HEALTH BUDGET

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Can the minister please advise the house about changes to funding to non-government organisations by SA Health.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:51): I thank the member for Mitchell for his question, and I would like to acknowledge the mums and the babies in the chamber today and note that a number of interjections have come from the children on that side, and they don't make a lot more sense than the opposition usually makes. They are a lot more joyful, Madam Speaker, and there should be more of it.

As members would know, Health is currently looking at ways to reduce its budget. We have considerable pressures on our budget, and we have published a number of our reviews which we are working through to try to get our budget back in some sort of balance, and, of course, we are looking right across the board. One of the areas that we have looked at is the area of grants and operating funds, and they're an important part of what we do in our Health budget.

We currently, members would be interested to know, spend more than $100 million a year in giving grants to over 500 different organisations. These include grants to the university and research sector, as well as money to non-government organisations, such as St John's, and the grants to non-government organisations are a mixture of block-funded style operating grants and service arrangements. Health will be undertaking a full review of these grants and will work as closely as possible with the non-government organisations to make sure that there is no duplication of effort and that criteria for funding are accountable and equally applied to all the organisations.

It's important that taxpayers' money—and I am sure that taxpayers would agree with this—is used in an accountable and transparent way to make sure that services provided are of benefit to South Australians and provided in the most cost-effective manner possible.

I have instructed the health department to make sure that, while this review is underway, all funding will continue at current levels. I can inform the house, and perhaps members of the room today, that the office manager for the SA and Northern Territory branch of the Australian Breastfeeding Association has been contacted by SA Health and informed that their funding will be maintained at current levels.

I can advise the house I have also met just last week with the head of St John's about the arrangements there and agreed that we will continue talking with St John's. I don't—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I don't want to undersell the difficulties or oversell the difficulties we have in trying to make sure that our budget comes in in a balanced way within Health. We have enormous pressures in the health—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister for Health, can you sit down until we have some quiet from the left side of the house?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! It is very difficult to hear. Minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, I was only trying to make the point that health spends about 30 per cent of the state budget, and the growth in health expenditure is growing at a faster rate than this state's income. In order to ensure that we have a sustainable health system and that we do not reduce services we do have to work out ways of delivering services more efficiently, and nothing is excluded from the review process.

I just wanted to make sure that the organisations which are not part of government are properly involved and talked to and their views are considered as we go through this process. So we will not be making any peremptory decisions about funding to organisations, like the breast screening association or St John.

It is easy to say that it is only a small amount of money, but when you add up 500 of those small amounts of money it comes to millions and millions of dollars, so we do have to do things in a more efficient way. But I can assure the organisation that we will work with them. The office manager, I understand, of the breast screening association has indicated that her association is happy to enter into those discussions about future funding arrangements, so that is a good thing. We are also, as I say, working with St John through their issues. It is a difficult time for the state's budget, but we are trying work through all the issues and we will not do anything in a peremptory way to undermine the organisations continuing to deliver their services.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired. The member for Unley.