NT’s virus travel ban
KAKADU could be closed to visitors if concerns about coronavirus spreading in remote communities held by Traditional Owners are listened to by Parks Australia.
At its meeting yesterday, the Northern Land Council decided all existing non-essential permits would be suspended and no new nonessential travel permits would be granted until further notice. It comes as the NT Local Court circuit court services are suspended until at least May. Matters affected by the measures will be heard in their base jurisdiction in order to be adjourned.
More than 200 people across the nation are now infected with the virus.
KAKADU could be closed to visitors, if concerns about coronavirus spreading in remote communities held by Traditional Owners are listened to by Parks Australia.
At its meeting yesterday, the Northern Land Council decided all existing non-essential permits would be suspended and no new non-essential travel permits would be granted until further notice.
NLC chief executive Marion Scrymgour said members of communities were concerned.
“The NLC has received many calls from community members asking that we do all we can to ensure the safety and protection of Aboriginal people in their communities who are very concerned about the spread of COVID-19,” she said.
“To be clear, this decision will not affect the permits issued to those people — the doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers, council workers and others — that provide essential services for Aboriginal people out bush.”
The NLC executive council has further directed Ms Scrymgour to raise with the Commonwealth the concerns held by the traditional Aboriginal owners of Kakadu National Park about continuing park access arrangements.
However, a Parks Australia spokeswoman said for now Kakadu would remain open.
“The safety of our staff, visitors and indigenous and other communities in and around our parks is always our highest priority,” she said.
“Indigenous communities in our national parks are closed to the public and we continue to support these communities with advice on steps Parks Australia are taking as it becomes available.
“Based on the most up to date medical advice at this time, we’re continuing to encourage visitation to our parks to support local and regional economies that rely on tourism. Indigenous communities are also major beneficiaries of the visitor economy of our parks.”
The closure of communities comes as the NT Local Court circuit court services were yesterday suspended until at least May.
Circuit courts are court systems where judges to travel to different locales to ensure wide visibility and understanding of cases in a region.
Matters affected by these measures will be heard in their base jurisdiction in order to be adjourned.
For example, all Lajamanu Local Court matters listed on March 17 will be heard at Katherine Local Court on March 17.
Custody matters will be dealt with in the base jurisdiction with defendants appearing by AVL from correctional facilities at first instance.
Where possible, matters will proceed from the base jurisdiction. Until further notice all applications made for video and audio link will be fasttracked. As usual, urgent domestic violence orders can be dealt with by audio link.
At this stage circuit courts will resume on May 1 as per the court calendars.
It comes as Australia clocked up 200 cases of COVID-19 yesterday after three South Australians became infected. There are some 140,000 cases worldwide.
This follows Friday’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting which took on the expert advice that all non-essential gatherings of more than 500 people should be cancelled from tomorrow.
And now, less than two months after the coronavirus became a health emergency in Australia, the reagent needed to carry out tests for the killer virus is in short supply.
News Corp understands that stocks of this reagent are under pressure in Western Australia and Queensland, while other states such as South Australia have about a month’s supply left.