Thursday, 7 April 2022

Independent Pandemic Management Advisory Committee

Mr LIMBRICK (South Eastern Metropolitan) (18:33): (1886) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health. When the government gained the powers of the pandemic legislation one of the safeguards included was the creation of the Independent Pandemic Management Advisory Committee. Given the government was the one to select and appoint this oversight committee, it is vital that they be seen as independent and as transparent as possible. I must say that following the creation of IPMAC it was disappointing that there was no transparent information provided to the public about when the committee would meet or exactly how it would function. Months after its creation this is still the case today.

The Premier extended the original pandemic declaration on 12 January 2022. This was the trigger for the formation of IPMAC to be required within 30 days, as based on the legislation. This was stretched to the limit, with the appointments being publicly announced by the health minister on 14 February. On 23 February my motion successfully passed this house calling on IPMAC to review certain pandemic orders. Following this it took over a month to receive any kind of public statement from IPMAC about their activities, despite my office also inquiring about their progress.

In a letter released last week, on 30 March, they stated they had met on 21 March for the very first time, where they officially received their communication from the Clerk of the Legislative Council and have confirmed their own terms of reference. There is currently no communication to the public about why the committee took over a month to meet for the first time, what discussions were had, what these decided terms of reference are or when they are to meet again.

Minister, will you request that IPMAC publish the full minutes of their meetings, their terms of reference and their schedule of meetings on a website that is accessible to the public? It is imperative that the committee charged with being the single independent oversight mechanism of the extreme pandemic powers being wielded by this government is able to have their actions be considered transparent by the public.