PORT AUGUSTA HEALTH SERVICES

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:00): I ask a supplementary question. Given that there is some doubt about the numbers and whether the requirements have been fully understood, if a capable, qualified, suitable operator can be found, would your government support the people of Port Augusta, Spencer Gulf and the outback by advocating for this service?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:00): This is really a way of asking the same question in a different form. The point is that the population base is not sufficient. There is a person up there who is in dispute with the company, as I understand it, that does provide diagnostic services to that community and who has said that he can provide this service. That is not supported, as I understand, by the federal government. He was brought to meet me on a delegation with the mayors of the region and the former member for Stuart. I kicked him out of the meeting, because he had a complete conflict of interest in coming to the meeting to advocate on behalf of the community when I understood he was one of the potential tenderers.

Nonetheless, putting that to one side, the fact is that you need a population sufficient to have enough throughput to make this system work. The way it works is that the commonwealth government provides a licence, which then entitles a private company to invest the funds—and they are substantial—to put a machine in place. In order to get a proper return they have to have sufficient throughput. You cannot do it in a population of that scale.

That is the tragedy about promises that are made in election campaigns which cannot be met. Any number of them have been made, I guess by both sides of politics, over the years. This is one which was a foolish promise to make, similar to the promise in relation to the Mersey Hospital in Tasmania.