COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): My question is to the Premier. Why have a 100 per cent worker vaccination rate at one medi-hotel, in Tom's Court, but not in others?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:13): It's almost extraordinary that we are just repeating the same question asked slightly differently. The reality is, as I said in my first two answers to this line of questioning, that we are listening to the experts.

I know that those opposite like to consider themselves as experts. They had that expert report, which they presented to the people of South Australia. It was called Transforming Health. They haven't gone back to that expert report very much lately. In fact, I haven't seen anybody mentioning it at all. I have seen some old posts of people, who are sitting over there opposite now, advocating for Transforming Health a few years ago. That can make very interesting retweeting. The reality is that we are listening to the experts and they have served us extraordinarily well.

If we look at our performance in South Australia relative to the rest of the world, relative to anywhere else in Australia, we have done well, and you've got to ask yourself, 'Why have we done well in South Australia?' Well, I put it to you, sir, that it's for two reasons: first, we have listened to evidence and science and we have constructed our response in light of that expert scientific and evidence-based advice to us as a government; second, it has been a great partnership with the people of South Australia who have recognised that we need to all be working together.

Whilst there are those who want to undermine confidence in our response in South Australia, they are making very little ground, because the people of South Australia are very proud—extraordinarily proud—of the way we have responded to the coronavirus. When we look on the television set at night or we open up the paper in the morning and see the situation that is unfolding in other parts of the world, it is very frightening: 750,000 people are becoming infected with this insidious disease every single day and 13,000 people are losing their life every single day. We don't have that situation in Australia and we certainly don't have that situation in South Australia, and that's because we have been listening to the experts.

So it's not good enough for the opposition to say, 'We've got a better idea.' The reality is that from day one we have listened to those experts. That's been our position and we will continue to do that, and those opposite can continue to undermine public confidence. They are not making much progress whatsoever.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!