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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 PICTON (Kaurna) (14:41): What was it Keating said about wet lettuce? My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier publish health advice that has been provided to him that says the system of medi-hotels currently used is superior or no different in safety for hosting international arrivals from a purpose-built quarantine facility.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:42): I am not sure what report the member is referring to. As I have tried to outline in my I think four, five, six or seven answers on this topic so far today, this is an iterative process because we are learning more and more about this insidious disease every single day.

If we go right back to the beginning of this, back to March/April last year, the best advice that we received at the time was that we needed to do everything we could, which was to reduce the peak and push it out as much as possible, build up our critical care capacity within our hospitals and brace ourselves for the tsunami of infections that was coming because at that time that's what we were seeing in the media that was coming out of, initially, countries like Italy and Spain and then further expansion into Europe and the US, of course. We had a stance that we adopted there and we resourced that response as quickly as we could.

You might recall that we worked very hard to stand up additional bed capacity. We recommissioned the Wakefield hospital, and we worked with the owners of College Park to repurpose that as quickly as possible. We put wards back in place down at the Repat, ready to, if you like, brace ourselves for the increased critical care capacity that we needed.

Mr Malinauskas: Answer the question.

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We made sure that we put all that personal protective equipment like masks in place and respirators in place. That's how we responded to it initially. But, as we learned more about the disease, and we responded accordingly, especially with closing our international borders, we adjusted that response. That's exactly and precisely what has happened with regard to the quarantine arrangements in South Australia. When the original Halton report was done, South Australia got an extremely good report card. You might recall that Ms Halton went around and looked at all of the facilities nationally—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, the report that the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The report that was completed by Jane Halton went to the national cabinet and, as you would know, sir, South Australia was highly regarded with regard to the arrangements. But even though that was in place, we then had the Parafield cluster develop in South Australia. So what we do is we go back, we review what happened and then we respond accordingly. That is exactly what has happened with the most recent incident—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: That is what has happened with this most recent incident at the Playford Hotel. SA Health have conducted a thorough and robust investigation and, as I said in an earlier answer, they were not able to identify any breach whatsoever. Regardless of that, it does cause us to look at the arrangements that are in place with our quarantine arrangements and continuously improve them.

Not only do we look at our own investigations regarding incidents that occur here in South Australia but we also avail ourselves of similar types of analyses that are done with regard to hotel quarantine arrangements around the rest of the country and, of course, internationally. The AHPPC (the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee) is constantly looking at this issue. There is no specific tabled report that the member might be referring to, but it is a constant focus of continuous improvement to keep our state safe.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Kaurna, I warn for a second time the member for Playford, I warn the member for Kaurna, I warn the member for Lee for a second time, I warn the leader for a second time.

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