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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-09 Daily Xml
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VILI'S BAKERY

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister now apologise to Vili Milisits, the owner of Vili's bakery, and offer compensation for damages caused by the allegation that Vili's bakery was the source of a recent salmonella outbreak?

The recent outbreak of haemolytic E.coli in Europe was claimed to be coming from Spanish cucumbers. This caused hundreds of millions of euros worth of damage to Spanish growers while no evidence of the source was proven. The European Union is now offering Spanish growers €200 million in compensation for this false allegation. Despite numerous tests at Vili's bakery, the Department of Health has never isolated the source of salmonella STM9 at Vili's bakery.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:53): I am fascinated by this question, Madam Speaker. As I remember it when this issue first came up, the member for Morphett called on the government to identify the source of the infection.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: As he and the member for Bragg have demanded on every other occasion, we have to tell the people of the state where the infection is coming from, where the spoilt goods are coming from. In the past, I remember in relation to the listeria outbreak some years ago, I said, 'We cannot identify the company until we have gone through the appropriate process.' No, that was not good enough, I had to tell. I think you have to be a bit consistent in what you wish for here.

The process which public health goes through when they are trying to identify an outbreak of a particular gastric problem is asking people what they have eaten and then trying to track it down. It is very painstaking and difficult process to go through. They identify what people may have had in common, and then they go and find samples of it. They did all of this. They put that evidence to the two companies.

As I understand it, the companies chose of their own volition to issue recalls of their product. That was something that they did on voluntary basis, as I understand it. So, to suggest that I should apologise to them for something that my health officers did in good faith, which they then acted upon in good faith, is just a little bit strange.

Vilis, as you probably know, is, I think, contemplating some legal action, so it would be improper for me to talk about where that matter is at. The reality is that public health has to be protected. If we identify that there is a potential source of a bacterium which may cause a problem, then we have to let the public know. Obviously, that is done in a very careful way; but, as I say, on this particular occasion I think it was Vilis themselves who withdrew the goods.

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