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Speaker 1: Well, as you just heard from the Opposition leader Leofanocchiaro,

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Speaker 1: she's calling for the Chief Minister to release the documents

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Speaker 1: and information taken into that. Now. I think it's a

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Speaker 1: infamous cabinet meeting which saw the approval of a twelve

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Speaker 1: million dollar grandstand grant for the Turf Club.

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Speaker 2: So this sagur is far from over.

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Speaker 1: We extensively covered the release of that eleven page statement

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Speaker 1: by the Turf Club chair Brett Dixon yesterday some pretty

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Speaker 1: serious claims. Now he's launched legal action to overturn findings

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Speaker 1: of the recent Ekak report. In that statement, he claims

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Speaker 1: that the decision by the Chief Minister, Michael Gunner and

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Speaker 1: his cabinet ministers to give the Darwin Turf Club twelve

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Speaker 1: million dollars was made the same morning the club put

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Speaker 1: forward its submission for funding support. So in that statement

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Speaker 1: he said, I do not know what material Cabinet considered

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Speaker 1: beyond the submission provided by the management of the club.

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Speaker 1: The Minister for Racing, Gaming and Licensing, Natasha Files, joins

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Speaker 1: me on the show right now.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to your minister.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, good morning listening.

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Speaker 1: Now, Minister, my understanding is that you and Minister Lawla

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Speaker 1: have both confirmed that the Chief Minister took that submission

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Speaker 1: into cabinet.

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Speaker 2: Is that correct? Yes, Katie, Now have you read through

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Speaker 2: the statement provided by Brett Dixon.

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, I have read the statement that Brett Dixon

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Speaker 3: circulated earlier this week to the media into a number

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Speaker 3: of individuals. But Katie, let's just put this into a context.

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Speaker 3: We have had an eighteen month investigation by the IKA,

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Speaker 3: a very thorough investigation that has substantial powers, thousands of

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Speaker 3: documents and a significant period of time, and they have

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Speaker 3: made recommendations and they have made findings, but none of

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Speaker 3: those have been against the Chief Minister or the cabinet.

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Speaker 3: Of course, we have acknowledged the process and the process

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Speaker 3: has changed since then. But the context in which this

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Speaker 3: grant was awarded and the purpose for the grant we

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Speaker 3: still support. It was the deceptive behavior from the turf

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Speaker 3: Club board after that when we asked questions that we're

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Speaker 3: concerned about. But we certainly in terms of the IICAC

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Speaker 3: there is investig there is wasn't it thorough investigation, there's

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Speaker 3: recommendations and we're working to put those in place.

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Speaker 1: We've definitely covered off on the fact that the IKAC

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Speaker 1: has not been able to look into the you know,

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Speaker 1: the cabinet process. And in Brett Dixon's statement, he said,

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Speaker 1: I do not know what material cabinet considered beyond the

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Speaker 1: submission provided by the management of the club.

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Speaker 2: What material did the cabinet consider?

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Speaker 3: So a memo went to cabinet. Dublin's are elected to

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Speaker 3: make the decisions, Katie.

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Speaker 1: And in the court, Yeah, so what material though? Aside

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Speaker 1: from a memo? What what went to cabinet?

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Speaker 2: Was that all we.

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Speaker 3: Had material that came to cabinet, Katie, a memo, a

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Speaker 3: recommendation from the department that we should support this project.

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Speaker 3: This was a project about jobs in construction and jobs

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Speaker 3: into their future.

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Speaker 2: So watch department. Which department was it?

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, this was, as we know, to the Chief Minister,

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Speaker 3: as you've just questioned, took this in as it was

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Speaker 3: under his name. It was across several portfolios. But Katie,

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Speaker 3: going to remember the context. Right at that time, we

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Speaker 3: were trying to stimulate the economy. We needed projects that

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Speaker 3: were ready to go. We needed to create jobs in

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Speaker 3: construction to keep people here. We were in a huge

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Speaker 3: slump following that post inpex construction phase Now, the economy

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Speaker 3: has certainly turned and things have changed rapidly. But at

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Speaker 3: that point, as a government, we looked at a number

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Speaker 3: of projects and we approved a number of grants to

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Speaker 3: get projects out the door to have jobs at that

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Speaker 3: time and jobs into the future.

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Speaker 1: But so you said, you did say there though, You

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Speaker 1: did say there though that this was about creating jobs

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Speaker 1: and getting the territory out of the slump that we

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Speaker 1: were in. So was there a document from treasury? Was

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Speaker 1: there supporting documentation from treasury?

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, we had documents bought in, we had a memo,

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Speaker 3: we had a recommendation from the department. This was a

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Speaker 3: market led proposal, which, for your listeners, is when people

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Speaker 3: have ideas or a concept, they bring that to government

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Speaker 3: and it goes through a market led proposal. Obviously, there's

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Speaker 3: some projects that government drives and government wants that project

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Speaker 3: and they put that out to tender. But this is

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Speaker 3: a way in which that other people can bring ideas

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Speaker 3: to government. But we were focused on jobs at that point. Significantly,

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Speaker 3: this went through process as Katie and cabinet is elected

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Speaker 3: to make decisions.

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Speaker 1: So taking that again into account, talking about the job's

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Speaker 1: factor here, I would suspect that you know that the

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Speaker 1: department that is best place to be able to say

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Speaker 1: whether this is a job creating project or not would

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Speaker 1: be Treasury.

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Speaker 2: Was there supporting document from Treasury, So Katie.

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Speaker 3: This was a market led proposal, which is a way

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Speaker 3: in which government can engage with ideas and projects to

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Speaker 3: get things out the doors. This went through the cabinet process,

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Speaker 3: the cabinet decision was made. There is nothing more that

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Speaker 3: I can say in that space. Governments are elected to

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Speaker 3: make a decision. The cabinet made a decision and we

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Speaker 3: still back that.

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Speaker 1: So did Treasury recommend the approval of the Grand stad So.

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Speaker 3: Katie, we have acknowledged cabinet didn't know that. The submission

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Speaker 3: only came in hours before and the IKAK has some

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Speaker 3: findings around that. We've changed cabinet process since then so

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Speaker 3: that budget items only go in through the budget review

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Speaker 3: process of their is sarenness. But Katie, at the time

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Speaker 3: we agreed to a number of grants. We put a

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Speaker 3: number of projects in place. You saw a number of

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Speaker 3: infrastructure projects. Particularly there was infrastructure at Motorsport, infrastructure at

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Speaker 3: the Turf Club, infrastructure at the Rugby League Stadium. So

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Speaker 3: Katie this was in the context of creating jobs, and

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Speaker 3: we had that information brought to us as a cabinet.

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Speaker 3: We made a decision off that.

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Speaker 1: So if it was a market lead proposal, would it

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Speaker 1: have a Treasury document either saying that this should go

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Speaker 1: forward or it shouldn't.

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, in terms of a market led proposal, it's

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Speaker 3: a way in which that government departments can engage on

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Speaker 3: a project that keeps it hands off from a minister

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Speaker 3: so that there's no interception. We then had those documents

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Speaker 3: come to us as a cabinet. We didn't know at

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Speaker 3: the time that those documents had only presented some hours before.

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Speaker 3: But that process has changed since. But Katie, what we

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Speaker 3: need to talk about is the Turf Club Grandstand was

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Speaker 3: a grant awarded. We still backed out. We still think

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Speaker 3: it created jobs in construction and jobs ongoing. We have

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Speaker 3: changed processes around in which budget decisions are made going forward,

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Speaker 3: we accept the ikak's recommendations in principle. The ye take

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Speaker 3: of very Star investigations. Look, that made no findings against

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Speaker 3: the Chief Minister or any cabin.

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Speaker 1: There's no doubt that there are a couple of aspects

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Speaker 1: I think to this situation and You're right, you know,

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Speaker 1: definitely the process that was gone through by the Darwin

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Speaker 1: Turf Club is something that needs to be continue to

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Speaker 1: look at. But there is also the very real situation

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Speaker 1: here that the Northern Territory government, our cabinet did not

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Speaker 1: look into or did not actually do their homework before

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Speaker 1: awarding a twelve billion dollar grant.

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Speaker 2: And that's what I'm getting to. What I'm trying to

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Speaker 2: ask you did agree with you was there?

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Speaker 3: Did not know?

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Speaker 2: Well, how did you not know?

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Speaker 1: That's the whole thing that I'm trying to get to

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Speaker 1: is how is there a twelve million dollar grant awarded?

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Speaker 1: How does the Chief Minister walk in with a submission

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Speaker 1: under his arm without doing his homework.

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Speaker 3: But Katie, he did do his homework. The submission was

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Speaker 3: the document that came to cabinet. What cabinet didn't know

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Speaker 3: is that we had received some of those documents only

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Speaker 3: hours before. So the Cabinet supported the project in the

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Speaker 3: context of creating jobs. We had a submission presented to

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Speaker 3: us and we made that decision looking to stimulate the

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Speaker 3: economy for green light shovel ready projects.

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Speaker 2: Would you, as a minister, had a very.

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Speaker 3: Thorough investigation, Katie would you, as a minister in adequate?

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Speaker 1: Would you, as a minister taking a submission under your

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Speaker 1: arm that only came in that that documentation had only

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Speaker 1: come in that morning.

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Speaker 3: But the Chief Minister didn't know that, Katie.

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Speaker 2: How did he not know that.

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Speaker 3: Because he had a submission provided to him and he

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Speaker 3: has to entrust that the worst because undertaken at a

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Speaker 3: layer below that. Now we have sense change processes to

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Speaker 3: make sure that these things are considered as a part

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Speaker 3: of the budget cabinet process and missing sures that decisions

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Speaker 3: are made in the broader context of the territory economy

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Speaker 3: and the territory government budget.

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Speaker 1: Are you concerned that these other decisions that have gone

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Speaker 1: through the cabinet process then in which have not gone

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Speaker 1: through you know, the adequate measures that people would expect.

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, cabinet and government is elected to make decisions,

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Speaker 3: and at that time particularly, we were trying to we

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Speaker 3: were trying to get projects out the door. The context

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Speaker 3: in which this decision was made is we'll coming to

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Speaker 3: the end of the financial year. We had a significant

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Speaker 3: infrastructure budget, the Northern Territory government infrastructure budget with what

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Speaker 3: was keeping people in jobs and keeping people in the

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Speaker 3: territory we had and projects always run over, they run short.

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Speaker 3: We had budget infrastructure allocation that we needed to get

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Speaker 3: out the door to meet those commitments. For the infrastructure budget.

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Speaker 3: We had a number of projects and we warded grants

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Speaker 3: because these were projects were ready to go immediately.

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Speaker 1: So everybody in that cabinet room supported the decision.

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, the Westminster system of cabinet and it's a

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Speaker 3: difficult one and Leah would not understand this. I don't

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Speaker 3: think she even ever had a cabinet meeting as a

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Speaker 3: minister for a week. But cabinet is difficult. You have

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Speaker 3: robust conversations and if you don't agree with the decision,

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Speaker 3: you have to leave the cabinet. Now, this challenges you

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Speaker 3: at times you have to put your personal views aside.

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Speaker 3: But yes, everyone in that cabinet backs these decisions.

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Speaker 1: So obviously you backed the Chief minister. Do you steal

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Speaker 1: back the chief Minister?

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Speaker 2: Yes, Katie is I mean why.

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Speaker 1: Is everybody else in what Air at the moment or

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Speaker 1: where are all the other all of the other ministers.

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, we had a cabinet meeting out in what

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Speaker 3: Air yesterday which was really successful. We were engaging with

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Speaker 3: the community on a number of levels. Myself and Minister

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Speaker 3: Warden have returned to Darwin. Minister Moss, as you know,

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Speaker 3: had planned to attend that trip but she got caught

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Speaker 3: in the quarantining in the South Australian hotspot, Whilest visiting

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Speaker 3: family and I believe the other ministers are continuing onto

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Speaker 3: some communities today. But it meant myself a Minister Warden

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Speaker 3: never changed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I had seen that on Facebook that Minister Moss

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Speaker 1: was in Howard Springs, So why was she away?

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Speaker 2: Was that for work related or personal business?

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Speaker 3: Oh, Katie, this COVID situation panning on now eighteen months,

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Speaker 3: it's caught so many people and people have got to

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Speaker 3: make difficult decisions. She had some lead, that lead was

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Speaker 3: already rescheduled and I understand it. It was personal visit

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Speaker 3: to visit family. You know, these are difficult decisions. I've

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Speaker 3: got children that haven't seen their grandparents in a significant

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Speaker 3: period of time and she made that decision. She got

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Speaker 3: caught in a hot spot, but she did the right thing.

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Speaker 3: She bunkers down in South Australia and then she made

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Speaker 3: the decision to return to the territory. She entered quarantine

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Speaker 3: she's provided me with some updates and some inside information, Katie,

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Speaker 3: but she I understand because of where she was, she's

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Speaker 3: now been able to leave the facility all right.

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Speaker 1: Now, it is being reported today that some of the

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Speaker 1: darw And Turf Club board are planning to put their

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Speaker 1: hand up for those board positions again.

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Speaker 2: Do you think that they should?

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Speaker 3: Catty? I think that we need to because of this

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Speaker 3: report and the findings that have been made. We need

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Speaker 3: to have confidence in that board going forward. The Turf Club,

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Speaker 3: the third racing ant. The racing industry has amazing people involved,

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Speaker 3: but we need to make sure that the Darwin Turf

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Speaker 3: Club have, you know, people that have the best interest

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Speaker 3: of racing and growing the industry at heart. And so

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Speaker 3: we have made it clear that we want the current

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Speaker 3: board to resign and then we would like to see

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Speaker 3: new board members in their place.

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Speaker 2: But so, are you okay?

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Speaker 1: Do you think it's appropriate if some of those board

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Speaker 1: members that were previously on the board when the Grandstand, well,

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Speaker 1: when the whole lobbying process happened. Do you think that

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Speaker 1: it's appropriate if they put their hand up again?

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Speaker 3: It's o Katie. We need to have confidence in that

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Speaker 3: board and I believe that this report has made findings

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Speaker 3: against the number of people and they need to resign.

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Speaker 1: All right, Brett Dixon is calling into questions some well

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Speaker 1: leaks to some elements of the media. Then today it's

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Speaker 1: been reported that an incomplete version of a text message

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Speaker 1: sent by former NTUUS editor Williams to the Darwin Turf

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Speaker 1: Club chairman Brett Dixon was included in a.

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Speaker 2: Damning ICAQ report.

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Speaker 1: As we know the damning ICAQ report, after the newspaper

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Speaker 1: published a series of stories detailing allegations of misconduct within

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Speaker 1: the iqaq's own office. The nt News reports that are

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Speaker 1: draft reports sent to affected parties on May seven as

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Speaker 1: part of the natural justice process, did not include any

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Speaker 1: reference to the text message, but was included in the

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Speaker 1: final report, which was then released on June twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Are you concerned that the IKAK has misused their powers

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Speaker 1: in any way?

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Speaker 3: The Katie. The allegations that are being made are very serious.

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Speaker 3: We're not suggesting that they are true, but I do

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Speaker 3: believe that people need to have confidence and trust in

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territories KAK so as I understand, these matters

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Speaker 3: have been referred to the attention of the incoming IKAK.

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Speaker 3: We want territories to have that confidence in that body,

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Speaker 3: and so we believe that's the best step.

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Speaker 1: So when is that review into the IKAQ going to

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Speaker 1: be still made public?

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Speaker 3: Katie? I would have to seek advice on that specific

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Speaker 3: It's not within my ministerial portfolio. And that's a separate

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Speaker 3: matter to what we were just talking about. Government has

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Speaker 3: undertaken a review of the IQAQ Act and that's being

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Speaker 3: undertaken by the former Chief Executive of the Department of Justice,

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Speaker 3: someone who's been in the church of a very long time,

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Speaker 3: Greg Shanahan. I'd be happy to check the timing around

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Speaker 3: that for you.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that there needs to be a full

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Speaker 1: and public review, as the Opposition leader Leafanocchiaro is suggesting.

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Speaker 3: I think that Lee's suggested that the Parliament should review

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Speaker 3: the ICAC. Set's a very dangerous precedent. We must make

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Speaker 3: sure the IQAQ is independent. We must make sure the

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Speaker 3: IKAK has the trust of territories. So that's why we

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Speaker 3: have these matters. We've referred them to the attention of

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Speaker 3: the incoming icas that the matters that we were just

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Speaker 3: talking about separate to that, because we have an IQAQ

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Speaker 3: that's been in place for three or four years now.

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Speaker 3: We've asked for a review of the legislation in which

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Speaker 3: it acts under. So these are two separate issues, just

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Speaker 3: to make that clear if you're.

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Speaker 1: Listening, all right, Minnister, I do want to still cover

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Speaker 1: off on the situation with COVID. We know that some

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Speaker 1: of those hot spots have changed. Are you able to

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Speaker 1: just give us a brief update, yeah, Katie.

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Speaker 3: So we've seen very different situations down south. We've seen

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Speaker 3: Victoria and South Australia get on top of their COVID outbreaks.

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Speaker 3: South Australia with no cases. I haven't seen the figures

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Speaker 3: this morning. Victoria have as clearly gotten on top of theirs.

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Speaker 3: They've got some cases, but they've been in a large

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Speaker 3: majority in isolation. What we're seeing across the border in

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Speaker 3: this South Wales is a very different situation. We're seeing

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Speaker 3: case numbers grow and we're seeing the percentage of those

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Speaker 3: case numbers of people being infectious in the community also grow.

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Speaker 3: It is seeping. It started in the eastern suburbs of Sydney,

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Speaker 3: it's spread to the southwest and the west and it's

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Speaker 3: now in other locations. So our Chief Health Officer provided

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Speaker 3: the advice yesterday that we will declare the whole of

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Speaker 3: New South Wales as a hot spot. We know that that,

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Speaker 3: as I was just mentioning, has devastating impacts not only

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Speaker 3: for family and friends, but also for tourism. But we

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Speaker 3: have to keep the community safe so that we can

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Speaker 3: be open and we can be going about our big

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Speaker 3: without the risk of COVID coming in.

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Speaker 1: Now, Minister We yesterday spoke to Allan, whose wife is

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Speaker 1: in Howard Springs at the moment. She's just come back

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Speaker 1: from Sydney where she had to have back surgery and

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Speaker 1: has then been forced into quarantine. She has been trying

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Speaker 1: to get an exemption. Take a listen to what Alan

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Speaker 1: had to say yesterday. How has it been trying to

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Speaker 1: sort of communicate the issue and talk to the government

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Speaker 1: about this and the potential for an exemption.

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Speaker 4: Well, Jiantes had some contact with them over the last

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Speaker 4: couple of weeks when she applied for an exemption, but

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Speaker 4: the communication has been pretty poor. It's always been Joe

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Speaker 4: having to initiate. They said they'll get back to it.

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Speaker 4: Really has been a pretty poor effort from the government

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Speaker 4: in response to well that Department anyway, and response to

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Speaker 4: communicating what's happening with the exemption. I think at the

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Speaker 4: end of the day, the issue has been the government's

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Speaker 4: inability to deal with my wife's health needs at the facility,

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Speaker 4: and I still don't think they can complete that fleet.

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Speaker 4: And the fact that we arrived in Darwin yesterday at

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Speaker 4: the airport and they made Joe had made huge amounts

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Speaker 4: of told them lots of stuff that they need to

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Speaker 4: be aware of and how she needs to be supported,

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Speaker 4: but there was nothing yesterday from my wife. Was just

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Speaker 4: grueling pain after being on the plane for a little

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Speaker 4: seven hours all up, and so I had to spend

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Speaker 4: the next two to three hours dealing with being processed

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Speaker 4: at the airport. And it's the same at the facility.

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Speaker 4: There's no empathy here. Some of the people at the

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Speaker 4: Howard Springs facility had done a great job and my

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Speaker 4: wife's they had made that statement, But it comes back

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Speaker 4: to the bureaucracy, the lack of communication between departments. Nobody

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Speaker 4: knew Joeanne was going to need these the support at

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Speaker 4: the airport nothing.

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Speaker 1: Yes, you must be fairly disappointed, you know, to hear

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Speaker 1: how upset he is with how his wife is going

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Speaker 1: at the moment. I know that the family live on

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Speaker 1: a twenty acre property. They say that they're not after

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Speaker 1: special treatment, they just want to make sure that she's

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Speaker 1: got the support she requires after that surgery. I know

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Speaker 1: that there is a trial on in Alice Springs at

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Speaker 1: the moment, people quarantining at home.

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Speaker 2: Why not allow her that opportunity.

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Speaker 3: Oh, Katie, my heart goes out to that family, and

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Speaker 3: I am incredibly disappointed to hear those comments. I think

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Speaker 3: that we have an amazing team out there who works

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Speaker 3: very hard around the cloth. They stand up in different situations,

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Speaker 3: but something has clearly gone wrong here. I am aware

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Speaker 3: of this situation. It is an operational matter, but I

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Speaker 3: have sought the advice of the department through the Chief Executive,

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Speaker 3: and I will make it clear that I'm incredibly disappointed

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Speaker 3: to hear that feedback, Katie. In terms of your comment

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Speaker 3: around exemptions and alternative locations, that is a matter for

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Speaker 3: the Chief Health officer. These are clinical matters. We can

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Speaker 3: make them aware of it, but we cannot inter They

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Speaker 3: are making decisions to keep territory in safe each and

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Speaker 3: every day.

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Speaker 1: Will you look into then, whether she has got the

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Speaker 1: support that she requires out there following on from that,

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Speaker 1: you know, fairly serious back surgery. In terms of just

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Speaker 1: making sure that you know that she can do what

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Speaker 1: she needs to do with that recovery.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Katie, my office has already made contact with the

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Speaker 3: agency and asked for an update on this situation and

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Speaker 3: also to make sure that she has everything she needs.

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Speaker 3: But also into the future, you know, how can we

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Speaker 3: make sure that these processes do support these It's fairly

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Speaker 3: you know, rare circumstances. I imagine it's just a couple

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Speaker 3: of people from each fight, or just a handful at

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Speaker 3: any one time who were caught up there. Because people

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Speaker 3: are doing the right thing going into quarantine to protect

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Speaker 3: our community, we should provide them with that support. So again,

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Speaker 3: my thoughts to that family an operational matter, but I

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Speaker 3: certainly will provide guidance to the department that I'm not

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Speaker 3: happy with the comments.

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Speaker 1: That I've heard, Minister, just very quickly, we're running out

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Speaker 1: of time, but more vaccine, well more people able to

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Speaker 1: access the vaccine as of later this week, is.

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Speaker 3: It, Katie. Territorians are amazing. We're leading the nation and

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Speaker 3: being vaccinated and that makes me very proud as a

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Speaker 3: health minister, and I can only do that because Territorians

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Speaker 3: are rolling up their sleeves. But from today, Katie, our

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Speaker 3: my understanding is it's around midday, there'll be over three

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Speaker 3: thousand appointments online for Greater Darwin. There's already fifteen hundred

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Speaker 3: appointments online for Katherine. But Territorians have reached a new

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Speaker 3: milestone with fifty thousand second doses admitted and that administered. Sorry,

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Speaker 3: and that means that over twenty five actually getting close

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Speaker 3: to twenty seven percent of the eligible population is vaccinated,

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Speaker 3: fully vaccinated, and we're getting very close to fifty percent

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Speaker 3: of the population in the territory having had a first dose.

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Speaker 1: Minister, we will have to leave it there. Thank you

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

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Speaker 1: for Health and Racing, Gaming and Licensing.

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Speaker 2: Natasha Files