External review into how Port players’ relatives were granted ‘inappropriate’ travel exemptions
An external review will be held into how 11 relatives of Port players were granted “inappropriate” exemptions to travel from Victoria. A high-ranking public servant that once worked for the Power says she connected the families with SA Health.
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An external review will be launched 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.
After labelling the decision “absolutely a mistake”, SA’s chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier told ABC Radio on Thursday morning that she was “very keen to have this looked at”.
“We’re very keen to review this and in fact our (chief executive) has spoken to the Department of Premier and Cabinet and we’re looking forward to having an external person come in and just go through all of our processes to make sure that they’re really tight,” she said.
“We’re quite keen to have somebody with external eyes come in because sometimes when you get close to things you don’t see everything and it is always good to review processes.”
Prof Spurrier said the reviewer would be someone who “understands bureaucracy and administrative processes”.
On Wednesday, Prof Spurrier said the “inappropriate” exemption given to the AFL family members was decided by one person and not the whole panel.
She did not say which players the 11 people were related to, but Fox Sports reported they included Travis Boak, Ollie Wines, Robbie Gray, Tom Clurey, Tom Rockliff and Darcy Byrne-Jones. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by any of them, their families or the club.
Port Adelaide has 12 players from Victoria who either played in the Power’s game against Collingwood on Monday night or are in contention for the qualifying final against Geelong.
The family members involved are understood to mainly consist of parents of Power players.
When contacted by The Advertiser, a Port spokesman said the club was aware the players were applying for exemptions for their family members but had no involvement in facilitating the exemption process.
Hitaf Rasheed, executive director of Events South Australia, told News Corp she helped initially to connect a representative of the families to SA Health.
But Ms Rasheed, a former media and welfare staffer for the Power, said she then left the decision-making process to the relevant health officials to work through.
“SATC (South Australian Tourism Commission) doesn’t have any say in how SA Health view applications or approvals,” she said.
Prof Spurrier said she cancelled the exemptions when she heard about them late on Wednesday afternoon but five people had already had travelled to SA and are in hotel quarantine at their own cost.
“One individual made a decision on their own accord, and moving forward we will not let that happen again,” she said
“I know that person well and they did not have any vested interest in this decision.”
She said that person had been counselled already by the SA Health CEO and she would also counsel them.
“I’m disappointed about this because we do have a vigorous exemption process and people know we have a hard border with Victoria at the moment and our health exemptions should be for people with compelling and compassionate reasons,” she said.
“It’s very important we’re consistent when granting exemptions and I want to ensure that’s the case going forward.”
Prof Spurrier said she sits on a panel that hears appeals when a request to travel to SA is denied, but said she would now also sit on the original panel that determines exemptions to enter into SA, including on compassionate grounds.
She said she would now review other exemptions to make sure they were appropriate.
“It was absolutely a mistake. This should not have happened and it should have gone to the full exemption panel where a rigorous discussion takes place,” she said.
Health Minister Stephen Wade said the exemptions were “a failure of the system” and denied elite sports people had been given special treatment.
“From day one, SA Health and Nicola Spurrier and her team have indicated there will be no preference to sports people in terms of the administration of public health is SA,” he said.
“In some ways that may have been detrimental to our relationship with the AFL but the health and safety of South Australians is our paramount consideration.”
SA records two new cases
It comes as SA recorded two new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, a man and a woman in their 20s, who are both in hotel quarantine. A security guard is also in isolation after getting to close to them during testing.
The two new cases are returning Australians who flew in on September 2 on a Qatar Airways flight. They tested positive on day one of their quarantine. They have a child who has tested negative so far.
Prof Spurrier also said SA has had its first “serious breach at a hotel”, with a security guard getting too close to the family as they took additional COVID tests. They are now in isolation.
“I apologise directly to that hotel security guard, who was doing a fabulous job but was put in that unfortunate situation of not being entirely safe,” Prof Spurrier said.
Border with NSW reopens
The state opened its borders to NSW overnight.
Premier Steven Marshall said the borders would remain open to NSW as long as it was safe to do so.
“We were delighted when we saw this information that came through from NSW Health on yesterday’s new infections (having) no community transmission,” he said.
“It’s been an enormous impediment of family unification.
“We’ve listened to the expert health advice and followed it and by doing so, we’ve stayed ahead of the game and we’re now enjoying a quality of life that anywhere else in the world is envious.”
As school holidays start on Friday, the easing was universally welcomed by business and tourism groups.
From Thursday, any visitor except those from Victoria can enter SA without quarantining, but must still apply. Only approved essential travellers from Victoria can cross. Those who crossed from NSW before midnight Wednesday must still isolate for 14 days.
Police Commissioner and state COVID co-ordinator Grant Stevens warned officers would be checking on people.
Mr Marshall said it would be some time before the state’s hard border arrangement with Victoria was lifted.
“We’re considering various models which would look at SA residents in the first instance and a differential between regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne residents,” he said.
“We hope by (next Tuesday’s transition committee meeting) we’ll be able to give some forward planning for people looking to come back to SA from Victoria.”