Coronavirus, Nurse Employment

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:42): My question is to the Premier. What support is the state government providing public hospital casual nurses who have had no shifts and pay and who are not entitled to receive the federal government's JobKeeper allowance?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:42): Can you repeat the very first part of that.

Mr PICTON: Yes, the question, again, is to the Premier. What support is the state government providing public hospital casual nurses who have been given no shifts and no pay and are not entitled to receive the federal government's JobKeeper allowance?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I am very happy to get a detailed answer and come back. I know that many of our LHNs and the Women's and Children's Health Network are looking at the moment at how we upskill our nursing capability in particular at the moment, so you are taking nurses with a certain level of expertise and making sure that we can use this period of time to create a different level of capacity for ICU and critical care beds.

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We announced earlier this week I think 80 or 90 just at the Women's and Children's Hospital alone. I am obviously aware that we need to keep all our nursing capability in place during this period. It's one of the reasons why we entered into a new national partnership agreement with the federal government—to try to keep as much capacity in the private sector available for the peak of the coronavirus here in Australia.

It is fair to say, and we realise this, that there are some very harsh consequences of putting a ban on non-urgent elective surgery in Australia. This has particularly hit casual nurses in the public and private sector, as well as the entire private sector in South Australia. Many of them were facing almost immediate ruin, with essentially the vast majority of their work banned almost overnight.

This decision was not, of course, a decision that was taken lightly because we understood the consequences. We understood the consequences were going to be particularly harsh on a sector that we need to be working with us at the moment, but it was a necessary decision to be made because we need to preserve that PPE. If we go back to what we are trying to do at this part as we prepare for the peak, we are trying to put in as much capacity as we possibly can but also preserve as much of the PPE as we possibly can so that we can be ready to respond when that peak hits.

There is more and more PPE that is coming in. I think I heard the Prime Minister saying that in the last week there were 30,000 items of PPE, in particular the two types of masks that we are using that have come into Australia—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Million. Sorry, did I say 'thousand'? I apologise.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hurtle Vale!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The member for Hurtle Vale seems to know more than the Prime Minister.