Leader of the Opposition, Lia Finocchiaro, says Territory businesses are being left to mop up after the poor decisions of the Gunner Labor Government.
“NT Labor’s lax vax rollout is heaping crushing pressure on employers to implement the Chief Minister’s vaccine mandate – with no support package from government. To put it bluntly, businesses have been completely abandoned on the mandate.
“The Gunner Labor Government knew the vaccine was coming for 12 months. The rollout officially began back in March – and in May, after visiting remote communities and seeing the low uptake firsthand, the CLP Opposition questioned why the Gunner Government had a vax rate in remote communities which was as low as 7%.
“The bush has been forgotten by Labor, which is evident by the low vaccine uptake in remote Central Australia and the Barkly, including some communities that still only have fully vaccinated residents in the single digits. Michael Gunners words around protecting our most vulnerable are hollow and don’t match the effort that he should have put in at the start of the vaccine rollout. He has completely failed.
“Now, more than seven months on from the beginning of the vaccine rollout, and we still only have 17% of people living in remote communities in the Barkly, and 31% in Central Australia, who are fully vaccinated – while Labor continues to fudge its vaccination figures, by blaming the Commonwealth, and including FIFO workers and tourists to beef up the numbers.
“Instead of hindering the vaccine rollout by closing remote health clinics, the Chief Minister needs to support our health workers and residents living in these communities by immediately re-opening them. Why are Territorians living in the bush not entitled to the same or similar health services to those living in Fannie Bay or Nightcliff?
“On 15th of September Michael Gunner announced that it would be Territory businesses doing the heavy lifting to implement his mandatory vaccination plan, and yet he still hasn’t provided adequate support to business, so they can successfully implement the vaccine mandate.
“Now, businesses have just ten days to go it alone and work out how to successfully implement it. If Michael Gunner wants his vaccine mandate to be successful, he needs to get on board and back the businesses trying their hardest to keep Territorians safe.
“The Chief Minister is so arrogant he seems determined to set businesses up for failure instead of supporting them to succeed. The CLP wants to see business implementation support packages provided, as a priority, on an industry-by-industry basis so that they do succeed.
“The business community wants support, and now is the time for the Chief Minister to outline how businesses are expected to implement his vaccine mandate. “Michael Gunner needs to stop dismissing genuine concerns from Territory businesses. The common goal is to lift the vaccination rate – but business can’t do that without support for a successful vaccine mandate implementation.” said Mrs Finocchiaro.
ENDS