COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:35): Supplementary: so is the minister saying he actually doesn't know who provided that advice?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:35): Let's be clear: the commonwealth told us they were going to send us three lots of four, and that equals 12. But let's not allow the opposition to continue their defamation of the public health team.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: No, President—I'm being provoked; I've got a right to respond.

The PRESIDENT: Minister, resume you seat. I have said before that conversations across the chamber are very unhelpful. For a start, I can't hear the minister but I don't really know what those conversations might be, and they—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: —should be taken outside. The Hon. Mr Ridgway! The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: So the honourable opposition—or so-called honourable opposition—is continuing the same pattern in the second year of the pandemic that they started in the first year of the pandemic, which is niggling undermining of the public health team.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Niggling undermining of the public health team.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: So here we are, they are three weeks into the rollout—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Leader of the Opposition is out of order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Three weeks into the rollout of the COVID—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, please conclude your answer, but in silence from the opposition, and that includes the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The opposition wants to undermine the public health response in the first three weeks. I, completely in contrast to them, want to laud the work that has been done by SA Health—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The whip is out of order.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —in the last three weeks. Let's be clear—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order, sir.

The PRESIDENT: Resume your seat, minister. Point of order, the leader.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The minister is entirely misrepresenting everything the opposition have said. At no stage has the opposition sought to undermine the great work that the health officials are doing.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order. Resume your seat. The minister will conclude his answer.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Mr President, with all due respect, I am entitled to give an answer. I'm not going to be suffocated by a reckless, disrespectful opposition.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.G. WADE: If they want to continue to drown me down, I'm going to continue to give my answer, and I've got a right to do that as a member of this place. So let's reflect on the first three weeks of the vaccination program. Three weeks ago—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Twelve thousand.

The PRESIDENT: Order! We will move on to the next question if you don't let the minister answer.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Mr President, I insist on answering this question.

The PRESIDENT: Please do.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: There are two sides of the house and we both have rights. So let's leap back. Three weeks ago, we were rolling out the Pfizer vaccines. Then, unexpectedly, the commonwealth, to their great credit, received a shipment from Europe, which meant that we had AstraZeneca vaccines earlier than we expected. So what did SA Health do? They stepped up rapidly and within days had established AstraZeneca clinics.

The shipment arrived on the Sunday afternoon, by the Wednesday they had arrived in South Australia, thanks to the good efforts of the commonwealth government, and by Friday the Murray Bridge local health network—the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network, the Murray Bridge hospital—had an AstraZeneca clinic being set up that morning, within 36 hours of supplies arriving. So I'm not going to take an undermining of the public health team by this opposition. I commend them for the sterling job they are doing in this vaccination rollout.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Ms Bourke has the call, and she will be heard in silence by her own team.