Team to guide SA back to normal
The Premier has confirmed a team led by the head of his department has been established to plot the state’s course out of the coronavirus shutdown.
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Plans to get SA on the road back to normality will ramp up this week.
The Sunday Mail can reveal a top-level group of State Government executives has been pulled together to steer the state out of the coronavirus crisis.
Dubbed the Transition Committee, it is headed by the head of the Department for Premier and Cabinet, Jim McDowell, and held its first meeting on Friday.
Premier Steven Marshall, who has confirmed the existence of the committee, said this was a big week for SA.
“Elective surgeries have restarted, schools have reopened and playgrounds will open. We are getting closer and closer toward normality,” he said.
“The Transition Committee will guide the lifting of restrictions in SA over the coming weeks and months.
“The group will be looking at the health risks first and foremost but will also take into account the social and economic consequences of the restrictions.”
The group’s membership is drawn from various areas and key government departments.
Mr Marshall said the group would be in place for some time should any issues arise.
As restrictions are slowly lifted in different jurisdictions across the country, Mr Marshall said many South Australians had gone above and beyond abiding by local requirements.
“I would still be careful, but we have left it up to people to self-regulate and they have done it really well,” he said.
“There is no law that says you can’t hug your mother or your grandchildren.
“There is nothing to stop you from having 10 people or less over for dinner at your house at the moment.
“There is no restriction whatsoever to play golf in groups of two, or play tennis.
“In reality, people have put their own restrictions in place.”
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Mr Marshall said South Australians had far more relaxed restrictions than those that had been applied in many other parts of the country.
“The big announcement in NSW this week was lifting restrictions so that you can have two people to come over and visit you in your house,” he said.
“They are still getting excited about being able to go to the beach in Queensland.”
Beaches and national parks have not been closed in SA since the pandemic began, and outdoor exercising has been encouraged.
Most states have adopted two-person limits for visits to other people’s home. However, SA has kept public gatherings to a 10-person limit.
Our state has also been a prime mover in encouraging children to return to school, with attendance levels reaching 70 per cent in the first week of Term 2.