Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Week That Was (3 September 2021)

Transcript

The Week That Was (3 September 2021) · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: Three sixties, the week that was the most listened to
0:03
Speaker 1: hour in Territory Radio.
0:05
Speaker 2: The Territory Leaders break down this week's big issues.
0:09
Speaker 3: Well, let's take a look at the weather. Firstly this
0:12
Speaker 3: morning and partly cloudy, medium chance of showers today. We're
0:15
Speaker 3: heading for thirty four in the city, thirty six in
0:18
Speaker 3: the rural area and mostly sunny and thirty six degrees
0:21
Speaker 3: in Catherine. The top ends tied times in an outboard
0:24
Speaker 3: marine's Darwin time of Quintrex bar Crusher, Stabbycraft, Premium Alloy
0:29
Speaker 3: boats and world leading Yamaha outboards. Today we're expecting a
0:32
Speaker 3: low tide of three point eight meters at eleven fifteen
0:36
Speaker 3: this morning in Darwin. Right now, already on twenty nine degrees,
0:39
Speaker 3: it's twenty nine in the rural area, and it's twenty
0:42
Speaker 3: seven degrees in Catherine.
0:44
Speaker 4: And it is Friday morning. It is time for the
0:46
Speaker 4: week that was.
0:47
Speaker 3: And joining us in the studio today is the Opposition
0:50
Speaker 3: leader Leafanocchiaro.
0:51
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, have you Friay.
0:53
Speaker 3: It's great to have you in here. We've got Robin
0:55
Speaker 3: Lamley all the way here from Alice Springs, the member
0:57
Speaker 3: for Aarra Lou and good morning, Good morning Katie, and
1:00
Speaker 3: we've got Matt Cunningham, Sky News, Darwin's bureau chief, Good
1:03
Speaker 3: morning to your mate.
1:05
Speaker 4: And we've got Natasha Files, the Health Minister. Good morning
1:08
Speaker 4: to you.
1:08
Speaker 3: Good morning and well, firstly, I want to shout out
1:11
Speaker 3: to Alice Springs because we know that their ultimate festival
1:14
Speaker 3: of Wheels, the Red Center, just kicking off this morning.
1:17
Speaker 5: Is it your thunder Robin, I let you go.
1:20
Speaker 1: Well, I'm I've entered my pride and joy Katie, my
1:25
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four f J Holden Panel van.
1:28
Speaker 5: And it's pretty spectacular.
1:30
Speaker 1: My family for longer than me, kay, FJ Panel van
1:36
Speaker 1: and the conditions you just continue to get a prize good,
1:43
Speaker 1: warm and fuzzy when I talk about it.
1:45
Speaker 3: That's so awesome. So so what exactly will the van be?
1:49
Speaker 3: What's it nominated here?
1:51
Speaker 1: I don't know. We'll just go on the parade on
1:52
Speaker 1: Saturday and have fun and hang out with all our
1:55
Speaker 1: Redheads and car club friends. Just enjoy the festivities. It's
1:59
Speaker 1: a great weekend. And Alice fred I've got an eh
2:02
Speaker 1: hold Yeah, I'm a bit of a Holden girl.
2:07
Speaker 4: That's fantastic.
2:08
Speaker 1: Enjoy is the FJ panel?
2:09
Speaker 6: Good on you?
2:10
Speaker 4: Well it sounds.
2:14
Speaker 6: In exciting news that doesn't outshine Robin's there, because that's
2:17
Speaker 6: pretty spectacular. We'll please to announce another four year agreement
2:20
Speaker 6: with the Summer That's organizers, so the event we know
2:23
Speaker 6: how much it means to Alice Springs and speak. I
2:26
Speaker 6: can't get down there this weekend, but I can tell you, Robin,
2:29
Speaker 6: I saw a couple of the cars. They came out
2:31
Speaker 6: to Nightcliff the other day and they did attract all
2:34
Speaker 6: the local neighborhood kids. So it's certainly an event and
2:36
Speaker 6: with four more years, top.
2:38
Speaker 5: Ender should head to the center news.
2:40
Speaker 4: Wonderful stuff.
2:40
Speaker 3: Well, let's get into it because there really has been
2:43
Speaker 3: so much happening throughout this week and it's something that
2:46
Speaker 3: we did discuss last week. But really it's come to
2:49
Speaker 3: the four I think you'd have to say this week,
2:51
Speaker 3: and that is our vaccination rates around the Northern Territory.
2:54
Speaker 3: There's some real conjecture I think you'd have to say
2:57
Speaker 3: between the federal government and the Northern Territory about just
3:00
Speaker 3: where those vaccine rates are at. We do know that
3:04
Speaker 3: around the suburbs of Darwin we're doing really quite well.
3:07
Speaker 3: In the inner suburbs of Darwin and in some other
3:11
Speaker 3: inner suburbs of the likes of Alice Springs and Palmerston.
3:14
Speaker 3: We're not doing too badly either. But then when you
3:17
Speaker 3: head out to some of our remote areas well, those
3:20
Speaker 3: vaccination rates are really pretty low. From what I've read
3:24
Speaker 3: over the last couple of days. In the Australian newspaper yesterday,
3:29
Speaker 3: it showed that as few as six percent of residents
3:32
Speaker 3: had received their first dose and only two percent were
3:35
Speaker 3: fully vaccinated in some of Central Australia's more remote Aboriginal communities. Now,
3:41
Speaker 3: obviously this is a concern for a whole raft of reasons.
3:44
Speaker 3: First and foremost the health reason, but secondly because we
3:48
Speaker 3: know that we're really not going to get to the
3:49
Speaker 3: point of opening up or having some of life's normalities
3:53
Speaker 3: again until that vaccination rate is at around eighty percent.
3:59
Speaker 3: I don't know where to go first really, but it's
4:02
Speaker 3: definitely a worry.
4:04
Speaker 7: It's a it's a long way from six percent to
4:06
Speaker 7: eighty percent. If we're talking about and the government has said,
4:09
Speaker 7: well we need to not just get eighty percent but
4:11
Speaker 7: pretty much get eighty percent everywhere to open up, that
4:15
Speaker 7: would suggest that we're not opening up anytime soon, we're
4:18
Speaker 7: going to be dealing with lockdowns and border closures. I
4:21
Speaker 7: would suggest right through next year. How do you get
4:23
Speaker 7: from six percent to eighty percent in communities where people
4:26
Speaker 7: don't want to be vaccinated? I think this is a
4:30
Speaker 7: real problem. I think there's a couple of things. I
4:32
Speaker 7: think the government, both the federal government and the Northern
4:35
Speaker 7: Territory government, should be absolutely upfront about the figures and
4:38
Speaker 7: the rates in every community. I think it's a ridiculous
4:41
Speaker 7: situation where we're getting drips of information about one community
4:45
Speaker 7: here and one community there that come from sort of
4:47
Speaker 7: unofficial sources. The government has the data, they should make
4:49
Speaker 7: it absolutely public. They should make it public today, and
4:53
Speaker 7: then we need to work out how we're going to
4:55
Speaker 7: improve those rates. I think we need to look at incentives,
4:57
Speaker 7: possibly financial incentives, whatever we can to get those vaccination
5:00
Speaker 7: rates at the level they need to be because the
5:03
Speaker 7: rest of the country is going to open up New
5:05
Speaker 7: South Wales, Victoria, they're already talking about it, seventy percent vaccination.
5:08
Speaker 7: They're going to open up. If we have a situation
5:10
Speaker 7: where the East coast of Australia has all opened up
5:13
Speaker 7: and we're still in lockdown, we're going to be in
5:15
Speaker 7: real trouble.
5:16
Speaker 8: There does need to be a lot more transparency around
5:19
Speaker 8: this issue. Of course, we had a briefing just a
5:21
Speaker 8: couple of weeks ago, Katie, and we ask for a
5:24
Speaker 8: breakdown community by community.
5:26
Speaker 2: The government wouldn't give us that.
5:27
Speaker 8: Of course, We've had numbers from the federal government now
5:29
Speaker 8: which goes by residential address obviously linked to that Medicare location,
5:34
Speaker 8: and then the territory government want to do it just
5:36
Speaker 8: by jabs. Now, it's one thing to count jabs, but
5:39
Speaker 8: that's not clean data in and of itself.
5:41
Speaker 2: Now we know that a large.
5:43
Speaker 8: Percentage of vaccines being administered in the territory are going
5:47
Speaker 8: to people who don't live in the territory.
5:49
Speaker 2: They're tourists coming through. I know in Catherine they've had.
5:52
Speaker 8: Really huge vaccination numbers for interstate people. Parmesan's super Clinic
5:56
Speaker 8: has clearly come out and said twenty percent of all
5:58
Speaker 8: vaccines they administer for people who live into state.
6:02
Speaker 2: And I've heard the same thing out in.
6:04
Speaker 8: The Bush from a remote clinics saying they've had an influx
6:06
Speaker 8: of people are tourists going through. So what the data
6:09
Speaker 8: the territory government needs to be providing to territorians is
6:13
Speaker 8: cleansed of those interstate or five FO tourists who are
6:16
Speaker 8: getting the vaccine. We need to know how many Territorians
6:19
Speaker 8: on the ground are getting those jabs and where they're
6:21
Speaker 8: getting them, because you know, if I'm sitting in Alice Springs,
6:24
Speaker 8: I'm having a meeting down there and I think I'll
6:25
Speaker 8: get my fizer, why should me, a Darwin person be
6:29
Speaker 8: being countered in the Alice Springs numbers?
6:30
Speaker 4: Well, and isn't that.
6:31
Speaker 3: Where would that be where the discrepancy is realistically between
6:34
Speaker 3: the federal government and the territory government because the federal
6:37
Speaker 3: government figures go through Medicare, so presumably they would be
6:40
Speaker 3: the ones that actually had your post code attached to
6:42
Speaker 3: it and the most likely to identify where people are
6:47
Speaker 3: from rather than where they've had the vaccine.
6:49
Speaker 6: So Katie, people don't update their Medicare data, so we
6:52
Speaker 6: do need people to make sure that they have updated
6:54
Speaker 6: that address. The way we're providing people's addresses is through
6:57
Speaker 6: the primary health care system, so we do know that
6:59
Speaker 6: people aren't heading to man and Greed to get vaccinated,
7:03
Speaker 6: but the lives.
7:03
Speaker 3: Of Catherine, that is they're traveling through If they're there
7:05
Speaker 3: for a couple of ways and they're going to get
7:07
Speaker 3: the vaccine.
7:08
Speaker 7: Record on that is that people in remote communities aren't
7:10
Speaker 7: the ones who aren't updating their Medicare details. It's the
7:13
Speaker 7: people who come through Darwin for a brief period of time,
7:15
Speaker 7: be it one or two years, and you don't update
7:17
Speaker 7: their many care.
7:18
Speaker 2: People aren't going to remote communities.
7:19
Speaker 8: I mean, I was just in Nayu the other day
7:22
Speaker 8: and was told in Nayu that on the day that
7:24
Speaker 8: vaccines happened, it was like full of tourists and fortunately
7:28
Speaker 8: the hell stuff on the ground were like, hang on
7:29
Speaker 8: a second, do you guys nik to wait your turn.
7:32
Speaker 8: We've got to vaccinate our community first. So it's absolutely happening.
7:35
Speaker 6: Katie Natasha Oh, I just I mean, I think that
7:39
Speaker 6: what Lea's peddling is absolute rubbish.
7:41
Speaker 2: Well that's what I always tell from people on the
7:43
Speaker 2: ground and.
7:44
Speaker 5: Getting to our remote communities.
7:45
Speaker 6: They're not getting them plans to go to what I
7:47
Speaker 6: to get backsine. In terms of the data we know
7:50
Speaker 6: we've delivered over two hundred and ten thousand jobs in
7:52
Speaker 6: the territory. The Commonwealth has acknowledged that the system of
7:55
Speaker 6: Medicare addresses is not reflective. We need accurate data to
7:58
Speaker 6: come back to Matt's point because we need to know
8:01
Speaker 6: exactly who's been vaccinated and where, because it is so
8:04
Speaker 6: important as we step through to the next phase of
8:06
Speaker 6: the pandemic. But in terms of the vaccination rates, we
8:10
Speaker 6: have always said that it will be difficult to vaccinate
8:13
Speaker 6: our remote areas. It's a huge geographical challenge. We've got
8:15
Speaker 6: teams right out across the territory. There is teams that
8:19
Speaker 6: are working with the Aboriginal medical organizations that are going
8:22
Speaker 6: in and providing the vaccinations. We're starting to see the
8:25
Speaker 6: vaccination being kept in clinics in remote areas so that
8:28
Speaker 6: when people make that decision to get vaccinated, they can
8:31
Speaker 6: attend clinic and discreetly get that vaccine. But there is
8:34
Speaker 6: absolute pockets of hesitancy and so we are working with
8:37
Speaker 6: local leadership and I think the success stories in remote
8:40
Speaker 6: vaccinations is because the local community, and there's different ways.
8:43
Speaker 6: Some communities are treating it as a celebration. Other communities
8:46
Speaker 6: are taking it as a really important matter the same
8:50
Speaker 6: as they would with another serious issue or concern for
8:53
Speaker 6: their community. They're having too meetings, they're having community meetings
8:57
Speaker 6: and making those decisions. And we have seen in the
9:00
Speaker 6: Big Rivers region after the lockdown and Catherine an uptick
9:02
Speaker 6: in the vaccinations there. But just a few months ago
9:05
Speaker 6: the vaccines started to get rolled out. We have rolled
9:08
Speaker 6: out a huge number of vaccines. We've got the logistics
9:11
Speaker 6: and the supply chains, and we acknowledge we need to
9:13
Speaker 6: work with communities so that they understand the importance and
9:17
Speaker 6: the most important public health measure as we move forward
9:20
Speaker 6: is the vaccination. I mean in some of these locations,
9:22
Speaker 6: so like you're talking about from what I've read in
9:25
Speaker 6: the Australian newspaper, so they started that they had gotten
9:28
Speaker 6: their hands on over the last couple of days in
9:32
Speaker 6: some locations you're talking about as few as ten people
9:35
Speaker 6: being vaccinated.
9:36
Speaker 3: Like, I know that it's a really difficult process. I
9:39
Speaker 3: think that everybody acknowledges that. But if we're not really
9:42
Speaker 3: open and upfront about these stats, we're going to get
9:44
Speaker 3: to November, or we're going to get to November, and
9:47
Speaker 3: like you pointed out, Matt, the rest of Australia is
9:49
Speaker 3: going to be opening up and we're going to be saying, oh,
9:51
Speaker 3: we've still got twenty percent of people vaccinated in remote
9:53
Speaker 3: Central Australian communities.
9:55
Speaker 6: So just to respond to a couple of points, by
9:56
Speaker 6: the end of October, we will have visited every remotemmunity
10:00
Speaker 6: in the Northern Territory, and some communities will have had
10:03
Speaker 6: multiple visits. As I just said, the vaccine starting to
10:05
Speaker 6: be stored in communities. So in terms of the vaccine
10:09
Speaker 6: and the responsibility of getting it out there, that will
10:11
Speaker 6: be covered. The issue we have to focus on now
10:13
Speaker 6: is the local leadership, and it's not one size fits
10:16
Speaker 6: all when you talk about those really small communities.
10:18
Speaker 5: I do think it's fair to.
10:19
Speaker 6: Talk about and I take on board Matt's point the
10:22
Speaker 6: advice I've got from Health and from Bevini, who's been
10:24
Speaker 6: leading our vaccine leaders Some of our communities are so
10:27
Speaker 6: small the identification, but more than happy to continue.
10:30
Speaker 7: That discussion Moves published in the paper yesterday. It's a
10:33
Speaker 7: very small community. It's not the people of ULA movesed.
10:38
Speaker 2: It's not anti health.
10:38
Speaker 7: It's not the people of ULA move who are being
10:40
Speaker 7: embarrassed by that data being made public. It's the people
10:43
Speaker 7: in charge of the vaccine roll out. And I think
10:46
Speaker 7: that there's a little bit of we're not going to
10:48
Speaker 7: tell you this because where you know, we don't want
10:50
Speaker 7: to embarrass ourselves.
10:51
Speaker 5: No, I completely disagree.
10:52
Speaker 2: The point is the information out, because it's not.
10:55
Speaker 6: The advice I've got is that if as health, if
10:58
Speaker 6: we release the community community data, it will identify people
11:02
Speaker 6: in communities and families. I'm happy to have that robust
11:04
Speaker 6: conversation with health. I'm happy to talk to communities and say,
11:07
Speaker 6: will you share your percentage data? But what we have
11:10
Speaker 6: provided today is regional data. But when we pick on
11:12
Speaker 6: communities that have got a very lowick community, we.
11:16
Speaker 2: Want them vaccinated. No, we want them vaccinated.
11:20
Speaker 7: Aren't getting vaccinated? We want to know why they're not
11:22
Speaker 7: getting vaccinated so that we can do something about getting
11:25
Speaker 7: them vaccinated.
11:26
Speaker 2: We want to all these questions during estimates.
11:28
Speaker 8: You know, I'd been out in the Central Desert a
11:30
Speaker 8: few months ago on vaccination rates and communities out there
11:32
Speaker 8: were really low in estimates. We asked a lot of
11:34
Speaker 8: questions around you know, government had allocated money credibility in.
11:37
Speaker 5: This space because you would have given.
11:41
Speaker 3: Community you have some credibility in the space of remote health.
11:44
Speaker 3: And that's John Patterson, who's the CEO of AM said. Now,
11:47
Speaker 3: he said to me on the show earlier in the
11:49
Speaker 3: week that he actually thinks that these figures should be
11:52
Speaker 3: open and transparent so that at the click of a
11:54
Speaker 3: finger he's able to see which communities maybe aren't up
11:58
Speaker 3: to the standard that they need to be in terms
11:59
Speaker 3: of that vaccine roll out, so that that work can happen.
12:03
Speaker 3: And you know, I think that realistically, I understand that
12:05
Speaker 3: the Northern Territory government is going to be getting to
12:08
Speaker 3: that point where, you know, where it is rolled out
12:12
Speaker 3: in those communities, and there's more work done in those communities.
12:15
Speaker 3: And we all know that one size does not fit
12:18
Speaker 3: all for every community. But the thing that I'm seriously
12:21
Speaker 3: questioning is how have we got a situation in some
12:23
Speaker 3: of these communities where anti vaxas have been able to
12:26
Speaker 3: get out there and get their message across, but Northern
12:29
Speaker 3: Territory health or our healthcare professionals have not.
12:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, Katie, look, the situation in Central Australia is quite die.
12:37
Speaker 1: Donna Rchi, who's the head of the Aboriginal Central Australian
12:41
Speaker 1: Congress the Aboriginal Medical Service in Central Australia, said that
12:45
Speaker 1: seventy nine percent of her patients or clients are not vaccinated,
12:50
Speaker 1: so I think that the government needs to get out
12:54
Speaker 1: of Darwin, base their operations somewhere else, maybe in Elliott
12:59
Speaker 1: or t or Tenant Creek, and make sure these people
13:04
Speaker 1: are vaccinated because the clock is ticking. As Matt said,
13:07
Speaker 1: as everyone knows, we are going to be shut down, lockdown,
13:12
Speaker 1: unlike the rest of the country if this is not addressed.
13:14
Speaker 1: It's hard work. You've done the easy bits. Vaccinating people
13:17
Speaker 1: in Darwin and Alice Springs and to some extent Catherine
13:21
Speaker 1: are the easy bits. Now you've got to tackle the
13:23
Speaker 1: hard bits, and you need to get out of town
13:26
Speaker 1: and roll your sleeves up and do some hard work.
13:28
Speaker 8: And it's got to be the Danta has got to
13:30
Speaker 8: be cleansed of the tourists. You know, volumes like twenty
13:33
Speaker 8: percent off that's going you know, that's going on top
13:35
Speaker 8: onto our numbers. And we're all sitting and doar and thinking, oh, great,
13:38
Speaker 8: eighty percent of people in Darwen are vaccinated if twenty
13:40
Speaker 8: percent of that are tourists, and it's not eighty percent
13:43
Speaker 8: of territories who are vaccinated. So we need to be
13:45
Speaker 8: really the government needs to be really careful and transparent
13:48
Speaker 8: about what they're counting as a job.
13:49
Speaker 3: Now. Quite a few text messages coming through, well, a
13:51
Speaker 3: couple at this stage that I'll read out. There's one
13:53
Speaker 3: that says I'm a ride share driver and I'm dropping
13:55
Speaker 3: people from interstate at the Italian.
13:57
Speaker 4: Club every day.
13:58
Speaker 3: Another one here, can you ask the Health Minister when
14:01
Speaker 3: the Novazak vaccine is going to be available in Australia
14:05
Speaker 3: slash Darwin.
14:06
Speaker 5: So Katie.
14:07
Speaker 6: In terms of the new vaccines, there's a number that
14:09
Speaker 6: are coming onto the market, so they go through the
14:11
Speaker 6: TGA and their TARGI approvals and we work with the Commonwealth.
14:14
Speaker 6: So the Maderna vaccine I think is just a couple
14:16
Speaker 6: of weeks away and that'll be rolled out through our pharmacies.
14:19
Speaker 6: It's got the same basis as the fires of vaccination.
14:22
Speaker 6: But in terms of the vaccine, and to pick up
14:24
Speaker 6: on Robin's point, we have been out of Darwen. We've
14:26
Speaker 6: been right across the territory delivering in partnership in some cases.
14:30
Speaker 6: So of the eighty remote clinics, thirty Aboriginal medical organizations
14:34
Speaker 6: fifty a NTG. But you do see the NTG teams
14:38
Speaker 6: go in with the Aboriginal medical organizations to deliver that vaccine.
14:42
Speaker 6: Some communities have been visited a few times already and
14:45
Speaker 6: there's continued visits right through to get that vaccine as
14:49
Speaker 6: people want to be vaccinated. But we certainly acknowledge the
14:53
Speaker 6: hesitancy in some communities and working with local leadership to
14:56
Speaker 6: get people to understand that this is the most important
14:59
Speaker 6: thing they can do.
15:00
Speaker 7: Understanding and it's hard to tell without the actual data,
15:02
Speaker 7: but my understanding is that the anti government clinics, the
15:07
Speaker 7: rates there generally speaking are much better and much higher
15:10
Speaker 7: than in the arch of controlled clinics. But you know,
15:13
Speaker 7: we don't have all that data, so we can't tell.
15:15
Speaker 7: But if we had that data, we'd be able to say,
15:16
Speaker 7: all right, we've got an issue here.
15:18
Speaker 6: And we have seen the Aboriginal medical organizations. They share
15:21
Speaker 6: their information back into the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth send
15:24
Speaker 6: it back into us as an overall figure in the regions.
15:27
Speaker 6: They don't give us the community our community breakdown, but
15:30
Speaker 6: they are working with nt Health community by community now
15:34
Speaker 6: and we have seen that that's.
15:35
Speaker 7: An issue as well, like the Commonwealth should be giving
15:37
Speaker 7: us the community by community data, like why is the
15:41
Speaker 7: Commonwealth not why is the anti government not able to
15:44
Speaker 7: see the Commonwealth community by community data, Like, I don't
15:47
Speaker 7: understand why there is the covering up of information, and
15:51
Speaker 7: I don't I respect your argument, but I don't agree
15:54
Speaker 7: with it about protecting people's identities in communities. I just
15:57
Speaker 7: I think this is it's way more.
16:00
Speaker 5: I should clarify that that that that's how it works.
16:02
Speaker 8: But be pretty astonishing if that information wasn't shit. I mean,
16:06
Speaker 8: another thing the government's not talking about is vaccine wastage.
16:09
Speaker 8: You know, I've found out that in Yarrolyn there was
16:12
Speaker 8: a bunch of vaccines that were thrown away a few
16:15
Speaker 8: weeks ago, you know, so you know what kind of
16:17
Speaker 8: stock have we got out in community, what kind of
16:19
Speaker 8: numbers we have had.
16:21
Speaker 6: There's a national guideline of ten percent that you know,
16:27
Speaker 6: supply chain issues for whatever might happen. My understanding is
16:31
Speaker 6: we've had no major breaches in the Northern Territory. I
16:34
Speaker 6: haven't heard the Yaroline incident. I'm happy to take that away.
16:37
Speaker 6: But we have had excellent supply chain of the vaccine
16:40
Speaker 6: and excellent management. There has been a couple of incidents
16:43
Speaker 6: where very small amounts have not been kept to the standard.
16:46
Speaker 3: All Right, we're going to take a very short break
16:48
Speaker 3: that number if you are keen to text through zero four,
16:51
Speaker 3: double nine seven, double one three sixty.
16:54
Speaker 4: Three sixties the week that was thanks to the silver
16:57
Speaker 4: hebron your local lawyers, Well.
17:00
Speaker 3: You are listening to the week that was in the
17:01
Speaker 3: studio Leafanocchiara, Robin Lamley, Matt Cunningham and Natasha Files. Now
17:06
Speaker 3: we know that the opposition and the Independence yesterday well
17:09
Speaker 3: came out firing saying that the Gunner Labor government must
17:13
Speaker 3: reinstate the three days of parliamentary sittings which were lost
17:17
Speaker 3: due to lockdown. Because while the government has no Assembly business,
17:20
Speaker 3: the opposition and the independent members have plenty. Now I'll
17:24
Speaker 3: take you to what the Chief Minister, Michael Gunner had
17:27
Speaker 3: to say when I asked you about this a little
17:29
Speaker 3: bit earlier in the week.
17:31
Speaker 9: Well, we've got sittings at September, October, November and December.
17:34
Speaker 9: We get it done in the days we've got left.
17:36
Speaker 3: So is that because you didn't have, from the government's
17:37
Speaker 3: perspective much to actually present in parliament last time you sat.
17:41
Speaker 9: No, No, I think we just managain our workload. So
17:44
Speaker 9: it might mean working a couple of late nights, but
17:45
Speaker 9: we can do it.
17:46
Speaker 3: So you'd prefer to do those longer nights rather than
17:48
Speaker 3: actually reschedule those days.
17:50
Speaker 9: Well, if it is longer nights, I'm just saying we
17:51
Speaker 9: can do longer nights so we can get the work done.
17:53
Speaker 3: Can you understand, though, how some people might think that's
17:55
Speaker 3: a bit rich, given the fact that then you shut
17:57
Speaker 3: down that discussion. Obviously when the center motion was put
18:00
Speaker 3: forward on the grandstand, for example, I know there's still
18:02
Speaker 3: lots of people in the community who feel that these
18:04
Speaker 3: questions that need to be answered in that space.
18:06
Speaker 9: I have answered a lot of questions on the grandstand,
18:08
Speaker 9: and we don't have to agree with the opposition on
18:10
Speaker 9: center motions. They're saying we're bad, We say we're good,
18:12
Speaker 9: we will move on.
18:13
Speaker 4: It's pretty extraordinary, though, to shut down a center motion,
18:16
Speaker 4: isn't it.
18:16
Speaker 9: No, that's pretty regular really. Yeah, under the lass I've
18:19
Speaker 9: been Emparliament for what fourteen fifteen years? Center emotions get
18:22
Speaker 9: shut down.
18:22
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, but not very often.
18:25
Speaker 9: I wouldn't. I wouldn't nessily agree with that.
18:27
Speaker 3: Look, honestly, I would say not very often. I know
18:29
Speaker 3: when the COLP was empowered, it didn't happen very often.
18:31
Speaker 9: Okay, I disagree, we don't fail complete accepts in emotions.
18:37
Speaker 3: So that was during an interview with the Chief Minister
18:40
Speaker 3: Michael Gunner a little bit earlier in the week. It
18:42
Speaker 3: doesn't sound like those days are going to.
18:44
Speaker 4: Be made up.
18:45
Speaker 3: How does that make both you, the opposition and the
18:47
Speaker 3: independent Robin Lamley feel.
18:49
Speaker 2: We are absolutely furious, Katie.
18:51
Speaker 8: What we did yesterday is all non government members, so
18:54
Speaker 8: the three independent members of the entire opposition, we wrote
18:57
Speaker 8: a letter to the Speaker expressing our grave concerns on
19:00
Speaker 8: how the Gunner government abuse their power to manipulate the
19:04
Speaker 8: parliament and of course have now slashed three sittings days.
19:07
Speaker 8: Now the rhetoric coming from government is that oh it's okay,
19:09
Speaker 8: we can work late and we can fit it in.
19:12
Speaker 8: Don't worry all this garbage. These are three sitting days.
19:16
Speaker 8: This represents ten percent of all parliamentary days for the
19:18
Speaker 8: year and it cannot be made up. When Parliament is
19:21
Speaker 8: crushed and deleted from the system, it means there is
19:25
Speaker 8: no question time. It means there is no opportunity for
19:27
Speaker 8: independent and government members to debate matters that are important
19:31
Speaker 8: to Territorians. We collectively represent one hundred thousand Territorians in
19:35
Speaker 8: our electorates, let alone our broader responsibility to hold government
19:39
Speaker 8: to account. Every government is accountable to the Parliament. You
19:42
Speaker 8: cannot just delete parliamentary days. And just for you know,
19:45
Speaker 8: people listening at home, if you remember of parliament and
19:48
Speaker 8: parliament is sitting, if you miss three days of parliament,
19:51
Speaker 8: you're automatically removed as a member of Parliament. So if
19:55
Speaker 8: you compare that to this, the government have just deleted
19:58
Speaker 8: three days. So that just tells you how serious parliament
20:01
Speaker 8: is now. If Government want to sit late in September
20:04
Speaker 8: to allegedly get their business done, then they have to
20:07
Speaker 8: double question time and double independent and opposition business because
20:11
Speaker 8: if they don't, then all they are doing is hiding
20:13
Speaker 8: from scrutiny, running from our questions, running from the issues
20:17
Speaker 8: important to territorians.
20:18
Speaker 2: And we will not cop that. This is a very
20:20
Speaker 2: very big deal.
20:22
Speaker 1: Look, just listening to the Chief Minister just then, it's
20:27
Speaker 1: almost like he diminished the importance of parliament the end
20:32
Speaker 1: of the day, Katie, we are members of Parliament and
20:36
Speaker 1: an important part of our job is to attend Parliament
20:39
Speaker 1: and represent our constituents. For me, it's the people of
20:41
Speaker 1: Central Australia for ying, yea, the people of Noulanboy in
20:45
Speaker 1: the Arnham area. We all represent a very unique and
20:50
Speaker 1: unique and important communities and to have that opportunity to
20:55
Speaker 1: bring our issues, the issues of our people to Parliament,
20:59
Speaker 1: whether the government likes it or not, is an important
21:01
Speaker 1: part of what we do, what we are paid to do.
21:04
Speaker 1: We're all well paid. I get one hundred and sixty
21:06
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars a year. My colleagues here get a
21:09
Speaker 1: whole lot more than me. We get a lot of
21:11
Speaker 1: money to do a job, and we are being denied
21:15
Speaker 1: those three days in which I for one, had an
21:17
Speaker 1: important motion to put to Parliament, and that was to
21:20
Speaker 1: discuss the economic development of Central Australia. That has been
21:24
Speaker 1: taken away from me. I hope we sit in a
21:26
Speaker 1: couple of weeks time so I will have that opportunity
21:29
Speaker 1: to do that important piece of work on behalf of
21:32
Speaker 1: my community. But to diminish the importance of Parliament and
21:37
Speaker 1: what we do that in the Northern Territory, Parliament really
21:41
Speaker 1: is quite astounding. It's about democracy, it's about people having
21:47
Speaker 1: a voice and it's incredibly important. Look, if I can't
21:52
Speaker 1: go to Parliament, I think I have to question what
21:55
Speaker 1: I'm doing, you know, I don't need to be doing
21:57
Speaker 1: this job. I can go off and do something else
21:59
Speaker 1: in life. If Michaeld Ganna doesn't respect my job as
22:03
Speaker 1: a Member for Ara Lewin and my role in the Parliament,
22:07
Speaker 1: then I have to question what we're all doing there.
22:09
Speaker 3: Look, in my humble opinion, it doesn't actually come down
22:11
Speaker 3: to whether the government does or doesn't respect the opposition
22:14
Speaker 3: or the independence. It actually comes down to whether the
22:16
Speaker 3: government respects the people in those electorates as well, because
22:19
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, each and every one
22:21
Speaker 3: of you are in Parliament to represent the people in
22:25
Speaker 3: your electorate.
22:26
Speaker 4: You are voted by those people.
22:28
Speaker 3: They are coming to you with different issues and different concerns.
22:31
Speaker 3: None of you are in there, or none of you
22:33
Speaker 3: should be in there to represent your own interests. You
22:35
Speaker 3: should be in there to represent the interests of territorians. Natasha,
22:40
Speaker 3: are these days going to be made up? You are
22:42
Speaker 3: the leader of Government business. Yes, so, Katie, it was.
22:45
Speaker 3: We obviously had the lockdown and a number of disruptions
22:48
Speaker 3: happened across the top end, darl and Catherine, including Parliament.
22:51
Speaker 3: So we've said that if we need those days, I
22:54
Speaker 3: mean sort of going month by month at the moment
22:57
Speaker 3: trying to get people vaccinated focused on the pandemic. If
23:00
Speaker 3: we do need those sittings days, we're happy to add
23:02
Speaker 3: them into the schedule.
23:03
Speaker 5: We saw the Parliamentary stadding.
23:04
Speaker 4: Them into the schedule.
23:05
Speaker 3: It's part of the schedule that already existed because they've
23:07
Speaker 3: been taken away and in other states and territories they
23:10
Speaker 3: are actually still sitting during those days. We determined last
23:13
Speaker 3: week that you guys are deemed essential workers or essential services,
23:17
Speaker 3: so realistically it could have still gone to work. I
23:20
Speaker 3: know that it is incredibly busy for all of you
23:23
Speaker 3: when there is a lockdown, and that obviously you've got
23:25
Speaker 3: those meetings with a different you know, with the chow
23:29
Speaker 3: and the police commissioner and various others to make sure
23:32
Speaker 3: that being busy.
23:34
Speaker 5: It's about a lockdown, so it's about stopping all that movement.
23:36
Speaker 4: So they do it in other states.
23:38
Speaker 6: So you've seen in a number of jurisdictions the parliamentary
23:41
Speaker 6: schedule has been interrupted. When we were meant to sit
23:43
Speaker 6: we went into that lockdown. We stopped all movement in
23:45
Speaker 6: Darwin and Catherine because we didn't know where that virus
23:48
Speaker 6: was and fortunately we didn't see that spread We certainly
23:52
Speaker 6: value parliament and the processes of Parliament. Last year we
23:55
Speaker 6: saw the schedule incredibly disrupted by COVID, and it's happened
23:57
Speaker 6: again this year. What we've said is we're happy to
24:00
Speaker 6: put those days on the schedule, but let's just get
24:03
Speaker 6: through the next few weeks and see where we land.
24:05
Speaker 8: No, the days are already on the schedule, you cancel
24:08
Speaker 8: them for lockdown. Everyone accepted that, even though in even
24:11
Speaker 8: the big states like New South Wales they're still sitting.
24:13
Speaker 8: We accepted, fine, three days. Fine, let's just we'll just
24:19
Speaker 8: move them. You guys are deleting them because you don't
24:21
Speaker 8: want the scrutiny, and yet you're not doubling the amount
24:24
Speaker 8: of scrutiny we can have during the remaining days that
24:27
Speaker 8: you've left. I mean, the way in which you use
24:29
Speaker 8: and abuse your power in Parliament is truly unprecedented, Katie.
24:34
Speaker 2: We've had seven petitions.
24:37
Speaker 8: Referred to a government controlled committee for whether or not
24:40
Speaker 8: they should be debated into the parliament. None have come back.
24:43
Speaker 8: We've had the government crush emotion before I even had
24:46
Speaker 8: a word leave my lips during General Business date. Our
24:49
Speaker 8: general business is the time for the independence and oppositions
24:52
Speaker 8: to run the agenda question time, they're just not answering
24:55
Speaker 8: our questions and sitting down. Of course, we've had censures
24:58
Speaker 8: knocked back even before four I've even got the words
25:01
Speaker 8: out of my mouth.
25:02
Speaker 2: So during the CLP.
25:03
Speaker 8: Days there was only one time where a censure was
25:08
Speaker 8: knocked back, and that whole four year term we've had three.
25:12
Speaker 2: You know, this is just in the last twelve months.
25:15
Speaker 8: We've even had the government stop debate at the end
25:19
Speaker 8: of the day in a German Now a German is
25:21
Speaker 8: just like the last debate of the day. It can
25:22
Speaker 8: be on any topic anyone wants, so it's a very
25:26
Speaker 8: free debate, which is good because people have lots of
25:28
Speaker 8: different issues.
25:29
Speaker 2: Government even stopped that.
25:30
Speaker 8: I mean, what they are doing to use and abuse
25:33
Speaker 8: the parliament is atrocious. And now to delete three days
25:36
Speaker 8: and say, oh well, maybe later in the year we'll
25:38
Speaker 8: put them back in is wrong.
25:40
Speaker 2: It is anti democratic.
25:41
Speaker 8: It is removing our right to scrutinize government, territory's right
25:45
Speaker 8: to have their voices heard, and it is indefensible, indefensible.
25:49
Speaker 3: But I know you've been covering politics for an awfully
25:52
Speaker 3: long time.
25:53
Speaker 4: What do you make of all of this?
25:55
Speaker 7: Well, if the Opposition and the Independence are frustrated that
26:00
Speaker 7: they couldn't go to work for three days because there
26:02
Speaker 7: was one case at COVID nineteen, how do you think
26:04
Speaker 7: the businesses in Darwin and Alice Springs and elsewhere feel
26:07
Speaker 7: that they were shut down for three days or four
26:10
Speaker 7: days and lost millions and millions of dollars, not.
26:12
Speaker 4: To mention the gyms for a week longer.
26:14
Speaker 7: Yes, because of one case of COVID nineteen. You know, Look,
26:18
Speaker 7: does the average punter on the street care that much
26:20
Speaker 7: of Parliament shut down for three days?
26:21
Speaker 2: Probably?
26:22
Speaker 7: Not, But I think the average punter is going to
26:25
Speaker 7: get really frustrated if we keep having to be locked
26:27
Speaker 7: down over one case of COVID nineteen. You look at
26:30
Speaker 7: the way the mood I reckon the mood is changing
26:32
Speaker 7: in Victoria and New South Wales. Last year in Victoria,
26:36
Speaker 7: Dan Andrews was their hero for locking down. I think
26:38
Speaker 7: the people there are getting really, really frustrated, and you're
26:41
Speaker 7: even seeing you know, the Age newspaper yesterday wrote an
26:44
Speaker 7: editorial saying that the lockdowns needed to end. So, I mean,
26:48
Speaker 7: I absolutely accept the point that Lea and Robin are making,
26:53
Speaker 7: especially given the promises the government made when they came
26:56
Speaker 7: to power about openness and transparency and everything else. But
26:59
Speaker 7: I think the big issue here is that we just
27:01
Speaker 7: can't continue in a situation where one case, one single
27:05
Speaker 7: case of COVID nineteen can do so much damage to
27:08
Speaker 7: so many people.
27:08
Speaker 8: Can I just say, though, Matt, they are two completely
27:10
Speaker 8: separate issues. So we all accepted not to sit in
27:13
Speaker 8: parliament during lockdown. That's fine, But what we now have
27:17
Speaker 8: is three days deleted from the sittings calendar. So in
27:20
Speaker 8: the precious thirty days we get to scrutinize government in parliament,
27:24
Speaker 8: three of those are now gone.
27:25
Speaker 2: That's ten percent.
27:26
Speaker 8: So we accept during lockdown that we couldn't sit, but
27:29
Speaker 8: they should immediately have been reinstated. And now government is
27:33
Speaker 8: very conveniently saying na, no, we just won't do that.
27:35
Speaker 8: We'll just sit late and work late. Well, three days
27:38
Speaker 8: of no parliament is three days of no question time,
27:41
Speaker 8: three days of no debates. Know nothing about anything that
27:45
Speaker 8: the opposition or the independent members care about. So that's crime.
27:49
Speaker 8: That's code yellow at Royal Dauwin Hospital. That's these vaccine
27:52
Speaker 8: transparency numbers. It's the economy in Alice Springs, it's things
27:55
Speaker 8: happening out in the bush.
27:57
Speaker 2: It's a lot. You know, a lot of the issues
27:58
Speaker 2: that Yingia Guyola.
27:59
Speaker 8: Raises in Parliament, all of that is gone and it
28:02
Speaker 8: cannot be replaced by sitting late on existing days.
28:05
Speaker 2: They must be reinstated.
28:07
Speaker 1: And those three days that we didn't sit, none of
28:10
Speaker 1: us have had our pay packets affected as members of Parliament,
28:14
Speaker 1: whereas all the businesses out there, including a business that
28:17
Speaker 1: I own at cooler Linga, we didn't make a cent
28:19
Speaker 1: during those three days.
28:21
Speaker 3: So if the.
28:21
Speaker 1: Government wants to shut down parliament, maybe we should be
28:26
Speaker 1: taking some money out of our pay packets because we're
28:28
Speaker 1: not doing what we're meant to be doing.
28:30
Speaker 8: And if the government has no business, you know, the
28:32
Speaker 8: government has no business, that's their problem. We've got plenty
28:35
Speaker 8: of things to talk about, plenty of issues that we
28:38
Speaker 8: need raise, and plenty of things that need to be scrutinized.
28:41
Speaker 8: And we know government just despises the level of scrutiny
28:44
Speaker 8: that Parliament provides, but welcome to the real world.
28:46
Speaker 2: That's our democratic system.
28:48
Speaker 8: You don't get to just bully your way around and
28:51
Speaker 8: remove the one major flagship piece of scrutiny against your
28:55
Speaker 8: government because you don't like the headlines and the paper
28:58
Speaker 8: during that week of sitting.
29:00
Speaker 3: Going to take a very short break. There is still
29:01
Speaker 3: plenty to discuss this morning. You are listening to the
29:04
Speaker 3: week that was proudly brought to you by the Silver
29:07
Speaker 3: Herbron Lawyers and broadcasting on adj.
29:10
Speaker 2: Three sixties.
29:11
Speaker 4: The week that was thanks to the Silver Hebron, your
29:13
Speaker 4: local lawyers. It is just twenty minutes away from ten o'clock.
29:17
Speaker 3: You are listening to the week that was and in
29:19
Speaker 3: the studio with Usley Fanocciaro, Robin Lamley, Matt Cunningham and
29:23
Speaker 3: Natasha Files. Now, a topic that has been bubbling along
29:26
Speaker 3: for quite some time and one which we have received
29:28
Speaker 3: quite a few phone calls and messages about is the
29:31
Speaker 3: cost of housing here in the Northern Territory and how
29:35
Speaker 3: expensive it is obviously when you talk about rents, and
29:37
Speaker 3: how tough it is for some families at the moment,
29:40
Speaker 3: we know that there are a number of families that
29:42
Speaker 3: are experiencing real stress right now as a result of COVID. Matt,
29:47
Speaker 3: like you'd touched on just a little while ago, the
29:49
Speaker 3: fact that some businesses have obviously been closed for a
29:52
Speaker 3: number of days throughout that lockdown. We've also got a
29:56
Speaker 3: situation where there's lots lots of businesses impacted by the
29:59
Speaker 3: fact that that you know, you're not able to have
30:02
Speaker 3: tourists traveling from those other states. Now, whether you own
30:04
Speaker 3: your own business or you work in a job where
30:07
Speaker 3: your hours have maybe been reduced or you've maybe even
30:10
Speaker 3: lost your job as a result of some of what's
30:14
Speaker 3: going on around the world at the moment, we know
30:16
Speaker 3: that that's having a massive impact on people's budgets. Now,
30:19
Speaker 3: yesterday we actually caught up with Laws and Broad from
30:22
Speaker 3: Somerville Community Services. He spoke about the difficulties that some
30:27
Speaker 3: Territorians are going through right now, not only you know,
30:30
Speaker 3: when it comes to paying those bills and really their
30:33
Speaker 3: living expenses when it comes to as well, the cost
30:37
Speaker 3: of living, Ie are housing.
30:39
Speaker 4: Take a listen to what he'd told us yesterday on
30:40
Speaker 4: the show.
30:41
Speaker 10: Well, what we know, absolutely, Katie, is that for many families,
30:45
Speaker 10: many households across the Northern Territory, their budgets are being
30:49
Speaker 10: crippled by the cost of housing. So the stats tell
30:52
Speaker 10: us that story, renters tell us that story. What we
30:55
Speaker 10: know is that current vacancy rates sit well below two
30:58
Speaker 10: percent in real terms. What tells us is that on
31:01
Speaker 10: any day of the week there are more people looking
31:03
Speaker 10: for houses than there are houses on the market. That's unsustainable.
31:08
Speaker 10: That's basics applying demand and what that means is that
31:11
Speaker 10: the cost of housing goes up. Unfortunately, we are seeing
31:14
Speaker 10: in small pockets in they are small pockets. This is
31:16
Speaker 10: not across the board, but we are seeing small pockets
31:19
Speaker 10: of landlords who are frankly extortionate and profit hearing where
31:23
Speaker 10: rents are being ratcheted up one hundred dollars two hundred
31:26
Speaker 10: dollars a week. That is crippling household budgets.
31:29
Speaker 4: So we spoke to Lawson about that.
31:31
Speaker 3: He'd also written a column in the Sunday Territory and
31:34
Speaker 3: last Weekend which spoke about the need for that affordable
31:38
Speaker 3: housing in the Northern Territory. So not your public housing,
31:42
Speaker 3: you know, not your private rental properties, but that affordable
31:46
Speaker 3: housing that's in the middle and the need for more
31:48
Speaker 3: of it in the territory. And I think that the
31:50
Speaker 3: reality of it is if we are talking about building
31:53
Speaker 3: the economy, we're talking about you know, even today we've
31:56
Speaker 3: got infrastructure Australia that has recognized that Northern Australia where
32:00
Speaker 3: it's at when it comes to building the economy. We
32:03
Speaker 3: need to make sure that there is housing for people,
32:05
Speaker 3: and we need to make sure that it is affordable,
32:07
Speaker 3: particularly if you're that middle ground where you are struggling
32:12
Speaker 3: right now, otherwise we're going to see people leaving the
32:14
Speaker 3: Northern Territory.
32:15
Speaker 8: Yeah, we've certainly had a lot of feedback on the
32:17
Speaker 8: ground of rents just exploding, and of course what we
32:22
Speaker 8: know is that that land release is a really important
32:25
Speaker 8: part of this story.
32:26
Speaker 1: Now.
32:27
Speaker 8: You know, in my electric for example, I've got plenty
32:29
Speaker 8: of development, you know, whether it's in North prest or
32:32
Speaker 8: out in Zacola, there's a lot of that type of
32:34
Speaker 8: thing going on. But one thing I do know is
32:36
Speaker 8: that this really also comes down to a red tape issue. Now,
32:40
Speaker 8: developers have obviously got their agreements with government to turn
32:43
Speaker 8: off certain numbers of blocks, etc. But timing really becomes
32:47
Speaker 8: an important issue, and government hold all the cards when
32:50
Speaker 8: it comes to that whether or not it's the timing
32:53
Speaker 8: to start the construction works, because that takes a lot
32:55
Speaker 8: of time and energy and planning. There's the confidence in
32:59
Speaker 8: the market that if developers actually do produce these blocks,
33:02
Speaker 8: that they're going to be sold, and then there's also
33:04
Speaker 8: the issuing of the titles, and what we often see
33:07
Speaker 8: is major, major delays in issuing of titles so that
33:10
Speaker 8: people can actually buy and start construction on these blocks.
33:14
Speaker 8: We know during the budget the government came out with
33:16
Speaker 8: their grand plan for ten thousand blocks out near the
33:19
Speaker 8: Palmeston Hospital, but we know that that is, you know,
33:22
Speaker 8: years and years and years into the planning. And we
33:24
Speaker 8: also know that in places like Zucolia and Northcrest, we've
33:26
Speaker 8: got thousands of blocks ready to go. And this is
33:29
Speaker 8: obviously just a very top end focused a bit of
33:32
Speaker 8: commentary of course, kill Garriff. I mean, that's a whole
33:34
Speaker 8: other story. They've been waiting eighteen months to get any
33:37
Speaker 8: new blocks turned off there, and again those cards sit
33:40
Speaker 8: with the government, so we have to get that balance right,
33:42
Speaker 8: like what Lawson said, with supply and demand, and what
33:45
Speaker 8: we've seen is the place locked up for too long
33:47
Speaker 8: because of our lack of business confidence, but also because
33:50
Speaker 8: of that red tape holding these projects back.
33:52
Speaker 7: But I think that's one issue that Lee's talking about.
33:54
Speaker 7: But I think we're talking about a different cohort of
33:57
Speaker 7: the community here. These are people who will never have
34:00
Speaker 7: fifty dollars in the bank to put a deposit down
34:03
Speaker 7: on a house and land package. We're talking about people
34:05
Speaker 7: who are lucky if they've got fifty.
34:06
Speaker 9: Dollars in the bank.
34:08
Speaker 7: What alarmed me about the peace Lawson wrote on Sunday,
34:10
Speaker 7: And good on him for speaking up, because a lot
34:12
Speaker 7: of people who hold positions like his don't have the
34:15
Speaker 7: courage to speak up because of the blowback that comes
34:18
Speaker 7: to them. But he did have the courage to speak up.
34:20
Speaker 7: And lawsons to someone who I've known for a long
34:22
Speaker 7: time and someone who always speaks his mind and says
34:26
Speaker 7: what he actually believes. And what concerned me was that
34:29
Speaker 7: there there's been this plan since twenty sixteen to transfer
34:32
Speaker 7: the public housing to community housing, and here we are
34:35
Speaker 7: in twenty twenty one and nothing's happened. Like, how is
34:39
Speaker 7: it that in five years nothing can happen? How much
34:42
Speaker 7: money has been spent on that plan, and why is
34:45
Speaker 7: it that five years down the track nothing has happened.
34:47
Speaker 7: I lived just around the corner from the Lichfield Flats,
34:50
Speaker 7: the Lichfield Court, and I mean the things that happen
34:54
Speaker 7: in that place, you know. I went in there once
34:57
Speaker 7: with a woman to do a story we drove in,
35:00
Speaker 7: she said, oh, this place is that we call this
35:02
Speaker 7: place of the Zoo. You know, it's just terrible the
35:05
Speaker 7: things that go on there. Last weekend there was a
35:08
Speaker 7: woman there who was she was killed there. She had
35:11
Speaker 7: a leg in a full plaster cast. This should have
35:15
Speaker 7: been happening, and we need to do whatever we can
35:17
Speaker 7: to fix this. And I think the plan that Lawson's
35:19
Speaker 7: talking about is a good one and one that can
35:21
Speaker 7: help fix this sort of thing. It's happened across the country,
35:24
Speaker 7: but you know, five years and it's just been tied
35:27
Speaker 7: up in bureaucracy for that entire time.
35:29
Speaker 3: And you know, I think, like you've pointed out, he's
35:31
Speaker 3: obviously speaking for the people that he represents as well.
35:33
Speaker 3: You know, we're talking about some of ill community services,
35:36
Speaker 3: who does provide some of those support services to a
35:39
Speaker 3: people who are really going through a tough time. And
35:41
Speaker 3: you know, there is a lot of people that are
35:43
Speaker 3: going through a tough time at the moment. There's a
35:45
Speaker 3: lot of people obviously that want to get into that
35:47
Speaker 3: public housing market that are on weight lists for an awfully.
35:51
Speaker 4: Long period of time.
35:52
Speaker 2: I'm think even years.
35:53
Speaker 3: It's pretty well known. I used to work for the
35:55
Speaker 3: Housing Minister. So I'm aware that those weight lists back
35:58
Speaker 3: in the day were astronomical. You know, then you're talking
36:01
Speaker 3: about that middle ground where you've got the affordable housing,
36:04
Speaker 3: that transferring of that stock, and I know that the
36:06
Speaker 3: government is obviously working with those providers to try and
36:09
Speaker 3: get that happening, but like Lawson had pointed out, taking
36:13
Speaker 3: a very long time. And then you've also got people
36:15
Speaker 3: that do want to find somewhere to rental. They can
36:18
Speaker 3: you know, they can actually afford to pay their rents.
36:21
Speaker 4: But yesterday we had.
36:22
Speaker 3: People calling in saying that, you know, their rents had
36:25
Speaker 3: gone from three hundred and fifty dollars to five hundred
36:27
Speaker 3: and ninety for a two bedroom unit.
36:30
Speaker 4: You know, how can people afford to live here?
36:32
Speaker 3: If we don't get this right, we're not going to
36:35
Speaker 3: prosper as a territory. I don't think if we're not
36:37
Speaker 3: actually able to make sure that we get this housing
36:40
Speaker 3: situation right, and that's not even going out then further
36:43
Speaker 3: afield to those remote communities where we know that overcrowding
36:46
Speaker 3: and the issues out there are far far worse.
36:50
Speaker 1: It just sounds to me like groundhog Day, Katie. I mean,
36:53
Speaker 1: it was only a few years ago during the impact
36:55
Speaker 1: boom that we were talking about the same thing. Every
36:57
Speaker 1: time there's a sort of a relative boom in in Darwin.
37:01
Speaker 1: This is an issue, but I think it's time for
37:04
Speaker 1: Natasha Files to talk about the things that I'm reading
37:07
Speaker 1: about your government doing. I mean, haven't you put on
37:09
Speaker 1: Wendy Morton in a key position to look at this issue?
37:13
Speaker 1: Community housing a form.
37:15
Speaker 5: There's two issues here. We know that the NT economy
37:18
Speaker 5: is booming.
37:18
Speaker 6: We saw those state final demand figures five point three
37:21
Speaker 6: percent up this week released and so it is a
37:24
Speaker 6: supply and demand driven issue, and we do need to
37:26
Speaker 6: make sure there's land release that is steady, and there
37:29
Speaker 6: is certainly land release coming on. But in terms of
37:32
Speaker 6: the social housing and the community housing, and that's right,
37:34
Speaker 6: they're two different parts of people looking for housing, and
37:38
Speaker 6: we've done significant work around. We know that those community
37:42
Speaker 6: housing providers do do a good job in providing supports
37:46
Speaker 6: for people our most vulnerable in our community. We know
37:48
Speaker 6: that if people have got a roof over their head
37:50
Speaker 6: and a stable roof over the head, and if we
37:51
Speaker 6: help them manage their tendancy, they're far more likely to
37:55
Speaker 6: be happy and healthy and not have interactions with the justices.
38:00
Speaker 5: We've got some innovative projects.
38:01
Speaker 6: We've got the Harsey which is the Mental Health Project
38:05
Speaker 6: where we're helping clients people who have mental health illness
38:09
Speaker 6: manage their tendancy. The John Stokes Square redevelopment is certainly
38:14
Speaker 6: well underway and looking at how we can be innovative
38:17
Speaker 6: in supplying that public housing to those people that are
38:20
Speaker 6: most vulnerable, but also helping them maintain the tendancy so
38:22
Speaker 6: that we don't end up with those groups of public
38:27
Speaker 6: housing around our community. And I don't want to name
38:29
Speaker 6: them because there's really wonderful people that live in there.
38:32
Speaker 6: I go in there and hold pizza knights and talk
38:33
Speaker 6: to these people. I used to do it in John
38:35
Speaker 6: Stokes before it was knocked down, and a few people
38:38
Speaker 6: in there, and it's often visitors, which comes back to
38:41
Speaker 6: the point around working with those community housing providers to
38:44
Speaker 6: help people manage their tendencies. I think that the public
38:47
Speaker 6: housing safety officers do a wonderful job, and there's really
38:51
Speaker 6: good people in this sector, but there is a better
38:53
Speaker 6: way in which we can deliver social Stubsey's.
38:54
Speaker 1: So much work to do in this space, and they're
38:57
Speaker 1: so slow as Leah said, you know, it's about getting
39:00
Speaker 1: hied up in red tape and every other excuse on
39:02
Speaker 1: the planet.
39:02
Speaker 5: I mean you would disagree. Like we have.
39:04
Speaker 6: The heartcy program has been rolled out and that has
39:06
Speaker 6: been expanded, and that's been really successful, and we're certainly
39:09
Speaker 6: working with those community housing providers to provide more social.
39:13
Speaker 7: Health years does seem fairly extraordinary, doesn't it?
39:17
Speaker 2: For decades?
39:18
Speaker 7: Plan It's taken five years and it's got nowhere well.
39:21
Speaker 3: And again though that social housing is very different like
39:24
Speaker 3: to the affordable housing. So like you know, like we're
39:26
Speaker 3: saying there's sort of three tiers here and seven hundred
39:29
Speaker 3: and fifty homes or seven hundred and fifty properties, as
39:32
Speaker 3: Lawson had spoken about being transferred. You know, that would
39:36
Speaker 3: be an enormous thing obviously in terms of getting them
39:40
Speaker 3: I'm imagining on the market and available or not on
39:42
Speaker 3: the market, but you know, available to people who are
39:45
Speaker 3: in me Katie.
39:46
Speaker 6: What we're talking about too, is we're talking about properties
39:48
Speaker 6: that have existing tenants in them. It's the management and
39:50
Speaker 6: the support for those people to maintain those tenancies and
39:54
Speaker 6: to I think that it's not necessarily just suddenly seven
39:57
Speaker 6: hundred and fifty public housing properties that.
40:00
Speaker 3: God, that's obviously a figure or a number of it.
40:02
Speaker 3: The labor government themselves obviously identified, so they must have
40:06
Speaker 3: an idea of.
40:07
Speaker 5: Doing those people.
40:08
Speaker 6: And what I'm saying is, you know, for example, and
40:10
Speaker 6: the one I know well because it's within my electorate
40:12
Speaker 6: and portfolio is the Mental Health Hearty Project.
40:15
Speaker 3: All right, we're going to take a very short break.
40:17
Speaker 3: We've only got a few minutes minutes left. But well,
40:21
Speaker 3: there's a message here that's actually just come through and
40:23
Speaker 3: it says the government have six houses up for sale.
40:26
Speaker 3: One has been empty for eighteen months. It's in perfect condition,
40:29
Speaker 3: says that text. I know we have a lot of
40:31
Speaker 3: people that live in public housing that listen to the show,
40:34
Speaker 3: A lot of people that live next door or in
40:36
Speaker 3: the same street as as some of those public housing homes.
40:39
Speaker 3: And that is another thing that gets raised quite a bit,
40:41
Speaker 3: is that some of those properties remain vacant for a
40:44
Speaker 3: considerably long period of time and you know.
40:47
Speaker 1: If get trashed in the meantime.
40:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's always the problem. We'll take a short break.
40:52
Speaker 3: You are listening to Mix one O four point nine
40:54
Speaker 3: three sixty. It is the week that was three sixties.
40:57
Speaker 3: The week that was thanks to the Silver Hebra on
41:00
Speaker 3: your local lawyers. You are listening to Mix one O
41:02
Speaker 3: four point ninety three sixty. It's only a couple of
41:04
Speaker 3: minutes away from ten o'clock. You've been listening to the
41:07
Speaker 3: Week that was with Leofanocchiaro, Robin Lamley, Matt Cunningham and
41:11
Speaker 3: Natasha Files.
41:12
Speaker 4: I do just want to take you across quickly.
41:14
Speaker 3: We know that Senator Sam McMahon well said a decision
41:19
Speaker 3: to require Commonwealth MPs to fill a bed inside Howard
41:23
Speaker 3: Springs quarantine rather than isolated home was out of step
41:26
Speaker 3: with every other jurisdiction in Australia and added unnecessary pressure
41:30
Speaker 3: to the current system. Now she is obviously spending fourteen
41:33
Speaker 3: days in quarantine after returning from Canberra where she had
41:36
Speaker 3: been attending those parliamentary sittings. It's become a bit of
41:39
Speaker 3: a war of words, I think between her and the
41:41
Speaker 3: Chief Minister. The Chief Minister saying that well, here's fired
41:44
Speaker 3: back and said that her call to allow to quarantine
41:48
Speaker 3: at home, that well, it doesn't matter who you are,
41:51
Speaker 3: whether you're a politician or not, you've got to do
41:53
Speaker 3: everybody's got to do the same thing, and.
41:57
Speaker 4: I take that on board.
41:58
Speaker 3: You know, I agree that everybody the rule should be
42:00
Speaker 3: the same for everybody. But this is the whole discussion
42:02
Speaker 3: I think that started. We spoke about it last week
42:05
Speaker 3: after speaking to one of our listeners in Alice Springs,
42:08
Speaker 3: who'd gone through that situation where she couldn't go to
42:11
Speaker 3: her mum's well, her mum's bedside as she was dying,
42:15
Speaker 3: because even though she's double vexed, she obviously had to
42:19
Speaker 3: stay inside the Todd facility and do her time quarantining.
42:24
Speaker 3: So I think that this is quite a big discussion
42:27
Speaker 3: about our quarantining right now. And I know that there's
42:29
Speaker 3: a lot of concerns when it comes to health, but
42:31
Speaker 3: it does open up that discussion.
42:33
Speaker 8: I mean, instead of tackling crime, Michael Gunna spends a
42:36
Speaker 8: lot of his time being a keyboard warrier.
42:37
Speaker 1: Now, if you're the.
42:38
Speaker 2: Chief Minister, you need to be doing better things.
42:41
Speaker 8: We saw him attack the police with a fight with
42:44
Speaker 8: the Police Association.
42:45
Speaker 2: Now he's fighting with the Senator.
42:47
Speaker 8: This is just politicization of COVID because it's the only
42:50
Speaker 8: thing he knows how to do, which is an absolute disgrace.
42:52
Speaker 8: You've got a Chief Minister in a global pandemic, trying
42:55
Speaker 8: to politically points score, and we know there are a
42:57
Speaker 8: million examples of that, including him using his Facebook page
43:01
Speaker 8: is some sort of health promotions website. But ultimately the
43:05
Speaker 8: Senator has been very clear, she said this is the
43:07
Speaker 8: Federal Parliament have made the request, but he's just trying
43:12
Speaker 8: to pin it on her to sling mud during a
43:14
Speaker 8: by election. And I think people see through his absolute
43:16
Speaker 8: garbage warrior way is expect a lot better leadership from
43:21
Speaker 8: a man who's meant to be leading us through the
43:23
Speaker 8: global pandemic.
43:24
Speaker 2: You don't mention alone.
43:27
Speaker 8: I'm not even better words, he finished, Look, can I.
43:33
Speaker 2: Use the rest of them time? Because where do I stop?
43:36
Speaker 5: I don't know.
43:37
Speaker 1: Sam McMahon's got a good points. She's fully vaccinated. The
43:40
Speaker 1: request that has come through from the federal government, if
43:44
Speaker 1: she can guarantee that she could quarantine at home safely.
43:49
Speaker 5: I think it should be considered.
43:50
Speaker 1: But expect to know.
43:51
Speaker 7: I suppose I think that the woman you had on
43:54
Speaker 7: last week has a far better point. And I think
43:56
Speaker 7: this is the bigger issue is that when are we
43:58
Speaker 7: going to get to the point where if you're double jabbed,
44:01
Speaker 7: you don't have to quarantine. I mean, I think I
44:04
Speaker 7: agree with your point later about Sada McMahon, But at
44:09
Speaker 7: the same time, I think, you know, last week that
44:11
Speaker 7: woman that putsmaking could see her dying mother even though
44:15
Speaker 7: she was double vaccinated and had returned negative tests. I
44:19
Speaker 7: just worry about you know what we're becoming.
44:21
Speaker 3: Here well, and her story is not you know, she's
44:24
Speaker 3: not alone in her in her story. There's so many
44:27
Speaker 3: people around Australia going through these types of situations.
44:30
Speaker 4: Fuzzy. How many requests for.
44:31
Speaker 6: An exemption do you reckon you'd get a day, Oh, Katie,
44:35
Speaker 6: they go straight to the office of the chow. We
44:37
Speaker 6: do get copied in on some people do contact us
44:40
Speaker 6: as they contact a number of people, and it's really difficult.
44:44
Speaker 6: It's one of those you know, it's a public health measure.
44:46
Speaker 6: It's the decision of the chow to keep us safe
44:49
Speaker 6: from the virus. But I you know, my heart goes
44:52
Speaker 6: out to people in and you know, there's a range
44:54
Speaker 6: of circumstances that just are incredibly heartbreaking.
44:58
Speaker 5: So it's a difficult one. But I think the public health.
45:00
Speaker 6: Measures have kept us safe to date, but they're certainly
45:03
Speaker 6: as more of the population is vaccinated, there will still
45:07
Speaker 6: be public health measures, mask QR COD check ins, but
45:10
Speaker 6: they will change and I just feel for people caught
45:13
Speaker 6: up in different circumstances.
45:15
Speaker 3: Well, look we are going to have to wrap up.
45:17
Speaker 3: That is it for us this morning. That's it for
45:19
Speaker 3: the week. That was a big thank you Leah Fanocchio
45:21
Speaker 3: for your time today.
45:23
Speaker 5: Thank you.
45:23
Speaker 8: And I want to shout out to everyone in daily
45:25
Speaker 8: of course, voting has started. You can vote at Kula
45:27
Speaker 8: Linga next week. You can also vote at Berry Springs
45:30
Speaker 8: Vote Smart, Vote one. Chris Savagery is put one Team
45:35
Speaker 8: Team pull my microphone down.
45:37
Speaker 1: Thank you Katie, and a big shout out to everyone
45:39
Speaker 1: in Central Australia. I'll see you at the red Senna
45:42
Speaker 1: app woo.
45:42
Speaker 3: Matck Cunningham from Sky News, thank you, and Natasha Philes
45:46
Speaker 3: the Health Minister, thank you, thank you. And and well
45:49
Speaker 3: that is it for me this morning. I'm actually ducking
45:51
Speaker 3: off a little bit early. I'm going to watch my
45:54
Speaker 3: daughter run in the Anti Championships, so I'm going to
45:57
Speaker 3: be taking off a bit early. We will have some
46:00
Speaker 3: fantastic music for you though for the next couple of hours.
46:02
Speaker 3: Don't forget your dad's on Father's Day and come along
46:05
Speaker 3: and Do Run with Dad. You're listening to Mix one
46:07
Speaker 3: oh four point nine