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Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local

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Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty

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Speaker 1: Every One is Listening Mix one oh four point nine. Now,

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Speaker 1: yesterday we spoke about Brisbane being in a three day lockdown,

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Speaker 1: and then once we got off here, it was announced

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Speaker 1: that travelers from the City of Brisbane, Morton Bay Region,

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Speaker 1: City of Ipswich, Logan City, Redland City, the Tawoomba Region

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Speaker 1: as well. Basically the decision was made by the Chief

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Speaker 1: Health Officer that those areas are now hotspots. Now joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line to talk more about the situation

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Speaker 1: is the Health Minister Attasha Files.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now, Minister, I understand that the requirement is for anyone

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Speaker 1: who's been in those areas that I just mentioned, those

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Speaker 1: local government areas since March twenty five, as well as

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Speaker 1: the Byron Bay Council area. I think since March twenty

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Speaker 1: seven that they now need to need to go into

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Speaker 1: isolation at Howard Springs. Is that.

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, the suburbs, the local government areas that you

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Speaker 2: just read out, so that City of Brisbane, Morton Bay, Ipswitch,

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Speaker 2: Logan City, Redland City and too Womba they need to

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Speaker 2: go to mandatory quarantine. Additionally, people that are from Gladston

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Speaker 2: and Byron Bay lga's need to isolate debt tested. Katie,

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Speaker 2: this is as we see this local transmission in Brisbane spreading.

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Speaker 2: It appears overnight that there's more cases that have been

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Speaker 2: locally acquired and Queensland authorities are believing that they have

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Speaker 2: two clusters that they're dealing with.

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Speaker 3: So we do.

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Speaker 2: Apologize to those territorianes. I know it's really devastating so

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Speaker 2: close to Easter and also with school ending and a

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Speaker 2: number of students the way at boarding school, but we

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Speaker 2: have to act quickly to keep our community safe here

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Speaker 2: in the territory.

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Speaker 1: Minister, do you have any idea how many territory and

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Speaker 1: SIS is going to impact or how many people are

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Speaker 1: this is going to impact this lockdown and the number

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Speaker 1: that are going to have to go into Howard Springs.

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, when the announcement was made yesterday afternoon, following

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Speaker 2: the Chief Health Officer coming out of that HPPC, the

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Speaker 2: flights from Bristoine had already arrived, so we know that

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Speaker 2: from the twentieth through to yesterday, anyone that arrived from

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Speaker 2: the lga's impacted needs to isolate and get tested. And

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Speaker 2: we know that with hundreds of people that had picked

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Speaker 2: Queensland on their border arrival forms. And Katie, one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons we keep doing those border arrival forms is

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Speaker 2: that sometimes after the people arrive, we find out that

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Speaker 2: there's cases in those areas and we need to go

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Speaker 2: back and contact those people so they can isolate and

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Speaker 2: get tested. But I do believe that there would be

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Speaker 2: a significant number of people impacted. I don't have the

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Speaker 2: numbers that will arrive today and those people will go

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Speaker 2: to Mandate Tree quarantine, but we're happy to send those.

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Speaker 1: Through later this morning, Okay, but we are anticipating that

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Speaker 1: it is in the hundreds.

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Speaker 2: So I don't know that it would be hundreds going

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Speaker 2: to Mandate Treek quarantine, but we know that it certainly

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Speaker 2: was hundreds of people that arrived from the twentieth through

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Speaker 2: to the twenty eight that had to be isolated and tested.

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Speaker 1: Okay, how do you get in contact with all of

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Speaker 1: those people who've flown into the territory from Brisbane.

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Speaker 2: That's a really important question, Katie. So when people feel

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Speaker 2: in those border arrival forms, the more information they can

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Speaker 2: provide us. The more helpful it is for ours to

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Speaker 2: contact them and advise them that they do have these requirements.

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Speaker 2: So people write down that they've entered. Sometimes they're quite

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Speaker 2: specific and they would put an address in the city.

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Speaker 2: Other times they just write Queensland. So some of those

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Speaker 2: people that arrived from the twentieth that came from Queensland,

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Speaker 2: they wouldn't be impacted. They might have been in kens

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Speaker 2: Or towns will for example, But if they have been

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Speaker 2: in those affected LGAs, we absolutely send them text messages,

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Speaker 2: reach out by a phone call so that they know

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Speaker 2: those requirements to isolate and get tested.

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Speaker 4: Minister, how about those arriving by.

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Speaker 2: Road, Yeah, Katie, a really important question because we know

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Speaker 2: that particularly that border between Cammerwheel and Barkley, people would

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Speaker 2: have already been on the road. So police are very

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Speaker 2: practical the people it was ed that that had to

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Speaker 2: you know, if they arrived after fourth th ety territory time,

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Speaker 2: that they had to go to that mandatory quarantine and

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Speaker 2: police work with them to send them through to the

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Speaker 2: best location. And equally we do allow a short time

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Speaker 2: period accounting for the fact they might have left Mountain

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Speaker 2: Eiser or camel Wheel and not had phone reception to

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Speaker 2: understand they were driving into a situation of mandatory quarantine.

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Speaker 2: So we will waive that fee for a short period

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Speaker 2: of time.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Now, Minister, if there are people listening this morning

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Speaker 1: who are thinking, oh dear, do I need to go

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Speaker 1: into isolation?

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Speaker 4: What exactly do I need to do?

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Speaker 1: What's the best course of action for them?

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Speaker 2: So Katie, the best thing is to head to the

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Speaker 2: Coronavirus dot NT Garve dot AUX give me website and

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Speaker 2: that has all the information. It's got your links through

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Speaker 2: to your chow directions so you can specifically look at

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Speaker 2: those local government areas. It's got national advice hotlines, the

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Speaker 2: territory hotline, the number that you can ring to book

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Speaker 2: your test. So all that information is on that site.

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Speaker 1: I just ask we know that the Chief Minister, Michael

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Speaker 1: Gunner is in isolation at the moment.

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Speaker 4: Any idea how he's going, Katie.

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Speaker 2: I haven't spoken to Michael this morning, but he did

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Speaker 2: the right thing and it's really important. Queen Plain clearly

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Speaker 2: had coronavirus in their community for a number of days

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Speaker 2: and they didn't know it. And so if you are

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Speaker 2: slightly symptomatic with the symptoms reach out to get tested.

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Speaker 2: And Katie, I'd just like to acknowledge our team within health,

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Speaker 2: the Center for Disease Control. Yesterday they had seventeen hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty eight calls and they had attempted or spoken

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Speaker 2: to everybody by eight point thirty last night. They had

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Speaker 2: equally put in a huge effort over the weekend, and

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Speaker 2: so I just want to thank them. Because when you

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Speaker 2: call through, if you leave your number to call back,

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Speaker 2: they will get back to you. So please don't do

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Speaker 2: it multiple times. And if you're waiting for a callback,

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Speaker 2: it's really important that you look out for a block

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Speaker 2: your private number because that is most likely them, and

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Speaker 2: if you can answer that call, that makes our system

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Speaker 2: more efficient.

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Speaker 1: Minister, can I just ask Obviously we know the Chief

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Speaker 1: Minister is in isolation. He's had family come from the

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Speaker 1: Tumba region, But if you've had the vaccine, do you

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Speaker 1: still have to isolate if you come into contact with

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Speaker 1: someone from any of those areas or if you've got symptoms,

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Speaker 1: Because we know that he had the vaccine last.

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Speaker 2: Week, So Katie, he's had his first dose of the

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Speaker 2: astrozenica vaccine. He is not fully immunized. He hasn't had

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Speaker 2: that second dose. And equally, we know from clinical evidence

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Speaker 2: that people that are vaccinated, even though they won't get

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Speaker 2: ill orris severely ill, they can still transmit. And so

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Speaker 2: until we have that large number of people in our

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Speaker 2: community vaccinated and we've got that herd immunity like we

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Speaker 2: see each year with the flu vaccination, it reduces the

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Speaker 2: severity of the illness. So he's done the right thing

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Speaker 2: going into isolation.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I do just want to ask, because obviously it's

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Speaker 1: you know, we became quite concerned here at the radio

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Speaker 1: station yesterday upon learning that he'd gone into isolation, and

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that those that were at the Greek church

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Speaker 1: on the weekend potentially did as well. Do any of

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Speaker 1: us need to be worried at this point in tom?

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Speaker 1: I mean, we were advised by his office that we

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Speaker 1: don't need to be that it is just a precautionary measure.

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Speaker 1: But does anybody who's now been in contact with the

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Speaker 1: Chief Minister over the last twenty four hours need to

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Speaker 1: be concerned?

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Speaker 2: The katie is the way the virus works is if

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Speaker 2: a person is infected, we then contact their contacts and

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Speaker 2: so my understanding is the Chief Minister has done the

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Speaker 2: right thing, because he's not feeling well and so he's

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Speaker 2: isolated to get tested. Additionally, he has had family visits

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Speaker 2: from Twomba, but the chief whose officers said it would

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Speaker 2: be very unlikely. It's you know that the people that

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Speaker 2: visited to Womba that potentially were infectious have infected his relatives.

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Speaker 2: And I guess I'm trying to explain the layering to this.

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Speaker 2: So it would be if that his relatives did become infected,

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Speaker 2: he would then become a close contact and it would

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Speaker 2: only be, you know, if someone you're directly in contact

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Speaker 2: with has become positive, that you become a contact. So

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Speaker 2: it is a very precorese reapproach. The people should not worry.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I've got a message that's just come through with

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Speaker 1: one of our from one of our listeners. It says,

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Speaker 1: could you please ask the minister is the COVID vaccine

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Speaker 1: free and if so, why is the GP super clinic

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Speaker 1: charging fifty dollars?

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, I will have to take that on notice.

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Speaker 2: The vaccine is being provided free by the Commonwealth government.

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Speaker 2: We've been very open with that that it's been through

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Speaker 2: all those boroughchechs and the federal government are making it

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Speaker 2: available not only to people that normally get access to

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Speaker 2: healthcare through Medicare, but anyone else who's are permanent retsident,

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Speaker 2: people that are in our community on different visas, because

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Speaker 2: we want everyone to get vaccinated. So I'll pask that

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Speaker 2: question around that and get some details and we'll get

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Speaker 2: it back to you.

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Speaker 4: That'd be great.

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Speaker 1: Now, Minister, I do want to ask about tourism. I

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Speaker 1: understand that you're in Alice Springs yesterday announcing a one

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Speaker 1: point twenty five million dollar boost to tourism for Central

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Speaker 1: Australia in an effort to lure travelers to the region.

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Speaker 4: How's this package going to work?

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, we know that tourism and hospitality in the

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Speaker 2: territory has been really hardly impacted by coronavirus, and we

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Speaker 2: had our tourism vouchers which have been a great success,

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Speaker 2: driving locals to spend in a sector that's been devastated.

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Speaker 2: Quite frankly, Central Australia relies a lot on international tourists

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Speaker 2: who clearly aren't here. So this investment is off the

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Speaker 2: back of the Commonwealth Government's investment. So we're putting in

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Speaker 2: one point two five million dollars. We've worked with Tourism

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Speaker 2: Central Australia. I've met with them multiple times over the

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Speaker 2: last few weeks and they've said, Minister, we need something,

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Speaker 2: and I've said what and we've worked this package up together.

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Speaker 2: So the package will be two aspects marketing, but it

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Speaker 2: will also be a point of sale incentive for tours

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Speaker 2: for people that head to Central Australia for an adventure

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Speaker 2: build tour. If they stay more than four days, they'll

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Speaker 2: get a discount off that package.

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Speaker 4: How come the top end wasn't part of the announcement, really.

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Speaker 2: Good question, Katie. So we found the tourism vouchers have

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Speaker 2: been really successful in the top end and there's enough

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Speaker 2: of population here to spend those vouchers and spend more.

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Speaker 2: We tried to incentivize the tourism vouchers in round two

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Speaker 2: to get people into Central Australia or to get them

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Speaker 2: further away from home with those bonuses for going further distances,

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Speaker 2: but we saw we have seen Round three of the

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Speaker 2: vouchers has been more successful in Central Australia. But this

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Speaker 2: is to help those tourism operators in Central Australia who's

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Speaker 2: been particularly devastated, and so the Commonwealth government's put in

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Speaker 2: three and a half million dollars recovery Regional Tourism grant

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Speaker 2: and we've backed it with one point two five million dollars.

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Speaker 2: So this activity is expected to stimulate around ten million

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Speaker 2: dollars in the Ala Springs Central Australian Region.

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Speaker 4: All right, Minister.

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Speaker 1: One of the areas that has been impacted up here

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Speaker 1: in the Top End in recent days is the expedition cruisers.

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Speaker 1: We learned they would not be able to come to

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Speaker 1: the NT due to a direction by the Chief Health Officer.

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Speaker 1: We spoke to Glenn Hinley from Tourism Top End on

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Speaker 1: the show yesterday. They're imploring you to reconsider the current policy.

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Speaker 1: They're not talking about cruise ships obviously, they're talking about

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Speaker 1: the Australian owned small expedition ships that operate between Broom

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Speaker 1: and Darwin and also have that home porting here in Darwin.

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Speaker 1: Take a listen to what Glenn had to say on

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Speaker 1: the show yesterday.

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Speaker 3: They employ a lot of people. Those ships are resupplied here,

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Speaker 3: marine mechanic, all the servicing that happens around it. And

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Speaker 3: we're tween about businesses that in the last twelve months

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Speaker 3: have done enormous work restructuring how they think about their business,

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Speaker 3: because they also understand that mistakenly they're all too often

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Speaker 3: grouped in with cruise ships, very big difference.

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Speaker 1: And so really, I mean, what's the difference between somebody

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Speaker 1: getting on one of these expedition ships, these smaller ones

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Speaker 1: within Australia with Aussie's on there. What's the difference between

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Speaker 1: that and getting on a plane.

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Speaker 3: That's the question that we would still like to understand.

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Speaker 3: And I might add all of the managing directors of

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Speaker 3: the Australian operated small expedition shipping companies who since last

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Speaker 3: year thought that they had put in in everything required

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Speaker 3: into NTE Health and only found out a matter of

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Speaker 3: weeks ago that there were two conditions that were coming

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Speaker 3: into play, and that was that you can operate a

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Speaker 3: small ship with one hundred passengers plus crew. And TEA

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Speaker 3: Health has made the call and again put it out

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Speaker 3: as a release, including it into all cruise lines, which

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Speaker 3: does makes sense to us that it's a maximum of

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Speaker 3: one hundred people on a vessel. Now these small expedition

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Speaker 3: ships can't operate. It's not commercially viable for those numbers,

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Speaker 3: and even for the one or two that can there's

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Speaker 3: another condition that's been put in that only two ships

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Speaker 3: can be allowed in empty waters at any one time.

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Speaker 1: Minister, can this be reconsidered, So, Katie, this decision has

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Speaker 1: been made to keep territory in safe.

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Speaker 2: So we've just seen multiple cases in Bristoine that the

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Speaker 2: community wasn't aware of. Imagine if one of those people

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Speaker 2: was on a small cruise ship. We know that there

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Speaker 2: has been only a couple of cases worldwide where virus

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Speaker 2: has been caught on a plane. Yet we know on

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Speaker 2: ships that the environment and the interactions between individuals, passengers

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Speaker 2: and staff is very different, and so we would not

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Speaker 2: have the capacity if we saw an outbreak on a ship.

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Speaker 2: And that is why the Chief Health Officer has put

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Speaker 2: that direction of one hundred or less people, because we

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Speaker 2: have to make sure that we've got the support for

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Speaker 2: the worst case scenarios. And so I know that this

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Speaker 2: is a real impact on the tourism sector and we

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Speaker 2: await the day when all businesses Katie, can return to

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Speaker 2: their full capacity, you know, without having to worry. But

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Speaker 2: it's one of those unfortunate continuing factors to coronavirus.

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Speaker 1: I mean realistically though we're talking about this, meaning that

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Speaker 1: these expedition ships are simply not able to.

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Speaker 4: Operate here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: It's not just an impact, it's basically going to decimate

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Speaker 1: things for them for this season.

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Speaker 2: Katie, then Tea Health has consulted the expedition cruise ship stakeholders.

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Speaker 2: This is clearly based on clinical advice. If we were

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Speaker 2: to see an outbreak on one of these ships, our

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Speaker 2: resources to care for all those individuals and stop the

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Speaker 2: spread into our community would be at risk. And so

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Speaker 2: we have to make these decisions we just thought yesterday,

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Speaker 2: decisions made when people felt that we'd finally moved on

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Speaker 2: a little bit the vaccines rolling out, and here we

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Speaker 2: have community transmissions. So our safety first response has kept

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Speaker 2: territory and state to date and we'll continue that.

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Speaker 1: So by the sounds of it is it's actually because

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Speaker 1: we don't have enough staff if there was an outbreak.

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Speaker 2: So Katie, the Chief Health Officer, has thoroughly looked at

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Speaker 2: this issue for many weeks and he has been in

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Speaker 2: and out of it, but he believes that it is

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Speaker 2: not safe to allow more than one hundred people on

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Speaker 2: these vessels because if we were to see an outbreak,

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Speaker 2: that would have an impact on ant health, and he

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Speaker 2: believed that the ship environment is very different to planes

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Speaker 2: and other forms of.

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Speaker 1: Transport, so we don't have the staff to be able

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Speaker 1: to deal with it if there's an outbreak on one

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Speaker 1: of those ships.

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Speaker 2: So Katie, we have to plan towards the worst case scenario.

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Speaker 2: And so if we were to see a small ship

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Speaker 2: with one hundred odd people and a high rate of

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Speaker 2: infections spread through that it would have a huge impact

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Speaker 2: on our health services as well as the potential of

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Speaker 2: spreading into our community. We only need to remember some

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Speaker 2: of those ships that were stuck off the coast of

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Speaker 2: Perth last year and we had to send resources down

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Speaker 2: to get people off the boat. So we must be

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Speaker 2: precautious in our measures whilst we still are in a

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Speaker 2: global pandemic.

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Speaker 1: But so obviously we're talking about resourcing. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: guess to make it a little bit broader, you know,

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Speaker 1: we can't have these expedition ships arriving in the territory

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Speaker 1: because we may not be able to manage an outbreak

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Speaker 1: of one hundred odd people. Yet we do need to

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Speaker 1: staff the Howard Springs facility with four hundred additional staff.

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Speaker 1: I believe it is down the track as the National

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Speaker 1: Critical Care and Trauma Response Center obviously transitions out and

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Speaker 1: we have more arrivals internationally. I mean, can you see

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Speaker 1: how some people listening right now might be thinking, oh,

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Speaker 1: I'm not too sure about this.

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Speaker 2: They're very different things, Katie. So when we talk about

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Speaker 2: Howard Springs and the expansion, we know exactly who's arriving

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Speaker 2: when we've got percentages of infectivity rates that we've seen

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Speaker 2: from different locations over them the past twelve months, and

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Speaker 2: so we've got those resources there to manage, and that

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Speaker 2: is treated as an infectious disease environment, and we're managing

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Speaker 2: the repatriation and the quarantining of individuals. This is very different.

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Speaker 2: These are allowing ships to come into our waters. And

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Speaker 2: if we were to see one person who innocently left

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Speaker 2: Brisbane last week and was on a ship and suddenly

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Speaker 2: started to feel unwell, we would be behind the eight

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Speaker 2: or putting our community at risk. So there's many businesses, Katie,

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Speaker 2: that are restricted by numbers right now, and we're unfortunately

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Speaker 2: this is a situation for these small exhibition cruise ships too.

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Speaker 4: Minister.

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Speaker 1: I've got a message here from one of our listeners.

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Speaker 1: It says, what about the Gan three hundred plus in

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Speaker 1: similar conditions. It seems like there's inconsistency here.

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Speaker 2: So the Chief Health Officer has looked at the environments

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Speaker 2: in which people are mixing in and he believes that

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Speaker 2: cruise ship is a higher risk and that is why

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Speaker 2: this decision has been made.

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Speaker 1: Minister, we are running out of time, but I do

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Speaker 1: want to just check with you. Have you been given

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Speaker 1: an update by the Federal Tourism Minister Dan tianut those

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Speaker 1: half priced flights?

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, I haven't spoken to me with the Minister.

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Speaker 2: I was traveling in Central Australia yesterday, but there has

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Speaker 2: been an indication that we can see people arriving into

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Speaker 2: Darwin from mainland capital cities, so I'll chase that up

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Speaker 2: with his office to make sure that we've got confirmation.

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Speaker 2: I think that all comes back to you, Katie, and

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Speaker 2: well done on securing that for the territory. But my

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Speaker 2: understanding is that yes, those airfares that go on sale

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Speaker 2: and the first of April do include flights into Darwen

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Speaker 2: from the key capital city.

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Speaker 1: Well Health Minister also Tourism ministon Natasha Files. We always

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Thanks very much for speaking with us today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you