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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-08 Daily Xml
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COVID-19 Quarantine Facilities

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier accept that his position on dedicated quarantine facilities is confusing health experts. With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Schubert is warned.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! Leave is sought; is leave granted?

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: This morning on ABC radio, Dr Michelle Atchison, the South Australian President of the AMA, said and I quote:

It confused me a little that we were going to be building facilities for overseas students or workers but not returned travellers, I don't understand the logic behind that.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:26): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for that question. What we need to do is design our quarantine response in accordance with the risk and so we put a lot of effort into understanding that risk—the risk varies depending on what country somebody is coming from, what age somebody is, the variants of interest or concern which may be in those countries, the pre-test arrangements in terms of isolation testing—and ultimately forming a view. That view is determined in consultation with SA Health and the experts.

What I can say is it may be confusing to some not have a single response, if you like, to every single person, but if we had the same response to every person and we didn't close the borders to India recently we would be in a very problematic situation. So we've got to be nimble, we've got to be flexible, we've got to listen to the experts, science and evidence and respond accordingly.

That is what has happened in South Australia since day one. Every South Australian should be very proud of that. So, rather than going out and getting matters conflated, I would just suggest to the Leader of the Opposition that, if he would like a detailed briefing in the arrangements, then I think that would be welcome. I think it would be fabulous if the Leader of the Opposition was provided—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with a briefing so that he could better understand these matters before he asks questions in parliament or makes comment in the media.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, the experts are there, sir. They've got incredible credentials and they've got runs on the board. They have kept South Australia safe. That ultimately has kept our economy strong, and we should be very grateful. Whether they be the experts within the Communicable Disease Control Branch, within SA Pathology, whether they—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader, order! The Premier will resume his seat for a moment. The leader is warned. The leader will not interject in the course of the Premier's answer. The conclusion of the question is no occasion to commence an ongoing commentary across the floor of the chamber. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The reality is there are experts who are available. They will work with the government to design the appropriate response. For some reason, the Leader of the Opposition thinks that we are building a new facility out at Parafield. I don't know whether he has ever been to Parafield; he might like to lean across and ask one of the local members. I'm sure the member for Chaffey would welcome him up there.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We are not building any new facilities whatsoever—

The SPEAKER: The Premier will resume his seat. The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford! The member for West Torrens has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I have two points of order. The first one is 127: digression and personal reflections on members, and the second one—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —is debate: standing order 98.

The SPEAKER: The point of order has been raised before. I again indicate the requirements in relation to standing order 127. There is no point of order in that regard. In respect of the point of order pursuant to standing order 98, I am listening carefully to the Premier's response to the question, which was in relation, with leave, to observations made on radio this morning about how the community may be responding to messages that have been made public. I am listening carefully to the Premier's answer. The Premier's answer is responsive to the question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir. My understanding of the question was that there may have been some confusion with regard to quarantine, and I thought the assertion in the question was that we were apparently building new facilities for international students and Pacific Islanders. The reality is, no, we are not. They are already there. You can go out to Parafield. You could ask one of your colleagues who has responsibility in and around the north of the state to tell the Leader of the Opposition about what is out at Parafield. We have looked at that school which already exists. It has brought people in from overseas and it has housed them previously. We think it's an ideal location.

Ultimately, the federal government will make a decision on this. They said that there were two criteria for them to determine whether or not they would allow this to go ahead: No. 1 is that it needs to be above the 530 cap per week, and, secondly, it needs to be signed off by our Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier. I can tell this house today that in fact our application, our proposal to the federal government, achieves both of those criteria, so we are hopeful for a positive outcome.

We want to bring those international students back because we know that that will have a very positive effect on employment here in South Australia, but we are not going to do it if it involves risk. That is why we do have a nuanced approach to the risk associated with our quarantine arrangements, and that's why it does vary based upon what country people are coming from and their specific circumstances.

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