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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-25 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:37): My question is to the Premier. Is the Premier concerned that the Minister for Health and Wellbeing has told the other place that he is not aware of the Group of Eight expert advice?

The SPEAKER: Insertion of fact. Would the member like to seek leave again to insert fact?

Mr PICTON: I would.

Leave granted.

The SPEAKER: Do you need the question again, Premier? Can we have the question again.

Mr PICTON: My question is to the Premier. Is the Premier concerned that the Minister for Health was unaware of the Group of Eight expert advice? With your leave and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PICTON: The Minister for Health and Wellbeing has just told the other place that he was not aware of the Group of Eight expert advice to the AHPPC and the national cabinet.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:38): We all have roles to play in making sure that we can tackle the COVID-19 virus, and the Minister for Health and Wellbeing in South Australia probably has the busiest workload of any person in the South Australian parliament. I want to publicly thank him for the excellent job that he is doing. He has got enormous pressure on him. He is available I think probably 20 out of every 24 hours. He works and makes decisions based upon the information that he is provided.

He is not utilising his finite time at the moment to become a public health expert. He is setting up the systems to follow the very best public health advice. I do not think that this would be a useful pursuit for him to become a super expert in all of the advice that exists on this topic in the world. In fact, on a daily basis I think we're probably all being bombarded with dozens and dozens of helpful (and sometimes less helpful) advice on how we should be dealing with this.

As I have said to this parliament on many occasions, we have developed a methodology to seek that advice. It is common across all jurisdictions. If those opposite would like to put forward and alternative view of scrapping the AHPPC advice—

Mr Brown: Glass jaw again.

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford! There is no glass in here.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —I would point out that they would be at odds with the Labor leaders in five other jurisdictions in South Australia. So, it would be an extraordinary departure—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Premier, there is a point of order. The point of order is for debate?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Assigning any form of motive to the opposition is debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: Yes; I have given the Premier a fair bit of latitude. I would respectfully ask him to come back to the substance of the question, please.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir, and if I have in any way suggested that there were improper motives, I'm very happy to withdraw that. I was certainly not suggesting there are improper motives, but if it is the considered position of the opposition that they don't want to stay with the AHPPC advice I think that in the interest of all South Australians, they should make that clear.

We have made our position very clear on this. We have made our position extraordinarily clear on this. It seems now, on a daily basis, the opposition has other advice that they have sought from other people. They are suggesting perhaps that we depart from the AHPPC advice—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and I'm just pointing out to this house that although they are entitled to their opinion, as it turns out, at the moment we're in government and we're making decisions. We're actually backed, with the decision-making mechanism that we're using, by five other Labor jurisdictions around Australia. We are not acting at the national level in a partisan way; in fact, I think there has probably never been a time, sir, when leaders from around the country have come together in such a unified stance.

We used to routinely hear about the fights that would go on every time there was a COAG or when premiers and the prime minister got together. Can I say, because I have been on this national cabinet on Sunday night, last night, tonight and again on Friday morning, that everybody is actually working in the best interests of the nation. We have decided that we won't be providing our own technical health input; we'll be listening to the experts. That is the considered opinion of the national cabinet, but as I said previously, others are entitled to their opinion.

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