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Katie spoke with Opposition Health Spokesperson Bill Yan · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is the Opposition
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: spokesperson for Health, Bill Yan.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Katie. How are you not too bad?
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Bill?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: I tell you what.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: We have received so many messages, so many people concerned
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: over the course of the weekend and on Friday last week,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: after the announcement by the Chief Minister on Thursday about
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: these changes when it comes to our borders come December
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: twenty Bill, there is a lot of confusion at the moment.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: What are people saying to you.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I've had calls from Thursday afternoon right through today today.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: I'm actually out in the remote community at Santa Tarusian immnute.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: We got into the community to thirsting out of people's
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: mouth what's going on with these border changes. There is
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: a lot of confusion. And I heard Sarah earlier in
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: the radio. I spoke to Sarah late last week talking
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: to a lot of partials there. Absolutely devastated because everyone
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: was planning on the chiefiness to gay about three weeks
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: ago and everyone was pretty happy with that advice and
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: to come out on Thursday, and the change over the
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: drop of a hat so close to Christmas has just
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: thrown everybody in the turmoil and the partials have been
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: speaking to her saying, well, their kids are at boarding school.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: They held them, hold them there based on the advice
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: they got three weeks ago. And now they're going to
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: come back from boarding school and can't come home. So
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: they're either going to spend Christmas alone in town they
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: can't be out with their families, or the family's got
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: to walk off the stations and come and spend that
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: two weeks with them in all Springs or whether it
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: be dar On to Catherine, it just it makes no sense.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Well, and Bill, you know that's obviously, like we've just
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: discussed talking about it from the partialist perspective and the concerns.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: That they've got.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Then when you talk about our essential workers, well, I'm
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: just not too sure what is going to happen with
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: some of those essential workers, some of those that work
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: in the health sector, our police officers, and indeed our teachers.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: If they were planning on going home, going to visit
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: family over the Christmas break, they come back, they've got
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: to do fourteen days then here in Darwen, Alice Springs
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: or Catherine before they can actually go back into one
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: of those remote areas.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Well, there's talk I've heard and I was speaking to
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: the principal of the school out here this morning. They're
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: saying that the Education Department particularly that they're classes of
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: central workers, so it's possible, and they're still trying to
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: work out the details that those people could return from
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: holidays and come back on the communities. But there's also
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: then the perception within the communities. And talk to the
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: people here at Sana Fresa today, they're pretty upset because
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: they've done the right thing, they've wined up and they've
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: got vaccinated. They've got one of the highest vaccination rates
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: in the Southern Region for their community. But they can't
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: go away and then come back to their community. They've
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: got to stay in Alice Springs there and they're asking
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: that question, well, why do we go and do all
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: this sort of stuff, What benefit is it for us? Now?
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: It doesn't make any sense. Is just it's of course,
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: apart from it's killed tourism here in Central Australia. Now,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: anyone coming across the board has going to stay in
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Central Australia. So like Lara King's Canyon and those smaller
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: resorts just outside of town like an only rely on
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: local content. Now anyone crossing our boarders is not allowed
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: to go around there and.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: It's going to be devastating.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I mean the Health Minister confirming on the show a
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: bit earlier this morning. That's the reality is that you
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: know that we need to wait or in some of
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: those communities, we're going to need to wait until till
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: all of those children aged between five and eleven are
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: able to get vaccinated.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: That's not actually.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Able to happen until January tenth. So how long are
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: we going to be waiting? Like our tourism sector is
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: already on its.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Knees well, and that's the thing. And this has been
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: going on for months and months and months, Katie, and
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: it's really really quite sad. Is this mixed messaging and
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: this policy on the fly from the government. It's really
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: really hurting our tourism sector. I said, this lightest run
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: hurts partials, hurts families. So many people were planning to aol,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: to go away or be bring family up to our
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: springs and now that's sort of that's thrown that out.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: We know what my son was planning to come over,
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  Speaker 3: but because we weren't going to be in a high
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: VAX area, he can't come to the territory. Now he's
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: got to stay at home in West Australia. It's affecting
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people across the board and they need
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: to get the messaging clear. They need to start, They
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: need to sit down and think about what they're going
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: to do before they just jump out in the media
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: and blurt it out without any planning to sit behind him,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: because it's really really affecting.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Territory in there, Phil Obviously, the other side of this
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: is that they say that it's all about making sure
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: that they protect the vulnerable. I mean, we know that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: our elective surgery wait times, for example, at the hospital
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: well and truly delayed.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: We know that the hospital just up.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Here in Darwin alone has obviously had those four code
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: yellows throughout the year.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure the health system there is also under stress.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, is the reality here that they actually have
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to do this because our health system can't code.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Well, we've been saying that for months and months that
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: our health system's been in crisis, Katie, and we've known
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: that we're going to be seeing COVID in our communities
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: and we're sitting back asking questions of what have the
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: government done to protect territories and to bolster our health sector.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Now we've been saying that they need to give the
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: Center for National Resiliens back to the FEDS, bring our
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: staff back into our critical care areas, within our hospitals
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: and our primary health areas. We need to look after
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: territoryans first. So if we see a major COVID our
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: break here and the territory. I shuddered to think what's
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: going to happen, Katy, because I don't think our health
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: system is ready to deal with it. They can put
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: all sorts of measures in place. I suppose to try
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: and slow things down, but COVID is already in our communities.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: We need to start thinking about how we can best
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: manage our health sector.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Bill, do we need to maybe look back at doing
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: something like the biosecurity signs again.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Well, some of the land councils and the communities have
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: done that themselves, have actually closed their communities down. So
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: we don't want people coming in here. We want to
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: protect the people in our communities. And I think that's
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: a good move from those communities and from those land councils.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: It shows the ownership and some self determination by those communities.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: I think that's a great move that the biosecurity areas
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: can only be enacted by the federal government. And I
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: do note that the teritory government went to the federal
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: government to do that at Robinson River just recently. Do
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: they need to start thinking about that more. Go to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: the federal government say hey, these are what these are
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: the things that we need to do to protect those communage,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: or those communities get together with their own land councils
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: and put in their own measures to protect themselves.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Well, Billyan, it's certainly going to be a very interesting week.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I know there are so many territorians concerned at this
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  Speaker 1: point in time, so many tourism operators are in contact
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: with us with their concerns. It's look, I really hope
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: that there are able to be some changes made in
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: this space. I don't think there's any harm in the
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: government saying, do you know what, We've had a second
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: look and we're going to tweak these few things to
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: try to make things a little bit better for the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory in this space.
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  Speaker 3: I think you're right, Katy, it needs to be a
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: little bit of common sense flight here. It's really simple.
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  Speaker 3: I said to blurt out a policy or procedure when
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: you're sitting in Darwin, but you've got to stop and
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: think how that affects our remote bridge, the people in
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  Speaker 3: the bush who, as Sarah Cook said earlier, I've been
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: doing the right thing. I've been sticking to the left
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: of the law, working with government to make things happen.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Only to the training aside at the I suppose at
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  Speaker 3: the last minute leading into Christmas, everybody needs a bit
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: of a rest, Everyone needs a bit of a break.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Everyone's been doing it really tough this year and now
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  Speaker 3: it said it's like that some of the communities and
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  Speaker 3: the partials, and certainly our tourism sector have been prevariably
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: trained under the.
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  Speaker 1: Gunner bus Well Bill Yan, the opposition health spokesperson, we
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: We'll have to leave it there. We'll talk to you
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: again very soon.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: Kank you