James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's been a big two weeks in my home state of South Australia since we last met here in Canberra. About 10 or 11 days ago we had some concerning developments regarding a coronavirus outbreak in South Australia. The state government made the decision last Wednesday to put the whole state into a form of very significant lockdown, which we thought might last six days. It involved all of us needing to stay at home with our loved ones and do our best to stomp on that outbreak as quickly as possible. Thankfully it only lasted three days, and some developments meant that the restrictions could be lifted.

I want to thank everyone in my electorate and my community, all the people of Adelaide and all the people of South Australia. We really came together and understood the need to take urgent and significant action early, because if you act early on these things you can avoid longer-term, much more significant impacts, not just from a health point of view but from an economic point of view. So I thank my community. Unfortunately we're not out of the woods yet. There are still some examples of the virus being contracted by close contacts of those in the cluster, but the health experts have got that under control. They've got in quarantine a lot of people that are at risk of being infected.

We've come together as a community in South Australia. It was a difficult few days, as it ended up being, but it was worthwhile given the outcome that we've had.

See this speech in context