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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-24 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:49): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding public health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: We are in uncertain times that no living Australian has been through before, and more than ever the community needs information about our capacity to respond to today and to the future. Reports indicate the outbreak in South Australia is some weeks behind other states and territories. This gives us an opportunity to learn from other states and respond. Given that, my questions to minister are:

1. What modelling or projections have been developed about when South Australia's current stock of COVID-19 testing reagent will be fully depleted?

2. How much reagent does South Australia have on order?

3. When is this due to arrive?

4. How long is it expected to last?

5. Do you have any expert health advice not to release this information?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:50): Yet again, I would like to start with the end, and I would like to confront Labor's political games up-front. To suggest that clinicians are telling me not to tell the public key information about public health is a gross slur on their professionalism. It's exactly what Labor did when we had the earliest cases. You will remember we had the Chinese couple coming from Wuhan.

What Labor tried to suggest is that the public health clinicians were depriving the people of South Australia of the information they needed to keep themselves safe. They said, 'We need to know everywhere they went. We don't just want to know where there was confirmed contact. We want to know everywhere they went.' That was not relevant public health information. It served to undermine public confidence in the public health services at the very time we need their cooperation.

I would ask Labor to have a long, hard think. This pandemic is not going to be with us for a parliamentary sitting week or two: it will be with us for months. If Labor wants to be part of the solution, if it wants to be part of a community pulling together, this is like a wartime situation. If Labor wants to put itself across a partisan divide and let the people of South Australia down when they need a united community response, they will be forever shamed. In relation to the questions in relation to modelling, I will take them on notice.

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