Grievance Debate

HOSPITAL PARKING

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (16:42): In question time today we saw the Treasurer equivocate on the issue of paid hospital car parking. He will not rule in or rule out whether there will be changes. For 18 months now we have seen the Premier, the former treasurer, the current Treasurer and the current Minister for Health all trying to justify the implementation of paid car parking in our public hospitals. This is an absolute travesty. The suffering and the anger it is causing are palpable.

Even today I had a phone call from a senior consultant at one of the hospitals where parking has just been implemented, because, under this scheme, doctors lose their allocated car parking. There was no car parking for this consultant. He said, 'I'm not going to come in and consult. I can't find a car park.' For 30 minutes he drove around looking for a car park, and he is not the only one.

The implementation of paid car parking in our hospitals is such an absolutely ill-thought-out project. By the time they have put in the infrastructure, maintained the infrastructure and enforced the paid car parking, the financial returns to the state government are really minimal. Why would you do this to people who are at their wits' end?

You do not choose to go to hospital; you do not choose to be ill. Friends, family and carers want to visit patients in hospital, but what they have to do is pay and pay and pay. For 18 months now we have seen the Minister for Health saying that this is an irreversible decision, yet yesterday on the front page of The Advertiser we saw an article by Greg Kelton saying that the new premier, Jay Weatherill, is expected to reverse this paid car parking issue and abolish paid car parking.

It is about time we saw something of a social inclusion nature from this government because what we have seen so far is social exclusion. They do not care, they do not connect and they certainly did not consult. We heard the incoming premier, Jay Weatherill, say to a public meeting that this government's 'announce and defend' policy is going to be a thing of the past. What we are seeing now—I hope—according to The Advertiser paper yesterday and from today's equivocation by the Treasurer is that we are going to see an announcement about paid car parking in our hospitals being abolished.

It is a complete injustice and, to reinforce the fact of the anger out there, we have the member for Florey with a petition of over 4,000 signatures being presented to this place today and we also see the member for Florey organising a protest on the steps of parliament.

Ms Bedford: I beg your pardon?

Dr McFETRIDGE: If I am wrong, I ask the member for Florey to correct it. I know the member for Florey has been a strong advocate for her electorate and I would not blame her for taking this stance. I have a letter from the office of the Mayor of Tea Tree Gully, Miriam Smith, about the hospital car parking fee petitions. I have in my possession a petition with over 7,000 signatures on it but, because the wording is not quite right, it cannot be accepted by this place.

What we need to do is accept the fact that there is significant anger out there. I will be presenting this petition to the Minister for Health because it may not be in a form that can be presented to this particular chamber but the minister should be listening to the people, both out in Florey and, in general, out in the Tea Tree Gully council area.

This was a wrong thing to have done. It was ill-thought-out. We hope the incoming premier is going to do something about it. It is a fact that South Australians cannot afford another levy, another tax, another impost on their hip pocket. We have heard today in question time of the evidence of all the parameters—unemployment going up and building approvals going down. The whole state is suffering under this government, yet what do they do? The meanest cut of all that I have seen from this government so far is imposing paid car parking in our hospitals. It is not fair to the people of South Australia.

I just hope that the minister starts acting like the chief minister and gets some courage to say this was wrong. Look at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital today. It is at 110 per cent capacity. People could not find a car park, doctors could not find car parks, so what do we see: patients missing out. It is a travesty. Let's hope that premier Jay Weatherill does something about it, lives up to the expectations of the people of South Australia and delivers for South Australians not what we have had in the past, that is, the announce and defend, the cruel cuts and the health system in crisis under a minister in complete denial.