HEALTH BUDGET

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. What is the current budget overrun within the health portfolio in this financial year? On 15 December, the minister acknowledged that $35 million had at that time been overspent in the current financial year, on top of $88 million in the previous financial year.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (15:00): I am just conferring with my colleague the Treasurer to establish the detail of what I can say. The advice I have is that, of the $4.6 or $4.7 billion that we have in the health budget, we are currently running at around $99 million over budget—

The Hon. J.J. Snelling interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Projected for the end of the financial year—we are not currently at that at the moment. That is made up of a range of elements. One of those elements which is part of most of the overruns associated with the health budget over the years, including when the other side was in government, is associated with demand that exceeds what was anticipated and what was supplied by the budget process. That is an element of it.

There are other elements as well, including cost savings measures that have not been able to be made. For example, the decision by the PSA to pursue car parking fees will figure in that, and we have not been able to implement that measure as a result of the PSA's unsuccessful challenge. We are now waiting to see whether they will pursue that at a higher level. There are a range of elements like that. It is around about 2 per cent of the health budget.

A hundred million dollars is still a lot of money, but it is a relatively small percentage of the health budget. We are working with Treasury officials to do everything we can to bring our budget into balance, so of course I do note that every time we make an announcement about a savings measure, those on the other side criticise it and object. Yesterday I gave advice to the house about information systems that we are introducing whereby we will reduce 130 positions.

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order.

Mr WILLIAMS: The minister was giving a very good answer and then he started to debate.

The SPEAKER: Minister, I direct you back to the question.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I was making the point, Madam Speaker, that we have some new information systems—some technology systems—in place which will reduce positions in the department by 130 or so as I indicated yesterday.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley.