Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Member for Katherine Jo Hersey regarding the last minute extension to the region's mask mandate

Transcript

Katie spoke with Member for Katherine Jo Hersey regarding the last minute extension to the region's mask mandate · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that there is a mask mandate in place
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: at the moment in Catherine, and it's due to end
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: at five o'clock today. Joining us on the line right
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: now as the memberfore Catherine, Joe Hersey. Good morning to.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: You, Joe, Good morning, Katie, and good morning listeners. Joe.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you guys felt in Catherine towards
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the end of last week, but it sort of seemed
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to fly under the radar a little bit, this mask mandate.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: It certainly did, Katie, and I would just like to
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: first say that the communication has been confusing and poor
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: at best for the community of Catherine. The media release
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: went out less than an hour before the mandate was
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: about to finish on Friday afternoon, So if you're not
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: signed up to the MTG media releases, or you're not
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: sitting in front of your Facebook, you wouldn't have known
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: that the mask mandate in actual fact was continuing till
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: five o'clock this afternoon.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And you know the thing is, even you know,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: we were having a discussion or fair in here this morning,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: even for our news room and others. By sort of
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: five pm on a Friday afternoon, a lot of that info. Well,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: yet it sort of goes under the radar. As I
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: said in.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: The intro, absolutely, and you know I would I would
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: have thought the Health Minister would have done a media conference.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: People in Catherine need to know if they were going
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to be needing to wear their mask for the whole
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: of the weekend. That was not the case. Yesterday. When
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I was at the servo shueling up, I was wearing
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: my mask and a girl says, oh, we're still wearing
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: a mask and I said, yeah, it's till five o'clock today.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: So there was a lot of confusion, and I'd say
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: there'd be a lot of people across Catherine that did
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: not know that it had continued on not everyone's on Facebook.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: But there was no media, you know, there wasn't like
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: a media conference to say this is what's going on
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: for Catherine. So very poor communication at best.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Katie and Joe, any idea if it is indeed going
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to be lifting today at five o'clock. Has there been
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: much communication? Well obviously not, but has there been any
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: communication today in relation to this mask mandate.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I did ring the Health Minister this morning knowing that
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I was coming to talk to you and the information
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I've got is there will be a discussion this afternoon
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: on the situation in Katherine, and I've just asked them
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: to let me know as soon as possible whether we
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: will continue that on. It is concerning that the wastewater
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: is still showing positive so hopefully by five o'clock the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: residents of Catherine and the community can remove the mask
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: like you can up here in Darwin, Joe.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Is there much concern from locals about the fact that
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: there was obviously positive results in the wastewater.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: It has been confusing because if there is no further
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: people in the community, like we haven't heard that there's
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: anyone else that's contracted COVID, so it is it'll be
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: interesting to understand more about why the wastewater is showing
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a positive result, and I haven't been able to get
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: that from the Health minister.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly sounds like it's confusing. But people in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Catherine feeling a little bit sort of left out. I mean,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: when there is a mask mandate called for Darwin or
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: for a broader area, and you know, if there was
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: those test results were the same up here in Darwin,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: you would think that there'd be a press conference call.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Are you guys feeling a little bit left out.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I do feel a bit left out there in Catherine.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: And when I was talking to a business owner on
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Friday night, their attendance at their cafe was very low.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: They're normally quite busy on a Friday, and they put
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: that down to the confusion with the mask mandate, and
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: they had to tell quite a few people coming in
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: that the mask mandate had continued on people were not aware.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Joe. On the subject of mandates, how's that vaccine mandate
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: rolled out in Catherine.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It's when we were in lockdown last weekend. It was
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: really good to see that a lot of people had
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: gone out and got vaccinated. We have still been struggling
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to get the correct vaccination rates for Catherine. They helped.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: The Chief Minister did come out last week and say
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: seventy five and sixty five we have. Still we're still
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: waiting for any updated I would have thought after last
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: weekend there would have been a considerable amount more. We
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: are still waiting for information to know actually what those
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: rates are.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll see what we can find out.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Joe.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: How about for those businesses in Catherine, has there been
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: any that have been forced to shut shop or are
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: really concerned earned about the mandate and have lost staff
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: as a result.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: The fear that I've spoken to Katie, there has been concern.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: A couple of businesses I know have lost staff. There
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: have been a lot of pressure on business to implement
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: the mandate. We have been asking for a long time
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: for industry specific support to be rolled out. For weeks
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: We've been calling on hr support, fair works support, legal
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: advice for these business and it is just not good
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: enough that the government has been very slow and clunky
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: at best in giving specific information to industry on the
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: implementation of the mandate.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Hey, join, what appears to be some good news over
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the weekend. It looks like there's going to be some
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: flood mitigation work happening. I saw that it's been announced
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: that a multimillion dollar pro project to provide protection to
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: properties and businesses in Catherine South from up to a
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Q twenty flood event. So that's similar to what we
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: saw in the two thousand and six flood. It's been
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: given the green light with significant funding. That's from the
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Australian Government's four billion dollar Emergency Response Fund. My understanding
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: is that it's nine point four million dollars in federal funds,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the territory government contributing around six hundred thousand dollars for
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: what is going to be a ten million dollar project.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I've no doubt still a bit of detail to come through,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: but is this being viewed as a positive thing by
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the people of Catherine.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: That was a positive story that I read over the weekend, Katie,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: and I certainly welcomed that announcement from and thank the
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: federal government for the nine point four million in funding.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: And we certainly don't want the community to go through
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: another flood after being through both floods myself, I know
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: what it's like personally, and this is a great announcement
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: and I look forward to hearing more detail on it
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: in the future. Katie.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see what else we can find out on
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: that one as well. Joe Hersey, can you keep in
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: contact with us, let us know how it goes a
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: bit later today with the mask and yeah, we'll try
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and find out a bit more detail as well when
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: it comes to that wastewater.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I certainly will, Katie, and thank you and thank you listening.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks for your time today.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Joe