Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, says the Gunner Government needed to urgently address its approach to testing and contact tracing with Territorians being left confused, stressed and frustrated with the current COVID chaos.
“The Gunner Government has mismanaged this whole affair from the outset. From the vaccine rollout, to testing, to the check-in system and now these text messages that lack any details or useful information.
“How do these texts add any greater safety measure to what we have already been informed of which is to monitor for symptoms and get tested if required? How much is it costing taxpayers to send these out?
“What about circumstances where young children are involved – those who don’t need to check in? Worried parents and carers just don’t know where and when the contact may have occurred.
“This is yet another example of a lack of planning and poor communication by the Labor Government despite having two years to prepare for COVID entering the Territory.
“They’ve also changed the message so often they’ve caused confusion and bred complacency.
“We’ve heard people are starting to ignore health messages, like not checking in due to the poor response and inadequate communication from the Gunner Government, which is a tragedy.”
Mr Yan also addressed further revelations that sites have reported that manual check-in sheets “have never been collected”.
“If you don’t have a phone there are physical forms that you fill in manually when you enter a business to check-in. We’re hearing stories about these not being collected, so the Government must come clean now and provide information about how and when these are being collected and added into the system. Who is responsible for checking the manual check-ins?
“If this is the case the Government doesn’t know where all of the exposure sites are and who has been exposed. This is leaving Territorians in the dark as to how many of them have been to an exposure site and simply adds to the confusion.
“We urge people to continue to heed health warnings, but the Government has got to get it right.
“The Gunner Government’s management of the whole COVID situation is disgraceful. Territorians are confused, stressed and frustrated and are paying the price for Labor’s incompetence.
“It’s just not good enough.” said Mr Yan.
