Health, Tourism Minister Natasha Fyles appearing on Day Two of NT Estimates
The Northern Territory’s Health and Tourism Minister Natasha Fyles has lashed the opposition while appearing in the hot seat at NT Estimates. SEE WHAT SHE SAID.
Northern Territory
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UPDATE 3: THE government has been pressed on how it intends to inoculate remote communities against Covid-19 amid concerns about high rates of vaccine hesitancy.
In NT Estimates on Wednesday, it was revealed just 23 per cent of NT government controlled clinic patients have received their first dose.
Vaccine lead Michelle McKay and Health Minister Natasha Fyles have defended the rollout, saying the department would continue to reach out to communities to convince Aboriginal residents to get the jab.
“We will keep working as much as we need to … provide them with the vaccination,” Ms Fyles said.
“It’s more of a slow grinding hard work but it will be done until the whole of the Territory is vaccinated.
Ms Fyles said the government had no target vaccine rate before going to pre-Covid-19 settings, but said she would like to see as close to 100 per cent of Territorians vaccinated.
When asked by CLP health spokesman Bill Yan on whether any vaccines have been disposed of, Ms Fyles said “very low numbers are wasted”.
Ms McKay said roughly 2000 doses of the vaccine were being administered daily and supply from the Commonwealth was steadily rising week-to-week.
It was also revealde the NT government had recruited 372 of the 400 staff needed for the Howard Springs facility’s expansion.
UPDATE 2: HEALTH Minister Natasha Fyles has said there are over 500 domestic travellers still stuck in Howard Springs.
In NT Estimates, Ms Fyles said there were only around 200 international arrivals quarantining at the quarantine facility.
She said the international arrivals came in “waves” and there were arrivals scheduled for the June 16, 21, 23 and 30, which partly explained the low number.
UPDATE 1: HEALTH Minister Natasha Fyles has lashed the Opposition in a stunning rebuke over questions about testing at Howard Springs.
Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro and CLP health spokesman Bill Yan have for weeks been expressing doubt over the reasoning why antigen testing was dropped in favour of PCR testing of workers.
Questions about the decision have dominated the first hour of day two of NT Estimates.
Appearing beside deputy chief health officer Dr Charles Pain and National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre executive director Len Notaras, Ms Fyles showed frustration at continual questioning from the CLP.
“I have answered the question numerous times,” Ms Fyles said
“We’ve been talking about this for 40 minutes now.”
“I’m very proud to be a Minister that listens to the health professionals and can put that in place, so don’t come here and try to stir mud.”
Ms Fyles hit out at the CLP leader, saying it was lucky Ms Finocchiaro hadn’t been Chief Minister during the pandemic.
“We saw it a year ago when she made her famous statement that if she was Chief Minister, she would’ve opened the border on June 22.”
CLP health spokesman Bill Yan however said he had spoken to federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, claiming the Commonwealth was puzzled about why NT Health had backed away from rapid antigen testing.
Meanwhile, Mr Notaras said that there had been two “false positives” during AUSMAT’s operation of the Howard Springs facility, which were subsequently retested.
Dr Pain followed up this revelation by saying he was more worried about “false negatives”, in which a worker at the facility is positive for Covid-19 but their test shows a negative result.
He said a strong testing regime can address this.
MORE NEWS
EARLIER: NORTHERN Territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles is appearing before NT Estimates, a day after her party’s leader was grilled on the budget.
Ms Fyles will also later appear in her capacity as Tourism Minister.
In her opening statement, the Health Minister discussed the Territory government’s performance through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ms Fyles praised the Commonwealth for allowing the NT to open up eligibility of the Covid-19 vaccine to everyone aged 16 and over, the first place in Australia to do so.
She however acknowledged “hesitancy” in some remote communities as the rollout progressed. This admission followed a report in the NT News on Monday that the Territory’s vaccine program in remote communities was being frustrated by fears over the AstraZeneca jab.
That’s despite all remote communities being offered Pfizer, and the risk of a bloodclot from AstraZeneca being 40 times less likely than serious injury from a car crash.
Ms Fyles also touched on an impending overhaul of NT Health through its ‘Better Together’ program.
It follows the NT News’ report earlier this year on the overhaul, which involved hiring an Organisational Design Analyst at $117,815/year to “manage multiple streams” and supporting “leaders and change champions”.
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