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Katie spoke with Senator Sam McMahon about possible support payments for the Katherine region · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: It is just after ten twenty and joining me live
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  Speaker 1: on the line the COLP Senator for the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: Sam McMahon. Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good morning, Katy, and good morning to you listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Senator. We know that obviously the lockout and the lockdown
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  Speaker 1: has had a big impact on businesses right around the
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  Speaker 1: top end, none more so than Catherine, who've obviously been
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  Speaker 1: in lockdown for a couple of days. Now, what's been
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  Speaker 1: the feedback that you've received from those locals in Catherine?
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  Speaker 1: How are they going at this point?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, they're going okay. They're very much hoping that
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  Speaker 2: it's only going to be a few days and that
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  Speaker 2: it will in fact lift at midnight tonight. So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: people are doing okay, but it's obviously affecting them, effecting
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  Speaker 2: their trade, affecting their incomes. So yeah, you know, people
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  Speaker 2: are hurting, but they're hanging in there.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that the federal government have announced the
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  Speaker 1: COVID nineteen disaster payments for eligible workers in Catherine. Who's
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  Speaker 1: eligible for these?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, Katie, that was something I did on Thursday
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  Speaker 2: night as soon as I heard that there was going
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  Speaker 2: to be or likely to be a lockdown in Catherr
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  Speaker 2: and I got straight onto my good friend, Minister Bridget
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  Speaker 2: mackenzie and made sure that that I did everything I
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  Speaker 2: could to get a slice of the Federal Assistant for
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  Speaker 2: Catherine workers. So basically, anyone who's lost twenty or more
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  Speaker 2: hours of work is eligible for a seven hundred and
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  Speaker 2: fifty dollar payment. Yep, eight hours to less than twenty
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  Speaker 2: hours is eligible for four hundred and fifty dollars payment.
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  Speaker 2: And anyone who's on any form of income support but
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  Speaker 2: also lost eight hours or more can be eligible for
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  Speaker 2: a two hundred dollar payment. So that's anyone that's working
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  Speaker 2: in Cathern that was affected.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So interme, So what is so the income support payments?
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  Speaker 1: Is that who like who would be eligible for those?
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  Speaker 2: So if someone's on some kind of income support, some
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  Speaker 2: kind of work fair payment, but they also work, which
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  Speaker 2: is you know quite a lot of people are on
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  Speaker 2: you know, say a pension, but you know they also
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  Speaker 2: work as well, so they other people that would be
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  Speaker 2: eligible for that.
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  Speaker 1: It's so, Senator, what do people need to do to
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  Speaker 1: well to try and get this payment.
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  Speaker 2: Well, they need to be registered with my GOV. So
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  Speaker 2: anyone who's not already registered can jump on the website
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  Speaker 2: and register and then go to the Services Australia website
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  Speaker 2: and register for these payments. Claims will be open from
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  Speaker 2: the twelfth of November, so they need to get themselves
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  Speaker 2: in my Gouve account and then they can put their
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  Speaker 2: claim in from the twelfth of November. And if anyone
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  Speaker 2: needs assistance, they're more than welcome to call my office
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  Speaker 2: and get assistance with where to go to register and
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  Speaker 2: where to go to put those claims in.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Senator, I understand that there's also been a bit
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  Speaker 1: of an announcement this morning or the Morrison Gov. It
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  Speaker 1: said that they'll invest more than seven hundred and eighty
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars for ten new permanent transition care places to
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  Speaker 1: bed cater to the needs of senior and vulnerable Territorians.
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  Speaker 1: What exactly does this mean and who's it for?
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  Speaker 2: So this is end trying to get people out of hospitals,
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  Speaker 2: so out of hospital beds who don't actually need to
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  Speaker 2: be there, so that people that need to go into
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  Speaker 2: some sort of care, say for example, aged care, but
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  Speaker 2: they haven't currently got a place. So it's going to
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  Speaker 2: provide places for those people to go to so that
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  Speaker 2: we can free up more hospital beds for the people
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  Speaker 2: that really do need to be in a hospital.
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  Speaker 1: Ten. While it's obviously a step in the right direction,
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Well ten ocross in Northern Territory will have a significant effect,
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  Speaker 2: you know, taking ten people out of hospital beds that
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  Speaker 2: will free up. There's also a lot of money that
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  Speaker 2: we've committed to age care places. They haven't come online yet.
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  Speaker 2: I know the Northern Teratary government has funding for a
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  Speaker 2: lot of age care places, and there's also funding been
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  Speaker 2: allocated for the private sector, so there is a lot
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  Speaker 2: of federal funding there. They've not yet come online, which
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  Speaker 2: is why we're committing to this transitional you know, to
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  Speaker 2: move people out of bed into places that like I said,
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  Speaker 2: there is funding for additional ones. Yep, we just get
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  Speaker 2: them built and get them functioning.
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  Speaker 1: And so where would they sort of be with these
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  Speaker 1: ten new permanent places are there? Is it like the
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  Speaker 1: home care or is it in an actual facility?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe Codie that it's in an actual facility.
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  Speaker 2: I haven't got all of the details around that yet,
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  Speaker 2: but yeah, I believe that that they are going to
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  Speaker 2: go to facilities I said where people can transition from
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  Speaker 2: occupying the hospital bed to some form of tear that
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  Speaker 2: they need.
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  Speaker 1: All right, I'll be keen to find out exactly where
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  Speaker 1: they are sort of going to be because I know
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  Speaker 1: that there's been a real issue obviously within Royal Dale
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  Speaker 1: and Hospital and also out there at Palmerston where there
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  Speaker 1: are a lot of territories who cannot get a full
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  Speaker 1: time placement in an aged care facility and it's causing
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  Speaker 1: some real heartache for different families.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And look, every person that we have
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  Speaker 2: that's occupying a hospital bed, I mean obviously a hospital
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  Speaker 2: bed is not ideal for them. And also it means
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  Speaker 2: that they're occupying a place that somebody who you know,
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  Speaker 2: who needs surgery or who needs treatment in a hospital.
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  Speaker 2: And we know that at the moment, and hospitals Kadia
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  Speaker 2: are going from code yellow to code yellow, so they're
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  Speaker 2: just they're slammed. They're not coping. The ramping hours of
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  Speaker 2: the ambulance is escalating, so we know we've got a
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  Speaker 2: real health crisis here. So I know it's only ten deads, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's in very valuable spaces.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well that was what I was going to say. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: you know we've heard time and time again that there
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  Speaker 1: are seniors who obviously have nowhere else to go and
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  Speaker 1: that is why they are being forced into those into
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  Speaker 1: those beds within Royal Dale and Hospital. That is having
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  Speaker 1: an impact. And so again I know that ten is
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  Speaker 1: a step in the right direction, but it does seem
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  Speaker 1: as though we could we could go further.
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  Speaker 2: You can always go further, You can always go further,
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  Speaker 2: Caading and I will keep advocating. But you know, as
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  Speaker 2: I said, there are age care places. There are a
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  Speaker 2: lot of age care places coming online. The funding is there,
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  Speaker 2: the funding is allocated. Now as soon as we can
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  Speaker 2: get the Northern Territory government to actually roll out to actually,
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  Speaker 2: you know, take that money and turn it into physical cases.
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  Speaker 2: As soon as we can do that, we're going to
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  Speaker 2: free up a lot of hospital beirds. I mean, it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't do anything for the staff shortage.
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  Speaker 1: I know.
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  Speaker 2: That's something that NT Health has to nut out, but
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  Speaker 2: at least it's going to free up those beds for
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  Speaker 2: people that really really need to be in a hospital bed.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Senator Sam McMahon, we are going to have to
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  Speaker 1: leave it there. Thank you very much for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 2: No worries, You're very welcome as always, Katie, thank you,