Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, says Labor must have something to hide given the extraordinary power being granted to the unelected Chief Health Officer (CHO) and the scrapping of parliamentary scrutiny that Natasha Fyles intends to ram through parliament today.
“Last night, Labor voted down the CLP’s legislation which would ensure the CHO provides a detailed report to Territorians around the health advice and evidence provided to government – and how Labor has implemented that advice – every three months.
“What’s worse, is that Labor is bringing on its own COVID amendments to deliberately change the law so that the CHO does not have to report to parliament anymore. The only reason Natasha Fyles, who is both Health and Chief Minister, is taking these extraordinary steps must be because Labor has something to hide about how COVID has been handled and how health advice has been implemented.
“Under the current law, the CHO has to provide a full report to parliament within three months of the end of the emergency period. That emergency period is set to expire in 28 days.
“Dr Hugh Heggie has publicly said: “I’m required under the new legislation to do that report, and I’m quite comfortable if I’m requested to provide a report thus far…” and that his decision-making “has been thoughtful, considered ..”
“The CHO says he’s complying with the current law, so a draft report should already be prepared for parliament to meet legal obligations. Why is Labor gagging the CHO from reporting? What’s in his report that Labor don’t want Territorians to see?
“An unelected official should not have two more years of power when the Territory will no longer be in a state of emergency. Territorians aren’t fooled by the Labor Government’s blatant attempt to retain as much control as possible while avoiding all scrutiny. That’s why more than 4,200 Territorians signed a petition against this extraordinary and overreaching legislation. “If the CHO needs power, the Labor Government should justify extending the state of emergency every three months. If the Government can’t do that, then the CHO’s powers need to end with the state of emergency. The CLP is listening to Territorians, and will not be supporting this Bill,” said Mr Yan.
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