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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-24 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:46): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier received any medical advice that warns there would be an increase in transmission, an increase in the incidence of COVID-19, during the school holidays when the students are out of school?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:46): The member is able to see the AHPPC advice on the federal health department's website that relates to schools and early childhood. Obviously, there are some further things that we are looking at in relation to the school holidays. One of the key things is that, in the period between now and the start of school holidays, every parent in South Australia is going to have to get their heads around the fact that these school holidays will be unlike any school holidays before.

This isn't going to be a circumstance where students will be able to be free to congregate in malls and shopping centres and act in the way they usually do in school holidays. There will be a responsibility on all of us to ensure that we know where our children are and what they are doing, and that really should be at home in school holidays if you are able to be at home. The education department, for its part, is looking significantly at what we need to do to prepare ourselves for the sorts of vacation care programs that we would not necessarily usually operate.

We are conducting significant work at the moment to look at how that might potentially operate for those children who are in pretty much the same cohorts we discussed before: the children who can't be supervised at home because their parents are doing necessary work or because they are in a vulnerable cohort. I think it should not be lost on any of us that that vulnerable cohort of children are vulnerable not only in terms of their health risks if they are not supported by the education department but also their opportunities in life.

Everybody in this chamber knows that education can be a silver bullet to transform someone's life. This year, potentially more than any other, that remains the case. We particularly identify those students being supported in their education but also for their health needs during the school holidays, which is the time that the member is particularly focused on in this line of questioning, and we are working very hard to develop that solution. We don't have that solution ready to announce today. It is identified as a significant issue.

In South Australia, the school holidays are due to commence on Good Friday. The union has suggested bringing that forward by a period. We are in discussions with them and other schooling sectors as to what that would look like, what benefit it would have and what challenges it would throw up. We are looking to address that. We have 277,000 students or thereabouts across our three sectors in South Australia. If they were released without supervision into the community—and I know that there are significant challenges that have been put forward—then that leads to the prospect that the AHPPC have raised, as I understand. Supervision during the school holidays will be critical, but we also need to ensure that our education department continues to provide part of that response.

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