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

0:00
Speaker 1: Joining us on the line right now is the Health
0:02
Speaker 1: Minister Natasha Philes.
0:04
Speaker 2: Good morning to your minister.
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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.
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Speaker 1: Now, Minister, I know that probably you, along with me
0:11
Speaker 1: and plenty of other Territorians keeping a very keen eye
0:15
Speaker 1: on the Olympics, and more than one hundred Olympians touchdown
0:19
Speaker 1: in Darwin this morning. Out at the airport, they are
0:23
Speaker 1: ready to quarantine out at Howard Springs. Do we have
0:26
Speaker 1: any idea of exactly how many athletes it is, Minister.
0:30
Speaker 3: Katie, I haven't had the numbers of the exact number
0:33
Speaker 3: of people that arrived on this flight. Obviously, the athletes
0:37
Speaker 3: have to leave Tokyo within forty eight hours of finishing
0:39
Speaker 3: their competition, and as we're getting to that intense phase
0:42
Speaker 3: where sadly some of our teams are being knocked out
0:45
Speaker 3: a little earlier and others are pushing on. It does
0:47
Speaker 3: vary that we've got two flights scheduled, the one that
0:51
Speaker 3: arrived this morning and one in around a week or
0:53
Speaker 3: so's time that will help get these athletes back to
0:57
Speaker 3: Australia from competing at the Tokyo Olympics.
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Speaker 1: Now, do they have any sort of special needs or
1:02
Speaker 1: anything out there while they're at Howard Springs. What's the
1:04
Speaker 1: situation with those athletes?
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Speaker 3: So, Katie, all the athletes are required to adhere to
1:10
Speaker 3: the strict social distancing practices, the COVID nineteen infection prevention,
1:14
Speaker 3: the testing, the control measures, just the same as anyone
1:16
Speaker 3: else on an international repatriation flight. The numbers have been
1:20
Speaker 3: built into the Commonwealth's repatriation flight numbers that we've negotiated
1:25
Speaker 3: with them, and the Commonwealth covering all of the costs.
1:27
Speaker 3: But it certainly makes me prior as a territory and
1:30
Speaker 3: so we can just do our little bits these athletes.
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Speaker 3: You know, the Olympics were delayed by a year, which
1:34
Speaker 3: meant they had to train on you know, it's been
1:37
Speaker 3: a huge turbulent time for them, and so just to
1:39
Speaker 3: do our little bit, you know, he's really exciting for
1:42
Speaker 3: the territory.
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Speaker 2: I reckon.
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Speaker 1: There will be so many people who are incredibly excited
1:46
Speaker 1: that we have got these Olympians here in Darwin right now.
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Speaker 1: My understanding is that Ariana Tipmas is here, as is
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Speaker 1: Emma McKeon. I mean, they are a couple of Australia's
1:57
Speaker 1: golden girls. Are we going to be having any kind
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Speaker 1: of ticket tape parade. What is going to be happening.
2:02
Speaker 1: How are we going to be celebrating these athletes?
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Speaker 3: Yes, Katie, we're very keen to host a ticket tape parade,
2:10
Speaker 3: and so we have had parades here in the past.
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Speaker 3: I remember after the Sydney two thousand Olympics events hosting
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Speaker 3: the athletes and it was a real celebration and I
2:18
Speaker 3: know that the athletes performances. I've been watching the Olympics
2:21
Speaker 3: over the past week or so and it's certainly lifting
2:24
Speaker 3: people a little bit of normality a headline that's not
2:27
Speaker 3: so much a health COVID headline. So we're certainly working
2:31
Speaker 3: with the Australian Olympic Committee on how we can host
2:34
Speaker 3: a parade and celebrate the achievements of these athletes and
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Speaker 3: the facts that they'll have spent some time in the
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Speaker 3: territory and we've been a part of their Olympic journey.
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Speaker 2: So when could this be happening? I reckon everybody out.
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Speaker 1: There listening this morning is going to be super keen
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Speaker 1: to try and find out and you know, there's probably
2:52
Speaker 1: kids that are going to want to line the streets.
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Speaker 3: That's what we hope, Katie hopefully our children, who you know,
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Speaker 3: have been watching the Olympics with interest. We know that
3:00
Speaker 3: the twenty thirty two games are going to be on
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Speaker 3: Australian soil. So some of our children who have been
3:04
Speaker 3: watching these Olympics, if say, can have their brush with
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Speaker 3: these Olympians at a parade and then motivate them to
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Speaker 3: train on for twenty thirty two to compete on Australian soil.
3:13
Speaker 3: But we'll be releasing the details around a parade soon.
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Speaker 3: They do have to complete that two weeks quarantine, so
3:20
Speaker 3: we've got a little bit of time to finalize the
3:22
Speaker 3: plans and make sure that all Territorians know about it.
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Speaker 1: Would it be, though, that we would have this parade
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Speaker 1: when the athletes one hundred and fifteen or so that
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Speaker 1: are in quarantine at the moment, Would it be that
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Speaker 1: we have the ticket Tate parade when they're released, or
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Speaker 1: will we be looking more so at once that second
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Speaker 1: round of athletes arrive, because I'm assuming that with a
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Speaker 1: lot of those athletes, once they have spent their time
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Speaker 1: out at Howard Springs, they're probably going to be keen
3:48
Speaker 1: to get home to their families.
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Speaker 3: So Katie, they're the details we're working through at the moment,
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Speaker 3: as you just pointed out that some of them will
3:55
Speaker 3: be able to leave quarantine and the other cohort will
3:58
Speaker 3: still be undertaking quarantine. Some of these athletes have not
4:01
Speaker 3: been on Australian soil for a considerable period of time.
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Speaker 3: They've been competing overseas and training. So yeah, we'll work
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Speaker 3: through all that details and certainly make sure that the
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Speaker 3: top end community has as much information and knows the
4:12
Speaker 3: plan so they can participate, because we certainly are all
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Speaker 3: enjoying the Olympics and loving our the heroes. Where would
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Speaker 3: it be, Katie, you're getting into details that haven't been finalized,
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Speaker 3: but I promise you that it's you know, they've just
4:26
Speaker 3: touched down this morning, they've got to undertake that two
4:28
Speaker 3: weeks quarantine. So we'll work with the Australian Olympic Committee
4:31
Speaker 3: so that we can finalize those plans and make sure
4:34
Speaker 3: that everybody who wants to celebrate these amazing achievements, Like
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Speaker 3: it's just been fantastic watching how many medals we've want
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Speaker 3: to medal on every day of competition and we're up
4:43
Speaker 3: to I think day nine or ten now, so it's
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Speaker 3: been really wonderful watching the achievements and we certainly want
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Speaker 3: to celebrate them.
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Speaker 1: Well, you can't blame me, you know, I'll always ask
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Speaker 1: the questions, There's no doubt about that.
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Speaker 2: Now I do want to ask though.
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Speaker 1: There's been a lot of discussion over the last few days,
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Speaker 1: just stepping away from the Olympians and into the pretty
5:02
Speaker 1: serious situation that we've got around the nation when it
5:04
Speaker 1: comes to COVID. We now have elements of Queensland blocked
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Speaker 1: off as hot spots and still New South Wales. Can
5:12
Speaker 1: you just give us a bit of an update on
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Speaker 1: what the situation is at the moment.
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Speaker 3: So we clearly still have hot spot declarations in for
5:20
Speaker 3: Sydney and all of New South Wales and their case
5:23
Speaker 3: numbers have been steady around a couple of hundred. Over
5:26
Speaker 3: the long weekend, our health officials worked through the weekend
5:29
Speaker 3: to make sure that territorians had the latest information in
5:32
Speaker 3: the decisions that were being made about what zones were hotspots,
5:35
Speaker 3: and on Saturday it was quickly declared that Southeast Queensland,
5:39
Speaker 3: so Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast were hot spot areas
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Speaker 3: for anyone entering the Northern territory and so they have
5:46
Speaker 3: to undertake mediatory quarantine. There's also locations Katie's, so any
5:51
Speaker 3: of your listeners that maybe have been in Southeast Queensland
5:54
Speaker 3: in the last week or so, they need to look
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Speaker 3: at Queensland's Health and the nt Health websites for information
6:00
Speaker 3: around any exposure site. They are still working on the
6:05
Speaker 3: links down there, but they've clearly got a number of
6:07
Speaker 3: cases in that cluster in Southeast Queensland. So again it
6:12
Speaker 3: shows us that COVID is very much a real threat
6:15
Speaker 3: in our community and that's why we need people to
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Speaker 3: get vaccinated.
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Speaker 1: Now, I think that most Australians do understand that for
6:21
Speaker 1: us to be able to open up as normal again,
6:23
Speaker 1: a large majority of the nation is going to need
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Speaker 1: to be vaccinated. What do you see as being that
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Speaker 1: percentage of our population realistically that needs to be vaccinated
6:33
Speaker 1: so we can open up and operate as normal.
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Speaker 3: So, Katie, Territorians have done a wonderful job and over
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Speaker 3: ninety thousand people have received a first dose and that's
6:42
Speaker 3: right across the territory from remote communities through to our
6:45
Speaker 3: urban areas. And will continue to roll out that program
6:48
Speaker 3: to make sure territorianes have access to vaccine. The National
6:52
Speaker 3: Cabinet and Health ministers late last week were presented with
6:55
Speaker 3: the Doughty Institute modeling, which looks at the percentages. But
6:58
Speaker 3: for us, Katie, we've got a complicating factor with such
7:01
Speaker 3: a vulnerable population, and so we want every territory and
7:04
Speaker 3: to be vaccinated. In terms of the percentage where we
7:07
Speaker 3: start to step away from hot spots, those decisions haven't
7:11
Speaker 3: been finalized. We'll obviously work with our health officials around that,
7:15
Speaker 3: and there's plenty of time to share that with territorians
7:18
Speaker 3: right now. Where you know, ninety thousand doses have been delivered,
7:22
Speaker 3: so it's over forty five percent of territories about access
7:25
Speaker 3: to one vaccine. But we're still some time off from
7:28
Speaker 3: that those figures of around eighty percent, which is what's
7:31
Speaker 3: been broadly talked about, but we haven't finalized a figure
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Speaker 3: for the territory.
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Speaker 1: All right, So you're thinking though that realistically, if broadly
7:38
Speaker 1: around Australia we're talking eighty percent, that that is probably
7:41
Speaker 1: the figure that we'd be looking at for the territory.
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Speaker 3: For me, I want every territory to be vaccinated. The
7:47
Speaker 3: vaccine is it's safe, it's been rigorously tested, It is
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Speaker 3: your best tool to preventing severe illness and hospitalization with COVID.
7:54
Speaker 3: It protects you, it protects your loved ones. But Katie,
7:57
Speaker 3: in terms of this modeling, was provided the briefing last week,
8:02
Speaker 3: and so that starts to give us the information we
8:04
Speaker 3: need to make those decisions, and we'll certainly share all
8:07
Speaker 3: of that with territories. I just pointed to a figure
8:10
Speaker 3: that has been talked about. But for me, I want
8:12
Speaker 3: to see every territory vaccinated.
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Speaker 1: But in terms of opening the territory back up even
8:16
Speaker 1: when there are hot spot declarations in other states, would
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Speaker 1: you feel comfortable in doing that if we were at
8:22
Speaker 1: eighty percent vaccination rate or are you saying that you
8:25
Speaker 1: would only feel comfortable when we're at one hundred percent
8:27
Speaker 1: vaccination rate.
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Speaker 3: It's o Katie, I think that I'd like to see
8:31
Speaker 3: one hundred percent vaccination rate in the territory. But we
8:33
Speaker 3: need to be really sick and we need we certainly
8:36
Speaker 3: understand the impacts of these hot spot declarations, the impact
8:39
Speaker 3: they have not only on territorians visiting family and friends
8:42
Speaker 3: interstate or having people come to visit them, but our
8:45
Speaker 3: tourism and our hospitality industry. So we do need to
8:48
Speaker 3: be really sick about it, but we do have a
8:51
Speaker 3: very vulnerable population that we must protect.
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Speaker 1: And I will talk about that and the impact that
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Speaker 1: it's having in just a moment.
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Speaker 2: But I want to ask that.
8:59
Speaker 1: The Federal Labour Party Anthony Elbanezi, is proposing a three
9:03
Speaker 1: hundred dollars incentive for Rossie's to get vaccinated.
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Speaker 2: Do you think we need to do this?
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Speaker 3: So, Katie, we have been using all the supply that
9:12
Speaker 3: we've been getting into the territory. Territorians have been absolutely
9:15
Speaker 3: fantastic in rolling up their sleeve to be vaccinated. We've
9:18
Speaker 3: always said that we'd be open to initiatives, but I
9:21
Speaker 3: think for me right now is we've got every supply
9:24
Speaker 3: that's coming in, is being utilized, Territorians are playing their part,
9:28
Speaker 3: and so perhaps later on it would be the time
9:31
Speaker 3: that we would discuss incentives.
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Speaker 1: All right, I do want to talk further about the
9:35
Speaker 1: impact that the COVID situation continues to have on territory businesses,
9:39
Speaker 1: particularly tourism operators. I understand that there is going to
9:42
Speaker 1: be another round of tourism vouchers, the Chief Finess's office
9:45
Speaker 1: confirming this over the weekend. When are we expecting this
9:49
Speaker 1: next round of tourism vouchers to roll out.
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Speaker 3: So Katie, there's a budget allocation for another round of
9:55
Speaker 3: territory tourism vouchers. We know that Territorians nap these up
9:58
Speaker 3: and they supported tourism and hospitality who's been particularly devastated
10:03
Speaker 3: by COVID. And we've seen over the past months or
10:06
Speaker 3: so where we had our lockdown. Then we had a
10:09
Speaker 3: point where we had both New South Wales Victorious South
10:12
Speaker 3: Australia all locked out of the territory and flights coming
10:15
Speaker 3: into the territory. The demand dropped significantly. With the reopening,
10:20
Speaker 3: so to speak of Victoria and South Australia, we've seen
10:22
Speaker 3: demand significantly increase. So we'll work with industry around the
10:27
Speaker 3: timing of these vouchers. Katie, I was speaking to both
10:29
Speaker 3: Tourism Top End and Tourism Central Australia in the last
10:32
Speaker 3: week or so. They've got different thoughts, So we'll finalize
10:36
Speaker 3: a program that makes these vouchers support that industry that's
10:40
Speaker 3: been particularly hard hit.
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Speaker 1: So how much money has been allocated? You said that
10:44
Speaker 1: there's a budget allocation of how much money.
10:47
Speaker 3: Katie, I haven't got those figures in front of me,
10:49
Speaker 3: and I could quote from my memory, but I think
10:51
Speaker 3: I'll get the information and provide it to you off air.
10:54
Speaker 3: But we certainly know from the previous three rounds that
10:57
Speaker 3: they've been successful and so we provided When we did
11:00
Speaker 3: the budget earlier this year, we identified that tourism would
11:04
Speaker 3: be effect during the territory we would continue to need
11:07
Speaker 3: to support, particularly with the lack of international tourism. Since then,
11:11
Speaker 3: we've actually seen the domestic market in up people because
11:14
Speaker 3: of COVID domestically, so will work with industry around the
11:17
Speaker 3: best way to allocate that and that program of vouchers
11:20
Speaker 3: that drive territoriums dollars into these industries that have been
11:24
Speaker 3: hard hit well, and it might.
11:26
Speaker 2: Be needed now more than ever.
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Speaker 1: News dot Com is reporting that Australia's national carrier Quantus
11:32
Speaker 1: has announced about two thy five hundred Quantus and Jetstar
11:36
Speaker 1: employees are going to be stood down without pay for
11:39
Speaker 1: two months due to ongoing COVID nineteen outbreaks. In a
11:42
Speaker 1: statement which has been issued this morning, Quantus has said
11:46
Speaker 1: that they stood or the standdown was temporary to deal
11:50
Speaker 1: with the significant drop in flying caused by the Greater
11:52
Speaker 1: Sydney lockdown and the knock on border closures. In other
11:56
Speaker 1: states and territories. The airline said no job losses were expected,
12:00
Speaker 1: but obviously this is a standown. It's going to have
12:03
Speaker 1: a big impact for us in terms of the volume
12:05
Speaker 1: of flights in and out of the Northern Territory. I
12:08
Speaker 1: would suspect what is your reaction upon hearing that.
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Speaker 3: Oka the devastating news, and I think that we'd all
12:15
Speaker 3: hope that twenty twenty one would at least see domestic
12:17
Speaker 3: trouble return to some sort of normality. But we need
12:21
Speaker 3: people to be vaccinated, and so for me as a
12:23
Speaker 3: health minister, it is a race. It's a race against
12:26
Speaker 3: time to get territory and vaccinated. We're working closely with
12:28
Speaker 3: the Commonwealth government to get that vaccine into the territory
12:31
Speaker 3: and to get it into the arms of territory and
12:33
Speaker 3: so that we can step into to what will certainly
12:36
Speaker 3: be a new normal, it won't be the old normal.
12:38
Speaker 3: But devastating to hear that impact on those people in
12:42
Speaker 3: the aviation industry this morning.
12:44
Speaker 1: So just on those vouchers again, what months are we
12:46
Speaker 1: expecting those to roll out?
12:49
Speaker 3: So, Katie, this is what we're working on with industry.
12:52
Speaker 3: So I would have said that a month or so
12:55
Speaker 3: ago that as we hit the shoulder season around October,
12:58
Speaker 3: we'd be looking. Just a few weeks ago, when we
13:00
Speaker 3: had so much of Australia locked off from the territory,
13:03
Speaker 3: I was thinking maybe we need to bring this forward.
13:05
Speaker 3: And we've got operators who have employed staff, they've invested
13:08
Speaker 3: in things that we need to get people in supporting
13:10
Speaker 3: the industry sooner we have seen with South Australian Victoria
13:14
Speaker 3: come back on. But I am a meeting with industry
13:16
Speaker 3: again today and we'll certainly be listening to their views
13:20
Speaker 3: around the timing of those vouchers. So we have the
13:23
Speaker 3: budget allocation there ready to support the industry and the
13:28
Speaker 3: timing will be when it will drive the best results.
13:31
Speaker 3: But for tourism and hospitality in.
13:32
Speaker 1: The territory now, Minister, just finally this morning, did you
13:36
Speaker 1: go to the Darwin Cup on the weekend, any of
13:38
Speaker 1: the Darwin Cup carnival events?
13:41
Speaker 3: So, Katie, I didn't go to any of the events.
13:44
Speaker 3: As I have said to you previously, my position was
13:46
Speaker 3: clear that I would have loved to have been there,
13:48
Speaker 3: but until we see that full board resign. But it
13:51
Speaker 3: certainly looked like a great day and I don't want
13:53
Speaker 3: to take away from those that work hard in the industry.
13:55
Speaker 3: But I certainly had made my points clear about my offendance.
13:58
Speaker 1: Did any other ministers, any other Labor Party ministers go.
14:03
Speaker 3: Okatie, I'm not aware. You would have to check with
14:05
Speaker 3: their officers. I don't understand that any did, but that
14:07
Speaker 3: would be a question best place to individual ministers.
14:09
Speaker 1: I mean, as the racing minister, is that appropriate? Do
14:12
Speaker 1: you think you know to shun the whole cup carnival, Katie?
14:18
Speaker 3: I made my position very clear around the board and
14:20
Speaker 3: we needed to see the full resignation of the board
14:23
Speaker 3: before we could move forward.
14:24
Speaker 2: All right.
14:25
Speaker 1: So that board meeting is due to happen next Monday,
14:28
Speaker 1: as I understand it, What are you hoping that you
14:31
Speaker 1: see as a result of that meeting?
14:34
Speaker 3: So the government's made our position very clear. We want
14:36
Speaker 3: to see the full board resign and new membership take
14:39
Speaker 3: place so that we can start to move forward around
14:42
Speaker 3: this issue.
14:43
Speaker 1: All right, minister, we are going to leave it there.
14:45
Speaker 1: Thank you for your time this morning. We will no
14:46
Speaker 1: doubt catch up with you again soon.
14:49
Speaker 3: Thank you.
14:50
Speaker 1: That is the Minister for Health, then Natasha Files also
14:53
Speaker 1: Minister for Racing, Gaming and Licensing and as you've heard, well,
14:57
Speaker 1: she didn't attend the Cup Carnival. It doesn't sound as
14:59
Speaker 1: though any of those men just has attended the Cup
15:01
Speaker 1: Carnival at