Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was (30 July 2021)

Transcript

The Week That Was (30 July 2021) · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: And we'll joining us in the studio this morning.
0:02
Speaker 2: We've had a couple of weeks off and I am
0:04
Speaker 2: so glad to be back into it. It is the
0:06
Speaker 2: week that was thanks to de Silver her Brown Lawyers,
0:09
Speaker 2: your local lawyers and also broadcasting now on eight j
0:13
Speaker 2: in Alice Springs and in the studio with us today
0:15
Speaker 2: we have got the Opposition leader Leafanochiaro.
0:17
Speaker 3: Good morning, to morning Kadien, to your listeners, Happy Friday.
0:20
Speaker 2: Happy Friday. Good to have you in the studio. We've
0:22
Speaker 2: got Keesier.
0:23
Speaker 1: Puric, the Independent member for Goid.
0:25
Speaker 4: Good morning, Keezier, good morning, good morning rural people, the towns.
0:33
Speaker 1: The people.
0:38
Speaker 2: And we have also gotten Natasha Files, the Health Minister
0:40
Speaker 2: and also the Minister for Tourism and Racing, Gaming and Licensing.
0:44
Speaker 5: Good morning Files, e morning Wilfee. And it's National School's
0:46
Speaker 5: Tree Day. So I've justeen at Nightcliffe Primary planting trees
0:49
Speaker 5: Tree Day.
0:50
Speaker 4: Fantastic stuff, plant more trees.
0:52
Speaker 2: I know Convet Scarless likes planting trees at the moment
0:55
Speaker 2: as well looking beautiful.
0:58
Speaker 4: It was I thought that myself I was taken that
1:00
Speaker 4: I've done it now, Thank you Conn and your Dancity Council.
1:03
Speaker 4: That should should have done this, and I must note
1:06
Speaker 4: and everyone should note, they've planted the right kind of trees,
1:11
Speaker 4: like the rangoon creeper on the shade, which is.
1:14
Speaker 3: The wrong kind of You're a fantastic post from Mad
1:19
Speaker 3: Snake Cafe that had a vine and they were like government, if.
1:22
Speaker 1: You need the advice and goodness, well yeah, that is
1:31
Speaker 1: already kind of.
1:32
Speaker 5: Plant planted natives and they're all named after the streets
1:36
Speaker 5: and Nightcliff provide shame, hopefully hopefully beautify. I do love
1:42
Speaker 5: it when you guys come in here and you're fined
1:43
Speaker 5: up before we get into the issues that we're planning
1:46
Speaker 5: on talking about.
1:46
Speaker 1: They provide a lot of well, let's get right into a.
1:52
Speaker 3: Special today.
1:55
Speaker 4: You gardening.
1:59
Speaker 3: Build up variety talk about that. Yes, please shade trees
2:06
Speaker 3: at the turf Club that.
2:09
Speaker 1: Might have been more, might have been more. That's right,
2:14
Speaker 1: let's get it just for your Listtie's I'm losing the
2:20
Speaker 1: plot now, Well, let's get straight into it.
2:23
Speaker 2: Because if you did think that the saga with the
2:25
Speaker 2: twelve million dollar dar and Turf Club was over, you'd.
2:28
Speaker 1: Be very wrong.
2:29
Speaker 2: We learned earlier in the week Brett Dixon, the chairman
2:32
Speaker 2: of the Darwin Turf Club issued an eleven page statement
2:36
Speaker 2: saying that he's launched legal actions to overturn findings of
2:39
Speaker 2: the recent Eikak report released just weeks ago. Now, in
2:43
Speaker 2: the statement, mister Dixon claims that the decision by the
2:46
Speaker 2: Chief Minister Michael Gunner and his cabinet ministers to give
2:49
Speaker 2: the Darwin Turf Club twelve million dollars was made the
2:51
Speaker 2: same morning that the club put forward its submission for
2:55
Speaker 2: funding support. Now, in the statement, he says, I do
2:59
Speaker 2: not know what material Cabinet considered beyond the submission provided
3:03
Speaker 2: by the management of the club. The workings of cabinet
3:06
Speaker 2: are the subject of acclaim for public interest immunity, so
3:10
Speaker 2: they can't be inquired into as they cannot be reported
3:13
Speaker 2: on unless, of course, the government waives that immunity in
3:16
Speaker 2: the interests of transparency. Now, Leah, you throughout the week
3:20
Speaker 2: and over the weeks have been calling for that information
3:24
Speaker 2: to be released, even the Treasury supporting documentation. If there
3:29
Speaker 2: is supporting documentation from Treasury, it doesn't look as though
3:32
Speaker 2: that's something that the government's going to do in a hurry.
3:34
Speaker 2: Why do you think that that is so important?
3:36
Speaker 3: It's really important that the government do something. I mean,
3:39
Speaker 3: if they can't release the cabinet information, fine, but you
3:43
Speaker 3: must be able to show something. Now it's completely implausible
3:47
Speaker 3: what you mean, Natasha. You've been out, Nicole has been out,
3:50
Speaker 3: Michael Gunner has been out saying this followed cab normal
3:52
Speaker 3: cabinet processes. There's nothing to see here. It's absolute garbage.
3:56
Speaker 3: The EYKAC report shows that government only received it the
3:58
Speaker 3: day before cabinet. Mister Dixon's statement says you received it
4:02
Speaker 3: on the day of cabinet. You yourself on radio this
4:04
Speaker 3: week Natasha said that you didn't know it only had
4:07
Speaker 3: come in hours before cabinet considered it. It's just all
4:09
Speaker 3: implausible garbage. Everyone knows that cabinet papers are circulated to departments,
4:15
Speaker 3: they're circulated to minister as well in advance. You don't
4:17
Speaker 3: walk into cabinet and just have a magical proposal to
4:20
Speaker 3: spend twelve million dollars sitting on the desk. You know,
4:22
Speaker 3: there is a lot of work that goes into that,
4:24
Speaker 3: or should go into that, but behind the scenes, and
4:26
Speaker 3: it just hasn't been done. And for the Gunner government
4:29
Speaker 3: to keep burying their head in the sand on this issue,
4:31
Speaker 3: it's just no one believes them anymore, and it's threatened
4:34
Speaker 3: the integrity of the entire government system. You know, it
4:37
Speaker 3: casts a great cloud of doubt over every grant, every
4:40
Speaker 3: financial decision that they've made. I mean, it didn't pass
4:44
Speaker 3: the pub test from day one, this proposal, and now
4:46
Speaker 3: it just stinks.
4:48
Speaker 4: It's been a problem and it's and it's not going
4:50
Speaker 4: to go away this problem.
4:51
Speaker 2: No, it's not.
4:52
Speaker 5: It's going to grow.
4:52
Speaker 4: And there's other problems springing up. And I've looked at
4:56
Speaker 4: the report that came out from the ICC, and you know,
4:58
Speaker 4: everyone's been accused of being you know, unprofessional and miss
5:02
Speaker 4: misconduct and corrupt and all those sorts of things. And
5:05
Speaker 4: I find it a bit rich that the Chief Minister,
5:08
Speaker 4: you know, as soon as there's a problem, his first
5:10
Speaker 4: response is, oh, well they should resign, they should step down. Now,
5:13
Speaker 4: the Turf Club is a private excuse me, it's a
5:15
Speaker 4: private organization, you know, under the Association's Act plus probably
5:18
Speaker 4: other areas. So I mean, I don't think that was
5:22
Speaker 4: really his role. He can say what he likes, but
5:25
Speaker 4: good on the Turf Club members for standing their ground
5:27
Speaker 4: and the chairman at this point in time. But the
5:29
Speaker 4: turf Club issuers side, I think, and the money that
5:32
Speaker 4: went to the turf Club to build the grand stand,
5:34
Speaker 4: which personally I don't have an issue with. Is the processes,
5:37
Speaker 4: which I think at Lisa really is referencing. Is the process,
5:40
Speaker 4: is how it happened, how the twelve million went there.
5:42
Speaker 4: Forget the fact that it was twelve million, and forget
5:44
Speaker 4: the fact that we our hospitals were bursting at the
5:46
Speaker 4: scenes at the same time. This has gone into cabinet
5:49
Speaker 4: supposedly under the arm of the Chief Minister. Now if
5:52
Speaker 4: he's saying that, you know, he can't tell us. If
5:54
Speaker 4: Treasury scrutinized it, he can't tell us. If the Department
5:56
Speaker 4: of Business scrupininderus, well what the hell is he doing
5:58
Speaker 4: in the job that he's in. Well, really he's not
6:00
Speaker 4: up to the mark. If you can't just look look you,
6:02
Speaker 4: or look a member of the public straight in the
6:04
Speaker 4: eye and say, look, this is how it happened. It
6:06
Speaker 4: was wrong, I didn't do it the right way and
6:09
Speaker 4: just fence up and get on.
6:13
Speaker 2: You cannot, in my opinion, squarely blame your former chief
6:17
Speaker 2: of staff for that. And if you do, and if
6:19
Speaker 2: he didn't know what that's very How do you not
6:23
Speaker 2: know what's going on in your office and what other
6:25
Speaker 2: decisions have been made without the proper homework.
6:27
Speaker 1: If you're not aware of what chief of staff's doing.
6:30
Speaker 1: But this is what I mean.
6:31
Speaker 3: The KIC report comes out, Gunna rolls out, tries to
6:34
Speaker 3: talk tough. He knows he's got nothing to say, so
6:36
Speaker 3: in replace of that, he demands that the Turf Club
6:39
Speaker 3: board resign, and he threatens that hell you know, he
6:42
Speaker 3: says he'll bring legislation and he'll recoup the money. Now
6:46
Speaker 3: he knew he couldn't do either of those things. He
6:48
Speaker 3: did not have the power to sack the body. He
6:49
Speaker 3: did not have the power to recoup the money. Now
6:51
Speaker 3: we've seen this spiectacular backflip on the money on a
6:54
Speaker 3: promise that tisk you know, if the new board promised
6:57
Speaker 3: to be really well behaved, then I won't take your
6:59
Speaker 3: money back. Of course he can't get the money. Of
7:02
Speaker 3: course we've got turf Clut board members completely ignoring him.
7:05
Speaker 3: They're still on the board. They're going to likely run
7:07
Speaker 3: again again. And then in the greatest act of hypocrisy,
7:10
Speaker 3: they're Gunna government have appointed one of the very people
7:13
Speaker 3: they demanded to quit, you know, to resign from the
7:16
Speaker 3: turf cut board they've now appointed to a government board.
7:19
Speaker 3: I mean, it just it just is a circus. It's
7:23
Speaker 3: a sideshow.
7:24
Speaker 2: Well, and I think there's like to me, there's two
7:26
Speaker 2: parts of this. Obviously, there is the part that is
7:29
Speaker 2: how the turf Club went through these processes and then
7:32
Speaker 2: awarding that tender. But then the other part of this
7:36
Speaker 2: is Howard ended up in that cabinet room and how
7:39
Speaker 2: it ended up the decision.
7:41
Speaker 1: That's exactly right, Howard.
7:42
Speaker 2: Ended up that decision that that twelve million dollars was
7:45
Speaker 2: going to be approved. And that's certainly some of the
7:47
Speaker 2: questioning that I put to you earlier in the week. Natasha,
7:50
Speaker 2: we know from what we've been told both you and
7:54
Speaker 2: Minister Lawla had confirmed that he took that submission into cabinet.
7:58
Speaker 1: He says he takes full response.
8:00
Speaker 2: Ability for what goes into cabinet as the chief minister.
8:05
Speaker 2: But if you take full responsibility for what goes into
8:07
Speaker 2: cabinet as the chief minister, then is there supporting documentation
8:11
Speaker 2: from Treasury backing up that this was a good project
8:16
Speaker 2: and a good use of taxpayers dollars being spent.
8:20
Speaker 5: So Katie, people need to remember the context we were
8:22
Speaker 5: in at that time. It was all about jobs. We
8:23
Speaker 5: had the infrastructure.
8:24
Speaker 2: Budgets, there documentation from Treasury saying that this project would
8:29
Speaker 2: create jobs.
8:30
Speaker 5: So Katie, there was a cabinet process around that. We've
8:33
Speaker 5: said that from the beginning and we were looking for
8:36
Speaker 5: projects as we came towards the end of the financial year.
8:38
Speaker 5: We had a significant infrastructure budget and there's always projects
8:41
Speaker 5: that go under and over and things get delayed for
8:43
Speaker 5: various reasons. Were focused on jobs. We had people leaving
8:46
Speaker 5: the territory every single day. So we have market led
8:49
Speaker 5: proposals where people come up with an idea, or you
8:51
Speaker 5: have where government identifies something and puts out of tender.
8:54
Speaker 5: This was a market led proposal. We had the submission
8:57
Speaker 5: come into cabinet. We believe there'd been a body of
8:59
Speaker 5: work found out in hindsight that that wasn't you know
9:03
Speaker 5: that there had been somewhere.
9:04
Speaker 1: Done by the time the homework, Katie.
9:07
Speaker 5: This has had a very thorough investigation, thousands of documents
9:10
Speaker 5: eighteen months from the IKAG and they have pointed out
9:13
Speaker 5: certain things, but they haven't found any findings against the
9:15
Speaker 5: Chief Minister or any cabinet Minister.
9:17
Speaker 4: Because the.
9:19
Speaker 1: Cabinet it didn't clear you.
9:20
Speaker 3: You guys keep going around saying the Ikak report cleared you.
9:23
Speaker 3: I mean it didn't. It didn't look at you at all.
9:25
Speaker 4: Look at you. Someone must have put that proposal under
9:29
Speaker 4: the Chief Minister's arm. It didn't magically just appear.
9:32
Speaker 1: That's right. Did he not peruse it at all?
9:34
Speaker 4: Someone has put it on his arm?
9:36
Speaker 3: And when you read it that this, Natasha, only this
9:39
Speaker 3: week you've been running these market led proposal lines. It's
9:41
Speaker 3: the first time government have said it in the since
9:43
Speaker 3: the whole saga began, and it's just it's not true.
9:46
Speaker 3: When you read this submission, it very clearly says so
9:49
Speaker 3: for a market led proposal to be a market led proposal,
9:52
Speaker 3: there needs to be a contribution by the proponent. Ik
9:54
Speaker 3: have said it wasn't a market led proposal. It was
9:57
Speaker 3: supposed to be, and there were public servants working very
10:00
Speaker 3: hard to make sure it was, but it wasn't. Now, Natasha,
10:04
Speaker 3: you've this week come out and said it was a
10:05
Speaker 3: market led proposal. When you read the submission from the
10:08
Speaker 3: Turf Club, it very clearly says that they were not
10:10
Speaker 3: providing financial support they would provide in kind support and
10:14
Speaker 3: maintain it over the life of the asset. That's not
10:16
Speaker 3: a market led proposal. And for any government to sit
10:19
Speaker 3: there with that six page submission with glossy photos at
10:23
Speaker 3: the end of it and make a decision to award
10:25
Speaker 3: twelve million dollars, it's crazy. It just means how many
10:29
Speaker 3: other decisions that have not followed good governance processes have
10:32
Speaker 3: you guys made.
10:33
Speaker 5: So, Katie, I come back to the point. So we
10:35
Speaker 5: were looking for projects to get out the door, to
10:37
Speaker 5: make things happen quickly. We were looking for projects that
10:39
Speaker 5: would stimulate the economy during construction, but also projects that
10:42
Speaker 5: would stimulate the economy ongoing. So we supported the building
10:46
Speaker 5: of that grandstand and we believed that it was projects
10:49
Speaker 5: that could quickly stimulate economies to support it. So, in
10:53
Speaker 5: terms of cabinet, governments are elected to make decisions.
10:57
Speaker 2: There actually supporting documentation from Treasury for this project.
11:02
Speaker 5: So, Katie, there was a cabinet process around it. I
11:04
Speaker 5: can't go into that. You know that cabinet was well,
11:07
Speaker 5: you wouldn't know, le because you're a minister for a
11:09
Speaker 5: week to a normal proper cabinet. And we supported the proposal.
11:18
Speaker 5: So as governments were elected to make decisions. People want
11:21
Speaker 5: to get on with and get on with the job,
11:22
Speaker 5: and at that time, particularly about making sure we had
11:27
Speaker 5: jobs because.
11:28
Speaker 2: People were leaving the time work to be done. Though,
11:30
Speaker 2: they expect that when something goes through cabinet. I know,
11:34
Speaker 2: I certainly do as a tax paying territory, and I
11:37
Speaker 2: expect that when a proposal goes through cabinet that there
11:41
Speaker 2: is supporting documentation, that there is support, there's pros and cons.
11:46
Speaker 2: Let's say pros and cons list not from the Treasury,
11:49
Speaker 2: from others that or delay and ask for more info.
11:52
Speaker 2: I mean, what we're talking about here is twelve million
11:55
Speaker 2: dollars of taxpayers money. It's a proposal then from what
11:59
Speaker 2: we're here went forward from the turf club that morning.
12:02
Speaker 2: It may have been discussed prior to that, but a
12:05
Speaker 2: proposal that went through that that day.
12:11
Speaker 5: That the information had received.
12:13
Speaker 1: So this is the lynch pin for me. How on
12:16
Speaker 1: earth did you not know?
12:18
Speaker 5: So, Katie, it's not possible cabinet did not know that
12:20
Speaker 5: the information had only been received in the hours before
12:23
Speaker 5: we made a decision. We're elected to make decisions. We
12:25
Speaker 5: stand by that. Yes, we've changed processes since then in
12:28
Speaker 5: terms of the budget. Things go through a budget review
12:30
Speaker 5: subcommittee and they go in at budget cabinet.
12:32
Speaker 2: The other point that was made is that you wanted
12:34
Speaker 2: shovel ready projects. Brett Dixon himself has said it in
12:37
Speaker 2: that statement that he was worried that it would not
12:40
Speaker 2: be able to be completed. So to me, it doesn't
12:42
Speaker 2: sound like it was as shovel ready is what the
12:45
Speaker 2: government would like territories to believe.
12:47
Speaker 5: So, Katie, we had, as I said, that significant infrastructure budget,
12:50
Speaker 5: and you need to remember at that point a lot
12:52
Speaker 5: of people were relying on government stimulus projects to keep
12:55
Speaker 5: people in this town and keep people in the territory
12:57
Speaker 5: and keep people in jobs. So we had a number
12:59
Speaker 5: of pro that we worked with across government, and we
13:03
Speaker 5: had a number of grants that went out the door
13:05
Speaker 5: to organizations. We built the Motorsports Grandstand, we built the
13:09
Speaker 5: Rugby Union Grandstand. So we were looking at jobs that
13:12
Speaker 5: would leave the community with infrastructure that we create jobs
13:14
Speaker 5: into the future. So we believe that that was a
13:17
Speaker 5: project that was digitue.
13:18
Speaker 2: I mean, I know that you can't go into the
13:21
Speaker 2: process of what happens in cabinet, but were their ministers
13:25
Speaker 2: asking questions about this project if there wasn't documentation from
13:32
Speaker 2: Treasury supporting it.
13:33
Speaker 5: So, Katie, we can't talk about the conversations in cabinet.
13:36
Speaker 5: The everyone that knows the Westminster system, there is robust conversations.
13:39
Speaker 1: Every cabinet meeting is extremely robust.
13:41
Speaker 5: You have to leave your personal opinions at the door,
13:43
Speaker 5: you have to represent your departments, you have to represent territorians,
13:46
Speaker 5: and you have a robust conversation. The Westminster system is
13:49
Speaker 5: if you don't agree with something, you leave the cabinet.
13:52
Speaker 5: And sometimes there's decisions that are easier and other times
13:54
Speaker 5: there's decisions that are really tough. Remember back to the
13:56
Speaker 5: Salp days, there was us stories that books were thrown
13:58
Speaker 5: around the room. It's really difficult. It can become highly emotive.
14:02
Speaker 5: But this decision, the cabinet looked at it and as
14:04
Speaker 5: I explained to that context that we're in trying to
14:07
Speaker 5: make sure we hit that infrastructure project budget. We had
14:10
Speaker 5: a significant amount of pressure on us to get all
14:12
Speaker 5: that money out the doors quickly.
14:13
Speaker 2: Do you reckon you know, like really weighing that up
14:16
Speaker 2: with public interests and public expectations. Do you think that
14:21
Speaker 2: people thought, you know, when you talk about different projects
14:24
Speaker 2: and you talk about infrastructure money being spent. Did you
14:28
Speaker 2: guys really think that territory ands we're going to be
14:30
Speaker 2: happy with twelve million dollars for a grandstand going back
14:34
Speaker 2: to you know, to the week that had happened.
14:36
Speaker 1: When you've then like for a health budget, let's.
14:38
Speaker 2: I know, there are different buckets of money, as you
14:40
Speaker 2: pointed out at the time, but then you don't have
14:42
Speaker 2: enough beds at the hospital, Katie.
14:44
Speaker 5: The budget is extremely in terms of it's difficult to
14:48
Speaker 5: break down the parts. There's infrastructure projects that are won off,
14:50
Speaker 5: there's infrastructure projects that create jobs ongoing, and of course
14:54
Speaker 5: I fight for every dollar into territory health and I'm
14:56
Speaker 5: proud as a minister there's been significant investment. But you
14:59
Speaker 5: also need to investment in other areas and you don't
15:02
Speaker 5: necessarily you know, you've got to balance that up and
15:05
Speaker 5: how the budget is shaped on this.
15:07
Speaker 2: Topic though, I mean, I don't think at the end
15:10
Speaker 2: of the day this is going to go away in
15:12
Speaker 2: a hurry. We've got a situation here now where obviously
15:15
Speaker 2: the Darwin Turf Club on the ninth of August is
15:18
Speaker 2: moving to to obviously elect a new board. The Chief
15:22
Speaker 2: Minister has made the statement that you know, he expected
15:25
Speaker 2: all of those board members to resign.
15:28
Speaker 1: He expects that money to be repaid.
15:32
Speaker 3: Resign exactly the ultimate board. I mean, how can you
15:35
Speaker 3: turn around to a volunteer board and say, you guys
15:37
Speaker 3: have to quit.
15:38
Speaker 5: You spent the money we gave you, and you don't
15:40
Speaker 5: look at yourself. Who gave away the money?
15:43
Speaker 3: Chiefs, Michael Gunner, Natasha Files it was you know, whoever
15:47
Speaker 3: else was in that cabinet at the time, they're the
15:49
Speaker 3: ones who gave it away. They didn't give it away,
15:51
Speaker 3: none of this would be having You're.
15:52
Speaker 4: Right, it's the eighth of August. If that's their AGM,
15:55
Speaker 4: that'll be interesting to see the outcome of that. But
15:57
Speaker 4: we've also got the chairman, Britt Dixon and his legal
15:59
Speaker 4: action that's right, he's undertaking in the Supreme Court, which
16:02
Speaker 4: basically is a judicial review. So he's seeking to review
16:06
Speaker 4: the whole contents of the IKAQ report, to challenge them,
16:10
Speaker 4: presumably with evidence of his own, and to have the
16:13
Speaker 4: report quashed. Now, I think that's going to be a telling,
16:17
Speaker 4: a telling time for everyone, particularly how that IQQ report
16:21
Speaker 4: was prepared. We've seen stories in the local press about
16:25
Speaker 4: alleged according to Brett Dixon alleged leaks from the IKAK
16:28
Speaker 4: to a particular media outlet. So there's a whole muzzle here.
16:32
Speaker 4: Apart from the there's the process of the money. That's
16:35
Speaker 4: one thing. Forget how the how the you know the
16:38
Speaker 4: turf Club built it and all that. I mean, it's
16:40
Speaker 4: I haven't seen the grandstand, but I'm sure it's a
16:42
Speaker 4: fine building. But there's all these other things, and I
16:44
Speaker 4: think they've all happened, they just haven't opened in isolation.
16:48
Speaker 4: They've all come about because of the way it was done.
16:51
Speaker 4: From the very beginning, the foundations that were set were
16:55
Speaker 4: flawed and so everything associated with it. I mean, when
16:59
Speaker 4: Michael Gunna comes out of chucks his chiefest stuff under
17:01
Speaker 4: the not only a bus, he's chucked him under a
17:02
Speaker 4: bloody road track. Absolutely, you know, and we all know
17:05
Speaker 4: who Alf Leonardi is and he's a good blow. But
17:07
Speaker 4: you can't tell me. And we've talked about this before.
17:09
Speaker 4: The Chief Minister doesn't know what his most senior advisor.
17:13
Speaker 4: I mean we're talking.
17:14
Speaker 2: He can't say the book stops with you and then say, oh,
17:18
Speaker 2: accepting this.
17:19
Speaker 3: Blame and blame everyone else. Clubs thrown under the bus.
17:22
Speaker 3: I've been thrown under the bus. You know, Natasha, reading
17:25
Speaker 3: between the lines, what you've been doing this week is
17:28
Speaker 3: throwing the CEO of DCM under the bus. I mean
17:31
Speaker 3: your basic You know the IKKE reports showed you. I
17:36
Speaker 3: absolutely will. So this is how it goes. One o
17:39
Speaker 3: six pm thirteen June. Sean Drab receives this submission from
17:43
Speaker 3: the Turf Club at one fifty six. He forwards it
17:46
Speaker 3: to Jodie Ryan and says, I words to the effective,
17:49
Speaker 3: I haven't read this talk Later it then disappears, cabinet
17:53
Speaker 3: happens whenever it was, and bang, we have a decision.
17:56
Speaker 3: Now you're saying we didn't know that it had only
17:58
Speaker 3: come in hours before. So you know, the CEO of
18:01
Speaker 3: DCM is the cabinet secretary. They're the last person as
18:04
Speaker 3: far as the ik can see, who received that submission.
18:07
Speaker 3: So if it's not your fault, it's not Michael gudging
18:10
Speaker 3: the story a little bit earlier. Whose is it? How
18:13
Speaker 3: did that document make it into the cabinet room.
18:15
Speaker 4: It couldn't of the Chief Minister's are It couldn't.
18:17
Speaker 3: Do it by magically flying in there and disappearing. And
18:20
Speaker 3: it wasn't in your cabinet book in the lead up
18:22
Speaker 3: to cabinet. It was dropped in at the last minute
18:25
Speaker 3: because it didn't exist prior to the thirteenth of June.
18:28
Speaker 3: That's the reality of it.
18:30
Speaker 2: I mean, so did you guys like when it came
18:33
Speaker 2: when it came into cabinet that day, is that the
18:37
Speaker 2: first that you and other ministers had seen it?
18:39
Speaker 5: So, Katie, we were aware of the project. It's certainly
18:41
Speaker 5: been talked about. And in terms of cabinet we have
18:45
Speaker 5: multiple papers and I you know, I can't talk about
18:48
Speaker 5: that detail, you know that, But what I can say
18:49
Speaker 5: is we have we use iPads now everything's uploaded electronically
18:53
Speaker 5: and there's there's multiple papers, there's multiple memos across things.
18:57
Speaker 5: You need to remember the context we're getting. Towards the
18:59
Speaker 5: end of the financial year, there was a huge amount
19:01
Speaker 5: of pressure on us as a government to deliver our
19:03
Speaker 5: infrastructure budget and have it all out the door because
19:06
Speaker 5: we were seeing tough times in that post IMPEX construction
19:09
Speaker 5: phase when the CP had failed to prepare the territory
19:11
Speaker 5: for that.
19:11
Speaker 3: First Yes, and we go back because you are a failure,
19:15
Speaker 3: Your government's a failure. You are the one who's lead
19:18
Speaker 3: the worst performing economy in the Nation Quarter on court.
19:21
Speaker 2: If we could do things over again, would you still
19:25
Speaker 2: agree to this grandstand?
19:27
Speaker 5: Katie? To me, the grandstand is a good investment. It
19:30
Speaker 5: created jobs in construction and it creates jobs ongoing. So yes,
19:35
Speaker 5: But what we have done and we have changed, you know,
19:38
Speaker 5: processes around government. But with cabinet we have a budget
19:42
Speaker 5: review subcommittee, so we have different subcommittees of cabinet. There's children's,
19:45
Speaker 5: there's jobs, there's a budget review on and we also
19:48
Speaker 5: make sure that things come in through the budget rather
19:51
Speaker 5: than and this is something that we change that both
19:53
Speaker 5: CLP and Labor governments had had for many decades add
19:56
Speaker 5: hoc decisions because we need to make decisions in terms
19:58
Speaker 5: of the overall phis situation of the Northern territory. So
20:01
Speaker 5: in terms of the throwaway comments from Leah there, we
20:04
Speaker 5: have taken this seriously and been very responsible with taxpayer dollars.
20:08
Speaker 3: Well, it's not possible because six months before making this decision,
20:11
Speaker 3: you told us we would have a thirty five point
20:13
Speaker 3: seven billion dollar dead in ten years if we didn't
20:15
Speaker 3: rain and spending. Then you go and give away twelve
20:17
Speaker 3: million dollars without requiring any contribution, without not even as
20:22
Speaker 3: in multiple payments. You did it as a lump sum,
20:24
Speaker 3: which again the Eyekak showed was not a normal process.
20:29
Speaker 3: It just doesn't just doesn't hold water. And all this
20:32
Speaker 3: tough talk from the Chief Minister is a ludicrous when
20:34
Speaker 3: we've seen him threatened CEOs to be sacked if they
20:37
Speaker 3: didn't blow their budget, yet not one has been reprimanded.
20:40
Speaker 3: We saw him advise as a Labor Party that they
20:42
Speaker 3: should get rid of the member for Blaine and yet
20:45
Speaker 3: they've ignored him. We've seen him threaten the Turf Club
20:47
Speaker 3: board to resign and most of them have ignored him.
20:50
Speaker 3: You know what I mean this, It just further reinforces
20:53
Speaker 3: his incapability to lead. He holds no credibility and no
20:57
Speaker 3: control and this is just a total disaster for good government.
21:01
Speaker 2: That we are going to have to take a very
21:03
Speaker 2: short break. You are listening to Mix one oh four
21:05
Speaker 2: point nine's three sixty. It is the week that was
21:07
Speaker 2: proudly brought to you by de Silver Hebron your local lawyers.
21:11
Speaker 2: You are listening to the week that was Now if
21:13
Speaker 2: you do want to send us a text message, just
21:15
Speaker 2: a reminder that that text line has changed zero four
21:18
Speaker 2: three nine two three eight eight one eight and in
21:22
Speaker 2: the studio this morning, Leofanochi, aur Ow, Natasha Fhiles and
21:25
Speaker 2: Kisier Purreic.
21:26
Speaker 5: Now.
21:26
Speaker 1: The news flowed through yesterday that up.
21:28
Speaker 2: To twelve hundred former detainees who were mistreated inside the
21:32
Speaker 2: world infamous don Dale Detention Center are going to be
21:36
Speaker 2: paid out a share of thirty five million dollars after
21:38
Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Government reached that record breaking settlement with
21:42
Speaker 2: Morris Blackburn Lawyers. It is believed to be the biggest
21:45
Speaker 2: class action settlement the Northern Territory Government's faced. It's a
21:49
Speaker 2: massive amount of money. We did, we did try to
21:52
Speaker 2: get the Minister for Territory Families on the show yesterday.
21:55
Speaker 2: Unfortunately we weren't able to. We did catch up with
21:58
Speaker 2: the Opposition spokes St Josh Bergowyn who said that it's
22:02
Speaker 2: a bit of pill for those victims of crime to swallow.
22:05
Speaker 1: And I know that we have had a large.
22:08
Speaker 2: Number of victims of crime, particularly who listened to this
22:11
Speaker 2: show and particularly in Alice Springs listening on AHI.
22:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think victims and territorians felt like, well, where's
22:18
Speaker 3: our thirty five million? And you know it's an absolute
22:23
Speaker 3: hideous amount of money. I mean that is half the
22:26
Speaker 3: entire use justice budget. Might I add what is most
22:29
Speaker 3: appalling and terrifying, quite frankly about this whole thing is
22:33
Speaker 3: the fact that the Gunner government instructed its lawyers to
22:37
Speaker 3: suppress the figure so that Territorians would never know that
22:40
Speaker 3: they had to pay thirty five million dollars to use detainees.
22:44
Speaker 3: And I want to know, Katie, I want to know
22:46
Speaker 3: which minister made that call, because the lawyers don't just
22:49
Speaker 3: get to go from frolic and do what they want.
22:51
Speaker 3: They are instructed by their client. Their client was either
22:53
Speaker 3: the Minister for Territory Families or the Cabinet who made
22:56
Speaker 3: that decision and directed the lawyers to suppress thirty five
23:01
Speaker 3: million dollars from territorians.
23:03
Speaker 4: Would have been that would have been a head of
23:05
Speaker 4: the Department on instructions from the Ministertuff had to have.
23:07
Speaker 3: Come from the Minister or Cabinet only.
23:09
Speaker 5: So, Katie, these are claims in this case are historical,
23:12
Speaker 5: so they stretch from two thousand and six to twenty seventeen,
23:15
Speaker 5: and we all know we've had the Royal Commission in
23:18
Speaker 5: that period and we've been doing an enormous amount of
23:19
Speaker 5: work in this space, and it covers nearly twelve hundred
23:21
Speaker 5: young people who were sentenced in that period, and so
23:26
Speaker 5: we certainly acknowledge the stain on this historical event in
23:29
Speaker 5: the territory. It has gone through a court process and
23:31
Speaker 5: we're focused, as we have been over the last four years,
23:34
Speaker 5: on reforming that youth justice.
23:35
Speaker 3: This is an out of court settlement. This is an
23:37
Speaker 3: out of court settlement. It's not a court judgment to
23:39
Speaker 3: award thirty five million dollars. This is a decision by
23:42
Speaker 3: either the Minister herself or the cabinet to try and
23:44
Speaker 3: suppress thirty five million dollars from public view and to
23:48
Speaker 3: agree to thirty five million dollars, well.
23:50
Speaker 4: That's the thing, to agree to an out of court settlement.
23:52
Speaker 4: I can tell you out there, out of my area,
23:54
Speaker 4: the Ruler and elsewhere a real cranky at this settlement.
23:57
Speaker 4: I mean, let's be honest. Dondale is the last resort.
24:00
Speaker 4: People that sewed up in don Dale have committed crimes.
24:02
Speaker 4: They've tried youth diversion, they've tried whatever else.
24:04
Speaker 3: They do, and they've had a lot of chances to
24:06
Speaker 3: get to don.
24:06
Speaker 4: Dale, Dustinal. Forget the Spithold and all that sort of stuff.
24:09
Speaker 4: There must have been reasons they did it then, and
24:11
Speaker 4: I know it was horrific and all that sort of stuff,
24:13
Speaker 4: and all the bleeding hearts come out and say, poor kids,
24:15
Speaker 4: you know, but they're all in there for a reason.
24:18
Speaker 4: And now they're getting compensated because they had a tough time,
24:21
Speaker 4: well tough enough. You know, you broke the law. And
24:23
Speaker 4: as Leah said, what about all the people that have
24:25
Speaker 4: suffered because of their action?
24:28
Speaker 1: Does anyone know how?
24:29
Speaker 2: I know? This figure came out in estimates how much
24:32
Speaker 2: money was paid out to victims of crime in the
24:34
Speaker 2: last finitial year.
24:35
Speaker 3: So this is hideous. So we have over sixteen hundred
24:39
Speaker 3: people waiting for victims of crime compensation in the territory
24:42
Speaker 3: and they wait an average of three years now for
24:44
Speaker 3: the period up until for the nine month period up
24:47
Speaker 3: until March this year only and only one hundred thousand
24:51
Speaker 3: dollars was recovered from offenders to pay compensation to victims.
24:56
Speaker 3: One hundred thousand dollars. So if these offenders are going
24:59
Speaker 3: to be receiving their share of thirty five million dollars,
25:02
Speaker 3: the government is part of that settlement deal should have
25:04
Speaker 3: been making sure that those offenders paid their restitution and
25:08
Speaker 3: paid their victims of crime levy.
25:10
Speaker 4: Is is it all going though? Is that whole thirty
25:12
Speaker 4: five million going into the water.
25:14
Speaker 2: Someone and he and they wouldn't confirm yesterday how much.
25:18
Speaker 2: Asked whether it was ten million, and he said it
25:20
Speaker 2: was far less than that he anticipated.
25:22
Speaker 3: But there was plenty of zeros on the end. Don't
25:24
Speaker 3: worry about that.
25:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that, well, that's none. That's their job, that's
25:28
Speaker 4: what they do. But you know, how are they going
25:30
Speaker 4: to distribute this money? You know what grounds like, oh
25:32
Speaker 4: you got.
25:35
Speaker 3: Has a panel been established? Like this money has gone
25:37
Speaker 3: into a trust fund? Who were going to be the
25:39
Speaker 3: decision makers to decide who was mistreated, what level of mistreated,
25:44
Speaker 3: trust how much money each person gets for different levels
25:47
Speaker 3: of mistreatment. I mean, there is no information on this.
25:50
Speaker 3: We've had the Territory Families Minister come out and say
25:52
Speaker 3: we just wanted to end it. The Territory government should
25:54
Speaker 3: have been in there fighting as hard as they possibly
25:57
Speaker 3: could against this, as hard as they possible could. And
26:00
Speaker 3: instead what we've got is some sort of thing like, oh,
26:03
Speaker 3: we just wanted it to go away, so we just
26:06
Speaker 3: here have thirty five million, half the entire youth Justice budget.
26:09
Speaker 2: So which minister did, I mean, did make that call
26:12
Speaker 2: that they wanted.
26:13
Speaker 1: That figure to be surprised fallacy.
26:15
Speaker 5: So I think Lee is putting it in a very
26:17
Speaker 5: simplistic way. This is a historical case that stretched over
26:20
Speaker 5: eleven years and it is something that the Northern Territory
26:23
Speaker 5: government has now reached an in principal settlement. So those
26:28
Speaker 5: questions would be best placed by the Territory Family's minister.
26:31
Speaker 3: So that means the Cabinet didn't make the decision. It
26:32
Speaker 3: was her decision, So.
26:34
Speaker 5: Katie, as I have already outlined the historical cases. Of
26:37
Speaker 5: course it is difficult these decisions, but when you are
26:40
Speaker 5: in the court process, things can quickly add up. And
26:43
Speaker 5: this covers nearly twelve hundred young people who were sentenced
26:46
Speaker 5: in a period of time. We acknowledged that historical you know,
26:49
Speaker 5: in Youth Justice Week we had a Royal commission off
26:51
Speaker 5: the back of the Four Corners episode that you know,
26:54
Speaker 5: certainly across that eleven years there was not a good
26:57
Speaker 5: time for the territory.
26:58
Speaker 2: But we really worth pointing out nobody expects that a
27:02
Speaker 2: child's going to go into detention and come out a
27:05
Speaker 2: worse offender. Everybody expects that if you go in to jail,
27:09
Speaker 2: or if you're going through a diversion program or any
27:11
Speaker 2: kind of program, that you're actually becoming a better human,
27:14
Speaker 2: not coming out.
27:15
Speaker 3: Sure anyone to be mistreatation, anyone to be mistreated.
27:20
Speaker 5: Implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission of the two
27:22
Speaker 5: hundred and eighteen recommendations, one hundred and fifty eight have
27:25
Speaker 5: been completed, fifty seven are underway, and there's just a handful.
27:28
Speaker 1: But the pendulum has swung too far the other way.
27:33
Speaker 4: I feeling.
27:33
Speaker 2: So, you know, we've got victims of crime, like that
27:36
Speaker 2: figure where we go victims of crime one hundred thousand
27:38
Speaker 2: dollars paid out over the year to me, you know,
27:43
Speaker 2: sorry recoup from offenders. You know that is that is
27:48
Speaker 2: really tough for victims out there listening to hear I've no.
27:50
Speaker 1: Doubt about that, particularly.
27:52
Speaker 3: Then skrenching for them. You know, we've had huge escalations
27:56
Speaker 3: in crime, people being victimized, people's children don't feel safe home,
28:00
Speaker 3: people have had to take extraordinary measures. People have been abused, assaulted, precious.
28:05
Speaker 4: Valuable scales around.
28:07
Speaker 3: I heard about that. I didn't hear about it.
28:09
Speaker 4: Younger children's you know, money.
28:11
Speaker 3: And then here we go with a government that's always
28:13
Speaker 3: been a fender focus just seemingly give away thirty five
28:17
Speaker 3: million dollars without care. And the other thing that they're
28:19
Speaker 3: not talking about, Katie, is that that thirty five million
28:22
Speaker 3: because they don't have it. I mean, it's half of
28:24
Speaker 3: the of the youth justice budget. They don't have the
28:26
Speaker 3: money they're going to recoup that across all government departments.
28:30
Speaker 3: So what services are going to be cut to find
28:33
Speaker 3: the thirty five million? You just don't magically have thirty
28:35
Speaker 3: five million dollars And if they're going to recoup it,
28:38
Speaker 3: what's going to be cut to find it?
28:39
Speaker 2: And look, you know thirty five million dollars that is
28:42
Speaker 2: on top of the Royal Commission and you.
28:44
Speaker 3: Know you'd justice facility.
28:46
Speaker 2: But I do, I mean, I will point out because
28:48
Speaker 2: I know there'll be people listening this morning going the
28:50
Speaker 2: colp called for the Royal Commission, So I do, I
28:53
Speaker 2: will definitely point that out because I know that it
28:55
Speaker 2: wasn't called obviously by the Labor Party. It was called
28:58
Speaker 2: by the then Chief Minister at A Giles, and he
29:01
Speaker 2: didn't understand what the time anyway, And you know, I
29:04
Speaker 2: think that we we wound up in a situation where
29:08
Speaker 2: I think it had a very different impact in a
29:10
Speaker 2: lot of ways on the community than what a lot
29:11
Speaker 2: of people anticipated.
29:12
Speaker 3: But the Royal Commission didn't say pay out thirty five
29:15
Speaker 3: million dollars. It didn't say what the Royal Commission did
29:18
Speaker 3: doated a COLP had made across these areas over a
29:22
Speaker 3: number of Can I just say six and twenty and
29:25
Speaker 3: seventeen The CLP were in government for four years, Let's
29:28
Speaker 3: just put some proper.
29:29
Speaker 5: Perspect twenty twelve you got into government and your mini
29:33
Speaker 5: budget slashed funding in this space.
29:35
Speaker 3: Case magically, it's all the CLP's follow here we are.
29:38
Speaker 1: I'm just pointing out the the.
29:39
Speaker 3: Labor government's term and it's still our fault.
29:42
Speaker 4: Casey.
29:42
Speaker 5: The reason why in these issues on this in the territory,
29:48
Speaker 5: you don't need to get personally so in termatively child
29:51
Speaker 5: protection and child neglect and a lot of these issues
29:54
Speaker 5: are built from that. We know the strong correlation between
29:57
Speaker 5: young people in child protection and going into the youth
29:59
Speaker 5: justice system. We did a lot of work and it
30:01
Speaker 5: was work that Jodine Carney and Malanjeri McCarthy did bipartisan
30:05
Speaker 5: in two thousand and nine, twenty ten, we had the
30:07
Speaker 5: Bath Report. All of that was scrapped. Why was it
30:10
Speaker 5: scrapped because it was easy to scrapped. You didn't see
30:11
Speaker 5: the impact back in twenty twelve. Imagine nine years later
30:14
Speaker 5: if we'd left that working place, we'd be in a
30:16
Speaker 5: very different situation. But we have rebuilt the justice system,
30:20
Speaker 5: the youth justice system over the last fie.
30:21
Speaker 2: We are going to have to take a very short break.
30:23
Speaker 2: You're listening to mix ONEOW four point nine three sixty.
30:25
Speaker 2: It is the week that was Indeed listening to MIXWEOW
30:28
Speaker 2: four point nine three sixty ites the week that was Leofandocchiaro,
30:32
Speaker 2: Kizi Epuric and Natasha files.
30:33
Speaker 1: In the studio with us.
30:35
Speaker 2: Now, I do want to talk about the impact of
30:37
Speaker 2: these hotspot declarations and lockdowns that they're having, well that
30:41
Speaker 2: we're having here in the Northern Territory at the moment.
30:44
Speaker 2: We caught up with Tourism Central Australia's Daniel Rochford a
30:47
Speaker 2: bit earlier in the week and he spoke about the
30:49
Speaker 2: fact that they had had mass cancelations for some of
30:52
Speaker 2: those different tours. One particular tour group had been due
30:56
Speaker 2: to have several school camps come in, will be in
31:00
Speaker 2: Central Australian and obviously all getting canceled to the tune
31:04
Speaker 2: of ten million dollars earlier in the week four some of.
31:07
Speaker 1: Those tourism businesses.
31:09
Speaker 2: It does make you wonder whether we need some kind
31:12
Speaker 2: of more targeted support for some of those businesses that
31:15
Speaker 2: are being hardest hit by these lockdowns in other states,
31:18
Speaker 2: because it doesn't look as though this situation is going
31:20
Speaker 2: to change in a hurry, Katie.
31:22
Speaker 5: It's so difficult. And we saw Victoria and South Australia
31:25
Speaker 5: go into their lockdowns and we were very pleased to
31:27
Speaker 5: see that they got on top of that and we
31:29
Speaker 5: were able to reopen those borders. Of course, we have
31:31
Speaker 5: to protect territorians and when we say that, we mean
31:34
Speaker 5: and we saw our own lockdown here in the top
31:36
Speaker 5: end out in Central Australia. When we were in lockdown,
31:38
Speaker 5: people weren't out and they weren't spending. We know that
31:41
Speaker 5: we need these interstate tourists. We know that Central Australia
31:43
Speaker 5: has been significantly impacted by a lack of international tourists.
31:47
Speaker 5: And it's that balance between keeping our community open and
31:50
Speaker 5: our economy going versus letting that virus in. So I've
31:53
Speaker 5: been speaking with Tourism Central Australia this week as well
31:55
Speaker 5: as meeting with Tourism top End last week, and I'll
31:57
Speaker 5: be catching up with them again next week. So we
32:00
Speaker 5: working with them. That we provided over one point two
32:02
Speaker 5: million dollars into Central Australia, specifically working with Tourism Central
32:06
Speaker 5: Australia for a targeted program for them that they could help,
32:10
Speaker 5: particularly off the back of the international tourists. So we'll
32:13
Speaker 5: keep working with these industries. You know, we all talk
32:15
Speaker 5: about it's devastating we can't travel, family can't come and
32:18
Speaker 5: visit us. But there's like these, particularly the tourism businesses. Yeah,
32:23
Speaker 5: they're a whole livelihood and you know, you cannot we
32:27
Speaker 5: cannot underestimate or you know, the devastation. It's hugely emotional
32:31
Speaker 5: for them, and our thoughts are certainly with them, and
32:33
Speaker 5: we'll continue to work with them.
32:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's by far, it's the hospitality industry and everyone
32:37
Speaker 4: it hangs off the hospitality industry. But I can tell
32:40
Speaker 4: you the grain nomads or the travelers, they there are hundreds,
32:43
Speaker 4: it's not thousands, So everyone has nothing else. The roadside
32:46
Speaker 4: inns as I call them, you know, the motels and
32:48
Speaker 4: the smaller places. They're having a bonanza.
32:50
Speaker 5: Of the time and keasier it is. It is in
32:54
Speaker 5: one sense we've got the travelers and we've got the
32:55
Speaker 5: gray nomads, but we're missing certain sections of the market,
32:58
Speaker 5: and particularly for those two operators, Katie, you know all
33:01
Speaker 5: the people that self drives and that's where you do
33:04
Speaker 5: see that that international component and these school groups and
33:07
Speaker 5: things that you were talking about. Sorry to cut you.
33:09
Speaker 4: Off, No, that's all right, but I mean and then
33:11
Speaker 4: like organized bookings like I know in the past through
33:13
Speaker 4: a friend that people would come up in bus loads
33:16
Speaker 4: for the Darn Cup because they're racing enthusiasts from the
33:18
Speaker 4: particular racing club down in Victoria, New South Wales. And
33:22
Speaker 4: there's dozens of those that can come up and they
33:24
Speaker 4: stay somewhere they spent. Now they've all, especially the New
33:26
Speaker 4: South Wales bood have all been canceled yep, and sad
33:30
Speaker 4: for us, particularly because they all stay in the hospitality.
33:34
Speaker 1: They spend their money.
33:35
Speaker 4: It's incredibly tough and I think, as Natasha said, you know,
33:38
Speaker 4: government's got its role to play in supporting business and
33:41
Speaker 4: industry in the tety, but we all do how we
33:44
Speaker 4: can do it well.
33:44
Speaker 2: And is it going to make a difference when the
33:47
Speaker 2: population is indeed vaccinated, because you know, you can't when
33:52
Speaker 2: we are. I mean if but why now if we
33:55
Speaker 2: are vaccinated, do we still have to go into into
33:57
Speaker 2: you know, isolation if we come back from a hot spot.
34:00
Speaker 5: It's okay that Territorians are doing an amazing job in
34:02
Speaker 5: getting themselves vaccinated. We're getting close to fifty percent of
34:05
Speaker 5: territories will have had a first dose. We've got I
34:07
Speaker 5: think it's around it's over twenty five percent are fully vaccinated.
34:10
Speaker 5: But the vaccination, you know, when you and we haven't
34:12
Speaker 5: had this discussion in the territory context, but when you
34:15
Speaker 5: talk about it globally, you just need to look at
34:18
Speaker 5: the UK. You know, I think they've hit sixty percent.
34:21
Speaker 5: I think that, you know, for us, with our very
34:22
Speaker 5: vulnerable population, it's more like eighty percent. But we're working
34:25
Speaker 5: incredibly hard on our vaccination rollout. We acknowledge the Commonwealth
34:28
Speaker 5: Government who've been supplying that vaccine, our aboriginal medical organizations.
34:32
Speaker 5: I was out in what Are with the team earlier
34:34
Speaker 5: this week. Over a thousand people in that community were
34:36
Speaker 5: vaccinated last week. We are getting there and it will
34:38
Speaker 5: only increase from here.
34:40
Speaker 3: Well, it's really important that we do particularly focus REMO.
34:43
Speaker 3: I mean, I know when I was out in the
34:45
Speaker 3: Central Desert a few months ago, and I know Katie
34:46
Speaker 3: we've talked about this, it was incredibly low numbers of
34:49
Speaker 3: people vaccinated. So when you know Michael Gunner wants to
34:52
Speaker 3: turn around and talk about our most vulnerable, he's got
34:54
Speaker 3: to put his money where his mouth is. I mean,
34:56
Speaker 3: you can't just talk about these things, You've actually got
34:58
Speaker 3: to deliver it on the ground. You know, vaccine is
35:00
Speaker 3: so important. I mean, it's a privilege to be fully
35:03
Speaker 3: vaccinated myself, you know, and I know a lot of
35:06
Speaker 3: people are trying to get vaccinated. I think it's really important.
35:10
Speaker 3: I want to just reiterate our calls in the past
35:12
Speaker 3: that and Natasha, you know you're the health minister. I
35:14
Speaker 3: think it's great that you've got the COVID website and
35:16
Speaker 3: it's good, but it needs to be a one stop shop.
35:19
Speaker 3: You know, people go on there to try and make
35:21
Speaker 3: a booking and it only has so many clinics. It's
35:23
Speaker 3: not all of the clinics, and so people feel like
35:26
Speaker 3: they can't make a booking. Whereas we know that doctor
35:28
Speaker 3: surgeries people can contact. Then we know the Parmass Superclinic.
35:31
Speaker 3: There are actually a large number of other clinics. So
35:34
Speaker 3: don't be dishearted if you go onto the coronavirus website
35:36
Speaker 3: and try to click a book and it comes up
35:38
Speaker 3: with that response that says there are no bookings available,
35:41
Speaker 3: you can't proceed, go and find someone else. And in
35:44
Speaker 3: the meantime, I urge government make that more user friendly
35:48
Speaker 3: so that it truly is a one stop shop so
35:50
Speaker 3: people can get the vaccine as soon as possible.
35:52
Speaker 5: And I'll just point out a figure. There're thirty seven
35:54
Speaker 5: percent of territories that identify with the remote address have
35:57
Speaker 5: also been vaccinated had a first dose. So we are
36:00
Speaker 5: rolling this program out across the northern territories. And so
36:03
Speaker 5: you know, I really do urge you to be careful
36:04
Speaker 5: with those comments around Central natural.
36:06
Speaker 3: I'm talking about my experience in the Central Desert at
36:09
Speaker 3: that time, a couple of months ago, the numbers were
36:11
Speaker 3: really really low. That was coming from local people on
36:13
Speaker 3: the grounding community that yes, you should look at the.
36:15
Speaker 5: Latest statistics, WHI show thirty seven percent.
36:17
Speaker 3: I don't know, thirty seven where we wanted to be
36:20
Speaker 3: eighteen months in I'm not sure, but getting.
36:22
Speaker 4: Question having.
36:28
Speaker 2: Really, I'm going to keep moving because I do want
36:31
Speaker 2: to We do want to have a chat in just
36:33
Speaker 2: a couple of moments about a situation that we've seen
36:35
Speaker 2: with some of those territories trying to get exemptions out
36:38
Speaker 2: at Howard Springs. So we're going to take a very
36:40
Speaker 2: short break and when we come back and we'll talk
36:42
Speaker 2: about that in just a couple of moments on Mixed
36:44
Speaker 2: one oh four point nine. You are listening to the
36:46
Speaker 2: week that was. You are listening to the week that
36:48
Speaker 2: was in the studio. Of course, we've got Leofanochi ro
36:50
Speaker 2: O Kezy Epirican Natasha Files. Now throughout the week, we
36:53
Speaker 2: had a number of people get in contact with us
36:55
Speaker 2: about exemptions when it comes to Howard Springs and the
36:59
Speaker 2: city situation out there. We heard from Allen whose wife
37:03
Speaker 2: Joe is out at Howard Springs following on from back
37:06
Speaker 2: surgery Filesy, this is something that we spoke to you
37:09
Speaker 2: about earlier in the week after we discussed it. We
37:12
Speaker 2: also had a number of other people get in contact
37:14
Speaker 2: with us about their concerns when it comes to getting
37:18
Speaker 2: an exemption from going into quarantine. Now people weren't asking
37:22
Speaker 2: for special treatment. They were just asking that if they
37:25
Speaker 2: are forced to go into Howard Springs quarantine, particularly if
37:28
Speaker 2: they've been away for surgery or for other health treatment,
37:31
Speaker 2: that they're actually provided with the support that they require.
37:35
Speaker 2: Is it something that you've now looked into.
37:37
Speaker 5: Yes, Katie. So we have had a number of contacts
37:40
Speaker 5: and for someone to get an exemption, that is the
37:42
Speaker 5: decision of the Chief Health Officer, and they're very rarely.
37:45
Speaker 5: I'm not sure if they've been handed out. We do
37:48
Speaker 5: sometimes have people that if they do need medical care,
37:50
Speaker 5: we care for them in quarantine at the Lorraine Brennan
37:52
Speaker 5: Center at the hospital, and that's been since the start
37:54
Speaker 5: of the pandemic. But I have spoken with the Department
37:57
Speaker 5: of Health and just ask them to make sure that
37:59
Speaker 5: we are extremely compassionate and caring for these people who
38:03
Speaker 5: are in a very difficult circumstance. It's difficult enough. We
38:05
Speaker 5: have an amazing hospital, We have amazing hospitals across the
38:08
Speaker 5: territory and health staff, but you know, people do need
38:10
Speaker 5: to attend for medical care interstate and then it's complex
38:14
Speaker 5: enough doing that, let alone returning and having to have
38:16
Speaker 5: the overlay of quarantine. So I have reached out to
38:18
Speaker 5: the department to make sure that, as you just said,
38:21
Speaker 5: some of those things that they need, just to make
38:23
Speaker 5: sure that they you know, it's not about making them,
38:26
Speaker 5: you know, are having a happiest day. It's actually basic essentials.
38:28
Speaker 2: They need and about making sure you know that if
38:30
Speaker 2: you've got somebody like Joe who's arrived out there at
38:33
Speaker 2: Howard Springs, that she's not standing for two hours, you know,
38:36
Speaker 2: to get in there to get processed after going through
38:40
Speaker 2: back surgery or having to lay on the concrete, you know,
38:42
Speaker 2: to stay comfortable. Like to me, I think most people
38:45
Speaker 2: would be really surprised to actually hear that that's happened.
38:48
Speaker 5: And Katie, we can provide quarantine, but we can be compassionate.
38:51
Speaker 4: Katie, I think what I'm because I know I wrote
38:54
Speaker 4: to the ministry about that particular family. I think there
38:57
Speaker 4: has to be some kind of coordination as well. If
39:00
Speaker 4: if that person was sent down south by our health
39:02
Speaker 4: department or our pet scheme, that there's some better coordination.
39:06
Speaker 3: You know, they're coming back, they're coming back, and depending.
39:08
Speaker 4: Why they've gone south like this lady had done, I
39:10
Speaker 4: think back surgery or spine surgery, some surgeries or some
39:14
Speaker 4: treatment is going to be they're going to need something extra,
39:16
Speaker 4: whether it be a softer bed or something. So I
39:18
Speaker 4: think there might need to be better coordination between the
39:21
Speaker 4: pet scheme people who send me away and then the
39:24
Speaker 4: health departments absolutely.
39:25
Speaker 3: Of course, because you know, you know they're coming back
39:27
Speaker 3: because the government's paying for it.
39:28
Speaker 5: You know.
39:28
Speaker 4: Unfortunate that the New Southwest must have come from New
39:30
Speaker 4: South Wales when or has gone into lockdown or is
39:34
Speaker 4: a hot spot. But they can know that too, they
39:37
Speaker 4: can do their risk assessment, you know, and they can
39:39
Speaker 4: either they stay down South more and support them or
39:43
Speaker 4: support them well.
39:44
Speaker 3: Especially because of course now in Alice Springs we've got
39:47
Speaker 3: home based quarantines. So why is it okay for people
39:50
Speaker 3: in Alice Springs to quarantine at home when they're able
39:53
Speaker 3: bodied and capable of being in quarantine? Yes, yeah, sure,
39:57
Speaker 3: But I'm just saying there's a great alarity there. It's like,
40:00
Speaker 3: if we trust Dallas Springs people to be at home,
40:03
Speaker 3: why can't we trust top end people to be at home?
40:05
Speaker 3: You know, So there's a there's a real distinction there.
40:07
Speaker 3: It's like you can't have a rule for one and
40:09
Speaker 3: not for the others. So in those circumstances where it
40:11
Speaker 3: might be mental health issues, it might be physical requirements.
40:15
Speaker 3: You know you can't have this this almost militant enforcement
40:19
Speaker 3: in the top end. But then say to people in
40:21
Speaker 3: Alice Spring, tell yeah, you're here right, go home.
40:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
40:24
Speaker 2: We are going to have to leave it there. We've
40:25
Speaker 2: run out of time. Leo the opposition later, thank you
40:28
Speaker 2: as always for your time this morning.
40:30
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Fizy, I'll see you at the
40:32
Speaker 3: cup on Monday.
40:36
Speaker 1: Want to have a.
40:37
Speaker 3: Little I'll see you all their labor gang the ball.
40:44
Speaker 4: I think Jef minutes. If you're going to bring your child,
40:47
Speaker 4: make sure your child's got sunscreen and a hat on
40:49
Speaker 4: this time rather than what he did at the Darwin show.
40:52
Speaker 4: A little I want to plug in is a the
40:59
Speaker 4: Kenyons Gram and Lynn Kingyon have got be placed down
41:01
Speaker 4: on the Atum Highway to take.
41:02
Speaker 5: About twenty minutes.
41:03
Speaker 4: It's got cultural days. It's today ten to five. They've
41:06
Speaker 4: got you know, everything to do with learning about indigenous culture, harvesting,
41:11
Speaker 4: spear throwing, food does in this music at six.
41:14
Speaker 3: And stuff.
41:19
Speaker 2: Health minister, thank you, Thanks Welfe and well, thank you
41:22
Speaker 2: very much for your time this morning.
41:23
Speaker 1: You are listening to mix