Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Blaine Mark Turner is calling for a mould inspection of every home and worksite owned by the Northern Territory government after the awful case of little Sienna

Transcript

Member for Blaine Mark Turner is calling for a mould inspection of every home and worksite owned by the Northern Territory government after the awful case of little Sienna · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: And you might have. You might recall about a week
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: ago we spoke to Tom Morgan from the NT News
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  Speaker 1: after he'd revealed the plight of little Sianna Santiago, who
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: was left with lifelong impairments following an eleven day battle
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  Speaker 1: in intensive care. Now, Sianna's dad, Stephen Thompson, said that
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  Speaker 1: they were convinced that rampant mold in their former NT
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  Speaker 1: police home in Pearl and Gimpi was a factor for
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  Speaker 1: this tragic episode in which Siannas suffered from an infection
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of her throat. Now, Blaine MLA, Mark Turner has written
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  Speaker 1: to the Attorney General urging a mold inspection of every
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  Speaker 1: home and work site owned by the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 1: amid concerns of a time bomb of medical complications similar
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  Speaker 1: to those suffered by this little girl back in twenty nineteen. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the Member for Blaine, Mark Turner, joins me in the
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  Speaker 1: studio right now. Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Mark, Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Mark. Firstley, I know that you are in regular contact
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  Speaker 1: with this family. How is little Siana going.
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  Speaker 2: She's still receiving regular medical treatment and that's one of
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  Speaker 2: the reasons that they had to go back to New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand so that they could get the regular physio and
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  Speaker 2: try and do everything they could to get her to
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  Speaker 2: livers good normal life as possible with the conditions that
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  Speaker 2: she's got.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I know there's certainly going to be some people
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  Speaker 1: listening this morning who are thinking, you know, what was
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  Speaker 1: the family's concern exactly with the mold and did they
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  Speaker 1: have evidence to support that that was indeed what had
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  Speaker 1: caused to a medical episode.
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  Speaker 2: I've learned more about mold in the last two weeks
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  Speaker 2: than I have in my entire life. So one of
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  Speaker 2: the things that Steven so Stephen reached out to me
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  Speaker 2: because he was a former constituent of the Blame electorate
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  Speaker 2: and it was a last hurrah before he gave up.
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  Speaker 2: I've got the lab results and it turns out that
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  Speaker 2: not all mold is created equal. There was two police
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  Speaker 2: houses out on Perlin Gimpee. The labrazole are done by
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  Speaker 2: a technician that goes out there and does tape lifts
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  Speaker 2: and does air quality samples as well. They send them
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  Speaker 2: off to a lab. They come back and they go
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  Speaker 2: these are all the different types of mold that are
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  Speaker 2: in the premises.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Right, So the lab results came back and showed that
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  Speaker 2: these are all the different harmful ones that are in there,
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  Speaker 2: and under the Australian standards, if there's anybody in there,
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  Speaker 2: get them out now.
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  Speaker 1: And so that's essentially what those lab results showed. Yes, now,
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  Speaker 1: from your understanding, is anybody living in those homes now?
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  Speaker 2: No? My understanding, and I haven't had any correspondence back yet,
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  Speaker 2: is that those houses are sitting there, closed off and
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  Speaker 2: the only way that anybody's allowed in there is if
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  Speaker 2: they're wearing level four ppe so respirators suits.
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  Speaker 1: It seems it seems quite unbelievable to me that a
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  Speaker 1: family was able to live in a home with this
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  Speaker 1: level of mold.
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  Speaker 2: Pretty much what Stephen said. And when you look at
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  Speaker 2: the results between the two houses, the house that Stephen
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  Speaker 2: was in, all the results are high, but the other
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  Speaker 2: house was even higher. And since this article has gone
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  Speaker 2: to wear through the different media outlets, I've had lots
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  Speaker 2: of phone calls from other people expressing similar concerns. And
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  Speaker 2: the problem is without doing the tests, you don't know.
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  Speaker 2: And the other issue is it depends who's living in there.
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  Speaker 2: If you're a fit and healthy thirty year old who
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  Speaker 2: goes out and does park run all the time.
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  Speaker 1: Then it may not be such an impact on you.
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  Speaker 2: You might not see it immediately, whereas if you're an
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  Speaker 2: immunosuppressed child, then you can unfortunately have what happened with Sienna.
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  Speaker 1: Now, talk us through. I know that you are pretty
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  Speaker 1: concerned now that this issue of my could be more systemic,
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  Speaker 1: I guess than what anybody thinks or what anybody had thought.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think needs to happen.
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  Speaker 2: Here, Let's just find out. I'd rather be in a
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  Speaker 2: position where and this is what Stephen said, Let's not
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  Speaker 2: let another family go through the tragedy that they did.
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  Speaker 2: And I couldn't agree more. The big thing for Stephen
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  Speaker 2: was that he tried to talk about it, he tried
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  Speaker 2: to get something done. And what he's told me is
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  Speaker 2: the feedback that he kept getting was it's not our problem,
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  Speaker 2: just clean it. But the problem is, and again this
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  Speaker 2: is just my lay understanding of it, that these types
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  Speaker 2: of mold, especially with wood, we'll actually eat into the
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  Speaker 2: glue in the wood. It doesn't matter how you try
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  Speaker 2: and clean it, it's not going to work. It's just there.
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  Speaker 1: So Mark, do you think now that there needs to
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  Speaker 1: be an order to of all police times all Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory government owned times. What do you reckon we need
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  Speaker 1: to be doing?
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  Speaker 2: Obviously, given my past, I've got a soft spot for police, yep,
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  Speaker 2: and I've had it's the police that reach out to
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  Speaker 2: me the most. I've had messages from fieries, I've had
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  Speaker 2: messages from interstate police officers. I've had messages from teachers, nurses,
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  Speaker 2: healthcare workers. And my other concern is that we've got
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  Speaker 2: First Nations territori ins living remote in housing who are
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  Speaker 2: going to have these mold issues as well, and we'll
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  Speaker 2: have immunocompromised children with things like rheumatic heart disease. So
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  Speaker 2: let's just get out there, do the tests, find out
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  Speaker 2: if this is an isolated issue, then at least they
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  Speaker 2: can rest easy and know if it's not, we can
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  Speaker 2: deal with it.
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  Speaker 1: Do you reckon it would be a hard process to
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  Speaker 1: go through. I mean, how long does it take to
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  Speaker 1: be able to get somebody out there. You spoke about
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  Speaker 1: those lab results earlier. Was it a difficult process for
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  Speaker 1: them to go through?
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  Speaker 2: Apparently, from what I've been told, it's not. There's nobody
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  Speaker 2: as far as i'm awareing the territory that provides the services.
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  Speaker 2: But it wouldn't be an impossible feat to either have
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  Speaker 2: an anti government providing that's anti department providing that service,
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  Speaker 2: or an independent contractor going around testing and just keeping
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  Speaker 2: an eye on it.
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  Speaker 1: Now you've spoken or you've sent an email a senter
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  Speaker 1: letter to the Attorney general. That was the former Attorney General,
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  Speaker 1: wasn't it, Selena Rubo? So where are things at now?
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  Speaker 2: So I've written, I've wrote to the former Attorney General
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  Speaker 2: just on the back of speaking to Stephen. The more
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  Speaker 2: I've learned about this, I've then written to the current
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  Speaker 2: Attorney General again raising the more widespread concerns and the
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  Speaker 2: more I've spoken to Stephen and the more documentation I've
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  Speaker 2: been provided. That's why I've said, Look, I think this
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  Speaker 2: is bigger at the moment. They're investigating it anti work
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  Speaker 2: safe for looking into it into just.
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  Speaker 1: Those times, or looking into the more widespread actually going
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  Speaker 1: into all of the government homes.
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  Speaker 2: My understanding is they're looking at it holus bolus across
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  Speaker 2: the board.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah right, Well, please keep us up to date and
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  Speaker 1: let us know what you know, what you find out
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  Speaker 1: from work Safe or whether they do indeed are determined
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  Speaker 1: to go through all of those homes we'll try, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we'll talk about it a bit more. I think, because
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  Speaker 1: like you've said, I do reckon that there's going to
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  Speaker 1: be more people impacted by this than what we probably realize.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, my heart goes out to that
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  Speaker 1: little family. I think it's a really sad situation that
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  Speaker 1: they are in, or that they've found themselves in, you know,
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  Speaker 1: when they would have not expected to be in that
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  Speaker 1: situation in any way, shape or form.
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  Speaker 2: No, and if if there's one thing I'd like to do, well,
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  Speaker 2: I've got the time on the show, Katie. It's just
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  Speaker 2: say to people, if you work out remote, if you've
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  Speaker 2: got family or friends out remote and this is a concern,
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  Speaker 2: please ring Anti works. Talk to them. They know about this,
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  Speaker 2: they're actively looking into it. And even if you're not sure,
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  Speaker 2: it's better to be saved rather than sorry. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, well, Mark Turner, the member for Blaine. We appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thanks so much for coming in.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Kate,