Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Big Issues - Wednesday 5 May 2021
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: It is Wednesday morning, time for the Big issues, and
- 0:03Speaker 1: the big issue is brought to you by Kolano Community Association.
- 0:07Speaker 2: Dug an hair, Dave already talking.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Brought to you by Kolano Community Association, an aboriginalaned operated
- 0:13Speaker 1: and community lead organization from the top end to Tenant Creek. Right,
- 0:17Speaker 1: Mike's on now, good morning to you, Dave Tolner and
- 0:20Speaker 1: David to be with you.
- 0:21Speaker 3: I was just saying today of blacks today.
- 0:26Speaker 4: Here we go, Here we go. It's unbelievable. He's even
- 0:30Speaker 4: got notes. He had notes for a decade and it's
- 0:34Speaker 4: been excited two years, ten years. I want to take
- 0:38Speaker 4: a photo of this.
- 0:39Speaker 2: I'm thrilled that Dave's coming with notes.
- 0:41Speaker 5: And the rules.
- 0:42Speaker 4: Though about notes, we don't have notes.
- 0:45Speaker 2: There was too much good stuff I take note being
- 0:49Speaker 2: handed down. You've got to have notes.
- 0:51Speaker 4: I've taken photos of Dave Tolner has brought notes into
- 0:54Speaker 4: the studio first time. Even when he was treasurer, he
- 0:58Speaker 4: never bought notes in.
- 1:00Speaker 5: I did bring into discs hydrogen.
- 1:03Speaker 2: Oh oh yeah, that's right. You have bought notes.
- 1:05Speaker 4: Really would use notes, and that's what used to upset
- 1:08Speaker 4: Adam Gyles so much because he wouldn't stick to the
- 1:11Speaker 4: speaking points. He's got notes today. So I'm looking forward
- 1:15Speaker 4: to this. Hold down the desk, Hold down the desk.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Let's talk about the budget. And this is the whole
- 1:20Speaker 1: reason why I've got you guys into a Wednesday Wednesday
- 1:24Speaker 1: rather than our Tuesday, because the budget was handed down yesterday.
- 1:28Speaker 2: Michael Gonna delivered that budget and.
- 1:31Speaker 1: It does look as though we have got well, we've
- 1:34Speaker 1: got a GST wind full seven hundred and thirty eight
- 1:38Speaker 1: million flowing into the Territory's coffers over the current and
- 1:41Speaker 1: upcoming financial years as the national GST.
- 1:43Speaker 2: Pool has grown.
- 1:45Speaker 1: There is some good news, you'd have to say, significant
- 1:48Speaker 1: improvements in debt and deficit levels, but we still have
- 1:51Speaker 1: a one point four billion dollar deficit for the upcoming
- 1:55Speaker 1: financial year. The territory's net debt is expected to reach
- 1:59Speaker 1: nine billion dollars in twenty twenty one to twenty two.
- 2:03Speaker 1: That's one billion dollars better than previously forecast. It's going
- 2:07Speaker 1: to expand though, to eleven point four billion dollars by
- 2:09Speaker 1: the end of the Ford Estimates period. Now, I've got
- 2:12Speaker 1: to say, you know, some of these numbers, I think
- 2:15Speaker 1: that most everyday Territorian is like myself. You hear them
- 2:19Speaker 1: and you grapple to understand exactly what it all means,
- 2:23Speaker 1: which is why I thought, well, I'll ask the Chief
- 2:24Speaker 1: Minister straight off the bat this morning, how much does
- 2:28Speaker 1: that mean that we're actually borrowing a day? And how
- 2:32Speaker 1: much is that in interest a day? He said it
- 2:35Speaker 1: is just over a million dollars in interest. He didn't
- 2:38Speaker 1: have the figure of how much it is per day
- 2:40Speaker 1: because he said that we borrow in a lump sum
- 2:42Speaker 1: rather than it being a daily figure.
- 2:45Speaker 2: But you know, I suppose for me, I try.
- 2:47Speaker 1: To make it as understandable as possible for people, and
- 2:50Speaker 1: the way that I try to do that is by
- 2:51Speaker 1: looking at how you manage a household budget. I suppose
- 2:55Speaker 1: because most of us have one of those.
- 2:57Speaker 5: That's true, what do you reckon?
- 2:59Speaker 2: What's take boys on the budget?
- 3:03Speaker 4: I've found it interesting, like the budget's a great time
- 3:05Speaker 4: for all the CEOs and industry leaders to have their
- 3:09Speaker 4: say basically and what do you get out of it?
- 3:11Speaker 4: And I've listened to the different ones from Quinton Killing's
- 3:14Speaker 4: take on not having as much in first homeowners to
- 3:17Speaker 4: Dave Malone and what Dave Malone was saying was really true.
- 3:22Speaker 4: There's a lot of things that just need to start
- 3:24Speaker 4: to happen, and we've heard about, you know, projects, we've
- 3:27Speaker 4: heard about thirteen minds that are about to shovel ready.
- 3:31Speaker 4: We need to start to have this stuff happening. So
- 3:34Speaker 4: you'll always get the industry heads. There's winners and losers
- 3:37Speaker 4: in the budget, but the reality in the Northern Territory
- 3:39Speaker 4: budget is probably eighty percent of the money's already allocated
- 3:42Speaker 4: year on year, whether it's education, health, infrastructure, housing, roads,
- 3:48Speaker 4: corrections and police. So there's very little left when you
- 3:53Speaker 4: come to trimming up the smallest sort of stakeholders anyway,
- 3:56Speaker 4: as Dave will be able to allude to better than
- 3:58Speaker 4: me as a former treasurer. Will get excited over the debt,
- 4:01Speaker 4: and I think any sort of debt people worry about it.
- 4:05Speaker 4: But the big numbers will be out next Wednesday when
- 4:08Speaker 4: we look at the national debt as a whole, and
- 4:12Speaker 4: all states, all territories are currently running deficit budgets and
- 4:16Speaker 4: racking up debt, and it's happening right.
- 4:18Speaker 5: Across the world.
- 4:19Speaker 1: I suppose the differences we were before, we were doing
- 4:21Speaker 1: that before COVID Day, weren't we Well, if.
- 4:23Speaker 4: You look at we were, well.
- 4:26Speaker 2: If you look at quite high.
- 4:28Speaker 4: Yeah, and if you look at what's going to occur
- 4:31Speaker 4: in our federal budget will be no different to what
- 4:34Speaker 4: we've got here, except on a much larger scale.
- 4:38Speaker 2: We're stretching.
- 4:40Speaker 5: Well, we're not talking about that.
- 4:41Speaker 4: We're just wanting to maintain the rage until next Wednesday
- 4:45Speaker 4: as well.
- 4:45Speaker 3: Well, we're not talking about the federal budget at this
- 4:47Speaker 3: point in time. Next Wednesday we'll be doing that. And
- 4:50Speaker 3: you know, the federal budget obviously has a big impact
- 4:53Speaker 3: on the Northern Territory, probably greater than any other jurisdiction
- 4:56Speaker 3: in the country. But let's not kidd ourselves. Territory government
- 5:00Speaker 3: is responsible for its budget and how it cuts its cloth.
- 5:05Speaker 3: And ultimately that's what we're looking at with Michael Gunner's budget,
- 5:10Speaker 3: and I have to say it was just eye watering.
- 5:13Speaker 3: I think in the extremes the one point four billion
- 5:18Speaker 3: dollar deficit. You know, you say our debt position is
- 5:21Speaker 3: better than what better than what it was budget? I mean,
- 5:24Speaker 3: we've still got one point four billion dollar deficit, which means,
- 5:27Speaker 3: you know, we've got one point four billion dollars we
- 5:30Speaker 3: shortfall in our current budget nine billion dollars worth of debt.
- 5:36Speaker 3: Debt to revenue ratio of one hundred and twenty two percent. Now,
- 5:39Speaker 3: when we left government just five years ago, it was
- 5:42Speaker 3: twenty five percent. We left them in a situation of
- 5:47Speaker 3: less than one point seven billion, under two billion in debt.
- 5:50Speaker 3: It's now nine billion yesterday. This is the extreme way
- 5:56Speaker 3: that Gunner treats us as mugs in the territory. Yes,
- 6:00Speaker 3: he came out and he talked about he's putting in
- 6:02Speaker 3: place a debt ceiling, not just a debt ceiling, but
- 6:05Speaker 3: a hard ceiling, a hard debt ceiling. We're not going
- 6:09Speaker 3: to go over fifteen billion. I mean, you know, I
- 6:13Speaker 3: mean that is seriously, that is that is astronomical, and
- 6:17Speaker 3: it treats us all like fools. It treats us like
- 6:20Speaker 3: absolute idiots. This idea that he also comes out and says, oh,
- 6:24Speaker 3: we're going to sack CEOs who exceed their budget. Well,
- 6:28Speaker 3: hang on, what about sacking ministers? What about ministers taking
- 6:32Speaker 3: a little bit of responsibility for their portfolio.
- 6:35Speaker 5: So trouble is you.
- 6:36Speaker 3: See in this budget, what he announced yesterday is that
- 6:39Speaker 3: there's no spending cuts.
- 6:41Speaker 4: Right.
- 6:41Speaker 3: He says it's not a time for austerity, right, says
- 6:44Speaker 3: that there's actually no cuts to spending. But at the
- 6:46Speaker 3: same time he's going to say he's going to sack
- 6:48Speaker 3: CEOs he go a cent over their budget. Meanwhile, ministers
- 6:53Speaker 3: who roll in with the most hair brain schemes, nothing
- 6:56Speaker 3: happens to them. Well, you know, it's a complete and arta.
- 7:00Speaker 3: Joe could treat us like complete and art of mugs.
- 7:02Speaker 1: And one of the things that obviously the government is
- 7:05Speaker 1: talking about one of those savings measures is they're saying
- 7:08Speaker 1: around four hundred million dollars across a number of years
- 7:11Speaker 1: with that pay freeze to the public service.
- 7:13Speaker 2: I'm going to call it early. I don't reckon that's
- 7:16Speaker 2: going to happen.
- 7:17Speaker 5: No, I mean, none of this is going to gets
- 7:20Speaker 5: thousand thousand dollars.
- 7:21Speaker 2: Still, they're still getting one thousand dollars bonus is what
- 7:24Speaker 2: it's been called.
- 7:25Speaker 1: But you telling me that, you know in three years
- 7:27Speaker 1: time or three and a half, you know, four years time,
- 7:30Speaker 1: when we're going back to an election, that the government's
- 7:32Speaker 1: going to keep that here, Well here we go, we go.
- 7:35Speaker 3: You're going to try and keep a pay freeze in place.
- 7:37Speaker 3: You're going to be sacking CEO's who go and spend
- 7:41Speaker 3: a cent more and yet they announced yesterday they're going
- 7:44Speaker 3: to employ another one. This one will be the investment
- 7:47Speaker 3: attraction commissioner. Get that they're going to employ an investment
- 7:51Speaker 3: attraction commissioner. You know, you wonder what this fellow is
- 7:53Speaker 3: going to be saying or this lady is going to
- 7:55Speaker 3: be saying to people when they're trying to interract investment.
- 7:58Speaker 5: Oh, come and check out being so well laid with.
- 8:04Speaker 3: Go and ask our on shore gas industry about the moratorium.
- 8:08Speaker 5: You know, see if that helps your industry.
- 8:09Speaker 3: Asked, Oh, mate, who's trying to do the development on
- 8:13Speaker 3: Gardens Hill? You know where the Darwin's a good place
- 8:16Speaker 3: for investment. I mean, these people, it's complete and out
- 8:19Speaker 3: of madness. The way Michael Garner is treating Territorious, it's
- 8:23Speaker 3: an absolute disgrace. Listen, he mentioned he mentioned three major
- 8:28Speaker 3: projects in his speech. Three major projects. The first one
- 8:31Speaker 3: was Barossa, then there was a ship lift and then
- 8:35Speaker 3: there's a Tindall project. Right, all three of them now
- 8:38Speaker 3: you talk about the federal budget like, all three of
- 8:41Speaker 3: them are totally dependent on the federal government. Barrossa is
- 8:45Speaker 3: an offshore oil and gas resource totally controlled by the
- 8:49Speaker 3: Commonwealth government. All the taxes go to the Commonwealth, the
- 8:52Speaker 3: royalties go to the Commonwealth, all of the benefits go
- 8:55Speaker 3: to the Comwealth. The infrastructure for that Barossa is already
- 8:59Speaker 3: in place on shore. It's going into d LNG. The
- 9:03Speaker 3: ship lift one hundred percent government money funded by mostly
- 9:07Speaker 3: the Commonwealth, Tyndall funded by the commonwalth. All of these
- 9:11Speaker 3: things appear is they are the three projects that he mentioned.
- 9:15Speaker 3: You know, there are the three big major projects on
- 9:17Speaker 3: the boil and it's all someone else's money. I mean,
- 9:20Speaker 3: the fuller is an absolute disgrace. He talks about growing
- 9:23Speaker 3: the economy but never committing to cut any spending. There's
- 9:27Speaker 3: no recourse on themselves. They blatantly breached the Financial Integrity
- 9:33Speaker 3: and Transparency Act, Sorry, Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act. There's
- 9:37Speaker 3: no recourse on the politicians. There's no recourse on Michael Gunner.
- 9:41Speaker 3: It's just a disgrace.
- 9:43Speaker 1: I guess the argument, you know, the argument will be
- 9:45Speaker 1: through the lists. I guess the argument, you know, from
- 9:53Speaker 1: the government at this point would be that if they
- 9:56Speaker 1: make those cuts, you know, during what has been a
- 9:59Speaker 1: difficult year for going on from COVID, that it's going
- 10:01Speaker 1: to have a hugely detrimental impact on the northern territory
- 10:05Speaker 1: and might see people leave, might see the population decline.
- 10:10Speaker 2: I'm just trying.
- 10:10Speaker 3: To find some efficiencies within the public service. How about
- 10:15Speaker 3: trying to spur on some private investment. This is the problem.
- 10:18Speaker 3: You see no interest in private investment in the territory.
- 10:24Speaker 3: Everything's got to be about the government. It's all got
- 10:26Speaker 3: to be about the federal government, how much money they
- 10:28Speaker 3: plow internationally.
- 10:29Speaker 2: I don't disagree with you.
- 10:31Speaker 1: I do think that there needs to be some efficiencies found.
- 10:33Speaker 1: You know, you can't on one hand, last year or
- 10:35Speaker 1: the year before, say you know there's a freeze on
- 10:39Speaker 1: public servants, like on the number of public servants, or
- 10:42Speaker 1: there's a cap on the number of public servants. Yet
- 10:45Speaker 1: then you know in the same breadth sort of announce
- 10:47Speaker 1: different appointments and see advertised you know there's been no decrace.
- 10:52Speaker 4: I don't think even when he was treasurer how difficult
- 10:57Speaker 4: it is to shift public surfers numbers. And I think
- 11:00Speaker 4: you said you got rid of one hundred and twenty.
- 11:03Speaker 3: We phrase that the public service grew by one hundred
- 11:05Speaker 3: and twenty in our term, which is pretty well freasing
- 11:10Speaker 3: the number.
- 11:11Speaker 4: And the only people care about public service, wage increases,
- 11:14Speaker 4: the public service most of the other thing.
- 11:17Speaker 5: You don't remember.
- 11:18Speaker 3: The most point in time when I was a treasurer,
- 11:20Speaker 3: we had significant economic growth. The economy was growing at
- 11:24Speaker 3: ten and a half percent in twenty fifteen, the strongest
- 11:28Speaker 3: growth in the country and most of the OECD. At
- 11:32Speaker 3: the same time, we were doing every bit. To my
- 11:36Speaker 3: view was if we can just maintain the numbers, growth
- 11:39Speaker 3: will eventually even out and get the balance right with
- 11:42Speaker 3: the public service versus the private sector. Problem cause now
- 11:46Speaker 3: is debt has blown out to this astronomical figure and deficits.
- 11:52Speaker 3: They haven't got a single year in any foreseeable future
- 11:56Speaker 3: where they're not going to have a budget deficit. I mean,
- 11:59Speaker 3: this is absolutely disgraceful. The only way you can reduce
- 12:02Speaker 3: debt is to get the budget into surplus and make
- 12:05Speaker 3: sure you have surplus budgets sill and you're right about
- 12:08Speaker 3: the rest of the country's running deficit budgets. I still
- 12:11Speaker 3: think that I'm the last treasurer in this country to
- 12:14Speaker 3: hand down a surplus budget. I mean, I am pretty
- 12:17Speaker 3: committed to.
- 12:18Speaker 4: See did a couple over in Queensland.
- 12:24Speaker 1: For a while now, But the reality for us so
- 12:26Speaker 1: at this point in time is really we have like
- 12:29Speaker 1: we've got to embrace industry here in the Northern Territory,
- 12:32Speaker 1: don't we if we want to see our economy.
- 12:35Speaker 3: This is the point there's no mention of Well, there's
- 12:38Speaker 3: not a single mension in the budget of the be
- 12:40Speaker 3: to Loo Basin right now. This is one of the
- 12:42Speaker 3: largest onshore gas resources in the entire world, one of
- 12:47Speaker 3: the most useful ones. It's deep shale, it's very safe,
- 12:52Speaker 3: easy to do. And yet that one single mention of
- 12:56Speaker 3: the Bloo in the budgets. Well, he's running from price,
- 13:00Speaker 3: he's running from.
- 13:01Speaker 4: Well, private investors in in the Beloo Basin, what reliance
- 13:06Speaker 4: do they have? All they ever want?
- 13:07Speaker 5: I can tell you what to get. That's right.
- 13:12Speaker 4: And if people agree or disagree with the moratorium that
- 13:15Speaker 4: was put in place, that's since been lifted and they're
- 13:18Speaker 4: now getting on with business. So I wouldn't expect them.
- 13:21Speaker 4: I wouldn't expect Santas, I wouldn't expect.
- 13:25Speaker 5: Speech.
- 13:26Speaker 4: He's talking about the distribution of public moneys.
- 13:29Speaker 5: So he's looking about the economy.
- 13:31Speaker 4: The private sector should just get him doing the job.
- 13:34Speaker 4: Sector have to worry about what's in the budget.
- 13:38Speaker 3: For us Santas, Why does he mentioned them? For us
- 13:41Speaker 3: has nothing to do in any way, shape or form
- 13:43Speaker 3: with the territory government.
- 13:44Speaker 5: Well, well he mentions that he doesn't have mentioned.
- 13:48Speaker 4: Well, what's he going to go and just talk about
- 13:50Speaker 4: all the private sector investment while he's talking about the
- 13:53Speaker 4: distribution of public money.
- 13:55Speaker 3: The Loo dwarfs barosso well, absolutely dwarfs.
- 13:59Speaker 4: Getting on with it in the Beatloo.
- 14:00Speaker 5: They're getting on. It isn't reckon in the speech.
- 14:03Speaker 1: I tell you what, we didn't have to take a
- 14:05Speaker 1: very short break because I can say something.
- 14:08Speaker 4: I hope he maintains the rage because we'll see some
- 14:11Speaker 4: big figures next week and I just wanted to.
- 14:13Speaker 5: Attack from seeing the FEDS game.
- 14:17Speaker 4: Wards a trillion. They're heading towards.
- 14:19Speaker 3: A talking about that next week, I'll have a bit
- 14:23Speaker 3: to say about.
- 14:26Speaker 4: You better come in with two lots of notes.
- 14:28Speaker 3: It's bloody disgraceful the way that Gunner is treating the territory.
- 14:32Speaker 5: It is an absolute disgrace. He thinks we're leading.
- 14:34Speaker 4: About to Parmeston thinks, mate.
- 14:37Speaker 5: Is it's a ceiling of fifteen.
- 14:40Speaker 4: Just you always talk the territory downadays, you always talking
- 14:43Speaker 4: the territory downer.
- 14:45Speaker 1: You always take the talking.
- 14:47Speaker 4: Them down, get out in the public, to get out
- 14:50Speaker 4: there and.
- 14:50Speaker 2: Enjoy the territory.
- 14:53Speaker 1: The territory listening to Parliament at the moment is that
- 14:56Speaker 1: the government cannot be asked a question by the opposition
- 15:00Speaker 1: or by anybody at this point without calling those asking
- 15:04Speaker 1: the questions negative nancies or saying they're talking the territory
- 15:07Speaker 1: down to me. That shows you how scared they are
- 15:11Speaker 1: of answering any bloody questions.
- 15:13Speaker 3: Hello, how hollow they are, completely hollow and Higley's doing.
- 15:26Speaker 3: If you cannot you cannot.
- 15:28Speaker 4: Feel the change in the air in the Northern.
- 15:31Speaker 5: Territory with a great weight, you can't.
- 15:35Speaker 4: If you cannot feel that the territory is up and about,
- 15:38Speaker 4: you're just not getting out.
- 15:41Speaker 1: I do think that there's plenty going on at the moment,
- 15:43Speaker 1: there's no doubt about that. But is it is absolutely
- 15:46Speaker 1: one hundred percent justified for the opposition and the Independence
- 15:51Speaker 1: to question the government in the same way that the
- 15:54Speaker 1: Labor Party did when they were in opposition. And if
- 15:57Speaker 1: you can't answer those questions where you've got a bloody
- 16:00Speaker 1: glass jaw, in my opinion, if you.
- 16:03Speaker 3: Want to know what's happening on the local political landscape.
- 16:05Speaker 5: Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty. Every one
- 16:09Speaker 5: is listening you Mix one four point nine.
- 16:11Speaker 1: You are listening to Mix one oh four point nine
- 16:13Speaker 1: the big issues brought to you by Kolano Community Association
- 16:16Speaker 1: and Aborige and loaned operated and community lead organization from
- 16:20Speaker 1: the top end to Tenant Creek. And if you have
- 16:22Speaker 1: just joined us, well you've been missing out, you'd have
- 16:25Speaker 1: to say. Damien Hale and Dave Tolner in the studio
- 16:27Speaker 1: with me, we were talking budget.
- 16:30Speaker 5: Well, I tell you what.
- 16:33Speaker 1: I justers know with everyone what I do get upset
- 16:41Speaker 1: though with whenever people get asked, you know, anything hard.
- 16:45Speaker 1: I the government currently they like to talk their opponents
- 16:49Speaker 1: or the media down, and I think it's very important
- 16:52Speaker 1: to be able to answer difficult questions.
- 16:54Speaker 2: I feel very passionately about that. If you didn't notice
- 16:57Speaker 2: during I think too, it's.
- 17:00Speaker 4: Never been happening in the history of the Commonwealth. What happens.
- 17:06Speaker 5: Let me tell you, I always fronted.
- 17:08Speaker 1: I don't even't care what what.
- 17:10Speaker 5: What how interviews were.
- 17:13Speaker 2: It's true, it's true.
- 17:15Speaker 1: Hey, let's talk about these repatriation flights from India. The
- 17:19Speaker 1: Prime Minister did confirm on the show last week that
- 17:21Speaker 1: they're going to be halted until the fifteenth of May.
- 17:24Speaker 1: The Chief Minister Michael Gonna saying this morning that he'll obviously,
- 17:28Speaker 1: you know, he'll be working with the federal government, but
- 17:31Speaker 1: also he's going to be taking the health advice or
- 17:33Speaker 1: the advice from the Chief Health Officer. There's no doubt
- 17:36Speaker 1: that this is a crisis in India at this point.
- 17:39Speaker 1: You'd have to say, with people falling in the Strait
- 17:41Speaker 1: as a result of.
- 17:42Speaker 5: Coviess, it's more pandemic pawn. Well, this is one those
- 17:47Speaker 5: who've got a fat, fretting fetish.
- 17:50Speaker 1: Well, I don't think you could argue that it is
- 17:53Speaker 1: bloody bad.
- 17:54Speaker 2: Yeah, it's red.
- 17:55Speaker 5: It's bloody bad.
- 17:56Speaker 3: And I mean, how ridiculous we'd leave Australians in an
- 17:59Speaker 3: environment like that. You know, if they want to come home,
- 18:02Speaker 3: of course you've got to bring them home. I mean,
- 18:04Speaker 3: it's just ridiculous that that Australians can't get you know,
- 18:10Speaker 3: what's team well, I mean what sort of government I
- 18:12Speaker 3: would want to leave that The futures of Australian lives
- 18:17Speaker 3: in the hands of the Indian health system, which by
- 18:21Speaker 3: all accounts is currently totally overrun.
- 18:24Speaker 5: It's just you know, to me, it's in Humaine. These
- 18:27Speaker 5: these are Australian citizens. Call day No seriously but it's nuts.
- 18:32Speaker 5: Why not bring them here?
- 18:33Speaker 1: Well, I guess the consume war was last week is
- 18:36Speaker 1: that our numbers out of Howard Springs had jumped quite substantially.
- 18:39Speaker 1: We're at about fifty four. We're now down to thirty
- 18:41Speaker 1: five again. You know you could in I think people
- 18:45Speaker 1: who have got who are active cases out there, at
- 18:48Speaker 1: active cases of.
- 18:49Speaker 2: COVID out at Howard Springs, not total number there.
- 18:51Speaker 5: I've never had a.
- 18:51Speaker 3: Community transmission, There's never been one in the command.
- 18:55Speaker 1: It is because of the great management that we've had
- 18:58Speaker 1: out there. We know that that has changed to some
- 19:00Speaker 1: degree from the ozmat team across to nt Health now
- 19:04Speaker 1: managing the international side as well. But there's been that
- 19:07Speaker 1: further discussion to this week about whether we need to
- 19:10Speaker 1: look at Bladon Point and whether we could actually be
- 19:12Speaker 1: bringing more repatriated Australians back to.
- 19:15Speaker 2: The territory as well as workers to fill some of
- 19:17Speaker 2: those jobs that we're not able to fill in the hospitality.
- 19:21Speaker 3: I've been saying this from day dot. You know that
- 19:24Speaker 3: the territory is isolated we're very unlikely to ever have
- 19:27Speaker 3: a case of COVID up because of our remoteness, and
- 19:32Speaker 3: we should look at becoming a place where people can
- 19:35Speaker 3: come to you in safety.
- 19:37Speaker 4: And what do they say, nine thousand in nine thousand
- 19:40Speaker 4: Australians trapped in India or something.
- 19:42Speaker 3: Remember, yeah, I remember about twelve twelve months ago up
- 19:46Speaker 3: with POOPO and me because I made the landish suggestion
- 19:49Speaker 3: that we should open up the territory.
- 19:51Speaker 4: We want to come here and isolate open people to
- 19:54Speaker 4: come up from downstairs. And we're talking about bringing back
- 19:57Speaker 4: Australians from overseas.
- 20:03Speaker 5: This is labor. This is labor. I've been a.
- 20:10Speaker 4: Big supporter of bringing people back from overseas.
- 20:13Speaker 5: We've got don't want anyone come from in a state.
- 20:16Speaker 4: I didn't want people driving come from India.
- 20:19Speaker 5: But from me to state.
- 20:20Speaker 1: I just wanted to see community transmission. Neither Hailey or
- 20:23Speaker 1: I wanted to see community transmission.
- 20:25Speaker 3: And that was always we got lucky Gee whiz the
- 20:30Speaker 3: day the two things Dave walked to the pandemic.
- 20:33Speaker 4: One he thinks that it's only the common flu.
- 20:35Speaker 5: I saw this.
- 20:35Speaker 4: Secondly, he thought Sweden did a good job.
- 20:37Speaker 5: I saw these, I saw this I saw this cartoon in.
- 20:41Speaker 4: The Sweden those they didn't do it good.
- 20:43Speaker 5: I saw this cartoon in the Australian.
- 20:47Speaker 3: A couple of weeks ago, and it had this follor
- 20:49Speaker 3: in the future, this old man in the future and
- 20:51Speaker 3: the green sun sitting there saying, Granddad, you were actually
- 20:56Speaker 3: one of the point zero zero zero zero one percent
- 21:00Speaker 3: of people who didn't die from COVID and you're also
- 21:03Speaker 3: part of the point zero zero zero zero zero one
- 21:06Speaker 3: percent who didn't die from the vaccine. You know what
- 21:12Speaker 3: do you put that down to? And Granddad goes, well,
- 21:15Speaker 3: I spose I just got lucky.
- 21:22Speaker 2: I do want to.
- 21:22Speaker 1: Point out advocates here on three sixties making sure that
- 21:28Speaker 1: you do get a vaccine.
- 21:29Speaker 5: This fitting fretish is can I say that again?
- 21:34Speaker 3: Fretting fetish spreading from the government.
- 21:38Speaker 5: We're over fifty.
- 21:40Speaker 4: I got out of bed the other morning. Then they said,
- 21:42Speaker 4: if you're over fifty, you can go and get the vaccine.
- 21:44Speaker 4: I thought, finally I get something from the government for free.
- 21:50Speaker 5: Needles.
- 21:54Speaker 4: There a tablet for.
- 21:56Speaker 1: There is.
- 22:00Speaker 2: I'm out of time. Dave Tulner and Damian Hale, thank
- 22:03Speaker 2: you so much for joining us this morning.
- 22:05Speaker 5: To be with you.
- 22:06Speaker 2: Wednesday for the budget. Should we talk wednesday as well
- 22:10Speaker 2: next week for the federal budgets.
- 22:11Speaker 4: I've got a real job, Davener. I've actually got to
- 22:15Speaker 4: go and work next Wednesday, all right? Will you? I'll
- 22:22Speaker 4: get your people to talk to yours.
- 22:24Speaker 2: Otherwise we'll do it Tuesday. Good on you. Thank you
- 22:26Speaker 2: both so much for your time this morning.
- 22:28Speaker 5: Great to be with you, Katie.
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- 22:31Speaker 1: three sixty and the Big Issues, brought to you by
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