HOSPITALS, FUNDING

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (14:14): My question is to the Minister for Health. Why is it that the government can find $23 million to backflip on the decision from last year's budget to cut Public Service leave entitlements but cannot find $1.2 million per year to help keep the Moonta, Ardrossan, Glenelg and Keith community hospitals open?

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) (14:14): Once again, the opposition asks questions about private hospitals in this place, which is obviously their priority. They privatised Modbury Hospital when they were in government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: They wanted to do the same thing to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: What they are on about, let's be clear about it. They are in favour of the private sector, and that's fine. That's their right to get in here and advocate for private hospitals. However, this government is interested in public health and we are prepared to help the private sector supply services to their communities.

That is why we have helped Moonta hospital adopt a business plan which will make it sustainable into the future, that is why we have helped Ardrossan hospital identify money that they are entitled to get from the commonwealth government, multiple times more than the money that was taken away from them by our budget, and that is why we are helping the Keith hospital make themselves sustainable into the future. It makes them independent. They will be sustainable. The same services will be continued without having government subsidy. The government puts pressure on itself to make sure its systems and its hospitals run efficiently and tightly; the private sector ought to do the same.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for MacKillop and the member for Port Adelaide!