Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was - November 12 2021

Transcript

The Week That Was - November 12 2021 · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: The top ends weather firstly partly cloudy, medium chants of showers.
0:03
Speaker 1: Thirty five is what we're heading for in the city,
0:06
Speaker 1: thirty five in the rural area, and thirty eight degrees
0:09
Speaker 1: today in Catherine. The top ends tied times. We're expecting
0:12
Speaker 1: a high tide of four point nine meters at ten
0:14
Speaker 1: fifty one this morning in Darwin right now, thirty degrees
0:18
Speaker 1: in Darwin, thirty one in the rural area and thirty
0:21
Speaker 1: as well in Catherine. And it is Friday morning. It
0:24
Speaker 1: is time for the week that was. And joining us
0:26
Speaker 1: in the studio this morning, we've got the Opposition leader Leafanocchiaro,
0:30
Speaker 1: Good morning.
0:30
Speaker 2: Good morning, Happy Friday.
0:32
Speaker 1: Always glad when it's Friday. Matt Cunningham from Sky News,
0:35
Speaker 1: good morning to you.
0:35
Speaker 3: Good morning.
0:36
Speaker 1: And we've got Keysier Purick, the member for Goida, the
0:39
Speaker 1: Independence member for Goida. Good morning to you. With a
0:42
Speaker 1: very special mask on there, bather looker fish. I'm clean though,
0:45
Speaker 1: she's all clear to.
0:46
Speaker 4: Be out and about was made in the Rule area.
0:49
Speaker 4: Good morning, Rule people everyone.
0:51
Speaker 1: And Natasha Philes, the Health Minister, Good morning to you.
0:54
Speaker 5: Good morning, Will fee Well.
0:55
Speaker 1: There is so much to cover off on I feel
0:57
Speaker 1: like I say that every single week, but gee, this
0:59
Speaker 1: week is going to be a busy one because we
1:01
Speaker 1: know the countdown to the vaccine mandate is well and
1:05
Speaker 1: truly on, and we've learned well this morning that those
1:09
Speaker 1: territory tourism vouchers as well. They are the latest announcement
1:13
Speaker 1: in terms of the different things that you'll need to
1:16
Speaker 1: be vaccinated to be able to access FARSI. Why was
1:20
Speaker 1: this decision made?
1:21
Speaker 6: So government, across our grants and the incentives we provide,
1:25
Speaker 6: we have made a decision that people need to be
1:27
Speaker 6: vaccinated to receive that government funding. So with the tourism vouchers,
1:30
Speaker 6: everybody received their voucher in the first allocation and we
1:34
Speaker 6: are now turning to that weight list, so people that
1:36
Speaker 6: are on the weight list, they will be.
1:38
Speaker 5: Sent an email saying would you like a voucher?
1:41
Speaker 6: You can be successful if you provide us your vaccination details.
1:44
Speaker 6: Once they provide that, they'll be issued that weightlisted voucher.
1:47
Speaker 5: It'll all be done through the Department of Tourism, so.
1:50
Speaker 6: We're not having an impact on those rtos and the
1:52
Speaker 6: tourism operators. And it's from now so everyone that received
1:56
Speaker 6: the initial voucher that's fine, they've been allocated.
1:59
Speaker 5: It's from the point now.
2:01
Speaker 1: I guess it is just one of many things that
2:03
Speaker 1: we're really going to see sort of some of these
2:05
Speaker 1: changes in this space. As I said, the vaccine mandate
2:08
Speaker 1: obviously kicks in. I believe it's at midnight tonight.
2:11
Speaker 5: Is that correct, correct, Katie? From midnight tonight.
2:13
Speaker 7: Now.
2:13
Speaker 1: I know that there are a lot of businesses who
2:17
Speaker 1: are quite concerned about whether they're going to sort of
2:19
Speaker 1: see all of their employees turn up to work from
2:22
Speaker 1: tomorrow or Monday, depending on what industry you work in.
2:26
Speaker 1: Plenty of people questioning what's going to be the impact
2:29
Speaker 1: for the public service. Also, I had it raised with
2:32
Speaker 1: me yesterday around the likes of power and water and
2:36
Speaker 1: some of the subcontractors obviously that they use in terms
2:39
Speaker 1: of keeping our electricity and our power on. All of
2:42
Speaker 1: this sort of remains to be seen at this point
2:44
Speaker 1: in time in terms of exactly what kind of impact
2:47
Speaker 1: it's going to have or if it is just a
2:49
Speaker 1: whole lot of noise when we know that we've now
2:52
Speaker 1: reached the eighty percent vaccination rate.
2:54
Speaker 2: I definitely don't think it's a whole lot of noise.
2:56
Speaker 8: Katie and really the lockout we've just had was a
2:59
Speaker 8: dry runner what tomorrow brings. And I think what we
3:02
Speaker 8: saw and certainly what we were hearing, is that nurses
3:05
Speaker 8: are being turned away from going to work at Royal
3:07
Speaker 8: dal and hospital, childcare centers absolutely closed because they didn't
3:11
Speaker 8: have a vaccinated workforce. Schools were scaling back and asking
3:16
Speaker 8: parents to keep their kids at home if they could,
3:18
Speaker 8: and police were being sent home. And so for the
3:21
Speaker 8: government not to have a clear picture on how this
3:23
Speaker 8: is going to impact, particularly frontline and emergency services, is
3:28
Speaker 8: reckless and irresponsible. They asked public servants to provide them
3:32
Speaker 8: advice on the fifth of November about whether or not
3:34
Speaker 8: they would be vaccinated, and for the government not to
3:37
Speaker 8: know those numbers today is appalling. They need to have
3:41
Speaker 8: a plan for what's going to happen. If we're going
3:43
Speaker 8: to have to scale back police response, hospital care response,
3:47
Speaker 8: school responses, how are they going to fill that void
3:50
Speaker 8: of stuff? And equally, the private sector own as just
3:54
Speaker 8: as much pain. Ultimately, particularly in the construction sector, we
3:59
Speaker 8: might very well see project delays, you know, people not
4:02
Speaker 8: being able to hire trades in a timely fashion because
4:05
Speaker 8: they're scarce on the ground and of course, the impact
4:08
Speaker 8: of that could be that prices go up, so ultimately
4:10
Speaker 8: territorians will.
4:11
Speaker 7: Pay Katie, I'm not sure I believe the figure from
4:15
Speaker 7: the Northern Churchy government that eighty percent of the population
4:17
Speaker 7: is vaccinated, given that the komwalf government's data says that
4:21
Speaker 7: it's under seventy percent, just under sixty nine percent. It's
4:25
Speaker 7: well known and probably well documented that in the numbers
4:28
Speaker 7: counted in the Northern Territory during the dry season there
4:30
Speaker 7: was a whole swag of tourism travelers. We know that
4:33
Speaker 7: there was about six of them at my place. They
4:35
Speaker 7: got vaccinated while they were here, you know, so you're
4:38
Speaker 7: always yeah, no, there are people come up for a holiday,
4:42
Speaker 7: my mates, and then.
4:43
Speaker 4: They won't go away. So but humidity.
4:50
Speaker 7: But you know, it's I struggled to believe lots of
4:52
Speaker 7: things that come out of Michael Gunner's mouth, and the
4:54
Speaker 7: fact that he's claiming we're eighty percent vaccinated is one
4:57
Speaker 7: that I just don't believe.
4:58
Speaker 4: I mean, I wish it was that, I which it
5:00
Speaker 4: was ninety percent.
5:01
Speaker 7: But we know that they're struggling, the government struggling in
5:04
Speaker 7: some of the remote communities getting the vaccination levels up,
5:06
Speaker 7: you know, and mister Gunner says, oh, yes, it's all
5:08
Speaker 7: about protecting the vulnerable. Well, half the vulnerable people are
5:11
Speaker 7: going to be people who've been kicked out of their
5:13
Speaker 7: job for no fold their own really, and they'll end
5:17
Speaker 7: up on the street if they haven't got the money
5:18
Speaker 7: to pay their bills and they rent and things of
5:19
Speaker 7: that nature. So my question to missus Gunner is what
5:23
Speaker 7: is he actually doing to help the people in those
5:25
Speaker 7: remote Aboriginal communities. I mean, it's all very well to
5:27
Speaker 7: talk to talk, and I know, you know, people say
5:30
Speaker 7: the health people and the clinicians are working very hard,
5:32
Speaker 7: and I know they are, and I'm sure they are,
5:34
Speaker 7: But what's he actually doing other than just talking, you know,
5:37
Speaker 7: like give us some real figures. And as that Lea
5:39
Speaker 7: has said, I too know lots of people who for
5:42
Speaker 7: whatever reason, and they're not anti vaxxers, they just choose
5:45
Speaker 7: not to get vaccinated for this particular virus at a
5:49
Speaker 7: lot of single fellows.
5:50
Speaker 4: So who are tradees?
5:51
Speaker 7: And that's really going to dent into our construction industry
5:54
Speaker 7: And it's already having an impact in some businesses because
5:57
Speaker 7: I know one firm, the whole firm, which is a
5:59
Speaker 7: roofing firm, do not want the people don't want to
6:02
Speaker 7: be vaccinated, so they can get pulled off jobs. Okay,
6:05
Speaker 7: an opportunity for another business to pick up that contract
6:07
Speaker 7: work if they can, if they're qualified, if they're credited.
6:11
Speaker 7: But the other ramification this is going to have is
6:13
Speaker 7: delivery of services, particularly remote housing in Amerging communities in
6:16
Speaker 7: the bush, because it'll go through the whole government contract
6:19
Speaker 7: process that they have to demonstrate that all the staff
6:22
Speaker 7: are vaccinated of the main head contractor then all the
6:25
Speaker 7: subcontractors that you have to be vaccinated, etc.
6:28
Speaker 4: More work for the business people.
6:29
Speaker 7: And what annoys mean annoys a lot of people is
6:32
Speaker 7: Michael Gunner has made business and industry again the gatekeeper
6:35
Speaker 7: for his failed policies.
6:36
Speaker 4: And I just think that's wrong.
6:38
Speaker 3: Do you reckon those young people who you're talking about
6:40
Speaker 3: who are not getting vaccinated, Do you reckon they're like
6:42
Speaker 3: stridently anti vaccination or they just disengaged and.
6:46
Speaker 7: They're disengaged, and they're also don't like being told what
6:49
Speaker 7: to do by Michael Gunner. You have to have this
6:51
Speaker 7: vaccination others otherwise you're going to be out of a job. Now,
6:54
Speaker 7: that is wrong, He says, he's going to look after
6:56
Speaker 7: the vulnerable. I just say, bullshit. Half the people who
6:58
Speaker 7: lose their job will end up being vulnerable people. Is
7:01
Speaker 7: he going to look after them too? And it's all
7:03
Speaker 7: very well saying on some media outlet I saw it
7:05
Speaker 7: said that, oh you've had.
7:06
Speaker 4: Plenty of warning. Well that might be all very well,
7:08
Speaker 4: plenty of warning you're going to lose your job.
7:10
Speaker 1: I mean the difficulty is, as well, come tomorrow morning,
7:13
Speaker 1: is who's actually going to be policing this in some
7:16
Speaker 1: of those different businesses. So let's say, you know, we've
7:20
Speaker 1: got a home being built, the concrete st to be
7:23
Speaker 1: poured tomorrow. You've got a few people who turn up
7:25
Speaker 1: who are obviously vaccinated. I'm trying to think of a
7:28
Speaker 1: scenario here, but you know, the business owner or the
7:31
Speaker 1: person who's managing the job goes, oh, hang on a second,
7:34
Speaker 1: a few of you are vaccinated. This person I'm not
7:36
Speaker 1: one hundred percent sure whether he is. He shouldn't have
7:38
Speaker 1: turned up to work. What happens is that boss then
7:41
Speaker 1: the one who needs to call the who do they
7:43
Speaker 1: call or what happens?
7:45
Speaker 6: So, Katie, we've always had an educative approach, so it
7:47
Speaker 6: is it's the responsibility of every territory and if they
7:50
Speaker 6: fall under those chow directions to be vaccinated, and tomorrow
7:53
Speaker 6: is the first dose, and we have seen a significant
7:55
Speaker 6: increase in the people coming forward to be vaccinated, and
7:58
Speaker 6: so it is the responsible of everyone to ensure they
8:01
Speaker 6: could comply with the show directions. But of course we'll
8:03
Speaker 6: have an educative approach as this rolls out. So if
8:06
Speaker 6: somebody lies to their employer and the employer genuinely thought
8:10
Speaker 6: that person had received a dose of the vaccine, of
8:12
Speaker 6: course we'll take that into account.
8:13
Speaker 5: But if people are blatantly and we've seen this.
8:16
Speaker 6: With some of the mask mandates that we had in
8:18
Speaker 6: some of the lockdowns, where if people forgot or they
8:20
Speaker 6: were unsure if the rules. Police were great, they were
8:22
Speaker 6: handing out masks, they were encouraging people to understand the
8:25
Speaker 6: rules and comply with them. But it's when people blatantly
8:27
Speaker 6: want to step around the rules that they will come
8:29
Speaker 6: in with that enforcement.
8:31
Speaker 2: But who's going to be enforcing it? Are you going?
8:33
Speaker 8: I mean, we potentially have a situation where there will
8:35
Speaker 8: be police who from midnight tonight refuse to get vaccinated.
8:39
Speaker 8: That's just a reality of life. And so we already
8:42
Speaker 8: have a very thin and stretched police force who have
8:45
Speaker 8: more pressure than ever before. They've now been given another
8:48
Speaker 8: job by government, and that is to enforce the vaccine
8:50
Speaker 8: mandate to go around and find everyone five thousand dollars
8:53
Speaker 8: a day and twenty five thousand dollars a day if
8:56
Speaker 8: you're a business. So what plan has the government put
8:59
Speaker 8: in place, particularly for police who need to be out
9:01
Speaker 8: on our frontline fighting crime to number one, fill those
9:06
Speaker 8: gaps of staff who won't rock up on Saturday. And
9:09
Speaker 8: then also how are police going to be able to
9:11
Speaker 8: manage this.
9:14
Speaker 6: Enforcement of the mandate. Our police throughout the pandemic have responded.
9:19
Speaker 6: They have supported to keep territory and safe. Let's remember
9:21
Speaker 6: what this mandatory vaccine is about. It's about stopping the
9:24
Speaker 6: virus from coming into our community and spreading significantly. With
9:28
Speaker 6: an n vaccinated population, that will cause more impact on
9:30
Speaker 6: vulnerable people in remote communities that will shut down business
9:33
Speaker 6: and lock out businesses.
9:34
Speaker 5: Look at the other jurisdictions.
9:36
Speaker 6: So we know that people you know don't like governments
9:40
Speaker 6: telling them what to do, but it is much better
9:41
Speaker 6: to be vaccinated to protect yourself in your community and
9:44
Speaker 6: see this virus come in and spread rapidly.
9:46
Speaker 8: Sure, what's going to happen with police, like what is
9:49
Speaker 8: the plan to backfill those police who will walk away tonight?
9:53
Speaker 2: And then the.
9:55
Speaker 8: Additional resource of having police go around telling staff, look, mate,
9:59
Speaker 8: you go go home, sorry about this datata and also
10:02
Speaker 8: then handing out fines like how on earth is our
10:05
Speaker 8: police force going to absorb the loss and the extra workload.
10:09
Speaker 6: So this mandate, as we know some weeks ago, was
10:12
Speaker 6: outlined what the expectation was tomorrow is that first STOs
10:16
Speaker 6: does need to be and so as I said, it
10:18
Speaker 6: will be an educative approach in terms of the public
10:20
Speaker 6: service and those frontline roles that are essential. We have
10:24
Speaker 6: had managers working through with individuals. So many individuals just
10:28
Speaker 6: had to provide their vaccination certificate and we've seen a
10:31
Speaker 6: significant increase in that. But there are some people we
10:34
Speaker 6: acknowledge that won't comply with this, and so managers are
10:37
Speaker 6: caseworking those people individually to support them through this place.
10:40
Speaker 1: We have any idea how many public servants are not
10:44
Speaker 1: going to be working on Monday.
10:45
Speaker 6: So my understanding is that the rate is over ninety
10:48
Speaker 6: percent of people and that's a couple of days old
10:51
Speaker 6: have provided their vaccination status.
10:53
Speaker 5: There'll be some people, for.
10:54
Speaker 6: Example, that are on leave that don't need to do
10:56
Speaker 6: that until they intend to return to the workplace. I
10:59
Speaker 6: know the healthy for example, we acknowledge there's some people
11:02
Speaker 6: in the health system that don't want to be vaccinated.
11:04
Speaker 6: But they're not hundreds of people, Katie, They're in their tens.
11:07
Speaker 1: And so what happens with those people though, because I
11:09
Speaker 1: know that the Chief Minister had said that he would
11:11
Speaker 1: try that there'd be an attempt to try and find
11:14
Speaker 1: them another role. However, are they still being paid?
11:18
Speaker 6: So, Katie, they've been caseworks so exactly that what is
11:21
Speaker 6: their role, what it is their skill set?
11:23
Speaker 5: Working through that understanding.
11:24
Speaker 6: But no, if someone does not comply and blatantly does
11:27
Speaker 6: not want to comply, they won't be paid. They may
11:30
Speaker 6: have leave entitlements that they can take, and they may
11:34
Speaker 6: choose to take those for some weeks before they come
11:37
Speaker 6: to a final resolution. But we're not talking hundreds of people.
11:40
Speaker 6: We are talking tens. But we are also talking about
11:43
Speaker 6: protecting our community from this virus. And I don't think
11:45
Speaker 6: it's unreasonable in a front role to be vaccinated.
11:48
Speaker 3: If it's ninety percent, well, ten percent would be two
11:51
Speaker 3: thousand plus public s.
11:53
Speaker 6: So it's over ninety percent, is my understanding, and that's
11:56
Speaker 6: a couple of days old that figure. They also have
11:58
Speaker 6: said that there'll be people in there that might on leave,
12:00
Speaker 6: you know, for example, that haven't provided it. So I'm saying, yes,
12:03
Speaker 6: there is people, but we don't believe it's hundreds and
12:05
Speaker 6: thousands like it.
12:06
Speaker 2: But you're guessing.
12:07
Speaker 8: I mean, we finally got our briefing with government and
12:10
Speaker 8: the Commissioner for Public Employment I think that was two
12:13
Speaker 8: days ago now, and we were provided absolutely no information.
12:16
Speaker 8: They could not and an OCP said they did not
12:19
Speaker 8: have the data on how many people had given notification
12:23
Speaker 8: by that deadline of five November. They thought that it
12:27
Speaker 8: was the numbers would be very low of public servants
12:30
Speaker 8: who are not getting vacks, but they had no data
12:32
Speaker 8: to support that, so I don't know how that claim
12:34
Speaker 8: was possible. We were told that government have had to
12:36
Speaker 8: triple the human resource people involved in implementing the mandate,
12:40
Speaker 8: which again is unfair on the private sector.
12:43
Speaker 2: You know, your mom and dad.
12:44
Speaker 8: Business can't just all of a sudden triplicate their HR
12:48
Speaker 8: resource and capability, which is why we've been calling so
12:51
Speaker 8: strongly on government to provide that support to the private sector,
12:55
Speaker 8: and government themselves are going through this process. They have
12:58
Speaker 8: all of the resources, the legal resources, the HR resources,
13:01
Speaker 8: and yet nothing has been provided a small business.
13:03
Speaker 2: So the fact that the government have tripled the HR.
13:06
Speaker 8: Support and left the private sector to hang out to
13:09
Speaker 8: dry is a disgrace. They don't know the numbers, Katie.
13:12
Speaker 8: They are just having a stab in the dark.
13:14
Speaker 1: One question that we do continuously get us throughout the week,
13:17
Speaker 1: and this is one which I will put to you alway,
13:19
Speaker 1: is hi, all, how can someone how can you please
13:23
Speaker 1: ask someone how you can get the sack for not
13:25
Speaker 1: being vaccinated but turn around and be a customer in
13:29
Speaker 1: that former place of work, still unvaccinated, all in an
13:33
Speaker 1: effort to protect the vulnerable.
13:34
Speaker 6: But Katie, when the virus comes into our community and
13:36
Speaker 6: we have a lockout situation, someone that he is vaccinated
13:39
Speaker 6: is able to perhaps have to wear a mask if
13:42
Speaker 6: that's a public health measure, but they can go about
13:44
Speaker 6: their life, whereas people that are unvaccinated will be kept
13:46
Speaker 6: to only those essentials of getting groceries and medical treatment.
13:49
Speaker 1: These are some of the other kinds of questions we're getting.
13:51
Speaker 1: We've just had a call come through on the phone.
13:53
Speaker 1: He's a contractor. If he tells a client that he's
13:57
Speaker 1: unvaccinated and they sign a waiver to let him work
13:59
Speaker 1: on their property, would that be allowed.
14:01
Speaker 5: No, So it's a Chow direction.
14:03
Speaker 6: You must be vaccinated if you fall into those three
14:06
Speaker 6: categories that have been listed on the website.
14:08
Speaker 8: I think the fact that that person has asked a
14:10
Speaker 8: question just highlights the level of confusion out there. Of course,
14:13
Speaker 8: the Chow directions, you know, really are a guideline. They
14:18
Speaker 8: don't provide explicit detail on how this needs to work,
14:21
Speaker 8: so people are being left to interpret it differently, and
14:25
Speaker 8: I think even within the public service they're interpreting it differently.
14:28
Speaker 8: I mean, we were told that CEOs are all doing
14:31
Speaker 8: it their own way, so equally each business out there,
14:35
Speaker 8: and there are thousands of territory businesses are trying to
14:38
Speaker 8: make sense of it. And again, if the government wanted
14:40
Speaker 8: a successful mandated VAX's position, they should have provided the
14:44
Speaker 8: support so that this could actually happen. So, I mean,
14:47
Speaker 8: you talk about taking an educative approach from Saturday, and
14:50
Speaker 8: you refuse to answer questions about what police are going
14:52
Speaker 8: to do Natasha, but you know, are we going to
14:54
Speaker 8: see people getting fined on Saturday.
14:58
Speaker 6: So, Katie, if people are blatantly not biting by the
15:00
Speaker 6: chow directions, and we need to remember that these chow
15:02
Speaker 6: directions have been rigorously prepared, they have been through some
15:06
Speaker 6: of the top legal minds around how they can be implemented.
15:09
Speaker 6: But if people are blatantly refusing to behave then of
15:12
Speaker 6: course there will be fines issued. But if people inadvertently
15:15
Speaker 6: don't understand that, then we will use that educative approach.
15:18
Speaker 8: And if a business has an employee who comes and
15:21
Speaker 8: refuses to leave, the employer has to bring police.
15:26
Speaker 6: So if someone is blatantly abusing the chow direction, then
15:30
Speaker 6: public health and police will issue those fines.
15:33
Speaker 1: Well, look, one of the other areas that there's been
15:35
Speaker 1: quite a bit of confusion, and I think it really
15:37
Speaker 1: sort of reached a point of fever pitch earlier in
15:40
Speaker 1: the week when the Chief Minister looked as though he
15:42
Speaker 1: was almost about to well to become very upset, burst
15:48
Speaker 1: a puff of our well, yeah, over the vaccine, over
15:51
Speaker 1: that vaccine data when it comes. I'm not sure it's
15:58
Speaker 1: a Rurlaria type vain. What I was keeping I was
16:03
Speaker 1: keeping Michael, everyone.
16:09
Speaker 4: The whole vowels.
16:11
Speaker 1: I think you mean just blow a valve over those
16:14
Speaker 1: vaccine numbers, particularly when it came to the transparency. I
16:18
Speaker 1: think it's say around the community data. I in some
16:22
Speaker 1: of our indigenous communities, and we know that Anty Health
16:26
Speaker 1: has released those vaccinations with the data for those more
16:29
Speaker 1: remote communities under the control of those archos, So so
16:34
Speaker 1: that information has sort of started to come through, but
16:37
Speaker 1: not entirely. No, not if you go on the website,
16:40
Speaker 1: So if it's under seventy percent, you actually still cannot see.
16:45
Speaker 3: Okay.
16:46
Speaker 4: This goes to the heart of the problem again.
16:49
Speaker 7: Of the poor leadership by Michael Gunner. I mean the
16:53
Speaker 7: fact that he was berating I think John Patterson and
16:56
Speaker 7: his team am SAM and perhaps other organizations. I don't
16:59
Speaker 7: know which ones, Sunrise Healthful, whichever one, because you know
17:02
Speaker 7: they're not forwarding the data and they're not doing this
17:04
Speaker 7: and not doing that. And I've seen this repeatedly over
17:08
Speaker 7: the last probably twelve fourteen months. The Chief Minutes is
17:11
Speaker 7: always prone to blaming someone else for he has a
17:14
Speaker 7: big bus for lack of his qualities and leadership. Now,
17:19
Speaker 7: I mean, we all know John Patterson, hard working fellow,
17:22
Speaker 7: and he's been with that organization a long time, and
17:25
Speaker 7: well he does go for the wrong footy team, that's
17:26
Speaker 7: all right. But so if he's saying the numbers are
17:30
Speaker 7: what they are, then I believe him. It's fine for
17:33
Speaker 7: the Chief Minister to burst his buff valve, but he
17:35
Speaker 7: really has to look at himself.
17:38
Speaker 5: Transparency.
17:39
Speaker 3: I do think though, because I've tried to get this
17:41
Speaker 3: data as well, that data has not been forthcoming, and
17:44
Speaker 3: I think it's terrible that that data has not been available.
17:46
Speaker 3: They have the data that the data should be made available.
17:49
Speaker 3: We've got the data for all the anti.
17:52
Speaker 4: Getting it to the combos.
17:53
Speaker 3: We've got it. It's the Northern Territory government that doesn't
17:57
Speaker 3: have the data. I mean, surely the Northern Territory government
18:00
Speaker 3: should have the data for every remote community and they
18:02
Speaker 3: should know exactly what the vaccination.
18:04
Speaker 1: Correctly that it is then being passed on to the
18:07
Speaker 1: Northern Territory government, but only under the proviso that it
18:11
Speaker 1: is confidential or what's the situation here.
18:14
Speaker 6: So we've been working with the Aboriginal medical organizations so
18:17
Speaker 6: that they can understand why we need this data and
18:19
Speaker 6: we need it publicly available. We have been receiving some data,
18:22
Speaker 6: perhaps at a clinical regional level. We've been receiving some anecdotally,
18:26
Speaker 6: but we have reached agreement from the Aboriginal medical organizations
18:30
Speaker 6: this week that they will provide that data. As of
18:32
Speaker 6: late last night, it still hadn't formally been provided to
18:35
Speaker 6: anti health to provide that update on the information on
18:39
Speaker 6: the web pages so people can see it.
18:41
Speaker 5: But we'll keep working with the Aboriginal medical organizations.
18:44
Speaker 6: And I think territories should be reassured that some of
18:46
Speaker 6: the remote communities have started to increase. There's been some
18:49
Speaker 6: moderate as well as significant increases. There's certainly some communities
18:52
Speaker 6: where it distresses me that it is far too low
18:54
Speaker 6: the rate of vaccination in those communities. But for example,
18:57
Speaker 6: what I is one community that's really come along in
18:59
Speaker 6: the last few weeks. So we'll keep working with the
19:02
Speaker 6: art shows to get this information to provide the vaccine
19:05
Speaker 6: to the most vulnerable.
19:07
Speaker 3: There was one thing that kind of got missed this
19:10
Speaker 3: week because it was sort of tacked onto a press
19:13
Speaker 3: conference that happened late on I think Tuesday afternoon, in
19:17
Speaker 3: relation to how they're going to deal with outbreaks and
19:20
Speaker 3: remote communities, And basically the achievement is saying, well, our
19:23
Speaker 3: plan is for us to get a case in a
19:25
Speaker 3: community and then we're going to swarm into that community
19:28
Speaker 3: and vaccinate everyone. Now, that doesn't seem like a very
19:30
Speaker 3: logical plan to make, and I wonder whether we're not
19:34
Speaker 3: doing enough to make sure that these people are vaccinated.
19:38
Speaker 3: I mean, today we've come out and we've got the
19:41
Speaker 3: we and today we've come out and we've said, well,
19:44
Speaker 3: you can't get your tourism voucher unless you double vaxed.
19:47
Speaker 3: I think, and Alex Bruce raised this weeks and weeks ago,
19:51
Speaker 3: but the government apparently is not considering it. But you know,
19:54
Speaker 3: we get so much free money from the government. We
19:55
Speaker 3: get school back to school vouchers and sports vouchers and
19:59
Speaker 3: all of these things. I think you could solve this
20:01
Speaker 3: problem pretty quickly by saying, well, if you if you
20:04
Speaker 3: want your back to school voucher or your sport voucher,
20:07
Speaker 3: or any of the other free money you might get
20:08
Speaker 3: from the government, you need to be double vaccinated.
20:11
Speaker 1: I asked the Chiefiness about that on Monday on the show,
20:13
Speaker 1: and he said that they would not be looking to
20:15
Speaker 1: do anything like that. But that's a lot of like
20:17
Speaker 1: that is we get a lot of that on the
20:18
Speaker 1: phone lines, people going, We'll hang on a second if
20:21
Speaker 1: you have to. Obviously, if there's some of us who
20:23
Speaker 1: are choosing not to get vaccinated, we're going to lose
20:25
Speaker 1: our jobs. Well, why shouldn't there be further punishment for
20:28
Speaker 1: everybody who's choosing to not be not be vaccinated?
20:31
Speaker 4: Where's the consistency?
20:32
Speaker 7: If you want to get a tourism voucher, you've got
20:34
Speaker 7: to demonstrate that you've been fully vaccinated.
20:36
Speaker 1: But and for a school voucher, back to school voucher
20:40
Speaker 1: or something.
20:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, vouchers, that's I don't worry about it.
20:43
Speaker 7: So come on, where's your consistency coming from? God, it's
20:46
Speaker 7: going to have to be mixed messages.
20:48
Speaker 4: I mean it's got to be.
20:49
Speaker 1: We are going to have to, unfortunately, take a very
20:51
Speaker 1: short break. You are listening to mix one. Oh four
20:53
Speaker 1: point nine is three sixty. It is the week that was, Well,
20:57
Speaker 1: it is the week that was. And in the studio
20:59
Speaker 1: with us this morning, Lea for Matt Cunningham, Kesey Epiric
21:02
Speaker 1: and Natasha Files. Now, obviously, we learned on Thursday night
21:07
Speaker 1: last week that we'd be going into our first ever
21:10
Speaker 1: lockout slash lockdown. For those who weren't vaccinated and that lockout, well,
21:16
Speaker 1: I guess you'd say people became quite angry as the
21:19
Speaker 1: week progressed and we learned that it was a twenty
21:21
Speaker 1: one year old woman who'd come to the Northern Territory
21:24
Speaker 1: from cans as the latest source of those cases in
21:28
Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. Now she was case three, which was
21:31
Speaker 1: reported over the weekend, of course, and had actually spent
21:34
Speaker 1: time in Melbourne, putting Darwin into that lockout and forcing
21:38
Speaker 1: Catherine into a lockdown. We spoke to case number four
21:41
Speaker 1: on the show a little bit earlier in the week.
21:43
Speaker 1: So he's a gentleman who lived in the house with
21:46
Speaker 1: the young fella from Cathra, and he'd actually spoken to
21:50
Speaker 1: us about the impact he actually has he's double vaccinated,
21:54
Speaker 1: but the impact on his health in terms of having
21:56
Speaker 1: COVID had said that he'd been quite unwell, but also
22:00
Speaker 1: spoke about the impact on his business in the sense
22:02
Speaker 1: that it had sent his whole business no one was
22:05
Speaker 1: able to go to work, all of it. I believe
22:07
Speaker 1: it was an earth moving equipment or earth moving business.
22:11
Speaker 1: He was not able to obviously operate that business. So
22:14
Speaker 1: the impact then on business is huge.
22:19
Speaker 7: Well, Katie from the the woman who didn't tell the
22:23
Speaker 7: truth when she came into the Northern Territory and we
22:26
Speaker 7: visited the Nunama Pub and also the Hump to Do
22:28
Speaker 7: public Welblne Cup day and there were lots of business
22:31
Speaker 7: kind of people there because I know them, and there
22:34
Speaker 7: was a contractor all the brand that excuses people. He
22:38
Speaker 7: had some people there. The Jenny's Fish and Chip Shop
22:40
Speaker 7: from Hump to Do, they had some people there.
22:42
Speaker 4: And because of.
22:43
Speaker 7: The woman going there and the fact that that was
22:44
Speaker 7: then considered close, they had to shut their fish and
22:46
Speaker 7: chip shop for a couple of days. But they're open
22:48
Speaker 7: now for of course it's all cleared. But there were
22:50
Speaker 7: other small business, rural people there and the impact just
22:54
Speaker 7: had that trickle trickle effit.
22:56
Speaker 6: You know.
22:56
Speaker 7: It's fine for you know, someone like me and the
22:58
Speaker 7: friends I was with there because you know, we're in
23:00
Speaker 7: different kind of jobs, not business as such, but had
23:02
Speaker 7: a huge impact even a couple of days in a
23:04
Speaker 7: small business like a fish and chip shop, which is
23:06
Speaker 7: just cash flow, cash flow, cash flow. I think they
23:09
Speaker 7: employ about four people that fish and chip shop, and
23:12
Speaker 7: it was just devastating for some people and also for
23:14
Speaker 7: you know, I know you interviewed Tony Innis as the pub,
23:17
Speaker 7: the Nunama Pub, and just the impact upon him and
23:20
Speaker 7: the fact that you know, the Chief Minister again didn't
23:23
Speaker 7: tell the truth in regards to the numbers at that establishment.
23:25
Speaker 7: But you know, and he fessed up and said, yes,
23:27
Speaker 7: you know he could call diligence.
23:29
Speaker 1: He did.
23:29
Speaker 7: He did it, and that's the kind of guy is.
23:31
Speaker 7: But the fact is he stated that he was short
23:33
Speaker 7: stuff because of the virus and because it also sorts
23:35
Speaker 7: of problems like I.
23:37
Speaker 1: Understand that obviously businesses need to be vigilant in terms
23:40
Speaker 1: of making sure that people are checking in, but at
23:41
Speaker 1: what point do we also take our own checking out.
23:46
Speaker 8: Don't be lucky lumber everything on business, which is what
23:49
Speaker 8: government does it and they were doing that before COVID.
23:52
Speaker 8: Lumbering all sorts of things on business businesses by.
23:55
Speaker 4: The chief ministers. It's just outrageous.
23:57
Speaker 1: But the thing that struck me is that, you know,
24:01
Speaker 1: there was that naming obviously of the Nuna Mar tavern
24:04
Speaker 1: in that press conference. Now I'm not saying there should
24:06
Speaker 1: be a pile on on this twenty one year old
24:08
Speaker 1: woman in terms of you know, I'm naming and shaming her,
24:11
Speaker 1: but shouldn't like, if we're going to be cross about anything,
24:14
Speaker 1: it's the fact that someone's crossed the border into the
24:16
Speaker 1: Northern Territory when they shouldn't have and put us into
24:19
Speaker 1: this situation. Now, I suppose I would be asking the question,
24:22
Speaker 1: do we need to make those punishments or the fines
24:25
Speaker 1: for people who do that more?
24:27
Speaker 7: I don't know, Katie, I do and I'll be writing
24:30
Speaker 7: to the Attorney General in that regard.
24:32
Speaker 1: I think.
24:34
Speaker 7: We have given the pandemic we're in, given the impact
24:37
Speaker 7: it will have into the Northern Territory if it gets
24:38
Speaker 7: into our communities in the bush areas, and when someone
24:42
Speaker 7: deliberately comes in and lies on their entry forams, for
24:45
Speaker 7: whatever reason, then they should suffer the consequences. Life is
24:49
Speaker 7: all about consequences. You make your choice in life and
24:51
Speaker 7: you live with the consequence.
24:53
Speaker 2: Unless you're a youth offender.
24:54
Speaker 4: Unless you're youth offender. And they just go out the
24:56
Speaker 4: room door.
24:57
Speaker 7: So she might be remorseful and she's apology as I
25:00
Speaker 7: understand all that sort of stuff, after the fact, after
25:04
Speaker 7: the fact, and the fact that she got caught. Everyone's
25:06
Speaker 7: remorseful when they've been caught doing something wrong, and good
25:11
Speaker 7: on her that she's apologized and all that sort of stuff,
25:14
Speaker 7: But she's cost a lot of money and a lot
25:16
Speaker 7: of heartache to a lot of people. So I do
25:19
Speaker 7: think the penalty should be harsh. Okay, five thousand dollars.
25:21
Speaker 4: Whoo, there's about what is it, two.
25:23
Speaker 7: Point six minute that hasn't been paid from people who's
25:25
Speaker 7: down to Howard Springs. So what's to say she doesn't
25:27
Speaker 7: live here, she'll just get the fine, cop it on
25:30
Speaker 7: the chin, nikoff back over the boarder and not paid.
25:32
Speaker 3: Well, I go the other way, and I think we
25:35
Speaker 3: need to very quickly get to the point where we
25:37
Speaker 3: don't have the entry forms and we don't have the
25:38
Speaker 3: fines at all because the system. You can already see
25:41
Speaker 3: how the system's going to break down, right, and how
25:43
Speaker 3: we can't keep our borders closed. So this woman went
25:48
Speaker 3: from Melbourne where she spent four days. She can go
25:51
Speaker 3: from Melbourne to South Australia, which she did. She can
25:54
Speaker 3: go she can fly from Adelaide to Cans which she did,
25:56
Speaker 3: and then she can fly from Cans to Darwin. And
25:59
Speaker 3: the only thing that is stopping her from coming in
26:03
Speaker 3: to Darwin from Canns is her honesty. Whether she without
26:08
Speaker 3: going into quarantine is whether she tells the truth on
26:10
Speaker 3: her border entry.
26:10
Speaker 1: For I recommend it's time that we just go.
26:14
Speaker 3: The rest of the world. Look at what the rest
26:16
Speaker 3: of the world is doing. You know, they don't when
26:18
Speaker 3: you travel from New York to Los Angeles, you don't
26:21
Speaker 3: have to fill out a border entry form and go
26:24
Speaker 3: into quarantine. You know, America's learned to live with the virus,
26:28
Speaker 3: the UK has learned to live with the virus. The
26:29
Speaker 3: rest of the world is living with the virus. Australia
26:32
Speaker 3: is about to start learning to live with the virus.
26:34
Speaker 3: From the sevenenth of December. Queensland is opening up, New
26:37
Speaker 3: South Wales has opened up, Victoria has opened up. So
26:40
Speaker 3: Western Australia is the one outlier right and they can
26:43
Speaker 3: hang out there on there on their own if they like.
26:45
Speaker 3: They contribute, you know, their net.
26:47
Speaker 8: Contributor to the for an opportunity.
26:53
Speaker 3: But we can't and we can't have this situation. And
26:55
Speaker 3: this case just shows that the system is not going
26:57
Speaker 3: to work right if people want to come here going
27:00
Speaker 3: to be able to and you know, of course people
27:02
Speaker 3: are going to break steps on them.
27:06
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I get what you're saying, and I think
27:08
Speaker 1: it does also go back to obviously we've got our
27:10
Speaker 1: roadmap forwards in terms of we've reached our eighty percent
27:14
Speaker 1: vaccination right now, first is it first disol or both
27:18
Speaker 1: fully vaccinated eighty percent eighty percent? So realistically, you know,
27:21
Speaker 1: we're still hanging here waiting to find out. You know,
27:24
Speaker 1: I know we've been told that we're going through that
27:26
Speaker 1: home quarantining trial at the moment, and then we're going
27:29
Speaker 1: to home quarantine and then we're going to the no quarantine.
27:32
Speaker 1: But you've got to have seven tests. But you do
27:35
Speaker 1: wonder at what point are we going to sort of
27:37
Speaker 1: go like the rest of Australia and just open up.
27:39
Speaker 3: And I think we absolutely have to do that. I mean,
27:42
Speaker 3: and Leah will be able to attest that. It's pretty
27:45
Speaker 3: politically fraught for a politician to come out and say that,
27:48
Speaker 3: because if Lea says it, now, yeah, the government's like she.
27:50
Speaker 8: Open the border, she wants it all die from Corona.
27:55
Speaker 3: It is what makes it difficult, but that's what it's
27:57
Speaker 3: actually what has to happen, and it'll get to the
27:59
Speaker 3: point where we actually can't stop it from happening. And
28:02
Speaker 3: that's why, you know, if you want to protect yourself
28:05
Speaker 3: from the virus.
28:06
Speaker 1: You need to go out and.
28:06
Speaker 5: Get vaccinated well.
28:07
Speaker 2: And we also need a plan.
28:09
Speaker 8: I think people deserve to know what the plan is.
28:11
Speaker 8: And what's happened is we have such great uncertainty at
28:14
Speaker 8: the moment. People are so confused whether it's mandatory vax,
28:17
Speaker 8: whether it's what percentage we're at because the Commals data
28:20
Speaker 8: is ten percent different to our data, whether it's around
28:24
Speaker 8: the quarantine trial or what happens on the eighteenth of
28:27
Speaker 8: January with apparently no quarantine. People are so confused they
28:31
Speaker 8: cannot see a pathway. People don't even know whether they
28:33
Speaker 8: should book family events for Christmas, like it's just an
28:37
Speaker 8: absolute smith.
28:39
Speaker 1: Is it the twenty third of November that we move
28:41
Speaker 1: to the traffic light system, Yes, Katie, and the twenty
28:44
Speaker 1: thirds of the home quarantine.
28:45
Speaker 6: We're hoping to take everyone that's got that suitable place
28:48
Speaker 6: of residence to home quarantine, and then as we go
28:50
Speaker 6: through the replication cycles, it'll go from two weeks quarantine
28:53
Speaker 6: to seven days quarantine and then with that testing regime.
28:56
Speaker 6: So we're hoping that by mid January, I've got the
28:59
Speaker 6: dates in me that will be on a testing regime,
29:01
Speaker 6: and we need to have some public health measures, but
29:04
Speaker 6: it is designed to allow that travel and freedom.
29:06
Speaker 1: So how's that home quarantining trial been going, because presumably
29:10
Speaker 1: it is all about testing the testing system.
29:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, so Katie, it's been going well.
29:14
Speaker 6: I haven't received an update in the last couple of days,
29:17
Speaker 6: but it certainly has shown us some lessons and so
29:20
Speaker 6: I think that negative test to come into the program
29:23
Speaker 6: was something that we had to grapple with early, but
29:25
Speaker 6: it certainly taught us lessons around how we can be
29:28
Speaker 6: efficient in terms of that testing regime.
29:31
Speaker 5: That backs it up.
29:32
Speaker 8: Well, you'd have to because if you're getting tested every
29:33
Speaker 8: three days, you're probably taking a next test before you've
29:36
Speaker 8: even gotten the results back on the first test. You know,
29:38
Speaker 8: it's incredibly onerous for the laboratory and you know, we
29:43
Speaker 8: you know, if we're going to demand that, then we
29:44
Speaker 8: need to be efficient and that means results in terms.
29:47
Speaker 5: Of our laboratory.
29:48
Speaker 6: And this shows how it a touched Lea is we
29:50
Speaker 6: have got significant testing capacity that's been increased through the pandemic,
29:53
Speaker 6: and so it's just working through in terms of getting
29:56
Speaker 6: those tests from individuals as safely as possible into the lab.
30:00
Speaker 1: You know, like over the Christmas period. I think it's
30:02
Speaker 1: safe to say that all around the Northern Territory, from
30:05
Speaker 1: Alice Springs to Darwin, you see quite an exodus of
30:08
Speaker 1: territories into other states at different times. Are we going
30:11
Speaker 1: to be able to withstand all of that testing? Bearing
30:15
Speaker 1: in mind that people are going to need to have
30:17
Speaker 1: seven tests each, you know, in a little family like mine,
30:20
Speaker 1: that's obviously there's four people I know that we've all,
30:23
Speaker 1: you know, for all of us, it's quite a large
30:25
Speaker 1: volume of testing for one family alone, let alone if
30:29
Speaker 1: we do see a few thousand people leave the territory
30:31
Speaker 1: like we usually would and come back.
30:33
Speaker 5: So we've increased the laboratory testing, Katie.
30:35
Speaker 6: It's the how do you get the tests that's been
30:37
Speaker 6: one of the key parts, particularly if people are in
30:40
Speaker 6: home quarantine, so it could be.
30:41
Speaker 1: A home test rather than a lab test.
30:44
Speaker 6: No, no, no, So it would be the and I
30:47
Speaker 6: should say that the home based tests. You know, they're
30:50
Speaker 6: starting and coming to Matt's point around living with COVID
30:53
Speaker 6: in the world. You certainly I think will Worst and
30:55
Speaker 6: Coals are both starting to stock those. But these are
30:57
Speaker 6: laboratory tester, but you can people can self test and
31:00
Speaker 6: then you know, put those in the sample bags, and
31:03
Speaker 6: so it's how do we get those off individuals into
31:05
Speaker 6: the laboratories. We've got the capacity to run thousands of
31:07
Speaker 6: tests at once in the laboratory, so it's just working
31:10
Speaker 6: through those measures.
31:12
Speaker 1: Well, it's going to be interesting, it really is to
31:14
Speaker 1: see how it all rolls out. And I guess that
31:16
Speaker 1: checking app is going to be really important as well.
31:18
Speaker 1: We know that throughout the week the checking app and
31:21
Speaker 1: the vaccine certificate obviously linked up. If you've been clever
31:24
Speaker 1: enough to do that, good on you. But for some
31:27
Speaker 1: of our listeners, some of those who maybe their phones
31:31
Speaker 1: aren't actually as new as an iPhone, Some of our
31:35
Speaker 1: other more senior territorians have been in contact and having
31:38
Speaker 1: a bit of difficulty with this. I know that I've
31:40
Speaker 1: been told the Nightcliff in your neck of the woods
31:43
Speaker 1: that Woolli's doesn't have the manual sign in sometimes when
31:46
Speaker 1: you go in to go and sign in. So for
31:48
Speaker 1: some of our listeners, they're quite concerned by that that
31:50
Speaker 1: it's not actually as easy as it should be to
31:53
Speaker 1: check in because they want to do the right thing.
31:56
Speaker 8: I'm actually surprised how often I have to look around
31:59
Speaker 8: for the code you know, like you're literally going into places.
32:02
Speaker 2: And thinking where is it?
32:03
Speaker 5: Where is it? Eventually you stumbled across it.
32:06
Speaker 1: Well, look, we're going to take a very short break.
32:07
Speaker 1: You are listening to Mix one oh four point nine's
32:09
Speaker 1: three sixty. It is the week that was. You are
32:12
Speaker 1: listening to Mix one oh four point nine's three sixty,
32:15
Speaker 1: and it is the week that was. I've got Natasha
32:17
Speaker 1: files Kesi Epuric, Matt Cunningham and Leofanocchiaio all in the
32:21
Speaker 1: studio this morning. Now, we learned late yesterday that Blaine
32:26
Speaker 1: MLA Mark Turner is not going to be returning. Apparently
32:30
Speaker 1: I can hear you too whispering, So you've just got
32:31
Speaker 1: to be a little bit careful there. I sound like
32:34
Speaker 1: a school teacher discussing their foot. You need to pay
32:38
Speaker 1: attention because we're about to talk about the Privileges Committee
32:42
Speaker 1: and the fact that that Mark Turner, it's been revealed. Well,
32:47
Speaker 1: as we know, he was at the center of the
32:49
Speaker 1: of the alleged cocaine fueled sex scandal and in a
32:53
Speaker 1: statement to Parliament, he'd revealed that he had a friendship
32:57
Speaker 1: with a woman at the party and exchange intimate conversation
33:01
Speaker 1: with her. He denied participating in any illegal activity and
33:04
Speaker 1: said that he had the support of labor leaders. Now
33:08
Speaker 1: we know that obviously this went through the Privileges Committee,
33:12
Speaker 1: and on all three counts, the Privileges Committee said that
33:15
Speaker 1: the comments that he'd made in Parliament did not meet
33:18
Speaker 1: the threshold of misleading the Legislative Assembly. Now I know that, Leah.
33:23
Speaker 1: In your dissenting report, you and your deputy Jared Maylee,
33:28
Speaker 1: said that you strongly felt that the inquiry needed to continue,
33:32
Speaker 1: but at this point it's not going to as I understand.
33:35
Speaker 2: That's exactly right.
33:36
Speaker 8: We put in a dissenting report, which basically means we
33:39
Speaker 8: disagree with the government on this issue. The committee is
33:43
Speaker 8: a five member committee. Three of it are government, two
33:45
Speaker 8: of it are opposition, and the Government have decided to
33:48
Speaker 8: discontinue the inquiry into the Member for Blaine without looking
33:52
Speaker 8: at any evidence whatsoever other than the very statement that
33:56
Speaker 8: he made in parliament, which is the subject of the
33:58
Speaker 8: allegation that he mislead the Parliament. So we put in
34:01
Speaker 8: a dissenting report. We oppose that we believe very strongly
34:05
Speaker 8: that evidence actually needs to be called so that you
34:07
Speaker 8: can make a decision and all I can say, Katie,
34:10
Speaker 8: is this just smacks of an absolute cover up. We
34:13
Speaker 8: saw the Member for Blaine ask a Dorothy Dixon in
34:16
Speaker 8: Parliament last sittings. It's the first time he's asked a
34:19
Speaker 8: question since the whole scandal erupted, and I think this
34:22
Speaker 8: is all just an exercise in saving face. They had
34:25
Speaker 8: to go through the motions because of the public sentiment
34:28
Speaker 8: at the time. And we're going to see the Member
34:30
Speaker 8: for Blaine back in the labor fold very soon.
34:33
Speaker 1: Is he going back? Is he coming back into the
34:35
Speaker 1: labor caucus?
34:36
Speaker 5: The Member for Blaine is not in the labor caucus, but.
34:38
Speaker 1: Is he going to be now that he's been found
34:40
Speaker 1: You know that he's got no case to answer for.
34:42
Speaker 6: So this report's been handed down, but he's not back
34:44
Speaker 6: in the labor caucus?
34:45
Speaker 4: Well will he be? Katie?
34:48
Speaker 7: On this point I disagree with Leah because this should
34:50
Speaker 7: have never gone to privileges in the first place. You know,
34:52
Speaker 7: let's be honest about this, privileges And the reason that
34:56
Speaker 7: the government moved the motion to send him to privileges
34:59
Speaker 7: was because they claim he misled the House.
35:02
Speaker 4: All right.
35:02
Speaker 7: I think the Chief Minister was the one who referred
35:04
Speaker 7: him to privileges and to ik Co and debuting else
35:06
Speaker 7: under the sun. Now, the first there's two questions. Did
35:10
Speaker 7: he intend to mislead the house? That is always the
35:12
Speaker 7: first question you must ask about these kind of issues.
35:15
Speaker 7: The second question whether you get a answer to the
35:18
Speaker 7: first one or not, did he actually mislead the House?
35:20
Speaker 7: So the committee, of course I wasn't there, and another
35:23
Speaker 7: on a Natash and Lee were both there, but they
35:24
Speaker 7: have two very fundamental questions when it comes to referrals
35:27
Speaker 7: and privileges and about mis misleading the House. Now, in
35:30
Speaker 7: my view, my humble view, no, he did not intend
35:35
Speaker 7: to mislead the House. And two I don't believe he
35:37
Speaker 7: did mislead the House in his statement. Now I don't
35:39
Speaker 7: know the facts behind the scene and what went on
35:41
Speaker 7: with the caucus members and you know, drafting the documentation,
35:44
Speaker 7: but it was not a matter that should ever have
35:46
Speaker 7: gone to privileges, just as Steve Edgington, the Member for Barkley,
35:49
Speaker 7: should not be referred to privileges because Chancey Pate does
35:52
Speaker 7: not operate on his little loansome. As I've said before,
35:55
Speaker 7: he was directed to do that by the caucus.
35:57
Speaker 1: It's a joke.
35:58
Speaker 7: Steve Edgington has not done anything in a probat or
36:01
Speaker 7: wrong and it is a joke. Now if the government
36:04
Speaker 7: is going to start to use this process as one
36:07
Speaker 7: upmanship to attack the opposition, well that's just scandalous and
36:11
Speaker 7: a misuse of the Parliament and the activities of the party.
36:14
Speaker 3: It's a ridiculous abuse of power and it undermines the
36:19
Speaker 3: whole like what the Privileges Committee is and what it's for.
36:22
Speaker 3: It's being used as a basically tool for political stunts.
36:27
Speaker 3: You know, Labor allowed Mark Turner to be referred to
36:29
Speaker 3: Privileges even if the Opposition put it forward, and I'd
36:34
Speaker 3: say the same for the IKAK. Now that IKAK report
36:37
Speaker 3: has now been investigation has been thrown out, and I
36:40
Speaker 3: think the substance the new Commissioner appears to be doing
36:43
Speaker 3: an incredibly good job at the IKAK, but that should
36:48
Speaker 3: never have been referred to ic either, and that is
36:50
Speaker 3: also a ridiculous situation. We have all of these provisions
36:54
Speaker 3: with the IKAK that you can't say someone's being investigated,
36:57
Speaker 3: you know, you can't talk about an IQQ investigation. But
37:00
Speaker 3: the Chief Minister could stand up on the floor of
37:01
Speaker 3: Parliament and say I'm referring Mark Turner to the IKAK.
37:04
Speaker 1: And why did he do it?
37:05
Speaker 3: Because he wanted to kill the political story of the day.
37:08
Speaker 3: He wanted to put a full stop on the scandal that.
37:11
Speaker 1: Was in his government and the questions about it exactly.
37:14
Speaker 3: And so whenever you're asking a question about it, it's
37:17
Speaker 3: been referred to the IKAK, I can't talk about it.
37:19
Speaker 1: That's exactly right.
37:20
Speaker 2: The whole thing is done.
37:21
Speaker 3: And remember that we are paying millions of dollars for
37:23
Speaker 3: these bodies, like we pay eight million dollars for the
37:26
Speaker 3: IKAK a year. The Privileges Committee, I mean the report
37:29
Speaker 3: that came out yesterday follows hearings that details how much
37:34
Speaker 3: taxpayers money was spent on the time of the Privileges
37:37
Speaker 3: Committee on that matter, and then how much is going
37:39
Speaker 3: to be spent on the Steve Edgington matter. I mean,
37:42
Speaker 3: absolutely ridiculous and absurd. And God help us if that
37:46
Speaker 3: committee that is stacked three to two in the government's
37:48
Speaker 3: favor comes back and rules against Steve Edgington'll he absolutely fastical.
37:54
Speaker 3: And I don't know exactly how it works, but if
37:56
Speaker 3: there is the potential to unrefer someone from the.
37:59
Speaker 1: Privileges I'd be doing it.
38:00
Speaker 3: You should do it straight away, Steve meg was absolutely observed.
38:05
Speaker 1: But what it's also i think demonstrated very clearly to
38:07
Speaker 1: the broader public and to me it does not pass
38:10
Speaker 1: the pub test, is that what Labor has done is
38:12
Speaker 1: played the political game very well. So as you've pointed
38:15
Speaker 1: out there, Mash, once it gets referred to the IKAK,
38:18
Speaker 1: and then it's obviously referred to Privileges, then you know,
38:22
Speaker 1: we've got the likes of Filesy, obviously, we've got the
38:24
Speaker 1: likes of the Chief Minister. We've got everybody saying we
38:26
Speaker 1: can't actually answer questions on that because it's going through
38:29
Speaker 1: the Privileges Committee or because it's been referred to the IKAK.
38:32
Speaker 1: Well that's not actually good enough. You're all politicians who've
38:35
Speaker 1: been elected by the people, and the people want questions answered.
38:38
Speaker 1: They don't want it to be hidden behind a screen
38:41
Speaker 1: that then they've got no idea what goes on, and
38:43
Speaker 1: then there's a finding that comes back and they're like, well,
38:46
Speaker 1: hang on a second.
38:47
Speaker 3: Well, this is the other issue with both the Privileges
38:49
Speaker 3: Committee and the IKAK. I mean, justice done in private
38:51
Speaker 3: is not justice at all. And the Privileges Committee operates
38:55
Speaker 3: behind closed doors. You don't know what goes on, You
38:58
Speaker 3: don't know who they talk to, You don't know what
38:59
Speaker 3: happens till a report comes out. I can't even find
39:02
Speaker 3: out when Ken Fleming, the former IKAK, is going to
39:06
Speaker 3: be before the Privileges Committee. You cannot even find out
39:08
Speaker 3: that information, let alone know what is discussed in a
39:12
Speaker 3: Privileges Committee hearing. And the same with the IKAK. I mean,
39:15
Speaker 3: I think the problem with the IKAK and the Turf
39:17
Speaker 3: Club report, for example, is that all of the hearings
39:21
Speaker 3: were done in private, so no one knows. Look at
39:23
Speaker 3: what's happening in New South Wales, gladys Bury, Jiclly and
39:25
Speaker 3: the New South Wales Premier is up there in front
39:27
Speaker 3: of public hearings being grilled right here, Michael Gunner gets
39:31
Speaker 3: grilled before the IKAK over the top times, but no
39:33
Speaker 3: one knows what he was asked, what he answered, So
39:36
Speaker 3: we don't actually know the detail of what happened. We
39:38
Speaker 3: just get this report that says, oh, you're guilty or
39:40
Speaker 3: guilty and you're exonerator.
39:41
Speaker 7: And you can't get it even under FOI and it's
39:45
Speaker 7: and that's the way it is. I mean, but don't
39:46
Speaker 7: forget Katie. The Ikak Act is under review at the moment,
39:49
Speaker 7: and I've got a letter drafted to the Chief Minister
39:52
Speaker 7: because Greg Shanahan has privacy when I had a meeting
39:55
Speaker 7: with him about the review, and at that time he
39:58
Speaker 7: had pretty much finished it and a report was being
40:00
Speaker 7: delivered to the Chief Minister. So I'd say that Chief
40:03
Speaker 7: Minister has the report from Greg Shanahan. And in my
40:06
Speaker 7: first letter to the Chief Minister he said that there'd
40:08
Speaker 7: be a what do you call it an explosion draft.
40:11
Speaker 4: I don't know about the report being made public.
40:13
Speaker 1: He'd said on this show that it would be made
40:14
Speaker 1: published because close.
40:17
Speaker 7: To it there was a lot of There was a
40:19
Speaker 7: lot of technical aspects to that report or to the
40:21
Speaker 7: Act that obviously needs some improvements and some amendments, but
40:25
Speaker 7: there was a whole lot of stuff surrounding that that
40:26
Speaker 7: I put to Greg Shanahan, and that was some of
40:28
Speaker 7: the information, you know, how the previous commissioner had operated,
40:32
Speaker 7: and whether the failings of the situation were because of
40:34
Speaker 7: the previous commission or because of the failings of the legislation.
40:37
Speaker 4: But that's part of it.
40:38
Speaker 7: You know, the Chief Minister can get up in Parliament
40:41
Speaker 7: and elsewhere and say I'm referring this man and that
40:42
Speaker 7: woman and this person is to the I K. But
40:44
Speaker 7: once it gets there, everyone knows that person's been referred.
40:47
Speaker 7: But if I tell you I've been referred to, okay,
40:48
Speaker 7: I get into trouble. But he doesn't get into trouble
40:51
Speaker 7: for shaming and naming alf Leonardo.
40:53
Speaker 3: And you can't even talk to your partner about it.
40:55
Speaker 7: Or it's it's tricky, but yeah, keep an eye on
41:00
Speaker 7: that report. We need to see that report and what amendments,
41:04
Speaker 7: if any, are being proposed, and I think there will
41:05
Speaker 7: be quite a few amendments.
41:07
Speaker 1: We are going to have to take a very short break.
41:09
Speaker 1: You are listening to Mix one O four point nine
41:11
Speaker 1: three sixty. It is the week that was well, that's
41:14
Speaker 1: just about it for us this morning. It has been
41:16
Speaker 1: the week that was Leofanocchiaro, Matt Cunningham, Kisiopuric and Natasha Files.
41:22
Speaker 1: Just finally, as everybody sort of double checking their Facebook
41:25
Speaker 1: posts before they post anything online after what had happened
41:28
Speaker 1: throughout the week, the poor old Chief Minister's Facebook page
41:31
Speaker 1: obviously copying Losh after an incorrect post was put up,
41:36
Speaker 1: and then the woman at the center of that scandal,
41:39
Speaker 1: obviously speaking to the Northern Territory News and saying that
41:42
Speaker 1: she is not definitely not a sex work.
41:45
Speaker 3: Now I make a very quick, serious point on that. Yes,
41:48
Speaker 3: the problem here is that the Chief Minister's Facebook page
41:52
Speaker 3: has been morphed into by the government the number one
41:56
Speaker 3: source of COVID information, right, And the problem is you
42:00
Speaker 3: go back to look at what happened in the daily
42:02
Speaker 3: by election right. Then they do that to boost the following,
42:06
Speaker 3: like he's got forty thousand followers, right, and then during
42:09
Speaker 3: a by election they use it as a political propaganda
42:12
Speaker 3: tool where they're slagging off the CLP, you know, with set.
42:16
Speaker 7: Then they put themselves off as the news as this
42:19
Speaker 7: is where you get your information from people, And then
42:22
Speaker 7: people are critical of the government or the chief mention
42:24
Speaker 7: on I block you.
42:25
Speaker 4: So you can't have your cake and eat it as well.
42:27
Speaker 7: You either go out there assuming they're not really nasty
42:30
Speaker 7: messages or violent or anything like that, but just being
42:33
Speaker 7: critical of a member of Parliament.
42:34
Speaker 4: I mean it's probably warranted, I.
42:36
Speaker 7: Don't know, So you can't say, oh, this is where
42:39
Speaker 7: you get your news from.
42:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, by the way, and.
42:42
Speaker 8: I mean they put the health information on his Facebook
42:44
Speaker 8: before you can get it on any official channel on
42:47
Speaker 8: the website. Make no mistake, this is political staffers on
42:50
Speaker 8: the fifth floor drafting up stuff to go on Michael
42:53
Speaker 8: Gunner's Facebook page. It is designed to make territories dependent
42:56
Speaker 8: on him for news and information so that they can
42:59
Speaker 8: then feed political messaging down territory in's throat. It is
43:03
Speaker 8: disgraceful and they have done it time and time again.
43:06
Speaker 8: I've been saying this for eighteen months. I'm glad everyone's
43:08
Speaker 8: getting on board that it's enough is enough.
43:11
Speaker 1: All of us as been pretty pissed off about it
43:13
Speaker 1: to be pretty great about it, especially us in the media.
43:16
Speaker 1: When you're having to follow other chief minister's Facebook page
43:19
Speaker 1: to get that information, I actually don't think.
43:22
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I sometimes see his post, but there's some
43:26
Speaker 7: radio station mixed rays.
43:27
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I.
43:28
Speaker 4: Turned into that one.
43:29
Speaker 1: That's what it's place to go easy, that's where you
43:32
Speaker 1: get it. Fazy. Do you post official health messaging on
43:37
Speaker 1: your Facebook page or do you think that it's more
43:39
Speaker 1: appropriate that it does go through those official channels.
43:42
Speaker 6: So Katie, the Chief Minister stood up and has you know,
43:45
Speaker 6: most days when we're in these lockdown, lockout situations and
43:48
Speaker 6: provides that news at his press conference. He provides additional
43:51
Speaker 6: information on his Facebook so that people can go back
43:54
Speaker 6: and refer to that. It's, you know, another source where
43:57
Speaker 6: people get their information from, but we certainly make sure
43:59
Speaker 6: it goes across Tea Health security.
44:01
Speaker 3: There have been sasions where the first mention of crucial
44:05
Speaker 3: COVID information has been on the Chief Minister's Facebook page
44:09
Speaker 3: and that was not by accident.
44:11
Speaker 8: Yeah, and it's hours later it appears on official channels.
44:14
Speaker 2: Well, it's not acceptable.
44:15
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, we've run out of time. That is it for
44:18
Speaker 1: us this morning. Leah fanocchi Aro, thank you very much
44:20
Speaker 1: for your time today.
44:21
Speaker 2: Thank you.
44:21
Speaker 8: And tomorrow is meg Happy day. I'll be in the
44:23
Speaker 8: drivers at Johnson McDonald's. Come by and see me grab
44:26
Speaker 8: a big mac and so hard it's.
44:32
Speaker 2: Burger without anything on it, and my children.
44:37
Speaker 1: Matt Cunninghead, thanks so much for your time today.
44:39
Speaker 4: Thanks Wolfy.
44:40
Speaker 3: And I know that the mandate kicks in tomorrow and
44:43
Speaker 3: you know there's all this controversy. I'd just say one
44:45
Speaker 3: thing to people who are out there on the fence.
44:47
Speaker 3: You know, I don't trust this government, but I trust
44:49
Speaker 3: them on this. Just go out and get vaccinated fair enough.
44:52
Speaker 1: Keithyer Puric, thank you very much for your time. Thanks
44:55
Speaker 1: Katie and Natasha Files, thank you for your time today.
44:58
Speaker 6: Big game of football tomorrow night Eddie Betts, Palmerston versus
45:01
Speaker 6: The Nightcliff and the two hundredth games.
45:04
Speaker 1: So I know Mix one oh four point nine is
45:07
Speaker 1: going to be broadcasting live I believe from that footy game,
45:09
Speaker 1: so it should be a good one. Thank you all
45:11
Speaker 1: so much for your time. We'll catch you again next Friday,
45:13
Speaker 1: but stick around. Plenty more coming your way this morning
45:16
Speaker 1: on three sixty