DARWIN - 21 October 2021

KATIE WOOLF, HOST: joining me live on the line right now is the Member for Solomon, Labor's Member for Solomon, Luke Gosling. Good morning to you, Luke.

LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Good morning, Katie. Parliament's sitting, so it's a busy week.

WOOLF: It would be a busy week. Luke, we've just been talking about some of the uncertainty for Territorians at this point in time when it comes to those borders. I mean, all around the nation right now, we're seeing different tacks when it comes to opening up and when it comes to the vaccine, and all sorts of things. I know you are obviously our federal member in parliament. It just feels as though the country's very dislocated at this point in time and not stepping in in sync with each other.

GOSLING: Yeah, I think that's a good description of where we're at, Katie, a bit dislocated. The role of the National Cabinet was supposed to be to bring everyone together. But the Prime Minister Scott Morrison can't get a climate change policy together to take overseas shortly. And there was this outrageous situation yesterday in the parliament, where there's a bloke, Christian Porter, who was a former cabinet minister who was given a million-dollar donation. But it's all secret as to who it was. So there was some toing and froing in the parliament yesterday, because we can't have politicians getting secret donations, otherwise you don't know who's having influence.

WOOLF: And Luke, that is obviously something that people are concerned about. Sorry, I wasn't talking about climate change, I know that that is obviously a big issue as well. But I was talking more so about COVID with those borders and us being a bit dislocated. But yeah, it's a tough thing.

GOSLING: Yeah, I was getting there.

WOOLF: You were getting there? Alright, go for it.

GOSLING: I'm just trying to give – there’s a real lack of trust I think in Government at the moment, and I think it’s because they're not listening and they're not upholding the standards that people expect, and they're not coordinating things through the national cabinet well, and they've been playing politics with this vaccine stuff. You know, “Victoria is the worst, New South Wales is the best” sort of stuff that doesn't really help anyone. We need more trust in government and we need a more collaborative style of leadership, is basically what I believe, Katie There’s no doubt that if we're going to be able to open up, the only way we can do that safely is if we get enough people vaccinated. And I just want to thank everyone who has got vaccinated so far. But you can see particularly, I think, with the First Nations community, some with very low vaccine rates, that there is a lack of trust. And I think the Government has got to take some responsibility for that. The Federal Government's role was to roll out the vaccines to those communities, and the problem, particularly for tourism in Central Australia, is one example, but also up here. If we don't get those vaccine rates up, there's going to be carnage in our health system. People who get vaccinated, are 86 per cent less likely to get COVID and die. That's a fact. So I think we need a lot more collaboration. We need to be listening to people to make sure that everyone understands the consequences to the economy and to people's health, and to people's deaths. So again, thanks to everyone who has got the vaccine, and I think we can do a lot more to work from the Federal Government's perspective to incentivize people – not just some people, but everyone, incentivize everyone – to get vaccinated, to keep their loved ones and themselves safe.

WOOLF: And how might that look, Luke? Do you think that there needs to be some kind of incentive payment, or what do you mean?

GOSLING: Yeah, that was our policy, Anthony Albanese, the federal Labor leader, said – and I stress everyone, not of some groups, but everyone. His idea was $300. It would stimulate businesses in much the same way that our tourism vouchers have done for the tourism industry up here, in that people have that bit of cash in their pocket, and takes care of any time needed to take time off work. But it also is a bit of an acknowledgement that, you know, we're all doing this for not only ourselves, but other people. And it is going to keep people safe. So I would have liked to have seen that idea taken up, whether it can happen federally now or not is another issue. But I'm a big fan of working collaboratively, listening to people and providing incentives, because it's going to be good for everyone, for us to open up. And I understand there's going to be quarantine from home coming soon to the Territory. That's going to be good for people not having to have that extra expense of going through Howard Springs. But it’s got to be done safely.

WOOLF: Well, it does. It needs to be done safely. And I reckon we're reaching a point where a lot of Territorians right now, though, are just wanting a date as well in terms of like Queensland's done, announced December 17. At that date, if you’re fully vaxxed, interstate visitors who've recorded that negative COVID test in the past 72 hours would be allowed to enter without having to go into quarantine. And I do think that we're going to find more and more Territorians who have been vaccinated and want their family to be able to come and visit us here in the Northern Territory are going to want to see some kind of date from the Northern Territory Government when it comes to being able to travel into our Territory.

GOSLING: Which is absolutely fair enough and totally understandable. So, yeah, again, thanks to everyone who has gotten vaccinated, and I think that is coming. I’ve got a briefing coming up with the Chief Minister where I'm keen to get more of the details. So looking forward to that.

WOOLF: We'll find out more about that. Hey, Luke, I want to ask you, I know that you spoke at length and we've spoken here on the show at length as well at different times about spam, SMS messages and also these email scams that are going around. What exactly happened in parliament in this space? And are you hoping that we'll maybe see some change? I mean, I don't know exactly what can be done because much of it seems to sort of happen off our shores, but it obviously reaches us here in the Territory and Australia in general.

GOSLING: Yeah, it is, Katie, it’s something that's been brought up with me a lot and I'm being smashed with these dodgy scam SMSs. And I know it is causing stress to a lot of people, it’s tricking – some people are clicking on them, and can I just say, if it's not from someone you know, don't click on it. And Telstra is doing a bit in this area, they’re stopping about 13 million calls a day from what I understand. But I gave a speech in federal parliament this week calling on the Australian Government to take stronger measures where they can. We may need to work more cooperatively with the telcos because they're going to need to substantially invest in fixing the problem, but they also need legislative backing to do so. We've got to balance that with privacy issues as well. So they're not easy issues, but I feel when I'm listening to people who have contacted me about these scams SMSs, they are really annoying. But what is really problematic is more and more people clicking on things because they might be waiting for a package to arrive, and they find themselves going down this wormhole and they're losing money. So we want to crack down. And I thank Telstra and other telcos for what they're doing, but I want the Federal Government to work closer with them and then really invest with them if they need to to keep people safe. And I did speak on cyber security in the parliament again this week. Very important issue because it is the war that is ongoing. Right now, there are Australians that are countering—in fact, during our conversation right now, there'll be two cyberattacks on Australia.

WOOLF: It's crazy, it is really crazy stuff.

GOSLING: It's a real concern.

WOOLF: Yeah, look, Luke, we have run out of time, but we'll catch up with you again very soon.

GOSLING: Thank you. Thanks for letting me get in those little things at the start. For those who watch politics, it's a real concern that trust in politicians is such a low. We need a federal ICAC and I hope we can get one.

WOOLF: Luke Gosling always good to catch up with you.

GOSLING: Thanks. Bye.

ENDS