Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): Thank you very much, sir. My question is to the Premier. Given that the Chief Executive of SA Health has twice in the last hour refused to express her support for the minister's performance, will the Premier now sack the minister?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:07): The chief executive doesn't evaluate my ministers. Can I say—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Mr Speaker, on a serious issue—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: On a serious issue and topic of concern, what we have are essentially glib speeches and insults that are being thrown across the chamber. That is the—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned for the second and final time. I'm reluctant to remove him under the sessional orders, but I will do so.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's the standard of performance that we see from the opposition. There are serious questions—

Mr MARSHALL: Point of order: debate. I am asking you to draw him back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The substance of the question—if we could find it, we would address it.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully to the Premier's answer.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Mr Speaker—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —if one could define the substance, I suppose it is something about confidence, and I want to address that question of confidence. Confidence is about assertively addressing issues that you find with positive policy responses. The minister and I were horrified to hear, when the minister was in this very chamber at about the same time, we had a further incident that is occurring at Oakden. Clearly, this is a state of affairs which is utterly unacceptable. The first instinct that both of us had was to close this facility immediately. In fact, this morning, we asked for advice. Our first instinct this morning was to close this facility immediately.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Our first instinct this morning was to close this facility immediately and—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Could the Premier please be seated. I call to order the members for Mount Gambier and Adelaide, I warn the members for Hartley, Mount Gambier and Morialta and I warn for the second and final time the members for Schubert, Hartley and the deputy leader. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Our first instinct was to close this facility; in fact, we asked the chief executive to explore that very option this morning. The very clear clinical advice that we received is that that would create more harm than good, and we had unambiguous clinical advice that we should not do so. What we have done, short of that, is to use every mechanism we can possibly draw upon—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —to bring forward the closure of this facility and to increase beyond the increase in the safeguards and the supervision that has been occurring. If there is something to be taken from this, it is that the culture of cover-up is now over and the culture of reporting has taken over.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: In a general sense, the chief executive of this agency—the chief executive of our health agency—is making it known across the whole of the health agency, whether it's in relation to the chemo bungles, whether it's in relation to Oakden—

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Stuart is warned.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —whether it's in relation to any of the mistakes that have occurred in the healthcare industry, that there is a zero tolerance for cover-up, and she is taking the most assertive action—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —and there are complaints and squealing about it.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: There are complaints and squealing about it within our bureaucracy, but so be it. If those clinicians and other people in this system are not prepared to disclose what is occurring in our system, then they will have assertive action taken against them, and if the message isn't getting out now we will continue to take assertive action against every single person who seeks to cover up mistakes that occur in the system. We will tolerate—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Accidents do happen in any human services system, and we do need to have a culture—

Mr van Holst Pellekaan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Stuart is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —of disclosure so that we can learn from those mistakes. But what is utterly unacceptable—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —utterly unacceptable—

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —is the notion of cover-up, and we intend to shine a light on these abuses and we intend to put the residents at that facility front and centre in our thinking every single moment of the day.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader will withdraw from the chamber under the sessional order for one hour.

Ms Chapman: And glad to do so—and she should resign.

The honourable member for Bragg having withdrawn from the chamber: