DARWIN 26 August 2021

KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Qantas say that they are hopeful of resuming commercial international flights in December to a limited network, including Singapore, the US, Japan, the UK, Canada and Fiji. And in what could be some pretty massive news, Perth could lose its non-stop London service to Darwin because of conservative border policies in Western Australia. And Qantas expected the trans-Tasman bubble to return in December. So if I'm to read into that, London-Darwin non-stop could become a route for the Northern Territory. So we'll keep a very close eye on that. We are just making some phone calls to see if we can find out a bit further detail. But let's head down to Canberra right now where the Member for Solomon, Luke Gosling, joins us. Good morning to you, Luke.

LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Good morning, Katie.

WOOLF: Mate, thanks so much for your time this morning. I understand that you're working with the Working Women's Centre at the moment in an effort to try and secure them some permanent funding.

GOSLING: Yeah, I've been working with them for many years now, Katie. But if I could just quickly touch on that direct flight from London to Darwin, Darwin should have always been the hub anyway. And we were trying to get that up. And Perth won it, but Darwin should be the natural point as a gateway that we are. And of course, we've got dedicated quarantine here as well. So it makes all sorts of sense to go in through Darwin, particularly as we've got that extra capacity out of Bladin and the Federal Government keeps saying that they're interested in that. So we just need to get them over the line on that, but we're not quite there yet.

WOOLF: Geez, it’s going to be interesting, though. If we do indeed end up with a direct flight from London to Darwin, which, like I said, reading between those lines in The Australian, it says that Perth could lose its non-stop London service to Darwin. That'll be really interesting stuff.

GOSLING: It’ll be massive because we'll get them into Darwin, they can be warm, we can get them into dedicated quarantine so there's less chance of leakage out there that we've seen in hotel quarantine. But also I'm sure that many of them will go, “hey, we're here, let's go to Kakadu, let's duck down to Litchfield, or get out to the Tiwis, let's do some fishing”. So I think it's really exciting news and we'll be doing everything we can to convince Qantas that that's indeed a smart move. So, Katie, just moving to the Northern Territory Working Women’s Centre.

WOOLF: Yeah.

GOSLING: You know, I remember talking to Pete Davies about it back in the day. They've continually had their funding cut by the Federal Government, which is really unfortunate. And we just keep fighting for them because they provide such tailored and specific services to women that need that support, direct support because of treatment they've had in the workplace. And we know that the Respected @ Work report by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, well, the Federal Government has had that for a long, long time now, and she recommended to the Federal Government that the Working Women's Centres are not only funded properly, but they should be re-established where they have been shut down recently.

WOOLF: Luke, for those out there listening who don't know exactly what the NT Working Women's Centre does, can you just give us a bit of an idea?

GOSLING: So the Working Women's Centre is physically located down there on Woods Street, and they've been working there for years. And the Centre is really important because there's local staff there with a deep understanding of workplace issues in places like the NT, and what they do is help, especially vulnerable women that are needing some support to get through difficulties they've got in their workplace. Now, that might not be the employer, might the other employees. It may be that they need some assistance with any number of issues that can happen in a workplace to do with the rates of pay or their conditions of pay. And I guess the really important thing about the NT Working Women's Centre is, you know, there's such a power imbalance sometimes in some workplaces, and this can be used in the private sector or the government sector, where if you're a vulnerable woman in that workplace, to have the support and the legal backing about what their rights are. It just becomes important so that they don't get railroaded or indeed sacked when they shouldn't be. So it's just that important support for women, particularly those who are vulnerable.

WOOLF: And Luke, what are you going to do? Are you going to be starting a petition in an effort to try and ensure this funding does become more permanent so that they're not sort of going off? I don't know what the situation is now, whether it's a year by year thing or how often they know whether they've got that funding. But what work are you doing to get underway to try and sort it out?

GOSLING: Yes, we are launching a petition today to the federal parliament, and I'll present that when we can when we come back for the next session of parliament later in the year. But essentially, the government said it would implement all the recommendations and continue to fund Working Women's Centres. But in the May budget, there was only $100,000 for the NT Working Women's Centre, which basically meant that they weren't able to do much at all, weren’t able to help many Territory women at all. They need more like $900,000 a year to fully represent women who need those services. So we're going to launch his petition, we're going to continue to call on the Federal Government. The NT Working Women’s Centre would have already folded if it had not been for the support of the NT Government. So the NT Government is propping them up at the moment. But the Federal Government, obviously, they should be investing in important jobs like these that help our fellow Territorians, but instead they’re defunding an organization that they had committed to funding. So this petition will help to keep the issue front of mind for the Federal Government down here in Canberra. And if we get this funding for the NT Working Women's Centre can be able to continue helping Territory women when they're facing really difficult times.

WOOLF: So, Luke, where can people view that petition if they are listening this morning and thinking, “do you know what, this is a good idea. I want to make sure that I support it. Where can I get to or what can I do?”

GOSLING: They can just head to my Facebook page, I'll be speaking in the federal parliament about the petition and the reasons for it just before question time today. And then I'll be putting that speech up with the link of where people can go to sign up to the petition. And just thanks to everyone who over the years have been continually supporting the NT Working Women’s Centre, and we have kept it alive so we can keep helping Territory women. But we're going to need this petition to pressure the Government to put its hand in his pocket. And when we consider how much money has been going out from the Federal Government to companies that didn't need JobKeeper that got it anyway – billions of dollars – they can with less than $1 million keep these vital services going in the Territory. So they should do the right thing and properly fund the NT Working Women’s Centre.

WOOLF: Well, Luke Gosling, it is always good to catch up with you. I really appreciate your time this morning and letting us know a little bit more about the situation with the NT Working Women's Centre.

GOSLING: Thanks, Katie. And just quickly for veterans out there, the time is really getting short now for us to try and get the last of these [Afghan] interpreters out, But I just wanted to let them know that we're doing everything we can do to make sure they get out before the Taliban close down the airport to evacuation.

WOOLF: So where is that at at the moment, Luke? I know that it's a bloody terrible situation. I think all of us agree on that. But where are things at with the interpreters?

GOSLING: Ah, it's shocking, Katie, I’ve been helping some veteran mates of mine get their interpreters out. And last night we just got the news that one of the interpreters with their family on the way to the airport was bashed by the Taliban. You know, his 15-year-old daughter had her head split open by a rifle butt at the hands of the Taliban, his wife was whipped. It's really shocking stuff. And they can’t -- there are some that are at the gate trying to get through, they've got visas to come back to Australia, but they can't get in. And there are some that can't even get to the gate. So these people that they gave us this loyal service, the window of time when they've got to get them out is closing. It's all been too little, too late. But thanks again to all the ADF people on the ground, the DFAT people, the Home Affairs people, they're doing the best they can. But it's a really difficult situation on the ground. And we just need to just continue to try in these last 48 hours or so to get the people that have got visas into the airport and onto planes to safety.

WOOLF: Sounds like it is a really, really dangerous situation for them trying to get on those flights. And bloody frightening. Luke Gosling, thank you very much for your time this morning. I appreciate it.

GOSLING: Thanks for your time, Katie.

ENDS