Premier Steven Marshall says he’s ‘hugely disappointed’ and taking immediate action over Port Adelaide families exemption scandal
Port Adelaide says parents should not be criticised over a border blunder that allowed Victorian family members to travel to SA to watch the footy. The Premier has apologised and vowed to fix the “hugely disappointing administrative error”.
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Premier Steven Marshall has apologised for an “error of judgment” by an SA Health exemption committee member that led to family members of Port Adelaide AFL players being incorrectly allowed into the state.
Meanwhile, the boss of the high-ranking SA public servant who provided the family members with a contact at SA Health said she did not act inappropriately.
“There has been no personal gain from this, it was an administrative error among thousands of applications,’’ Mr Marshall said this morning.
“It is hugely disappointing. We are taking action. I think there would be a problem if there was undue process but there is no suggestion of that.”
An external review is underway to determine how 11 relatives of Port Adelaide players were mistakenly given permission by a member of SA’s exemption committee to travel from Victoria to South Australia.
Port Adelaide football manager Chris Davies confirmed Darcy Byrne-Jones’ family, Travis Boak’s mother and Tom Rockliff’s parents had made it into SA but could not say who else applied for or received exemptions.
It is understood the families arrived in SA on Tuesday, meaning they will miss Port’s qualifying final against Geelong next Thursday because of their 14-day quarantine.
They will be out of quarantine for a potential home semi-final or preliminary final.
Isolating in SA also ensures the families will be able to enter Queensland without needing to quarantine if the Power makes the Brisbane-based grand final on October 24.
Davies said Port knew the groups were asking for exemptions but the families, players and club had done nothing wrong.
“The parents asked the question and were given an answer … and they complied with that,” Davies said.
“SA Health were the ones who received the exemption request and SA Health were the ones who made that exemption. Our people followed the right process.
“I don’t think you can criticise the parents for wanting to be here to watch the finals.
“As a parent, I imagine having not seen your son or daughter for a long period of time, you would want to go through the process of asking when you’re coming into the biggest part of the season.”
Davies said the players whose families made it into SA were happy they were here but did not want to bring any undue media attention to the club or people involved.
He said ex-Port staff member Hitaf Rasheed’s role in the incident was “nothing to do with the footy club”.
“But in fairness to Hitaf, I don’t think she made the decision,” he said.
SA Health was contacted by family members of Port Adelaide players, after they had spoken to Ms Rasheed, the Events SA chief executive, who previously worked for the Power as a media and welfare staffer for advice.
SA Tourism Commission CEO Rodney Harrex confirmed Ms Rasheed provided advice to the families for the “appropriate contact at SA Health”.
He defended Ms Rasheed and said she had not acted inappropriately.
He said the SATC has no involvement in “any decisions made around this, they are made by SA Health”.
“Hitaf provided a contact, she did not involve herself in any way in the process,” Mr Harrex said.
“There is a process that SA Health has to go through … the SATC was not involved.”
Mr Marshall said there was no suggestion of “undue influence” on the exemptions process.
He said his own office was asked to advocate for people on an “hourly basis” but he was not involved in the independent process.
“I have had requests from members of parliament, Labor, Liberal, former premiers of South Australia saying can you process it … but it is completely and utterly independent and so it should be.
“Jay Weatherill contacted me asking if I can process something, but I don’t put it in, Channel 7 asked me, the reality is we process them through an independent process … but there is no suggestion of political interference from a government department,” he said.
“This wasn’t an error from the football club, or the parents, it was an error of judgment from the person doing the approvals in SA Health.”
Prof Spurrier said a single person had approved the 11 Port family members to travel from Victoria and that person was “devastated” at their mistake.
She welcomed the independent review of SA Health’s exemptions process.
“People who know me know I don’t often get upset, but I was upset when I heard this news yesterday,” Prof Spurrier said.
“I moved very quickly to revoke the other three exemptions before we had anyone else travelling from Victoria inappropriately. I am very keen to have this review of our exemption process, the way that we set up our panel and the appeals process. Because it was entirely inappropriate to give exemptions under those circumstances at this time.”
She said the main reasons for travel exemptions were for health and on compassionate grounds “but clearly this could not be seen in that light”.
QUESTIONS OVER EXEMPTIONS PROCESS
On Wednesday, Prof Nicola Spurrier said the “inappropriate” exemption given to the AFL family members was decided by one person and not the whole panel.
Ms Rasheed, executive director of Events South Australia, told News Corp she helped to connect a representative of the families to SA Health.
Ms Rasheed said she played no role in the decision-making process.
Meanwhile, Property Council director Daniel Gannon said there were many economic advantages to SA lifting restrictions on NSW visitors on Wednesday night.
“If we look across the country, we’re seeing different governments behave in different ways, and that has created an opportunity for South Australia to take advantage of this head start on the rest of the country,’’ he said.
“South Australia is ahead of the game, we are connecting our economy with the nation’s biggest economy in NSW, and it’s a first-mover advantage that we need to capitalise on.
“People in NSW might not be able to lay on a beach in Queensland, but they can walk through vineyards in the Barossa, they can watch finals footy at the Adelaide Oval.
“They can come here and spend their money, and South Australia can benefit from that pent-up demand.”
Vanessa Jeffries, 28, of Sydney said she had endured two major surgeries while totally isolated from her Adelaide-based mother and sister, including a spell in ICU, but will be reunited with a flight booked next week.
“I think it has been even worse for my mother as she has been so stressed all year that she couldn’t be with me to care for me or support me through all the changes in my life,’’ she said.
“I was so happy to read the announcement Tuesday as all I have wished for every day is to see my family. I booked a flight for next week straight away and can’t wait to see them.”
Hugo Ditroia, 28, from Parkes, said he had not seen his Adelaide-based sister since Christmas Day last year.
“I live and work in regional NSW, tonight is a day like no other to see my family again, I could cry,’’ he said.
“I was in Broken Hill when I heard the border news so I’m just going to keep going south and called work to take a week off.”