Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Member for Solomon Luke Gosling

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Katie Woolf spoke with Member for Solomon Luke Gosling · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local
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  Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty.
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  Speaker 1: Every one is listening Mix one oh four point nine
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  Speaker 1: and we are coming to you live this morning from
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  Speaker 1: the Darwin Waterfront and it is all part of the
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  Speaker 1: Merlin Darwin Triple Crown Racing fans, you've got your opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to get up and close with your favorite drivers and
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  Speaker 1: riders before heading out to Hidden Valley for a weekend
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  Speaker 1: of non stop action. There's no doubt about that. But
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  Speaker 1: you're able this morning to bring the whole family down.
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  Speaker 1: You can meet the drivers, get autographs and selfies. Plus
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  Speaker 1: I am going to have a couple of giveaways and
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  Speaker 1: I might actually mention one of those right now. Well
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  Speaker 1: for the first people to get down here, if you
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  Speaker 1: may be in your car right now, and if you
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  Speaker 1: drive down, come down to me and say get a
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  Speaker 1: I have got a double pass, a three day hot
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  Speaker 1: pass for two people if you come down and see
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  Speaker 1: me now and say hello. But you're gonna have to
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  Speaker 1: pop down now. We are here at the at the
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  Speaker 1: Darwin Waterfront. Now joining me back on the line is
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  Speaker 1: the member for Solomon Luke Gosling, Good morning to you, Luke.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Catie. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, very well now, Luke, you and I have spoken
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  Speaker 1: on numerous occasions about the worker shortage that we've got
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory at the moment it has you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's been acute for quite some time. I just caught
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  Speaker 1: up a little while ago with NT Farmers CEO Paul
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  Speaker 1: Burke and spoke further about it. We know yesterday there
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  Speaker 1: was some movement when it comes to the new agricultural
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  Speaker 1: visa and that seems like a good thing, but it's
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  Speaker 1: not going to be soon enough for this year for
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  Speaker 1: our mango pickers.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately not Katie. And like all these things, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you welcome them because the farmers have been struggling for
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  Speaker 2: the workforce for so long. They can't find Ozzie to
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  Speaker 2: do the work, and you know, the fruits rotting on
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  Speaker 2: the ground and rapidly the mango season, the melon seasons
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  Speaker 2: are approaching. So I think there's a bit of cynicism
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  Speaker 2: about the announcement from some farmers that we're all wanted
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  Speaker 2: to become a reality, but the government's not saying much
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  Speaker 2: about it. The Nationals are really leading the push, but
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  Speaker 2: the government aren't saying much about it, so we're just
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  Speaker 2: trying to get some more detail. It could be great
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  Speaker 2: if those tie workers and Filipino workers that want to
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  Speaker 2: come in and pick our fruit could do that so
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  Speaker 2: this season. But there's a couple of things. One is
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  Speaker 2: that it doesn't look like it's going to happen fast enough.
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  Speaker 2: And two there needs to be enough quarantine capacity so
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  Speaker 2: that we could make sure that any workers are coming
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  Speaker 2: to the territory do so in a safe way.
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  Speaker 1: And that's the big issue we've got at the moment,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it. It's that we don't actually have anywhere for
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  Speaker 1: these workers to quarantine.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, Katie. Depending on the amount of stranded Australians
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  Speaker 2: that are coming home through Howard Springs, there may be
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  Speaker 2: some capacity of Howard Springs to take a limited number
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  Speaker 2: of the seasonal workers in for this season, but we're
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  Speaker 2: obviously being the anti horticulture industry is about two thousand
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  Speaker 2: workers short, so like the US Marines, there would be
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  Speaker 2: an ability to bring more people in through the Bladon
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  Speaker 2: Village facility and I've been working down here with the
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  Speaker 2: COLP Senator Sam McMahon on that to try and get
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  Speaker 2: some more federal support for that, but at this stage
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  Speaker 2: there's no news on more quarantine capacity for the seasonal
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  Speaker 2: workers and the mango seasons rapidly approaching. So we'll continue
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  Speaker 2: to work down here, Katie to try and get some
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  Speaker 2: more answers out of the government so that it's not
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  Speaker 2: just another announcement that doesn't go anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: Look just on Bladon Village, where exactly are we at?
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  Speaker 1: Are we waiting on the territory government? Are we waiting
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  Speaker 1: on the federal government? You know, why is this not
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  Speaker 1: moving forward? I know that there has been a situation
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  Speaker 1: at different times out there at Bladon Village where it
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  Speaker 1: is already being utilized by other groups. But where are
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  Speaker 1: we at right now?
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  Speaker 2: We're waiting on the federal government to respond to a
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  Speaker 2: proposal that's been put to them by the owners of
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  Speaker 2: Bladen with a medical services company because obviously the last
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  Speaker 2: thing we want to do is put any extra pressure
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  Speaker 2: on the nt health system, so they would need to
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  Speaker 2: set up that hospital out there so that we could
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  Speaker 2: have these returning Australians or international students or agriculture workers
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  Speaker 2: come through Bladen. So the federal government, it's in the
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  Speaker 2: balls in their court and we're hoping for some answers
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  Speaker 2: soon on what they can help us to do there.
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  Speaker 1: Now, if they do give the go ahead, how quick
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  Speaker 1: would it be able to be set up in terms
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  Speaker 1: of the medical side of things, as you just said,
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  Speaker 1: and being able to set things up so that it's
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  Speaker 1: able to all operate smoothly for those workers.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what I'm hearing from the owners of Blayden is
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  Speaker 2: that their discussions with the medical services company are quite
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  Speaker 2: advanced and they could move quite quickly to set that up.
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  Speaker 2: We're talking a number of weeks a month at the outside,
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  Speaker 2: so it can be done by this mango season. And
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  Speaker 2: the last thing we want to see, obviously is territory
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  Speaker 2: businesses be hampered by a lack of workforce. And we
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  Speaker 2: know now with this deal that the Prime Minister's made
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  Speaker 2: with the British Prime Minister that those backpackers won't have
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  Speaker 2: to work on farms to get an extension to their
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  Speaker 2: visa so they can stay longer in Australia. So obviously
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  Speaker 2: we hope that they still come and poul bees in
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  Speaker 2: our pubs and have a great time in the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 2: but we can no longer count on them to help
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  Speaker 2: our farmers. So we really need this new ag visa
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  Speaker 2: to roll out as quickly as possible.
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  Speaker 1: In reality, have we had many of those, you know,
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  Speaker 1: many of those British backpackers working on the farms.
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  Speaker 2: We have Cartie a bit less and less to be honest,
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  Speaker 2: and it's you know, it's tough work, but it's worked
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  Speaker 2: that people living in our region more than ready and
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  Speaker 2: willing to do. And just last night I caught up
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  Speaker 2: with the Philippines ambassador and she's really welcomed this news.
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  Speaker 2: We had the Thaie ambassador in Darwin for that great
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  Speaker 2: festival at the waterfront recently. She was lobbing me about
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  Speaker 2: that as well. And you know they're just two examples.
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  Speaker 2: Team or less. They you know, they already do seasonal
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  Speaker 2: work that they could certainly be added to the Asian countries.
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  Speaker 2: There's no shortage of workers that want to come and
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  Speaker 2: do the work. We just need some more detail and
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  Speaker 2: we needed to happen more quickly.
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  Speaker 1: Just on that. I know when I did with bladon point.
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  Speaker 1: I know when I did catch up with the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister Michael Gunner a couple of weeks ago, I actually
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  Speaker 1: put it to him and said you know what is
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  Speaker 1: holding things up, And he did also say that obviously
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  Speaker 1: we are waiting on the Chief Health Officer here in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory to look at that proposal. So I'm
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  Speaker 1: just sort of trying to wrap my head around is
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  Speaker 1: it the federal government that we're waiting on or are
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  Speaker 1: we waiting on the Northern Territory government to approve anything
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  Speaker 1: that moves forward out at Bladon Point.
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  Speaker 2: There'd be discussions that the National Health Officer would be
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  Speaker 2: having with the Chief Health Officer and the NT government.
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  Speaker 2: As I said, obviously, the ANTI government needs to be
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  Speaker 2: convinced that it's not going to burden our system. The
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  Speaker 2: last thing, as I said, that we would want is
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  Speaker 2: to be quarantining more people here without the ability to
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  Speaker 2: deal with it. But the reality is that that would
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  Speaker 2: require some extra assistance from the federal government. So I
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  Speaker 2: think there's two processes here. One is making the assessment
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  Speaker 2: of the proposal has been put to the federal government
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  Speaker 2: for their financial assistance to make it happen, so that
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  Speaker 2: there's proper health facilities out there that can deal with
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  Speaker 2: anything out there independent of the health system. And obviously
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  Speaker 2: the NT government needs to be assured of that as well.
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  Speaker 2: So that process is underway and we hope that those
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  Speaker 2: discussions can continue as quickly as possible.
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  Speaker 1: Well, look, we will have a chat with Senator Sam
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  Speaker 1: McMahon as well, because I know that it is something
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  Speaker 1: that she's certainly spoken to us on numerous occasions about,
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  Speaker 1: and from my perspective, you know, it seems as though
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  Speaker 1: she's very keen to make sure that this happens. So, Luke,
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  Speaker 1: let's hope that at some point we are able to
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  Speaker 1: come to an agreement and able to have those workers
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  Speaker 1: quarantine at Bladon Points so that we're able to help
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  Speaker 1: our Northern Territory farmers. Luke Gosling, we are going to
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  Speaker 1: have to leave it there. It's always good to have
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  Speaker 1: you on the show. Thanks so much for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 2: No, I can't wait to get out of the supercars
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  Speaker 2: on the weekend. Catie, Yeah, it should.
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  Speaker 1: Be a good one, no doubt about that. Thanks very
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  Speaker 1: much for your time, Luke Gosling. There the member, thank you,
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  Speaker 1: the member for Solomon