PARLIAMENT OF TASMANIA HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY REPORT OF DEBATES Tuesday 18 August 2020 REVISED EDITION Tuesday 18 August 2020 The Speaker, Ms Hickey, took the Chair at 10 a.m., acknowledged the Traditional People and read Prayers. MESSAGES FROM GOVERNOR Division of Braddon - Resignation of Joan Rylah Madam SPEAKER - Honourable members, I wish to advise the House that I have received the following correspondence from Her Excellency the Governor: 27 July 2020 Dear Madam Speaker I have received a letter dated 27 July 2020 from Mrs Joan Rylah MP tendering her resignation as a member for Braddon in the House of Assembly. I have instructed the Electoral Commissioner to proceed in accordance with the provisions of Part 9 of the Electoral Act 2004. Sincerely C A Warner Governor. Division of Braddon - Election of Felix Ellis Madam SPEAKER - Honourable members, I advise you of the following communication I have received from Her Excellency the Governor: 17 August 2020 Dear Madam Speaker I forward herewith the Certificate of the Electoral Commissioner stating that a recount has been held under the provision of Part 9 of the Electoral Act 2004 to fill the vacancy in the Division of Braddon caused by the resignation of Mrs Joan Rylah. Upon a recount of the resigned member's ballot papers Felix Ellis has been elected to the vacancy and the election takes effect from today. Yours sincerely C A Warner Governor 1 Tuesday 18 August 2020 MEMBER SWORN Felix Asthon Ellis - Member for Braddon Felix Ashton Ellis, Member for the Division of Braddon, was sworn and declared that he had read the subscribed code of ethical conduct and race ethics. Madam SPEAKER - Welcome to parliament, Mr Ellis. Members - Hear, hear. GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES Parliamentary Secretaries - Appointment Mr GUTWEIN (Bass - Premier) - Madam Speaker, I inform the House of changes to government responsibilities. Following the resignation of Mrs Rylah, I have appointed Jacquie Petrusma and John Tucker as parliamentary secretaries to the Premier. We have a strong focus on our recovery efforts and plan to rebuild Tasmania. The role of parliamentary secretaries, amongst other things, is to assist with strategic priorities, government initiatives, delivering programs to improve the wellbeing of Tasmanians and supporting the state's recovery efforts. In these extraordinary times, when we have such a careful balance of our recovery efforts and our plan to rebuild Tasmania, I welcome their community advocacy experience and their support in both Jacquie and John. I look forward to their contributions to the team. Thank you. Members - Hear, hear. QUESTIONS COVID-19 - Essential Worker Exemption Scheme Ms WHITE to PREMIER, Mr GUTWEIN [10.05 a.m.] All Tasmanians deserve credit for their hard work and sacrifices to minimise the threat of COVID-19. There is no doubt that we are currently in a good position but the experience in Victoria and now New Zealand shows there is no room for complacency. Your essential worker exemption scheme lacks transparency and it is in dire need of an overhaul. Almost daily we are hearing stories of workers being granted exemptions for reasons that are far from essential. Fitting out pizza shops or a supermarket, or putting silicone on a roof does not sound like a job that only a mainlander could do when there are more than 1000 Tasmanian construction workers unemployed. 2 Tuesday 18 August 2020 The scheme is undermining Tasmania's tight border controls. It is undermining the trust the community has placed in you to keep them safe. It is raising questions about the fairness of a process that denies grieving families travel to attend a funeral but grants approvals for consultants. It is not the State Controller's administration of applications that is the problem; it is the very design of the scheme itself. Premier, will you commit to an urgent overhaul of the essential worker exemption scheme to restore public trust in the process and ensure that interstate workers are not taking local jobs or putting public safety at risk by walking straight off the plane and on to the work site? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question on that particular matter. Before I start, I warmly welcome Felix to the team. I am certain he will represent his community very well. Members - Hear, hear. Mr GUTWEIN - Regarding essential workers, the Leader of the Opposition is well aware of the process; that is employers need to provide documentary proof that they have attempted to source workers from within the state or that those skills are not available to them. Biosecurity then conducts a review of that application. It then goes to the State Control centre and there is a further review of that application before a final decision is made by the State Controller, Darren Hine. I make if perfectly clear that I have full confidence in the team doing this work and also in the State Controller. These are difficult decisions. If anybody thinks the State Controller has an easy job at the moment they should think again. It is a difficult decision trying to get the balance right to ensure that they provide those exemptions that are required and necessary to ensure that our economy remains strong, and that we can continue with the cautious optimism we are seeing in our economy at the moment. I have made this point on numerous occasions: the criticism of that process has been largely unfair. I am providing a ministerial statement to the House later today which will provide an update on our plan moving forward concerning a range of matters. I will be dealing with the matter of essential workers and exemptions in that ministerial statement. I will have more to say then. COVID-19 - Essential Worker Requirement for Testing and Quarantine Ms WHITE to PREMIER, Mr GUTWEIN [10.10 a.m.] You have talked up Tasmania's tight border restrictions but the reality is that people are flying into the state every day without being tested or needing to quarantine. Currently, only essential workers from Victoria and declared hotspots are required to be tested for COVID-19, but according to the rules you have established they have 24 hours to get tested and they do not have to quarantine before they get their results. Your website states, and I quote: 3 Tuesday 18 August 2020 Once you pass the initial screening process you are not required to quarantine while you wait for the test results. That means a worker from Victoria can fly into Tasmania and go straight to a worksite before they get their test results back. This presents an unacceptable risk to the Tasmanian community. Will you tighten this loophole to require all essential workers to be tested and go into quarantine until they get their results back? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for that question and her obvious interest in this matter. The Leader of the Opposition is aware that we have relied on Public Health advice - Mr Ferguson - The experts. Mr GUTWEIN - the experts, as someone behind me just said. When you look at the circumstances that Tasmania is in at the moment, Tasmanians broadly are cautiously optimistic of the future. We have a system whereby the only case that has been picked up in recent weeks was a returning Tasmanian who was picked up in the system and quarantined appropriately. We have no evidence of broader community transmission. The advice from Public Health has been sound right through this. I put on the record very clearly my thanks and admiration for both Dr Veitch and Dr McKeown, supported ably by the secretary of Health, Kathrine Morgan-Wicks as the State Health Commander. They have worked diligently. They have provided sensible, balanced advice of the risks that we face and how to mitigate those risks. Our border controls have stood us in good stead. We are not Victoria. We are not New South Wales. We are not Queensland or South Australia, which are all dealing with multiple numbers of positive cases. We are not New Zealand. The system that we have put in place has stood the state in good stead. I will continue to be guided by our Public Health officials. They have been cautious. They have been responsible and they have the balance right. I say to Tasmanians, broadly we are in a good place. We need to continue with the sensible and responsible work we have been doing and we need to ensure that Tasmanians remain confident in the systems we have in place and confident in Public Health advice. I believe they are. As I have said, this side of the House will continue to receive advice from the experts; we will continue to act on the advice of the experts. We will not, as you want us to do, make up the rules as we go along. COVID-19 - Definition of Essential Worker Ms O’CONNOR to PREMIER, Mr GUTWEIN [10.13 a.m.] Can you explain to Tasmanians who have sacrificed so much since this pandemic hit the difference between an essential worker, an essential traveller, and someone who is subject to two weeks' mandatory quarantine? 4 Tuesday 18 August 2020 Before you say that this is a matter for the State Controller, will you accept this is a matter of Government COVID-19 policy and explain how people wanting to come to Tasmania to attend a family funeral can have their applications rejected but in an age of video connectivity and electronic signatures a hospitality industry executive can get a quarantine exemption to attend the Crowne Plaza launch? This came after your party's backer at the last election, the Tasmanian Hospitality Association's Steve Old asked your Government for help to secure the exemption.