House of Assembly Tuesday 29 June 2021
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PARLIAMENT OF TASMANIA HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY REPORT OF DEBATES Tuesday 29 June 2021 REVISED EDITION Contents QUESTIONS ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 COVID-19 - OUTBREAK OF NEW STRAIN - REQUEST FOR WEEKLY BRIEFINGS ................................................. 1 SOCIAL HOUSING WAITING LIST ........................................................................................................................ 2 PRISONS - CUSTODIAL INSPECTOR'S REPORT - IMPACT OF LOCKDOWNS ............................................................ 4 SECURING TASMANIA'S FUTURE - STRENGTHENING THE ECONOMY ................................................................... 6 SOCIAL HOUSING WAITING LISTS ...................................................................................................................... 8 HOUSING APPLICATIONS - NUMBERS OF CHILDREN ........................................................................................... 9 SOUTHERN OUTLET - IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AND CONSULTATION................................................................ 10 TASMANIA PRISON SERVICE - REHABILITATION OPPORTUNITIES ..................................................................... 11 NORTHERN REGIONAL PRISON - GEOTECHNICAL DRILLING AT THE BRUSHY RIVULET SITE ............................ 14 SECURING TASMANIA'S FUTURE - ANCILLARY DWELLING GRANT PROGRAM .................................................. 16 PUBLIC TRUSTEE - ADMINISTRATIVE AND OPERATIONAL PRACTICES .............................................................. 20 FOOD AMENDMENT BILL 2021 (NO. 27) .................................................................................................... 21 FIRST READING ................................................................................................................................................ 21 CHILDREN, YOUNG PERSONS AND THEIR FAMILIES AMENDMENT BILL 2021 (NO. 28) .......... 21 FIRST READING ................................................................................................................................................ 21 RIGHT TO INFORMATION AMENDMENT BILL 2021 (NO. 29) ............................................................. 21 FIRST READING ................................................................................................................................................ 21 MATTER OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE ......................................................................................................... 21 PUBLIC TRUSTEE .............................................................................................................................................. 21 ANSWER TO QUESTION ................................................................................................................................ 30 HOUSING APPLICATIONS - NUMBERS OF CHILDREN ......................................................................................... 30 ADDRESS-IN-REPLY ....................................................................................................................................... 30 ADDRESS-IN-REPLY ....................................................................................................................................... 49 STATEMENT BY PREMIER ........................................................................................................................... 68 COVID-19 UPDATE ......................................................................................................................................... 68 MESSAGE FROM THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL .................................................................................... 96 JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE ON CONDUCT OF 2021 STATE AND LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ELECTIONS ......... 96 ADJOURNMENT ............................................................................................................................................... 97 TERENCE (TERRY) ROLES - TRIBUTE ................................................................................................................ 97 TASMANIAN MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY - CHILDREN'S GALLERY ................................................................ 98 MAST - SAFETY MEASURES FOR ROWERS ..................................................................................................... 100 TASMANIAN HOSPITALITY AWARDS............................................................................................................... 102 MAST - SAFETY MEASURES FOR ROWERS ..................................................................................................... 103 FERAL AND ROAMING CATS ........................................................................................................................... 103 TASMAN HIGHWAY - PARADISE GORGE ......................................................................................................... 105 CARE PROGRAM - CREATING ACCESS TO REAL EMPLOYMENT ..................................................................... 106 Tuesday 29 June 2021 The Speaker, Mr Shelton, took the Chair at 10 a.m., acknowledged the Traditional People and read Prayers. QUESTIONS COVID-19 - Outbreak of New Strain - Request for Weekly Briefings Mr O'BYRNE question to PREMIER, Mr GUTWEIN [10.01 a.m.] I begin questions today by acknowledging the understandable community concerns surrounding the current COVID-19 outbreak. A new highly contagious strain of the virus has now been detected in four states or territories. It is a challenging time for governments and frontline workers across the country as we face the most serious outbreak since the Victorian second wave. As the new Leader of the Labor Party, I want it to absolutely clear that we are with you on this. I give you my complete commitment that there will be no political game playing or point scoring when it comes to COVID-19. We will take a bipartisan approach and trust in the advice of Dr Veitch and the Public Health team that have served us well to date. As you would appreciate, members of my team are being inundated from our constituents with questions and requests for information. We are fielding a range of inquiries and concerns, including QR codes, contact tracing, PPE supplies and vaccines. Will you commit to establishing a weekly briefing to assist us to respond accurately to these inquiries? ANSWER Mr Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for that question. I am pleased to hear that you are not going to play political games because, to be frank, that is exactly what you started off doing yesterday. Mr O'Byrne - That is not true. Mr GUTWEIN - That is true. You simply could not help yourselves. You are right in that this is a very difficult set of circumstances. As I said this morning at the media conference, there is a moment right now in front of us in this country. The highly contagious Delta strain is very challenging and problematic and certainly has other states in some difficulties. Last night we saw the swift action taken by Mark McGowan with Perth and Peel being locked down on the basis of one additional case as their Public Health officials did not have the full confidence that there were no further contacts in the community that could lead to a larger outbreak. He has taken the very sensible step of putting in place a four-day lockdown in that state. 1 Tuesday 29 June 2021 New South Wales is in the first lockdown they have had, that you could classify with that term, whereby now Greater Sydney and three other large local government areas are locked down. Around five-and-a-half to six million of their population are now in lockdown for a two-week period. Greater Darwin is now locked down as well. There are challenges that community faces regarding the contagious nature of this virus. Likewise, Queensland is looking at managing hot spots at the moment. There is significant concern about the fact that 900 miners have now left the Northern Territory and arrived in other states. We have three here. I am pleased to say, as I did this morning, that those three are in quarantine. They have been tested; their first test was negative and they will be tested again before the end of their 14 days. For any questions or matters of concern you have, I ask you to provide them to us quickly so that we can respond. Where there are concerns in the community, we will respond as quickly as we can with Public Health advice if necessary, but importantly by providing advice to your constituents on how they can best navigate some of the systems. To be clear, what I have been providing at the moment has been, broadly speaking, a briefing at least once a week to all of Tasmania on the vaccination updates and any other matters relating to COVID-19. I will continue to do that. Regarding questions, I can assure you that at every single one of those media conferences, I have dealt with any question that has been raised. We have not time limited those media conferences, nor will we do so in the future. Today, unfortunately, I had to leave because we have question time but the Director of Public Health and the State Health Controller stayed to take any further questions after I had finished in the time that I had. If you are interested in doing this in a bipartisan way, I encourage you to provide those matters of concern that your constituents are raising and we will respond directly to them. Any other matters of concern that