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Speaker 1: Joining us on the line right now is Bill Yan,

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Speaker 1: the opposition spokesperson for Health.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Bill, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: How are you not too bad?

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Speaker 1: Bill?

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Speaker 2: Why didn't you attend that briefing?

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Speaker 3: Well, the briefing that we've been trying to organize to

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Speaker 3: get an idea on what the government's road met looked like.

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Speaker 3: We needed the Chief Help Officers we spoke about last week,

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Speaker 3: Doctor Hegey is the best place person to be able

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Speaker 3: to provide their professional health advice as to what the

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Speaker 3: mandatary vaccination program is going to look like and brief

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Speaker 3: us on that. But the government just keep playing politics

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Speaker 3: with this. They won't allow the Chief Help Officer or

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Speaker 3: his deputy to actually come and brief so we still

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Speaker 3: don't know exactly what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Bill.

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Speaker 1: The Chief Minister has issued a statement saying that this

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Speaker 1: is officially embarrassing because the colp don't want to tell

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Speaker 1: Territorians where they stand on mandatory vaccination. They've stood up

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Speaker 1: the Police Commissioner and the CEO of v Health, who

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Speaker 1: is a doctor and in charge of the Health department.

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Speaker 1: Could you not have gotten the information that you need

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Speaker 1: from the Police Commissioner and also obviously the CEO of

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Speaker 1: NT Health.

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Speaker 3: Oh, look, nothing against the CEO of NT Health. But

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Speaker 3: doctor Hagey, the Chief Health Officer is the person who

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Speaker 3: is making the decisions and providing the information to the

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Speaker 3: CEO of Health and also in most respects to the

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Speaker 3: Commissioner of Police. He's also the person who's providing that

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Speaker 3: information to the Chief Minister. So it would make sense

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Speaker 3: to get the message straight from the Chief Health Officer,

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Speaker 3: not second, third or fourth hand, as the Chief Minister

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Speaker 3: seems to think that we should get it. We need

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Speaker 3: to talk to doctor Hegey. We need to hear from

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Speaker 3: him what this role out is going to look like,

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Speaker 3: how we're going to do it, and if there's any

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Speaker 3: ramifications for territorians, it's pretty simple.

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Speaker 1: Well, there will be people listening this morning though, thinking

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Speaker 1: you know, this mandatory vaccination situation, it's one which isn't

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Speaker 1: going to go away. If the colp are not prepared

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Speaker 1: to attend a briefing, how are you going to determine

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Speaker 1: your policy stance on mandatory vaccinations.

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Speaker 2: I know you've made it.

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Speaker 1: Very clear that you want that briefing to be with

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Speaker 1: the Chief Health Officer, but surely you could have still

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Speaker 1: gotten the information from the Department.

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Speaker 3: Well, the COLP. We support vaccinations. The entire team is

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Speaker 3: we're all vaccinated. We're all out there in our communities

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Speaker 3: selling the vaccination message because people need to get vaccinated

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Speaker 3: to protect the territory and protect territorians. But again, it's

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Speaker 3: that detail that we need from the Chief Health Officer.

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Speaker 3: We don't need any bureaucratic or political spin put on

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Speaker 3: this message. We need the nuts and bolts and the

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Speaker 3: detail and that professional level of knowledge from the Chief

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Speaker 3: Health Officer. He's the person who's making these decisions. We

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Speaker 3: need to hear it from him and that way will

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Speaker 3: be best place to make a decision as to where

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Speaker 3: the seal piece stands. Again, as I said, we certainly

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Speaker 3: pro vaccination. Let's get jabs in arms to protect everybody.

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Speaker 3: It's just that other detail that we need from doctor.

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Speaker 2: Haggy so Bell, what is the plan now?

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Speaker 1: Has the government given you any indication as to whether

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Speaker 1: there will be a briefing with the Chief Health Officer.

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Speaker 3: No, we haven't heard anything at this stage, Katie, which

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Speaker 3: is a bit of a worry. We're coming up to

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Speaker 3: two weeks soon this Wednesday, I believe it will be

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Speaker 3: two weeks since the Chief Minister laid out his roadmap

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Speaker 3: as to what things are going to look like into

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Speaker 3: the future. So we asked for briefing on that day,

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Speaker 3: the day that that press release was done, and here

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Speaker 3: we are coming up to two weeks and we still

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Speaker 3: haven't heard anything, and that's pretty deplorable by government. They

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Speaker 3: should be out there and being open and clear about

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Speaker 3: their messaging. And that's for the Seal and the independence.

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Speaker 3: We represent a large proportion of the terr bell.

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Speaker 1: I know some people listening this morning will be thinking,

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Speaker 1: is the COLP just being petty about this?

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Speaker 3: No, certainly not, Katie. We need that professional health information

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Speaker 3: from doctor Hegey or his deputy. They're the people making

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Speaker 3: the decisions. They're the people at are best placed to

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Speaker 3: provide that information to us, and you need that level

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Speaker 3: of detail and that level of information to make a

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Speaker 3: decision and to provide I suppose a policy and a viewpoint.

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Speaker 3: So that's why we're really keen to meet with the

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Speaker 3: Chief Health Officer to get that information from him.

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Speaker 1: Bell. I know I asked you this a couple of

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Speaker 1: times last week, but I'll ask you again, what is

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Speaker 1: your policy? Do you support mandatory vaccination or are you

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Speaker 1: not prepared to say until you've had a briefing with

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Speaker 1: the show.

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Speaker 3: We need that briefing from the show and that will

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Speaker 3: form our policy moving forward. As I said, we support vaccinations.

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Speaker 3: The CP opposition support vaccinations, and we promote it wherever

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Speaker 3: we can. I said, the vaccinations are quite important for

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Speaker 3: the future of the territory. But the mandatory vaccination that

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Speaker 3: have spoken about by the Chief Ministry, we need that

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Speaker 3: detail from the Chow for us to be able to

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Speaker 3: make that decision and then to go out to our

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Speaker 3: constituents and then sell that message.

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Speaker 2: I mean, do you reckon.

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Speaker 1: You're still able to say that though, Bill, given the

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Speaker 1: fact that obviously have now turned down that briefing with

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Speaker 1: the Chief Executive of Health. I mean, some people listening

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Speaker 1: this morning will be thinking to themselves, come on, you

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Speaker 1: could have had that briefing on Friday and you could

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Speaker 1: have formed your opinion and your policy settings.

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Speaker 3: Oh look, I don't know if the CEO of Health

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Speaker 3: would be the best person and the best placed person

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Speaker 3: to provide us that information. Has said nothing against the

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Speaker 3: CEO of Health, but the decisions on this have been

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Speaker 3: made by the Chief Health Officer, and the Chief Health

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Speaker 3: Officer then gives that information to the CEO of Health

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Speaker 3: and to everybody else, so it's quite imperative we get

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Speaker 3: the message straight from the source and hopefully said the

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Speaker 3: gun to government, stop playing politics with this mandatory vaccination

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Speaker 3: roll out and actually provide the Chief Health Officer some

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Speaker 3: time to come and talk to us to give us

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Speaker 3: that information. I don't think that's been petty at all.

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Speaker 3: I think that's just been quite reasonable to get the

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Speaker 3: right information from the right person.

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Speaker 1: Bill of one of the things that we're quite keen

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Speaker 1: to find more information out. And I'm assuming that that

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Speaker 1: members of the public, well they've been contacting us about this,

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Speaker 1: so I'm assuming the colp is as well. Is about

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Speaker 1: the traffic light system when it comes to travel, we

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Speaker 1: know that the Chief Minister had said that once we

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Speaker 1: reach that eighty percent vaccination rate, that we are going

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Speaker 1: to see some changes when it comes to travel and

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Speaker 1: home quarantine. So we will have that traffic light system

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Speaker 1: where we can go to green locations. It's obviously a

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Speaker 1: different policy when we talk about the amber or orange

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Speaker 1: locations and then when you talk about those that are

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Speaker 1: deemed read ie the locations where there are high rates

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Speaker 1: of COVID. The likes of Victoria and New South Wales

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Speaker 1: would fall into that category. At this point, Bill, do

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Speaker 1: you have concern about the way in which that may

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Speaker 1: impact our tourism sector and the way in which it

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Speaker 1: may impact well Territorians wanting to travel to go and

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Speaker 1: visit family over the Christmas period or do you think

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Speaker 1: it's fair enough.

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Speaker 3: Well, I know that the tourism industry have come out

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Speaker 3: and spoken about this and the effects that it might have.

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Speaker 3: Because I suppose COVID pops up just here and then

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Speaker 3: we have community outbreaks. It's a forever changing environment. So

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Speaker 3: for travel for anybody, particularly the tourism secret it's really difficult.

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Speaker 3: And look, we're coming up the Christmas. I know many

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Speaker 3: of us haven't been able to get away and see

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Speaker 3: our family, so it's certainly going to have an effect

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Speaker 3: on them. And then if you do manage to get

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Speaker 3: away and something happens, then the traffic light system rolls

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Speaker 3: in on you. Yeah, that it comes down to how

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Speaker 3: and where you may be able to quarantine, should you

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Speaker 3: be able to get back home. So some clarity, I think,

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Speaker 3: some good clarity on how that's going to look I

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Speaker 3: think is quite important for everybody.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and we will talk more about that.

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Speaker 1: We are going to be catching up with tourism Central

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Speaker 1: Australia just before ten o'clock this morning, Bill, We also

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Speaker 1: know obviously a lot of talk about some of those

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Speaker 1: remote communities and their vaccination rates not being where they

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Speaker 1: should be.

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Speaker 2: At this point.

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Speaker 1: The Chief Minister his office has sent through a statement

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Speaker 1: and said that if when we are ready to take

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Speaker 1: the next steps as part of the national Plan, there

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Speaker 1: are a handful of communities where the vaccination rate remains

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Speaker 1: low despite all the efforts of government, land councils and

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Speaker 1: local health services, that will not stop the territories progress.

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Speaker 1: We cannot wait forever to move forward because one or

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Speaker 1: two communities are holding back. If there are some communities

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Speaker 1: who don't reach high enough coverage of vaccination, we may

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Speaker 1: need to consider additional public health measures to help restrict

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Speaker 1: movement and the risk of spread, he says, But right

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Speaker 1: now our focus is on working together to get all

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Speaker 1: of those remote communities vaccinated. It certainly sounds as though

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Speaker 1: there's not going to be a ruling out of closing

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Speaker 1: off some of those remote communities if they don't reach

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Speaker 1: those vaccination targets.

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Speaker 2: What do you make of it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, that would be quite tragic, Katie, to restrict

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Speaker 3: the movement some of those people in those communities. But

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Speaker 3: I said, if I suppose that the choices, if they

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Speaker 3: are not getting vaccinated, then we do have to protect

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Speaker 3: them and the rest of the territory. But I think

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Speaker 3: if the government had to focus more on engagement and

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Speaker 3: it's commission communication program with those remote communities earlier, and

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Speaker 3: I think we may have seen some better vaccination rates there,

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Speaker 3: some of them particularly, I've got one or two in

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Speaker 3: my electorate down in single digits for vaccinations. And it

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Speaker 3: was good have the Chief Health Officer and the Police

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Speaker 3: Commission down our way last week and getting out to

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Speaker 3: some of those communities and trying to dispel some of

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Speaker 3: the myths that came around with some of the earlier

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Speaker 3: vaccinations or the earlier brands. That was what caused a

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Speaker 3: lot of hesitancy out in the bush, and that's slowly changing.

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Speaker 3: I just I hope it changes a little bit quicker

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Speaker 3: and we get jabs in the arms of people. Certainly

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Speaker 3: the bush are going to be quite critical for us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is.

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Speaker 1: I know that you know that in some of those

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Speaker 1: as you've pointed out, in some of those remote locations,

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Speaker 1: those vax numbers.

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Speaker 2: Are really very low.

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Speaker 1: Bill, I mean, is it fair though, to the whole

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Speaker 1: of the Northern territory if some of those vaccination rates

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Speaker 1: are very low to prevent or to stop the whole

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Speaker 1: of the territory opening up because you know, because some

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Speaker 1: communities are struggling to get those vaccination rates up.

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Speaker 3: Well, I don't think it's fair that the rest of

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Speaker 3: the territory should have to be restricted because of one

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Speaker 3: two communities. We need to have a look at those

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Speaker 3: communities and figure out how we can protect those community sorry,

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Speaker 3: those communities best with those low vaccination rates, but also

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Speaker 3: then get out there and talk to the people and

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Speaker 3: get the message out and find out a why are

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Speaker 3: they not taking up the vaccinations and be what can

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Speaker 3: we do to get them vaccinated. So that's going to

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Speaker 3: be quite a key point and something that the government's

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Speaker 3: going to have to work quite hard at.

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Speaker 1: Well, Bill Yan, the opposition spokesperson for Health, I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for speaking with us.

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Speaker 3: Nowhere is Katig