Peak industry groups call for meetings with Chief Minister Michael Gunner

The NT Property Council has joined calls for a meeting with the Chief Minister over the vaccine mandate.

UPDATE: THE NT Property Council has also requested meetings with the Chief Minister.

Executive director Ruth Palmer said the group was still waiting despite the Chief Minister having committed to a meeting.

The Property Council wants questions answered including:

* Should businesses be doing the job of the Government?

* Is the Government simply trying to shift future blame and criticism into businesses when there are outbreaks?

* Should businesses be intruding into areas that are private to their employees or customers?

* How does this approach sit with TERC recommendations with the whole administrative burden of vaccinations falling onto business?

* What are the legal implications of termination of an employee?

“We would welcome the opportunity to talk with the Chief Minister anytime to have clarity and to avoid the mis-communication that is currently being spread around the community,” Ms Palmer said.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner said: “We’ve had multiple meetings with industry groups since these laws were announced more than a month ago, and we’ll have many more.”

“Industry has a direct line to the CHO office and the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade,” Mr Gunner said.

“Those departments – and the Fairwork Commission - have all the answers and information needed to implement these laws and protect the Territory.”

EARLIER UPDATE: FRUSTRATIONS are growing at the Territory Government’s implementation of tough new workplace vaccine laws.

Heads of two peak industry groups say there is an urgent need for greater information and a contact point to Government to answer questions from concerned employees after a lack of consultation.

And Chief Minister Michael Gunner has been called on to honour a longstanding request to meet with industry to discuss the workplace mandates.

NT Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Ireland has called on Chief Minister Michael Gunner to meet to discuss the proposed changes.

He says a request to meet with the Chief Minister has been on the table for a number of weeks but a meeting is yet to be arranged.

Greg Ireland told the NT News there is pressure on peak bodies from employees for details about the Government’s workplace vaccination plans but that sourcing answers to detailed questions is difficult.

“What we do feel from the industry associaton perspective is that people are getting frustrated across the board and a perceived lack of engagement by industry associations, the chamber included,” he said.

“Frustratingly we are working quite hard and asking a lot of questions, it’s just very difficult to broadcast that activity and that we are engaging as best we can.

“We are asking a lot of key questions that will assist us all to understand the critical detail in the Health Order but we are yet to receive clear direction.

“We have been requesting a meeting with the Chief Minister for a number of weeks to ensure he understands our collective concerns. However this is yet to occur.”

The call for greater consultation comes in the same week it has emerged a secret campaign to raise funds to challenge the Health Orders is being run via the Signal app.

NT Master Builders chief executive Dave Malone backed the Chamber’s call for greater engagement by Government.

“Greg is right to point to those concerns and the frustration being felt by almost every industry organisation,” he said.

“The vaccination issues are real for business and especially real for the 100,000 Territorians working in the private sector.

“Right now there is a vacuum of information and a lack of genuine clarity.

“And in that world, misinformation runs rife and uncertainty brings cost.

“The Chief Minister would probably just say ‘who cares - just get vaccinated’. His unwillingness to engage with industry seems to say that.

“But it was, and still is, possible to build coalitions and to work together.

“We didn’t need to pit people inside businesses against each other.
“Instead we need to give people the tools to make good decisions.

“You would think that everyone would be interested in doing that.”

There is a view among business that much of the implementation of the workplace vaccination Health Order has been left to bosses.

Under the chief health officer’s directions, most Territory workers are required to get have the first Covid vaccination and show evidence to an employer by November 12 and the second jab by December 24.

EARLIER UPDATE: THE Northern Territory government has brushed off challenges to its workplace vaccine mandate, acknowledging the sacrifice businesses have made and will continue to make during Covid.

“I want to thank our small businesses for being the best,” Chief Minister Michael Gunner said. “I know many of them have taken gut punches and made sacrifices to keep us safe and keep our economy strong. I thank them for supporting our mandatory vaccination laws.”

Mr Gunner said police would take an “education first” approach to enforcing the chief health officer’s directions.

The NT News revealed on Wednesday that a group of NT business operators were trying to overturn the tough enforcement measures.

The covert campaign, conducted on the social media app Signal, aims to secure $1000 donations each from up to 250 businesses to bankroll a legal challenge against mandatory vaccinations. NT Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Ireland reconfirmed his organisation’s support for the measures but acknowledged there was frustration among employees in some industries.

“What we do feel from the industry association perspective is that people are getting frustrated across the board and there’s a perceived, I guess, lack of engagement by industry associations, the chamber included. Frustratingly we are working quite hard and asking a lot of questions, it’s just very difficult to broadcast that activity and that we are engaging as best we can.”

Mr Ireland said the chamber had formed a top-level committee to engage with the government but ideally, a one-stop point of contact between government and business would iron out some of the communication issues. “Right now we’re getting more questions than answers.”

Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce said vaccination rates had increased since the government announced the new rules.

“The daily figures show a marked jump in the number of vaccinations occurring as a result of threatening people’s livelihoods,” he said. “In our sector this means many young, fit workers are being coerced to get vaccinated.

“This does nothing to raise the vax rates in the vulnerable groups that will clog our hospitals if still unvaxxed.

“The NT government needs to set a hard date for border reopenings, like Queensland, which will drive the vax rate up in these groups.”

The criticisms come as WA announced a two-phase vaccination program will become mandatory across a range of industries covering about 75 per cent of the state’s workforce by January 31, 2022.

EARLIER: A COHORT of Territory business operators has taken to social media with a plan to overturn the Territory Government’s tough vaccination rules.

The NT News has seen messages sent via the highly-secure social media app Signal critical of the Government’s vaccination mandate and industry groups which are being left to implement the tough enforcement measures.

While generally supportive of the Government’s vaccination mandate, business groups feel they are being forced to implement the tough anti-Covid measures.

And a number of Territory business operators are stepping up the campaign to have the measures overturned.

The NT News has been told the campaign aims to secure $1000 donations from up to 250 businesses to bankroll a legal challenge against mandatory vaccinations.

It is understood a number of people involved in the anti-mandate rally at State Square on Saturday are involved in organising the campaign via the privacy-focused Signal app.

The posts seen by the NT News were critical in particular of mandated vaccinations and the employment implications of not having a jab.

The messages on Signal.

While some industry groups were targeted for not actively opposing the vaccination program, the venom is reserved for the Government’s enforcement measures. Contacted yesterday by the NT News, anti-mandate campaigner Michael Tolios from Souvlaki Grill and Chill in Nightcliff, acknowledged but would not discuss the Signal campaign.

He said the rules were unconstitutional. “I want to see if the police are going to enforce what Mr Gunner is trying to mandate.”

NT Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Ireland said there are concerns about collection of personal information and lack of options for people who don’t want to vaccinate.

“A direction by Government becomes law and laws are something we need to comply with,” he said.

Under rules announced last week by the Chief Minister and chief health officer Hugh Heggie, workers employed in a range of sectors will require two anti-Covid jabs by December 24 or face being refused entry to their workplace or a $5000 fine.

Opposition to the mandate stepped up at the weekend with hundreds of protesters assembling outside Parliament House to rally against the measures.

Earlier this month, former Federal politician Clive Palmer lost a High Court battle with the Western Australian Government over border closures and the impact on his business.

Signal is a highly secure, end-to-end encrypted communications app that allows confidential closed-loop discussions among users.