COVID-19 Support Payments

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (15:30): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on the state government support for businesses impacted by COVID restrictions imposed last week in three local government areas in my electorate?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:31): I thank the member for Mount Gambier for his question. We know that all of Mount Gambier, in fact the South-East, was thrown into a great period of anxiety when an individual case came to light. We still don't have the full details of how that occurred. It is always worrying when we don't have a linked transmission chain, and of course we had to take action.

This had a very significant effect on people who were in the Mount Gambier council area and also Wattle Range and Grant council. We thank them very much for their observance of the imposed restrictions and I was very pleased to see the very high testing rates which were evident in the South-East. The good news was that of all those tests that were conducted not a single positive case came back, so again South Australia is in that fortunate state—no new cases today and just seven active cases, all in the Tom's Court Hotel.

Of course, we do recognise the impact that this has had on businesses, families and individuals in the South-East, and we have put a package of support in place for businesses affected by these increased restrictions, commensurate with what occurred here in metropolitan Adelaide and right across the state. The Treasurer informs me that money is already flowing out the door.

This will provide some relief to those businesses, but the very best thing that we can be doing for businesses in the South-East, for businesses that employ people right across the state, is make sure that we can get the vaccination rate up to 80 per cent double vaccination rate for those 16 and over. When we get to that point, we can end the possibility of these punishing lockdowns which inflict such harm on the people of South Australia.