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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-11-17 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Coronavirus

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:04): I think the collective hearts of South Australians sank on Sunday afternoon when news started to emerge about the prospect of further COVID cases in South Australia coming out of a medi-hotel. I principally want to address the way the opposition intends to conduct itself during this ongoing threat to the safety, health and wellbeing generally of the South Australian community.

This is not the first instance in Australia in recent times we have seen an outbreak of COVID-19 disseminating from a medi-hotel. Of course, that is exactly how the second wave originated in the state of Victoria only a few months ago. That risk translated to an extraordinary loss of life. Approximately 800 good people in Victoria lost their lives as a result of that second wave. Throughout that crisis, the rest of us around the rest of the country observed the way the public debate ensued, and we were paying close attention to the conduct of Premier Daniel Andrews and, of course, the Victorian opposition leader, Michael O'Brien.

Those on this side of the house will be conducting themselves very differently in comparison with the way Mr O'Brien conducted himself along with the Victorian opposition. In South Australia, the parliamentary Labor Party will be seeking to provide bipartisan support to this government as we continue to navigate this difficult journey in regard to the emergency health response.

We are exceptionally grateful for the leadership being shown by Professor Nicola Spurrier and, of course, the State Coordinator, Grant Stevens, in trying to put into place every possible action that we can to keep South Australians safe. Throughout the entirety of this pandemic, their leadership has stood us incredibly well, and our faith remains in them to guide us through this next chapter in a difficult stage. As an opposition, we will provide bipartisan support to the government in this endeavour principally because we want the same thing that the government wants and that every other South Australian wants: to keep our state safe, healthy and, indeed, if possible, prosperous.

One of the most heartbreaking images we saw throughout the course of this pandemic was the snaking queues of hardworking Australians, and indeed South Australians, going around the corner of Centrelink offices around our great nation—people finding themselves in the unemployment queue who would never have contemplated that possibility ever before in their lives. We want to prevent that from occurring again here in South Australia to the extent that it already is. We do not want a bad situation to get worse, which is why it is so fundamentally important that right now at this point in time we get on top of this outbreak as quickly as we possibly can, and the opposition stands ready to provide support to the government in that regard.

Part of our function as the opposition in the pursuit of that objective of course is to ask questions of the government—indeed, to ask pertinent questions of the government, as we have endeavoured to do here today. We will continue to ask questions and we will continue to raise constructive ideas, as we have throughout the entirety of this pandemic, to make sure that every last thing that can be done is being done.

I solicit examples of where this has occurred previously, whether it be the call to close South Australian borders, which we called for and the government subsequently closed; whether it be the call for mandatory testing around the border crossing of Victorians, which we called for and was subsequently implemented; or whether it be the call for harsher penalties for those people who disobey quarantine requirements. We called for it and the government responded. There may yet be other examples of such constructive suggestions from the Labor Party that will be taken up by this government. That is the way that we will conduct ourselves. I reiterate: we all want the same thing.

There is no-one in this house and there is no-one in this state who does not want to see this government and its officials succeed in the pursuit of keeping South Australians safe. Only once that health threat has been dealt with can there then be a thorough examination, indeed a potential prosecution, of what went wrong, how it went wrong and what led us to this situation, but now is not the time. Now is the time for constructive, thoughtful dialogue, which is exactly what this opposition will continue to do.

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