Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was 4th February 2022

Transcript

The Week That Was 4th February 2022 · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: And good morning and welcome to the week that was
0:02
Speaker 1: the first week that was for the year. Very exciting
0:05
Speaker 1: to be back in here on a Friday morning and
0:07
Speaker 1: joining us live in the studio and socially distanced. We
0:10
Speaker 1: have got Leofanocchiaro, the Opposition leader, Good morning to you.
0:13
Speaker 2: Good morning everyone. It's great to be Matt, Katie.
0:16
Speaker 1: And we've got Keesy and Puric the Independent member for
0:19
Speaker 1: going a good morning to you.
0:20
Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. So far this wet season, my property's
0:23
Speaker 3: had sixty nine inches of rain.
0:25
Speaker 4: Whoa wow, which.
0:26
Speaker 3: I think I worked out was about seventeen hundred meals.
0:30
Speaker 3: That is a lot of rain, just times the inches
0:32
Speaker 3: by twenty five million. Yeah, well, there's no doubt about that.
0:35
Speaker 3: That's an awful lot of rain.
0:38
Speaker 4: Swelling at your piza.
0:41
Speaker 1: And we have got Eva Laula from the Labor Party
0:43
Speaker 1: in this studio of course, the Minister for Infrastructure Planning
0:46
Speaker 1: and various other portfolios.
0:47
Speaker 4: Good morning to you, and and we might even kick
0:50
Speaker 4: off with that. So the fact that we have had
0:51
Speaker 4: so much.
0:52
Speaker 1: Rain and what it's meant when it comes to our
0:54
Speaker 1: supermarket shelves and you know, the rail and the road
0:58
Speaker 1: being closed. We've seen the situation obviously with South Australia
1:02
Speaker 1: flooding and ultimately meaning that parts of the Stuart Highway
1:07
Speaker 1: have closed.
1:08
Speaker 4: And I tell you what I think.
1:09
Speaker 1: It was Friday last week, about this time last week,
1:12
Speaker 1: I went into one of the supermarkets in the shopping
1:15
Speaker 1: center and was with my kids, took a bit of
1:17
Speaker 1: a video.
1:18
Speaker 4: There was nothing on the shelves.
1:20
Speaker 3: Well, it's for every downside, there's an upside. So there's
1:24
Speaker 3: a lot of people out here in the Northern Territory
1:26
Speaker 3: eating a lot of meat, and they can only be
1:28
Speaker 3: good for the primary industry and the beef industry and
1:30
Speaker 3: the cows and the pigs and the chickens and whatever.
1:33
Speaker 3: But I think I don't think people were as silly
1:37
Speaker 3: as they did when we first had COVID in town.
1:39
Speaker 3: We had our lockdown. But you know, I understand that
1:42
Speaker 3: there are some families and people who you know, live
1:44
Speaker 3: pay packet to pay pack it, and I get all that,
1:46
Speaker 3: and you know that's tough. But I think we've all
1:49
Speaker 3: got to be a little bit selfless, you know, and
1:53
Speaker 3: just even if we have to go to the shops
1:54
Speaker 3: every day, just take enough for you to feed you
1:56
Speaker 3: and your children. That kind of thing.
1:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, don't go crazy, don't go crazy.
1:59
Speaker 3: But there was plenty of There was plenty of tuck
2:01
Speaker 3: about it. What is it cool a linger?
2:02
Speaker 4: Was there coals?
2:03
Speaker 5: No?
2:04
Speaker 3: But is it cooler linger? And also what is it
2:06
Speaker 3: humpty doo?
2:07
Speaker 4: Yeah?
2:07
Speaker 3: That the meat was denuded and fruit and vegies was
2:10
Speaker 3: pretty low. There was plenty of tuckers, bread, there was milk.
2:13
Speaker 3: There's lots of cantucker.
2:14
Speaker 6: Yeah.
2:15
Speaker 3: I think it also from what I'm understanding and listening
2:17
Speaker 3: to some people, is that people got a bit more
2:21
Speaker 3: creative with their meals.
2:22
Speaker 4: Well some yes, some un got fussy kids like I do.
2:27
Speaker 7: It's an awful lot harder when you have little children.
2:31
Speaker 2: Look, it's also very confronting.
2:33
Speaker 7: I mean I came back from leave, went to Cole's,
2:36
Speaker 7: walked in and there was absolutely nothing. That I stood
2:38
Speaker 7: there with my jaw to the ground. You know, I
2:41
Speaker 7: really thought to myself, Wow, what have people been going
2:44
Speaker 7: through over this last week? And what does the future
2:46
Speaker 7: look like? And I think, you know, no one's blaming
2:48
Speaker 7: the Gunner government for the weather. And of course we've
2:50
Speaker 7: had extreme weather events, right, No, I didn't even don't
2:54
Speaker 7: start with Gutta politics so early into the show.
2:58
Speaker 2: I know it's your style, but give me two minutes.
3:01
Speaker 7: No, no, I've never blamed you for the weather. As
3:06
Speaker 7: much as you like to think you're that powerful, you
3:08
Speaker 7: are not. So we'll leave God to the weather and
3:12
Speaker 7: I'll get back to what I was saying. So, you know,
3:15
Speaker 7: as much as no one can control the weather, we
3:17
Speaker 7: can control the communications to the community about what's going on.
3:21
Speaker 2: And that didn't happen.
3:22
Speaker 7: People were coming to me and I know others saying
3:25
Speaker 7: why is this happening, What is going on? What is
3:27
Speaker 7: the government doing? How long is it going to last?
3:30
Speaker 7: So we could have had a lot more transparent communications
3:33
Speaker 7: with people about what to expect and when to expect it.
3:35
Speaker 7: We should have had stronger relationships with the South Australian
3:38
Speaker 7: government and of course the federal government.
3:39
Speaker 2: I mean, but I mean you say we have you
3:42
Speaker 2: can say what you like.
3:43
Speaker 7: Your government has turned back federal support for flights of
3:47
Speaker 7: food to get to food bank in Alice Springs. I mean,
3:49
Speaker 7: you know, it's just unbelievable. So I hope at the
3:53
Speaker 7: very least there's lots of lessons learned for the territory
3:55
Speaker 7: government on this one. But you know, if particularly if
3:59
Speaker 7: you have young children, you have family with special dietary requirements,
4:03
Speaker 7: you can't get out much, you don't have a vehicle,
4:04
Speaker 7: you don't have much money.
4:06
Speaker 2: It would have been an incredibly stressful time.
4:09
Speaker 4: We'll talk about that food bank situation.
4:13
Speaker 1: I want to ask as well, though, you know, is
4:15
Speaker 1: it time for us to really look at seeking that
4:17
Speaker 1: federal funding as well? And obviously it would need to
4:20
Speaker 1: be South Australia and the territory government actually floodproofing the
4:23
Speaker 1: Stewart Highway.
4:25
Speaker 8: So yes, let's sort of back up a few things.
4:27
Speaker 8: So first of all, we all and everybody that's been
4:30
Speaker 8: working in emergency management while Lea's been on holidays, have
4:34
Speaker 8: been working hard to resolve this situation. So this situation,
4:38
Speaker 8: again Lea saying on a Facebook page, we should be
4:40
Speaker 8: doing these things. This is an issue that was in
4:43
Speaker 8: South Australia. It is Glendambo and Pimba which are in
4:47
Speaker 8: South Australia. They're the places that are impacted. So we
4:50
Speaker 8: have been working with the South Australian government. How many
4:52
Speaker 8: times have you rung the South Australian Minister Corey Wingard, Leah,
4:56
Speaker 8: how many times have you rung Barnaby Joyce in the
4:59
Speaker 8: last monthly yourself.
5:02
Speaker 4: So we are.
5:02
Speaker 8: Working around this issue and I as I said, take
5:05
Speaker 8: my hats off to the transport industry, the Transport Association,
5:10
Speaker 8: everybody who's been involved in freight who have then changed
5:13
Speaker 8: their freight roots. Places like Woolworths have now got nearly
5:17
Speaker 8: all their freight coming out of Townsville, out of Brisbane.
5:20
Speaker 8: So it is a fact. Yes, there has been unherlded rain,
5:24
Speaker 8: the rain that we haven't ever seen in Central Australia.
5:27
Speaker 8: People in South Australia are saying this is a one
5:30
Speaker 8: in one hundred year event. They have never seen so
5:32
Speaker 8: much rain in places like Andermuka. So we've had to
5:36
Speaker 8: look at other roots which has been through the Barkley.
5:39
Speaker 8: We're monitoring that situation very very carefully. I'd say most
5:43
Speaker 8: of the shops are about seventy eighty percent back and
5:46
Speaker 8: we will have to continue to monitor the situation as
5:49
Speaker 8: water comes through the Berkley. But all of that said,
5:52
Speaker 8: your question around the roads, So as a government, we
5:55
Speaker 8: work with the federal government around Rhodes so most of
5:59
Speaker 8: the Still Highway, our sections of the Stuart Highway are
6:03
Speaker 8: either at one in twenty or one in fifty year
6:07
Speaker 8: flood events and we will continue to work with the
6:09
Speaker 8: federal government around making sure that that moves to one
6:12
Speaker 8: in fifty. I've got a draft letter that I'm just
6:15
Speaker 8: about to sign. I'm just doing some tweaking, writing to
6:18
Speaker 8: Barnaby Joyce to say that he needs to come on
6:21
Speaker 8: board around that. We have been working for all our
6:24
Speaker 8: term of government around making sure the tantami gets bitamized.
6:28
Speaker 8: That provides a route from the Alice Springs to the
6:30
Speaker 8: west to Hall's Creek. We've also been working with the
6:34
Speaker 8: federal government around the Outback Way which provides an east
6:37
Speaker 8: another additional east west route, the route to South which
6:40
Speaker 8: is the route to Adelaide. Again, most of the section,
6:44
Speaker 8: well all the sections out are flooding at the moment,
6:46
Speaker 8: are in South Australia. I've had two phone calls to
6:49
Speaker 8: the South Australian Minister, Corey wind Guard. Very much a
6:52
Speaker 8: cooperative relationship, very much about working with us. Andrew Kirkman,
6:56
Speaker 8: the CEO of Dipple, has been working constantly with Tony
7:01
Speaker 8: Braxton Smith.
7:01
Speaker 1: When do we anticipate that road like, when do we
7:04
Speaker 1: anticipate that it is going to reopen? I know that
7:07
Speaker 1: there is still quite a substantial amount of water there
7:09
Speaker 1: from what I can gather.
7:10
Speaker 8: So the conversations with South Australia, and I think Steve
7:14
Speaker 8: Marshall was actually and Glen Dambo yesterday. I know Tony
7:19
Speaker 8: Braxton Smith, the CEO of the Infrastructure Department, has been
7:22
Speaker 8: there as well. They think it will be possibly ten
7:26
Speaker 8: to twelve days right, but again they need the water
7:29
Speaker 8: to go down. They then need to check the underlay
7:32
Speaker 8: I guess, of the road to make sure that the
7:34
Speaker 8: road trains don't crause more damage than that's already been damaged.
7:39
Speaker 8: And it might be that they go to singles, so
7:41
Speaker 8: instead of having doubles or triples going across that section,
7:44
Speaker 8: that they uncouple and take singles across. It could be
7:47
Speaker 8: that they first of all for the first week that
7:50
Speaker 8: they take singles back, or they do return empties because
7:54
Speaker 8: if you can do empties back that will cut the distance.
7:56
Speaker 4: So I guess there's lots of things.
7:58
Speaker 1: Fundamentally, most people will thinking, as said listening this morning,
8:01
Speaker 1: is I know that you've said there is a lot
8:03
Speaker 1: of stock back on those shelves now, but most people
8:06
Speaker 1: listening this morning who are maybe still having trouble purchasing
8:09
Speaker 1: their milk, maybe still having trouble getting the foods that
8:11
Speaker 1: they would ordinarily purchase, particularly if they're people that are
8:14
Speaker 1: in isolation, which we know a lot of territories are
8:17
Speaker 1: at the moment and they're waiting for those deliveries from
8:19
Speaker 1: wilworts and coals. Is when do you anticipate that we
8:23
Speaker 1: are going to get to the point where all of
8:25
Speaker 1: that freight that we would ordinarily have arriving each and
8:28
Speaker 1: every week will be able to do that.
8:30
Speaker 8: So there's a number of factors. One Queensland, the Queensland roads,
8:33
Speaker 8: the Barkley needs to stay open. So there has been
8:35
Speaker 8: rain in the Barkley. Fortunately some of the well fortunately
8:39
Speaker 8: the Barklays remain mostly open. So that's a variable there.
8:43
Speaker 8: And as I said, these things are in other states hands.
8:45
Speaker 8: So South Australian government hand Queensland's hands about making sure
8:50
Speaker 8: the roads stay open. We have people in Department of Infrastructure,
8:54
Speaker 8: Planning Logistics who are on National Emergency Management meetings daily,
9:00
Speaker 8: who are going through these issues working with the other states.
9:03
Speaker 8: So yours the answer Kat is impossible because we don't know.
9:06
Speaker 8: Le has just said, I'm not God, we don't know
9:09
Speaker 8: what's going to happen around it. Well for that, we
9:11
Speaker 8: don't know what's going to happen around the weather. You know,
9:14
Speaker 8: we can't crystal ball around that.
9:18
Speaker 1: Open.
9:18
Speaker 5: I mean.
9:19
Speaker 7: The other one is you've been talking for ten minutes.
9:25
Speaker 7: People falling asleep at home in the it's dangerous for making.
9:29
Speaker 8: The Police Commissioner has done media events every single day. COVID,
9:33
Speaker 8: there has been COVID updates and the cheap and the
9:37
Speaker 8: Police Commission has made announcement every single day about the issue.
9:40
Speaker 3: Katie, I just want to raise for a couple of things.
9:43
Speaker 3: This is not this is not unusual what's happened with
9:46
Speaker 3: the road being cut and the rail being cut at
9:48
Speaker 3: the same time. I can recall in past years when
9:51
Speaker 3: we've had massive wet seasons that we lost all We
9:53
Speaker 3: lost the VIC, we lost the we lost the Stuart Highways.
9:57
Speaker 3: What it shows and what the government doesn't matter which
9:59
Speaker 3: government it's in power. What it shows and what they
10:01
Speaker 3: should have which if they do good, if they don't,
10:03
Speaker 3: they should get it is to do the risk assessment.
10:05
Speaker 3: This shows our weakness is that the Northern Territory is
10:09
Speaker 3: very dependent upon our road infrastructure and also dependent on
10:12
Speaker 3: getting the freight through road and rail. It's obviously okay,
10:16
Speaker 3: but hugely expensive if you have to move food is
10:19
Speaker 3: showing the weakness. So really a strategy has to be
10:21
Speaker 3: developed and put in place. This will happen again in
10:24
Speaker 3: the future, there's no doubt about it. I mean will
10:27
Speaker 3: recall when there was that train dealer railment at the
10:29
Speaker 3: Edith River. I think for some reason Edith flooded and
10:31
Speaker 3: cut the road and whatever. So this will happen again
10:34
Speaker 3: in the in the near future in the Northern Territory,
10:36
Speaker 3: we will lose roads, we'll lose the rail and it'll
10:38
Speaker 3: cut our freight lines. So we need to develop something
10:41
Speaker 3: now going forward. And obviously rain proofing or whatever you
10:45
Speaker 3: call it. The Stewart Highway is obviously part of the picture,
10:48
Speaker 3: and ceiling ceiling other parts of the highway. But we
10:51
Speaker 3: will still always have issues, so we need to deal
10:52
Speaker 3: with issues when we.
10:54
Speaker 8: Get up the national highway. This is the national highway.
10:57
Speaker 8: So let's see the federal government and that will be
10:59
Speaker 8: the less I write. Let's see the federal government also
11:03
Speaker 8: money on the tape and put money up. So whether
11:05
Speaker 8: it's the VIC Highway, whether it's a Barkley or the
11:07
Speaker 8: Stuart Highway, that's Highway one.
11:09
Speaker 1: But so you are lobbying for that either you're lobbying
11:11
Speaker 1: to flood proof the Stuart Highway, Yes.
11:13
Speaker 3: To see improvements in Well, I've just got one more thing,
11:16
Speaker 3: because this shows the the and I've got looking at
11:18
Speaker 3: it here on my phone. The Chief Minister put a photo.
11:21
Speaker 4: Of his webs ask you about this of.
11:24
Speaker 3: Trucks coming from the east, implying they are the freight
11:26
Speaker 3: trucks coming and they're rolling in. That was a blat
11:29
Speaker 3: lie years ago, six years ago. Now he's taken the
11:33
Speaker 3: photo down or the post down, not before people have
11:36
Speaker 3: screenshotted it, like people like myself. Now, if he's lying
11:39
Speaker 3: about that kind of stuff, what else is he fibbing about.
11:41
Speaker 2: Well, he's a pretty suspect, including about COVID.
11:47
Speaker 1: That's about this is that it's actually it's disingenuous to
11:51
Speaker 1: Territorians who are actually waiting and hoping that those trucks
11:54
Speaker 1: are going to arrive and that food is arriving.
11:57
Speaker 3: Should never have done that.
11:58
Speaker 1: I'm sure that it will be fobbed off as a mistake,
12:01
Speaker 1: you know, by someone in their social media. But you've
12:04
Speaker 1: got to make sure that you get it right with
12:06
Speaker 1: this kind of thing, and it is disingenuous, Like I say,
12:08
Speaker 1: if you are a mum at home, you know, waiting
12:10
Speaker 1: for milk in your food delivery, if you're in isolation,
12:13
Speaker 1: as I know a lot of parents who are at
12:16
Speaker 1: this point and they are literally, you know, saying to me,
12:18
Speaker 1: I can't you know we're allowed to get one two
12:20
Speaker 1: liter bottle of milk and one you know, small milk
12:23
Speaker 1: for the kids as in you know kids that like
12:25
Speaker 1: their flavored milk or whatever. So there are concerns out there.
12:30
Speaker 1: So then to post a photo like that, I know
12:31
Speaker 1: that we can have a bit of a laugh about it,
12:33
Speaker 1: but it is very disingenuous, whether it has come from
12:36
Speaker 1: the Chief Minister himself or his team. A leader has
12:39
Speaker 1: to take responsibility for anything really that goes up on
12:42
Speaker 1: their Facebook page. All four of us need to, as
12:45
Speaker 1: he does as well. And I do think that he's
12:47
Speaker 1: got egg on his face this morning as a result
12:49
Speaker 1: of that fatal and.
12:50
Speaker 7: He should be condemned for that. But you know, Eva,
12:52
Speaker 7: you fobbing off this as being like, oh well, ow,
12:55
Speaker 7: he's of the Stuart Highway finishes here, and you know
12:58
Speaker 7: that's their problem. At the end of the day, it
13:01
Speaker 7: has exposed just how vulnerable we are, and it shows
13:05
Speaker 7: that more needs to be done in advance. There's no
13:07
Speaker 7: point you writing a letter two weeks after the event.
13:09
Speaker 7: You know this is critical work that has to be
13:12
Speaker 7: ongoing all the time. And to just sort of say, well,
13:15
Speaker 7: the road on the Queensland side, that's their problem, the
13:17
Speaker 7: road on the South Australian side is their problem is
13:19
Speaker 7: not good enough because do you know who suffers the
13:21
Speaker 7: two hundred and fifty thousand territorians we've got who are
13:25
Speaker 7: highly reliant on those links. So it's important that it's done.
13:29
Speaker 7: The communication hasn't been there. People don't know how long
13:32
Speaker 7: to expect this because people will make different decisions about
13:35
Speaker 7: how they cook, what they cook, how often they go
13:37
Speaker 7: to the shops if they just know what's going on.
13:39
Speaker 4: I'm going to have to get one quick thing.
13:42
Speaker 8: I have built thirty one bridges under my term as
13:44
Speaker 8: Infrastructure Minister. I have put more money into roads than
13:47
Speaker 8: any other government previously. We understand the issues in the territory.
13:51
Speaker 8: About sixty eight percent of our roads a dirt. So
13:54
Speaker 8: I have done leah more work than you, more work
13:57
Speaker 8: than you're going.
13:58
Speaker 7: Goodness around gradually somewhere women trophy.
14:02
Speaker 4: Can you do that, ree?
14:06
Speaker 1: And let's try and keep it nice. Hey, it's eighteen
14:09
Speaker 1: minutes nine o'clock. You are listening to Mix one oh
14:12
Speaker 1: four point nine's three sixty. It is the week that
14:14
Speaker 1: was well. It is certainly a busy week. And in
14:16
Speaker 1: the studio Leofanochi, A O. Keseyopiric and Eva Laula, now
14:20
Speaker 1: we know that the COVID situation in the Northern Territory
14:23
Speaker 1: is certainly moving quite quickly.
14:25
Speaker 4: I think you'd have to say.
14:26
Speaker 1: The Education Department joined me on the show yesterday and
14:29
Speaker 1: said that there were three hundred and twenty nine territory
14:32
Speaker 1: students reported to their schools that were COVID positive by
14:35
Speaker 1: Wednesday night. That's across fifty seven of the territories one
14:39
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty schools.
14:41
Speaker 4: I think that most of.
14:42
Speaker 1: Us, now, you know, I guess six months ago, if
14:44
Speaker 1: you said to somebody, do you know someone who's got COVID,
14:47
Speaker 1: A lot of us probably didn't, Whereas at this point
14:49
Speaker 1: in time in the territory it is certainly having an
14:52
Speaker 1: impact in so many ways health wise and also for
14:57
Speaker 1: so many of our businesses. And throughout this week I've
15:00
Speaker 1: caught up with Alex Bruce from Hospitality NT. I've heard
15:03
Speaker 1: from businesses in Alice Springs and also spoken to businesses
15:06
Speaker 1: right here in Darwin and Palmerston who have really been,
15:10
Speaker 1: you know, crying out for a bit of a hand up.
15:13
Speaker 1: I think you'd say it's not They're not asking for
15:16
Speaker 1: a handout. We're talking about hard working Territory families who
15:20
Speaker 1: really would not be in this situation by any fault
15:23
Speaker 1: of their own. It is due to COVID. We now
15:26
Speaker 1: know that, you know that, following on from those industry
15:29
Speaker 1: calls and businesses business calls, that the Territory government is
15:33
Speaker 1: going to today, as I understand EVA, announce the return
15:36
Speaker 1: of the Territory Business Hardship Register. It was first introduced
15:41
Speaker 1: early in the pandemic back in twenty twenty. It's expected
15:44
Speaker 1: to see at least five million dollars in savings and
15:47
Speaker 1: support flow on to those territory businesses.
15:50
Speaker 8: Yeah, so a nice initiative today and the Chief Minister
15:53
Speaker 8: will be out later to talk about it. But overall
15:56
Speaker 8: about a five million dollar package. So if the businesses
15:59
Speaker 8: are jib they'll have their payroll tax waivered, they'll receive
16:02
Speaker 8: a one off grant of three thousand dollars for if
16:05
Speaker 8: they have employees and one thousand for sole traders and
16:09
Speaker 8: they'll have their utility bills reduced by thirty percent. I
16:12
Speaker 8: know as Minister for Power and Water that one was
16:15
Speaker 8: very well received last year. I think there was up
16:18
Speaker 8: I think it was about three point eight million dollars
16:20
Speaker 8: worth of electricity reductions were made or savings were made
16:25
Speaker 8: for people. So something good today this Territory Business Hardship Register.
16:30
Speaker 8: As I said, I know business have been calling for that,
16:33
Speaker 8: but there was some work that needed to be done
16:34
Speaker 8: that's been done. So if you are a business that
16:37
Speaker 8: can demonstrate forty percent reduction in turnover in either December
16:41
Speaker 8: or January compared to the equivalent in twenty nineteen twenty,
16:44
Speaker 8: you'll be eligible.
16:45
Speaker 1: And I know there are a lot of businesses who
16:47
Speaker 1: listen to this show. So if you do want to
16:49
Speaker 1: send us a message and let us know how this
16:51
Speaker 1: is going to impact you, if it is a good thing,
16:54
Speaker 1: please do zero four double nine seven double one three
16:57
Speaker 1: six zero now, Leah, I know that it is something
17:00
Speaker 1: that the COLP was out earlier in the week with
17:02
Speaker 1: as well, with some of those businesses really calling for
17:05
Speaker 1: this to be reinstated.
17:07
Speaker 7: Yeah, we have been inundated with the businesses reaching out
17:11
Speaker 7: to us just at crisis point of course. For the
17:13
Speaker 7: last month, they've suffered the worst months trading than they
17:17
Speaker 7: have in many, many years, and it's devastating. And it
17:21
Speaker 7: all started sort of with the mask announcement, you know,
17:24
Speaker 7: in a couple of hours before New Year's really kicked off.
17:26
Speaker 7: So people have been suffering for a very long time.
17:29
Speaker 7: We've stood shoulder to shoulder with those businesses in calling
17:32
Speaker 7: for government to bring back the Hardship Package, which they're
17:35
Speaker 7: going to do today, but also the Business Survival Fund,
17:38
Speaker 7: which I understand is not part of the announcement. We
17:42
Speaker 7: need these business you know, these businesses have suffered through
17:44
Speaker 7: everything for the last two years. They've maintained their staff,
17:47
Speaker 7: they've continued to trade, pay their bills, and just as
17:51
Speaker 7: we were looking at that light at the end of
17:52
Speaker 7: the tunnel, they've been dealt the biggest blow of all
17:54
Speaker 7: and we want them to be there for the long
17:56
Speaker 7: haul and we've got to do what we can now
17:59
Speaker 7: to get through this next really what's looking like a
18:01
Speaker 7: very ugly period.
18:02
Speaker 4: I reckon it is going.
18:03
Speaker 1: To be a really tough few weeks for a lot
18:06
Speaker 1: of territory businesses because, as I said, those COVID case
18:09
Speaker 1: numbers continue to rise. And I'm not saying it's sort
18:11
Speaker 1: of scare mongering people, but it's more a practicality thing
18:14
Speaker 1: that as we see more territorians contract COVID, we're going
18:17
Speaker 1: to see more people go into isolation. Some of those
18:20
Speaker 1: different businesses around the Northern Territory might have a staff
18:22
Speaker 1: member who contracts COVID there then maybe worked with someone
18:26
Speaker 1: else for four hours and are deemed a close contact.
18:28
Speaker 1: There's all sorts of ramifications.
18:30
Speaker 3: There's a time business I forget it's what it's called,
18:34
Speaker 3: the one at Palmson next to the Good Time spar Yeah,
18:37
Speaker 3: and they had to close because there's staff got COVID.
18:40
Speaker 3: Because I went in there, there was just the manager
18:42
Speaker 3: fellow and he said I can't do anything for a week,
18:45
Speaker 3: so because he didn't have the stuff, and they're young people,
18:49
Speaker 3: because I've been there a few times. Yeah, that's lots
18:51
Speaker 3: of revenue, loss of income. I don't know whether the
18:53
Speaker 3: staff would have been on sick leave or maybe had
18:55
Speaker 3: to take leave without pay, so they've got no money
18:57
Speaker 3: they're isolating.
19:00
Speaker 7: That's just one that's just that I know that I
19:02
Speaker 7: spoke to a business with exactly the opposite problem. So
19:05
Speaker 7: many businesses are having trouble staying open because they can't
19:07
Speaker 7: don't have.
19:07
Speaker 2: Staff because of the issues.
19:09
Speaker 7: I spoke to a business who has a full complement
19:11
Speaker 7: of staff no customers because people are really hesitant to
19:15
Speaker 7: go out and people aren't moving around. And we've heard
19:17
Speaker 7: really strong feedback from a number of sectors where the
19:20
Speaker 7: mask mandate really people just aren't moving around as much
19:25
Speaker 7: as they normally used to.
19:27
Speaker 8: So Leah as well, you know, we've had job keeper
19:30
Speaker 8: and job seeker in the past, so we're looking.
19:32
Speaker 2: Forward to the federal government initiatives.
19:33
Speaker 3: So what are they going to do now?
19:35
Speaker 4: What are they going to now?
19:38
Speaker 1: I will say that is something that I have actually
19:41
Speaker 1: go to ask the Treasurer about. Josh Freidenberg, the Federal
19:44
Speaker 1: treasure was due to join me on the show yesterday,
19:46
Speaker 1: and it is actually something that I had wanted to
19:48
Speaker 1: ask about because I know that it's something that became
19:51
Speaker 1: really evident to me when I did go home or
19:54
Speaker 1: when I went back to see family on the Gold Coast.
19:57
Speaker 4: Over that New year.
19:58
Speaker 1: Period, contracted COVID most of our listeners I've told them,
20:02
Speaker 1: and as did half of the Gold Coast is what
20:05
Speaker 1: it seemed, and it meant that so many businesses shut
20:07
Speaker 1: down for both of the reasons that we've spoken about,
20:10
Speaker 1: the one that LEAs said, where you know a lot
20:12
Speaker 1: of people were scared to go out, and the other
20:14
Speaker 1: that we've spoken about, where you know, people just cannot
20:17
Speaker 1: get stuff.
20:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's a tough time.
20:19
Speaker 3: It is a tough time, and I hope that we
20:21
Speaker 3: can know whether the storm excuse the pun but and
20:24
Speaker 3: look forward to you know, a bumper dry season where
20:27
Speaker 3: you know, either get everyone gets their booster and everyone
20:30
Speaker 3: gets vaccinated, and you know, it starts to go from
20:33
Speaker 3: a pandemic to an endemic and something that we can
20:36
Speaker 3: live with because people, you know, people are really struggling.
20:38
Speaker 3: And I do I know, I even know my electors.
20:40
Speaker 3: I don't know about you two. But there's definitely much
20:43
Speaker 3: less foot traffic. Definitely people come for photocopping or of
20:47
Speaker 3: tea or whatever, or just come to tell stories or
20:49
Speaker 3: ask questions.
20:50
Speaker 4: Hey, they're not doing it as much.
20:52
Speaker 1: And one of the other things I do want to
20:53
Speaker 1: ask about is do we still need to be checking
20:56
Speaker 1: in everywhere when COVID is absolutely everywhere at the moment.
20:59
Speaker 4: Should it just be a matter of if you get sick,
21:01
Speaker 4: test yourself and stay high.
21:04
Speaker 3: I can't answer that. I still I still think you answer,
21:14
Speaker 3: let me talk. I can't answer your question. Okay, I'd
21:19
Speaker 3: have to have a think about it. But I still
21:20
Speaker 3: think there's a weakness in the in the paper copies,
21:23
Speaker 3: like people diligently keep their paper copies. Now I'm still
21:28
Speaker 3: not sure whether the employer or the publican is meant
21:31
Speaker 3: to send those paper copies to someone and that someone
21:34
Speaker 3: then goes through them and then sends a text message
21:36
Speaker 3: or records them in the database. Because what are we
21:39
Speaker 3: doing when we sign up? We got our little COVID
21:41
Speaker 3: check in little gadget thing. There was no instructions about
21:44
Speaker 3: what to do with the paper copy, but diligently kept them.
21:48
Speaker 3: And but what are the what.
21:51
Speaker 7: I'm we're hearing that businesses are not being asked for them.
21:55
Speaker 2: There's no they're not being captured.
21:59
Speaker 8: That something also be clear that you know this was
22:02
Speaker 8: Delta and now we have Omnicron and so we have
22:05
Speaker 8: seen highly contagious. So the issue with your phones and
22:08
Speaker 8: when you get your message, it is about just being
22:11
Speaker 8: reminding people about Okay, you do need you've been in contact,
22:15
Speaker 8: you've been in close contact, or you've been in an
22:17
Speaker 8: area where somebody has had COVID so monetor symptoms.
22:20
Speaker 4: One of the other.
22:21
Speaker 1: Things that I do want to raise is this we
22:23
Speaker 1: have had We have also had industry groups, well from
22:26
Speaker 1: the disability sector, actually speak to us about some of
22:29
Speaker 1: the confusion amongst you know, the sector with some of
22:33
Speaker 1: the show directives. I just want to play you a
22:36
Speaker 1: little bit of audio from Laws and broad when he
22:38
Speaker 1: joined me on the show a little bit earlier this week.
22:41
Speaker 4: Let me just make sure I've got this line.
22:43
Speaker 5: We are doing everything possible to comply with every new
22:47
Speaker 5: Chow direction, but what we're struggling with is that that's
22:52
Speaker 5: very often that's not an easy thing to do. We
22:54
Speaker 5: really are struggling to keep up. We've been in situations
22:58
Speaker 5: where I've got my whole management team around the table.
23:01
Speaker 5: We had an announcement, it was two days later, and
23:04
Speaker 5: we still didn't have the show direction. We were sitting
23:06
Speaker 5: around a table a copy of the NT News, someone
23:09
Speaker 5: else had the Chief Minister's Facebook page, someone else was
23:12
Speaker 5: looking at the Coronavirus NT website and we were doing
23:16
Speaker 5: the best we could to work out how we should
23:19
Speaker 5: be responding.
23:21
Speaker 1: So that is one of the other concerns that is
23:23
Speaker 1: around the place at the moment within some of our
23:26
Speaker 1: various sectors.
23:28
Speaker 4: That communication.
23:29
Speaker 1: You know, something gets announced obviously at a press conference,
23:32
Speaker 1: but then the flow through and being able to see
23:34
Speaker 1: those show directives really clearly on the website so that
23:38
Speaker 1: they know exactly.
23:39
Speaker 4: What they need to do. And you know, I think
23:43
Speaker 4: it's tough, like it's a big call for some.
23:45
Speaker 1: Of those different industries and different sectors to then come
23:49
Speaker 1: out in the media and say that they're not you
23:52
Speaker 1: know from what he'd said.
23:53
Speaker 4: You know, they just want that.
23:55
Speaker 1: Information so that they can make sure they're doing the
23:57
Speaker 1: right thing and not wind up with a big file.
24:00
Speaker 2: This has been a big problem right from the start.
24:02
Speaker 7: So right back when COVID first started and we were
24:04
Speaker 7: having those Public Account Committee meetings, you know, I was
24:08
Speaker 7: raising the issue of the Chief Minister putting COVID information
24:11
Speaker 7: on his Facebook before the authorities and that hasn't changed.
24:14
Speaker 7: We've had thirty five Chow direction changes this year alone.
24:18
Speaker 7: Katie and Lawson is not wrong. He shares an experience
24:22
Speaker 7: like many other territories of having to match up information
24:26
Speaker 7: set at the press conference versus what's on the Chief
24:28
Speaker 7: Minister's Facebook versus what's on the website, what's in the
24:31
Speaker 7: chow direction, and what's in you know, the media. And
24:35
Speaker 7: that's incredibly complicated, and the compliance required is significant and
24:40
Speaker 7: the punishment is significant, and so people are doing their
24:43
Speaker 7: their level best. But the communication coming out, I start
24:47
Speaker 7: to wonder if it's deliberately confusing so that it's vague
24:50
Speaker 7: enough for people to work within their own sphere.
24:53
Speaker 2: It's just amazing.
24:54
Speaker 1: I think that it would be deliberately confusing, deliberate to
24:58
Speaker 1: put information on the chiefs books page for the website.
25:01
Speaker 2: Look, how is that not deliberate?
25:03
Speaker 1: Well, look, putting it on the Facebook is not my
25:05
Speaker 1: favorite thing that happens. That's for bloody shure, as I've
25:08
Speaker 1: spoken about on numerous occasions.
25:09
Speaker 4: But I think by and large, you know, the Chief.
25:11
Speaker 1: Health Officer is obviously trying to get that communication out,
25:16
Speaker 1: but I don't know that the way that that's happening
25:18
Speaker 1: now is the best way of doing it.
25:22
Speaker 7: They made an announcement of change TRAE directions on Friday,
25:25
Speaker 7: and by the Tuesday, the CHRAE directions still hadn't come
25:28
Speaker 7: out so that to not.
25:29
Speaker 1: Accept some context for the likes of laws. And so
25:33
Speaker 1: he spoke to us obviously in that role within the
25:35
Speaker 1: disability sector, and he had said that they are in
25:38
Speaker 1: a situation at the moment where they're looking at standing
25:40
Speaker 1: down twelve employees by March twelve because they were double
25:44
Speaker 1: vaxxed after December eleven. So two new starters who were
25:48
Speaker 1: vaccinated on January eleven and twenty nine will need to
25:51
Speaker 1: stand them down for over a month. So it's not
25:54
Speaker 1: as if it's people who are not who are choosing
25:57
Speaker 1: to not be vaccinated. They were vaccinated a little bit later.
26:01
Speaker 1: And now if they are to comply with the Chow
26:03
Speaker 1: directive that was given at that press conference, they would
26:07
Speaker 1: you know, it would be too lar at their booster.
26:10
Speaker 1: And the tough part is there's not a lot of
26:11
Speaker 1: staff in that sectory.
26:12
Speaker 3: I'll break it to the Chief Minister only yesterday and
26:15
Speaker 3: the Health Minister seeking clarification like how did this eleventh
26:18
Speaker 3: of March and twenty second of April feit se Now,
26:21
Speaker 3: just to take back a step, is I think the
26:24
Speaker 3: Health Minister and lots of people around the country for
26:26
Speaker 3: that matter, have been saying doesn't matter. Get vaccinated now.
26:29
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter if you're late or late to the party.
26:31
Speaker 3: Get vaccinated. So if someone's getting vaccinated late because now
26:34
Speaker 3: the other ones come out and they're happy to get
26:36
Speaker 3: that vaccination, why should the laws and boards of this
26:40
Speaker 3: will have to stand down staff because you're encouraging people
26:43
Speaker 3: to get vaccinated. When they get vaccinated lay so well,
26:45
Speaker 3: then they're going to be impackaged.
26:46
Speaker 8: I mean, there's lots of things happening in this space.
26:48
Speaker 8: So for example, as you just said, thirty five directions,
26:52
Speaker 8: so people are having to be agile people. You know,
26:55
Speaker 8: things are changing. This is a pandemic, it isn't you know?
26:58
Speaker 8: There is substantial changes that are happening. Information is always
27:02
Speaker 8: on the NT health Facebook page as well as well
27:05
Speaker 8: as Secure. You can subscribe to the Secure and T.
27:08
Speaker 8: If you're a business or if you are an NGO,
27:11
Speaker 8: you can subscribe to Secure and T. You get those
27:14
Speaker 8: media releases that have all the details. It's also on.
27:17
Speaker 4: Coronavirus show directives either.
27:19
Speaker 8: Yes, yes, yeah, let me finish and so so that
27:21
Speaker 8: information is there, I mean one you can also pick
27:24
Speaker 8: up the phone and make contact with people and follow
27:28
Speaker 8: those up.
27:28
Speaker 1: They've tried that, yeah through health or yeah through My
27:32
Speaker 1: understanding is yes.
27:34
Speaker 8: But as I said, these things are moving, they are changing.
27:37
Speaker 8: But we also need and that's the information coming out
27:40
Speaker 8: that the booster is what will protect against skelter. So
27:43
Speaker 8: if Laws and Broad has some of the most vulnerable
27:46
Speaker 8: people in our.
27:47
Speaker 1: Pack, they all want to get boosts. They all want
27:50
Speaker 1: to make sure that they get boosted. But if there
27:52
Speaker 1: are a few days later, a week later, you know,
27:55
Speaker 1: based on when they had their second one, this is
27:57
Speaker 1: where that difficulty is. Like, we are going to have
27:59
Speaker 1: to take it a short break here, but I reckon
28:01
Speaker 1: definitely if you know, I'm sure I know that that
28:04
Speaker 1: people departmental officials from different departments listened to the show,
28:08
Speaker 1: so I reckon that conversation would be greatly appreciated. We
28:12
Speaker 1: are going to take a really short break. When we
28:13
Speaker 1: come back. There's still plenty to cover off this morning
28:16
Speaker 1: on the week that was you are listening to Mix
28:18
Speaker 1: one oh four nine, Well, it is just twenty minutes
28:20
Speaker 1: away from ten o'clock, and I tell you what, there
28:22
Speaker 1: has been a lot to cover off on this week.
28:24
Speaker 1: I want to take you down to Alice Springs, where
28:27
Speaker 1: we know that the Alice Springs Mayor pender letter will
28:31
Speaker 1: towards the end of last week to more than forty
28:33
Speaker 1: of Australia's most influential politicians calling for help with the
28:36
Speaker 1: spiraling rate of crime facing the town. So the Mayor,
28:39
Speaker 1: Matt Patterson, sent that letter last Thursday after the Council
28:43
Speaker 1: passed emotion that declared Alice Springs had reached breaking point.
28:47
Speaker 1: It went to the Prime Minister, to Anthony Elbanezi, to
28:50
Speaker 1: Ken Wyatt, Alan Tudge of you know, a large number
28:54
Speaker 1: of void got one Yeah, to a large number of
28:57
Speaker 1: polleys and decision makers around the country, just calling.
29:01
Speaker 4: For that help.
29:02
Speaker 5: Now.
29:02
Speaker 1: I also spoke to a couple of business people in
29:05
Speaker 1: Alice Springs earlier in the week one in particular Kyle,
29:09
Speaker 1: who owns the brewery and one of the other bars there,
29:14
Speaker 1: and now he had told me about how on the
29:16
Speaker 1: weekend just gone the bar had been broken into, not
29:20
Speaker 1: through the windows because they've got crimsof on them, but
29:23
Speaker 1: people had literally broken through a wall to get five
29:28
Speaker 1: bottles of wine.
29:31
Speaker 4: That was really quiet. I was really surprised about it.
29:36
Speaker 7: And what does that tell you about then, the government's
29:39
Speaker 7: failure in the alcohol policy space.
29:41
Speaker 2: Let alone the crime space.
29:42
Speaker 7: It really shows that people who are addicted to drugs
29:47
Speaker 7: and alcohol will get it at any cost.
29:49
Speaker 2: And it's the.
29:49
Speaker 7: Small businesses and the business owners and the people in
29:52
Speaker 7: that community who are suffering for it. I mean people
29:55
Speaker 7: in Alice Springs have suffered the most under the Gunner
29:58
Speaker 7: government winding bag bail and you justice reform, and of
30:01
Speaker 7: course police are heavily under resource. We've just got so
30:05
Speaker 7: much pain and suffering happening in Central Australia. It's so
30:09
Speaker 7: sad to see because it is a beautiful, beautiful part
30:12
Speaker 7: of the world. Of course, the Police Minister jets down
30:14
Speaker 7: there yesterday or the day before, empty handed with vague
30:18
Speaker 7: promises of more police. But people need something different. People
30:22
Speaker 7: need hope, people need confidence, and it is disappointing because
30:26
Speaker 7: you talk about and we just talked about all the
30:28
Speaker 7: issues with COVID and the issues that that is causing.
30:31
Speaker 7: I mean, people in Central Australia felt that worse because
30:33
Speaker 7: of course they didn't get any tourism bump at all,
30:36
Speaker 7: and you overlay crime over that and they are at
30:39
Speaker 7: breaking point.
30:40
Speaker 3: I got a letter from the mayor of all the
30:42
Speaker 3: Strings and I replied to him because clearly I could
30:45
Speaker 3: read or I could hear almost the desperation in his voice.
30:48
Speaker 7: Now.
30:49
Speaker 3: I used to live in Ala Springs in the early
30:50
Speaker 3: eighties and it was a butut town.
30:51
Speaker 6: Ye know.
30:52
Speaker 3: I was full of hope and aspirations and you know,
30:54
Speaker 3: a lot of them were achieved. And you know, it's
30:56
Speaker 3: still a lovely town. The landscape is spectacular, but clearly
30:59
Speaker 3: there is something fundamentally wrong in that town. The social structure,
31:03
Speaker 3: the social fabric is really tatty and breaking down and
31:08
Speaker 3: putting all police on the beat. That's a bit like
31:10
Speaker 3: you know, trying to shut the gate after the horse
31:11
Speaker 3: and the cattle have bolted. You know, that's fine to
31:13
Speaker 3: have more police, but there's a lawlessness that's seeped into
31:17
Speaker 3: the whole culture of the town. And you know, certain element.
31:20
Speaker 3: It's not everyone, of course, because it's a whole. It's
31:21
Speaker 3: a big town of twenty thousand people, give or take.
31:23
Speaker 3: But there's some serious issues there that are just not
31:27
Speaker 3: being addressed. And I know, look, I know the police try,
31:30
Speaker 3: all the groups try, you know, government agencies try, everyone tries.
31:34
Speaker 3: But I don't I don't have an answer. I don't
31:37
Speaker 3: know what it is what can be done, But other
31:39
Speaker 3: than the mayor and the council and government people and
31:42
Speaker 3: perhaps the ngngos and the relevant agencies. You know, the
31:45
Speaker 3: sense of Land Council down there. You know, they really
31:48
Speaker 3: have to address this lawlessness is in the young people
31:52
Speaker 3: because let's be honest, it is younger people that are
31:54
Speaker 3: committing these crimes.
31:56
Speaker 8: And I mean, I think we're all very much aware
31:58
Speaker 8: of the issues in Central Australia and the peak in summer,
32:00
Speaker 8: that's a fact. I think. You know every year we
32:03
Speaker 8: hear at this about this time, but you know, people
32:07
Speaker 8: don't always want to hear the word generational change. People
32:10
Speaker 8: want instance.
32:10
Speaker 1: Straight away, and it's been like a few years of
32:13
Speaker 1: it now where it's kind yeah, it's a point you're
32:16
Speaker 1: just going to end up the generation changes that everybody
32:19
Speaker 1: will leave town so.
32:20
Speaker 4: There is more police.
32:21
Speaker 8: So Michael Murphy picked up the phone immediately. The Deputy Commissioner,
32:26
Speaker 8: Nicole Madison and Kate Warden went down to Alice Springs
32:29
Speaker 8: to meet with the mayor, to meet with ngngos to
32:32
Speaker 8: have those conversations. But it is, as I said, my
32:35
Speaker 8: background's education. Everybody knows that that's where we have to
32:38
Speaker 8: make a difference. Lauren Moss has brought out that attendant strategy.
32:42
Speaker 8: That's what's going to happen. Those kids have to be
32:45
Speaker 8: in school every day. They have that wrap around the
32:48
Speaker 8: support in the school. It's only then when you talk
32:50
Speaker 8: about lawlessness most kids, that's where they get the family
32:54
Speaker 8: values reinforced in classrooms in schools. They know then what
32:58
Speaker 8: the rules are if they're not going to school.
33:00
Speaker 4: Agree room importance.
33:01
Speaker 1: I agree that kids need to be in school, and
33:03
Speaker 1: there definitely needs to be those wrap around services. But
33:06
Speaker 1: you know, I have found it to be honest almost
33:10
Speaker 1: laughable on a few occasions this week when it's been
33:12
Speaker 1: like there's been a spike over Christmas, there's been a
33:14
Speaker 1: spike in Alice Springs now for a long period of time,
33:18
Speaker 1: and you've now got people in Alice Springs like honestly
33:21
Speaker 1: begging for help. No one knows exactly what to do.
33:24
Speaker 1: And I get that the government, you know, like at
33:26
Speaker 1: the end of the day, no one's got all the answers,
33:28
Speaker 1: and we understand that. But I have said this before
33:31
Speaker 1: on this show, and I will say it again. It's
33:33
Speaker 1: like it's one of these occasions where everybody just needs
33:36
Speaker 1: to forget their political lines for a second. We actually
33:40
Speaker 1: all sit down as human beings, not me, but the
33:42
Speaker 1: people of Alice Springs, with the polleys, with the decision makers, and.
33:46
Speaker 4: Go, how do we how do we? You know, like
33:49
Speaker 4: we keep doing the stuff that is working.
33:51
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what it does yet and live even
33:54
Speaker 3: with your education background. Is why I've been banging on
33:57
Speaker 3: for so long about the school based constables and now
34:00
Speaker 3: school based counselors, because there's an issue with school based
34:02
Speaker 3: counselors that to Mimi, like's there's only one, it should
34:04
Speaker 3: be two. You know, we talk about getting the kids
34:07
Speaker 3: and keeping them at school. Well, the school based constable
34:10
Speaker 3: scheme is one of those systems or one of those
34:13
Speaker 3: schemes which does work. We all know it works for
34:15
Speaker 3: lots of reasons. Not auxiliaries. No issue with the auxiliaries,
34:18
Speaker 3: but the school based constables. Like, if you're going to
34:20
Speaker 3: sit down and make some hard decisions, that's one of them,
34:24
Speaker 3: because that's where respect is built and developed in that
34:27
Speaker 3: school system, with that figure of authority and the figure
34:29
Speaker 3: of support, and involving families of course, because some children
34:33
Speaker 3: need their families with them, you know, to be able
34:35
Speaker 3: to make the change. But you know, there's got to
34:37
Speaker 3: be some hard decisions. May they's got to be some decent,
34:41
Speaker 3: compassionate decisions made as well. But let's not forget those
34:44
Speaker 3: school based constables can carry.
34:46
Speaker 2: We been a lot of promises too.
34:47
Speaker 7: I mean, prior to the last election we had promises
34:50
Speaker 7: of community service. We know that that's not happening for offenders.
34:54
Speaker 7: You know, an immediate consequence to their action that giving
34:56
Speaker 7: back to the community, that feeling from the community that
35:00
Speaker 7: they can see that people have done the wrong thing,
35:02
Speaker 7: sorry for what they've done, and they're and they're giving back,
35:04
Speaker 7: of course, skills training for these youths to give them
35:08
Speaker 7: a different opportunity in life, another chance other than prison.
35:12
Speaker 7: At the moment, this government is basically saying you can
35:14
Speaker 7: be bailed or you can go to jail. And what's
35:17
Speaker 7: happening then, of course, is most are being bailed. Now,
35:21
Speaker 7: bail's fine if the person complies, but when we've got
35:24
Speaker 7: that repeat offending whilst on bail, what you're having is
35:27
Speaker 7: just the victims everywhere, and no result, no effort is
35:32
Speaker 7: going into the person doing the wrong thing. Nothing is
35:35
Speaker 7: happening to stop people from being victimized at rates that
35:37
Speaker 7: are just obscene. And so you know, you can't just
35:41
Speaker 7: have bail or jail. There's got to be more things
35:43
Speaker 7: in between, and that's what's missing from the suite of
35:45
Speaker 7: measures from the Gunner government.
35:46
Speaker 1: Well, look, we are going to have to take a
35:48
Speaker 1: very short break. You are listening to Mix one OW
35:50
Speaker 1: four point nine. It is the week that was. It
35:52
Speaker 1: is just ten minutes away from ten o'clock and there
35:55
Speaker 1: has been so much up for discussion throughout this week
35:57
Speaker 1: and plenty of you are listening to the show. When
36:00
Speaker 1: the Senator for the Northern Territory, Sam McMahon joined me
36:03
Speaker 1: a bit earlier in the week. Now, she obviously was
36:06
Speaker 1: the COLP Senator for the Northern Territory but resigned. Now
36:10
Speaker 1: if you were if you missed the show earlier in
36:12
Speaker 1: the week, take a bit of a listen to what
36:14
Speaker 1: the senator had told us earlier on the show. Now, Senator,
36:18
Speaker 1: why did you decide to resign from the party, Katie?
36:21
Speaker 1: There's a couple of reasons.
36:22
Speaker 6: I feel that there's a disconnect between myself and the
36:26
Speaker 6: party management. I did put several issues or complaints to
36:30
Speaker 6: the COLP management.
36:32
Speaker 4: What were those issues?
36:34
Speaker 6: It did involve parliamentary safety for women.
36:39
Speaker 4: So you didn't feel safe in the workplace.
36:41
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was an issue of not feeling safe.
36:44
Speaker 1: So that was Senator Sam McMahon on the show a
36:47
Speaker 1: little bit earlier this week. Leah, I know that I
36:50
Speaker 1: asked you extensive questions about this and whether you felt
36:53
Speaker 1: safe and why the senators well, you know, her complaints
36:59
Speaker 1: or her concerns which she raised with the CLP Management
37:04
Speaker 1: Committee weren't addressed.
37:07
Speaker 7: Yes, we did speak about this, and certainly the senator
37:11
Speaker 7: has for her own reasons resigned and or you know,
37:16
Speaker 7: indicated her resignation. Of course, I am the female leader
37:20
Speaker 7: of our parliamentary team. I've experienced no safety I have
37:24
Speaker 7: no safety concerns. Neither have any of the females in
37:26
Speaker 7: my parliamentary team female candidates. This is not a COLP issue.
37:32
Speaker 7: This is clearly a matter between the senator and the
37:35
Speaker 7: grievance process that is now in place.
37:37
Speaker 1: But you know, is it going to become an issue
37:41
Speaker 1: for the COLP though, in the sense that now that
37:43
Speaker 1: she has resigned, are you still going to be able
37:46
Speaker 1: to continue to operate as a party. Have you got
37:49
Speaker 1: enough members to be able to do so? Yeah, of course.
37:52
Speaker 7: So our associate membership with the National Party means we
37:55
Speaker 7: comply with all of the national requirements.
37:57
Speaker 2: So we will still run Tina McFarlane and Solomon Damien
38:01
Speaker 2: Ryan and.
38:01
Speaker 7: Lniari and just enterprises our Senate candidate under the CLP banner.
38:05
Speaker 7: Nothing changes there, and of course the party will will
38:08
Speaker 7: have to go through their grievance policy to make sure
38:11
Speaker 7: that they look at whatever the grievance is that the
38:14
Speaker 7: Senator has.
38:15
Speaker 3: I've talked about this on ABC on IT sometime soon
38:20
Speaker 3: and I was surprised. I mean, when I was in
38:23
Speaker 3: the CLP likely I said, I never felt threatened. Okay,
38:27
Speaker 3: if anyone tried to come to smart us with me,
38:29
Speaker 3: I just would a deck them. But because that's how
38:32
Speaker 3: you do it in the farm, animal gets out of
38:35
Speaker 3: the territory way. Hey, if an animal gets out of controller,
38:37
Speaker 3: just give it a good talking to. But I mean,
38:40
Speaker 3: the Central Council meetings will abat a bunch of about
38:42
Speaker 3: one hundred people give or taken. You know, there's huge
38:45
Speaker 3: I'm sure same in the Labor Party. Huge robust debate,
38:48
Speaker 3: you know, on all sorts of things, and things can
38:50
Speaker 3: get pretty heated. But I never felt safe. I've never
38:53
Speaker 3: felt safe in the.
38:55
Speaker 4: Part of so obviously the Senator did, but.
38:57
Speaker 3: Clearly the Senator Chack mcmaty has has an should it's isolated.
39:01
Speaker 7: I think it shows it's isolated, which doesn't make it right,
39:04
Speaker 7: but it is so endemic.
39:05
Speaker 3: And I was on the record talking before that. I
39:08
Speaker 3: think Sam Marnin has done a terrific job when it
39:10
Speaker 3: comes to people in the Bush. She's a great support
39:13
Speaker 3: of primary industries and all things cows and chickens and
39:15
Speaker 3: hay and whatever she does in the next phase of
39:18
Speaker 3: her life, I'm sure she'd you know, she'll still continue
39:21
Speaker 3: to do that because her knowledge is phenomenal in regards
39:24
Speaker 3: to urban stuff. Can't really talk about that, but I
39:26
Speaker 3: do think she's done an excellent job in that way.
39:28
Speaker 3: And it's a tough gig being a senator for the
39:30
Speaker 3: Northern territory. It's not like other senators. Let's be honest.
39:33
Speaker 3: Let's be clear this a senator is meant to just
39:35
Speaker 3: work as a house of review. And I know other
39:39
Speaker 3: senators in other states they have nothing nothing to do
39:41
Speaker 3: with constituents at all, whereas our two senators do, you know.
39:45
Speaker 3: And I think it's a tough gig being a senator,
39:48
Speaker 3: not only in the job day to day and the
39:50
Speaker 3: travel commitments like US and WA. Yeah, I mean I
39:53
Speaker 3: think it was our senator. I think was in the
39:56
Speaker 3: previous Senate in Nigel Scanner. Were the biggest frequent flies
39:58
Speaker 3: with Quantus. They are traveling the most and I think
40:01
Speaker 3: the w A people do the stuff.
40:06
Speaker 8: It was your take on it, Oh, yes, I said,
40:09
Speaker 8: I actually felt quite My heart went out to her
40:12
Speaker 8: actually obviously, you know, revealing some intimate things to her
40:16
Speaker 8: that was hurtful. But on Tuesday, I think it was
40:20
Speaker 8: I did the Adelaide River Offstring water storage announcement with
40:23
Speaker 8: Sam McMahon, which was an amazing announcement. It's going to
40:27
Speaker 8: be the biggest billed by government since the rail fantastic announcement.
40:33
Speaker 8: But it was Semator McMahon was there as an independent
40:37
Speaker 8: I presume not so the Federal Liberal National Party allowed
40:42
Speaker 8: her because it was an announcement by Barnaby Joyce. They
40:45
Speaker 8: allowed her to be there as I guess and an independent.
40:48
Speaker 8: So I thought that was quite an interesting one really.
40:51
Speaker 8: But the second thing, and I said this, Keiser and
40:54
Speaker 8: I were for the last show of the year and
40:57
Speaker 8: I said the same thing, what did what was Sam
41:01
Speaker 8: McMahon able to get or what did she get committed
41:06
Speaker 8: by Barnaby Joyce to get his vote to get him
41:08
Speaker 8: to be Deputy Chief Minister, a deputy prime minister. We
41:11
Speaker 8: worked really well with Michael McCormack. Michael McCormack had a
41:14
Speaker 8: great relationship with the territory. He was here often, he
41:18
Speaker 8: was always on the phone, always sending messages, always meeting
41:22
Speaker 8: with us. A great relationship with Michael McCormack. And then
41:25
Speaker 8: we saw Barnaby Joyce come in. We don't have that
41:29
Speaker 8: relationship with Barnaby Joyce. There isn't that communication. And that's
41:33
Speaker 8: not just me. Every other Labor minister, Transport minister in
41:37
Speaker 8: Australia says exactly the same thing. He doesn't pick up
41:41
Speaker 8: the phone, he doesn't talk to people, he doesn't meet,
41:43
Speaker 8: He rarely ever meets with other ministers. And so I
41:47
Speaker 8: thinking to get Barnaby Joyce to be deputy Prime minister.
41:52
Speaker 8: What did Sam McMahon offer. What's a territory going to benefit?
41:57
Speaker 8: I'm looking forward to these at this election because I'm
41:59
Speaker 8: looking for to commitments.
42:00
Speaker 4: Well the promises exactly well, I don't know.
42:06
Speaker 3: For the rulers.
42:07
Speaker 8: I would I'd love to see some big announcements from there.
42:12
Speaker 1: Was the announcement of a Holocaust museum earlier in the week,
42:16
Speaker 1: winning some people were, you know, with such why are
42:18
Speaker 1: we're doing that yet? The casual in the swimming pool
42:20
Speaker 1: announcement then by the Labor Party by Luke Gosling yesterday.
42:25
Speaker 4: So I'm sure I have no doubt.
42:26
Speaker 1: That the that the promises are going to be coming
42:28
Speaker 1: in thick and fast.
42:29
Speaker 8: That's what we like, as well as somebody keeps thank
42:32
Speaker 8: you for this must be a thing that you promised,
42:34
Speaker 8: because I think it was the last federal election that
42:36
Speaker 8: Warren Snden promised money for a rural pool.
42:39
Speaker 4: That's right.
42:41
Speaker 8: You know we're waiting for is for the Lichfield Council
42:44
Speaker 8: to come up with a space and a place for
42:46
Speaker 8: it because they haven't been able to do that and
42:48
Speaker 8: they don't want to continue to run to rent my
42:50
Speaker 8: mother's hunderd acrepadics.
42:56
Speaker 4: Well, we are going to have to leave it there.
42:58
Speaker 1: Thank you all so very much for your time this
43:00
Speaker 1: morning and being parsh of the first week that was
43:02
Speaker 1: for the year. Leofanocchio, the opposition leader, thank you for
43:05
Speaker 1: your time.
43:06
Speaker 2: Thank you have a good weekend everyone.
43:07
Speaker 4: Kisio Puriic, the Independent member for Goid thank you, thank you.
43:10
Speaker 3: I just get my paddle and canoe out.
43:13
Speaker 1: IV Lola the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Power and
43:17
Speaker 1: Water lots of portfolios.
43:18
Speaker 4: Thank you for your time,