Health Review

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:16): I asked the minister whether he thinks it is fair to people to make a comment during the consultation when we are not clear about what we are going to be consulting about. What are we agreeing about? What are we talking about? What are we consulting about in this situation?

The SPEAKER: Could the minister address that stream of consciousness.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:17): I shall try, sir; I shall endeavour. In any reform process, we first need to establish some principles before we can go on and work through the detail. There is nothing new in that, nothing unusual. We have a series of proposals there. Of course, all those proposals are going to need an enormous amount of work to be done to ensure the successful implementation of those proposals. There is nothing unusual in that, but the first thing we need to do is establish what the decisions are, what the framework is going to be, and from there we can start to work through the detail.

This is a process which is going to take about four years. None of these reforms are going to happen overnight. They are going to take a significant period of time for us to implement. This is a significant shake-up of our health system and it is going to take time to work through the detail. As we work through that detail, we will consult with interested parties, whether they be unions, health consumers and carers and, of course, the clinicians in the system themselves. We will work through the details of these things and come to a successful conclusion.