Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Obviously, Parliament sat in the Northern Territory and there was
quite a bit of legislation introduced and indeed passed. There
were also motions introduced by some on the cross bench.
Now we try our best to catch up with the
independent members of Parliament and also those in opposition weekly
to find out what is on the agenda. And we
know we've got a Greens member of Parliament and that
is the Greens member for Nightcliff Cat McNamara, who joins
(00:24):
me in the studio right now.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Good morning, Cat, morning, Katie morning everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Lovely to have you in the studio. Thanks so much
for your time now. I was watching Parliament when it
was sitting a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, oh,
I've got to make sure I get Kat on about that,
because there are a couple of motions that you you know,
that you put on the agenda. But it's been so
busy and there's been so much happening, so I thought, no,
I've still got to make sure I'll get you on
to find out more about this stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But one of the.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Things that you did say that you're certainly i think
hoping for a bit more transparency on and and tougher
rules and regulations, I guess is probably the right way
of putting it.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
He is the lobbyist Register.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Now we know the COLP obviously introduced or announced the
lobbyist Register to coincide with the start of the twenty
twenty five parliamentary year.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Did you feel it went far enough?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, the short answer is no, Katie. I mean, so
I put a notice up last year, notice a motion
to say I'm going to be introducing emotion about the
lobbyist Register.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
So that came up at the.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Last sitting the day before we were bent to debate
my motions, and they did their announcements. So I'm pretty
glad that I got to push the government in terms
of enacting that lobbyist register. But when I saw the details,
I was really disappointed. It was such a missed opportunity
to actually implement something with teeth, you know, operate to
the highest standard, like we've got to be achieving high
and unfortunately the details of this register means it's not
(01:43):
going to be effective at all. It's pretty it's going
to be honestly woefully inadequate at stopping that revolving door
between lobbyists and politicians that we see. They're not extending
the cooling off period any longer than six months. Six
months is just in Canada it's five years.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So that's it once you leave politics a month period.
In terms of getting a job afterwards, well.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Getting a job, not any job, just a job within
an industry that you previously regulated.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Right. Oh yeah, so was that kind of was that
I guess sparked by the fact that we saw Nicole
Madison the previous minister, but she'd been not a minister
then for a year within parliament and then obviously took
on that job in the resources sector or in the
gas sector.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Is that what you mean?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah, absolutely that, and we've seen it and as far
back as you go in territory, you know, we saw
it with Michael Gunner six months and three days i think,
until he walked into a role like that. And the
problem is that it just gives the public, It puts
doubt in their mind are these people there for the
best interest of the community or are they there to
just feather their own nests and walk into like a
cushy role afterwards. And we just need to really, really
(02:45):
be disincentivizing any of that behavior in our politics. And
you know, most of other other jurisdictions have much longer
cooling off periods. It's a pretty reasonable ask. I think
six months is just not enough.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So how long do you reckon it should be?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So we asked for a four year cooling off period,
so yeah, watually I've only still got six months.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, look to look at it from the other side,
and I agree with you because I do think it's
a really big you know, it's a concern, right, you
want to make sure that people are in those if
they are in ministerial roles, that they're not then walking
into other jobs after they leave those roles and have
potentially made decisions while they're in their ministerial roles that
could help them. But then the other side of it
(03:22):
is a lot of the people that we've got in
Parliament at the moment, yourself included. You know, your young
dynamic people, what do you do when you leave politics?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I mean, if everyone else in the communities expected to
find work, I'm sure we can too.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
And we are young, dynamic people with lots of skills.
There are lots of roles you can go into.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And I mean Look, politicians get paid leave at the
end of it. Two, it's not like they're desperate to
get back into work. You can just be a little
bit broader, I think in terms of finding it. And look,
it wasn't just the cooling off period in their motion.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
It was also the fact that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
There is no transparency for the public. So we heard
the Chief Minister say that lobbyist register was going to
be good because it will tell the ministers who's lobbing them,
which it's just a fundamental misunderstanding of what a lobbyist
register is. Right, it's for the public. That's how you
hold people accountable. So other lobbyist registers, you have to
publicize the minister's diaries, so you have to publicize, you know,
who are they're meeting with, how many times they're meeting
(04:14):
with them, what the topics are about that they're meeting.
So we don't get any of this, So any lobbyists
who's meeting with their ministers, we've actually got no idea.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And that happens in other states, doesn't it. That's really
what you're pushing for.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, yeah, And I mean because it's a state by
state thing, there are different different rules across But the
good thing is is that because we're so late to
the party, we can actually look at all the different
states and territories around Australia and go, okay, we can
pick the best from each of them. And that's what
I put forward in my motion. And so on the day,
even though they'd announced that they implemented it. The next
day I did my motion and they all voted against it.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Well, you know, at least you've had a crack, I suppose.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And no matter what I think, even with you know,
even in terms of those meetings and the publish the
publishing of the diary and that kind of stuff, I
actually think that in politics we do want things to
be as open and transparent as possible. So regardless everybody's
you know, everybody's keeping a close on things, the last
thing we want is anything dodgy going on. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I do want to ask you, Kat.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I know that you'd also introduced emotion as I understand it,
around rental rights.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Can you talk me through what this one was? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Sure, So I've just put those notices up so they'll
come up at a later date in Parliament. But basically
we've got almost fifty percent of the population here in
the territory are renters, which is actually the highest proportion
of renters compared to other states and territories.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
And renters here.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
We've got a cost of living crisis that's only getting worse,
and renters are really bearing the brunt of this. They
have to bear the brunt of like unlimited rent increases,
no grounds, evictions. We have very poor renters rights and
protections here in the territory. So I just want to
see that improved. I've been speaking to a lot of
my constituents who are renters who are really struggling. So
I've popped up emotion for a bunch of things too.
(05:55):
Hopefully the government can look at and we can see
how can we improve life for renters in the territory.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Anything in particular that we should be aware of, because
I know that some that are home owners right now
might also be listening, or property owners that might be going.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
We'll hang on a set.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Is this going to mean that I've got less rights
in terms of if I've got a you know, not
a very good tenant.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I mean, there are already lots of rights for landlords
and people who are into property. It's also a larger
question right that we have to be asking ourselves in
terms of is property just there for wealthy people to
get wealthier or is it part of a human right
for people to have access to secure affordable housing. And
so the things that we are looking at that we
could do is, for example, introducing a rent freeze for
(06:36):
two years. You could limit rent increases to two percent
every two years after a freeze.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We also need an independent bond board.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
So right now, so other jurisdictions have independent bond boards
they hold it's an independent body here the landlords or
the agents holds a bond, which creates quite a difficult
situation for people trying to get their bonds back, and
it's just kind of messy. It wastes a lot of time.
In ntact, if we had an independent board, a lot
simpler fair everyone.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So how would that independent board sort of work.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Well, we can look at the different models into state,
but it's just basically someone who's independent of the two
parties to hold that to hold that bond.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
And because you know the effects.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Of this are when someone's struggling to get their bond back,
they might have done everything right, but unfortunately it's with
the landlord or the agent, and whatever reason they're not
getting it back, they can't then move on to the
next property. They need that bond back to be able
to move to the next property. And so having an
independent group to hold it and just release it again
just makes thing simple, and it also helps us not
get overburned with anti cat cases that people trying to
battle together there.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
How would some of those other protections potentially work, I
suppose in a practical sense.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Oh, in terms of the rent freeze, Yeah, so this
is something that the Greens in other states as well
have been trying to put on the table, the fact
that we have unlimited rent increases and it's really unfair
on renters that if we put a rent freeze for
two years, it just I mean, landlords are still get
they're still people are still paying their rents.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, yeah, I suppose.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I look at it though, as somebody who has got
an investment property, and I'm like, well, you know, I'm
paying through my eyeballs in interest rates at the moment,
you know, the cost of everything's going up. I'm not
putting up you know, significant rent increases. But sometimes they're
actually required to be able to hang on to the
property as well.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, look, and.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I'm sure there are landlords that are doing the right thing.
But I mean I've spoken to people. I spoke to
someone on the doors when I was door knocking. They
just had a baby, and they got like a two
weeks notice because supposedly landa was going to move back in,
they have to move out and then they see the
properties put back on the market for double the rent.
So that kind of stuff is happening all the time,
and that's what we need to put some safeguards in
to protect people.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So we're too with that motion.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Now obviously you've put it on the you've put it
on the list or whatever, so next parliamentary sittings.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
No, it we a bit further down the list because
kind of like first investigatress. Yeah, and so someone's gonna
be hard to estimate, I'd say a bit further down
in the year.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
All right.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
One of the other things that you've raised concerns around
is gambling. Now, the introduction of some gambling restrictions, is
that what you're potentially looking at.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Oh, absolutely, we really need to reform the gambling industry
here in the territory. We know it does matterif harm
to our community for example, you know Pokey's, they're embedded
in our community, and we know that Pokey's in particular
really actually target the most vulnerable in our community. They're
the people who can least afford to be losing the money.
And Pokey's are something that are designed. They are designed
(09:16):
by very sophisticated people with technology that is designed to
get the most out of people's wallets. So I would
like to see some pretty simple things implemented, actually, things
like a pre commitment system to venues with Pokey so
people can gives a bit of power back to them.
All right, when I walk in, I'm only going to
commit to this much. I can't spend any more.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, right, so you do that before you enter the door.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah. Yeah, there's different ways you can do that. There's
also for example, they're call it the load up limits,
so how much you can put it each time? Our
load up limit here in the territory is like ten
times out of other states. So we could just put
a limit of one hundred dollars at a time, like
that's the max you can put in a time.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Well, how do we differ from other states? And can
we look at what they do in some of those
other locations potentially.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah, absolutely, this is a I mean the downside to
some things in the territories, we're lagging in some regard
in terms of regular but then the flip side of
that is we've got examples into.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
State we can look at, so like the load up limit,
let's just reduce that. And you're just trying to give
a bit more power back.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
To people who may be struggling with an addiction with gambling.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Kat I want to also ask you about a topic
that's had a lot of people really upset over the
last week or so, and that is, indeed the closure
of the well you know it's happening, the closure of
the maternity ward at the Darwin Private Hospital. I know,
the likes of yourself also, Selena Rubo, you know you
guys are moms of littlies. A lot of people feeling
(10:31):
really upset that this diminishes the choices for Northern Territory women.
What was your take on it when you learned what
was happening.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I just felt so bad the parents who were making
those choices because they didn't get enough notice. So the
disappointing thing is that the government knew this in September
that this was probably going to happen, and they did
not reach out to families to let them prepare. And
when you're pregnant at making, I mean, I've given birth
at both the public and the private actually, and we
have the most wonderful healthcare staff here and just like
(11:00):
and just those parents that are having to make those
choices now, what they're going to do would be terrible.
And I think this is a real wake up call
for us in that the private system is that viable.
We need to be funding our public system so everyone
knows that they can access that and that we can
support the entire community.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Do you reckon that.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
There could be I mean, I don't know what more
can kind of be done in this space, and I
know that the government's obviously come out with their other
two options in terms of being able to go home
earlier and also go into a hotel if that's what
you need. But I mean, the fact is that if
you have any additional needs when your baby is born,
if there's any concerns that kind of thing, you're not
really in a situation where you can do either of
(11:38):
those things. It is going to cause a lot of
additional austraining you would think on the public health system. Look,
do you think there's anything more that could be done?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Well, what should have been It should have been done
back in September when the Health Minister found out about this.
Why were they not going, Okay, contingency plan, what are
we going to do and to support the public system
to help these patients that are eventually going to be there.
So that's just just a massive failure I think on
path those.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Point, we didn't know that they realized in September. I
thought they'd come out like I thought that literally they
were telling us that they had that confirmation just a
couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, I saw the Health Ministry and I think it
was an ABC article say that they were aware of this.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Being a possibility in September.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Well, it does explain why they were able to come
out very quickly after with those other options though. So
I guess that's a good thing in terms of that
bit of you know, moving on your feet. But but
it does go back to the concerns I reckon that
we've gotten the NT at the moment with the population
not growing and you know, needing to get things ticking along.
I know that the COLP has been critical of yourself
(12:38):
and also of the opposition in terms of, you know,
some of the other legislation that they're pushing for with
the Territory Coordinator and stuff like that, in terms of
trying to get things moving to increase the population.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I mean, what do you make of that argument?
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Well, I mean, I think the thing with the private
health is not so much. It's that the population of
burs at the private is not increasing, and it's not
that they're not increasing at our public hospitals.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
And that's because I mean a range of things.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
I'm guessing the cost of living people can't afford private
health anymore. So really this is about like, these are
essentially businesses that are there to make money, so should
we be having you know, this is also one of
those larger questions, right is public health? Is our healthcare
best placed in a business model that needs to make money,
because then things like this happen, they can't make the
money and then they close.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Hey, Kat, before I let you go, I know that
you have spoken certainly towards the end of last year
about the need to get things moving around the voluntary
assisted dying.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Where are we at with that?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Is it going to be like from your perspective, because
I know there's been yourself and Justine Davis and others
who really want to see this moving. The COLP had
said that it's not sort of top of mind for
them at the moment, and we're too next.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, so thanks for bringing up Katie. I actually was
just in a meeting just yesterday with so we were
talking about this issue. So I know it is something
that a lot of people care deeply about. So we
have a motion that Justine put up in the Assembly
that will be coming up soon, possibly at the next sittings.
We are also looking at options. Can we introduce a
private member's bill and us put that bill on the table?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Is that possible?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
We're looking at all options at the moment because I
know that the colps said that it's not a priority
for them, which is incredibly disappointing seeing that between seventy
five percent and eighty five percent of territories actually support
it and want it to DOE.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
So that private members bill? Could that happen? What do
you know what the process is with that?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Look, I mean, obviously I'm still kind of new to
this and this is yes, I mean, and so I
know private members can.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Put across bills.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
The thing is, it takes a lot of work to
actually draft the legislation, which is why the government usually
does it a lot of time and resources and money.
So we would hope that the government would listen to
the community and draft the legislation. But if they're not
going to do it, we're still determined to look at
what options we have and if that takes, if we
can do a govern member's bill, we want to try,
all right, well.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
We'll keep in contact on that.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I really appreciate you coming in this morning and having
a chat to us about all of those things that
you have put on the agenda. Thank you very much
for your time.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Much thank you