Page 2039 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 2020
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self-isolate and get tested. We will continue to monitor the situation in New South Wales and provide further advice to the community as needed.
This will probably be my last COVID-19 update to the Ninth Assembly, and I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the tireless efforts of all the public servants, public health officials and frontline workers across all directorates. It has been an absolute privilege to see the public service and public health system at their finest as they have responded to the challenges 2020 has thrown at them. Once again, I particularly thank Dr Coleman for her calm, measured and strong leadership throughout the pandemic. We are brilliantly served as a community by the intellect, commitment and ingenuity of all our public servants and healthcare workers, and they deserve our ongoing recognition and gratitude.
I present the following papers:
Status of the public health emergency due to COVID-19—Chief Health Officer Report, dated 18 August 2020.
COVID-19—Update on Government response—Ministerial statement, 20 August 2020.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the ministerial statement.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.19): I would like to begin where the minister left off. I join her in extending thanks to the public health officials for the work that they have done over this very difficult time. We are in a much better place than we thought we would be back in February, when this issue first really gained the attention of the public.
I want to convey again my thanks to the minister and her officials for the courteous way in which the opposition has been provided with briefings and updates on a regular basis and for their professionalism, although from time to time I have expressed my concerns about issues. When I thought it was necessary, I raised those issues directly with the minister. All in all, putting aside some misgivings I have had from time to time, the people of the ACT have been served in an exemplary fashion through this period.
I do want to take note of one issue in terms of public administration and what the minister, in her statement, says in relation to the public health emergency declaration. We created the situation by amending the Public Health Act to create the way the public health declaration works. But, on reflection, when you see it described here as blandly as it is, in governance terms it is not absolutely perfect. When we come to review the Public Health Act in light of the COVID pandemic, I think that we should be looking at a better governance model than we have.
It is a closed circle. The Chief Health Officer advises the minister that the Chief Health Officer’s power should be extended under the public health emergency, and the minister says yes. I do not have a problem with the actual outcome of that in the
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