Matter of Privilege

Matter of Privilege

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (10:32): I rise on a matter of privilege, in accordance with standing order 132 in circumstances where there is a prima facie case for the establishment of a privileges committee in circumstances where the Premier has knowingly and deliberately misled the house in the course of the debate yesterday. I will proceed to identify how that occurred.

In the course of debate yesterday afternoon, in the Hansard, which has come to my attention this morning, the Premier, when referring to the state having dealt with the COVID pandemic and particularly in the course of 2021, made the following statement of fact and in this respect misled the house. The Premier said:

In the space of one week we had more COVID cases than the former government endured throughout the course of the entirety of 2021.

That was the last sentence of a paragraph, so it is not to do the Premier a disservice. The preceding words made up the entirety of the observation—to put that in even murkier territory, and it is far from clear. The Premier said:

Now we find ourselves, in a way that everybody knew was going to happen, in a way that was utterly predictable, in a situation where the COVID numbers are coming thick and fast. Last week alone there was something like three times the number of COVID cases in one week, when, let's face it, most people are not testing. In the space of one week we had more COVID cases than the former government endured throughout the course of the entirety of 2021.

The latest data available to us from SA Health, that is a report that I understand is a report that is updated on Fridays at approximately 12pm, the latest of which is for Friday 31 May, therefore, indicates that the number of COVID-19 cases as reported for that week was 2,394 cases.

I have to hand an official document that is titled Surveillance of Covid-19 in South Australia, Annual Report, 2021, dated January 2024. I cite that as a reliable source of information in relation to the number of COVID cases notified in South Australia for that year therefore. Under the heading Case Numbers and Source of Infection, there is a first sentence that advises:

There were 12,664 cases of COVID-19 notified in South Australia between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021, inclusive.

It goes on to refer to the fact that most of those cases were notified in broadly the final month of 2021. As I say, there is a prima facie case for the establishment of a privileges committee. Indeed, there is significant work the privileges committee could do to unpack just what exactly the Premier was referring to yesterday.

It is a matter of particular concern to South Australians having endured precisely what the Premier was referring to. If the Premier was in fact availing himself of data that is available to the Premier subsequent to the report on 31 May, then the Premier had better roll up and share that with the House—indeed with all South Australians. Unless and until then the house is faced with the prima facie case that it was a knowing and misleading of the house, and I invite you to rule accordingly.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Heysen. If you could provide me with any materials that may assist me in this matter, I will consider the matter and report back to the house.