House of Assembly: Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Contents

COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): My question is to the Premier. Why does the government not have a policy in place similar to other states that prohibits workers from performing duties in medi-hotels unless they have received a COVID-19 vaccination?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:10): As I said in my previous answer, we follow the expert advice that has served South Australia extraordinarily well so far, so I am not actually taking lessons from Victoria or any other jurisdictions, as it turns out: I am taking advice from the experts in South Australia. If those opposite think that they know better than Professor Nicola Spurrier, the police commissioner in South Australia and Tom Dodd, who is running SA Pathology, well, put your hands up, but we have seen exactly and precisely how they ran health in South Australia.

Thank heaven they are not in government at the moment if they were going to be interfering with the science, the evidence, the experts. We are not doing that. The experts are providing that advice and, as I provided in my previous answer: 100 per cent of those people in the Tom's Court Hotel, which is our COVID-positive hotel, have all been vaccinated.

We have all our clinical staff vaccinated, but we have to balance that risk, that opportunity, to make sure that we have a full complement and workforce within our quarantine hotel. It is sitting at around 85 per cent as of a couple of weeks ago. I am happy to make an inquiry and update the house if there is a change to that.