Vaccine Manufacturing Capability

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): I thank the Premier for his response in regard to international students, but has the Premier committed any financial support to local vaccine manufacturing capability here in South Australia and, if so, how much?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:13): Obviously the Leader of the Opposition has come down in the last shower. If we were in a detailed negotiation, we would hardly tell all our competitors exactly and precisely what we were offering. We conduct those conversations in private. We conduct them focused on getting an outcome for the people of our state.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I think that our record speaks for itself. We have been able to secure extraordinary investment into South Australia. We have been able to demonstrate that we can actually negotiate complex negotiations. One example that you may be interested in, sir, is the negotiation which was concluded on Monday this week when South Australia took the lead in making sure that we could get the EnergyConnect project up and across the line. This is a project that took three years but will be delivering benefits to South Australia over a long period of time.

You might note from that negotiation that we did commit significant funds for that project, but we did not go on and on and on about it in the media every day. I think in many ways—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Lee is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —this really does identify and highlight the difference between our two sides of politics. We have and we continue to conduct negotiations with the federal government—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: The Premier will resume his seat. The member for Lee rises on a point of order.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The standing order I rise on is standing order 98, and that is about debate. Unless the Premier is about to educate us on the transmission of the vaccine down the interconnector, this is purely debate.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right will cease interjecting. I will rule on the point of order. I do not uphold the point of order. The Premier is responding to a question in terms of both the process of government engagement and the process of investment in response to a question that was directed to the topic of vaccines and otherwise seeking a response in terms of the government's engagement on that topic. In that sense, the Premier's response is contextual. The Premier is directing his answer to the question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The question was very clear: how much are we putting on the table and to tell all the people involved in the other parts of this negotiation exactly what we are doing, and I am saying that we have had extensive negotiations with the federal government. I have been over there twice in the last two weeks—that's now on the record. We point to a record of success in terms of complex negotiations, both with the federal government and with other bodies like the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) to get a multibillion dollar project up again, one which many other people around the country and many other people around the world have been watching.

Of course, it is and it does create a contrast with those opposite who wanted to conduct their negotiations via the media. This is sometimes appropriate, but in this instance we want to put the people of South Australia first. We are interested in outcomes, not just bluff and bluster like we see from those opposite. The Leader of the Opposition—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The Premier will resume his seat. The member for West Torrens rises on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 98: the Premier is no longer answering the substance of the question but entering into a debate about the conduct of other people and assigning a motive.

The SPEAKER: The question was certainly directed to the government's actions. I uphold the point of order and direct the Premier's response to—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned. Interjections, particularly in the course of my ruling, are intolerable. I am very conscious that the house adjourned after 1.30am earlier this morning and I am conscious that members have been working very hard and continuously over the last 24 hours or so. That's no excuse for disorderly conduct. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The federal government have made it clear they want mRNA manufacturing capability in Australia. I have made it very clear we want that here in South Australia. We've got the capability to do that. I have heard others out there in the media saying that we could get this up and running in the next couple of weeks. That is not correct. Nobody in Australia could get it up and running in the next couple of weeks.

Even with the South Australian proposal, it is going to take a minimum of six months, but that is far in advance of the offers that are being put forward by other jurisdictions because we do have TGA approval and we do have FDA approval for these types of vaccines to be manufactured right here at the facilities in South Australia. They don't exist in other states and the vaccines that we are talking about, the mRNA vaccines, are quite different from those that are manufactured at CSL, who are manufacturing the AstraZeneca.

We do need to have a variety of vaccines. We did originally think it was great to have both AstraZeneca and Pfizer being available in Australia. We had that ATAGI information that was provided that said, 'AZ is perfectly safe for those over 50, safe and effective,' but for those under 50 they wanted to move to Pfizer. We do need to have this type of manufacturing capability in South Australia. I want to assure this house and the people of South Australia that we are looking at every and all opportunities to make sure that we can have that facility in South Australia.