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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-27 Daily Xml
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COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): Given the Premier's former answer that no-one will ever know for sure what went wrong in the medi-hotel, does that not provide cause for the Premier to reconsider the need for purpose-built quarantine in our state and in our country?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:28): I thought I had provided a reasonably comprehensive answer previously with regard to that expert advice. There are other people who consider themselves experts—I won't go into that—but we are listening to those people who have studied epidemiology, who have studied medicine, who understand how this disease works and who are experts in public health administration. They provide that advice to government. There are some people out there who think that if, for example, a facility was put in the country, that somehow the disease would recognise this and it wouldn't be transmissible.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: These are quite extraordinary situations. I know this is a very sneaky thing—

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —because Nicola Spurrier tells me that it's really sneaky—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —but to suggest that somehow this very sneaky disease knows what postcode it's in or that for some reason it's going to be less transmissible in country SA beggars belief, but that's what—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we are used to here in South Australia. We listen to the experts. We know there are those out there trying to undermine confidence in the response—the outstanding response—that we have had in Australia. It has been the best in the world here in Australia.

There are those experts, those so-called experts out there in the Australian Labor Party, who think that they could be doing it much better. But, of course, they fail to recognise that there are state governments and territory governments that are Labor governments. We don't see them shouting from the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —rooftop, calling for these—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —facilities to be moved into less suitable facilities. We listen. We take advice. If that advice changes, as it has, we listen—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to that advice and we take action. We will do whatever is required to keep the people of South Australia safe. But I make the point that with more than 300,000 people now going through the Australian hotel quarantine situation, and only about 20 people where there has been a transmission in that hotel, this is already world's best practice. We believe that we have a responsibility to repatriate those stranded Australians overseas. I know there are some people who say, 'No way. Close the border. Don't let anybody in.' No, we take—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —a completely different position. We think we should take the strain here in South Australia, and at the moment we have that arrangement with 530 per week. We applied to have that reduced from a height—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —at more than 600 per week down to 530, and that was accepted by the federal government. There is a lot of science, a lot of public health science, which goes into our response. We will continue to listen to those experts who provide us with that advice.

As I have said, that does change. In every single incident we learn more about how this disease is transmitted. One of the best things we can do, one of the very best things we can do, is to continue to get vaccinated because Professor Nicola Spurrier again today at her press conference made it extraordinarily clear that we now have even more confidence in the vaccines that we have in Australia than we had at the beginning.

We are now seeing all that data, that real-time data, come through which shows that the severity of the disease and the symptoms are controlled, the transmissibility of the infection is significantly lowered and the ability for people to acquire this disease after being vaccinated is much diminished. So this is one of the important areas that we are focused on, along with our QR codes, along with our testing regime. We continue to listen to the experts, as we have since day one.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I call to order the member for Cheltenham, I warn the member for Hurtle Vale, I call to order the member for Kaurna and I call to order and warn the member for Lee.

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