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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-08 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Coronavirus

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:04): I thank the chamber for the opportunity to make some remarks in light of the COVID-19 crisis that our state, our country and indeed our planet are experiencing. I would like to start by putting my thanks on the record on behalf of the South Australian Parliamentary Labor Party, and then I will seek to make an important point.

I would like to start by thanking the people of our great state. We have seen an extraordinary response from people in South Australia to these events. The level of compliance that we have seen South Australians undertake with all the substantial restrictions that have necessarily been placed upon our society has been extraordinary. Around the world, we have seen signs of a lack of civility. We have seen desperation lend itself to acts of selfishness on the part of some people, but here at home those examples are in the absolute minority.

I think the majority of South Australians have shown a willingness to comply in the pursuit of doing the right thing and simultaneously shown extraordinary acts of generosity to their community more broadly. It is very tough. We are asking humans in South Australia to give up all the things that make them human. Social interaction is part of what makes us different. For many people, the ability to work very much defines their own character, and so many South Australians have necessarily been deprived of that at the moment. This is tough.

We are all finding some of the sacrifices that we have to make rather difficult. I miss seeing mum and dad. I miss seeing mates. I miss footy like you would not believe. My daughter has her fifth birthday tomorrow, and it is going to be really different. She is going to miss out on the party that she was really looking forward to. This has been experienced right throughout the land, and people are making those sacrifices willingly, gladly, in the knowledge that they are literally saving other people's lives. It is quite humbling to witness, and I want to put on the record my thanks to South Australians for making their contribution to this effort.

Secondly, I want to thank all the people in South Australia who remain at work trying to deliver for their communities during this time of need. I am talking about everybody who is doing that, starting from the Premier and everyone throughout the government, who are in significant positions of responsibility during extraordinary times. I thank them for their hard work. I thank all those front-line public servants who are doing the day-to-day work of servicing our community, whether they be nurses, whether they be doctors, whether they be hospital cleaners, whether they be people in public transport or whether they be teachers still going along to school. We put on the record our thanks to them.

I thank those people in the private sector as well, retail workers working at the front line in the service of others along with a whole range of other industries. These people deserve our thanks and our commendation. I think it demonstrates an important point about the work that we all do in this place. For as long as we expect our nurses, our doctors, our teachers and our retail workers to be at work, I think it is reasonable that they expect us to be at work too. The way that work represents itself most importantly is right here in the parliament of this state.

Each of us, all 47 people in this chamber, have been elected to be the leaders of our own communities, whether it be in Croydon, Kangaroo Island, Mount Gambier, the Riverland or the eastern suburbs. We have all been elected as leaders of our communities. Now is our opportunity to show leadership to the community generally by giving them a voice by the decisions that are made right here in this place. That is why the Westminster system has always sat in times of peril—World War I, World War II. This global pandemic, in our view, should be no exception.

We have been elected to lead. Allow us to do exactly that by the parliament performing its critical and important functions. The Westminster system is one of the greatest inventions in human history. It can perform its role now like never before, whether it be through the act of question time, whether it be through the act of dealing with legislation or whether it be through the act of asking questions and representing our community as only we can. Allow this parliament's function to continue throughout this crisis so we can represent the very best of what democracy can be.

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