House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-07 Daily Xml

Contents

Coronavirus, Employment

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier agree that a front-line essential worker referred to in the Premier's previous answer should get access to presumptive access to workers compensation if they contract COVID-19 through their workplace?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:14): I don't have a detailed answer for that; that's not in my portfolio. I am happy to follow that up—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Kaurna!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with the Treasurer, who has responsibility, obviously, for WorkCover in South Australia. We have a good workers compensation scheme in South Australia. There were very significant reforms to this scheme, which were only put through the parliament around three years ago. It was probably one of the most bipartisan moments this parliament has seen for a long period of time, dealing with a complex issue. I am hoping that we can continue to work in a bipartisan way through another complex issue, and that is as our state faces the coronavirus.

At the moment, I think that the work that has been done to date has put our state in a very good position compared to other jurisdictions around the country, and certainly compared to most other countries around the world, but we can't be complacent. There is a lot of work to do. There is a lot of work for this parliament to do. In fact, there is a huge amount of work to do in this area, and I do thank the Attorney-General and other members of the cabinet for how quickly they have moved to bring legislation for this parliament to consider.

We've all got to play our parts and our roles that we have been assigned during this pandemic, and by working together I think that we can come through this best of any place in the world.