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

Covid-19 Response Committee

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. K.J. Maher (resumed on motion).

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (16:27): As the Leader of the Government in this place has indicated, the government will be supporting this motion. The Marshall Liberal government is committed to accountability, including through committees of this parliament. But I do rise as the minister responsible for health and wellbeing and in particular the minister responsible for public health to express my concern that this committee not be abused. I have a number of points to make.

First of all, Labor's case for this committee is based on a false presumption. Labor argue that we need the committee because the parliament will not be sitting. That is not so. We sat yesterday, we sit today and this parliament will continue to sit regularly. The government has and continues to maintain accountability by at least once if not twice-daily press conferences and countless media interviews from the Premier, the State Coordinator, public health officers and myself. Labor brings this motion to the council in lockstep with actions of the New Zealand government, but let's be clear: the situation of the New Zealand parliament is different to what we face in this place. That parliament is not meeting. Likewise, the federal government is not intending to sit. This parliament will continue to sit.

Secondly, I am concerned that Labor should not misuse this committee as a platform to undermine the public health effort. Regrettably, Labor's scare campaign on coronavirus to date has been nothing short of shameful and dangerous. Labor stokes fears in the minds of South Australians by seeding doubt about the strategy laid down by public health officers both in South Australia and collaboratively at the national level. Labor's political games undermine public trust in the very clinicians who are working tirelessly to protect us. For example, Labor accused our public health team of withholding information about the movements of confirmed cases, and in doing so, putting people at risk of infection. That was not relevant public health information. Labor's attacks served to undermine public confidence in the public health services at the very time that they need people to cooperate.

The opposition has repeatedly asserted that we are testing too narrowly and are turning people away. The member for Kaurna specifically claimed that we should be using WHO criteria for testing. In fact, the South Australian criteria actually exceeds the WHO criteria, and South Australia is one of the top jurisdictions in the world for testing per capita.

On 24 March in this chamber, Labor implied that public health clinicians were telling me not to release modelling data. That is nothing short of a slur on their professionalism. Labor has not acted responsibly during this pandemic and I urge the council that this committee should not endorse reckless behaviour by giving Labor a platform.

Thirdly, Labor has shown a staggering lack of interest in coronavirus and a lack of understanding of its significance, which reflects on their competence. The first parliamentary question from Labor in relation to coronavirus was not asked until 3 March—one full month after the first South Australian case of coronavirus and the sixth parliamentary sitting day of the year.

Former health minister Malinauskas and shadow health minister Picton went through two weeks of parliament and did not bother to ask a single question on one of the greatest public health challenges facing this state, this nation and the world. On 3 February, Labor blocked Associate Professor Spurrier (the Chief Public Health Officer) from speaking at the Budget and Finance Committee two days after the first confirmed cases in South Australia.

More interested in smearing the CEO of Health, even after an independent inquiry cleared him, they blocked the Chief Public Health Officer from giving an update to the public on the coronavirus. Labor gives priority to their political games over public health.

Fourthly, I am concerned that a committee could distract our public health clinicians and health leadership as they focus on the pandemic. I know how hard Associate Professor Spurrier and her public health team is working. The department and all the local health networks are stepping up to prepare for the challenge. Every minute that they take preparing for and appearing at a parliamentary committee is a minute that they could be committing to fighting the pandemic and saving lives. Their duty to protect public health is paramount. The accountability of the government to the parliament needs to give that duty paramountcy.

Fifthly, the government supports a review of the response to the pandemic, but I have real concerns; it is hardly the time to do so when the pandemic is still on foot. Let me be absolutely clear: the government fully expects that there would be a review of the response to the pandemic, but a review amidst a crisis inevitably lacks perspective.

I would ask Labor to have a long, hard think. This pandemic is the greatest challenge to the health of our state since the Spanish flu in 1918. It is not going to be with us for a few weeks; it will be with us for a number of months. Labor has a choice. They can continue to play political games and undermine the public health effort, but if they do so, they will be forever condemned. Alternatively, they can choose to be part of the solution and they can start reinforcing the public health messages.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (16:33): Thank you to the speakers on this motion: the Hon. Rob Lucas, the Hon. Tammy Franks, the Hon. Connie Bonaros and the Hon. Stephen Wade. I think many useful contributions have been made as part of the response to this motion. I think it is right, as has been pointed out by numerous speakers, that the public will not be tolerant of cheap, petty political pointscoring.

I think the Hon. Stephen Wade ought to take note of what has been said by some of his other colleagues. I assume he was listening closely to all the contributions. The Hon. Stephen Wade's attitude is disappointing and the tone of his speech did not match any of the other contributions. I think he will probably read what everyone else has said and look at his own contribution and perhaps be a little disappointed in himself and what he has said here today.

The Hon. Stephen Wade complains that a committee is not needed and that you do not need to ask pesky questions when they are doing other things, yet in the next breath the Hon. Stephen Wade chastises the opposition for not asking enough questions. It was one of the most graceless speeches we have heard this year, and certainly one of the most graceless contributions we have heard since this has started.

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wade!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The honourable member was obviously listening very closely to the contributions of everyone else when they talked about the need for such a committee, and even the need if parliament was sitting as scheduled. I note the Hon. Stephen Wade's contribution that parliament will sit, and it is great that he has placed on record that it will sit as scheduled and gave a commitment from the government that it will keep sitting as per scheduled, because that is the only way you will have the normal oversight that occurs. It is a welcomed undertaking from the Hon. Stephen Wade on behalf of his government.

We look at the New Zealand example where its Epidemic Response Committee, I think, sits three times a week to look at what the government's actions are, and I note the Hon. Stephen Wade's view that you should not in any way review the actions as the actions are unfolding, or as to what might need to be done. It is his view, which is out of step with other contributions from his government, that you should wait until sometime into the future, after it is all over, to then go back and review what has occurred. That is not the view of the opposition. That did not seem to be the view of his colleagues, and that is certainly not the view of the crossbench.

The Minister for Health in New Zealand, David Clark, is an attendee at the committee. I assume that the committee will be inviting the health minister to attend the committee, as the New Zealand health minister attends the committee, to look at the actions.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: He's been downgraded, hasn't he, because he didn't comply with his own directions.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Do you know what, Mr President, the Hon. Stephen Wade, in his usual graceless manner of interjecting, makes the exact point for the benefit of this committee. Media reports show that health minister David Clark discovered his noncompliance with level 4 lockdowns when he travelled 20 kilometres to go to the beach, he said, in preparation for that committee.

So we see, as the Hon. Stephen Wade helpfully points out, that that committee has done exceptionally good work in finding things out, so I thank the Hon. Stephen Wade for his endorsement and the need for scrutiny, which he, being completely out of step with his colleagues' contributions, thinks should not happen until some indeterminate time when this is all over.

I think that the members of the committee will be very sensible in the way this committee is run, but I do not think they will—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: —resile from needing to find answers, which I think most South Australians will reasonably expect and I think reasonably deserve in extraordinary times. I think there is still oversight needed. With those words, I commend this committee to the chamber.

Motion carried.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I move:

That the select committee consist of the Hon. C. Bonaros, the Hon. E.S. Bourke, the Hon. N.J. Centofanti, the Hon. T.A. Franks, the Hon. D.G.E. Hood and the mover.

Motion carried.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I move:

That the select committee have power to send for persons, papers and records and to adjourn from place to place and that it report on 9 September 2020.

Motion carried.

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