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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-08 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure regarding supplies.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The Victorian government has committed to securing 275 million pairs of gloves, 8.6 million face masks and 1.7 million gowns for their state. Other jurisdictions have published stock and order numbers. I understand the minister has been in contact with other state and federal ministers in relation to the manufacturing and supply of personal protective equipment. My questions to the minister are:

1. Following the minister's discussions with his colleagues, where are our greatest supply challenges as a nation, and in particular, as a state?

2. In light of commitments by other states to secure certain levels of personal protective equipment, what levels are our targets for South Australia?

3. Has South Australia made a similar commitment to Victoria and other jurisdictions about securing personal protective equipment?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in the health, wellbeing and safety of our community. A lot of his questions are probably really matters for the Department for Health and SA Health, in relation to the actual supplies that we have. At the meetings that we have with all of the trade ministers and federal minister, the Hon. Karen Andrews, we certainly talk about opportunities to fill gaps. As I think I might have said last week, we don't actually talk about the quantum of the supply.

It is well known that local manufacturing company Detmold has agreed to—and entered into a contract to—supply 145 million masks. I think it is fabulous for South Australia to have that capability. Certainly, Detmold spent a significant amount of time in negotiations with SA Health and the federal Department of Health. I was very much aware of the opportunity that was presented to Detmold, but the figures—the published figures of 45 million masks for South Australia and 100 million for the national stockpile are really the only figures that I am familiar with.

In those discussions, I think this morning's meeting was one that we should be very proud of. The Northern Territory procurement officer—the minister was unavailable; I think they had something else on this morning and not every minister could be there, as you would understand, Mr President—gave a great endorsement of Bickford's. They had come to Bickford's to see if Bickford's could supply sanitiser to them. Bickford's said yes, they could. They asked how much they were being charged, and the Northern Territory Health told Bickford's and Bickford's said, 'We'll beat that; we'll provide it to you at a cheaper price.'

I thought that was a wonderful endorsement of the community spirit we have in South Australia to support the nation at this time of great need. Bickford's were actually prepared not to make a big profit, but to make sure—sure, they are going to cover their costs, but they made sure that another state or territory has an opportunity to benefit from the capacity that they have built up here.

All of the challenges around equipment is really something that I think the honourable member should direct to SA Health. It is not my role, as Minister for Trade, to be dealing in whether we have shortages of one particular commodity or another. Certainly, PPE has been a broad discussion—whether it is masks, gloves, gowns, goggles or face masks. With all of those, there are varying levels of confidence that we have enough supply. We have seen the Prime Minister and all of the other experts talk about flattening the curve. I think if we flatten the curve, I'm very confident that we won't have any major difficulties in supplying those particular products. But really, the detail of that should be directed to SA Health.

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