Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / CLP Spokesperson Bill Yan chat with Katie on 360 about refusing a briefing with the Health Department

Transcript

CLP Spokesperson Bill Yan chat with Katie on 360 about refusing a briefing with the Health Department · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining us on the line right now is Bill Yan,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the opposition spokesperson for Health.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Bill, Good morning Katie.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: How are you not too bad?
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Bill?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Why didn't you attend that briefing?
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: Well, the briefing that we've been trying to organize to
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: get an idea on what the government's road met looked like.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: We needed the Chief Help Officers we spoke about last week,
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Doctor Hegey is the best place person to be able
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: to provide their professional health advice as to what the
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: mandatary vaccination program is going to look like and brief
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: us on that. But the government just keep playing politics
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: with this. They won't allow the Chief Help Officer or
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: his deputy to actually come and brief so we still
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: don't know exactly what's going on.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Bill.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The Chief Minister has issued a statement saying that this
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: is officially embarrassing because the colp don't want to tell
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Territorians where they stand on mandatory vaccination. They've stood up
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the Police Commissioner and the CEO of v Health, who
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: is a doctor and in charge of the Health department.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Could you not have gotten the information that you need
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: from the Police Commissioner and also obviously the CEO of
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: NT Health.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, look, nothing against the CEO of NT Health. But
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: doctor Hagey, the Chief Health Officer is the person who
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: is making the decisions and providing the information to the
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: CEO of Health and also in most respects to the
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Commissioner of Police. He's also the person who's providing that
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: information to the Chief Minister. So it would make sense
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: to get the message straight from the Chief Health Officer,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: not second, third or fourth hand, as the Chief Minister
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: seems to think that we should get it. We need
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: to talk to doctor Hegey. We need to hear from
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: him what this role out is going to look like,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: how we're going to do it, and if there's any
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: ramifications for territorians, it's pretty simple.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Well, there will be people listening this morning though, thinking
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: you know, this mandatory vaccination situation, it's one which isn't
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: going to go away. If the colp are not prepared
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to attend a briefing, how are you going to determine
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: your policy stance on mandatory vaccinations.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I know you've made it.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Very clear that you want that briefing to be with
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the Chief Health Officer, but surely you could have still
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: gotten the information from the Department.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Well, the COLP. We support vaccinations. The entire team is
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: we're all vaccinated. We're all out there in our communities
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: selling the vaccination message because people need to get vaccinated
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: to protect the territory and protect territorians. But again, it's
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: that detail that we need from the Chief Health Officer.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: We don't need any bureaucratic or political spin put on
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: this message. We need the nuts and bolts and the
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: detail and that professional level of knowledge from the Chief
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Health Officer. He's the person who's making these decisions. We
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: need to hear it from him and that way will
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: be best place to make a decision as to where
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: the seal piece stands. Again, as I said, we certainly
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: pro vaccination. Let's get jabs in arms to protect everybody.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: It's just that other detail that we need from doctor.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Haggy so Bell, what is the plan now?
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Has the government given you any indication as to whether
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: there will be a briefing with the Chief Health Officer.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: No, we haven't heard anything at this stage, Katie, which
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: is a bit of a worry. We're coming up to
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: two weeks soon this Wednesday, I believe it will be
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: two weeks since the Chief Minister laid out his roadmap
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: as to what things are going to look like into
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: the future. So we asked for briefing on that day,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: the day that that press release was done, and here
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: we are coming up to two weeks and we still
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: haven't heard anything, and that's pretty deplorable by government. They
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: should be out there and being open and clear about
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: their messaging. And that's for the Seal and the independence.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: We represent a large proportion of the terr bell.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I know some people listening this morning will be thinking,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: is the COLP just being petty about this?
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: No, certainly not, Katie. We need that professional health information
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: from doctor Hegey or his deputy. They're the people making
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: the decisions. They're the people at are best placed to
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: provide that information to us, and you need that level
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: of detail and that level of information to make a
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: decision and to provide I suppose a policy and a viewpoint.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: So that's why we're really keen to meet with the
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Chief Health Officer to get that information from him.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Bell. I know I asked you this a couple of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: times last week, but I'll ask you again, what is
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: your policy? Do you support mandatory vaccination or are you
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: not prepared to say until you've had a briefing with
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the show.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: We need that briefing from the show and that will
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: form our policy moving forward. As I said, we support vaccinations.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: The CP opposition support vaccinations, and we promote it wherever
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: we can. I said, the vaccinations are quite important for
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: the future of the territory. But the mandatory vaccination that
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: have spoken about by the Chief Ministry, we need that
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: detail from the Chow for us to be able to
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: make that decision and then to go out to our
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: constituents and then sell that message.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, do you reckon.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You're still able to say that though, Bill, given the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: fact that obviously have now turned down that briefing with
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the Chief Executive of Health. I mean, some people listening
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: this morning will be thinking to themselves, come on, you
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: could have had that briefing on Friday and you could
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: have formed your opinion and your policy settings.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Oh look, I don't know if the CEO of Health
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: would be the best person and the best placed person
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: to provide us that information. Has said nothing against the
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: CEO of Health, but the decisions on this have been
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: made by the Chief Health Officer, and the Chief Health
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Officer then gives that information to the CEO of Health
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: and to everybody else, so it's quite imperative we get
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: the message straight from the source and hopefully said the
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: gun to government, stop playing politics with this mandatory vaccination
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: roll out and actually provide the Chief Health Officer some
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: time to come and talk to us to give us
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: that information. I don't think that's been petty at all.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: I think that's just been quite reasonable to get the
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: right information from the right person.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Bill of one of the things that we're quite keen
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: to find more information out. And I'm assuming that that
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: members of the public, well they've been contacting us about this,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: so I'm assuming the colp is as well. Is about
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the traffic light system when it comes to travel, we
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: know that the Chief Minister had said that once we
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: reach that eighty percent vaccination rate, that we are going
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: to see some changes when it comes to travel and
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: home quarantine. So we will have that traffic light system
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: where we can go to green locations. It's obviously a
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: different policy when we talk about the amber or orange
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: locations and then when you talk about those that are
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: deemed read ie the locations where there are high rates
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: of COVID. The likes of Victoria and New South Wales
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: would fall into that category. At this point, Bill, do
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: you have concern about the way in which that may
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: impact our tourism sector and the way in which it
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: may impact well Territorians wanting to travel to go and
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: visit family over the Christmas period or do you think
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: it's fair enough.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Well, I know that the tourism industry have come out
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: and spoken about this and the effects that it might have.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: Because I suppose COVID pops up just here and then
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: we have community outbreaks. It's a forever changing environment. So
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: for travel for anybody, particularly the tourism secret it's really difficult.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: And look, we're coming up the Christmas. I know many
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: of us haven't been able to get away and see
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: our family, so it's certainly going to have an effect
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: on them. And then if you do manage to get
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: away and something happens, then the traffic light system rolls
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: in on you. Yeah, that it comes down to how
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: and where you may be able to quarantine, should you
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: be able to get back home. So some clarity, I think,
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: some good clarity on how that's going to look I
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: think is quite important for everybody.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we will talk more about that.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: We are going to be catching up with tourism Central
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Australia just before ten o'clock this morning, Bill, We also
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: know obviously a lot of talk about some of those
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: remote communities and their vaccination rates not being where they
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: should be.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: At this point.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: The Chief Minister his office has sent through a statement
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and said that if when we are ready to take
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the next steps as part of the national Plan, there
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: are a handful of communities where the vaccination rate remains
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: low despite all the efforts of government, land councils and
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: local health services, that will not stop the territories progress.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: We cannot wait forever to move forward because one or
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: two communities are holding back. If there are some communities
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: who don't reach high enough coverage of vaccination, we may
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: need to consider additional public health measures to help restrict
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: movement and the risk of spread, he says, But right
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: now our focus is on working together to get all
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: of those remote communities vaccinated. It certainly sounds as though
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: there's not going to be a ruling out of closing
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: off some of those remote communities if they don't reach
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: those vaccination targets.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: What do you make of it?
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, that would be quite tragic, Katie, to restrict
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: the movement some of those people in those communities. But
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: I said, if I suppose that the choices, if they
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: are not getting vaccinated, then we do have to protect
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: them and the rest of the territory. But I think
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: if the government had to focus more on engagement and
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: it's commission communication program with those remote communities earlier, and
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: I think we may have seen some better vaccination rates there,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: some of them particularly, I've got one or two in
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: my electorate down in single digits for vaccinations. And it
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: was good have the Chief Health Officer and the Police
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Commission down our way last week and getting out to
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: some of those communities and trying to dispel some of
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: the myths that came around with some of the earlier
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: vaccinations or the earlier brands. That was what caused a
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: lot of hesitancy out in the bush, and that's slowly changing.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: I just I hope it changes a little bit quicker
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: and we get jabs in the arms of people. Certainly
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: the bush are going to be quite critical for us.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I know that you know that in some of those
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: as you've pointed out, in some of those remote locations,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: those vax numbers.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Are really very low.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Bill, I mean, is it fair though, to the whole
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: of the Northern territory if some of those vaccination rates
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: are very low to prevent or to stop the whole
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: of the territory opening up because you know, because some
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: communities are struggling to get those vaccination rates up.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't think it's fair that the rest of
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: the territory should have to be restricted because of one
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: two communities. We need to have a look at those
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: communities and figure out how we can protect those community sorry,
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: those communities best with those low vaccination rates, but also
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: then get out there and talk to the people and
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: get the message out and find out a why are
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: they not taking up the vaccinations and be what can
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: we do to get them vaccinated. So that's going to
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: be quite a key point and something that the government's
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: going to have to work quite hard at.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Well, Bill Yan, the opposition spokesperson for Health, I really
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for speaking with us.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Nowhere is Katig