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Speaker 1: Now the opposition leader Leah Finocchiaro joins me on the

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Speaker 1: line right now.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Leah.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, in to your listeners, Lea.

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Speaker 2: Are these changes a step in the right direction?

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Speaker 3: Oh? Without question? And you know it could have been

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Speaker 3: done a while ago. Katie, we've been talking about this

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Speaker 3: for a few weeks now that we're dragging our heels

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Speaker 3: when it comes to removing COVID restrictions that are not

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Speaker 3: necessary anymore. So I think this comes as welcome relief

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Speaker 3: to families and particularly businesses who've really been struggling with

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Speaker 3: workforce shortages, you know, and having well healthy COVID negative

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Speaker 3: people sitting at home for no reason.

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Speaker 1: Now, what did you think of the fact that the

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Speaker 1: definition of fully vaccinated has also changed?

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Speaker 3: So that was sort of always on the cards when

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Speaker 3: the vaccine mandate came in. It was worded wishy washy

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Speaker 3: enough to have include that third booster shot, which I

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Speaker 3: know has really annoyed a lot of people, excuse me,

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Speaker 3: but ultimately, as the Ministry has said, our vaccination rates

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Speaker 3: are very very high, and so it again begs the question,

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Speaker 3: as all of these restrictions loosen up and remove as

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Speaker 3: our vax rates that are very, very high. Why is

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Speaker 3: the government in a couple of weeks time going to

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Speaker 3: walk into Parliament and give the Chief Health Officer two years'

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Speaker 3: worth of power and at the same time remove the

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Speaker 3: state of emergency. I mean, it just doesn't stack up,

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Speaker 3: CATERI that in one hand, we can be moving to

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Speaker 3: live with COVID. We could be COVID is moving to

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Speaker 3: an endemic, not a pandemic anymore, and on the other hand,

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Speaker 3: the government are going to remove scrutiny of the chow

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Speaker 3: and give him two years worth of unpreded power. It

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Speaker 3: doesn't make any sense.

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Speaker 1: Leah, you and I have spoken about that on numerous occasions,

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Speaker 1: about the cho's powers being extended for two years. I

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Speaker 1: know that some people listening this morning will just be

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Speaker 1: thinking to themselves, why does it matter?

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Speaker 2: You know, shouldn't we.

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Speaker 1: Allow him to have those powers for the next two

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Speaker 1: years so that we're able to manage things with COVID.

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Speaker 3: Look, it really does matter, and it's a great question,

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Speaker 3: and people will be thinking it. It's nothing about Hugh Heggy.

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Speaker 3: It's not that Huugh Hegg is not a good glow

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Speaker 3: and you can trust him. I know some people think oh,

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Speaker 3: and he's decent and you can trust him. It's not

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Speaker 3: about that at all. And you know, if Hugh Hagg's

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Speaker 3: not tomorrow, is it going to be. What we've got

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Speaker 3: is a government. The only reason Hugh Heggy has any

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Speaker 3: power is because of the state of emergency, and that

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Speaker 3: is reserved for the most serious serious emergency. Cyclone, bloods

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Speaker 3: obviously pandemic. Now, if the government are going to say, okay,

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Speaker 3: there is no more state of emergency, we are not

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Speaker 3: at that higher level of threat, then all of the

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Speaker 3: power that came with that state of emergency should die

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Speaker 3: with it. Now, what the government are doing is trying

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Speaker 3: to have their cake and eat it too. They want

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Speaker 3: to be able to pass themselves on the back and say, look, everyone,

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Speaker 3: the state of emergency's gone, aren't we wonderful? We saved

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Speaker 3: your jobs, we saved your lives, We threw you a

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Speaker 3: kitchen sink. But at the same time giving the Chow

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Speaker 3: all of that power that should only be reserved for

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Speaker 3: those most serious states of emergency, giving it to him

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Speaker 3: for two whole years without any reporting requirement to Parliament.

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Speaker 1: Is there going to be opportunity when Parliament sits in

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Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks.

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Speaker 2: I believe it's it's sort of mid May.

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Speaker 1: Is there going to be the opportunity for this legislation

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Speaker 1: to be debated and any opportunity for there to be

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Speaker 1: changes made with this? Oh?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely so. This legislation will be debated and we will

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Speaker 3: be fiercely contesting it. Katie. We've had a lot of

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Speaker 3: feedback from people who just think it's a bridge too far,

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Speaker 3: as unnecessary. It has not been justified by the government. Ultimately,

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Speaker 3: if COVID comes back, or there's a new variation, or

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Speaker 3: if something terrible happens, the government can just reinstate the

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Speaker 3: state of emergency immediately, just like they have been doing

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Speaker 3: purposely well for two years, and bangs, the show gets

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Speaker 3: all the power they need. Our issue is not with

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Speaker 3: not responding to COVID. Our issue is you cannot just

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Speaker 3: take away all of that power that our jurisdiction has

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Speaker 3: said should be reserved only for the most serious circumstances

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Speaker 3: and just give it to an unelected official for two

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Speaker 3: years without even requiring them to report the Parliament on

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Speaker 3: why they're making the decisions and on what basis they're

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Speaker 3: making those decisions. So it doesn't stack up it doesn't

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Speaker 3: pass the pub test. There's you know, it's worked well

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Speaker 3: for two years, why can't we keep following that same model?

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Speaker 3: So you know, people can tune in. There's a petition

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Speaker 3: going around pushing back against this change. It's completely unnecessary

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Speaker 3: and unjustified and it's it's really an abhorrent abuse of power.

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Speaker 2: All right, So there is a petition. Who has that

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Speaker 2: been set up by?

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Speaker 3: I don't know, Actually I've seen it going around and

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Speaker 3: the wording I think is bang on. It's very very accurate.

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Speaker 3: It's basically says that this is this goes too far,

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Speaker 3: This is too much power for one unelected official to have.

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Speaker 3: They're not accountable to the people. They're not they can't

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Speaker 3: be scrutinized by the Parliament. And that the current status

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Speaker 3: quosystem has saved our lives and saved our job so far, Katie.

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Speaker 3: So why you know, if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

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Speaker 3: Why all of a sudden this government needs to do this?

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Speaker 3: So get online? Change dot org gets on there somewhere.

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Speaker 3: I don't know what it's called, and I don't know

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Speaker 3: what the person's name is, but it shouldn't be too

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Speaker 3: hard to find.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'll have a look at it and try and

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Speaker 1: suss out how many people have signed that petition as well. Now, Leah,

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Speaker 1: one of the other concerns obviously in the territory right

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Speaker 1: now is this state of the economy and indeed the

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Speaker 1: state of our population. We know the latest COMSEXT State

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Speaker 1: of the State report has ranked the Northern Territory in

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Speaker 1: last place out of all Australian states and territories for

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Speaker 1: the fourteenth consecutive quarter. Now, the Northern Territory government told

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Speaker 1: nine News last night the report's nonsense. However, you look

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Speaker 1: at that the quarterly reports showed that indicators such as

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Speaker 1: retail spending, population growth and housing finance commitments were on

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Speaker 1: a downward trajectory in the Northern Territory for April for

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Speaker 1: that April twenty twenty two edition. Now, although obviously general

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Speaker 1: economic activity spiked compared to the last decade average, the

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Speaker 1: territory's economy does remain the weakest in the nation. Leah,

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Speaker 1: is this report nonsense? Like the acting Chief Minister has

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Speaker 1: publicly suggested.

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Speaker 3: I am gobsmacked at the way in which the Labor

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Speaker 3: government have approached this. To call a concept report misleading

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Speaker 3: nonsense just shows how out of their depth there are

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Speaker 3: and this comes from our worst performing treasurer in our history, Katie,

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Speaker 3: followed by our worst performing government. I mean the modeling,

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Speaker 3: the concept use is very similar modeling to what the

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Speaker 3: Reserve Bank use is and what the acting Chief Minister

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Speaker 3: and the cause when she was treasurer and the chief

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Speaker 3: Minister he is the treasurer continuously ignore concept. What they

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Speaker 3: forget is that Deloitte Access Economics put out their data

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Speaker 3: yesterday as well. Matt's data was actually emailed around to

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Speaker 3: everyone by the Northern Territory Department of Treasury. They use

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Speaker 3: Department of Treasury figures and statistics. It very clearly shows

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Speaker 3: that our inflation in the territory is almost double other states.

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Speaker 3: We've got the lowest economic growth and compared to our nation,

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Speaker 3: our growth is point two percent, Australia's tracking at three

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Speaker 3: point three percent, Katie. I mean it is appalling that

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Speaker 3: for fourteen sent kive quarters or three and a half years,

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Speaker 3: we have ranked dead lass every single time.

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Speaker 2: Please you can he do these indicators matter?

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Speaker 1: Like?

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Speaker 2: Why do these reports matter?

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Speaker 1: Because to a lot of people listening this morning, they

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Speaker 1: might be thinking, oh, I don't really know what that means.

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Speaker 2: Why does it matter.

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Speaker 3: It matters because it shows us that this is a scorecard,

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Speaker 3: you know, is how is our economy going? Are we

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Speaker 3: creating jobs, are we creating investment? Are we making the

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Speaker 3: territory a great place to live and work? And so

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Speaker 3: this scorecard has put a big F on the front

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Speaker 3: of the Gunner government and it's been an F for

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Speaker 3: fourteen quarters or three and a half years. So when

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Speaker 3: you compare when you look at our population growth, for example,

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Speaker 3: which is critical to people being in shops, spending money,

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Speaker 3: kids being in schools, people building and buying houses, all

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Speaker 3: of these types of things. You know, businesses having enough

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Speaker 3: people to employ. We've got ondred. Our population is one

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Speaker 3: hundred and forty percent down on the ten year average.

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Speaker 3: You know, when inflation is doubled out of other states,

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Speaker 3: it means people can't afford to here. That directly hits

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Speaker 3: the pockets of mums and dads in terms of having

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Speaker 3: a higher cost of living. So it's really critically important

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Speaker 3: report card stuff and it shows territory and that, you know,

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Speaker 3: Michael Gunner's rhetoric around being the comeback capital is absolutely

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Speaker 3: wrong and the only thing that keeps coming back is

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Speaker 3: the criminals. Our economy is not on the ups. It

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Speaker 3: is on the down, and it's appalling, and it's territory

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Speaker 3: and to suffer.

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Speaker 1: What do you think could be done differently to try

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Speaker 1: to turn things around.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, this government commission the Turk Report. They've done

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Speaker 3: absolutely nothing with it. It's been a total joke. We

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Speaker 3: have tried to put our own legislation forward around having

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Speaker 3: a Territory Coordinator, which would see the way in which

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Speaker 3: we approach major projects just completely reformed and done completely differently.

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Speaker 3: We would create an Approval of fast Track Task Force

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Speaker 3: to make sure that approval times across government are half.

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Speaker 3: You know, we want to make sure that our mining

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Speaker 3: industry is an attractive that the territory is an attractive

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Speaker 3: place in the mind industry to invest, and so we

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Speaker 3: would scrap the government's very complicated hybrid mining tax and

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Speaker 3: replace it for an ad the law and model. You know,

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Speaker 3: there's a number of things that can be done very

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Speaker 3: very quickly. There are things that we've tried to push

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Speaker 3: forward and the government have shut us down on. But

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Speaker 3: ultimately these scorecards from both Deloitte and from Consext are

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Speaker 3: a damning indictment of the way this government has led

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Speaker 3: the territory. We've got eight billion dollars debt and nothing

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Speaker 3: to show for it but a grand stand and a

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Speaker 3: thirty five million dollar payout to use criminals. I mean,

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Speaker 3: the whole place is burning to the ground, Katie, and

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Speaker 3: it's an absolute tragedy because this is the best place

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Speaker 3: in the world. Our economy could be booming if this

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Speaker 3: government just cared a little bit more and did something different.

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Speaker 3: You know, Ultimately, it's a big f on this report card,

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Speaker 3: Katie Eleia.

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Speaker 1: One of the areas where people are certainly calling for

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Speaker 1: more action is when it comes to the issues that

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Speaker 1: we've got with anti social behavior and crime around the

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Speaker 1: place right now. The police Minister was on the show

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Speaker 1: last week and said that there would be some announcements

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Speaker 1: made Lea. I mean, are you like the rest of

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Speaker 1: us and wondering exactly when they're going to make some

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Speaker 1: announcements or when they're going to make some change in

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Speaker 1: this space and what do you think should be happening?

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Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, what is.

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Speaker 3: It going to take. What level of crime is going

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Speaker 3: to be high enough, abhorrent enough, obscene enough for them

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Speaker 3: to do something? To me, we will and to truly

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Speaker 3: have passed that limit. We've tried to bring legislation to

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Speaker 3: reform bail, to toughen the way in which this government

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Speaker 3: has weakened laws. We've currently got legislation to be debated

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Speaker 3: in a couple of weeks to strengthen laws around assaults

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Speaker 3: on territory workers. We want government to support us on

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Speaker 3: that and send a message to workers, police and bos

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Speaker 3: at assaulting someone in their job is not okay. But

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Speaker 3: you know, I mean even over the weekend and that

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Speaker 3: weekend and mate of them mate that in Parmesan had

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Speaker 3: their windows smashed, you know, I mean the kids were

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Speaker 3: lining up out front of the old Bunnings in Parmesan

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Speaker 3: ready for the Antic March and they were all standing

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Speaker 3: in glass. There were children picking up pieces of glass

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Speaker 3: katie on end Ack Day while they waited to march.

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Speaker 3: This is not the territory I grew up in that

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Speaker 3: I want my children to grow up in. And this

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Speaker 3: government needs to shake themselves and come to terms with

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Speaker 3: the fact that we are in a crime crisis and

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Speaker 3: it's people's lives they are destroying as a result of it,

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Speaker 3: and our population to crime in these economic reports show

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Speaker 3: that people are leaving in drove and a big part

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Speaker 3: of that reason is not just economy, it's because of.

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Speaker 2: Crime, Leah.

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Speaker 1: One of the other issues is obviously alcohol in communities,

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Speaker 1: not just here in the larger town centers, but in

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Speaker 1: those remote communities.

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Speaker 2: It continues to be discussed.

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Speaker 1: On the show yesterday we heard from both the Police Association,

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Speaker 1: the CEO and also the CEO of am SAND about

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Speaker 1: their concerns around this legislation changing, Leah. This legislation, as

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Speaker 1: I understand it, it's going to be introduced into parliament

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Speaker 1: next month. Should this pass or does there need to

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Speaker 1: be some consultation before we see licenses in remote communities?

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, this is a really very frustrating situation

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Speaker 3: because the reason that this legislation has been in place

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Speaker 3: for ten years, so that from the very day that

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Speaker 3: it started ten years ago, we knew it was going

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Speaker 3: to expire on the thirtieth of June. We as a

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Speaker 3: community and I know us as an opposition, have been

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Speaker 3: talking about the expiration coming for at least two years,

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Speaker 3: and we've been saying there needs to be meaningful consultation

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Speaker 3: with communities. It needs to be community led on whether

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Speaker 3: or not they want to have community social clubs or

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Speaker 3: licenses or whatever that situation as we transition back to

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Speaker 3: normalizing alcohol is. And yet instead what we've had is

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Speaker 3: two months out from the deadline, the government just introduced legislation.

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Speaker 3: There's been no meaningful consultation, no frameworks. The community needs

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Speaker 3: to operate within to be able to determine whether or

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Speaker 3: not they actually want alcohol back in their communities, and

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Speaker 3: no one is prepared.

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Speaker 2: So so do they need to hold this legislation?

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Speaker 1: I mean, do they need to actually go all right,

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Speaker 1: we're not going to be able to introduce this in mail,

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Speaker 1: We're not going to Is it being introduced or is

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Speaker 1: it being debated in May?

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Speaker 2: But either way be debated.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll be debated and passed in mate, because that's

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Speaker 3: what they want to do.

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Speaker 1: So do you think they need to hold Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, I just don't have confidence.

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Speaker 3: I Mean the reason I wouldn't put a hard and

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Speaker 3: fast it should be halted is because I've got no

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Speaker 3: confidence that if they kick the can down the road,

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Speaker 3: there's going to be any better outcome. I mean, I

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Speaker 3: think what is so frustrating about this is it just

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Speaker 3: shows how little they actually care about this. I mean

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Speaker 3: that as a way, alcohol feels violent and harm is

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Speaker 3: destroying our community. Is just something this government can't seem

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Speaker 3: to grapple with and come to terms. They'd rather have

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Speaker 3: minimum law prices and put more money in the pockets

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Speaker 3: of bottle os and you know, make cops stand on

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Speaker 3: bottle shops than actually speak to people, have programs in

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Speaker 3: place to live with alcohol, have mandatory rehabilitation for people,

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Speaker 3: and prepare people for living with alcohol, not having a

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Speaker 3: prohibition approach.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, I tell you we've got to do something differently.

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Speaker 1: We certainly have to do something differently at the moment

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Speaker 1: because whatever is you know, whatever's happening is is not

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Speaker 1: working at this point. And all you need to do

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Speaker 1: is go for a walk down the street to see

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Speaker 1: the concerns that a lot of people have got. Leah Finocchiaro,

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Speaker 1: we are going to have to leave it there. As always,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thank you. Take care of me.

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Speaker 2: Thank you,