Coronavirus

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:22): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I have just tabled a statement from the Premier on behalf of the government in relation to the coronavirus, and I understand the Leader of the Opposition has made a statement to the House of Assembly as well. I will not repeat all that is included in the ministerial statement, because it is there for the record for members to read, but on behalf of government members in this chamber—and I am sure I speak on behalf of all members—I want to thank, in particular, the very many hardworking health professionals and public servants who are at the forefront of fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

I also want to thank the very many other public servants. Clearly, our health professionals are at the forefront but our police officers now have a major undertaking, not only in relation to the work they have been doing; clearly, they will now have a much more onerous responsibility in the future. Many, many other members of our Public Service also have significant responsibilities in trying to keep as many South Australians as they can as safe as possible, and I want to acknowledge—I am sure on behalf of all members in this chamber—our public tribute and thanks to them for all they have done while acknowledging, sadly, all the work they are going to have to do, that we will all have to do collectively as a community, over the coming weeks and possibly months ahead.

I also want to add to the comments you made, Mr President, on behalf of the presiding members in relation to the chamber. How long we sit is problematic at this stage, because I understand that the federal parliament has risen potentially for up to four or five months and I was advised last evening that one or two of the other state jurisdictions may well not sit for a considerable length of time.

Anyway, for however long we sit, and even for the period that we are not sitting, but certainly for the period that we are sitting can I thank the Leader of the Opposition in this chamber and the Opposition Whip for the cooperation we have seen thus far in terms of managing the procedures in the house and also the office facilities, because clearly the members of the opposition have officers who are in Parliament House all the time, together with Parliament House staff, and so I do want to thank the leader and the whip for their cooperation.

There are some urgent issues that we are having to process in the next day or two and there has been considerable cooperation from the opposition and crossbench members in this chamber in relation to those particular issues. I indicate, as leader of the government, that I think we have always handled ourselves pretty well through the use of the respectful nature of the conventions of this chamber in relation to pairing, etc., and certainly from the government's viewpoint we acknowledge that. There are some members who are unable to be with us today and who are paired. I note that, from the opposition's viewpoint and the government's viewpoint, we will continue to respect that. This is too important an issue. I know the generally smooth operations of the Legislative Council will continue in this chamber for so long as we will continue.

I want to thank the crossbench members, albeit only two are represented here today. I was going to say the hardcore members of the crossbench but I am not going to say that because I am being magnanimous and trying to be as close as I can ever be to statesmanlike. But certainly with Mr Parnell, the longest serving member of the crossbench in this chamber, can I thank the crossbenchers represented here and the ones who are not because, again, these times are such that we are having to move things quickly and sometimes not always in accordance with the conventions that we have respected for long periods of time in terms of processing particular bills. We acknowledge their forbearance and we thank them for their cooperation in terms of what needs to be done, so thank you.