Coronavirus Restrictions

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:50): It's again to the Premier: when might churches expect to have the same sorts of liberation as the large retail outlets? With your leave, sir, and with that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms BEDFORD: I have been approached by many churches in my area. Some of them have a greater area than Bunnings, for instance, and are at a loss to understand why they are still restricted in such a fashion.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:51): I thank the member for her question. It is an excellent question and it is one that has been put to me many times, as well. In answer to the first part of the question, which is when will the churches and places of worship be available to open, the answer is as of yesterday.

We are providing some lift to the restrictions that have been put in place up to 10 people. Churches will be open and places of worship will be open for private worship for up to 10 people plus the clergy or the officiating people. There are a couple of exceptions to that. One is with regard to funerals, where the limit is lifted to 20 people indoors and 30 people outdoors. This will allow some very small services. You can imagine a baptism, which would abide by those new restrictions. We have already highlighted that as of 8 June, which is the start of step 2 in our road to a COVID-safe environment here in South Australia, that limit of 10 will be lifted to 20.

Having said that, we are in discussions with the churches and we are continuing those discussions. Last week, I had one of those webinars with heads of the local Christian churches here in South Australia and we discussed the issue of the administration of Holy Communion and how that would operate. Again, they know the date of 8 June and they are working with Dr Chris Lease, who is the Deputy Chief Public Health Officer in South Australia, to establish a risk mitigation strategy for returning churches to their full worship orientation. I would also add that I am meeting with some of the leaders in the Muslim church tomorrow in a similar sort of arrangement.

Your question regarding Bunnings is a really good one and this is put to me very often. I have been to Bunnings and I have been to Ikea and there were hundreds of people there. Why do we have to have a restriction of 10 or 20 at a church service, a funeral, a wedding or so on and so forth? It really gets down to how the virus is transmitted. What we do know about this virus is it is not easily transmitted with somebody walking past somebody at pace in a shopping centre. Where it is of course more problematic is when people are sitting down in a close environment with each other, sometimes for half an hour, an hour, or so on and so forth. That is the time of the transmission, so this is a higher level risk.

If we go back to the very beginning of the COVID-19 infection in Australia, for the two largest superclusters in the first month, one was at a wedding and one was at a funeral. As terrible as this is for people who in their time of need want to attend a place of worship, they are being forbidden to do so. It is really put in place with the best of intentions from a public health perspective.

I was absolutely delighted when on Friday last week we could advise the people of South Australia that we would be taking small steps to lift the ban on attending places of worship. It is now at 10, plus the clergy, and it will increase to 20. It could increase further if this risk identification and mitigation strategy is worked through. As I said, we do also need to work through some of the issues with regard to the administration of Holy Communion in the Christian churches.

I would also say that I was delighted that over the Easter period many of our churches were able to broadcast their service. They were given clear instructions that this was not only possible but we would actively encourage it, and many, many churches took up that opportunity.