Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Chief Minister Michael Gunner says mask mandate likely to end within days, not weeks, but still supports the need to push for vaccinations

Transcript

Chief Minister Michael Gunner says mask mandate likely to end within days, not weeks, but still supports the need to push for vaccinations · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to mix one oh four point nine's three
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: point sixty. Now, as I mentioned, there were three hundred
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and sixty eight new cases of COVID recorded in the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: territory yesterday. Those numbers down fairly significantly on what they
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: have been about a week or so ago. They were
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: hovering around that one thousand mark each day. There are
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: currently one hundred and one patients in hospital, with fourteen
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: requiring oxygen. There are six patients in ICU, with the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: number of active cases in the territory about four thy six.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Hundred and fifty.
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  Speaker 1: Now. The Chief Minister, Michael Gunner joined me in the
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  Speaker 1: studio earlier this morning to discuss the situation and delve
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: into a bit further detail about the masks and those
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: check ins. Chief Minister, good morning to you.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Good morning. Now.
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  Speaker 1: The lowering of those COVID numbers is leading many to
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: question how much longer the Northern Territory Government's going to
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: make Territorians wait when it comes to a plan for
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the mask mandate and also the check in app You
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: said last week that the mask lifting wouldn't be far away.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Do we have a date.
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  Speaker 4: Yet, have a date, but it's definitely sooner rather than later,
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: like very soon. I think everyone can see the data.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: We share our data, so you can see that the
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: caseload is trending down. You can see the hospitalization rate
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: is trending down. There's been a jump in ICU, but
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: that's kind of expected this stage of the wave. Importantly,
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  Speaker 4: the geographical spread of the cases is trending down and
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  Speaker 4: the aboriginal rate of hospitalization is also trending down. So
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: that's all really good factors. I think there's probably a
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: couple of things that we've got to think about so
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: the tropes be confident in the drawing things like the
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: mandates and that that we're not going to something spike again.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Obviously we believe they help contribute to the downward trend.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: And if we were to pull the mass mandate off,
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: for example, I don't think we could put back on
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: a couple of days time, and I think I think
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: the public would be won't do that. So we've got
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: to be very careful it's done once it's done right.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: So we're keeping a close eyron all that, and genuinely
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: isn't far away.
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  Speaker 2: So we're talking days or weeks.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: I think it's more days than weeks, but this time
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: next week, guarantee is this way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: So we're in a very small ball park at the moment.
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  Speaker 4: The public can see the numbers. You've seen how we've
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  Speaker 4: made decisions in the past. It's often quite quick. Where
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: we're heading in the right direction, it may be staged,
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  Speaker 4: so I want to flag this. We have discussed or
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: the Troy has discussed the idea of stepping it out.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: And it might be that you do the check in
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  Speaker 4: app retreats to the vax pass and then the mass
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  Speaker 4: mandate comes off, or the mass mandate comes off on
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  Speaker 4: the same day that you retreat the checking app to
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: the vas pass side.
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  Speaker 1: But by the sounds of it, we can expect that
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: by this time next week we've got a clear plan.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And I just think Territorians the compliance here has been extraordinary,
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  Speaker 4: and I'm very sensitive that you never want to lose compliance.
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  Speaker 4: So either I think it's been part of the decision
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  Speaker 4: making and got to do. You can only take Territorians
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  Speaker 4: to do for so long before I start saying way
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  Speaker 4: leaking out little these numbers. But compared to all the
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  Speaker 4: reports I've had from inter state versus on things like
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  Speaker 4: the mass mandate Territorians have been outstanding. I think you've
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: understood the seriousness of COVID and that's one reason why
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  Speaker 4: those numbers are so good.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, I think Territorians have been very understanding.
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  Speaker 1: We have got a situation though now where those industry
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: leaders are starting to amp up those calls really for
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  Speaker 1: the I think it's say more so a clear plan,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: so they're not really pushing the government on lifting the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: masks immediately or getting rid of the check in app immediately,
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  Speaker 1: but making sure that they've got a plan.
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  Speaker 2: So they know what to work towards.
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  Speaker 1: So by the sounds of it, what we can say
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  Speaker 1: to most people in the community this morning is within
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  Speaker 1: the week, we'll probably have a good plan.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 4: And I've obviously met with the Hotality sector of TRUM
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  Speaker 4: sector in others and talked through what the thinking is,
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  Speaker 4: which is more that we can do in these area
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  Speaker 4: rather than giving sometimes hard dates because it does depend
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  Speaker 4: on the data a little bit. But I'm also very
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  Speaker 4: much aware that if we say mass mandate off, that's
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  Speaker 4: a huge signal to the community that we've looked at
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  Speaker 4: this number, these numbers in extremely close detail and are
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  Speaker 4: confident coming out of this wave and that will see
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  Speaker 4: I think a community response.
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  Speaker 2: So what exactly are you waiting to see?
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  Speaker 1: Are you waiting to see the number of people in
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  Speaker 1: intensive care drop?
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  Speaker 2: What are you waiting to see?
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  Speaker 4: So I think it's more the chow having confidence the
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  Speaker 4: numbers aren't going to spike back up again. So it's
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  Speaker 4: confidence in the trend and the trend continuing. So and
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  Speaker 4: everyone there's numbers, the trends there, So that's you're looking
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  Speaker 4: at sometime as we're looking at really we obviously break
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: down the hospital data a little bit more into detail
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  Speaker 4: about who's coming from where y and or remote and
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  Speaker 4: so on, so touched by the start.
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  Speaker 3: You know, is a geographical spread good? It is?
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  Speaker 4: Is the abitatalization rate in abertioninal rate hospitalization good? Yes
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  Speaker 4: it is, you know, ic US a little concerning, but
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  Speaker 4: having said that, that's what you expected. This stage of
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  Speaker 4: the wave. It goes usually caseload, hospital load, ICU load
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  Speaker 4: and overall case. So everything's hanging in the right direction.
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  Speaker 4: So you can see what we can see, and I
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  Speaker 4: think you can guess what we're going.
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  Speaker 2: To do well.
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  Speaker 1: I think most people are hoping that we do just
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  Speaker 1: have that very clear plan over coming days. I know
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  Speaker 1: that with that booster mandate of April twenty two fast
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: approaching the sea of hospitality, and t here well, obviously
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: here in the territory is questioning why you continuing the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: mandating of the third vaccine for territorians, he wrote in
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the paper yesterday. With so many people now double vaxed,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: so many people have had COVID and have been pretty
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: mild in terms of symptoms, why does this still need
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to be that mandate to have the third vaccine?
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  Speaker 4: The unfortunate advice and is unfortunate, I think. So we'd
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  Speaker 4: like to be able to move on.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Is that?
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  Speaker 4: And this mainly comes from Israel and the conversations. We
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: have a Professor Kelly through National Cabinet, but other internationalisms
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: that have the same evidence come through. Israel's just off
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: on ahead of the pack on some of their research.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Natural immunity, so I you've caught it and vaccine immunity
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  Speaker 4: both Wayne, and so that's one reason why it was
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: a booster that then became a third shot. So you're
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: literally not fully vaccinate nless you had three shots. That's
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  Speaker 4: the current advice from a target, that's the Australian experts
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  Speaker 4: in this area. So you're not vaccinated. If you're on
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: two shots, you're not You're two thirds of the way there.
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  Speaker 3: You need three.
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  Speaker 4: That's the science behind it, and I'm hoping we don't
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  Speaker 4: need a fourth I think, like all of us.
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  Speaker 3: But we're going to keep a really close eye on this.
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  Speaker 4: The unfortunate thing is after a certain period of time,
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  Speaker 4: you know, I've got be careful giving a timeframe for this,
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  Speaker 4: because there's research this, But after a certain period of time,
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  Speaker 4: you're effectively start heading back towards zero vaccination if you
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  Speaker 4: don't get the third dose.
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  Speaker 1: So by the sounds of things, you are are going
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: to be you know, you're obviously going to be getting
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  Speaker 1: rid of those masks.
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  Speaker 2: You're going to be looking to.
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  Speaker 1: Change the vaccine passport or the check in apps. Yep,
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  Speaker 1: but you're not going to be stepping back on this
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  Speaker 1: third vaccine mandate.
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  Speaker 4: Probably the most important thing we have left now is
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  Speaker 4: the vaccine. So what I most want to work on
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  Speaker 4: is ae verity of case presenting to the hospital system.
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  Speaker 4: So we've shown we can handle this big wave, and
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  Speaker 4: we did, which is great, but we've got to make
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  Speaker 4: sure that we keep severity of case as low as possible.
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  Speaker 3: So that's the people in the ICU and the people
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  Speaker 3: who have passed.
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  Speaker 4: We have lost people to COVID and so I've got
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  Speaker 4: to make sure we do everything possible to keep people
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  Speaker 4: out of our ICU and people are not passing, like
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  Speaker 4: not dying, and that is the vaccine.
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  Speaker 3: That's the best measure.
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  Speaker 4: So I think we're getting more comfortable now about say
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  Speaker 4: spread so masks, moderate spread, We're getting more comfortable with
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: rate of spread and spread. We've going to make sure
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  Speaker 4: we stay confident we can handle within our public health system.
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  Speaker 4: That's where vaccines are crucial. If you've if you've had
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  Speaker 4: a mild COVID and niney abercent of territories have what
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  Speaker 4: we'll probably describe as mild COVID, it's highly likely the
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  Speaker 4: vaccines helped with that.
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  Speaker 1: All right, I want to move along and there is
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  Speaker 1: a concern which has been raised with me over the
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  Speaker 1: last week. It is the plan when it comes to
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: potential for unrest in Central Australia now as we know,
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  Speaker 1: the role trial continues in the Supreme Court this week
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  Speaker 1: and I have had Alice Springs residents contact me asking
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  Speaker 1: if the police are going to be sending additional resources
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  Speaker 1: into the Red Center should there be any reaction from
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  Speaker 1: the broader community to the outcome. We know that we
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  Speaker 1: need to be obviously very careful about what we discuss here,
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  Speaker 1: and we don't know, you know, we certainly don't know
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  Speaker 1: how this is going to play out. But are there
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: plans in place and are there additional resources on standby?
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  Speaker 4: I think I can answer that without presuming a verdict
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  Speaker 4: things support. We don't do that obviously or coming on
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: the case details itself. But police have Operation Jasper running
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: at the moment, and that works with locals and includes
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: community orders from you and Demuru. So no matter what
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  Speaker 4: the result, Police are on the ground and working closely
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  Speaker 4: with low because I think and I think those community
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  Speaker 4: orders when you and them as well, have been very
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: important in making sure there is a clear air for
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: having this for having this court process. The safest way
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  Speaker 4: for me to say this will be if Alice Springs
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: needs extra resources and could be any circumstance, then we
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: will provide those extra resources.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So if they are there for the ready if required, Yes, Okay.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Now, I know over the last week or so there
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: has been a lot said about the use of spit
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: hoods on some youth in police custody. Some groups are
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: calling for them to be banned, while the Police Association
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and the Minister have backed officers and their.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Use as a last resort.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Chief Minister, should police be able to continue to use
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: spit hoods and restraints?
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: I think this is an excellent question and I think
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: there's a couple of really important points.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: The first is the only reason we're discussing this is
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: someone's chosen the spit, which is disgusting and the best
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: of times is disgusting during a pandemic is potentially deadly
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: and just don't do it. So we were only discussing
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: this because someone's made that decision to spit, which is
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: are just a heinous act, especially during a pandemic. We
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: have an absolute legal obligation but also a value that
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: workers have safe workplaces like that's just fundamental. I don't
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: think it's not unique to the Labour Party. I think
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: I think I share that with most people, that workers
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: should be safe in their workplace, so we absolutely support
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: police being safe. This has transitioned from being quite rare
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: in twenty sixteen to being less rare, so still not frequent.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: The lumbers are still quite low really, but it's become
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: more more common, unfortunately during the pandemic, so people are
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: choosing a bit more in the last couple of years
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: of the COVID, we also have learned a lot during COVID,
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: so we've aarned We've learned a lot about spitting, the
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: dangers of spitting. We've also learned a lot more about
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: ppe and different ways of doing it. So police are
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: actively looking at the moment about whether there are better
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: ways for their police officers to be safe. But also
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: on our duty of care to people in our custody,
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: we'revery much aware that we have obligation people in our
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: custody too.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: With the Royal Commission did the recommendations from the Royal
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Commission include the use of restraints and spi hoods in
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: war housers.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: So we made a decision back in twenty sixteen to
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: ban split hoods and youth detention centers. The Royal Commission
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: supported that decision with its recommendations, and that was all
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: specific youth detention centers. There's a clear distinction between a
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: youth detention center and a watchouse.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I think your public or your.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: Public your listeners will understand that in a watch house
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: environment where you've arrested someone and brought them in for
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: the first time into that customer you' s actually rest
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: of the public and brought them in. That can be
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: an extremely heightened situation or have factors at play that
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: won't be at play in a youth detention center, which
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: is a much more controlled long You know, we've come
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: as long term environment than a watchhouse, so that they
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: are distinctly different work environments.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: And back in twenty sixteen it was quite rare.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: So is there going to be a review or do
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: you think that people need to understand that there are
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: difficult situations and the police obviously don't take this decision lightly.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: I don't think.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, they don't take it lightly. It's
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: highly supervised, and that we can go well, police, mine's
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: pretty better. We can go through whole series of details
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: about how it works in a watchouse, which is I
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: think half hour maximum duration and extremely short, nurse on site,
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: all that sort of stuff. So it is, it's done rarely,
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: and it's done highly supervised. It's not specchi a reviewers.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: Police actively acknowledge that there probably is now having lived
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: through Ppe for two years, that most of us have
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: in some form or another. There are probably different ways
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: now we can handle it for either the police officer
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: or the person in custody. That's safer and better for everybody.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: So there's the police are genuinely looking at that.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: So there is not a formal review, but there's certainly
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: an internal review happening.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, police are actively looking at their stand operating procedures.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: But you know there's no short time from and that.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: If you look at youth detension, when we ban the
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: use of spihoods and youth atensions, it took us about
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: four to five months to actually bring into place. You know,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: you don't make changes over night. We're not going to
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: ever go from a safe workplace to a not safe
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: workplace to a safe workplace. There will actually absolutely be
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: a transition if there's if there is one, from a
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: safe workplace to a safe workplace.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: All right, before I let you go this morning, I
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: know that it is being reported in the nter news
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: at the Nationals are going to convert one of their
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: senators to represent the Country Liberal Party in a bid
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to shop the Territory Party from being deregistered. The move
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: will mean the COLP meets the threshold for party status Nationally,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: laws stipulate that a party can only be registered at
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the federal level if it's got fifteen hundred members or
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: a sitting parliamentarian in Canberra. So this has all been
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: sparked obviously by the resignation of Senator Sam McMahon. The
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: CLP was understood to meet neither of those thresholds Now
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: insiders have apparently told the NT News on Sunday that
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: the Nationals Director Jonathan Hawk's addressed the CLP's Central Council
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: unveiling a plan to prevent the party being deregistered. Chief Minister, obviously,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: you know this is not an ideal situation for the
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: CLP to be in.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: How do you think this is all going to play out?
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm actually a bit sad, to be honest, Katie,
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: I'm a Territorian. I don't want to see the CLP
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: diminish die. But I think it reflects the fact they
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: are currently divided, directionless and disintegrated.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: It's a line you guys were using a lot of
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: in Parliament, wasn't I.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: Well, it sums up where the CLPI at the moment. Unfortunately,
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: I want a stronger position. I think we need a
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: stronger position. The CLP have historically stood for many things,
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: and that is not loaning a federal center from another state.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: That's just not who the CLP are. That's not the COLP.
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: That's not THEP I grew up with. That's just not
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: the COLP.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: So what do you reckon needs to happen here?
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Or they need to stand on their own two feet,
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: run out the federal election and get elected.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: That's what they need to do.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: They need to trying to back them and who they
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: are and who they've always been the idea of borrowing
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: a sender and going into a federal election, that's not
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: who the tree Cop are. They just need to run
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: on the federal election, put a good case by. Someone
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: should vote for them and get the vote.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Aren't it well, Chief Minister Michael Gunner, We better leave
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: it there. Thank you very much for your time this morning.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you you are listening to Mix one oh four
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: point nine's three sixty