‘No regrets’ over lockdown on a lie, says SA Premier Steven Marshall

Steven Marshall says he has no ­regrets about plunging South Australia into lockdown and that he had ‘no choice’ but to act.

‘I understand the frustration — everyone was inconvenienced by this and a lot of businesses were affected as a result — but we had to act’: South Australian Premier Steven Marshall. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Steven Marshall says he has no ­regrets about plunging South Australia into lockdown and that he had “no choice” but to act on the advice of police and health chiefs — even though it later emerged the state’s response was based on a lie.

The South Australian Premier hit back at criticism from business leaders about the handling of the lockdown, saying the impact on jobs and the economy would have been “absolutely devastating” if a second wave had taken hold.

Mr Marshall told The Australian there would be no immediate resumption of international flights into SA, saying their suspension until November 30 would continue as the state’s quarantine hotels remained at capacity.

He also dismissed suggestions politicians had abrogated too much of their authority to unelected officials.

“The alternative approach where politicians override the advice of health officials is playing out in the US and parts of Europe right now,” he said.

“I understand the frustration — everyone was inconvenienced by this and a lot of businesses were affected as a result — but we had to act on the basis of the information we had at the time.”

SA’s six-day lockdown ended in drama and farce when it emerged on Friday that a coronavirus-infected worker at a quarantine scheme hotel had falsely claimed he had bought a pizza from the Woodville Pizza Bar at the centre of the cluster when he really worked a second job there.

His initial claim created fears he may have caught COVID-19 simply by handling the pizza or the pizza box, with every customer who had bought pizzas from the now-closed business between Nov­ember 6 and 16 ordered to self-isolate.

SA business groups remain furious at the lockdown — and that the entire state was included despite the outbreak being limited to Adelaide — with Australian Hotels Association general manager Ian Horne warning it would have a debilitating effect on the hospitality sector.

“This has been a multi-million-dollar cost to the operators and employees within the hotel and hospitality sector and there seems to us to be no reason why the government transition committee wouldn’t say ‘Let’s go back to the level of restrictions we were at a week ago’,” he said.

Mr Horne said it was not viable to restrict capacity at venues to 25 per cent, claiming the move to keep the industry under restrictions as it emerges from three days of lockdown was unjustified.

He said businesses in rural parts of the state would be particularly badly affected.

“Regional SA — which struggles at the best of times — has to pay for a pandemic based in suburban Adelaide.

“The latest blow isn’t coming from the pandemic — it is caused by the policy of the government.”

Mr Marshall said there were broader concerns about the surging case numbers and Chief Medical Officer Nicola Spurrier had modelling showing SA would have been recording 100 new cases a day by the middle of ­December if the outbreak was not controlled.

“The consequences of a second wave would have been absolutely catastrophic on businesses, families and the whole community right across SA,” he said.