Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Minister for Health Natasha Fyles

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Katie Woolf spoke with Minister for Health Natasha Fyles · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty
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  Speaker 1: Every One is Listening Mix one oh four point nine. Now,
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  Speaker 1: yesterday we spoke about Brisbane being in a three day lockdown,
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  Speaker 1: and then once we got off here, it was announced
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  Speaker 1: that travelers from the City of Brisbane, Morton Bay Region,
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  Speaker 1: City of Ipswich, Logan City, Redland City, the Tawoomba Region
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  Speaker 1: as well. Basically the decision was made by the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Health Officer that those areas are now hotspots. Now joining
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  Speaker 1: me on the line to talk more about the situation
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  Speaker 1: is the Health Minister Attasha Files.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Minister, I understand that the requirement is for anyone
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  Speaker 1: who's been in those areas that I just mentioned, those
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  Speaker 1: local government areas since March twenty five, as well as
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  Speaker 1: the Byron Bay Council area. I think since March twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven that they now need to need to go into
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  Speaker 1: isolation at Howard Springs. Is that.
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  Speaker 2: So, Katie, the suburbs, the local government areas that you
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  Speaker 2: just read out, so that City of Brisbane, Morton Bay, Ipswitch,
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  Speaker 2: Logan City, Redland City and too Womba they need to
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  Speaker 2: go to mandatory quarantine. Additionally, people that are from Gladston
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  Speaker 2: and Byron Bay lga's need to isolate debt tested. Katie,
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  Speaker 2: this is as we see this local transmission in Brisbane spreading.
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  Speaker 2: It appears overnight that there's more cases that have been
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  Speaker 2: locally acquired and Queensland authorities are believing that they have
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  Speaker 2: two clusters that they're dealing with.
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  Speaker 3: So we do.
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  Speaker 2: Apologize to those territorianes. I know it's really devastating so
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  Speaker 2: close to Easter and also with school ending and a
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  Speaker 2: number of students the way at boarding school, but we
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  Speaker 2: have to act quickly to keep our community safe here
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  Speaker 2: in the territory.
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  Speaker 1: Minister, do you have any idea how many territory and
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  Speaker 1: SIS is going to impact or how many people are
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  Speaker 1: this is going to impact this lockdown and the number
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  Speaker 1: that are going to have to go into Howard Springs.
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  Speaker 2: So, Katie, when the announcement was made yesterday afternoon, following
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  Speaker 2: the Chief Health Officer coming out of that HPPC, the
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  Speaker 2: flights from Bristoine had already arrived, so we know that
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  Speaker 2: from the twentieth through to yesterday, anyone that arrived from
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  Speaker 2: the lga's impacted needs to isolate and get tested. And
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  Speaker 2: we know that with hundreds of people that had picked
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  Speaker 2: Queensland on their border arrival forms. And Katie, one of
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  Speaker 2: the reasons we keep doing those border arrival forms is
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  Speaker 2: that sometimes after the people arrive, we find out that
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  Speaker 2: there's cases in those areas and we need to go
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  Speaker 2: back and contact those people so they can isolate and
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  Speaker 2: get tested. But I do believe that there would be
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  Speaker 2: a significant number of people impacted. I don't have the
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  Speaker 2: numbers that will arrive today and those people will go
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  Speaker 2: to Mandate Tree quarantine, but we're happy to send those.
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  Speaker 1: Through later this morning, Okay, but we are anticipating that
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  Speaker 1: it is in the hundreds.
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  Speaker 2: So I don't know that it would be hundreds going
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  Speaker 2: to Mandate Treek quarantine, but we know that it certainly
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  Speaker 2: was hundreds of people that arrived from the twentieth through
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  Speaker 2: to the twenty eight that had to be isolated and tested.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, how do you get in contact with all of
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  Speaker 1: those people who've flown into the territory from Brisbane.
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  Speaker 2: That's a really important question, Katie. So when people feel
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  Speaker 2: in those border arrival forms, the more information they can
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  Speaker 2: provide us. The more helpful it is for ours to
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  Speaker 2: contact them and advise them that they do have these requirements.
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  Speaker 2: So people write down that they've entered. Sometimes they're quite
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  Speaker 2: specific and they would put an address in the city.
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  Speaker 2: Other times they just write Queensland. So some of those
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  Speaker 2: people that arrived from the twentieth that came from Queensland,
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  Speaker 2: they wouldn't be impacted. They might have been in kens
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  Speaker 2: Or towns will for example, But if they have been
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  Speaker 2: in those affected LGAs, we absolutely send them text messages,
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  Speaker 2: reach out by a phone call so that they know
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  Speaker 2: those requirements to isolate and get tested.
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  Speaker 4: Minister, how about those arriving by.
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  Speaker 2: Road, Yeah, Katie, a really important question because we know
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  Speaker 2: that particularly that border between Cammerwheel and Barkley, people would
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  Speaker 2: have already been on the road. So police are very
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  Speaker 2: practical the people it was ed that that had to
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  Speaker 2: you know, if they arrived after fourth th ety territory time,
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  Speaker 2: that they had to go to that mandatory quarantine and
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  Speaker 2: police work with them to send them through to the
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  Speaker 2: best location. And equally we do allow a short time
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  Speaker 2: period accounting for the fact they might have left Mountain
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  Speaker 2: Eiser or camel Wheel and not had phone reception to
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  Speaker 2: understand they were driving into a situation of mandatory quarantine.
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  Speaker 2: So we will waive that fee for a short period
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  Speaker 2: of time.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Now, Minister, if there are people listening this morning
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  Speaker 1: who are thinking, oh dear, do I need to go
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  Speaker 1: into isolation?
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  Speaker 4: What exactly do I need to do?
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  Speaker 1: What's the best course of action for them?
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  Speaker 2: So Katie, the best thing is to head to the
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  Speaker 2: Coronavirus dot NT Garve dot AUX give me website and
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  Speaker 2: that has all the information. It's got your links through
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  Speaker 2: to your chow directions so you can specifically look at
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  Speaker 2: those local government areas. It's got national advice hotlines, the
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  Speaker 2: territory hotline, the number that you can ring to book
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  Speaker 2: your test. So all that information is on that site.
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  Speaker 1: I just ask we know that the Chief Minister, Michael
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  Speaker 1: Gunner is in isolation at the moment.
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  Speaker 4: Any idea how he's going, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: I haven't spoken to Michael this morning, but he did
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  Speaker 2: the right thing and it's really important. Queen Plain clearly
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  Speaker 2: had coronavirus in their community for a number of days
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  Speaker 2: and they didn't know it. And so if you are
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  Speaker 2: slightly symptomatic with the symptoms reach out to get tested.
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  Speaker 2: And Katie, I'd just like to acknowledge our team within health,
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  Speaker 2: the Center for Disease Control. Yesterday they had seventeen hundred
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  Speaker 2: and fifty eight calls and they had attempted or spoken
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  Speaker 2: to everybody by eight point thirty last night. They had
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  Speaker 2: equally put in a huge effort over the weekend, and
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  Speaker 2: so I just want to thank them. Because when you
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  Speaker 2: call through, if you leave your number to call back,
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  Speaker 2: they will get back to you. So please don't do
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  Speaker 2: it multiple times. And if you're waiting for a callback,
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  Speaker 2: it's really important that you look out for a block
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  Speaker 2: your private number because that is most likely them, and
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  Speaker 2: if you can answer that call, that makes our system
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  Speaker 2: more efficient.
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  Speaker 1: Minister, can I just ask Obviously we know the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister is in isolation. He's had family come from the
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  Speaker 1: Tumba region, But if you've had the vaccine, do you
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  Speaker 1: still have to isolate if you come into contact with
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  Speaker 1: someone from any of those areas or if you've got symptoms,
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  Speaker 1: Because we know that he had the vaccine last.
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  Speaker 2: Week, So Katie, he's had his first dose of the
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  Speaker 2: astrozenica vaccine. He is not fully immunized. He hasn't had
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  Speaker 2: that second dose. And equally, we know from clinical evidence
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  Speaker 2: that people that are vaccinated, even though they won't get
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  Speaker 2: ill orris severely ill, they can still transmit. And so
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  Speaker 2: until we have that large number of people in our
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  Speaker 2: community vaccinated and we've got that herd immunity like we
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  Speaker 2: see each year with the flu vaccination, it reduces the
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  Speaker 2: severity of the illness. So he's done the right thing
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  Speaker 2: going into isolation.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I do just want to ask, because obviously it's
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  Speaker 1: you know, we became quite concerned here at the radio
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  Speaker 1: station yesterday upon learning that he'd gone into isolation, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure that those that were at the Greek church
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  Speaker 1: on the weekend potentially did as well. Do any of
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  Speaker 1: us need to be worried at this point in tom?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we were advised by his office that we
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  Speaker 1: don't need to be that it is just a precautionary measure.
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  Speaker 1: But does anybody who's now been in contact with the
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  Speaker 1: Chief Minister over the last twenty four hours need to
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  Speaker 1: be concerned?
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  Speaker 2: The katie is the way the virus works is if
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  Speaker 2: a person is infected, we then contact their contacts and
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  Speaker 2: so my understanding is the Chief Minister has done the
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  Speaker 2: right thing, because he's not feeling well and so he's
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  Speaker 2: isolated to get tested. Additionally, he has had family visits
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  Speaker 2: from Twomba, but the chief whose officers said it would
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  Speaker 2: be very unlikely. It's you know that the people that
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  Speaker 2: visited to Womba that potentially were infectious have infected his relatives.
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  Speaker 2: And I guess I'm trying to explain the layering to this.
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  Speaker 2: So it would be if that his relatives did become infected,
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  Speaker 2: he would then become a close contact and it would
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  Speaker 2: only be, you know, if someone you're directly in contact
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  Speaker 2: with has become positive, that you become a contact. So
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  Speaker 2: it is a very precorese reapproach. The people should not worry.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I've got a message that's just come through with
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  Speaker 1: one of our from one of our listeners. It says,
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  Speaker 1: could you please ask the minister is the COVID vaccine
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  Speaker 1: free and if so, why is the GP super clinic
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  Speaker 1: charging fifty dollars?
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  Speaker 2: So, Katie, I will have to take that on notice.
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  Speaker 2: The vaccine is being provided free by the Commonwealth government.
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  Speaker 2: We've been very open with that that it's been through
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  Speaker 2: all those boroughchechs and the federal government are making it
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  Speaker 2: available not only to people that normally get access to
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  Speaker 2: healthcare through Medicare, but anyone else who's are permanent retsident,
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  Speaker 2: people that are in our community on different visas, because
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  Speaker 2: we want everyone to get vaccinated. So I'll pask that
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  Speaker 2: question around that and get some details and we'll get
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  Speaker 2: it back to you.
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  Speaker 4: That'd be great.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Minister, I do want to ask about tourism. I
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  Speaker 1: understand that you're in Alice Springs yesterday announcing a one
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  Speaker 1: point twenty five million dollar boost to tourism for Central
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  Speaker 1: Australia in an effort to lure travelers to the region.
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  Speaker 4: How's this package going to work?
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  Speaker 2: So, Katie, we know that tourism and hospitality in the
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  Speaker 2: territory has been really hardly impacted by coronavirus, and we
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  Speaker 2: had our tourism vouchers which have been a great success,
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  Speaker 2: driving locals to spend in a sector that's been devastated.
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  Speaker 2: Quite frankly, Central Australia relies a lot on international tourists
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  Speaker 2: who clearly aren't here. So this investment is off the
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  Speaker 2: back of the Commonwealth Government's investment. So we're putting in
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  Speaker 2: one point two five million dollars. We've worked with Tourism
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  Speaker 2: Central Australia. I've met with them multiple times over the
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  Speaker 2: last few weeks and they've said, Minister, we need something,
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  Speaker 2: and I've said what and we've worked this package up together.
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  Speaker 2: So the package will be two aspects marketing, but it
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  Speaker 2: will also be a point of sale incentive for tours
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  Speaker 2: for people that head to Central Australia for an adventure
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  Speaker 2: build tour. If they stay more than four days, they'll
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  Speaker 2: get a discount off that package.
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  Speaker 4: How come the top end wasn't part of the announcement, really.
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  Speaker 2: Good question, Katie. So we found the tourism vouchers have
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  Speaker 2: been really successful in the top end and there's enough
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  Speaker 2: of population here to spend those vouchers and spend more.
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  Speaker 2: We tried to incentivize the tourism vouchers in round two
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  Speaker 2: to get people into Central Australia or to get them
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  Speaker 2: further away from home with those bonuses for going further distances,
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  Speaker 2: but we saw we have seen Round three of the
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  Speaker 2: vouchers has been more successful in Central Australia. But this
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  Speaker 2: is to help those tourism operators in Central Australia who's
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  Speaker 2: been particularly devastated, and so the Commonwealth government's put in
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  Speaker 2: three and a half million dollars recovery Regional Tourism grant
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  Speaker 2: and we've backed it with one point two five million dollars.
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  Speaker 2: So this activity is expected to stimulate around ten million
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  Speaker 2: dollars in the Ala Springs Central Australian Region.
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  Speaker 4: All right, Minister.
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  Speaker 1: One of the areas that has been impacted up here
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  Speaker 1: in the Top End in recent days is the expedition cruisers.
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  Speaker 1: We learned they would not be able to come to
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  Speaker 1: the NT due to a direction by the Chief Health Officer.
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  Speaker 1: We spoke to Glenn Hinley from Tourism Top End on
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  Speaker 1: the show yesterday. They're imploring you to reconsider the current policy.
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  Speaker 1: They're not talking about cruise ships obviously, they're talking about
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  Speaker 1: the Australian owned small expedition ships that operate between Broom
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  Speaker 1: and Darwin and also have that home porting here in Darwin.
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  Speaker 1: Take a listen to what Glenn had to say on
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  Speaker 1: the show yesterday.
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  Speaker 3: They employ a lot of people. Those ships are resupplied here,
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  Speaker 3: marine mechanic, all the servicing that happens around it. And
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  Speaker 3: we're tween about businesses that in the last twelve months
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  Speaker 3: have done enormous work restructuring how they think about their business,
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  Speaker 3: because they also understand that mistakenly they're all too often
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  Speaker 3: grouped in with cruise ships, very big difference.
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  Speaker 1: And so really, I mean, what's the difference between somebody
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  Speaker 1: getting on one of these expedition ships, these smaller ones
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  Speaker 1: within Australia with Aussie's on there. What's the difference between
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  Speaker 1: that and getting on a plane.
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  Speaker 3: That's the question that we would still like to understand.
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  Speaker 3: And I might add all of the managing directors of
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  Speaker 3: the Australian operated small expedition shipping companies who since last
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  Speaker 3: year thought that they had put in in everything required
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  Speaker 3: into NTE Health and only found out a matter of
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  Speaker 3: weeks ago that there were two conditions that were coming
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  Speaker 3: into play, and that was that you can operate a
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  Speaker 3: small ship with one hundred passengers plus crew. And TEA
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  Speaker 3: Health has made the call and again put it out
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  Speaker 3: as a release, including it into all cruise lines, which
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  Speaker 3: does makes sense to us that it's a maximum of
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  Speaker 3: one hundred people on a vessel. Now these small expedition
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  Speaker 3: ships can't operate. It's not commercially viable for those numbers,
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  Speaker 3: and even for the one or two that can there's
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  Speaker 3: another condition that's been put in that only two ships
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  Speaker 3: can be allowed in empty waters at any one time.
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  Speaker 1: Minister, can this be reconsidered, So, Katie, this decision has
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  Speaker 1: been made to keep territory in safe.
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  Speaker 2: So we've just seen multiple cases in Bristoine that the
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  Speaker 2: community wasn't aware of. Imagine if one of those people
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  Speaker 2: was on a small cruise ship. We know that there
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  Speaker 2: has been only a couple of cases worldwide where virus
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  Speaker 2: has been caught on a plane. Yet we know on
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  Speaker 2: ships that the environment and the interactions between individuals, passengers
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  Speaker 2: and staff is very different, and so we would not
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  Speaker 2: have the capacity if we saw an outbreak on a ship.
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  Speaker 2: And that is why the Chief Health Officer has put
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  Speaker 2: that direction of one hundred or less people, because we
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  Speaker 2: have to make sure that we've got the support for
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  Speaker 2: the worst case scenarios. And so I know that this
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  Speaker 2: is a real impact on the tourism sector and we
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: await the day when all businesses Katie, can return to
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  Speaker 2: their full capacity, you know, without having to worry. But
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  Speaker 2: it's one of those unfortunate continuing factors to coronavirus.
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  Speaker 1: I mean realistically though we're talking about this, meaning that
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  Speaker 1: these expedition ships are simply not able to.
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  Speaker 4: Operate here in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: It's not just an impact, it's basically going to decimate
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  Speaker 1: things for them for this season.
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  Speaker 2: Katie, then Tea Health has consulted the expedition cruise ship stakeholders.
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  Speaker 2: This is clearly based on clinical advice. If we were
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: to see an outbreak on one of these ships, our
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  Speaker 2: resources to care for all those individuals and stop the
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: spread into our community would be at risk. And so
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: we have to make these decisions we just thought yesterday,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: decisions made when people felt that we'd finally moved on
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: a little bit the vaccines rolling out, and here we
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: have community transmissions. So our safety first response has kept
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: territory and state to date and we'll continue that.
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  Speaker 1: So by the sounds of it is it's actually because
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  Speaker 1: we don't have enough staff if there was an outbreak.
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  Speaker 2: So Katie, the Chief Health Officer, has thoroughly looked at
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  Speaker 2: this issue for many weeks and he has been in
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: and out of it, but he believes that it is
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  Speaker 2: not safe to allow more than one hundred people on
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  Speaker 2: these vessels because if we were to see an outbreak,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: that would have an impact on ant health, and he
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: believed that the ship environment is very different to planes
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  Speaker 2: and other forms of.
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  Speaker 1: Transport, so we don't have the staff to be able
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to deal with it if there's an outbreak on one
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  Speaker 1: of those ships.
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  Speaker 2: So Katie, we have to plan towards the worst case scenario.
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  Speaker 2: And so if we were to see a small ship
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  Speaker 2: with one hundred odd people and a high rate of
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: infections spread through that it would have a huge impact
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: on our health services as well as the potential of
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: spreading into our community. We only need to remember some
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  Speaker 2: of those ships that were stuck off the coast of
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  Speaker 2: Perth last year and we had to send resources down
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  Speaker 2: to get people off the boat. So we must be
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: precautious in our measures whilst we still are in a
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: global pandemic.
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  Speaker 1: But so obviously we're talking about resourcing. I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: guess to make it a little bit broader, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we can't have these expedition ships arriving in the territory
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  Speaker 1: because we may not be able to manage an outbreak
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  Speaker 1: of one hundred odd people. Yet we do need to
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  Speaker 1: staff the Howard Springs facility with four hundred additional staff.
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  Speaker 1: I believe it is down the track as the National
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Critical Care and Trauma Response Center obviously transitions out and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: we have more arrivals internationally. I mean, can you see
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: how some people listening right now might be thinking, oh,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not too sure about this.
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  Speaker 2: They're very different things, Katie. So when we talk about
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Howard Springs and the expansion, we know exactly who's arriving
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: when we've got percentages of infectivity rates that we've seen
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: from different locations over them the past twelve months, and
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: so we've got those resources there to manage, and that
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: is treated as an infectious disease environment, and we're managing
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  Speaker 2: the repatriation and the quarantining of individuals. This is very different.
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  Speaker 2: These are allowing ships to come into our waters. And
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  Speaker 2: if we were to see one person who innocently left
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  Speaker 2: Brisbane last week and was on a ship and suddenly
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: started to feel unwell, we would be behind the eight
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: or putting our community at risk. So there's many businesses, Katie,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: that are restricted by numbers right now, and we're unfortunately
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  Speaker 2: this is a situation for these small exhibition cruise ships too.
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  Speaker 4: Minister.
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  Speaker 1: I've got a message here from one of our listeners.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: It says, what about the Gan three hundred plus in
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: similar conditions. It seems like there's inconsistency here.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: So the Chief Health Officer has looked at the environments
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: in which people are mixing in and he believes that
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: cruise ship is a higher risk and that is why
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: this decision has been made.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Minister, we are running out of time, but I do
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: want to just check with you. Have you been given
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: an update by the Federal Tourism Minister Dan tianut those
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: half priced flights?
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: So, Katie, I haven't spoken to me with the Minister.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: I was traveling in Central Australia yesterday, but there has
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: been an indication that we can see people arriving into
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Darwin from mainland capital cities, so I'll chase that up
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: with his office to make sure that we've got confirmation.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: I think that all comes back to you, Katie, and
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: well done on securing that for the territory. But my
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: understanding is that yes, those airfares that go on sale
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and the first of April do include flights into Darwen
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: from the key capital city.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Well Health Minister also Tourism ministon Natasha Files. We always
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Thanks very much for speaking with us today.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you