Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Opposition Leader Lia Finochiarro about The NT Government's bonuses for public servants

Transcript

Katie spoke with Opposition Leader Lia Finochiarro about The NT Government's bonuses for public servants · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio is the Opposition leader
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Lea Fanochi.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, good morning, Good morning Katie, and to your listeners.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Now, Leah, we know that this situation in Catherine, it
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: obviously remains quite a concern. We've heard there are some
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: concerns with groceries and essential items as well. The Chief
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Minister yesterday saying that we're not expecting that lockdown to
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: lift until December four.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: What are you being told out of Catherine at the moment.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, certainly.
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: Our Member for Catherine, Joe Hersey, is out on the
• 0:26
  Speaker 4: ground and feeding back both to government and to us
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: things that are happening in Catherine. It's fair to say
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: it had a very bumpy start. It was quite chaotic.
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: People were very confused, people couldn't access testing. A lot
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: of that seems to have sorted itself out now and
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: I know the health and emergency personnel out there have
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: done a great job, but you know it's therein for
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: the long haul in Catherine. It's really tough and to
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: have you particularly Woollies and other shops in that situation
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: where people can't get access to essential services or limited
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: access is.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Something that needs to be with it.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: It looks like government have made steps to address those shortfalls,
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: but there'll be a lot of businesses who really.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Are questioning how they're going to get through this.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: And equally, I think everyone in that community just wants
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: to make sure everyone's safe, that we get to the
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: bottom of this, the two clusters, and you know, hopefully
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: just see the end to it.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I agree.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I do think that most people want to see this thing,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you know, see everything sort of clear up as quickly
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: as possible, and hope that it does. I know that
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: there has been really a lot to take in this
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: week and on Monday there will the announcement on the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: public service bonus. So it essentially means a ten thousand
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: dollars bonus for public servants over a.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Four year period. Lea, do you think that this should happen.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: Well, we think it'd be fantastic to happen, but the
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: government just simply can't afford it. I mean, it's ridiculous.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: The government spent taxpayers dollars a few years ago to
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: implement the Langolant Report. Now, the Langolant Report was a
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: report done into budget. It was very clear that the
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: public service should be offered a one thousand dollars pay
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: rise every year going forward, and so we accepted the
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: Langolant recommendations. It's a responsible measure for our budget, but
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: also doesn't punish the public service in the sense that
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: it's real wages growth. It's something you can take to
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: the bank, you know, like when you when you get
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: a pay rise, when you have a contract, you can
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: go and get a mortgage, you can go and sort
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: your finances out. But this promise of a bonus really
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: isn't worth the paper it's written on it.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: So you do think that they should still get the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: pay increase.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Yes, we think the one thousand dollars a year pay
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: increase is fair, manageable, reasonable, and it's what Langolance said.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: This ten thousand dollars has come out of nowhere. It's
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: the Gunner government's way of trying to buy votes close
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: to Christmas. They're clearly throwing the Langolant report in the
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: bin and have no commitment to budget repair. But equally,
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: that's not providing any security to those public servants. They
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: can't take the promise of a pay rise to secure
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: their mortgage.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Equally, at the end of the day, though we are
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: talking about thirty million dollars in savings, and you know
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: that then as soon as it's gone into you know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the bank, we're spending it again. Is that really what
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: we should be doing, This would be actually trying to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: make sure that we're saving this money.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: It's worse than that, Katie. That money is not a savings.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: Michael Gunner never had that money in the first place.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Let's not forget Langolean exposed that we were borrowing four
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: million dollars a day just to pay the public service
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: and keep the lights on. So there's apparent thirty million dollars,
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: which is from the four hundred odd public servants who
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: don't want to get vaccinated, is not a savings because
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: we never had that money in the first place. And
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: so for the Michael Gunner to all of a sudden
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: think he can redistribute money he doesn't have. I mean,
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: we've likened it to spending your lottery winnings without even
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: buying a lottery ticket. It's just illogical and shows how
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: little credibility he has as a treasurer.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: So I guess you know, at the heart of this,
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  Speaker 1: we know that the reason that the you know that
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: he's saying that there's a thirty million dollar saving is
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: because we've got four hundred public servants who've decided not
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to get the JAB. You know, when it comes to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: this COVID vaccine and the mandate, he reckons said it's
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: going to have absolutely no impact on service delivery. But
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I have seen a breakdown of those numbers. It's five
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: police obviously, forty five teachers, two people working in custodial
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: frontline areas, forty nine nurses.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: How is that not going to have an impact on
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: the front line?
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Of course it will. I mean it's ridiculous.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: Just a month ago we were desperately trying to hire
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: fifty more nurses. We're barely replacing attrition and of course
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: we've had four code yellows this year alone in Royal
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Dalwen Hospital.
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  Speaker 2: We know our health system is in crisis.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: The gun and government, because we're so broke, have not
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: provided our health system with a huge increased package like
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: we've seen in other jurisdictions who've pumped hundreds of millions
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: of dollars more into their health systems because of COVID.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: So this really does show that they're just grasping at straws.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: I mean, they're all over the place when it comes
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: to our healthcare system, our fiscal management, our budget, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: where the government's tracking going forward.
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  Speaker 2: And you know what.
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  Speaker 4: About the public the private sector. I mean, you know,
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: the private sector would love to get a bonus like this,
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: but unfortunately they're suffering under the hand of.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: A bad government.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: We'll get to that in a moment.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: I do want to talk about these changes to the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: public holidays as well, but before I get there, just
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: to make it really clear for our listeners, when it
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: comes to this public service pay dispute that's going on
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: at the moment. The opposition the COLP does not support
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the ten thousand dollars bonus, but you do support a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: one thousand dollar bonus annually.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: No, so not a bonus, a pay rise. So the
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: Langland Report into budget repair. So the public service should
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: receive a one thousand dollars pay rise every year. That
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: means they get their superannuation and everything else that it
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: touches to it. It's a salary increase. What Michael Gunner
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: is saying is you have a four year wages freeze.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: Your wage will not increase, but will throw some trinkets
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: at you to try and make you happy.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Close to Christmas.
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  Speaker 4: And what we're saying is you can't take trinkets to
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: the bank, but with genuine and wages growth, you can
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: go and make all those financial decisions for your family
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: that you need to and put roots down in the territory.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: All right. I know a lot of people listening this
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: morning will be thinking to themselves, shouldn't that thirty million dollars.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I know that you've said that it's not actually a
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: saving anyway, but shouldn't that thirty million dollars be spent
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: somewhere like our health system where we know that we
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: are struggling at this point.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well it doesn't exist because we would we would
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: have borrowed those people's wages. So those four hundred public
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: servants that we've lost, their wages are borrowed from the
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: bank that we have to go and get a loan
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: to pay them.
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  Speaker 2: So it's not a real saving. It just means less
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: of a loan.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: But instead of putting it on the bottom line or
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: spending it on health, he's redistributing that back throughout the
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: public service.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: All right. We know that today the Minister Paul Kirby
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: has announced that Boxing Day has been declared a public
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: holiday in the Northern Territory, with thousands of workers taking
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: home extra penalty rates as what's.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Been described as a surprise Christmas gift.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Now, I know that some people are sort of a
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: bit confused by this because Boxing Day is a public holiday,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: but it's an additional day. So under the Northern Territory legius,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: if Boxing Day falls on a weekend, the following Monday
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: is designated as a public holiday instead. But the government
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: has this year decided to December twenty six as an
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: additional public holiday as well. So basically what it means
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: is it's going to be an extra public holiday. Leah,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: what do you think of this move?
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  Speaker 4: I'll have to look into it a bit further because
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: my understanding was that the number of public holidays is legislated,
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: So this sounds like a bit of bluff and blustered
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  Speaker 4: to me.
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  Speaker 2: But ultimately, you know, it's just the gunn of.
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  Speaker 4: Government HARKing back to what they know best, and that's
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: to throw out presents.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, is it going to have an impact on businesses,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Because at the end of the day, it's great if
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: you're a casual employee. It's great if you're working in
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: retail and you've got to work those extra days. But
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: if you're a business trying to operate at the moment,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it's clearly going to have an impact.
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  Speaker 2: It's a huge impact.
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  Speaker 4: When the first thing Michael Gunna did when becoming Chief
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  Speaker 4: Minister was create two half day public holidays for New
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Year's even Christmas Eve, and at that time we had
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: outrage from the business community because they simply couldn't afford it.
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  Speaker 2: Now this is an entire additional.
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  Speaker 4: Day, and you know who pays for this, Katie, it's
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: the businesses, and it's you and me and everyone else
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  Speaker 4: who's going to go and access those services. You know,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: you can expect ten to twenty percent surcharges on top
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: of your meals or whatever it is you're purchasing to
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: cover those wages. Now, it's lovely for everyone to get
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: increased wages, but your economy needs to be strong and
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: your cost of living needs to be there to match,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: and we just don't have the right mix at the
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: moment for people to be able to sustain this, particularly
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: when you overlay COVID and the pressure and lack of
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: tourism that that has had. I mean, for some businesses,
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: they will shut their doors and that means those employees
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: will get zero instead of getting their old income.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Well, and I will make sure that we catch up
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: with the Chamber of Commerce. S're going to join us
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: on the show in about ten minutes time, so we'll
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: get a further take from their perspective about what kind
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: of impact this will have on business. Leah, I understand
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: you guys have just released a statement this morning saying
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: that it's staggering that the government is washing its hands
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: of crucial details of the thirty five million dollar payout
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: to convicted teenage criminals. So I know that the Opposition
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: submitted through the formal parliamentary process some questions about these details.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: What's happened.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: So, of course, a few months ago we learned that
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: the government settled thirty five million dollars for youth criminals
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: who were in don Dale for their mistreatment in prison.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Now that was meant to be up to twelve hundred
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: US could claim a portion of this thirty five million dollars.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: Now that has just flown in the face of victims.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: We know that victims get basically nothing and have been
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: left behind by the Gunner government. So we've been asking
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: a lot of questions about how is this money going
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: to be spent? So simple questions like what is the
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: criteria for a use to be able to apply for
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: a portion of this thirty five million dollars, what process
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: has to be followed, who was administering it?
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: Is there a cap or limit on the amount any
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: one youth criminal can get out of this compensation? And
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: the Gunner government knows the answers, but instead has just
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: fobbed us off to the lawyers. They've completely devolved any
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: responsibility to the legal team for the youth criminals, might
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: I add, and just have sort of handed over this
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: thirty five million dollars and said, oh, well, here you go,
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: Morris Blackburn, you guys work it out.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And so what detail were you really wanting to get here?
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: What you know, what exactly do you think that Territorians
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: need to know about?
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: Well, we think given there's only been a third of
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: the number of youths come forward that was originally anticipated,
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: the government's got to go back to the courts and say, well,
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: hang on a second, we set aside thirty five because
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: there was going to be twelve hundred. There's now only
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: four hundred and sixty odd youths. We've got to scale
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: that back two thirds, so you know, it's still a
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: hideous amount of money around eleven million dollars. But people
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: deserve to know what criteria these youths can apply. I mean,
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: what constitutes mistreatment in prison? How much can one youth claim?
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, can one offender walk away with ten million
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: dollars and the others one thousand dollars? I mean, there
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: just seems to be no transparency around.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Is going to be any push for them to have
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: to pay back any of their victims?
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely not, And that's what we've been saying.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: If one single dollar of compensation is paid to these us,
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: their victims should be paid first. We know that restitution
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: is dealt with abhorrently in the Northern Territory. Victims get
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: absolutely nothing, and it's just not good enough. I mean,
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: this is just so offender focus. It's not funny. And
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: to just give away thirty five million dollars and then
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: let the lawyers and the criminals work it out just
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: blows my mind.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Well, Leah Fanocchiara, we are going to have to leave
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: it there, Opposition Leader. Always appreciate your time.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you, everyone, Take care