Chief Minister Michael Gunner releases NT’s full COVID-19 exit roadmap
CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has revealed NT’s ‘Roadmap to the New Normal’, unveiling Australia’s most significant rollback of coronavirus restrictions
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has released his full detailed roadmap, unveiling Australia’s most significant rollback of coronavirus restrictions.
Here is his speech today in full:
.
Today, we take our first steps on the road to recovery.
Because we are the safest place in Australia, we can do this before anywhere else in Australia.
Because being the safest in the nation means being the first in the nation to get back on track
Back to business, back to work, back to enjoying the great Territory lifestyle.
I promised Territorians that by end of April, I would tell them what May looks like – I am honouring that promise.
Full access to our journalism – just $1 for first 28 days
And I let the National Cabinet know what my timeline was to inform their deliberations.
I have kept the Prime Minister informed, and I will attend National Cabinet again tomorrow.
I thank the Prime Minister for his exceptional leadership through this crisis.
Australia is one of the safest countries in the world, the Territory is the safest place in Australia, in no small part due to his work and the work of the National Cabinet.
This is the Territory’s roadmap to our new normal.
I call it that because the whole idea is to get your lives as close to normal as possible, without putting you at risk.
And without putting some of Australia’s most vulnerable communities at risk.
And this new normal will be with us for a while.
I don’t have an answer on when Australia will be free from coronavirus.
And I don’t have an answer on when a vaccine will be available.
So I don’t have answer on when everything can go back to how it was before.
That is why we are making changes that are sustainable – built to last, for as long as we need them.
And we are doing it step-by-step, ticking one box before we move to the next.
By doing this in stages, we can do it once and do it right.
Spreading the risk out, managing it, and reducing it.
So if there does happen to be an outbreak – we can test, trace and trap – without having to shut the whole joint down.
I know some people think I shouldn’t be moving at all. That we should stay exactly as we are right now.
To those people: I can only hope that being the safest in the nation is safe enough for you.
And there are plenty of people who want me to do the opposite.
Who just want me to flick a switch, put everything back to normal straight away.
The second I’m done here, they may say it’s still too tough, or still too slow.
And for those people: I can only hope that being the first in the nation is fast enough for you.
But I will not be going any faster than this.
There will be some changes that seem too slow. Some changes that seem confusing or inconsistent. Our road to recovery won’t always go in a straight line.
I ask you for your patience and understanding as we take these steps, as I have in the past.
I don’t have an instruction manual here. I can’t look interstate. I can’t look overseas. I can’t look to history.
I’ve got to make these tough calls as I see them, based on the expert advice.
Making the hard decisions, the 50-50 calls, even if they have made some people unhappy, that has helped make us the safest in the nation.
And if you think I’m going to risk all that, think again.
MORE NT COVID-19 NEWS:
Northern Territory lifts golf, tennis and fishing COVID-19 restrictions
Qantas, Jetstar plan flights between Darwin and other Australian capitals from June
ROADMAP
Before I go through the plan:
There is one important principle that covers everything I am about to detail.
It is physical distancing: a space of one and a half metres between you and people you don’t live with.
Along with proper hygiene and cleaning, adhering to physical distancing is what allows us to ease restrictions.
It will be the thing that makes this new normal work.
And failure to do it, puts this plan at risk of failure.
I’m not asking you to walk around with a tape measure. I am asking you to use your head, use that Territory common sense, and keep your distance.
Please just do it. Stay one and a half metres apart, for all of us.
To stage one of these changes:
From noon tomorrow, restrictions will be adjusted on outdoor activities where physical distancing can be maintained.
This includes:
•Playgrounds, pools, water parks and skate parks.
•Exercising and training outdoors, including personal training, boot camps and outdoor gym equipment.
•Non-contact outdoor sports such as golf, tennis, shooting, athletics.
•Outdoor gatherings, including religious gatherings, weddings and funerals.
•Visiting parks and camping, as I talked about earlier in the week.
•And fishing – you can go fishing with people not from your household, so long as physical distancing is maintained. You can fish with your mates again.
Tomorrow’s changes also include:
•Real estate open inspections and auctions.
•And gatherings in your home – with physical distancing.
So this weekend is set to be pretty great outdoors: parks, playgrounds, pools, camping, fishing, golfing … or getting married … take your pick really.
Two weeks later, from Noon Friday the 15th of May, Stage Two begins.
This includes simple and safe indoor events and activities that can be done in less than two hours and with physical distancing.
•Restaurants and cafes, also pubs and bars – but for those venues, it must include the consumption of food for this initial period.
•Shopping centre food courts.
•Gyms and other indoor training like F45 and Crossfit.
•Pilates, yoga, dance lessons and things like that.
•Indoor religious worship.
•Libraries.
•Beauty therapy for non-facial services, like getting your nails done.
It also includes organised outdoor training activities for clubs and teams without physical contact.
For businesses and organisations that open or expand operations under these rules, they will need to have a COVID management plan in place.
This will be a simple checklist to show how your venue can adhere to physical distancing, hygiene and cleaning principles.
This checklist will be available 10 days beforehand – on the 5th of May.
This is a very important point: there will not be a new approvals process for venues before they open. You have to lodge your plan with us, but you do not have to wait for us.
We’ll give you a checklist to stick to, and we will expect you to stick to it.
Environmental Health Officers will conduct checks to make sure that venues that have opened are doing what they said they would do.
But there will be no extra bureaucracy, no extra red tape, no extra delays.
If you can do the right thing, you can open, and if you keep doing the right thing, we’ll stay out of your way.
This requirement also applies to stage three.
And stage three openings can begin from Noon Friday the 5th of June:
•The two-hour limit on activities will be removed.
•The requirement for food to be served at pubs and bars will end.
•And all remaining restrictions on beauty therapy and cosmetic services will be lifted.
•The casino’s gaming area can open, so can TABs and other gaming areas.
•Cinemas, nightclubs and other entertainment venues.
•Tatts and piercings.
And all team sporting competitions like footy, netball, soccer and basketball can return. That includes having spectators, but with physical distancing.
If events have more than 500 people attending, a separate plan would have to be developed and approved by the Chief Health Officer before it could proceed.
REMOTE COMMUNITIES
All of these changes also apply to our remote communities – communities within the Designated Biosecurity Areas.
Travel into those communities continues to be restricted for now.
The internal border controls we currently have in place under the Commonwealth Biosecurity Act are due to expire on the 18th of June.
The decision on whether to lift those controls will ultimately be made in partnership with the Federal Government, Land Councils and communities – and based on the health advice.
The challenge that our remote residents have faced cannot be underestimated – and what an extraordinary job they have done.
You’ve kept a highly-infectious, devastating and deadly disease out of your communities.
You’ve protected your elders and vulnerable family members.
You’ve protected your past and your future. Your people, your culture, your stories.
So far, it looks like coronavirus has been no match for the oldest continuous culture on the planet.
Thank you for what you’ve done to keep your people safe.
Land Councils working around the clock.
Workers staying in community.
Elders leading by example.
And what I’ve been most impressed by: the kids. Hearing the message, doing the right thing, and even teaching the new ways to parents and elders.
I know it has been particularly painful for many communities who couldn’t do their funerals and sorry business. That can change tomorrow.
And as we consider the next steps, I promise that, with your Land Councils, you will be in the driver’s seat.
We will listen to you.
BORDERS
So, that’s the plan.
It’s a Territory-first plan, and we are doing it on Territory time.
It’s a business before borders plan.
We can do all these things, before everyone else, because our borders are staying shut.
Putting the Territory first, means opening the borders will happen last, dead last.
I don’t have a date for them to open. I’m not thinking about that right now.
They’ll open when it is safe to do so, not a second sooner.
And just quickly:
I know I’m talking about a new normal for most of us.
But for our cops and ADF on the borders – nothing is changing. They are staying there to protect us.
And on behalf all of us, I thank them for their service.
I also thank the Environmental Health Officers who have done a power of work in the last few months, often without acknowledgment, and the work you will continue to do during this transition.
CAUTION
I said earlier I don’t have an instruction manual for any of this.
Trust me, I looked.
The experience elsewhere seems to be that when you start to open up again, that’s when the second wave comes.
I don’t want the second wave to come here. That’s why we are going to do this once and right, cautious and careful, step-by-step.
And we won’t let our guard down.
Yes, we are safe. But we are not immune.
We have a three point plan here:
1. Keep the borders secure.
2. Test, trace and trap any new outbreak of coronavirus so that it doesn’t spread.
3. And living our new normal – keeping one and a half metres apart where we can.
And that third point is up to all of you.
It is not my intention to shut down if there is a new case here – so long as people are doing the right thing.
I’ll keep saying this til I’m blue in the face: easing restrictions actually increases the responsibility on all Territorians.
In the new normal, staying safe, stopping the second wave – that’s a job for all of us.
We can’t just rely on our health care workers and cops and other frontline workers now.
We are all on the frontline now. The actions of each of us will determine the safety of all of us.
I am trusting Territorians to take on this responsibility, and do the right thing.
If you want to stay the safest place in Australia, if you want to have a beer at the pub, go fishing with your mates, go to the gym: I need you to follow the rules, and keep your distance.
Because of you don’t do this – all of that is at risk.
I’m saying to business and organisations: today you get certainty for the future, but that future is also in your hands.
To make sure your venue or activity is safe – for your customers, patrons and participants.
Please. Let’s not stuff this up. Let’s keep getting this right. Then we won’t have to go back.
CONCLUSION
Last night, as I thought about what to say today – I did have a look back at what’s happened so far.
It was less than seven weeks ago that we decided to ban mass gatherings of more than 500 people. And doesn’t that feel like a different era.
We have been confronted with a generation’s worth of challenge and change, in the space of a few months.
And together, Territorians have achieved something remarkable.
To my fellow Territorians: I say thank you.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Thank you for sticking together. Thank you for the work that you have done to stay safe, and keep others safe. Thank you for the sacrifices you have made.
I have never been prouder of the Territory and its people.
Because today we can proudly declare: the Territory is the safest place in Australia.
And tomorrow we’ll get back to be being the greatest place in Australia.
First look: Ozanam relocation plan could be extended, as new facility opens
St Vincent de Paul has given the NT News an exclusive first look at its Ozanam House relocation facility. See the photos.
Revealed: The families and companies behind the NT’s biggest farms
The Territory’s economy was built in-part on the back of the cattle industry. So who owns and works our vital pastoral and farming assets now? Meet the land barons.