Occupational Health and Safety

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:02): My question is to the Premier. Why was the Premier and the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport required to wear hard hats and high-vis vests yesterday at a press conference and the media attending were not?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:02): That would be something you should really refer to the occ health and safety people on the site. WSP did the work—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Lee is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It's really interesting: what we now have is a situation where Labor are out there trying to downgrade the health and safety on site. It's incredible. I think I'm going to have to probably report this. I'm probably going to have to report this incredible breach. We have to follow, and we on this side of the chamber take very carefully—

Mr Boyer interjecting:

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

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —any request to wear PPE, and that's exactly and precisely what happened. Obviously, we were getting much closer to the drilling rig which was there to take the geotechnical samples. The members of the press who were kept—

Mr Malinauskas: Why weren't the media?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, the members of the press were kept considerably further away from right up against that drilling rig, but these are questions that you can quite perfectly ask.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: At least arms-length.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: If you want to doubt and subvert the instructions of people who are trying to protect lives in South Australia, then go straight ahead. I invite the member to go straight ahead and make that suggestion to them. But the reality is that we on this side take our responsibilities in terms of occ health and safety extraordinarily carefully and, when requested to wear PPE, that is exactly and precisely what we do.