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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-27 Daily Xml
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COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:08): In lieu of the Hon. Frank Pangallo's question, I ask why in other jurisdictions is it—

The PRESIDENT: This is not a supplementary.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: I'm asking a question, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: Alright, okay.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: My question is: why do other jurisdictions have an 80 per cent COVID vaccination rate for vertical drinking and dancing and South Australia has a 90 per cent rate?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:09): I would like to stress that every state faces a very different situation, and in some ways we are bearing the burden of having very low community transmission. A state that has had significant community transmission, like New South Wales and Victoria, not only has natural immunity building up in their community but also is likely to have had a very high vaccination rate, partly because the community is responding to a community outbreak. We, on the other hand, have no community transmission, and we are continuing to build up our vaccination rate.

As I said earlier, this part of the pandemic is like trying to land a plane, and if I could continue that analogy, every state and territory will have its own flight path, because they come from different directions, they come from different situations. So I am not going to say, 'Well, why can't we do what they're doing on that point, and why aren't we doing differently?' because, fundamentally, each state is in a unique situation.

Also, each state will be making their own choices. For example, the Western Australian Labor government has made the choice they would rather continue to live in the bubble. They are not opening up to the rest of Australia and the rest of the world, but I stand here as the health minister in the Marshall Liberal government, which says, 'We are not going to live in a bubble. We live in the real world. COVID is in that world. We need to open our borders to other states and to other countries.'

If I could go back to the plane analogy, the Marshall Liberal government has always believed and always made clear that this is both a health crisis and an economic crisis. If you like, there are two wings of a plane: we've got to get the balance right. The facts speak for themselves. We are getting the balance right because we not only have a very successful response to the health pandemic so far but we also, my understanding is, have the fastest economic growth rate in the nation. That is something we should be very proud of. That is why we are going to continue to make South Australian-specific decisions for a South Australian-specific situation.

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