Extreme Weather Conditions

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): A supplementary: will the minister provide the people of South Australia and this house with a guarantee that all outstanding recommendations accepted by this government will be implemented in full by the time summer comes around?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health, Minister Assisting the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:25): All these recommendations are being implemented in a methodical way to ensure we have the best possible capabilities for our state. Over the past few months—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Davenport is warned for the second and final time, and the leader is already on two warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —since the report was released on 23 January, a significant amount of work has occurred in relation to the recommendations, but a number of them involve a huge amount of work and very complex arrangements to ensure we get them right. For instance, some of the recommendations involve the continuity of supply of cash in the event of a blackout. This is a very complex set of arrangements where we need to ensure that cash is available for people if there were to be a blackout. We don't necessarily control the banking system, so we need to work with the commonwealth agencies—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call to order the member for Chaffey.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and we need to work with the private sector to work on those solutions. Likewise, in terms of fuel recommendations, they are a very complex set of arrangements and regulatory functions. We need to work through all those as fast as we can and we need to make sure we do it in a way that is absolutely considered and that we get it right—

Ms Sanderson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I called to order the member for Adelaide.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —because we don't want to rush into something and have recommendations delivered just so that we can tick a box. The actual objective here is to improve our emergency services capabilities, and improve our capabilities to respond to a disaster event should one happen in this state. That is why, as I have said in relation to the last five or six questions, even where we have a recommendation underway, it doesn't mean nothing has happened on that. A significant amount of work has occurred across—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call to order the member for Hartley.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —our state, across our departments, across our emergency services to ensure that we are well prepared, and we are continually improving our capabilities. As commissioner Burns noted—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I warn the member for Hartley.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —in his report, we have well-equipped emergency services in place in South Australia and, on the whole, they responded very well to the previous event that happened. We want to make sure that we continue to set the bar as high as possible in South Australia, and that is why we are working on delivering these recommendations from commissioner Burns in a very careful and considered way to ensure we are appropriately improving our emergency services capability in South Australia.