SA government strikes deal with crossbench to end COVID emergency declaration

New laws designed to handle South Australia’s COVID-19 management for the second half of this year are set to pass parliament.

The government has struck a deal with the Greens and SA Best in the Legislative Council, incorporating some crossbench amendments to the bill that passed the lower house earlier in the month. 

The amendments include the creation of a COVID oversight committee for the next six months to assess any new restrictions put in place for people with the virus or close contacts.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the changes will help end the Emergency Declaration at the end of June, as promised during the lead-up to the election. 

“We are now on track to realise that ambition, working closely with the Chief Public Health Officer and the Police Commissioner and now the whole parliament to see the passage of legislation that will enable that to occur,” he said.  

“I continue to acknowledge and absolutely thank the work of both the Police Commissioner and Professor Nicola Spurrier in seeing the state through the events of COVID using that emergency management declaration. 

“But clearly we are coming to a period where that time is over and we start to restore the ordinary functioning of government in a traditional way.” 

From Emergency Declaration to Public Health Act

New premier Peter Malinauskas has repeatedly made it clear his desire to stop using the Emergency Management Act to help maintain a level of control over the pandemic.

It was a desire the former Liberal government also had but they did not end up getting changes through parliament during the previous term.

The proposed legislative reforms presented to parliament this month would allow SA Health to put controls in place through modifications to the Public Health Act.

“When the declaration ends, it is important that we still have some protections in place for our most vulnerable South Australians,” Mr Malinauskas said. 

“The most appropriate way we can do this is to amend the Public Health Act to include protections for patients and residents in aged care, hospitals and disability care, and the ability for rules to be set for COVID-positive people and close contacts.”

Broad community-wide controls, like lockdowns, would not be possible under the new laws once the emergency declaration ends. 

But they could be implemented once more if a new declaration were to be issued.

Concerns over penalties 

In a letter obtained by ABC News, the Law Society of South Australia has outlined a raft of concerns it sees with the changes as they currently sit.

Chief among them is that they give the government what the society has branded as “wide-ranging powers” to enforce COVID directions.

“Enshrining such extraordinary powers in legislation permanently must be carefully considered and accompanied by some guarantee of proportionality with respect to ensuring an individual’s basic rights and freedoms when such powers are exercised,” Law Society president Justin Stewart-Rattray wrote.

He added the society has reservations about how close contacts are defined and the scope of directions, branding them “concerningly opaque.”

While the Liberal opposition wants to move on from the Emergency Management Act being used to handle COVID, the party has its own reservations, including with the size of the proposed penalties in the bill.

The current changes would see maximum penalties of two years in jail or a $20,000 fine for individuals who fail to comply with directions.

For a business, the fine jumps to $75,000.

“Decreases in penalties to remove imprisonment and reduce maximum sanctions by a third are important and will see the state become more aligned with penalties in other jurisdictions,” opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said.

What happens next?

The Liberals are expected to introduce amendments to the laws in the Upper House but the government said it is yet to see them.

“This is very serious legislation. We are trying to deal with it on a constructive basis,” Health Minister Chris Picton said.

“We actually need to see proposals, not just by press release but by the actual amendment work being done from the Liberal Party to be considered in the Parliament.”

Freshly elected One Nation MLC Sarah Game has flagged her intention to introduce amendments too, which she said will safeguard democracy and “fundamental individual rights”. 

“This is an attempt to permanently enshrine COVID-19 powers while removing legislative safeguards under the Public Health Act, that until now have only been exercised under a declared emergency,” Ms Game said.

“This is not democratic, this is not ‘living with’ COVID-19 and this is not what South Australians voted for.”

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