Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Chief Minister Michael Gunner joined Katie Woolf on 360 for the first time in 2022

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Chief Minister Michael Gunner joined Katie Woolf on 360 for the first time in 2022 · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And joining me in the studio right now is the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Chief Minister of the Northern Territory for our first show
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty two.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: So happy in new year.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I think you can. I think we can.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: It feels a bit weird, but yeah, it's weird to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: be back in here and I feel like I'm talking
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to myself. But the phones are already starting to ring,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: so obviously not very good.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Now, Chief Minister. There is so much to cover off on.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I know today is the first day of school, thousands
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of Territory kids heading back into the classroom. I know
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: there's lots of parents who are going to be feeling
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: pretty worried about their kids contracting the virus. Is the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: return of school going to be a super spreader.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: I don't believe so.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: Obviously, movement is transmission, and so there's gonna lost people
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: moving the next week or two. But would also be
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: naive to assume that if school was on kids and
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: parents wouldn't be moving. So yeah, movement, movement's going to
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: happen anyway. I think schools are some of the safest
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: places in the Northern Territory, highly regulated environments.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: We can put rules and controls in place.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: When we sat down and do the COVID return a
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: school plan, schools just said, well, here's our communical diseases plan.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: They do this all the time, if that makes sense,
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: around measles or lice or stuff. So they were ready
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: to go. So I feel confident about schools being safe places.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: What will be different and I think this will create
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: anxiety next week or two until parents get used to
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: it is we're going to let you know if a
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: kid at school has been positive and if your kid
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: has been a close contact or not. That will be
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: new information parents aren't getting at the moment across January.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: So I think that will create some anxiety early days.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: But schools will be, in my opinion, safe places.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, have we reached a point though realistically around
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the community. I think we've got five thousand odd cases
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory now where it should just be
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a matter of if you get crook, if you've got symptoms,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: get tested. If you're negative, continue about your life. If
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: you're not well, isolate at home.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: That's right, And I think this is the phase that
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: down south of a transition to news so fales more
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: than most earlier than most I should say most people
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: who contract COVID will be okay. You know, it feels
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: weird to say well COVID, but it's sort of how
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: the doctor Hegey describes the well COVID. We have much
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: better treatments now in hospital as well. So if you
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: see our hospital numbers, you've got one twenty yesterday in
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: general emission, steroids and other things that we can do
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: any viral treatments coming and someone we can look after
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: people much better. So only three in the ICU and
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: only eight on oxygen. So what we can do and
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: how we can help people has improved significantly, so I
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: think last weight. Look, we're about four or five hundred
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: people in COVID at home, so we can manage people
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: well with COVID, if that makes sense. We still want
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: to make sure, because it is serious, especially for people
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: with comorbidit these, that we keep the level of COVID
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: at a rate which our hospital system can handle.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: I feel we're currently landing that.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Why are we.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Wearing back to wearing masks outdoors again? To me, it
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: seems like overkill.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's a seven seven days and I'd rather
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: I hope you're right, you know, I'd rather I'd rather
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: you be proven right and I'm wrong on this one. Genuinely,
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: we had the expected spike as everyone came back from
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: inter state, so it could be correlation rather than the causation.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: But we said those days we'd see in increasing cases.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: We've got that increase in cases, and we said outdoors
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: obviously is less risky, safer than indoors, but we thought,
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: let's just, you know, as our abundance of caution, try
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: and do it we can to moderate spread. So seven
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: day outdoor mask mandate just to do that, and I've
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: got every expectation now were lifting some.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Pore Obviously on one hand, we're doing that.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, though, well from tomorrow into state arrivals,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: so no longer going to have to quarantine or.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Take three tests. So why go sort of so hard
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: on one thing and they're not so hard on the other.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: I can absolutely see how the border's decision could be
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: interpreted as going back on COVID, if that makes sense
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: the right way of expressing it. But at the moment
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: we've got basically the same prevalence rate of COVID as
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: other jurisdictions, i e. Someone from this half Wales has
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: the same rate of COVID as someone from the Northern Territory.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: So giving out basically three thousand rats a day, I
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: think from memory to people arriving at the airport it's
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: probably more than Actually you might as well walk the
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: streets have done and randomly handing out rats. There's no
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: reason now to just say to someone who is getting
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: off a plane a symptomatic and well, history rats, take
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: a rat. We want to now focus our care on
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: the symptomatic and the vulnerable inside in Northern Territory. Then
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: someone who's landing from this half Whales as well.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I guess the thing that I'm grappling with,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: and I know others are as well, is that you know,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you've got these really sort of strict conditions I everybody
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: having to wear those masks are the third vaccine mandate
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: indeed being announced over the course of the weekend. There's
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: no doubt that some of these things are having a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: massive impact on business, for example, hospitality into we're out
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: over the course of the weekend speaking about that. So
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: if we're going so hard in some areas, then why
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: are we sort of you know, letting it rip in
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: other ways.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: They put this way, because I don't think we are
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: letting rip. There's essentially three things we can do or
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: we're doing. One was moderating rate of incursion, the other
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: was moderating rate of spread, and the other is moderating
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: severity of case. Now that we have the same rate
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: of COVID in the territory is into state, moderating rate
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: of incursion essentially not not an issue anymore. Like we
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: just have the same mann of covid osmosis like we are.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: So that one sets aside, then you've got moderating rate
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: of spread. We want to keep our curve flat and
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: our tail long, and that means that our health professionals
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: other than the front line can can deal with this.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: It's a lot of hard work.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: So when I say deal with it, not saying it
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: is tough, but basically keep it where it is. So
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: that's why we've got measures around moderating rate of spread,
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: mask rules, et cetera. Then you've got severity of case.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: So for example, the art For example, we know for
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: a fact the unvaccinated are more likely to be severely
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: impacted by COVID, so we're trying to reduce the risk
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: of the unvaccinated or the rate which the unvaccinated get COVID. Now, unfortunately,
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: I don't like saying this. I know Hotality and you
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: hate me saying this. Dotor Heggy has said Home and
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Hotality are the two highest rest sittings for catching COVID.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: So we've got to put some rules in around Hoteli.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: I apologize to Hostali for saying that. I know that,
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: but that's why they sit there, and it's about reducing
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: the likelihood of a severe case in our hospital story.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: So taking that into account, if that is indeed the case,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and we know that hospitality and some of our businesses
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: have been hit so incredibly difficultly, is there going to
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: be any kind of support packages for those businesses.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: So let me put this way. We're talking and working
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: with those businesses, listening to them closely. We've done a
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: number of packages across the last two years. I never
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: say never, and where we're working very carefully on what
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: we may or may not be able to do to
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: help them or go to make sure it lands the
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: right spot. So, for example, if you look at the voucher,
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: the truths and voucher be simply say that's roll out
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: another voucher. The advice I've had recently from tourism, and
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: this could be contested. It might be some tourism saying
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: they don't agree with this. But the recent advice I've
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: had is now that we've moved to a different border posture,
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: they wanted that money going to marketing. So we haven't
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: been marketing necessarily much in the territory in recent times.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: We're doing things like the Territory voucher to get territorians
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: out whole day and in the absence of interstatus and overseas.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: So that's the kind of thing I want to make
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: sure I put the right money in the right spots
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: to get the right results. So I'm getting essentially requests
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: to switch back into marketing again to help tourism. I'm
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: open to that. So it's not making sure we do
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: the right thing to give the right help. So we
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: are doing a lot of work at the moment with
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: industry because I agree with you it is tough at
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: the moment. It has been tough for two years, and
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: we've got to keep making sure we put the right
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: things in point I.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Reckon there's a lot of people listening this morning probably
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: feeling like you know like I do, where we're just
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: over it, and I know that we can't just all
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: of a sudden forget about COVID and go all right,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: we're not bothering with anything.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: But we're just over it.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: We want to get back to being able to live
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: our lives, and I know that we've got to do
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: that cautiously, and no doubt you feel the same, like
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: you must just be over it.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: I feel so in doctor Heggey's device, and we haven't
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: got the doughty modeling experts that makes sense. So this
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: is not being it's not modeling upon which we necessary
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: basing decisions. We're clear about that. But we've had people
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: with then health look at the numbers and in their
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: belief we're approaching or past peak. That makes sense for
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: the territory for this current wave. If you look at
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: epidemological links and the way things work, you know peak
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: isn't halfway. Peak peaks much early in the halfway. We're
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: declining wastewater strength in dawn and our springs prior to
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: the return of parents to get back to school. So
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: we are probably going to hit a long tail if
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: we land this right, though you won't see much difference
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: between pre and post peak. The big difference about getting
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: post peak that's so important is you remove the risk
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: of that expensial growth. You know when you see cases
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: double and double and double. We want to get to
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: that spot and then it becomes you know, for all
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: intentsive purposes, it's a probably bad way of describing it
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: business as usual, and it's just saying you can absolutely
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: manage with our health system. That's where we're trying to
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: land at the moment, with obviously the fear that you
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: know you can hit that extential growth again to get
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: past peak. You know you've landed it in a place
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: where the public health system, which would never take for granted,
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: our great public health system, can handle this.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: So you reckon we are either at our peak now
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: or are about to hit peak.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: That's doctor Haggey's advice. Having run some numbers, I want
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: to put some heavy caveats on that. He's talked about
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: that about a week or so ago, I believe on
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: the record as well, so I'm not verbaling him. But
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: it is not being done by Dwity. That's just internal
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: work that I've personally looked at. It's it's not coming
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: to the sensive room for planning purposes. That makes sense.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: It's just he's thinking about where we sit on the
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: ependemological link chain, that we're heading towards post peak. The
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: wastewater signal strength supported that we're keeping a cloth sign it.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: Though I plan for I prefer to plan for worst
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: case scenario area, I'm not planning for being post peak.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: I'm looking at what do we do things get worse,
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: if that makes sense, What where do we shift resources?
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: How we manage things?
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: But right now we've got three in our ice for you,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: eight in err on oxygen. I don't want that number,
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: if that makes sense, I brother zero and zero, But
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: that number is within what we can handle in the
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: hospital system.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And so do you think that right now, with this
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: mask mandate that we've now got outdoors, with this third
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: COVID mandate, the shot that obviously you've announced, do you
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: think that the reality of this is that, post this
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: seven days of wearing those masks, that hopefully we've seen
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the worst of it.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: We want to see cases start moderating back towards the
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: four fifty a day. So we essentially have for about
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: three weeks a flat curve of four hund and fifty
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: a day that has over the last you know, four
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: or five days, come up to nine hundred off the
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: back of people coming back for it in time for
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: return of school. We want to see those numbers moderate
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: back down. We think we can see that across across
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: this week.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: In the next.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: Like a cliff won't go nine hundred and for fifty,
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: but we want to see it studying the head down,
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: I am very confident we can remove the outdoor mass
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: man date after seven days. We don't have a time
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: limit on the indoor mass mandate of because we know
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: that that's one reason why we were hitting that four
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: fifty and staying at four fifty. But we do want
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: to see the numbers head back towards full fifty.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: All right, Paul and Humpty Doo wants to know why
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: with only two tragic deaths in the Northern Territory from COVID,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: why are we still so heavy with the rules.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: That's probably answered the question. We've only had two people die.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: I don't like the word only. I mean that that's
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: awful that two people have died, absolutely awful. I want
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: to see as few people die as possible, hopefully no more.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: You know, That's what that's what we're working on. Tragically,
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: look at around the world, that's not going to be
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: no more. It's going to be some more. We've got
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: to do everything we can to delay to minimize the
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: rate of COVID and therefore the severity of case, so
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: that less people get hurt, either with long COVID.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Or tragically passed.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: So two is you know, if you look around the world,
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: that's we're probably it's still trouble described death this way,
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: but we're probably still best in class for how we're
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: handling COVID At the moment. I want to remain best
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: in class. I want to see no one else die
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: in the nothern territory, and that's one reason why we're
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: trying to be as careful as we can. This is
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: still not the flu. This is still a very severe thing.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: It's just that more people now who get it are
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: more likely to be able to be treated at home.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got to tell you, I was surprised at
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: how well I was with it, to be honest, and
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I've obviously had two vaccines, so I we'll hold off
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: for a little while now before getting the third, just
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: until I you know, just until my immune systems sort
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: of back up to scratch and I'll see that your advice.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's been slightly different advice state to state,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: but not the Higge's advice, I believe is four to
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: six weeks, and so maybe leaning towards the six weeks
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: of before.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And look, I know a lot of people are
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: still incredibly scared out there in the community and feeling
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: really worried about it. But I do think that we
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: need to get on with things. We need to get
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: on with life, and we need to try to make
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three better than what it's been the last
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: couple of years. Managing COVID Chief Minister. I will move
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: along because we know that right now one of the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: biggest issues for a lot of Territorians is food supplies.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: We know that they're incredibly low. On Friday, I went
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: into Kohl's. There was no fresh broadducee or meat at all.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Woolworths on Saturday morning, I went and did a bit
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: of searching around. They were in a similar situation. Same
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: again yesterday. Everyone's saying the same thing.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I know that local businesses are struggling in some ways
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: as well to fill those shelves.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: This is as a result of flooding, and.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I understand that the shortage of staff in some of
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: those locations as well due to COVID has had an impact.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: But what is your government doing to try and assist
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to make sure that we've got a solution here.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: So there's some compounding impacts.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: He obviously COVID through distribution centers down south probably the biggest.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: COVID contribution to this.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: But then we had the flooding events and I think
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: it's going to take last of I seventeen days to
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: fix up the railway line, for example. Hopefully it's quicker
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: than that, but maybe it'll take longer. We had eight
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: road trains go across the Stuart Highway for food into
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: Alison Dark distribution centers. More importantly, post those road trains,
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: they've had to go inspect the roads to make sure
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: because the road trains are heavy, that there isn't being
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: more damage done to the road and we can allow
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: more transit through. There's also been a long re route
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: up and through the Barkley that's.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Been happening as well.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: We have as part of our EOC work sorry EMIT
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Operations Center work, we have a dedicated logistics unit that
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: works on this all the time across two years. So
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: it's not like we just stood it that they're talking daily,
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: probably seven times a day, to distribution centers, freight companies,
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: infrastructure people at the moment, et cetera, looking at what
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: the STATU supplies are. The good advice is not for
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: fresh unfortunately, but the good advice is that we still
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: believe we've got food stocks in the territory that can
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: feed territorians. They're particularly remote and particularly in a number
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: of our stores who made wet season precautions because of
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: cyclones and stuff like that. We have got ability and
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: the Commission respectors yesterday if we do get worried to
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: press the emergency management button with the FEDS and look
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: at bringing in food to places that are needed.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Is that what they're doing.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I mean in South Australia right now, I know that
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Defense has been called upon to bring in some additional
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: food supplies.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Is that what you're looking at?
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: So that is a available option if needed.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: But we're keeping a closer eye on stocks and the
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: current device into the EOC is you know, unfortunately it's
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: not going to help.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: You in afresh.
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: I get the fresh, but there is enough foodstocks around
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: to manage, but we can have that button pressed any
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: time that we need to press that button.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I get that there's enough food stocks around,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: but I've had people messaging me over the weekend that
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: are in isolation. They've done their online orders. Obviously it's arrived.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: They've got little kids, They've got no milk, none of
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the essentials that they actually need to be able to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: feed their children.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Okay, we'll obviously keep looking at that. We want people
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: to have their milk. I get with my little one.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: He loves his weep bis in the morning. So we
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: are keeping a close close eye on everything, and that's
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: information in time. There's no rush, No that would our
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: advice to which will backpplied them or not supply them
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: in assistance. We're talking with them and they're telling us
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: that they're going okay, So we are having those conversations.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: I'll follow back in to make sure that we're really
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: screwing it down on the supermarkets, to give us as
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: accurate advice as they can and make sure we are
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: getting that food out there.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I think, like I said, it's something that's top
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: of mind for so many and we are going to
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: catch up with Louise Blato in just a few minutes
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: time to find out.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: More about that.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Now. Finally, I do want to go to an issue
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: which never seems to subside, and that is crime in
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs well all over the territory. But Alice Springstown
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Council has pend a letter to more than forty of
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Australia's most influential politicians in a desperate plea for help
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to take back control of spiraling rates of crime facing
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the town.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: The letter reads, currently every day residents are having their
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: businesses destroyed, cars stolen and smashed, houses broken into, and
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: are being assaulted walking to their cars from dinner.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: This is not an exaggeration.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Intruders are breaking into people houses, getting into young children's
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: bedrooms while they had their parents sleep. People no longer
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: feel safe in their homes. Chief Minister, I want to
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: ask you, how do you feel in a town that
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: you grew up in when residents say that they no
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: longer feel safe and they're at breaking point and are
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: essentially begging you for help.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: It was a really rough January in Alice.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: But it's been rough for so long in Alice.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: We listened to business our last summer period about things
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: we can do proactively in Alison. We have a summer program.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: We change it each year in response to feedback, response
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: to changing intelligence.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: That makes sense. We wanted to.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: Have a dispersed youth program this summer.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: We thought was good.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: Business thought was good and that's sentially running events and
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: things like the town camps. Unfortunately, at the last minute,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: and without ability for us to put in alternative plans,
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: Tang as a service provider fell over.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: They couldn't do that alternate provision.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: Unfortunately, the active measure we had in place for this
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: year some period didn't happen, and there was one week
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: in particular and our Springs was really shit. There was sorry,
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: it was really bad. There were sixty breaks residential and commercial.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: That's a big number. That's not a good number. Plus
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: motivy call. Thefts police have now made I get this
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: number right, thirty nine arrests and we have seen that
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: rate of crime drop. Not something there's no crime, but
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: I think we're ahead of that crime wave that was
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: happening now. But I absolutely do not dispute at all
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: that was a bad January for Alice Springs.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: The way you must acknowledge though that this is like
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: for the people living there, it must be absolutely heartbreaking.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: And I think that something, you know, something different obviously
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: needs to happen, because, let's be honest about it, We've
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: not just been talking about over this Christmas period. It's
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: something that we've spoken about now for years.
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: And what frustrats protein minor word. What frustrates means it's
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: something different. This year we had planned didn't happen. So
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: lots of work, when there's lots of consultation, lots of
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: prep work. We had the idea that we don't want
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: everyone constraining the CBD, for example. So last year, if
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: you think about it, whybe we had that hub in
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: the CBD. This year we're going to pivot into having
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: disputed things happening around Alice rather having all happening in
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: one spot and keep kids dispersed. That fell over at
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: the last minute. So there's something different. We had planned
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: proactively to get ahead of it this summer, didn't. I
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: apologize for that. I found out too late to put
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: an alternative measure in place.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I would you.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Feel safe living there at the moment with your family?
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: Well, yes I would. I mean, I'll get that residence
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: there don't. But I love Alice. I talked to the
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: police and everyone who's working their guts out down there.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: I absolutely get all the concerns. But I mean, I've
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: bought an Alice. I've lived in Alice on an other
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: occasions and move back and forth. I'd live in Alice again.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: I love Alice.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Is this I mean, does this actually demonstrate that the
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: changes to those bail laws haven't worked? No.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: I think if you look at when we've caught a
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: kid and had the intervention, that has impacted, as I
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: understand it, the crimes occurring in our springs over this period.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: So I was thirteen youth arrested twenty six adults. From
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: the top of my head, the youth weren't out on
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: bail or the youth weren't So I don't think it's
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: I think, if anything, the youth laws are working this.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: I don't think this is a reflection of youth laws.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Look, I guess you know the thing is it is
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: something that you and I have spoken about on so
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: many occasions. We've had some really heated discussion about this
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: very topic. And the thing that I keep hearing from
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: locals is that they're really upset about the crime situation
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: from Darwin to Alice Springs. Is your government going to
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: look at doing anything differently for twenty for this year
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to try and make a real impact in this space.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: So we made Legsley Reform last year. I think probably
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: the biggest difference that will happen this year is for
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: two years the government has been stretched and that cocludes
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: police like we have been working on COVID. I've got
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: four hundred and fifty staff dedicated just to COVID away
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: from regular duties basically across the two your government, So
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: COVID will come to an end this year and we'll
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: be able pivot back into ordinary duties, if that makes sense.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Do you acknowledge that obviously COVID has had a big
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: impact and has actually mean that we've seen more crime in.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: The territory on two things. I think COVID had an
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: impact on everything. But if you look specifically at domestic violence,
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: and this isn't necessarily about stretching of resources, we had
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: record lows for domestic violence and alcohol related violence. Some
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: were ten year lows, some were just never before seen loads.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: COVID then occurred and for some reason a flick, got
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: a switch got flicked and we've now got horrific DV
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: in ourcohol field of violence across the Anti Commission spoken
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: about this a lot. Initially it seemed to be related
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: to the supply of additional money in which I couldn't
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: I couldn't dispute like that money was important. Money's gone away,
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: violence has remained.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: That's sleeping on the streets.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: You know, absolutely everywhere you drive down the Stewart Highway
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: at the moment and there is beds.
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: We've got about triple the amount of people we would
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: normally having Dale and currently in Dawn.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: It's pretty underla I mean, like what steps are going
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: to be taken pretty well immediately to try and rectify
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: some of these issues because it is, you know, at
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the point where the community is pretty fed up.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: So ancdotally in ours sorry in Darwen.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: A couple of things, so one there's probably the feedback
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: on getting a desire for people who are currently in
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: town not to return home, about being worried about being
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: locked down in the remote community, and two remote comunities
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: saying we don't you know, you might have COVID during dark.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: We don't want you to come back so we're having
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: the Return to Country programs currently not operating, If that
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: makes sense, it's an extent that we would certainly like
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: it too. We've got all our NGOs and that stretch
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: at the moment of how they deal with COVID is
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: a look at Baton Road that's there for the homeless shelter. Obviously,
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: people arrive, we test them, they test positive COVID. We
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: have a management plan around that so that stretches them
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: that'd be isolated while they're there. So we are going
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: through a wave of COVID that's going to have an
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: absolute impact on a number of things. Unfortunately, that's having
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: an impact on the amount of people who are living
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: rough and down at the moment, and also the services
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: we have available to look after them, and also the
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: programs we all haven't place, like return to Country. Those
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: things just aren't switching the gear at the moment because COVID.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Chief Minister, we are unfortunately going to have to leave it. There,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: so much to talk about. Always appreciate your time, thanks
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: so much for being here with us, and we'll talk
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to you again in a couple of weeks. That was
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister Michael Gunner there and coming your way.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: In just a couple of minutes time, we're going to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: be speaking to Louise Belato from the Transport Association to
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: find out how those trucks are tracking and when we
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: can expect some more stock, hopefully on those supermarket shelves.