Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was - October 22 2021

Transcript

The Week That Was - October 22 2021 · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: It is time for the week that was and joining
0:02
Speaker 1: us in the studio this morning, we've got the Deputy
0:04
Speaker 1: or Position Leader, Jared Mayley. Good morning to you.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.
0:08
Speaker 1: We've got Matt Cunningham from Sky News. Good morning Matt,
0:11
Speaker 1: today Katy, and we've got Natasha Files, the Health Minister.
0:14
Speaker 1: Good morning to you. See now it has certainly been
0:18
Speaker 1: a busy week. It is always a busy week. I
0:20
Speaker 1: think I say that every Friday morning. But there's been
0:23
Speaker 1: a lot of discussion throughout the week about the vaccine mandate.
0:26
Speaker 1: We know that it was introduced last Wednesday and then
0:29
Speaker 1: we saw that rally on the weekend. There are still
0:32
Speaker 1: a small number of anti vaxers in the community, but
0:35
Speaker 1: there are also some serious concerns from business, and I
0:38
Speaker 1: know that frustrations are growing at the Territory government's implementation
0:43
Speaker 1: of the measures into the workplace and at this point
0:47
Speaker 1: in time, well the NT News has reported the heads
0:50
Speaker 1: of two peak industry groups say there is an urgent
0:53
Speaker 1: need for greater information and a contact point to government
0:57
Speaker 1: to answer questions from concerned employees after a lack of consultation.
1:02
Speaker 1: So we know that the Chief Minister has been called
1:05
Speaker 1: on to honor a long standing request to meet with
1:08
Speaker 1: industry to discuss the workplace mandates. The Northern Territory Chamber
1:12
Speaker 1: of Commerce Chief Executive Greg Island, he's going to join
1:14
Speaker 1: us on the show a little later this morning, but
1:16
Speaker 1: he's called on the Chief Minister, Michael Gunner to meet
1:19
Speaker 1: to discuss those proposed changes.
1:21
Speaker 3: He's not the only one. I know that Dave Malone
1:23
Speaker 3: as well.
1:23
Speaker 1: From Master Builders and some of those other industry groups
1:26
Speaker 1: are feeling a bit the same. I mean, at the
1:28
Speaker 1: end of the day, they are indeed the ones who
1:30
Speaker 1: are going to have to sort of implement some of
1:32
Speaker 1: these changes within those industries. So wouldn't it be the
1:35
Speaker 1: right thing for them to actually be sort of consulted
1:38
Speaker 1: with so that they can make sure that they're doing
1:40
Speaker 1: the right thing.
1:40
Speaker 4: So, Katie, the Chow direction is really clear around the
1:43
Speaker 4: principles in where people in the cases where people need
1:46
Speaker 4: to be vaccinated. Of course, industry has been worked with.
1:50
Speaker 4: They have a contact within the Chose Office. They have
1:54
Speaker 4: the Department of Tourism, Industry and Trade, and I know
1:58
Speaker 4: that the head of that department has done us significant
2:00
Speaker 4: body of work and there's certainly open phone lines. They
2:03
Speaker 4: also Fair Work Commission can provide them, So some of
2:07
Speaker 4: these questions cross into that space. But it's really simple
2:10
Speaker 4: for the majority of our community. There's only a very small,
2:14
Speaker 4: rare case where it's not clinically safe to get vaccinated.
2:16
Speaker 5: Just get vaccinated.
2:17
Speaker 1: But it's not that simple though when it comes to
2:19
Speaker 1: actually if you've got someone turning up for work, then
2:22
Speaker 1: who is refusing to get vaccinated? Is it then up
2:25
Speaker 1: to the employer to call the police?
2:28
Speaker 3: Like what needs to actually happen here?
2:30
Speaker 4: So we put the direction out last week so that
2:32
Speaker 4: people can see the actual legal directions that will be
2:35
Speaker 4: enforced from the thirteenth of November. And as I just mentioned,
2:39
Speaker 4: the Fair Work Commission can help them. If they've got
2:41
Speaker 4: someone that is saying that they will not get vaccinated,
2:44
Speaker 4: Fair Work can help them work through that.
2:45
Speaker 6: What is the ruling from the government.
2:47
Speaker 7: You need to be able to tell businesses on the
2:49
Speaker 7: fourteenth of November if someone comes to work and they're
2:51
Speaker 7: not vaccinated, what does an employer do?
2:54
Speaker 4: So there will be a fine for the individual and
2:56
Speaker 4: they'll be a fine for the employer, But so do.
2:58
Speaker 3: They call the police?
2:59
Speaker 6: Yeah, call the police.
3:01
Speaker 4: So, as I've said throughout this, we've had an educative
3:04
Speaker 4: approach where we have tried to work with individuals, work
3:07
Speaker 4: with people, and we've only had very rare cases of
3:10
Speaker 4: people breaching Chow directions.
3:12
Speaker 5: But yes, people do need to uphold the Chow.
3:14
Speaker 4: Direction once it comes into place from the thirteenth of
3:17
Speaker 4: November and then and following on it Atash.
3:19
Speaker 2: Your people out there are very very concerned about the
3:21
Speaker 2: miscommunication and about the lack of education. It's allry for
3:23
Speaker 2: you to sit in here and say that the phone
3:25
Speaker 2: lines are open. We've heard from industry leaders who say
3:27
Speaker 2: they need some more information and need some clarification about this,
3:30
Speaker 2: and they're not getting that. It's been about two weeks,
3:33
Speaker 2: hasn't it since a bit over a week a week,
3:36
Speaker 2: and there's been no clear idea or communication and how
3:40
Speaker 2: it's going to be implemented. We were talking about the
3:41
Speaker 2: thirteenth of November. That's not far away. And it's clear
3:44
Speaker 2: that these people are concerned about it because these organizations
3:47
Speaker 2: represent a whole range of people right across the territory.
3:50
Speaker 2: They're the one saying that there's no information coming from you.
3:53
Speaker 2: So just to sit here and say, oh, the phone
3:55
Speaker 2: line they're open. That's just not good enough.
3:57
Speaker 1: I mean, I've got one person who's spending content with
4:00
Speaker 1: us this morning in the transport industry and they say
4:03
Speaker 1: the show direction number fifty six for freight workers was
4:06
Speaker 1: released yesterday afternoon, and they've got different vaccination deadline dates
4:10
Speaker 1: to everybody else, and they've got even less time. So
4:13
Speaker 1: that first dose by the November first, she said, it
4:17
Speaker 1: is madness. I'd be stocking up on essential items because
4:21
Speaker 1: with those deadlines, I honestly think we're about to see
4:24
Speaker 1: massive truck driver and we're house staff shortages.
4:27
Speaker 4: So, Katie, in relation to the freight drivers, they have
4:29
Speaker 4: always had a separate national code and principles because they
4:33
Speaker 4: have been and we've seen a number of instances where
4:37
Speaker 4: truck drivers have tested positive and we know that we
4:40
Speaker 4: have to have our critical infrastructure remaining open. We saw
4:43
Speaker 4: that positive wastewater testing in the top end a few
4:46
Speaker 4: weeks back, and we do believe that was a truck
4:48
Speaker 4: driver at some point. And so the truck drivers, there
4:51
Speaker 4: has been national consultation and they have got separate guidelines
4:57
Speaker 4: that they have to follow, and that has changed throughout pandemic.
5:00
Speaker 5: As the variance of change, someone else.
5:03
Speaker 1: Has just been in contact and said there's been no
5:05
Speaker 1: guidelines as to how businesses and schools are to hold
5:09
Speaker 1: the data and being told that schools, for examples, can't
5:13
Speaker 1: shred or dispose of them.
5:14
Speaker 3: So what are they supposed to do?
5:16
Speaker 4: Katie happy to take that question on notice around the
5:19
Speaker 4: specifics of that, But it's really simple. People need to
5:23
Speaker 4: be vaccinated in those roles, and if they're not willing
5:26
Speaker 4: to be vaccinated and there is no other role for them,
5:29
Speaker 4: the employers should engage with fair work.
5:31
Speaker 1: But can the government actually sort of see that From
5:34
Speaker 1: your perspective, it might be really simple that people need
5:37
Speaker 1: to be vaccinated, and yet we all understand that. But
5:40
Speaker 1: from the perspective of those industry groups, what they're seeking
5:44
Speaker 1: to clarify is exactly how they manage some of these different,
5:48
Speaker 1: you know, different scenarios. And I think that it's pretty
5:50
Speaker 1: well fair enough when you're talking about a large portion
5:53
Speaker 1: of the Northern Territories workforce and some of our major
5:56
Speaker 1: industry groups, you know, the Chamber of Commerce, and then
5:59
Speaker 1: you're talking about Mars to builders, so the construction industry.
6:02
Speaker 1: Isn't it fair enough for somebody to sit down with
6:04
Speaker 1: them and actually go through that.
6:06
Speaker 5: And that has been happening, Katie, and that will continue
6:08
Speaker 5: to happen.
6:08
Speaker 4: Like, let me be clear, there has been meetings between
6:11
Speaker 4: the Chose Office and industry, and there's also been meetings
6:15
Speaker 4: with who in.
6:16
Speaker 2: Industry hasn't been saying it hasn't happened.
6:19
Speaker 4: So there has been an open door and there will
6:21
Speaker 4: continue to be. So I know, Sean Drabs from the
6:24
Speaker 4: Department has been in contact with you know, a range
6:27
Speaker 4: of businesses throughout this and.
6:28
Speaker 1: They're really clear about this though. Is the government sort
6:31
Speaker 1: of picking and choosing who they choose to meet with
6:34
Speaker 1: in industry, because if you've got these peak bodies that
6:37
Speaker 1: are saying that they're not being listened to and that
6:39
Speaker 1: they they want to actually have a sit down, and
6:43
Speaker 1: you're saying that, hang on, No, the government has actually
6:45
Speaker 1: met with some of these people who have they met.
6:47
Speaker 4: With So Katie, there's government departments, there's ministers, We've all
6:51
Speaker 4: got key stakeholders. We are in contact with them regularly,
6:54
Speaker 4: whether it's meetings, whether it's phone calls. So there has
6:57
Speaker 4: certainly and there will continue to be that dialogue between them.
7:01
Speaker 1: Well, I've got one here from keV It says so
7:03
Speaker 1: as a business owner, I'm now about to be a
7:05
Speaker 1: deputized police officer.
7:07
Speaker 4: So Katie, as I said, we've always had an educative approach,
7:11
Speaker 4: but it is when people are blatantly misleading, and we've
7:13
Speaker 4: seen a situation of that in the territory, police and
7:17
Speaker 4: environmental Health won't hesitate to react. But there has been
7:21
Speaker 4: the directions published so people can see what's coming and
7:24
Speaker 4: those conversations and that open dialogue will continue, and it
7:27
Speaker 4: will continue post the implementation, so that we can make
7:30
Speaker 4: sure everyone has the information they need.
7:32
Speaker 6: Who gets fined? Is it the business or the individual
7:34
Speaker 6: who gets fined?
7:35
Speaker 4: So potentially both, but of course you know a fine
7:38
Speaker 4: does have a legal process around it. But an individual
7:40
Speaker 4: can be fined five thousand dollars and a business twenty
7:43
Speaker 4: five thousand dollars. But as we've seen that educative approach,
7:47
Speaker 4: but when people are blatantly abusing that, our police and
7:50
Speaker 4: environmental health won't hesitate to prosecute.
7:52
Speaker 6: So can the business be fine?
7:53
Speaker 7: So day one, someone unvaccinated shows up twenty five thousand dollars,
7:57
Speaker 7: Day two they show up again another twenty.
7:58
Speaker 6: Five Like can you be fined? Be fine?
8:00
Speaker 7: One hundred and twenty five thousand dollars in a week
8:02
Speaker 7: if your unvaccinated workers show up five days in.
8:04
Speaker 5: A row, potentially.
8:05
Speaker 4: But Matt, what we saw, you know, with a recent
8:08
Speaker 4: example with a business that was blatantly not enforcing the
8:12
Speaker 4: mask mandate was the police went in multiple times.
8:15
Speaker 5: Like they didn't.
8:16
Speaker 4: They don't just turn up heavy handed and say right,
8:19
Speaker 4: that's it. They tried and tried, and we will see
8:22
Speaker 4: that approach once again, but it is enforceable by that fine.
8:26
Speaker 2: This is a clear example of the lack of communication,
8:29
Speaker 2: the lack of education out there. We probably wouldn't be
8:31
Speaker 2: in a situation the health officer doesn't just wake up
8:33
Speaker 2: and go have a little stretch and go I'm going
8:35
Speaker 2: to mandate vaccines. He looks at a whole range of factors,
8:38
Speaker 2: and that's to do with the health system and also
8:40
Speaker 2: the vaccine rollout. This government's had two years to deal
8:43
Speaker 2: with COVID and it's gone backwards a health system. We
8:45
Speaker 2: now had four Code yellows this year. And then talk
8:48
Speaker 2: about education. We've known vaccines going to happen, and for
8:51
Speaker 2: this last twelve months, the government should have been out
8:53
Speaker 2: there educating people, getting that vaccine rate up up to
8:56
Speaker 2: an acceptable level, and then maybe we wouldn't be in
8:58
Speaker 2: a situation with a chose force to be able to
9:00
Speaker 2: mandate the vaccine because the government have failed territories and okay,
9:04
Speaker 2: it's just not good.
9:05
Speaker 4: Enough, Oh Katie, I think that that's absolute rubbish and
9:08
Speaker 4: the CLP have failed abysmally in this space. What we
9:11
Speaker 4: have been doing is we have been across the community
9:14
Speaker 4: where you would have given the vaccine away and opened
9:16
Speaker 4: the borders if we're going to go the low blows today, Look, Katie, give.
9:20
Speaker 1: Example, Just give you an example though, of some of
9:23
Speaker 1: the messages that we're receiving. So as someone else has
9:25
Speaker 1: just said, where's the data going to be held by government?
9:28
Speaker 1: How will the government know the employers telling the truth
9:31
Speaker 1: as to the number of employers employees vaccinated? Who another
9:36
Speaker 1: message here? Who's going to check that teachers have been vaccinated? Look,
9:41
Speaker 1: they're just a couple of the examples I suppose of
9:44
Speaker 1: some of those different industries. Wondering exactly how that side
9:49
Speaker 1: of things is going to be managed.
9:50
Speaker 7: I don't think it's that difficult for the larger businesses
9:53
Speaker 7: at least. I know in my employment, we had to
9:57
Speaker 7: show that we were fully vaccinated and all we had
9:59
Speaker 7: to do was get our sex and vaccination and then
10:02
Speaker 7: send through the certificate you get from Medicare. So I
10:05
Speaker 7: think that's probably how you do it, but it might
10:07
Speaker 7: be a little bit more onerous for a smaller business.
10:09
Speaker 7: But I mean, I think surely they could just get
10:12
Speaker 7: those certificates and put them on their own records.
10:13
Speaker 6: As well well.
10:14
Speaker 1: And this is something that was raised earlier in the
10:16
Speaker 1: week by the Chamber of Commerce as well. Greg Bignuller
10:18
Speaker 1: joined us on Sorry, Greg Island, I should say my apologies,
10:21
Speaker 1: had joined us on the show earlier in the week
10:24
Speaker 1: on Monday, and had said, that's one of the other questions,
10:26
Speaker 1: you know, where are they storing, like for some of
10:28
Speaker 1: those businesses, where do they then have to store.
10:31
Speaker 3: Some of this data.
10:32
Speaker 1: But then the other side of it as well is,
10:34
Speaker 1: you know, let's not forget that in some cases we're
10:36
Speaker 1: talking about people entering businesses that if you know, like
10:41
Speaker 1: if that business decides that they don't want people in
10:44
Speaker 1: there who aren't vaccinated, how it like That's something that
10:46
Speaker 1: had been flagged a little while back.
10:48
Speaker 3: How's that going to be managed?
10:50
Speaker 1: And I think that these are just some of the
10:52
Speaker 1: questions that people are starting to really now have to
10:55
Speaker 1: try to get answered as.
10:57
Speaker 4: We really reach the pointy end of this, I think
10:59
Speaker 4: Katie just clarifying, So it's a responsibility of every territory
11:04
Speaker 4: and who has to have the mandatory vaccine to get vaccinated,
11:07
Speaker 4: they then, as Matt was just saying, provide a copy
11:09
Speaker 4: of that vaccination certificate to their employer. And it's no
11:12
Speaker 4: different to keeping responsible service of alcohol.
11:14
Speaker 5: We have a gambling register.
11:16
Speaker 4: There's a range of our HNS documentation that's required for people,
11:20
Speaker 4: and so it's added to that file and the business
11:23
Speaker 4: you know, must present it. It must be cited if
11:25
Speaker 4: it's asked upon.
11:26
Speaker 7: I just think we are in the weeds of this
11:28
Speaker 7: argument a little bit though. You know, at the end
11:31
Speaker 7: of the day, the mandates in place. People need to
11:34
Speaker 7: get vaccinated. They've been given the dates. You know, the
11:36
Speaker 7: easiest way around this if you're an employee or an
11:39
Speaker 7: employer is to go out and get vaccinated. Now, there
11:43
Speaker 7: will be issues for employers when they have employees who
11:48
Speaker 7: flat out refuse to get vaccinated. That will be an issue,
11:50
Speaker 7: and that's going to be a tough issue for employers
11:53
Speaker 7: to have to deal with. You know, we were talking
11:55
Speaker 7: about this months ago because you've been running ads on
11:58
Speaker 7: here from the Silver about the you know, like they
12:02
Speaker 7: were ahead of the game six months ago, saying, you know,
12:05
Speaker 7: come and get your legal advice.
12:06
Speaker 6: I think that's where we're heading with this, because there.
12:09
Speaker 7: Will be and they will be limited instances, but there
12:11
Speaker 7: will be instances where employers have employees who refuse to
12:15
Speaker 7: get vaccinated. And I think that's where we're going to
12:17
Speaker 7: run into issues.
12:18
Speaker 6: What do you do? Do you have to sack that worker?
12:20
Speaker 7: You know, a lot of places are desperate for workers
12:23
Speaker 7: at the moment. You know, it's a difficult situation.
12:25
Speaker 2: To some of the issues that need clarification.
12:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so at the moment if you're a public servant,
12:29
Speaker 1: obviously public service have to have their vaccine, don't they.
12:32
Speaker 4: Absolutely managed in one of those roles that's captured by
12:35
Speaker 4: those three principles, you need to be vaccinated.
12:38
Speaker 8: Now.
12:38
Speaker 1: One of the other questions that some people keep asking
12:40
Speaker 1: on the tech sign, so I will ask it. Politicians
12:43
Speaker 1: all got to be vaccinated?
12:44
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I know.
12:45
Speaker 4: I think everyone in the anti parliament is vaccinated, Jerry,
12:48
Speaker 4: all the opposition of the government are and I know
12:51
Speaker 4: that Mark Yuler, for example, one of the independent members,
12:54
Speaker 4: he was really proud to be vaccinated and shared that
12:56
Speaker 4: with me and I assume our other colleagues on the
12:58
Speaker 4: cross bencher.
12:58
Speaker 7: I just got a clarification from one of our listeners too,
13:01
Speaker 7: you don't, actually I have to hand it over to
13:02
Speaker 7: your employer. According to the Chow's direction, a person conducting
13:06
Speaker 7: a business or undertaking must take reasonable steps to determine
13:09
Speaker 7: the extent to which any worker who performs work is vaccinated.
13:12
Speaker 6: And it just basically means you have.
13:14
Speaker 7: To see the proof of vaccination, don't have to store
13:18
Speaker 7: it well.
13:18
Speaker 3: And this is an interesting thing.
13:19
Speaker 1: I know that when Western Australia made their announcement a
13:21
Speaker 1: bit earlier in the week, they said that they were
13:23
Speaker 1: going to have compliance offices I believe was the term
13:26
Speaker 1: that they had dubbed for them. So they were going
13:28
Speaker 1: to have those compliance offices going out to different businesses,
13:31
Speaker 1: obviously checking that those that were in the categories that
13:34
Speaker 1: needed to be mandated, that they would actually be going
13:38
Speaker 1: out and checking the vaccination status in some of those businesses.
13:41
Speaker 1: Is that something that we're going to have to do
13:42
Speaker 1: in the territory or are the police and health going
13:45
Speaker 1: to take on those roles?
13:46
Speaker 4: So currently public and environmental Health and police are delegates
13:51
Speaker 4: around that responsibility, so certainly they can perform that task
13:55
Speaker 4: if required.
13:56
Speaker 1: Now, before we take a short break, I do want
13:59
Speaker 1: to ask you Ministry, you were able to give us
14:01
Speaker 1: the latest stats when it comes to those vaccine numbers
14:04
Speaker 1: in the territory at the moment.
14:06
Speaker 4: So the vaccine we've seen over three hundred thousand doses
14:08
Speaker 4: delivered in the territory. This week, we hit seventy percent
14:11
Speaker 4: fully dosed and we certainly expect to hit that eighty
14:15
Speaker 4: percent in the coming weeks. Having hit that seventy percent,
14:18
Speaker 4: and Katie, we've seen in some of our remote communities
14:21
Speaker 4: a really excellent turnout and some communities are a hitting
14:24
Speaker 4: ninety percent first dose, and I think we need to
14:26
Speaker 4: acknowledge that we've also been doing a lot of work
14:29
Speaker 4: with community leaders and the Aboriginal medical organizations around some
14:32
Speaker 4: of those communities where we're really concerned and that will continue.
14:35
Speaker 1: And I know my understanding is with some of those
14:37
Speaker 1: numbers as well, with the figures that there's five three
14:40
Speaker 1: hundred vaccine booking appointments in that seventy two hours after
14:44
Speaker 1: the mandate was announced.
14:45
Speaker 4: So, Katie, when that man Tree vaccination for employment in
14:49
Speaker 4: certain categories was announced, we saw a turner in fifty
14:51
Speaker 4: percent increase in bookings. So we certainly and our teams
14:55
Speaker 4: have been out there. There's a pop up in the mall.
14:57
Speaker 4: We're really trying to get that vaccine as easy for
14:59
Speaker 4: people to access as possible.
15:01
Speaker 1: All Right, we're going to take a very short break
15:02
Speaker 1: and when we come back, we are going to talk
15:04
Speaker 1: further about those borders and some of the things that
15:07
Speaker 1: are happening around the rest of the nation when it
15:09
Speaker 1: comes to travel. We also know that Quantus has indeed
15:13
Speaker 1: made some fairly significant announcements this morning that actually include
15:16
Speaker 1: the Northern territory. So more on that in a few
15:18
Speaker 1: minutes time. You're listening to Mix one oh four point
15:21
Speaker 1: nine's three point sixty also broadcasting on eighth. It is
15:25
Speaker 1: just after nine twenty and in the studio with us
15:28
Speaker 1: this morning, Jared Maylee, Matt Cunningham and Natasha Files. Now
15:32
Speaker 1: we know throughout the week we've had some very clear
15:35
Speaker 1: i think plans put forward or roadmaps forward you might
15:39
Speaker 1: call them, from other states in relation to opening up
15:42
Speaker 1: and we saw into state Queensland Premier and Nastasia Palachet
15:46
Speaker 1: releasing a roadmap to open the state to the rest
15:48
Speaker 1: of Australia, including COVID nineteen hot spots in New South
15:51
Speaker 1: Wales and Victoria. Queensland is going to begin a phased
15:54
Speaker 1: border reopening for fully vaccinated people from November nineteen. Fully
15:59
Speaker 1: vaccinated travelers will be allowed to enter Queensland without the
16:01
Speaker 1: need to quarantine from December seventeen. At that date, fully
16:05
Speaker 1: vaccinated interstate business who have recorded a negative COVID nineteen
16:09
Speaker 1: test in the past seventy two hours would be allowed
16:12
Speaker 1: to enter without having to quarantine.
16:15
Speaker 3: Now.
16:16
Speaker 1: We spoke to Alex Bruce from Hospitality NT yesterday about this.
16:20
Speaker 1: We also spoke to Daniel Rochford from Tourism Central Australia.
16:24
Speaker 1: I might just play you a little bit of what
16:27
Speaker 1: Daniel Rochford had to say on the show yesterday in
16:30
Speaker 1: terms of the need I think you'd have to say
16:32
Speaker 1: for a bit of a date and a really clear
16:34
Speaker 1: plan when it comes to that roadmap forward, take a listen.
16:38
Speaker 8: All my members are saying that visitation is dropping dramatically
16:42
Speaker 8: and quickly, so there needs to be that form of support.
16:45
Speaker 8: I think there needs to be some hope and that's
16:47
Speaker 8: where this concept of picking a date in the future
16:50
Speaker 8: is important. I think we need to have that certainly,
16:52
Speaker 8: and understanding of when we will open up and when
16:55
Speaker 8: businesses can plan around that. This is going to be
16:58
Speaker 8: the most challenging time of this pandemic and needs to
17:01
Speaker 8: be done in a balanced way. Otherwise we're not going
17:04
Speaker 8: to have a tourism industry on the other side.
17:06
Speaker 1: Katie, Well, and this is really sort of coming to
17:09
Speaker 1: a head. I think you'd have to say at the moment,
17:11
Speaker 1: as every other state does come forward with their plans
17:14
Speaker 1: to open up, nobody's suggesting that we decide we're going
17:17
Speaker 1: to do it from tomorrow. We all know that we've
17:18
Speaker 1: got to get to that eighty percent vaccination rate. But
17:21
Speaker 1: the reality here is I think that the longer we wait,
17:26
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm not saying we need to do
17:27
Speaker 1: anything irresponsible, but the longer we wait, we are going
17:30
Speaker 1: to get left behind when it comes to tourism and
17:33
Speaker 1: when it comes to business.
17:35
Speaker 3: We've heard this morning.
17:36
Speaker 1: Quantus obviously have made some additional announcements I think Matt
17:39
Speaker 1: you were saying. Even Jetstar has made some extra announcements
17:41
Speaker 1: around flights as well.
17:42
Speaker 8: Well.
17:43
Speaker 7: Quantison and Jetstar have announced more international flights and that's
17:47
Speaker 7: because Sydney's opened up in Melbourne's now opened up. So
17:49
Speaker 7: both Sydney and Melbourne are both saying, or New South
17:52
Speaker 7: Wales and Victoria both saying international arrivals who are fully
17:55
Speaker 7: vaccinated can come in without quarantining, not even home quarantining. Yeah,
17:59
Speaker 7: and this is like the game is up now. The
18:02
Speaker 7: world has decided it's going to live with COVID nineteen,
18:04
Speaker 7: Australia has decided it's going to live with COVID nineteen.
18:08
Speaker 7: The Northern Territory cannot be its own little hermit kingdom,
18:12
Speaker 7: you know now that those decisions have been made. Queensland's
18:14
Speaker 7: opening up from the seventeenth of December, So like what
18:17
Speaker 7: happens now? You know, I'm going to Queensland in January
18:19
Speaker 7: for holidays, but it's open to New South Wales and
18:21
Speaker 7: Victoria as well. So does that mean that you know
18:24
Speaker 7: I'm going to have to quarantine when I come back
18:25
Speaker 7: from Queensland? That that is a situation that cannot exist.
18:29
Speaker 7: You know, You've got to have a lot of sympathy
18:31
Speaker 7: for those tourism operators. And I think we've reached the
18:34
Speaker 7: point now everyone in the Northern Territory has had an
18:36
Speaker 7: opportunity to get vaccinated. We keep saying, oh, you know,
18:40
Speaker 7: up until this point, we've relied on the government to
18:42
Speaker 7: protect us. We said, oh, you know, you shut the borders,
18:44
Speaker 7: you keep a safe YadA, yogada. It's time for some
18:46
Speaker 7: personal responsibility. Go out and get vaccinated. If you don't,
18:49
Speaker 7: all right, fine, your choice, but you run the risk
18:53
Speaker 7: of contracting COVID nineteen and having serious illness, if not
18:56
Speaker 7: worse if you do get COVID nineteen. So you know,
18:59
Speaker 7: I I think then needs to start being rewards for
19:02
Speaker 7: those of us who have gone out and got fully vaccinated.
19:05
Speaker 6: Otherwise, why did we bother well?
19:07
Speaker 1: And that's the question that a lot of people are
19:08
Speaker 1: sort of starting to ask. I know that there's been
19:11
Speaker 1: a lot of people in contact with me in relation
19:14
Speaker 1: to whether they are going to be able to go
19:15
Speaker 1: and visit family at Christmas time, what the requirement is
19:19
Speaker 1: going to be when they return, taking into account that
19:21
Speaker 1: traffic light system that we're moving towards. And I know
19:24
Speaker 1: that the Chief Minister had said to me on the
19:26
Speaker 1: show last time he was on the show a couple
19:28
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, when we were talking about the London flight.
19:30
Speaker 1: And now obviously New Deli has been added to this,
19:33
Speaker 1: this that Darwin has got.
19:34
Speaker 3: That direct access to. But the reality is.
19:37
Speaker 1: You then have to quarantine for fourteen days. As you've
19:40
Speaker 1: just pointed out, Matt, Look at what point, Filesy, are
19:43
Speaker 1: we actually going to have a really clear plan as too,
19:46
Speaker 1: when we're going to have that roadmap similar to Queensland
19:49
Speaker 1: where it's an rapid antigen test seventy two hours and
19:53
Speaker 1: then you're able to come into the territory.
19:55
Speaker 4: So Katie, the northern territory hasn't seen community transmission of
19:58
Speaker 4: the virus. We're in a slightly different to New South
20:00
Speaker 4: Wales and Victoria, but we certainly hear the calls from
20:03
Speaker 4: not just industry but the community around COVID and stepping
20:07
Speaker 4: forward to living with it. And so we have outlined
20:10
Speaker 4: the home quarantine plan and the Chief will provide more
20:13
Speaker 4: details on that in the near future. It's just conscious
20:16
Speaker 4: that we haven't seen the virus and we have that
20:18
Speaker 4: particularly vulnerable population. But absolutely the territorians that have gone
20:22
Speaker 4: and gotten vaccinated and those high rates of vaccination we're
20:25
Speaker 4: starting to see in some areas will be rewarded.
20:27
Speaker 1: I will note though that Queensland, obviously I know that
20:30
Speaker 1: they've got COVID in the community at the moment with
20:32
Speaker 1: this uber driver that they're keeping a very close eye on.
20:35
Speaker 1: But Queensland also has very vulnerable community, so they've got
20:39
Speaker 1: a large indigenous population up there in North Queensland and
20:42
Speaker 1: in Central Queensland where I grew up, there is a
20:45
Speaker 1: very large Indigenous population that are regarded as vulnerable as well.
20:49
Speaker 1: Yet they are still forging ahead.
20:51
Speaker 5: With this, Katie.
20:52
Speaker 4: It is a very fine balance and I can absolutely
20:55
Speaker 4: assure Territorians that we are listening to our health advice,
20:58
Speaker 4: but very conscious that those rates have back the nation
21:00
Speaker 4: a rising significantly and quickly, and that people do want
21:04
Speaker 4: to step as quickly as possible to to the new normal.
21:07
Speaker 4: They want to see family and friends, they want to
21:08
Speaker 4: resume life of travel.
21:10
Speaker 2: I've heard the government come out so many times in
21:12
Speaker 2: the past week or so, even probably the last couple months,
21:14
Speaker 2: we're going to announce this into the future. It won't
21:16
Speaker 2: be long before we make that announcement. It's time to
21:18
Speaker 2: make that announcement, and I think attack you said that,
21:20
Speaker 2: then the Chief minus is going to come out in
21:21
Speaker 2: the near future to make an announcement. The time is
21:23
Speaker 2: to make an announcement. Now people need to start planning
21:26
Speaker 2: and more importantly, businesses need to start planning how theyre
21:28
Speaker 2: going to operate and how a they're going to get staff.
21:30
Speaker 2: Because these people are going to start moving out of
21:32
Speaker 2: New South Wales and Victoria to go and find work.
21:35
Speaker 2: They need to be able to come to the territory
21:37
Speaker 2: and settle down because if they go to Queensland and
21:38
Speaker 2: settle downhen they're not going to move back to the
21:40
Speaker 2: north of the territory. We're already in a short start
21:42
Speaker 2: in relation to staff. It needs to be equal. It
21:45
Speaker 2: needs to go across the board and the government need
21:47
Speaker 2: to come out with a clear plan to make sure
21:49
Speaker 2: that the territory can move forward.
21:51
Speaker 6: It's interesting how things change.
21:52
Speaker 7: I mean a week ago to said the Anti government
21:55
Speaker 7: was ahead of the curve, ahead of all the other
21:57
Speaker 7: states and territories when it came to a plan to
21:59
Speaker 7: reopening announced you know this traffic light system, that announced
22:02
Speaker 7: that fully vaccinated arrivals once we hit eighty.
22:05
Speaker 6: Percent, you know, won't have to go into how it
22:07
Speaker 6: springs anymore.
22:07
Speaker 7: And then all of a sudden, Dominic Perrote came out
22:10
Speaker 7: last week and good on him, I say, and just
22:12
Speaker 7: said look, this is We've had enough.
22:13
Speaker 6: This is over.
22:14
Speaker 7: And I think he's shown some real courage as a leader.
22:17
Speaker 7: You know, he lifted the lockdown in Sydney. Their cases
22:20
Speaker 7: haven't gone through the roofs since he did that.
22:22
Speaker 6: He's opening up.
22:23
Speaker 7: He's basically forcing the hand of the other state and
22:27
Speaker 7: territory leaders. And I think it's necessary because you know,
22:31
Speaker 7: we just can't continue to live like we're living.
22:34
Speaker 6: And I know we need to protect.
22:35
Speaker 7: Our vulnerable communities and there are measures in place to
22:38
Speaker 7: try and do that. But at the same time, we
22:41
Speaker 7: can't have a situation now where the rest of the
22:43
Speaker 7: country opens up.
22:44
Speaker 6: If you WA you can do it right.
22:46
Speaker 7: You know, wa WA gets fifty cents back from every
22:50
Speaker 7: dollar it puts in. For GST, in the Northern Territory,
22:53
Speaker 7: we take almost five dollars for every dollar we put in.
22:55
Speaker 7: We cannot afford to be in a situation where we
22:59
Speaker 7: continue to remain shut up if the rest of the
23:02
Speaker 7: country reopens well.
23:03
Speaker 1: We actually heard as well yesterday from Daniel Rochford. He said,
23:06
Speaker 1: we feel like we've been in a cyclone and we're
23:08
Speaker 1: only just getting to the eye of that cyclone, and
23:11
Speaker 1: that they've been through those eighteen months of hardship, they're
23:15
Speaker 1: about to go through, you know, further hardship. But he
23:18
Speaker 1: said that realistically, if we don't sort of have that
23:21
Speaker 1: plan in terms of moving forward, that we're going to
23:24
Speaker 1: wind up in that situation over the Christmas period as well,
23:26
Speaker 1: where you can travel around to other parts of Australia,
23:29
Speaker 1: but trying to get into the Northern Territory you're not
23:31
Speaker 1: going to be able to. You know, at least now
23:33
Speaker 1: we have got a situation where you can travel from Queensland,
23:36
Speaker 1: the likes of Essay as well can come across I'm assuming,
23:39
Speaker 1: you know, into the Northern Territory, but those hot spots
23:42
Speaker 1: obviously can't.
23:43
Speaker 3: But once we get to the point where the.
23:45
Speaker 1: Rest of Australia, as you've pointed out, Matte opens up,
23:48
Speaker 1: you know, I'm assuming that we're going to see that
23:50
Speaker 1: just about everywhere is a red or an amber location
23:54
Speaker 1: and we're going to have very very minimal visitation numbers
23:58
Speaker 1: because really you as a tourist going to come into
24:02
Speaker 1: the territory quarantine, you know, and he made this point
24:05
Speaker 1: quarantined at a hotel at one of the Lovely hotels
24:07
Speaker 1: for fourteen days, then have a holiday I doubt it.
24:10
Speaker 2: Imagine the cost of spending fourteen days cooped up in
24:12
Speaker 2: your hotel. That's going to be pretty expensive.
24:14
Speaker 6: It just won't happen.
24:16
Speaker 7: There's one other thing I think of real concern, and
24:19
Speaker 7: you know what's the number one tourist attraction in the
24:22
Speaker 7: Northern Territory right is Ularu. Yeah, and that's the first
24:25
Speaker 7: place a lot of people probably want to go in
24:26
Speaker 7: to want to go once we do open up. The
24:29
Speaker 7: vaccination data for Mudajulu is not available. We do not
24:33
Speaker 7: know at the moment whether five percent or ninety five
24:36
Speaker 7: percent of people at Mudajulu are vaccinated, and I think
24:39
Speaker 7: that is absolutely disgraceful, hugely problematic, and absolutely needs to
24:45
Speaker 7: be known as part of the decision making around opening up.
24:49
Speaker 1: And Fozzy is that that's the federal government data obviously,
24:52
Speaker 1: is there any way you can get your hands on it?
24:54
Speaker 4: So Matt raises the point around we've got eighty remote
24:58
Speaker 4: clinics across the Northern Territory about fifty NTG and we've
25:01
Speaker 4: published the vaccination rates so people can see what's happening.
25:06
Speaker 4: And there's a number with the Aboriginal medical organizations. So
25:09
Speaker 4: I'll keep working with them to stress the importance of
25:11
Speaker 4: sharing that data so that people can have confidence going forward.
25:15
Speaker 4: But yeah, that sits with the AM.
25:16
Speaker 6: Set and they're not even sharing it with you.
25:19
Speaker 4: Some limited data has been shared at a clinical level,
25:22
Speaker 4: so not with me, but at a clinical level.
25:24
Speaker 7: Because the're the one who has to make the decision
25:26
Speaker 7: on the border is essentially you and the Chief Minister
25:28
Speaker 7: and the rest of the cabinet.
25:29
Speaker 6: I mean, how can you make that decision if you.
25:31
Speaker 2: Don't have it, and if you're the healthat's why caldn't
25:33
Speaker 2: you pick the phone up and give them a call?
25:35
Speaker 5: I promise you.
25:35
Speaker 4: There's been a lot of phone calls made and we're
25:37
Speaker 4: heading into sittings next week and then I'll head down
25:39
Speaker 4: to Central Australia. And it is hard work. It's working
25:43
Speaker 4: with these communities. It's making them understand around the vaccine,
25:47
Speaker 4: particularly that it's important that they have it, that we
25:50
Speaker 4: can't keep this virus out no matter what measures are
25:52
Speaker 4: in place, it's inevitable the virus will come to the
25:55
Speaker 4: Northern Territory and particularly we saw you know with the
25:59
Speaker 4: previous when we had virus come in and there was
26:01
Speaker 4: no vaccine. We locked down, like I just don't even
26:03
Speaker 4: think that's feasible going forward.
26:06
Speaker 5: No, there's back roads.
26:07
Speaker 4: You know, the resources would be so intense, But even
26:11
Speaker 4: if you did somehow make that happen, I still think
26:13
Speaker 4: that there's ways around it. So these are the conversations
26:16
Speaker 4: we're certainly having at a community level.
26:17
Speaker 1: How soon do you think that we are going to
26:20
Speaker 1: have that plan in terms of knowing when we go
26:23
Speaker 1: to a similar model like Queensland is heading towards an
26:26
Speaker 1: a stage of palache announcing that you know, they will
26:29
Speaker 1: open up December seventeen with the rapid antigen testing and
26:33
Speaker 1: the seventy two hours.
26:34
Speaker 4: I think Matt raises in his point just a moment
26:37
Speaker 4: ago where he said, you know, a week ago he
26:38
Speaker 4: would have had us in the you know, the leading
26:41
Speaker 4: in the nation as a jurisdiction around this, and then
26:43
Speaker 4: in the space of a week, and that does highlight
26:45
Speaker 4: how rapidly this space is changing because the vaccination rates
26:48
Speaker 4: are rising and also you know, the regimes in keeping
26:53
Speaker 4: the community safe with public health measures. So we'll keep
26:56
Speaker 4: working with our health officials to make sure that we
26:58
Speaker 4: do what's right for the territory and our context, but
27:00
Speaker 4: at the same time acknowledging the impact on business and
27:04
Speaker 4: also individuals and families.
27:06
Speaker 1: The other point that Alex Bruce actually made on the
27:08
Speaker 1: show yesterday is that right now they've got their survey
27:11
Speaker 1: that they're conducting and they've got about nine percent of
27:14
Speaker 1: their workforce who do not want to get the vaccine,
27:17
Speaker 1: so aren't going to at this point, you know, I
27:19
Speaker 1: potentially have that vaccine, which means that they're going to
27:21
Speaker 1: need to fill those positions. He also said that there's
27:25
Speaker 1: about a twelve percent vacancy rate as they are, and
27:28
Speaker 1: that if we get to sort of early next year
27:31
Speaker 1: and we're you know, they're looking at essentially when you
27:33
Speaker 1: add those two figures together, are twenty percent you know,
27:37
Speaker 1: workforce shortage. And the border is still closed and unable
27:41
Speaker 1: to you know, to bring staff in, but also you know,
27:44
Speaker 1: not seeing that business.
27:46
Speaker 3: It is going to have a big impact.
27:47
Speaker 1: Now, obviously that is one industry, but I'm assuming across
27:50
Speaker 1: the board that we've probably got a little bit of
27:52
Speaker 1: a workforce shortage in a number of different industries. It's
27:55
Speaker 1: something that we've heard at different times, but you do,
27:57
Speaker 1: I do just tend to wonder, you know, whether the
28:01
Speaker 1: border restrictions as well are.
28:03
Speaker 3: Going to have a part to play.
28:04
Speaker 4: So tourism and hospitality have had some significant stuff impacts
28:09
Speaker 4: because of the pandemic, and we've acknowledged that and we've
28:12
Speaker 4: worked with that particular industry around assisting them, and yeah,
28:17
Speaker 4: it certainly is a challenge and acknowledging Alex Bruce's comments
28:21
Speaker 4: around what they foresee may happen over the coming months,
28:24
Speaker 4: and we'll continue to work with them.
28:26
Speaker 2: I think it goes to if we don't make the
28:27
Speaker 2: territory an attractive place for people to come and visit and
28:30
Speaker 2: live and work, they're not going to come here, and
28:32
Speaker 2: then they're going to open up into state. They're going
28:33
Speaker 2: to start moving around and it will miss the boat.
28:36
Speaker 2: And I'm really worried about that because we have got
28:37
Speaker 2: a shortage of staff and lots of people say to me,
28:40
Speaker 2: we can't get staff, and we've got to keep our
28:42
Speaker 2: businesses small or some people got to close their business.
28:44
Speaker 2: I think I remember reading there's some business down the
28:46
Speaker 2: waterfront that has this shut because they couldn't get staff.
28:48
Speaker 2: So this is going to be a massive problem. And
28:51
Speaker 2: if we don't get on top of it now, we're
28:53
Speaker 2: the boat's going to go and we'll be stuck.
28:56
Speaker 1: Well, We're going to take a very short break. It
28:58
Speaker 1: is just twenty three minutes from ten o'clock. You are
29:01
Speaker 1: listening to the week that was also broadcasting on AHA
29:04
Speaker 1: in Alice Spring. It is the week that was it's
29:06
Speaker 1: twenty minutes away from ten o'clock. And in this studio
29:09
Speaker 1: this morning, we've got Jered Maylee, Matt Cunningham, and Natasha Files.
29:13
Speaker 3: Now we know that the public pay.
29:16
Speaker 1: Service negotiations certainly continue on and public servants, Matt, you
29:21
Speaker 1: wrote this story a bit earlier in the week, have
29:23
Speaker 1: been offered up to three days extra annual leave as
29:25
Speaker 1: part of enterprise bargaining negotiations. Women would also have their
29:29
Speaker 1: superannuation payments double when all maternity leave, But the Commissioner
29:32
Speaker 1: for Public Employment is refusing to budge on that government
29:36
Speaker 1: imposed pay freeze, sticking to an offer of a one
29:39
Speaker 1: thousand dollars cash bonus. Matt, it's been an interesting process.
29:45
Speaker 1: I know you've done quite a few stories on this topic.
29:47
Speaker 1: It's been an interesting process working through this public public
29:52
Speaker 1: service pay negotiation. But really, you know, like when you
29:55
Speaker 1: add those three days annual leave, my MAT's is not great.
30:00
Speaker 1: I have misdebatement on every Friday to try and you know,
30:02
Speaker 1: teach me a.
30:03
Speaker 3: Little bit better with my mats.
30:04
Speaker 1: But my mats wouldn't you know, three days would that
30:08
Speaker 1: work out?
30:08
Speaker 3: Like one percent?
30:09
Speaker 7: Well, don't ask Wolfy, ask me, because I've got to
30:12
Speaker 7: the stage where my son's year five maths homework is.
30:16
Speaker 6: Too difficult for me, right, So.
30:20
Speaker 7: Last two Thursday nights and he's saying to me, he's showing,
30:23
Speaker 7: and I'm just going, oh, my brain hurts.
30:25
Speaker 6: I can't seriously, I'm a journalist for a reason.
30:28
Speaker 8: Good.
30:29
Speaker 6: I do know, however, that.
30:32
Speaker 7: This pay negotiation is interesting and is going to continue
30:38
Speaker 7: for a fair while, I would say, because that pay
30:40
Speaker 7: free seems to be a real sticking point for the unions.
30:43
Speaker 7: They you know, interesting too that the counteroffers keep coming,
30:48
Speaker 7: and they've been several counter offers that have been made.
30:52
Speaker 7: The last one is this Christmas closed down leave, so
30:54
Speaker 7: basically means that, you know, for those agencies that are
30:57
Speaker 7: shut down at Christmas, normally you'd have to take the
30:59
Speaker 7: three days that are missing from your annual league.
31:03
Speaker 6: Now you'll get those three days on top of it.
31:05
Speaker 7: I think I said to you yesterday one of the
31:07
Speaker 7: concerns I have about what's being proposed here is that
31:10
Speaker 7: you know, at the end of these negotiations, all those
31:13
Speaker 7: extra things that have been added on, and now we've
31:15
Speaker 7: got n March leave, gender transitioning leave, Christmas cloth, closed
31:21
Speaker 7: down leave like that will be settings, don't They'll be
31:23
Speaker 7: there forever, right, there's no wrong. And there's the Langland Report,
31:27
Speaker 7: which is really interesting and you always go.
31:29
Speaker 6: Back to that.
31:31
Speaker 7: I'll miss quote this slightly because I don't have it
31:33
Speaker 7: in front of me, but there was something like nine
31:35
Speaker 7: hundred different leave entitlements across the public service, you know,
31:41
Speaker 7: and we're just adding and adding and adding to these,
31:43
Speaker 7: which is a sort of fascical situation. The pay freeze
31:46
Speaker 7: was implemented for a reason as well. It was because
31:49
Speaker 7: we were in such a bad budget situation, but also
31:52
Speaker 7: because of the disparity it was creating between the public
31:55
Speaker 7: and the private sector, right, And you had people sort
31:59
Speaker 7: of contacting you today saying that they were losing all
32:01
Speaker 7: of their employees to the public sector because the pain
32:04
Speaker 7: and conditions are so generous. I mean, there's an argument
32:06
Speaker 7: at the moment that inflation is so high there should
32:09
Speaker 7: be a pay rise. The counter argument to that, I
32:11
Speaker 7: think is that over the past five, six, seven, eight,
32:15
Speaker 7: years when inflation was low and every private business was struggling,
32:19
Speaker 7: and really the economy here was in the toilet, those
32:24
Speaker 7: public servants continued to get quite generous pay rises. So
32:27
Speaker 7: it's a tough situation. The final point I'd make is
32:31
Speaker 7: I think there needs to be a differentiation when it
32:33
Speaker 7: comes to these agreements between.
32:38
Speaker 6: Frontline workers and non frontline workers.
32:40
Speaker 7: You know, if you're the social media manager for the
32:43
Speaker 7: Department of Parks and Wildlife whatever, I don't mean to
32:46
Speaker 7: verbal that particular person, you probably don't need a pay rise.
32:51
Speaker 7: But if you are a nurse at the Royal dal
32:53
Speaker 7: And Hospital working long shifts with seven eight nine patients
32:59
Speaker 7: instead of the four that you've been looking after in
33:01
Speaker 7: a much easier situation, if you're in Adelaide or perse Well,
33:05
Speaker 7: then you know you probably do deserve a pay rise,
33:07
Speaker 7: and we probably do need to offer those sort of
33:10
Speaker 7: people more money to deal with the shortages that we're
33:13
Speaker 7: seeing at the moment in the health system.
33:15
Speaker 2: I think it all goes back to the debt that
33:17
Speaker 2: gunn of Government's put us into, where nine billion dollars
33:20
Speaker 2: worth of debt over four or five years, and the
33:24
Speaker 2: Labor Government Commission of Angland report, and they didn't even
33:26
Speaker 2: follow that report because he made recommendation to how the
33:28
Speaker 2: pay free should work, which is different to what the
33:30
Speaker 2: government to put in. And this pay three has come
33:32
Speaker 2: about because this is the only cost saving measure the
33:35
Speaker 2: government made about their budget to try and save their money.
33:37
Speaker 2: They're talking and they haven't even done that, So they're
33:41
Speaker 2: really passing the buck back to the public service here
33:43
Speaker 2: say you have to take a pay cup because we're
33:45
Speaker 2: our mismanagement of the spending off the budget.
33:48
Speaker 1: But then when you look at it, like if they're
33:49
Speaker 1: getting an extra three days and you'll leave and then
33:52
Speaker 1: they're getting a thousand dollar bonus, if you know, if
33:55
Speaker 1: that is what gets agreed upon, is it really a
33:57
Speaker 1: pay cut? Do you know, like when you add those
34:00
Speaker 1: two things together, does it really actually work out to
34:02
Speaker 1: be a pay cut or are we just hearing what
34:04
Speaker 1: the government wants the broader public to hear that there's
34:07
Speaker 1: a pay freeze. But the reality of it is, then
34:10
Speaker 1: when you change all those pay and conditions, is it
34:12
Speaker 1: actually going to save very much money?
34:15
Speaker 7: Well, I think people in the private sector would say
34:18
Speaker 7: it's probably a better deal than many of them them
34:21
Speaker 7: or their employees.
34:21
Speaker 6: Have had over the past few years.
34:24
Speaker 2: So yeah, a lot of you If the government's going to
34:27
Speaker 2: shut down these people, they take all these extra lead,
34:29
Speaker 2: what about the productivity is it's going to increase a
34:31
Speaker 2: decrease in relation to it. So you know, they might
34:33
Speaker 2: actually cut down the amount of money the budget is
34:36
Speaker 2: or the weekly pay for the government payroll is, but
34:39
Speaker 2: the productivity is going to go down because there's going
34:41
Speaker 2: to be less time at work. Is that a trade off?
34:44
Speaker 2: Is that a fair trade off?
34:45
Speaker 8: Katie?
34:45
Speaker 4: We value our staff, they do an incredible job and
34:47
Speaker 4: we've seen over the last eighteen months. We won't do
34:50
Speaker 4: what the Coop did, which way sack people. Will continue
34:53
Speaker 4: to negotiate in good faith through these EBA Enterprise bargaining agreements.
34:57
Speaker 1: But I mean, really is like, are we actually going
34:59
Speaker 1: to see minimization in terms of the amount that the
35:02
Speaker 1: public service costs every single year when we get to
35:06
Speaker 1: the end of this negotiation.
35:08
Speaker 4: So we have a responsibility between managing the Northern Territories budget.
35:11
Speaker 4: We saw the CLP sell off the Port Too and
35:14
Speaker 4: didn't invest that into the.
35:22
Speaker 7: Dollars from the too Infrastructure fund was plown by the
35:26
Speaker 7: Anti government on a trade scheme.
35:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, so just that the trainees that it kept them
35:32
Speaker 4: in the territory and kept them in jobs and say that, Matt, Katie,
35:35
Speaker 4: we'll keep negotiating. We certainly value our staff right across
35:38
Speaker 4: the public service. They do an incredible job and we
35:40
Speaker 4: thank them for that.
35:42
Speaker 1: Well, we might take a very short break. We're always
35:45
Speaker 1: running out of time in here. It flies by. It
35:47
Speaker 1: is just thirteen minutes away from ten o'clock. You are
35:50
Speaker 1: listening to Mix ONEOW four point nine.
35:52
Speaker 5: It is the week that was.
35:53
Speaker 3: It is just ten minutes away from ten o'clock.
35:56
Speaker 1: And one of the issues and topics that we've been
35:58
Speaker 1: discussing for quite some time now is the situation between
36:02
Speaker 1: both Royal Darwin Hospital and the Palmeston Regional Hospital and
36:05
Speaker 1: some of the concerns when it comes to the staffing measures. Now, FALSI,
36:09
Speaker 1: I know that you had told us a couple of
36:11
Speaker 1: weeks ago that there was going to be approximately forty
36:14
Speaker 1: additional nurses starting.
36:16
Speaker 3: Have they hit the ground.
36:18
Speaker 4: For the advice I've got, Katie, is that forty three
36:19
Speaker 4: additional nurses have started this week.
36:21
Speaker 3: Okay.
36:22
Speaker 1: Now, one of the other things that was announced a
36:24
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago was the review into the Palmeston
36:26
Speaker 1: Regional Hospital.
36:27
Speaker 4: Where's it at, Katie, I haven't seen that of late.
36:31
Speaker 4: What I can say is we've seen a thirty nine
36:33
Speaker 4: percent increase in Royal Dalen and Palmeston Hospital emergency department
36:36
Speaker 4: presentations and a ten percent increase in the last year alone.
36:39
Speaker 4: So we're looking at how we can have those two
36:42
Speaker 4: emergency departments work together to provide that care to people
36:46
Speaker 4: not only in Darwin but also in the rural area
36:48
Speaker 4: in Palmerston.
36:49
Speaker 7: Can I go back stip how did we manage to
36:51
Speaker 7: get forty three nurses so quickly?
36:53
Speaker 4: So we have a recruitment campaign. We've been extending the
36:58
Speaker 4: graduate nurse program, but we've also had a real focus
37:02
Speaker 4: campaign of late, and we committed to around forty nurses
37:05
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago, and I'm advised that we
37:07
Speaker 4: got forty three that have.
37:08
Speaker 5: Begun this week. Where they come from, I don't know
37:10
Speaker 5: where they all came.
37:11
Speaker 3: From in state into stay.
37:14
Speaker 4: I'll go back and ask these questions on our report
37:16
Speaker 4: back next week, but we're certainly very focused. We know
37:18
Speaker 4: that COVID and in international migration and domestic you know,
37:22
Speaker 4: travel has certainly impacted our staffing, but health have done
37:26
Speaker 4: some work around how they can make sure that people
37:28
Speaker 4: are suitably qualified, of course, but speed up that recruitment
37:31
Speaker 4: and get people on the front line.
37:32
Speaker 2: But these nurses not just like a reshuffle, that actually
37:34
Speaker 2: new nurses into the health system.
37:36
Speaker 4: I'm advised that's forty three new nurses into the system, Jared.
37:40
Speaker 1: And so I know when we spoke to kath Hatter
37:42
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, she'd said that we realistically
37:44
Speaker 1: need up.
37:45
Speaker 4: To one hundred. Are we trying to recruit more? Yes, Katie,
37:48
Speaker 4: we think the figure is about fifty to seventy. And
37:50
Speaker 4: I've spoken to you about the areas of surgical nurses,
37:53
Speaker 4: mental health nurses, and the emergency department. We're also focused
37:56
Speaker 4: in mental health. The tender went out for the new
37:58
Speaker 4: eighteen bed facility for the design of that will bring on.
38:02
Speaker 4: We've already bought on more subacute mental health beds. We've
38:05
Speaker 4: got the adult community Mental Health space, which is designed
38:07
Speaker 4: to help keep people out of hospital.
38:09
Speaker 5: And the acute setting.
38:10
Speaker 4: But we'll also bring on more acute and subacute beds
38:12
Speaker 4: before Christmas. And we're also focused on people that are
38:16
Speaker 4: already nurses if they can come across into that mental
38:19
Speaker 4: health nursing space because it is quite specific qualifications, but
38:22
Speaker 4: we want their expertise.
38:23
Speaker 2: And attach you can you give as an update on
38:24
Speaker 2: what's happening to the emergency department at the palms On Hospital.
38:27
Speaker 2: Is it up and running, is it the beds all available?
38:29
Speaker 2: How are we going with that?
38:30
Speaker 4: So my understanding is that Palmerston Regional Hospital ED has
38:35
Speaker 4: continued to run throughout this We're committed to that facility.
38:38
Speaker 5: It adds important bed capacity.
38:39
Speaker 4: It also is really important as you would know, that
38:41
Speaker 4: bit closer to people in the rural area in Palmerston.
38:45
Speaker 5: So it's certainly a key part of our health facilities.
38:48
Speaker 2: Do you know how many beds are open in the
38:49
Speaker 2: ED department of the hospital now?
38:52
Speaker 4: In terms of the beds, it's a twenty four bed facility.
38:54
Speaker 4: I don't get daily updates on the operational matters the
38:58
Speaker 4: team within health our facilities to best care for the community.
39:03
Speaker 1: Well, I know that it is something that's front of
39:04
Speaker 1: mine for a lot of people. And again we did
39:07
Speaker 1: catch up with Cathacher again this week as well and
39:10
Speaker 1: she spoke a little bit more about the need to
39:12
Speaker 1: actually try to recruit further nurses and maybe some of
39:14
Speaker 1: those different incentives, but also when you speak about you
39:18
Speaker 1: know about the pay and the patient to nurse ratio
39:22
Speaker 1: and how it is quite different to what it is
39:24
Speaker 1: in other states, and how our nurses here in the
39:26
Speaker 1: territory are working incredibly hard.
39:28
Speaker 3: Matt, I know that you ran a story on this
39:30
Speaker 3: earlier in the week as well.
39:31
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right, and.
39:34
Speaker 7: As you know, I speak from experience pretty close to home.
39:37
Speaker 7: I think there's probably not a harder job in a
39:39
Speaker 7: hospital in the country than working as a nurse at
39:41
Speaker 7: Royal Day and Hospital. I mean in Victoria and South Australia,
39:44
Speaker 7: other states they have a mandate that it's four to
39:46
Speaker 7: one you have four patients per shift. As a nurse
39:49
Speaker 7: here there is no limit, so you can have seven,
39:52
Speaker 7: eight or nine patients depending on how busy you are,
39:55
Speaker 7: and that makes it really tough I think for the
39:56
Speaker 7: people who work at Royal Day and Hospital and in
39:59
Speaker 7: our hospital system generally in Alice Springs as well. So,
40:02
Speaker 7: and that was the point kath Hatcher was making around
40:04
Speaker 7: the pay freeze, is that if we implement at the
40:08
Speaker 7: moment she was saying, we're basically our nurses are in
40:10
Speaker 7: the top three best paid in the country. If that
40:13
Speaker 7: freeze kicks in for them. Then by next year they'll
40:16
Speaker 7: fall out of that top three. You might be the
40:18
Speaker 7: fifth or sixth best paid in the country. Now, that's
40:21
Speaker 7: a difficult task to attract nurses to come and work
40:24
Speaker 7: in the toughest nursing job in the country when the
40:27
Speaker 7: pay is you know, not among the top the top
40:32
Speaker 7: pay in the country.
40:33
Speaker 6: So you know that is going to be it'll be
40:35
Speaker 6: challenge for the government.
40:36
Speaker 3: Do you think that.
40:38
Speaker 1: We're going to see a bit of you know, some
40:41
Speaker 1: of those nurses that have maybe been in charge of
40:45
Speaker 1: the vaccine rollout and working out there at Howard Springs
40:48
Speaker 1: as we do see some of that wind back, are
40:51
Speaker 1: we going to see those nurses re enter the system
40:53
Speaker 1: and go back into the likes of Royal Darwin and
40:56
Speaker 1: Palmerston Regional.
40:58
Speaker 4: So, Katie, someone that's a nurse, there's ae of areas
41:00
Speaker 4: that they can work. They can work in the public
41:02
Speaker 4: and private health system, they can work in age care,
41:04
Speaker 4: they can work in community based and so what the
41:07
Speaker 4: Department of Health is focused on with its recruitment is
41:09
Speaker 4: making sure that we've got easy pathways for people to
41:12
Speaker 4: engage in the system and also looking at working with
41:15
Speaker 4: people with experience, if they're looking at a change, how
41:17
Speaker 4: we can support them to do that to keep them
41:19
Speaker 4: in the system. So I acknowledge it's one of the
41:21
Speaker 4: toughest systems in the country to work in.
41:24
Speaker 5: But our staff, not.
41:25
Speaker 4: Just own nurses, but our Allied health for doctors and
41:28
Speaker 4: those that support them in administration and also the PCAs
41:31
Speaker 4: all of those roles are incredibly important and they are valued,
41:35
Speaker 4: and so we'll continue to make sure we have a
41:37
Speaker 4: strong health system.
41:38
Speaker 7: One thing I was talked to last week to a
41:41
Speaker 7: woman who used to be a nurse a long time ago,
41:44
Speaker 7: who last year tried to get back in to the
41:46
Speaker 7: system and she was enrolled nurse but was told that
41:52
Speaker 7: she would have to do retraining that was going to
41:53
Speaker 7: cost her thousands of dollars. I think she was saying
41:56
Speaker 7: almost fifteen thousand dollars to do the training to get
41:59
Speaker 7: back into the system because she hadn't been a nurse
42:01
Speaker 7: for for some time. And I just wonder whether that's
42:04
Speaker 7: an area where we can sort of try and speed
42:06
Speaker 7: things up. I'm sure you're probably looking at it already,
42:08
Speaker 7: but whether you know to get I think getting some
42:10
Speaker 7: of those nurses who might be retired or might have
42:13
Speaker 7: left nursing because they'd had kids or done whatever, and
42:16
Speaker 7: whether they can be brought back into the system in
42:19
Speaker 7: an easier way than exists at the moment.
42:21
Speaker 5: I think we should absolutely support people.
42:23
Speaker 4: I think that there's a value in people that perhaps
42:26
Speaker 4: are a little older with that experience, but making sure
42:29
Speaker 4: that their qualifications can be easily updated. AARPRA, which is
42:31
Speaker 4: the body that sort of oversees registration and licensing, certainly
42:35
Speaker 4: looked at with the pandemic, how recently retired nurses can
42:38
Speaker 4: come back into the system to be that surge workforce.
42:41
Speaker 4: But very happy to raise that with the nurses' union
42:43
Speaker 4: and the department, because I think we have to be
42:45
Speaker 4: agile and we have to look at even though it
42:47
Speaker 4: only might be half a dozen or a dozen nurses there,
42:49
Speaker 4: that can be the difference within our system.
42:51
Speaker 1: One very quick question from a listener. It says, are
42:54
Speaker 1: those new nurses new graduates?
42:57
Speaker 4: So, Katie, we've got the graduate program, which we've committed
43:00
Speaker 4: to everyone that is eligible, so they meet the qualifications
43:04
Speaker 4: and required can go into the graduate program.
43:08
Speaker 5: My understanding is this forty three nurse positions.
43:10
Speaker 1: But these ones, these ones are or right, the forty
43:13
Speaker 1: understanding is this is different to the graduate program.
43:16
Speaker 2: All right, no worries how many is coming out in
43:18
Speaker 2: the graduate program.
43:19
Speaker 5: We increase the places in the graduate program.
43:20
Speaker 4: I don't have the figures in front of me, but
43:22
Speaker 4: I want to say thirty to forty positions were increased.
43:24
Speaker 4: So it was a couple of hundred graduate nurses.
43:26
Speaker 2: And when will they be on the floor working.
43:28
Speaker 4: So the graduate nurse program usually see an uptick about
43:31
Speaker 4: this time of year as they start to finish their
43:33
Speaker 4: pure studies and they do do practical components all the
43:37
Speaker 4: way through their nursing degree. But this is giving them
43:40
Speaker 4: that graduate year so that they can then have the
43:42
Speaker 4: full qualifications.
43:44
Speaker 1: Well, we have run out of time. That is it
43:46
Speaker 1: for this morning for the four of the week. That
43:48
Speaker 1: was Jared Mayley, the Deputy or position Later, thank you
43:51
Speaker 1: very much for your time this morning.
43:53
Speaker 2: Thank you.
43:53
Speaker 1: We've got Matt Cunningham from Sky News. Thanks for your
43:56
Speaker 1: time this morning, Matt. Natasha Files, the Minister for Health
43:59
Speaker 1: and also Tourism, thanks for joining us this morning.
44:01
Speaker 5: Thanks Katie