Hospital Staff, Safety

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): I have a supplementary question. Given that there were more than 7,000 code black incidents against hospital staff last year alone, what steps have been taken to prevent these attacks?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:34): Code blacks cover a range of things. I have been in discussions with doctors and nurses—in fact, our ambulance workers have been particularly angry about this issue—and have been looking at what we might be able to do. I must say that it is a little bit frustrating, when the parliament has passed legislation imposing the upper range of penalties at 25 years for an assault against an emergency worker, to see people come out with convictions which are significantly less. It causes a great deal of frustration to our emergency services workers, doctors, nurses and me.