David Penberthy: There is public bewilderment over the fact a medi-hotel worker could also deliver pizza

Grumbling about good questions from journalists will not ease the public’s worries about quarantine failures, writes David Penberthy.

There is a ghoulish enthusiasm among the more ideologically obsessed for South Australia to fail in its current battle against the coronavirus, regarding that outcome as a vindication of the Andrews Labor Government in managing the disease in Victoria.

You could almost hear the more screwed-up lefties on Twitter hyperventilating with delight on Sunday as news broke that SA appeared to be on the cusp of a second wave.

These people are sick in the head. They are also significantly sicker than most South Australians currently are as we move swiftly to contain this current threat.

Writing as someone who doesn’t care who’s in power, as long as they’re competent and humane, I cannot understand their mindset.

My own view is that the two biggest domestic political failures of 2020 were the NSW Liberal Government’s management of the Ruby Princess cruise ship, for which its buffoon of a Health Minister escaped any responsibility, and the performance of Daniel Andrews.

The idea that anyone could compare the current situation in SA versus what happened in Victoria is simply a joke.

Victoria recorded 800 deaths; we have recorded four. Touch wood, we will register no more. Their lockdown lasted 112 days; ours is expected to last for six. Their hotel quarantine program resembled John Belushi’s Animal House, while ours, until now, had been without blemish.

But in offering that defence, there are two questions that the State Government, SA Police and SA Health must be prepared to answer as we deal with this cluster.

South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens speaks at a press conference in Adelaide during day one of total lockdown. Picture: Brenton Edwards/AFP

They go to the testing of medi-hotel staff for the virus and the wisdom of allowing those same people to hold second jobs in occupations which could be described as high risk.

The government has already got the message about the first question with the changes it has announced to testing this week.

Health Minister Stephen Wade has insisted that there has been no problem with the use of private guards, police and ADF troops in medi-hotels, saying the system was given a “gold star” in a national hotel quarantine review.

However, Premier Steven Marshall admitted he struggled to understand the logic of the previous system, whereby hotel staff were tested only occasionally but daily declarations had to be signed by staff that they had no symptoms of anything and were feeling fine.

“I did query that situation but I was provided with advice that what we were doing was based upon best practice at the time,” he said on Monday.

“Obviously you look at that in light of individual outbreaks but the feeling was that it was much better to rely on people who develop symptoms to get themselves tested immediately because if you had a regular weekly test people would say ‘I’ll just wait until then’.”

By moving now to compulsory weekly tests, the government has satisfied that question.

The second question, about medical hotel staff holding other jobs, has still not been answered satisfactorily.

I have a lot of time for our Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. It might be the wrong metaphor to use to describe a copper, but he is a straight shooter with a genial sense of humour and a proven commitment to public service.

But the normally laid-back Stevens looked like he was about to unleash a taser on my fellow Advertiser scribe Andrew Hough today when he had the temerity to question medi-hotel staffing arrangements.

“You’re being completely unreasonable,” Mr Stevens said.

“Let’s be balanced in our perceptions about what these people are doing. These people have lives. Does it make any difference if a person who works in a medi-hotel has a second job?

“Your expectation at the moment is that these people go to work and then isolate until they return to work.

“There is a level of risk that must be expected by them and by us. They have lives to lead, they have mortgages to pay.”

They’re fair points but they don’t satisfy the widespread public bewilderment over the fact that a person working in a medi-hotel – a potentially dangerous location with people returning from high-infection countries – could, in their spare time, be rolling the dough or doing deliveries at the Woodville Pizza Bar.

Stevens was also questioned as to the findings of the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry that explicitly recommended that medi-hotel workers should not have second jobs.

His answer here fell short, I believe, in that he appeared to be saying that it was simply too hard logistically to hire enough people to fill all those medi-hotel roles if such a stipulation were applied.

“I would suggest to you that it comes down to best endeavours,” he said. “It simply would not be possible to bring in the required number of people.”

Again, it’s a fair point about levels of risk, but it doesn’t satisfy the public view that the risks could have been further minimised.

The good news, of course, is that the case numbers do not appear to be increasing exponentially; indeed, they are barely increasing at all.

Which leads to a third question that is playing on the minds of many: If the case numbers are so low, why are we having a lockdown?

I haven’t got much enthusiasm for that question. I get the impact it’s having on business. I feel nothing but sympathy for the restaurateurs who chucked out all their stock and the Central Market stall holders who, confusingly, were suddenly shut down in a move which cemented the vast commercial advantage for the big supermarket chains.

But the reason for the lockdown is simple – to buy time. Buy time to catch up with all those close contacts who have been at the many places across our city where the 23 confirmed cases and 17 suspected cases had also been.

Six days is two long weekends. We all appear to have stocked up on booze, too. To end where I began, six days beats 112 by a massive, massive margin.