Doorstop interview – Darwin | Prime Minister of Australia
LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: G’day, everyone. And welcome to Royal Darwin Hospital and the Alan Walker Cancer Centre here in beautiful Darwin. My name is Luke Gosling. I’m the Federal Member of Parliament that represents this beautiful place, this beautiful Larrakia country. It is with immense pride that we have with us today the Prime Minister. The second time since January he has visited the Top End, for the fourth time since his Government came into being last year. I’m very, very proud to be part of that Government, as I know is Malarndirri McCarthy, the Senator for the NT, and also the Minister for Indigenous Health. And of course, when it comes to all things health, our Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Natasha Fyles, who is also the Health Minister, has been so important over many, many years in getting first-class health facilities here, not just in the Top End, but throughout the Territory. So, I won’t say too much other than to say that it’s been a journey. We’ve, over successive governments, built this amazing Alan Walker Cancer Centre. And we campaigned and got the PET scanners. But for the PET scanners to be as effective as possible, we needed to have a cyclotron. So, we’ve got that now. And the Prime Minister has opened that today. So, I’ll throw to him now. Thanks very much to all the health professionals who have been part of getting us to today. Thank you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Luke. It’s great to be here with you and with Malarndirri, and, of course, the Chief Minister as well, who, just last week on Thursday and Friday at the National Cabinet, we were sitting around talking about how we strengthen Medicare, putting forward the $2.2 billion of additional spending and investment that we announced last Friday to strengthen Medicare. And I must say, it’s fantastic that the Chief Minister chose to continue to be the Health Minister as well. It says a lot about what her Government’s priorities are here in the Northern Territory. And I do want to thank Carol and her family as well for coming along here today. She has been recipient of the benefits of having the cyclotron operating here at Royal Darwin Hospital, making an enormous difference for the PET scans that are required to have ongoing examination and making sure that her health is looked after. And the scanner here, the PET scan together with the cyclotron, means that the whole system can operate together and more efficiently. It doesn’t have to rely upon interstate operations, it can be done here. And patients can be looked after something like a doubling, we heard off the doctors here today, as a result of this investment. So, I was very pleased to be here for the announcement. But today as well, we’re announcing the next stage in our rollout of Urgent Care Clinics. Urgent Care Clinics are designed to take pressure off hospitals, facilities that will be able to deliver the sort of care that you need if your kid falls off a skateboard or you have an incident, it’s not an acute life-threatening incident but you need that care and access to X-ray facilities and access to pathology, access to getting a script. Doing all of that in one location will make a difference. And here, we’re entering into the final negotiations for the two healthcare clinics, Urgent Care Clinics, in Palmerston and Alice. But we can confirm that those advanced stages are with the Palmerston GP Super Clinic here in Darwin, and the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress to deliver the Urgent Care Clinic in Alice Springs. I’m familiar with both of those places. I’ve been to the Palmerston Super Clinic. And when I was in Alice Springs early this year, one of the groups I met with was the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress. These clinics will make an enormous difference. And the good thing is you don’t need your credit card, you just need your Medicare card. Making a difference. And you’ll see in the Budget, which is just eight sleeps away now, you’ll see a whole range of other measures on top of these announcements, Urgent Care Clinics will be fully funded, the $2.2 billion assistance, things like providing incentives for after-hours care for GPs, the more flexible delivery of Medicare services, the examination of making sure that we can have greater scope for pharmacists, nurses, and indeed paramedics to deliver a greater scope of services for which they are qualified, all designed for how do we take pressure off the primary healthcare system and therefore enable hospital emergency departments to operate under less pressure than they’ve been on in recent years? It’s a real priority for my Government. And we have no Government we’re working stronger with than the Fyles Government here in Northern Territory. And Natasha, the Chief Minister, will now make some comments. And then we’re happy to take some questions.
NATASHA FYLES, CHIEF MINISTER OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY: Thanks, PM. It’s terrific to have the Prime Minister here in the Top End along with my colleagues, Luke Gosling and Malarndirri McCarthy. We will continue to invest in health in partnership with the Commonwealth Government. Territorians deserve the best healthcare as close to home as possible. And this PET scanner and cyclotron project, although many years in the making, is delivering. It is delivering double the scans that we anticipated. We did the work looking at what its projection would be, and it is doubling that. And what that means is people can get care close to home. But as we see nuclear medicine advanced, they can have that access right here in the Northern Territory, whereas previously, they would have to travel interstate or if they were too unwell, they couldn’t travel to receive that scan. And that is what Labor is about. Equality in the healthcare system. So, whether you fall off the skateboard and you need an X-ray, or whether you’ve got a diagnosis that means you need the world’s best medicine, you can access it under the Territory Labor and Albanese Labor Government here in the Northern Territory. Super excited about the Urgent Care Clinics. It’s becoming harder and harder to access a GP. I know that as a mum to two boys. And so, we’re really pleased to see those Urgent Care Clinics finalising in the Top End and also Central Australia. And we’ll also continue to work with the Commonwealth Government to make sure that there’s more investment to support our hard working GPs. Last week in our Budget, we announced a significant investment here into Royal Darwin Hospital, the Territory’s tertiary hospital, that cares not only for residents of Darwin and Palmerston, but for people right across the Northern Territory. They come to Royal Darwin to receive that life-saving care. And I just want to, in closing, acknowledge our hard-working health staff. They lead the country when it came to the COVID response. And they’re continuing to lead and make sure that Territorians can have access to the world’s best healthcare right here at home. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, many victims of crime in the Northern Territory feel that the upsurge in violent attacks is partly being driven by growing poverty divide and wealth divide in Australia. What’s the Federal Government doing to address that, particularly in areas like the Northern Territory?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have some specific programs, of course, including our Central Australian package of some $250 million. One of the things that we’ve had to do to address in the Budget that you’ll see next Tuesday night is that a whole lot of programs were dropping off a cliff, including funding for community services organisations, those services on the ground that deliver services to people in need. And we have had to fill a void that was created by the former Government that deliberately set up programs so that they just fell off a cliff and all funding ended in June 30. We are addressing that. The other thing we’re doing is making sure that across the board, we have a comprehensive plan for lifting living standards. You’ve seen measures that we’ve done already with cheaper pharmaceuticals, cheaper child care, fee-free TAFE. But in addition to that, just last Wednesday, the announcement that we made about pharmaceuticals, being able to have scripts for 60 days rather than 30 days, literally means that the costs of delivering have gone from $42.50 down to $30 on January 1. But if you have to scripts, if you have medical condition that requires a couple of different treatments, which many do, then say you’re on two treatments, they used to pay $85 for over two months. Now, what you’ll have, or $85 every month, what you’ll have now is to pay just $30 over two months. So, making an enormous difference, instead of paying four times what you were, that will make a real difference to people in need. The other thing we’re doing, last Monday, we announced $2 billion extra for community housing to be available for the funds that are there so that the loans can be made to build new construction, new housing for community housing for people in need. We’ve got our Housing Australia Future Fund. I wish that the CLP and the Greens Party would get out of the way and vote for it. There’s a $10 billion fund sitting in the Senate, waiting to invest in social and affordable housing. All it requires them to do is just sit on the right side of the chamber when the vote is held, in favour of that legislation that’s being held up. You’ll see a range of other measures in the Budget in eight days’ time, which arise from the understanding that we have that people are doing it tough. We’ve had global inflation. So, we need to make sure we keep on top of inflation. But at the same time, we’re doing what we can to provide that relief for people.
JOURNALIST: PM, specifically on crime, it’s the first time you’ve visited the NT since Alice Springs in January. Do you acknowledge the NT community’s ongoing anguish over crime rates? And do you think your Government is working quickly enough to respond?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. Look, this is my at least fifth visit to the Northern Territory. I haven’t been Prime Minister for a year yet. Go back and have a look at how many times Scott Morrison or Malcolm Turnbull or Tony Abbott came to the Northern Territory in just one year. Go back and have a look. I have been here regularly, not just to Darwin, but to Central Australia, and also, of course, to Arnhem Land. And I’ll continue to be here as well. And I’ve been talking with the Chief Minister about other visits that will take place over the coming months. But what we know is that in some areas, there has been major improvement since the announcement of changes that were made by the Northern Territory Government in consultation with my Government in January.
JOURNALIST: Would you consider bringing in the Defence Force to help bring a short-term fix to some of these pockets of areas that are experiencing such violent and high levels of crime?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what you need to do, when we sat down with them in Alice Springs, we had a meeting, including with the heads of police force, the local community leaders, no one there at that meeting, including the Mayor, no one there was advocating bringing in the Defence Force. The Defence Force are here for a particular purpose, to defend our nation. And what we need to do is we recognise, of course, that with many of these issues, it’s about intergenerational issues. And glib statements in order to get a headline don’t solve those issues. We have issues that have been developed over a long period of time. And I note when the Opposition Leader was here, a while ago, in the Northern Territory standing next to someone, they spoke about these issues being there for the last four years. Well, we haven’t been in Government for four years. These have developed over a long period of time. What you need is to work constructively, on real solutions, work with the community as well, rather than against the local community and work through solutions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there’s been some criticisms that the $250 million hasn’t hit the ground as well as that $48 million into community safety for Alice Springs. Can you tell us where this money is being spent?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re investing in community-based organisations. There are organisations, I’ll tell you one area where they’re being spent, for example, community-based organisations providing services for women and children escaping domestic violence were about to be defunded on June 30. That’s where the contribution has gone to. To make sure that those services continue. And we’re working with the community. One of the things that we need to do in these areas, to make sure that rather than sitting around in Canberra and determining what should happen, we listen to the local community. That’s what has been occurring. Linda Burney has returned to the areas, working with Marion, working with Malarndirri, working with Luke, working with the Territory Government as well, to make sure that the impact on this is maximised.
JOURNALIST: On the Voice, Noel Pearson said if fear mongering resulted in a no vote, it would be a complete tragedy for the country and it would be a future of endless protests. What’s your response to his comments?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think that people like Noel Pearson, who has my utmost respect, have invested an enormous amount in this. This is something which is causing a great deal of frustration from people who’ve been a part of this program. And this change that was established, Frank Brennan has got an article in the papers today speaking about the process that was established by the Gillard Government that then led to the group working on the referendum, people like Julian Leeser and others came up with proposals way back in 2014. And then you had the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017. And then you had a parliamentary committee jointly chaired by Pat Dodson and Julian Leeser, which reported unanimously. And then you had the Referendum Working Group we established to work on on these proposals. And in spite of all of that work, most of which occurred under the former Government, you have the absurd statements like this is a ‘Canberra voice’ being made. Now, I can understand that for people who’ve worked on this for more than a decade, must be really disheartening. But can I say this, that they’ve continued to campaign with optimism that Australians will examine what this request is, this gracious request, which is just for two things. One, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be recognised in our nation’s Constitution. And secondly, that the form of that recognition should be that they be listened to, that you get better outcomes when people are listened to. We have tried for 120 odd years decisions have been made, in capitals in Canberra and Sydney and Melbourne, on behalf of some, usually, with the best of intentions by people. And I respect people who will come to a different view. But I say very sincerely, if not now, when? If we don’t recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution, when will we? And if we don’t listen to them, if we reject what is a very gracious offer, which we know from the Solicitor-General’s opinion, we know from former High Court justices and High Court judges, all of the leading legal academics, we know this doesn’t have a right of veto. It simply is asking to be heard. And we know that is the aim, the objective, of course, that’s the vehicle to get better outcomes to close the gap. And so, I sincerely hope that people vote yes in the fourth quarter of this year. I admire people like Noel Pearson and Pat Dodson, and Linda Burney, and Tom Calma, and Marcia Langton, and all those people who’ve campaigned for such a long period of time, who’ve put everything into this change. And I think it’s very unfortunate that the National Party said no before they even knew what the question was. And the Liberal Party said they wanted to have a parliamentary process. They said no before that process has even begun. And so, I hope that Australians of goodwill examine this and come down on the side of yes. And I’m confident that Australians will do that. Thanks very much.