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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-30 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:02): My question is directed to the Minister for Health and wellbeing. Will the minister update the council on the government's ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for his question. Australia has been very successful in combating the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with only 104 deaths and over 7,000 of our total case load recovered. We have been fortunate not to see the tragic loss of life which overwhelmed and, to be frank, continues to overwhelm health systems around the world.

South Australia has been at the forefront of this success to this point. Fortunately, the death toll is low. Tragically, four South Australians have died. There have been 443 cases, with no community transmission since late March, with nearly 150,000 tests performed.

However, as the situation in Victoria has demonstrated and as the government has been reiterating, we are still living in a world with COVID-19. We will see more cases in South Australia and we must be prepared to move quickly to stop any contagion into the broader community. There is no vaccine, and globally the case load has passed 10 million, with over 500,000 deaths.

We know that the commonwealth government has closed Australia's international borders and that South Australia is requiring interstate visitors from at least three jurisdictions to quarantine on arrival in South Australia, but we do not live in a bubble either internationally or within the country.

Today, the State Coordinator, the police commissioner, received and accepted the advice of the Transition Committee that he will not be lifting the restrictions in place with Victoria on 20 July as previously foreshadowed.

The Marshall Liberal government will always prioritise the health and safety of South Australians, as we have done throughout the pandemic; however, that health and wellbeing includes maintaining the supply chain for food and other goods and services, and during the pandemic we have seen tens of thousands of essential travellers come into the state.

What happens in other jurisdictions will affect South Australians. This government recognises this and we have moved to provide support to Victorians as they work to bring the recent spike in cases under control. We have sent three senior officers from the Communicable Disease Control Branch, led by the director of that branch, Dr Louise Flood, to support the Victorian efforts, lending their skills and expertise in combating the pandemic.

We are providing additional support through remote support by contact tracing experts—the virus sleuths who showed their worth here in South Australia as we got on top of the Barossa cluster and the airport cluster. Working from premises in South Australia, they will phone suspected contacts to track the movement of the virus through the Victorian community and get the data needed to stop the spread.

In this pandemic, we need to stand shoulder to shoulder with other Australians and, as these efforts made clear, this is more than rhetoric. I thank all our South Australian staff who are supporting Victoria in this current spike and I look forward to seeing the fruits of their labour through the flattening of the curve.

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