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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-08 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus, Kangaroo Island

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:11): My question is again to the Premier. I appreciate that he just said that he, the police commissioner and the health officials are sending that strong message to people to stay home this Easter, but is there anything stopping anyone from getting on a plane or a ferry and travelling to Kangaroo Island this Easter?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:11): I think I have provided that advice. I must say that the vast majority of South Australians are doing the right thing. We are not going to get down to no regional travel, but I trust the people of South Australia. I would just point out to the member that other states that have put more restrictive directions, if you like, into place haven't actually had the adherence that we have had in South Australia. I don't know about you, but I trust the people of South Australia to do the right thing.

I also know that one of the most important things we've got to do is get the balance right in this situation. We don't want to have a situation where people are chasing people with an umbrella down the street because they think they might come from a different part of the state or from interstate. That is not who we are in South Australia. I have to say that if the police commissioner in South Australia thought that he was putting us in a precarious situation, he would change that direction overnight.

But I make this point: we have really heeded the strong advice from the police commissioner and from the Chief Public Health Officer in South Australia. I think people are getting the message. It will not be down to zero, but it is a very, very strong response that we have had. Don't forget: we have stopped the major source of the new infections, which is people who are returning from overseas travel, and we have stopped the second largest source, which was people coming from interstate. We have turned those taps off and we have a very, very low community transmission level in South Australia.

We cannot wipe out this disease; it is already here in South Australia. That is actually not what we are trying to do. We are trying to follow the plan that we have put in place in consultation with the experts to reduce the peak and to push it out into the future as much as possible. You would have seen from the Prime Minister's comments yesterday, and also from the comments that have been put forward by the Chief Medical Officer of Australia, Professor Brendan Murphy, that Australia by and large has done that first part really well—controlled the spread, reduced the peak, pushed it into the future.

The second part is really making sure that we can build up the capacity within our health system in Australia and here in South Australia to make sure that we have the requisite critical care needs when the peak hits. That's our focus at the moment. We can't actually put the entire nation into cottonwool until a vaccine is found. But what we do have to do is avoid the chaos that exists in so many other countries around the world where the demand for that critical care capacity massively outstrips the capacity to supply.

As of this morning—and I haven't had an update this afternoon—there were around 100 people in ICU beds around the country and about 40 on ventilators. That is for the entire country. South Australia could supply, I think, probably tenfold that national requirement at the moment here in our state, and we are continuing to build up that capacity every single day. That is a critical part of the plan that we have put into place.

We have got to have balance with the way that we approach this. Of course we've got the health need, but we've also got to have a calm in our society because we are stuck with these restrictions not for one or two weeks and not for one or two months. So whatever we put in place in terms of the restrictions has got to be sustainable, and I think we've got the balance right in this state at this point.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: in response to the member for Mawson's initial question in question time, the Premier referenced expert medical advice that he was following. Could he please table that to the house?

The SPEAKER: I don't believe that the Premier was reading from the expert medical advice and therefore is not required to table it, but I will revisit the footage, as I do every day, and if there is a need—

The Hon. S.K. Knoll: I am not sure that that has ever worked, Tom.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Transport is called to order. If there is a need for the Premier to table anything I will advise the house.

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