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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-15 Daily Xml
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Narungga Electorate Businesses

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the government compensate business that has lost income due to the ban on school aquatic camps? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: Mark and Sharon Haydon of Port Vincent Caravan Park lost $30,000 worth of bookings yesterday alone. Mark Short from the Port Vincent Aquatic Centre has 20 casual staff who will not be paid after next week thanks to cancellations.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:45): I thank the member for the question. As I said yesterday, the decision had been made on Friday afternoon of last week under what I must say were difficult circumstances given the attack that occurred at Port Noarlunga. On that day, the public education system had three schools that were in the water at Port Noarlunga. They were Forbes, Seacliff and Reynella East, I believe.

Some of those students witnessed the rescue of the shark attack victim, and I am told that some of our staff were involved in the rescue as well. So there were obviously some concerns from schools and parents whose children and students were booked in Monday morning to go back to the beach and continue or start their lessons, and the department fielded calls from the schools asking for advice around what they should do. It was in that context the decision was made.

I think I have made my position clear, and the chief executive and the Premier have made our positions pretty clear, there should have been a lot more consideration around how that decision was made. We have responded pretty quickly, including an excellent announcement I think from the Minister for Emergency Services around bringing shark patrols forward on a daily basis, starting this Saturday. We convened a group that involves a number of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hurtle Vale is warned, and the member for Hartley must be on a 10th warning. In any case, the minister.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: Thank you, Speaker. So we have very quickly, in addition to the announcement by the minister of shark patrols being brought forward, convened a panel that has members including the emergency services shark patrol unit, Surf Life Saving SA and PIRSA. They met for the first time yesterday. We have asked for a decision or a review of that announcement made on Friday as quickly as possible. I am confident that we will have that in the next 24 hours, and as soon as I have it, we will communicate that as broadly as we can to schools. I am hopeful, if not confident, that that decision will be that we can get students back in the water hopefully as early as next week, as soon as possible.

In relation to the member's specific question around the impact that this might have had on caravan parks or tourism providers in some areas, I am happy to learn some more details. I have spoken to the department around reaching out to some of the excursion and camp providers, who have been quite vocal in their position regarding the decision that was made, to learn what the impacts might be on them, and we can take it from there.

So I am very happy to have some further conversations with you, but my focus has been in the last 48 hours on doing everything that we can to make sure we can look at those parents in the eye, who did have a bit of concern given the attack on Friday, and say, 'It's safe. Things are fine.' There might be a few other risk mitigation things that the department decides to put in place, which might be in some areas some more staff just to make sure that we can observe our students and other staff appropriately. But we will hopefully be able to communicate a decision on that very quickly. I am very happy to meet with you and talk a bit more to understand any impacts there might have been on any businesses in your local area.

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