Coronavirus

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): Has the Premier read the advice of other experts on the closure of schools, particularly the advice provided by 22 eminent specialists from the Group of Eight universities?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:06): As I said in my previous answer, there is a variety of advice, and we have made the decision that we will listen to the advice of the AHPPC (Australian Health Protection Principal Committee). It is chaired by Dr Brendan Murphy; he is the Chief Medical Officer for Australia. He is the chair of that, and Dr Nicola Spurrier, our Chief Public Health Officer, is on that committee. All the chiefs from around the country have input to that. They meet on a daily basis. That is one of the reasons why, in South Australia, going back to the beginning of last week, we appointed three new deputy chief public health officers in South Australia: Evan Everest, Chris Lease and also Mike Cusack. So three eminent clinicians in South Australia now hold the position of deputy chief public health officer because Dr Nicola Spurrier is really involved as much as possible on the AHPPC.

As I have said in the parliament before, and I will repeat it for people again today, there is a further expert panel that has been assembled, which is called the Communicable Diseases Network Australia. This is, if you like, the specialist expert advice that the AHPPC is drawing on. Those two groups work together; they present their advice to the national cabinet, and that's what we are relying on.