Fiji Medical Assistance

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (14:22): My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister update the house about South Australia's contribution to the Australian medical assistance team deployment to Fiji following the impact of tropical cyclone Winston?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:23): It's good to have a member of parliament who does take question time seriously and asks serious questions. On 20 February, tropical cyclone Winston swept through parts of Fiji, causing devastation to large areas of the country and 44 deaths. The Australian government responded to a request from the Fijian government to provide an Australian medical assistance team. An advance team of six from the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre deployed from Darwin and arrived in Fiji on 23 February. Following that, on 28 February a 13-person Australian medical assistance team was tasked and deployed in support of the mission.

Two SA Health staff were included in that second team: Mr Dan Martin, an operations lead nurse with MedSTAR and a qualified AUSMAT clinical team leader, working as one of the mission clinical team leaders; and Mr Mark Cannadine, the Director of the Emergency Management Unit, a qualified AUSMAT team member with a specialty in health planning, working in an emergency operation centre as the AUSMAT adviser.

The team had a primary focus on emergency, acute trauma care and public health initiatives through outreach programs in the worst affected areas. Overall, the team treated more than 1,500 casualties, with many residents forced to move into temporary relief camps. The main team arrived back in Australia on 12 March. The final team members arrived back on 15 March, following a visit by the foreign minister to the region. No further deployment is planned at this stage.

SA Health has an excellent database of trained and immunised volunteers ready to deploy at any time. South Australia has a strong history of sending staff to major disasters in the Asia-Pacific over the last 10 years. I commend the outstanding efforts of our volunteers and the extraordinary contribution they make to support people in our region when these terrible disasters strike. On behalf of the government and the house, I wish to thank the volunteers for a job well done.