Debates and Questions - Day 1 - 24 April 2020
Parliamentary Record 27
Debates and Questions for 13th Assembly 2019 - 2020; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 13th Assembly 2016 - 2020
2020-04-24
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Debates and Questions
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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DEBATES AND QUESTIONS Friday 24 April 2020 8355 exemption. I try to help people through those issues. I hope that when we come to the end of this the government reviews what happened and how we dealt with those affected by the virus and looks at the regulations. I am doing my newsletter at the moment. I commented that when we make decisions about what people can and cannot do, we need to make sure it is not just a blanket, There is a label; therefore, we should apply it to everything that fits under the label. We should apply it to the things with the greatest risk and the those with practically no risk. That is how we should classify things. I mentioned golf. I have trouble understanding why even one person cannot play golf. Two people can walk on a golf course just talking to one another. The broad-brush approach is that sporting facilities are not permitted to be usedI presume in an organised way, because you can kick a footy on the footy ground with another person. I am not having a go at anyone in particular but the way we dealt with this needs to be reviewed later with a commonsense approach. The idea of social distancing can apply in one place. It cannot apply, for instance, in a coffee shop. Some people asked if we could offer sit down in a coffee shop where chairs were permanently over 1.5 metres apart. I hope we can have a good public discussion on what we can and cannot do. Who is to say we will not have this problem again? It is sad for me; I had my birthday with Evie and Charlietwo dogs. Ms Fyles: Happy birthday! Mr WOOD: Yes, if I can work out how to get it off of my private Facebookwhich my daughter did for me I will send you a copy of the birthday party. The two dogs and I had a madeira cake from Coles and sung happy birthday. Ms Nelson: It was your 70th. That is a huge birthday! Mr WOOD: Yes, it was. Be that as it may, it is one of the down sides of what we are going through. When we get through it, I will have a good birthday party with the rest of the family. We were intending to have it at Lee Point. I would be good to have a sittings in June. It would allow the Member for Johnston to give his speech, which would be welcome. I would like to hear what he has to say. I might be able to give my valedictory speech then. Ms Fyles: I thought you did it. Mr WOOD: No, that was a thank you. Remember what the Member for Barkly said? He said I have to give a valedictory speech. I will give it for him. Ms Fyles: We look forward to it. Mr WOOD: There might be some things you are not happy with; some things you will like. Back to the CHOs power to charge feesin section 52A(3). It says: The fee is recoverable as a debt due to the Territory from the person or class of persons so charged. That reads as though they pay the fee to the CHO, which I presume is not the case. I would like that clarified. If the CHO said that you have to stay at a certain place, I presume the owner of the hotel is the one covering it. I thought it looked like the CHO is in charge of the fee. I am also interested in section 56, Contravention of emergency declaration or direction. A disadvantage of rushing things throughthe Clerks Office sent me the explanatory statement, which says: This clause makes technical amendments to the offence of Contravention of an emergency declaration or direction. Section 56(1) states that a person commits an offence if the CHO makes an emergency declaration or gives a direction under section 52(3) and the person contravenes the declaration or direction.