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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-17 Daily Xml
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Sandbags

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:38): To the Minister for Emergency Services: now that the government have bags on order from India, why doesn't the government take a trip to Bunnings or why doesn't the government go online to bulkbags.com.au?

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS (Cheltenham—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (14:39): Thank you, member, and thank you through you, Speaker. I did not want to embarrass the member about his ongoing suggestions about the availability of these bags, but I did seek advice last night from the State Emergency Service and I did actually reach out to the member and ask him to provide with me in good faith some information if he could so that we could test the veracity of these products.

The advice I have received from the SES is that they simply will not risk their operational capacity on the quality of these bags that the member refers to. Not only are there issues with the design and manufacture of these bags but they are also environmentally damaging. These are bags that may be sitting in situ in these communities for—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey, order!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: These aren't bags that are of the 1.5 million we have been securing—

Members interjecting:

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

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The question has been asked and the minister is seeking to answer. Member for Chaffey, you are warned.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: These bags may be sitting in situ in these communities for a considerable period of time, and that is why the SES has made two operational decisions, the first of which is to procure hessian sandbags as quickly as possible and whilst getting the best guaranteed supply chain as possible. They are from India. Again, I have no idea what the problem is here about—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —emergency services procuring over one million sandbags. I am not sure what local Bunnings the member would suggest we could walk into and find a million sandbags, but we will work through that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: The second is that if the member is suggesting that the SES and the government would not exhaust alternative supply chains so as to not exhaust local products available to the public on an as-needs basis or on a basis other than as emergencies would dictate, if the member is suggesting that the government buy out all these small supplies in South Australia at a time when there is, in every jurisdiction, a tapping out—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —of the availability of—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer is called to order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is called to order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer is called to order. The minister has the call.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: Whilst I wouldn't want to respond to interjections, I would urge those on the opposition benches not to feign interest in this issue because, if they are going to walk out of this place and once again peddle that there are no sandbags, then you could not by any other measure—

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Minister, please be seated. There is a point of order, which I will hear under standing order 134 immediately from the member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The minister is making reflections: 127 and 98.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! This is a matter of some significance to the state. All members present are familiar with the standing orders. We will listen to the minister in silence.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: Thank you, sir. If there is a suggestion, through the interjections of those opposite, that they will simply walk out of this house—

The SPEAKER: You will not respond to interjections, minister.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: No. Thank you, sir, and I wouldn't begin to, but if there are suggestions that members will simply ignore the data I have provided, that the government has provided, that the Chief Officer of the SES has provided, to prosecute an alternative political argument at a time of significant community anxiety, then I will leave that to their judgement. What we will do in this place, as part of this government—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Chaffey!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —is secure supply—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hammond!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —to give the sandbags to communities that need them most—

Mr Teague interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is on three warnings.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —and we will look past—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —the suggestion that we as a government would implement strategies as proposed by those opposite—that a supply chain secured from us would be about ducking down to the local Bunnings or local Mitre 10 to protect our state.

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