Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Opposition Minister for Health Bill Yan

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with Opposition Minister for Health Bill Yan · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Every one is listening Mix one oh four point nine.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Now tell you what. It's hard to know where to go.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Following on from the interview with the Health minister, there
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: is a lot that people are concerned about this morning,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of messages coming through.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I find it hard to believe that if a minister's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: department books an entire hotel that the minister doesn't know why.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Pub test, pub test, says Mark in Teewee. Another one, go, Katie.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: We have asked the hotel operator. No answers from them either.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: That's obviously come from somebody who's booked a room. Now
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: we've actually had people contacting us who booked those rooms
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: back in February twenty twenty, so we're talking about, you know,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: long term bookings.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: There's another one here. Oh goodness me.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: It says the minister is dodging questions and she said
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: it's so wrong as a public servant and frustrating to
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: listen to, says Kerry. Look, there are a lot of
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: messages flowing through, and we always appreciate your messages coming.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Send us a text if you'd like zero four one
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: eight nine five seven three six ' nine.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: But joining me on the line right.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Now is the Shadow Minister for Health and the Member
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: for What Namajira, Bill Yan.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Bill, Good morning Kelly.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: How are you not too bad? Bill? There's lots to
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: cover off. I might just start firstly with our road borders.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: We caught up with am sand a little bit earlier
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: this morning. John Patterson joined us on the show.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: He's concerned about these borders and wants to see well,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: either the police or health officials on those borders in
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: an effort to make sure that we know exactly who's
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: coming across from the other states. Bill, what do you
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: think needs to happen here?
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Look, the virus is so insidious, and it's always looking
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: for cracks in the armor, and one of the cracks
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: in the armor could be our borders. When we had
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: our hard lockdown ages ago, we had police on our borders.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: We're seeing the COVID read throughout Victoria at the moment.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: It only takes one of those little chinks in the
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: armor for it to get into the territory. Look, I
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: think it's probably critical that we have people on our
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: borders just checking who's coming in. We can rely on technology,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: but you're also relying on people doing the right thing.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: And it only takes they said, one oversight somewhere and
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: we could be in a world of hercade.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: So do you reckon we need police back on the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: borders bill or do you think that we could have
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: health officials on those borders.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Look, I think we could probably have health officials with
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: some support from other areas on our borders. It's just
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: a matter of it's not specifically about policing matter. It's
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: a matter of checking who's coming in, recording who's coming in,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: where they've been, and maybe pointing them in the right direction,
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: or actually doing some testing on the spot. So it
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: could be a mix. We could use just about anyone
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: as long as they've got enough authority and enough knowledge
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: to be able to do the job.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Now, like you said, it is something that people are
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: obviously concerned with. I know that, particularly the likes of
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: amsand who are representing Aboriginal people in those regional communities.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: We've got to make sure that we're keeping everybody safe here.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: But then the flip side of it is when we
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: caught up with the police yesterday. There's not a real
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: large volume of people crossing over the borders on our
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: roads at this point from Victoria. I mean, would it
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: be a waste of resources?
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: I think I wouldn't call a waste of resources, Katie.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: There's going to be people coming across their borders. Who
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: knows how easily this virus may have snuck across from
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: say Victorian to South Australia because it went the other way.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: And we're seeing a lot of people and particularly in
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: the coming week going to be coming up to our
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: springs for the desert rays. They're going to be coming
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: in from a lot of states other than Victoria, but
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: again in New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland. What happens
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: if the virus is snuck across into one of those
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: states and then gets into here. Yeah, we need that,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: I suppose due diligence on our mortars is to keep
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: territory in safe.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Now, Bill, an issue that we've had raised to this
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: by a few listeners this morning actually over the course
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: of the week, is this situation at the Quest in Barrimer. Now,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: obviously there's quite a few people who had booked accommodation there.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: They were told that accommodation was canceled. We didn't know
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: why until late yesterday when the NT News was reporting
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: that the hotel had actually been booked out by the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Health Department.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, do you think that that's appropriate.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Well, I hear that the Minister's not actually answering questions
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: on I'm saying it's an operational matter that the Minister
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: would have to know what's going on within our own agency,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: in our own department. Yeah. For the people who've already
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: booked a long time ago to get tossed out is
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: it's tough with them because accommodation's hard to get in
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: Darne with the moment we struggling to get start. So
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: the only thing that comes to my mind is Hell's
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: has booked at the entire motel. I'm only surmising, but
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: I'd see that they're bringing people in from elsewhere to
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: look after Howard Springs facility and that's the accommodation that's
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: being used to house and it might be a fi
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: file operation to look after Howard Springs because we can't
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: get enough people to look after our own health system
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: here in the territory, So do.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: You reckon that's realistically what could be happening here.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: I would have a sneaking suspicion if someone's gone to
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: book out an entire motel for a long period, they're
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: obviously expecting lots of people to come in to be
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: staying there. I can't see being used for hotel quarantine.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: That would be absolutely ludicrous. What I would see the
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: staff staying there to be able to manage the Howard
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Springs facility. I said, I'm surmising, but that would make sense.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: It would be the obvious thing.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would highly doubt that that'd be quarantining anybody
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: there when we've got the massive facility obviously out of
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Howard Springs. But it's an interesting one, Bill, And as
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I say, it's one that that plenty of listeners have
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: been in contact with us about. So we are still
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: seeking as I understand it, I'll check with my producer
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Ronnie when we go to break, but we are still
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: seeking comment from the quest at this point in time.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: We'd love to have someone on the show to be
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: able to talk to us about it.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Bill. I do want to ask you as well. I
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: know that you're pretty.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Concerned at the moment that you think that crucial health
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: services are being cut in remote parts of the Northern territory.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Tell us what you think is happening here.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Well, So I raised this question quite some time ago
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: with the government that particularly we're taking on how It Springs.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: We need four hundred plus staff to run that appropriately,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: to run it safety. So where are those people coming from?
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: And I raise the issue that are we going to
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: be stripping medical professionals out of our primary healthcare system
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: to be able to look after how It Springs? And
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden we're seeing remote clinics closing across
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: the territory and the response given to the staff is
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: that we can't get enough people because of COVID. So
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I don't know, it's a yeah, one on one and
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: you get too it seems so.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: It's I have this horrible suspicion that the people out
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: of the Busha are suffering for the fact that we're
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: stripping professionals out to run Howard Springs. But I don't
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: know if that's the case, but we'll be certainly asking
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: some questions in estimates to try and find out.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet well, Bill Yam, we are going to
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: have to leave it there. The member for Nema Jira
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: and also the shadow Shadow Health Minister, we appreciate your
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: time today, Thanks so much for chatting with us.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie. Thanks hello to Up and Down and have
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: a great day.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Thanks mate,