. So the key messages right now, please
- 2:51Speaker 5: just get vaccinated well.
- 2:52Speaker 3: And one of the things that concerns some people, I
- 2:55Speaker 3: think as well with the announcement earlier in the week,
- 2:57Speaker 3: is the fact that they're worried that they are going
- 2:59Speaker 3: to be locked out of some venues or not allowed
- 3:01Speaker 3: to go to some locations if indeed they're not vaccinated. Now,
- 3:05Speaker 3: I know that obviously the key here is that we
- 3:08Speaker 3: want everybody to get vaccinated. But we also know that
- 3:11Speaker 3: the Chief Minister will he sort of came out swinging
- 3:13Speaker 3: I think you'd have to say and said that he doesn't.
- 3:16Speaker 3: He said, I know, I'm supposed to say that I
- 3:18Speaker 3: respect people's choices and reasons for not getting vaccinated, but
- 3:21Speaker 3: I don't.
- 3:22Speaker 1: I don't understand it. I don't respect it.
- 3:25Speaker 3: You don't get to choose to burden our health system
- 3:27Speaker 3: because you refuse to follow preventative health measures.
- 3:31Speaker 5: So, Katie, the message is clear, please get vaccinated. So
- 3:34Speaker 5: under a lockout, vaccinated people will not be locked down.
- 3:36Speaker 5: They can continue to go to work, go shopping, participate
- 3:39Speaker 5: in fairly regular life. They may need to wear a mask,
- 3:44Speaker 5: they may be asked to wear a mask, but for
- 3:46Speaker 5: people that aren't vaccinated, they will start to miss out.
- 3:49Speaker 5: For me, right now, there's plenty of vaccination available, there's
- 3:52Speaker 5: the workforce to deliver that vaccination, and it's really understanding
- 3:56Speaker 5: why some people are hesitant. There's some people in our community,
- 3:58Speaker 5: Katie that they just see it has something to say
- 4:01Speaker 5: no to they don't want to conform. And those people,
- 4:04Speaker 5: you know, that's they haven't based on in medical advice
- 4:06Speaker 5: for other people. It is understanding that the vaccine is safe,
- 4:10Speaker 5: it's effective. Some people are nervous about getting a needle themselves.
- 4:14Speaker 5: Some people are nervous about the fact it's been developed
- 4:17Speaker 5: very quickly, and so we will over the coming weeks
- 4:19Speaker 5: be really focused on making sure the community's got the
- 4:22Speaker 5: information it needs.
- 4:23Speaker 4: Yes, okay, your in relation to my view on that. Look,
- 4:26Speaker 4: the first thing I want to start and urge all
- 4:27Speaker 4: territorianes for follow health advice. We need to get JABB
- 4:30Speaker 4: there's no question about that. But what I'm more concerned
- 4:32Speaker 4: about is the commitment of the government have made eighty
- 4:35Speaker 4: percent of vaccination, So that's the first level before this
- 4:38Speaker 4: all kicks in. So before we even start talking about
- 4:40Speaker 4: mandated vaccines, we need to make sure that all territories,
- 4:42Speaker 4: and I say all Territorians, not fly in, fly out, workers,
- 4:46Speaker 4: not tourists. We need to make sure that Territorians are protected.
- 4:49Speaker 4: So we need to do or the government need to do,
- 4:51Speaker 4: or they can to make sure we reach out eighty
- 4:53Speaker 4: percent off territorians right across the territory, no excuses, no exemptions.
- 4:58Speaker 4: It just needs to make sure that we're vaccinated because
- 5:00Speaker 4: that's the way out of this COVID. Unfortunately, I think
- 5:03Speaker 4: we're going to live with COVID for the rest of
- 5:04Speaker 4: our lives. Is going to be here. We learn to
- 5:06Speaker 4: deal with it. We need to be able to travel,
- 5:09Speaker 4: We need to be able to get back to everyday
- 5:11Speaker 4: of life the best we can. And remember these lock
- 5:14Speaker 4: ins and lockdowns and blockhouse effect the tourism industry. So
- 5:17Speaker 4: we need to make sure that there's a broader picture
- 5:21Speaker 4: here that needs to be dealt with. It's across all
- 5:23Speaker 4: of Australia. We're all all Australians, but we need to
- 5:25Speaker 4: get the eighty percent and to do that we need
- 5:28Speaker 4: to follow the health advice.
- 5:29Speaker 3: One of the concerns that's been raised with me throughout
- 5:31Speaker 3: the week, and I know that Daniel Rochford as well
- 5:33Speaker 3: from Tourism Central Australia had spoken about it a bit
- 5:36Speaker 3: earlier in the week too. Like I do wonder where
- 5:40Speaker 3: the status of our tourism is going to wind up,
- 5:42Speaker 3: you know with our Green, Amber and Red zones. And
- 5:46Speaker 3: I think we all understand that we've got to do
- 5:47Speaker 3: our best to obviously keep the northern territory safe. But
- 5:51Speaker 3: you know, even when we talk about those flights from
- 5:53Speaker 3: Darwin to London direct, well it's going to be a
- 5:56Speaker 3: lot more difficult to get any kind of tourism impact
- 5:58Speaker 3: on those If people are still having to come here
- 6:01Speaker 3: and do two weeks quarantine, even if they've been double vaxed.
- 6:04Speaker 6: Well, it's I think that's one area that has to
- 6:06Speaker 6: be cleared up and clarified, is if someone has already
- 6:10Speaker 6: been in quarantine elsewhere, and also if they've been vaccinated
- 6:13Speaker 6: and they come to the territory for whatever reason, and
- 6:15Speaker 6: my view is they should be allowed to come in
- 6:16Speaker 6: perhaps get a test along the way. But I think
- 6:19Speaker 6: what in regards to the tourism industry, and we've seen
- 6:21Speaker 6: it happen this year, is that we've had a surge,
- 6:24Speaker 6: if not an incredible surge in the travelers and caravans
- 6:28Speaker 6: and motor homes and things of that nature. And it
- 6:30Speaker 6: may well be that part of our tourism industry now
- 6:32Speaker 6: starts to take a different shape and a different look,
- 6:35Speaker 6: but not just the whole look of the tourism industry.
- 6:38Speaker 6: But back to the vaccinations and what the chief Minister's comments.
- 6:41Speaker 1: I mean, an anti.
- 6:42Speaker 6: Vax person can have their view, and it's their right
- 6:45Speaker 6: if they don't want to have a vaccination for anything,
- 6:47Speaker 6: let alone COVID. You know, whether they don't want to
- 6:49Speaker 6: have a flu shot or yellow fever. If they want
- 6:51Speaker 6: to travel overseas when we can travel, that's their right.
- 6:54Speaker 6: But it's also my right to say you can't come
- 6:57Speaker 6: into my office unless you can show your vaccinated and
- 6:59Speaker 6: it's the right of any business like this is going
- 7:01Speaker 6: to become a way of the future. And I know
- 7:03Speaker 6: legal firms and lawyers and all those kind of people
- 7:06Speaker 6: are already. Unemployment agencies already looking at this because you're
- 7:09Speaker 6: going to get a situation where I walk into say
- 7:12Speaker 6: a hairdresser or some other place where I get personal treatment,
- 7:16Speaker 6: not doctors. That's a bit different, and say, look, I
- 7:18Speaker 6: want to ensure for my own sake whether all your
- 7:21Speaker 6: staff have been vaccinated. So it's going to have that
- 7:23Speaker 6: role on effect. And I know the League of Teams
- 7:25Speaker 6: are already gearing up. Yeah, and good for them, that's
- 7:28Speaker 6: what they do. But that's going to come to that's
- 7:30Speaker 6: becoming an employment situation now. And the other thing about
- 7:33Speaker 6: the territory specifically is a lot of people in Darwin
- 7:36Speaker 6: and Pobiella Springs. Mostly they're doing a lot of work
- 7:39Speaker 6: contract work like housing in particular in remote Aboriginal communities. Now,
- 7:44Speaker 6: somehow in the contract I reckon from anti government and
- 7:47Speaker 6: the Commonwealth and elsewhere for this housing, there's going to
- 7:50Speaker 6: be clauses your staff. Not only will you have to
- 7:52Speaker 6: have an OH and S policy and this and that
- 7:54Speaker 6: and employ so many inditionals people, you will have to
- 7:57Speaker 6: demonstrate that your employment are vaccinated before they go and
- 8:01Speaker 6: work in I don't know, well, some big issues out there,
- 8:05Speaker 6: so that's why we need to get people vaccinated.
- 8:07Speaker 3: The Police Commissioner had touched on this as well throughout
- 8:09Speaker 3: the week and said when we'd had him on the
- 8:11Speaker 3: show yesterday he said that, yeah, he's looking at that
- 8:13Speaker 3: legal advice at the moment to you know, to determine
- 8:16Speaker 3: whether he's going to be able to make the vaccination
- 8:18Speaker 3: mandatory within the police force. Now, Matt Cunningham from Sky
- 8:21Speaker 3: News has just joined us as well. Good morning to you, Matt. Oh,
- 8:25Speaker 3: we better turn your microphone on there you go, So
- 8:30Speaker 3: there's no.
- 8:30Speaker 1: Doubt I reckon.
- 8:31Speaker 3: We're going to see businesses around you know, around Australia
- 8:34Speaker 3: and indeed all around the world. We've seen it from
- 8:36Speaker 3: some of those major corporations already. For example, that's right
- 8:39Speaker 3: saying that that they expect their employees to be vaccinated.
- 8:43Speaker 3: Now now we might sorry, come, I'll just I'll just quickly, Katie,
- 8:47Speaker 3: it'll become a condition of employment. Many years ago in
- 8:50Speaker 3: the mining industry, when they first brought in alcohol and
- 8:52Speaker 3: drug testing, there's huge resistance for lots of reasons and
- 8:55Speaker 3: obvious reasons. But what started to happen over the period
- 8:58Speaker 3: of time when it got more sophisticated their systems, is
- 9:01Speaker 3: that you wanted to work in the mining industry, here's
- 9:03Speaker 3: the form.
- 9:04Speaker 1: Fill it in.
- 9:05Speaker 6: You agree to be subject to alcohol and drug testing
- 9:07Speaker 6: at a random basis, and that's probably the way it's
- 9:09Speaker 6: going to go in the future. You want to work
- 9:10Speaker 6: in our firm, here's the form alcohol drug testing. Years plus,
- 9:14Speaker 6: you'll also demonstrate you've got your right qualifications and you've
- 9:16Speaker 6: got to be.
- 9:18Speaker 2: I reckon, that's fair enough.
- 9:19Speaker 7: I mean I think that you know, as an employe,
- 9:21Speaker 7: should have the right to say that. And I was
- 9:22Speaker 7: actually a bit surprised by the comments I read from
- 9:24Speaker 7: the union in the anti news today having to go
- 9:27Speaker 7: at the government over saying well, we need your workers
- 9:30Speaker 7: to be vaccinated.
- 9:31Speaker 2: Of course they need to be vaccinated.
- 9:32Speaker 7: I mean, if they're going to be working face to face,
- 9:35Speaker 7: they're going to be working closely with people in remote communities,
- 9:38Speaker 7: et cetera, et cetera, they should be vaccinated. That is
- 9:40Speaker 7: a's a that's an absolutely necessary health measure that they
- 9:44Speaker 7: need to be.
- 9:45Speaker 6: Takeing same as they I would presume a lot of
- 9:47Speaker 6: those healthcare workers all across the territory have had an
- 9:49Speaker 6: annual flute shot and I'm sure if they tread on
- 9:52Speaker 6: a rusty nail they'd go in and get a teennas
- 9:53Speaker 6: shot in a flash. So you know, I can't work
- 9:56Speaker 6: out what they.
- 9:58Speaker 4: We also need to make sure that the terror plan
- 10:00Speaker 4: is in line with the federal plan, because we don't
- 10:02Speaker 4: want to be able to have different plans or different
- 10:04Speaker 4: rules for different areas in Australia. So we need to
- 10:07Speaker 4: work with all that to make sure that you can
- 10:09Speaker 4: show anywhere in Australia and it's all on the same way.
- 10:12Speaker 3: We have apparently got quite a few callers getting in
- 10:14Speaker 3: contact wondering what's going to happen with people who choose
- 10:17Speaker 3: not to get a vaccine.
- 10:20Speaker 4: I think it's pretty obvious, Katie.
- 10:21Speaker 5: They're going to find as we move towards the end
- 10:24Speaker 5: of the year that they will be restricted from certain activities.
- 10:27Speaker 5: They might not be able to freely move about the community,
- 10:30Speaker 5: and might not be able to play certain sports. They
- 10:32Speaker 5: may find that their employer says to them, you need
- 10:35Speaker 5: to be vaccinated. So we certainly have plenty of vaccine.
- 10:39Speaker 5: The information is there that is safe and effective, and
- 10:41Speaker 5: we urge people to get vaccinated.
- 10:43Speaker 3: Well, you are listening to Mix one oh four point
- 10:45Speaker 3: nine three sixty. It is the week that was and
- 10:47Speaker 3: it is of course the camp Quality radio auction. Now,
- 10:49Speaker 3: Matt Cunningham, you missed this just a couple of looks,
- 10:52Speaker 3: but sheared Mayley has said that he is going to
- 10:55Speaker 3: donate a half day pig hunt.
- 10:57Speaker 8: So so.
- 11:00Speaker 3: With a lawyer and a politician, so him and his brother,
- 11:04Speaker 3: now my husband Patrick. I've bid for him two hundred bucks.
- 11:07Speaker 3: Actually Matakarros has just messaged through. He said he'll go
- 11:09Speaker 3: too fifty. Someone else has just called through and wanted
- 11:12Speaker 3: to know exactly where this pig hunt is happening.
- 11:15Speaker 4: I'll get it down at mckiller River Station, which is
- 11:17Speaker 4: down the Arnham Highway. It's about an hour's drive from
- 11:20Speaker 4: Howard Springs. The station's one hundred and twenty thousand acres
- 11:23Speaker 4: and we get to cruise down the back. It'll be
- 11:25Speaker 4: at four or four hours. We've got two side by
- 11:27Speaker 4: side buggies, two four seaters with a you've got a roof,
- 11:30Speaker 4: you got a seat belt, you've got a bucket seat,
- 11:31Speaker 4: you've got a helmet, a helmet. There'll be some food
- 11:34Speaker 4: and some drink supplied.
- 11:35Speaker 1: Stunning, stunning to so this so it also not only
- 11:38Speaker 1: a pickup.
- 11:39Speaker 4: It'll be a and I've been I've been doing it
- 11:41Speaker 4: for a long time. I know the area pretty well.
- 11:43Speaker 4: So we'll be ab We'll see some wild buffalo, we'll
- 11:45Speaker 4: see some wild cow. We'll see a few creeks. You
- 11:47Speaker 4: might probably see a crocodiles in Cunningham. You want to
- 11:50Speaker 4: have any wild goats?
- 11:54Speaker 5: Interesting in that, Matt Keasy is I put a trailer
- 11:57Speaker 5: load of Jasman?
- 12:01Speaker 1: Yeah, like for your gut. It's great for lemon trees.
- 12:04Speaker 1: So Ksier has.
- 12:05Speaker 6: Got a what is it a ute load, which is
- 12:09Speaker 6: roughly one or half a cubic meter, probably half a
- 12:11Speaker 6: cubic meter for those who know that language, and it's
- 12:14Speaker 6: very light, easy to shovel, and and you're a bonus
- 12:17Speaker 6: because I know some people.
- 12:21Speaker 3: More too.
- 12:23Speaker 1: But if they come out.
- 12:26Speaker 9: And might need those knights for soon, if.
- 12:31Speaker 6: They come to the property, I'll even let them help
- 12:33Speaker 6: shovel it themselves.
- 12:34Speaker 1: And it sounds like got a job. No.
- 12:39Speaker 6: But also, but weren't this more if it's a family
- 12:43Speaker 6: that's got young children.
- 12:44Speaker 1: You've got young children.
- 12:46Speaker 6: The sheep are dropping their lambs at the moment, and
- 12:48Speaker 6: there's some really pretty little lambs to cuddle, have been
- 12:52Speaker 6: bottle fed.
- 12:54Speaker 2: I got the first fifty bucks on keysy.
- 12:57Speaker 3: As fifty all right, excellent, wh you and cuddling land.
- 13:02Speaker 1: Sure your wife's going to be really pleased.
- 13:04Speaker 2: To make sure that I'll be taking the kids on
- 13:06Speaker 2: my own.
- 13:08Speaker 3: A second bit for the pig hunt is at five
- 13:13Speaker 3: hundred dollars and it's all going to kids for Camp
- 13:17Speaker 3: Quality eight nine four one one O four nine is
- 13:20Speaker 3: the number if you'd like to call through. We're going
- 13:21Speaker 3: to take a very short break. You are listening to
- 13:23Speaker 3: mix one OW four point nine is three sixty.
- 13:25Speaker 1: That's right.
- 13:26Speaker 3: It is the Camp Quality Radio auction and Jared Mayley's
- 13:30Speaker 3: pig hunt is currently sitting at five hundred dollars. The
- 13:33Speaker 3: ute load full of goat manure is at fifty dollars
- 13:36Speaker 3: with Matt Cunningham. So I don't know who actually bid
- 13:40Speaker 3: five hundred dollars on the pig hunt, but I'll see
- 13:42Speaker 3: what I can find out. I'm sure the team will
- 13:44Speaker 3: let me know. And if you do want to call
- 13:46Speaker 3: through in place a bit eight nine one o four nine.
- 13:49Speaker 3: No word yet, keasier on the medallions and stuff that
- 13:53Speaker 3: you'd donated.
- 13:54Speaker 1: I'm not sure whether we've had a donation yet on the.
- 13:56Speaker 3: Is that on the live one or just on the
- 13:58Speaker 3: bes Not one hundred percent sure, but we're going to
- 14:00Speaker 3: you in after ten o'clock to find out more. Now,
- 14:02Speaker 3: I do want to talk about a very serious topic
- 14:05Speaker 3: that obviously we've been discussing right throughout the week, and
- 14:07Speaker 3: that is the territory's health system. We were joined earlier
- 14:11Speaker 3: in the week by Cath Hatcher, who is the head
- 14:14Speaker 3: of the Nursing and Midwiff re Union here in the
- 14:16Speaker 3: Northern Territory, speaking about the pressure on the health system,
- 14:19Speaker 3: and this followed on from a couple of reports actually
- 14:22Speaker 3: from you, Matt Cunningham, about firstly about the situation out
- 14:26Speaker 3: at the Palmerston Regional Hospital where there had apparently been
- 14:29Speaker 3: some high level talks about whether the emergency ward out
- 14:33Speaker 3: at Palmerston Regional Hospital needs to be scaled back due
- 14:36Speaker 3: to staffing shortages.
- 14:38Speaker 1: It didn't end there.
- 14:39Speaker 3: It'd also broken a story on the Royal Darwin Hospital
- 14:42Speaker 3: and surgical ward, part of a surgical ward having to
- 14:45Speaker 3: be used obviously for mental health patients.
- 14:48Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a fair bit going on there, Wolfe.
- 14:50Speaker 7: And I think it's also fair to say that there's
- 14:54Speaker 7: plenty of staff working within the hospital system who are
- 14:57Speaker 7: really doing it tough at the moment and.
- 15:01Speaker 2: Close to breaking points. So there was that meeting earlier
- 15:04Speaker 2: this month.
- 15:04Speaker 7: I know the Health Department's doing a review of services,
- 15:08Speaker 7: but there are serious concerns about how far doctors and
- 15:12Speaker 7: nurses in particular are stretched at the moment across those
- 15:16Speaker 7: two hospitals. And we know that the Parmesan Hospital opened
- 15:19Speaker 7: in August twenty eighteen, but I think that has and
- 15:23Speaker 7: you know you've even had Diddya Palmer, who's the head
- 15:25Speaker 7: of emergency at RDH and Palmerston, say that it's actually
- 15:30Speaker 7: made things worse, not better.
- 15:32Speaker 2: So there are serious concerns there. I mean my information is.
- 15:34Speaker 7: And I'm sure Tash will be able to give us
- 15:37Speaker 7: a better idea, but they've sort of decided to try
- 15:40Speaker 7: and work it out by the end of this month
- 15:42Speaker 7: and come up with a better plan. Tash has come
- 15:45Speaker 7: out and said the Parmesan ed won't close. I think
- 15:51Speaker 7: there's certainly a plan to scale things back quite a bit.
- 15:53Speaker 7: One of those plans that I've been told is that
- 15:55Speaker 7: they just have a handful of beds there at the
- 15:56Speaker 7: Parmesan d for walk ins and the ambulances.
- 15:58Speaker 2: It all goes straight to Ardi eight.
- 16:00Speaker 5: So, Katie, the Palmeston Hospital site is part of RODZO
- 16:03Speaker 5: and it's an important asset. It provides additional beds and capacity.
- 16:06Speaker 5: But we acknowledge across the system we have had challenges
- 16:09Speaker 5: with staffing and what we're doing is working to make
- 16:12Speaker 5: sure that we've got a sustainable model going forward. There
- 16:15Speaker 5: has been a number of operational meetings. We're working with
- 16:17Speaker 5: some experts in this space so that we have wonderful clinicians.
- 16:21Speaker 5: We have challenges with getting clinicians, but we certainly have
- 16:26Speaker 5: significant staff already and how can we support them? And
- 16:29Speaker 5: I do acknowledge Matt's comments. They have found the last
- 16:32Speaker 5: eighteen months to two years a very tough period. There's
- 16:36Speaker 5: a number of factors within the health system, mental health
- 16:39Speaker 5: and I've spoken to you about the significant plans in
- 16:41Speaker 5: that space. But we did see that code yellow last
- 16:44Speaker 5: week and it was based we had thirty patients waiting
- 16:47Speaker 5: for beds. It wasn't any particular reason, but we're working
- 16:50Speaker 5: to make sure that we support our clinicians and provide
- 16:53Speaker 5: that high quality care. So is that Palmeston Hospital emergency
- 16:56Speaker 5: ward going to be scaled right that? No, Katie. The
- 16:59Speaker 5: adviceateest advice I've had is that we do have adequate staffing,
- 17:03Speaker 5: but we need to make sure that we provide a
- 17:05Speaker 5: resource that supports people in the rural area and Palmerston
- 17:08Speaker 5: but works in with the Royal Dalen Hospital and that
- 17:11Speaker 5: we're not stretching our clinical resources so that we do
- 17:15Speaker 5: end up providing not adequate services because of that. So
- 17:19Speaker 5: it's complicated and we've had experts come in to work
- 17:22Speaker 5: with us. Might just play a small bit of audio
- 17:24Speaker 5: from Cas Hatcher from the Nurses Union a little bit
- 17:27Speaker 5: earlier in the week, just to give us a bit
- 17:29Speaker 5: of an idea as to how the Nurses Union and
- 17:32Speaker 5: some of our health staff are feeling at this point terrible.
- 17:37Speaker 8: The whole of the NT is in crisis, not just
- 17:40Speaker 8: World Daring or Palmerston Hospital, and not so much the
- 17:46Speaker 8: other public health systems, but the remote and rule and
- 17:51Speaker 8: remote areas of the NT. Everyone's in crisis. No one
- 17:55Speaker 8: can get staff to work, and it's putting more of
- 17:58Speaker 8: an impact on Royal Darwin from the top end, with
- 18:03Speaker 8: services being in the remote areas in crisis too.
- 18:08Speaker 1: Now.
- 18:08Speaker 3: I did also catch up with Sandy who's on AHA
- 18:11Speaker 3: and Alice Springs this morning and he had said that, yeah,
- 18:14Speaker 3: that he's been told by some of the nurses at
- 18:16Speaker 3: the hospital there that they're run off their feet. It
- 18:18Speaker 3: does seem as though we've got a real issue at
- 18:20Speaker 3: the moment in various areas. From what I can gather,
- 18:23Speaker 3: it's obviously mental health beds, it's aged care beds, but
- 18:28Speaker 3: it's also that staffing issue. We're staffing the Howard Springs
- 18:32Speaker 3: quarantine facility, We're obviously then staffing all of our major
- 18:36Speaker 3: health facilities like the hospitals, but then we're also needing
- 18:39Speaker 3: staff out in those remote clinics. And it does seem
- 18:42Speaker 3: as though we're struggling to find those staffs.
- 18:44Speaker 4: OK. It seems our health system is in crisis, and
- 18:47Speaker 4: it's not just in the top endge right across the
- 18:49Speaker 4: Northern territory. The Chief Minister coming on this station and
- 18:52Speaker 4: said that there was an outbreak, we wouldn't better handle it.
- 18:54Speaker 4: And remember when COVID first hit that all these reasons
- 18:57Speaker 4: about the lockdowns were to be able to get the
- 18:59Speaker 4: health systems up and running at the hospital is ready
- 19:00Speaker 4: to go. Now we're almost two years into this and
- 19:03Speaker 4: the Chief ministers come out and said we couldn't handle it.
- 19:06Speaker 4: So the government's had two years to go in and
- 19:08Speaker 4: fix the problem. They've admitted they can't. So what happens
- 19:11Speaker 4: if there was an outbreak right now or next week
- 19:13Speaker 4: or next month. It seems to be that our hospital
- 19:15Speaker 4: system would just would collapse, would fall under. So this
- 19:19Speaker 4: is a real concern. There's money available. There's two million
- 19:23Speaker 4: dollars to a grand stand and thirty five million dollars
- 19:25Speaker 4: to these youth detainees. If that money hadn't been paid
- 19:27Speaker 4: to those organizations and gone into our health system, would
- 19:30Speaker 4: we be in the same situation, I'd guess not so, Katie.
- 19:34Speaker 5: In terms of that there's a number of issues that
- 19:36Speaker 5: have been raised. So we do have the Palmerston and
- 19:40Speaker 5: Royal Darwin Hospital campus. We've also got in the top
- 19:42Speaker 5: end Catherine and the Hospital.
- 19:44Speaker 7: Now this is this this news speak.
- 19:48Speaker 2: No, No, it's hospitals.
- 19:49Speaker 1: Into it's two camps has been not two.
- 19:52Speaker 2: Campuses at the one hospital.
- 19:53Speaker 5: It's two hospitals, two campuses. But we do have Nolan
- 19:58Speaker 5: Boy Hospital and there is beds at Noulan Boy Hospital.
- 20:01Speaker 5: So how can we utilize those beds but make sure.
- 20:04Speaker 3: We sending people off to Nolan Boy if people a situation.
- 20:08Speaker 1: I'll come back to that point.
- 20:09Speaker 5: But what I was saying is that in terms of
- 20:11Speaker 5: our hospitals, we need to make sure that we do
- 20:14Speaker 5: provide for people to have cares close to home. There's
- 20:17Speaker 5: patients from eas Darnham that could perhaps it has to
- 20:19Speaker 5: be clinically safe, of course, but we're looking at a
- 20:21Speaker 5: number of options in terms of our hospital beds. Coming
- 20:23Speaker 5: to the point around age care, we know that age
- 20:26Speaker 5: care is the responsibility of the Commonwealth, but we do
- 20:29Speaker 5: see a.
- 20:29Speaker 3: Burden argibargie from Little Proud.
- 20:35Speaker 1: Agree.
- 20:35Speaker 5: So in terms of that, what we do is we
- 20:37Speaker 5: have the Commonwealth who provide beds for age care and
- 20:40Speaker 5: providers come in and bid for them, so you see
- 20:42Speaker 5: the non government and private sector they bid, they're provisionally
- 20:45Speaker 5: allocated and then they build those beds. We haven't seen
- 20:48Speaker 5: that flow through. So nt Health has bid and we've
- 20:51Speaker 5: been successful in sixty provisional beds for age care. So
- 20:54Speaker 5: there's going to be what sixty speak to us in
- 20:56Speaker 5: real person language, does that mean there's going to be
- 20:58Speaker 5: sixty extra age care air bed So we've been provisionally
- 21:01Speaker 5: allocated them, so we have to make it out it
- 21:04Speaker 5: is going to be a specialist dementia bed.
- 21:07Speaker 7: So when you say that could happen, how do you do?
- 21:10Speaker 7: You have to find the place to put them on
- 21:12Speaker 7: something correct.
- 21:12Speaker 5: So we would potentially partner with someone or we would
- 21:15Speaker 5: build it, but they're fund.
- 21:16Speaker 7: Their solution here exactly, turn the Parmaston Hospital into an
- 21:20Speaker 7: age care facility sixty beds there. You shut the emergency
- 21:23Speaker 7: department there, which.
- 21:25Speaker 2: Problems with that with the doubling out.
- 21:29Speaker 7: So if you're in an ambulance right and you're going
- 21:31Speaker 7: to Parmestan Hospital, it's another fifteen minutes to RDH. At
- 21:34Speaker 7: the moment, anyone who's got anything seriously wrong with them
- 21:37Speaker 7: is going to the Parmestan Hospital and then they're being
- 21:39Speaker 7: put in a care flight ambulance at a cost of
- 21:42Speaker 7: five million dollars over three years to then be transferred
- 21:45Speaker 7: to third to the Royal Darwin Hospital.
- 21:46Speaker 2: It's such a stupidly inefficient system. It's not funny.
- 21:49Speaker 7: And if we've got the money for the sixty beds,
- 21:51Speaker 7: put them at the Palmeston Hospital.
- 21:52Speaker 5: Yes, Palmeston Hospitals one hundred and sixteen bed facility. There's
- 21:56Speaker 5: about one hundred beds already left over, and so it
- 22:00Speaker 5: would be a new facility. But what it would do
- 22:02Speaker 5: because we've got about fifty to sixty age care and
- 22:06Speaker 5: disability patients within Rhodzowen and Palmeston Hospital at the moment,
- 22:09Speaker 5: and so it would allow us to have people in
- 22:13Speaker 5: age care facility providing them with the specialist support they needed.
- 22:18Speaker 4: But this is very complicated, like where have.
- 22:20Speaker 1: We got the capability to actually do that.
- 22:22Speaker 4: We're talking about people's lives here.
- 22:24Speaker 1: I don't the microphone keeps getting taken off me.
- 22:27Speaker 5: So Katie, we've just got the provisional funding for those
- 22:29Speaker 5: beds in the last few weeks. So when now health
- 22:32Speaker 5: is now working to look at we probably won't take
- 22:35Speaker 5: Matt's view of closing Palmerston Hospital and making an.
- 22:38Speaker 4: Age care facility.
- 22:40Speaker 1: What about we look at.
- 22:41Speaker 5: Those sixty beds and getting those online so that we
- 22:46Speaker 5: can free up hospital bed space. So it is complicated,
- 22:49Speaker 5: it's not straightforward, but there is options there that we're
- 22:53Speaker 5: working in ernest On.
- 22:54Speaker 4: They've had five years to fix this. They've been in
- 22:57Speaker 4: power last five beds, one hundred and forty percent capacity
- 23:04Speaker 4: in this space which we're talking about.
- 23:10Speaker 3: Joking, someone had asked whether on the text line someone's
- 23:14Speaker 3: asked whether some of those beds out at Howard Springs
- 23:16Speaker 3: could be converted to it's just going.
- 23:18Speaker 6: To say, so that's three and a half thousand I
- 23:21Speaker 6: think it was three and a half thousand facility as
- 23:23Speaker 6: the workers a village for the building of the Impects
- 23:25Speaker 6: gas plant. Now I know there's about I don't know,
- 23:28Speaker 6: fifteen hundred people in there at the moment. Give will
- 23:29Speaker 6: take whatever. So there's bound to be an area that
- 23:32Speaker 6: could be changed quarantine from the rest of it and
- 23:36Speaker 6: turned into agekit. Just because there's one main mentor entrance,
- 23:39Speaker 6: it doesn't mean there can't be another main entrance off
- 23:42Speaker 6: the Howard Springs Road or off what would road for
- 23:43Speaker 6: that matter.
- 23:44Speaker 5: So when the Northern Territory Government was looking at the
- 23:48Speaker 5: former Impects facility at that time, we did look at seniors,
- 23:53Speaker 5: but this is very specific age care and that facility
- 23:57Speaker 5: is not suitable. This is people that need full time
- 24:01Speaker 5: nursing care. It has to be a number of parameters
- 24:04Speaker 5: around that in terms of infrastructure and also the ability
- 24:07Speaker 5: to provide that.
- 24:08Speaker 1: So but what you.
- 24:08Speaker 3: Are telling our listeners this morning is that there is
- 24:11Speaker 3: going to be an additional sixty aged care bids. But
- 24:14Speaker 3: at this point in time, they're funded, but we don't
- 24:16Speaker 3: know where they're going to be yet or exactly how
- 24:19Speaker 3: that's going to be rolled out. So Katie, we just
- 24:22Speaker 3: got funded for those beds. So the Northern Territory Government,
- 24:25Speaker 3: which unusually normally as I said, ngngos and private providers
- 24:28Speaker 3: bid for those beds. We said, we're not seeing that
- 24:31Speaker 3: flow through and it's impacting our health system. So the
- 24:34Speaker 3: NTG has bid for those beds and we've been provisionally
- 24:38Speaker 3: allocated them. So we will now work on making that
- 24:40Speaker 3: a reality.
- 24:41Speaker 4: So I think didn't Little Proud say yesterday that the
- 24:43Speaker 4: federal government give the nt government money for age care
- 24:46Speaker 4: and then it's up to the NT government how they
- 24:47Speaker 4: spend it. And he was saying that he's view with
- 24:49Speaker 4: I've spent it unwisely and that's why we've got this
- 24:51Speaker 4: problem with the age care and the health system because
- 24:54Speaker 4: the government, the NT government, have spent the federal government
- 24:57Speaker 4: money unwisely.
- 24:58Speaker 5: So in terms of both a care and hospital funding, Katie,
- 25:02Speaker 5: there is funding provided from the Commonwealth. It's very specific
- 25:05Speaker 5: in terms of age care. Those beds are funded and
- 25:09Speaker 5: that then flows through individuals who are eligible that given
- 25:14Speaker 5: can be placed in those beds. It's not as simple
- 25:17Speaker 5: as what Jared's explaining.
- 25:18Speaker 3: I've got to tell you this discussion throughout the week
- 25:21Speaker 3: about the health system being in Cathatcher's words, in crisis
- 25:25Speaker 3: is something that opened an absolute can of worms.
- 25:27Speaker 1: On the show.
- 25:28Speaker 3: We have people getting in contact with us in those
- 25:31Speaker 3: very situations where they've got elderly parents who've been on
- 25:34Speaker 3: waiting lists for two years and still don't have a
- 25:36Speaker 3: bed for them now when it's reached that acute situation
- 25:40Speaker 3: where they need to find one where they've been stuck.
- 25:43Speaker 3: One of the examples is an elderly woman who is
- 25:46Speaker 3: still out in the Palmeston Regional Hospital who really needs
- 25:49Speaker 3: a long term bed obviously in a facility, but it
- 25:53Speaker 3: also raised this conversation with a lot of Territorians contacting
- 25:57Speaker 3: us about an inability to act actually gets specialist to
- 26:01Speaker 3: be able to see a specialist for various different reasons. Now,
- 26:05Speaker 3: I want to take you to what was pretty a
- 26:07Speaker 3: pretty heart breaking call. I've got to tell you from Rachel,
- 26:10Speaker 3: one of our listeners, a little bit earlier in the week.
- 26:12Speaker 1: If you missed it, take a listen to what she
- 26:14Speaker 1: had to say.
- 26:15Speaker 9: So, I've been a nurse in the territory for eleven
- 26:17Speaker 9: years and i don't work in our own health anymore,
- 26:21Speaker 9: but I'm a little bit shocked at the time frame
- 26:24Speaker 9: that's allowed for an urgent referral. So essentially, the referral
- 26:30Speaker 9: goes in and I'm sure that they get hundreds and
- 26:33Speaker 9: hundreds of referrals per day, so someone actually has to
- 26:36Speaker 9: slight that referral first, and they've told me it takes
- 26:39Speaker 9: ten business days for that to actually happen, and then
- 26:41Speaker 9: a nurse needs to go and and treat them, and
- 26:44Speaker 9: then that needs to go to a doctor for them
- 26:45Speaker 9: to have a look at the referral. And see how
- 26:47Speaker 9: urgent it is, and then that needs to go to
- 26:49Speaker 9: someone else to book me an appointments. Essentially, at the moment,
- 26:53Speaker 9: I've got a chicking time bomb in my chest and
- 26:55Speaker 9: I can't get anyone to look at it. And I'm
- 26:57Speaker 9: giving a bit emotional because I do have two children,
- 27:01Speaker 9: and I'm very young, and I just said I know
- 27:04Speaker 9: what to do with myself. A whole month is a
- 27:05Speaker 9: long time, and I just want to make sure that
- 27:08Speaker 9: you know, and if it wasn't something so urgent, you know,
- 27:10Speaker 9: there's markers there that is saying that it's very vicious
- 27:13Speaker 9: and I am young, so yeah, it's very, very worrying
- 27:17Speaker 9: at the moment.
- 27:18Speaker 3: I mean, it goes without saying that. You can hear
- 27:20Speaker 3: in Rachel's voice how distraught she is and how worried
- 27:23Speaker 3: she is, a young, young mum with two small children,
- 27:27Speaker 3: obviously waiting for that urgent referral for a mass in
- 27:31Speaker 3: her breast. You know, it wasn't the only phone call
- 27:35Speaker 3: that we took. It wasn't the only message we talk
- 27:37Speaker 3: I had another gentleman get in contact with me and
- 27:40Speaker 3: tell me that his brother in law has been diagnosed
- 27:42Speaker 3: with prostate cancer. It was a seven week wait for
- 27:46Speaker 3: him to be able to get the urgent surgery that
- 27:50Speaker 3: he required. So he's gone into state to get that surgery.
- 27:53Speaker 3: But then you know, even that in itself is a
- 27:55Speaker 3: difficult situation where he's having to go to a hot
- 27:57Speaker 3: spot and then having to try and get back.
- 28:00Speaker 1: I mean, what is the go here?
- 28:01Speaker 3: Do we not have like do we not have enough
- 28:03Speaker 3: specialists or what's the situation with people trying to you know,
- 28:07Speaker 3: to get those get a diagnosis.
- 28:09Speaker 4: I know another story where a person needed an ICU
- 28:12Speaker 4: bed and for an emergency and then the time that
- 28:15Speaker 4: there was no beds available in the Northern Territory and
- 28:17Speaker 4: they had to fly. They were going to fly them
- 28:19Speaker 4: to Wa or to Queensland, but that person passed away.
- 28:22Speaker 4: So now that there's a long term Territori and who
- 28:24Speaker 4: died because they couldn't get an ICU bed, and now
- 28:27Speaker 4: the whole family is in grieving about that. So there's
- 28:29Speaker 4: some tragic stories about here because the health system is
- 28:32Speaker 4: in crisis.
- 28:33Speaker 5: So Katie, in terms of and I won't point to
- 28:35Speaker 5: those specific cases and respect the privacy of patients. In
- 28:38Speaker 5: terms of the case that Jared just raised, there is
- 28:41Speaker 5: the health complaints commissioner. So if people feel that the
- 28:43Speaker 5: process hasn't supported them, that I always encourage, and that
- 28:46Speaker 5: looks that systemic change.
- 28:47Speaker 4: See, someone's not going to complain when they've just lost
- 28:49Speaker 4: a family member, they're in grief.
- 28:51Speaker 5: I you know, my deeper sympathy goes to that family.
- 28:54Speaker 5: But what I'm saying is that there is processes within
- 28:57Speaker 5: the system. There's patient advocate, there's a health Complaints commissioner,
- 28:59Speaker 5: But in terms of Rachel, that's not good enough. And
- 29:02Speaker 5: so it is daunting enough having to face an interface
- 29:05Speaker 5: with the health system and people not understanding and it
- 29:08Speaker 5: is a convoluted process from you know, appointments when you
- 29:12Speaker 5: go to a GP and then an interface with specialists
- 29:15Speaker 5: and trying to navigate that system. And we do try
- 29:17Speaker 5: and make it as easy as possible. There is coordination
- 29:20Speaker 5: nurses there, but the system does fail at times and
- 29:24Speaker 5: it's not acceptable. And I've asked for Rachel's situation to
- 29:27Speaker 5: be reviewed so that but in terms of the situation
- 29:30Speaker 5: that Jared raised, I had wasn't aware of that, but
- 29:32Speaker 5: of course that is very concerning, but it is it's
- 29:35Speaker 5: difficult in terms of the health system, the interface for
- 29:38Speaker 5: people when they perhaps go for some routine checkups or
- 29:41Speaker 5: they have a scan, there should be a pathway that,
- 29:44Speaker 5: particularly when they're facing quite daunting news and they're scared,
- 29:47Speaker 5: and even if you know a situation is not you
- 29:51Speaker 5: know that they've just got We all know ourselves if
- 29:54Speaker 5: we have a scan or we have a test and
- 29:56Speaker 5: the results don't come back clear, we become incredibly nervous
- 29:58Speaker 5: and incredibly anxious.
- 30:00Speaker 3: So issue like, is it something that you are prepared
- 30:03Speaker 3: to focus on to try to see you know where
- 30:05Speaker 3: this is breaking down? If we've got people who are
- 30:07Speaker 3: facing a cancer diagnosis or they're you know, they're waiting.
- 30:11Speaker 3: We had another man get in contact with us. He's
- 30:13Speaker 3: got skin cancer. He had further melanoma indicators come back
- 30:17Speaker 3: this week.
- 30:18Speaker 1: He's facing a seven week wait.
- 30:20Speaker 3: Seven week wait is what he was told then to
- 30:23Speaker 3: be able to get in to see the specialists.
- 30:25Speaker 1: Like to you, I mean, does that sound good enough?
- 30:27Speaker 5: So it is in terms of the system, people their
- 30:30Speaker 5: GP would make a referral and people's condition can change,
- 30:34Speaker 5: so they should go back to their GP so their
- 30:36Speaker 5: GP can then escalate that higher. And there is within
- 30:41Speaker 5: the system, as I said, the patient advocate. If people
- 30:43Speaker 5: don't believe that the pathway they've given is acceptable. They
- 30:46Speaker 5: can ask for that second opinion, asked for.
- 30:49Speaker 1: It to be reviewed, but it is. It is difficult,
- 30:52Speaker 1: and of course.
- 30:52Speaker 5: We take lessons learned and try and make sure that
- 30:56Speaker 5: the system works to support people when they're feeling most vulnerable.
- 30:59Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think it's so important.
- 31:01Speaker 7: I think we're seeing play out now a chronic issue
- 31:04Speaker 7: with underfunding and misplaced funding in our hospital system over
- 31:08Speaker 7: a long period of time. At the beginning of last year,
- 31:11Speaker 7: the head of the AMA wrote to Greg Hunt and said,
- 31:14Speaker 7: we have got a serious situation that is about to
- 31:16Speaker 7: eventuate here and we need a hell of a lot
- 31:19Speaker 7: more money or we're going to be in a major crisis.
- 31:21Speaker 2: And well look where we are now. We're in a
- 31:23Speaker 2: major crisis.
- 31:24Speaker 5: Now.
- 31:24Speaker 2: I know money doesn't.
- 31:25Speaker 7: Grow on trees, but I do think the federal government
- 31:27Speaker 7: needs to make more of an investment. At the same time,
- 31:30Speaker 7: I think the territory government needs to be smarter about
- 31:33Speaker 7: how it spends that money.
- 31:34Speaker 8: Now.
- 31:35Speaker 7: I know that you will laugh at me about this
- 31:36Speaker 7: Palmeston Hospital thing, but that is a clear case where
- 31:39Speaker 7: politics trumped good policy when it came to where a
- 31:43Speaker 7: facility was going to be built. And we're seeing the
- 31:45Speaker 7: consequences of that play out now. Now, you know, I
- 31:50Speaker 7: know you say that, I'm like, you know, on some
- 31:53Speaker 7: crazy tangent, but this is not my view. This is
- 31:56Speaker 7: the view of the people who work in the hospital system.
- 31:58Speaker 7: I talked to them, Tashed, took them. You talk to them. Ye,
- 32:01Speaker 7: you know that this is what they are saying. They
- 32:03Speaker 7: are saying them their job is being made more difficult
- 32:06Speaker 7: because of that decision. It costs two hundred and fifty
- 32:08Speaker 7: million dollars to build that hospital, and it has made
- 32:11Speaker 7: their jobs harder. And that's why they are the ones
- 32:13Speaker 7: who are saying, we need to fix something here.
- 32:16Speaker 2: And so I think two things need to happen.
- 32:18Speaker 7: We definitely need more funding in our system, but we
- 32:20Speaker 7: also need to be smarter about how we spend that.
- 32:22Speaker 4: So, man, I think money seeds to grow on grain
- 32:24Speaker 4: seas in lordn Jarify day.
- 32:26Speaker 3: Well, you know, we have a few people get in
- 32:28Speaker 3: contact with us about that, and I think the optics
- 32:30Speaker 3: of it were terrible at the time, and they continue
- 32:32Speaker 3: to be like whenever then we talk about this type
- 32:34Speaker 3: of thing, it is the you know, it's the lynch
- 32:36Speaker 3: pin that people go back to.
- 32:37Speaker 6: Well, it may well be the case, but I think
- 32:39Speaker 6: there comes a time that the turf club getting the
- 32:42Speaker 6: grant and how it was managed by the government and
- 32:44Speaker 6: the cabinet and who signed off that sort of stuff.
- 32:46Speaker 6: That's for another story in another time, and the Opposition
- 32:48Speaker 6: can take that up in Parliament next week and I'm
- 32:50Speaker 6: sure they will, but I think we need to look
- 32:52Speaker 6: carefully at I'm presuming that all these issues relate to
- 32:55Speaker 6: the public system. You know that the overcrowding in the
- 32:57Speaker 6: hospitals plus the access to the specialists think we need,
- 33:00Speaker 6: and I'm sure the government does it through you know,
- 33:02Speaker 6: the Health Department and those experts to look at the
- 33:04Speaker 6: critical areas and address them almost not simultaneously, but.
- 33:10Speaker 1: They've got to be looked at.
- 33:11Speaker 6: Clearly, there's an issue with access to specialists and referrals
- 33:14Speaker 6: and I know what Natasha is saying about you go
- 33:16Speaker 6: back to your GP, but a lot of people don't
- 33:17Speaker 6: know that kind of information and it's good that we
- 33:19Speaker 6: can tell it here. But there's an issue with the hospital.
- 33:22Speaker 6: There's clearly an issue with the Parmesan Hospital and the
- 33:24Speaker 6: age care patients in there as well as that.
- 33:26Speaker 1: So there's three key issues here.
- 33:28Speaker 6: The agecare people the overcreating like I think it was
- 33:31Speaker 6: on this show or another show where a lot of
- 33:33Speaker 6: people are coming from the bush to get their trip
- 33:35Speaker 6: in the hospital because there's not the health workers out
- 33:37Speaker 6: in the bush for whatever reason, not nurses, you know.
- 33:40Speaker 6: So we know there's some places where it's unsafe and
- 33:42Speaker 6: the nurses leave, et cetera. So there's quite a few
- 33:45Speaker 6: issues here and they need to be all identified and
- 33:47Speaker 6: whether they all relate back to some key failing or
- 33:51Speaker 6: some limitation, whether it be lack of funding. I mean,
- 33:53Speaker 6: it's one thing to get more money, but we need
- 33:55Speaker 6: more people, you know, we need more nurses, we need
- 33:57Speaker 6: I mean, it's not just in this health it's in
- 33:59Speaker 6: the public to a system as well.
- 34:01Speaker 1: Yeah, that's just hospitals now, Like there's clearly.
- 34:04Speaker 7: It becomes a sort of snowball effect because the people
- 34:08Speaker 7: who we get to come here and work, and you know,
- 34:11Speaker 7: in the past, people come here for three months and
- 34:13Speaker 7: as you know, they stay for thirty years. But we
- 34:14Speaker 7: get people who come here for three months to work
- 34:16Speaker 7: in our hospital system and they go, oh my god,
- 34:19Speaker 7: I've never had to work so hard in my life.
- 34:20Speaker 2: I'm stressed out in my brain.
- 34:21Speaker 7: I am leaving and I'm never coming back, you know,
- 34:23Speaker 7: And that's that's all the wrong.
- 34:25Speaker 1: We are going to have to take a very short break.
- 34:27Speaker 3: You are listening to Mix one oh four point nine's
- 34:29Speaker 3: three sixty and also broadcasting on APHA. Well, it is
- 34:32Speaker 3: the week that was, but this morning a heavy focus
- 34:36Speaker 3: obviously on the camp quality radio auction, and I'm very
- 34:39Speaker 3: pleased to say that the half day pig Hunt is
- 34:42Speaker 3: now sitting five hundred and twenty five dollars from Philip.
- 34:46Speaker 3: Philip is now in the lead, so five hundred and
- 34:49Speaker 3: twenty five dollars.
- 34:51Speaker 4: Going to add to that. There's something extra on that
- 34:53Speaker 4: pig hunt. Katie Wolf can come and a husband for free,
- 34:56Speaker 4: so she'll be there with us on the NF and
- 35:02Speaker 4: her husband get.
- 35:03Speaker 1: A country pat will go. I'm sure, but you don't
- 35:07Speaker 1: need me there. I'm a proper girl, a city girl.
- 35:11Speaker 4: You can check your wall off.
- 35:12Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if I'm.
- 35:13Speaker 3: Real city because I grew up in Madison, so you
- 35:15Speaker 3: can't be very much A yeah.
- 35:18Speaker 1: That's right.
- 35:19Speaker 5: Now.
- 35:19Speaker 3: There is so much to cover off on this morning,
- 35:21Speaker 3: and I'm courtious that we're running out of time, but
- 35:24Speaker 3: we might even if someone wants to bid on it.
- 35:25Speaker 3: Maybe I could even drop the news for the hour
- 35:27Speaker 3: and just go with the.
- 35:28Speaker 1: Show for a bit longer.
- 35:30Speaker 3: But the Daily by election was obviously had last weekend,
- 35:34Speaker 3: and we know that Territory Labor won the Daily by
- 35:36Speaker 3: election with candidate Duran Young were winning that seat off
- 35:40Speaker 3: the Country Liberal Party opposition. The Northern Territory Chief Minister
- 35:44Speaker 3: Michael Gunna took to social media to declare that victory
- 35:47Speaker 3: and Well had said tonight's historic victory and Daily the
- 35:50Speaker 3: first time ever that a government's won a seat off
- 35:53Speaker 3: the opposition in a by election is incredibly humbling, is.
- 35:57Speaker 1: What he wrote. Nothing to do with the chief minister seat.
- 36:00Speaker 1: It was more to do with how things happened on.
- 36:03Speaker 2: The ground, and.
- 36:05Speaker 6: We all know that how Labor operates in the bush
- 36:08Speaker 6: in these bush remote seats.
- 36:11Speaker 1: I'll just clarify Natasha doesn't have a microphone just so
- 36:15Speaker 1: she can have mine, I mean, and it will where's Leah.
- 36:19Speaker 4: She's gone into hiding week.
- 36:21Speaker 1: Every day this week she has been in here to
- 36:24Speaker 1: clear alone.
- 36:26Speaker 5: She put herself all over that campaign and she's saying
- 36:29Speaker 5: it's a success to lose a seat. So I'd hate
- 36:31Speaker 5: to see that if it was a disaster what that
- 36:33Speaker 5: would have been.
- 36:34Speaker 1: He listen, Labor did exactly what they do in all
- 36:36Speaker 1: their campaigns. They flooded. They flooded the area and the
- 36:38Speaker 1: booths with all the hot shots.
- 36:40Speaker 6: Marrion Scrimjeels out there and Warren s Nutt and all
- 36:42Speaker 6: his stuff, and Natasha Files was out there.
- 36:45Speaker 1: All the current ministers. Don't ask me what they were saying.
- 36:47Speaker 6: To the local people to get them to hop onto
- 36:49Speaker 6: the bus and be carted to the polling booth. But
- 36:52Speaker 6: I'm sure there might have been the occasional enticement and
- 36:55Speaker 6: a smile from the Health minister.
- 36:56Speaker 1: That's a serious allegation.
- 36:58Speaker 5: Easier you might, but in the rural area football talk
- 37:05Speaker 5: about cop have got a lot of questions to answer.
- 37:08Speaker 5: It's a Shameley is not here to answer them this morning.
- 37:10Speaker 5: But she's probably trying to hang onto her leadership.
- 37:13Speaker 4: But this was never ever a test of leader, never
- 37:16Speaker 4: ever tested the leadership. She's got a hundred percent backing
- 37:19Speaker 4: from us, so the whole party and the wind. It's
- 37:22Speaker 4: not about you know. This is about what we do,
- 37:24Speaker 4: how we come back, and how we get there. For
- 37:26Speaker 4: the most, we've got three years to come back. Unlike
- 37:28Speaker 4: the Labor's nine point one billion dollar debt is going
- 37:30Speaker 4: to be there forever and the only cost amy measure
- 37:32Speaker 4: they even spoke about has now been thrown in the bin.
- 37:35Speaker 4: So talking about her historic issues, let's talk about about
- 37:40Speaker 4: billion dollars worth of debt with no name.
- 37:46Speaker 6: Let me go, this is an important ISSI it's an
- 37:48Speaker 6: important issue. I'm going to keep referring it until this
- 37:51Speaker 6: government addresses it and tells us the truth. Now it's
- 37:54Speaker 6: to do with the school based constables. Now I know
- 37:56Speaker 6: the chairman of to ME. We put a note up
- 37:57Speaker 6: and she's actually just the mess and it's replied. I
- 38:00Speaker 6: think Chris sebat Is replied, we didn't get one. Replied
- 38:04Speaker 6: that I was tracking that site. Didn't get one reply
- 38:06Speaker 6: out of labor. We do not have school based constables.
- 38:09Speaker 6: And I use the word constable, not auxiliaries. At T
- 38:12Speaker 6: mid min it's we're going into term four. We're in
- 38:15Speaker 6: week week term three, week nine, we're going to term
- 38:18Speaker 6: four and we still don't know what are going to
- 38:21Speaker 6: be the arrangements for to MIM with two school based consobles.
- 38:24Speaker 6: Don't tell me they're going to be auxiliaries, because I
- 38:26Speaker 6: don't that's a they're trying to pull a shifty, Katie.
- 38:28Speaker 6: The police Minister and the Commissioner of Police are pulling
- 38:31Speaker 6: a shifty taking the constables out.
- 38:36Speaker 2: Take a shifty.
- 38:38Speaker 6: It's a shifty now that mister Young did not comment,
- 38:42Speaker 6: and that's a critical issue to me, Minu. It's got
- 38:44Speaker 6: twelve hundred to thirteen hundred students and we don't have
- 38:47Speaker 6: And I know there's an issue with.
- 38:48Speaker 1: Sanderson Middle or High school as well.
- 38:50Speaker 6: They've been told that they're not necessarily going to get
- 38:52Speaker 6: school based constables. And when the school based constable is there,
- 38:55Speaker 6: they can't even address a particular unfortunate incident in the school.
- 38:59Speaker 6: They have to call police and they are a police officer.
- 39:01Speaker 6: So the whole system's bloody just gone stupid.
- 39:04Speaker 1: It's got shifted.
- 39:05Speaker 6: I'll watch some direct honest answers, and this Durren Younghow
- 39:08Speaker 6: actually didn't even have the courtesy to reply to the
- 39:11Speaker 6: comment I have to.
- 39:11Speaker 5: Run is a wonderful person and I will make sure
- 39:15Speaker 5: that after this he goes back and listens to the audio.
- 39:18Speaker 5: And I think that he's really excited to get out there.
- 39:20Speaker 5: He has lived in what I and schools, as we know,
- 39:23Speaker 5: as local members are important part of our community, so
- 39:25Speaker 5: I'll certainly make sure he's.
- 39:26Speaker 4: Aware of it.
- 39:27Speaker 3: And whatever you're about to read, we have got a
- 39:30Speaker 3: message here. It says, good morning, Katie. Following on from
- 39:32Speaker 3: KEESI epirics talk on Wednesday on the chairperson of a
- 39:35Speaker 3: school council, the teacher representative of my counsel always makes
- 39:38Speaker 3: our counsel aware of the goings on with the police
- 39:41Speaker 3: base constables. The latest is a watered down version of
- 39:44Speaker 3: the valuable program with the following reclassification of the position
- 39:49Speaker 3: from officers to auxiliaries, new guidelines which has not been released,
- 39:54Speaker 3: the curriculum developed that auxiliaries will deliver, and this person says,
- 39:58Speaker 3: my view is that the Education Department gives three million
- 40:01Speaker 3: dollars in funding to the police for the police based
- 40:04Speaker 3: constable's program, and yet we have no say in what
- 40:07Speaker 3: the program will deliver. So that is from the well,
- 40:10Speaker 3: that is from the one of the chair people from
- 40:13Speaker 3: a school council, and I think that message sort of
- 40:15Speaker 3: has cut.
- 40:15Speaker 1: Off at the end. So I'm not sure which school,
- 40:17Speaker 1: but it's clearly an issue out there.
- 40:18Speaker 4: Seems like another failure on behalf of labor. I know
- 40:21Speaker 4: that commendment. There was an incident where there was an
- 40:22Speaker 4: assaults out there, the assaults out on the road that
- 40:25Speaker 4: were reported to the police, reported to the school and
- 40:28Speaker 4: essentially the student got banfi and back again. So there
- 40:32Speaker 4: the police officer there on the spot. It might better fixate.
- 40:35Speaker 4: Can I go back to.
- 40:36Speaker 2: Give you my two bob's worth.
- 40:37Speaker 3: On thespital listening, I'm dropping the news.
- 40:43Speaker 1: Shifty business going on in I just.
- 40:46Speaker 7: Think it was just a spectacular internal failure by the CLP, right,
- 40:50Speaker 7: and it's one that and it's one that that sort
- 40:53Speaker 7: of transpired over a period of time. You go back
- 40:56Speaker 7: to even before the twenty sixteen election where the literally
- 40:59Speaker 7: Field branch of the c LP tried to get rid
- 41:02Speaker 7: of Gary Higgins. He had to go to Central Council
- 41:04Speaker 7: to get pre selected, made to do that.
- 41:07Speaker 2: Gary Lichfield branch was going to boot him out.
- 41:10Speaker 8: Part of.
- 41:14Speaker 4: You know, you've got that wrong. I can say that absolutely.
- 41:19Speaker 2: Did the Lichfield branch not pre selection.
- 41:23Speaker 4: You've got a choice where to go, and Gary chose
- 41:26Speaker 4: to do that.
- 41:26Speaker 7: They got that one wrong, right, and and they didn't
- 41:31Speaker 7: support him the whole way through, right, and and he
- 41:33Speaker 7: is the first person they should have gone to at
- 41:35Speaker 7: the beginning of this campaign and they should have said, Gary,
- 41:38Speaker 7: help us out, because he is the reason that they
- 41:40Speaker 7: won that seat, not just the two times that he
- 41:43Speaker 7: won it, but when he and Slowan wanted it as well,
- 41:45Speaker 7: because he was backing and Slowan in what air where
- 41:48Speaker 7: people know him, where people like him, and where people.
- 41:50Speaker 2: Respect him, and then family out there exactly.
- 41:53Speaker 7: And then when you pre select a guy, and Chris
- 41:55Speaker 7: Sibtrees is a lovely bloke and I think one day
- 41:57Speaker 7: you'll make a good politician, but no one in what
- 42:00Speaker 7: had a clue who he was, and.
- 42:02Speaker 2: So they weren't going to vote for him.
- 42:03Speaker 7: So you can sort of claim that there were funny
- 42:05Speaker 7: buggers going on and this, and that the reason the
- 42:07Speaker 7: COLP lost the Daily by election is because they didn't
- 42:11Speaker 7: bring Gary Higgins into the tent and they didn't get
- 42:13Speaker 7: him to help them.
- 42:14Speaker 2: And if they hadn't done that, they would have won.
- 42:17Speaker 4: There you go.
- 42:17Speaker 3: Hey, we're gonna have to take a very short break.
- 42:19Speaker 3: I've still dropped the news, my boss. If you're listening,
- 42:21Speaker 3: I'm happy to make a donation to Camp Quality if
- 42:23Speaker 3: I'm not to. But look, well we have just had
- 42:29Speaker 3: a so we're currently sitting at five hundred and twenty
- 42:32Speaker 3: five dollars from Philip for the pig hunt. We're sitting
- 42:35Speaker 3: at fifty dollars from Matt Cunningham for the go to
- 42:37Speaker 3: Manu and were sitting.
- 42:39Speaker 1: On the lambs and they're cuddling the lambs.
- 42:41Speaker 3: And we've also got four hundred dollars bid for the
- 42:44Speaker 3: loan Pine Medals so far this morning.
- 42:46Speaker 1: Thank you to wov's been for the Lone Pine meek.
- 42:48Speaker 3: So Nick has bid four hundred dollars for the loan
- 42:51Speaker 3: Pine Medals. We're going to take a very short break
- 42:52Speaker 3: because I'm very mindful that you all.
- 42:54Speaker 5: Do studio today held being health stands.
- 43:00Speaker 1: Are going to take a very short break. You are
- 43:02Speaker 1: listening to Mix one oh four point nine.
- 43:03Speaker 3: It is the week that well, you are listening to
- 43:05Speaker 3: Mix one oh four point nine also broadcasting on eight
- 43:08Speaker 3: AJ and Well, before we wrap up this morning, let's
- 43:11Speaker 3: talk briefly about this public service wage freeze.
- 43:14Speaker 1: We do know that it's got.
- 43:16Speaker 3: Plenty of well, plenty of business people, I think, or
- 43:19Speaker 3: you know, lots of no, not so much business people,
- 43:21Speaker 3: but people who are employed in the private sector not
- 43:25Speaker 3: so happy about our public servants really overwhelmingly rejecting a
- 43:30Speaker 3: pay and conditions offer from the Commissioner for Public Employment
- 43:33Speaker 3: that would see their wages frozen for four years. Plenty
- 43:36Speaker 3: of people in the community saying live and had a
- 43:38Speaker 3: pay increase for some time. I've had to take my
- 43:42Speaker 3: job being cut back as a result of COVID and
- 43:44Speaker 3: various other things. But nonetheless this wage freeze, it's going
- 43:48Speaker 3: to only see a one thousand dollars annual bonus. There's
- 43:52Speaker 3: always two sides to an argument. I know that the
- 43:54Speaker 3: union was on earlier in the week and said, you know, Katie,
- 43:56Speaker 3: we're talking about public servants who spend their money out
- 43:59Speaker 3: in the community at those private businesses.
- 44:02Speaker 1: What's everyone on the panel think.
- 44:04Speaker 4: I'd start with this, let's take one step back, let's
- 44:06Speaker 4: talk about it that this this will all come about,
- 44:09Speaker 4: this all came about.
- 44:10Speaker 1: I get to say my piece. I feel this all.
- 44:13Speaker 4: This all came about because the massive overspend of the government,
- 44:17Speaker 4: and this is going to be their one cost saving mesum.
- 44:20Speaker 1: Remember wasted the money in the minister you.
- 44:23Speaker 4: Spend the money the Minister to the unit of ripping
- 44:28Speaker 4: up the budget is.
- 44:31Speaker 7: Two hundred million that were that infrastructure fund you guys
- 44:34Speaker 7: then pulled from the sale to you guys.
- 44:37Speaker 6: Talk about spend it and wasted ten million on a
- 44:40Speaker 6: water boating plant.
- 44:41Speaker 4: This why this was the only cast saving measure that
- 44:45Speaker 4: the government had put in their budget and now look
- 44:48Speaker 4: at it, it's in the bin.
- 44:48Speaker 6: Look why should the public servants or public officials call
- 44:52Speaker 6: them what you want, just normal ordinary territories across the territory.
- 44:56Speaker 6: Why should they have to take a four year wage
- 44:59Speaker 6: freeze or with one thousand dollars bonus at end of
- 45:01Speaker 6: the year, like woohoo? What is the Public Service Commission
- 45:04Speaker 6: monitor sand clause? But I mean a lot of those people,
- 45:09Speaker 6: probably fair chunk of them work very hard and diligently,
- 45:11Speaker 6: So why should they have to take a pay cup
- 45:13Speaker 6: because of the government's failing.
- 45:15Speaker 2: The reason they.
- 45:15Speaker 7: Should is because if you look in the Langolant report itself,
- 45:20Speaker 7: the growth in public sector wages over the past ten,
- 45:24Speaker 7: fifteen to twenty years has far outstripped the growth in
- 45:28Speaker 7: private sector wages, and Langoland even says it's got to
- 45:31Speaker 7: a point where it's making it really difficult for private
- 45:34Speaker 7: businesses to attract staff because the pay and conditions in
- 45:38Speaker 7: the public service are so much more generous. There's nine
- 45:41Speaker 7: hundred and seventy different leave entitlements nine hundred and seventy
- 45:45Speaker 7: three after this new agreement that offers gender reassignment leave,
- 45:50Speaker 7: naydoc week leave, and something else you know that are
- 45:54Speaker 7: available to public servants across the Northern Territory. In the
- 45:57Speaker 7: private sector, their wages have been flatlining for a lot
- 45:59Speaker 7: of time. In the public sector they keep going up,
- 46:02Speaker 7: and now that has just created this inequality that not
- 46:06Speaker 7: only means that public servants are better paid, but it
- 46:08Speaker 7: also makes it really difficult for private businesses to attract workers.
- 46:12Speaker 6: I make the point it's just common on what Matt said,
- 46:14Speaker 6: I take your point about that. I'll call them technical
- 46:17Speaker 6: and professional kind of people. Now, I was talking to
- 46:21Speaker 6: a business or a business person the other day, and
- 46:23Speaker 6: there's very few qualified technical and professional people within DIPPLE,
- 46:28Speaker 6: the infrastructure department, whether they be engineers or surveyors or
- 46:32Speaker 6: people of that kind of discipline. I know within the
- 46:35Speaker 6: Mines department last year there was not a mining engineer.
- 46:38Speaker 6: I don't know if they've recruited one since then, but
- 46:41Speaker 6: we're talking about a mining department that has to address
- 46:44Speaker 6: all the issues across the mining sector. They don't have
- 46:46Speaker 6: a mining engineer. They used to have electrical engineers and
- 46:49Speaker 6: other engineers. So I agree with Matt on that point.
- 46:51Speaker 6: They're not attracting the technical and professional people that we
- 46:54Speaker 6: need within government, and then we can't then blame government
- 46:57Speaker 6: for poor service in regards to technical areas because they're
- 47:00Speaker 6: not competing with the product sector they get that bit
- 47:03Speaker 6: of money in.
- 47:04Speaker 2: We are.
- 47:04Speaker 3: We are going to have to wrap up, Fozy. I'll
- 47:07Speaker 3: let you have one last comment there on that one.
- 47:09Speaker 5: We know what the CPE do, the cut the public service.
- 47:14Speaker 3: We are going to have to wrap up. That is
- 47:17Speaker 3: the week that was. Thank you all so very much
- 47:19Speaker 3: for your time. We are going to keep those those
- 47:22Speaker 3: bids coming in. We know that Nick has been four
- 47:24Speaker 3: hundred dollars for the Lone Pine Medals. The pig Hunt
- 47:27Speaker 3: is sitting with Philip at five hundred and twenty five.
- 47:31Speaker 4: I'm not going.
- 47:32Speaker 1: I'm not going that is. So that's it for us
- 47:35Speaker 1: for the week there was.
- 47:36Speaker 3: But we are going to continue on with the Camp
- 47:38Speaker 3: Quality Radio auction after ten o'clock. You're listening to Mix
- 47:40Speaker 3: one O four point nine three sixty. Thank you all
- 47:43Speaker 3: so very much for your time this morning.