The Northern Territory news Sat 16 Apr 2022
NT news
The Northern Territory news; NewspaperNT
2022-04-16
English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin.; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin.
News Corp Australia
Darwin
application/pdf
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
News Corp Australia
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/869965
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/870141
20 NEWS Saturday April 16 2022 NTNE01Z01MA - V1 Beware of deadly gifts AUSTRALIANS shopping for Easter gifts have been warned some toys could be dangerous and even deadly for children. Flashing toys, including bunny ears, festive earrings, flashing Easter eggs and musical cards containing button batteries, have been labelled potentially deadly for youngsters, if swallowed. The magnets could be mistaken by kids for coins or lollies and trigger a chemical reaction that burns through body tissue. Despite the small discs being banned from sale in Australia, data from Kidsafe Australia found about 20 children every week were admitted to hospitals for ingesting a button battery. Fair Trading Australia also sounded the alarm on flammable childrens nightwear. If you suspect your child has swallowed or inserted a button battery, call the Poisons Information Centre on 131 126. shrinkflation warning A KEY consumer advocate group is warning grocery shoppers to look out for businesses attempting to dupe them with shrinkflation, or using smaller packaging to hide price increases. The Queensland Consumers Association says unless the selling price is also reduced proportionally, package downsizing means that consumers pay more for a given amount of product. Often packs are down sized but the selling price remains unchanged, so consumers pay the same for less product, and there is a hidden price increase, QCA spokesman Ian Jarratt says. There is also a hidden price increase if the content is downsized and the selling price is increased. Downsizing of packaged grocery products is now becoming more common in the US, and this is likely to also happen in Australia. new Covid variant hits A NEW Covid variant called Omicron XE has arrived in Australia, which could potentially be 10 per cent more transmissible than the most dominant strain in the country. NSW Health confirmed in its weekly surveillance report Omicron XE was found in a recently returned traveller at the end of last week. It is the first time that the Omicron XE variant has been identified in NSW and Aus tralia as a whole. Omicron XE is a recombi nant virus, which is when two separate virus strains merge to form a new, single and hybrid strain. In Omicron XEs case, it is a combination of the two Omicron Covid variants BA.1 and BA.2. BA.2 has become the most dominant Covid strain in the country, circulating throughout NSW and most of Australia. Man reunited with his lifesaving team TO EMPHASISE how close he was to losing his life, Chris Garner held his index finger and thumb close enough together that only a sheet of paper could fit through it. I was this close to death, he said. Mr Garner lives around the corner from the CareFlight hangar at Darwin Airport and until August last year when one of their lifesaving charters flew him to a Adelaide with a collapsed lung he had no idea the service helped Territorians like himself. I always thought that CareFlight rescues people that get stranded on boats and remote communities, Mr Garner said. You talk about football players as heroes but the doctors in Adelaide told me if I hadnt gotten there so quickly, I would have died. What they do for Territorians really they are heroes. It was an unexpected nightmare for Mr Garner, his wife Ruth and daughters Ashlyn, 8, and Kayleigh, 5. I have asthma so I thought it was my lungs and treated it like asthma attacks, he said. But what actually happened is I had an infection in my lung. His whole right lung filled up and collapsed. Ms Garner rushed her agonised husband to Royal Darwin Hospital in the early hours of an August morning last year. I didnt even get a chance to say goodbye to my two little girls, I just had to leave home straight away, Mr Garner said. Staff at the Royal Darwin Hospital staff performed a quick procedure on him and then sent him with CareFlight to Adelaide. The small plane turned into an airborne hospital, simulating the same resources with tubes and apparatuses strung everywhere in bid to save Mr Garners life. CareFlight flight nurse Jody Lee worked on Mr Garner and kept him alive for the two-hour flight, while pilots Nick Palad and Marc White guided the plane. The speed with which Mr Garner was taken to Adelaide is why he still sees the sun rise and set. When I realised it was CareFlight that had saved my life, I burst into tears I was so grateful, he said. This past Wednesday, eight months later, Mr Garner was reunited with the team that saved his life. There were hugs, tears, and endless thank yous. Now Mr Garner wants to give back and be apart of the lifesaving as well. He and his family have registered a team in this years CareFlight Territory Challenge, a month-long fitness challenge where participants run, walk, ride or swim to raise funds for the service. If all the efforts that we make to do volunteer work and to raise awareness and to actually be hands on raising money if that helps save one more Territorian like me, its worth it, he said. Mr Garner urged anyone interested to join the challenge. For more information or to register, visit careflightchallenge.org. He still faces ongoing health challenges but now finds peace in the finer details of life: Theres so many things that Ive got perspective on about life. (Im) really appreciating the laughing children in the house, going to the markets Theres just so many things in life. Chris Garner hugs CareFlight nurse Jody Lee; and (inset) with his family with the CareFlight team (inset). Pictures: Floss Adams FLOSS ADAMS THE cause of a horror crash that claimed the lives of four women in their 20s on Queenslands New England Highway has been revealed. Police allege the tragedy occurred when a car failed to give way to a high-speed truck shortly after 5.30pm Wednesday on the Sawmill road intersection between Warwick and Stanthorpe. The semi-trailer smashed into the side of the Honda CRV and continued down the highway before coming to a stop, killing all four Korean nationals inside. Queensland Police said they died at the scene. The truck driver was taken to the Stanthorpe hospital in a state of shock and remains in a stable condition. Assistant commissioner Mike Condon said the crash was a result of a simple driving error. It was raining, but it would appear this was a simple fail to give way and they moved out on to the highway and were struck on the drivers side of the vehicle, he said. We are talking to the Korean consulate at the moment and working through the process (of informing the families). The women were believed to have finished work at a nearby orchard when the tragedy occurred. The Korean backpackers had arrived in Australia just a few weeks before the crash. Mr Condon urged holidaygoers to drive to the conditions this Easter long weekend and reinforced high volumes of police would be on patrol. He said the state had already lost 11 more lives than this time last year. More than 59 drivers have been detected committing road offences since the Easter campaign aiming to keep drivers safe during the busy period was announced by police last week. Steven Johns, of the Queensland Ambulance Service, said the tragic event was confronting for those at the scene. These accidents do take tolls on our first responders, he said. Witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage have been urged to come forward to police. Failure to give way cause of tragedy Duncan Murray and Daniela Pizzirani