Bushfire Recovery Support

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:26): Sir, I thank you for the opportunity. During the last month, many people in my community have suffered grievously, and indeed other communities around South Australia—the member for Kavel's and the member for Mawson's in particular—and a range of other South Australians have suffered the trauma of being confronted with bushfires.

Yesterday in the house, I spoke a little bit about some of the things that the education department has been putting in place to play its role in supporting children who have been impacted by bushfires, and today I take the opportunity as the government spokesperson for the Minister for Health in the House of Assembly to put on the record some of the work that is being done by the Minister for Health and the health department in supporting communities that have suffered so much as a result of the bushfires, in the response, the relief and now the recovery phases.

The recent fires, from a health point of view, had a significant and potentially lasting impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of many people in our community and across South Australia. For those outside the bushfire-affected zones—everybody in the city, many people across South Australia—the smoke haze that was seen over Christmas and January had a real and genuine physical health impact. Thankfully, that dissipated. For those inside the bushfire-affected zones, there was the far greater physical danger from the fires themselves, which indeed saw three lives lost and many people injured. There is then also the mental trauma that accompanies such extreme events.

Recognising this, South Australia Health was an integral part of the government's response to the bushfires, initially through the Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network, which is the LHN responsible for both the Cudlee Creek and the Kangaroo Island fire areas, and more broadly through the support given to the operations of this network and the Ambulance Service. SA Health provided 3,000 P2 masks to firefighters along with bottled water and hand sanitisation gel. Over 70 nursing staff from SA Health volunteered to support Kingscote hospital.

The South Australian Ambulance Service put extra teams on Kangaroo Island to support the local teams. Public health officers assisted the local councils in areas such as food safety, wastewater management, drinking water safety and infection control. As I have identified, in particular, the government is alert to the mental stress confronting those in bushfire-affected areas. This stress is a natural reaction to such extreme events. As the member for Kavel articulated so well this morning, there will be many people in our community who may not be used to asking for help when they need it, which of course we encourage them to do.

It is important that the responses from government ensure that resources are relevant to the community needs and as that acute mental health services are available where appropriate. In this regard, the Minister for Health and Wellbeing convened a mental health and wellbeing round table on 10 January. It brought together stakeholders from government and NGOs, including Red Cross, Disaster Ministries and Uniting Communities, to maximise services supporting mental health and wellbeing.

One of the key programs on the ground was psychological first aid. I know that I and the members for Kavel and Heysen, the Minister for Human Services, the Premier and other ministers who visited places like the Mount Barker relief centre and the Lobethal bushfire recovery centre, and the subsequent official Lobethal recovery centre, saw this in action on a very regular basis. Indeed, I know that the local councils also put in place some support to ensure that people who reflected trauma were also supported through this endeavour.

The Disaster Ministries and Red Cross were on the ground right from the start providing support to these communities, and I know many people were very appreciative. Dr Rob Gordon has been brought in by Alex Zimmerman, who is the local recovery coordinator, appointed by the Department of Human Services, in the Cudlee Creek area. He presented in Lobethal the other night, and I know that the member for Kavel was able to be there along with many people from the community to hear his work put forward.

Extra acute mental health services have also been made available, including support through the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. The government has also enabled pharmacists to dispense schedule 4 medicines to bushfire-affected people who might have lost their script or had it destroyed in the fires.

I also want to thank and congratulate all SA Health staff who supported those affected by the fires, whether directly or indirectly. On behalf of the Minister for Health, I particularly acknowledge the tragic death of Clayton Lang, an SA Health clinician who died in the Kangaroo Island fires along with his father. We pay tribute to his services to the health and wellbeing of the South Australian community throughout his outstanding professional life.