CORONAVIRUS — PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL MEASURES
266. Hon
Dr STEVE THOMAS to the Minister for Regional Development:
I
refer to today's media release by the Premier about the easing of
public health measures from Thursday, 31 March, which I note was an hour or two
after the minister berated the opposition for daring to debate emergency
management measures. Given the motion moved by Hon Tjorn Sibma, will the
minister now apologise to him for the debate that she engaged in, particularly
when she told him that today was a terrible day to debate emergency measures in
relation to COVID?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
Obviously, Hon Dr Steve Thomas lives
in a parallel universe! I started my contribution by acknowledging that it was
appropriate that the opposition raise these issues.
Several members interjected.
The PRESIDENT: Order!
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN: Members
opposite have completely misunderstood their own motion. They wanted to cease
the emergency powers. They were not asking for the removal of the level 2
restrictions; they were asking why we had the emergency restrictions under the
Emergency Management Act and the Public Health Act. That is what they were
arguing. I pointed out the actual reasons. I addressed that foursquare. I talked
about the vaccinations that come under the public health provisions. I then
talked about the whole range of directions that are in place, and that will remain in place for some time, to give us
the power to control COVID. It was not a motion about removing level 2
restrictions. It was a motion asking why we had not ceased to have the state of
emergency under those two pieces of legislation.
Several
members interjected.
The PRESIDENT: Order!
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN: Members
opposite do not even understand their
own motion. They have conflated all these provisions.