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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-07 Daily Xml
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COVID-19 Vaccine, Freedom of Information

The Hon. S.L. GAME (15:10): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Attorney-General, representing the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, on COVID information transparency.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: I have been contacted by a constituent who submitted a freedom of information application to understand the research, studies and datasets behind the 'Get the facts, get the vax' television campaign implemented by SA Health. It took over seven months and an external review intervention by Ombudsman SA to receive a communication containing 21 pages of information about face masks, not vaccines; four publicly available PDFs about the importance of COVID intervention measures; and a line stating, 'Unfortunately, there was no documentation that addressed the description of [the applicant's] application'.

The only two conclusions the applicant and the Ombudsman could draw are that there is no evidence behind the 'Get the facts, get the vax' television campaign or SA Health is deliberately choosing to withhold information and evidence from the community, in contradiction of the Freedom of Information Act 1991.

The review also notes several incidents of procedural contraventions of the legislation, all documented by the Ombudsman. People have genuine concerns over the vaccine, and they want to see information with their own eyes. My question is:

1. Why is the department withholding evidence from people seeking FOIs on important, specific COVID vaccine information?

2. Will the government commit to being timely and transparent with requested information?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:12): I thank the honourable member for her question. I will refer that to the relevant minister in another place and bring back a reply.

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