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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-05 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

The Hon. C. BONAROS (16:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question about the coronavirus.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: The Queensland parliament is rushing through new laws to give authorities time to find and potentially detain suspected coronavirus victims. Under that state's existing laws, authorities can only detain a suspected victim for seven days. Their proposed new laws will allow authorities to detain a person suspected of contracting the coronavirus for up to three months in order that that person remain at a particular place, require them to provide authorities with samples when requested and have various other powers to manage public health risks. Anyone who fails to comply with such an order can face hefty fines of up to $13,000. They can also be potentially arrested and gaoled if they don't comply. My questions to the minister are:

1. Given the advice from various health agencies that this is one of the fastest spreading new viruses, is the state government comfortable that our current laws around locating and detaining potential victims of the coronavirus are sufficient?

2. Is the government planning to introduce any new laws similar to those that Queensland is looking at?

3. Has the government communicated with Queensland or any other government in relation to the same issue in determining whether more stringent measures are required?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (16:41): I thank the honourable member for her question. I might take the opportunity to highlight that I have already taken action to support our public health authorities in terms of making the new coronavirus a controlled notifiable condition so that medical practitioners are required to provide information to the public health authorities straightaway.

My memory fails me as to how long ago it was—I suspect it was 10 years ago. This parliament, about 10 years ago, refreshed our public health emergency legislation, so it is relatively contemporary. I certainly have spoken to the public health physicians who are leading our response to the coronavirus as to whether they are confident they have the legal powers and the resources to respond. They certainly haven't raised any issues with me, but thank you for bringing to my attention the action of the Queensland parliament. I will certainly take it back to them and see if there are any steps being taken in Queensland that we might consider here.

The Queensland response has been slightly different. In fact, it would be fair to say that New South Wales and Queensland have both had slight variations from what I might call the national approach. I think what has been demonstrated in the 2003 SARS outbreak and is being confirmed again in this outbreak is that, in a situation like this, the cooperation between the state, territory and federal authorities is seamless. Certainly, I have been part of national teleconferences that have involved departmental leadership, public health leadership and ministerial leadership, backed up, to be frank, by a series of clinical advisory groups.

I won't risk getting it wrong by trying to title them properly, but there is a clinical network for communicable diseases and another committee that is, if you like, the peak clinical advisory group to ministers. I think it's called the AHPCC. For example, the decisions of the National Security Committee last Friday were made on the basis of clinical advice, of course. As I said, I will certainly go back to the public health clinicians, reiterate the question that I have already put to them, which is, 'Do you have all the resources that you need?' and specifically inquire as to whether the Queensland initiatives might have value here.

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