Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Branch President of the NT Education union Jarvis Ryan

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Katie Woolf spoke with Branch President of the NT Education union Jarvis Ryan · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now tracking along. We do know as well that it's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: really not just the hospitality industry that's impacted when it
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: comes to some of these concerns around the COVID vaccine.
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  Speaker 1: We know that we talk a lot about those disruptions
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to business when it comes to lockdown and issues with
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the COVID with the COVID situation at the moment, but
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  Speaker 1: it does seem as though those who work in the
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  Speaker 1: education sector are also pretty concerned about the current situation.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is Jarvis Ryan, who
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  Speaker 1: is the head of the Northern Territory Education Union. Good
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  Speaker 1: morning to you, Jarvis.
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  Speaker 2: Great to be with you, Katie and mate.
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  Speaker 1: Firstly, a good run yesterday You and your little fella
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  Speaker 1: ran incredibly well at run with dad. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the shame it was in this morning. The weather's
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  Speaker 2: a lot nicer in day on this morning than yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: Was very tough conditions. Yes, a great, great day out
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  Speaker 2: and a great cause to be supporting. Well.
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't sure as well whether you and your son
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  Speaker 1: we were the first father and son duo across the line,
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  Speaker 1: but you were running pretty fast, no doubt about it.
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  Speaker 2: Well I'm not too sure about that either, but it's
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  Speaker 2: always good to just get across the finish line, and yeah,
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  Speaker 2: many other thing that was so nice yesterday, just in
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  Speaker 2: trying times, I certainly found that it was a very
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  Speaker 2: nice day of celebrating fathers and men and just a
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  Speaker 2: good news day and mean amidst quite a lot of
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  Speaker 2: grim bad news days around in Australia at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on. It was so good, hey, just
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  Speaker 1: to get out there when you consider what other people
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  Speaker 1: are going through in other states. And there was a
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  Speaker 1: few people running around the track. I don't know whether
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  Speaker 1: you heard it as well, but sort of saying you know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm from wherever a Sunshine coast. One bloke had told
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  Speaker 1: me and he said, we just you know, this is
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  Speaker 1: so good that you're able to do this up here
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  Speaker 1: in the top end.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it is a contrast and talking to my
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  Speaker 2: dad yesterday afternoon, he's in Sydney and he just said,
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  Speaker 2: I've never found myself wishing so much of my life away,
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  Speaker 2: just hoping they can get past if he gets to
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  Speaker 2: go out and exercise once a day and go to
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  Speaker 2: the shops occasionally, and that's his life. You know. He
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  Speaker 2: wants to get back to traveling and being able to
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  Speaker 2: move around, and he said, there's not a great deal
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  Speaker 2: to look forward to at the moment. So I guess,
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  Speaker 2: I guess that's we're all looking for some light at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the tunnel. Within the territory, we don't
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  Speaker 2: have those day to day restrictions, but we do have
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  Speaker 2: obviously the restrictions in terms of every time we leave
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  Speaker 2: the territory. Yeah, things get a bit dice in.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on, And that is something that you
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  Speaker 1: have raised in recent days, particularly for some of our
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  Speaker 1: teachers in the Northern Territory. As we talk more about
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: that vaccine rollout, Javis talk us through how some of
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: our teachers in remote communities are sort of feeling at
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  Speaker 1: the moment when you look at you know, heading towards
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  Speaker 1: the end of the year and the potential for us
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  Speaker 1: opening up but only if we get to that eighty
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  Speaker 1: percent vaccination rate.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we are concerned about that. We can concerned
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  Speaker 2: about the mental health and wellbeing of our remote teaching staff.
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  Speaker 2: So they do it pretty tough in the best of times.
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  Speaker 2: And part of the deal usually is those school holiday
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  Speaker 2: periods are a chance to get out, travel a bit,
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  Speaker 2: recharge the batteries in normal times, that would mean maybe
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  Speaker 2: a trip into state at a time by the beach.
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  Speaker 2: If you're in the central desert in old days, you
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  Speaker 2: might have jumped over to Bali for a few days.
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  Speaker 2: And what we're sort of concerned about is if we
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  Speaker 2: don't start to see some movement around when we'll start
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  Speaker 2: to ease restrictions, particularly when we're looking at potentially mandating
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  Speaker 2: vaccination in remote communities, is that we may lose a
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  Speaker 2: lot of teachers. A place like Victorian Ours offering sign
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  Speaker 2: on bonuses of up to fifty thousand dollars for teachers,
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  Speaker 2: we're looking at a four year pay freees. We're talking
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  Speaker 2: about people very isolated off and haven't seen their families
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  Speaker 2: into state for eighteen months. I think we need to
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  Speaker 2: give people some indication of when some of those restrictions
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  Speaker 2: may be looking to ease. We want to start that
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  Speaker 2: conversation now, not three weeks out from Christmas, because it's
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  Speaker 2: not just the issue of potentially losing teachers, it's then
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  Speaker 2: having to replace them and recruit. And if we're talking
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  Speaker 2: about hotspots in place around many states of Australia, you're
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  Speaker 2: asking people to do fourteen days of mandatory quarantine just
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  Speaker 2: to come and start work here. That is a big
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  Speaker 2: ask for anyone, particularly someone thinking of bringing their family here.
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  Speaker 2: And this is a real risk for the territories that
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  Speaker 2: we've done a really good job of keeping COVID out
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  Speaker 2: of the territory, But how do we start to make
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  Speaker 2: that transition to easing some of those restrictions.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is a discussion that we're sort of
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  Speaker 1: having quite broadly at the moment. We just spoke to
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  Speaker 1: Alex Bruce obviously from hospitality into and from all accounts.
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  Speaker 1: You know, what I can gather is that people are
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  Speaker 1: really just after a bit more certainty and a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a plan.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's what I'd be up for
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  Speaker 2: the Chief the Chief Minister is look particularly the issue
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  Speaker 2: I think we have and I listened to the Tail
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  Speaker 2: interview interview with Alex, and I think you sort of
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  Speaker 2: hit the nail on the head is we set these
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  Speaker 2: arbitrary figures like eighty percent and so on, but clearly
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  Speaker 2: there's a huge disconnect in the bush. And I know
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  Speaker 2: I got in contact with a member in Alprah last week.
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  Speaker 2: Is one of the types of Central Australian communities that
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  Speaker 2: are talking about sort of the years ten out of
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  Speaker 2: seven hundred people vaccinated. Is he's telling me there's misinformation.
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  Speaker 2: People are being fed all sorts of false information about vaccines.
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  Speaker 2: But there's very little attempt by the government really to
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  Speaker 2: have messages in community language and community engagement campaign and
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  Speaker 2: getting elders out to explain just how vital it is
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  Speaker 2: that vulnerable people in these communities are vaccinated. So we've
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  Speaker 2: got a real challenge on our hands to get those
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  Speaker 2: vaccination levels up in those remote communities or we will
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  Speaker 2: never get to that eighty percent threshold. And that's raises
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  Speaker 2: real issues not just around people's freedom of movement, but
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  Speaker 2: obviously the devastating impact that the coronavirus would likely have
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  Speaker 2: in the event of an outbreaking in those remote communities.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're spot on there, and you know, we all,
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  Speaker 1: I think everybody. It goes without saying that health is
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  Speaker 1: the priority here and we've got to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: everybody is vaccinated first and foremost to ensure that they
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  Speaker 1: are kept as safe as possible. But then, you know,
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  Speaker 1: like you've just said, if we've got a situation where
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  Speaker 1: even when we're talking about our education sector, people are
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  Speaker 1: worried about coming to the Northern territory. Because of those
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  Speaker 1: different factors that come into play, I having to quarantine
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and various other things. It's going to make it, I
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  Speaker 1: would suspect, quite difficult in terms of recruitment for next year.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it is particularly because again it's important to look forward,
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  Speaker 2: because you can say the territory it's great now we
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  Speaker 2: have this openness and so on. But think about how
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  Speaker 2: different a place like New South Wales will be next year,
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  Speaker 2: potentially Victoria where they move into a new phase of
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  Speaker 2: you to use the expression of living with the virus
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  Speaker 2: and focusing on hospitalizations and death not case numbers. Are
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  Speaker 2: we going to be locked away in the territory. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm certainly not one to be advocating like open slavor,
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  Speaker 2: but I think saying fourteen days manatry quarantine, Australia's getting
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  Speaker 2: left behind the rest of the world. I mean, I
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  Speaker 2: have a friend who has just come back to Australia
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  Speaker 2: with his wife to have their second baby. Now they
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  Speaker 2: lived in Cuta. He's vaccinated. In the weeks leading up
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  Speaker 2: to when he left, he visited four countries, return to
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  Speaker 2: had to undertake a test, no mandatory quarantine, was able
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  Speaker 2: to go about his life and that's what's beginning to
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  Speaker 2: happen in the rest of the world, and so I'd
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  Speaker 2: be thinking in our context, we need to look at
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  Speaker 2: how we could continue to protect remote communities, to ask
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  Speaker 2: people working there to take on additional precautions. But does
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  Speaker 2: that need to mean fourteen days in hotel quarantine? Could
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  Speaker 2: it mean a shorter period of home quarantine? Could it
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  Speaker 2: mean being submitting to regular testing. That's sort of where
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  Speaker 2: I'd like to hear our health officials talking about moving
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  Speaker 2: towards a more flexible approach that does change the settings
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  Speaker 2: based on higher vaccination rates, to get the balance a
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  Speaker 2: bit more in favor of giving people some more freedom
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  Speaker 2: whilst doing it in the safest manner possible.
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  Speaker 1: Jervis, from your perspective, we are going to have to
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  Speaker 1: wrap up. But from your perspective, how important is it
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  Speaker 1: do you think you know, when it comes to having
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  Speaker 1: this discussion as a union for education, how important is
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  Speaker 1: it that we do start to really talk about this
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  Speaker 1: and have a clear plan.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think I think it really is important because
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  Speaker 2: one of the big issues as well here is the
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  Speaker 2: bigger issue of what point do we accept and submit
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  Speaker 2: to community transmission in the territory which is the bigger
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  Speaker 2: issue than that plays into the schools stay open. How
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  Speaker 2: do they stay open? These are you know, we can't
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  Speaker 2: just continue on as I think Victoria's found with lockdown
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  Speaker 2: after lockdown to try to eradicate the virus. So have
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  Speaker 2: these conversations now before we are faced with that reality,
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  Speaker 2: because it's pretty clear you look around the world, this
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  Speaker 2: virus is not going away, that it is going to be
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  Speaker 2: a case of trying to minimize hospitalizations and death, but
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  Speaker 2: find a way to balance medical interventions and things with
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  Speaker 2: trying to allow things like businesses to run schools to
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  Speaker 2: continue to try and do that in the safest way possible.
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  Speaker 2: And certainly I want to see our schools remain open
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  Speaker 2: for our kids. I think they miss out too much
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  Speaker 2: if we see these prolonged lockdowns that are happening interstates.
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  Speaker 2: So we want to make sure we try and get
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  Speaker 2: that discussion happening now with government that it can't just
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  Speaker 2: be and hotspots forever.
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  Speaker 1: Well. Javishryan, the head of the Northern Territory Education Union,
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  Speaker 1: it's good to speak with you this morning. Thanks so
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  Speaker 1: much for your time. Good th Thanks, thank you,