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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is the COLP

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Speaker 1: Senator for the Northern Territory, Sam McMahon. Good morning to

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Speaker 1: your senator.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: How are you very well?

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Speaker 2: Now?

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Speaker 1: Before I get into the issue of boarding school quarantine,

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Speaker 1: I just want to ask we know that we've been

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Speaker 1: talking about the health system being at crisis point at

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Speaker 1: this point in time. We spoke to cath Hatcher last

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Speaker 1: week about the possibility of bringing one hundred nurses across

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Speaker 1: from overseas. We spoke to doctor Robert Parker just a

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Speaker 1: little while ago and talked about some of the concerns

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Speaker 1: that we've got right now about surgery, some of those

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Speaker 1: elective surgeries being delayed time and time again because we

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Speaker 1: do not have theater nurses able to support those surgeons

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Speaker 1: when they're doing this work. Senator, do we need federal

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Speaker 1: intervention here?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, Katie, it is a disaster at the moment

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Speaker 2: and things are pretty dire. I was speaking to a

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Speaker 2: health professional just yesterday who said, basically, Darwin's on permanent

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Speaker 2: code yellow. It's not an unusual thing. It's just a

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Speaker 2: permanent thing at the moment. And yes, we need federal intervention,

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Speaker 2: and we do have federal intervention. Look, we provide half

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Speaker 2: a billion dollars a year to the NPT government for

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Speaker 2: health and we also provide a whole pile of other programs.

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Speaker 2: What we're trying to do, and what I've been trying

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Speaker 2: to do for the last couple of years, is get

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Speaker 2: more aged care places. This will take a lot of

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Speaker 2: pressure off the health department and our hospitals, particularly in Darwin.

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Speaker 2: So I've managed to get one hundred and ten extra

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Speaker 2: age care places allocated and fully funded by the federal government.

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Speaker 2: We're just trying to get the Northern Churchary government to

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Speaker 2: roll those out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess the big thing here is making

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Speaker 1: sure that there is somewhere where they can go. Do

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Speaker 1: we need to build a facility? What do we need

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Speaker 1: to do?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, it's going to be a combination of increasing

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Speaker 2: places at existing facilities and building new facilities. Currently, Darwin

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Speaker 2: has three times the national average of aged care people

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Speaker 2: people are suitable to go into age care that are

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Speaker 2: occupying hospital beds. So these people need age care facilities.

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Speaker 2: They don't need to be in hospital, but they're currently

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Speaker 2: taking up beds and resources.

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Speaker 1: Well, and it's something though that I know we've been

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Speaker 1: talking about for a long time. It's something that was

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Speaker 1: raised with me, probably a year even longer ago, by

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Speaker 1: a listener who could not get a spot for her

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Speaker 1: father in an age care facility. So why is this

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Speaker 1: taking so long? I mean, why is it taken so long?

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Speaker 1: Firstly for the federal government too, you know, to agree

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Speaker 1: to those additional beds, but also for us to actually

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Speaker 1: roll them out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, look, I don't know why it's taking so

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Speaker 2: long for it to be rolled out. I mean these

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Speaker 2: additional these one hundred and ten additional residential age care

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Speaker 2: places that I'm talking about. You know, they started to

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Speaker 2: be allocated back in twenty eighteen nineteen, so we've been

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Speaker 2: allocating funding and places for quite some time. The Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory government seems to be having difficulty converting that funding

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Speaker 2: into reality. So you know, I'm more than willing and

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Speaker 2: the Health Department. I've spoken to Greek Hunt and Richard Colbeck,

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Speaker 2: the Minister for age Care, and we're more than happy

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Speaker 2: to work with the NT government to try and get

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Speaker 2: these places rolled out and fast tracked.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think it needs to happen sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 1: We know that there are so many issues right now

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Speaker 1: when we talk about the way things are happening within

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Speaker 1: our health system, are the need for additional staff. Does

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Speaker 1: the federal government support trying to bring across one hundred

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Speaker 1: extra staff from overseas?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and we can do that in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: You know, we've got the facilities. We've got Howard Springs,

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Speaker 2: We've got Bladon Village. We have got the facilities to

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Speaker 2: bring in staff from overseas and to quarantine them and

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Speaker 2: to then have them come into our system. And we

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Speaker 2: have a long history of doing this. Part of this

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Speaker 2: crisis at the moment is because of border closures because

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Speaker 2: we do traditionally get a lot of our nurses, doctors,

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Speaker 2: and other allied health workers from overseas and they're not

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Speaker 2: coming in at the moment. But we definitely have the

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Speaker 2: capacity to do that and federal government definitely supports that.

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Speaker 1: And would the federal government provide some additional funding in

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Speaker 1: order for this to happen?

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Speaker 2: Well, Oo, Katie, that's something that I'd have to take

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Speaker 2: up with see the Health minister. I mean, at the moment,

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Speaker 2: the provision of quarantines its squarely with the states and territories,

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Speaker 2: so you know it is up to the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: government to provide quarantine facilities, but if they're unable to

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Speaker 2: do that and they need a hand, they're more than

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Speaker 2: welcome to contact me and I will see what I

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Speaker 2: can organize for them.

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Speaker 1: Well, Senator, let's move along, because an issue that our

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Speaker 1: listeners have been in contact with us about is kids

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Speaker 1: at boarding school who are really concerned that they're not

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Speaker 1: able to get their kids home. We don't really well

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Speaker 1: for some of them, they really don't know when they're

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Speaker 1: going to be able to get their kids home under

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Speaker 1: the current model. This is something that you've issued a

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Speaker 1: statement about over the course of the weekend and said

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Speaker 1: that we really need to make sure that we are

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Speaker 1: signing up to this National code. Firstly, what exactly is

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Speaker 1: this National code and would it mean that we're able

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Speaker 1: to get these territory kids home.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, Katie, it's a problem that we've realized for

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Speaker 2: quite some time now with border closures and restrictions that

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Speaker 2: getting borders back home the school holidays is proving a

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Speaker 2: major issue and a major headache. And that's why we

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Speaker 2: came up with this National Code. It was agreed to

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Speaker 2: at national cabinets, so all the premiers and Chief Ministers

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Speaker 2: agreed to implement it and it provides for the unimpeded

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Speaker 2: return of boarding students, particularly important here in the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory because we have virtually no boarding facilities in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, so most of our students from remote towns

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Speaker 2: and properties need to travel into state. Most of them

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Speaker 2: go to South Australia or to Queensland and we need

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Speaker 2: to be able to get them home. And at the

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Speaker 2: moment the Northern Territory Government, although they've signed up to

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Speaker 2: the code, have not implemented it.

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Speaker 1: So does the code or would this code actually mean

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Speaker 1: that the kids are able to come back to the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory and not have to quarantine out at Howard Springs.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, Katie. The code provides for them to be

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Speaker 2: able to come home and to be able to if

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Speaker 2: quarantine or isolation is required, to be able to do

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Speaker 2: that at home where appropriate isolation can be provided, which

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Speaker 2: it can in the majority of these circumstances. Most of

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Speaker 2: these kids are from very isolated areas and very isolated

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Speaker 2: properties where home quarantine is extremely viable. Now we do

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Speaker 2: acknowledge in part of the code, we do acknowledge that

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Speaker 2: children from remote indigenous communities pose a particular problem because

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Speaker 2: they may not have suitable isolation premises, and that that

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Speaker 2: needs to be dealt with on a case by case basis.

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Speaker 2: But you know, the code dictates that everything must be

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Speaker 2: done to allow students to freely travel across borders and

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Speaker 2: to isolate at home.

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Speaker 1: Senator, do you have any idea how many territory kids

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Speaker 1: this is impacting right now?

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Speaker 2: No, Katie, I'm not sure of the exact number, but

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Speaker 2: it's certainly a lot. I'm getting lots of called and

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Speaker 2: emails to my office. And as I said, the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 2: you know, whereas in Queensland, a lot of kids from

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Speaker 2: rural properties will go to boarding school in Queensland because

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Speaker 2: there are boarding facilities, but we don't have enough facilities

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Speaker 2: for the students that need to board, so most of

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Speaker 2: our kids go into State.

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Speaker 1: So Senator, from your perspective, what needs to happen here.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's quite simple, Katie. Like I said, Michael Gunner

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Speaker 2: has been at National Cabinet. He's agreed to this code.

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Speaker 2: It's been put to him and he's agreed to it.

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Speaker 2: What he and Minister Files need to do now is

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Speaker 2: just implement it. Just write the health orders, just implement

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Speaker 2: the code that you've already agreed to, and then it's done.

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Speaker 1: Well, Senator Sam McMahon, it's good to speak with you

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Speaker 1: this morning. We have run out of time. We'll talk

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Speaker 1: to you again very soon. No worries, thanks, thank you,