Wednesday, 15 September 2021

 Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (09:09): I see the Treasurer is out waving the finger at the construction industry. The construction and building industry is an incredibly important industry in this state, so on that I agree with him. They do need to find ways to make sure that the industry can continue to work safely. We need our system opened up, not closed down. But the very first step that the Treasurer could take—the very first step—would be to ensure that all of the health information and the advice on which the current settings in the building and construction industry are based are released, because they have never been released. It is a scandal that sectors of the economy have been closed down without the briefings and the information behind those decisions being made public and transparent.

This is important because those industries and sectors are entitled to see that information if they are being closed down, but it is also important in crafting a way forward to enable the sectors to open up, to actually find a safe way forward to maximise the ability of the sector to respond and to safely limit the spread of the virus in their workplaces. I say we have got to open up but we have got to open up safely, and a key part of that is the Treasurer, now that he has entered the fray, insisting on the release of that health information, the briefings and the background documents, into the public domain. What on earth is the Premier keeping them secret for? And the Treasurer’s intervention now opens the way.