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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-24 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus, Travel

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:59): My question is to the Premier. Why does the Premier believe it is appropriate for his chief executive, Mr Jim McDowell, to pick the person internally within his agency to run this review given that Jim McDowell is also the chair of the government's COVID-19 Transition Committee?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:00): I am very happy to provide an update to the house. The Transition Committee has nothing to do with the exemptions process. They look at the restrictions that are in place. They update those restrictions—

Mr Picton: This is an exemption to the restrictions.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: He didn't listen.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: No—

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —he's busy abusing people in parliament—

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —which seems to me to be completely inappropriate.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will resume his seat.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! The Premier will resume his seat. The member for Kaurna on a point of order.

Mr PICTON: I ask the Premier to withdraw and apologise.

The SPEAKER: The words?

Mr PICTON: 'Abusing people.'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! I take that as a point of order under standing order 125. It is a subjective test. The member for Kaurna has taken offence at a reference to his having abused members. I invite the Premier to withdraw.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I am happy to withdraw that, sir, although I do think that the comment that was made earlier was absolutely disgraceful—unworthy in this parliament—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and I note that the member has been invited to apologise.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will resume his seat. The member for Kaurna—

Mr PICTON: The Premier is debating and not answering the question at hand.

The SPEAKER: The Premier has withdrawn. The Premier has the call. The Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir. The Transition Committee is chaired by the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Mr Jim McDowell, and there are a number of people who sit on that from different departments within government, but of course they are also heavily populated with people from Health, but they have completely separate roles, and it is important not to get them confused.

It is SA Health which manage that exemptions process, and I think they do a very good job. They are dealing with a very high volume of applications at the moment because we do have a hard border arrangement with Victoria. It has diminished in recent weeks. If we go back four or six, or maybe eight weeks, we know that there were very few people coming across that border between South Australia and Victoria. In fact, on some days it was getting down to as low as 400 or 500 people, and this was mainly transport operators going across those various road borders.

This has increased in recent weeks commensurate with the reduced risk that we now see, especially in regional Victoria, but of course also more broadly across Victoria, and we are now seeing commonly between 1,500 and 3,500 people come across that border. But there is still a large number of exemptions or applications for exemption which need to be processed, especially those for essential travellers and those seeking compassionate leave.

There is a huge amount of work, and I want to thank all of the officers within SA Health who are dealing with a situation which is not part of their normal course of business, and they are doing it in an exceptionally good way. But, in the instance that has come to the attention of the people of South Australia over the past 24 hours, there has been an error in judgement. We apologise for that. It shouldn't have occurred. We know that the people of South Australia expect consistency in terms of that exemptions process, so there is a review.

Jim McDowell will organise that review. I have already made it clear that we are happy to publish the results of that review. We want to be open and transparent. We want to continuously improve our performance. I think that South Australia's performance overall with regard to the management of the pandemic has been extraordinarily good. It has been recognised nationally and internationally as being of the very highest calibre, but there are always opportunities to improve our performance, and that's exactly and precisely what we are seeking to do.

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