Mr chairman: Good morning. I welcome Mr Vatskalis, and invite you to introduce the officers accompanying you, and if you wish to make an opening statement on behalf of the Department of Health and Families. Minister vatskalis’ portfolios

ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010 
finishes, they are not going to be working for Pearl Aviation.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Yes, I realise that. Is that going to be a question on notice, or can we 
confirm that? 
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: We can provide that before the end of the session.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: That is currently. How many flight nurses will be posted in Katherine 
once the interim contract comes in on the 1 July?
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: Ms Cahill will be responding.
 
 
Ms CAHILL: Robyn Cahill, Director Systems Performance Acute Care. Based in Katherine, there will 
be 2.25 FTE. That covers the day shift. The night shift for Katherine is covered out of Darwin with the 
helicopter service.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Right, thank you. Under the interim contract, how many flight-trained 
doctors will be located in Katherine?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: Well, the doctors will be working based in Darwin, at this point in time.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: So, the answer is zero?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: Zero.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Minister, under the interim contract, how many aircraft will be allocated to 
duties for Aeromedical Services in the Top End?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: There will be a total of four aircraft in the configuration – fixed-wing aircraft sorry. One 
based in Gove, one based in Darwin, one based in Katherine, and the fourth aircraft is for scheduled 
maintenance, which is the current configuration, plus the rotor-wing aircraft which will be based in 
Darwin.
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: There are not going to be a reduction of the number of aeroplanes. The interim 
contact will replace exactly the contract provided by Pearl Aviation.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Okay. Can you confirm the same number of aircraft is operating 
presently under the Pearl contract?
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: Four aircraft operating. Well, the agreement is to provide four aircraft. The problem 
was actually because of the age of the aircraft. They needed more maintenance and, sometimes, 
more than one aircraft needed to be looked after because of mechanical problems. That is the reason 
the contract was actually finished earlier, in order to avoid the situation that we did not have other 
aircraft in the air.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: It is my understanding, minister - perhaps you can confirm this or 
otherwise for me - that currently there are actually five aircraft, excluding the rotary wing, that are 
available.
 
 
Ms CAHILL: There was an agreed variation reached with Pearl in January because of the difficulties 
with the unscheduled maintenance levels that were increasing with the age of the aircraft, and the 
difficulties with training and checking of their pilots. They had approached us to ask if we could 
actually include another aircraft into the mix for that purpose, so it would reduce the impact on the 
actual aero-retrieval service. We reached an arrangement where we provided an additional aircraft to 
do that for a short term.
 

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ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: That was only temporary because of the problems which occurred with the other 
aircraft.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Was there an additional cost to the Northern Territory as a result of 
having that extra aircraft?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: Yes, there was an additional cost for the aircraft.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Can you please tell me what that cost was?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: It is part of a commercial contract that was reached, so I do not believe I can reveal that.
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: Commercial-in-confidence.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Thank you. It is my understanding there are two types of fixed-wing 
aircraft that will be used in the interim contract. Is that correct?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: No, the four aircraft are all King aircraft; they are all the same.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Okay. Will they all be fitted out the same?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: Yes, they will.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I just want to confirm something. Currently, my understanding is the 
aircraft that operate out of Darwin and Gove are colloquially called Blue Tails, and the aircraft 
operating out of Katherine is a Red Tail. The Red Tail aircraft can only take walk-on patients. I want to 
confirm that will not be the case after the 1 July this year?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: The additional aircraft that was added into the contract for Pearl was the Spectrum 
aircraft, and the decision was made, after consultation with all of the staff, that better utilisation of the 
Bluetails was to have them based in Darwin so they could be used 24/7, as we were providing the day 
service out of Katherine, with the helicopter providing the night service. That is not the case for the 
new contract or aircraft of the same configuration.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Thank you. The helicopter that is currently flying the night operations out 
of Katherine, what type of aircraft is it and what model? That would be the rotary wing.
 
 
Ms CAHILL: I might just have to confirm that, I am not across the type of aircraft it is, but I will just 
clarify that.
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Right, thank you. I can probably help you, I believe it is called a VK117. 
Can you advise at what cost per hour that helicopter is being provided for the NT government?
 
 
Mr VATSKALIS: I can provide that for you. The emergency helicopter retrieval from Katherine region 
have cost to the government, to date, $2.49m. And attempts to recoup the money from the 
Commonwealth have failed. We tried. 
 
 
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Yes, good luck with that, minister. Thank you for providing that, but what 
I would like to go back to is the question I asked, which is, at what cost? I understand that there is a 
number of hours currently that are included in the contract with CareFlight, because they have the 
contract for the helicopter, that is correct, yes?
 
 
Ms CAHILL: So, are you asking for the actual …
 

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