Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Opposition Leader Lia Finochiarro answers to whether the CLP dropped the ball in Parliament by no asking the NT Government the important questions

Transcript

Opposition Leader Lia Finochiarro answers to whether the CLP dropped the ball in Parliament by no asking the NT Government the important questions · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've spoken a lot in recent days and weeks about
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the need for the check in the app and it
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: seems to be limited at the moment with COVID all
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: through the community. We've also spoken about those masks. Now
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: joining me in the studio is the Opposition leader Leah Fanochiio.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Good morning to.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: You, Good morning Katie and to your listeners.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Now, Leah, do you think we need a clear plan
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: from the government around the check in app and the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: masks similar to what we've seen in Queensland.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: We do need a plan, of course, you know, the
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: government were able to prepare a plan for opening up
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: and people can understand the dates and the stages. And
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: in the last month or so we've just been hearing
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: crickets from the Gunner government. Of course, we had seventeen
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: days of no Chief Health officers appearing to the public,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: despite the fact that we had nearly fifteen thousand cases
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: of COVID and eleven deaths in that period. We haven't
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: had the government do a dedicated COVID press conference in
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: two weeks. And not that I want to listen to
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: them every day, Katie, but you know we've been listening
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: to them for two years bang on about COVID and
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: we haven't had COVID.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: In our community.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Now we've got people dying and everything's going berserk and
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: they know where to be seen. So we need a
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: clear plan. People want to know what the most current
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: health advice is. They want to know when masks can go,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: when if the check in apps going to go, and
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: what's going to happen moving forward.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Look, I definitely take on board what you're saying about
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: making sure they've got those dedicated press conferences. I thought
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: they had one on Monday morning with Bevini Patel and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: also with the Choh.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: They did, but it was about the vaccine. It wasn't
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: about COVID updates specifically.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: So people are a bit over the daily update.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Thought, oh, it's not about having a daily update. I
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: just think seventeen days, we've got six Chief Health officers,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: we've got nine government ministers. No one could rock up
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and let us know what the plan is or how
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: things are going. I mean in parliament we prosecuted this extensively.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Last week, of course we had, but.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Then you missed a whole opportunity one day to talk
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: We know that is unfair, Katie.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: We talked about it. Wrong. No, no, wrong, sorry, no, you.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Did absolutely reject Katy one question situation question time ludicrous.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: The path you went down you literally had. You had
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Robert Parker on this show that morning. You also had
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Kath Hatcher on this show and extensively out talking about
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the pressure on the hospitals, and you guys went down
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a political path.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Absolute rubbish, Katie. On Monday, we asked questions in Parliament
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: about COVID and we debated it in parliament. On Tuesday,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: we had a debate that evening in parliament. We only
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: get seven questions a day during question time, a lot
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: more to Parliament than question Time. And we talked about
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: crime on Tuesday.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Do you know what we did on sorry, on Wednesday?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: You did. On Thursday we ran a matter of public
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: importance about our health system. So to say we didn't
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: raise health in parliament is an absolute fast.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I thought it was a step in the wrong direction.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: And to be honest, you can run and you can
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: make different decisions.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: About question time. You know that my job is to
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: hold you guys to account, and I'm going to hold
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the government to account. You've got to expect that the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: same is done for the opposition.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate the feedback.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: You didn't like our strategy on Wednesday, but that's a
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: matter for us. We raise the issue of crime in
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: our community, which is an equally important issue to people.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: And we talked about health literally all week. And do
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: you know what the government did in response to my
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: questions on health?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: They said nothing.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: The Health Minister did not even acknowledge there is an
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: issue in our health system. So on one hand, we've
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: got a government in complete denial about what is going
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: on in the lead up to this COVID crisis and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: now we don't even know what the plan is going
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: port it going forward.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: People want to clarity because we people deserve clarity around
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the path moving forward when it comes to right now, masks,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: mandates and particularly this check in app. What do you
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: guys think should be happening here?
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: We think that there needs to be a review of
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: all of these measures. Of course, we don't want to
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: see any measures in place for longer than they absolutely
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: have to be, so we support the health advice. Health
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: advice is that they have to stay fine, but ultimately
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: people need to have access to that advice and we're
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: just not getting it. And That's why we have a
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: bill that will be put in introduced in Parliament in March,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: because ultimately there is just no transparency around this decision
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: making and there's no plan going forward.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: So is that the worry right now? Do you feel
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: as though is like, because I know that the government
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: will be saying, oh, well, you know, banging on about
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: LEA would have opened the borders and all that garbage.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I'm not interested in that. What I'm actually interested in
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: is what's going to be the best possible thing for territorians.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: And I think that at the moment, you've got a
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: lot of people saying, well, why do we still need
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: these masks? Why do we still need to be using
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the check in app? And why have we still got
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: mandates for people at work? If you've got people allowed
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: to cross the border from other states who don't need
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: to be vaccinated.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: That's exactly right, And we don't know because the government
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: isn't telling us.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: We don't know because six chief Health.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Officers, I'm seemingly not allowed to tell territories what the
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: plan is. You know, health ice needs to be reviewed
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: all the time. It's constantly evolving and changing. We're obviously
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: dealing with omicron not delta, and it's just a different
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: it's just a different beast all together. So we really
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: urge government to do that review, ask the health professionals
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: what the status is and then give that information to
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: the community. And people want to know. Business needs certainty,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: and unfortunately right now a lot of the rules and
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: the different requirements just a conflicting and people are sort
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of saying, well, how come you can do this, be
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: it can't do that, and how come you can do
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: this and you can't do that, and how come they're
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: allowed to do this and I can't do that. It's
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: a total mess. Let's just clear it up and let's
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: see the plan now.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I certainly ask the Health Biniester of us, the Chief
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Minister as well, about this plan that you guys have got,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: or this idea that you do think that the Chief
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Health Officer needs to provide those more regular updates lea
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: from your perspective.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Why so under the Emergency Act, what was always envisaged
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: is that we would have five days of an emergency
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: period and that could be renewed for five days. Of course,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: COVID no one saw that coming, So we accept that
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: government extended that to ninety days to ninety days, but
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: two years later we've had a rolling state of emergency.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: And what that legislation also always envisaged was that the
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Chow would then report within three months.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: Of the end of that period.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: So traditionally within four months we would have had information
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: coming into the public. We've been two years and not
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: had a single report to Parliament about what the advice is,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: what the decisions are that were made, and what all
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: of that information was based on. So given the fact
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: we've got two years of rolling emergency, no end in sight,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, the Gunner government have not said anything about
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: rolling that back or ending that period, we think there
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: needs to be absolute regular reporting to hold the Gunner
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: government to account for its decision making. And any excuse
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: around there's not enough time, our chosen too busy is garbage.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: They won't be the ones writing the report anyway, there's
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: six of them, nine government ministers.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: You have to do it at law at the end
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: of the emergency period.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Anyway, do what this gonna happen? Well, we'll know, got
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: us they're not going to. Well, of course.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: They've said they're not going to. And I think this
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: is where the public and stakeholders have an important role.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: We've received support from the Chamber of Commerce, We've received
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: support from hospitality and tea. Anti farmers have indicated in
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: principle and we'll meet with them further to discuss it.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: You know, this has widespread support because what have they
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: got to hide? What is the downside of publicly reporting
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: to the parliament and the people every three months?
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, I agree with you. I actually think that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: it would be a good thing to have happened. I
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: think that it's fair enough that there is that regular
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: reporting and people can see why those decisions were made,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: particularly when you're talking about businesses and industry really bearing
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the brunch of some of those decisions. So I think
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: it's fair enough. Leah, let's move along. Earlier in the week,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it was reported by The Northern Territory News that children
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: were forced into spit hoods by Territory police in stations
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: with no custody nerves to check on their well being now.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: The paper reported that officers have used spi hoods on
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: children twenty seven times since twenty eighteen at the Darwin, Palmerston,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs, Catherine, Tenant Creek and Casarina stations. Now, the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Police Union has jumped to the defense of its officers,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: saying that spit hoods and restraint chairs are used to
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: prevent members of the Northern Territory Police being exposed to
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: communicable diseases, which can, as we all know, have long
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: lasting impacts on members' health. Lea, I think we all
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: know the history here, We've all lived through the Royal Commission.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Are you concerned by the use of these spit hoods
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: or do we all need to take a step back
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and understand why the police are in some cases having
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to use restraints.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: I'm not concerned about it whatsoever, Katie. I back our
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: police one hundred percent, our Police Association one hundred percent.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: This is an absolute disgraceful discussion we're having.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Quite frankly.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Police use these measures as an absolute last resort, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: I challenge those who think that so called children should
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: not be put in these levels of restraints. If this
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: child is smashing their head against the wall of the
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: cell on the bench, if they are causing self harm,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: are the police supposed.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: To just allow that to happen? Of course not.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: What are we even talking about our police if they
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: have to make a decision to restrain someone for their
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: the person in custody's own safety, then for goodness sake,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: we have to give them every resource available to do that.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: And if someone is spitting in the.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Face of police officers despite being asked not to, despite
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: every other measure being put in place, then any one
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: of us would be wishing we.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Had a spin it in our hands to do the
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: very same thing.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: And does age matter, Absolutely not, absolutely not. If you're
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: a police officer and you have to go home to
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: your family at night and tell your spouse and tell
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: your children, I can't kiss or cuddle you for three
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: months because I might have a communicable disease. I mean,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: think about the impact that has on someone's life. This
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: is a disgraceful debate. It is a measure of last resort.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: The number of times police use these measures speak for itself,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: and we need to start backing our police men who
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: do a difficult job in the most horrific circumstances. They're
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: not walking around just restraining people because they feel like it.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Now, Leah. It's been reported today by Tom Morgan at
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the NT News said eyewitnesses have reportedly told the paper
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: that they saw the Prime Minister filming a promotional video
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: with Tina McFarlane on at the same time when the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: memorial service was being held for the uss PIERI. Do
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: you think this is appropriate?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: What I do know is that the Prime Minister came
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: to Darwin and commemorated the eightieth anniversary of the bombing
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: of Darwin along with Defense Minister Peter Dunne and Veterans
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Minister Andrew G. Veterans Minister Andrew G represented the Prime
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Minister at the uss PIY. The Prime Minister had given
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: his apologies for the us Pery memorial back in October
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: last year, and of course had an important meaning about
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: the Ukraine, which is a very very complicated and hot
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: issue at the moment. If he took five minutes to
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: have a photo with the candidate, I don't think that
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: is an issue. Of course, he was there, he spoke
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: at our Bombing of Darwin service. He's the Prime Minister
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: of our country and I think it's fantastic he was here.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: So fair enough obviously that he did that.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: In your opinion, absolutely, If he had to have a
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: meeting about the developments between Russia and the Ukraine and
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: was represented by the Federal Veterans minister at the event,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: but came to the bombing of Darwin where he spoke,
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: where he later wreathed, where he paid commemoration and tribute.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: I think that's fair enough.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: And film a promo video at the same time.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, if he spent two minutes having a photo,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: do people really expect him to rock up halfway through
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: a commemorative service. I mean that's not what people wouldn't
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: think that was appropriate either, So I think a bit
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: of context, this is an excellent opportunism by Labor and
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: you know, ten points to Gosling for seeing an opportunity
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: to put his name up in headlights.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure that our listeners will have very differing opinions.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Lea Fanochiaro was an interesting interview. I've got to tell you.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I wasn't expecting it to get so fiy so early,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: but I'm always interesting in here is Noche
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, thank you, Take care everyone,