COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout

Mr DULUK (Waite) (15:20): My question is to the Minister for Education. Minister, what plans and contingencies does the government have in place to address any teaching and support staff shortages that may arise out of the COVID vaccine school mandate that will be instituted next month?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:20): I thank the member for the question. It is a good question and it is a question that is exercising the minds of organisers and, indeed, their systems: public education, Catholic education and independent schools in South Australia.

We are not unique in this situation, of course, and it's a question that has confronted the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and the jurisdictions of our territories as well, and prior to the mandate that was announced yesterday in South Australian educational settings had also been announced in those jurisdictions.

Different jurisdictions had different start dates for when those mandates were to take place. In some jurisdictions in the Eastern States where there have been high levels of community transmission and an urgent challenge to get schools open, which had not been open for face-to-face learning for an extended period of time, those mandates have been in place so that teachers had to be fully vaccinated already at this stage or certainly before the end of this year.

The mandate that has been directed in South Australia takes into account the different circumstance that South Australia is in and does not propose to disrupt any staffing arrangements during the course of this school year. The date 10 December is identified as the last date on which the education workforce is expected, under the direction, to have had their first vaccination. That is also the last day of school. On 11 December, which is the first day of the school holidays, is when we move into a situation where people will effectively be on leave if they haven't met the direction.

That will enable a second vaccine to be had before the end of this calendar year so that come 1 January, several weeks before the commencement of the 2022 school year, systems—the public education system, the Catholic education system and, of course, independent schools—will have an understanding of their workforce needs.

It is anticipated, based on experience in other jurisdictions certainly and in other departments where mandates have preceded the education mandate, that of those who have identified through the survey previously that they didn't want to have a vaccination many will determine that they will be vaccinated, and that will have a positive outcome obviously for their health, for their family’s health, their community's health and, critically, the health of the school and the capacity for the disease to spread in a school, a preschool or an early learning environment.

Our government has unashamedly worked hard with SA Health to keep our schools, our preschools and our early learning settings open as much as possible throughout the course of the pandemic and we have been more successful at doing that than any other jurisdiction in Australia, more successful at doing that than almost every other jurisdiction in the world—I am yet to have too many examples presented to me. We have had very few days of stay-at-home orders where online learning was the only option available—very few days over two years—and it's a very positive experience for our students that that continues to be the case.

Should there be COVID community transmission in South Australia, which at some stage we expect there will be, we will continue to have a very high expectation on the capacity to keep our schools, our preschools and our early learning settings open. It is critical for those children, for their wellbeing, for their education, for our families, for our economy and for our state and that is one of the key reasons why the police commissioner, acting as State Coordinator, has indicated the direction he has made.